OREANDA-NEWS. Anheuser-Busch InBev reports fourth quarter 2012 and full year 2012 results.

Revenue growth: Revenue grew 7.2% in FY12 and 8.8% in 4Q12, with revenue per hl growth of 7.7% in FY12 and 8.8% in 4Q12 on a constant geographic basis, resulting from favorable brand mix and revenue management best practices

Volume performance: Total volumes in FY12 grew 0.3%, with own beer volumes increasing 0.1%, while non-beer volumes increased 2.2%. In 4Q12, total volumes declined 0.1%, with own beer volumes down 0.3% and non-beer volumes growing 0.8%

Focus Brands: Our Focus Brand volumes grew 1.5% in FY12, with our three global brands, Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck's, growing by 4.1%. In 4Q12, Focus Brands grew by 0.4%

Cost of Sales (CoS): CoS increased 5.4% in FY12 and by 8.4% in 4Q12. CoS per hl increased 7.2% in FY12 and 10.0% in 4Q12 on a constant geographic basis

EBITDA: EBITDA grew 7.7% in FY12 to 15 511 million USD, with a margin of 39.0%, an increase of 18 bps. In 4Q12, EBITDA grew 9.9% to 4 388 million USD with margin expansion of 44 bps

Net finance costs: Net finance costs (excl. non-recurring net finance costs) in FY12 were 2 188 million USD, down 15.7% compared to FY11. Net finance costs of 751 million USD in 4Q12 include other financial results of -227 million USD from non-cash, unrealized foreign exchange translation losses on intercompany payables and loans, costs of currency and commodity hedges and losses from derivative contracts related to our share-based payment programs

Income taxes: Income tax in FY12 was 1 717 million USD with an effective tax rate of 16.3%, compared to an income tax expense of 1 856 million USD in FY11 with an effective tax rate of 20.2%

Profit: Normalized profit attributable to equity holders of AB InBev grew 12.9% in nominal terms to 7 283 million USD in FY12 from 6 449 million USD in FY11. Profit in 4Q12 declined by 8.5% in nominal terms to 1 792 million USD in 4Q12 from 1 959 million USD in 4Q11. The decline in normalized profit in 4Q12 is mainly due to other financial results of -227 million USD, largely driven by non-cash, unrealized foreign exchange translation losses on intercompany payables and loans, as well as costs of currency and commodity hedges and losses from derivative contracts related to our share-based payment programs, whereas 4Q11 included a 200 million USD gain primarily from derivative contracts related to our share-based payment programs.

Earnings per share: Normalized earnings per share (EPS) grew by 12.6% to 4.55 USD in FY12 from 4.04 USD in FY11, and declined by 9.0% from 1.23 USD in 4Q11 to 1.12 USD in 4Q12, as explained above

Cash flow: Cash flow from operating activities increased by 6.3% on a nominal basis, to 13 268 million USD in FY12 from 12 486 million USD in FY11

Net debt: Our net debt as of 31 December 2012 was 30.1 billion USD, a decrease of 4.6 billion USD from 31 December 2011. The net debt to EBITDA ratio decreased from 2.26x at the end of 2011 to 1.87x before M&A activity, and to 1.94x on a reported basis, as of 31 December 2012.

Dividend: The AB InBev Board proposes a dividend of 1.70 EUR per share, subject to shareholder approval. If approved, the shares will trade ex-coupon as of 26 April 2013 and dividends will be payable as from 2 May 2013. The record date will be 30 April 2013. The Board has also decided to move to semi-annual dividend payments, going forward, starting with dividends for FY13, payable in November 2013 and May 2014.