AB-InBev’s Brazilian shareholders draw the line under their bank debt
The three major Brazilian shareholders of AB-InBev have already paid down their debt which they took on to finance the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch in 2008, the Belgian magazine “Trends” reported on 31 July 2013.
Messieurs Lemann, Telles and Sicupira, who are the three main Brazilian shareholders of AB-InBev, personally forked out EUR 1.5 billion as part of the capital increase which went towards the purchase of Anheuser-Busch. To this end they borrowed over EUR 1 billion from Credit Suisse bank, says Trends.
According to Trends, the Brazilians have repaid their debt and have shown themselves more diligent than the Belgian shareholders of AB-InBev. The Belgians’ stake in the capital increase was EUR 1.1 billion. In the year to the end of May 2012 they stilled owed their creditors EUR 418 million. Only the investment vehicle Patrinvest (controlled by AB-InBev’s director Alexandre Van Damme) managed to reduce its debt from EUR 401 million in 2008 to EUR 11.7 million at the end of last year.
Not only have the Brazilians repaid their debt, they have also started buying back shares in AB-InBev, says Trends. Since the takeover of Anheuser-Busch they have thrown about 11.5 million AB-InBev shares on the stock market. But in 2012 they bought back about 300,000 shares, which gave them a 22.68 percent stake in AB-InBev at the end of last year.
The Belgian shareholders have sold even more shares – nearly 36.6 million by Trends’ reckoning. Still, the Belgians retain a stake of 28.77 percent in AB-InBev.
