Ambev SA (ABEV) 2003 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. At this time we would like to welcome everyone to the AmBev conference call to discuss the earning results for the first quarter of 2003. We inform that all participants will only be able listen to the conference during the company's presentation. After the company's remarks are over, there will be a Question and Answer period. At that time, further instructions will be given. Should any participant need assistance during this conference, please press 'star- 0' for an operator.

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. Forward-looking statements 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. The future results and shareholder values of AmBev may differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by these forward-looking statements.

Now, I will turn the conference over to Mr. Marcel Telles, Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors. Please Mr. Telles, you may begin your conference.

Thank you very much. Good morning everyone. Today I have with me on the call from our management team Carlos Alves de Brito, and Luiz Fernando Edmond, and from AmBev's IR team, Tobias [Stingelin]. We are reporting once again double-digit EBITDA growth, 25% year-on-year despite the challenging environment. The depreciation of the currency proceeded 45% year-on-year. It was a natural negative impact on our dollar link at variable cost.

The inflation during the period was close to 15%, pressuring some of our local currency costs and more recently, we also witnessed an increase in taxes. We believe that in light of these taxes, our performance is evidence again that we are on the right track by sticking to AmBev's long-term strategy.

During the five [Inaudible] of last March, I believe most of you had the chance to develop a good understanding regarding our proposals for delivering sustainable growth during the coming years. That said, I am pleased to see that what we are progressing well on our strategy. For instance, during the quarter we advanced significantly improving revenue management by shifting our mix towards higher contribution margin products and [Inaudible] will elaborate more on that. Also maximizing our distribution and execution efficiency which is of paramount important to dominate the point of sale and improving productivity and reducing costs as evidenced by the savings in Real terms of approximately R$150m that we achieved during the Q1 2003 out of our commitment of R$150m to R$200m for the year. The details behind the savings will be addressed by [Inaudible] shortly.

I would like to take this opportunity to say that the strong performance was expected to be concentrated in the first half of 2003 and that at this stage we are keeping out commitment unchanged.

Concerning beer volumes, after reporting gross rates to close to 12% during January and February, which suggested that we would reach 10% in the quarter, significant lower average temperatures in March relative to the last four years, negatively impacted sales. In March, reflected lower temperatures, sales volumes declined by over 6% year-on-year and draft beer whose sales are directly impacted by the weather declined by close to 22%.

As a result of this performance in March, overall beer sales grew by 5.4% below our initial thoughts good news though is that [Inaudible] in April were up 3.4% above April 2002 indicating that we are on track to achieve our targets for 2003.

On the soft drinks front, we also continued to -

Excuse me, this is the Operator. I have pulled your line from conference, this is the Operator is anyone on this line? This is the Operator? This line will be disconnected. [Gap in audio]

However, the situation proved again in April as demonstrated by the 3.4% volume growth year-over-year. Thus we remained confident in reaching our expectations of growing between 2-3% in 2003 versus 2002. Our market share achieved 69.4% in March compared to 67.1% in December 2002. Importantly, the gain came from all the channels in all the packages.

As has been said market share situation in the range of 67-70% are [acceptable] as they depend on [Inaudible] in the marketplace. As the price gap between our brand and the other brands in the market [Inaudible] in the last couple of months specifically on [Inaudible] we have been recovering market share. Above all, we remain focused on our growth [Inaudible] going for depth, revenue management, profitability in point of sale execution, continued growing super premium.

Let me give you some examples on how we are evolving on our strategy. On the revenue management front, this quarter in the mainstream segment, we sold more of our higher margin brand, Skol, which increased its rate in our sales mix to 57% from 54% in the first quarter of 2002. As a result, the total contribution margin provided by the Skol brand increased by almost 11% year-over-year, naturally contributing to our improvement in our overall profitability.

On top of that, the packaging mix shifted positively toward [eternal] bottles, which represented 70% of sales, compared to 69% in the first quarter of 2002.

In regards to the fourth quarter 2002, our net sales [per liter] decreased to R$100.7, primarily as the result of tax hikes that occurred in late 2002 and, more importantly, during the first months of 2003. To date, besides Sao Paulo, several others stats have also increased taxes [list of Brazilian states] just to mention some of them. In addition, our revenues [per liter] were also negatively affected by a shift toward [large returnable bottles], which as you are aware of have lower net sales [per liter] but higher profitability compared to [no returnable].

We adjusted price in October gave us some flexibility to manage dollar-linked variable costs in [Inaudible]. Although the [crude economic environment [Inaudible] with the appreciation of the local currency inflation due to [Inaudible] price alignment is close to 12% [slashing some of our cost]. Moreover, we simply witnessed several increases in taxes above our expectations, and also above inflation, not to mention the fact that the average exchange rate in the first quarter 2003 was over our internal target, negatively impacting profitability during that period. That said, in line with our strategy to pass on tax increases in inflation, keeping price in real terms stable to consumers, we are carefully analyzing the need for a price adjustment in order to compensate for this tax we are discussing about. It's important to highlight that any price change [Inaudible] micromanagement in order to avoid daily [Inaudible] on price to consumers, something that is not managed with a negative impact on margin [Inaudible] and market share.

Across the board, our pricing initiatives should not be expected. Based on experience we have gathered recently, price initiatives would also apply to regions, channels, packaging and brands. As I've been saying over the last months, apart from pricing, there's much more that we are doing to extract more value from our brands and distribution networks. Concerning distribution, and execution and point-of-sale, direct distribution for beer increased by almost 2% percentage points and accounted for 27.8% of our sales, in line with our strategy of improving execution, increasing efficiencies and gathering market intelligence. In line with our strategy to almost double the number of coolers in 2003 versus 2002, during the quarter we were able to place an additional 27,000 coolers in the marketplace, which should help us increase volume per outlet.

Various initiatives to improve revenue management continue to yield very favorable results. Bohemia and Kronenbier's performance remains strong. Bohemia's volumes are 11% higher than the year ago quarter, and Kronenbier's volume is 28% above the fourth quarter 2002, when the product was launched. In April, we had extended the launch of Skol beer for the whole country.

On another topic, as you know, an important part of our strategy is to extract more value from our traditional brand and improve overall per capita consumption. On that front, you well know that we have been successfully launching some of our brands and launching new ones, as it happened way back in 2001, then with Bohemia in June 2002 and Skol beer in October 2002 and there is more in the pipeline. Next month, we return with a dark version of Bohemia with volume than in 2002 and we also take advantage of the learning curve to enlarge [Inaudible], another one of our brands, a rare position in the super premium segment. In early 2003, we also launched our [Inaudible], aiming at the [Inaudible] beer kiosks in strategically located places and the response from consumers has been positive.

In a nutshell, despite the lower-than-expected volume growth in the quarter, we remain confident that we will reach our target, not only in 2003, but also our long-term target. Revenue management initiatives are yielding positive results, the super premium segment continues to grow, the opportunities that we map out to develop our per capita strategy are a [main asset] in distribution and in execution, is improvements on a daily basis.

I will now pass you over to Juan.

Thank you, Luiz, and good morning to all. This quarter, our soft drinks business continued to show the results of our efforts and our focus on improving profitability. We had EBITDA of R$36m 63% up from the first quarter of 2002. Our EBITDA margin achieved 12.6%, which compares favorably to 8.9% in the year ago quarter. This increase is primarily a result of our margin protection initiative, mainly price adjustment and revenue management. Our main competitor increased prices and we followed suit, raising our prices in January, along with a market-leader's portfolio. As said in the previous conference call [Inaudible] with our significantly improved capability to track competitive short- and medium-term pricing tactics we will follow-the-leader pricing strategy.

In this first quarter, our net sales per hectoliter grew by 21% and 5% as compared to the year ago quarter and last quarter respectively. As planned, our core portfolio, [Guarana] and Pepsi brands grew in volume by 7% for this quarter and grew in importance in our mix and are now representing 82% of our sales, compared to 75% last year.

Despite the positive performance of our higher-margin core [Guarana] and Pepsi brands portfolio, total volumes declined by 4%, also affected by lower-than-average temperatures in March, as mentioned by Luiz, but mostly due to the strong price realignments we planned and implemented for non-core brands throughout last year, and the increased focus on [Guarana] and Pepsi portfolio.

Once again, this quarter, I would like to highlight premium priced Pepsi Twist, which has achieved 1.6% market share as of March, as compared to 1.2% in December. In the cola segment, our Pepsi portfolio gained 2 percentage points compared to March last year, with Pepsi Twist volumes achieving 11.7% of the cola segment in Brazil.

I will now pass you on to Luis.

Thank you, Juan. Let me start talking about what happened to our cost of goods sold during the quarter. Total cash cost of goods sold, including depreciation, The Brazil operation increased by 18.4% to R$804m in the first quarter of 2003, versus R$679m in the year ago quarter, of 15% higher on a per hectoliter basis.

For me, the contributor to the increase in cash cost of goods sold was the impact of massive appreciation of the currency on dollar-linked variable costs, and to a lower extent some inflationary pressures. In appreciation of the currency had an impact on our cost of goods sold, as 34% of them are dollar-linked, such as malt, hops, sugar, [Inaudible]. These effects combined would have an impact on our cash cost of goods sold by R$191m, or R$201m if you factor in the fact that volume increases and mix shift year-over-year. However, the effective cash cost of goods sold increased by only [Inaudible] R$134.7m in absolute terms. This results from the fact that the company already started to capture the R$150m to R$200m in costs and expenses savings in real terms, that's counting appreciation of the currency and inflation projected for this year.

[Inaudible] during the first quarter 2003, the company was able to capture real cost savings of R$76m, which is the difference between the theoretical cost increase of R$201m and the real cash cost of goods sold increase of R$134.7m. This good performance was the result of a combination of factors that we discussed extensively in our press release. In addition, I would like to provide you with some numbers that illustrate what we have achieved. We reduced [lots of sugar in our cans] by 28% and 25% respectively, year-over-year. We increased line efficiencies by almost 8%. And overall labor turnover was reduced by 50% year-over-year.

There are several other initiatives that are yielding results as well, which should help us in achieving our targets. Although we achieved this strong performance during the first quarter, as I already mentioned by [Marcel], we are keeping our savings expectations for the year unchanged at this time. We remain committed to becoming the most efficient and the lowest cost producer brewer in the world, and we still see opportunities to grow through gap for the improving efficiencies.

Now let me pass you on to Felipe, who will discuss the savings we captured on the SG&A front, as well as address our hedging policy of dollar-linked variable costs.

Luis Felipe Pedreira Dutra Leite: Thank you, Mauricio. Good morning, everyone. Our consolidated EBITDA reached R$677m in the first quarter 2003, up 26% compared to pro forma EBITDA in the year ago quarter. Besides the initiatives on the revenue management front, explained previously and the variable costs front, our profitability also benefited from a decline in cash SG&A expenses of roughly R$64m, and an improvement in the performance of our international operations. Considering our commitment to reduce real costs and expenses by between R$150m to R$200m in 2003, versus 2002. On the SG&A front, we achieved real savings of roughly R$78m. This is a combination of recurring savings in SG&A of R$37.5 in the first quarter 2003 versus the previous quarter, and a 15% inflation in the period. In this amount, we are already excluding savings of R$27m that occurred during the quarter but that we expect to include going forward. For instance, expenses with promotions in supermarkets that were postponed due to lower-than-expected volumes in the first quarter 2003, should be undertaken. The reasons for the decline in SG&A are extensively detailed in our press release and I just want to reinforce again that we were already expecting the decline in SG&A to be concentrated in the first semester of 2003.

Direct distribution costs in Brazil increased to R$131m from R$112m in the year ago quarter as a percentage of direct sales in Brazil increased from 32.4% to 33%. On per hectoliter basis, direct distribution increased 15% to R$21.6 from R$18.8 in the first quarter of last year, and this increase is primarily the result of higher freight costs and higher direct sales volumes to bars and restaurants, which represent a higher distribution cost per hectoliter, relative to direct distribution to supermarkets.

As it has been over the last quarters, our financial results this quarter were once again driven by a mismatch in the way our assets and liabilities are measured. Please recall that, according to Brazilian GAAP, while financial losses are marked to market, our liabilities are registered at cost. When we recorded our results for the first quarter 2002, the [Inaudible] had increased sharply from about 12-27% and we registered a financial loss close to R$730m. At that time, I mentioned that as we had and still have the intention to carry all financial losses to maturity, the losses registered during that period should be reversed over time. This started to happen in the fourth quarter 2002 and also seen in this first quarter 2003.

The first quarter 2003, given that the US dollar triple rate decreased from about 22% to approximately 14%, the positive effect of marking [debts secured] to market amounted to roughly R$350m. Our debt continues to be fully hedged, and as you are all aware, on January 31, we paid down approximately $400m as a result of the closing of the [Inaudible] transaction and, therefore, our net debt increased relatively to fourth quarter 2002.

Nevertheless, we remain with a very solid [press] profile, as we accumulated cash during 2002, are already preparing for the closing of the transaction with [Inaudible].

One final comment regarding our income statement, we reported a tax charge of R$250m approximately in the quarter, which is in line with the tax charge we would have booked considering the statutory tax rate of 34%. This increase in taxation results from our operating results and the financial gain.

Finally, we are confident that, given the recent appreciation of the currency, you will ask us about our hedging policy of dollar-linked variable costs. In line with what we were telling investors since early 2003, as a the currency approaches R$3.2 per dollar, we gradually started to enter into hedging agreements, using futures contracts. Let's be very clear, we started to hedge our exposure around that level and we continued as the currency was appreciating until our total exposure for the remainder of the year was hedged. Based on our strategy, we locked in an average, but not linear, exchange rate of R$3.34 per dollar for 2003. This average exchange rate takes into consideration that we were not hedged at all during the first quarter of 2003 when the average FX rate was at R$3.49.

Now we can move on to the Q&A section, Operator.

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you do have a question, please press the numbers 1, followed by 4 on your touchtone telephone at this time. Again, if you do have a question, please press the numbers 1, followed by 4 on your touchtone telephone at this time. Please hold for questions. Our first question comes from Alex Lombard (ph).

Hi. Good morning. Just a few questions here really on the costs, which are interesting. Can you tell us a little bit what would make you get more comfortable about saving more this year. I mean, clearly, you have R$50m left, three more quarters, is there a reason why you're particularly being a little bit, you know, hesitant to talk about moving that number up?

At this point, we'd like to keep this commitment where we're headed toward R$150m to R$200m. Don't forget that, as Felipe already mentioned and Marcel too, we're expecting most of savings will occur in the first half of this year. Since, as you all know, most of the savings we captured last year occurred also from productivity and SG&A occurred in the second half of 2002. So, this first quarter, I wouldn't say it's an easy comp, but it's an easier comp than the second half will be. That's why we're keeping the commitment at the level we have right now.

Could you, kind of, tell us a little bit then where would the remaining R$50m come from? Is it more on SG&A or more on the costs?

It's more on the variable costs side. As we presented on the [Inaudible] in March, we do see some opportunities in terms of some main items on the variable cost portion. It's depending in terms of negotiation for this year. We are kind of optimistic that we can get there on the variable cost side.

And the absolute impact, Carlos, on the costs that you talked about-- You gave us some percentages. But was the real issue in the first quarter from savings in [cans] on an absolute basis?

Yes. That came also from cans, where again when [lap] this quarter over a year ago quarter, we had already had locked in with that negotiation with the supplier in the second half of last year, which is showing up now, when you compare the first quarter with the first quarter. And we're still working on another arrangement for this year.

And just to understand-- You say that the lock-in here at R$3.34 is not linear for the [inaudible], while at the same time, it sounded like you were starting to bind these contracts at R$3.2. If it's not linear, what would be, kind of, let's say, the rate that you had then for the big fourth quarter? Could you give us some color on that?

Luis Felipe Pedreira Dutra Leite: We incurred those R$3.49 per dollar for the first half. First quarter sorry. Then we started at R$3.2. As I said, but you should apply the interest rate on top of that. That means, at R$3.2 you would get, let's say, R$3.5 FX rate for December. At R$2.9 you would get a R$3.2 FX rate for December. The numbers that we mentioned that we were able to lock the variable cost for the year, the R$3.34 is the average of this whole thing. I mean, benefiting from, let's say, a R$3 FX rate for the second quarter roughly, and adding on top of that the interest rate as we use the forward agreements to hedge all of these exposures.

And you had said in March that your average exchange that you were using for your budget this year was about R$3.3. Is that still something that you're sticking with, Felipe, on that?

Luis Felipe Pedreira Dutra Leite: R$3.4.

That's good. And just a clarification on the volume number for beer. You mentioned 2 to 3 was the goal for Brazil beer. Is that industry, or is that what you feel you can achieve?

No, it's sale volumes.

It's yours. Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Alex.

Once again, the floor is open for questions. If you do have a question, please press the numbers 1, followed by 4 on your touchtone telephone at this time. Our next question comes from Carlos Laboy (ph).

Yes, good morning. What kind of metrics can you share with us to highlight how the third-party distribution network is doing, in terms of execution, versus direct distribution? And also on the soft drinks side, I don't know if you can talk about what your plans might be for new products, or on how some of the products you launched last year are doing beyond the new Pepsi product.

If I'm correct, your question is about new products. We have a very good experience with [inaudible]. We're learning how to do new products and innovations. We've got a pipeline of new products in development. Now, we will take our time because, as proven by Bohemia and Skol beer, they're both successful. We decided to apply all of the marketing technology that we developed for beer to soft drinks. So, we're going a little bit slowly there, but by 2004 -- we already mentioned that in the -- what we will do this year is fully develop what we introduced last year. That's basically Twist and Gatorade, a long way to go on those two brands.

Hi Carlos this is Luiz. It's a really good question how we can compare direct distribution with third-party distributors' procedures, and the market. Since we have to do that when we name the multi-brand distributors. I mean, you know we are trying to concentrate distribution in multi-brand distributors and direct distribution. So, in the future, we won't have these mono-brand distributors. So, we compare them, in terms of execution, using the [Inaudible] that can give us enough information, in terms of market execution, and in terms of management capacity of these distributors. So, it's basically the tool that we use to compare the execution with direct distribution execution. Where we have exactly the same program, basically in the market execution. Okay?

Thank you.

Once again, the floor is open for questions. If you do have a question, please press 1, followed by 4 on your telephone at this time. Our next question comes from Gustavo Hungria (ph).

Good morning, everyone. I would just like to [inaudible] question on [financial] volumes. As you said in March, is not a very good month and you had an actual decline [in operations] last year. I just wanted to know if you already see that as a [Inaudible] and may see recovering volumes, if you have any expectations for the second quarter?

February was a very good month for us, compared not only to last year but to 2001 and 2000. But I think it's too early to give you a number for the second quarter. So, we believe it's going to be good. We're doing that well. And if the weather helps us this time, we're sure we can have some good numbers.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Pablo Sueneg (ph).

Good morning, everyone. Just a couple of questions. It's the first time in this press release that Skol is more profitable than the other core brands, like Guarana Antarctica. Can you just give us some color, in terms of what the difference is-- I mean, if I take Guarana and Antarctica and give it 100, where would Skol be relative to Bohemia? If you can explain on that, then I have a couple of follow-up questions.

Pable this is Marcel. We would like to speak to the numbers we gave you in the [Inaudible] business. These are the basic numbers. I would not like to give very, very precise numbers right now, because this is still part of our pricing strategy in the marketplace. You will remember that [Inaudible] we gave you the relative numbers [Inaudible], and again I say roughly, you have Antarctica 100, [Broma] at 125, Skol 140 and you could go to Bohemia, and that's basically 200. This is to contribution margin, though. So, I wouldn't like to give very much in prices because this is a competitive thing in the marketplace.

Right. That's fine. Thank you, Marcel. Just a follow-up, Felipe spoke about the excise taxes were [R$3] per hectoliter. Is that still valid, or is it a higher number? I'm just trying to quantify how much you have to increase prices to cover the excise tax.

From the increases we see, 6 December last year, the full impact was reflected was on this [R$3] per hectoliter basis.

Okay, so that hasn't changed. I mean, that's it. It's not any worse than that?

No.

And just one last question. When I look at one of your footnotes, in terms of what was agreed at the shareholders' meeting, the way I interpret one of the footnotes is that a number of issued shares, as part of the stock options, have increased by 6.8% to total of outstanding shares. Is that correct or not? If I take the number of issues shares, the [Inaudible] plan, and I add to total outstanding shares, I get a number of 6.8%. I thought that the negotiation was that for the year it would be no more than 2%.

Luis Felipe Pedreira Dutra Leite: I don't have this specific number in my mind, Pablo. We will double-check and give you an answer. But you should take into account that the options granted on a [Inaudible] basis right now cannot be higher than 1%. And that might be the case in one specific year, as 2003 for instance. People who did not exercise their right to acquire shares in the past, they may be buying now. That said, we may have a capital increase higher than this 1% of the free float, despite the fact that on a yearly basis, the options being granted cannot be higher than 1%.

But we stick to our point of not increasing the stock options program, actually the stock ownership program, by more than 1% of total capital per year.

Okay. Thanks Marcel. That's good.

Once again, if there are any final questions at this time, please press the numbers 1, followed by 4 on your touchtone phone. Our next question comes from Jose Jorda (ph).

Hi. Good morning. I had a question about margins in the soft drink business. I was somehow expecting the Gatorade and alcoholic drinks that were added this year to have a much greater margin than the rest of the business, or the business as it was reported last year. Can you comment on why margins are basically the same between those two divisions of soft drinks and where you see margins going for the non-alcoholic, non-carbonated businesses going forward? Was there anything unusual there? Or should we expect that to be the case always?

No, Jose. Let me comment on that. There was nothing unusual, except that obviously we will gradually improve our disclosure on the], what we call non-alcoholic, non-carbs. That is a mixture of a lot of things: very low (practically no-margin) waters, to high-margin Gatorade. So, it is a combination of margins and volumes. You can expect Gatorade, it is significantly above soft drink [intake]. In [Inaudible], water is significantly below soft drinks for [visibility]. So, as the quotas go on, we [Inaudible], nothing to worry yourself about. If you take water out the accounts, we've got much better margins [Inaudible].

If I can ask it this way; Do you expect water to grow faster than Gatorade or vice versa, in terms of volume?

Vice versa.

Okay. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Alex Lombard (ph).

Right. Just two quick follow-ups. The news that we're hearing is that [Inaudible] is looking for a partner domestically, in terms of taking an equity stake. Would there be any reason, vis-à-vis the [Kade] agreement as such with Antarctica that you could not potentially partner or take a stake in that domestic brewer? That's the first one. The second one is just give us kind of a sense of when do you think Guatemala and Peru will start coming on line, just in terms of production? I know it's kind of longer term, but if you could give us some kind of update there.

Okay, in terms of [Inaudible] in Brazil, I don't feel that we would be allowed to acquire any equity participation or any brands over what we have. So, it's basically-- The battle is working with what we have in our hands.

Guatemala, we are expecting to begin production in the fourth quarter of this year. [Inaudible].

Thank you.

Once again, if there are any remaining questions, please press 1 followed by 4 on your telephone at this time. Our next question comes from Robert Worthheimer (ph).

Hi. Good morning. Perhaps you've already addressed my question, but I just wanted to check in on soft drink profitability. It was pretty solid this quarter. I wanted to see if you had any sense of what kind of profitability could be obtained for the year and beyond.

We didn't give much guidance on that, but I expect that we will-- I can tell you that we expect to do better than last year. And like we said in the conference call, we expect to grow faster than the year in profitability.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Manuel Ramos (ph).

Hi. Good morning. Just two quick questions. One, what was your cash taxes payment during the first quarter? Two, what is your CAPEX budget for the year?

Luis Felipe Pedreira Dutra Leite: The CAPEX we are expecting for 2003 is roughly R$800m, including direct distribution investment, the replacement of bottles and crates, investments in cooler programs, [Inaudible], maintenance and some productivity projects we have in place in order to capture the savings on the SG&A front.

The first question, which was the cash taxes paid during this quarter, I prefer to double-check the number and give you feedback later on that.

Okay. Thank you.

At this time, I would now like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Marcel Telles (ph).

Once again, I would like to apologize for not having better coordination on the results of [Inaudible]. From now on, we'll try to do it in the same day. So, I think that most of the questions will be more correctly answered regarding the two companies.

Again, we like [Inaudible]. We think there are still opportunities ahead. So, we look forward to getting better and better news in the next quarters. Bye.

Thank you. This does conclude today's presentation. Please disconnect your lines. And have a wonderful day.