Anheuser‑Busch InBev (AB InBev)

• One of the 500 FT Wilshire companies
• Topmost and only from Belgium
• Market Cap of USD 97 billion
• Employs 144000 people across 50 countries 
• Revenue of USD 59.380 billion. EBITDA of ~20 billion, 
• North Am 15% vol, 25% rev (Premium)
• Middle Am 26% vol, 29% rev (Premium)
• South Am 28% vol, 21% rev 
• EMEA 16% vol, 15% rev
• APAC 15% vol, 10% rev
• 
  
• 584 million hecto litres volume (top 40 account for 1.6 billion hectolitres)
• "Each year, more than 2 billion consumers around the world choose our beers." 
• The largest beer company in the world (Brands include Budweiser, Corona, 500 brands)
• Competitors-  Heineken has revenue of USD 33 billion, Carlsberg group ($10 billion), Molson Coors ($11 billion) (mainly North Am), Asahi Group ($18 billion)(Japan and Asia), China Resources Snow Breweries Co., Ltd.(top 4, USD 19 billion)
• Apparently, top 4 companies account for ~60% of the beer market (??? check) -
• maybe in volume (top 4 of top 40) as per one report.
• in value terms these add up to ~120 billion out of 800 billion+ market
• 
  
• Beer market
• The market is interesting. Expanding in value terms though volume may not as much
• The total size of the market is $840 billion (est)
• Czech Republic largest per capita beer consumption. China largest market in world by total volume. (22%), followed by US (10.6%). Brazil is third largest.
• Total beer bottles 303 billion annual volume (633 ml bottles)
• The combined output of the world’s “top 40” brewing groups in 2024 was about 1,639 mhl.
• Total beer world consumption ~192billion kilolitres or 1,920 mhl
• Top 4 brewers - 1100-1200 mhl.
• AB InBev (2024): ~575.7 mhl
• Heineken (2024): ~242.6 mhl
• Estimating China Resources Snow (CRB): ~170–180 mhl
• Carlsberg Group: ~120 mhl 
• GM of 55.25% (up from 53.87%)
• EBITDA margin 25.87%
• 0.65% sales growth
• Negative Working Capital cycle (68 days inventory, 32 days debtors, 320 days creditors)
• Cash conversion cycle is negative (high numbe of days negative)
• Amazon has a negative CCC
• Some mega retail companies have similar
• Two interesting aspects in the company - BEES and DTC
• We have transformed our route to market, enabled by BEES, a global business-to-business digital commerce platform created by AB InBev. In 2024, BEES transacted approximately 49 billion USD of gross merchandise value (GMV) in 28 countries.
• In 2024, our omnichannel Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) ecosystem, including our digital brands Ze Delivery, Tada Delivery and PerfectDraft, as well as approximately 12,000 physical retail locations such as Modelorama in Mexico, generated 1.4 billion USD in revenue. Across 21 markets, our digital DTC business delivered approximately 76 million e-commerce orders, growing 10% from 2023, and generated approximately 560 million USD in revenue

Exploring the world through top companies

One of the sources or ways of exploring the world is to explore the top 500 companies. FT Wilshire makes a list. Here's a snapshot. 

What I really appreciate is the value of market cap provided in the newspaper itself rather than stopping at P/E ratio. Short of revenue, this is a good enough metric for understanding and appreciating the relative size of the companies. 

A long exploration journey. Glad we have covered Australia so far.

And here's a deepdive of the list I came across.

As of September 2025:

ASX #11 Telstra Group

1. Market Cap of AUD 55 billion (11th largest ASX co, largest telecom group on ASX).
2. Revenue of AUD 23 billion, EBITDA of 8.6 billion, PAT of 2.3 billion
1. The largest telecom company in the world by revenue is China Mobile, which reported a revenue of $133.6 billion in 2024
2. The global telecom sector's total service revenue was $1.14 trillion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.9% through 2028, reaching approximately $1.3 trillion. This growth is driven by rising mobile data, 5G subscriptions, and IoT services, though the industry faces challenges like price pressures and increasing cost
3. 
   

ASX#10 Goodman Group

1.  Market Cap of ~AUD 60 billion. (By some counts, 10th largest market cap on ASX. Largest property group on ASX)
2. 439 properties across the world. Portfolio of $85.6 billion (June 25. A year ago $78.6 billion). Logistics and Data centers. Global Industrial Property abd Digital Infrastructure.
3. 1000 people across 27 offices. (Compared to other large companies on ASX, some of the lowest number of people. Asset and Capital business. - On the spectrum of returns on capital, labour, towards capital)
4. Operating Income of 2.3 billion (which is revenue) for FY25
1. Gross Property Incoem 211.6 million (higher than PY)
2. Management Income 603 million (lower than)
3. Development Income 1.5 billion (higher)
5. PAT of 1.66 billion. P/E close to 35 times
6. 5 GW data bank. (Global capacity is 80-120 GW, implying 4-6% market sharE)
7. 
   

About the business - Goodman is developing essential infrastructure the world relies on – from e-commerce and logistics networks to cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital connectivity. Its customers include sophisticated logistics operators seeking automation and productivity, and hyperscalers and colocators requiring access to power and fibre in strategic locations to deliver data centres at speed.

As at 30 June 2025, we have 439 properties located in key consumer markets in 13 countries across Asia Pacific, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom and the Americas, while our 5.0 GW power bank is across 13 major global cities within these countries. Our property portfolio consists mainly of single and multi-level industrial properties and data centres. They may be single buildings or a collection of buildings on one site leased to one or more customers for various purposes. 

 we are the largest property group on the ASX, and an ASX top 20 entity by market capitalisation, and one of the largest listed specialist investment managers of industrial property globally

The logistics business continues to represent the majority of Goodman’s $85.6 billion portfolio

Key operational highlights include:

• + Total portfolio of $85.6 billion, up 8.8%
• + High portfolio occupancy of 96.5%
• + Development work in progress (WIP) of $12.9 billion of which 57% is data centres
• + Development completions of $5.1 billion
• + Data centre power bank of 5.0 GW across 13 major global cities