A UK court has backed a bid to split SABMiller's shareholders into two groups ahead of a vote on its £79 billion takeover by Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABInbev).
Two of SABMiller's largest shareholders, Altria Group and Bevco, will be split off into a separate group from the rest of the brewing giant's shareholders when the deal goes to a vote on September 28.
Together, Altria Group and Bevco own about 40 per cent of SABMiller.
The shareholder vote requires 75 per cent approval from shareholders. The High Court ruling means each group will have to reach that threshold to approve the deal.
The SABMiller board has recommended that shareholders accept the Belgian brewer's all-cash offer of £45 a share, up from its earlier price of £44, valuing the London-listed firm at around £79bn.
Investors including hedge fund Elliot Engagement and Aberdeen Asset Management have raised concerns about the deal. Aberdeen said it welcomed the court's ruling.
"We are pleased the court has acknowledged the reality of the situation which will help to ensure that the views of the rest of the investor base have due weight," it said.
The asset manager reiterated plans to vote against the deal, adding it was uncomfortable with its structure and believed the takeover offer undervalued SABMiller.
The firm urged other shareholders to follow suit.
"We would welcome other investors who value good corporate governance and recognise the superior long-term value from continuing to hold SABMiller as a standalone entity voting in a similar fashion."
Nik Stanojevic, an equity analyst at wealth manager Brewin Dolphin, explained that the shareholder split slightly increases the probability of a failed deal.
That may be good news for stakeholders like Aberdeen, but Mr Stanojevic stressed that there was only a three to five per cent chance that the takeover would be struck down.
"The probability that it falls through, I think, is probably quite low," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here