Brazilians Buy Anheuser-Busch for $52 Billion Dollars

Gentlemen - this might be old news but it's worth mentioning. Who in their wildest dreams would believe America's #1 Beer company is now owned by Brazilians?

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Brazil's InBev Swallows Anheuser-Busch in $52 Billion Takeover

Jul 14, 2008

BRUSSELS (AFP) — Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev is to swallow US rival Anheuser-Busch in a 52 billion dollar (33 billion euro) takeover creating the world's biggest brewer, the companies said Monday.

After having resisted offers from InBev for a month, the Anheuser-Busch board finally agreed on Sunday to accept a sweetened bid that had been raised to 70 dollars a share in cash from 65 dollars.

While ending Anheuser's roughly 150 years of independence as a premier American brewer, the deal creates not only the world's largest beer company but one of the top five consumer goods groups in the world.
The new company will have net sales of about 36 billion dollars a year, offering consumers about 300 brands, including Anheuser's Budweiser and Bud Light, and InBev's Stella Artois and Beck's. InBev chief executive Carlos Brito, a tough 48-year-old Brazilian known for cutting costs, is to lead the new company, which will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The bid for Anheuser-Busch had stirred fierce opposition in the company's home state of Missouri where Governor Matt Blunt has called the prospect of a foreign takeover "deeply troubling." But many US shareholders in Anheuser-Busch, including billionaire investor Warren Buffett, favoured the deal. Brito has sought to win over opponents to the merger by promising to make Anheuser-Busch's hometown of St. Louis, Missouri the sprawling company's North American headquarters.

In addition to promising not to close any of Anheuser-Busch's 12 US breweries, he said Budweiser would become the company's international flagship brand. Brito said he wanted Budweiser to follow in the steps of other great American brands that conquered the rest the world, such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Frito-Lay potato chips. "Budweiser brings the great America in a bottle. That's what consumers love," he told a conference call with reporters.

The companies said they expect to save 1.5 billion dollars annually from 2011 through synergies and that the tie-up will begin adding to earnings from 2010. InBev shares jumped Monday morning on the newss that the deal had been reached, but were in retreat by mid-day trading in Brussels, showing a loss of 2.22 percent at 43.51 euros.

Anheuser-Busch's shares rose 0.99 percent to 67.16 dollars in morning trade in New York. InBev first offered 65 dollars per Anheuser-Busch share on June 11, hoping to create an unrivalled global brewing giant, but the US company spurned the offer as "financially inadequate."

Until InBev raised its offer, the takeover battle was getting increasingly hostile, with last week both companies threatening legal action against the other. "While the process was at times difficult for all parties the right result occured for everyone," said Anheuser-Busch chief executive August Busch IV, whose family has run the company since its founding.

With a takeover, InBev, which already claims the title of the world's biggest beer maker, would create close to a 100-billion-dollar business in the most ambitious act of corporate consolidation since last year's credit crunch shook the markets. The global beer industry has had a growing thirst for mergers in recent years as brewers struggle to cope with falling consumption in traditionally big markets in developed countries and soaring prices of raw materials. After successive waves of mergers in recent years, Britain-based SABMiller and Dutch group Heineken have emerged as the leading international brewers along with InBev and Anheuser-Busch.

InBev was created by the 2004 combination of Belgian group Interbrew and Brazilian brewer Ambev and since then has focused mostly on emerging markets with a growing taste for beer. With the Anheuser-Busch takeover, InBev will take a leading position in the North American beer market where it previously had little presence.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5...zvQQ1pa_yiCBvA

[Ohio Al]

With the weakened postion of the dollar, this is just the latest US company bought out by foreign investors who are better positioned with the Euro.

The company I work for (Freightliner Trucks of North America) is owned by Diamler (German based). Diamler also owns about 6 other Anerican companies you may have heard of (ie: Chrysler, Detroit Diesel, etc).

For the past few years foreign interests have been quietly buying up American owned companies - companies who previously were born in the USA and who prospered for well over 100 years. Most of these foreign interests have been Middle East based (Saudi Arabia most prominately because obviously they have endless resourses from their oil producing endeavors), but also lately China, Russia and of course our friends in Venezuela (another oil power house).

I venture to guess that a full 20% of American started companies are now owned (at least in part) by foreign interests. A pretty scary proposition if you ask me.

[TheWix]

Yes America is up for sell. We are selling are roads, brides and our future if you ask me. The same way Rome fail and others. People do seem to repeat history.

[Ohio Al]

Wix - I couldn't agree with you more. It seems like just about anything is up for sale to the person (country) with the highest bid. The sad (and scary) fact is that there is a growing list of people/countries who have bought up American companies, icons and pieces of irreplaceable art who don't like America very much nor do they have our best interests at heart.

Scary times.

[John Wayne]

But they do not have our freedom of thought, or the AMERICAN Ingenueity.......

We will survive, already our youth are working on doing away with that ¨Fossel Fuel¨dependancy BS........

Keep the faith in our people......

[JMitch1959]

Originally Posted by John Wayne

But they do not have our freedom of thought, or the AMERICAN Ingenueity.......

We will survive, already our youth are working on doing away with that ¨Fossel Fuel¨dependancy BS........

Keep the faith in our people......

JW,
What are they proposing we replace fossil fuel with?

[El Capitan]

Who would have ever thought that one of the most popular airliners in the U.S. today IS NOT a Boeing, or an Airbus.

Have you flown in an Embraer, lately?

Next time you sit down in the seat of your choice at U.S. Airways, or JetBlue, look down at the Emergency Instructions in the seat pocket in front of you.

Lula Da Silva's been busy. But, we can't talk politics here, so I won't get started.

Time to stop counting the money, and time to get back to work boys and girls...

[TheWix]

No, we can not talk politics here but we better start talking to our friends and neighbors about it and realize there is not that much difference between us. Can I say? Turn of the T.V. and turn on your brain.

[Ciza29]

You don't think America owns 20% of other countries? I think it is good. Maybe if Iran y Afghanistan owned more things in the US they would be less likely to blow it up. Would you want to go to war with a country where you would destroy your own assets?

This is all part of the business cycle, I can still remember when everyone thought the US would be owned by Japan. They started overpaying for property which led to the collapse of their economy.

[JMitch1959]

Originally Posted by John Wayne

But they do not have our freedom of thought, or the AMERICAN Ingenueity.......

We will survive, already our youth are working on doing away with that ¨Fossel Fuel¨dependancy BS........

Keep the faith in our people......

Your exactly right JW,

It's really stupid for us to have to have our petroleum shipped over the great oceans to us in tankers when we could build nuclear power plants here to much more proficiently and cleanly provide for our present and future energy needs.

We could use the idled machine tool capacity of the automobile factories in Detroit etc. to be retro fit to build nuclear power components, much like we did during WWII to use our machine tool capacity to build air planes and tanks etc. to kick some fascist ass with out superior industrial capabilities.

Nuclear power plants can also be used to desalinate water on a massive scale, to help us from using up all of our fossil water supplies. There's one helluva lot more water in the oceans than we have in dwindling fossil water supplies, and most of us like to have a clean glass of water to drink. I'd prefer to be able to drink mine from a tap. I'm used to having clean water to drink from the tap, and have some difficulty getting used to paying to drink it from a plastic bottle.