Anheuser Busch on the block?
The most notable news of the past week for beer drinkers has been talks of a bid by global beer company InBev for US beermaker Anheuser-Busch. It is though that InBev (#2 in the world in volume) and the #1 US company could link up, with a megabusiness that would control one out of every four beers sold in the world as well as over half of the US beer sales. InBev, which originated the 2004 union of two other beer giants, Belgian-based Interbrew and Brazil-based AmBev, owns such brands as Beck's, Bass, Labatt, and Stella Artois, and has a truly global reach, Originally a merger of equals, control of InBev has decidedly gone over to the Brazilians.
Beer is already very concentrated, with five companies controlling two-thirds of the beer sold worldwide. A series of mergers, most recently the divvying-up of Scottish & Newcastle between Heineken and Carlsberg, keeps making for ever more beer consolidation.
At the same time, InBev is also considering buying SABMiller, the #2 US brewer and the #1 by volume in the world.
Anheuser-Busch, with an estimated price of $45 billion, won't be sold off without a fight. With an iconic US brand (whatever you think of their beer), the company, there is likely to be both a popular outcry, strong labor resistance, and perhaps even some real antitrust regulation> InBev has had serious labor problems in Belgium, where it has tried to increase work hours and close plants. On the other hand, InBev has a very small current share of the US market, which might blunt antitrust action.
It's another case of the decline of the dollar making a US company very affordable for a company that has a non-dollar income.
8:53:17 PM 
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