InBev (INBVF.PK), the Belgium beer maker, will be willing to raise its offer for Anheuser Busch (BUD), according to dealReporter today. InBev is offering USD 46.35bn for Anheuser. Neither companies are the target of short investors at present, with InBev having 2.6% of its Market Cap on Loan (%MCOL) to short sellers, and Anheuser has 0.26%.

InBev paid a dividend yield on April 30th which is reflected in the short interest chart here, but as you can see there has been a general increase in short interest in the past year, from 1% in June 2007 to 2.6% today. In relation to the Market Cap, InBev's Utilisation (or the percentage of the available stock) is high at 28%, so presumably this stock is difficult and expensive to borrow. The Utilisation for the rest of the BEL20 is 17.6%, and for the rest of the EMEA Food, Beverage & Tobacco sector it is 9.1%.

At 8%, Anheuser's Utilisation is higher than the rest of the S&P500's average of 0.59% and the North America Food Beverage & Tobacco sector of 0.59% too.

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Jessica Johnson

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