JOHANNESBURG, May 31 (Reuters) - The world's largest brewerAnheuser-Busch InBev gained conditional approval onTuesday for its $100 billion-plus acquisition of SABMiller from South African anti-trust regulators, bringing thedeal closer to fruition.
Conditions attached to the deal include a binding one thatno South African employee be laid off because of the merger, theCompetition Commission said in a statement.
The commission said it had recommended to the CompetitionTribunal, which has the ultimate say, that the deal be "approvedwith conditions." Its recommendations usually meet thetribunal's approval.
Other conditions to the tie-up include a requirement themerged entity sell off SAB's stake in liquor maker Distell and that it make a 1 billion rand ($63.60 million)investment in South African agriculture.
The companies have also agreed to submit within two years ofthe merger "black economic empowerment plans setting out how themerged entity intends to maintain black participation in thecompany, including equity," the commission said in a statement.
South Africa's government has a number of targets thatcompanies must meet to lift the ownership of previouslydisadvantaged blacks in the economy.
Jobs are a major issue in South Africa, where unemploymentis over 25 percent and income disparities are glaring, and ABInBev granted significant concessions on this front as itstrives for approval of one of the largest corporate takeovers.
"The Commission received concerns regarding the potentialimpact of the proposed merger on employment ... In this regard,AB InBev has undertaken that it will not retrench any employeein South Africa as a result of the merger. This condition willendure in perpetuity," the commission said.
In the area of social development, AB InBev has committed toinvesting 1 billion rand over five years in to the agriculturesector that supplies the brewing business, with a focus onemerging black farmers.
"This investment will be utilised for the development of theSouth African agricultural outputs for barley, hops and maize,as well as to promote entry and growth of emerging and blackfarmers in South Africa," the Commission said.
Last week AB InBev gained EU antitrust approval for thetransaction. The takeover will give the mergedentity a third of the global beer market, selling twice as muchbeer as its nearest rival Heineken.
($1 = 15.7226 rand) (Reporting by Ed Stoddard; editing by Adrian Croft)