Leading Mexican beer brewer Grupo Modelo will likely show moderate earnings growth for the second quarter of this year, with U.S. sales offsetting a flat domestic market, analysts said. According to the average estimate in a Reuters' poll of five sector analysts, Modelo was forecast to report a nearly 5.0 per cent increase in revenues in the second quarter over the same period a year ago, and growth in operating profit of 1.8 per cent. "We expect the report to be flat. Mexico has not had a hot summer, nevertheless exports will be fine," said Victor Hugo Flores, analyst with Mexico's Interacciones brokerage. Flores said that in the United States, Modelo's popular Corona is a "premium" beer, "and people who pay a high price for it are not strongly affected by the (U.S. economic slowdown)." While the cool weather and economic slowdown have affected Modelo's domestic market, analysts predicted beer sales in Mexico would pick up in the second half of this year. "The third quarter will be a little better, the fourth should reflect a greater economic recovery and the holiday season," said analyst Yvonne Ochoa of BBVA Bancomer. Modelo, half owned by the world's No. 1 brewer, the U.S. Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., competes for virtually the entire Mexican market with rival Fomento Economico Mexicano (Femsa).
