Brewer's boost: SABMiller leap in sales defies the doubters

Investors raised a glass to global brewer SABMIller as it confounded fears that consumer spending is falling in emerging markets.

With a sparkling performance in Africa with lager sales up 9 per cent in the past three months and a 14 per cent rise in sales in China, the brewer said it was on course to hit City expectations for the full year.

Its chief executive, Alan Clark, said: "We achieved a strong performance across our African business and made good progress in building on our positions in Latin America, South Africa and the Asia-Pacific region."

The brewer of Grolsch, Miller and Snow even had a good quarter in the UK, with volumes up 5 per cent, driven largely by Peroni.

More broadly Europe and North America started to show signs of improvement after a poor first half, with the former flat and the latter up 3 per cent.