E-Malt.com News article: Malaysia: Carlsberg Malaysia to launch new line of draught beer in the premium segment

Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd’s management has expressed its intention to launch a new line of draught beer in addition to its existing Carlsberg Green Label, Borneo Post reported on February, 26.

The new brew is set to compete against rival brand Heineken, which currently had a hold on the premium beer segment, a research report by OSK Research Sdn Bhd (OSK Research) states. Other than that, Carlsberg is also set to revisit traditional trade channels such as coffee shops and sundry shops, on which it had placed less emphasis in previous years.

Carlsberg feels that this segment had been largely untapped in recent years even though the spending power of consumers in Malaysia’s second and third tier cities has grown. The company sees this channel as being attractive given the low advertising and promotion (A&P) expenditure although traditional trade channels only represents 40 per cent of all beer trades.

To recap, Carlsberg’s latest financial results were spot on in accordance with OSK Research’s estimates and also consensus expectations, with revenue and net profits making up 99 per cent of OSK Research’s full-year estimates.

Earnings grew at all levels mainly due to the incorporation of Carlsberg Singapore into the Carlsberg Group, which caused revenue to surge 31 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) while net profits soared by double digits to RM133.2 million.

Furthermore, the better efficiencies and higher growth upon the incorporation exercise helped to lift earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margins to 14.1 per cent from 11.3 per cent in the preceding year.

The company’s full-year dividend payout including special dividends amounted to 58 sen per share or 66 per cent ahead of the research house’s expectations, based on a 100 per cent payout ratio.

OSK Research pegged Carlsberg’s target price at RM7.20 per share.



02 March, 2011