Heineken Malaysia Bhd shares fell nearly 6% in late morning trading on Thursday after weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings prompted Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) to cut its earnings forecasts and target price for the brewer.
As at 11.11am, Heineken Malaysia had fallen RM1.12 or 5.86% to RM17.98, with 1.59 million shares changing hands. The stock opened at RM19.00 and traded between an intraday high of RM19.02 and a low of RM17.92.
The decline came after the company reported second-quarter core profit after tax and minority interests of RM48.4 million, down 53.1% quarter-on-quarter and 41.7% year-on-year. First-half core earnings fell 26.3% year-on-year to RM151.7 million, coming in below both HLIB and consensus expectations.
HLIB attributed the weaker performance to subdued consumer sentiment and Heineken Malaysia’s deliberate reduction of ex-brewery sales initiatives as it seeks to keep distributor inventories closer to underlying demand.
The research house subsequently cut its FY2026, FY2027 and FY2028 earnings forecasts by 16.5%, 8.1% and 8.0% respectively, while lowering its target price to RM25.65 from RM28.07. It maintained a Buy call.
Despite the near-term pressure, HLIB sees potential upside from the planned transition to an import-based supply model by Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore), which could add around 240,000 hectolitres of annual volume to Malaysia if 80% of Singapore’s volume is allocated to the country.
