Heineken N.V. reports 2019 full year results

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Heineken N.V. (EURONEXT: HEIA; OTCQX: HEINY) announces:

  • Net revenue (beia) organic growth +5.6%; net revenue (beia) per hectolitre +3.3%
  • Consolidated beer volume +3.1%
  • Heineken® volume +8.3%, the best performance in over a decade
  • Operating profit (beia) organic growth +3.9%
  • Operating profit (beia) margin 16.8% (-12 bps)
  • Net profit (beia) €2,517 million, +4.3% organically
  • Diluted EPS (beia) €4.38 (2018: €4.18).

CEO STATEMENT

Jean-François van Boxmeer, Chairman of the Executive Board / CEO, commented:

“In 2019, we delivered another year of superior top-line growth, with a continued strong performance in the second half. Growth was well balanced with beer volume up 3.1% and revenue per hectolitre up 3.3%, driven by robust pricing and focus on premiumization. The Heineken® brand growth accelerated to 8.3%, with more than 40 countries delivering double-digit growth. The successful roll-out of Heineken® 0.0 continued and it is now available in 57 markets.

Our strategy continues to be growth-oriented with an ever-increasing emphasis on the sustainability of this growth, both socially and environmentally. Over the past decade, we have lowered our water usage by almost a third to 3.4 hectolitres of water per hectolitre produced, ahead of our 2020 target. We increased the proportion of renewable energy in production to 19%. In more than 60 markets, we spent over 10% of Heineken® media budgets on responsible consumption awareness campaigns.

We closed the year with an operating profit (beia) organic growth of 3.9%. In a context of increased input costs, we have continued to work on the efficiency of our operations whilst steadily investing behind our brands, our sustainability agenda, and our digital transformation.

Looking ahead to 2020, we expect our operating profit (beia) to grow by mid-single-digit on an organic basis, barring major negative macroeconomic and political developments.” 

FINANCIAL SUMMARY1

IFRS Measures € million Total growth BEIA Measures € million Organic growth2
Revenue 28,521 6.4 % Revenue (beia) 28,443 5.2 %
Net revenue 23,969 6.6 % Net revenue (beia) 23,894 5.6 %
Operating profit 3,633 16.4 % Operating profit (beia) 4,020 3.9 %
Operating profit (beia) margin 16.8 %
Net profit 2,166 13.2 % Net profit (beia) 2,517 4.3 %
Diluted EPS (in €) 3.77 12.5 % Diluted EPS (beia) (in €) 4.38 4.9 %
Free operating cash flow 2,228
Net debt / EBITDA (beia)3 2.6x

Consolidated figures are used throughout this report unless otherwise stated; please refer to the Glossary for an explanation of non-GAAP measures and other terms used throughout this report. Last year figures restated for IAS 37. Please refer to page 24 for more details.
2 Organic growth is shown, except for Diluted EPS (beia) which is total growth. The impact of IFRS 16 is reflected in all metrics but is excluded from the organic growth calculation.
3 Includes acquisitions and excludes disposals on a 12 month Pro-forma basis and includes the first time impact of IFRS 16.

FULL YEAR 2020 OUTLOOK STATEMENT

For 2020, we anticipate our business to deliver:

  • A superior top-line growth driven by volume, price, and premiumization
  • A low-single-digit increase of input costs per hectolitre, with the benefit of lower prices in some commodities largely offset by transactional currency headwinds
  • Continued cost management initiatives and productivity improvements to fuel investment behind our brands, innovation, e-commerce platforms, technology upgrades, and sustainability programs.

As a result, we currently expect operating profit (beia) to grow by mid-single-digit on an organic basis, barring major negative macro economic or political developments.  In particular it is at this stage not possible to assess the extent and duration of the impact of Coronavirus on the economy and on our business.

We also anticipate:

  • An average interest rate (beia) broadly in line with 2019 (2019: 2.9%)
  • An effective tax rate (beia) broadly in line with 2019 (2019: 27.6%)
  • Capital expenditure related to property, plant and equipment of around €2 billion (2019: €1.9 billion).

OPERATIONAL REVIEW

The top-line performance continued to be strong in the second part of 2019, with a good balance between price mix and volume growth. Net revenue per hectolitre (beia) grew in all regions on a constant geographic basis, driven by pricing and premiumization.

Net revenue (beia) grew 5.6% organically, supported by a 3.3% increase in net revenue (beia) per hectolitre and a 2.2% increase in total consolidated volumes. The underlying price mix on a constant geographic basis was up 3.4%. In the second half of the year net revenue (beia) increased 5.7% (1H19: 5.6%), with total consolidated volume growth of 2.0% (1H19: 2.5%), net revenue (beia) per hectolitre up 3.6% (1H19: 3.0%) and price mix on a constant geographic basis of 3.2% (1H19: 3.5%).

Consolidated beer volume grew 3.1% organically for the full year. The fourth quarter closed the year strongly with 4.1% growth, benefiting from double-digit growth in Brazil, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Premium volumes increased high-single-digit with strong growth across all regions and continued positive momentum of Heineken®.

Consolidated beer volume
(in mhl)
4Q19 4Q18 Organic
growth
FY19 FY18 Organic
growth
Heineken N.V. 61.1 58.6 4.1 % 241.4 233.8 3.1 %
Africa Middle East &  Eastern Europe 11.5 11.2 2.7 % 43.7 41.7 4.6 %
Americas 23.3 22.2 5.2 % 85.6 83.3 2.6 %
Asia Pacific 8.4 7.8 12.4 % 31.1 29.0 11.8 %
Europe 17.8 17.4 0.0 % 81.0 79.8 -0.2 %

Heineken® volume growth accelerated in the fourth quarter to 12.0% to close the year with 8.3% growth, the best in a decade. The brand grew across all regions with double-digit growth in over 40 markets including Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Nigeria, the UK, Romania, and Germany. Brazil is now the largest market for Heineken® globally and with the addition of the UK and Nigeria, now 12 markets sell more than one million hectolitres of the brand. The successful roll-out of Heineken® 0.0 continues and it is now available in 57 markets.

Heineken® volume
(in mhl)
4Q19 Organic
growth
FY19 Organic
growth
Total 11.2 12.0 % 41.8 8.3 %
Africa Middle East &  Eastern Europe 2.1 6.6 % 7.2 11.7 %
Americas 3.8 26.6 % 13.4 16.2 %
Asia Pacific 1.9 7.7 % 6.2 2.2 %
Europe 3.4 4.0 % 14.9 3.1 %

The international brand portfolio grew high-single-digit, driven by the double-digit growth of Tiger and Amstel. Tiger performed strongly in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia. Amstel grew strongly in Brazil, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and the UK.

Craft volume grew mid-single-digit to 5.6 million hectolitres with double-digit expansion in Europe compensating for lower volume in the Americas. Strong performance from craft propositions in Italy, France, and Spain continued. Lagunitas is now available in more than 35 markets with local production in the Netherlands and Brazil.

Cider volume was stable at 5.6 million hectolitres (2018: 5.6 million). Volume increased double-digit outside the UK, with South Africa and Russia in the lead. In the UK, volume declined high-single-digit mainly due to a challenging comparable versus last year. We continue to shape cider in new markets with encouraging results in Vietnam and Mexico. Cider is now locally produced in 18 markets.

Low & No-Alcohol (LONO) volume increased high-single-digit, delivering 14.1 million hectolitres (2018: 13.1 million). The no-alcohol portfolio grew double-digit, driven by Heineken® 0.0, other line extensions of leading brands and beer mixes. The Zero Zone, a dedicated shelf-space in the off-trade for our non-alcoholic portfolio, is being deployed beyond Europe.

In addition to new products and categories, innovation at HEINEKEN further includes draught systems technology. Volume through our proprietary draught systems grew double-digit. The Blade, our counter-top draught system for small outlets, is now available in 32 markets with a range of 30 brands.

Recognizing the increasing importance of connecting in a digital world with consumers and customers, in 2019 we added the 5th pillar to our strategic priorities:

  • Digital business-to-business platforms continue being deployed at speed. At year-end 17 markets were operational.
  • Beerwulf, our business-to-consumer platform in Europe, continues to gain scale in 11 markets.
  • Our new Enterprise Resource Planning system for the Asia Pacific, Africa and the Caribbean (BASE), is now live in 16 of our 24 operations in scope, standardizing core business processes and making us more agile and efficient.
  • In Europe, we closed the preparation phase of our technology upgrade program and will now begin deployment of the first set of capabilities. During 2019 this represented €37 million in expenses.

Operating profit (beia) grew 3.9% organically, driven by strong revenue growth partially offset by input cost inflation and higher investments in global sponsorships, e-commerce, and technology upgrades.

BREWING A BETTER WORLD

Brewing a Better World, one of our five strategic priorities, addresses our commitments to promote health and safety in our operations, protect our water resources, reduce CO2 emissions, sourced sustainably, advocate responsible consumption and grow with the communities where we operate.

Over the past decade, we have lowered our water usage by almost a third to 3.4 hectolitres of water per hectolitre produced and 3.1 hectolitres in water-scarce areas in 2019. As we are ahead of our 2020 targets, in March 2019 we introduced our 2030 water ambition ‘Every Drop’. Next to continuous improvement in water consumption, we aim to improve the water catchment areas surrounding our production sites. Today, 15 of our breweries in water-scarce areas have started water balancing projects, including nature-based solutions like reforestation and wetland restoration.

In 2018 we set out our ‘Drop the C’ program to reduce CO2 emissions, with an ambitious target to power our production facilities with 70% renewable thermal and electrical energy by 2030. Thermal energy accounts for nearly 80% of total energy consumption in a brewery. We are at the onset of this journey and reached 19% in 2019.

In 2019 we increased our local sourcing percentage of agricultural supplies in Africa to 44%, although we made the progress we have much more to do to reach our ambition of 60%.

We spent over 10% of Heineken® media budgets on “When You Drive Never Drink” and other responsible consumption awareness campaigns in more than 60 markets.

For more details on our Brewing a Better World programs and definitions please refer to our 2019 Annual Report.

NET PROFIT

Net profit (beia) increased 4.3% organically to €2,517 million (2018: 2,385 million).

The impact of exceptional items and amortization of acquisition-related intangibles (eia) on net profit was €351 million (2018: €472 million).

Net profit after exceptional items and amortization of acquisition-related intangibles was €2,166 million (2018: €1,913 million).

TOTAL DIVIDEND FOR 2019

The Heineken N.V. dividend policy is to pay out a ratio of 30% to 40% of full-year net profit (beia). For 2019, payment of a total cash dividend of €1.68 per share (2018: €1.60) will be proposed to the Annual General Meeting on 23 April 2020 (“2020 AGM”). This represents an increase of 5.0% versus 2018, translating into a 38.4% payout. If approved, a final dividend of €1.04 per share will be paid on 7 May 2020, as an interim dividend of €0.64 per share was paid on 8 August 2019. The payment will be subject to a 15% Dutch withholding tax. The ex-final dividend date for Heineken N.V. shares will be 27 April 2020.

TRANSLATIONAL CURRENCY CALCULATED IMPACT

The translational currency impact for 2019 was positive, amounting to €80 million at a consolidated operating profit (beia) and €47 million at net profit (beia).

Using spot rates as of 7 February 2020 for the remainder of this year, the calculated positive currency translational impact would be approximately €55 million at a consolidated operating profit (beia), and €30 million at net profit (beia).

EXECUTIVE BOARD COMPOSITION

Following his successful 15 year leadership of the Company, Jean-François van Boxmeer will hand over his responsibilities as Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Heineken N.V. to Dolf van den Brink on 1 June 2020. The Supervisory Board has announced that it will nominate Dolf van den Brink to be appointed as a member of the Executive Board at the 2020 AGM for a period of four years. Dolf van den Brink will, subject to appointment by the 2020 AGM, join Heineken N.V. on 23 April 2020 as member of the Executive Board, and will work alongside Mr. Van Boxmeer to ensure a smooth and effective transition as Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Heineken N.V. as of 1 June 2020. For more details please see the press release as issued on 11 February 2020.

SUPERVISORY BOARD COMPOSITION

Mrs. Pamela Mars Wright will have completed her four-year appointment term upon conclusion of the 2020 AGM. A proposal for Mrs. Mars Wright’s reappointment as member of the Supervisory Board of Heineken N.V. for a period of four years shall be submitted to the AGM.