(Brussels, BELGIUM) – Anheuser-Busch InBev reports fourth quarter earnings.

Below is the first page of the press release. The rest of it can be found here.

Not surprisingly, the “headlines” below ignore the company’s poor performance for Q4 and 2010. Profit dropped from $1.28 billion in Q4 2009 to $968 million in Q4 2010 and from $4.63 billion for all of 2009 to $4.07 billion for all of 2010. That said, EBITDA is up from 2009.

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The enclosed information constitutes regulated information as defined in the Belgian Royal Decree of 14 November 2007 regarding the duties of issuers of financial instruments which have been admitted for trading on a regulated market.

Anheuser-Busch InBev reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2010 Results
Except where otherwise stated, the comments below are based on organic figures and refer to 4Q10 and FY10 versus the same period of last year. For important disclaimers please refer to pages 2/3

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Revenue growth: Revenue rose 4.4% in FY10 and 5.9% in 4Q10, with revenue per hl up 2.3% in FY10 and 5.0% in 4Q10. On a constant geographic basis, i.e. eliminating the impact of faster growth in countries with lower revenue per hl, organic revenue growth per hl improved 3.6% in FY10 and 6.0% in 4Q10

• Volume performance: Total volumes and own beer volumes growth in FY10 was 2.1%, with non-beer volumes up 3.8%. In 4Q10, total volumes and own beer volumes increased 1.4%, and non-beer volumes grew 2.0%

• Focus Brands: FY10 Focus Brand volumes grew 4.8% led by Skol, Brahma and Antarctica in Brazil, Harbin and Budweiser in China, and Budweiser in the United Kingdom. Global Budweiser volumes increased 1.7% in FY10. In 4Q10, Focus Brand volumes grew 4.8%

• Market share gains: In FY10, we gained or maintained market share in markets representing over half of our total beer volumes

• Cost of Sales: Cost of Sales (CoS) increased 1.1% in FY10, and decreased 1.2% per hl organically. In 4Q10, CoS decreased 0.2%, and also fell 0.5% per hl. On a constant geographic basis, CoS per hl increased 0.6% in FY10 and 0.5% in 4Q10

• Synergies: FY10 synergies of 620 million USD related to the combination with Anheuser-Busch, including 170 million USD of synergies achieved in 4Q10, bringing total synergies by the end of 2010 to 1 980 million USD

• EBITDA: Normalized EBITDA in FY10 grew 10.6% to 13 869 million USD, with EBITDA margin of 38.2% compared to 35.8% in FY09, up 209 bp organically. 4Q10 EBITDA rose 21.9% to 3 895 million USD with a margin of 41.1%, an organic improvement of 520 bp, driven by EBITDA margin improvements in all operating Zones

• Profit: Normalized profit attributable to equity holders of AB InBev grew 28.3% to 5 040 million USD in FY10 from 3 927 million USD in FY09 on a reported basis, and by 39% to 1 219 million USD in 4Q10, from 877 million USD in 4Q09 on a reported basis, reflecting a strong operational performance. FY10 profit attributable to equity holders of AB InBev shareholders declined 12.7% to 4 026 million USD due to the non-recurring capital gains from asset disposals of 1 541 million USD in FY09

• Non-recurring finance costs: Normalized profit attributable to equity holders of AB InBev in FY10 excludes non-cash 192 million USD of accelerated accretion expenses and 733 million USD of negative mark-to-market adjustments for hedges no longer effective. 4Q10 normalized profit attributable to equity holders of AB InBev excludes 202 million USD of negative mark-to-market adjustments

• Net debt: Our net debt as of 31 December 2010 was 39.7 billion USD, a decrease of 5.5 billion USD from 31 December 2009, for a net debt to normalized EBITDA ratio of 2.9 versus 3.7 last year, on the Reference Base

• Dividend: The AB InBev Board proposes a dividend of 0.80 EUR per share, subject to shareholder approval. If approved, the shares will trade ex-coupon as of 27 April 2011 and dividends will be payable as from 2 May 2011. The record date will be 29 April 2011

• 2010 Annual Report and Financial Statements are available on our website at www.ab-inbev.com