Ambev S.A. (NYSE:ABEV) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 9, 2024

Ambev S.A. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Good morning, good afternoon, and thank you for waiting. We would like to welcome everyone to Ambev's 2024 First quarter Results Conference Call. Today, with us we have Mr. Jean Jereissati, Ambev's CEO; and Mr. Lucas Lira, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. As a reminder, a slide presentation is available for downloading on our website ir.ambev.com.br, as well as through the webcast link of this call. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the safe harbor of the 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 2023 first quarter 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, operating profit and EBITDA on a fully reported basis in the earnings release. Now I'll turn the conference over to Mr. Jean Jereissati. Mr. Jereissati, you may begin.

Jean Jereissati: So, hello everyone. Thank you for joining our Q1 earnings call. Today, before jumping into our first quarter results, I would like to say some words about the situation in the Rio Grande do Sul. Since last week, we have been working with all our energies to help our team and the population affected by the floods in the state. As a Brazilian company, we will always be at the side of Brazilians in all situations. So in addition to protecting and helping our colleagues, we have already donated more than 185,000 liters of water to 11 affected municipalities. We have also been taking water directly from our brewery in the Greater Porto Alegre to supply 4 hospitals in the capital of the state, totalizing 375,000 liters.

In addition, we have stopped our production in Porto Alegre to start producing water to distribute to the local population. And we won't stop. We will continue our efforts to find other solutions to help our ecosystem. Now, talking about the first quarter, in our last call, I left you with three main messages regarding 2024. First, that we were and still are confident about volume growth, especially in Brazil. Second, we are working to deliver solid free cash flow generation. And lastly, our main challenge in the year is taxes in Brazil. And this quarter was a good example of this. Brazil had its best volume performance for a Q1 in history in both Beer and NABs. CAC grew volumes. In LAS, in Canada, volumes decline were mainly driven by industry.

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