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Cape Town – SABMiller [JSE:SAB] has officially rejected Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev’s £42.15 (R863.83) per share takeover.
The board, excluding the directors nominated by Altria Group, unanimously rejected the proposal as it “still very substantially undervalues SABMiller, its unique and unmatched footprint, and its standalone prospects”, it announced on Sens.
SABMiller was nearly 2% down at R750 at 14:40 on Tuesday in South Africa and 1.1% up at £36.64 in London at 13:44.
Altria, which owns about 27% of SABMiller, said on Wednesday that they would like the board to engage to come to the table with AB InBev.
SABMiller said in a press statement on its website the “approach has been timed opportunistically to take advantage of SABMiller’s recently depressed share price”.
The board believes the structure of the proposals “discriminates against the substantial proportion of SABMiller shareholders, who may not be able to hold unlisted shares”.
It also said AB InBev has not yet provided comfort to SABMiller about the conditional nature of the proposals, including significant regulatory hurdles in the US and in China.
“SABMiller is the crown jewel of the global brewing industry, uniquely positioned to continue to generate decades of standalone future volume and value growth for all SABMiller shareholders from highly attractive markets,” said SABMiller chairperson Jan du Plessis on Wednesday.
“AB InBev needs SABMiller, but has made opportunistic and highly conditional proposals, elements of which have been deliberately designed to be unattractive to many of our shareholders.
“AB InBev is very substantially undervaluing SABMiller.”
Bloomberg’s Matthew Boyle said on Wednesday that Du Plessis “has faced some pretty hot takeover battles before … (and has) spurned takeover offers before".
“This guy has a history. There is a specific reason that SAB brought him in to be chairman.”
Earlier on Wednesday, South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC) - SABMiller's fourth largest shareholder - said AB Inbev has addressed concerns raised about SABMiller remaining listed on the JSE.
“The PIC’s preference has always been for SABMiller to remain listed in the country of its origin, South Africa,” the PIC told Bloomberg. “Listing on the JSE will allow other investors to participate in the future growth of the company.”
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