(Reuters) – Brazilian brewer Ambev on Thursday reported a 15.2% decline in second-quarter net profit, missing market forecasts.
The subsidiary of Belgium’s Anheuser-Busch InBev posted profit of 2.60 billion reais ($540.34 million), versus the 2.68 billion reais average estimate of analysts polled by Refinitiv.
Revenue rose 20% from the same period a year earlier to 18.9 billion reais, missing the 19.80 billion reais consensus view.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew in all business units, though sales volume declined 2.2%.
“Our top-line performance remained resilient and cost pressures continued to decelerate leading to bottom-line growth,” CEO Jean Jereissati said in a statement.
Ambev said commercial momentum continued to be led by the Brazilian market. Still, Brazil beer volume fell 2.5%, in part due to comparison with the year earlier’s strong post-pandemic recovery.
Ambev is Brazil’s fourth-largest company by market capitalization, behind oil giant Petrobras, miner Vale and lender Itau.
($1 = 4.8118 reais)
