Friday, September 19, 2008

A-B deal off; no, wait, it's back on

The St. Louis Business Journal, quoting a business analyst, warned yesterday that the Wall Street turmoil threatens InBev’s takeover of Anheuser-Busch.

The turmoil on Wall Street has some analysts wondering whether InBev can finance its $52 billion takeover of Anheuser-Busch. Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo lowered his rating of A-B from “Hold” to “Sell,” and told investors “we are concerned about InBev’s financing package for the BUD merger,” according to a Sept. 16 research note.

In the next sentence Mr. Russo hedges his bets.

“While we still see it as probable that the deal closes as planned at $70 in an all-cash offer, fragile credit markets increase the risk that financing falls through, gets delayed or gets restructured.”


St. Louis Business Journal
Thursday, September 18, 2008

In other words, he first said no, then he said yes, and then he said maybe. (Does that have a familiar ring from the past year?)

I'll offer my market analysis (and without getting paid the big bucks): wait and see.

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