ST. LOUIS — U.S. politicians are already protesting Belgian brewer InBev’s unsolicited $46 billion bid to buy Anheuser-Busch and absorb the iconic brewery to create the world’s fourth- largest consumer-products company.
But it appears lawmakers have little leverage to stop the deal, which might not be blocked on antitrust grounds.
“It’s going to cause a lot of the angst and hand-wringing,” said Douglas Cogen, a mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer with the Fenwick & West law firm in San Francisco. “In the end, there isn’t a lot of regulatory clearance that this deal needs.”
There are signs Anheuser-Busch is trying to thwart the deal. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the brewer has begun preliminary talks with Mexico’s Grupo Modelo SAB about a possible merger. The paper cited anonymous sources who said Anheuser-Busch had approached Carlos Fernandez, chief executive of Modelo and an Anheuser-Busch director, about a deal in recent weeks.
Anheuser-Busch already owns a roughly 50 percent noncontrolling stake in Modelo. If the companies merge, the combined company could be too big for InBev to purchase. Anheuser-Busch had no comment.
Modelo issued a statement saying it would closely follow the talks between Anheuser-Busch and InBev but said its objective was to “remain a proudly Mexican company.” Alvaro Zarza, Modelo’s head of media relations, declined to comment on the report of recent talks between Fernandez and Anheuser-Busch executives.
InBev CEO Carlos Brito spent part of a Thursday-morning conference call trying to calm political and regulatory concerns about the deal.
Brito said the merged company, which would be the world’s largest brewer by far, would not violate antitrust laws because it would combine breweries that operate in different geographic markets. Brito downplayed the prospect that InBev would slash U.S. jobs and promised not to close any Anheuser-Busch breweries.
“This compelling combination would create significant value for both companies’ shareholders,” Brito said.
Missouri Republican Gov. Matt Blunt said he opposes the deal, and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said she planned to send a letter to Anheuser- Busch’s board of directors asking them not to allow the deal to move forward.
