uBudweiser Maker Officially Offers $104 Billion To Buy Millerr

4 4 4 9

• 
  After SABMiller rejected a $100 billion takeover offer from Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s biggest beer company has come forward with a sweeter offer of $104 billion.

  In the above map, released by AB InBev as part of its presentation [PDF] for today’s announcement, you can see how adding London-based Miller would give the combined companies a truly global presence.

  Where a merged InBev/Miller may have trouble are the countries — like the U.S., Russia, and China — where both companies already have a significant presence. In America alone, the merged company would control around 70% of the beer market.

  SABMiller, whose chairman Jan du Plessis describes his company as “the crown jewel of the global brewing industry,” is not exactly impressed with even the slightly higher offer.

  “AB InBev needs SABMiller but has made opportunistic and highly conditional proposals, elements of which have been deliberately designed to be unattractive to many of our shareholders,” explains du Plessis in a statement. “AB InBev is very substantially undervaluing SABMiller.”

  But whether the merger happens may be up to the two largest shareholders of Miller — tobacco giant Altria, and the Santo Domingo family of Colombia. Together, the control around 40% of SABMiller.

  And this morning, Altria released a statement in support of the offer, saying it “believes that a combination of these two companies would create significant value for all SABMiller shareholders.”

  Altria, which owns more than a quarter of SABMiller is urging the company’s board to “engage promptly and constructively with AB InBev to agree on the terms of a recommended offer.”

  AB InBev has stated that it expects to receive public support from the Santo Domingo family as well.

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Chris Morran via Consumerist