The news that all-American brewer Anheuser-Busch is to be sold to Belgium’s InBev for $52bn has made sports bar patrons across the US weep into their Budweisers. But the idea that an American firm must remain American for all time runs counter to the world of global commerce.
It’s no good getting emotional about overseas dealings when the financial point to better business. After all, Budweiser itself saw fit to sponsor of the UK premiership - arguably as British as British can be - when it saw potential for profits.

AB has reported stagnant sales in the last few years. InBev, since its formation in 2004 out of the AmBev and Interbrew merger, has risen to become the world’s second biggest brewer.

Clearly InBev is doing something right, and if that can rub off onto AB then the shareholders - already clinking glasses over the $70 a share deal - will have even more cause to celebrate.

Having a leg on each side of the Atlantic can only bring benefits to the enlarged brewer, to be called Anheuser-Busch InBev. Analysts have stressed the importance of brewers controlling big brands in today’s market environment, where supermarkets and retailers now dominate sales.

Combining Budweiser, Stella, and other major names in the beer world, the new global firm would have revenues of $36.4 bln (€26.6 bln) and EBITDA of $10.7 bln (€7.8 bln).
Read the full story

The maker of the King of Beers has agreed to go to work for the Belgian brewer InBev SA.

Anheuser Busch Cos. said early Monday it had agreed to a sweetened $52 billion takeover bid from InBev, creating the world’s largest brewer and heading off what was shaping up as an acrimonious fight for the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light beers.

The deal, which would also create the third-largest consumer product company, will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The Anheuser-Busch board accepted the higher takeover offer Sunday night from Belgian-based brewer InBev SA, according to a joint press release.

“I think we’re going to bring the best of both companies into one company, our footprint with their amazing brands,” InBev CEO Carlos Brito said in a video posted on InBev’s Web site.

For InBev, the maker of Stella Artois and Beck’s, the deal gives an aggressive company an iconic beer brand — Budweiser — to sell into emerging markets such as China and Brazil where it has already established a firm footprint.

InBev is currently the world’s second-largest beer-maker, just behind SABMiller. Swallowing Anheuser-Busch sees it leap ahead, capturing half of the U.S. beer market and a fifth of China and Russia.
Read the full story

From Bloomberg News:

Anheuser-Busch Cos., the world’s second-largest brewer, began selling its own vodka brand as it seeks to expand its offerings beyond beer.

Purus vodka is made in Italy from organic wheat, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch said today in an e-mailed statement.

The liquor costs about $35 and comes in a raindrop-shaped bottle. It’s the brewer’s second spirits brand after raspberry- and-licorice-flavored Jekyll & Hyde.

Purus will initially be sold in bars, restaurants and package stores in New York, Boston, Washington and Annapolis, Maryland.

A-B is the second-largest brewer by volume but the largest in terms of revenue. The most volume is produced by InBev, a conglomerate formed in 2004 by the merger of Interbrew of Belgium and Ambev of Brazil; it owns more than 200 brands including Stella Artois, Rolling Rock, Beck’s and Hoegaarden.