Belgium | It was all about the debt. Felipe Dutra’s last public appearance as AB-InBev’s CFO was spent explaining the brewer’s debt. He reassured investors that “there is no year in which the total debt maturing exceeds our liquidity [of USD 16 billion].”

Russia | To secure a level playing field for all brewers, the Union of Russian Brewers, a trade body, wants to have a minimum retail price of beer introduced, but the country’s major brewers are against this.

Germany | In a response to a minor interpellation by the Green Party, the government said on 18 February 2020, that it does not see any grounds for raising the legal drinking age to 18.

Belgium | Sometimes corporate language is just meant to befuddle. Take AB-InBev’s “affordability strategy”. In 2019, it was extended to markets with tough macro-economic conditions. Its initiatives call for lower revenue per hl but offer incremental profits.

Belgium | The world’s number one brewer expects a 10 percent drop in first-quarter earnings due to the coronavirus. Already, in the last quarter 2019, its EBITDA fell 5.5 percent – on an adjusted basis. De facto, EBITDA was down 12 percent.

Belgium | You don’t often get AB-InBev’s CEO Carlos Brito sounding contrite. 2019 was a challenging year for the brewer. “Our performance was below our expectations, and we are not satisfied with the results,” he said on 27 February 2020. This year doesn’t look much better.

Netherlands | The appointment of Dolf van den Brink, 46, as Heineken’s new CEO has created quite some buzz. There would have been the odd complaint that Mr van den Brink is neither black nor a woman. Ah well. But he will still be the brewing industry’ youngest executive.

Germany | Why will German beer sales continue to swoon? Blame it on an upside-down population pyramid. Baby boomers are about to approach retirement, while German brewers will find themselves short of 20 million consumers aged 20 to 60 years in the next two decades.

Netherlands | On 11 February 2020, the Supervisory Board of Heineken announced the upcoming succession of Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO Jean-François van Boxmeer, following his 15-year-long leadership of the firm.

Belgium | As BRAUWELT international predicted, AB-InBev has announced some leadership changes ahead of its Full Year 2019 results presentation at the end of this month. On 6 February 2020, AB-InBev said that CFO Felipe Dutra, 50, is stepping down from his position, as part of a wider shakeup.