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Strategies & Market Trends : WILL COCA-COLA ALWAYS GO UP? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BAXTERBOO who wrote (1063)	5/15/1998 9:50:00 AM
From: SouthernIce	Respond to of 1462

That's always a good sign, but we'll never get that 2nd billion with empty slots! Have someone there make sure there is always a supply on hand, so you can always be "refreshed".

To: BAXTERBOO who wrote (1063)	5/19/1998 9:50:00 AM
From: Jerry Miller	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1462

Analysts downgrade CC Amatil by A$40 mln May 18, 1998 10:30 PM By Bernard Hickey SYDNEY, May 19 (Reuters) - Analysts cranked up their spreadsheets late on Tuesday morning to downgrade their calendar 1998 profit forecasts for soft drink bottler Coca Cola Amatil Ltd by A$40 million or more after the group's profit warning. "I had already downgraded last week and I'll be downgrading again," said Macquarie Equities analyst Raewyn Ellis-Doff. "It's definitely a negative for the stock," she said, pointing to an expected fall in profits from Indonesia of more than A$40 million. Earlier CC Amatil Ltd said its net operating profit for the first half of calendar 1998 would be flat at around last year's A$98.1 million and the second half operating profit would be less than the first half. CC Amatil, which is 33 percent owned by The Coca-Cola Co KO , said the impact of lower Southeast Asian currencies, minimal growth in Europe and a small trading loss in Indonesia had weakened the profit outlook. Before the profit announcement, analysts had been forecasting a slight rise in 1998 net profits to about A$265 million from the A$242.2 million posted in 1997. But analysts said they would downgrade their forecasts by A$40 million or more to as low as A$200 million after the warning. CC Amatil's shares were down 11 cents at A$11.29 at 12.10 p.m. (0210 GMT), having fallen as far as A$11.00 in earlier trade. The shares have however fallen more than 12 percent from a three month high of A$12.52 on May 13 as economic and social turmoil has ravaged Indonesia's cities, pushing sales of Coca Cola lower. Coca-Cola Amatil is the dominant Coca Cola bottler in Indonesia with 9,000 employees, 10 bottling plants and assets there worth about A$280 million. It said it expected first half sales volumes to be lower than the 41 million cases sold in the same period a year earlier. "There's nothing to be confident about for Coca Cola, with these Indonesian trading losses and the eps (earnings per share) fall expected," said one senior analyst. Another senior analyst agreed that he would be downgrading his forecast for 1998 profit by around A$40 million. A senior broking executive said, the profit warning aside, investors saw no good reason to put money into a company doing business in high-risk Asian countries, such as Indonesia. "It's not a game you have to play," he said. "The risk-reward is just not there." The only bright points in the profit warning were closer to home, with CC Amatil saying first-half volumes and trading profits from the Philippines and Australasian operations were expected to be higher than the same period a year ago. However, in Europe, once seen as CC Amatil's growth area, CC Amatil said it expected first half sales volumes to be slightly higher than the two percent growth seen in the first quarter of 1998. ((Sydney Newsroom, 61-2 9373-1812, sydney.newsroom@reuters.com)) REUTERS