LONDON — SABMiller met with investors Friday to underscore its strength as an independent company, as the world's second-biggest brewer seeks to head off a takeover by larger rival Anheuser-Busch InBev.
SABMiller said the meetings focused on the company's accelerating growth and a stepped up cost-cutting program that will target $1.05 billion of savings by March 2020, more than double the previous goal of $500 million by 2018.
"We are continuing to remove duplication across markets, bringing specialist expertise in areas like procurement under one roof, and standardizing common processes," CEO Alan Clark said in a statement.
The announcement comes two days after SABMiller rejected a $104 billion takeover bid from AB InBev, the Belgium-based company that makes Budweiser. The offer of $64.55 a share is 11 percent more than AB InBev's initial proposal and 28 percent higher than SABMiller's stock price before the bid was announced Sept. 16.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.