InBev announced on June 25th that it is reaffirming its desire to combine with Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc to form the world’s leading global brewer in a letter sent to August A. Busch IV, president and chief executive, and the Anheuser-Busch Board of Directors. In the letter, InBev reaffirmed its $65-a-share all-cash proposal to combine with Anheuser-Busch, which represents a 35% premium over Anheuser’s 30-day average share price prior to recent market speculation. InBev said that it has obtained committed financing and has paid approximately $50 million in fees, demonstrating InBev’s resolve to consummate a combination with Anheuser-Busch.

The following is a copy of the letter InBev sent to the Board of Anheuser-Busch:

June 25, 2008

Mr. August A. Busch IV President and Chief Executive Officer Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. One Busch Place St. Louis, Missouri 63118 USA

Proposal for Combination Creating the World’s Leading Beer Company

Dear August,

We are writing to confirm that InBev remains committed to our proposal to combine with Anheuser-Busch by means of acquiring all of the outstanding shares of Anheuser-Busch for $65 per share in cash. Our proposed price would deliver an immediate cash premium to your shareholders of 35% over the 30-day average share price prior to recent market speculation and 18% above the previous all-time high ...More Info

UK beer sales have fallen through the 5 billion litre mark for the first time since 1975 as the consumer downturn and smoking ban continue to hit Britain's pubs and brewers, The Telegraph posted on June 22.

News that annual beer sales have slipped below 50m hectolitres will come as a further blow to an industry already suffering as pubs go out of business and brewers are forced to consolidate.

Figures released to the brewing industry by the British Beer and Pub Association, and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, show total UK beer sales fell 1.7 per cent in the year to the end of April.

The effect of the decline in consumption, combined with rising utility and commodity costs, an increase in beer duty, and the impact of the consumer downturn and smoking ban is having a catastrophic impact on Britain's pubs.

Pub closures are running at 27 a week, according to the BBPA, amounting to some 1,200 that have been forced out of business over the last 12 months.

Nick Bish, chief executive of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, which counts 15,000 UK pubs among its members, said: "This is a bell-weather of the economic situation where you have a perfect storm ...More Info

Andreas Graner, Thomas Thiel, Hangning Zhang, Elena Potokina, Mmanoj Prasad, Dragan Perovic, Raja Kota, Rajeev Kumar Varshney, Uwe Scholz, Ivo Grosse and Nils Stein. Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany

Abstract
Abstract: As a resource for structural and functional barley genome analysis, more than 140 000 ESTs (expressed sequence tags) were generated from 22 cDNA libraries that yielded 25 224 tentative unigenes. About 50% of them belong to gene families. The size of the complete transcriptome is estimated to comprise between 35 000 and 75 000 genes. The barley EST collection is a rich source for the development of novel markers including SSRs (simple sequence repeats) and SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). Several bioinformatic tools have been developed facilitating the computer-assisted analysis of EST databases for the presence of either SNPs or SSRs and the development of SNP-derived CAPS (cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences) markers. In an attempt to systematically map barley genes a high-density transcript map is under construction and presently comprises more than 1000 markers. This map is a gateway to comparative genomics with particular emphasis on the rice genome. 65% of the mapped ESTs showing a significant homology to rice ESTs were found to display a syntenic relationship between barley and rice. Thus, the barley EST resource facilitates the rapid and systematic transfer of genetic information from rice to barley and other Triticeae, which can readily be exploited for marker saturation of defined chromosome regions and their detailed comparison to rice. In the context of a functional genomics study, the complex trait “malting quality” is investigated using a barley cDNA array. By correlating the phenotypic malting trait data of selected barley lines with the corresponding expression profiles, a set of candidate genes was identified and further verified by genetic analysis. Keywords: ESTs; functional genomics; malting quality; DNA-marker; rice; synteny ... Load full article, 8 pages, 363 Kb, PDF file