AB-InBev now listed on Johannesburg Stock Exchange

AB-InBev is moving swiftly towards its merger with SABMiller. Two days after selling USD 46 billion in bonds to fund the SABMiller deal, on 15 January 2016 the Belgian company completed a secondary listing in South Africa.

AB-InBev’s CEO Carlos Brito said the listing of the company in Johannesburg was “a significant vote of confidence in South Africa as an investment destination.”

Although the erstwhile SAB moved its primary listing to the London Stock Exchange in 1999, it kept a secondary one in Jo-Burg. Today SABMiller is one of the largest companies listed on South Africa’s stock exchange and local investors had expressed concern if SABMiller were swallowed and disappeared from the stock exchange.

Media say that South African regulators allow pension funds to invest just a quarter of their assets outside the country. Three-quarters have to be invested in South African-listed companies, a designation for which AB-InBev now qualifies.

The secondary-listings of major multinationals on the JSE have boosted the exchange, and the fortunes of local investors, despite a declining domestic economy.