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By Philippe Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Heineken, the world’s second-largest brewer, on Monday reported better than expected first-half profits on Monday, but warned of weakness for the rest of the year as costs eat away at margins and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hit key markets.
The maker of Europe’s best-selling lager Heineken, Tiger and Sol, said its operating profit before special items doubled to € 1.63 billion ($ 1.93 billion), per compared to the average forecast of a survey carried out by the company of 1.22 billion euros.
Dolf van den Brink, who has been managing director for a year, said the company was pleased with the good first half results but said caution should be exercised as results should remain below the levels of before the pandemic in 2021 because a set.
COVID-19 would remain a factor, with the greatest impact in key markets in Africa and Asia. Rising raw material costs would also start to affect Heineken in the second half of 2021 and have a “material effect” in 2022.
Heineken previously predicted that market conditions would improve in the second half of 2021, depending on the vaccine rollout.
($ 1 = € 0.8427)
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Uttaresh.V)
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