Anheuser-Busch InBev will report its fourth-quarter and full-year results on Thursday (4 March).
Below, we look at the company’s highs and lows over the three months to the end of December.
- Right at the end of A-B InBev’s third quarter, the brewer completed the sale of its brewing operations in Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Scotland, including the Tennent’s lager brand, to C&C Group. The company garnered GBP180m (US$286m) from the transaction.
- Just over a week later, in early October, the brewer closed off another sale, this time for Anheuser-Busch’s entertainment business in the US. The divestment package, which includes three SeaWorld parks in Orlando, Florida, San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, California, and two Busch Gardens parks in Tampa, Florida and Williamsburg, Virginia, was expected to bring in around US$2.7bn.
- Another week on, in mid-October, the company agreed yet another divestment, this time of its brewing assets in Eastern Europe. Private equity group CVC Capital Partners bought A-B InBev’s operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia for US$2.2bn. The transaction took the brewer over its $7bn disposals target, set up to help pay off the debt accrued to acquire Anheuser-Busch in 2008.
- Also in October, A-B InBev lined up a novel synergy deal when it agreed with PepsiCo to jointly purchase indirect goods and services in the US, from technology hardware to travel. The alliance also drew speculation about how much closer the two firms could grow in the future.
- The legal tussle between A-B InBev and Grupo Modelo rumbled on throughout the quarter. Despite reports in December that an arbitration panel would put the matter to rest before Christmas – a report that A-B InBev declined to comment on – there remains no end in sight.
- Finally, just as the new year began, the company ran into hot water in Belgium, where its announcement that it intends to cut around 10% of its workforce in Western Europe prompted brewery blockades in the country which only came to an end two weeks later.
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