The Budvar Position If InBev Buys AB, A View By Tony Jennings, CEO, Budvar UK

The purchase of AB, owners of Budweiser by InBev would only be relevant to Budweiser Budvar if the Czech Government divested itself of Budvar – and most commentators in the know on the Czech Political scene would tell you that this is still light years away. In fact if the InBev-AB deal does happen it would be likely to have the effect of swinging Czech public opinion even further behind growing demands to keep the Budweiser Budvar brewery safe in the hands of the Czech state.
      Right now the purchase of AB by InBev would in trademark dispute terms mean business as usual for Budweiser Budvar.  The adversary would still be the same and we are confident we would see any new InBev line-up off just as we have the existing one for the past 100 years.
           In the unlikely case of a newly created InBev-AB monster being in a position to buy Budweiser Budvar the answer is they would. Not only would it save on the legal bills (it’s unlikely that the new owners would end the trade mark war) but as Budvar and  Budweiser are such completely different beers with completely different   followings they could easily co-exist in the same portfolio. If this did happen it also puts a question mark over the future of InBev owned Starapramen. The Czech monopoly authorities may well be opposed to InBev adding a further Czech brewery to its portfolio but  in any event there is the possibility that this wouldn’t arise because InBev may have to sell off some brands to raise the cash to buy AB and Starapramen could be one of them. In a diplomatic paraphrase of his thoughts on the issue Roger Protz has predicted that the acquisition of Budvar by InBev would not be in the best interests of Budvar or its millions of fans throughout the world . (ends)
      
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