Altria to become a top shareholder in AB-InBev

The tobacco firm Altria has gained a position as a top shareholder in the newly expanded brewer AB-InBev. It will control a 9.6 percent stake, having held roughly 27 percent of SABMiller previously. Altria was expected to receive around 10.5 percent of the fattened AB-InBev upon the sale.

However, more SABMiller stockholders chose to accept AB-InBev’s cash-and-stock buyout option, rather than the all-cash alternative. This resulted in Altria obtaining fewer shares than it anticipated.

Nonetheless, Altria will have two seats on AB-InBev’s board of directors. These will be occupied by the cigarette maker’s CEO Marty Barrington and CFO Billy Gifford. Additionally, the company will receive around USD 5.3 billion in cash as its monetary share of the buyout, it was reported.

All told, Altria expects to post a pre-tax gain of around USD 13.7 billion in total on the merger.

Altria is already putting that beer money to work. Its board has authorised an expansion of the company’s share buy-back programme to USD 3 billion from the previously approved limit of USD 1 billion. The company expects to complete the initiative by the end of the second quarter of 2018.