Netherlands: Heineken rises 5.5 % after Cazenove says cost concerns are “overdone”

Heineken NV, the Dutch brewer that sells beer in more than 170 countries, rose as much as 5.5 percent in Amsterdam trading after Cazenove said the shares' decline this year on raw-material cost concerns is excessive, Bloomberg reported February 13.

``Whilst we would acknowledge the uncertainty regarding the impact of higher input prices on Heineken's costs, we believe that the market's fear of this issue is overdone,'' Cazenove analysts led by Matthew Webb said in a note to investors. They have an ``outperform'' rating on the stock.

Heineken rose as much as 1.94 euros to 37.44 euros and were trading up 1.70 euros, or 4.8 percent, to 37.20 euros at 11:37 a.m. local time. That cut this year's drop to 16 percent. The shares closed at their lowest since July 2006 two days ago.

``We conservatively estimate that Heineken will have to increase its prices by about 5 percent in order fully to pass on the increase in its input costs,'' the note said. ``We believe Heineken will be able to do just that.''

13 February, 2008