Actual finance blog

Sara Lee Corp will sell its personal care brands like Sanex and Brylcreem for $1.87 billion (1.275 billion euros) to consumer goods giant Unilever and set a $1 billion share buyback plan, sending its stock up 6 percent.

Sara Lee also said on Friday it has seen significant interest in its household products business, which includes Ambi Pur air freshener and Kiwi shoe polish. The divestitures allow it to focus on its food and beverage businesses like Sara Lee baked goods and Hillshire Farm meats.

The deal also reinforces Anglo-Dutch Unilever’s global lead in deodorants and skin cleansing and marks the first major acquisition for new Chief Executive Paul Polman. The businesses it is acquiring from Sara Lee see 85 percent of their sales in Europe.

Sara Lee CEO Brenda Barnes said she expected the entire household and body care business to be reported as discontinued operations in the current fiscal first quarter, a sign the company expects to be able to sell the other businesses.

“As the process proceeded, it became clear that there were different people who had far more interest in different pieces of this,” Barnes told Reuters in an interview. She did not say which companies were interested in which businesses.

Credit Suisse analyst Charlie Mills said the price Unilever is paying of 10 times core operating profit, or EBITDA, is not huge by industry standards, which reflects the fairly disparate collection of brands.

“We’re not convinced that this is the greatest collection of assets but another acquisition shows Unilever still moving from the back foot (cost cutting and disposals) to the front foot (volume growth and acquisitions),” he said.

KEY EUROPEAN MARKETS

Unilever says the Sanex, Radox and Duschdas brands will complement its Dove, Axe and Rexona at slightly lower prices and strengthen its European business in key markets such as Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Denmark.

Sara Lee said the brands sold accounted for 55 percent of the profits from its businesses up for sale.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Kenneth Zaslow said the deal is valued at about 1.7 times sales and 15 to 16 times earnings before interest and taxes, about in line with past household personal care deals.

The rest of the businesses Sara Lee is trying to sell are likely to receive lower valuations since the household business has a lower growth rate, but Sara Lee is still likely to receive total proceeds at the higher end of BMO’s $2 billion to $2.5 billion estimate, Zaslow said in a research note.

Sara Lee also reiterated it intended to maintain its current quarterly dividend of 11 cents for the next four quarters regardless of the timing of disposals.

Sara Lee’s board also approved a $1 billion share repurchase program. The plan is in addition to 13.5 million shares remaining to be bought back under a previous share repurchase program.

Unilever Plc shares were down slightly at 17.35 pounds in London, while Sara Lee shares were up 64 cents or 6.1 percent at $11.18 in early afternoon on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. 

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Wells Fargo & Co has fired a senior vice president after investigating reports she held lavish parties at a foreclosed beachfront Malibu house owned by the bank.

The fourth-largest U.S. bank said in a statement on Monday that it had terminated one employee, senior vice president Cheronda Guyton, who it found had violated its policies.

“We deeply regret the activities that have taken place as they do not reflect the conduct we expect of our team members,” the bank said in the statement.

Wells Fargo, which received $25 billion in government bailout money last October, was criticized earlier this year for planning events at upscale Las Vegas hotels for top mortgage employees. It said in February that it did not plan any more of these “recognition events” this year. It said at the time that such events were part of its culture, and that it believes in rewarding hard-working team members.

Guyton, who had been responsible for Wells Fargo’s foreclosed commercial properties, used the 3,800-square-foot beachfront house on Malibu Colony Drive on weekends for parties, one of which had guests arriving on a yacht, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing neighbors.

The previous owners of the house — which sits in the same California community as that of movie star Tom Hanks — had purchased it for $12 million, but lost a fortune to convicted swindler Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme, the Times reported, citing a real estate agent.

Malibu Mayor Andy Stern told Reuters that he appreciated the fact that Wells Fargo took the issue seriously.

“They seem to have done a rapid and thorough investigation. I respect that they did that,” Stern said.

Any kind of corporate misbehavior affects the institution and the industry, said Sandra Chrystal, who teaches business ethics and communications at University of Southern California. Chrystal said a company committee likely made the decision to let Guyton go.

“If anything the corporate culture is now more sensitive to issues like this because of the financial problems and impression that anyone in the financial industry is wealthy or having a good time at the expense of the common public,” Chrystal said.

A resident in the enclave told Reuters on Sunday that Guyton had parties but that they weren’t excessive.

“It’s shocking what she did. I really question her judgment. How many other bank executives would make a decision like that?” said the resident, who asked not to be identified.

Wells Fargo, which acquired troubled bank Wachovia Corp at year end, said last week that it had taken possession of the Southern California property in May and withheld it from the market for an agreed-upon period of time. It said its policy prohibited personal use of properties held by the bank.

Wells Fargo said earlier this month that it would repay its bailout funds without raising additional capital, but did not give a timeframe. Other large banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley repaid money from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Plan in June.

Shares in the bank closed on Monday up 1.8 percent at $27.92.

(Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein and Gabriel Madway; Editing by Toni Reinhold, Gary Hill)

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Jorge Ramos runs a camp at Seneca College, teaching kids about money.

About 200 children went to Camp Millionaire this summer at a cost of $240 each. Most are 9 to 11 years old, but there’s an advanced course for graduates aged 12 to 14.

Pushed by parents to go, some were not happy campers.

One boy sat on the sidelines, refusing to pick any stocks for an interactive trading contest.

"He came in fifth by being out of the market. After that, he was excited and really got into it," says Ramos, who bought the Canadian rights to the camp from a California entrepreneur.

He’s learned to make financial literacy fun for youngsters. So, what’s his advice for parents trying to do the same thing?

First, he says, involve kids in your household’s finances. You don’t have to disclose your income or your net worth, but you can talk to them about how much things cost – even the family home.

Second, use an allowance as a budgeting tool. Make kids responsible for their spending on clothes, entertainment and other discretionary purchases.

"Instead of saying, `Here’s $10 a week, do what you want,’ structure a budget allocated to items they want to buy in the next few months.

"When you say to kids, ‘Here’s $40 a week, don’t blow it,’ they look for sales. They’re more cautious when it’s their money. You’re empowering them."

Third, encourage kids to start a business. Selling lemonade, raking leaves or shovelling snow can teach them about how markets work.

They have to ask questions such as: What do I charge for my product or service? Who are my clients?

Testimonials at his website, FinancialIQ.ca, are endearing.

Michael, 9, is making money picking up sticks, apples and nuts in his mom’s garden. He also grows pumpkins and sells some of them.

Michelle, 11, is earning "passive income" from interest on her bank account instant credit report. (That’s a popular term for money received on a regular basis with little effort required to maintain it.)

Matthew, 13, learned so much after the first day that "financial intelligence was coming out of both ears."

Kids are assigned homework to do with their parents.

"They have to ask, ‘What was the best investment decision you ever made and the worst? What does it cost to raise me?’ "

At Camp Millionaire, children learn to use money jars for spending, saving, giving and education.

The use of jars, popularized by host Gail Vaz-Oxlade in a TV show, Til Debt Do Us Part, allows them to budget in a tangible way and dedicate money to different goals.

Ramos says he’s starting to cover his costs. He made a pitch to The Dragons Den, a CBC-TV show that helps entrepreneurs get funding but came away empty-handed.

Doug Meharg, on the other hand, became a millionaire at 28 through owning real estate. He bought his partner’s share of an apartment building in Markham with 50 suites, all rented.

In a self-published book, Become a Richer You, he gives tips for raising savvy kids – such as banishing bad attitudes and recognizing that mistakes are part of success.

Failures help you learn what not to do next time, he says, and might even point you in the direction of what you need to do.

Junior Achievement of Canada does such work with kids during the school year free (jacan.org).

There’s obviously a demand for exciting, interactive ways to improve personal money management.

Let’s hope the new financial literacy task force plants seeds for such programs to sprout in communities across the country.

eroseman@thestar.ca

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General Motors told white-collar workers Friday that it is restoring temporary pay cuts made May 1.

The 3 percent to 10 percent pay cuts to salaried workers’ pay came at a time when GM was desperate to save cash to keep the company operating prior to its bankruptcy filing June 1.

The pay cuts depended upon an employee’s level.

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Morgan Stanley Chief Executive John Mack is stepping down and will be replaced by retail brokerage head James Gorman, signaling the storied bank is embracing stable businesses after losing big on risky ones.

Mack, 64, a former trader who rose to CEO after a coup toppled Philip Purcell, will remain chairman of Morgan Stanley, which posted a second-quarter loss of $1.26 billion even as other banks had stronger results.

Under Mack, Morgan Stanley was willing to bet more of the bank’s own money, a strategy that yielded big rewards in years like 2006, but also helped push the investment bank to the brink of collapse in 2008.

The shift to Gorman, 51, who runs Morgan Stanley’s brokerage and has been overseeing its expansion through a joint venture with Citigroup’s Smith Barney unit, could be a sign of a wider shift in the industry, analysts said.

“All these large financial institutions are going to replace their head honchos with someone with a background in a business with a more consistent, predictable revenue stream — commercial banking, retail brokerage, or asset management,” said Bill Fitzpatrick, equity research analyst for financials at Optique Capital Management in Milwaukee.

Gorman will take over the CEO job — and join the board of the iconic bank which has struggled to keep up with archrival Goldman Sachs — effective January 1, 2010.

FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL

The Australian born Gorman has long been seen as a front runner for the top job at Morgan Stanley, the bank founded 74 years ago by former executives from JPMorgan & Co.

“Gorman has really earned his stripes,” said Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors in Rochester, New York, which owns Morgan Stanley shares. “He did a great job at Merrill, he’s doing a good job at Morgan Stanley, and the timing for a change seems to be good, because we’ve made it through the worst of the crisis.”

Mack had told the bank’s board that he planned to step down from the CEO post when he turned 65 in November, the bank said in a statement on Thursday.

Morgan Stanley’s shares have come roaring back this year after it fought for survival in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse, helped by the U.S. government and an investment from Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ that Mack took the lead in negotiating.

Still, the bank’s shares, which are up nearly 80 percent so far this year, have fallen short of a 107 percent surge in Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s stock.

Morgan Stanley earlier this year paid $2.75 billion to acquire a controlling stake in Citi’s Smith Barney retail brokerage, a move that could provide a more stable source of revenue to offset some of the investment bank’s more volatile businesses.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2006, Gorman worked at Merrill Lynch & Co. From 2001 to 2005, he led Merrill’s global private client business.

STANDING OVATION 

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Germany raised the pressure on General Motors on Friday to choose a buyer for its Opel unit, with Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg telling the U.S. carmaker he expected a “fundamental decision” next week.

Speaking on ARD television, Guttenberg said there were offers for Opel which were ready to be signed and that it was time for the U.S. parent to “give in.”

Frustration with GM is mounting in the German government, which has come out strongly in favor Canadian auto parts group Magna’s bid for Opel.

Sources have told Reuters that some members of the GM board want to keep Opel instead and if that does not work would prefer to sell to Belgian-based financial investor RHJ International. Guttenberg said talks were focused on finding an investor solution for Opel, suggesting Berlin does not expect GM to keep the carmaker.

The government has said it would only provide billions of euros in aid to Opel if GM selects Magna. There are big questions about whether GM could come up with the funds it would need if it decided not to sell its European unit.

The head of GM Europe, Carl-Peter Forster, told Die Welt newspaper in comments released on Thursday that he believed Magna was most likely to win a bidding battle for Opel but that the carmaker could also thrive under the ownership of its U.S. parent.

“The greatest probability would be, for me, Magna, since all prerequisites are fulfilled, the contracts have been negotiated to their conclusion, and the financing is there,” he said in Friday’s edition of the German paper business cards.

GM sources said Forster, whom Magna has requested to stay on to run Opel should it win the deal, was not speaking for management.

The sources said a group of senior executives, including vice chairmen Bob Lutz and Tom Stephens favor either the RHJ bid or, increasingly, no sale at all.

Opel, which employs about 25,000 people in Germany, has been on the political agenda for months in Europe’s largest economy, which holds a federal election on September 27.

In an interview published on Friday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said she still expected Opel to be hived off from GM.

“We have no indication that GM is moving away from an investor-based solution,” Merkel told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung daily.

Opel’s senior labor leader, Klaus Franz, on Thursday told General Motors that his workforce would not pitch in to reduce about $1.2 billion in costs if Detroit retained control of the European unit.

(Writing by Dave Graham, editing by Will Waterman)

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Planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in August, suggesting less stress on the labor market and improvements in consumer spending and the broader economy in the coming months, a report released on Wednesday showed.

Planned job cuts announced by U.S. employers fell to 76,456 last month, down 21 percent from 97,373 in July, according to a report released by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

While the rate of layoffs has slowed, the cumulative number of job cuts has climbed to 1.07 million from January through August, 60 percent higher than the same period a year earlier.

But August’s layoffs were the second smallest monthly total so far in 2009, the firm said. It also marked the sixth time in the past seven months that job cuts fell from the prior month.

“That does not necessarily mean that there will be a sudden surge in job creation as 2010 gets underway, but we will at least be heading in the right direction,” said John Challenger, the firm’s chief executive, in a statement.

The planned job cuts in August were led by government and non-profit sector, which announced 38,586 layoffs, as it has struggled with falling tax receipts.

While the federal government has been one of the few employers creating jobs, the U.S. Post Office said last month it aimed to reduce 30,000 or roughly 4.6 percent of its payroll mostly through early retirement buyouts.

“Fortunately, the job cuts by the post office are not indicative of a coming surge in federal government downsizing. Rather, the cuts are tied to falling mail volume as more Americans rely on e-mails,” Challenger said.

An encouraging sign is job cuts outside the government are steadily shrinking. If monthly job cuts stay near or below 100,000, “it will be a strong indication that the economy and job market are improving,” he said.

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An empty 400,000-square-foot warehouse built two years ago near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is scheduled to go into foreclosure Thursday.

Loan documents filed with St. Louis County in December 2007 show that two units of ING bank loaned $16.85 million to Hazelwood Bulk Building LLC, controlled by McEagle Properties.

But negotiations are under way with the project’s lender to rework the $16.85 million loan and cancel the foreclosure, Chris McKee, president of McEagle, said Tuesday. "There’s a reasonably good chance it won’t go to foreclosure," he said.

The building, marketed as the Hazelwood Logistics Center, is within a 151-acre development site. Only the warehouse building is involved in the foreclosure action. Commercial broker CB Richard Ellis is handling the leasing for the entire site, which is bounded by Lindbergh Boulevard, Phantom Drive and Missouri Bottom Road.

The area is within the region’s Foreign Trade Zone, which the Commerce Department expanded this year by more than 825 acres. County officials said the expansion boosts plans to develop a Chinese air cargo hub around Lambert.

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They sell quirky beers with names such as "Buffalo Drool" and "Wheach," a peach-wheat combo. You won’t see their commercials on television, because they do their marketing through fish fries and Facebook, e-mails and street festivals. Their staffers might wear kilts from time to time.

They are Missouri’s craft brewers, independent makers of small-batch beers. In this recession, they are proving they have something more than quirkiness: Staying power.

Craft brewers across the St. Louis region say their business is proving surprisingly resilient as the economy slices into the hide of other industries. Times are difficult, but craft brewers are growing or holding steady.

Good beer, good food and strong connections to the local area are essential.

"I don’t think our crowd has pulled back," said Dushan Manjencich, owner of Buffalo Brewing in midtown St. Louis. The brewpub, which opened in March 2008 on St. Patrick’s Day, is apparently benefiting from the revitalization of the Olive Boulevard corridor. Sales are up this year by 10 to 15 percent, Manjencich said.

Craft brewers — including beer-

brewing restaurants called brewpubs, microbreweries and regional breweries that send beer across hundreds of miles — sold 4.2 million barrels of beer nationwide in the year’s first half, up from 4 million in the same period last year, according to the Colorado-based Brewers Association.

With the overall U.S. beer industry basically flat, craft brewers will take that pace of growth, even if it’s slower than before.

Dollar sales from craft brewers increased 9 percent in the first half of 2009, compared with 11 percent growth in the same period in 2008. Measured in liquid, sales rose 5 percent this year, compared with 6.5 percent growth last year.

"Real good, considering," said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. "A lot of companies are still growing and expanding distribution."

O’Fallon Brewery in O’Fallon, Mo., is certainly looking for new territories. The company, which saw its beer sales to Missouri wholesalers rise 4.7 percent through June, is expanding distribution into Kansas and is also eyeing other states as far away as Florida.

"It’s pretty much, putting the blinders on and working the plan and not really doing anything different during the recession," said co-founder Tony Caradonna. "People are still coming to the party."

In Missouri, retail sales of craft beers brewed in the state were up nearly 18 percent, according to Nielsen. That far outpaced overall beer sales.

"Consumers are looking to buy locally," said Nick Lake, vice president at Nielsen Co. Drinkers of craft beers "like variety, and they certainly like ‘local,’ and they like to support the underdog."

Craft brands are slowly gaining space on store shelves and restaurant menus, Gatza said.

One reason is that some drinkers are switching from wine and distilled spirits to cheaper beer when they’re at a restaurant, bar or nightclub. In a Nielsen survey released in May, nearly a quarter of wine consumers reported choosing less expensive drinks.

Perhaps most importantly for craft brewers, support from wholesalers and retailers is growing, thanks to the hefty profits that stores and distributors can earn from selling pricey craft beer.

Craft beers represent 3.2 percent of the U.S. beer industry’s case sales and 5.2 percent of dollar sales, according to Nielsen.

Several craft brewers and beer-focused restaurateurs say they have not had to cut prices to attract drinkers. Prices for craft beers have risen more than 4 percent this year — an increase of $1.44 per case in supermarkets — according to Information Resources Inc.

In this economy, that’s "remarkable," said Dan Wandel, senior vice president at IRI. "The craft beer segment has a lot of momentum."

At St. Louis Brewery, the makers of Schlafly beer are watching sales rise in Missouri and across the Mississippi River in Illinois. The company’s beer sales to wholesalers in Missouri and Illinois were up more than 30 percent in the year’s first half.

For St. Louis Brewery — which operates the Tap Room in downtown St. Louis and the Bottleworks in Maplewood — the spike in beer sales in stores across the metro area has helped compensate for flat restaurant sales. The company is in the middle of a renovation at Bottleworks that will allow it to brew thousands of additional barrels of beer per year.

"We’re now a brewery with a restaurant, instead of a restaurant with a brewery," said Dan Kopman, chief operating officer.

That might be a good thing, because bars and restaurants are weathering tough times.

At Morgan Street Brewery on Laclede’s Landing, co-founder Steve Owings said overall business was flat. The brewpub opened in 1995 and focuses on attracting visitors to downtown hotels and conventions as well as sporting events.

Banquets, which represent about a third of Morgan Street’s overall business, are fewer and farther in between these days. Morgan Street’s beer production is on pace to be flat compared with last year, or perhaps short by a couple of batches. With one month remaining in its fiscal year, the company had made 600 barrels of beer. That compared with about 690 barrels in fiscal year 2008.

Square One Brewery near Lafayette Park and its sister brewpub, Augusta Brewing, are boosting production to keep up with bigger sales. Augusta’s production of beer is up about 27 percent compared with last year, and Square One is up 5 percent, said Steve Neukomm, owner of the establishments. Augusta might brew 550 barrels or more this year, he said.

"This year, we’ve actually been running very well," said Neukomm, who opened Square One in 2006. "I’ve been very, very happy. I almost don’t want to say something and jinx it."

Still, people have noticeably cut back on visits to bars and restaurants. That has been a challenge for Kansas City-based Boulevard Brewing, which draws 55 to 60 percent of its business from draft beer sold at such establishments.

Boulevard, one of the biggest craft brewers in the U.S., expects to make about 150,000 barrels of beer this year and is planning an expansion that will add another 60,000 barrels of capacity. But its sales in Missouri are basically flat this year.

The recession has taken a psychological and emotional toll even on folks who didn’t lose their jobs, benefits or even much investment holdings, said Bob Sullivan, Boulevard’s vice president of marketing. "They’ve kind of been holed up in their houses," said Sullivan.

But the new dynamic of eating and cooking at home also creates opportunity for Boulevard, which is paying more attention to grocery chains and other key retailers. Boulevard is putting on beer and food pairings at Schnucks stores. There are also radio commercials — featuring a voice-over by actor Matthew McConaughey — that encourage visitors at Price Shopper stores to grab a package of Boulevard Wheat along with prime cuts of beef.

"Certainly in tough economic times, drinking a good beer is an affordable luxury," said Nielsen’s Lake. Craft beer has "a lot of legs and a lot of room to grow."

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Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, managed to squeeze more profits from smaller beer sales in its second quarter.

Thanks to cost savings in North America, the company blew through analysts’ profit predictions. Its beer sales — measured by liquid sold — fell 1.1 percent worldwide. But revenue rose 1.4 percent to $9.5 billion, and profit margins widened as the company posted $1.07 billion in quarterly earnings.

"Profits were higher than expected with the excellent cost management — again — from their side," said Wim Hoste, analyst at KBC Securities in Belgium. "This was a good set of results."

In the first half of the year, North America chipped in nearly half of the company’s global earnings. The company now reports its financial results in dollars and New York serves as a shadow headquarters. (Officially, it is still based in the university town of Leuven, Belgium.)

"When it comes down to basics, these guys basically care about three markets: Brazil, China and the U.S.," said Rob Mann, consumer goods analyst at Liberum Capital in London. "This is now an American business with a very powerful Latin American franchise."

The company said the $52 billion takeover of Anheuser-Busch continues to yield cost savings, with integration running ahead of schedule. The combined company delivered $315 million in synergies in the second quarter and $610 million in the first half of the year by cutting costs —

including jobs — implementing InBev’s famously strict budgeting procedures and using its size to get better terms from suppliers. The company said it is on pace to deliver $1 billion in cost cuts from the Anheuser-Busch takeover this year — a goal Hoste said is starting to look "conservative," given the company’s track record.

In the first six months of the year, Anheuser-Busch InBev sold $3.56 billion of assets, including brewing assets in China and South Korea, as well as packaging plants in the U.S. The company said it remained focused on reducing its debt and selling off assets in a "disciplined" manner.

The company is reducing its ratio of debt to earnings and is in the enviable position of not needing to sell assets in a fire sale, said Hoste. "They are not a forced seller," he said. "They can choose their deals or just let them go if the price is not right or the structure is not right payday advance lenders."

But Anheuser-Busch InBev issued a cautious outlook, warning that demand was weaker and the overall environment "challenging." Executives said the beer industry is resilient in most key regions but is susceptible to economic pressures and won’t improve quickly.

Shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev fell more than 5 percent on Thursday — the most since April — after the company said it didn’t expect to keep boosting profits at the same rate.

Competitors are weathering the same stagnant beer market: London-based SABMiller’s recent sales volumes were flat, and Danish brewer Carlsberg reported that volumes dropped 6 percent in the latest quarter.

"All the brewers are getting hurt from the global economic downturn," said Hoste. "A-B InBev is no exception."

The company gained market share in the U.S., its largest single market, but only because its sales fell less dramatically than its competitors’. Sales of Anheuser-Busch InBev beer from wholesalers to retailers fell 0.8 percent — "sluggish" results, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Still, the company credited its "diverse portfolio" with helping it weather the difficult environment.

Anheuser-Busch InBev said its "focus brands" did better than its overall stable of 300 brands. Sales volumes of the focus brands rose 1.5 percent in the quarter. That group included Brahma and Skol from Brazil, China’s Harbin and the Bud Light family from the U.S. The brewer vowed to keep investing "significant sales and marketing resources" in its biggest brands.

The company gained market share in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, South Korea, Ukraine, the U.K. and the U.S.

For Anheuser-Busch InBev, the past three months represent a marked improvement over the past few years, said Mann. InBev suffered some troubling missteps before and shortly after taking over Anheuser-Busch. Russia was a disaster for InBev for some time, and Stella Artois stumbled badly in the U.K., for example.

"It was difficult to find any bright spots," said Mann. "But then they did a very large deal (with Anheuser-Busch), and bought themselves some stability. Those (profit) margins are pretty stunning."

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