7th Oct 2015 12:12
LONDON (Alliance News) - SABMiller PLC on Wednesday said its board has rejected an increased takeover offer tabled by larger rival Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, despite the deal having secured the support of its largest shareholder.
Early Wednesday, AB InBev said it has made a bid valuing Anglo-South African SABMiller at 4,215p per share, valuing SABMiller at GBP68.2 billion overall. AB InBev said it has had two informal offers for SABMiller, of 3,800p and 4,000p, rejected. It had said it was "disappointed" SABMiller's board had rejected the two previous approaches "without any meaningful engagement".
The deal from AB InBev included a partial share alternative for up to 41% of SABMiller's shares. It secured the support of Altria Group Inc, the US tobacco group, which owns a large stake in SABMiller.
SABMiller responded that its board would meet to consider the new offer, but later Wednesday said the board had rejected the offer, saying it "still very substantially undervalues SABMiller".
Shares in SABMiller were up 1.2% to 3,664.00p on Wednesday.
AB InBev had said the revised proposal should be highly attractive to SABMiller shareholders, representing a 44% premium to SABMiller's share price on September 14, when the talks between the two were first revealed following press reports that the world's two largest brewers could merge.
"AB InBev believes that the revised cash proposal of 4,215 pence per share is at a level that the board of SABMiller should recommend," AB InBev said in its earlier statement.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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