Banks booze up on InBev debt

A friend of mine was part of the team that worked on an acquisition for InBev, which is the mega Belgian beer company. He was impressed with the company's merger skills and had little doubt the transaction would work.

Well, global investors are impressed too (which is no easy feat in this tough global economic environment). In fact, according to a piece in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), it looks like InBev is effectively managing the $45 billion in debt financing for the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD).

No doubt, this is a complicated process. After all, InBev has organized a syndicate of top banks, which include Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM), Barclays Capital, Royal Bank of Scotland, ING Bank, Banco Santander, BNP Paribas, Fortis, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Mizuho Corporate Bank.

For the most part, the senior management team at InBev understands the global financial world (keep in mind that there is a deep bench of former investment bankers). Besides, the company has been diligent with maintaining a strong credit rating, which helps to minimize the financing risk.

In other words, to get a big deal completed nowadays, the quality needs to be top-notch. And, for the most part, InBev fits the bill.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.