AB InBev has until 5pm tomorrow to make a firm offer for SABMiller
Brewing giant AB InBev is expected to announce tomorrow that it has struck a deal to buy competitor SABMiller and create the world’s biggest brewer after months of negotiations and extended deadlines from regulators.
AB InBev is also likely to announce that it is selling SABMiller’s stake in MillerCoors, a US joint venture, to Molson Coors, in order to ease competition concerns and appease regulators in a number of countries such as the US and China.
AB Inbev, the Stella Artois and Budweiser producer, has already been granted three extensions to its deadline to make a firm offer for the FTSE 100 brewer with the latest deadline set at 5pm today by the UK’s Takeover Panel, which regulates mergers and acquisitions. The outline of a deal was struck last month.
The deal includes a £44 per share cash component and a share option aimed at SABMillers’s two biggest owners, tobacco company Altria and Colombia’s Santo Domingo family, which will help them to reduce their tax bill.