Nouvelles de la société
- Fermentis et la Malterie du Château: Invitation à la Fermentis Academy le 15 decembre 2023
- Rejoignez La Malterie du Château® à BrauBeviale 2023 - la première exposition mondiale de brassage !
- Lettre ouverte pour les clients et les partenaires de la part de Jean-Louis Dourcy, Directeur Général de la Malterie du Château
World: AB InBev halves proposed dividend to save about 1 bln euros
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV halved its proposed dividend, which will save about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) as the coronavirus pandemic has shut bars and cut beer drinking, Bloomberg reported on April 14.
The final dividend payment will be 50 cents a share, AB InBev said on April 14 as it postponed its annual meeting with shareholders by two months to June 3. The shares rose as much as 3.4% as European stocks gained.
European and North American companies have cancelled more than $50 billion of dividends as the fallout of lockdowns and social-distancing measures hits investors. On April 13, French advertising company Publicis Groupe SA slashed its dividend in half. The world’s top brewers, including Heineken NV and Carlsberg A/S, have withdrawn their earnings outlook for 2020 as countries shut bars and restaurants, restricting beer sales to supermarkets and liquor stores.
Shares of AB InBev, once one of Europe’s top companies by market value, have dropped by about two-thirds since peaking in 2015. The maker of Budweiser and Stella Artois has been struggling with sluggish demand and its $96 billion debt load largely accumulated through the 2016 takeover of SABMiller. Deleveraging will be one of the major challenges for Fernando Tennenbaum, who has been picked to replace Chief Financial Officer Felipe Dutra at the end of this month.
Net debt stood at four times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization at the end of December. AB InBev has set a target to reduce that ratio to two times.
Revenir
E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .
