By David McHugh, Business Writer
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP --Multinational beer and beverage company Anheuser-Busch InBev — maker of Budweiser, Bud Light, Stella Artois and Corona — reported on Thursday a 7% increase in operating profit for last year, even as as sales sagged in the United States due to a decline in demand for Bud Light.
The earnings news came hours after the company avoided a strike by 5,000 of its U.S. workers as negotiators reached agreement late Wednesday.
Normalized operating earnings, which exclude financial factors such as interest and taxes, rose 7% to $19.98 billion in 2023. That's the figure the company uses to demonstrate its underlying performance.
Full-year profit declined to $6.89 billion from $7.60 billion the year before. Total revenue rose 7.8% to $59.38 billion. The company's CEO Michel Doukeris cited "another year of consistent profitable growth" in which it reduced debt and saw its credit rating upgraded.
U.S. revenue declined 9.5% for the year and 17.3% in the fourth quarter, "primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light," the company said in an earnings news release.
The Leuven, Belgium-based company is facing declining beer sales in the U.S., where drinkers are increasingly opting for spirits, hard seltzers and alcohol-free beverages. Bud Light, its best-selling brand there, faced a conservative backlash last year after it sent a commemorative can to transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
Transgender rights supporters also deserted the brand, saying it didn't do enough to support Mulvaney.
The company did better in Europe, where it increased revenue despite declining volumes and grew operating profit. Profits rose in China.
The company said it would increase its dividend to shareholders by 9% to 82 cents per share.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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