MO Altria Group Inc

By Denise Roland 

LONDON--The $100 billion-plus megamerger of SABMiller PLC and Anheuser-Busch InBev NV cleared another hurdle Wednesday after shareholders of both companies voted in favor of the deal.

At SABMiller, more than 95% of votes cast backed the transaction, well above the minimum 75% needed for it to clear.

The vote was held among investors representing just 60% of SABMiller's capital because its two biggest investors, U.S. tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and Colombia's Santo Domingo family, had already accepted a separate cash-and-share offer.

AB InBev investors voted in favor of the deal earlier Wednesday at a meeting in Brussels.

AB InBev also announced that the new company will take on the Anheuser-Busch InBev name.

The biggest beer merger in history has been marked by complexity from the start, when Belgium-based AB InBev won over SABMiller's two biggest shareholders by giving them a cash-and-share alternative to the all-cash offer for other investors.

The deal has had to win approval from regulators across the globe because of the dominance of the combined company, which will sell more than 30% of the world's beer--including brands such as Budweiser, Stella Artois, Grolsch and Pilsner Urquell. The companies have agreed to sell of big chunks of their business to allay competition concerns.

In another twist, AB InBev was forced to increase its offer after the U.K's vote to leave the European Union triggered a sharp decline in the value of the pound that lowered the valuation of the cash part of the deal.

The deal is critical to the Belgium-based brewer's future. Taking over SABMiller reduces AB InBev's reliance on the U.S., where sales volumes of Budweiser have been declining for decades, and gives it access to a growing African market that is expected to drive beer-industry volume over the next decade.

The companies said they expected the combination to complete on October 10, subject to the deal receiving a final rubber-stamp from a U.K. court.

Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 28, 2016 06:51 ET (10:51 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.