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Canada: Golden - Federal regulators have submitted another inquiry to Adolph Coors Co. about its proposed merger with Canadian brewer Molson Inc. Coors spokeswoman Laura Sankey declined on November 30 to detail specifics of the communication from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which arrived last week, The Denver Post revealed. "The SEC did provide some comments on that and we're in the process of working through those," Sankey said. "We certainly would like to have the merger close as quickly as possible."

The brewer still plans to schedule a shareholder vote on the proposal in December or January. Sankey said the next step will be for Coors to submit another proxy statement responding to the SEC. A spokeswoman for Molson Inc. did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

The combined Molson Coors Brewing Co. would have sales of about $6 billion and brands that include Coors Original, Coors Light, Keystone, Molson Canadian and Carling. The two companies have agreed to pay a special dividend of $316 million to Molson's shareholders.

Coors submitted its preliminary proxy to the SEC this fall and filed an amended statement earlier this month after responding to comments from the SEC. If the SEC approves the proposal, Montreal-based Molson will submit it to the Quebec Superior Court for approval. It must be approved by shareholders of both companies but no voting dates have been set. The two companies planned to complete the merger by Jan. 31.

Coors is the nation's third-biggest brewer, while Molson is neck-and-neck with Labatt Brewing as Canada's top beer maker.


01 December, 2004