aha ... http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200809161414DOWJONESDJONLINE000592_FORTUNE5.htm
*http://tinyurl.com/4qgkno * NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Anheuser-Busch Cos. (BUD) - which in July agreed to be bought by InBev (INB.BT) - is trading well below its acquisition price of $70 a share as investors stay cautious on the deal amid the turmoil in financial and credit markets. An InBev investor said choppy credit markets appear to be raising some concerns about the financing for the deal, though there are no indications those concerns are justified. An InBev spokeswoman said the company is going ahead with the deal. "We have completed the primary syndication phase of the committed financing with a very diversified group of strong banks," she said via email. Some of investors' jitters appear to be tied to the sheer size of the transaction to buy the maker of Budweiser. In July, InBev said the transaction would be financed with $45 billion in debt, including a $7 billion bridge financing for divestitures of noncore assets from both companies. At that time, InBev said it had received fully committed financing with signed credit facilities from a group of financial institutions that included Banco Santander, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Fortis, ING Bank, JPMorgan, Mizuho Corporate Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland. "People are concerned about the size of the financing since it is so large and there are issues in the market," said one arbitrage trader, who declined to be named. But he said that after conversations with bankers and others, he believes the financing for the acquisition is still sound and the deal should go through. Anheuser's shares were recently down 10 cents, or 0.2%, to $66.10, roughly 6% below the deal price of $70 a share in cash. The stock fell about 4% earlier Tuesday before making some recovery. An Anheuser-Busch spokeswoman didn't immediately comment. "Almost all of the spreads in merger arbitrage transactions have widened," said another arbitrage trader. "If you look at all deals, there is a tremendous amount of concern in the market place." He and other traders pointed to DRS Technologies Inc. (DRS), which was recently trading down 2.5% to $75.81. In May, Italy's Finmeccanica SpA. (FNC.MI), a technology company, said it would buy DRS for $81 a share. Representatives for both companies couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Despite the market jitters, some Anheuser investors are staying upbeat on the prospects for the deal, and expect the stock to slowly move closer to the deal price. "I would suspect the spread will narrow again," said Don Yacktman, president of Yacktman Asset Management, which holds Anheuser shares. Some market watchers said some of the volatility in Anheuser-Busch's stock may also be the result of profit taking in a turbulent market as investors seek to sell liquid stocks to raise cash. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:269975 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
