U.S. senate calls hearing in Anheuser-Busch InBev mega beer deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anheuser-Busch InBev's bid to buy its biggest rival, SABMiller , will be the subject of a U.S. Senate hearing next week, the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Monday.

AB InBev, whose takeover of SABMiller would be one of the largest mergers in corporate history, formally announced early in November that it would buy SABMiller for $106 billion. It also said that it agreed to sell the latter's stake in U.S. venture MillerCoors to help win regulatory approval.

The hearing will be held by the Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee on Dec. 8, the committee said in a brief statement.

The witnesses will be AB InBev chief executive Carlos Brito, Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter, J. Wilson of the Iowa Brewers Guild and Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute, said Conn Carroll, spokesman for Senator Mike Lee, chairman of the subcommittee.

 

The merger, if completed, will combine AB InBev's Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona brands with SABMiller's Peroni, Grolsch and Pilsner Urquell and brew almost a third of the world's beer, dwarfing rivals Heineken and Carlsberg.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Alan Crosby)