(Bloomberg) -- Heineken NV (OTC:HEINY) shares fell the most in almost four years after the world’s second-largest brewer reported first-half earnings growth that almost ground to a halt, held back by aluminum costs and poor weather in Europe.
Adjusted operating profit rose 0.3% on an organic basis, the slowest pace in at least six years, the company reported Monday. That compares with 6.4% growth in the full year 2018. The stock fell as much as 6.5%.
Even though revenue growth beat estimates, Heineken is having a hard time translating that into profit due to higher costs, predominantly tied to packaging. About half of that was currency-related due to the slump in the Brazilian real against the dollar, Chief Financial Officer Laurence Debroux said by phone. Still, Heineken sees a pickup in the second half, and the brewer reiterated its forecast for mid-single-digit percentage growth in operating profit.
The second half “needs to be exceptionally strong,” which should be achievable based on relief coming from hedges on costs and currencies, wrote Trevor Stirling, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. He said he was surprised by the amount of pressure on margins.
The majority of higher input costs are hedged and should ease in the second half and into 2020, Debroux said. The company’s other reasons for the profit slowdown were investments in e-commerce, technology upgrades and the phasing of expenses.
Poor weather in Europe has been a theme for major consumer-goods companies reporting this quarter including Unilever (LON:ULVR) and Danone. Investors have yet to see if Europe’s record temperatures in July will boost demand in the third quarter. Until now brewers have only reported negative impacts from the weather this year.
Volume growth slowed in the second quarter, partly due to tough comparisons with the year-earlier period, which benefited from the World Cup soccer tournament. Shipments of the brewer’s namesake brand fell in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe in the second quarter.
(Updates shares in second paragraph.)