Profits tumble at world’s top brewer on Brazil woes

Top global brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, which makes Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois, said Thursday profits were sharply down following “a difficult year”, notably in Brazil, one of its most important markets.

Net profit fell 43 percent to $4.85 billion at the Belgium-based brewer following “a difficult year” in which the group completed its the mega-takeover of rival SABMiller.

“When we do not meet our objectives, we take responsibility for it. Performance has been disappointing in 2016, and as a result, most of the executive board of management will not receive bonuses this year,” it said.

The brewer put the slide down to “higher net finance costs and unfavourable currency translation”.

“A challenging environment in Brazil has put pressure on the consumer and impacted our results,” it said, indicating that revenues had been hit by lower beer sales in the crisis-hit country, while costs rose due to the devaluation of the real.

Brazil’s economy shrank 3.8 percent in 2015 and is expected to have contracted a further 3.5 percent in 2016, as the country experiences its most painful recession in a century.

Without laying out specific objectives for 2017, the group expressed confidence about the future thanks to its tie with SABMiller, saying the integration process was “well under way.”

Ebitda, a key measure of operating performance, remained stable throughout the year (-0.1 percent) at $16.75 billion due to a “very weak result in Brazil in the second half,” it said.

Revenues rose 4.4 percent to $45.52 billion.

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