Lovells scoops $8bn SABMiller merger

Lovells’ M&A team scooped its largest deal of the year advising SABMiller on its $8bn merger with Columbia’s Grupo Empresarial Bavaria from the Santo Domingo Group.

SABMiller has acquired a stake of 71.8 per cent in Bavaria and will issue 225 million of shares to the value of $3.5bn that will give the Santo Domingo Group a 15.1 per cent holding in SABMiller.

The Lovells team was led by London M&A partners John Davidson and Andrew Pearson with tax specialists Daniel Friel (London) and Julie Reynolds (New York) also working on the deal.

Lovells is SABMiller’s lead UK counsel and Lovells has reaped the benefit of this relationship with a constant stream of deals including the purchase of the ShawWallace Group's 50 per cent interest in the brewing operations of SABMiller's Indian joint-venture Mysore at the end of May.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partners David Williams and Alan Klein advised Bavaria.