Atta boy Slay, do the 180 now that the merger is going to happen and talk about the glorious future St Louis and InBev will have. All the politicians (Dems and Reps) are scrambling to kiss Brito’s backside now. Nice.

And good for the pension people to look out for their investors (City employees) instead of Slay’s next political campaign…

Talk about killing the goose that lays the gold eggs!!! Someone needs to show Mary Lou the citys balance sheet and just how much AB paid in taxes in 2007 and then show here the future balance sheet when Inbwev cuts thousands of jobs and asks for tax incentives to stay in STL.
I mentioned in a blog that pension funds were cutting their nose off to spite their face in this deal and in many deals in the selling of America. I knew that some of the pension funds out there that were sueing had direct interest in AB as a company or AB as a client. Here is a prime example.
Mary Lou if the city keeps losing jobs at the rate it is there won’t be a pension plan to manage the city will be bankrupt and your employees will not have jobs.
I admit 2100 shares really would not have mattered, it is more the principle of the thing. God help us!!!

Have you ever seen one of those big python snakes(brito) when they try to swallow something to big (A/B) they just split wide open. brito is a known liar,i can’t wait for the split.

kdunlap, the City pension fund does not have to invest in JUST St Louis located businesses. This is profit for the fund that will be reinvested to make even more money. It’s about as easy a no-brainer as investing gets. And don’t be so quick to assume AB pays all those taxes. They got some incentives for NOT moving to California some years back when that threat was being played by the Busch family, and big companies like AB have teams of tax accountants that help them minimize their tax bill. Most of the jobs there are going to stay there. The City won’t go broke because of this.

The principle of her job is to max out the profits for those invested in the plan, not to save jobs at a private business that became stagnant years ago. Thank God you are not running any of my mutual funds!!!

kdunlap–Under US fiduciary law the plan is only allowed to consider the plan’s participants. They aren’t allowed to look at city tax revenues or anything like that. They have to act only in the interest of plan participants.

Tim and Paul,
I truly do understand what you are saying and I do understand that the “plans” have a fudiciary responibility to their clients. I want my company managing my 401K to do the best they can. If I held AB stock in my portfolio under the laws I have the right to tell my 401K manager how to vote on this deal in regards to the number of shares I might own.
When I read this piece it just really struck me as the old saying goes “cut your nose off to spite you face”. AB is a huge employer within the city limits and their employees wether through taxes or spending contribute a lot to city coffers.
I was also amused when a pension fund representing a carpenters, pipefitters etc. union in New Jersey filed a lawsuit against AB when they rejected the $65 offer. AB has been very good over all to unions in their history. The unions are the first to holler about all the manufacturing jobs that are going overseas and here they are trying to force a sale to a foreign company. We really don’t know what Brito will do, he is ruthless and he just may close US breweries and ship production to Mexico.