US: Senate antitrust hearing Tuesday on AB InBev

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s proposed $107 billion takeover of SABMiller — the largest beer merger in history — will be examined in Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday morning.

Beer executives, including AB InBev CEO Carlos Brito and Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter, will testify at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights.

For the deal to be completed, it has to gain approval from the U.S. Department of Justiceand the Federal Trade Commission. The subcommittee step is a “routine oversight hearing” for mergers of this size, said Conn Carroll, spokesman for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, chairman of the subcommittee.

Other witnesses include Bob Pease, CEO of Brewers Association; Craig Purser, president and CEO of National Beer Wholesalers Association; J. Wilson of the Iowa Brewers Guild; and Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Initiative.

Announced last month, AB InBev’s proposed takeover of SABMiller is expected to be completed in the second half of 2016. As part of the deal, Molson Coors would acquire the rest of Chicago-based MillerCoors for about $12 billion — a divestiture seen as key to the merger passing regulatory muster. MillerCoors is a joint venture of Molson Coors, which currently owns 42 percent, and SABMiller.

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