The 2004 merger of Interbrew and AmBev created InBev, an international brewing company.
Belgian brewer Interbrew and Brazil’s AmBev completed their combination in 2004. The deal joined Interbrew’s European brewing heritage with AmBev’s strong position in Brazil and other Latin American markets. The new company adopted the name InBev, combining recognizable elements from both predecessor names.
InBev expanded through additional acquisitions, including the purchase of Anheuser-Busch in 2008. That transaction created Anheuser-Busch InBev, commonly abbreviated AB InBev, which became one of the world’s largest brewing groups. This later name is a common source of confusion: AB InBev was not the company formed directly by the 2004 Interbrew–AmBev merger.
Interbrew itself had been formed through earlier brewing-industry combinations, while AmBev was created in 1999 by the merger of Antarctica and Brahma. Thus, the InBev story is part of a longer chain of major international brewery mergers.