If InBev’s €30 billion ($46bn) merger approach to Anheuser-Busch is successful,  it would create a global number one in beer supply with Budweiser as the flagship brand backed up by such notable brand giants as Stella Artois and Beck’s.
All this would grab a quarter of the world  beer market through sales of some 500 brands. InBev, currently the world’s biggest brewer, has formally proposed the merger with A-B.
However it’s no secret that the Stars & Stripes are being brought out to fend off this unwelcome attention with many American blue collar workers expressing negative feelings at the thought of an all-American brewer being swallowed up by a multinational from Europe.
But InBev is not going to just go away. To this many-times-itself-consolidated company, the savings are attractive and Mergers & Acquisitions are about the only ways forward.
InBev’s Chief Executive Carlos Brito has stated, “We have the highest respect for Anheuser-Busch, its employees and its leadership who have built the leading brewer in the US and grown the iconic Budweiser brand”.
He added, “We view this combination as a natural next step for both companies who already enjoy successful partnerships in the US, Canada and South Korea”.
While A-B’s board of directors are to evaluate this  “unsolicited proposal” from Inbev, it’s frothy potential for making a fortune in Eastern Europe and Asia (in contrast to the flat markets nearer home in Central and Western Europe and the US) will have to be weighed in.
Apart from that, higher raw materials costs will need to be offset by consolidations just like this one, producing just such economies of scale in supplying these emerging markets.
And the rationalisation which would inevitably follow this deal could produce savings estimated at over €50 million which would go a considerable way towards meeting the increased cost of raw materials - this year.