US brewer Anheuser-Busch has accepted a sweetened $50 billion takeover bid from Belgium-based InBev, creating the world's largest beer maker.
InBev, which makes Stella Artois and Beck's, agreed to pay $70 per share for the maker of Budweiser, up from its original unsolicited bid of $65 per share, both companies said. The sweetened offer marked a 27% premium to Anheuser's record-high stock price in October 2002.
This deal, which is widely expected to gain regulatory approval, would be the largest in the industry and the third-largest ever foreign takeover of a US company. The combined company will have about $36.4 billion in annual net sales and brew about a quarter of the world's beer.
The beer industry is undergoing a wave of consolidation, with Scottish & Newcastle agreeing to be broken up by Carlsberg and Heineken, and SABMiller and Molson Coors agreeing to merge their US operations. The deal values the company at $50 billion.
InBev's Chief Executive Carlos Brito will be CEO of the combined company, which will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev. Anheuser will get two seats on the new company's board. Anheuser's home town of St Louis, Missouri, will be the headquarters for the North American region and the global home of the flagship Budweiser brand.
The companies said all of Anheuser US breweries would remain open.
The deal brings an amicable resolution to a month-long saga that was becoming increasingly hostile as the companies traded lawsuits and InBev set the stage to replace Anheuser's board.
Sources said the two companies and their advisers had talked in New York over the weekend, working through details such as the name for the combined company, roles for Anheuser's executives and the structure of the board. The breakup fees if the deal collapses also were discussed over the weekend, the sources said.
While Anheuser earns about 85% of its profits from the US, where it controls nearly half the market, InBev has strong positions in Western Europe and Latin America and is growing in Eastern Europe and Asia.
