UPDATE 2-Anheuser shares mark return to NYSE

* BUD returns to NYSE after nearly year-long absence

* ADRs trade slightly higher late morning

* CEO says company's liquidity position much improved
(Adds CEO comments, updates share price)

By Martinne Geller and Nicole Maestri

NEW YORK, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Anheuser-Busch InBev NV
(ABI.BR) (BUD.N) shares began trading in New York on Wednesday,
10 months after Belgium's InBev acquired the iconic U.S. brewer
and moved its primary listing to Brussels.

U.S.-based shares, or American Depositary Receipts, of the
world's largest brewer are changing hands on the New York Stock
Exchange under the former Anheuser-Busch symbol "BUD" -- a nod
to its Budweiser beer label.

"This BUD ticker now is the same ticker, but it represents
a stronger, more diversified, more global, bigger company with
brands that command leading positions in most of the key
markets around the world," Chief Executive Carlos Brito told
Reuters in an interview.

He said the NYSE listing gives U.S.-based investors "an
opportunity to participate in our growth story."

The ADRs were up 28 cents or 0.6 percent at $46.53 on the
New York Stock Exchange in late morning on Wednesday, off an
earlier high at $46.85.

Anheuser-Busch InBev was formed late last year when InBev,
the Belgian maker of Stella Artois and Beck's, bought St.
Louis-based Anheuser for $52 billion.

Since then, the company announced plans to open an office
in New York and has begun reporting quarterly financial results
in U.S. dollars, although Brito said the company had no plans
to move its headquarters from Belgium to the United States.

InBev took on $45 billion of debt to fund the merger, which
closed in November, and has set a target to divest $7 billion
of assets to help pay it down.

By Aug. 13, when the company posted second-quarter results,
it was about halfway to that target. Two weeks later it
announced another deal, to sell its Scottish and Irish assets
for 180 million pounds.

Brito said he is still committed to the $7 billion
divestment goal, but he is now in no hurry to reach it given
the brewer's current financial position.

"We're in a much better position in terms of liquidity and
... cash flow generation, and because of that we're not in a
hurry or under pressure to do the balance" of the deals, he
said.

Morningstar analyst Ann Gilpin said in an interview before
the shares opened for trading that she expected a warm reaction
from U.S. investors, especially institutional funds that might
not want to deal with the foreign tax and currency issues that
often come with owning an international stock.

"It's a mega-cap name. I think a lot of people will be
excited to have it listed in the U.S.," Gilpin said.

Each ADR represents one ordinary share of Anheuser-Busch
InBev common stock, which will continue to trade on Euronext
Brussels under the symbol "ABI".

Anheuser-Busch InBev shares traded in Europe have more than
tripled in value since late November to above 31 euros.
(Reporting by Martinne Geller and Nicole Maestri, editing by
Leslie Gevirtz, Dave Zimmerman and Matthew Lewis)