Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Cuba and Budweiser

The European company InBev is trying to take over Anheuser-Busch. AB is filing suit to stop it. I cannot claim any knowledge of exactly how such attemped takeovers work, but I found the following interesting:


The suit also questions InBev's claim that it would make Anheuser's hometown of St. Louis the North American headquarters for the combined company, since InBev has a business in Cuba which cannot be managed from the United States.


and


Oesterle said takeover targets are rarely successful in blocking buyouts through these types of lawsuits, in part because prospective buyers are usually able to cure the alleged misstatements by issuing new disclosures, if necessary.


He said Anheuser's concerns about InBev's Cuban business could likely be dismissed by InBev through a restructuring so the Cuban operation does not report to the U.S. entity, or by perhaps divesting it.


He said more litigation may follow.


Add this to yet another bizarre consequence of the embargo.

2 comments:

Anonymous,  7:27 AM  

Being a huge St Louis Cardinal fan, I have been following this closely. The potential takeover of Budweiser has the entire city of St Louis up in arms.

Anheuser-Busch is desperately trying to fend off a takeover, and any announcement that St Louis would remain the headquarters is symbolic at best, because now that the takeover is hostile, InBev has threatened to remove the entire board of directors for AB.

Citizens are concerned about "streamlining" that will take place if the buyout is successful, because AB is so embedded into the community through charities and foundations and jobs, and culturally.

Welcome to globalization, now the citizens of the St Louis get a taste of the developing world when foreign corporations enter new markets and buy shit up.

Greg Weeks 5:30 PM  

I cannot say I am following it. However, it would be interesting to see how many politicians reject this particular takeover but advocate in general for free trade agreements, U.S. foreign investment, etc.

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