22 Sept - InBev has insisted the recent turmoil on the world's stock markets will not affect its US$52 billion takeover of US rival Anheuser Busch.
The Belgian company said it expected to close the deal by the end of 2008.
A company spokesman said: “InBev has fully committed financing in place with signed credit facilities from a group of leading financial institutions. We are on track to close the transaction by the end of the year.”
InBev is to raise US$45 billion to complete the purchase of Anheuser at US$70 a share. Speculation that the deal may not go ahead began to circulate at the end of last week when the US company’s share price dropped to US$65.31. This led some to doubt the merger would go through as planned on the back of worries about the continued viability of a number of financial institutions.
However, the company maintained the spread of banks it has assembled means the deal remains on track as they give InBev access to all significant capital markets.