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(Alliance News) - Coca-Cola HBC AG on Thursday reported strong results for the first half of 2021 as it announced an expansion into the Egyptian drinks market.
The FTSE 100-listed firm bottles and sells Coca-Cola beverages and other drinks. It currently operates in Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Switzerland.
Also on Thursday, the company said it has expanded its operations into Egypt as its subsidiary Coca-Cola HBC Holdings BV acquired a majority stake in Coca-Cola Bottling Co of Egypt SAE.
Coca-Cola HBC Holdings paid USD427 million for the 95% stake, the company said.
The acquisition offers access to the second largest non-alcoholic ready-to-drink market in Africa by volume, Coca-Cola HBC added.
Shares in Coca-Cola HBC were trading up 0.6% at 2,733.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
In the six months ended July 2, pretax profit jumped 90% to EUR317.2 million from EUR167.2 million the year prior.
Net sales revenue grew 15% year-on-year to EUR3.25 billion from EUR2.83 billion the year prior.
Meanwhile, unit case volumes increased to 1.13 billion, up 14% year-on-year from 990.5 million.
Coca-Cola HBC said it gained momentum in the period as out-of-home sales recovered and at-home consumption continued to grow.
Low and no-sugar sparkling, adult sparkling and energy drinks all performed well, the company added.
The company sought to expand beyond its popular Costa Coffee offering in the first half by acquiring a 30% stake in premium coffee company Caffe Vergnano.
Coca-Cola HBC pays no interim dividend. It paid a EUR0.64 per share dividend for all of 2020, up 3.2% from EUR0.62 for 2019.
Chief Executive Zoran Bogdanovic said: "We are very pleased with the first half in which we increased value share gains, revenues and profitability as well as making continued progress on our strategic priorities."
Bogdanovic added: "We are encouraged by the strength of the performance, and while conscious of the risks as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact our markets, we continue to expect a strong recovery in FX-neutral revenues and now believe that we can achieve a 20-30 basis points earnings before interest and taxes margin expansion this year."
In the second half, the company said it expects to see the return its EUR100 million operational expenses savings for 2020.
For the full year, Coca-Cola HBC said it anticipates high-single digit input cost per unit case inflation and a more pronounced negative impact of foreign currency on earnings before interest and tax.
"Looking further ahead, we see plenty of opportunities within our evolving brand portfolio and the markets we operate in," the company added.
By Scarlett Butler; scarlettbutler@alliancenews.com
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