AB InBev Q3 Profit Rises, But Volumes Down

(RTTNews) - Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, known as AB InBev (BUD, AHBIF.PK) Friday reported higher third-quarter profit, driven by growth in revenues. Meanwhile, total volumes declined 2.6 percent, with own beer volumes down 2.7 percent, hurt by weakness in Russia and China.

For the third quarter, profit attributable to equity holders increased to $2.5 billion from $2.37 billion in the previous year. The company said its recent-quarter result reflected a non-recurring gain of $81 million, mainly due to incremental proceeds from disposals in prior years.

On a normalized basis, quarterly profit attributable to equity holders was $2.32 billion, compared with $2.21 billion, driven by lower net finance costs.

Normalized earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, totaled $4.75 billion, compared with $4.66 billion a year ago.

"We believe that the third quarter was a one-off in terms of EBITDA performance, and is not reflective of expected future trends for the business," the company said in a statement.

Revenue for the recent quarter rose to $12.24 billion from $11.73 billion in the year-ago period. Organic growth was 2.3 percent.

Total volumes in the period declined 2.6 percent organically, with 2.7 percent decrease in own beer volumes, and 0.9 percent drop in non-beer volumes.

Europe accounted for over 40 percent of the decline in own beer volumes, driven by Russia and Ukraine. In China, volumes declined 4.9 percent, mainly due to cold temperatures in August and September. However, the firm said it saw good progress in all four of its top markets.

The company, which makes Beck's and Corona beer, witnessed solid underlying commercial performance in its top markets, with revenue growth of 2.3 percent, and revenue per hl growth of 4.9 percent on a constant geographic basis.

Volumes of global brands increased 3.1 percent, driven by 6.7 percent rise in global Corona, and 2.8 percent rise in global Budweiser. Total Focus Brands volumes edged down 1 percent form last year.

For full year 2014, the company expects revenue per hl to grow organically in line with inflation, on a constant geographic basis, as a result of continued improvement in mix and revenue management initiatives.

AB InBev expects an improvement in the trend of US industry volumes, the Mexican beer industry to return to growth in fiscal 2014, and sees Brazil beer industry volumes to resume growth in the fiscal.

AB InBev board has approved an interim dividend of 1.00 euro per share for fiscal year 2014, to shareholders of record on November 13, payable on November 14.

In Brussels, the shares closed Thursday's trading at 87.16 euros, up 0.22 percent.