San Miguel Brewery has issued a rare profit warning, saying its Hong Kong and China operations expects to post a net loss for the first half of 2015
In a July 6 advisory to The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, the San Miguel Corp. subsidiary attributed the expected loss to the non-renewal last year of the distribution agreements with Anheuser-Busch.
The agreement with the world’s largest brewer allowed San Miguel to market Budweiser, Beck’s, Stella Artois and related beer products, which accounted to over 25 percent of the annual turnover of San Miguel Brewery in 2013.
The end of the 15-year-old agreement left San Miguel with four foreign brands, Kirin, its joint venture-partner in Manila, Samuel Adams, Valor, and James Boag’s.
To make up for the loss of the Anheuser-Busch portfolio, San Miguel has been developing its own foreign-sounding brands like Bruck and Knight and, for the Chinese market, Dragon, Double Happiness and Guang, with its pineapple-flavoured beer.
The company expects to announce its consolidated interim results for the first half of 2015 on August 5.
San Miguel Brewery reported a fiscal year 2014 profit of HK$36.9 million from HK$25.8 million the previous year.