Diageo Sees Emerging-Market Rebound as 2014 Growth Slows

Diageo Plc, the world’s biggest distiller, expects improvement in emerging-market performance in the second half of its current fiscal year after lackluster sales in regions such as Asia weighed on revenue growth.

Organic sales rose 0.4 percent in the 12 months ended June 30, the London-based maker of Smirnoff vodka said in a statement today. The median estimate from 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 0.5 percent increase. Earnings before interest and taxes, excluding some items, totaled 3.13 billion pounds ($5.3 billion), compared with a 3.2 billion-pound estimate. Sales in the Asia-Pacific region declined 7 percent on an organic basis.