AB-InBev locks horns with the Money Men

Belgium | Whatever interpretation is offered for AB-InBev’s recent refinancing round, the whole agitation boils down to this: Can AB-InBev run its shop as it pleases or will it have to do as told by the Money Men?

It seems like the Money Men have only now realised that AB-InBev has no intention to clinch any more major deals. All those lofty transaction scenarios – AB-InBev taking over Coke, Castel, etc. – are merely investors’ wishful thinking.  

Funny that it took the Money Men until now to realise that AB-InBev will no longer be a good customer for deal financing. How frustrating this must be.  

As they joined forces against AB-InBev in recent months, the Money Men started behaving like activist investors. Feigning concern about AB-InBev’s high debt load, they actually issued a barely concealed threat. They want the brewer to clinch more deals, or at least have the financial capabilities to do so.

That’s kind of ironic. In the past, investors put pressure on brewers to do deals if they thought brewers were sitting on too much cash or had too little debt. Now it’s brewers with too much debt.

For the Money Men, the merry-go-round of transactions and debt has to keep on spinning, or they themselves will lose out on big lucre.

It will be interesting to see how this spat will pan out in the long-term.