UPDATE: Molson Coors 4Q Net Drops 44% Amid Weaker Volume

Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TAP) posted a 44% drop in fourth-quarter net income Tuesday, as weaker consumer spending pressured volumes at the beer giant and foreign exchange fluctuations hurt results.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Chief Executive Peter Swinburn said the company has seen some stabilization of U.S. volumes coming into 2009.

"We are not saying we are recession proof, we are recession resistant," he said. Molson Coors' stock was recently down 7.5% at 37.48 after earnings missed analysts estimates.

Brewing is traditionally seen as a defensive industry during a recession, but Molson Coors' results - together with a recently reported volume drop from U.S. joint-venture partner SABMiller PLC, the world's second-largest brewer - have raised questions about how sharply the global economic slowdown will hurt the beer industry.

Molson Coors, which trails only Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ABI.BAT) in size, reported net income of $96.8 million, or 44 cents a share, for the latest quarter from $176.2 million, or 96 cents, a year earlier. Earnings per share from continuing operations fell to 49 cents from 96 cents.

Earnings per diluted share, excluding items, fell to 57 cents a share from 73 cents.

Revenue figures weren't disclosed.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting 71 cents a share.

Total worldwide beer volume fell 4.2%. Brewers are recently discovering that emerging markets such as Russia and China can no longer be relied on to drive growth, as those economies have slowed as well.

Pretax profit in Canada dropped 23%, reflecting the weaker Canadian dollar. Sales to retailers fell 0.6% in Canada. In the U.K., pretax profit fell 24%, reflecting weakness in the pound.

Earlier Tuesday, Molson Coors' U.S. joint venture with SABMiller, MillerCoors, posted a 40% drop in fourth-quarter net income, amid a write-down on its Sparks caffeinated alcoholic beverage. Volume slid 4.4% to 16.1 million barrels while sales to retailers dropped 2.3%, hurt by a weaker market and softness in the Miller Lite brand. MillerCoors said it was "well on its way" to delivering its goal of $500 million in annual savings by the third year of combined operations.

MillerCoors agreed in December to stop producing and selling caffeinated-alcoholic drinks under a settlement with more than a dozen state attorneys general. The Sparks agreement - in which MillerCoors agreed to remove caffeine, taurine, guarana and ginseng from the drink - was a blow to MillerCoors because Sparks had become the dominant product in the category. But the company said in December it was confident it could continue to increase Sparks sales.

-By Mike Barris and Anjali Cordeiro, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5658; [e-mail]