Obtain free Heineken NV updates
We’ll ship you a myFT Each day Digest electronic mail rounding up the most recent Heineken NV information each morning.
Heineken minimize its outlook for revenue progress this 12 months following a pointy slowdown in Asia and as US and European customers balk at paying extra for his or her beer.
The world’s second-largest brewer reported a 22 per cent decline in working earnings within the first half of the 12 months, with its general volumes dropping 5.6 per cent, a steeper fall than the three.4 per cent analysts had forecast.
The Dutch firm blamed the “cumulative impact” of value rises and a “difficult financial backdrop” for the subdued first-half efficiency that was marked by a very weak exhibiting in Vietnam, the place Heineken is the biggest brewer.
With opponents AB InBev and Diageo additionally reporting half-year earnings this week, analysts are enjoying shut consideration to volumes for indicators of shopper pushback in opposition to value rises as drink makers cope with excessive enter prices.
Like its rivals, Heineken has steadily lifted costs in an effort to offset its personal rising prices. Nevertheless, chief govt Dolf van den Brink mentioned he anticipated value will increase to ease within the second half of the 12 months.
The Heineken chief mentioned demand in Asia-Pacific, the corporate’s most worthwhile area, was “significantly softer than foreseen because of an financial slowdown and our personal underperformance in Vietnam”.
Bernstein analyst Trevor Stirling mentioned the brewer’s poor efficiency was largely pushed by occasions past its management however added that the corporate may have responded extra rapidly to warning indicators in Vietnam. The nation’s export-driven financial system has been hit by a stoop in demand following the worldwide financial slowdown, which has in flip affected shopper sentiment.
“As a result of Vietnam has been such an awesome marketplace for so lengthy, it’s taken them unexpectedly,” mentioned Stirling.
Following the weak first half, Heineken mentioned working revenue progress for the total 12 months could be steady in mid-single digits, down from a earlier prediction of mid- to high-single digits.
James Edwardes Jones, analyst at RBC Capital Markets, expressed doubts in regards to the new steering and mentioned he was “bemused by Heineken’s unapologetic willpower to push up costs right into a worsening shopper surroundings”.
“This looks like an enormous check of the pricing energy of Heineken’s manufacturers — a check that has been lower than wholly profitable if 1H’s quantity decline of 5.4 per cent is something to go by,” he mentioned.
Shares in Heineken fell 5 per cent on Monday, erasing a few of their advance this 12 months.
Van den Brink instructed the Monetary Instances that the corporate had written down its Russia belongings to zero, saying: “We simply wish to be out.”
The Dutch group, which additionally makes Tiger, Amstel and Birra Moretti, mentioned it had taken an impairment lack of €201mn so removed from its partial exit from Russia.
In April, Heineken introduced it had recognized a purchaser and submitted an utility for approval to the Russian authorities. Nevertheless the corporate’s standing within the nation has been difficult by the information earlier this month that its competitor Carlsberg, in addition to French shopper items group Danone, have had their Russian subsidiaries seized by the Kremlin.
Van den Brink added that pending a transaction the corporate couldn’t make additional remark in case it impacted their possibilities of approval.
“By no means will we intend to withdraw our transaction. We nonetheless intend to exit the nation,” he mentioned.