Beer merger gets approval in China

ON 29 July, AB InBev said it received the go signal from the China Ministry of Commerce with regard to its takeover bid of SABMiller Plc. This included selling SABMiller's stake in Snow to state-owned China Resources Beer, for about $1.6 billion. China Resources Beer owns the other 51 percent of the brewer, C. R. Snow. The transaction will be closed this year.

The merger would account for about 30 percent of global beer sales and would give Anheuser-Busch, which is currently the largest brewer, a substantial operation in Africa, where it has little presence, and greater dominance in Latin America, according to a report in New York Times.