Gossip, they say, is just news running ahead of itself in a red satin dress. We know this proved the case with "Mega-Brew", the £79bn tie-up of AB InBev and SABMiller. So perhaps it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to apply it to the latest bout of speculation about who might next be gulped down by the Belgian giant.Don’t be thinking we’ve seen the end of mega-mergers. Talk that Coca-Cola will, at some point, be bought by AB InBev has again reared its head.You see, Coca-Cola this week said it wants to buy SABMiller’s — or, erm, AB InBev’s 54% stake in the continent’s biggest Coke drinks bottler, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA).It’s basically just exercising its right (through a change of control clause), following the takeover of SABMiller, which according to Bernstein analysts rakes in close to US$1.5bn in revenue from its Coca-Cola business in Africa. Remember that CCBA, rather fractiously thanks to one Ebrahim Patel (of anti-Walmart fame), was stitched up only earlier this yea...
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