Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd group managing director Stefano Clini.
SHAH ALAM: Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd
(Carlsberg Malaysia) has declared a 35 sen per share final dividend for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2024 (4Q24), bringing the full year dividend to RM1, which is the highest in five years.
Net profit rose 0.97% to RM78.8mil for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2024 (4Q24) from RM78.03mil a year earlier while revenue increased 1.15% to RM587.23mil from RM580.53mil.
For FY24, its net profit was up 3% to RM337.08mil from RM327.26mil, on the back of a 5.11% higher revenue to RM2.38bil from RM2.26bil.
Chief financial officer Vivian Gun said it was confident of a positive 2025 having put in place strong strategies to deal with any uncertainty.
“We will continue doing that this year. The only thing that we cannot predict is the global uncertainty – that’s something that we need to continue to watch out for,” she said during Carlsberg Malaysia’s results briefing here yesterday.
“Looking back, what had thrown us off were sudden changes, for example, the Covid-19 pandemic which took time for us to be able to react, and normalise some of the impact,” she said.“For instance, with US tariffs. It’s about how fast we can foresee that and put in an action plan.
“But we remain very confident about our 2025 outlook, bearing in mind the timing of the Chinese New Year.
“We are very confident of our strategy in stepping up the premium segment as well as the mainstream segment,” she said.
Gun said Malaysian revenue grew 6.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) in 4Q24, supported by higher trade loading last December ahead of the early Chinese New Year celebrations which began in January.
However, its Singapore operations saw a decline of 11.4% y-o-y in its revenue dragged down by lower premium sales arising from the transition from Asahi brand to Sapporo brand.
Carlsberg Malaysia and Asahi Group Holdings Ltd ended their 10-year distribution agreement in June 2023. Carlsberg Malaysia partnered with Sapporo Breweries Ltd in December of the same year.Gun said intense competition in Singapore had also contributed to the decline.
To mitigate the less favourable conditions in the city-state, Gun said the company would continue to push its 1664 Brut brand as well as focus on newly launched product called Wusu.
“The impact of the price increase starting from April 2024 had also contributed to the 8.8% increase in revenue in Malaysia for 2024,” she said.
Similar to its quarterly results, operations in Singapore saw a revenue decline of 4.1% as it attempted to respond to steep discounting in its categories by competitors.Meanwhile, the rise in FY24 net profit was further supported by a 51.9% increase in share of profit from its associate, Lion Brewery (Ceylon) PLC, which stood at RM35.6mil versus RM23.5mil in FY23.
This improvement was driven by its better performance and supported by a favourable Sri Lankan rupee exchange rate.Its group managing director Stefano Clini said, in a statement, that the company had completed its brewery transformation with an investment of RM200mil in a state of-the-art bottling and canning lines alongside high-precision filtration systems.
He pointed out that the investment had increased production capacity, improved efficiency, and supported sustainability goals by reducing energy as well as water consumption.
