Brazil brewer Ambev's Q4 net profit slides 11%, missing forecasts (updated)

Ambev SA

29/02/2024 07:42

(Adds more details)
       Feb 28 (Reuters) - 
    Brazilian brewer Ambev  ABEV3.SA  on Thursday reported a
10.9% decline in fourth-quarter net profit, missing market
forecasts as total volumes were slightly down by 0.1%, dragged
down by South America and Canada.
  
        The subsidiary of Belgium's Anheuser-Busch InBev
 ABI.BR  posted a profit of 4.53 billion reais ($911.93
million), versus the 4.64 billion real average estimate of
analysts polled by LSEG.
  
        Revenue also decreased by around 12% from the same
period a year earlier to 19.99 billion reais ($4.02 billion),
missing the 22.14 billion real ($4.46 billion) consensus view.
  
        Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortization (EBITDA) slightly grew by 0.6% to 7.15 billion
reais ($1.44 billion).
  
       The company said currency and commodity trends, plus
lower interest rates, are reducing cost pressure in Brazil. This
year, they expect costs per hectoliter of beer, excluding
non-Ambev products, to drop up to 3.0%. 
  
        Ambev is Brazil's fourth-largest company by market
capitalization, behind oil giant Petrobras  PETR4.SA , miner
Vale  VALE3.SA  and lender Itau  ITUB4.SA .
  
        
  
($1 = 4.9675 reais)

 (Reporting by Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Toby Chopra and
Kylie Madry)
 ((natalia.siniawski@thomsonreuters.com;))