The Brussels Beer Challenge takes place for the fifth time this year. After Brussels (in 2012), Liege (in 2013), Leuven (2014) and Antwerp (2015), this international event will once again take place in Brussels.

Not only Leuven’s socialist mayor Louis Tobback is pleased that AB-InBev will remain headquartered in the city following its acquisition of SABMiller. Rik Daems, a city councillor and member of the Liberal party, is also a happy man. Both want AB-InBev’s CEO Carlos Brito to be made a citizen of honour, the Belgian newspaper De Tijd reported on 5 August 2016.

Oh ye innocents. What do you think a takeover by a foreign company means? It means you end up being run by foreigners. So why the feigned surprise over AB-InBev’s new executive management board? Just because it does not have one single SABMiller veteran on the list?

Having followed closely the year-long saga of the world’s number two brewer SABMiller being taken over by the world’s number one, AB-InBev, I could not help but look at Edouard Manet’s painting Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) with different eyes. This iconic painting is widely available on the internet.

Worldwide beer production declined 30 million hl in 2015, the hop merchant Barth estimates in its latest report. It was as if Australia and The Philippines had suddenly run dry.

Which numbers shall we trust? On 28 July 2016, the leading drinks group Diageo reported like-for-like sales for the 12 months to 30 June 2016 that were 2.8 percent higher than the previous year, reversing a two-year trend in which growth was broadly flat because of a slowdown in emerging markets.

Perhaps it was a mistake to club Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe into one unit. All these markets appear to be in trouble. Heineken reported on 1 August 2016 that second-quarter beer volumes dipped 5.9 percent on an organic basis across Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe, hurt by a weakening environment in Russia and Nigeria, where low oil prices and falling currencies are denting growth.

The good news is: The world’s largest brewer said on 4 August 2016 it would continue to be headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, while its global management team, including CEO Carlos Brito and Chief Financial Officer Felipe Dutra, would continue to work out of New York.

Carlsberg plans to build a new brewery in Hamburg

Long time, no hear regarding AB-InBev’s divestment of its central and eastern European assets, announced in April 2016. But at the end of July 2016 media reported that several US and European buyout funds are putting together bids, with some seeking to join forces to snap up assets worth up to EUR 7 billion (USD 7.7 billion).