Foster’s rejected SABMiller’s conditional cash offer last week as too low

SABMiller and Foster's can benefit – Moody's

LIQUOR NEWS

Business Report - Jun 29th 2011, 09:19

SABMiller’s A$9.5 billion (R68.4bn) takeover offer for Foster's Group would benefit both companies' earnings and help them cut costs if a deal was completed, Moody's Investors Service said yesterday. 

SABMiller, the second-largest brewer by volume, would get access to a profitable cash-generating business and reduce its reliance on developing markets, Moody’s said in a report, adding that Foster’s would benefit from being part of a materially larger and higher-rated company.

Foster’s rejected SABMiller’s conditional cash offer last week as too low, in what would be the biggest takeover in the beer industry since 2008.

Last week SABMiller said it would continue to pursue a multibillion-dollar takeover of Foster’s, as the UK-based group bids to ramp up its presence in mature beer markets.

While downplaying talk of a major shift in its focus, SABMiller is keen to extend its proportional reach out of the fast-growing emerging markets by building its position in developed economies. Emerging markets bring in 80 percent of its profits compared with about 50 percent at its rivals.

The firm expects Australia’s growing economy to continue to benefit from booming growth in Asia, where rising incomes and a thirst for a Western lifestyle are fuelling demand for consumer products.

“SABMiller has historically been an acquisitive company with a good track record at integrating purchased assets,” Moody’s analysts Yasmina Serghini-Douvin and Maurice O’Connell wrote in the report.