Mexico City, October 28, 2015, Coca-Cola FEMSA, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: KOFL, NYSE: KOF) (“Coca-Cola FEMSA” or the “Company”), the largest franchise bottler in the world, announces results for the third quarter of 2015:
• Comparable revenues grew 10.2% for the third quarter of 2015.
• Comparable operating income grew 16.4% for the third quarter of 2015 with a margin expansion of 70 basis points.
• Comparable operative cash flow grew 21.0% for the third quarter of 2015 with a margin expansion of 190 basis points.
• Comparable earnings per share reached Ps. 0.86 in the third quarter of 2015. Excluding a one-time tax benefit registered during the third quarter of 2014, comparable EPS would have grown 5.7%.
Comparable means, with respect to a year over year comparison, the change in a given measure excluding the effects of (1) mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, (2) translation effects resulting from exchange rate movements and (3) the results of hyperinflationary economies in both periods. From our operations, only Venezuela qualifies as a hyperinflationary economy.
Message from the Chief Executive Officer
“We delivered positive comparable operating results this quarter aided by our local pricing initiatives, active hedging strategy, and focus on operational efficiency, enabling us to deliver a solid margin expansion. In Mexico, volume and transaction growth continued to accelerate as our relentless emphasis on point-of-sale execution, combined with our brand strength and packaging diversification, better position us to capture a recovering consumer environment. Once again, we built on our very strong year-over-year volume and pricing growth in Colombia, while we gained market share and continued our solid top- and bottom-line performance in Argentina. Moreover, in Brazil, we continued to gain market share in the sparkling beverage category and improved our profitability despite a weak consumer environment, one-time expenses, and ongoing currency volatility, reinforcing the strong defensive profile of that operation. In Asia, we continued our successful turnaround of the Philippines operation, accelerating the volume growth of our core portfolio and achieving more consistent improvement in our profitability.
This year, we continued to drive innovation throughout our portfolio. In Brazil, we complemented our guaraná platform with Schweppes Guaraná Class and bolstered our Leao Fuze tea portfolio. In Mexico, we reinforced our sparkling beverage portfolio, leveraging the innovative Jugos del Valle platform to launch Naranja & Nada and Limon & Nada, sparkling orangeade and lemonade, which are certain to appeal to our consumers. Also in Mexico, we reinforced Santa Clara’s portfolio by launching semi-skim milk, which will strengthen the successful performance of our Santa Clara dairy brand this year.
As we continue to revolutionize our organization’s capabilities, skills, and operating models to capture profitable future growth, we remain focused on the short term: successfully navigating the current complex environment, delivering profitable results, and continuing to create value for all of our stakeholders,” said John Santa Maria Otazua, Chief Executive Officer of the Company.
Conference call information
Our third quarter 2015 conference call will be held on October 28, 2015, at 12:00 A.M. Eastern Time (10:00 A.M. Mexico City Time). To participate in the conference call, please dial: Domestic U.S.: 888-437-9445 or International: 719-325-2448. Participant code: 103131. We invite investors to listen to the live audiocast of the conference call on the Company’s website, www.coca-colafemsa.com. If you are unable to participate live, the conference call audio will be available at www.coca-colafemsa.com.
Stock listing information
Mexican Stock Exchange, Ticker: KOFL | NYSE (ADR), Ticker: KOF | Ratio of KOF L to KOF = 10:1
Coca-Cola FEMSA, S.A.B. de C.V. produces and distributes Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Del Valle, and other trademark beverages of The Coca-Cola Company in Mexico (a substantial part of central Mexico, including Mexico City, as well as southeast and northeast Mexico), Guatemala (Guatemala City and surrounding areas), Nicaragua (nationwide), Costa Rica (nationwide), Panama (nationwide), Colombia (most of the country), Venezuela (nationwide), Brazil (greater São Paulo, Campiñas, Santos, the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the state of Paraná, part of the state of Goias, part of the state of Rio de Janeiro and part of the state of Minas Gerais), Argentina (federal capital of Buenos Aires and surrounding areas) and Philippines (nationwide), along with bottled water, juices, teas, isotonics, beer, and other beverages in some of these territories. The Company has 64 bottling facilities and serves more than 351 million consumers through more of 2,800,000 retailers with more than 120,000 employees worldwide.
Investor Relations:
Roland Karig
roland.karig@kof.com.mx
(5255) 1519-5186
José Manuel Fernández
josemanuel.fernandez@kof.com.mx
(5255) 1519-5148
Tania Ramirez
tania.ramirez@kof.com.mx
(5255) 1519-5013
Website: www.coca-colafemsa.com