Malaysian Operations and Focus in Premium Beer Segment Strategy continues to Support Strong Growth in Revenue and Earnings

SHAH ALAM, May 11th, 2011 – Carlsberg Malaysia announced a 1st quarter 2011 group profit after tax of RM49.4 million for the 3 months ended 31 st March 2011. This represents an increase of 29.5 per cent compared to profit after tax of RM38.1 million for the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

During the quarter under review, Group Revenue was RM407.2 million or 7.6 per cent higher than the RM378.5 million achieved in the previous year.

The growth in revenue was mainly due to a successful 2011 Chinese New Year campaign where higher sales were achieved plus the continued growth in the Group’s share of the premium beer segment.

Earnings per share for the quarter was 16.0 sen versus 12.4 sen a year ago.

Soren Ravn, Managing Director commented “We are very pleased with our 1 st quarter 2011 Group performance. The Group benefitted from the successful 2011 Chinese New Year festive campaign. Our flagship Carlsberg brand remains the No 1 beer brand in Malaysia. We continued to focus and grow in the premium beer segment through our subsidiary Luen Heng F & B Sdn Bhd. The Hoegaarden brand in our portfolio of premium beer brands continued to register exceptional share growth and our Kronenbourg 1664 beer brand is also establishing itself in the premium beer category. Carlsberg Malaysia now has 7 of the world’s leading international beer brands in its Group portfolio. Our associate company, Lion Brewery Ceylon PLC has also outperformed and contributed to the Group’s earnings”.

On the outlook for the rest of the year, the Group expects to benefit from the recent Malaysian launch and investment in Carlsberg’s new global campaign where the Carlsberg new packaging and campaign tagline “That Calls for a Carlsberg” are now fully aligned with Carlsberg in over 140 countries around the world. The new Carlsberg big bottle had been extremely well received by our trade customers, consumers and other stakeholders.