New ‘king’
Belgium’s Interbrew and Brazil’s Ambev have completed their planned $11.4 billion combination as shareholders of both companies approved the deal that creates the world’s largest brewer by volume.
The new company is being called InBev and it will have had an industry leading 13% share of the global market in 2003 with brands that include Stella Artois, Beck’s, Brahma and Skol.
“We are creating the world’s No. 1 brewery,” said Interbrew chief executive John Brock, who will become the CEO of the new company. Its headquarters are being set up at the Interbrew head office in Leuven, Belgium.
The deal, announced in March, creates the largest beer maker in the world by production volume and No. 2 by revenue behind industry leader, Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis-based maker of Budweiser and Bud Light.
Interbrew and Ambev will operate independently in different hemispheres, maintain separate stock listings and name four directors each on a new 14-member InBev board. Interbrew, the world’s third brewer, ends up with 57% of Ambev through a controlling company, Braco. In return, AmBev gets Labatt, Rolling Rock and its Mexican operations.
