There are few stories that raise the hair on the back of a good beer geek’s neck as fast as those about the ongoing battles between American Bud and Czech Bud.
Thus Evan Rail’s report that the often-rumored privatization of Budejovicky Budvar won’t be happening for at least two more years should produce a few smiles.
The government still plans to transform the company into a joint-stock company in preparation of future privatization, but will own 100% of the shares. It will be left to the government that emerges after the 2010 elections to decide about privatization.
I can’t march in lockstep with the “American Bud bad, Czech Bud good” crowd, so maybe I think this is a good news for a different reason. As Rail suggested in one of his first post at the appropriately named Beer Culture blog were Budvar privatized then Anheuser-Busch might be the best fit.
Just look what has happened when classic brands have ended up in the hands of SABMiller and InBev. And make no mistake, if the brewery is sold it will be a brewing conglomerate.
It’s a Czech beer. It should belong to the Czechs. It’s good news that it’s going to continue that way — at least for now.
At the risk of appearing pedantic, Stan, shouldn’t that be “Budvar staying public“? Government-owned firms are, after all, generally known as public corporations…
To those who might be confused about the meaning of the comment above. The headline first said “Budvar staying private,” which was confusing.
So following Stephen’s suggestion I changed it.
It depends on the law of the country in question, but generally a government owned corporation is *not* referred to as a “public company”.
Yes, it does depend on the country — after all, British public schools have their own neckties, while American public schools have gun detectors.
Incidentally, the “n.p.” after the name in Czech stands for národní podnik, or national enterprise, and the word naturally comes with very patriotic connections. For example, the slogan above the stage of Prague’s National Theatre (founded in the same wave of Czech national awakening as Budvar) says “Národ Sob?,” or “A Nation For Itself.”
and indeed in America “ties” are called “neckties”