The Most Expensive Beer Ever

In September 2015, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (BUD) announced that it will buy fellow mega brewer SABMiller Plc (SAB.L) in a deal worth around $110 billion.

Three cheers for capitalism, right?

Well, if you like your beer options watered down… bottoms up!

The proposed merger unites two of the planet’s biggest beer makers under one giant umbrella (combined, they sell one-third of the world’s beer, including Budweiser, Miller, Stella Artois, Peroni, Grolsch, and Michelob) – and delivers another blow to the craft beer industry.

Indeed, since the deal was announced, BUD has embarked on a beer-buying bender, snapping up no less than three independent craft brewers in the week before Christmas – Colorado’s Breckenridge Brewery, Arizona’s Four Peaks, and London’s Camden Town Brewery.

But is this consolidation coming at the expense of quality?

Is This Deal Actually Any Good?

The Anheuser-Busch-SABMiller deal still has to pass regulatory approval – no easy feat, given the size of the merger and obvious monopoly concerns – but BUD is already working on the numbers.

The company has just raised $46 billion through a corporate bond offering, which is expected to close on January 25. It marks the second-largest corporate bond issuance in history, following Verizon Communications Inc.’s (VZ) $49 billion deal in 2013 to facilitate the buyout of Vodafone Group Plc’s (VOD) wireless operations.

But with massive numbers like this sloshing around the beer industry, what does it mean for craft brewers?

While the mega deal between Anheuser-Busch and SABMiller has grabbed the headlines, does it actually benefit the companies or consumers?

BGC Partners’ Mike Ingram doesn’t think so.

He states, “I really question whether this deal is good for consumers – you’re creating what some have called the OPEC of beer. It will have enormous global market share.”