Bid sweetener sparks row in mega-brew deal

THE takeover of brewer sabmiller, the biggest acquisition of a British company, was thrown into turmoil today after one of its top shareholders rejected a sweetened offer from suitor AB inbev.

Aberdeen Asset Management, the company’s third-biggest independent shareholder, said a final £1 boost to AB inbev’s original £44-a-share offer taking the value of the deal to £79 billion was “unacceptable”.

This leaves the careful lllyy structured deal on a knifee edge. Shareholders like Aberdeen and a range of smaller activist investors had been lobbying Peroni brewer sab miller to push AB inbev for better terms because SAB’s top two share- reholders, who own 40%, are get-t ting more money fthe deal.

Aberdeen said the revised deal, which boosts the offer for other shareholders to £45 a share, “both undervalues the company and continues to favour sabmiller’s two major shareholders”.

“In the absence of an improved offer we would be more than happy to remain committed long-term shareholders in sab miller,” the funds group added.

SA B’ stop two shareholders, US tobacco firm Altria and the Santo Domingo brewing company, will get cash and shares worth £51.31 per share under the new terms, a tax-bill cutting ploy designed to win their support for the deal. The brinkmanship puts pressure on sab miller’s board, led by Jan du Plessis (pictured), who will have to smooth over bitter shareholder division and renegotiate with AB inbev if it wants to clinch the deal.

Relations between the two sides will not have been helped by AB inbev’s out-of-the-blue offer, which sab miller’s board learned about only today.

The last-minute headache has been driven by a band of activist investors, who bought small stakes in SAB and threw a spanner in the works by cal calling for a higher offer. US hedge fund Elliott Advisors, Chris Hohn’ s The Children’ s Investment Fund and Sandell Asset Management led the charge against the offer, wwhich was worth £71 billion anand agreed to November. Liberum Lib analyst Alicia Forry said the £1 increase from AB inbev was a way of “shutting down the activists”. “This is AB inbev throwing a small bone to the activists. They’re making it clear they’re not going to get any more.”

The plunge in sterling since Brexit has radically altered the relative value of the AB inbev offers since November. The £44-a-share cash offer was originally worth more than the cash-and-share deal for Altria and Santo Domingo, which worked out at about £41.85 per share.

In dollar terms it was worth about $67 in November when sterling was at $1.54. Today’s offer is worth about $59. @signorbow