By George Mwangi
NAIROBI--The managing director of East African Breweries Ltd.
has resigned a week after the company announced a 14% drop in its
half-year net profit, the subsidiary of Diageo said in a
statement.
Diageo is the largest shareholder of EABL, the biggest brewer in
East Africa.
"Mr. Devlin Hainsworth will be leaving his position as Managing
Director of EABL as of 31st March 2013 , in order to pursue other
interests outside of EABL and Diageo," EABL Chairman Charles
Muchene said.
Mr. Hainsworth has led EABL since July 2012 and had worked with
Diageo for over 14 years holding various positions including
managing director for Guinness Nigeria PLC and Guinness Ghana PLC.
The EABL board has appointment Charles Ireland, who joined Diageo
in 1997 after working with Nestle in Great Britain for 10 years, to
replace Mr. Hainsworth with effect from April 1, the statement
said.
Since 2006, Mr. Ireland was the managing director of Guinness
Anchor Berhad, or GAB, in Malaysia, a joint venture between Diageo
and Asia Pacific Breweries where he has overseen five successive
years of growth in terms of volume, market share, revenue and
profit, the statement said.
GAB is Malaysia's third largest consumer goods business and is
listed on the Malaysian stock exchange with a market capitalization
of over 1 billion pounds, the statement said.
On Feb. 15, EABL announced a 14% drop of net profit to
shareholders to 3.75 billion Kenyan shillings ($43 million) in the
six months to December 2012 from 4.38 billion shillings a year
earlier, due to a growth in its financing costs.
"This followed the investments in the acquisition of a majority
interest (51%) in Serengeti Breweries Limited, Tanzania, the
acquisition of the minority interest in Kenya Breweries Limited,
construction of a new brewery in Moshi, Tanzania, and investments
in a mash filter in Uganda and a canning line in Kenya," EABL said
in a statement.
EABL also plans to expand its market to South Sudan, Rwanda,
Burundi and Congo.
Write to George Mwangi at realtimedesklondon@dowjones.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires