LONDON (Reuters) -Carlsberg on Thursday reported annual operating profit growth at the top of its guided range and forecast higher than anticipated growth for 2025, sending the Danish brewer’s shares 6% higher.
Carlsberg, the world’s third largest brewer behind Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken, said organic operating profit grew 6% for the full year, versus a guided range of 4% to 6%, though volumes missed analysts’ expectations.
The company anticipates between 1% and 5% growth in organic operating profit for the current year. Some analysts, including at Jefferies and Barclays, had anticipated 0% to 4% growth for the maker of brands like Kronenbourg 1664, Tuborg and Somersby cider.
CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen cast 2024 as a year that will “shape the future of Carlsberg,” including via major shifts like its acquisition of British soft drinks maker Britvic and the troubled sale of its Russian business.
The Britvic deal, completed in January, has weighed on Carlsberg’s shares and price-earnings ratio since it was announced in July, with investors questioning its merits.
Carlsberg reiterated on Thursday that the deal would help the brewer diversify to offset declines in beer consumption in western markets and deliver cost synergies.
Demand in China, Carlsberg’s largest market, remained subdued, driving down volumes, and challenges there were expected to continue, Aarup-Andersen said.
Carlsberg did, however, outperform the wider beer market in China, which it projected was down 4%, which it attributed to gaining market share.
It flagged strong growth for its portfolio of expensive beers in markets including China, comments likely to be welcomed by investors after an economic slowdown saw drinkers in Carlsberg’s largest market ditch its pricier labels.
For the current year, it forecast a “relatively stable” consumer environment, but warned uncertainty around consumer sentiment remained in Asia and Europe.
($1 = 7.1800 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Kirsten Donovan and Bernadette Baum)
