A UK court on Tuesday endorsed SABMiller’s plan to treat its two biggest shareholders – Altria, the US tobacco firm and BevCo, the investment arm of the Santo Domingo family as separate class of shareholders.
SABMiller’s shareholders will get a separate vote on the brewer’s £79bn takeover by its bigger rival, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the UK court said.
SABMiller’s board on Wednesday moved to calm shareholder disquiet among activist investors who would like to seek a better share offer from AB InBev.
When AB InBev agreed to acquire SABMiller in November, the agreed upon price was £44 ($57.79) per share for most shareholders. However, two major shareholders, tobacco giant, Altria Group and the BevCo Limited Investment arm of Colombia’s Santo Domingo family were offered partial-share alternative of 41% of stock. Essentially, it is a combination of cash and unlisted stock, which has translated into a lower per share price of £41.85.
There has been a surge of investors buying up SABMiller’s shares which may force Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) to raise its takeover bid by as much as $7bn in the next few weeks, according to analyst Mark Swartzberg at Stifel.
UK media reported that an activist hedge fund has purchased a 1% stake in SABMiller, ahead of the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on Thursday. The purchase comes on the heels of a prior 1.3% stake taken by another UK hedge fund earlier this month.
