Carlsberg will report its half-year and second-quarter results tomorrow (15 Aug). Here, just-drinks takes a look at the highs and lows for the brewer in the six months to the end of June.
- There was trouble in China at the start of the year when shares in Carlsberg’s JV partner Chongqing Breweries (CBC) were suspended following a series of heavy price losses. Carlsberg, which has a 29.7% stake in a beer joint-venture with CBC, said it has full confidence in the firm’s management. CBC’s shares clawed back some ground in February after investors voted to bring in independent auditors.
- Also in February, Carlsberg announced it wants to buy the shares it does not own in Russian subsidiary Baltika Breweries. It intends to spend a maximum US$1.14bn to buy the remaining 15% slice. In July, Baltika’s board recommended the deal.
- One entry sure to feature in Carlsberg’s H1 results will be the US$250m it received from selling off its former brewery site in Copenhagen. The brewer said in April it had set up a consortium with four other companies to develop the site.
- Days later, an analyst said a forecast fall in barley prices will benefit Carlsberg because of its large exposure in Western Europe. However, bad weather since then may outweigh that earlier optimism.
- In June, the company announced it will invest US$782m in a new brewery in the south of China. The facility is expected to reach a production capacity of 10m hectolitres a year and will be Carlsberg’s second biggest in the world after its Baltika unit.
- June was a big month for Carlsberg because of its sponsorship of Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. The three-week football tournament ended on 1 July, but not before drinkers in the host nations pushed Carlsberg sales in the eight stadiums 49% higher than during the 2008 event. It wasn’t all good news, however, and just-drinks reported hiccups such as bad weather and attempts by other brewers to muscle in on Carlsberg’s patch.