But the USA market may be the least of AB InBev’s concerns.
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The merged company will be listed in Brussels, Mexico and Johannesburg. The American Depositary Shares will be listed on the NY Stock Exchange or NYSE.
“In consolidating ownership of MillerCoors, we will strengthen our presence in the highly attractive USA beer market, further improve our global scale and agility, benefit from significantly enhanced cash flows, and capture substantial operational synergies”, Mark Hunter, the Molson Coors president and chief executive, said in a news release.
The deal, reached after months of negotiations, will create a behemoth in the beer industry with annual revenues of about $64 billion and will give AB InBev more exposure in faster-growing emerging markets, particularly in Africa and Latin America.
The two companies own hundreds of brands, including Budweiser, Corona, Grolsch and Stella Artois.
Newco will be one of the largest consumer product companies in the world.
AB InBev is paying £44.00 in cash for each SABMiller share, a premium of about 50% to where the shares were in mid-September before speculation about a potential takeover offer re-emerged.
The company also says that after the merger, it would operate “in virtually every major beer market, in new and existing markets around the world”.
At the same time, the savings target, worth about 9 per cent of SABMiller’s sales, is lower than expectations, although it does come on top of the $1.05 billion SABMiller had already pledged during the bidding process.
The combined company – which as yet does not have a name – will also need to address regulatory issues in China, where SABMiller had a leading position with a 49 per cent stake in the Chinese beer Snow. To make room for the takeover, SABMiller is to offer its 58% stake in its United States joint endeavor MillerCoors.
InBev said in a statement that the sale is conditional on its acquisition of SABMiller, which it plans to complete in the second half of 2016. For AB InBev CEO Brito, the combination would cap a $90-billion dealmaking spree over the last decade, turning a regional brewer into the undisputed global leader.
In the past 12 months, there have been more than a dozen craft-beer mergers and acquisitions by larger breweries, including US-based 10 Barrel, Blue Point, Elysian, and Goose Island by AB InBev; and UK-based Meantime by SABMiller.
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The takeover is expected to create a pre-tax revenue surplus of £920 million per year by 2020 because of cost savings and efficiencies created by the tie-up. But in the US, the deal will not bring arch rivals Budweiser and Miller under the same roof.
