MO Altria Group Inc

   (FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 10/9/15) 
   By Sara Schaefer Munoz in Bogota and Tripp Mickle in Atlanta 

At the center of SABMiller PLC's efforts to get a better deal in Anheuser-Busch InBev NV's takeover bid is a family whose brinkmanship at the negotiating table helped make them Colombia's richest.

For decades, the Santo Domingo family has controlled a web of enterprises. Their sale of Colombian brewer Bavaria in 2005 to SABMiller saw the clan's $2.2 billion fortune multiply many times over. The family's holdings are now valued at $14.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire's Index.

Now the second-largest shareholders in SABMiller, with a 14% stake and two board seats, the Santo Domingos, led by 38-year-old Harvard-educated Alejandro Santo Domingo, are the linchpin InBev needs on its side to ink the $99 billion proposed deal.

AB InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito said during a media call Wednesday he thought the family was receptive to the deal when the company announced a takeover proposal for SABMiller earlier that day.

He said the cash-and-stock portion of the AB InBev's proposal "was designed with and for them," with the understanding that the Santo Domingos would be on board.

Mr. Brito expressed surprise when the family later declined the offer. "At this point, we don't have their support," he said.

Mr. Brito noted that a precondition of doing the deal was "an irrevocable commitment" from both BevCo Ltd., the holding company for the Santo Domingo family's SABMiller beer interests, and Altria Group Inc., the tobacco company, which has a 27% stake in SABMiller and three seats on the board. Altria said Wednesday it supported AB InBev's proposal.

Alejandro Santo Domingo, reached by phone in New York, declined to comment about the family's intentions.

Those who know the family say they have a knack for holding out for the best outcome, with the hope of also keeping their influence in a business they have been involved in for decades.

A banker whose firm has worked with the Santo Domingo family said their refusal of the current bid "is a negotiating strategy. They are calling the shots."

Rudolf Hommes, a former Colombian finance minister who knows the family, described it as clan of deal makers who have historically been able to adroitly multiply their wealth many times over. Alejandro Santo Domingo's grandfather, Mario, had expanded his fortune and left it for his son, Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Mr. Hommes said.

Now, that fortune -- largely controlled by Alejandro Santo Domingo, who succeeded his late father -- could mean an even broader stake in a business that Mr. Hommes says the Santo Domingos have long been passionate about: beer.

The younger Mr. Santo Domingo, a tall and dashing entrepreneur who lives in New York and whose social life and recent engagement to British aristocrat Lady Charlotte Wellesley is splashed on the society pages here, shares his father's business acumen, say people who know the family.

"I see that he's very capable," said Fabio Echeverri, former president of ANDI, a group representing industrialists.

Mr. Santo Domingo's father had been known for turning down juicy overtures. In 1996, Brazilian Jorge Paulo Lemann -- now a top shareholder in AB InBev -- made a bid for the family's Bavaria brewery, which the family rebuffed.

Violy McCausland-Seve, who advised the Santo Domingo family until about a decade ago, said it rejected the offer because it undervalued the company's potential -- given that its margins were lower than comparable brewers. It opted to improve those, raising them to 40% from 20%, and then it used its increased cash flow to acquire brewers in Panama and Peru.

Ms. McCausland-Seve said the company ultimately sold to SABMiller in 2005 because it recognized that the beer industry was consolidating globally.

She said she didn't know how the family views the AB InBev offer, but she noted that SABMiller was better-positioned for growth in Latin America and Africa. "Turning it down would not be a crazy decision," she said of AB InBev's overtures.

Julio Mario Santo Domingo, an imposing figure in Latin America's world of business until his 2011 death, had his hands in an array of sectors, from Colombian television to radio to tourism and the country's main airline. He was also close to the country's political elite. In the 1990s, he became a lightning rod for criticism after publicly backing Colombia's then-President Ernesto Samper, who was accused of taking campaign money from one of the country's powerful drug cartels. Mr. Samper denied taking money from traffickers, and was absolved in a congressional vote.

Critics said that the Santo Domingo family had their media outlets go soft on the president, charges Julio Mario Santo Domingo denied at the time.

When Bavaria merged with SABMiller in one of the continent's biggest deals ever, it resulted in $3.5 billion worth of stock for the Santo Domingos. The family was sharply criticized by some members of the Colombian government and the public for successfully arguing that the Bavaria-SABMiller deal was a merger, not a sale, which enabled the family's to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes.

Since Julio Mario Santo Domingo's death, Alejandro has been in control of a vast portfolio, along with his cousin, Carlos Alejandro Perez Davila, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker. Mr. Santo Domingo is also managing director of New York-based venture-capital firm Quadrant Capital Advisors Inc.

Mr. Perez Davila declined to comment.

---

Daniela Ramirez contributed to this article.

Access Investor Kit for "AB InBev"

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=BE0003793107

Access Investor Kit for "AB InBev"

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US03524A1088

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 08, 2015 19:59 ET (23:59 GMT)

Altria (NYSE:MO)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Altria (NYSE:MO)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024