Heineken has turned down SABMiller’s offer to acquire the its company and said it intends to remain independent. SABMiller’s bid was rejected by the family that controls Heineken, Bloomberg News reported. The offer, made in the last two weeks, would have made the family one of the combined company’s largest holders, one source said.
“For SAB, a way of preserving their independence is to buy Heineken,” Matthew Beesley of Henderson Global Investors Ltd. told Bloomberg News “It’s easy to underestimate the desire for management teams to be in control of their own destiny rather than to sell their business at a very high price.”
SABMiller has been the subject of speculation that AB InBev will attempt to take it over. Acquiring Heineken would help assure its independence as well as adding more than $25 billion in sales and bolster its presence in emerging markets such as Africa and Mexico.