By Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Anheuser-Busch InBev (BR:ABI), the world's largest beer maker, reported an increase in second-quarter earnings on Thursday as gains in China, Mexico and new market South Africa offset weakness in Brazil.
The brewer of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona, which makes more than a quarter of the world's beer, saw a 1 percent increase in beer volumes and shifted consumers onto higher priced beers, resulting in a 5 percent increase in revenues.
Second-quarter core profit (EBITDA) was up 11.8 percent excluding currency shifts and on a like-for-like basis, at $5.35 billion, compared with the average forecast in a Reuters poll of $5.40 billion.
AB InBev, which sells more than twice as much beer as nearest rival Heineken (AS:HEIN) following its $100 billion acquisition of SABMiller (LON:SAB) in 2016, said volumes fell in its two largest markets, the United States and Brazil, as well as in Colombia.
However, Brazil was the only main market to see profits decline, for a sixth consecutive quarter, as Latin America's largest economy emerges unevenly and slowly from its worst recession in more than a century.
In its largest market, the United States, profits did increase despite reduced volumes due to cost savings, with growth of higher-end beers not making up for falling sales of Budweiser and Bud Light.