Molson Coors to get Miller-Coors?
Molson Coors already holds 42% in Miller-Coors which is responsible for the Coors Light, Miller Lite and Blue Moon brands among others.
Part of the deal involves Molson Coors having first refusal on the rest of the company worth about $10 billion (€8.9bn).
But then there’s Heineken too, which might just make a move for ownership of the company. At present, Heineken Ireland has distribution rights for the Coors brand here.
Assuming SAB Miller shareholders go for the new new deal and regulators give it the thumbs-up, it would make the combined company the world’s largest brewer producing one third of all beer consumed globally.
This is likely to require some degree of brand disposal to satisfy the various competition authorities.
As part of the 400 brand portfolio superbrewer, SAB Miller’s major brands Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Grolsch and Fosters would join AB InBev’s Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona brands in any deal.
The UK Takeover Panel agreed to extend the original deadline of 14th October to 28th October but even if it goes ahead the deal itself is unlikely to be fully signed-off before this time next year.
In such an event, analysts at Barclays reckon that AB InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito could reduce costs by as much as $1.4 billion (€1.25bn) by integrating the two companies’ functions with a resultant loss of employment by workers in both companies.
Hundreds of jobs were cut within weeks of him buying Anheuser Busch for $52 billion seven years ago.
