By Emma Rumney and Soren Jeppesen
LONDON/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Carlsberg missed half-year revenue and quantity forecasts on Thursday and warned it didn’t count on the patron setting to enhance in the remainder of 2025, sending the Danish brewer’s shares down virtually 7% in early buying and selling.
The newest report by the world’s third-largest brewer – behind Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken – was acquired with comparable pessimism to these of its rivals in latest weeks as traders despatched shares declining.
Whereas Carlsberg, which makes Kronenbourg 1664, Tuborg and Somersby, raised the underside finish of its annual revenue steerage, that didn’t offset slower-than-expected first-half working revenue progress of two.3%, and a 1.7% decline in volumes.
CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen stated on a media name that the brewer’s efficiency was robust in a troublesome yr, and that it anticipated barely higher quantity progress within the second half.
Nonetheless, he wasn’t optimistic on client spending, which was being reined in by worth will increase and uncertainty, including: “There is no such thing as a indication as we transfer into the second half that that is going to alter.”
Large brewers have been battling diminished demand, the affect of U.S. tariffs and poor climate, and their weak efficiency or quantity expectations have left traders fretting over progress prospects.
Carlsberg’s shares had been down 5.8%, after earlier falling as a lot as 6.7%, its steepest decline since July 2024.
Haider Anjum, analyst from Jyske Financial institution, stated he was shocked by the share worth response, given Carlsberg’s comparatively robust efficiency.
However Laurence Whyatt, analyst at Barclays, stated the market had been “punishing quantity misses” like Carlsberg’s, which was pushed by a weaker-than-expected efficiency in Asia.
OPTIMISM FADES
In addition to momentary challenges, brewers additionally face questions round longer-term shifts, similar to some shoppers slicing again on alcohol for well being causes.
Altogether, these points have dampened earlier optimism across the sector.
Carlsberg had additionally pledged to ship income progress of between 4% and 6% yearly annually till 2027, however Aarup-Andersen instructed traders on a name that in a yr like 2025, that is probably not “totally real looking.”
Whereas it narrowed its expectations for annual working revenue progress to three% to five%, in contrast with 1% to five% earlier than, analysts stated they had been already anticipating 4%.
($1 = 6.3777 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Emma Rumney;Enhancing by Tomasz Janowski and Bernadette Baum)
