12th Oct 2005 09:00
SABMiller PLC12 October 2005 SABMiller plc Completion of major transaction in South America 12 October 2005 London and Johannesburg, 12 October 2005. SABMiller plc ("SABMiller") todayannounces the completion of the merger through which it has obtained acontrolling interest in Bavaria S.A., the second largest brewer in SouthAmerica. The 225 million ordinary shares in SABMiller plc issued to the Santo DomingoGroup in consideration for the merger and the 167,411,024 ordinary sharesarising on the conversion of the remaining convertible low voting participatingshares held by Altria Group, Inc. have today been admitted to the Official Listof the Financial Services Authority and to trading on the London StockExchange's market for listed securities, and have been admitted to listing onthe JSE Limited. Graham Mackay, Chief Executive of SABMiller, said today: "We are delighted that Bavaria is now part of the SABMiller group. Thistransaction reaffirms SABMiller's superior growth profile within the brewingindustry and we look forward to working with our new partners and colleagues." - ends - Enquiries: SABMiller plc Tel: +44 20 7659 0100Sue Clark Director of Corporate Affairs Tel: +44 20 7659 0184Gary Leibowitz Vice President, Investor Relations Tel: +44 20 7659 0174Nigel Fairbrass Head of Media Relations Tel: +44 7799 894265 This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or issue or thesolicitation of an offer to buy or acquire securities of SABMiller plc (the"Company") or any of its affiliates in any jurisdiction or an inducement toenter into investment activity. This document includes "forward-looking statements". These statements maycontain the words "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "expect" andwords of similar meaning. All statements other than statements of historicalfacts included in this announcement, including, without limitation, thoseregarding the Company's financial position, business strategy, plans andobjectives of management for future operations (including development plans andobjectives relating to the Company's products and services) are forward-lookingstatements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,uncertainties and other important factors that could cause the actual results,performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different fromfuture results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by suchforward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based onnumerous assumptions regarding the Company's present and future businessstrategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future.These forward-looking statements speak only as at the date of this announcement.The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate anyupdates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained in thisannouncement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations with regardthereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any suchstatement is based. Any information contained in this announcement on the price at which theCompany's securities have been bought or sold in the past, or on the yield onsuch securities, should not be relied upon as a guide to future performance. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
SAB.L