Bill Gates Just Became Heavily Invested in Anheuser-Busch: 'Even More Reason Not to Drink Bud Light'
If boycotters of Bud Light needed a new reason to maintain their campaign against the beer, it appears that they have one after it was revealed that uber-leftist and nanny state advocate Bill Gates has doled out a whopping $1.7 million to buy up stock of Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Gates reportedly pumped the cash into Anheuser-Busch expecting that the company will make a major comeback on the heels of a debilitating boycott of its one-time most popular beer.
Bud Light was once the top-selling beer in America, but after its disastrous partnership with transgender TikTok influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, that top status took a nose dive.
Bud Light soon lost its top-selling status only a few short months after a massive and almost entirely organic boycott began.
Last month it was reported that Bud Light suffered its biggest loss of sales thus far as rival brand Modelo surpassed sales of Bud Light at grocery and alcohol stores on a year-to-date basis.
Anheuser-Busch InBev stock prices have fallen 4 percent over the past six months.
Now comes Microsoft billionaire and big government pusher Bill Gates to express his faith in the company.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust acquired 1,703,000 shares which now hold a market value of approximately $95 million, according to investor research company TipRanks.
Gates is not the only one to assume that AB InBev has nowhere to go but up. Morgan Stanley analyst Sarah Simon also touted the company for its impending comeback.
“After successful execution through Covid, 2023 has seen ABI suffer substantial market share loss in the US, driven primarily by consumer boycotts of its Bud Light brand,” Simon said, according to TipRanks.
“While this makes for very negative headlines, ABI’s exposure to emerging markets limits the impact of the US share loss. After one-off costs in 2023, we see profitability growth resuming in 2024, with strong cash flow growth driving leverage to the target 2.0x, allowing for both an increase in the payout ratio as well as the resumption of share buybacks from 2026. Current valuation fails to reflect this upside, in our view.”
Of course, no one predicted the massive boycott that would put serious pressure on AB InBev, either. So, if Americans continue to turn away from AB’s beer offerings, the rosy picture might end up being wrong.
Gates has other beer stock, as well. He also invested $939.87 million in Heineken stock just as the Bud Light boycott ramped up.
He acquired 10.8 million shares of Heineken on Feb. 17, according to the Netherlands Authority for Financial Markets, according to Reuters.
But Bud Light has not yet made anything close to a comeback. In fact, sales for August fell faster than in June. Sales tanked 26.5 percent for the week ending Aug. 5, compared to a fall of 25.9 percent for the week ending on June 17, Yahoo Finance reported on Aug. 15.
“Bud Light volumes crashed 29.7%, accelerating from the week earlier’s plunge of 29.3%,” the report added.
RBC Capital Markets analyst James Jones said that the boycott has been so virulent that they don’t expect any recovery for Bud Light at all this year.
But the announcement that Bill Gates is now onboard with Anheuser-Busch does not seem to be a recipe for success when you think about just who is boycotting Bud Light and AB’s other brands. Most boycotters would seem unlikely to be fans of Gates and his meddling foundation. So, it doesn’t seem likely this news will help AB InBev at all.
Gates has raised the ire of many with his stated plans to force us to eat fake meat, his incessant obsession with the COVID-19 vaccine, and his championing of socialist climate change policies.
So, boycotters of Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch now have an even bigger incentive to boycott.
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