AB-InBev announces major job layoffs
Wow, that didn’t take long. Twenty-one days after acquiring Anheuser-Busch, InBev announced today that it would cut about 1,400 jobs — or 6% of the company’s U.S. total.
The primary groups affected are engineering, information technology and other corporate positions, A-B InBev said.
The company said that about 75% of the cuts would come at One Busch Place in St. Louis. Some field offices and brewery locations will also feel the ax while 250 open positions will not be filled and 415 contractor jobs will be eliminated.
Most of the job losses will come by the end of this year and David Peacock, president of the company’s U.S. unit, said it is a “necessary but difficult move” to keep the company competitive.
The reductions will be on top of 1,000 recent early retirements that came from a program Anheuser-Busch announced as part of its ultimately unsuccessful effort to ward off InBev’s $52 billion takeover attempt earlier this year. Only salaried employees are affected.
The company has said that it will deliver $1.5 billion in annual cost cuts by 2011.
umm.. did anyone not see this coming?
Here a few fun facts regarding the takeover, all from the German beverage press. One Euro = 1.3 dollars. Sorry for the somewhat clumsy translation:
3/4 of the takeover ($70 per share = 41 billion Euros) was financed on credit. 23 billion Euros must be repaid very soon, and the search goes on for things to sell – this deal can no way be financed through cash flow alone. €7.8 billion are due in 6 months, which is to be finanaced through raising capital (more shares). €5.6 billion are due in one year and the remaining €9.6 billion are to be repayed in 2 years. Wall Street has a good idea of what is on the chopping block: the amusement parks, the recycling plant in St Louis, portions of the Chinese (Tsingtao & Zhujiang) business, the 6.9 million hectoliter Oriental Brewery, Labatt’s (which I think has taken place already), Staropramen and portion of the InBev German business. The Berchtersgarten Hofbrauhaus (not the one in Munich) has already been sold, BTW.