Miller And Coors To Merge U.S. Brewing Operations

July 1, 2008 9:20 a.m. EST

Denver, CO (AHN) - SAB Miller and Molson Coors Brewing Co. announced Monday they completed the transaction to combine their U.S. and Puerto Rico operations to create MillerCoors.

MillerCoors will begin operating on July 1, the companies did not state where the headquarters will be located. Molson Coors is currently headquartered in Colorado while SAB Miller is located in London.

On June 5, the Justice Department ruled that the merger would not hurt competition in the U.S. beer market.

SABMiller and MolsonCoors have each named five members to the board of MillerCoors, most notably, Molson Coors Vice- Chairman Peter Coors.

"As a unified company with a world-class board and leadership team in place, MillerCoors will be able to create tremendous opportunities for innovations in products and services that will allow us to drive profitable growth," said MillerCoors chairman Pete Coors, according to the Associated Press.

The companies made the deal in hopes of better competing with Anheuser-Busch, which has roughly 50 percent of the U.S. beer market.

Shares of Molson Coors (TAP) are up 1.2 percent on the news in Monday afternoon Trading.