DEALTALK-InBev played smart to win Anheuser

By Jessica Hall and Martinne Geller

PHILADELPHIA/NEW YORK (Reuters) - InBev NV, armed with financing and promises to protect Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc's heritage, pursued its $52 billion (26 billion pound) target as a chess game with the final checkmate victory foreseen from the first move.

"The speed and efficiency with which InBev mounted its attack on A-B and got a deal done just $5 (per share) above its initial bid price is impressive," Credit Suisse beverage analyst Carlos Laboy wrote in a research note on Monday.

InBev moved gently from the start, meeting with Anheuser Chief Executive August Busch IV in June 2 in Tampa to discuss a possible combination. It followed with an unsolicited offer on June 11 that included several concessions to soothe any pain for Anheuser-Busch.

Among the concessions in the initial $65 per share bid, InBev offered Anheuser seats on the combined company's board; promised to keep Anheuser's St. Louis, Missouri, home as the North American headquarters; and have the merged company's name reflect the heritage of the more than 150-year-old U.S. brewer.

InBev also said it would keep Anheuser's U.S. breweries open. The Belgian-based company kept all of those promises in the final agreement to buy Anheuser for $70 per share, creating the world's largest brewer which would be named Anheuser-Busch InBev.

"It was pretty much the standard example of how to acquire a company in an agreed deal when they weren't up for sale. The AB board did well, but the InBev tactics were spot-on in that they didn't have to face a messy, long drawn-out battle," said one source close to the deal.

"On the financing side in these difficult markets, they did well to pull together a high-class bank group," the source said.

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