Carlsberg Could Sell Off More Assets

The Danish brewer reported that earnings came in at 3.45bn Danish kroner ($524m), which was below estimates, amid cuts across the business.

 

Sales in the first half were up four percent at Carlsberg, whose brands include Kronenbourg and Tuborg.

 

According to a report in the Financial Times, Carlsberg is looking at further disposals of the business, after selling off its business in Malawi, or
restructuring underperforming parts of the business.

 

Cees ‘t Hart, chief executive of Carlsberg, said: “Something has to change. But it doesn’t mean you have to exit.”

 

According to the report, assets could be sold off in Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia or Hungary, where it is not the number one or two player.

 

Carlsberg is gearing itself up for facing a bigger competitor in the shape of the combined Anheuser-Busch  Inbev and SABMiller and is planning to continue cutting costs as it looks to make itself a more nimble competitor

 

Commenting on the results, Hart said: “In the seasonally small first quarter, we delivered a solid start to the year. Applying our new value management approach, we are on our way to strike a better balance between market share, gross margin and earnings. We maintain our full-year outlook for organic operating profit growth.”

 

“We announced and started the implementation of our new strategy, SAIL’22. We continued to implement initiatives under the Funding the Journey and are focused on a timely and full delivery of the expected net benefits.”