Report says Budweiser parent company is in talks to acquire SABMiller

SABMiller Plc (SAB), the parent company of MillerCoors LLC, is in talks to be acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the parent company of Budweiser, according to a report at Brazilian news website IG.
The merger would combine the world’s two largest brewing companies.
SABMiller’s stock rose as much as 11 percent on the London Stock Exchange, its steepest intraday gain since Nov. 24, 2008.
Guilherme Barros, a columnist at the Sao Paulo-based website, said the deal could be worth about $80 billion.
Nigel Fairbrass, a spokesman for London-based SABMiller, and Marianne Amssoms, a spokeswoman for Leuven, Belgium-based AB InBev, declined to comment on the report.
AB InBev was formed when InBev NV bought St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. in 2008 for $52 billion.
Trevor Stirling, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in London, told Bloomberg News that Were AB InBev to acquire SABMiller, it would probably have to divest SABMiller’s stake in MillerCoors LLC, a joint venture with Molson Coors Brewing Co., and “take a haircut on fair value on the disposal.”
Chicago-based MillerCoors operates a brewery in Milwaukee.