Column: Heinz: the headline-friendly LBO

Felix Salmon

Brazilian multi-billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann’s cunning plan seems to have worked. In 2008, when his InBev announced that it was buying Anheuser-Busch, there was an immediate uproar: sites like Drink American and SaveAB immediately appeared to protest the deal. (“With your help we can fight the foreign invasion of A-B. We will fight to protect this American treasure. We will take to the Internet, to the streets, to the marble halls of our capitals, whatever it takes to stop the invasion.”)

This time around, Lemann has decided that he wants to be the American—and he’s done it by teaming up with an American icon even more beloved than Budweiser or Heinz ketchup: Warren Buffett. This is a takeover of Heinz by 3G, make no mistake: Lemann approached Buffett with the idea in December. But look at how this is playing on, say, the New York Times homepage: the headlines are all about Buffett and Berkshire, not about Brazil. This is a leveraged buy-out, just like most other private equity deals, but it’s getting none of the bad press that LBOs often receive, and no one’s talking about “corporate raiders”. (The headline isn’t even accurate: Buffett is paying only half of the $23 billion, with the other half coming from Lemann and his partners in 3G. And it’s unclear what mergers are included in this “revival”.)

It’s easy to see why both 3G and Buffett love this deal. $23

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