Good morning, and thank you for waiting. I would like to welcome everyone to Ambev's First Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call. Today with us, we have Mr. Jean Jereissati, CEO for Ambev; and Mr. Lucas Lira, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. As a reminder, a slide presentation is available for downloading on our website ri.ambev.com.br as well as through the webcast link of this call. [Operator Instructions]. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the safe harbor of Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Ambev's management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Ambev and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I would also like to remind everyone that, as usual, the percentage changes that will be discussed during today's call are both organic and normalized in nature and unless otherwise stated, percentage changes refer to comparisons with first quarter 2021 results. Normalized figures refer to performance measures before exceptional items, which are either income or expenses that do not occur regularly as part of Ambev's normal activities. As normalized figures are non-GAAP measures, the company discloses the consolidated profit, EPS, EBIT and EBITDA on a fully reported basis in the earnings release. Now I'll turn the conference over to Mr. Jean Jereissati, CEO for Ambev. Mr. Jereissati, you may begin your conference.

Thank you very much for joining our call. In February, I mentioned that 2021 would be a challenging year and COVID-19 pandemic was still very real. After that, we saw a steep deterioration of the sanitary conditions in Brazil, coupled with increased mobility restrictions, which impacted our people, customers, suppliers and consumers. At the same time, we were better prepared this time around. As a result, we delivered a great start of the year. We grew EBITDA by 23.8%, driven by double-digit volume and double-digit net revenue per hectoliter growth in Brazil, CAC and LAS. Consolidated volumes were 5.4% above Q1 '19, and we were able to get back to flattish EBITDA versus Q1 2019. This was another quarter we saw clear signs that our commercial strategy is working and that momentum continues. I was very happy to see the strong performance of our international operations. And Brazil continues to show that we are in the right path. We delivered volume growth in 8 of our 10 markets and market share gains in 7 of these markets. We saw a solid net revenue per hectoliter growth in the quarter, driven by a more flexible and efficient revenue management initiatives, including occasion-based promotional activities. We continued to strengthen our portfolio as we launched innovations across our markets. To name a few, Golden Extra in Panama, Bud Light Seltzer in Canada and Michelob Ultra in the premium segment in Brazil. LAS delivered strong volume growth in the Core Plus and Premium segments with a great performance of Corona. In Argentina, we had an outstanding volume performance and improved net revenue per hectoliter, delivering top line growth of 67%. CAC restrictions were partially lifted during the quarter that, combined with the good performance of our above core portfolio and effective revenue management initiatives,…

Thank you, Jean. Hello, everyone. This time last year, our financial performance was marked by declining net revenue, declining EBITDA, declining normalized profit and declining operational cash flow generation. What's worse, we were still in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. What a difference a year makes. In Q1 2021, net revenue grew nearly 28%. EBITDA grew almost 24%, normalized profit grew close to 125%, and operational cash flow grew close to 84%. Brazil Beer performance was strong, and the growth of our international operations was even stronger. Just to put things into perspective, all these indicators are either at or above 2019 levels in nominal terms. And in terms of outlook, even though COVID-19 is still around, I believe it's fair to say that things are not as gloomy as before, quite the contrary, we expect recovery to continue as vaccinations pickup. So I'm proud to see that not only have we navigated the crisis well so far but more importantly, that the commercial momentum we started to build in Q3 2020 has continued to translate into consistent improvement in our financial results quarter after quarter. We have 2 big priorities on the finance side: number one, continue to protect liquidity given the still volatile environment; and number two, improve our return on invested capital. The team has done a great job since last year in terms of protecting our liquidity position, which remains solid in each of our markets, while still investing about BRL 1.3 billion in CapEx in the quarter. Most of this investment was directed towards increasing our brewing and packaging capacity, particularly in Brazil to support our innovation pipeline. And the second biggest bucket of investment was in technology such as our ERP integration designed to, among other things, support our B2B and B2C…

Now we will begin the Q&A session.[Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Marcel Moraes with Santander.

Congrats on the impressive results for the first quarter. My question relates to market share trends per segment. So you mentioned you gain -- especially in Brazil, where you gained share in all segments. Can you give us a little bit of color on the super premium and the premium plus core value segments? What's going on over there?

Okay. Thank you for the question. So yes, we feel that our portfolio is much more prepared. We went through a big renovation, launching of new brands, resource allocation, betting on brands that really could drive the future. And our performance of global brands, specifically, they were quite -- double digits. So it was close to the 20s and this is what we believe it is the -- above the performance of the premium segment, overall performance. So that's why we mentioned that. We have been investing for a while in Budweiser and in Stella Artois. And more and more, we are seeing Beck's with a very strong performance, and we are seeing Corona doing very well too and Colorado. So these are our top 5 brands that we are really investing for the future, and they are really doing well. Specifically, Beck's is going triple digits growth. Corona is going on the 50s, Colorado doing very well on the in-home occasion too, still suffering a little bit in bars, but doing very well on the, from the off street. And on top of that, we -- on top of market share, something that we are looking a lot now is really equity of our brand that we really have to push equity ahead of market share, push to make the pool and to build brand equity. And brand equity of premium brands are really moving much faster than the market share and than our plan. So that's an important KPI for us that we are very confident.

Jean, what about the core segment? any color on that?

Yes. So the core segment since the beginning of the pandemic, I have been -- that was information that I brought to you all that the core has been very resilient. And we've been really reorganizing our portfolio, creating the Core Plus segment, really launching pack innovation and different packs on the core segment. And after years of volume decline, our core segment was really marked by resilience with Brahma, Skol, and [Antarctica] families growing by high single digits. So this is the combination of the RGB 300 mL bottles that we are really focusing during the pandemic as the pack that moms and pops and bars can do the delivery, can do the takeaway. So it's an important part that's really accelerating the core brands. And on top of that, the normal price strategy that we have been following. So core brands really bounced back. On top of that, the Core Plus segment, there is Brahma Duplo Malte, that's Bohemian, they are really on fire.

The next question comes from Carlos Laboy with HSBC

Yes. Congratulations on really strong results. I'm wondering, what have you learned about Brahma Duplo Malte through this period? And how do you drive that brand going forward? What consumer insights have you gleaned as you sit back and reflect on everything you've learned here for what's next there?

Okay. So thank you for the question, Laboy. Brahma Duplo Malte, we stated that was really the brand that -- the product that we took 1 year to develop. It was really, really tested with all the consumer sites. So we had that mindset of really get superiority on all the analysis that we were doing comparing with the core and really get inspired by another categories like, for example, whiskey that has the double malt, the single malt and everything. It was amazing how the Brazilian consumer got -- sticked with the concept of Duplo Malte or 2 malts that they combined. And we were able really to develop a liquid that it really calls attention on the mouth and on the eyes because it's really creamy and has a mouth, a great mouth taste. And all this process has been like for 1 year, we've been doing that. And then we decide really to, first, to bet on the flagship brand. So we are really talking about Brahma, that had Chopp Brahma, Brahma Duplo Malte and Brahma under the family umbrella. So we are really -- Brahma is the brand and Brahma Duplo Malte is the flagship product. And we went bold on that. So we really got -- in terms of resource allocation. So we picked the passion point, the Brazilian passion point that's more relevant for Brazil today. We have 2, football and country music. We connected Brahma Duplo Malte with these, both important passion point that we had. And we have been able to work as a family. And the good news is that Brahma is peaking back and is growing together with Brahma Duplo Malte that at some point in time we would think about some type of [indiscernible]. But the whole assembly is really moving up and we are very excited about it.

The next question comes from Rob Ottenstein with Evercore.

Robert Ottenstein with Evercore. And congratulations to -- for a great start of the year. A couple of sort of follow-up housekeeping items. Number one, it looks to us, Lucas, that you didn't reiterate the guidance on the COGS being up 20%, is that correct? Or am I missing something? So that's number one. Two, just a follow-up on the Brahma Duplo Malte, and that is I believe that got launched last year, biggest innovation you've had. Where are the comps toughest for you on that launch? So just kind of 2 housekeeping items there. And then kind of the bigger picture question, is -- how do you see the Beyond Beer market and business developing for you? It was a big theme for Brito on the ABI call today. Obviously, a lot of interesting stuff going on, on that side in Brazil. Love to get a little bit more detail on your thoughts on that as well.

Okay. So thank you for the question, Robert. So yes, about the cash costs, our guidance was in low 20s for Brazil Beer, for the full year. This -- so this quarter, we had higher than the full year, but it was already expected given the curve of the hedges that we have in Brazil. For Q2, we will continue to see cash COGS above the full year guidance for the same reason, but we are not making any changes to this guidance, okay? So this is one thing. The second thing, it is Brahma Duplo Malte. Let me give you a higher view on that. So what we are aiming is really to have a pipeline of innovation that really can transform my portfolio in the future, and it's already been transforming the company. So one KPI that I looked big time, it is what is the percentage of my net revenue that comes from products that did not exist 3 years ago. So it was -- this number was 5% in 2018. It went to 10% in 2019, and we reached 20% in 2021. And we are looking at this number for us to continue this trajectory with a strong view about where -- what are the spaces, what we want really to create. It's not just about any type of innovation. So we have a framework with 5 avenues that we want to launch and maintain this momentum of 20% of our net revenue coming from products that didn't exist 3 years ago. So we have -- so one more information. So the tough comps of Brahma Duplo Malte, the peak, it was really the Q3, where it was really the moment that we are freight loading and putting everything on the market. And -- but what…

And then just to add something here on our international operations, Robert. Beyond Beer is already a reality in Canada, for instance, and the quarter showed very good results yet again from our Beyond Beer portfolio, not only thanks to Nutrl, right, which we partnered with last year and showed consistent growth throughout last year. But in the quarter, we launched in Canada, Bud Light Seltzer. Early days, but off to a very good start as well. So I think that's one additional benefit that we have to be able to learn from the Canadian operations and roll out these learnings to other Ambev markets.

To give a little bit more information, Robert. So you know that we acquired a winery in Argentina last year to build and have the capabilities of play with grapes, with winery. So it's a business that in Argentina now is growing 16%, 16, 1-6, compared with what we bought. And now we are really building the capability of putting wines in cans and really testing this across the board in South America.

The next question comes from Thiago Duarte with BTG Pactual.

I have 2 questions on the revenue per hectoliter in Beer Brazil and then a third question on brand portfolio. So the first question is, can you talk a little bit more about how you manage the decision on the discounts in the Brazilian beer division? Since the third quarter last year, we've seen discounts coming down considerably. It's certainly been an important push to revenue per hectoliter growth. So I'm just wondering how you -- what were the conditions that allow you to more aggressively cut back those discounts during the pandemic when it comes to channel, package and the competition changes that the pandemic brought to the business? So I think it would be interesting to hear. The second question is if we -- as we look into the revenue per hectoliter growth in Brazil Beer, 12.6% year-over-year. Can you help us break it down in terms of some of the impacts that you had on a year-over-year basis? I'm specifically looking to hear in terms of the impact of the Carnival or the lack of Carnival this year and the digital initiatives such as Ze Delivery and BEES would be nice as well. And the third question, Jean, you mentioned in your opening remarks that the brand health of the portfolio has improved across the whole portfolio. So if you can elaborate a little bit more on what sort of metrics you're looking at when you make that statement, and how your brand preferences stack up against market share in each segment, that would be interesting, too.

Okay. So let me -- give me one minute for me to kind of put this on the paper for me to, I lost track of the points.

The second one is breakdown by driver. Net revenue per hectoliter beer. And the third one is brand portfolio, elaborate power versus shift by segment.

So if I miss some of the questions, we go over it, okay? So yes. So for a while, I've been mentioning previous quarters that over the long run, overall prices should grow in line with inflation. And there we are talking big time here on shelf prices. And then plus and minus, you have efficiencies on discounts. You have brand and channel mix, and then we have the impact of our portfolio strategy, mainly through innovation, okay? So these are things that we break down prices like that. And we have been much more flexible, nimble, agile in terms of revenue management to react to market conditions. So we are in the middle of a pandemic still. So channels are really changing different, what's growing, so transformation going on that you have to support. And so we really went deep on revenue management. And specifically, this piece of discount I think some things happen. First of all, BEES is helping us big time, okay? So granular, we have a big chunk of our volumes already through BEES. You have like better algorithms. We have better price trees because everything is really digitized and centralized. So it's really -- creates a framework, a easy framework for us to really understand the listing and the discounts and everything. So this is 1 thing. Second thing, we are more linear because of that, okay? So we are kind of more less concentrated and preparing for everybody to have some access to the return in terms of discount. So we are trying to get this a little bit with more standards, and we were able to make it. So we really moved this vision of a lot of discounts to trade in to a much more discounts connected with sellout and connected with…

And then, Thiago, and this is valid across segments and also, if you look at the film since last year and not only the quarter performance, right? I mean, brand building takes time, right, requires consistency. And 1 of the things that we're seeing is really this gradual, right, improvement in our brand power across segments for the portfolio ever since last year.

Perfect. That's very helpful. And Jean, just 1 part of 1 of my questions. Is it fair to say that Carnival should have had an impact in terms of how you translate revenue per hectoliter on a year-over-year basis?

So if I had Carnival, I would have a net revenue debt to equity that was smaller than that? So that's the question?

Yes.

Let me see, I think if I had Carnival, I would have a mix of packaging that it was worse than what I have today because it's more concentrated on weekends. So I don't see an impact on the pricing side. If I had Carnival, I would have something around 1 million hectoliters of cans selling in the market. I think that's how we should approach Carnival.

Yes, that's a good exercise.

That's about price and more about packaging mix.

The next question comes from Marcella Recchia with Credit Suisse.

I have two questions. First, it's about pricing. Listening Brito at ABI conference call earlier, he mentioned about price increase for Brazil beer in June. So my first question is, if you could elaborate a bit on your pricing tensions and the magnitude over the coming quarters, in light of recent commodity cost pressure, but also in light of the commodity cost outlook next year. That will be my first question before -- I will wait before moving to the second one.

So Brito mentioned that, Marcella, and as we have been mentioned in previous quarter. Look, over the long run, overall prices should grow in line with inflation. And I'm talking pretty much about shelf prices. And then on top of that, you have the discount and then you have plus and minus brand and channel. But there is this reference of shelves that on the long-term, should grow with inflation. And you know that we have been very flexible, nimble and agile in a way to react to market conditions, where we can go and move back or it can stick. So we are really taking every opportunity that we can, but it's really something that is very fluid. And so having said that, I would say that we cannot comment on pricing moving forward. I would just comment that this scenario that we are living in Brazil is a more inflationary scenario that we have to understand that got worse than we had in the past. And looking here, look, I'm really looking to the consumer. I'm not looking for my -- specifically for my costs. My cost, I already -- my COGS, cash COGS, I gave the guidance already. I'm talking really about the basket of the consumer and the inflation that we have over there and how we are -- we get better prepared for them, okay? So I cannot comment much further than that, just that we are in an inflationary scenario that end of the year, inflation was smaller than it was right now. And we have to find a way to adjust to it.

Got it. And my second question is about the SG&A. You mentioned on the outlook for this year and also in the call, that you expect higher SG&A because of the bonus provision, right? So just to understand if you can comment something about the outlook of this increase for this line this year, if you -- what can we expect on that?

Yes. Marcella, this is Lucas. Thanks for the question. So for SG&A, in Q1, the biggest impact was indeed the provision for bonus, okay, based on our stronger-than-expected performance to start the year. Should we remain on track or ahead of our expectations from a budget perspective, we will continue to accrue bonus provisions throughout the remainder of the year. So that -- it's reasonable to expect some additional, right, higher SG&A as a result, okay? The second biggest impact that we are seeing so far this year is regarding distribution expenses, and that's mostly a function of volume growth, right? So as volumes grow, our variable logistics cost also tends to grow. The good news there is that there is a benefit in the top line and the net -- it's a net positive at the end of the day, okay? So the higher SG&A in the distribution side is compensated, is offset by the improvement in net revenues. And finally, the third bucket is sales and marketing. In Q1, there was lower sales and marketing versus last year, but this was mostly due to phasing, particularly in Brazil as a result of, of the restrictions that came back in March. So we obviously had to adjust our sales and marketing spend, given that restrictions were in place. So going forward, as we recover, as cities reopen and the on-trade recovers, we are going to adjust our sales and marketing spend accordingly, okay?

The next question comes from Lucas Ferreira with JPMorgan.

Congrats on the strong results. I have 2 questions. Sorry if they are kind of too technical around your forward-looking statements. The first one, you guys mentioned that you already kind of envisioned turning to the pre pandemic EBITDA, right? So assuming the 2019 number, for instance, but I assume that your profitability will still be back up. My question is, is there anything structural that you see in the industry in the recession, the cost structure of the industry that -- in the company that would impair you to come back to the pre-pandemic profitability. So in 2019 guidance, EBITDA margin of roughly 42%. So is there anything that you guys think that would be impairing you to return to this level? And if for some reason, considering the pricing power, considering the reopen that you're seeing right now, you kind of already envisioned that this could be seen at some point -- at some point in time in the foreseeable future. So that's my first question. The second question is around the same topic. And looking at the second half of the year, if you guys are reiterating the guidance for the cost per hectoliter, I would assume that your kind of COGS curve is more skewed to the first half of the year, considering you COGS per hectoliter is up at 25% this quarter. So in terms of, let's say, margin comps, are you seeing an easier second half than first half?

Yes. So let me tackle this 1 and then Lucas can help me. So we are in the middle of a pandemic, okay? So this is -- I think this is, this is what we should talk about. Since the beginning of last year, when we saw the scenario of bar shutting down, bar closed, mobility restrictions at some extent, sometimes more, sometimes less. So all these things happening, we brought -- so we went to this vision of transforming the company towards the future. Accelerate the things that we have been cooking during the pandemic, but really accelerate towards the future. And I've been mentioning that -- so I want to really recover top line on fee. And I really wanted to recover volumes for the big volumes that we had in 2014 that we lost 10 million hectoliters from that point on. And we are being very consistent on that since looking for new occasions, the consumers. I'm now having 100,000 more customers that I had before. We were very happy to develop this relax-at-home occasion with our brands. That's something really the future now is something. That's more developed and mature markets. So we were really with this mindset of let's get back in fee for the top line that we had at some point in time and really less follow the consumer, okay? So what I mentioned today, it is that. So we are confident on that. We are very proud about the things that we achieved on the top line side. We see momentum. I think it's time for us to go back and say, look, so if the -- for the recovery of the bottom line. So where -- when would we make it? And what I mentioned it is time for us to…

Sorry to insist on the second point, that you see the second half margin comp side here, considering your new level of prices and considering the COGS guidance kind of more skewed to the first half?

Yes. So Lucas, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, in terms of cash COGS per hectoliter for Brazil beer, right, which is the guidance, we anticipate that the pressure will be greater, right, in Q2, okay, followed by kind of less pressure in the second half of the year, okay? If you take a step back and look at the rest of the P&L, right, just if we go back to our performance during 2020 right? I think it's -- you can see that recovery driven by the top line was very strong in the second half of 2020, which means that we have a tough comp in terms of top line going into the second half of the year. Okay? And as I mentioned before, SG&A, we do expect it to be higher, primarily due to the higher provision for variable compensation.

The next question comes from Isabella Simonato with Bank of America.

Can you elaborate on the soft drink outlook in Brazil? And also how do you expect cost pressure to come on that line of business this year? And if you could give us a little bit of more color about the quarters as you gave for beer, that would be very helpful. And also on the international part on last, top line performance has also been quite strong, but the measures in terms of restrictions and et cetera, have been more volatile, right? How you're seeing the beginning of Q2 and the evolution throughout the year?

Okay. Thank you for the question. Our net performance volume overall, it was an improvement in Q1 2021. So we have a 0.8% growth. It's really -- so we are still with a lot of restrictions, an important occasion on the soft drinks, it really is on the go. And so mobility really connects with NAB industry, and we are still limited on that. But even though we were able to get to slightly positive volumes. The brand is really what Antarctica is coming back, getting performance better than it had before. So it has been good. Energy drinks, they are doing good too, when we talk about the full portfolio. And all of these partially offset by the occasions. The mix, there is an important thing for the profitability of soft drinks through the smaller packs, the channels, the on-the-go in the end was -- it's better than we expected, but it's still not there. And we believe that will get better as the vaccination move forward and the restrictions go down. Okay. So this is NAB. When you talk about CAC, yes so --

LAS.

LAS. When we talk about LAS. So LAS was an important quarter for us. It was a great performance, I believe. So we had -- we felt the restrictions more in Brazil on March. We are feeling restrictions in Chile now, a little bit on Paraguay too. When we go to Argentina -- so talking overall about LAS. So it was a solid performance on Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay, mainly driven by corporates and premium segments, gaining market share in all of these countries, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay. Bolivia is a place where we feel still under pressure over there, Uruguay too, but Argentina, Chile and Paraguay with a very good performance. Yes, we saw some restrictions moving forward over there. But as you see, fluid, like the pandemic, it comes and it goes, so we are excited because LAS, we made -- we had some important changes over there. There is -- Chile is really being, we have a structural change and new combination of partnership with Coke over there. That's really bringing us some different capabilities and possibilities. So it's really something that we are very excited that we are able to gain market share on the own trade segment. That's something that we have been struggling in the past to do, so volumes very strong, very, very excited. Argentina too, we see the portfolio is really more -- it is stronger. And this year, we were able to be -- to the government and all the things we have been more flexible with more freedom for us to work on the revenue management side on discounts and on everything. So structurally, I believe that I'm really excited about LAS. In a pandemic yes, we saw some restrictions, but it's something that it comes and goes. It's fluid.

The next question comes from João Soares with Citibank.

I have 2 quick questions. The first one, you had a very interesting discussion on the discount. But it's interesting to see that you're using your online channels to enhance your intelligence, right? And I imagine that especially through the DTC you've been gaining a lot of intelligence on the consumer. So if there is anything, Jean, that you could share with us regarding consumer behavior trends, possibly capacity to absorb further price increases and how they connect to the recent trends that you've been seeing, like the fact that brands that suffered in the past are now stabilizing. So anything that connects with the consumer behavior that you can you can share with us would be very, very interesting. So that's my first point. And the second point, you talked a lot about -- you already talked about the commodity cost pressure. We are already, almost halfway through the year. Aluminum prices have been going up. So if you can talk about any initiatives ongoing, apart from the revenue management that you've been doing to maybe mitigate this potential cost pressure going to next year would be very interesting as well.

Okay. So let's talk about consumer behavior and revenue management first. So consumer trends. So we are seeing this thing about the in-home consumption. And so it's really -- so how the whole pandemic was really about how to win in the in-home occasion and consumption. So that was the most important thing for us too. And I think we reacted very fast, and we had a lot of learnings on that. We know that the occasion in-home is more about relaxation. It's more about Mondays and Tuesdays and frequency much better than before that was very concentrated. And now people is more willing to like watching TV, live stream, relaxing. So this is important that for us to win, you have to connect brands in ROIC market and be profitable on this occasion. So we are working a lot on that. We know that consumers are convenience. It's convenience, it's everything isn't it. So consumers are really looking for convenience. So they are buying locally. So they are buying in moms and pops close to their home, in e-commerce, in the delivery. So they are -- moms and pops and bars they are transforming really to become small takeaway supermarkets of some things. So there is this thing that we are that's, for example, for you to know. So we are betting on the RGB 300 mL bottles as the pack that really can -- that's leading the takeaway occasion for all the bars and moms and pops that they are transforming. So if they cannot deliver it, they have to have a takeaway strategy. And this strategy is really working very fine because we designed so the pack is a good pack for us to do that. So the price point is designed for that. We are doing…

Ambev's First Quarter 2021 Results Conference call is concluded. You may disconnect your lines. Everyone, have a nice day.