Van Damme family buys more shares in AB-InBev

Benefitting from a slight slump in AB-InBev’s share price, one of the Belgian shareholders in the brewer, Alexandre Van Damme, has bought one million shares for a total value of EUR 104.78 million (EUR 116 million), Belgian media say.

The billionaire, who recently swapped Brussels for Geneva, took advantage of the brewer’s share price weakness, caused by a disappointing quarterly report, which was made public on 28 October 2016.

Reportedly, Mr Van Damme is the richest Belgian and the largest individual shareholder in AB-InBev. He is considered one of the main architects of the group. But his influence as a shareholder and director stretches far beyond AB-InBev. He is also a shareholder and director at Burger King and at the coffee firm Jacobs Douwe Egberts. It is believed that he has a stake in the food group Kraft Heinz too (together with the Brazilian owners of AB-InBev).