The fourth-quarter net-profit for Danish brewer Carlsberg was recorded to be more than 18% as posted on Tuesday predicting an optimistic net profit growth of 20% and static operating profits for 2010 "Working capital improvement will continue to be a key focus area," Carlsberg said.

Carlsberg, the maker of Tuborg, Kronenbourg and Baltika beer experienced this profit following the shutdown of some breweries for cost cuts and the switching of Russian distributors to buy inventories before a rise in tax.

According to Carlsberg, it plans to increase investments in brands and channel marketing and stick to improvement of operational and capital efficiency.

After increasing the medium-term operating margin targets in Eastern and Western Europe, Carlsberg shares heaved up to 6.4% in Copenhagen trading. The company also stated today that operating profit before one-time items mounted to 9.39 billion Kroner from 7.98 billion Kroner for the previous year.

Soren Samsoe, an analyst at Danske Markets Equities in Copenhagen revealed to its clients, "The underlying development in the company is clearly progressing well. The upgraded margin targets are very positive as it was not expected by the market".

Exceeding the company guidance of almost 6.5 billion Kroner, the free cash flow also climbed to 10.5 billion Kroner on the savings measures.