Dive Brief:
- Anheuser-Busch InBev increased its bid for SABMiller to £45 ($59) per share from £44, which AB InBev said is its final offer. The total is now £79 billion—or $103.81 billion. The previous offer was £71 billion.
- AB InBev raised its offer to appease SABMiller shareholders following a steep drop in the value of the British pound after Britain voted to leave the European Union.
- The drop in the pound's value also lowered the value of AB InBev's cash-only offer, which most SABMiller shareholders would receive. Meanwhile, the value of AB InBev's cash-and-share offer, intended for SABMiller's top two investors, has skyrocketed.
Dive Insight:
These two top SABMiller shareholders — Altria Group and the Santo Domingo family of Colombia — have seen their so-called partial-share offers' value spike because AB InBev's shares are priced in euros. AB InBev also raised the cash component of that offer by 88 pence—about $1.15—per share.
Even by raising its offer by one pound per share, the new total value for the deal, worth almost $104 billion, is still below the offer's original $108 billion value, per pre-Brexit exchange rates in November. Originally, SABMiller investors would have received about a 33% premium. Now they are being offered an 8% premium, which is still higher than the 6% premium that investors would have received if AB InBev had not raised its final offer.
U.S. antitrust regulators approved the merger last week, which cleared the way for one last major antitrust hurdle: China. But AB InBev already made concessions to help push the deal through by selling SABMiller's stake in CR Snow.
This deal is important to future growth for AB InBev, which has faced stagnant sales for light and domestic beers in the U.S., such as Budweiser and Bud Light. SABMiller offers AB InBev substantial growth opportunities in the African and Latin American markets, where AB InBev doesn't have as strong of a presence.
In addition, AB InBev has pursued growth in its Mexican beer portfolio, low- and nonalcoholic beers and startups through acquisitions and the accelerator cofounded with Techstars unders AB InBev's ZX Ventures unit. However, for AB InBev to acquire more startups after the SABMiller deal goes through, the company will need regulatory approval first.