KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 27): Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd’s net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 inched down by 1.74% to RM62.93 million or 20.58 sen a share, after incurring higher operating expenses, although revenue rose by 9.31% year-on-year to RM423.82 million.

Nonetheless, Carlsberg’s (fundamental: 2.3; valuation: 2.1) net profit for its 2014 financial year (FY14) was up by 15.04% to RM211.58 million or 69.2 sen a share, while revenue grew at a slower pace of 5.14% to RM1.64 billion.

Carlsberg’s managing director Henrik Juel Andersen said FY14 was a challenging year for Malaysia’s beer industry, what more with the country and neighbouring Singapore raising taxes in that year.

Andersen however said the group managed to improve its bottom line, despite the “challenging consumer environment”.

He explained, “This was attributed to an improvement in product and price mix, effective consumer campaigns, as well as improving efficiency across all aspects of our operations in both Malaysia and Singapore. Gaining sole distribution rights to Asahi in Singapore also played a minor role.
 
While Carlsberg Malaysia’s 4QFY14 net profit was slightly lower year-on-year, the group had proposed a final dividend of 66 sen a share — 10 sen higher than a year earlier. Full-year FY14 dividend would be 71 sen a share — up 16.39% from the previous year’s 61 sen a share.

Going forward, Andersen said Carlsberg had devised plans to mitigate the negative external environment, which might be weakened by the goods and services tax’s implementation.

“Innovative and rewarding marketing campaigns will continue to drive our consumer engagements and this includes maintaining our stronghold in football, due to Carlsberg’s official partnership with the Barclays Premier League. We also expect to see sale of our premium brands Somersby Apple and Pear Ciders, Asahi Super Dry and Kronenbourg 1664, continue to gain traction in the Malaysian and Singaporean markets,” he said.

Carlsberg was today’s third-biggest gainer, as it added 48 sen or 3.88% to RM12.86. Its market capitalisation was RM3.81 billion.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)