Proactive Investors - Heineken N.V. (LON:0NBD) has reported below-expected revenue despite an improvement in sales over the first quarter, led by premium beer volumes.
Revenue came in at €8.18 billion over the first three months of the year, up 7.2%, the brewer said on Wednesday.
On an adjusted basis, revenue came in at €6.85 billion, below the Heineken-provided market consensus estimate for €6.94 billion.
Beer volumes grew by 4.7% over the period, however, above expectations for a 2.5% increase.
"This quarter was boosted by an earlier Easter and cycling negative one-off effects from last year," executive chairman Dolf Van Brink said.
"Top-line delivery was well-balanced between volume and value as more markets returned to volume growth."
Despite the revenue miss, Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV) analyst Aarin Chiekrie said the "results finally gave the group something to raise a glass to".
He said: "Total beer volumes were much better than the market expected, meaning that growth on the top line came from a much healthier mix of both price and volume this quarter."
Heineken reiterated guidance for low to high-single-digit operating profit growth, with shares up 0.4% on Wednesday morning.