China: This Bud's for you

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (NYSE:BUD) is like almost every other large U.S. company. It is looking to China for the lion's share of its growth overseas. Over the next five years the beer company plans to double the number of Chinese cities where it sells its products, all the way up to 100 municipalities.

The brewer told Reuters that the potential in China is "huge." The company has only 2% of the beer market in China.

Anheuser-Busch sales were little better than flat last year at $17.958 billion. Net income ticked up a bit to $1.965 billion. Sales volume was weighted heavily in favor of the U.S. where BUD sold 102 million barrels. International sales were almost 22 billion and sales through international partners were almost 32 million barrels. The "partners" segment rose almost 20% while the balance of the company's sales were lackluster.

BUD investors better hope that China and other emerging markets are good for the beer company. Slow growth in overall sales have kept the company's share price flat over the last five years while the Dow is up almost 20%.

And, no one wants flat beer.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.