(News Bulletin 247) – Heineken on Wednesday announced first quarter sales slightly better than expected for the first quarter, supported in particular by its growth in Europe.
The Dutch group, the second largest brewer in the world and the first in Europe, reported this morning an increase of 9.2% to 7.63 billion euros in its quarterly turnover.
In net terms, its sales reached 6.38 billion euros, representing organic growth of 8.9%, barely above the consensus established by analysts.
Although its volumes fell by 2.3% in Europe, the increase in its prices enabled the group to post organic growth in its sales of 13.5% in value over the first three months of the year.
Sales also increased by 14.8% in the Americas region, driven among other things by the ‘premiumisation’ of its portfolio in Mexico and Brazil.
Heineken has also confirmed its forecast of organic growth of 5% to 10% of its operating income this year, while specifying that the bulk – if not all – of this performance would be generated in the second half.
RBC analysts welcomed the numbers, saying they were ‘nervous ahead of the release’, but the results turn out to be ‘fairly decent’.
Heineken shares gained 2.6% at the start of the day, marking the biggest rise in the AEX index on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
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