Company profile: 3G Capital

3G Capital, Inc. is a private equity firm specializing in investments in brands and businesses in retail and consumer sectors.  The firm was founded in 2004 and is based in New York City, with an additional office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

website: www.3g-capital.com

Major deals:

1. March 2015: 3G and Berkshire Hathaway announced the merger of H.J. Heinz and Kraft Foods Group, forming the Kraft Heinz Company.
2. 12/2014: Tim Hortons and Burger King merger completed, worth roughly $11.0 billion. The two brands continue to operate independently under the new global quick service restaurant - Restaurant Brands International (QSR). As of Dec 12, 2014, shares of Tim Hortons and Burger King Worldwide common stock have stopped trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange, respectively.  Restaurant Brands International is the world's third-largest fast-food company with a market value of roughly $18 billion. The combined business is expected to generate about $22 billion in sales and constitute more than 18,000 restaurants in 100 countries. 350 people lost their jobs at Tim Hortons when the deal was finalized in January 2015.
3. June 2013: 3G and Berkshire Hathaway’s acquisition of ketchup-maker H.J. Heinz Company. The CEO of 15 years, Bill Johnson, was replaced with 3G partner Bernardo Hees (pronounced “hess”). After his first speech to the 50 top executives, at a Heinz leadership conference in a San Francisco, Hees immediately summoned most of them, one by one, into a separate room to inform them of whether they still had a job. Eleven of the top 12 execs did not — they were swiftly replaced by younger talent from within Heinz or by outside executives who had worked at other 3G-owned companies. Within another month, Heinz announced it would cut 350 of the 1,200 full-time jobs at Pittsburgh headquarters, plus another 250 elsewhere in North America.
4. 2010: 3G bought Burger King for $3.3 billion. Burger King started a new advertising campaign, dropping its much criticized oversize “King” mascot in favor of celebrities including Sofia Vergara and Salma Hayek.
5. 2008: they drove the creation of Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), now the world's largest beer company, in a $52 billion takeover bid. When 3G led InBev’s hostile takeover of Anheuser-Busch, it quickly cut 1,400 jobs from the American company (75% of them in St. Louis) and brought in Brazilian executives from InBev — itself the result of a 2004 merger of Belgian beer maker Interbrew and Brazilian beer maker Ambev, which was the result of a 1999 merger between Brahma and Antarctica — to run things.  

Key Executives For 3G Capital, Inc.

• Alexandre Behring; Co-Founder, Managing Partner, and Board Member; Age: 47
• Marcel Herrmann Telles; Co-Founder and Board Member; Age: 64
• Carlos Alberto Da Veiga Sicupira; Co-Founder and Board Member; Age: 66
• Jorge Paulo Alberto Lemann; Co-Founder and Board Member; Age: 75
• Roberto Moses Thompson Motta; Co-Founder and Board Member; Age: 57

Jorge Paulo Alberto Lemann, Brazil's richest man (net worth $25.1 billion)

Of Swiss-Brazilian nationality, Lemann grew up in Brazil but headed to the United States to attend Harvard. In his younger days, he was a tennis champion, though he eventually traded in his racket for a briefcase and dove into the banking world.

Since then, he has built a personal fortune Forbes estimates to be $25.1 billion, largely through ventures in investment banking and private equity. Today, he is Brazil's richest man.


©Artremis / Eva Sawicka (6/15)