For the parent company, see Anheuser-Busch InBev.
InBev is a subsidiary of
Anheuser-Busch InBev.
The company existed
independently for several years - since the merger between Interbrew and AmBev and until
the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch
. InBev has operations in over 30 countries
and sales in over 130 countries. In 2006 it had a market
capitalization of €30.6 billion and net profit of €3.2 billion on
sales of €13.3 billion.
On July
13, 2008, InBev agreed to buy Anheuser-Busch for a total value of $52 billion, which would
create a new company to be named Anheuser-Busch InBev. It
was reported that Anheuser will get two seats on the combined
board. To obtain
antitrust approval in the
United States, InBev agreed to divest itself of the company that
imports Labatt's beer, another InBev brand, into the United States;
this transaction was completed on March 13, 2009.
The all-cash agreement, for $70 per share, or almost $52 billion,
would create the world's largest brewer, uniting the maker of
Budweiser and
Michelob with the producer of
Stella Artois,
Bass
and
Brahma. The two companies would
have yearly sales of more than $36.4 billion, surpassing the
current number one brewer, London based
SABMiller.
History
InBev was created in 2004 from the merger of the Belgian company
Interbrew and the Brazilian company AmBev.
Before the merger with
Ambev, Interbrew was the third largest brewing company in the world
by volume, Anheuser-Busch was the largest, followed by SABMiller in second place. Heineken International was in fourth
place and AmBev was the world's fifth largest brewer.
Interbrew
Interbrew's roots can be traced back to 1366
in Den Horen in Leuven
when the
Artois brewery was founded. Starting as early as the 1960's, the
Artois brewery acquired several local breweries and hence
consolidated its position in Belgium, until finally in 1987 Artois,
and the Walloon
-based brewer
Piedboeuf, came together to form Interbrew. The move onto
the international scene only happened when Interbrew acquired the
Canadian beer brand
Labatt. The transaction
also included Labatt's
sports-related assets,
namely the
Toronto Blue Jays
baseball club, the
Toronto
Argonauts football club, and
The
Sports Network. At the time, Labatt was not much smaller than
Interbrew, and since then the company has been considered a
multinational with both Canadian and Belgian roots.
Some
important Interbrew brands are Tennents,
Stella Artois, Boddingtons, Beck's,
Staropramen, Jupiler, Leffe
, Labatt, Hoegaarden
and Bass.
In
December 2001 Interbrew, Danone (former owner
of Kronenbourg, and two other smaller
brewers) were fined €91m for operating a cartel in Belgium
while four
Luxembourg companies were fined €448,000 the same
month.
AmBev
AmBev was a Brazilian beer company formed by a merger in 1999
between the Brahma and Antarctica breweries. It had a dominant
position in South America and the Caribbean.
Post-merger history
InBev
announced in 2005 and confirmed in 2006 that it would move the
brewing of Hoegaarden, whose
brewery they found to have become obsolete, to the Piedboeuf
brewery in Jupille
, which
resulted in huge protests and great disappointment in the town of
Hoegaarden
. The beer, though, is made with a very
special
yeast that is difficult to cultivate
and keep alive.
The Jupille-based
brewery proved not being capable of attaining desired levels of
quality and InBev's sole alternative was to bring production back
to the original Hoegaarden-brewery, causing great sarcasm in the media that,
by that time, had become openly hostile towards the
beer-giant. In September 2007 however, it was announced
that brewing would continue at the Hoegaarden Brewery in Hoegaarden.
On
June 12, 2008, InBev announced that it
has made a US$46 billion offer for the brewing firm Anheuser-Busch.
This merger joined two of the world's four largest brewing
companies (based on revenue) and created a company that brews three
of the top beers in the world - Bud Light, Budweiser and
Skol. InBev also stated that the merger would not
result in any U.S. brewery closures and they would also attempt to
keep on management and board members from both companies.
On Sunday,
July 13, 2008, Anheuser-Busch
announced that they had agreed to an acquisition by InBev valued at
about US$52 billion in cash, or $70 per share. As a condition,
InBev will be renamed
Anheuser-Busch InBev and
Anheuser-Busch would retain two seats on the board of
directors.
Corporate governance
Brazilian
Carlos Brito is
the current
chief executive
officer. Brito replaced John Brock at the end of 2005.InBev's
current Board of Directors include Allan Chapin, Carlos Alberto da
Veiga Sicupira,
Arnoud de
Pret Roose de Calesberg,
Jean-Luc
Dehaene,
Philippe de
Spoelberch,
Jorge Paulo
Lemann, Roberto Moses Thompson Motta, Kees J. Storm, and Peter
Harf (chairman of the Board).
Organization
InBev is a global company which divides operations into five zones
- North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Central &
Eastern Europe, and Asia Pacific. In addition there is a Global
Exports/Licenses section which comes under the responsibility of
the central international department.
Operations
Western Europe
The Western Europe zone has 16 brewing plant producing 36.1 million
hectolitres. The trading companies are
InBev Belgium, InBev France, Brasseries de Luxembourg,
Mousel-Diekirch SA, InBev Nederland, InBev UK, InBev Germany and
InBev Italia.InBev's operations in the UK began in 2000 when
Interbrew acquired Tennent, Caledonian Breweries and Whitbread PLC.
The Western Europe Zone President is Alain Beyens.InBev UK holds
the number 3 market position in the UK with a 16.9% market share.
10.8 million hectolitres of beer are produced at three breweries -
Magor in Wales, Samlesbury in England, and Wellpark in
Scotland.
North America
There are 7 breweries in Canada.
Latin America
Production was 131.1 million hectolitres in 2007.
Brands
InBev has over 200 beer brands produced and sold throughout the
world.
The flagship
brands are Stella Artois, Brahma, Beck's and
Leffe.
See also
References
Notes
- http://www.inbev.com/press_releases/20050330.1.e.cfm
- InBev Buys Anheuser-Busch for $49.91B
- nytimes.com, Anheuser-Busch Agrees to Be Sold to
InBev
- marketwatch.com, Anheuser-Busch accepts $52 billion
InBev offer
- Interbrew buys AmBev and becomes world number
one
- InBev
- AmBev -
Companhia de Bebidas das Américas
- Stock symbol abv - Gstock Supercomputer - Free stock
picks, stocks and stock market quotes
- BBC NEWS | Americas | Alcoholic beer taster gets
payout
- Pierre Celis, Hoegaarden
- InBev Proposes Combination with Anheuser-Busch
- InBev to Buy Anheuser-Busch for $49.9 Billion,
Journal Says
- http://www.inbev.com/pdf/AR07_GuideBusiness.pdf
- http://www.inbev.com/pdf/factsheets/UK2008.pdf
- http://www.inbev.com/pdf/factsheets/USA2008.pdf
- InBev
- InBev
Bibliography
- Interbrew SA and Bass PLC: A Report on the Acquisition by
Interbrew SA of the Brewing Interests of Bass PLC, Competition
Commission, Stationery Office Books (4 Jan 2001), ISBN
0101501420
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