Carlsberg A/S, the world’s fourth-biggest brewer, reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as it sold more beer in western Europe and Asia.
Earnings before interest, taxes and one-time items rose 46 percent to 661 million Danish kroner ($99 million), the Copenhagen-based company said in a statement on Tuesday. The average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for 588 million kroner. Sales rose 4 percent on a so-called organic basis.
“We achieved strong overall market share performance,” Chief Executive Officer Joergen Buhl Rasmussen said in the statement. Rasmussen is due to hand the reins to the brewer’s first non-Danish CEO, Cees ’t Hart, next month.
As Russia’s biggest brewer, Carlsberg has been hit by political instability and economic turmoil in the country and last year started to reduce its output there faced by weaker demand and a declining ruble. This year, the ruble has rallied 14 percent against the dollar, providing some relief to most international companies operating in Russia.
The maker of Tuborg beer repeated it expects “mid-to high- single-digit” organic operating profit growth in 2015. Organic measures exclude the effects of currencies and acquisitions.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
