Rival Beer Companies May Become Partners
Anheuser-Busch InBev has gone from flirting with SABMiller to making a real pickup move, like a guy in a bar who spots a hot girl.
It has asked banks to underwrite $70 billion in debt financing. This means A-B InBev is getting serious about acquiring what was once a primary rival.
A takeover would not be completed until late in 2016 at the earliest, so it’s not as if this is happening tomorrow. But it’s certainly brewing.
Beer lovers are going to have to wait on the possible consequences of this huge takeover if it happens. Logic indicates it will decrease competition and therefore increase prices, at least initially.
Both companies are looking to battle an increased consumption of craft beer in America, and on a global scale are looking to exploit what the beer industry considers a the next big untapped market: Africa.
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