SABMiller's $10.1 billion bid for Australian brewer Foster's Group looked well placed to succeed on Thursday after some key shareholders come out in favor of the sweetened deal.

Foster's agreed on Wednesday to accept SABMiller's A$5.10 a share offer, a 20 cent increase on a previous offer, after a 3-month battle to get Foster's management onside.

It's a good result, Matt Williams, Australian Equities Manager at fund manager Perpetual, told Reuters. Perpetual holds around 3 percent of Foster's.

It's a very defendable price for the board to recommend and in the absence of a higher bidder it will certainly win out, he said.

Jason Beddow, chief executive at Foster's shareholder, ARGO Investments, said SABMiller played it reasonably smart and it was increasingly unlikely a competitor would enter the fray.

In this environment, a bump in the bid with what's happening globally is probably going to be successful, he said.

Short of someone else coming out of the woodwork, it might be enough, he said.

Japan's Asahi Breweries <2502.T> earlier said it was not planning to buy any part of Foster's while China's Tsingtao Brewery Co <0168.HK> also said it was not involved in bidding.

Speculation about a joint bid by Grupo Modelo SAB de CV and Molson Coors Brewing Co also faded due to the complexities involved in such a deal.

The deal is worth A$5.53 a share to stakeholders, factoring in a capital return and a dividend, Williams said.

Foster's shares closed Wednesday at A$4.89 and will resume trade at 0100 GMT.

It will win the day in the absence of (Grupo) Modelo or another coming along, said Williams, who had been vocal in rejecting the earlier bid and backed Foster's in its decision to hold out for a better offer.

We weren't willing to sell it at A$4.90. I was not going to sell it at that price, he said.

(Reporting by Miranda Maxwell; Editing by Balazs Koranyi)

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