ST. LOUIS, July 14, 2008 — InBev and Anheuser-Busch announced an agreement to combine the two companies, forming the world’s leading global brewer.
Anheuser-Busch shareholders will receive $70 per share in cash, for an aggregate equity value of $52 billion, in an industry-transforming transaction. The combined company will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev. Both companies’ Boards of Directors have unanimously approved the transaction. InBev has fully committed financing for the purchase of all of Anheuser-Busch’s outstanding shares.
The combination of Anheuser-Busch and InBev will create the global leader in the beer industry and one of the world’s top five consumer products companies. On a pro-forma basis for 2007, the combined company would have generated global volumes of 460 million hectoliters, revenues of $36.4 billion and EBITDA of $10.7 billion. Anheuser-Busch and InBev together believe that this transaction is in the best interests of both companies’ shareholders, consumers, employees, wholesalers, business partners and the communities they serve.
The company will make St. Louis, Missouri the headquarters for the North American region and the global home of the flagship Budweiser brand. With about 40 percent of the combined company’s revenues to be generated in the U.S., the company will draw on the collective expertise of Anheuser-Busch’s dedicated and experienced employees and its culture of quality. Given the limited geographical overlap between the two businesses and the efficiency of Anheuser-Busch’s brewery footprint in the United States, all of Anheuser-Busch’s U.S. breweries will remain open.
“Is this a good deal for St. Louis workers? Ask me in three years,” U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said. “It is critical that the good intentions and commitments made by Anheuser-Busch and InBev be confirmed over time. I hope both of these companies uphold their end of the bargain, St. Louis has been down this road before.”
— HarpBlaster.com wire reports
