AB InBev to reap benefits of price hikes in Q2

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* Group Q2 results on Aug 11 at 0600 GMT
* Core Q2 profits expected to rise 11 percent
* Beer volumes seen flat, after Q1 drop
Anheuser-Busch InBev , the world’s largest brewer, is set to show a 11 percent rise in second-quarter profits on Thursday as price rises offset weak markets for beer in its two key markets of Brazil and the United States.

The maker of Stella Artois and Budweiser sells roughly three-quarters of its beer in the Americas region after its takeover of Anheuser-Busch in 2008, and around 40 percent of its beer sales come from Latin America.

Worries over rising unemployment and stagnant wages pushed U.S. consumer sentiment to a two-year low in July, while in Brazil consumer sentiment also reached a two-year low in June due to concerns over inflation.

MillerCoors, the second-largest brewer in the U.S. owned by SABMiller and Molson Coors , said earlier this month that it managed to increase profits in the second quarter by raising beer prices and cutting costs in the face of a tough market.

A Reuters poll of 15 banks and brokerages has forecast that AB InBev’s second-quarter core EBITDA profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) would rise by 11 percent to $3.7 billion.

They also forecast that beer volumes would remain flat at 101 million hectolitres. In the first quarter, AB InBev suffered its first drop in beer sales for a year and a half.

SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewer, reported its April-June underlying beer volumes rose 5 percent helped by growth in emerging markets, while the third-largest Heineken reports H1 results on Aug. 24, and fourth-largest Carlsberg (CARLb.CO) a week earlier on Aug. 17.