06.11.2008 4:34 pm
The offer’s real: Initial thoughts on A-B and InBev
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Anheuser-Busch just announced that it has received a takeover offer from InBev, turning weeks of speculation into reality. Here are a couple of quick thoughts:
- The bid is all-cash, which is the hardest kind of offer to turn down.
- It’s $65 a share, which is exactly what had been rumored. But in this kind of courtship, the initial price isn’t necessarily the best and final offer. If InBev is willing to go higher, say to $70, A-B’s board may have a hard time saying “no.”
- A-B’s language seems to be straight down the middle. It says its board will “evaluate the proposal carefully and in the context of all relevant factors, including Anheuser-Busch’s long-term strategic plan.” Mention of the strategic plan is a reminder that there may be an alternative way to create value. But the statement also mentions the board’s “fiduciary duties,” which mean that A-B can’t simply walk away from a deal that’s good for shareholders.
- This is the beginning, not the end. The Microsoft-Yahoo drama took three months to play out — Microsoft launched its bid Feb. 1 and formally abandoned it May 4 — and it may not be over yet. The plot could take many twists and turns from here, so stay tuned.
- While we’re intensely focused on the ramifications for St. Louis — and rightly so — Reuters notes that A-B’s China operations may be strategically important to InBev. Combined, the companies would control 13 percent of the Chinese beer market. A-B also owns 27 percent of Tsingtao, which has an additional 10 percent of the market.
(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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David Nicklaus has covered St. Louis business for more than 25 years. His column appears three days a week on the Post-Dispatch business page. 
To James, who posted above.
You really think InBev is going to magically “educate” the “ignorant” american beer drinker? PLEASE!
The best beer in the world is being made right here in the USA by independant companies like Lagunitas, Founders, Dogfish Head, Bells, Stone, Sierra Nevada ect.
As an avid beer drinker, there are FEW quality beers that INBev offers.
AB has a chance right now. Their Michelob like of beers (porter, marzen, pale ale, wheat) are frankly terrible. You cannot tell me these are the best beers the great AB can create!
They did well with Goose Island even though they are closing their main bar…
I would like to see AB expand to a few more low batch breweries. Even open one in St. Louis!
Gotta love these idiots that think this country will be better off when its largest beer company is under foreign control. This isn’t only about A-b this is about how America is selling it’s soul to foreign countries. Everywhere you look another American owned company is bought up and hard working people are unemployeed. Everyone bitches but do they try to stop it no. Lets by Honda’s and Toyotas that might be made here but not by hard working Union workers. STOP selling out AMERICA. If you don’t like the beer buy something else. Don’t like the country get the hell out. GOD BLESS AMERICA and A-B!!
Please leave AB and an American Company. We are losing everything that is worth being proud of to companies over seas. And the only reason is because of the all mighty dollar, that isn’t what America was built on….Family is important and AB is the Grandfather of the U.S. don’t send the old man away…..It will never be the same if it is sold. AB stands for so much here in STL and America…….
This is the consequence of fighting two wars while not raising taxes. The country then runs big deficits and/or you print money to pay and you end up with inflation and a devalued currency. The foreigners who hold those devalued dollars want something tangible so start buying American hard assets like A-B. Do you get it cowboys?
The Lou, all talk and no action. If you’re against the takeover put your money where your mouth is for a change. Buy the stock and refuse to tender, it’s that easy.
first off, they will lose american jobs, and they could shut down the plant; once in-bev owns it, they can do whatever they want, and move production over to europe. i like the dissenters in this column, since they hate budwesier products. fine, you can not like the beer, but i can garuntee that the sale of AB to a foreign company is another example of a wasteful lose of jobs in america to overseas businesses. this hurts the economy even more, and hurts st.louis’ as well. keep AB owned and operated locally, shareholders should keep themselves appeased by the fact that they’re already making good money. simply try to invest in foriegn markets to boost the stock price, not simply sell and take home large amount of cash at the expense of jobs and your own greed.