Singapore | Consumers in Southeast Asia will soon be able to grab their Heineken drinks via the Grab app. On 17 September 2019 the Dutch brewer signed a partnership with Singapore-based “super app” Grab to bring its products on the latter’s platform.

Australia | Japan’s Asahi is going the whole hog and has swooped on the award-winning Queensland craft brewer Green Beacon, only four weeks after it acquired market leader Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) from AB-InBev.

China | CR Beer has made an aggressive overture to AB-InBev by officially declaring that it is “weighing the possibility” of acquiring a minority stake in AB-InBev’s Asia unit. CR Beer’s CEO Jason Hou said on 16 August 2019 that a final decision has yet to be taken.

Vietnam | In an effort to curb rising medical costs and drunken driving, Vietnam will ban alcohol advertising on radio and TV from 6 pm to 9 pm, as well as before and after children’s programmes. The new law takes effect in January 2020.

Vietnam | With a population of nearly 100 million people and beer accounting for 95 percent of alcohol consumption, the southeast Asian country has become an alluring market for brewers.

India | It seems grossly unfair. The Delhi government has banned AB-InBev from selling beer in the Indian capital for three years, because the previous owner of its Indian subsidiary, SABMiller, had fiddled with its tax payments.

Australia | Asahi had moved swiftly to buy Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) from AB-InBev for USD 11 billion or 15 times EBITDA, after the world’s number one brewer looked to raise cash in the wake of its junked IPO of its Asian business.

Australia | Insiders seem divided over the impact of Asahi’s acquisition of Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) from AB-InBev in July 2019.

Belgium | The embarrassment of toing and froing with its Asia IPO will soon be forgotten. But the implications are clear for all to see: financial markets no longer play to the tune of AB-InBev.

Australia – Under globalisation, brewers have become used to being reduced to a plaything at the mercy of their owners and none more so than Carlton & United (CUB).