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☆ Budweiser maker's profit jumps as customers absorb higher prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Philip Blenkinsop | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Bottles of non-alcoholic beer and dishwasher soap are pictured at Anheuser-Busch InBev brewery in Leuven, Belgium November 25, 2019. The maker of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona repeated its 2023 forecast that core profit (EBITDA) would grow in line with its medium term outlook of between 4% and 8%, with revenue to grow ahead of EBITDA. He said AB InBev would invest more in Bud Light over the summer. First-quarter results of AB InBev's rivals Heineken and Carlsberg also showed consumer willingness to absorb higher prices. AB InBev's core profit rose by 13.6% on a like-for-like basis to $4.76 billion, compared with the 5.6% average increase expected in a company-compiled poll.

☆ AB InBev profit jumps as consumers absorb higher beer prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Philip Blenkinsop | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Bottles of non-alcoholic beer and dishwasher soap are pictured at Anheuser-Busch InBev brewery in Leuven, Belgium November 25, 2019. REUTERS/Francois LenoirSummarySummary Companies Q1 core profit up 13.6% vs consensus 5.6%Beer volumes up 0.4%, buoyed by ChinaRetains 2023 forecast of 4-8% core profit riseBRUSSELS, May 4 (Reuters) - Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR), the world's largest brewer, reported higher than expected first-quarter earnings on Thursday as consumers bought its beers at sharply higher prices. Revenue, however, rose sharply, as the company pushed through price increases and some consumers switched to more expensive beers or package formats. First-quarter results of AB InBev's rivals Heineken and Carlsberg also showed consumer willingness to absorb higher prices. AB InBev's core profit rose by 13.6% on a like-for-like basis to $4.76 billion, compared with the 5.6% average increase expected in a company-compiled poll.

☆ Carlsberg agrees to pay 50 million euro fine in German price-fixing case
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

COPENHAGEN, May 3 (Reuters) - Danish brewer Carlsberg (CARLb.CO) has reached a settlement with German authorities and agreed to pay a 50 million-euro ($55 million) fine over the alleged formation of a cartel more than a decade ago. It said it refuted the allegations but had settled in order to focus on its core business of brewing beer. "We confirm that Carlsberg Deutschland Holding GmbH has reached a settlement in this case, which has been ongoing for 11 years and required an enormous amount of time and financial resources," Carlsberg's head of communications, Tanja Frederiksen, said in a statement. "We still strongly disagree with the charges and maintain our innocence, but we have taken this decision in order to be able to fully focus again on the future of Carlsberg Deutschland Holding GmbH," Frederiksen said. The case was concluded on Tuesday at the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, Carlsberg said.

COPENHAGEN, March 23 (Reuters) - Denmark on Thursday invited the Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help salvage an unidentified object found close to the only remaining intact gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. "With a view to further clarifying the nature of the object, Danish authorities have decided to salvage the object with assistance from the Danish Defence," the country's Energy Agency said in a statement on Thursday. "The Danish Energy Agency has in that context invited the owner of the pipeline, Nord Stream 2 AG, to participate in the operation," it said, adding it was awaiting a response from the operator. The pipeline operator is controlled by Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom (GAZP.MM). It was not clear if he referred to the same object that Danish authorities will attempt to salvage.

☆ Maserati listing would need more engine power
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MILAN, March 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Maserati says it wants to be more profitable before considering a spinoff from 52 billion euro parent Stellantis (STLAM.MI). But assume Maserati were to treble sales to 75,000 units by 2025, a target the company touted in 2020, taking revenue to perhaps 6.7 billion euros, and hit the 20% margin target in that year. It could then already fetch a whopping 15 billion euros if valued at an 11 times 2025 EBIT multiple, in line with Porsche. That would make a spinoff meaningful for Stellantis, giving Grasso reason to step on the gas. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Ryan Reynolds flexes as corporate convert
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - For Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds, dealmaking may be more lucrative than Deadpool. One more transaction like this, and Reynolds could find that he has a real future outside of the acting biz. For Mint, Reynolds has described the marketing strategy as “scrappy”, and he has done some catchy things, like appearing alongside T-Mobile’s chief executive in a video announcing the deal and leaving voicemails for customers. Showing success outside of the lifestyle category – in mobile – is validation for the actor, but a differentiating factor might have been Reynolds’ ownership stake in Mint. Converting that stake into a lucrative deal, twice, suggests that Reynolds could be more than just a pretty face.

☆ Credit Suisse bump trade looks over-optimistic
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Investors in Credit Suisse’s bombed-out stock are getting a little ahead of themselves. At that level, they’re 7% above the implied value of UBS’s offer, and a wider 13% using the lenders’ U.S.-listed shares, which trade until later in the day. That deal, like UBS’s rescue of Credit Suisse, was also a government-arranged attempt to prop up an ailing bank. Unlike Credit Suisse, Bear Stearns’ shareholders got a vote, giving them leverage to argue for a higher price. Credit Suisse shareholders have little left but hope.

☆ The history of the swastika: From a sign of luck and fortune to a symbol of evil
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The statue was discovered alongside a range of "phallic objects," suggesting the swastika was used as a good luck symbol to invite fertility. Swastika in EuropeWorshipers of the Norse religion used the swastika symbol as early as 401 AD. US art director Steven Heller, author of "Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?" Co-opted by the NazisSome researchers believe that people of Aryan culture used the symbol as a sign of luck and prosperity. Sheetal Deo and her husband, Sanmeet Deo, hold a Hindu swastika symbol in their home in Syosset, N.Y., on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022.

☆ China’s easing moment may be short lived
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, March 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Western central banks’ new hesitation on interest rate hikes has given Beijing more breathing room. The decision came as a surprise, as the central bank has been generously pumping up bank liquidity when rolling over maturing medium-term policy loans. Such a subtler easing approach reinforces Governor Yi Gang’s view that China’s interest rates are at “appropriate” levels for now. Worries about the country’s mounting corporate and household debt help explain why Yi may favor keeping rates steady for longer. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ FedEx delivers, for now
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TORONTO, March 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - FedEx (FDX.N) is delivering a timely package to investors. FedEx is expecting to cut its U.S. headcount by some 25,000 year-over-year, by the end of this fiscal year. This division is also the largest by revenue, but it benefits greatly from scale. Operating margins dropped in the quarter to 1% from 4.6% as sales fell. Despite the fact that revenue fell in both the Freight and Ground divisions, those groups' operating margins grew.

☆ Carlsberg CEO’s big job is to keep glass steady
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Carlsberg’s (CARLb.CO) new boss is unlikely to tinker with the company’s corporate recipe. The $21 billion Danish brewer on Thursday named Jacob Aarup-Andersen to replace outgoing Chief Executive Cees ’t Hart. A veteran from a rival brewer might have been better placed to introduce new products, and adapt to new industry trends. However, the new boss’s finance pedigree and track record managing businesses suggests that his main job will be to implement the group’s current strategy. It aims to increase revenue by 3% to 5% annually until 2027 and boost operating profit growth above that level.

☆ Two big Silicon Valley banks failed when the easy money ran out - and that could be just the start.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Hallam Bullock | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Before we jump into the newsletter, the Silicon Valley Bank saga is continuing to unfold, so let's quickly break down the latest. "No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer," policymakers added. The fall of SVB and Signature bank means the Fed's aggressive interest-rate hiking regime has now taken sizable casualties. A $15 billion venture capital firm had warned its startups of Silicon Valley Bank's red flags months ago. Greenoaks Capital Partners told clients in an email back in November that SVB, as well as other firms, could see problems in a high-interest-rate environment, Bloomberg reported.

☆ CATL’s battery ram is losing power
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, March 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (300750.SZ) posted earnings growth of 61% for the quarter ended December on Thursday. The company led by Robin Zeng boasts unrivalled economies of scale, allowing it to drive down costs for clients including Tesla (TSLA.O). Alas, in China, which accounts for four fifths of CATL’s top line, such dominance is drawing unwanted attention. On Monday, during a meeting between Zeng and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Party leader expressed mixed feelings about CATL’s 37% global market share. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ WWE girds for insider-betting fight
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Want to bet on a match where the outcome is fixed in advance? The league is in talks with U.S. state gambling regulators to legalize bets on its staged matches, according to CNBC. For WWE the number of insiders may be bigger: Writers, trainers and wrestlers might be among those with an idea of what’s in store. Overseas bettors can already wager on an upcoming six-woman tag WWE team match, the Eurovision Song Contest and Love Island 2023. Meanwhile, the WWE has put itself up for sale, so some theatrical limbering up for future revenue opportunities is a smart way to juice the price.

☆ Bolloré Jr. readies Vivendi for asset purge
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

But the markdown gives Yannick more latitude to end his father’s ill-fated Italian foray while continuing to play hardball to raise the price tag. Here again, the move will give Bolloré junior more freedom to consider offers from potential buyers, which the European Commission will have to approve. At 70, the elder Bolloré, who remains in charge of the family holding that owns a 30% stake in Vivendi, is gradually implementing his succession plan. At 9.8 euros, Vivendi’s stock fails to capture the value of its various investments and trades below an analysts’ target of between 12 to 15 euros. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Sea sails past growth vs. profitability debate
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BENGALURU, March 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Singapore technology giant Sea (SE.N) on Tuesday reported its first ever quarterly profit, beating regional tech firms like GoTo (GOTO.JK) and Grab (GRAB.O) to the punch. The almost $1 billion swing from a fourth-quarter loss in 2021 to a $423 million profit in the final three months of last year is largely down to cost cuts. The company run by Forrest Li slashed sales and marketing expenses alone by $745 million, a whopping 62% drop. Whether that’s sustainable is unclear, though Li pointed out that the company had sold, closed or downsized a number of non-core operations and investments. It’s a welcome sign that upstart tech companies don’t always have to sacrifice profitability for growth.

☆ L&G looks overseas to fight Brexit discount
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

That’s partly due to its concentration in the life sector – Wilson sold out of general insurance in 2020. L&G’s investment management unit has benefited from an international drive, with non-UK assets accounting for 43% of new money last year. On the life insurance side, some 39% of L&G’s gross premiums were booked overseas in 2022, with the U.S. a particular focus for Brexit-backing Wilson. The less L&G looks like a British company, the more attractive it will be to shareholders. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Carlsberg shares have risen more than 60% during Hart's tenure, outperforming AB Inbev and Heineken, whose shares have dropped around 47% and risen around 45% respectively. Carlsberg's shares fell 3.5% at market open in Copenhagen, but later pared losses and were 0.7% lower at 1118 GMT. "Cees 't Hart has delivered remarkable results during his time at Carlsberg," Supervisory Board Chair Henrik Poulsen said. It is also seeking an option to buy back the Russian business in the future. With only around 16% of revenue coming from Eastern Europe, Carlsberg's biggest markets are Western Europe and Asia.

☆ Carlsberg CEO Hart's retirement plan triggers share fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Nikolaj Skydsgaard | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Hired in 2015, partly to help restore sluggish sales in its Eastern Europe division, including Russia, Hart has successfully overseen Carlsberg's SAIL'22 strategy, which focused on cutting costs and improve sales of more premium beer brands. Carlsberg said in a statement that Hart planned to leave by the end of the third quarter. "Cees 't Hart has delivered remarkable results during his time at Carlsberg," Supervisory Board Chair Henrik Poulsen said. "He has really been a significant person in the transformation that has taken place, it's been very impressive to witness," Laustsen added. It is seeking an option with the buyer to buy back the Russian business in future.

☆ Carlsberg searching for new CEO after Cees ’t Hart says to retire
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

STOCKHOLM, March 7 (Reuters) - Denmark's Carlsberg said on Tuesday Chief Executive Cees ’t Hart had decided to retire after eight years on the job, and a search for his successor was ongoing. The brewer said in a statement ’t Hart planned to leave the company by the end of the third quarter. "Staying on board for another half a year will allow me and the team to continue delivering on our challenging plans for 2023 and accomplishing the sale of the Russian business before the summer," t' Hart said. Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje SolsvikOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ New Carlsberg CEO’s task: stay ahead of Heineken
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 7 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Carlberg’s (CARLb.CO) new boss may struggle to maintain its newfound fizz. The $21 billion Danish brewer revealed on Tuesday that Chief Executive Cees 't Hart will retire after eight years at the helm. The company now trades at nearly 11 times its expected EBITDA for 2023 according to Refinitiv data, a premium to arch rival Heineken (HEIN.AS). In 2022, Heineken grew revenue in its Asia-Pacific market by 70%, while Carlsberg’s sales in the region rose by 22%. If the new boss can’t keep pace, Carlsberg shareholders will face a painful hangover.

☆ Heineken blames Russia exit delay on local paperwork
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 7 (Reuters) - Heineken (HEIO.AS) on Tuesday blamed the delay in its Russia exit on local bureaucracy that it said was beyond its control, and reiterated it still planned to exit the country. Last month, a story by investigative website Follow The Money questioned whether Heineken had followed through on its March 2022 promise to leave Russia, including selling its non-Heineken international brands like Amstel. "There's no ambiguity about our promise: we will leave Russia," Heineken said in a Q&A section on its website on Monday, to which it referred in Tuesday's statement. Heineken is the third largest brewer in Russia and the local business accounts for just 2% of its global sales, the company said. Danish rival Carlsberg (CARLb.CO) said on Tuesday its chief executive Cees't Hart would retire at the end of September after seeing through the sale of its Russian business.

☆ Technology Chiefs Seek Help Wrangling Cloud Costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Some chief information officers have turned to cloud management tools and established internal teams to oversee their cloud spending. Mr. Nimboorkar said the company has since built a dedicated team to manage its Amazon Web Services spending and invested in a third-party cloud spending management tool. Executives from all three cloud giants have said customers are optimizing or reining in their cloud spending, citing economic factors. Many of the best practices in cloud spending management have been codified by the nonprofit FinOps Foundation, which promotes cloud financial literacy and accountability, she said. That model allows Mr. Kanchi to wholly manage cloud spending, he said, but was only possible after UST figured out how to tag cloud usage by its various business units.

☆ AB InBev upbeat on 'resilient' beer, China recovery
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Philip Blenkinsop | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

AB InBev's sales and earnings declined in China due to a strict zero COVID policy that was suddenly dropped in December. In the United States, AB InBev's largest market, profit and revenue increased, largely because of price increases, although those same increases, along with harsh winter weather in December, cut into beer sales in volume terms. REUTERS/Toby Melville 1 2Brewers have raised beer prices in response to higher energy and raw materials costs, and both Heineken (HEIN.AS) and Carlsberg (CARLb.CO) have warned of reduced beer consumption in Europe because of the increases. For the whole year, core profit growth was 7.2%. AB InBev also increased its full-year dividend to a proposed 0.75 euros from 0.50 euros in each of the past two years.

☆ Carlsberg expects lower beer consumption to hit 2023 growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

COPENHAGEN, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Danish brewer Carlsberg (CARLb.CO) on Tuesday forecast organic operating profit growth in 2023 below last year's level as higher beer prices are expected to dent consumption. The world's third-biggest brewer expects organic operating profit this year to change by between minus 5% and plus 5%, compared with 12% growth last year. "While beer historically has been a resilient consumer category, the higher prices in combination with generally high inflation may have a negative impact on beer consumption in some of our markets, particularly in Europe," he said. Carlsberg said sales in the fourth quarter rose 6% from a year earlier to 14.6 billion Danish crowns ($2.11 billion), against 14.7 billion crowns estimated by analysts in a poll provided by the company. ($1 = 6.9344 Danish crowns)Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Terje SolsvikOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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