Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital, AB InBev’s largest shareholder, and controlled by Brazilian-Swiss investor Jorge Paulo Lemann (77), plans reportedly to consolidate the processed food industry just the same way it does with AB InBev in consolidating the worldwide beer industry. According to a report on website Brazil Journal 3G Capital is stacking up $8 billion to $10 billion for a major acquisition which is speculated to be Mondelez International Inc, maker of iconic brands like Oreo, Milka andCadbury.
It looks like nucleus for the consolidation and buyer of Mondelez will be The Kraft Heinz Company, just the way AmBev, later Inbev and at the end AB InBev was used as a vehicle to consolidate the brewing industry. The Kraft Heinz Company is currently the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world and was formed last year by the merger of Kraft Foods and H. J. Heinz Company. The merger was backed by 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway, controlled by American investment guru Warren Buffet. 3 G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway already bought Heinzfor $28 billion two years earlier. Kraft Heinz’s brands include Kraft, Heinz, ABC, Capri Sun, Classico, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Lunchables, Maxwell House, Ore-Ida, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Planters, Plasmon, Quero, Weight Watchers Smart Ones and Velveeta.
The money for the new investment will come from the current partners in 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway which already helped the merger of Burger King with Canadian donut chain Tim Hortons, creating Restaurant Brands International Inc. Additionally wealthy private investors are invited to invest a minimum of $100 million each. According to Brazil Journal, that claims to have the information from private sources close to Lemann, at least 10 Brazilians and celebrities from around the world have already committed to invest in the new fund including Brazilian top model Gisele Bündchen and Swiss tennis player Roger Federer.
How Jorge Paulo Lemann formed 3G Capital and AB InBev:
Jorge Paulo Lemann, born in Rio de Janeiro by Swiss immigrants and graduate from Harvard University, won the Brazilian national tennis championship five times before he worked in investment banking and founded with his two partners Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Herrmann Telles his own investment firm Banco Garantia which they sold in 1998. From 1990 on he served as a member of the board of directors of Brahma, the largest brewery by that time in Brazil. In 1993 he and his partners, founded private equity company GP Investimentos and bought majority interests in the two leading Brazilian breweries Brahma and Companhia Antarctica Paulista which they later merged to become AmBev. Through further mergers AmBev turned into InBev and later AB InBev, which is today by far the world’s leading brewing group. In 2004 the partners sold their interest GP Investimentos and founded 3G Capital together with Roberto Thompson Motta and Alex Behring, who was already partner in GP Investimentos since 1994 and runs today 3G Capital from its office in New York. Besides New York 3G Capital has two other offices in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
