HEIA Heineken

By Dominic Chopping and Joe Hoppe

Heineken NV shares fell Wednesday after it said organic beer volumes rose in the third quarter by 8.9%, missing market consensus expectations of 12% as taken from its website, and that its outlook was cautious.

Shares at 0730 GMT were down 9% at EUR80.24.

The Dutch brewer said that the weaker than expected results were driven by low-single-digit volume growth in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, though the Asia-Pacific region delivered a strong recovery from pandemic-related restrictions with total beer volume growth of 89.6%.

Net revenue--which excludes excise tax expenses--rose to 7.79 billion euros ($7.76 billion) in the quarter from EUR6.03 billion last year. A company-compiled consensus forecast had seen net revenue at EUR7.88 billion.

In the nine-month period, net revenue rose 23% to EUR21.27 billion while net profit fell to EUR2.2 billion from EUR3.03 billion. Net profit last year was boosted by an exceptional gain of EUR1.27 billion from the revaluation of a stake in United Breweries in India.

The company backed its guidance for 2022 of a stable-to-modest sequential improvement in adjusted operating profit margin, but didn't reiterate its previously provided 2023 guidance of adjusted operating profit organic growth in the range of mid- to high-single digits.

"We increasingly see reasons to be cautious on the macroeconomic outlook, including some signs of softness in consumer demand. We remain vigilant and confident in our EverGreen strategy," Chairman and Chief Executive Dolf van den Brink said.

The company said it maintains its efforts to offset input cost inflation with pricing.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com and Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 26, 2022 03:50 ET (07:50 GMT)

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