Belgians buy the King of Beers

published 18 July 2008

"Credit crunch what credit crunch?" asked Dominic Walsh in the Times. InBev, The Belgian brewing giant, has agreed a $61bn takeover of Anheuser-Busch, for which it managed to raise $45bn of debt. The deal creates a "global juggernaut", said The WallStreet Journal a global top-five consumer products company with combined sales last year of $36bn. With this deal, "InBev has scored a coup", said John Foley on Breakingviews. Allied with AB, the firm will be less reliant on risky Latin American markets, and gets a "strong base in the world's fastest growing beer market" China. Furthermore, noted Walsh, InBev now controls Budweiser, the 'King of Beers', "an iconic brand" never properly exploited by AB.

More deals ahead

Brewers have been bulking up in response to the global market's "double challenge", said Jonathon Sibun in The Daily Telegraph. Western consumers are increasingly eschewing beer in favour of wine and spirits, while emerging markets offer strong, but far less profitable, growth. This deal follows "hot on the heels" of the £10bn takeover of Scottish and Newcastle by Carlsberg and Heineken, while what is now the world's number two, SAB Miller, recently completed a $10bn merger of its American operations with Molson Coors.

Further consolidation "seems certain", with SAB Miller expected to lead it. This latest deal will have had the world's top brewers "quaking in their boots".