Anheuser-Busch InBev fell more than 5% Thursday after Altria dumped part of its 10% stake in the beer maker at a discounted price on the tale of the continuing boycott of Bud Light.
Per Investopedia:
Altria announced that it would be selling 35 million of its 195 million ABI shares—AB InBev shares traded on the Euronext exchange—through a global secondary offering. The tobacco giant explained that the sale would be composed of public offerings of ADRs and ABI ordinary shares in the U.S., as well as a concurrent private placement of ABI ordinary shares in the European Economic Area and the U.K. In addition, ABI ordinary shares, including those represented by ADRs, would be offered in countries outside the U.S. Altria plans to allow the underwriters to purchase an additional 5.25 million ABI shares within 30 days of the offering.1
AB InBev explained the shares would be priced at EUR56.17 ($61.26) per ordinary share, and $61.50 per ADR. That would be about 5% below Wednesday’s closing price in the U.S. of $64.55. The beer maker added that it plans to buy 3.34 million ordinary shares for $200 million.2
Anheuser-Busch InBev. “AB InBev Announces Pricing of Secondary Global Offering by Altria and Buyback.”
The move would raise about $2.2 billion for Altria. The company noted that it expects to use the cash generated to buy back its own shares. CEO Billy Gifford said Altria believes “this is an opportunistic transaction that realizes a portion of the substantial return on our long-term investment.”
Of course, this is all after Bud Light made the duel mistakes of calling its customers low lives and then hiring a transgender activist as a spokesperson for a beer that had previously been a staple with working class Americans.
Bud Light has lost billions in market share and sales since the boycott began early last year.
And yet, Bud Light has made no effort whatever to apologize to its former customers. It is still spending millions on the dangerous, anti-American, anti-child, anti-family groomer agenda. It has not changed a single thing at all.
Bud Light does not deserve your patronage.
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