Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV

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 and 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 1 on your touchtone phone. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star 2. If you should require operator assistance, please press star 0. 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 20-F. filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 19th of March, 2021. 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 Dukaris. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Jessie, and welcome everyone to our fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings call. It is a pleasure to be speaking with you all today, and I hope you are staying safe and well. Today, Fernando and I would like to cover three topics with you, our fourth quarter and full year operating highlights, an update on the strategic pillars of our strategy, and how we are meeting the moment in 2022. We will then be happy to answer your questions. So, let's start with our operating performance. We are very pleased with our performance in both the fourth quarter and full year 2021. In the fourth quarter, we delivered top-line growth of 12.1%, with 3.6% volume growth. Revenue per hectolitre accelerated in quarter 4-21 to 8.1%, driven by the implementation of pricing actions across some of our key markets, ongoing premiumization, and continued recover of the on-premise. EBITDA increased by 5%. Versus Q4 2019 pre-pandemic levels, we grew top line by mid-teens and EBITDA by low single digits. We delivered normalized EPS of $0.09 and underlying EPS of $0.74. Let's now move on to our full-year results. We delivered 15.6% top-line growth in full year 21, comprised of 9.6% volume and 5.5% revenue per hectolitre growth. EBITDA grew by 11.8% at the top end of our 2021 outlook. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, we grew top-line by more than 10%, and nearly recovered EBITDA on an organic basis. Normalized EPS increased to $2.85, and underlying EPS increased to $2.88. As a result of our performance and strong cash flow generation, we reduced gross debt by nearly $10 billion this year, leading to a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.96 times. This ratio is now below four times for the first time since the combination with SAB in 2016. The board has proposed a full year dividend of 50 euro cents per share for fiscal year 2021. Now I would like to share some highlights from our key market. Our business in the US delivered a third consecutive year of top-line growth, driven by consistent execution of our commercial strategy, focused on rebalancing our portfolio. Our above-court portfolio now represents over 30% of our revenue and grew by high single digits this year. In Mexico, we finished the year strong. delivering double digit top and bottom line growth compared to both 2020 and 2019. Market share expanded by over 150 bps versus pre-pandemic levels. In Colombia, we delivered double digit top and bottom line growth versus full year 2020 and above pre-pandemic levels. Led by the implementation of our category expansion model, 2021 was marked by the highest per capita consumption in Colombia in the last 25 years. In Brazil, we delivered double digit top line growth with record high beer volumes. However, bottom line was impacted by anticipated transactional effects and commodity headwinds. Bees now covers more than 85% of our active customers And Zed Deliver fulfilled 6 to 1 million orders, more than double of 2020. Our business in Europe recovered top line to pre-pandemic levels. Premium and super premium brands now make over 50% of our revenue and grew by double digits. In South Africa, we grew top line ahead of pre-pandemic levels in both the quarter and full year. A strong consumer demand for our brands resulted in full year market share expansion in both beer and total alcohol versus 2019. In China, we delivered double digit top and bottom line growth. Premium and super premium brands increased by double digits. Our market share expanded versus both 2020 and 2019. Moving on, I would like to spend some time talking about the progress we've made on our ESG agenda. Our ESG priorities are organized around three themes, inclusive, natural, and local. With these priorities embedded into our commercial strategy, we can drive meaningful value and shared prosperity for our communities and our planet. I'm proud of the journey our teams are on to advance our ambition ESG agenda. As part of our focus to drive decarbonization and build climate resilience, we have announced our ambition to achieve net zero by 2040. In 2021, we made progress across our priorities. Highlights include reduced our overall value chain emissions, by 13.5% versus our 2017 baseline, named to CDP's Water A-list for the third year in a row, advanced our smart drinking agenda by updating our label designs on 100% of our primary product packaging in all countries where guidance labels are not required. Recognized in the inaugural ranking of Forbes World's Top Female Friendly Companies in 2021. Selected in the Reuters Events Responsible Business Awards in the categories of Social Impact and Circular Transition. You can learn more in our 2021 ESG report. Now let's pivot to an update on the three pillars of our strategy. Allow me to start with pillar one, lead and grow the category. Our commitment to lead and grow the category by investing in our brands, innovation, and creative marketing is already delivering results. We met the moment in 2021 with all-time high volume. As we move from being category leaders to leading category growth, we continue to execute on the five levers of our category expansion model. First, we are building an inclusive category through scaling pack and product innovations. In full year 21, our portfolio of inclusive brands increases revenue by double digits. Second, offering superior core propositions. Our mainstream portfolio gained an estimated 1.4 percentage points of share of the segment globally. We have rolled out our double multi-innovation concept across 12 brands in 10 markets, contributing revenue of over $450 million this year. Third, occasions development. We are tapping into new occasions with our global portfolio. Estelle Artois grew over 20% globally, supported by increasing penetration in the meal occasion. And our non-alcoholic beer portfolio grew revenues by double digits. The fourth lever is leading premiumization. Our premium portfolio delivered over 20% revenue growth in full year 21, and now represents approximately one-third of our total revenue. Our global brands continue to lead this growth. The combined revenues of Budweiser, Estelle Artois, and Corona grew by 23% in full year 21, outside of the brand's home markets. Finally, we continue to expand the category with our Beyond Beer offerings. Our global Beyond Beer business grew by over 20%, contributing $1.6 billion of revenue in full year 21. Innovation supports category expansion across each of the five levers of our model, from entering new occasions to our growing non-alcohol portfolio, to driving premiumization by expanding Michelob Ultra to even more markets. Our innovations contributed 10% of our revenue, in total more than $5 billion in 2021. We are leading the way in innovation across our footprint. Our rolling 36-month share of innovation increased year over year in almost all of our key markets, including the US, Brazil, and China. We are leading and growing the category with best-in-class creative marketing capabilities. Just this week, Ken Lyles honored ABI as the Creative Marketeer of the Year. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge our talented teams and agents partners who made this remarkable achievement possible. Now, let's move on to our second strategic pillar, digitize, and monetize our ecosystem. We are investing to scale our global innovative technology products to become a tech-first FMCG company. Products such as BIS, ZDeliver, and EverPro allow us to unlock value from our existing assets. BIS is enabling us to turn customer pain points into opportunities for growth. It is now live in 16 markets, offering our customers flexible delivery and data-driven insights, while empowering our frontline sales team with real-time information on customer behavior through our BizForce application. Biz has seen remarkable acceleration in usage and reach, capturing approximately $20 billion in gross merchandising value in 2021, up from $3 billion in 2020. Total monthly active users more than doubled this year. Now let me talk about our direct-to-consumer. Our DTC products generated more than $1.5 billion in revenue across 20 countries, already contributing nearly 3% of our top line. Our e-commerce net revenue grew by 62% with 66 million online transactions. That's 66 million opportunities to capture data and insights to solve real consumer problems. Our DTC tech products are leading beer e-commerce growth by leveraging our ecosystem of brands that consumers love. our proprietary technology, and our extensive distribution network. In Latin America, Zed delivery is already present in roughly 300 cities in Brazil, and we are deploying this tech product across 10 additional countries. In Europe, Perfect Draft delivered more than $170 million of revenue. With that, I would like to hand it over to Fernando to discuss the third pillar of our strategy, optimizing our business. Fernando.

Thank you, Michel. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. I hope you are all safe and well. We aim to maximize value by focusing on three areas, optimized resource allocation, robust risk management, and efficient capital structure. First, let me take you through the drivers of our underlying EPS this year. Our underlying EPS increased by 37 cents from $2.51 to $2.88. Normalized EBIT increased by 81 cents per share. In net finance costs, we recorded lower interest expense due to gross debt reduction, offset by other finance costs related to Brazilian tax credits. We saw higher income tax expense due to increased profitability, country mix, and reduced benefits from tax attributes, worth $0.30 per share. We also recorded higher share of results from associates, worth $0.05 per share, and higher profit attributable to non-controlling interests, worth $0.23 per share. With respect to capital allocation, we aim to maximize long-term value by dynamically balancing our priorities. Our main priority for the use of cash is to invest in organic growth opportunities that fall within the first two pillars of our strategy, lead and grow the category, and digitize and monetize our ecosystem. The excess cash generated by our business is then dynamically allocated to our other three capital allocation priorities, the leveraging, selective M&A, and return of capital to shareholders. As you can see here, two times net debt to EBITDA is the point at which we maximize value, though approximately 90% of the benefits from the leveraging can be captured as we approach three times. This year, we achieved an important milestone in our deleveraging path. with net debt to EBITDA falling below four times for the first time since the SAB combination. In the near term, the leveraging is still the most value-accretive opportunity. As we continue to move towards our optimal capital structure, returning cash to shareholders and pursuing selective M&A opportunities can have a more meaningful impact on value creation. In balancing the company's capital allocation priorities, and dividend policy while returning cash to shareholders, the Board has proposed a full-year dividend of €0.50 per share for the fiscal year 2021. We have taken significant steps in recent years to accelerate debt reduction. We have reduced gross debt by approximately $34 billion since 2016, with almost $10 billion in 2021 alone. Moving on, you see that our debt maturity profile remains well distributed with no significant maturity over the next 5 years, with the weighted average maturity more than 16 years. Let me elaborate further on the characteristics of our debt portfolio. As a reminder, we do not have any financial covenants on our entire debt portfolio, including our sustainability-linked revolving credit facility. The portfolio is comprised of a variety of currencies, including the US dollar, euro, Canadian dollar, pound sterling, and Korean won, diversifying our FX risk. Our bond portfolio remains largely insulated from interest rate volatility, as approximately 94% holds a fixed rate with a very manageable weighted average coupon rate of approximately 4%. Before I hand it over to Michel, I'd like to highlight the key metrics that reflect how we are optimizing our business. In 2021, we reduced gross debt by $10 billion, totaling $34 billion of gross debt reduction since 2016. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio is now at 3.96%. below 4% for the first time since our combination with SAB. 94% of our bond portfolio is fixed rate, with a manageable 4% coupon, and we have no near-term refinancing needs. I'll now hand it back to Michel for some final comments. Michel? Thanks, Fernando.