Nigerian Breweries sees Q1 pretax of 11.7 bln naira

LAGOS Feb 17 (Reuters) - Nigerian Breweries (NB.LG: Cotation), a unit of Dutch brewer Heineken (HEIN.AS: Cotation) said on Wednesday it expects a slight drop in pre-tax profit to 11.7 billion naira ($78 million) in the first quarter but a rise in turnover.

The firm, which posted first-quarter pre-tax profit of 11.8 billion naira a year ago, expects turnover of 40.8 billion naira for the first three months of the year compared to 40.4 billion a year ago, it said in a statement to the stock exchange.

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(Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Nick Tattersall)