Dutch brewer Heineken is looking at potentially expanding into new markets though it doesn't have any defined plan for the time being, its chief financial officer told CNBC Monday.
The world's second largest brewer bought last February the Brazilian brewer Brasil Kirin for about $704 million, raising its share in what's the third largest beer market in the world.
Speaking to CNBC on Monday, Laurence Debroux, Heineken's CFO, said that there could be similar decisions in the future, as the company tries to be present in as many markets as possible.
"We are looking at a number of countries, we are looking at increasing our footprint, we still have a few white spots, but we are not looking at transformation at this stage," she said, adding that this doesn't mean that something "big (and) significant can happen."
Heineken announced Monday its 2017 full-year results, which came in line with expectations. Operating profits before one-offs were up by 6.2 percent. The firm also said it would pay a dividend of 1.47 euros ($1.80) per share, higher from a year ago.
However, the Dutch brewer also said that in 2018 its operating margin would grow below the rate it guided for between 2014 and 2017 due to market volatility and last year's acquisition in Brazil.
Heineken said it was aiming for an operating margin increase of 40 basis points per year between 2014 and 2017, but looking at 2018, it foresaw a margin increase of 25 basis points.
"Definitely a strong operating margin this year," Debroux said. Going into next year, Heineken sees underlying trends continuing in terms of operating margin expansion. But she added it was guiding lower "due to (the) residual diluted effect of the major integration we did in Brazil at mid-year."
The stock was more than 2 percent lower in early European trade on Monday.