Effects of the M&A Wave in the Global Brewing Industry 2000-2010

The brewing industry has experienced massive changes over the last decade. Industry concentration has increased dramatically, and the leading brewing groups have globalised their operations across virtually all continents. Based on a major data base the paper traces some causes and assesses the main effects of the M&A strategies in the global beer industry. The results verify that the 4 large acquiring brewing groups are more efficient than a control group of 200 large breweries but they have not performed significantly better in the period. This gives some evidence for the market power hypothesis which seems to work in the brewing industry in this period.