AB InBev Lowers 2019 Ebitda Guidance; 3Q Net Profit Leapt

By Ian Walker

The world's biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (ABI.BT), on Friday lowered its full-year Ebitda guidance, citing a number of headwinds which it expects to continue into the fourth quarter, but still reported a near three-fold rise in net profit.

The company--which houses Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona among its brands--said it expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the year to show "moderate" growth, compared with previous guidance of strong growth. It blamed a number of factors for the lower guidance, including higher costs of sales from commodities and currency headwinds.

Net profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $3.0 billion compared with $959 million the year previous. The net profit consensus forecast was $2.82 billion, taken from FactSet and based on four analysts' forecasts.

Normalized Ebitda--one of the company's preferred metrics which strips out exceptionals and other one-off items--slipped to $5.29 billion from $5.31 billion. Normalized Ebitda consensus forecast was $5.55 billion, taken from FactSet and based on eight analysts' forecasts.

The company said it expects to deliver strong revenue growth for the year as a whole. Revenue rose to $13.17 billion from $12.92 billion.

The company said total beer volume fell 0.5% on an organic basis to 143.4 million hectoliters. In North America total beer volumes fell 3.4% to 29.0 million hectoliters, it said.

The board has declared an interim dividend of 80 European cents (88.83 cents) a share.

Write to Ian Walker at [e-mail]; @IanWalk40289749

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 25, 2019 01:43 ET (05:43 GMT)

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