AB InBev

To what we raise on the flagpole, to what we raise in our hand, we've earned these stripes. Superior is brewed here. Michelob Ultra, proud sponsor of the U.S.

Men's National Soccer Team. Down the left side, here's the cross. Cross the side.

Only fools rush in But I can't help falling in love with you

Goal! Goal! Goal!

The Belgians know why.

I'm not fooling around anymore with this selection.

72%.

I don't believe in X. It's going.

Unbelieveable. He managed to deviate. Here in Brazil, validated and accredited.

Drink with moderation.

Deliver the trophy to the top player in the FIFA World Cup with Michelob Ultra.

They share an office.

Some work in the day. Some at night. What they have in common. Focus. Dedication. That's what makes them champions. They also share something else. The reward of being what? The official beer of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Not for persons under the age of 18.

It's happening again.

This is madness.

It's time we let it pour.

From what we raise on the flagpole to what we raise in our hand, we've earned these strikes. Superior is brewed here. Michelob Ultra, proud sponsor of the U.S.

Men's National Soccer Team. Down the left side. Here's the cross. Cross the side.

Only through judgment But I can't help falling in love with you

Goal! Goal!

The Belgians know why.

The Belgians know why.

Here in Brazil, validated and accredited.

Drink with moderation. Deliver the trophy to the top player in the FIFA World Cup with Mikelov Ultra.

It's coming, it's coming.

To deliver the trophy... They share an office.

Some work in the day. Some at night. What they have in common. Focus. Dedication. That's what makes them champions. They also share something else. The reward of being one. The official beer of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Not for persons under the age of 18.

It's happening again. There's this madness.

It's time we let it pour.

From what we raise on the flagpole to what we raise in our hand, we've earned these stripes. Superior is brewed here. Michelob Ultra, proud sponsor of the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team.

Down the right side. Here's the cross. Oh, boy.

Only through judgment But I can't help falling in love with you Thank you. Thank you.

The Belgians know why.

I don't fool around anymore with this selection.

72%. Don't believe in the exit.

It's Brazil.

It's going. Unbelievable. He managed to deviate.

Give the trophy to the top player in the FIFA World Cup with Mikel Ob Ultra.

They share an office.

Some work in the day. Some at night. What they have in common. Focus. Dedication. That's what makes them champions. They also share something else. The reward of being one. The official beer of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Not for persons under the age of 18.

It's happening again.

This is madness.

It's time to let it pour.

From what we raise on the flagpole to what we raise in our hand, we've earned these strikes. Superior is brewed here. Michelob Ultra, proud sponsor of the U.S.

Men's National Soccer Team. Down the left side. Here's the cross. Cross the side.

¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ I saw them, damn it! I saw them!

Les Belges savent pourquoi.

Here in Brazil, Alizarado Acreditan. Drink with moderation.

Deliver the trophy to the top player in the FIFA World Cup with Mikelob Ultra.

It's coming, it's coming. To deliver the trophy... They share an office.

Some work in the day. Some at night. What they have in common. Focus. Dedication. That's what makes them champions. They also share something else. The reward of being one. The official beer of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Not for persons under the age of 18.

It's happening again.

This is madness.

It's time we let it pour.

From what we raise on the flagpole to what we raise in our hand, we've earned these strengths. Superior is brewed here. Michelob Ultra, proud sponsor of the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team. Down the left side. Here's the cross. Cross the line.

Only fools rush in But I can't help falling in love with you

I told you, I told you!

Les Belges savent pourquoi.

Here in Brazil, validated and accredited. Drink with moderation.

Deliver the trophy to the top player in the FIFA World Cup with Mikelov Ultra.

It's coming, it's coming. To deliver the trophy... They share an office.

Some work in the day. Some at night. What they have in common. Focus. Dedication. That's what makes them champions. They also share something else. The reward of being what? The official beer of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Not for persons under the age of 18.

It's happening again. There's this madness.

It's time to let it pour.

From what we raise on the flagpole to what we raise in our hand, we've earned these stripes. Superior is brewed here. Michelob Ultra, proud sponsor of the U.S.

Men's National Soccer Team. Down the left side. Here's the cross. Cross the side.

Only through judgment. But I can't help falling in love with you.

I told you so! I told you so! I told you so!

The Belgians know why.

Here, Brazil.

Validated or accredited?

Drink with moderation.

Deliver the trophy to the top player in the FIFA World Cup with Michelob Ultra.

They share an office.

Some work in the day. Some at night. Dedication. That's what makes them champions. They also share something else. The reward of being one. The official beer of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Not for persons under the age of 18.

It's happening again. This is madness.

It's time we let it pour.

From what we raise on the flagpole to what we raise in our hand, we've earned these stripes. Superior is brewed here. Michelob Ultra, proud sponsor of the U.S.

Men's National Soccer Team. Down the right side. Here's the cross. Cross the side.

Only through judgment But I can't help falling in love with you

I told you so! I told you so!

Les Belges savent pourquoi.

Here in Brazil, validated and accredited. Drink with moderation.

Deliver the trophy to the top player in the FIFA World Cup with Mikelov Ultra.

It's coming, it's coming.

To deliver the trophy...

they share an office some work in the day some at night what they have in common Focus. Dedication. That's what makes them champions. They also share something else. The reward of being one. The official beer of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Not for persons under the age of 18.

It's happening again.

This is madness.

It's time to let it pour.

From what we raise on the flagpole to what we raise in our hand, we've earned these stripes. Superior is brewed here. Michelob Ultra, proud sponsor of the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team.

Down the right side. Here's the cross. Cross the sun.

Only fools rush in. But I can't help falling in love with you. I saw them, damn it! I saw them!

Les Belges savent pourquoi.

To deliver the trophy...

They share an office.

Some work in the day. Some at night. What they have in common. Focus. Dedication. That's what makes them champions. They also share something else. The reward of being one. The official beer of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Not for persons under the age of 18.

It's happening again. This is madness.

It's time we let it pour.

From what we raise on the flagpole to what we raise in our hand, we've earned these stripes. Superior is brewed here. Michelob Ultra, proud sponsor of the U.S.

Men's National Soccer Team. Down the left side. Here's the cross. Cross the side.

Only fools rush in love But I can't help falling in love with you

I love you, Portugal! I love you!

The Belgians know why.

Here in Brazil. Validated or accredited. Drink with moderation.

Deliver the trophy to the top player in the FIFA World Cup with Mikelob Ultra.

It's coming.

It's coming. To deliver the trophy... They share an office.

Some work in the day. Some at night. What they have in common. Focus. Dedication. That's what makes them champions. They also share something else. The reward of being one. The official beer of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Not for persons under the age of 18.

Welcome to AB InBev's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call and webcast.

Hosting the call today from AB InBev are Mr. Michelle Dukaris, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Fernando Tenenbaum, Chief Financial Officer. To access the slides accompanying today's call, please visit AB InBev's website at www.ab-inbev.com and click on the Investors tab in the Reports and Results Center page. Today's webcast will be available for on-demand playback later today. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen only mode and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star one on your touch tone phone. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself by pressing star then two. If you should require operator assistance, please press star zero. Some of the information provided during the conference call may contain statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements. These expectations are based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. It is possible that AB InBev's actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results and financial condition indicated in these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could affect AB InBev's future results, see Risk Factors in the company's latest annual report on Form 20F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 3, 2026. AB InBev assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information provided during the conference call and shall not be liable for any action taken in reliance upon such information. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Mr. Michel Ducaris. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, and welcome everyone to our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Today, Fernando and I will take you through our operating highlights and provide you with an update on the progress we have made in executing our strategic priorities. After that, we'll be happy to answer your questions. Let's start with the key highlights. The global momentum of our business continued to start the year. The consistent execution of our consumer-centric strategy drove solid top and bottom line performance. Beer volumes increased by 1.2%, with record high first quarter volumes in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, South Africa, and Peru, amongst others. Revenue increased by 5.8%, with a disciplined revenue management and positive mix from premiumization and beyond beer. Underlying EPS increased by 20.8% to reach $0.97, an all-time high first quarter EPS for our business. Our momentum was driven by our mega brands, non-alcohol beer and beyond beer. In the U.S., our sales to retailer volumes grew, and we were the number one share gainer in total alcohol as we continued to gain share in both beer and spirits. We increased our portfolio brand power driven by increased market investments and estimate that we gained or maintained share in 75% of our markets. B's marketplace continues to scale, with GMV increasing by 55%, to reach more than $1 billion in quarterly GMV. In summary, our business delivered another quarter of reliable compounding growth. We are winning in key markets and growth segments, and we are confident in the resilience of our strategy and ability to deliver consistent results. Turning to our operating performance, total volumes increased by 0.8%. and EBITDA increased by 5.3%, with flat-ish margins, as disciplined revenue and cost management enabled increased sales and marketing investments and offset transactional effects headwinds. The strength of our diversified geographic footprint has continued to enable us to deliver consistent results through different operating environments. Our footprint is both well diversified and balanced. With 70% of our EBITDA generated in emerging and developing markets, we are well positioned to capture future industry growth with a mix of currencies. Now, I'll take a few minutes to walk you through the operational highlights for the quarter from our key regions, starting with North America. In the U.S., our business continues to build momentum. with STR volume growth driven by share gains in both beer and beyond beer, and an improved industry. Michelob Ultra and Bush Light continued to lead our beer performance and were top two volume share gainers. Our beyond beer portfolio delivered revenue growth in the high 60s, led by Cutwater, which grew revenue in the triple digits. and was the number one share gaining brand in total spirits industry in the first quarter of 2026. Now, let's turn to middle Americas. In Mexico, record high volumes drove high single digit top and mid single digit bottom line growth as we continue to outperform the industry. In Colombia, record high volumes drove double digit top and bottom line growth. In Brazil, market share gain and an improved industry drove record high beer volumes and double-digit bottom-line growth. Our premium and super-premium beer brands led our performance and delivered low-20s volume growth, strengthening our leadership position in the segment. In Europe, volumes grew by low single digits as market share gains and premiumization offset the soft industry to deliver both top and bottom line growth. In South Africa, our momentum continued with record high volumes driving mid single digit top line growth. Our performance was driven by our premium and super premium beer brands, which grew volumes by mid 20s. Now, moving to APEC. In China, our volume trend improved as we increased investments to rebuild momentum. Volumes declined by 1.5%, estimated to have underperformed a slightly growing industry. While we have seen some initial signs of improved performance, we still have work to do to strengthen our execution, expand our in-home channel presence, and increase our participation in the growing segments of the industry. Now, I would like to give you an update on the industry and the beer category and progress we have made in executing our strategy. First, I will start with the industry and the beer category. According to IWSR, the beer category gained 60 base points in share of alcohol beverages in 2025. and an additional 10 basis points when including the fast-growing beyond beer category. Combined, beer and beyond beer have now gained more than 300 basis points of share since 2019. The number of consumers participating in the alcohol category remained stable year over year. And with our data, we estimate that beer participation has also remained broadly stable. Beer plays an important role in bringing people together and creating moments of celebration, and we believe beer has a long runway for future volume growth across our footprint, supported by favorable demographics, economic growth, and opportunities to increase the category participation. Turning now to the first pillar of our strategy, lead and grow the category. Our mega brands continue to outperform, with net revenue increasing by 8.2%. Corona continued to drive premiumization across our markets, growing revenue by 16% outside of Mexico and growing volumes by double digits in 32 markets. The combination of our leading mega brands and platforms is a powerful opportunity to lead and grow the category. In quarter one, we shared golden moments with consumers at the Winter Olympics, and we are ready to celebrate the shared passion of beer and football during the FIFA World Cup. The consistent execution of our category expansion levers are driving momentum across our key initiatives as we continue to offer superior core brands, innovate in balanced choices, and expand our premium and beyond beer portfolios. Led by the growth of Corona Zero globally and Michelob Ultra Zero in the U.S., our non-alcohol beer portfolio outperformed the industry and delivered a 27% revenue increase. With an estimated 60% of volume coming from new occasions and new consumers, we believe non-alcohol beer is a key opportunity to develop the category and drive incremental volume growth. Let's turn now to our second strategic pillar, digitize and monetize our ecosystem. The customer behavior and purchase trends captured by this enable us to leverage AI capabilities to execute our commercial strategy. On an annualized basis, we have over 20 billion AI Driven Touchpoints. Each one is an opportunity to use AI to provide superior service progress our revenue management agenda, and supply leading brands and innovations. In the first quarter, Biz captured $14.6 billion in gross merchandising value, a 15% increase versus last year. Biz marketplace continues to scale, with GMV from sales of third-party products increasing by 55% versus last year to reach $1.1 billion. Our D2C business continues to grow and is enabling us to monetize our ecosystem. Our digital platforms served 12 million consumers and generated $139 million in revenue. As we continue to digitize and monetize our ecosystem, we have started to commercialize third-party products on our D2C platforms. While we are in the early stages of exploring this opportunity, We now have a growing D2C marketplace with annualized GMV of $160 million. With that, I would like to hand it over to Fernando to discuss the third pillar of our strategy, optimize our business.

Thank you, Michel.

Hello, everyone. I'll take a few minutes to discuss the progress we have made on four key areas in optimizing our business. superior profitability, compounding dollar EPS growth, capital allocation flexibility, and the sustainability and resilience of our supply chain. Through disciplined resource allocation and overhead management, we were able to offset transactional effects headwinds to maintain our superior margins while increasing our sales and market investments to accelerate momentum. While each year has unique dynamics, we are confident that the combination of our leadership advantages, disciplined revenue management, continued premiumization, and efficient operating model creates an opportunity for further margin expansion over time. Moving on to EPF. Top-line growth, effective cost management, and translational effects tailwinds drove underlying EPS of 97 cents per share, a 20.8% increase in dollars. EBITDA growth accounted for an 11 cents per share increase, partially offset by below-the-line IT. Our bond portfolio remains well distributed with no relevant medium-term refinancing needs. We have no bonds maturing in 2026, a weighted average maturity of 13 years, and no financial problems. In recognition of our consistent financial performance and the strength of our balance sheets, Moody's recently upgraded our credit rating from A3 to A2. As we continue to strengthen the sustainability and resilience of our supply chain, we remain focused on improving operational efficiency in the following key areas, agriculture, water, and energy and emissions. Please refer to our website for further details of our goals. Our results in the first quarter, the strength of the beer category, and the continued momentum of our business all reinforce our confidence in our ability to deliver on our 2026 outlook of 48% EBITDA growth.

With that, I'll hand it back to Michel for some final comments. Thanks, Fernando.

Before opening for Q&A, I would like to take a moment to recap on the quarter, the momentum of our business, and the opportunities we have ahead of us. Our momentum continued to start the year, and we delivered solid top and bottom line results. Our performance this quarter is another proof point of the resilience of our strategy and our ability to deliver reliable growth through different operating environments. The combination of our diversified geographical footprint, global scale and superior local execution, disciplined revenue and cost management, consistent investment in our leading mega brands and platforms, best-in-class digital capabilities, and momentum behind our initiatives and innovation in growing segments, position us well to deliver compounding growth and superior value creation for our shareholders. With that, I'll hand it back to the operator for the Q&A.

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. In the interest of time, we will limit participants to one question and one follow-up question. Again, if you have a question or comment, please press star 1 on your touchtone phone. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself by pressing star, then two. We do ask that while you pose your question, you pick up your handset to provide optimum sound quality. Our first questions come from the line of Edward Mundy with Jefferies. Please proceed with your questions.

Morning, Michelle. Morning, Fernando. So my first question is, about the future momentum of the portfolio. It looks like you're now at a tipping point where the core is stable and the growthier parts of the portfolio are now scaled, well integrated into the playbook and have got pretty decent momentum. How are you thinking about the portfolio from here, Michelle? And then my follow-up question is on your revenue-packed leader of 4.5% in the first quarter. Are you able to split out in the broadest terms what your distinction was between a mix versus traditional revenue growth management levers like pricing.

Morning, Ed. Thanks for the questions.

I'll start with the portfolio momentum. And I think if you step back for a second and you put things in context beyond the quarter only, We are very well positioned to continue to deliver compounding growth and value creation. And this starts, of course, with our strategy. We talked a lot about this over the last four years. We built a strategy that's both resilient, but it's also one that we can adapt for different occasions. I always say, like beer, work in different occasions. And this strategy is based on the footprint we have, on the growth areas that identified for the business, and the investment choices that we made so we could accelerate growth and create options in these areas. And, of course, most of the options that we created was focusing on improving our portfolio. You see this coming strongly in the U.S. where we are rebalancing our portfolio towards growing segments, but we are also using this at a global level, investing on the right brands and investing on the right areas, where we think that both the brands that we have and innovation can meet consumer demand and accelerate the growth for both for the category and for our business. And I think that as we keep building on that, Today we have over 40% of our revenues. When you think about premium, balanced choices, and young beer, that is growing at double-digit revenues. And we think that this is the main driver behind our momentum. And, of course, the more we feed and the more fuel we give to this momentum, the more we can continue to accelerate this in the field. And when you think about the revenue, it's almost like those two things are combined, right? Because stronger brands and a stronger portfolio allows to keep building on the revenue management agenda that we have. And if you look at the quarter one, for example, mix was a very important component on our revenue per hectolitre growth. You give or take inflation three to three and a half. And what is built on top of that is the impact of the growing segments and growing brands, adding a component that's very structural for our revenue product leader as we move forward, which is mix.

Thank you for the question.

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Rob Hartenstein with Evercore. Please proceed with your question.

Great. Thank you very much. So, Michelle, you've really delivered terrific results for a couple of years now. Strong start to 26. You've held gain share in most markets. You know, as you mentioned, you're getting strong price mix. You're showing some volume growth. And importantly, pretty much every quarter, almost every quarter, you've hit your medium term algorithm. And, you know, you answered part of this, you know, in the prior question in terms of improving the portfolio. But in addition to that, can you talk about maybe, you know, one or two, three other things that you're doing differently today than maybe five years ago that is allowing for such strong and consistent results? And do you believe, you know, this is sustainable going forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Robert, and good morning.

So I like the question because we always say that every quarter will be different, right? So we have different dynamics impacting the quarter, and quarter one happens to be one on the positive side, and we are very encouraged by the way that we started the year with solid top and bottom line performance. But it's also... reassuring that over the last four years, we have been seeing different operating environments. Nevertheless, the strategy remains solid, and the execution is gaining momentum. And this momentum can be perceived on the portfolio momentum, on the total revenue momentum, on the growth bath that we have, the choices that we made, and how these choices now are playing out. And I think that this long-term point of view is one of the big changes that we have made because you could not do what we are aiming to do, which is our organic lab growth strategy, work on a given quarter only. It needs to be to the long term. So one of the things that I think we are all very proud is the choices we made and the investments that we have been making to the long term. Investments in portfolio, investments in digital capabilities, investments on the brands that we choose to support and grow, which are the mega brands. I also think that the execution has been enabled by both a very strong culture and the way that the team is focused on growing the business and the additional benefits of our digital capabilities. So today, the fact that we wired the whole system and that data is driving a lot of the decisions we make, but also supporting the decision-making in the front line is a very important component of our growth algorithm and the way we do business today. And last, I think I talked a little bit about this, but the team has been working very hard in doing everything that we do with a high level of efficiency, which is traditional into the company's operational efficiencies, but also commercial efficiencies. So the work that we do is making the money that we invest work very hard for us, and the brands are growing power. We are gaining share on the key markets that we operate, and the choices we make to invest for the future portfolio are gaining momentum and paying off. Very thankful to the team, all the work that they are doing. They're working hard to learn this every day. And one more quarter that we delivered on our outlook, and we are very encouraged to see what the summer is going to bring, especially with FIFA around the corner.

That's going to be an interesting moment in the year. Thanks for your question.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Olivier Nicolai with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi, good morning. Two questions, please, both related to the U.S. First, I mean, momentum in the U.S. has clearly improved year-to-date. Could you give us perhaps a bit of your sentiment on the current consumer demand in light of higher gas prices over the last month? And also, is it fair to assume that STWs are going to be well ahead of STRs in Q2 as you probably build up some inventories for the FIFA World Cup coming up in June? And then, secondly, it's been only a couple of months since you got a bid box now, part of the portfolio. But can you give us a bit more details on what does that brand bring to your existing portfolio of spirits RTDs? And if you would expect the same growth trajectory that you had on neutral and cold water, without, let's say, cannibalizing those. Thank you.

Hi, Olivier. Good morning, and thanks for the questions.

I'll try to To answer all of them, I got like, I think, three or four questions in one shot here. Let's see how we do on that. The first one, I think that the overall consumer sentiment is well known by everybody in the industry and in the consumer sector. I think we had a tough year last year for consumers as inflation was still building. and people are trying to build back their disposable income. The beginning of the year, it's fair to say that was more benign, let's say in the quarter one. And of course, everything that's going on now with energy costs and potential inflation implications will have somehow a delayed impact. So we have seen some costs going up today, but we know that it takes anywhere from three to six months for this really hit on consumers. So at this point, I would say that things are manageable for everybody, for consumers and for the companies. But we know that as we build towards the end of the year, depending on the direction that we see for inflation, these things will start to compound again and will be once again a factor for both consumers to manage and for the CPGs to manage. Fair to say that if you look at the last four or five years, we've been managing one difference each and every year or each and every quarter. On the question on STWs and STRs, if you look for the overtime or during the full year, they always tend to converge. And this has been true for the last many, many years and will not be different this year. The difference from what you said, if I got correctly your question, is that we should expect on the quarter two an inversion on that. And this never happens because of the summer. We often sell more during the summer than what we can ship. So the conversion that you see on STRs and STWs historically is more towards the back end of the year, not towards the summer. So I think that we will continue to see some mismatch as we go for quarter two and then quarter three. And then for quarter three to quarter four is when things tend to converge. And on the ready-to-drinks, I think that we have a great portfolio globally. We have global brands that we are growing in the local market and scaling up globally. Just think, for example, at the expansion that we are doing now with FlyingFish. So fish from Africa traveled to Europe, to South America, and is growing today in many different markets. This is true for Cutwater that we are starting to expand as well. And Big Box will add to this portfolio and is very complementary. So it's not cannibalistic to any of the other brands that we have. And it complements our portfolio, bringing an option that is no carbonated, more convenient, more flavorful, and therefore suits for some different consumer locations and consumer profiles. So a strong portfolio. Now, if you look at the top 10 brands, we have Cutwater, we have Neutral, we have Beatbox. If you look at the top five brands growing in the U.S., then we also have a strong set there with Cutwater and Beatbox coming. And as you combine the power of what the team built at Bitbox with the AB distribution and folks in the U.S., for sure we will see some good opportunities come to the table.

So thanks for the question. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Sanjit Ajla with UBS. Please proceed with your questions.

Hey, morning, Michelle, Fernando. Just following up on the U.S. again, please. It looks like the underlying business in Q1 is growing around 4.7%. How much of that is coming from the Beyond Beer portfolio? Is that portfolio gross margin accretive to the U.S. operations or not? And I guess finally, as we sat here in 12 months' time, what gives you the confidence that brands like Cupwater can keep growing despite lapping, was going to be a really high base.

Hey, Sanjit, good morning, and thank you for the question.

On the first point, I think that the math is very straightforward. So STRs were positive, and the revenue per hectolitre was very good, building on inflation and NICs, very similar to the global business, as we said before. And this momentum, if we step back and we remember many times that I answered this question in our conversations here, so we are on a mission to rebalance our portfolio in the U.S. Because of the nature of the market, the trickiest system, this rebalance will never happen overnight, but it's something that we have been building over time, and today we have over 40, 45% of our business that is already above core, above mainstream in the US. And if you think about the brands that are growing pretty much the same number, they are approaching 50%. And when you get the pace of this growth versus how we've been stabilizing the other brands that we have in the declining segments, then the product of this is a product that is very encouraging for the quarter, but also to the mid-long term in the US. So we have a better portfolio today than what we had a couple of years ago. And when you think about the Beyond Beer contribution on that, this was a bet that we took to the heart back then in 2017. We learned a lot. It didn't happen over time. So people like to think about this overnight successes. This is not. This is 10 years in the making. And this portfolio today is very strong. So we have pure play brands that they enjoy a very special space in consumer's mind. They are building distribution still. All of them have very low distribution, very low household penetration. We are at early stages on the F-curve to continue to develop and grow these brands. They all have momentum. Some of them have an accelerated momentum, like triple digits, but they are all growing double digits or more, and we think that they had room to continue to grow these brands. It's huge, because again, low penetration, low household penetration, low participation in consumers, but very, very strong propositions. The margins, we talked before about that, like on a gross margin, percentage speaking, They are smaller than beer because they have higher cost base, smaller volumes today, but they are enjoying operating leverage because, of course, they are growing strongly. Margins are only improving. But on absolute dollars, they are way more profitable, let's say 20% to 30% more profitable than our premium beers. So very good business for us to be in. And Cutwater, as you said, At this point, we are concerned with the quality. We are concerned with our message on delivering superior experience, ready-to-drink cocktails for consumers. And we are working to supply the demand, which is being very strong today. So good brand, good place to be in. Number one share gainer in the spirits industry. The fastest growing brand in that space. So contributing immensely to our momentum in the US.

Thank you for the question. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Celine Pannuti with JP Morgan. Please proceed with your question.

Good afternoon, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. My first question would be on FIFA activation. Can you talk about, you know, when we should see the step up in growth for Q2 and Q3, whether there's anything you can help us in terms of quantification? And likewise, in terms of the step-up in ANP that we should expect in Q2, Q3 on that point. What was the Q1 step-up in SG&A spent on, please? And my follow-up question would be on the price mix. So you said, Michel, that around 3% or 3.5% inflation and on top the mix. it feels like inflation CPI globally is not going to decelerate, given what's going to happen with the event unfolding. Would it be fair, therefore, that this kind of growth in price mix is resilient throughout the year? Thank you.

Hey, Celine. Good morning, and thank you for the questions.

I'll take... two or three of them here, and then Fernando can add at the end a little bit on the cost side. And first, I think that the FIFA numbers, we have a good history on that. So every four years happens, is visible for everybody. And the numbers that we usually globally, based on the data that we have, suggest that SIFA contributes historically anywhere from 20 to 30 bps of the year volume. And, of course, this depends on the location of the games and the time of the games, and this can vary by country. I think it's natural to think that if you go to Germany or Brazil or Argentina, it's a more relevant event. than it is, for example, in some of the Asian countries. But think like 20 to 30 bps globally uplift. And it happens on the months of June and July. So it's a concentrated impact during these months. And we'll see normally this coming through in the quarter two, quarter three, as we approach the games. And now we are on the countdown. So we are really ready with the execution. The execution should be hitting the markets as we speak. In some of the markets, people are already advancing a little bit of that. In some of the markets, we are waiting the final stage that we are approaching now to start kicking off the campaigns. And the SEGMA is the same. So this year, on top of being during the summer, which is often a moment that we invest more, we're going to have on top of that the gold cut, and this will somehow spread equally through quarter two and quarter three. Quarter two will be a bit heavier, of course, because you have the anticipation campaigns and everything that happens. On the price side, very clear, like our policy is to price with inflation, and if inflation accelerates, we will need to then... Copy with that and adjust our plans. To this point, we feel good where we are and with the plans that we have. And mix, which is a very important part of our revenue strategy, is compounding on these numbers. So we look at the last quarter one was very good. Quarter three was good as well. And this is a structural benefit on our revenue management. The fact that we are investing on the mega brands, our investment choices on growing segments that are more profitable, such as non-alcohol beer, premium, and young beer, of course, they add to our revenue that should continue to move with inflation.

And Celine, Fernando here, just to add on Michel's comment. Michel mentioned the SG&A, the advertisement expenditures. Every year is unique in a sense. But given our hedging policy, we always have good visibility when we go into the year. So we knew that this year we're going to have more sales and market concentrated around the World Cup. And we also knew that given the hedging policy and effects movements, we know that from a cost of goods sold standpoint, you have more pressures on the age one, particularly in Mexico and Brazil, rather than age two. But given that we know all that when we start the year, we took some proactive measures in both revenue and cost management agenda to better balance the year. What I mean better balance the year is age one versus age two. So on the things that we can control, we try to smooth out some of the impacts that we already anticipate going to the year.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Mitch Collette with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi, Michelle. Hi, Fernando. My first question, I guess, follows on from that last comment. So how should we think about the phasing of 1H and 2H EBITDA growth, given what you've just said about the phasing of transactional FX, but also maybe some of the other factors like the Midwest premium and also your sales and marketing investment, which sounds like it's going to be still reasonably concentrated in Q2 and Q3, which is, I think, what you said at the full year call. And then my second question is on the five markets that you call out where you've reached record high first quarter volumes. I appreciate there may be some phasing within that, but it certainly seems very counter to the prevailing narrative of alcohol consumption and beer being under pressure. So are there any commonalities between those markets that you haven't already covered in your answers to the other questions?

Hi, Mitch. Fernando here. Let me start with the With the first one, what I said, and maybe it's good to reinforce, is that we understand kind of COVID dynamics, given our hedging, and we know more or less how they are going to behave. We know that probably the biggest pressure is in half one, maybe even more a little bit towards Q1, and then they start easing off as the months go by. Knowing that, you can already be proactive in your revenue and cost management initiatives to counterbalance some of these effects. To the same token, we know that as the cost pressures on the cost of goods start easing off, you know that you're ramping up sales and marketing because of the World Cup. So all in all, we expect kind of a more balanced year when you go all the way to the end, even though the lines, you should see different components between the lines, which are the dynamics that we already knew once we started the year.

Yeah, and taking on your second question, Hirvich, thanks for the question. So first, I think that we We mentioned this because we believe it's an important data point for investors and for all of you guys. And those are meaningful markets like Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Peru, Mexico, and we have many others that reach an all-time high volume. You are right. So there is a benefit from Easter. So think about anywhere from 30 to 50 bits of the growth coming from the shift of Easter in quarter one versus quarter two last year. Nevertheless, all these markets grew north of that. So they grew more than the Easter shift. And what is common across these markets is twofold. One, as we keep saying, is structurally. the key fundamentals behind the beer category that are demographics, that are economic growth, and the opportunities for the category to have higher participation, they remain in place. And even though the dynamics of each quarter will always be different, and we have seen everything in the last four years, those fundamental dynamics do not change. Second, Our strategy is a growth strategy, and we keep working on the key elements of our growth strategy, investing to the long term. And this is obviously paying off as our portfolio gets stronger on the areas that have more growth. So in all these areas, you see strong core brands maintaining or gaining participation in the categories. You see premium brands growing and improving access to consumers in different occasions. You see our Beyond Beer brands expanding the set of consumers that we bring into our portfolio. And last but not least, the non-alcohol as a new avenue for growth, strong growth across all these markets. So it's a global strategy that has been well executed locally, on our markets that has long-term investments and choices that we make. So we optimize these investments. And while every quarter will have its own dynamics, it's good to see that back end of last year was good. Quarter one was solid. And this, I think, that helps to neutralize or to put in context what you call different narratives around the category, because at the end of the day, beer is big, beer is growing, is gaining share of truth globally, is a category that's part of people's life for every moment of celebration for more than 5,000 years, and it's not going anywhere, to be honest. If you look towards the summer now, it's going in a very good direction with FIFA being celebrated globally.

Thanks for the question.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Simon Hales with Citi. Please proceed with your questions.

Thank you. Hi, Michelle. Hi, Fernando. My first question was just a quick clarification, really, on the Q1 volume shipments that we saw. I just wanted just to check. that within those numbers there wasn't any shipments ahead of the World Cup into some of your key markets, I think particularly some of the strengths we saw in Latin America. There was no trade loading, I suppose is the underlying question there. And then secondly, I just wonder if you could just talk a little bit more about the performance of Brazil in the quarter, how the business evolved through the period, how you exited Q1, and particularly given that strength of volume growth in the premium segment, How confident are you in your ability to sustain growth at those sort of levels going forward, given that's quite a competitive sort of category you're involved in there?

Hey, Simon. Good morning. Thanks for the questions. So in terms of shipments, the answer is very clear, no. And to make this more clear, we –

disclosed that, for example, in the U.S., we undershipped. So we sold more than what we shipped to wholesalers. And the buildup for the World Cup will really happen more towards June than we could have done anything in the quarter one. So no shipment ahead of time. This buildup should really be at the back end of quarter two, not sooner than that. And in terms of Brazil, I always go back to the point in Brazil that it's a very competitive market. And we have very strong operations in Brazil. But we've been adjusting our portfolio over the last four years. And we are very confident that we have strong brands now being executed in the right way. As we rebalanced a little bit more, having a strong mainstream business, but also strong premium brands, these brands now are growing and gaining share with accelerated momentum. So the quarter one had a little bit of everything because the quarter one in Brazil had like an excellent carnival, but then a very wet, period at the beginning of January and during March. So it was more really market share gains in the right segments, especially premium and super premium. And I think that this, now as we look forward to Brazil, we'll count with same momentum behind our brands. And we are investing to continue to gain share and solidify our position there in premium. The calendar for Brazil is very supportive for the year. So there is many holidays that are extended holidays in Brazil this year. And at the middle of the year, we're going to have the World Cup. So let's hope for the best with the Brazilian team so we can have some good moments of celebration there in Brazil. And we'll continue to work to make this portfolio stronger, to maintain the level of execution that we have there, which has been very good in the last couple of quarters. And innovation has been playing a big role in Brazil. So we have some very strong products that we innovated in the last couple of quarters and years that are doing very well. And we are rolling out Flying Fish now in Brazil, which is a big bet as well on the Beyond Beer that can add plenty of consumers to the portfolio of brands that we have and even more occasions for us to be close to consumers and to moments of celebration there. So we feel good. Of course, we need to continue to monitor the industry while controlling what we can control, which is our own agenda and portfolio there in Brazil.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next question has come from the line of Richard Wittigen with Kepler. Please proceed with your questions.

Yeah. Hi, Michel. Hi, Fernando. I have a question on Corona. I mean, the activation appears to have been very solid around the Olympics. So maybe can you explain a bit what has worked well in execution and what was less solid than you expected? And what takeaways do you have from this to also execute well during the World Cup?

Thank you, Richard. So the Olympics,

was very important for us as a platform to launch globally and really roll the Corona Zero proposition globally. And this, so far, is working very well for both sides. For the Corona brand, because we now are present in many countries, Corona Zero is growing globally very well, and we just this quarter now became leaders in value globally, and we took the leadership now in seven out of the top 14 markets, and we continue to grow the portfolio overall double digits, and it's working very well with Corona, as well as with Michelob Ultra Zero in the U.S., which is the brand we are using for Olympics in the U.S. One of the most astonishing statistics from all of that was to see during the Winter Olympics in Italy, Corona and our zero alcohol, both the regular and zero alcohol, having 60% share of all beverages being sold in the concessionaries around the events. So 60% when you include everything from water to soft drinks to coffee, and that was during the Winter Olympics. So it's one more proof point that people really enjoy beer, that beer and sports go well together and offering choices to consumer. Regular Corona and zero alcohol Corona is a winning proposition for everybody out there. When you think about that with the World Cup, I think that it goes back to the point that we are leveraging global scale. So we activated the Olympics globally. as we always did with FIFA, and we'll do again during the summer now with FIFA. We want to be on the anticipation of the games so people can prepare, stock up for those that will watch the games at home with family and friends. We want to make a huge push on bars because the bars will be the places where people will get together to watch the games. And there is nothing like watching your team around friends and family on a nice bar over a cold one. So we're going to make a big push to support our partners so they can offer the best experience on the bars. And, of course, we'll be working in the local markets from Mexico to the U.S. and Canada to make sure that everybody that's coming to watch the games will have a great experience on these stadiums and to make sure that the concessionaires are well-equipped to deliver great experience there on the part that we can control, which is the beer. So it's great to see the mega platform is working. The key behind that is the scale that we have, the ability to execute globally, and the ROI in this is being very good because the brands are executing very well and consumers are giving their vote to the brands that we are using.

So thanks for the question.

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Chris Pitcher with Rothschild and Company. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks very much.

Good morning, good afternoon, Michelle, Fernando, Sean. Can I ask about South Africa? There's been a lot of focus today on the strength of your portfolio and the mix that's coming through, particularly from revenue management. But in South Africa, it looks like revenue per hectolitre was below the rate of inflation, despite, I believe, a stronger performance from Beyond Beer products. which should, in theory, be accretive to mix. Can you give a bit more detail on why revenue per hectolitre was a bit more subdued in South Africa? And then could I just confirm, India looks like it was up about 30%. It was probably one of your top three volume contribution markets. It gets a specific reference from Bud Asia, but not from you guys yet. But it looks like it could well be into a period now where it's contributing to group growth, and it looks like it's moved into profit. Could I confirm both of those? Thanks.

Yes, Chris, thank you for the question.

So South Africa, great momentum, all-time high volume for the quarter one with beer. Our Beyond Beer portfolio is growing very well. We have our revenue agenda there working well through the year on the pricing and the investments that we've been making, both in terms of sales and marketing. So we are very confident that the agenda will continue to work well there, as has been working over the years. As a matter of fact, our prices are in place, and there is a health revenue coming from this price there. When you think about India, we comment about that in some of the calls, and I thank you for asking the question because it gives me an opportunity to talk a little bit more about India here. too many countries that we often talk about. So India has been a great story in which the industry has been growing consistently, some ups and downs, but when you look more and you take the long term, it's an industry that's been growing high single digits, almost double digits. Quarter one happened to be a double-digit industry. It's a place where we have an incredible portfolio of brands, is today a top five market for Budweiser globally and becoming like a top three this year, probably. Budweiser has strong growth momentum there. Our share is approaching 20% on the market. It's all organic growth, mostly on the premium and super premium segments, so the brands are working very well. Our growth was really strong, was above 30%, as you mentioned. And we keep investing to the long term. And as the industry continues to expand, our cap is very low. So the heavy room for growth is immense. And the strength of our portfolio there is something that we have been building for over 10 years now. So we are really playing the long-term game there. And we are happy with the execution. That's way more that we can do to improve the industry collectively because it's not a one-player game for this industry to unlock there. But on our side, portfolio is strong, momentum is good, execution is very good, and the team is locked in pursuing our 10-year plan ambition there and transform this in a meaningful market for us at ABA. So good business, good portfolio, profitability improving, but a very long game that we're playing there because per capita is still very low. And as people get welfare, as the barriers around the industry start to be unlocked, that's a huge future growth opportunity for all of us.

Thanks for the question.

Thank you. Our final questions will come from the line of Trevor Sterling with Bernstein. Please proceed with your questions.

Hi, Michel and Fernando and Sean. Just one from my side, please. I was really struck by the continued very strong growth in B's and particular on the platform in the 3P side of the business. And I'm just wondering maybe one more for Fernando. Is that starting to be a meaningful contributor to your revenue productivity growth in Brazil? Or is it still a little bit too small to move the needle?

High travel. So, yes, it's a good growth, kind of the business growing well. it's, as we said, it's a business that is positive in EBITDA, positive in cash flow, but it's still, I think, all the other components are far more relevant so far as contributors to the net revenues per hectolitre agenda. Michel?

Yeah, just maybe to add on your point, Trevor, the growth continues to accelerate in this marketplace and just to to ground everybody around that. The 3P, which is selling through the platform, third-part products, is where we see most of the growth. And in this case, we are still scratching the surface. We know that the total addressable market is a multiple of what we are capturing today. And, of course, this 50%, 60% growth that we have is a way for us to continue to get more of that. As Fernando said, cash is positive, a business is positive, and the margin of the 3P is very big, but today is a small component of the overall business, a growing one over time. So the most mix that we see today is mix from brands that comes from premiumization and from beyond beer, But as time goes by, these will become a more meaningful contributor on these mixed components of our revenue growth.

Thanks for the question.

Thank you. Very helpful context.

Thank you. This was the final question. If your question has not been answered, please feel free to contact the investor relations team. I will now turn the floor back over to Mr. Michel Ducaris for closing remarks.

Thank you.

And thank you, everyone, for your time today, for the ongoing partnership and support for our business. I hope that you are doing well. For those in the north, preparing for summer and grabbing some beer to cheers. And for everybody else, of course, join us on the excitement for FIFA. That's right around the corner. And for a great summer, great games, and great moments of celebration.

So cheers.

Thank you. This concludes today's earnings conference call and webcast. Please disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.