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  Argentina

InBev Wants to Have It All

The Belgian-Brazilian company InBev, through its subsidiary AmBev, has just acquired 91 percent of Argentina’s Quinsa, increasing its holding from the 56% it already owned.

 

Last Thursday, April 13, the Bemberg group, whose activities in Argentina date back to the year 1890, sold all its shares in the brewery Quilmes for 1.2 billion dollars. This transaction wraps up an operation that began in 2002, when AmBev paid 600 million dollars to purchase an interest in Quinsa’s equity, with an option to increase its participation. What was described four years ago as a “strategic alliance” has now turned into an example of how business is done in the era of globalization.

 

This transaction gives InBev full control over the leading company in Argentina’s beer market. When the then AmBev purchased a minority interest in Quinsa in 2002, this company had a market share of 64 percent; that market share now stands at more than 80 percent. If we consider that the company is also the number one brewery in Bolivia, with 98 percent of the market, in Brazil. with 64%, in Paraguay with 85%, and in Uruguay, with 58%, and that in Chile it has a market share of 11 percent, we have that it practically monopolizes beer sales in the countries that make up MERCOSUR.

 

For its part, the Bemberg group, which will receive the huge sum of 1.2 billion dollars in cash, is exempt -under Argentinean laws- from income tax and is under no obligation to reinvest that sum -or any part of it- in the country.

 

Thus, the 1.2 billion dollars will be included in statistics under the coveted title of “foreign investment,” and government-hired technocrats will boast about how an increase in foreign investment entails an improvement in conditions for the population. In this case, however, the investment went into the purchase of something that already existed and that will continue to manufacture what was already being manufactured. There are no new jobs, no new products, no innovation, no new developments… just pure and simple financial speculation.

 

With branches in 30 countries, InBev is the world’s largest brewer by volume, and it holds first place in sales in the Americas, Europe and Asia. In Europe its workers are currently in a pre-conflict situation in response to the closing of factories and layoffs announced in Belgium and other countries.

 

The Bembergs, for their part, will continue to operate in Argentina. They’ll do so through the Bisa investment fund created in 1993, which today owns many businesses, among them: Caro Cuore, a leading designer and manufacturer of quality lingerie; Barugel Azulay, home furnishings and building materials; and Papel Misionero, a cellulose plant accused of contaminating the Paraná River.

In Montevideo, Enildo Iglesias

© Rel-Uita

April 19, 2006

Enildo Iglesias

 

 

 

 

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