16 April 2026
What stands out is that this is not a story of alcohol falling out of favour everywhere. India continues to grow, Europe is broadly flat to slightly positive, and categories like ready-to-drink and pre-mixed spirits remain a genuine structural growth area. Strip out the US and China and the underlying performance would look perfectly respectable but these are huge markets and can't be ignored.
The decision to hold the interim dividend will reassure investors, particularly given balance sheet concerns across the sector. At around 11x earnings with a 6.5% yield, the stock looks cheap, but that valuation reflects how many investors believe the spirits industry is structurally broken. Pernod’s results suggest that view is overstated. There are still large parts of the world where consumers want the brands, the cocktails and the products. The challenge is whether that is enough to drive a broader re-rating.
