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 The family-controlled company, which has only begun issuing
quarterly trading updates this year, said its "organic growth in net
profit before exceptional items and amortization of brands" - a
nonstandard measure - was up "slightly more than 10 percent" from
the same period a year ago. It did not provide figures.
In the trading update, Heineken repeated forecasts for profits to
rise at least 10 percent for the whole year on that basis.
It said revenues were up 13 percent from a year ago to euro4.62
billion ($6.38 billion) due to its $7.8 billion acquisition in April
of Mexican beer maker Femsa, owner of brands such as Dos Equis,
Tecate and Sol. Excluding this factor, revenues fell 2.1 percent as
a 3.1 percent drop in volume outweighed a 1 percent rise in prices.
"Overall volumes and the organic volume decline were weaker than
expected with weakness in some of Heineken's large markets," analyst
Richard Withagen of SNS Securities said in a note Wednesday. "Still,
profitability was broadly in line with expectations, which enabled
Heineken to reiterate its full-year guidance." He rates shares a
Hold.
Shares fell 3.8 percent to euro36.565 in Amsterdam.
Heineken painted a picture of growth in emerging markets contrasted
with stagnation in wealthy nations.
[to top of second column] |
 Volumes in Western Europe
-- where Heineken is Britain's largest
brewer with its Scottish & Newcastle brand -- were weak due to bad
weather and poor consumer confidence.
In the Americas "volume growth in Latin America, the Caribbean and
Canada largely compensated for lower volume growth in the U.S.A.,
where the economic environment continues to affect beer
consumption," Heineken said in a statement.
In August, the maker of Amstel and Murphy's had reported first half
2010 net profit of euro695 million, including a euro121 million gain
from the sale of businesses, and revenues of euro7.52 billion.
[Associated
Press]
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