Concerns of craft brewers have little effect on the U.S. Justice Department when considering the approval of the merger of AB InBev and SABMiller.
Approval is expected to come within the month for Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA’s takeover of SABMiller Plc.
Reuters reported that the U.S. Justice Department is set to approve the transaction, under certain conditions. The $100 billion-plus transaction may be subject to conditions that will ensure that the merged company will not edge craft brewers out of the market. The conditions would also likely include the limiting of the company’s ownership of distributors.
The deal has already received approval from South African anti-trust regulators, along with EU antitrust approval, Reuters reported.
The merger, which was initially proposed in November 2015, would combine AB InBev’s Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona brands with SABMiller’s Peroni, Grolsch and Pilsner Urquell. The combined companies would and brew almost a third of the world’s beer, according to Reuters.
Smaller brewers and craft beer makers have expressed concerns that the deal will have adverse effects on the U.S. craft beer industry, because they use the same network of distributors as AB InBev and MillerCoors. However, according to Reuters, smaller brewers seem to have little pull in meetings with Justice Department officials.