Anheuser-Busch to reject InBev offer

By Jessica Hall

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Anheuser-Busch plans to reject InBev's unsolicited $46.3 billion (23.5 billion pounds) takeover offer, saying it undervalues the company, a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Budweiser beer, and InBev, the maker of Stella Artois and Beck's, could not be immediately reached for comment.

In rebuffing InBev's offer, Anheuser-Busch plans to map out its own restructuring plan soon that would include the sale of the company's theme park operations, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The plan also would include layoffs, more than $500 million in cost-cutting efforts and the sale of Anheuser-Busch's packaging unit, the New York Times added.

"It sounds dead-on. It's what we were expecting. The interesting thing is what happens next." said Tom Pirko, president of Bevmark, a Santa Barbara, California-based beverage industry consulting firm.

The timing of Anheuser-Busch's restructuring announcement was not clear, but the source said the company's board viewed InBev's $65-per-share offer as too low. The source declined to be identified by name because the source was not authorized to speak to the media.

Pirko said a rejection from Anheuser sets the stage for InBev to either raise its bid or take its bid directly to shareholders -- options he said InBev is likely to pursue.

Analysts had speculated InBev may have to raise its offer by more than $3 billion, to around $70 a share, to woo its shareholders into a deal to create the world's largest brewer, making a quarter of the world's beer.