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Anheuser-Busch InBev NV on Tuesday announced a $1-billion share buyback as it boosted profit slightly for the first nine months of 2023, though volumes declined.
The Leuven, Belgium-based brewer said it will repurchase its own shares within the next 12 months. The Corona owner also said it will offer cash for up to $3 billion in aggregate purchase price of outstanding bonds.
For the first nine months of 2023, normalised earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation was 7% higher at $15.10 billion from $14.90 billion a year earlier, despite commodity cost headwinds. Normalised Ebitda for the third quarter to September 30 was up 4% to $5.43 billion from $5.31 billion.
Revenue for nine months rose by 8% to $44.91 billion, up from $43.12 billion, while third-quarter top-line growth was up 5% to $15.57 billion from $15.09 billion, driven by a revenue per hectolitres increase of 9% as a result of pricing actions, ongoing premiumisation and other revenue management initiatives.
But total volumes fell marginally by 1.4% to 440.0 million hectolitres for the first nine months from 446.4 million hectolitres. For the third quarter, total volumes were down 3.4% to 151.9 million hectolitres from 157.3 million hectolitre, as growth in Middle Americas, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions was primarily offset by performance in the US and a soft industry in Europe.
Earnings per share for nine months increased by 10% to 1.71 US cents from 1.55 cents, while EPS in the third quarter was up 2.8% to 0.73 cents from 0.71 cents.
‘The strength of our global footprint delivered another quarter of top- and bottom-line growth,’ Chief Executive AB InBev Michel Doukeris said.
AB InBev expects Ebitda for 2023 to grow in line with its medium-term outlook of between 4% and 8% and revenue to grow ahead of Ebitda from a healthy combination of volume and price.
It guides for net capital expenditure of between $4.5 billion and $5.0 billion.
Shares in AB InBev were up 3.6% at R 1,051.23 on Tuesday morning in Johannesburg, ahead of the European market open.
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