ST.LOUIS — InBev’s $52 billion purchase of Anheuser-Busch Cos., announced six years ago, remains the biggest deal in beer history.
But there’s another merger of brewers that could eclipse it.
A number of industry analysts say they have reason to believe that A-B InBev could be preparing another blockbuster purchase by acquiring rival SABMiller, the world’s No. 2 beer company.
Rumors of a tie-up between Belgium-based A-B InBev, already the world’s largest brewer, and London-based SABMiller have been around for years, but talk of a deal between the two is heating up.
“I think that we’ve come to a break point, a decision point,” said Tom Pirko, president of Bevmark, a food and beverage industry consulting firm in Buellton, Calif. “I think that we’re close now.”
Speculation was already brewing when the Financial Times of Britain reported in early June that traders believed bankers were working to raise $60 billion in debt to fund some kind of European takeover, and that SABMiller was a possible target.
“The chatter has intensified,” said Harry Schuhmacher, publisher of Beer Business Daily, a trade publication.
Robert Ottenstein, a senior managing director at New York-based research firm ISI and head of its global beverages team, believes a combination between the makers of Budweiser and Miller Lite could happen this year or in 2015.
“More than at any point in the last 10 years, SABMiller appears ripe for a combination with ABI,” Ottenstein wrote in a May research note, adding that A-B InBev has digested its $20.1 billion acquisition in 2013 of Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo, with most cost savings expected to be realized by the end of this year.
For Ottenstein, a former investment banker who headed investor relations for A-B InBev after A-B’s sale, the deal is compelling.
A combination of the two companies would bring together eight of the 10 leading global beer brands: A-B InBev’s Bud Light, Budweiser, Corona Extra, Skol, Stella Artois and Brahma; and SABMiller’s Aguila and Miller Lite.
The only top-10 global beers not under their control are Heineken and Guinness.
Combined, A-B InBev and SABMiller would account for about $65 billion in sales and nearly 30 percent of global beer volume.
Ottenstein contends that A-B InBev’s strong global brands would pair well with SABMiller’s extensive global footprint. A-B InBev has invested heavily in building flagship Budweiser’s sales globally after it bought A-B, he pointed out in the May report.
In 2010, Budweiser’s global sales volume rose 1.7 percent, even as its U.S. sales declined. Budweiser has continued its sales momentum globally, increasing volume by 6.3 percent in 2013, with sales in China, Brazil and Russia, among other major markets.
Meanwhile, SABMiller’s market position is strong in regions with high growth potential, including Africa and China.
“The potential to introduce (A-B InBev’s) global brands to SABMiller’s regions extends their growth and margin potential,” according to Ottenstein’s report.
Additionally, A-B InBev could reap $2 billion in cost savings through an acquisition of their largest rival, through global procurement and shared services, and eliminating job redundancies, he wrote.
Growing through acquisitions is in A-B InBev’s DNA. The deal to buy Anheuser-Busch came just four years after Belgium’s Interbrew and Brazil’s Ambev combined to create InBev. Last year, A-B InBev bought the rest of Grupo Modelo, maker of Corona and other beers, that it didn’t already own for $20.1 billion. And this year, it acquired the leading brewer in South Korea, Oriental Brewery, for $5.8 billion.
SABMiller’s strength in Africa, China and other countries where InBev wants to grow makes it an attractive combination, said beer industry consultant David “Bump” Williams, chief executive and president of Stratford, Conn.-based Bump Williams Consulting.
“I think SABMiller is their number one target,” he said. “InBev wants to be the global, dominant player in beer, and this would help them do that.”
