InBev is reportedly negotiating a $46 billion takeover bid for Anheuser-Busch (BUD) according to a report today in Financial Times' Alphaville blog. Rumors of the bid on Anheuser-Busch, the iconic American brewer of Budweiser, by InBev created through the merger of Interbrew and AmBev have sent the stock prices of the largest American brewer soaring.
Anheuser-Busch rose 7.66% to $56.61 at 4:00 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest gain in seven years. InBev, the world's largest brewer, fell 1.44 euros, or 2.9 percent, to 48.88 euros in Brussels.
The report citing unnamed sources said that the deal was being billed as a "transformational" move by executives and bankers involved, and was the result of InBev's aim to create the fifth largest consumer products group in the world. If friendly overtures to Anheuser-Busch were brushed aside, the Belgian brewer would consider a public appeal direct to Anheuser-Busch's shareholders, added the report.
InBev's offer at $65 per share is expected to be considered favorably by the Anheuser-Busch board. The matter was discussed at length at the InBev board meeting on April 28 and again at a meeting on Thursday but InBev was "not about to push the button." Anheuser-Busch was awarded the exclusive distributorship of InBev's European portfolio, which includes beer brands Stella Artois, Beck's and Bass Pale Ale, in February 2007. Since then, speculations of a merger between the two brewers have been doing the rounds.
In July 2007, a Citigroup analyst report featured seven analysts who wrote that they expect a merger "within the next two years." Before that, Belgium's Trends magazine reported that a merger between Anheuser-Busch and InBev might be "inevitable in the long run."
Bringing the two companies together would create a business with a market capitalization of close to $100 billion and would represent the most ambitious piece of corporate consolidation since the onset of the credit crisis last summer. Anheuser-Busch and InBev together would be almost equally balanced between developed and emerging market operations across the globe, pumping out around 350 million hectoliters of beer and other beverages annually. Annual revenues are estimated to be around $20 billion, producing earnings of close to $6 billion at the EBITDA level.
The financing of the bid, which is expected to stretch over $50 billion, was arranged with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Banco Santander SA (SAN), the report said. It is expected that the merger would be followed up with a rights issue in about 12 months time, when the newly enlarged group would raise somewhere between $10 billion and $17 billion to pay down the bridge financing facility.
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, whose second-largest shareholder is Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., accounts for 48.5 percent share of U.S. beer sales. The company also manufactures and recycles aluminum cans and operates theme parks.
InBev was created in Sept 2004 following the merger of Interbrew and Companhia de Bebidas das Americas. It has operations spanning Europe, North and Latin America and Asia Pacific with an estimated global market share of 15 percent and a portfolio of over 200 brands. In May 2006, InBev had sold its Rolling Rock brand to Anheuser-Busch for $82 million.
Scottish & Newcastle UK formerly Scottish & Newcastle plc one of the world's leading "long alcoholic drinks" companies with strong positions in 15 countries, including leadership in the UK, France and Russia, was acquired jointly by Heineken and Carlsberg in April, with the company's assets being split between them for GBP 7.5 billion.
Fitch Ratings said in a special report published today titled "Global Beer Industry - Consolidation and Peer Comparison" that the global brewing industry is at an intermediate stage of consolidation and that InBev and SABMiller are two of the four global brewing players that have the financial flexibility to continue to drive sector consolidation forward.
"Industry consolidation slowed down between mid-2006 and H107, allowing brewers to partially de-leverage," said Giulio Lombardi, Senior Director in Fitch's European Retail, Consumer and Healthcare Group. "However, consolidation has recently resumed. The four leading international brewers - InBev, SABMiller, Heineken and Carlsberg - continue to invest significant resources in building geographically diversified businesses and to capture growth opportunities in emerging markets."
According to the report, Western Europe had up to eight to ten independent companies that could come up for sale as rising raw material prices and weaker consumer spending have put pressure on their sales volumes and profitability.
With Central-Eastern Europe almost fully consolidated by international players and companies in Latin America unlikely to come up for sale in the short- to medium-term, Asia was a promising and yet fairly unexplored territory for international players. While demand for beer was mature in North America and most of Western Europe, it continues to grow in emerging markets.
Fitch believes a potential merger between Anheuser-Busch and InBev would provide expansion opportunities for Anheuser-Busch, which has limited internationalization. The rating agency still sees opportunities for regional expansion, which are likely to be exploited before companies embarking on industry transforming merger of peers.
Overall, Fitch believes the brewing industry is at a more intermediate stage in its consolidation compared, for example, to the tobacco sector before it entered its latest round of consolidation in 2006/2007. The report also said global brewers may prefer to postpone embarking on any industry-transforming merger and acquisition activity until they have built up further critical mass.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.