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Belgian-Brazilian beer brewer AB InBev has managed to beat analysts’ expectations with its first quarter results, but just barely. Despite a higher turnover, its sales volume failed to reach last year’s numbers.
Drop in North America and EMEA
In the first three months of 2017, turnover grew 3.7 % to 12.9 billion dollars (11.8 billion euro), which is slightly better than what analysts had expected (at 12.8 billion dollars). The higher turnover came by despite volumes dropping 0.5 % compared to the year before, and despite stable or improved turnover in other regions, North America (- 4.4 %) and the EMEA region (- 2.7 %) pulled sales volumes down.
The company’s EBITDA grew 5.8 % to 4.8 billion dollars (4.4 billion euro), although Brazilian EBITDA plummeted 23.3 %. A local tax increase the company had not yet incorporated resulted in a 1.8 % turnover drop per hectoliter in the South American country.
Normalized profit grew from 844 million dollars (770 million euro) to 1.5 billion dollars (1.3 billion euro) and its SABMiller integration is going smoothly, resulting in 252 million dollars (230 million euro) in synergies. For its full fiscal year, AB InBev hopes to cut 2.8 billion dollars (2.6 billion euro) in costs this way.
