Russian beer sales lift Interbrew
BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) -- Interbrew, the world's fourth largest brewer, said on Monday it had sold more beer in the last few months of the year, especially in Russia and the Ukraine where it has been recovering lost market share.
In its second trading update in as many months, the Belgian brewer of global brands Stella Artois and Beck's repeated a forecast for the year of higher operating profit on lower underlying net turnover.
It also reiterated that 2003 earnings on a per-share basis would be lower due to the strength of the euro against other currencies.
Interbrew's stock gained 1.2 percent to 20.06 euros in thin volume in early trade in Brussels.
Apart from the sale of more beer, Interbrew's brief trading update was the same as the one in October, analysts said.
"It didn't have any real surprises,'' said Nicole van Putten at Fortis.
"I don't expect much additional positive movement in the share price,'' said Gerard Rijk at ING.
Interbrew's stock is down 11.1 percent this year, underperforming the Dow Jones Stoxx food and beverage index by 6.1 percent.
It and other global brewers are recovering from a difficult first half, which was hit by a weak global economy, a strong euro, the Iraq war, the SARS crisis and bad weather in North America.
More beer sold in Russia
Interbrew said underlying volume growth, which excludes currency fluctuations, acquisitions and divestments, rose 6.2 percent in the first 11 months of the year.
The rate was faster than the 5.7 percent recorded for the first nine months.
KBC Securities analyst Marc Leemans said the faster growth rate was thanks to Russia and Ukraine, where Interbrew has been regaining lost market share by selling beer in popular plastic rather than unpopular glass bottles.
"But it (the growth rate) won't go on forever,'' he said.
Interbrew said volumes grew in western Europe, especially the United Kingdom and Germany.
But they were flat in the Americas as growth in Cuba and Canada was offset by a decline in imports in the United States, it said.
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