24 Aug '16

British court rules on InBev’s takeover bid for SABMiller

Summary

A court in Britain has ruled that the two main shareholders of SABMiller can be treated as a separate voting class, making it easier for shareholders to block the proposed InBev takeover

Vote next month

A British court has ruled that the two main shareholders of London-based brewer SABMiller may be treated as a separate voting class in approving a takeover by Leuven-based AB InBev. The ruling makes it easier for approval to be blocked.
 

The two shareholders – the Altria Group and Bevco, owned by the Santo Domingo family – were offered a combination cash and equity package by InBev, while other SABMiller shareholders were offered only cash. Since the initial offer, however, the value of the pound has fallen, while the value of InBev shares, which are denominated in euros, remains steady. InBev recently raised the offer from £44 to £45 to make up for the fall.

The decision to treat the two blocs as separate now means it would take only 15% of shareholders to block the deal when it comes up for a vote on 28 September, instead of 25%. Both major shareholders have committed to approving the takeover, but their collective weight is now less than it was.

Photo courtesy SABMiller

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Belgian beer

Belgium has a beer-brewing tradition going back centuries and is known around the world for both its beer culture and hundreds of craft brews.
History - Beer culture has been recognised by Unesco as part of Flanders’ Intangible Cultural Heritage. The local beer culture dates to the middle ages, when farmers brewed their own beer from the rich harvests of local grain, later transferring brewing to local guilds and abbeys.
Beer styles - The main styles include lambics, white beers, fruit beers, Trappists and abbey beers. The Trappist beer Westvleteren 12, brewed by a dozen monks in a small West Flanders town, is regularly rated by various sources as the best beer in the world.
Exports - Sixty percent of the Belgian beer production is exported abroad, with France, Germany, the Netherlands and the US the largest markets.
74

Litres of beer annually consumed per person in Belgium

100

breweries in Flanders

19

million hectolitres of beer produced in Belgium in 2012

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