The company has said they will take the necessary steps to arrange for a delisting of Baltika as soon as possible. Full ownership of Baltika will give the Carlsberg Group greater operational flexibility. When completed, the transaction is expected to be immediately earnings-enhancing.
CEO, Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen, said: “While 2011 was a challenging year with headwinds from rising input costs and a challenging Russian market, our Northern and Western European and Asian regions continued to perform well, both commercially and financially.
“Throughout the year, we maintained our focus on profitable development by balancing volume and value share, which led to share growth in both volume and value in Northern & Western Europe and Asia, but in the case of Russia resulted in market share loss due to a high level of promotional activities from competitors.”
Rasmussen added: “In our planning for 2012, we’re investing to grow market share and continuing the implementation of efficiency improvements. Strong prioritisation on the most important activities will be a key driver for how we approach businesses in what we expect to be a challenging environment in Northern & Western Europe in 2012. In Russia, the steps we’ve taken to strengthen the business will begin to bear fruit in 2012. At the same time we’ll continue to explore acquisition opportunities in growth markets.”
Source: Carlsberg
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