European purchase will pay off

Article Excerpt

MOLSON COORS CANADA INC. (Toronto symbols TPX.A $43 and TPX.B $43; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 180.9 million; Market cap: $7.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www. molsoncoors.com) has completed its $3.4-billion purchase of StarBev LP, which owns nine breweries in Central and Eastern Europe (all amounts except share prices and market cap in U.S. dollars). In the three months ended June 30, 2012, this acquisition contributed $19.7 million to Molson Coors’s pre-tax earnings. That helped push up the company’s overall earnings by 8.0%, to $250.1 million from $231.6 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 12.2%, to $1.38 from $1.23, on fewer shares outstanding. Sales rose 7.0%, to $999.4 million from $933.6 million. StarBev contributed $57.3 million to the latest sales figure. The company borrowed $2.9 billion to buy StarBev. As a result, its long-term debt has risen to $4.1 billion from $1.9 billion at the end of 2011. That’s a high 52%…