€7.48bn price for brewery sealed over a few beers

BREWING giant SABMiller agreed to buy Foster’s Group for a sweetened price of A$9.9 billion (€7.48bn) yesterday after talks between the two last week ended in a couple of beers which sealed the deal this week.

Peace broke out in the acrimonious three-month bid battle as SABMiller chief executive Graham Mackay offered to raise its cash bid by 20 cents to A$5.10 a share, and then sat down with Foster’s chairman David Crawford to celebrate with a beer.

As part of the deal, Melbourne-based Foster’s will also return 30 cents a share as a capital return it promised in August after a tax refund and pay a final dividend of 13.25 cents. The total value of the deal, including debt, is A$11.5 billion.