In turning down the bid, SABMiller said the proposal for £42.15 per share “still very substantially undervalues SABMiller, its unique and unmatched footprint, and standalone prospects”.
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In reaction SABMiller said its board would meet to consider the latest proposal as soon as it could but said it noted the cash offer is only 15 pence a share higher than an informal £42 proposal made “and rejected” at a meeting on Monday.
The beer giant commented that the offer would be attractive to SABMiller shareholders, and stating the obvious that it was “disappointed” the UK-based SABMiller board had rejected both prior offers.
Belgium-based AB InBev is already the world’s biggest beer firm and includes Budweiser and Stella Artois in its stable of more than 200 beer brands, also including Corona, Beck’s, Leffe and Hoegaarden.
Jeremy Cunnington at Euromonitor worldwide added: “AB InBev’s bid for SABMiller is the inevitable conclusion of over a decade of consolidation within the brewing industry”.
AB InBev also responded to the SABMiller board’s Wednesday statement that the proposals were “highly conditional” and that AB InBev hadn’t yet provided it with comfort about the regulatory hurdles in China and the U.S.
On Wednesday, SABMiller chairman Jan du Plessis said “AB InBev is very substantially undervaluing SABMiller”.
“With no white knight or poison pill, and with Altria putting its support behind the current bid or higher, we see the SABMiller Board pushing for as high a price as possible rather than trying to de-rail the transaction”, they added.
But SABMiller signaled pretty quickly that it would likely reject the deal.
“Now the true owners of the company, the shareholders of SABMiller, will have the opportunity to think and look at the offer”, he said.
AB InBev says it has repeatedly offered to share this analysis with SABMiller and its advisers.
The blockbuster deal, if accepted, would create a drinks giant worth more than £180bn.
AB InBev had previously made two offers – of 38.00 pounds per share in cash and 40.00 pounds per share in cash – that were rejected by the brewer of Peroni and Foster’s beer.
Together, AB InBev and SABMiller produce more than 70 percent of the beer in the USA market, with AB InBev alone responsible for roughly 45 percent.
St. Louis, MO (KTRS) Anheuser-Busch InBev is bidding $104-billion in it’s latest proposal to buy SABMiller.
InBev said the combined group would generate revenues of $64 billion.
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SABMiller attempted to acquire Heineken a year ago, but its advances were rebuffed.
