EU Approves Proposed Acquisition Of SABMiller By AB InBev

(RTTNews) - The European Commission has approved proposed acquisition of SABMiller plc (SBMRY.PK, SAB.L) by Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev NV or AB InBev (BUD, AHBIF.PK). The clearance is conditional on AB InBev selling practically the entire SABMiller beer business in Europe.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy said,"...... Europeans buy around 125 billion euros of beer every year, so even a relatively small price increase could cause considerable harm to consumers. It was therefore very important to ensure that AB InBev's takeover of SABMiller did not reduce competition on European beer markets."

The commission said it had concerns that the transaction, as initially notified, could have led to higher beer prices in Member States where SABMiller is currently active, because it would have removed an important competitor and made tacit co-ordination between the leading international brewers more likely. By offering to divest practically all of SABMiller's beer business in Europe, AB InBev has addressed these concerns.

AB InBev offered from the outset to divest the whole of SABMiller's business in France, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK to preempt possible concerns of the Commission in those countries. For this package of assets the company has already accepted an offer from the Japanese brewer Asahi.

AB InBev also offered to divest SABMiller's business in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

These commitments taken together address all the Commission's competition concerns, including those based on an increased number of multimarket contacts, as AB InBev has committed to divest essentially all the European businesses that it initially planned to acquire from SABMiller.

The Commission's decision to approve the deal is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments.

In view of the remedies proposed, the Commission concluded that the proposed transaction, as modified, would no longer raise competition concerns. Indeed, following the transaction, the intensity of competition in the European beer markets will remain unchanged.