AB Inbev shares hit 1yr high after strong half-year performance

Belgian based brewer and world’s largest brewer, AnheuserBusch Inbev, AB InBev, recorded its best quarterly volume performance in over five years with total growth of 2.1%, buoyed by strong performance in Nigeria and other key markets.

Figures released for its second quarter performance shows that revenue surged 6.2% in the quarter, with revenue per hectolitre growth of 3.8percent, driven by healthy volume growth, global pre

miumization and revenue management initiatives. In half year ( January- June) revenue grew by 6.0percent, with revenue per hl growth of 4.2percent.

AB Inbev said it continued to expect strong revenue and core profit growth in 2019 and that revenue per hectolitre would be ahead of inflation. The company is still weighed down by debt after its 2016 purchase of nearest rival Sabmiller and has made deleveraging a priority, and over the past year AB Inbev has halved its dividend and refinanced its debt maturities in order to bring them down

However, it had to shelve a planned flotation of a stake in its Asian operations, only to follow that up a week later with the sale of its Australia business to Japan’s Asahi for $11.3bn. Carlos Brito, chief executive, said the brewer has “no need” to sell additional assets after last week’s decision

The company’s net debt was $ 104.2bn at the end of June, unchanged from the close of 2018, and its net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) ratio dipped to 4.58 from 4.6.