Foster’s Lager, Australia’s largest brewer, accepted a $10.1 billion takeover Sept. 21 by SABMiller, the world’s second largest brewing company, just weeks after rejecting a smaller bid by the company.
SABMiller, best known in the U.S. for its Miller brands and partnership with MolsonCoors, initially offered a $9.6 billion takeover offer which was rejected by Foster’s on Sept. 12. The company upped their offer to $10.1 billion and Foster’s accepted, making it the largest takeover of a brewer since InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch in 2008.
SABMiller already owns the rights to Foster’s in the U.S., but the acquisition of Foster’s takes global bottling rights from Heineken International and gives SAB seven of the top ten beers in Australia.
The acquisition of Foster’s has touched off rumors that a sweeping takeover by ABInBev, the world’s largest brewer, is on the horizon. The Wall Street Journal reported that ABInBev was close to buying SABMiller for $80 billion, which would unite the top two brewing companies in the world.
ABInBev owns several of the top beers in the U.S., such as the Budweiser line and college favorite Natural Light. The company reported a 48 percent market share in the beer business, and adding SABMiller to their portfolio would create a near-monopoly in the U.S. beer market.
Reuters reported that a takeover of SABMiller would likely mean SAB selling their portion of MillerCoors back to MolsonCoors. The companies formed a partnership after Anheuser-Busch’s sale to InBev to compete against ABInBev, but an InBev-Miller merger would likely doom MolsonCoors in the domestic beer market.
“Coors Banquet and Coors Light aren’t much different from the beers Miller and Budweiser sell,” senior journalism major C.T Schwink said. “It’s bad that it would decrease your options if a brand like Coors went out of business, but consolidation isn’t a bad thing, as long as it pushes prices down.”
Senior journalism major Brooks Welsh wasn’t sure if a merger like that could happen, asking “would antitrust laws affect that?” He shared the same sentiment as Schwink, saying he hoped the mergers would lower prices on beer.
A takeover of SABMiller would shatter InBev’s record $52 billion Anheuser Busch acquisition in 2008.