Shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) dropped as much as 11 percent on Thursday, after the world’s largest brewer announced it was cutting dividend payouts in half. The cuts come as the company looks to reduce debt taken on with the acquisition of SABMiller in 2016, Bloomberg reports.
The stock price plunge was the largest decline the company has experienced since 2008, cutting $18 billion off its market value.
The decline comes after the Leuven, Belgium-based company reported smaller profits and lower volume sales in many key markets. For the third quarter, it saw a profit of $956 million, compared with $2.06 billion during the same period in 2017. AB InBev’s revenue also dropped to $13.28 billion from $14.74 billion.
The brewer will use all of the $4 billion saved in the dividend cuts to pay off debt, Bloomberg says, with a total of $10.5 billion of borrowings to pay off by 2020.
While it was a bad day for AB InBev, it’s been a good week for the company’s rivals. On Wednesday, Carlsberg raised its earnings forecast for the year, while Heineken reported third-quarter growth, exceeding estimates. Big Beer, it seems, isn’t shrinking overall just yet.
