By Eli Greenblat
ONE of Australia's oldest and most famous brands, Foster's, is set to become foreign owned.
The Melbourne-based brewing giant - whose origins date back to the 1850s - will be sold to a British-based multinational in a deal that will deliver more than $12 billion to shareholders.
Foster's is set to become foreign owned.
After a sometimes heated four-month takeover battle, the Foster's board has agreed to sell the business - which owns VB, Australia's biggest-selling beer, and other popular brands such as Crown, Cascade and Carlton Draught - to Anglo-South African brewer SABMiller.
Foster's chief executive John Pollaers said last night his SABMiller counterpart, Graham Mackay, had expressed a strong commitment to Foster's Australian heritage.
Who owns what
''I spoke to Graham yesterday and we both share a common commitment to this company and its people,'' Mr Pollaers told The Age.
But SABMiller, one of the world's biggest brewers, with operations on six continents, could not, at this stage, promise to maintain Foster's headquarters in Melbourne or its Abbotsford plant, which has been making beer for more than 100 years.
Foster's origins date to 1854, only 19 years after Melbourne was founded by European colonists, when VB was first brewed in the city by the Victoria Brewery.
The company - which under the leadership of 1980s entrepreneur John Elliott was going to ''Fosterise the world'' - will now itself be swallowed up, with SABMiller to pay investors $5.5325 a share for control of Foster's, giving the company a value of about $12.3 billion.
Foster's origins date back to 1854 when VB was first brewed in Melbourne.Credit: Bloomberg
The takeover offer, which has the full support of the Foster's board, is an improvement on the $4.90 a share SABMiller first put to investors in June. The approach was triggered by Foster's decision late last year to spin off its wine business, which owns leading Australian wine brands such as Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Rosemount, into a separately listed company.
Foster's is best known for VB, which, although it has lost market share in recent years, continues to be Australia's biggest-selling beer - nearly one in four beers sold is a VB product.
Mr Pollaers said the offer was a compelling deal for Foster's shareholders.
''This is very good value for the company,'' he said.
If shareholders, who are expected to vote on the offer in December, support the takeover offer it will mean Australia's two biggest brewers are owned by foreign companies. Lion Nathan, the nation's second-biggest beer group, is owned by Japanese company Kirin.
Foster's was forged in 1888 when two American brothers, William and Ralph Foster, first brewed Foster's Lager in Melbourne.
It was not until 1907 that Foster's Brewing Company, the Victoria Brewery, the Carlton Brewery and three other Melbourne breweries linked to form Carlton & United Breweries (CUB).
Foster's has a licence to brew or sell Asahi, Stella Artois and Mexican beer Corona.