Anheuser-Busch InBev to cut jobs after SABMiller merger
LONDON — Anheuser-Busch InBev said Friday it expected to eliminate at least 3 percent of its combined workforce as part of cost-cutting efforts following its proposed merger with SABMiller over the next several years.
The transaction would create an industry giant accounting for about 30 percent of global beer sales and would give Anheuser-Busch, already the world’s largest brewer, a substantial operation in Africa, where it has little presence, and greater dominance in Latin America.
Anheuser-Busch InBev has a target of $1.4 billion in annual cost savings by the end of the fourth year following completion of the deal, which is expected to close later this year. The deal valued SABMiller at more than $100 billion.
As part of its integration efforts, Anheuser-Busch InBev said Friday it was likely to cut about 3 percent of the combined company’s work force. Those figures exclude sales and front-office staff, which it said it has not been able to include in “advance integration planning because of regulatory restrictions,” Anheuser-Busch InBev said.
“It is anticipated that these job reductions will be implemented gradually, in phases, over a three-year period following completion,” Anheuser-Busch InBev said in merger documents released Friday.
At the end of 2015, Anheuser-Busch InBev employed more than 150,000 people worldwide, while SABMiller employed another 70,000.
On Friday, Anheuser-Busch InBev did not specify the number of jobs that will be cut. But the company has agreed to sell a number of assets from the combined company to win regulatory approval, so at least some of the SABMiller jobs will transfer along with those assets.
In November, Anheuser-Busch InBev agreed to sell SABMiller’s 59 percent stake in MillerCoors in the United States to SABMiller’s partner in a joint venture, Molson Coors Brewing, for about $12 billion.
Anheuser-Busch InBev agreed in March to sell SABMiller’s 49 percent stake in the maker of Snow to China Resources Beer, a state-owned brewer, for about $1.6 billion. China Resources Beer already owns the other 51 percent of the brewer, C.R. Snow.
In April, it accepted an offer by Asahi Group Holdings of Japan to buy the beer brands Grolsch, Meantime and Peroni, as well as associated SABMiller operations in Britain, Italy and the Netherlands, for 2.55 billion euros, or about $2.8 billion.
And Anheuser-Busch InBev also said in April it would be willing to sell SABMiller’s assets in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia as part of a package of divestments to win approval from European regulators.
SABMiller shareholders are expected to vote next month on whether to accept Anheuser-Busch InBev’s offer for the brewer. SABMiller’s board has recommended investors accept the offer.
As part of its announcement Friday, Anheuser-Busch InBev said it expected the combined company to have its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium, and would retain Anheuser-Busch InBev’s global functional management office in New York following the transaction.
As part of the combination, Anheuser-Busch InBev said it expected to close SABMiller’s headquarters in London within a year following completion of the deal.