Anheuser-Busch InBev will report its first-quarter results on Monday (30 April). Here, just-drinks takes a look at the highs and lows for the company in the three months to the end of March.
- It was a quiet quarter for A-B InBev. Rumours of a takeover of China’s Kingway Breweries and StarBev in Czech Republic filtered through but neither transaction panned out. Instead, the company spent part of January defending a decision to delete Wikipedia references to Stella Artois being referred to in the UK as “wife-beater”. Not everyone was against InBev’s stand.
- On January 12, A-B InBev acquired the rights to the ‘Budweiser’ trademarks held by Czech brewer, Budejovicky Mestansky Pivovar. The company is still locked in its long-running battle with Budejovicky Budvar over the right to the ‘Budweiser’ name.
- InBev’s US president Dave Peacock announced at the end of January his intention to step down. Peacock was the last surviving executive of the Anheuser-Busch era.
- Grupo Modelo snubbed its corporate buddy in late February, picking Carlsberg as its importer in China. A-B InBev owns a 50% non-controlling stake in Modelo, but the Mexican brewer has used distribution deals in the past to exert its independence.
- The end of the quarter saw A-B InBev and Heineken look set to duke it out to buy Dominican Republic’s biggest brewer, Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana, for US$1.5bn. Earlier this month, CND fell to A-B InBev.