Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Metal Container Corp. will sell four metal beverage can and lid manufacturing plants to Ball Corp., a big supplier of metal and plastic packaging for the food and beverage industries. Price tag:  $577 million in cash.

Ball will continue to supply Anheuser-Busch InBev with metal beverage cans and lids from the plants.  And here is a spot of unexpected good news for employees: As part of the acquisition agreement, Ball has committed to offer employment to each active employee of the plants.

The can plants are located in Fort Atkinson, Wisc., Columbus, Ohio, and Rome, Ga. The divested lid plant is in Gainesville, Fl. The plants are fairly focused on soft drinks.

These are apparently not slouch assets. In the first full year of operation, Ball expects the plants to generate $680 million in revenue and $94 million of earnings (before interest, taxes and depreciation.) The plants produce about 10 billion aluminum cans and 10 billion easy-open can ends per year. The facilities employ about 635 people.

Metal Container Corp.’s remaining holdings - seven metal beverage can and lid manufacturing plants - will be more focused on beer-can production. Anheuser-Busch InBev said there are no plans or activities underway to sell the remaining plants.

The sale of the plants represents another step in the brewers debt-repayment program, chief executive Carlos Brito said in a statement. The deal also allows Anheuser-Busch InBev to keep the facilities that are “most relevant” to its beer business, Brito said.

“We have great respect for Ball Corporation and are pleased to have found a strategic buyer that shares our high opinion of these facilities and their employees,” Brito said.

The transaction is expected to wrap up at the end of the year or early in the first quarter of 2010.

So, the chatter about an impending sale that Lager Heads reported earlier this week turned out to be more or less accurate. Hooray for rumor and innuendo! Thanks to readers who contacted us with the scoop.