Belgium's Interbrew SA and Brazil's AmBev completed their planned US$11.4 billion combination on Friday after shareholders of both companies approved the deal that creates the world's largest brewer by volume.
Interbrew shareholders unanimously approved the linkup of their family company with AmBev, whose full name is Companhia da Bebidas das Americas, creating a new company called InBev that will control about 14 percent of the global beer market.
AmBev said its shareholders also approved the union, but did not provide a vote breakdown on the margin of victory for the merger. It makes InBev the planet's largest beer producer and No. 2 by revenue behind US-based Anheuser-Busch, which had sales of US$14.1 billion last year.
The deal first announced in March brings together top Interbrew brands Stella Artois, Becks and Labbatt's Blue with AmBev's popular Skol and Brahma beers.
"We are creating the world's number one brewery," said Interbrew chief executive John Brock, who will become the CEO of the new company.
As part of the deal, Interbrew and Ambev will operate independently in different hemispheres, maintain separate stock listings and name four directors each on a new 14-member InBev board. InBev's headquarters will be set up in Leuven, Belgium.
Interbrew ends up with 57 percent of AmBev through a controlling company, Braco. In return, AmBev gets the Canadian Labatt operation and the US brand Rolling Rock. But the companies resisted calling the deal a takeover or merger, even though analysts said AmBev is technically ceding control to Interbrew.
InBev's Americas group will now focus on building a stronger foothold in the US and increasing its Latin American market share, said Milton Seligman, the company's director of corporate relations in Sao Paulo.
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