InBev may seek partners to help pay for A-B deal, says Merrill Lynch
Analysts from Merrill Lynch are wondering whether Belgian brewer InBev may bring in a “strategic investor” to help pay for its planned buyout of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. after postponing a stock sale, according to Bloomberg News.
InBev’s stock price has fallen, making the stock sale less attractive. InBev said yesterday that it has halted the $9.8 billion rights offer until markets calm down. InBev has an six-month equity bridge loan for the same amount.
From the Bloomberg story:
The main InBev shareholders, a group of Belgian families and Brazilian investors, declined to take their full entitlement of stock rights, potentially risking their controlling stake, Merrill’s Nico Lambrechts said. A “wild card” scenario would see those investors stump up more cash to buy stock, or else find another buyer for their unwanted rights, he said. Lambrechts did not give any theories on who InBev may target as a “strategic investor.”
Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
Here comes Warren B.
Let’s hope that both A-B shareholders and InBev realize that the timing on this deal, which benefits relatively few, is not the best, and that the deal should not be consumated, before both companies incur additional financial hardships in this unstable environment.
There are many options that can be pursued, including restructuring the deal for the Busch family, so they retain more control in the merged company, and end up with less cash.
However, given the general overall market trends, the odds of the merger actually occurring are now only about 50-50. That is why so many people are taking money off the table now and selling their shares, driving down the price so that the close today was under $60 a share when the buyout price is $70.
gee, it took the Harvard - Princeton - Yale - educated leaders all this time to come to this conclusion ! Joe the plumber said last june: “that’ll
never work ” !
I still say the hell with inbev. I don’t want inbev. They will hurt AB and alot of us the work for AB will lose our jobs.