Belgian brewing force, Interbrew, the world's fourth largest brewer, announced on December 15 that during the first 11 months of 2003, Interbrew, The World’s Local Brewerã, has realised organic volume growth of +6.2%. The rate was faster than the 5.7 percent recorded for the first nine months. In Western Europe, volume performance continues its ascent particularly in the UK and Germany, said Interbrew. Volume performance in the Americas was flat with growth in Cuba and Canada off-set by a decline in imports in the USA, in line with the market in that specific segment. In the emerging markets volume growth continued, led by Russia and the Ukraine.

As previously announced, Interbrew expects that it will achieve organic net turnover and operating profit growth for 2003 broadly in line with the first nine months. The company expects earnings per share for 2003 to be modestly lower than 2002’s pre-restructuring earnings per share of 1.51 euro, due primarily to further weakening of the company’s main trading currencies over the fourth quarter.

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 % this year, underperforming the Dow Jones Stoxx food and beverage index by 6.1 %. 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.

Interbrew has a portfolio of more than 200 brands, run operations in 21 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific and have strategic minority stakes in various brewers around the globe. In 2002 we realised a net turnover of close to 7 billion euro.

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