SABMiller snubs fellow giant's bigger bid
LONDON -- Anheuser-Busch InBev increased the pressure on SABMiller on Wednesday to agree to a takeover, saying it was now willing to pay about $104 billion for its rival.
The revised offer came after Anheuser-Busch InBev said that SABMiller's board of directors had rejected two other proposals that had not previously been publicized. SABMiller said Wednesday that the prior approaches had undervalued the company.
SABMiller's board of directors, excluding directors nominated by Altria Group, its largest shareholder, also quickly rejected the latest proposal, saying in a news release that the revised bid "still very substantially undervalues SABMiller, its unique and unmatched footprint, and its stand-alone prospects."
Altria, the tobacco giant, said Wednesday that it would be willing to support the latest approach, which includes an option for Altria and other investors to accept a portion of the offer in restricted shares instead of cash.
Under the terms of the latest bid, Anheuser-Busch InBev said it would be willing to pay about $63.97 a share in cash for SABMiller, a 16 percent premium to the closing price in London on Tuesday. That is also a 44 percent premium to the closing price in mid-September, before Anheuser-Busch InBev confirmed it had approached SABMiller about a possible combination.
Anheuser-Busch InBev said last month that it had approached SABMiller about a takeover and that it had offered in two written, private proposals to pay about $42.74 a share and later about $45 a share in cash. The $45-a-share proposal also included an option for investors to accept a portion in unlisted shares, SABMiller said.
-- Bloomberg News
Biloxi's 9th casino closer to construction
BILOXI, Miss. -- The Biloxi City Council has approved Mayor Andrew Gilich's plan for connecting the last length of the road around the city's East Biloxi neighborhood that will allow the city's ninth casino to move forward.
The Sun Herald reported that Chris Ferrara on Tuesday showed designs of Biloxi Pointe Casino he and his team of investors want to build off Eighth Street in East Biloxi, and described the amenities that are part of the $260 million resort. He said they plan to build a casino, a large convention and entertainment center, a hotel and shops.
Ferrara said the commitment from the city to build the last part of the road from Back Bay Boulevard down Pine Street to U.S. 90 is needed to get the financing.
"Investors like this market," said Jeff Hartmann, founder and chief executive officer for the proposed resort. He told the council members that if they approve the agreement to build the road, the $7 million the Biloxi Point developers have committed will be there.
-- The Associated Press
Icahn allies on Freeport-McMoRan board
Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn got his way at Freeport-McMoRan Inc.
The world's biggest publicly traded copper producer agreed with Icahn to appoint Andrew Langham and Courtney Mather to the board of directors, Freeport said in a statement Wednesday. Langham has been general counsel of Icahn Enterprises LP since January, and Mather has served as managing director of Icahn Capital LP since April 2014.
The appointments come a day after Phoenix-based Freeport said it was cutting its board to nine from 16 as it prepares to separate the oil and gas unit after "constructive discussions" with shareholders. Freeport angered investors by acquiring oil and gas holdings for $9 billion in 2013 only to see crude prices fall by more than half since the middle of last year. Freeport's shares surged as much as 13 percent in New York on Wednesday.
Icahn, who controls 8.8 percent of Freeport's stock, said in August he intended to hold talks with the company on "capital expenditures, executive compensation practices and capital structure as well as curtailment of the issuer's high-cost production operations."
-- Bloomberg News
Pandora says its $450M to buy Ticketfly
NEW YORK -- Streaming Internet music company Pandora said Wednesday that it will buy Ticketfly for $450 million in a move that takes the company beyond music sharing and into ticket sales and marketing.
Pandora runs a free music-streaming service and says 80 million people use Pandora to listen to music every month. The Oakland, Calif.-based company went public in 2011 and reported $921 million in revenue in 2014, mostly from selling ads, but it has yet to report an annual profit.
The companies say Ticketfly sold 16 million tickets to 90,000 events last year, with the value of those tickets surpassing $500 million. They added that 14 million people visit Ticketfly's sites each month.
Shares of Pandora Media Inc. fell $1, or 4.5 percent, to close Wednesday at $20.98.
-- The Associated Press
Geithner helps Bernanke start book tour
NEW YORK -- Ben Bernanke, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said on Tuesday that stronger regulation had significantly improved the resilience of the financial system.
A theoretical replay of the housing bubble would now cause less damage, he said, thanks to changes like reducing banks' reliance on borrowed money.
"We would have had a minor recession, a housing crash, but we would not have had the financial panic that we had," he said.
The next crisis, of course, is likely to take a different form, but Bernanke said the changes would still make a difference.
"Whatever the shock may come from, I think we're in better shape to deal with it," he said.
Bernanke began the book tour for his new memoir, The Courage to Act, with the former Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square on Tuesday evening.
The event reunited the only two people who served as senior government officials throughout the financial crisis: Bernanke as Fed chairman, and Geithner, first as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then as Treasury secretary.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 10/08/2015