AB InBev loses its financial fizz, with falls in profits and volumes
The sparkle came off AB InBev's financials a little bit today, as the company reported a slump in profits and volumes for its second quarter.
The company reported that total volumes had dropped by 1.7 per cent on an organic growth basis in the most recent quarter, while volumes for AB InBev's own beers dropped by 0.8 per cent.
Meanwhile, normalised profit attributable to shareholders fell to $1.7bn (£1.3bn), down from just shy of $2bn the year before, and normalised earnings per share also dropped to $1.06, down from $1.21.
Revenue dropped to $10.8bn, down on $11.1bn the year before. However, this did represent four per cent organic growth.
AB InBev forms one half of the so-called Megabrew merger, the other half being fellow brewer SABMiller.
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It's not been the smoothest of rides for the would-be deal. Although the companies have cleared regulatory hurdles set by competition watchdogs now in most of the major territories, including getting the green light from the US Department of Justice earlier this month, several key shareholders have indicated that they are no longer pleased with the money AB InBev has put on the table.
AB InBev originally offered £44 per share in SABMiller, but increased it by £1 per share to £45 earlier this week.