adminJOHANNESBURG. — ANHEUSER-Busch InBev (AB InBev) is forging ahead with its quest for SABMiller, announcing on Monday its plans to list on the JSE next month, despite political turmoil in the country this past week that wiped billions of rands off the stock market. The world’s largest brewer said on Monday that it had been granted regulatory approval by the South African Reserve Bank and the JSE for a secondary listing of its shares.
The move is an important step towards the proposed $108bn cash and share deal to acquire the assets of SABMiller and create a brewing behemoth that will sell one-in-three beers consumed globally.
“AB InBev’s fundamental view is that SA and the rest of Africa are critical for the future growth of the merged entity,” a source close to the company said on Monday in response to questions about whether the JSE’s R170bn loss in the two days that followed the reshuffling of the finance ministry last week had cast doubt over the company’s plans to list.
“This has not changed,” said the person, who could not be named due to regulatory sensitivities surrounding the multibillion-dollar deal. AB InBev’s shares will trade alongside SABMiller’s on the JSE main board’s industrial index while the two parties await regulatory approval.
SABMiller’s JSE and London listings will fall away should the deal pass regulatory muster.
Most investors were assuming the deal would go ahead, Momentum Asset Management portfolio manager Wayne McCurrie said.
“I expect most investors to sell a large part of their SABMiller portfolio and buy AB InBev’s shares when they start trading,” he said.
AB InBev’s JSE shares will be treated as domestic, and will not count towards the 25 percent limit on foreign shares applied to pension fund managers.
Paul Hansen, a portfolio manager at Stanlib, said he would have to first conduct a thorough investigation of AB InBev’s financial statements, earnings and valuations, but from a general point of view, “it looks like a great option”. — BDLive
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