Matt Rourke/Associated PressGrupo Modelo makes Corona.
2:20 p.m. | Updated
Anheuser-Busch InBev announced on Friday that it had received government approval for for its $20.1 billion deal to buy control of Grupo Modelo, the maker of Corona beer.
The Obama administration sued on Jan. 31 to block the takeover, arguing that the deal would give Anheuser-Busch InBev too much control over the American beer market, potentially reducing choices.
The agreement filed with the court on Friday resolves the regulatory concerns. Under the deal, Constellation Brands will pay about $5 billion to buy Anheuser Busch InBev’s 50 percent stake in Crown Imports, the company that imports Corona into the United States, as well as some breweries and operations. Constellation, one of the world’s largest wine companies, already owns half of Crown alongside Modelo.
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The Mexican Competition Commission approved the revised transaction in early April, the companies said.
Analysts have largely expected Anheuser-Busch InBev and the Justice Department to reach an accord on reasonable terms, The settlement makes clear, however, that for Anheuser-Busch InBev, the acquisition of Modelo was never about expanding its lead in the American beer market.
The prize for the largest American beer company was control of Modelo outside of the United States, which would give InBev the ability to grow Corona’s presence in Europe and to expand internationally all of Modelo’s nine other brands, which also include Pacifico, Modelo Especial and Negra Modelo.
Corona is the best-selling imported beer in the United States and overall is the No. 5 brand here. But there are few brands that are so well known in the Western Hemisphere that also have the potential for widespread growth as an import in the European market, analysts say.
American consumers are unlikely to see much of a change in the beer aisle. The proposed settlement, which still must be cleared by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, will maintain Corona’s independence as a competitor to Budweiser and other Anheuser-Busch brands.
That was very important to the Justice Department. In its lawsuit to block the deal, regulators pointed to internal Anheuser documents in which company officials said that Modelo’s pricing strategy was “eating our lunch.”
William J. Baer, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said the settlement maintains Corona and other Modelo brands “as effective and aggressive price competitors.”
In the $80 billion American beer market, “even a 1 percent to 3 percent price change would have a huge consumer impact,” Mr. Baer said. Anheuser-Busch has consistently raised its prices in recent years, the department said, and losing Corona as a competitor could reach deep into Americans’ pockets.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewing company, was created in 2008 through the $52 billion merger of Anheuser-Busch and the Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev. The $20.1 billion deal for Grupo Modelo would be the second-largest takeover in the beer industry after that merger, according to Thomson Reuters.
Article source: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/anheuser-busch-reaches-deal-with-antitrust-regulators/?partner=rss&emc=rss
