HEIO Heineken Holdings

LONDON—Roughly two years after taking the helm of SABMiller PLC, Alan Clark is grappling with the biggest challenge—or opportunity—the beer giant he runs has faced in decades.

Mr. Clark, who turns 56 years old next week, is unlikely to have been taken by surprise by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV's overture—made public Wednesday—following years of speculation about a possible tie-up between the world's two largest brewers.

If he was, he probably didn't show it. The South African is described by those who know him as being calm and rational, traits that will come in handy as he assesses any formal offer from AB InBev.

In 2012, when SABMiller said Mr. Clark was being named chief operating officer as a prelude to becoming CEO, nobody was surprised. Having spent more than two decades at SAB in various roles, he had developed a close relationship with his predecessor Graham Mackay, who was involved in his hiring.

Since taking the reins, Mr. Clark has been fighting an uphill battle amid a slump in emerging markets, extreme gyrations in foreign exchange and weak underlying demand for mass-market beer brands around the world as the drink faces competition from craft beers, wine and spirits.

SABMiller's stock price has dropped 14% since Mr. Clark became CEO. By comparison, Carlsberg A/S's has fallen 5.1% during this period, while shares of Heineken NV and AB InBev's have both risen 25%.

Should SABMiller fend off the offer by AB InBev, Mr. Clark would be under pressure to wring out further costs from the company and accelerate its push into premium drinks.

The first in his family to go to college, Mr. Clark—some call him Dr. Clark—holds a master's degree in clinical psychology and a doctorate in literature and philosophy from the University of South Africa, and has worked as an associate professor of cognitive development at South Africa's Vista University. He also worked as a part-time prison warden as part of the government's conscription policy.

While teaching university students, Mr. Clark and a friend set up a corporate consulting business in the 1980s, landing what was then South African Breweries PLC as a client. Mr. Clark eventually joined SAB in 1990 in a human-resources role as head of training and development, climbing the ranks via positions in operations and marketing, before becoming the brewer's managing director for Europe in 2003 and then eventually its CEO in 2013.

The son of a cleric and a tradesman, Mr. Clark now works out of SAB's head office in London's swanky district of Mayfair, a stone's throw away from a park that was once the private gardens of Kensington Palace.

Mr. Clark is seen by some as lacking the charisma of Mr. Mackay, who transformed SABMiller from a successful domestic South African beer maker into the No. 2 brewer in the world by sales. Some people inside SABMiller view Mr. Clark as being somewhat cold and distant. "The ice man," said one former senior SABMiller executive. A spokesman for SABMiller declined to comment.

Judging by how AB InBev—which is run by Rio de Janeiro native Carlos Brito—has moved following other deals, "Mr. Clark is going to lose his job" said Barclays analyst Kenny Lam.

"He might not want to go from leading the world's second-largest brewer to becoming a second man in a combined entity," he said.

Still, Bernstein analysts note that Mr. Clark and the rest of SAB's management would get a hefty payout from a sale, sharing roughly $1.8 billion between them at a potential offer price of £ 39 ($60.57) a share—a 30% premium to SAB's share price before the latest news of a potential deal emerged—as their shares and options vest.

Write to Saabira Chaudhuri at saabira.chaudhuri@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 17, 2015 09:25 ET (13:25 GMT)

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