Broker snap: Credit Suisse 'neutral' on Coca-Cola HBC

16th May 2014 12:32

Credit Suisse issued a 'neutral' rating for Coca-Cola HBC after the bottling company reported a fall in first quarter revenue and volumes.The second largest bottler of the brands of The Coca-Cola Company said volume declined by 4% to 409.6 cases in the three months to March 28th and new sales revenue fell 7% to €1.3bn. It blamed the timing of Easter and foreign exchange movements. Despite the challenging trading conditions, the company's expectations for the full-year remained unchanged."The first quarter is always a small quarter and liable to sharp swings so should never be extrapolated for the year," Credit Suisse said. "That said the group is off to a slow start with volumes down 4% (we had -2.6%) with the deleverage impacting margins and an operating loss of €27m (we had -€12m)." RD