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Tsingtao Beer sees rising sales
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Tsingtao Beer sees rising sales
CHINA'S
biggest beer maker,Tsingtao Brewery, said Wednesday that it
expected net profit for the first three quarters of 2002 to
soar after reporting a 64 percent surge in first-half
earnings.
Tsingtao said in a statement that its net profit
would leap by more than 50 percent year-on-year in the first
nine months on expectations that thirst for its products will
remain strong.
"We are moving towards a harvest with many
great fruits,"Tsingtao Chairman Li Guirong told
reporters.
China's US$6 billion beer market, though highly
fragmented,is the second largest in the world after the United
States and is growing at 6 percent a year as living standards
rise on the back of economic growth.
Tsingtao, producer of
China's best-known beer brand internationally, reported
Tuesday that a 40 percent jump in sales of its flagship
Tsingtao brand to 430,000 tons boosted first-half net profit
to 113.32 million yuan (US$13.7 million).Total sales rose 30.5
percent to 3.16 billion yuan.
The earnings were consistent
with the company's recent statement that unaudited first-half
net profit rose more than 50 percent.
Shares of Tsingtao
ended up 1.4 percent at HK$3.625 Wednesday. Through Tuesday's
close, the stock had appreciated 64 percent in the past
year.
Recent gains were partly fuelled by the firm's
revelation in July that U.S.-based Anheuser-Busch, the world's
largest beer producer and brewer of top-selling Budweiser, was
in talks which could boost its stake in Tsingtao from 4.5
percent.
One recent newspaper report said Anheuser-Busch
would likely raise its Tsingtao stake to 25 percent for HK$1.1
billion (US$141million).
Tsingtao has been on a buying
spree in China, acquiring more than 40 breweries since 1997.
However, many of those are making a loss and analysts say the
company faces a challenge to cut costs and expand
margins.
Tsingtao's beer production rose 27 percent
year-on-year to 1.525 million tons in the first six months,
while China's total beer output climbed 4.9 percent to 11.89
million tons.
China's top 10 beer producers increased their
share of the domestic market to 40.4 percent in the first half
of this year from 33.9 percent a year ago as bigger brewers
continued to gulp down small players in an industry
shake-up.
Li said Tsingtao was in talks to acquire another
three tofive domestic brewers, but he declined to
elaborate.
Exports, which account for a small portion of
Tsingtao'stotal sales, rose 61 percent in the first half,
largely thanks to the launch of its beer in Taiwan in April,
the company said.
Sales of Tsingtao in Taiwan Province hit
9,000 tons in the three months after the launch, Li said,
adding that total sales to Taiwan were expected to reach
15,000 tons a year. That would boost Tsingtao's exports to
45,000 tons this year from an annual 30,000 tons in recent
years.
Li said Tsingtao would consider building a brewery
in Taiwan if its annual sales on the island rise to 40,000
tons. Beer consumption in Taiwan totals 600,000 tons a year,
Li said. |
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