South Africa was one of the star performers in AB-InBev’s global empire in 2017, where the local unit lifted margins by an impressive 600 basis points, enabling the company to report a 21.1 percent hike in EBITDA on a beer revenue increase of just six percent, even as the brewer had to deal with the effects of a crippling drought at its Newlands brewery in Cape Town.

Heineken is beating AB-InBev at their game, at least in South Africa. In early February 2018 the Dutch brewer bought a minority stake in craft brewer Jack Black from Cape Town. No financial details are known. According to estimates, Black Jack sold about 20,000 hl beer last year.

As Budweiser is the official sponsor of the next Football World Cup and Nigeria will take part in the tournament, AB-InBev will do the logical thing and start brewing the beer domestically as of 2018, it was reported on 23 November 2017.

Africa’s number one oil producing nation, Nigeria, has seen its economy getting hammered by weak crude prices. The country’s brewers have been affected too.

Ethiopia’s Trade Competition & Consumers Protection Authority has denounced the country’s brewers for over-pricing their products following the Birr devaluation. This was reported on 7 November 2017. The price of beer in rural areas started to increase after the Birr was devaluated 15 percent in early October 2017 to boost exports (eg coffee, oil seeds and flowers).

AB-InBev seems to have big plans for Africa as it will invest between USD 150 million and USD 200 million in two new production lines in South Africa this year.

Paranoia or what? US craft brewers are complaining that AB-InBev is keeping them away from purchasing coveted South African hops.

Nothing new under the African sun, really. Like SABMiller before, AB-InBev hopes to drive African sales with cheaper beer to lure more drinkers to commercial beer, AB-InBev’s Africa head Ricardo Tadeu said on 13 April 2017.

It was probably only a matter of time before Stellenbrau would succumb to a sweet offer from Heineken. At the end of March 2017 it was reported that Heineken’s South African unit and Stellenbrau had clinched a deal. No transaction details were disclosed.

Following its takeover of SABMiller, AB-InBev has embarked on its ambitious cost-cutting programme. One of its more public measures is offering managers at South African Breweries (SAB) voluntary severance packages.