Fosters..Australian For Buyout?? SABMiller May Bid For Australian Brewer (MO, BUD, TAP)

Investment bankers will be toasting on this one if it comes true. It looks like merger Monday is starting early, and it has an alcoholic theme to it. SABMiller, partly owned by Altria Group, Inc., MO is considering offering $10.9 billion for the beer portfolio of Foster's Group, the Australian brewer, writes Marketwatch. SABMiller, headquartered in London, is potentially working on a deal to acquire Carlton & United Breweries, the beer-making portion of Foster's says the Sunday Times of London. The Times source was not identified. According to a Reuters report, Japan's Asahi Breweries Ltd. may also launch a bid for the Australian brewer, potentially turning this into a bidding war. If this merger goes through, it would make SABMiller a much more formidable competitor to Anheuser-Busch InBev BUD as the world's largest brewer. In 2008, Invbev bought Anheuser-Busch for a whopping $52 billion, making it the largest brewer in the world. SABMiller has been looking for ways to compete with Anheuser-Busch InBev as it tries to take market share away from the world's largest brewer. In 2009, SAB Miller reported net income of $2.16 billion and $18.7 billion in revenues. This pales in comparison to the $4.6 billion on $37 billion in revenue that Anheuser-Busch InBev reported last year. Some of the brands that operate under SABMiller are Miller Genuine Draft, Miller Lite, Peroni and Pilsner Urquell. This deal would give the company the rights Foster's Lager and Victoria Bitter beer. Many see this deal as making strategic sense for SABMiller since it already owns the Indian and North American distributing rights to Foster's. SABMiller is no stranger to deals of this size. In 2007, it formed a joint venture with MolsonCoors TAP to compete against Anheuser-Busch. The MillerCoors joint venture has such brands as Miller Genuine Draft, Molson Canadian, Coors and Blue Moon. Merger Monday looks to have started early this week and if completed, it looks like investment bankers will be toasting with a pint of Foster's after raking in the fees on this deal. Disclosure: long MO