Anheuser-Busch shareholders approve InBev buyout
Anheuser-Busch shareholders voted today to accept Belgian brewer InBev’s $52 billion buyout of the St. Louis-based company. Anheuser-Busch officials announced the results of the voting at 11:25 a.m. CST during its shareholdering meeting at a hotel in Secaucus, N.J., a few miles from Manhattan.
Owners of more than two-thirds of Anheuser-Busch stock voted for the deal. The 497 million shares cast in favor amounted to 96 percent of all votes cast, which Anheuser-Busch acclaimed as a strong endorsement. Some shareholders abstained from voting.
Coming after Anheuser-Busch’s board unanimously recommended the $70-per-share offer, the vote was expected to be a formality on the way to completing one of the largest corporate takeovers in history. The deal still awaits regulatory approval in China, the U.K. and the U.S.
Weighing the offer and eventually deciding to support the deal “was a very difficult decision for any board to make,” chief executive August A. Busch IV told the crowd of 150 shareholders. “It was discussed and debated extensively.”
In the end, Anheuser-Busch’s board judged that a tie-up with InBev would be the best option for shareholders, and would lead to a “promising future” for the brewer, Busch said.
Sending Budweiser onto an even more global stage — one of InBev’s stated goals — fulfills “the global ambitions of my family,” Busch said. “We are about to sell more beer, to more people, in more countries than any other company in the history of brewing beer.”
When the deal is finalized — expected to happen before the end of the year — Anheuser-Busch’s reign as the biggest independent American brewer will end. The company traces its history as an independent company back five generations, all the way to 1852. That was before the Civil War. This was presumably the final shareholders meeting for the St. Louis-based company, one of the city’s largest employers and one of its best-recognized symbols.
“A bittersweet day,” Busch IV told a reporter as he walked off the stage after the 25-minute meeting.
Several shareholders from New Jersey agreed with him. So, apparently, did Patrick Stokes, the company’s chairman, who shared the stage with Busch.
“I think it’s sad” when a company with as much heritage as Anheuser-Busch loses its independent status, he said. Surrounded by investors and journalists, Stokes spoke briefly in the lobby of the hotel.
“The board of directors represented the shareholders’ interests very well,” said Stokes. “The board of directors is there for the interests of shareholders.”
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
Fact and Fiction
Fact - Every company Inbev buys, it pretty much squeezes every bit of money out of it and invests nothing. Proof, check LaBatts
Fact - Inbev will slash A-Bs capital budget meaning no improvements in the facilities, less work for contractors, trade unions, consulting firms, etc. The effect will trickle through the economy in St. Louis and every city where A-Bs breweries are.
Fact - Once Inbev takes over the St. Louis workforce will be cut significantly. Also, jobs will be trimmed at EVERY brewery.
Fact - The average Inbev Brewery is tiny by comparison to the U.S. Breweries. They have no idea how to operate advanced large breweries.
Fact - Inbev is all about themselves. Forget charitable donations.
Fact - Inbev stated that it would keep all breweries open. HOWEVER, there are loopholes, such as changing economics, tax increases, etc. If sales lag Inbev will not keep all breweries open. They are holding the beer drinking community hostage.
Fact - Inbev does not care about the community or environmental issues. They will not invest money or time in issues that don’t directly support the bottom line. They have no comprehension how complex the environmental and safety regulations are in the United States, where we care about our environment and the safety of our people and the community. They pay fines if they get caught. It’s cheaper than compliance.
AMEN UMMM!!!!!
“St. Louisans need to take this as a wakeup call. There is a world outside of the USA looking to compete and we need to position ourselves to compete with it.”
Its a very sad day, one more American Icon gone. America
the whore is quickly disappearing. What traditions will be
left for my grandchildren? This filthy pop culture,
or corrupt media? Its shameful…
I don’t know if it’s a good idea to play devil’s advocate or not, but I think someone should. I’d hate to think that my allegiance to St. Louis might be questioned if I’m not vehemently opposed to this buyout. Yes, this is a sad day. But, the sun WILL come up tomorrow. Rest assured. AB shareholders did what they needed to do… was there really any other method of defense? InBev has made its intentions known and the deal is done. Rather than wasting energy and emotion on what could have been, it’s time to focus on what will be. St. Louis might look a little different because of this acquisition, but the spirit that makes St. Louis great will remain.
I voted as a shareholder of 1900 shares and I must say, I am happy as one can be. The stock did nothing for years, and thanks to Mr Brito and President Bush’s tax breaks still good for this year, this is one sweet xmas for me and my girlfriends. St.Louis, well on it’s way to rivaling Detroit for slum of the nation (you beat it for crime) is in dire straits. Brain drain, boredom, cardinal baseball…whoopty doo, and bitching about I-64 is all you hoosiers know how to do. I love Denver, leaving STL 12 years ago was the single best thing I ever did and would encourage any 20 something reading this to do the same, life is grand away from that dump, it’s exilerating speaking with educated folks and not hearing the perverbial high school question and the excuse of the school districts is why we moved to whatever suburb when in fact you left to escape being 10 miles from the nearest black person. STL, boring, racist, brain drained, derelict inhabitants. NO more A-B…hmmm, no what, Vess soda…lol
Inbev will not back out…if they do they have to pay billions to AB. Wishful thinking people! Our only hope is the government will stop it. August III, I hope you are pleased with yourself! I didn’t realize you hated your son that much to sell him out. You didn’t even give him a chance to run the company. You had to have the last word and you still don’t get to buy Busch Entertainment!
I guess we now know what percentage of stock was owned by employees. That lowly 4% that voted no. It’s already not the same company.
Little known is that AB, at least here in St. Louis, has reinvested millions into brewing and operations during the last few ”flat growth” years. These proactive modernization initiatives impacted the ”bottom line” but were no less proactive. Mr. Brito can realize benefit from this by not reinvesting profits into the company. I, for one, have felt the added responsibility for producing the best product with fewer resources and have embraced paradigm shifts. I’m keeping a positive attitude until I’m no longer invited to contribute to making the best beers in the world.
“O.K. a few short years Miller Brewing was sold to SAB now it’s MillerCoors.
All we heard was Miller is no longer an American Co. Well how do you big Bud boy feel now?
Little Auggie and daddy Auggie are laughing all the way to the bank. Well St. Louis all I have to say now IT’S MILLER TIME. Go out and show the Busch Family what you really think drink a Miller or Coor beer.”
Do people really not know what is going on on the world?
.
News flash: Coors and Miller are both foreign owned. SABMiller and MillerCoors are not the same thing.
perhaps AB isn’t the biggest company is st louis but they were very involved doing things for the improvement of the community. can either emerson or monsanto make those claims?