Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) is said to have sent out a voluntary severance offer to over 1,000 mid-level managers in South Africa on 12th December as it prepares to trim its workforce in the country, South African Business Day reported on Monday.
The brewer which acquired SABMiller, its nearest rival in a $103bn deal last year sent out a mouthwatering offer to mid-level managers with a 20th January deadline.
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said it hopes to have a new bottling partner to replace SABMiller in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) by 2018.
Coke announced last week that it would exercise its change-of-ownership rights to acquire SABMiller’s 57% stake in CCBA from AB InBev and find new suitable partners. The soft drinks giant said it expects about four months of negotiation with AB InBev before acquiring SABMiller’s stake and another 12 months to obtain regulatory approval from the South African authorities.
South Africa’s Competition Tribunal has given its nod to the merger of Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller.
The approval, however, comes with conditions designed to address both public interest and competition concerns arising from the merger.
South Africa’s Competition Tribunal, said on Tuesday it has given its nod to the merger of SABMiller’s South African soft drinks business with Coca-Cola’s South African operation and that of Coca-Cola SABCO to create what would be known as Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, the continents biggest coke bottler with 40% of all Coke’s volumes sold in Africa.
South Africa’s competition commission has extended a ruling for Tuesday’s deadline of their review of the pending merger between AB InBev and SABMiller, saying that the deal raises concerns that need to be resolved.
The merger of the world’s two largest beer companies, the Belgian-based AB InBev and South Africa’s SABMiller could face significant delays in South Africa because of the country’s lengthy process of granting approvals.
