Major shareholder reduces stake in Carlsberg

You’d have thought that Carlsberg was merely one of several international companies doing business in eastern Europe – but now the brewer seems to have become the test case for how European companies are going to be affected by the new chill between Russia and the West.

Carlsberg does about one third of its business in eastern Europe. Because of deteriorating market conditions, it was forced to lower its 2014 guidance twice already.

That’s not good and certainly not good enough for some money men. On 29 August 2014 Carlsberg said that the Oppenheimer Funds cut its stake in the brewer to 4.78 percent, from previously 6.42 percent.

Mind you, Oppenheimer is not exiting Carlsberg for good – it is only shifting some of its funds elsewhere. Let’s see if Oppenheimer has thus set a precedent for others to follow.

Releasing its first half figures in August 2014, Carlsberg said that it expects full-year operating profit to decline by a low-to-mid-single-digit percentage compared with the previous guidance of growth of low single-digit growth.