The world’s biggest brewer is turning a corner. Anheuser-Busch InBev on Thursday tapped Michel Doukeris as its new chief executive, succeeding Carlos Brito. The 48-year-old will lead a shift to investing in brands, away from the cost control and dealmaking that defined his predecessor’s 15-year tenure. But any missteps will threaten the $120 billion Stella maker’s efforts to reduce its heavy debt load. Brito, who started his brewing career in Brazil 32 years ago, created the company as it is today. His leadership was marked by relentless cost-cutting and aggressive M&A, culminating in the debt-fuelled $100 billion takeover of SAB

Oatly is soaking itself in China in more ways than one. The Swedish company that makes milk out of porridge oats on Monday filed for an initial public offering in the United States. Prospective investors will have to weigh up the benefits and potential downsides of its relationship with state-owned backer China Resources. Oatly’s valuation, which people close to the company told Reuters could be as high as $10 billion, hinges on rapid growth in demand for its plant-based milk, which it claims produces lower carbon emissions than the cow-based variety. Sales doubled to $421 million in 2020, helped by

Luckin Coffee has sprayed its investors with something messy and brown, and it’s not coffee. The Chinese rival to Starbucks, once valued at $13 billion, said on Thursday that over 40% of last year’s revenue may be fictitious. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith popularized the idea that fraud expands with good times and emerges in bad. In this case, it didn’t even take a downturn to expose Luckin’s problems. Just wait until the tide goes out. The company’s pitch was alluring. The average person in China only drinks a few coffees per year, but the desire is growing rapidly. Orders done

Arthur Brooke, whose company created PG Tips, said good tea unites good company and exhilarates the spirits. It’s not proving so uplifting for Unilever. The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant said on Thursday that it was considering a partial or full sale of its tea business. The first option is better than the second and both beat doing nothing. Revenue from tea brands such as PG Tips and Lipton is barely growing, and ditching them would help Unilever’s underlying sales grow faster than the 2.9% that the company managed last year. That was below the lower end of its target 3%-5%

Mixing beer and cider produces a nauseous concoction called snakebite. In Australia, the competition watchdog doesn’t seem to like it, having raised concerns with Anheuser-Busch InBev’s planned $11 billion sale of its brewing unit to Japan’s Asahi, which gives the latter strong positions in the market for both drinks. Its objections could stymie boss Carlos Brito’s plan to cut debt. The sale of AB InBev’s Australian unit, which brews grog such as Victoria Bitter, was part of a bigger M&A puzzle. The Corona-maker needs to cut debt following the 2016 acquisition of SABMiller. Yet its plan to list its Asian

Hong Kong’s latest wave of listings are attracting some big helping hands. Anheuser-Busch InBev raised $5 billion through a relaunched float of its Asia-Pacific unit. There’s appetite for new share issues in the city despite ongoing protests, but at a discount and with strong cornerstone support. After its attempt to sell shares in Budweiser Brewing Company APAC fell flat in July, AB InBev sold the unit’s low-growth Australian division to Japan’s Asahi, then relaunched the process last week with backing from Singapore state investment fund GIC. Priced at the bottom end of a marketed range, the new deal gives Budweiser APAC

Pernod Ricard has watered down Elliott’s punch. The Absolut vodka maker has been in the activist’s sights for insipid growth and weak operating margins, but it is now making tangible headway. It may be enough for U.S. activist investor Paul Singer’s outfit to divert its heat elsewhere. Since last year, the French rival to market leader Diageo has been under pressure to deliver better results from Elliott, which owns a 2.5% stake. Its latest results help. Profit from recurring operations, a key performance metric and a proxy for operating profit, rose 8.7% to 2.6 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in the fiscal

Anheuser-Busch InBev is stumbling at the bar. The Belgian brewer delayed pricing an up to $9.8 billion initial public offering of its Asia-Pacific business on Friday, hinting at poor demand for the year’s biggest float. Boss Carlos Brito and his bankers didn’t leave room for manoeuvre, setting a punchy price range and shunning cornerstone investors. The result is an early hangover. The maker of Budweiser made a bold step toward public life in the Fragrant Harbour last week, handing out cans of non-alcoholic beer at a press conference to celebrate the launch of an IPO that could have valued its

In the heyday of America’s beer wars, Budweiser rival Miller advertised its lower-calorie Lite as “Great taste, less filling”. A variation applies to board changes announced by Bud’s current owner, Anheuser-Busch InBev: “More smoke, less 3G.” Whether shareholders, the intended consumers of this new governance product, will swallow it with glee the way beer drinkers did Miller Lite is less clear. The $143 billion company, clearly attuned to brewing dissent among its owners, named Martin Barrington, the former head of tobacco group Altria, as its new chairman, replacing Olivier Goudet. The latter’s departure made sense because his role at JAB,

Indra Nooyi is handing her successor a fizzy leaving present. One of the final acts of the outgoing PepsiCo chief executive is to buy Israeli-based SodaStream for $3.2 billion. Diversifying into the faster-growing carbonated water market has strategic logic. But incoming boss Ramon Laguarta will need some sparkling top line growth to make the deal as financially attractive. The purchase announced on Monday is part of Pepsi’s low sugar future. The company is paying $144 a share in cash for SodaStream, which sells sparkling water makers. That represents a 32 percent premium to the Israeli group’s volume-weighted average share price over

A historic week saw the Dow Jones Industrials Average (.DJI) close above 20K for the first time, President Trump’s first week in office, and a flood of fourth quarter earnings from 108 S&P 500 constituents.