ANHEUSER-BUSCH INTERBREW DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish cider maker C&C (>> C&C Group Plc) has no plans to retreat from its less profitable U.S. and English operations, the chief executive of the Irish company said on Wednesday, rebuffing an activist investor's call to focus its efforts on Ireland and Scotland.
Minority shareholder Orange Capital earlier this month called in a Financial Times interview for C&C, whose brands include Magners, Bulmers and Tennents, to sell its U.S. operations, cut back in England, and focus resources on its core Scottish and Irish markets.
But Chief Executive Stephen Glancey told Reuters England was too important a market to leave and that it was "not the best time to optimise value" of U.S. assets.
"We're not going to give up on the UK market ... we think it's really critical for the brand value long-term that we keep it alive and healthy," Glancey said.
Instead, he said C&C was watching the proposed merger of SABMiller (>> SABMiller plc) and AB InBev (>> ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV) to see what asset disposals might occur as a result.
"With all the changes in the industry, opportunities might come our way," he said. "It could lead to some asset disposals, some brand disposals, and it could lead to other people looking for collaboration across other territories."
C&C on Wednesday reported a 9.5 percent fall in operating profit in the six months to the end of August, in part due to what it described as one-off factors in its Scottish and Irish markets, including poor summer weather and changes in distribution.
Annual profit would be hit by around 10 million euros (7.2 million pounds), it said.
Operating profit in its small North American operations fell 61 percent. The England and Wales business made an operating margin of 13 percent compared with 21 percent in Ireland.
Goodbody Stockbrokers said it would cut its forecast for annual earnings before interest and tax to 105 million euros.
But C&C did fulfil one of the demands made by 5 percent shareholder Orange Capital, promising to return 100 million euros of capital to shareholders through share buybacks by July.
Chief Financial Officer Kenny Neison said the return indicated there was "nothing in the pipeline" in terms of acquisitions.
C&C shares were up 0.5 percent by 0830 GMT.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by David Holmes)
