Earnings Labs

Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (BUD)

Q3 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 26, 2017

$72.75

-2.24%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-0.60%

1 Week

+0.43%

1 Month

-2.47%

vs S&P

-5.30%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Anheuser-Busch InBev third quarter 2017 earnings conference call and webcast. Hosting the call today from AB InBev are Mr. Carlos Brito, Chief Executive Officer and Dr. Felipe Dutra, Chief Finance and Technology Officer. To access the slides accompanying today's call, please vibe AB InBev's website now at www.ab-inbev.com and click on the Investors tab. 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 opened for your questions following the presentation. 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 the company'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 the firm'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 the 22nd of March 2017. 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. Please refer to the reference-based press release dated 6th of January 2017 available on the company's website for important information about the company's updated 2015 and 2016 segment reporting. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Mr. Carlos Brito. Sir, you may begin. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Thank you, Maria, and good morning, good afternoon, everyone and welcome to our 2017 third quarter…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. In the interest of time, we will limit participants to one question. Our first question comes from the line of Olivier Nicolai of Morgan Stanley. Olivier Nicolai - Morgan Stanley & Co. International Plc: Hi. Good morning, Brito, Felipe. I've got one question and just one follow-up on Mexico. First of all, in your press release you talk about a strong finish to the year. Is it going to be mostly driven by shipment phasing in countries, largely U.S., South Africa and Australia, which were weak in Q3? Or do you expect also underlying improvement on top of that? And just regarding Mexico, top line has been extremely strong over the last – for a while actually, but margins were actually down this quarter and it's been the case last year already. You mentioned some production grade issues due to high demand, which I guess is a good problem to have, but how long do you think it's going to take before we can see a margin recovery in Mexico and some operating leverage? Thank you. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Yeah. Hi, Olivier. So, in terms of the fourth quarter, as you saw in our U.S. business, for example, there was a mismatch between STWs and STRs, in that our STRs were down in the quarter by 3.4%, but our STW was down by 6.4%. And the reason for that was the hurricane we had in Texas and Florida that disrupted the shipments in that south part of the country and those being two big markets for us. So, that's something that we expect has got to be reduced in the fourth quarter as STWs and STRs tend to converge on a full year basis. So, that's…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Webb of Macquarie. Matthew Webb - Macquarie Capital (Europe) Ltd.: Yeah. I wonder if I could just ask a question on the sale of CCBA. I was just wondering whether we should factor in any negative implications for your margins on your remaining beer businesses in Africa following the sale of CCBA based on them having shed some costs with that business. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Well, Matthew, CCBA in South Africa was a total separate business. I mean they had their own management, facilities, trucks, distribution, procurement, everything was separate. And it was done this way once CCBA was formed. Before they had something in common, but because other partners came into the partnership like the Gutsche Family of the Coca-Cola Company. They made a point at the time before we arrived to the picture of setting up a company that had its own board, management facilities, everything. So, there's no impact in South Africa, which is the bulk of the business, so no dis-synergies. Matthew Webb - Macquarie Capital (Europe) Ltd.: And outside South Africa, any impact at all or nothing material? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Outside South Africa, it is true to say that we share some things. But, again, two things. First, the operations are much smaller in South Africa; and second, when we revise our synergies, even before that when we had the $2.8 billion and now the $3.2 billion, we took all that in consideration, but the effects of the synergies in most countries are very minimal. Matthew Webb - Macquarie Capital (Europe) Ltd.: Okay. That's very clear. Thanks very much. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Welcome.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Edward Mundy of Jefferies.

Edward Mundy - Jefferies International Ltd.

Management

Hi, good morning, everyone. It seems that best practice sharing from SAB is partly behind the increase in cost savings. But when it comes to sharing of top line growth best practice from SAB, I think, Brito, you mentioned in your opening remarks, in particular, the category expansion model. I was wondering whether you could give us some specific examples around how that's impacting your top line growth agenda and how embedded is this so far. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Very good point. I mean, the best practice sharing has been very intense in both top line, cost, everything; brewing, packaging, procurement. And that's why, Edward, this time this combination is the first one we used the terminology of intellectual synergies. We really learned a lot from each other. And the category expansion model, as you say, was one of the highlights in that our new colleagues from SAB had been on that road, that track for many years since 2009 to be precise. And they had accumulated a lot of learnings that we applied to our three-year plan this year and as a consequence, being applied to the one-year plan next year. We first got to the news of the total company and aligned the way of talking about category in March when we had our global meeting in South Africa, by the way, this year. And so it became company language, not only market or sales, became company language and that was very key in developing the three-year plan and then the budget for next year that we're in the process of doing. So, we're going to see more of that next year, because the plans have been crafted with that in mind. Of course, I mean, those things are about category development, about positioning your brands in the right places in terms of consumer needs and occasions. Those are not things that will necessarily have a major impact in all markets year one, but it's a framework that helps you think a lot about portfolio and resource allocation, and that's something that we had missed before. We're thinking a lot about brands in isolation and, therefore, the portfolio play was being missed sometimes in our discussions. And the category expansion model is a lot about where we are today with our portfolio, where the trends are going, consumers are going, three, five years projection, where we should have a portfolio placed in three, five years, and what are the steps we need to take to get from here to there, and the consequence in terms of resource allocation and targets and everything. So, that's a very good framework to operate from.

Edward Mundy - Jefferies International Ltd.

Management

Thanks. And as a follow-up, are you able to share with us as to whether your market share has stabilized in Brazil post quarter-end, and whether competition have taken any price? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Yeah. Very good point. I mean, in Brazil, as it's always the case, we increased prices and then the market takes one, two, three months to adjust. This year, we increased prices more towards the beginning of the third quarter, last year it was in the fourth quarter, so that's why you see a volume – tough comp there in Brazil. But what we have to say is that now after one, two months, the market has readjusted, let's say, has stabilized and so that's good news. But that, of course, made us lose some share in the third quarter. But if we look at year to date, we're still ahead of the industry, so we're still in positive territory in terms of share.

Edward Mundy - Jefferies International Ltd.

Management

Great, thank you. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Welcome.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Robert Ottenstein of Evercore ISI.

Robert Ottenstein - Evercore ISI

Management

Great, thank you very much. A number of – I'd like you to talk a little bit about Bud Light and a couple of things here. Based on our guesstimates, it looks like Bud Light STRs were probably down 7% – 8% or so in the quarter. I'm wondering if you can verify that. How much of that do you think is due to cannibalization by Ultra? And give us a little bit of sense of the early read on the Dilly Dilly campaign, and some of the – what we're sensing is increased energy in the distribution system being excited about Andy Goeler coming back. Thank you very much. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: I think, Robert, your point is very well taken. I think Andy is an amazing leader, inspirational marketer, and the system is very excited and supporting him big time. So on Bud Light, there are a couple things that from a creative standpoint have been important in reinforcing the message about the friendship campaign. First, in August, what we decided to do on Bud Light is that for many years, we haven't talked about quality for Bud Light, and we came with what we call internally the essential ingredients campaign, and that got a lot of traction in social media and everything. So I think we hit a sweet spot there in that consumers of Bud Light were curious about what we had to say about the quality of the product, about the ingredients. So it was very well received in social media and whatnot. Then in terms of the friendship content, we also came in September with new spots, so the new phase of this platform, bringing more humor. And we had some very good executions that, again, got some high…

Robert Ottenstein - Evercore ISI

Management

And how much is Ultra cannibalizing Bud Light, do you think? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: There is some cannibalization. But according to some internal numbers, what we see is that this cannibalization is less today than it was maybe a year ago, as we learn more about one and the other and try to merchandise them and position them in consumers' minds the best way we can in terms of being complementary as opposed to being cannibalistic. There will always be some cannibalization, of course, Bud Light being the biggest brand. And Ultra not being that small brand anymore, it's almost 10% of our volume. So you're now talking about two big brands in the marketplace, and there will be some cannibalization. The thing to remember, Robert, is that the Bud Light – the Michelob Ultra margins are way better than Bud Light. So even if there is some cannibalization, financially, gross profit, all that, that's accretive.

Robert Ottenstein - Evercore ISI

Management

Okay, thank you very much. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: You're welcome.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mark Swartzberg of Stifel Financial. Mark David Swartzberg - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Thank you and good morning, Brito. Hi, Felipe. Also a U.S. question, I was impressed to see the level of profitability in the U.S., gross margin expanding, EBITDA only down fractionally in spite of this more than 6-point shipment decline. So I'm wondering what your take is, either Brito or Felipe, on how enduring these drivers of gross margin expansion are. You mentioned mix, and sometimes these high-end brands can be here today and gone tomorrow, though Ultra is clearly a factor here. So gross margin expansion, how happy you are with the durability? And then SG&A too, I know you made some cuts in your high-end component of your business. How contributory was that to the SG&A savings? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Hi, Mark, Brito here. I think an interesting points you're asking. Of course, what we're trying to do in the U.S., because we have some brands that we want to invest more because they have legs. We're trying to really take as much money from non-working dollars within SG&A and VILC – I mean our cost of sales, to really get that money back into things like packaging or messaging or experiential or support of new upcoming brands like our craft brands. So there is a big effort in finding those monies, so we can put it to better use. On the other hand, it is true as well that the hurricanes accounted for an estimated 2-percentage point reduction in our EBITDA this quarter because not only we lost volume, not only we had to pay more for transportation, not only our STWs were down 6% when STRs were 3% down,…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Tristan van Strien of Redburn Partners. Tristan van Strien - Redburn (Europe) Ltd.: Hi. Good morning or good afternoon, guys. I just wanted to ask about wheat beer, just a little bit color on that. You've now launched an extension on Harbin to add to Hoegaarden in China and it seems to be taking on China quite well. What's the opportunity there? Why is wheat beer working in China? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Well, because in our view two things. First, it fits well with spicy food. Second, because it's more coed. And you go to Korea, for example, I was there some months ago, and it's amazing. You go out at night and you see tables with women going out together and they're all drinking Hoegaarden. So, it's – we also have Franziskaner that's working very well in China, for example, and this brand's amazing. China, for example, you take Franziskaner, Hoegaarden, their margin's like 10 times what we have in terms of our core brands in China. And so much so that we decided to introduce our Harbin Baipi, and Harbin Baipi as an innovation has been growing 18 times in terms of volume this year. And purchase intent is very high and again, it's the pace that we think together with the food pairing, let's remember that 50% of the beer in China is consumed with food. And we think that wheat beer goes well with spicy food, so that's our insight into this whole thing. But Hoegaarden is doing amazingly well in the whole of Asia, for example. Tristan van Strien - Redburn (Europe) Ltd.: Obviously, your margins are a bigger gross margin because of the price level, but also on an absolute cost level and in terms of production time, is it better than lager or is it the same? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: No, I mean, this product, Hoegaarden, for example, has a special production process that's more expensive, but again given that it sells for a much higher price, I'm always looking at the net and saying, wow, look at this, 10 times more than a core beer in China. So, if you get to Korea, they have some of the same, not 10 times, but it's very, very profitable in Korea. And you go to Japan, it's also growing. You go to Vietnam, it's also growing. So, I mean, it's – India. So, I mean, it's something that does really well in that part of the world. Tristan van Strien - Redburn (Europe) Ltd.: Thank you. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: You're welcome, Tristan.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Sanjeet Aujla of Credit Suisse. Sanjeet Aujla - Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd.: Hi, Brito. Can you just elaborate on some of your share of alcohol initiatives in Colombia and South Africa in particular year-to-date? And can you comment as to whether you think you're gaining share of alcohol in those markets? Thanks. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Yes, we are. And it's all about occasions and portfolio offering. For example, in Colombia, for example, we're trying to get more beer to be consumed during the week, so it's trying to get people not to drink just wine with food, but drink beer as they watch soccer. That is now also on weekdays. With poker we also tried to get Thursdays to be like a happy hour, friends day type thing as we have in other countries. Stella Artois, for example, is trying to insert itself more and more into food and savoring in all those countries that you mentioned. In summary, we're trying to get to new occasions where beer under indexes. And we're also trying to understand even in pubs where we have the traditional beer scene, what we've seen in some countries is that after 10 or 11 p.m., the mix of alcohol beverages tend to change more in favor of hard liquor, and there are pilots in place on how to keep beer relevant even after 10 or 11 p.m. once happy hour is over. So, I mean there are many things in trying to get beer to be more competitive, more appealing. In some occasions, that has been traditionally dominated by either wine or hard liquor. Cider, for example, or flavored beer is also a big play. If you look at our Flying Fish…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Fernando Ferreira of Bank of America.

Fernando Ferreira - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Thank you. Brito, I had a question on Brazil. I mean if we step back a little bit and look what has been the driver, right, of the volume leakage over the last couple of years, the 600 ml, right, returnable glass bottles consumed on premise has been the key driver of this volume decline. And you've done a great job with the 300 ml to protect your off-premise business, but can you share with us what's the plan to save this very important consumption occasion? And the bars, what are you doing there to improve volumes? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Very good points, Fernando, because in the old days, we used to have only two offerings in the old trade. There was even at some point only one. It was the 600 ml bottle. Then cans started coming in, but still there were only two offerings. Then we came with the 1 liter bottle, which again provided more for less in some regions and that was very important. What we're doing with the 600 ml bottle, where our margin is much better than any other returnable glass bottle in Brazil, is that we're dressing up it big time. If you look at the packaging today in Brazil compared to a year ago, we applied scuffing resin, so the bottles are not scuffed. We have new labels, front and neck, that are much more premium. We have a foil, as a matter of fact, as a neck label. So we're really trying to elevate that package because that package is an industry standard bottle, and therefore the bottle tends to be less clean or less appealing. So, we're trying to make that bottle appealing. I was in Brazil two weeks ago, and the way we're elevating the core in Brazil, if you look at the Brahma family, the Skol family and compare just to six months ago, it's like night and day. So I think those things are going be very important to not only elevate our core, but also to support the 600-ml bottle because that bottle is very important for profitability.

Fernando Ferreira - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Thanks, Brito. And if I may, just a follow-up on your guidance. SG&A so far is down 2%, right? But you say that it will be flat, broadly flat, for the year. Is there any region where A&P might be lagging and there's a greater phasing in Q4? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: No, I mean, we said broadly flat, so it doesn't mean exactly 0.0. It's broadly flat. And I think we're keeping the guidance at this point. We see no reason to change it. And this is a global guidance. So, I wouldn't go into any region, but the guidance is there.

Fernando Ferreira - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Management

Okay, great. Thank you. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Holland of Société Générale. Andrew Holland - Société Générale SA (UK): Yeah. Hi. Can I also ask about Brazil? Just looking at the margin performance, obviously, a reasonable recovery there. It actually fell short, I think, of consensus forecast for where the Lat Am North margin was going to be. Can you give us an idea of how much of the margin recovery is coming from any help from FX hedging and how much is other factors? I'm just mindful that the fall in Q3 last year, which was a big 31% fall in EBITDA, half of that was ascribed to FX hedging. I'm wondering whether in this quarter you got any help from hedging. And continuing in that thought, do you think you can get it back to the pre-fall level, which by my reckoning was about a 51%, 52% EBITDA margin? Do you think that is a possible recovery? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Hi, Andrew. So, in terms of the EBITDA margin recovery, what you have this quarter, third quarter, and we put it in the release, is that the EBITDA for the beer business increased big time as expected because of the pricing and the stabilization of cost of sales. On the other hand, the soft drinks business in Brazil, as you know, we call the non-beer business, is very relevant. It's still a huge impact on commodity price escalation, so especially on the ingredients side. So, that was a big negative in terms of EBITDA performance. And then when you put the two together that's why the margin for the total business only grew 14.5%. But if you would look at the beer business, that EBITDA margin grew way ahead of that. But…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Pablo Zuanic of SIG.

Pablo Zuanic - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Management

I'll ask two questions given that everyone is not following the rule. Look, the first question is, watching the World Series and being in LA recently, quite amazing to see all the billboards and advertising on Estrella Jalisco. But then when I visit bodegas and stores or even Target stores, I don't see Jalisco on the shelves. So I'm just trying to understand, Molson Coors is trying to push Sol. You have Tecate and Dos Equis with the Heineken guys and, of course, there's Constellation. But all those brands go through the other network, right? The Anheuser-Busch network would probably do better with a Mexican brand in the portfolio. And Montejo, nothing really happened with it and Jalisco, you are making this big push from a marketing point of view it seems, but we don't see it on the shelves. If you can ,explain that disconnect. And I'll break the rule and ask a second question then. Just in general, there are a lot of questions about the consumer, but there seems to be, from my perspective, a definite slowdown in premiumization. Craft has slowed, imports have slowed. In fact, out of Mexican beer they are down, so what explains that? Is the consumer going back to mass and to value brands? Thanks. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Hi, Pablo. I think on our strategy to compete within the Mexican segment, we have a three-pronged approach. First, we're trying to learn more and more about what's important in Mexico because we're the market leader in Mexico in terms of beers, so we're trying to learn that and bridge that back into the U.S. as much as possible. Second, we're trying to leverage Bud Light into Hispanics. In a previous question I spoke about Bud Light in Texas…

Pablo Zuanic - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Management

Right, thank you. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Fernand de Boer of Degroof Petercam.

Fernand de Boer - Banque Degroof Petercam SA

Netherlands

Yes, good afternoon. It's Fernand de Boer from Degroof Petercam. One question on my side, could you tell us something more about your performance in the global brands? You said you were pleased with that, but if I look at it, Bud is slowing down outside the U.S. Stella I can understand that they were hit by the hurricanes, but also Corona is slowing down. So is this only temporary, and what do you expect going forward? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: On global brands, the story is that – we have two stories. If you look at the quarter, it was very weak. The net revenue was even below our total company net revenue. But if you look at the year to date, net revenue of global brands, they're at 7.3% growth and total company at 4.1%. So this is one quarter, but what happened this quarter is that Budweiser had – China was not very strong. And Stella, we had the issue with the U.S. shipments in that the shipments of Stella got also issues with the hurricane and the whole supply. But Corona had a good quarter. I could even say Corona could have had a better quarter if not for the tough comp in Australia because of the transition from the brands that came from Lion Nathan to us, CUB in Australia, and that provided a quarter where there was too much shipments for them and a quarter there was no shipments. So now third and fourth quarter will be two different stories in terms of Australia and our import brands. But Corona, even with this Australia hiccup, and Australia is one of the top three countries for Corona, still performed well. But Budweiser had issues in the U.S. and China. U.S. again, hurricane didn't make it any easier. And Stella again U.S., which is now a big market for Stella together with the UK. So again, I wouldn't take this quarter as any yellow flag or anything. It's just that hurricanes here and there. But when you look at year-to-date, it's 7.3% versus 4.1% for total company. So it's still going strong.

Fernand de Boer - Banque Degroof Petercam SA

Netherlands

So should we take the year-to-date performance also as a proxy for going forward as your, let's say, internal ambitions? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: No, I wouldn't be prepared to give that guidance at this point. But what I can say is that if you look at the last many years, global brands had outperformed total net revenue always. So again, one quarter is just one quarter.

Fernand de Boer - Banque Degroof Petercam SA

Netherlands

Okay, thank you very much.

Fernand de Boer - Banque Degroof Petercam SA

Netherlands

Thanks, Fernando.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Milena Redzic of Bernstein.

Milena Redzic - Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd.

Management

Hi there. Just two questions from our side, Brito. So I wonder if we can dive back in on Bud Light. I wonder if you could talk to us a little bit about what is the problem, who are the consumers that are drinking less Bud Light. I know you spoke a little bit about millennials, but is there an issue failing to connect with younger consumers, et cetera? And then just a little bit on China. We saw in the first half, I think you had organic margin expansion of 500 basis points, which slowed down to about 190 basis points in the third quarter. Can you talk a little bit about what are the margin drivers there and how we can think about margin progression in China moving forward? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Again, the margin expansion in China has been very healthy. 193 bps this quarter, as I said, and 400 basis points year to date, so I call this very strong, because in China we don't have any synergies or anything. This is really the core business performing better. What we had in China, which happened a couple times in the last few years, is that sometimes there is a regional mix because our business is not equally represented in all regions in China. And sometimes the region that's important for us or a couple regions got hit by some weather or some economy in that region, and that affects us for a period of time, but then it comes back. So we're still in expansion phase in China when you think about it. Budweiser is present everywhere, but not at the same distribution level. So there's still lots to do in China. We're very focused. We're very – our volumes still…

Milena Redzic - Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd.

Management

Thanks, Brito. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: You're welcome.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we have time for one more question. Our final question will come from the line of Andrea Pistacchi of Deutsche Bank.

Andrea Pistacchi - Deutsche Bank

Management

Yes. Hi. Good morning. Question on Brazil, please, on the tax situation there. So, 2017 has been very benign year from a duty point of view. Maybe it's a bit early, but do you – are you in the position to comment on potential outlook for 2018 in terms of duties? Have any proposals from any states gone through at this point? And then please on Africa, strong volume growth in Q3 in Africa ex-South Africa. At the H1 call, I think you said that capacity would be coming on stream in H2. Has this happened? And where and are there any areas in Africa, any countries, where you're still capacity constrained? Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Two very good points. So, in terms of Brazil, you asked about the state taxes.

Andrea Pistacchi - Deutsche Bank

Management

Yeah. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: So, the answer is that so far, none of the 27 Brazilian states have announced tax increase. Of course, any tax increase at the state level, VAT, must be published until December 31. So, we cannot be assured that nothing will happen. But I think some states learn the hard way that if you continue to increase taxes at the state level, at some point you don't increase tax revenues because volumes are elastic. On the federal level, the new legislation that was implemented in 2015 had a tax increase scheduled for 2016, 2017 and 2018. So, the change was already implemented. So, we believe that the new model will be in place until the end of 2018. So, it can always change, but we don't foresee that because it's a new model that was just implemented. In terms of your capacity question in Africa, we're increasing capacity in South Africa, including the launch of the 1 little bottle for the fourth quarter. So, that's something we're very excited about. It's something that African consumers will have access. It worked really well in some other countries of ours, the bulk fact. And now consumers will have access in South Africa as well. And in Nigeria, we've been capped at capacity for now some quarters and we're beginning to have more capacity in a market that we're very excited about. It's a growth market. Our brands are doing very well. And the premiumization is still a play to be had. Nigeria is interesting because the premium markets are already established there. It's not insignificant. It's quite big because other players have been there for a while. But we have no presence. So, for us, it's not a question of starting a new segment, it's a question of getting our fair share in that segment with much better margins. So, that's also a play together with more capacity for our local brands that do very well. So, again, Nigeria and South Africa should be focus for us in Africa.

Andrea Pistacchi - Deutsche Bank

Management

Thank you. Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV: Okay. So, let me thank everybody for your time today. In ending the call, let me tell you a couple things. So, our first priority – in terms of summary, a couple of things. So, our performance in the third quarter of 2017 was solid. Revenues continued to increase and we're pleased to see an accelerated EBITDA growth rate. Another thing I'd like to comment is that we're very proud of the progress we have made on the SAB integration over the past year and continue to grow into a better, stronger company. And finally, we're working hard to deliver a strong finish to the year and to further develop the global beer category. So, again, thank you very much for your time. Thanks for joining the call and I'll see you all next quarter. Have a great day. Bye-bye. Thank you. Operator. Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.