Brazil: AmBev is expected to report strong quarterly profit
Companhia de Bebidas das Americas (AmBev), the Brazilian arm of the InBev NV group, is expected to report that earnings nearly tripled in the third quarter as robust beer sales helped offset a foreign exchange impact, Reuters posted on October 28. Five analysts surveyed by Reuters forecast, on average, net profit of 384.2 million reais, up from 131.7 million reais a year earlier and 305.2 million reais in the second quarter.
AmBev, which was bought last year by Belgium's Interbrew, now called InBev, is slated to report earnings on November 3. Third-quarter net revenue is expected to rise 30.5 % from a year earlier and 4 % from the second quarter, to 3.85 billion reais, buoyed by healthy sales at home and abroad.
AmBev reported earlier this month that the volume of its overall beer sales rose 4.4 percent in the quarter from a year earlier, and rose 3.4 percent in Brazil, its biggest market. So far this year, total beer sales are up 8.3 percent, including a 10 percent rise in Brazil, where the company has 68.3 percent of the beer market, according to AC Nielsen.
The increase in sales is likely to have helped offset the negative effect of a prolonged rally this year by the Brazilian real against the U.S. dollar. A stronger real reduces AmBev's foreign revenues when they are repatriated back into the country.
On the operating level, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure of cash flow known as EBITDA, is expected to climb to 1.51 billion reais from 1.14 billion reais a year earlier and 1.42 billion reais in the second quarter.
AmBev has long dominated Brazil's beer market. Besides Brazil's top three brands -- Skol, Brahma and Antartica -- it also owns the Canadian brewery Labatt, Quinsa in Argentina, and has plants in several other Latin American countries.
AmBev's main rivals in the Brazilian beer market are privately owned Schincariol, and Cervejarias Kaiser, which is owned by Molson Coors Brewing.
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