By Jennifer Maloney and Saabira Chaudhuri July 18, 2019 12:26 pm ET Anheuser-Busch InBev SA is considering selling off business units in South Korea, Australia and Central America to cut its massive debt pile as it pursues a backup plan after calling off the listing of its Asian business, according to people familiar with the matter.
AB InBev, which makes one out of every four beers sold world-wide, owns hundreds of brands in dozens of countries after a global buying spree that gave it Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona. But the dealmaking also saddled the company with more than $100 billion in debt at a time that global beer sales are slowing.
Another option on the table is again cutting AB InBev’s dividend, which was halved last fall, but some board members are reluctant to do this, the people familiar with the matter said. The company currently pays about $4 billion in annual dividends.
Add this to the list of corporate break ups. AntiTrustNow
Wait, so growth through debt-fueled acquisitions is NOT a sound business strategy? Perhaps MBA programs should stop teaching this garbage. I suppose that's why it did not work for Tyco, Adelphia, Enron, Bank of America, General Electric, Litton Industries, AOL (remember them?) ..