The third largest brewer in the world Heineken NV said on Wednesday that its revenues and volumes of beer grew more than had been expected during its third quarter, driven by stronger than expected sales in the Americas as well as a warmer than usual summer across most of Europe. Revenue per hectoliter of beer went up by 1.8 percent compared to Q3 a year ago.
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“They’re a very strong set of numbers”, Trevor Stirling, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said by phone.
Valued at around 35 billion euros, Heineken is Europe’s largest and the world’s third-largest brewer after SABMiller and global No. 1 AB InBev, which are now in takeover talks.
Heineken said it has discontinued its share buyback program after recent acquisitions including Diageo’s Guinness stout brand in Malaysia, and a 50 per cent stake in California-based craft brewer Lagunitas.
“Craft beer in the USA is very, very interesting”, Laurence Debroux, Heineken’s chief financial officer, said. He also reiterated the forecast for revenue and operating profit margin to grow, although he noted that net profit may be hurt to the tune of €50m due to currency fluctuations. It spent 365 million euros buying 5,229,279 shares. Beer volume rose 5.4 percent, compared with the 2.6 percent gain predicted by analysts.
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This figure was influenced by a favorable currency impact of 41 million euros and came despite a negative consolidation impact of 17 million euros from the disposal of Mexican Empaque packaging operations, completed in February 2015.
