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SABMIller, A-B InDev, Heineken: Who’s Trying To Buy Who?

SABMIller, A-B InDev, Heineken: Who’s Trying To Buy Who?

The world’s No. 2 brewer by earnings, SABMiller offered to buy Heineken to avoid a takeover by the world’s No. 1 brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and was turned down, Bloomberg reports.

But negotiations might still be underway. The beer industry could be in for a shakeup, according to a Bloomberg report in an actualnewsChannel video.

London-based SABMiller hopes to bolster its company’s worth by adding Heineken, the report said. But if SABMiller wants to stay independent, it must make a better offer for Heineken quickly, the report said.

Belgian-Brazilian multinational brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev has reportedly been interested for a while in buying SABMiller.

InBev is talking to banks about financing a $122-billion deal to buy its global beer rival, according to a WallStreetJournal blog. A tie-up between the world’s two largest brewing companies has been rumored for years. This deal would surpass InBev’s $52-billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch in 2008. Should they team up, it would put control of nearly a third of the global beer supply in the hands of one company.

Heineken said over the weekend it had rejected a takeover by SABMiller to “preserve the heritage and identity of Heineken as an independent company,” according to the WallStreetJournal blog.

In July, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote, “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.”

The $52-billion 2008 purchase of Anheuser Busch by InBev was the biggest in the history of beer makers, according to WSJ.

If the SABMiller-InBev deal went through, NPR said, “The resulting corporation would account for nearly half of the world’s beer profits.”

In terms of revenue, SABMiller is the world’s second-largest beer brewer bringing in $23.2 billion in 2013. The company owns American brands such as Coors, Miller, Keystone, Leinenkugel’s, Hamm’s and more.

At No. 1, Anheuser-Busch InBev reportedly brought in $43.2 billion dollars in total revenue in 2013. Heineken and SABMiller declined to comment to Bloomberg on its report.

Also a major bottler of Coca-Cola, SABMiller operates in 75 countries across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America and sells around 21 billion liters of beer a year.

SABMiller started as South African Breweries in 1895, serving a growing market of miners and prospectors in and around Johannesburg, according to Wikipedia. Two years later, it became the first industrial company to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the year after (1898) it listed on the London Stock Exchange. From the early 1990s onwards, the company started expanding internationally, making several acquisitions in developed and emerging markets. In 1999, it formed a new U.K.-based holding company, SAB, and moved its primary listing to London. In May 2002, SAB acquired Miller Brewing, forming SABMiller.