International Breweries’ H1 2026 pre-tax profit rises 22% on margin recovery.

International Breweries’ H1 2026 pre-tax profit rises 22% on margin recovery.

International Breweries Plc has released its unaudited H1 2026 results reporting recorded a pre-tax profit of N74.79 billion for the six months ended June 2026.

This represents 21.55% YoY increase from N61.53 billion reported in the same period of 2025.

The growth was supported by a decline in cost of sales and increase in finance income to N11.96 billion, which helped offset higher operating expenses and finance costs.

In the second quarter of 2026, the company reported a pre-tax profit of N34.48 billion, representing 30.30% increase compared with N26.46 billion in Q2 2025 and a 14.01% decline from the preceding quarter’s N40.12 billion.

International Breweries’ first-half performance was supported mainly by improved cost efficiency rather than significant revenue growth and net finance income.

While revenue grew marginally to N342.07 billion, compared with N340.99 billion in the prior-year period, cost of sales, declined to N200.78 billion from N219.41 billion.

This lifted gross profit to N141.29 billion, while gross margin moved up to 41.3% from 35.7% in the prior-year period.

The improvement in production costs was reflected in lower materials consumed and allocated overheads, which declined to N159.12 billion from N185.54 billion.

However, operating expenses increased during the period, with administrative, marketing and distribution expenses rising to N70.52 billion from N59.27 billion in H1 2025

These higher costs partly moderated the impact of gross profit growth on operating earnings.

Also, foreign exchange movements remained a factor affecting profitability. Realised foreign exchange losses increased to N8.02 billion from N3.94 billion, although this was partly offset by an unrealised foreign exchange gain of N7.01 billion, compared with an unrealised loss of N2.98 billion in the prior-year period.

Finance income increased to N11.96 billion from N9.37 billion, supported by higher interest income.

However, finance costs also increased to N7.05 billion from N3.90 billion, mainly due to higher interest expense on lease liabilities, which rose to N6.71 billion from N3.32 billion.

The balance sheet grew by 7.15% to N792.65 billion as at June 2026, with property, plant and equipment and cash and cash equivalents accounting for the bulk of the asset base.

However, trade and other receivables increased significantly to N102.08 billion from N61.15 billion at December 2025, representing about 13% of total assets.

On the liabilities side, total liabilities stood at N254.51 billion, largely driven by trade and other payables of N189.73 billion, which exceeded receivables and represented the largest liability item.

Total equity improved to N538.14 billion from N499.83 billion, supported by a reduction in retained losses following the company’s return to profitability.

The stock started the year at N14.00 per share and has recorded 15.71% YTD loss.

The most striking gap in this result is between pre-tax and after-tax performance: pre-tax profit rose 21.55%, yet profit after tax fell 7.21% YoY.

Trade receivables also jumped sharply, suggesting International Breweries gave distributors more room to pay later in order to keep volumes moving.