Aug. 28--On its way to finalizing a takeover of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos., Belgian brewer InBev has completed the primary syndication phase of its effort to arrange lenders and spread out the risk from one of the biggest acquisitions in history.

InBev plans to buy Anheuser-Busch for approximately $52 billion, forming the world's biggest brewer. InBev said today that it received "strong support" from key banks, showing momentum ahead of a round of general syndication scheduled for September.

"I am pleased that the banking community recognizes the merits of the proposed combination between Anheuser-Busch and InBev," Felipe Dutra, InBev's chief financial officer, said in a statement. He said the banks that have signed on to the deal represent a "very diversified" group, giving InBev access to all significant capital markets.

The banks include Bank of America, Societe Generale and The Toronto-Dominion Bank, among others.

In July, InBev arranged fully committed financing with signed credit facilities from a group of big banks, including Banco Santander, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Fortis, ING Bank, JP Morgan, Mizuho Corporate Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland. InBev will finance the transaction with $45 billion in debt financing, including a $7 billion bridge financing facility for divestitures of non-core assets by both companies.

In addition, InBev has received commitments for up to $9.8 billion in equity bridge financing, which will allow the company flexibility in deciding upon the timing and form of equity financing for a period of up to six months after closing of the combination.

Also today, the U.K. Office of Fair Trading announced that it was looking into whether the deal between InBev and Anheuser-Busch would cause a "substantial lessening of competition" within the U.K. beer market. Both companies have operations there.

jmcwilliams@post-dispatch.com -- 314-340-8372

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