Ambev S.A. (ABEV) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Ambev S.A. (NYSE:ABEV) Q2 2023 Results Conference Call August 3, 2023 11:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Jean Jereissati - Chief Executive Officer

Lucas Lira - Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer

Conference Call Participants

Lucas Ferreira - JPMorgan

Thiago Duarte - BTG Pactual

Carlos Laboy - HSBC

Isabella Simonato - Bank of America

Alan Alanis - Santander

Thiago Bortoluci - Goldman Sachs

Rodrigo Alcantara - UBS

Operator

Good morning, good afternoon, and thank you for waiting. We would like to welcome everyone to Ambev's Second Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. Today with us, we have Mr. Jean Jereissati, CEO for Ambev; and Mr. Lucas Lira, CFO and Investor Relations Officer.

As a reminder, a slide presentation is available for downloading on our website, ri.ambev.com.br as well as through the webcast link of this call. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the Company's presentation. [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 the second quarter 2022 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 now begin your conference.

Jean Jereissati

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our Q2 earnings call. Q2 was all about consistency. Top line momentum persisted with net revenue up 20%. EBITDA grew 34% at a consolidated level and 20% ex Argentina, with Brazil growing 29%. International operations continued to recover with CAC and Canada delivering EBITDA growth and LAS with steady momentum.