Carlsberg lowers full-year outlook as H1 profit drops

Danish brewer Carlsberg reported a drop in operating profits for the first half of 2015 on Wednesday and lowered its full-year outlook based on weak results in Western Europe and market decline in Eastern Europe.

Carlsberg's operating profit for the first six months of 2015 fell 12 percent to 3.58 billion Danish kroner (53 million U.S. dollars), down from 4.05 billion kroner for the same period last year, it said in a financial statement.

Meanwhile, operating profit from activities in Eastern Europe was 830 million kroner, down 45 percent from 1.51 billion kroner for first half of 2014.

Net revenue rose 1 percent year-on-year to 32.4 billion kroner, due to a positive acquisition impact of 1 percent.

The Carlsberg brand declined 2 percent in its premium markets, according to the report. While the brand continued to deliver growth in Asia where its beer volumes grew organically by 5 percent year-on-year, it declined in Western and Eastern Europe.

"The first half of 2015 has been challenging for the Group with weaker than expected results in Western Europe and market decline in Eastern Europe," said Cees 't Hart, CEO of Carlsberg.

"In Western Europe, we experienced bad weather in Q2 in Northern Europe and did not achieve the full range of anticipated savings," he added.

As a result, the company now expects organic operating profit for 2015 to "decline slightly" against previous expectation of "mid- to high-single-digit growth."

Carlsberg said it does not expect that the strong Asian performance will be enough to offset the weaker than expected results in Western Europe and the challenging market conditions in Eastern Europe. (1 U.S. dollar = 6.75 Danish kroner) Enditem