By Coco Alcuaz -
Anheuser-Busch InBev, owner of Budweiser, is poised to make its formal offer for SABMiller (L:SAB) on Wednesday, with a side deal also reportedly in place for them to give up the Miller brand to the Coors group, heading off concerns the merger will create a too-large beer giant, the Wall Street Journal said.
AB InBev and SABMiller reached an initial agreement last month but have obtained three extensions from regulators as they tried to unload SABMiller's 58 percent stake in MillerCoors, a seven-year venture with Molson Coors Brewing. The buyer, for $12 billion, will be Molson Coors and will be announced Wednesday together with the final $104 billion deal between AB InBev and SABMiller, the Journal said.
MillerCoors makes and sells Miller Light, Blue Moon and Coors Light, and if the deal goes through, Coors gets the right to sell Miller around the world, according to the New York Times. South Africa's SAB has owned Miller since 2002.
AB InBev controls 45 percent of the U.S. beer market and adding MillerCoors' 25 percent could have led the U.S. Justice Department to block the deal, according to the Journal. If the companies don't sign a final agreement Wednesday, they can't come back until next spring, the Times said.
SABMiller and Molson Coors agreed their transaction would only go through if the bigger deal between AB InBev and SABMiller happens, according to reports.
AB InBev and SABMiller are already the two biggest brewers in the world with a combined 28 percent of the global beer market, three times the size of their closest rival Heineken.