Brazilian beer giant convicted in dispute over 116-year-old shares

Brazilian brewing giant Ambev is facing a bill of over BRL 300 million over an equity dispute that dates all the way back to World War II, involving Germany, former Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas, and popular beer brand Brahma.

In the 1990s, the near 200-year-old German shipping company F. Laeisz discovered that it holds some 74 million ordinary shares in Ambev, and a subsequent court case ruled in favor of F. Laeisz, forcing the Brazilian corporation to pay all dividends and interest due to its shareholders since 2012, an amount believed to total more than BRL 300 million.

In 1904, F. Laeisz was involved in shipping materials to Brazil for the production of Brahma beer, which first hit shelves six years earlier. Impressed by the nascent structure of the Rio de Janeiro brewer, the transportation company decided to invest in Brahma, along with other German firms, including coffee exporter Theodor Willie & co., and the Brasilianische Bank für Deutschland, a financial institution later absorbed by Deutsche Bank. 

The influence of German investors in the early days of Brahma was such that the German-born Johann Künning served as president of the company in the 1900s.

Brazil in World War II

Though Germany’s colonial expansion throughout the 1880s and 1890s was much more focused on Africa and the Pacific, German businesses began to carve out a significant foothold in Brazil, along with their British, Italian, Japanese, and American counterparts. Earlier waves of...