HK Stock Market Move | BUD APAC (01876) drops over 2%; internal restructuring and provision charges will affect third-quarter profit.

BUD APAC (01876) dropped over 2%, falling 1.94% as of press time to HK$5.565, with turnover of HK$24.7952 million. On the news front, on October 4, BUD APAC announced that for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, the group carried out an internal restructuring involving certain mainland China subsidiaries to improve capital efficiency, and expects to record approximately US$52 million in non-underlying withholding tax expenses; the group, on a prudent basis, made a provision of approximately US$30 million for overdue receivables from the Telangana State Beverages Corporation in India, which is reported as a scope change on a year-on-year basis and has no impact on organic growth, and the group will continue to pursue the amounts. The above matters will have a negative impact on the group's profit attributable to equity holders for the three months ended September 30, 2026. Citi issued a research report stating that it forecasts the group's third-quarter sales to fall 7% year-on-year and group organic EBITDA to fall 12% year-on-year, and maintains a "Buy" rating on the stock with a target price of HK$10.8. For the China business, Citi expects volumes to fall 8% year-on-year, average selling price to rise 0.5% year-on-year, sales to fall about 8% year-on-year, gross profit to fall 11% year-on-year, and normalized organic EBITDA to fall 13% year-on-year. For East Asia (mainly South Korea), it expects volumes to fall 3% year-on-year, average selling price to fall 2% year-on-year, sales to fall 5% year-on-year, gross profit to fall 7% year-on-year, and normalized organic EBITDA to fall 9% year-on-year.