SABMiller, the beer behemoth that grew out of South African Breweries to become the world’s second largest brewery, has just pulled a magnificent trick on Anheuser-Busch, the world’s largest brewery.
SABMiller owns a 29% stake in Harbin Brewery Group which is controlled by the Harbin city government. SABMiller put in a bid to buy another 29%, but a bidding war ensued when Anheuser-Busch offered a higher price. SABMiller, whose executives have clearly been reading Sunzi’s Art of War, continued to show interest in acquiring more shares of Harbin Brewery Group and raised their bid. Anheuser-Busch came back with a counter offer.
According to Bloomberg: “Anheuser-Busch … said it will proceed with its offer that values Harbin at $757 million (HK$5.89 billion), compared with $551.6 million (HK$4.3 billion) for SABMiller’s offer.”
What is the result? Well, SABMiller is going to sell their current 29% stake in Harbin Breweries for a highly inflated price, a sum that will be paid by their arch-rival Anheuser-Busch.
Bloomberg’s report on the deal is here.
SABMiller are here.
Anheuser-Bush are here.