The company, which brews leading brands such as Tiger Beer and Heineken, reported year-to-date revenue of S$1,047 million (€494m) for the first nine months of 2004 ending June 30, up from S$956.6 million in the comparable period for 2003. However, the figures also revealed that total costs of sales rose 9.8 per cent to S$635.8 million, exceeding the rate at which sales grew.
But despite the rise in sales costs the company was still able to post a healthy rise in its overall profits for the period. PBIT income increased by 43 per cent, from S€26.5 million to S$37.9 million for the third quarter, whilst for the first nine months the figure was up 16.5 per cent to S$154.2 million.
Mr Koh Poh Tiong, APB CEO said, "The strong 3rd quarter performance is credited mainly to sales growth in almost all our operations as we make further inroads into the market. Other factors include currency translation gains and improvements in efficiencies. We registered a 71 per cent improvement in attributable profit as our businesses revert to normal growth trends compared to the 3rd quarter of 2003 when SARS took its toll."
Breaking the brewer's performance down into individual markets, highlights included Indochina (Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia) where sales revenues increased by 10 per cent and PBIT increased 31 per cent.
After a year of streamlining the groups operations in China, APB also reported that its losses there dropped 65 per cent. This, the company said, was mainly due to better performances from its SAPB and HAPCO divisions. In particular HAPCO's performance was said to have improved after the transfer of ownership to HAPBC.
However, not every market reported outstanding performances. In Thailand volumes grew by 10 per cent, whilst PBIT dropped 15 per cent. The company said that its Heineken brand continued to dominate an 80 per cent share of its segment in the country, but added that the results there had been impacted by depreciation charges due to expansion. Meanwhile, in Malaysia PBIT was reported to have increased by 15 per cent, despite sales volumes decreasing by 13 per cent. The company said that this was due mainly to a write-back for a tax provision.
Tiong said that he believed that, given the performance of the last quarter, the general recovery of the Asian economy meant that the company's outlook for the rest of the year was strong, stating that the company would be looking out for new market opportunities alongside maintaining efforts to grow volumes and develop the company's brands.
APB said that, barring unforeseen circumstances, it now expects net profits to exceed last years figures.