Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s 77 billion-pound ($104 billion) takeover of SABMiller Plc was conditionally approved by South Africa’s Competition Tribunal, moving the record brewing-industry deal another step closer to completion.
Conditions include the sale of SABMiller’s stake in South African drinks maker Distell Group Ltd., the Pretoria-based regulator said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. Trading in AB InBev shares was suspended in Brussels ahead of the announcement.
South Africa is one of several jurisdictions where the world’s largest brewer is seeking regulatory approval for the takeover, as investors count down to the key date of Aug. 12, when London-based SABMiller is scheduled to pay its dividend. AB InBev will get the payout if the deal is completed by then. The acquisition is poised to get the go-ahead from the the U.S. Justice Department and China’s Ministry of Commerce, people familiar with the matter said this month.
Approval of the takeover was backed this month by South Africa’s Competition Commission. The conditions were largely unchanged from those recommended by the commission, including the protection of jobs and the creation of a 1-billion rand ($68 million) fund to support local farmers. Alterations include the “timing and mechanics” of the Distell stake sale, after the Johannesburg-based company said at the Tribunal hearing last week that the recommended three-year deadline was too distant.
The other alteration to the Competition Commission’s recommendations relates to access rights of competitors to fridge space supplied by AB InBev-SABMiller.
Brewer Heineken NV was among the other parties that argued for changes to the proposed merger conditions in the Tribunal hearings.
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