Molson Coors Beverage Company reaffirms key financial guidance for full year 2021 and provides an update on the impacts to its business resulting from the systems outages caused by a cybersecurity incident as well as the eleven-day closure of the Fort Worth, Texas brewery caused by the winter storms in February 2021.
Molson Coors has made substantial progress in restoring its systems following the recent cybersecurity incident. Globally, all breweries are currently producing and shipping products, and are ramping up to near normal operating levels.
Despite this progress led by the significant efforts of the Molson Coors team, along with the support of leading forensic information technology firms and other advisors, the company has experienced and continues to experience some delays and disruptions in its business, including brewery operations, production and shipments in the U.K., Canada and the U.S. Additionally, the cybersecurity incident was preceded by an unprecedented February winter storm in Texas that forced local government authorities to impose energy restrictions, causing the Fort Worth brewery to be offline for eleven days.
Lastly, the ongoing on-trade shutdowns in the U.K. due to the coronavirus pandemic continue to be a challenge. All three of these events will negatively impact first quarter 2021 financial results.
Molson Coors’ President and Chief Executive Officer Gavin Hattersley commented, “Over the past few weeks, we have faced significant and unforeseeable obstacles. While these obstacles will have a negative impact on our first quarter shipments and financial results, we believe the fundamentals of our revitalization plan are strong and our future remains bright.
"We continue to build on the strength of our core brands, aggressively grow our above premium portfolio, expand beyond beer, invest in our capabilities and support our people and our communities.â€
Notwithstanding these incidents and the uncertainty that remains due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, including the timing and strength of the recovery, Molson Coors reaffirms its key financial guidance for full year 2021 as it continues to expect a mid-single digit increase in net sales revenue in 2021 on a constant currency basis, approximately flat underlying EBITDA in 2021 compared to 2020 on a constant currency basis and a net debt-to-underlying EBITDA ratio of approximately 3.25x by the end of 2021 and below 3.0x by the end of 2022.
In addition, Molson Coors continues to expect that its board of directors will be in a position to reinstate a dividend in the second half of 2021.
Molson Coors currently estimates that the impacts of the cybersecurity incident and the February winter storms in Texas will shift between 1.8 and 2.0 million hectoliters of production and shipments from the first quarter 2021 to the balance of fiscal year 2021 and will also shift between $120 million to $140 million of underlying EBITDA from the first quarter 2021 to the balance of fiscal year 2021.
Molson Coors also expects to incur incremental one-time costs in both our first and second quarters 2021 as a result of the cybersecurity incident. ■