Jim Armitage: SABMiller found an extra $500 million. Now, how far can InBev go?

On the table: AB InBev raised its offer for SABMiller to £65 billion
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SABMiller chairman Jan du Plessis has a rummage down the back of the sofa at his Mayfair headquarters and unearths an extra $500 million (£325 million) in cost savings. Don’t you just love it when that happens?

It’s particularly handy in his case, because one of the many criticisms of AB InBev’s lowball bid for SAB is its refusal to say how much money it will make in savings by combining the two brewing behemoths.

The suspicion is AB’s Carlos Brito is keeping schtum because the figure’s so huge he’d have to pay way more to persuade SAB’s shareholders of the merits of their offer.

If SAB can find so many cost savings on its own — du Plessis’ logic goes — think how big the efficiencies would be if the two companies were combined?

It’s a good point.

Brito complains SAB won’t negotiate, but du Plessis is right not to until AB either puts more cash on the table or deals straighter on synergies.

Bank overkill

Metro Bank’s flotation has been the worst-kept secret since corruption at Fifa.

It’s a good thing too, raising the profile of challenger banks with a rapidly-growing and successful consumer brand.

But I can’t see why, for the sake of raising a fairly modest £300 million, it needs to hire three megabanks: Merrill Lynch, Royal Bank of Canada and, of course, Goldman Sachs.

Metro — of which I’m a customer, by the way — should spend the banks’ fees on offering better interest rates and a branch nearer my house.

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