AB-InBev may soon get deal approval

The Competition Commission believes it is on track to meet the extended deadline (until 5 April 2016) for the completion of its inquiry into AB-InBev’s proposed acquisition of SABMiller, South African media reported on 22 March 2016.

Assuming that there will be no last-minute interventions and no unexpected disputes at the Competition Tribunal, it is possible that South Africa’s competition authorities will have completed their consideration of the USD 110 billion transaction by the end of May this year.

According to rumour, this would bode well for AB-InBev’s CEO Carlos Brito and the brewers’ other top executives as they have been promised huge bonuses should the deal close in May rather than in the second half of 2016, as originally announced last year.

Although there are no major competition issues in South Africa, the merger does raise some public interest concerns, as BRAUWELT International reported earlier.