Mexico’s Grupo Modelo, makers of Corona and holders of 63 percent of the Mexican beer market, is being bought today by Belgian beer conglomerate InBev for $20 billion.
I’d see this as a vote of confidence in Mexico’s currently hot economy and in the prospects for further consolidation of Mexican democracy and the rule of law. What’s more, in business terms, the whole thing has an interesting backstory.
Some time back Anheuser-Busch, makers of Budweiser, bought half the company, although it only got 44 percent of the voting rights. Then years later, when InBev was looking to take the company over, one countermove they considered was to take on debt to buy the rest of Grupo Modelo and thus become too big to swallow. Instead, InBev upped their offer, and the companies merged. But now InBev is going forward with the full takeover.
