The owner of Budweiser and Corona is to hand investors $1bn (£824m) in a bid to restore confidence after a trans backlash against the company.
AB InBev, one of the world’s biggest brewers, promised to return cash to investors through a share buyback, the first in its history, as it announced a 13.5pc slump in US sales.
The company continues to feel the impact of a Bud Light boycott in protest at the brand’s marketing partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Earlier this year Bud Light sent Ms Mulvaney a personalised can of the beer to celebrate her first year of transitioning gender.
The promotional stunt with the 26-year-old sparked anger and boycotts from conservatives in the US, who accused the brewer of pursuing a Left-wing agenda.
Prominent conservatives took to social media to criticise the move including rapper Kid Rock, who posted a video of himself shooting a pack of Bud Light beer with an assault rifle.
Sales of the beer have fallen sharply in the US as a result and AB InBev’s share price has fallen by almost 10pc in the wake of the crisis.
Mexican beer Modelo Especial overtook Bud Light as the best-selling beer in the US over summer.
News of the share buyback – which puts money in investors’ pockets by buying their shares – comes as the company struggles to move on from the crisis.
The brewer said US off-licences and supermarkets were still ordering fewer cases of the beer, six months after the marketing tie-up with Ms Mulvaney. Sales to retailers in the US were down 16.6pc in the three months to September, “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light”.
AB InBev has been trying to repair the Bud Light brand and released a patriotic TV advert featuring the US flag, the Grand Canyon and a narrator talking about “the American spirit” in the wake of the backlash.
Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing at Bud Light, took a leave of absence amidst the furore.
As well as backlash from the Right, AB InBev has also been criticised by human rights groups for not defending Ms Mulvaney.
The social media personality said in June she felt abandoned by the brewer.
She said: “For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all, because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want.”
AB InBev made no mention of Ms Mulvaney in its third-quarter results, published on Tuesday.
Worldwide sales rose 5pc in the three months to the end of September, helped by higher prices. The volume of beer sold by the company fell 3.4pc.
Rival Heineken said last week that rising beer prices were causing drinkers to cut back.
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