SAB Miller Sell's 10% Stake of South African Breweries Ltd to Black Investors

SAB Miller, the international brewer has announced a significant broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) transaction worth approximately R6 billion ($750 million) which will place about 10% of The South African Breweries Ltd (SAB) shares under black ownership. The transaction is expected to create around 60 000 new shareholders, of whom more than 95% are black individuals or black majority-owned small businesses.

“We did not simply want to ‘tick the box’”, said Norman Adami, Managing Director of SAB Ltd. “We were determined to design a transaction that would work in delivering real benefits to genuinely broad-based constituencies. What we have on the table is a truly innovative transaction that, through the combination of participants, will deliver deep positive impact to the lives of many thousands of people in South Africa.

Participants in the transaction include SAB employees and black-owned beer and soft drink retailers and, through a new SAB Foundation, historically disadvantaged communities.

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa’s companies have come under pressure to comply with strict ownership quotas as well as other equal opportunities rules.