AB InBev makes $1.28 billion 4Q profit

By AOIFE WHITE

BRUSSELS

Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, the world's largest brewer, on Thursday posted a fourth-quarter profit of $1.28 billion, down 20 percent from the previous quarter, and vowed to focus on growing its business after a tough year of cost-cutting and deleveraging.

The maker of Bud and Stella Artois saw both profit and revenue slip in the three months ending Dec. 31. It had sales of $9.29 billion, down from $9.76 billion in the third quarter but up nearly 4 percent from $8.96 billion in 2008's fourth quarter

The amount of beer and soft drinks the company sold during the quarter rose 1 percent from a year ago, when it made a profit of just $29 million.

For all of 2009, AB InBev made a profit of $4.6 billion and had $36.76 billion in revenues. Beer volumes fell 0.7 percent.

AB InBev said in a statement that global demand for beer "remains relatively resilient" and claimed that it is the market leader in two of the world's most important beer markets, the United States and Brazil.

After a year of shaving costs, juggling debt in the wake of the financial crisis and offloading units to help pay for the $52 billion takeover that formed it in July 2008, AB InBev says it is now back to focusing on growing its core business.

"The integration of Anheuser-Busch is essentially complete," it said, adding that it now has a "much improved balance sheet" and was not planning to divest any more parts of the company

AB InBev said it captured $1.1 billion in synergies, or savings from merging the two companies last year, made $9.4 billion from selloffs, added $787 million working capital and reduced capital expenditure by $1.5 billion.

It said it managed to extend some $20 billion in outstanding debt and this month obtained $17.2 billion in long-term bank financing to fully refinance the takeover debt.