And for added measure, the wager’s on beer. It seems that Warren Buffett, who had the presence of mind to snap up 35.56 million shares of Budweiser-purveyor Anheuser-Busch Cos. by late March, stands to reap an estimated $600 million IF Belguim’s InBev manages to clinch a deal. No pressure there. It only happens to be one of the biggest proposed cash buyouts, ever.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the investment company controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett, may bank a $600 million profit if InBev NV succeeds in its $46.3 billion takeover of Budweiser-maker Anheuser-Busch Cos.

Buffett's company owned 35.56 million shares of the brewer as of March 31. At the stock's March low of $45.68, the stake was worth about $100 million less than the $1.72 billion Buffett paid. InBev's $65 a share offering price would allow him to unload the investment for $2.31 billion.

Carlos Brito, chief executive officer of InBev, seeks to create the world's largest brewer by sales volume, adding Budweiser to the Leuven, Belgium-based company's Stella Artois, Bass and more than 200 other brands. Berkshire has owned its Anheuser shares for about three years.

"Here's the payout right up front after a very short incubation period as far as Berkshire is concerned," said Frank Betz, a partner at Carret Zane Capital Management, which oversees $800 million including Berkshire and Anheuser-Busch shares in Warren, New Jersey. "I think he would go along with this, especially at the premium."

Belgium's newspaper De Standaard reported that Buffett had committed to support the takeover, without saying where it got the information.

Buffett didn't respond to repeated requests for comment on InBev's offer, other than to say through his assistant Debbie Bosanek that InBev board member and fellow billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann is a "good friend." Lemann is one of a trio of Brazilian investment bankers who built Sao Paulo-based Cia. de Bebidas das Americas, or AmBev, which was sold to Interbrew SA in 2004 to form InBev.

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