News/Commentary

DeSantis takes on Anheuser-Busch, defends Florida’s pension fund against ‘staggering’ losses

July 21, 2023 | | Print Article

While the fury over Bud Light’s April partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney rages on, Governor Ron DeSantis is defending Florida’s pension fund from Anheuser-Busch InBev’s “staggering” losses.

In a letter to Lamar Taylor, the interim executive director of the State Board of Administration (SBA), DeSantis requested an immediate review to “examine how AB InBev’s conduct has impacted and continues to impact the value of SBA’s AB InBev holdings.”

“It has come to my attention that the State Board of Administration (SBA) currently holds global equity assets with Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev),” the letter began. “As you well know, AB InBev’s performance has plummeted since its decision to associate its Bud Light brand with radical social ideologies.”

“That fateful decision has transformed America’s formerly best-selling beer — and one of InBev’s best-performing assets — into a commercial pariah,” he stated. “InBev’s losses have been staggering.”

As BizPac Review reported earlier this month, Bud Light nose-dived out of the ninth spot it occupied in America’s hearts last year and dropped to number 14, despite the fact that the same number of people (42%) said they “liked” the beverage in the second quarters of both 2022 and 2023 — a fact noted by Governor DeSantis.


Citing NielsenIQ sales data, DeSantis told Taylor “that the company’s politicization of its Bud Light brand may be dragging down the value of other beverages within the AB InBev umbrella.”

“As sales of AB InBev products within the U.S. continue to precipitously decline, reports are now emerging that large American mainstays like Costco will be pulling Bud Light from the shelves,” he continued. “Clearly, the Board’s mismanagement — as well as its failure to remediate the problem and repair its relationship with millions of disaffected American consumers — has led to this impasse and will continue to financially harm the SBA and other shareholders.”

In keeping with his record of putting Floridians first, DeSantis reminded Taylor that their “legal commitments and obligations” are “perfectly clear.”

“We must prudently manage the funds of Florida’s hardworking law enforcement officers, teachers, firefighters, and first responders in a manner that focuses on growing returns, not subsidizing an ideological agenda through woke virtue signaling,” he wrote.

“It appears to me that AB InBev may have breached legal duties owed to its shareholders, and that a shareholder action may be both appropriate and necessary,” DeSantis explained in calling for the immediate review. “To protect SBA and the retirees of Florida from losses attributable to AB InBev’s disregard of those duties, all options are on the table.”

To punctuate his message, DeSantis appeared on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Thursday.

“We had over $50 million worth of InBev stock,” DeSantis said. “And Florida’s pension fund’s about $180 billion.”


“So, it’s a pretty big endeavor,” he acknowledged. “But it has absolutely hurt teachers, absolutely hurt other pensioners. And we talk about woke corporations and a lot of times we focus on – understandably – how they’re trying to change society, get involved in politics. And we fight back against that. We did that against Disney and others.”

“We’re gonna be launching an inquiry against Bud Light and InBev,” he vowed. “And it could be something that leads to a derivative lawsuit filed on behalf of the shareholders of the Florida pension fund because, at the end of the day, there’s gotta be penalties when you put business aside to focus on your social agenda at the expense of hard-working people.”

“This is the way!!! The only way that these corporations will stop pushing their woke agenda on Americans is to hit them where it hurts the most,” exclaimed one supporter on Twitter. “Once again Ron DeSantis is leading by his actions not just by words.”

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Melissa Fine
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