Shop Talk
Retailers, consumers and prices
Check Out Line: This Bud’s for you, NYSE
Check out the return of the “BUD” stock trading symbol.
Anheuser-Busch InBev shares will start trading in New York on Wednesday as U.S.-listed shares, or American Depositary Receipts under the former Anheuser-Busch symbol, a nod to its Budweiser beer label. The return to the New York Stock Exchange comes 10 months after Belgium’s InBev acquired the iconic U.S. brewer and moved its primary stock listing to Belgium.
Anheuser-Busch InBev was formed late last year when InBev, the Belgian maker of Stella Artois and Beck’s, bought St. Louis-based Anheuser for $52 billion to create the world’s largest brewer. Since then, the company announced plans to open an office in New York and has begun reporting quarterly results in U.S. dollars, signaling a greater interest in the U.S. equity market, analysts said.
Investors can only hope the BUD shares will trade as well as Anheuser-Busch InBev shares in Europe, where they have more than tripled in value since late November.
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(Reuters photo)
Sam Adams founder preparing for the Big Leagues
When Jim Koch decided to start making Sam Adams beer in 1984, he raised $140,000 from friends and family, pooled that with $100,000 of his own money, and set a target. Within 5 years his Boston-based brewery would cook up 8,000 barrels of beer a year.
Twenty-four years and a stock IPO later, Boston Beer Co is selling nearly 2 million barrels of beer a year and is poised to become the largest U.S.-owned brewer. Assuming InBev’s takeover of Anheuser-Busch goes through.
This Bud’s No Longer for Wall Street
Is it Last Call for Wall Street at Anheuser-Busch?
On Anheuser-Busch’s conference call Wednesday to discuss second-quarter earnings, the tone was more like a wake than the tailgate parties of old.
Well, previous calls never really had galloping Clydesdales, singing frogs or a hard-partying Bull Terrier. But quarter after quarter, investors and analysts from both the ”buy” and ”sell” sides would still dial in after the close of New York trading for the latest color on beer sales.
Despite deal, Cubans may not crack open Budweisers soon
Anheuser-Busch’s “Cuba defense” against a takeover by Belgium-based InBev may have gone flat after the Budweiser folks agreed to be bought out, but don’t expect to see America’s top-selling beers in Havana bars any time soon.
InBev brews and sells Beck’s, Bucanero, Cristal and Mayabe beers in Cuba through a 50/50 joint venture with the Cuban government. Could Cubans now be one mambo step closer to cracking open a cold Bud on a hot Havana night?
Check Out Line: Name that brew
Check out: InBever-Busch? BudBever?
That hostile takeover stuff between InBev and Anheuser-Busch with the court fight and proxy battle and stuff? Looks like it was nothing a little more money can’t solve.
The two companies have begun friendly negotiations, a source told Reuters. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported that InBev has raised its offer by $5, to $70 a share, to try to cinch a friendly deal.
Check Out Line: A Brewing Showdown
Check out things looking hostile in InBev’s bid for Anheuser-Busch.
InBev, spurned so far in its attempt to acquire the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light, filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would lead to Anheuser shareholders voting on the future of the U.S. company’s board.
The Belgian beer maker also unveiled its own proposed board that would include Adolphus Busch IV, an uncle of Anheuser‘s current chief executive. Makes you go Hmmm…
Check Out Line: Hostile Light?
Check out signs of possible acrimony in InBev’s takeover bid for Anheuser-Busch.
Could InBev be bringing a new flavor — Hostile Light — to the beer wars as it pushes forward with its $46.3 billion takeover bid for the maker of Budweiser?
Check Out Line: Anheuser-Busch in the news (again)
Check Out more news from the Anheuser-Busch front.
The company, which owns half of Mexico’s Groupo Modelo, said Modelo’s chief executive Carlos Fernandez resigned from Anheuser’s board, even as the American beer company tries to thwart an unsolicited takeover bid from Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev NV.
Modelo is an important player here — it has been approached by Anheuser about a possible combination, according to the Wall Street Journal, while Reuters’ sources, who are familiar with the situation, have said that InBev also courted the Mexican company.
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