The impact of COVID-19 on AB InBev's global statistics increased significantly towards the end of the quarter. As a result, volume declined 9.3% for the first quarter as a whole and 3.6% excluding China. Revenues decreased by 5.8%, while revenues per hectolitre increased by 3.9%. EBITDA of $3,949 million represents a 13.7% decline, with the margin contracting 331 basis points to 35.9%.
AB InBev expects the impact on results in the second quarter of 2020 to be significantly worse than in the first quarter. This was already evident in April 2020, when global volumes declined approximately 32% in April 2020, primarily due to the closure of the on-site channel in most markets and government restrictions on certain AB InBev operations in connection with the COVID 19 pandemic. However, China is already on the road to recovery. AB InBev's volume in China declined approximately 17% in April, an improvement of 46.5% compared to the first quarter decline.
The diverse geographic spread of AB InBev's operations allows the Group to apply best practices from its experience in China and South Korea to the rest of the markets as they go through different phases of the crisis and eventually recover.
Source: inside beer (tinyurl.com/ycbjle4f)