South Africa: Brewing Giant Halts U.S.$.290 Million in Investments After Alcohol Ban

@SABreweries/Twitter
An SA Breweries tweet about its cancellation of investments.
4 August 2020
allAfrica.com

Cape Town — South African Breweries (SAB) is cancelling R5 billion ($290 million) of planned investments as a result of revenue losses sustained during a government-imposed ban on alcohol sales during the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reports.

SAB, which is owned by the world's largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, said in a statement that it had cancelled R2.5 billion planned expenditure for this financial year, while the other half for the next financial year remains under review.

"The cancellation of this planned expenditure is a direct consequence of having lost 12 full trading weeks, which effectively equates to some 30% of SAB's annual production," SAB vice-president of finance Andrew Murray said in the statement.

Fin 24 reports that alcohol sales were prohibited as part of the country's initial lockdown in late March. The ban was later relaxed, but was reintroduced in mid-July following a rise in trauma cases. The state has said the ban is necessary to keep the country's hospitals free from trauma victims as Covid-19 cases rise.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2020 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.