Nigerian Breweries and Worldwide Breweries have launched their full-year 2025 audited and unaudited outcomes, respectively, marking a pointy rebound in profitability after the heavy losses recorded in 2023 and 2024.
On market efficiency, in 2025, Worldwide Breweries’ shares surged by 152% year-to-date, whereas Nigerian Breweries gained 135% over the identical interval.
The momentum has carried into 2026, with Worldwide Breweries up 7% YtD and Nigerian Breweries up 4% as of the shut of buying and selling final week.
These rallies look like largely pushed by the return to profitability within the 2025 monetary yr.
Nevertheless, past the headline share value efficiency, a extra vital query stays: who carried out higher in 2025, and which firm provides the stronger shareholder return outlook for 2026?
A cursory overview and evaluation of their filed unaudited full-year 2025 monetary statements present a nuanced image.
Whereas Nigerian Breweries maintains clear dominance by way of measurement, income, and asset base, Worldwide Breweries seems to have delivered stronger effectivity features, as mirrored in its revenue margins.
On the similar time, Nigerian Breweries nonetheless stands out by way of absolute profitability and valuation assist.
So, did scale win over effectivity? A better take a look at their earnings, margins, steadiness sheets, and valuations gives a clearer reply.
Nigerian Breweries nonetheless sells extra beer
On the subject of beer gross sales in Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries stays the clear market chief. In 2025, the corporate generated over N1.4 trillion in income, greater than double Worldwide Breweries’ N620 billion, at the same time as each firms recorded sturdy top-line development.
- Nigerian Breweries’ income rose by 35% year-on-year, forward of Worldwide Breweries’ 27% development, reflecting its continued dominance by scale.
- That scale benefit additionally confirmed up within the revenue turnaround story. After two bruising years in 2023 and 2024 marked by heavy losses, each brewers returned to profitability in 2025.
Nevertheless, Nigerian Breweries delivered the larger comeback in absolute phrases. The corporate flipped a N145 billion loss right into a N99 billion revenue, whereas Worldwide Breweries rebounded to about N63 billion revenue from a steep N114 billion loss a yr earlier.
However when the evaluation shifts from “how a lot revenue” to “how effectively revenue is generated,” the image turns into extra nuanced.
- On the working degree, Nigerian Breweries is barely extra environment friendly, retaining extra working revenue from every naira of income. This factors to stronger value management or higher working leverage in manufacturing and distribution.
- Nevertheless, under the working line, Worldwide Breweries begins to look extra environment friendly. Regardless of its smaller measurement, IB transformed a better share of its income into revenue earlier than tax and after tax, indicating a leaner bottom-line construction in 2025.
In different phrases, this isn’t a easy win–lose comparability: Nigerian Breweries dominates on scale and whole earnings, whereas Worldwide Breweries stands out on profitability margins and bottom-line effectivity.
A key issue behind each firms’ return to revenue was the advance within the overseas trade atmosphere, which sharply diminished FX-related losses and finance prices.
- Nigerian Breweries’ finance prices fell by 82% to N46 billion, whereas it swung to a overseas trade acquire of N752 million from a N157.6 billion loss in 2024.
- Worldwide Breweries additionally noticed finance prices drop to N6.7 billion from N35 billion, whereas its overseas trade loss narrowed sharply to N7 billion from N143.5 billion within the prior yr.
On return, whereas Worldwide Breweries reveals stronger bottom-line margins, Nigerian Breweries stays superior in capital effectivity, delivering larger returns on each property and fairness.
This means that NB not solely earns extra in absolute phrases however additionally makes use of its steadiness sheet extra successfully to generate shareholder returns.
As of December 2025, Nigerian Breweries had N1.1 trillion in whole property, a lot greater than Worldwide Breweries’ N741.5 billion
This enormous asset base means Nigerian Breweries has extra room to develop, spend money on new concepts, and maintain its floor out there.
It additionally offers it extra energy when coping with suppliers and companions, which actually issues when costs are rising in all places.
Valuation
Whereas Worldwide Breweries stands out for its bettering margins and conservative steadiness sheet, Nigerian Breweries provides a extra compelling valuation case.
- NB combines stronger earnings energy and better returns on capital with cheaper multiples throughout earnings, money movement, gross sales, and e book worth.
- In distinction, IB’s inventory seems to be pricing in a way more optimistic development trajectory, leaving much less margin for error.
From a risk-reward perspective, Nigerian Breweries at present appears to be like higher supported by each fundamentals and valuation going into 2026.
Who’s more likely to return to dividends first?
Because the downturn started in 2023, neither Nigerian Breweries nor Worldwide Breweries has paid a dividend.
Nigerian Breweries final paid a dividend in 2023, distributing N1.03 per share as a closing dividend for the 2022 monetary yr.
- Based mostly on their 2025 efficiency and the state of their amassed losses, Nigerian Breweries seems higher positioned to renew dividend funds first.
- As of December 2025, Nigerian Breweries had diminished its retained losses to about N72 billion, from N169.8 billion in 2024.
- With revenue after tax of over N90 billion in 2025, the corporate is on observe to totally remove these retained losses in 2026, clearing a key hurdle to a possible return to dividends.
Worldwide Breweries, whereas additionally making progress, stays additional away. Its retained losses stood at about N179 billion, down from N242 billion, and even with its bettering revenue development, it may take roughly three extra years to totally wipe out these amassed losses earlier than dividends change into a sensible possibility.
Remaining funding verdict
Nigerian Breweries provides the extra compelling risk-reward profile: stronger earnings energy, larger returns on capital, cheaper valuation, and a clearer path again to dividends.
Worldwide Breweries is a stable turnaround story with higher margins and a safer steadiness sheet, however at present costs, a lot of that optimism already seems priced in.
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