这三个巴西人最终会控制人类所有的饮食来源吗？

    席卷全球的收购狂潮在上周三达到了新的高度。一大早，啤酒巨头百威英博宣布有意竞购另一家世界级啤酒企业南非米勒。对此，全球的反垄断专家都大发嘘声。他们声称，一旦交易成功，全球啤酒市场基本上就将掌握在一家公司手中。根据国际研究机构Euromonitor的数据，百威英博届时在全球的市场占有率会高达30%。

    不过，届时还将出现另一个更让人担忧的问题。如果这次交易获得批准（目前暂时不考虑股权被强制过户的情况），全球究竟有多少食品和饮料的消费会掌握在三个人的手中？

    巴西私募公司3G的名称代表三位主要合伙人：豪尔赫•保罗•雷曼、卡洛斯•阿尔贝托•斯库彼拉和马塞尔•赫尔曼•泰列斯。他们就是百威英博竞购南非米勒的幕后推手。百威英博目前控制着百威、时代和科罗娜等多个知名啤酒品牌。此外，他们在过去五年中收购了好几家私有和上市食品公司（其中部分收购是与沃伦•巴菲特合作完成的），其中包括亨氏、卡夫、汉堡王和Tim Horton。这六家公司加起来的收入约有1000亿美元，市值总和高达3500亿美元。这让3G成为了全球最大的食品和饮料产品集团，比收入650亿美元的百事可乐公司还要大得多。食品和饮料业咨询公司Bevmark的主管汤姆•皮尔科表示：“这几个人是要掌控世界吗？嗯，显然如此。”

    当然，3G没有完全控制这些公司，所以你无法把他们看作一个公司实体。不过3G已经成为上述各家公司中实力最强的团体，远超任何普通股东。他们有必要的资金来做他们想做的事情，到目前为止，这似乎还仅限于削减成本或是整合生产。

    在这个时代，消费者都在远离大品牌的食物，但3G依旧在持续发展。他们似乎想用规模来应对消费者对大品牌的抵制。但这对消费者的选择权来说究竟意味着什么呢？（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    审校：任文科

    The global takeover frenzy hit a new high on Wednesday, with the news this morning that beer giant AB InBev has made a play for SABMiller. Already, antitrust experts around the globe are tut-tutting that too much of the world’s beer market could come under one umbrella should the deal go through, with an estimated 30% of global market share coming under the control of AB InBev, according to Euromonitor.

    But another, possibly more worrisome question comes to mind. If this deal is approved, leaving any forced divestitures aside for the moment, exactly how much of the world’s food and beverage consumption will be concentrated in the hands of three men?

    Brazilian private equity firm 3G—named for the three main partners, Brazilians Jorge Paolo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira, and Marcel Herrmann Telles—is behind the move for SABMiller, as it was for the rollup of AB InBev, which, in addition to Anheuser Busch, controls brands like Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Corona already. But 3G has also, in the past five years, taken private—and then, in some cases, public—several other large food companies (some in partnership with Warren Buffett) including Heinz (2013), Kraft (2015), Burger King (2010), and Tim Horton’s (2014). Together, estimated revenue for the six companies is around $100 billion, with an estimated combined market cap of $350 billion. That would make it one of the largest combination of food and beverage products in the world—much larger than $65 billion-in-revenues PepsiCo, for example. Says Tom Pirko, director of Bevmark, which advises the food and beverage industry: “Are these guys taking over the world? Well, sure.”

    To be sure, 3G doesn’t control 100% of these companies, so you cannot think of them as a single corporate entity. But 3G is the most powerful group at each of those companies—more so than any common shareholder, to be sure. It has the wherewithal to do what it wishes, which, so far, seems to be cutting costs and consolidating production. (See, for example, our article Squeezing Heinz or this, from Fortune, on 3G exec Carlos Brito).

    In an era when consumers are moving away from big food, 3G continues to grow bigger. Scale, it seems, is 3G’s antidote to consumers’ rejection of big brands. But what does it mean for choice?