Page 25 - at
P. 25
BUSINESS A25
Thursday 17 September
King of Beers: Makers of Budweiser, Miller eye global merger
DANICA KIRKA “The days of big profits in by eroding market share for the next 10 or 20 years early 1990s when Nelson
Associated Press the U.S. are gone,” said and competition, ironically, but for the next 100 years,” Mandela’s release from
LONDON (AP) — The mak- Jonny Forsyth, a global by the little guy. Craft beers Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO prison led to a lifting of
ers of Budweiser aren’t sat- drinks analyst for Mintel, the now make up 11 percent in Carlos Brito and chairman sanctions on South Africa
isfied with being the kings of and allowed the company
beer. They want an empire. Budweiser beer is seen for sale at a concession stand at McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Fla. to expand abroad.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, on Wednesday Sept. 16, 2015, announced its Though the European beer
world’s biggest brewing desire to buy No. 2 SABMiller, creating a beermaker with annual sales of $73.3 billion, more than market was dominated by
company and the owner three times its closest rival, Heineken Holding. the likes of Guinness and
of Budweiser, announced Heineken, SAB took advan-
Wednesday it wants to buy (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) tage of the opening of-
SABMiller, the second-larg- fered by the fall of the Berlin
est brewer — and the mak- market research firm. “They volume in the U.S. market, Kees J. Storm wrote in a let- Wall to sweep into Eastern
er of long-time rival brand have to position themselves Mintel said. ter to shareholders. “Our Europe and buy brewers
Miller Genuine Draft. in the big beer growth mar- AB InBev and SABMiller are mindset is truly long term.” on the cheap. Its expan-
The deal would create a ket for the next 10 years.” themselves products of this But Africa, where home sion also stretched to other
multinational behemoth Shares of SABMiller rocket- consolidation trend. In ev- brew still dominates, offers African countries including
valued at around $275 bil- ed about 20 percent higher ery way, they are thinking a chance to grow. And Mozambique, and to Asia.
lion with annual sales of on news of the approach, big. that’s where SABMiller— The company bought
$73.3 billion, more than pushing its market value to “We are driven by our pas- the one-time South African Czech brewer Plzensky
three times its closest rival, around $90 billion. Shares of sion to create a company industrial conglomerate — Prazdroj, maker of Pilsner
Heineken. AB InBev rose 6 percent. that can stand the test of offers a foothold. Urquell, in 1999, U.S.-based
AB InBev already claims six The companies are being time and create value for The former South African Miller Brewing Co. in 2002
of the world’s most valu- pushed into consolidation our shareholders, not only Breweries expanded in the and Foster’s of Australia in
able beer brands, which 2011. Today the compa-
besides Budweiser include ny employs about 69,000
Corona, Stella Artois and people in more than 80
Beck’s. Taking over Miller in countries, from Australia to
the U.S. would likely draw Zambia, Colombia and the
objections from regulators Czech Republic.
worried the deal might stifle AB InBev is likewise the
competition and lead to product of many mergers.
higher prices for consum- Its current form emerged
ers. from a 2008 takeover of
But whereas a lot of the U.S. icon Anheuser Busch
attention will focus on the Cos. by Brazilian-Belgian
best-known brands in the brewer InBev. The com-
U.S. and Europe, AB InBev’s pany has operations in 25
sights are on other coun- countries and makes more
tries. As profits wane in the than 200 beers. SABMiller,
Americas, AB InBev wants now based in London, said
to expand into Africa. Wednesday that it “will re-
Enticingly, SABMiller has a view and respond as ap-
huge presence in Africa, propriate to any proposal
the next beer frontier. which might be made.”q
Amgen buys 1 company, partners with 2nd to create new drugs
LINDA A. JOHNSON smart moves for the Thou- Amgen shares fell 2.4 per- $151.07, down just 0.7 per- in the first half of this year
AP Business Writer sand Oaks, California- cent on the news, then re- cent. — already have fallen due
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Bio- based company. However, bounded by afternoon to Amgen makes complex to most patients switching
tech drug giant Amgen has biologic drugs produced to follow-on drug Neulasta,
made two much-needed This photo shows signage at the entrance to Amgen Inc. offices in living cells, which until which requires less-frequent
deals to replenish its stock in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Biotech drug giant Amgen has made now haven’t faced gener- injections, plus increased
of medicines in develop- two much-needed deals to replenish its stock of medicines in ic competition. The Food brand-name competition.
ment as new competi- development. and Drug Administration Rival drugmakers are de-
tion to its lucrative biotech recently set rules to get veloping biosimilar versions
drugs threatens future rev- (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) approval of near-copies of more-lucrative Amgen
enue. of these medicines, called medicines whose U.S. pat-
The world’s biggest biotech biosimilars. The first, a ver- ents expire within a few
drugmaker said Wednes- sion of Amgen’s Neupogen years.
day that it’s buying one priced 15 percent lower, Like most biotech drugmak-
company with a daily cho- went on sale in the U.S. two ers, Amgen isn’t as good at
lesterol treatment in mid- weeks ago. discovering potential new
stage patient testing and Swiss drugmaker Novartis drugs as at testing them in
signed a deal with another AG is selling Zarxio, its bi- patients, getting regula-
company, Xencor, to jointly osimilar version of Neupo- tory approval and market-
develop drugs for cancer gen, which fights infec- ing the resulting new drugs,
and inflammatory condi- tion in certain cancer and said analyst Steve Brozak,
tions. other patients. Neupogen president of WBB Securities.
Analysts called the deals sales — about $500 million q
