SAB

Introduction
South African Breweries (SAB) is an international company committed to achieving sustained commercial success, principally in beer and other beverages, but with strategic investments in hotels and gaming. The company was founded in 1895 in response to the demand by gold miners in the Johannesburg region. Prior to the introduction of beer, the miners’ drink of choice was raw potato spirits mixed with tobacco juice and pepper. No wonder why the new beer was well received!
Because of Apartheid, South Africa was excluded from the United Nations from 1974 to 1990 . Due to the political isolation experienced throughout these sixteen years, SAB pursued a domestic policy of purchasing cross-holdings in other South African firms, and eventually controlled 98% of the South African beer market. Cross-holding was a form of capitalization for SAB because the local capital markets were drying up due to the international boycott of the country.
In the late 1990’s, per capita beer ...