Anheuser-Busch InBev will release its Q1 results tomorrow (30 April). Here, just-drinks takes a look at the company’s highs and lows in the three months to the end of March.
- The company had its hands full with its bid to buy Grupo Modelo, a US$20bn deal first announced last June. January saw a major spanner in the works when the US Department of Justice launched an anti-trust lawsuit, saying it would “substantially lessen competition” in the beer market. A-B InBev did not take the action lying down, and together with Constellation Brands, which is in line to take full control of its Crown Imports JV with Modelo, it offered concessions. It is now on course to complete in June.
- A-B InBev subsidiary, Ambev, will have a big year next year when the FIFA World Cup rolls in to Brazil. Preparations are well under way to keep rival brewers from cutting into its dominant market share in its own backyard. Heineken, however, has other plans.
- In February, an analyst warned: “China is unlikely to be a major source of profits for A-B InBev and SABMiller for decades… maybe never.” There was more bad news a week later, when an analyst said other emerging Asian markets such as India and Vietnam will also lag global margins. It didn’t stop A-B InBev announcing a new brewery for Vietnam last week.
- The company took its Bud Light Platinum brand, launched last year, out of the US for the first time, expanding into Canada in February.
- A-B InBev flirted with a potential PR disaster when it suddenly found itself facing legal claims it has watered down its beer. The company called the claims “groundless” and “completely false” and this month it said it will take “all legal means” to stop the former employee that sparked the claims.
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