A lower tax charge, better than expected cost savings on the SABMiller acquisition and a 10.8% volume increase in South African beer sales in the three months to the end of June helped Anheuser Busch InBev (AB InBev) beat earnings’ expectations for the period. The best quarterly performance in almost two years resulted in the AB InBev share price gain almost 6% on Thursday to a close of R1,591. Total group volumes grew 1%, with strong performances in Mexico, Australia and SA more than making up for declines in US, Brazil and Colombia. Normalised earnings before interest and tax was up 15% to $4.3bn. Normalised earnings per share dipped to $0.95, from $1.05 because of the increased number of shares in issue and mark-to-market adjustments. AB InBev management said integration with the SABMiller businesses acquired in October 2016 was progressing well. During the second quarter, this had generated synergies and cost savings of $335m, which was $100m more than the $235m that had been fo...
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