Malaysia: Heineken Malaysia’s 2020 net profit halves to RM154 mln

Heineken Malaysia Bhd posted a 40.58% decline in its net profit to RM54.17 million for the fourth financial quarter ended Dec 31, 2020 (4QFY20), from RM91.17 million recorded in the previous year, due to lower sales as its business was impacted by the government's implementation of wider restrictions and stricter standard operating procedures to curb the spread of Covid-19, the Edge Markets reported on February 18.

Revenue also dropped 23.67% to RM519 million against RM680 million recorded a year earlier.

Earnings per share fell to 17.93 sen from 30.18 sen from a year ago.

Meanwhile, the brewer declared a first and final single tier dividend of 51 sen per share, to be paid on July 28, 2021.

Besides being lower than the 66 sen declared a year ago, the dividend declared in the latest quarter is also the lowest in 10 years.

Commenting on the group's earnings, its managing director Roland Bala highlighted that 2020 was a very challenging year as the pandemic disrupted businesses and affected people's lives.

"For the first time in our history, we had to suspend production and business operations for an extended period following the government's Movement Control Order," he said in a virtual briefing today.

For FY20, the group's net profit halved to RM154 million from RM313 million posted a year earlier as the group continued to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic to its business and the industry.

Revenue for the full year slid 24.13% to RM1.76 billion from RM2.32 billion a year ago, while earnings per share plunged to 51.04 sen from 103.6 sen.

Total dividend for the previous financial year stood at 108 sen, compared with the 51 sen declared for FY20.

Bala added that despite the challenging year, the group continued to support its stakeholders by investing more than RM3.5 million to help the wider community.

"Through Heineken Malaysia's 'Raise our Bars' campaign, RM1 million was channelled to alleviate difficulties faced by local restaurants and bars.

"Tiger Beer pledged RM1.5 million through its 'Save our Street Food' campaign to help 1,200 street food vendors, coffee shops, and food courts nationwide," he said.

Moving forward, he said the group expects the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns with restrictions on social activities to continue impacting the business.

"We will navigate the crisis while building for our future, with a strategy aimed at delivering superior growth in a fast-changing world, placing consumers and customers at the core, accelerating our digital route to consumers, as well as raising the bar on our sustainability and people agenda.

"The group will also front-load our agenda to implement continuous productivity improvements to drive efficiency in 2021," he added.

Heineken Malaysia's share price fell 12 sen or 0.51% to RM23.34 on February 18, valuing the brewer at RM7.05 billion.

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