JOHANNESBURG, April 14 (Reuters) - Anheuser-Busch InBev will invest 1 billion rand ($69 million) to supportsmall South African farmers as part of concessions agreed withthe government to secure regulatory approval for its $100billion-plus takeover of SABMiller, it said on Thursday.
The world's biggest brewer said the concessions, which alsoinclude a five-year freeze on layoffs, were agreed with theSouth African Ministry of Economic Development.
"It is expected that the agreement on terms betweengovernment and the merger parties will expedite the mergerproceedings before the South African competition authorities," AB InBev said.
"The commitments made by the company are the most extensivemerger-specific undertakings made to date in a large merger. Inour view, they meet the requirements of the competitionlegislation," Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel said.
South African Competition Commission this week extended itsscrutiny of the deal, saying it needed at another 15 days tocomplete its investigation. It has already extended the deadlinefour times.
South Africa has a history of taking its time over approvingtakeovers partly because competition authorities have a publicinterest mandate to safeguard jobs, in addition to an anti-trustmandate to protect competition.
In 2011, the regulator told U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores not to cut jobs for two years following its acquisitionof South African retailer Massmart, delayingimplementation of the $2.4 billion deal by at least two months.
The Commission investigates deals for any anti-trust issuesand submits its views to the Competition Tribunal, which makes afinal ruling on whether a deal should go ahead
Ab InBev has already told European regulators of its plan tosell SABMiller's premium European brands to try to secureapproval for its deal. ($1 = 14.5350 rand) (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Jane Merriman)