International Breweries Plc, on Thursday notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that it has listed 5.3bn additional shares on the Exchange, capping what has been a grueling six months for the firm to merge with its sister companies, Intafact Beverages Limited and Pabod Breweries Limited.

The brewing company which is an indirect subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev and the only listed company on the NSE out of the three merging entities notified dealing members of the Nigerian Stock Exchange of the additional share listing.

In a note sent to the exchange, International Breweries Plc said, “Dealing Members are hereby notified that 5,301,612,656 ordinary shares of International Breweries Plc (“International Breweries” or “the Company”) were today, 14 December 2017 listed on the Daily Official List of The Exchange.

“The additional shares listed arose from the Scheme of Merger involving International Breweries Plc, Intafact Beverages Limited and Pabod Breweries Limited.

“With this listing of 5,301,612,656 ordinary shares, the total issued and fully paid up shares of International Breweries Plc has now increased from 3,294,249,280 to 8,595,861,936 ordinary shares,” the note read.

IBPlc, first announced in early June that its Board as well as the Board of Intafact and Pabod had agreed to explore a merger of their respective operations subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals. All three companies are indirect subsidiaries of Anheuser-Busch InBev inherited from the merger with SABMiller in 2016.

With the combination completed, AB InBev, through its indirect subsidiaries, now control 75.1% of the company’s shares. AB InBev’s direct subsidiaries are SABMiller Nigeria Holdings BV, which holds 47.4% shares in the merged entity and Brauhaase International Management GMBH which has 27.7% equity stake. Anambra State Government holds a 4.7% stake in the new company, with the remaining 20% held by minority shareholders.

Annabelle Degroot, Managing Director, International Breweries Plc noted in a press briefing in November that the combined entity will be known as International Breweries Plc until a new name is chosen in 2018 that reflects the uniqueness of the combined entities.

“We will list as International Breweries, it has been agreed by the board of the new company that we will choose a new name that will reflect the combination of the three and that name will be changed subsequently in the New Year, in 2018,” she said.