JSE-listed SABMiller on Wednesday increased its dividend by 8% to 122c for the year ended March 31, as the group delivered “good results” for the financial year, despite currency volatility hitting the bottom line.
For the year under review, revenue decreased 10% to $19.8-billion, with group net producer revenue (NPR) falling 8% to $24-billion, as the strengthening dollar against operating currencies had a material negative impact on the reported results.
However, underlying revenue and NPR grew 7% and 5% respectively as group beverage volumes increased 2% during the year under review.
Earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation (Ebita), while recording an underlying increase of 8% on an organic, constant currency basis, declined 9% to $5.8-billion during the period under review.
The group’s Ebita margin increased by 60 basis points.
“These are good results. We grew Ebita across all regions and our group Ebita margin improved through the year, on an underlying basis. This performance reflects our focus on driving superior growth by strengthening our core brands, expanding the beer category to reach more consumers on more occasions and placing an emphasis on premiumisation in all regions,” explained CEO Alan Clark.
As SABMiller’s growth accelerated in the year, driven by improving momentum in Latin America, continued strong and well-balanced momentum in Africa and improvements in Australia and Europe, it would continue to expand its exposure to growing markets and building the “optimum portfolio” of soft drinks, lager and other alcoholic beverages to capture growth.
The group was also on track to achieve its 2020 savings target of $1-billion, with in-country performance improvements and a cost and efficiencies programme having already delivered, ahead of schedule, a cumulative net annualised savings of $547-million in the 2016 financial year.
“These initiatives mitigated adverse transactional currency headwinds,” he said, adding that the group expected to deliver good underlying performance in the year ahead despite foreign exchange volatility and currency depreciation against the dollar that was expected to continue to impact certain operations in future.