SABMiller, Starbucks, Amazon and Google – the list of companies given a serve over their skillful ways of avoiding tax payments in the UK is getting longer.

You win some, you lose some. Diageo, the world’s number one drinks company, may have been successful at clinching a USD 2.1 billion deal for a majority stake in India’s largest spirits company, United Spirits, in November 2012, but ultimately failed to secure a takeover of Jose Cuervo, the world’s top-selling tequila brand, which is to stay with its Mexican owners, the Beckmann family.

That’s the question AB-InBev, the present owner of the Budweiser beer brand, asked its Czech rival, the state-owned brewery Budweiser Budvar. The dispute over the Budweiser trademark has been raging for over 100 years and AB-InBev seems to have been keen on settling the issue once and for all.

All protests were in vain: the French parliament on 3 December 2012 approved a bill to hike French beer tax by a massive 160 percent. Despite best efforts by the French Senate, twice sending the law back to the Parliament with a modest amendment to raise excise by only 120 percent – the law was finally passed without further modifications and will come into effect in January 2013.

That’s some optimistic extrapolation: if they drink lots of beer, they will eventually drink wine too. No doubt, Mexico, Brazil, Poland and Nigeria sport comparatively high beer consumption rates. But to what extent consumers in these markets can be swayed towards wine remains to be seen.

How they are doing it, no one really knows, but even in hard times British consumers keep on buying high end beers. SABMiller announced on 22 November 2012 that its UK subsidiary, Miller Brands UK, has delivered another strong period of lager volume growth during its first half year ending 30 September 2012.

Funny it should only occur to hacks now that SABMiller's shares have surged more than 20 percent to GBP 28.1 so far during 2012, making the share one of this year's best performers in the FTSE 100. True, beverage stocks have climbed about 26 percent between 1 January and 30 November 2012. But hey, a share price hike is a share price hike.

The Carlsberg Group, on 14 November 2012, signed an agreement to acquire a further 18.58 percent shareholding in Chongqing Jianiang Brewery, taking its total shareholding to 49.58 percent. The purchase price is approximately RMB 600 million (USD 96 million).

On 23 November The Brewers of Europe appointed the Spaniard Demetrio Carceller as its new President, succeeding the Portuguese Alberto da Ponte.

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, says that Britain’s pub closure rate has increased to 18 per week, with over 450 pubs across the country having been lost since March 2012. This is an increase from 12 per week for the September 2011 to March 2012 period.