Notice to Shareholders - Change in Fiscal Year

We write to advise that your Directors have decided to change the fiscal year of the Company, in accordance with Section 22.1 of the Company’s By-Laws which provides as follows:

‘The Directors may from time to time by resolution establish the financial year of the Company’

What’s the change?
The Company’s financial year usually extends from 01 September in any one year to 31 August, in the year immediately following. This change means that the Company’s fiscal year will run from 01 January to 31 December in any calendar year.

Why change the fiscal year?
The main purpose of this change is to align the fiscal year of the Company with that of the AB InBev Group, of which the Company became a part after the take-over of our parent company, Banks Holdings Limited (BHL), by SLU Beverages Ltd in December, 2015. Synchronising our fiscal year with the new parent of BHL should make our internal group financial reporting much easier and also impact positively on our local regulatory reporting requirements.

When will this take effect?
The new fiscal year takes effect from 01 January, 2017. Our next fiscal year would therefore run from 01 January, 2017 – 31 December, 2017.

Will this affect the current financial year?
Yes, in order to transition to the new financial year on 01 January, 2017, the Directors propose to extend the current financial year by four (4) months to end on 31st December, 2016. For clarity, the current fiscal reporting period would therefore be 01 September, 2015 – 31 December, 2016 and would be 16 months in length. As a result of the change, the financial results presented in the financial statements are not entirely comparable.

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