AB InBev: full-year profit hurt by Brazil.

(CercleFinance.com) - Anheuser-Busch InBev reported on Thursday lower full-year results, mainly hurt by weak volumes in Brazil.


The maker of Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Corona beers said normalised profit attributable to equity holders reached 4.8 billion dollars in 2016, compared to 8.5 billion dollars in 2015.

The company cites higher net financial costs and unfavourable currency translation.

While revenue grew by 2.4% to 45.5 billion dollars, total volumes declined by 2% last year.

The brewer said that beer volumes in Brazil were down due to a challenging consumer environment, with declining real disposable income and the rising unemployment rate reaching its highest level since 1995.

Liberum said "Brazil was a major drag on growth."

"Excluding Brazil AB InBev's organic sales would have been +2.4% and organic EBITDA would have been +6.4% (i.e. ahead of consensus)," said the brokerage firm, which has a "buy" rating and a 110 euros target price on the shares.

For 2017, AB InBev expects to accelerate revenue growth and is updating its 2.45 billion dollars synergy and cost savings expectation to 2.8 billion dollars.

AB InBev shares were down 1.8% at 102.05 euros, while the STOXX Europe 600 Optimised Food & Beverage index was down just 0.5%.

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