Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BUD) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to Anheuser-Busch InBev's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. Hosting the call today from AB InBev are Mr. Michel Doukeris, Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Fernando Tennenbaum, Chief Financial Officer.

歡迎參加百威英博 2023 年第三季財報電話會議和網路廣播。今天主持百威英博電話會議的是執行長 Michel Doukeris 先生；以及財務長 Fernando Tennenbaum 先生。

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. (Operator Instructions)

要存取今天電話會議附帶的幻燈片，請訪問百威英博網站 www.ab-inbev.com，然後點擊「投資者」標籤以及「報告和結果中心」頁面。今天的網路廣播將於今天稍晚提供點播播放。 （操作員說明）

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.

電話會議期間提供的一些資訊可能包含未來預期的陳述和其他前瞻性陳述。這些預期是基於管理階層目前的觀點和假設，涉及已知和未知的風險和不確定性。百威英博的實際業績和財務狀況可能與這些前瞻性陳述中指出的預期業績和財務狀況有重大差異。

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 the 17th of March 2023. 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.

有關可能影響百威英博未來業績的一些風險和重要因素的討論，請參閱該公司於 2023 年 3 月 17 日向美國證券交易委員會提交的最新 20-F 表格年度報告中的風險因素。百威英博假設沒有義務更新或修改電話會議期間提供的任何前瞻性信息，也不對依賴此類資訊採取的任何行動承擔責任。

It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Mr. Michel Doukeris. Sir, you may begin.

現在我很高興請米歇爾·杜克里斯先生發言。先生，您可以開始了。

Thank you, Jessie, and welcome, everyone, to our third quarter 2023 earnings call. It is a great pleasure to be speaking with you all today. Just a heads up, I'm slightly under the weather and I'm taking the call remotely. Apologies in advance if my voice is a little raspy.

謝謝 Jessie，歡迎大家參加我們的 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。今天很高興與大家交談。請注意，我有點不舒服，正在遠端接聽電話。如果我的聲音有點沙啞，請先道歉。

Today, Fernando and I will take you through our third quarter operating highlights and provide you with an update on the progress we've made in executing our strategic priorities. After that, we will be happy to answer your questions.

今天，費爾南多和我將向您介紹我們第三季度的營運亮點，並向您介紹我們在執行策略重點方面取得的最新進展。之後，我們將很樂意回答您的問題。

Let's start with our operating performance. Our global momentum continued this quarter, although was partially offset by the performance of our U.S. business. We delivered revenue growth of 5%, with our net revenue per hectoliter increasing by 9% as a result of pricing actions, ongoing premiumization and other revenue management initiatives. Total volumes declined by 3.4% as growth in our Middle Americas, Africa and APAC regions was primarily offset by performance in the U.S. and a soft industry in Europe.

讓我們從我們的經營業績開始。本季我們的全球勢頭仍在繼續，儘管美國業務的業績部分抵消了這一勢頭。由於定價行動、持續的高端化和其他收入管理舉措，我們的收入成長了 5%，每百升淨收入成長了 9%。總銷量下降了 3.4%，因為我們中美洲、非洲和亞太地區的成長主要被美國的表現和歐洲的軟工業所抵消。

EBITDA increased by 4.1% and reached USD 5.4 billion. Underlying EPS was USD 0.86, a $0.02 per share increase versus last year. In line with our capital allocation priorities, we have announced a USD 3 billion bond tender, and we have also announced today that we will be proceeding with a USD 1 billion share buyback program to be executed within the next 12 months. Fernando will provide some additional details on this capital allocation choices later in the presentation.

EBITDA 成長 4.1%，達到 54 億美元。基本每股收益為 0.86 美元，比去年增加了 0.02 美元。根據我們的資本配置優先事項，我們宣布進行 30 億美元的債券招標，今天我們也宣布將在未來 12 個月內實施 10 億美元的股票回購計畫。費爾南多將在稍後的演示中提供有關此資本配置選擇的一些其他詳細資訊。

While the operating environment remains dynamic in some of our markets, the strength of our global footprint, brand portfolio and our continued focus on disciplined resource allocation, are enabling us to invest for the long term while delivering efficient, profitable growth. We delivered broad-based growth this quarter with both top and bottom line increases in 4 of our 5 operating regions and with revenue growth of more than 80% of our markets. Our scale and diverse geographic footprint with leading positions in the largest profit and growth pools has us well placed to deliver superior long-term value creation.

雖然我們的部分市場的營運環境仍然充滿活力，但我們的全球足跡、品牌組合的實力以及我們對嚴格資源配置的持續關注，使我們能夠進行長期投資，同時實現高效、盈利的成長。本季度我們實現了廣泛的成長，5 個營運區域中的 4 個區域的收入和利潤均實現成長，並且我們市場的收入成長了 80% 以上。我們的規模和多元化的地理足跡以及在最大的利潤和成長池中的領先地位使我們有能力創造卓越的長期價值。

Now I will take a few minutes to walk you through the operational highlights for the quarter from our key regions, starting with North America. In the U.S., the beer industry remained resilient, delivering revenue growth of 3.3% this quarter and with beer gaining share of value of total alcohol in the off-premise. Our revenues declined by 13.5% and STR volumes by 16.6%, primarily due to volume decline of Bud Light and impacted by shipment phasing ahead of our October price increase last year.

現在，我將花幾分鐘時間向您介紹本季我們主要地區的營運亮點，從北美開始。在美國，啤酒產業保持彈性，本季營收成長 3.3%，啤酒在場外總酒精價值中所佔份額不斷增加。我們的收入下降了 13.5%，STR 銷量下降了 16.6%，這主要是由於百威淡啤酒銷量下降以及去年 10 月提價之前分階段發貨的影響。

With respect to Bud Light's brand performance, we have actively engaged with over 260,000 consumers since April, and the common points of feedback remain consistent. One, consumers continue to want the Bud Light brand to concentrate on the platforms that all consumers love, and we are doing just that through investing in partnerships with the NFL, Folds of Honor, news platforms, college football and our recently announced return to partnering with the UFC. Two, they want Bud Light to focus on beer. The Bud Light is to summer is to Sunday campaigns are all about bringing people together over a beer for the moments that matter. Notably, a recent survey found that over 40% of lapsed Bud Light drinkers said that they are now more open to come back to drinking Bud Light. Third, they want their beer without a debate. We are taking the feedback and working hard to widen our consumers' business every day across the world.

關於百威淡啤酒的品牌表現，自4月以來，我們已與超過26萬名消費者積極互動，回饋的共同點保持一致。第一，消費者仍然希望百威淡啤酒品牌專注於所有消費者喜愛的平台，而我們正是透過投資與NFL、Folds of Honor、新聞平台、大學橄欖球以及我們最近宣布恢復合作夥伴關係來做到這一點與UFC。第二，他們希望百威淡啤酒專注於啤酒。百威淡啤酒 (Bud Light) 之夏日就是周日 (Bud Light is to Summer is to Sunday) 活動旨在讓人們在重要的時刻聚在一起喝一杯啤酒。值得注意的是，最近的一項調查發現，超過 40% 的已停止飲用百威淡啤酒的人表示，他們現在更願意重新飲用百威淡啤酒。第三，他們想要毫無爭議地喝啤酒。我們每天都在聽取回饋並努力擴大我們的消費者業務。

While our total beer industry share declined by 515 bps this quarter to 36.6%, it has been stable since the last week of April through mid-October. U.S. EBITDA declined by 29.3% this quarter. Similar to last quarter, approximately 2/3 of the decline was driven by market share performance and 1/3 driven by productivity loss and the strategic choices we made to increase sales and market investments in our brands and provide support to our wholesaler partners. As we move forward in the U.S., we are focused on what we do best, brewing great quality beer, actively engaging for consumers, supporting our partners and positively impacting the commitments that we serve.

雖然我們的啤酒產業總份額本季下降了 515 個基點至 36.6%，但自 4 月最後一周到 10 月中旬一直保持穩定。本季美國 EBITDA 下降 29.3%。與上季度類似，大約2/3 的下降是由市場份額表現造成的，1/3 是由生產力損失以及我們為增加品牌的銷售和市場投資以及為批發商合作夥伴提供支持而做出的戰略選擇造成的。當我們在美國前進時，我們專注於我們最擅長的事情，釀造優質啤酒，積極與消費者互動，支持我們的合作夥伴並積極影響我們所服務的承諾。

Now moving on to our largest region, Middle Americas, which delivered margin expansion and another quarter of growth. In Mexico, we delivered mid-single-digit top and bottom line growth. Our above core portfolio continued to outperform, led by the strong performance of Modelo Especial and Pacifico. We continue to progress on our digital initiatives with our Vendo platform in BEES now enabling digital utility payments and mobile data purchases in more than 9,000 (sic) [90,000] points of sale and generating over 170,000 transactions in the third quarter.

現在轉向我們最大的地區——中美洲，該地區實現了利潤率擴張和另一個季度的成長。在墨西哥，我們實現了中個位數的頂線和底線成長。在 Modelo Especial 和 Pacifico 的強勁表​​現的帶動下，我們的上述核心投資組合繼續跑贏大盤。我們繼續推動數位化舉措，BEES 中的 Vendo 平台現已在超過 9,000 個（原文如此）[90,000] 個銷售點實現數位公用事業支付和行動數據購買，並在第三季度產生了超過 170,000 筆交易。

As we highlighted at our recent Capital Markets Day, Mexico is an example of the performance that can be delivered with effective execution across all three pillars of our strategy and implementation of our replicable tool kits. In Colombia, our business delivered double-digit top and bottom line growth. Our core portfolio led our performance this quarter with a particularly strong performance from Poker, which grew volumes by high single digits.

正如我們在最近的資本市場日所強調的那樣，墨西哥是透過有效執行我們策略的所有三大支柱和實施可複製工具包來實現業績的一個例子。在哥倫比亞，我們的業務實現了兩位數的收入和利潤成長。我們的核心投資組合引領了本季的表現，其中撲克表現尤其強勁，其銷量成長了高個位數。

In South America, our business in Brazil delivered mid-single-digit top line and double-digit bottom line growth with margin expansion of 628 basis points. Our beer volumes declined by 1.1% as they cycled all-time high quarterly volumes in third quarter 2022. Our premium and super premium brands led our performance, delivering a volume increase in the low teens.

在南美洲，我們在巴西的業務實現了中個位數的營收成長和兩位數的淨利潤成長，利潤率擴大了 628 個基點。我們的啤酒銷量下降了 1.1%，因為它們在 2022 年第三季度創下了歷史最高的季度銷量。我們的高端和超高端品牌引領了我們的業績，銷量增長了十幾位數。

Now let's talk about EMEA. In Europe, we grew top and bottom line by low single digits. Volumes declined by high single digits, outperforming a soft industry in more than 80% of our key markets according to our estimates. We continue to drive premiumization across Europe. Our premium and super premium brands delivered mid-single-digit revenue growth this quarter, led by Leffe and Stella Artois.

現在我們來談談歐洲、中東和非洲地區。在歐洲，我們的營收和利潤均實現低個位數成長。根據我們的估計，銷量下降了高個位數，超過 80% 的主要市場的表現優於軟產業。我們繼續推動整個歐洲的高端化。在 Leffe 和 Stella Artois 的帶動下，我們的高端和超高端品牌本季實現了中個位數的營收成長。

In South Africa, we delivered double-digit top line growth with our portfolio continue to gain both share of beer and total alcohol. EBITDA grew by mid-single digits as top line growth was partially offset by anticipated transactional effects and commodity headwinds. Our core portfolio continued to outperform, delivering high single-digit volume growth. And our global brands, led by Corona, grew volumes by more than 35%.

在南非，我們的收入實現了兩位數的成長，我們的產品組合繼續增加啤酒和全酒精的份額。 EBITDA 成長了中個位數，因為營收成長被預期的交易影響和大宗商品不利因素部分抵消。我們的核心投資組合持續表現出色，實現了高個位數的銷售成長。以 Corona 為首的我們的全球品牌銷售量成長了 35% 以上。

And finally, APAC. In China, our business delivered high single-digit top and bottom line growth, driven by continued premiumization and on-premise recovery across our key regions. Our premium and super premium brands continued to outperform, growing volumes by more than 10%. The rollout and adoption of BEES platform continued, with BEES now present in over 230 cities and over 65% of our revenue generated through digital channels in September.

最後是亞太地區。在中國，在關鍵地區持續高端化和本地復甦的推動下，我們的業務實現了個位數的營收和利潤成長。我們的高端和超高端品牌持續表現出色，銷量成長超過 10%。 BEES 平台的推出和採用仍在繼續，BEES 目前已覆蓋 230 多個城市，9 月超過 65% 的收入是透過數位管道產生的。

Now let's move on to our strategic pillars. Let's start with pillar 1 of our strategy, lead and grow the category. We continue to execute on our 5 levers to drive category expansion and deliver another quarter of profitable top line growth. We are leading and growing the category by offering superior core propositions, developing new consumption occasions and expanding our premium and beyond beer portfolios. As we shared at our recent Capital Markets Day, premiumization is one of our biggest growth opportunities. Corona, Budweiser and Stella Artois have all been intentionally built to address one of the key consumption occasions for premium beer. And with the elevation of Michelob ULTRA as our fourth global brand, our focused portfolio is well positioned across all demand landscapes to lead the premiumization of the beer category. And our global brands are continuing to lead our growth. The combined revenues of Corona, Budweiser, Stella Artois and Michelob ULTRA grew by 15.1% this quarter, outside of the brand's home markets.

現在讓我們繼續討論我們的策略支柱。讓我們從策略的第一支柱開始，領導並發展該類別。我們持續利用 5 個槓桿來推動品類擴張，並實現另一個季度的獲利頂線成長。我們透過提供卓越的核心主張、開發新的消費場合以及擴大我們的優質啤酒和其他啤酒產品組合來引領和發展該類別。正如我們在最近的資本市場日分享的那樣，高端化是我們最大的成長機會之一。科羅娜 (Corona)、百威 (Budweiser) 和時代啤酒 (Stella Artois) 都是專門為滿足優質啤酒的主要消費場合之一而打造的。隨著 Michelob ULTRA 成為我們的第四個全球品牌，我們的重點產品組合在所有需求領域都處於有利位置，引領啤酒類別的高端化。我們的全球品牌持續引領我們的成長。 Corona、Budweiser、Stella Artois 和 Michelob ULTRA 本季在品牌本土市場之外的總營收成長了 15.1%。

Now let's turn to our second strategic pillar, digitize and monetize our ecosystem. This continue to accelerate usage and reach, capturing USD 10.4 billion in gross merchandising value this quarter, a 27% increase year-over-year and reaching 3.4 million monthly active users. Customer satisfaction continued to improve with our weighted average Net Promoter Score improving to plus 60, up 7 points since last year. In 15 of the 25 markets where BEES is live, our customers are also able to purchase third-party products through BEES marketplace. Customer adoption is increasing with 65% of BEES customers now also BEES marketplace buyers. In the third quarter, BEES marketplace generated approximately USD 420 million in GMV, representing approximately USD 1.7 billion on an annualized basis.

現在讓我們轉向我們的第二個策略支柱，即我們的生態系統的數位化和貨幣化。這繼續加速使用和覆蓋範圍，本季的商品銷售總額達到 104 億美元，年增 27%，每月活躍用戶達到 340 萬。客戶滿意度持續提高，我們的加權平均淨推薦值提高到 60 分，比去年提高了 7 分。在 BEES 上線的 25 個市場中的 15 個市場中，我們的客戶也可以透過 BEES 市場購買第三方產品。客戶採用率不斷提高，65% 的 BEES 客戶現在也是 BEES 市場買家。第三季度，BEES 市場的 GMV 約為 4.2 億美元，以年化計算約為 17 億美元。

Now let's talk about how we are strengthening our direct relationship with our consumers. Our D2C mega brand, Zé Delivery, TaDa and PerfectDraft are now available in 21 markets, generating over 16.9 million orders and USD 125 million in revenue this quarter. We continue to leverage our digital DTC products to generate meaningful consumer insights and drive category growth by developing occasions. For example, across Latin America, Zé Delivery and TaDa are enabling increasing in-home consumption of returnable glass bottle packs that increase availability and solve consumers' pain point of carrying this bulk products to and from their homes.

現在讓我們來談談我們如何加強與消費者的直接關係。我們的 D2C 大型品牌 Zé Delivery、TaDa 和 PerfectDraft 現已在 21 個市場推出，本季產生了超過 1,690 萬份訂單和 1.25 億美元的收入。我們繼續利用我們的數位 DTC 產品來產生有意義的消費者洞察，並透過開發場合來推動品類成長。例如，在整個拉丁美洲，Zé Delivery 和 TaDa 正在推動可回收玻璃瓶包裝的家庭消費不斷增加，從而提高可用性並解決消費者攜帶這種散裝產品進出家中的痛點。

With that, I would like to hand it over to Fernando to discuss the third pillar of our strategy, optimize our business. Fernando, over to you.

說到這裡，我想把它交給費爾南多來討論我們策略的第三個支柱，優化我們的業務。費爾南多，交給你了。

Thank you, Michel. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. We aim to maximize value by focusing on three areas: optimized resource allocation, robust risk management and efficient capital structure. First, let me share with you a few sustainability highlights as sustainability is key to both risk management and optimizing resource allocation. It allows us to ensure supply security, manage our costs and protect our license to operate and grow for the next 100-plus years. Here are a few examples of local initiatives with the potential to scale globally that are driving progress on our 2025 sustainability priorities.

謝謝你，米歇爾。大家早安，下午好。我們的目標是透過專注於三個領域來實現價值最大化：優化資源配置、穩健的風險管理和高效的資本結構。首先，讓我與您分享一些永續發展的亮點，因為永續發展是風險管理和優化資源配置的關鍵。它使我們能夠確保供應安全、管理成本並保護我們在未來 100 多年中運作和發展的許可證。以下是一些有潛力在全球範圍內推廣的當地舉措的示例，這些舉措正在推動我們 2025 年可持續發展優先事項的進展。

In Climate Action, to support our Scope 3 efforts, we organized supplier collaboration and training events across our key markets, including Mexico, Colombia and China. In Smart Agriculture, we hosted more than 200 farmers at our annual U.S. grower day to share results from barley variety and crop management research trials. In Water Stewardship, we launched a partnership with WaterAid in Ghana for a solar-powered water system to deliver clean, safe water to communities in need. For Circular Packaging, we scaled our program in Mexico to recover bottles, destined for landfill, recovering more than 145 million bottles during the third quarter. All of these initiatives serve to optimize our business over the long term.

在氣候行動中，為了支持我們的範圍 3 工作，我們在墨西哥、哥倫比亞和中國等主要市場組織了供應商合作和培訓活動。在智慧農業方面，我們在一年一度的美國種植者日招待了 200 多名農民，分享大麥品種和作物管理研究試驗的結果。在水資源管理方面，我們與加納的水援助組織建立了太陽能供水系統合作夥伴關係，為有需要的社區提供乾淨、安全的水。對於循環包裝，我們擴大了在墨西哥的計劃，以回收運往垃圾掩埋場的瓶子，第三季回收了超過 1.45 億個瓶子。所有這些舉措都有助於長期優化我們的業務。

With respect to capital allocation, we are focused on maximizing long-term value creation by dynamically balancing our priorities. We continue to invest in organic growth to support our strategy to lead and grow the category and digitize and monetize our ecosystem. The excess cash generated by our business is that's dynamically allocated to our three capital allocation priorities: deleveraging, selective M&A and return of capital to shareholders.

在資本配置方面，我們專注於透過動態平衡我們的優先事項來最大化長期價值創造。我們繼續投資於有機成長，以支持我們領導和發展該類別以及數位化和貨幣化我們的生態系統的策略。我們業務產生的多餘現金被動態分配到我們的三個資本配置優先事項：去槓桿化、選擇性併購和向股東返還資本。

As you can see on the next slide, 2x net debt to EBITDA remains the point at which we maximize value, though approximately 90% of the benefits from deleveraging can be captured as we approach 3x. Our debt maturity profile remains well distributed with no bond maturities in 2023 and no relevant medium-term refinancing needs. If you look at our debt maturity profile, we have USD 3 billion worth of bonds maturing through 2025. Our bond portfolio has an average pretax coupon of around 4% and a weighted average maturity of 14 years. In addition, our debt portfolio does not have any financial covenants and is comprised of a variety of currencies diversifying our FX risk. 97% of our bonds have a fixed rate insulated from interest rate volatility and inflation.

正如您在下一張投影片中看到的，2 倍的 EBITDA 淨債務仍然是我們實現價值最大化的點，儘管當我們接近 3 倍時，可以捕捉約 90% 的去槓桿化收益。我們的債務到期狀況仍然分佈良好，2023 年沒有債券到期，也沒有相關的中期再融資需求。如果您查看我們的債務到期情況，您會發現我們有價值30 億美元的債券將於2025 年到期。我們的債券投資組合的平均稅前息票約為4%，加權平均期限為14 年。此外，我們的債務投資組合沒有任何財務契約，由多種貨幣組成，分散了我們的外匯風險。我們 97% 的債券採用固定利率，不受利率波動和通貨膨脹的影響。

As part of our value-creating agenda, we have announced two capital allocation initiatives. First, to further reduce our debt quantum and progress on our deleveraging path, we have announced a USD 3 billion cash tender offer for certain outstanding bonds. Second, we announced today that we will be proceeding with a USD 1 billion share buyback program to be executed within the next 12 months. We will continue to dynamically balance our capital allocation priorities to maximize value creation. And as we move towards 3x net debt to EBITDA, we believe there will be continued flexibility.

作為我們價值創造議程的一部分，我們宣布了兩項資本配置計劃。首先，為了進一步減少債務規模和推動去槓桿化進程，我們宣布對某些未償債券進行30億美元現金要約收購。其次，我們今天宣布，我們將在未來 12 個月內實施 10 億美元的股票回購計畫。我們將繼續動態平衡我們的資本配置優先事項，以最大限度地創造價值。隨著我們的淨債務達到 EBITDA 的 3 倍，我們相信將會繼續保持彈性。

And now let me take you through the drivers of our underlying EPS this quarter. We delivered EPS of USD 0.86 per share versus USD 0.84 per share last year. Organic EBITDA growth, accounting for $0.11 per share, was partially offset by translational effects and higher noncontrolling interest. Optimizing our net finance costs accounted for a $0.05 per share increase.

現在讓我帶您了解本季基本每股盈餘的驅動因素。我們的每股收益為 0.86 美元，而去年為每股 0.84 美元。有機 EBITDA 成長為每股 0.11 美元，但部分被轉換效應和較高的非控制權益所抵消。優化我們的淨財務成本使每股增加了 0.05 美元。

With that, I would like to hand it back to Michel for some final comments before we start our Q&A session. Michel?

因此，在我們開始問答環節之前，我想將其交還給米歇爾以徵求一些最終意見。米歇爾？

Thanks, Fernando. Before opening for Q&A, I would like to take a moment to recap my key takeaways for the quarter. While the operating environment remains dynamic in some of our key markets, we continue to make progress in executing across each of our three strategic pillars. Our business momentum continued this quarter with both top and bottom line growth in four of our five operating regions. Driven by the strength of our mega brands, we grew revenue in approximately 80% of our markets. We made important strategic choices in pricing and other revenue management initiatives, which drove continued strong net revenue per hectoliter growth of 9%. We progressed our digital transformation, generating USD 10.4 billion of GMV through BEES, with 65% of BEES customers now also BEES marketplace buyers, delivering an annualized GMV of approximately USD 1.7 billion. EBITDA grew organically by 4.1%, as disciplined overhead management mostly offset the elevated cost environment.

謝謝，費爾南多。在開始問答之前，我想花點時間回顧本季的主要要點。儘管我們一些主要市場的營運環境仍然充滿活力，但我們在執行三大策略支柱方面繼續取得進展。本季我們的業務動能持續保持，五個營運區域中的四個區域的收入和利潤均實現成長。在大型品牌實力的推動下，我們約 80% 的市場收入實現了成長。我們在定價和其他收入管理措施方面做出了重要的策略選擇，這推動了每百升淨收入持續強勁成長 9%。我們推動數位轉型，透過 BEES 創造了 104 億美元的 GMV，其中 65% 的 BEES 客戶現在也是 BEES 市場買家，年化 GMV 約為 17 億美元。 EBITDA 有機成長 4.1%，嚴格的管理費用管理在很大程度上抵消了成本上升的影響。

With respect to capital allocation, we have announced two important decisions, with the launch of a USD 3 billion bond tender and USD 1 billion share buyback. We know each quarter will be different and have tailwinds and headwinds. But as we highlight in our Capital Markets Day last month, when we take a long-term perspective, we are excited by the opportunities ahead of us. The beer category is large and growing, and our unique global leadership advantage, implementation of our replicable growth tool kits and our superior profitability position us well to generate value for our stakeholders.

在資本配置方面，我們宣布了兩項重要決定，啟動30億美元債券招標和10億美元股票回購。我們知道每個季度都會有所不同，並且有順風和逆風。但正如我們在上個月的資本市場日所強調的那樣，當我們著眼長遠時，我們對眼前的機會感到興奮。啤酒類別規模龐大且不斷增長，我們獨特的全球領導優勢、可複製增長工具包的實施以及卓越的盈利能力使我們能夠為利益相關者創造價值。

With that, I'll hand it back to Jessie for the Q&A.

這樣，我會將其交還給 Jessie 進行問答。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is coming from the line of Trevor Stirling with Bernstein.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自特雷弗斯特林和伯恩斯坦的線路。

Two questions from my side, please. The first one, probably for Michel, concerning the U.S., it's a bit over 6 months now since the Bud Light crisis started. We're now starting to get actually some view, some clarity on what the new normal might look like. At what stage do you think you want to reshape the U.S. to match what that new reality might be?

請我提出兩個問題。第一個可能對米歇爾來說是關於美國的，距離百威淡啤酒危機爆發已有 6 個多月了。我們現在開始對新常態可能會是什麼樣子有了一些看法和一些清晰的認識。您認為您想在哪個階段重塑美國以適應新的現實？

And second question, Fernando, the $1 billion of buybacks, I think the first one in 2015. This is, I guess, somewhat hypothetical question. But as you move forward into 2024, presumably your buyback capacity will be even greater, if and when Altria decided that they might want to exit some of their stake presuming that would leave you in a good position to participate in that, if you so choose.

第二個問題，費爾南多，10 億美元的回購，我認為第一個問題是在 2015 年。我想，這是一個有點假設的問題。但隨著你進入 2024 年，如果奧馳亞決定他們可能想要退出部分股份，假設這將使你處於有利的位置參與其中，那麼你的回購能力可能會更大，如果你這樣選擇。

Michel here. I'll take the first question. and I'll leave Fernando with the second. So I think that, first and foremost, we continue to invest in the U.S. for the long term, driving both our brands, but also category management and focused on what we do best, which is brewing great quality beer for everyone; connecting, engaging actively and listening to our consumers; supporting our partners; and impacting the communities that we serve. We are committed to continue to invest in Bud Light and all the platforms that consumers love, including the marketing campaigns.

米歇爾在這裡。我來回答第一個問題。我將把第二個留給費爾南多。因此，我認為，首先也是最重要的是，我們繼續在美國進行長期投資，推動我們的品牌和品類管理，並專注於我們最擅長的領域，即為每個人釀造優質啤酒；與消費者建立聯繫、積極參與並傾聽消費者的聲音；支持我們的合作夥伴；並影響我們所服務的社區。我們致力於持續投資百威淡啤酒和消費者喜愛的所有平台，包括行銷活動。

As we rolled out during the summer, we see Easy to Summer. And now during the NFL season, we see Easy to Sunday. Activations across this platform is NFL college football, and including new platforms like we just announced the return, the comeback to partner with the UFC. We remain confident in executing behind this strategy in our mega brands. And this continued investment with new actions, they led us to stable market share trends through quarter 3 with signs of improvement that we saw since April. And most recently, if you look at the last week, there was another big step improvement to 4.67 Circana from the beginning of this crisis at 5.6.

當我們在夏季推出時，我們看到了 Easy to Summer。現在，在 NFL 賽季期間，我們看到 Easy to Sunday。這個平台上的活動包括 NFL 大學橄欖球，包括我們剛剛宣布回歸的新平台，即與 UFC 合作的回歸。我們對在我們的大型品牌中執行這項策略仍然充滿信心。這種持續投資和新行動使我們在第三季度保持了穩定的市場份額趨勢，並且自 4 月以來我們看到了改善的跡象。最近，如果你看看上週，你會發現 Circana 比危機開始時的 5.6 又有了很大的進步，達到了 4.67。

So I think that considering the steady improvement and what we found on our latest research that over 40% of the lapsed buyers, Bud Light lapsed buyers, declared that they are now ready to come back, open to drink Bud Light again. This gives us some certainty that we are moving in the right direction. On top of that, we continue to fully support our wholesalers. The network is very important for us. We took new steps moving in the right direction. And we also highlighted this before that 2/3 of what we see in the results are market share-related. And then as we recover this market share, this should reduce. And 1/3 is about operating leverage and strategic choices that we made to invest more and support the network. So those are more under our control. So I don't think that we are at a new normal yet, but we have a good grip on what we need to do and how we are proceeding from hereon. Thank you for the question.

因此，我認為，考慮到穩步改善以及我們在最新研究中發現的結果，超過 40% 的流失買家（百威淡啤酒流失買家）宣稱他們現在準備好回來，再次開放飲用百威淡啤酒。這讓我們確信我們正在朝著正確的方向前進。最重要的是，我們繼續全力支持我們的批發商。網路對我們來說非常重要。我們朝著正確的方向邁出了新的步伐。我們之前也強調過這一點，我們在結果中看到的 2/3 與市場份額相關。然後，當我們恢復這個市場份額時，這個市場份額應該會減少。 1/3 是關於我們為增加投資和支援網路所做的營運槓桿和策略選擇。所以這些更在我們的控制之下。因此，我認為我們尚未進入新常態，但我們很好地掌握了我們需要做什麼以及未來如何繼續前進。感謝你的提問。

And Trevor, Fernando here. On your question, I can't comment on specific shareholders. On our capital allocation, which include buybacks, it's always good to remind a little how our framework works. So in summary, we have a great business and the #1 capital allocation priority is to invest into the organic growth opportunities. And we have no shortness of organic growth opportunities. And as we said during the Capital Markets Day, over the last 4 years, between 2019 and 2022, we invested more than $47 billion to drive organic growth. Then with the cash that we have, we continue to dynamically balance our capital allocation priorities to create value. The right way to think about it is that if the excess cash that we generate, we aim to maximize the value creation. And we do that by dynamically balance the three different capital allocation priorities, which is deleveraging, return of capital to shareholders and selective M&A.

還有特雷弗、費爾南多。關於你的問題，我無法對具體股東發表評論。在我們的資本配置（包括回購）中，提醒一下我們的框架如何運作總是好的。總而言之，我們擁有出色的業務，而資本配置的第一要務是投資於有機成長機會。我們不缺乏有機成長機會。正如我們在資本市場日期間所說，在過去 4 年（2019 年至 2022 年）中，我們投資了超過 470 億美元來推動有機成長。然後利用我們擁有的現金，我們繼續動態平衡我們的資本配置優先事項以創造價值。正確的思考方式是，如果我們產生多餘的現金，我們的目標是最大化價值創造。我們透過動態平衡三個不同的資本配置優先事項來做到這一點，即去槓桿化、向股東返還資本和選擇性併購。

Once again, referring to our Capital Markets Day. As we move towards 3x, we believe there will be continued flexibility. We -- the 2022 dividend, which was paid in May, was increased. So we increased 50%. Then as we continue our deleveraging, this quarter, we launched a $3 billion cash tender offer for certain outstanding bonds. I believe this reinforces our commitment to continue to deleverage. And then in addition to that, we also announced a $1 billion share buyback to be executed within the next 12 months. All in all, we believe that these decisions are maximizing value creation to our shareholders.

再次提及我們的資本市場日。隨著我們向 3 倍邁進，我們相信將會繼續保持靈活性。我們增加了 5 月支付的 2022 年股利。所以我們增加了 50%。然後，隨著我們繼續去槓桿化，本季我們對某些未償債券發起了 30 億美元的現金要約收購。我相信這強化了我們繼續去槓桿的承諾。除此之外，我們也宣布將在未來 12 個月內執行 10 億美元的股票回購。總而言之，我們相信這些決策正在最大限度地為股東創造價值。

Our next question is coming from the line of Rob Ottenstein with Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Rob Ottenstein。

Great. Kind of two follow-ups to Trevor's question. So one, on the U.S., Michel, can you talk about any kind of green shoots? It looks to us like Busch Light and Michelob ULTRA are showing some signs of improvement in the recent scanner that came out today. So can you confirm that? And then as we talk to a number of people, distributors and some other folks at NACS and NBWA, we got the sense that in the fall shelf sets, you lost a little bit, but not that much, maybe one phasing. So can you confirm that, put that in some perspective and what it looks like for the spring? So that's for you, Michel.

偉大的。這是特雷弗問題的兩個後續行動。那麼，關於美國，米歇爾，您能談談任何一種新的萌芽嗎？在我們看來，Busch Light 和 Michelob ULTRA 在今天推出的最新掃描器中顯示出了一些改進的跡象。能確認一下嗎？然後，當我們與 NACS 和 NBWA 的許多人、經銷商和其他一些人交談時，我們感覺到，在秋季貨架系列中，你損失了一點，但不是那麼多，也許是一個階段。那麼你能否證實這一點，從某個角度來看，以及春季的情況如何？所以這是給你的，米歇爾。

And then Fernando, to circle back on the buybacks and the capital allocation, can you talk a little bit about are you trying to kind of give a message and a signal with the share buybacks? And what gives you the confidence to make these moves in such an uncertain macro environment?

然後費爾南多，回到回購和資本配置，您能談談您是否試圖透過股票回購發出訊息和訊號？是什麼讓您有信心在如此不確定的宏觀環境下採取這些舉措？

Thank you for the question. Let me take these in two pieces. The first one, as we shared on that graphic, and you are right about the last week, Circana, we've been seeing that despite of calling stable market shares since April, the reality is that we are clawing back between 10 to 15 bps every 2 weeks. And this is happening most with Michelob ULTRA and Busch, which in the last week, Busch Light and Michelob ULTRA were both positive, and the brands remain very healthy under the consumer perspective in all metrics that we see. And of course, they were impacted by the overall situation, but they are less. The Bud Light, they are more in the family. And we see and we listen to consumers saying that they are coming back to their loved brands, and we expect these brands to recover their trajectory pre-April, which I think that's only a fair assumption to consider. We are not doing any forecast, but this is what we see with the numbers.

感謝你的提問。讓我把它們分成兩個部分。第一個，正如我們在該圖表上分享的那樣，您上週的說法是正確的，Circana，我們已經看到，儘管自4 月份以來稱市場份額穩定，但現實是我們正在回撤10 至15個基點每兩週一次。這種情況在Michelob ULTRA 和Busch 身上最為常見，上週，Busch Light 和Michelob ULTRA 的表現都是正面的，從我們看到的消費者角度來看，這些品牌在所有指標中都保持著非常健康的狀態。當然，他們受到大局的影響，但影響較小。百威淡啤，他們更像是一個家庭。我們看到並聽到消費者說他們正在回歸他們喜愛的品牌，我們預計這些品牌將恢復到四月前的軌跡，我認為這只是一個值得考慮的合理假設。我們沒有做任何預測，但這就是我們從數字中看到的。

And we continue to invest, as I said, the long term behind the whole portfolio. So we see consumers now, 40% of lapsed buyers declaring that they are ready to come back, and declared intention is there. We want to see now the behavior materializing. It's already taking place of Busch Light with Michelob ULTRA and some other brands in the portfolio.

正如我所說，我們繼續對整個投資組合背後的長期投資。所以我們現在看到消費者，40% 的流失買家宣稱他們已經準備好回來，並且已經表明了意向。我們現在希望看到這種行為成為現實。它已經取代了 Busch Light、Michelob ULTRA 和產品組合中的其他一些品牌。

On the reset, I think that we talked about this a couple of times. It's worth to complement the information that you shared, which is pretty accurate with what we said before. Fall reset is usually very small. And when you look at this fall reset, we had like around 10% of the chain stores doing some change, which is pretty much what happened. So around 10%, a little bit less. When you look at what is the main takeaway from that on Bud Light, it's a little bit less than 1 case on average. On average is 0.8 cases out of, on average, 20 cases that Bud Light has per store. So that is an adjustment of 5% of the cubic space that Bud Light has.

關於重置，我想我們已經討論過幾次了。值得補充您分享的訊息，這與我們之前所說的非常準確。秋季重置通常很小。當你看看今年秋天的重置時，我們大約有 10% 的連鎖店做了一些改變，這幾乎就是發生的事情。所以大約 10%，稍微少一點。當你看看百威淡啤酒的主要收穫是什麼時，你會發現平均不到 1 箱。百威淡啤酒每家商店平均有 20 箱，其中平均有 0.8 箱。因此，百威淡啤酒的立方空間調整了 5%。

The main reason for that is because Bud Light remains the #1 volume and the #1 brand by units. And as I said before, all big brands are on the space because usually in the category, you have a lot of items with lower lawsuit, but you want to represent. So the impact of fall in Bud Light was very small. Michelob ULTRA gained space, Busch Light gained space and some other very important items that we have in the portfolio also gained space.

主要原因是百威淡啤酒仍是銷售第一和銷售第一的品牌。正如我之前所說，所有大品牌都在這個領域，因為通常在這個類別中，你有很多訴訟較低的商品，但你想代表。因此，百威淡啤酒的跌倒影響非常小。 Michelob ULTRA 獲得了空間，Busch Light 獲得了空間，我們產品組合中的其他一些非常重要的產品也獲得了空間。

So I think that the number of (inaudible) that we have increased since the quarter 1. We see good momentum as we move forward on the relationship with the retailers and the hard work that our wholesalers do. So we want to continue to claw back this share position, make the right choices and investments for next year so we minimize any resets coming out of the spring reset. But as I always say on the three-tier system, the retailers are independent, they make their own choices, and their choices are made based on the lawsuit, rate of sales and the belief that they have in the brands that will drive the category. Thank you for the question.

因此，我認為自第一季以來我們的數量（聽不清楚）有所增加。隨著我們與零售商的關係以及批發商的辛勤工作向前發展，我們看到了良好的勢頭。因此，我們希望繼續奪回這一份額，為明年做出正確的選擇和投資，以便我們最大限度地減少春季重置帶來的任何重置。但正如我在三層體系中經常說的那樣，零售商是獨立的，他們做出自己的選擇，他們的選擇是基於訴訟、銷售率以及他們對推動該類別的品牌的信念而做出的。感謝你的提問。

Rob, Fernando here. On your question, I wouldn't look buyback on any specific action in isolation. If you zoom out, we continue to drive more resources to the leverage. It's a $3 billion tender offer and $1 billion share buyback. But if you zoom out even further, this is a function of the business that we have. We are in a large and growing category. We have our leadership advantage, which is our unparalleled footprint and scale. We have the replicable growth drivers that iconic mega brands and digital products, and we have the superior profitability. It's pretty much our margins on cash flow. When you get all of that and get this to move and continue to deliver growth, we continue to generate cash. And then we need to allocate cash in a way that creates more value to shareholders, and that's the dynamic allocation of our capital. And the $3 billion cash tender and $1 billion share buyback, just a reflection of our business performance and the choices that we have to maximize value to our shareholders.

羅布，費爾南多在這裡。關於你的問題，我不會孤立地看待任何具體行動的回購。如果你縮小範圍，我們將繼續推動更多資源發揮作用。這是一項 30 億美元的收購要約和 10 億美元的股票回購。但如果你進一步縮小範圍，你會發現這是我們業務的功能。我們屬於一個龐大且不斷成長的類別。我們擁有領先優勢，即我們無與倫比的足跡和規模。我們擁有標誌性大品牌和數位產品的可複製成長動力，我們擁有卓越的獲利能力。這幾乎就是我們的現金流利潤率。當你獲得所有這些並推動其發展並繼續實現成長時，我們將繼續產生現金。然後我們需要以能為股東創造更多價值的方式分配現金，這就是我們資本的動態配置。 30 億美元的現金收購和 10 億美元的股票回購，只是反映了我們的業務績效以及我們為股東最大化價值的選擇。

Our next question is coming from the line of Mitch Collett with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Mitch Collett。

It's Mitch Collett from Deutsche Bank here. I've got one question, please. You had a big recovery in your EBITDA margin in South America and primarily by Brazil. But can you talk about the drivers of that expansion? Clearly, there was a big benefit at the gross margin level from pricing above COGS inflation. But did these help at all perhaps in terms of managing SG&A or maximizing your revenue per unit?

我是德意志銀行的米奇‧科利特。我有一個問題，請教。您在南美洲（主要是巴西）的 EBITDA 利潤率大幅回升。但您能談談這種擴張的驅動因素嗎？顯然，高於銷貨成本通貨膨脹率的定價對毛利率水準有很大好處。但是，這些對於管理 SG&A 或最大化單位收入是否有幫助？

Mitch, I think that we also referred to this point in a couple of the calls that we had before, where we clearly made the separation between what our structural issues in relation to our margins versus what was a consequence of commodity inflation and FX. And it's very clear for us that structurally, we don't have any impact on our margins, but we have a lot of impact from commodity and FX. And we also highlighted that because of specifics in terms of sourcing, hedging, currencies, some of our markets got earlier into this margin compression and some of the markets later. And therefore, the phasing out will also not to be uniform.

米奇，我認為我們在之前的幾次電話會議中也提到了這一點，我們明確區分了與利潤率相關的結構性問題與商品通膨和外匯的後果。我們很清楚，從結構上講，我們的利潤率沒有任何影響，但大宗商品和外匯對我們產生了很大的影響。我們也強調，由於採購、對沖、貨幣方面的具體情況，我們的部分市場較早進入利潤壓縮階段，而有些市場則較晚。因此，逐步淘汰也不會是統一的。

And when you think about what's happening in Latin America and especially in Brazil, we see great performance from our mega brands. So they are growing, driving growth both in power and in share. We are well positioned with the scale that we have and efficiencies, so operating very efficiently in the overhead. And as we see now commodities normalizing and FX a little bit more in our direction, the margins are rebuilding. Of course, part of our operating model now contemplates BEES, which enabled us to reduce cost to serve, enlarge our distribution scale and is also helping us to manage better the campaigns and the promotions that we do, integrating online and offline.

當你想到拉丁美洲，尤其是巴西正在發生的事情時，我們會看到我們的大型品牌的出色表現。因此，它們正在成長，推動著權力和份額的成長。我們的規模和效率處於有利位置，因此管理費用營運非常有效率。正如我們現在所看到的，大宗商品正常化，外匯市場朝著我們的方向發展，利潤率正在重建。當然，我們營運模式的一部分現在考慮了BEES，這使我們能夠降低服務成本，擴大我們的分銷規模，並且還幫助我們更好地管理我們所做的活動和促銷，整合線上和線下。

You combine this with a very good portfolio that we have today in Brazil, market structure that looks much better than it used to be in the past, so competitors competing more at the top, more premiumizing the market in the portfolio. And now with operating efficiencies, we are glad to see that this is converting into margins. It's all combined as it goes in Brazil and Latin America, and we saw together the same effect in Latin America when we were together in Mexico. So it's moving in the right direction.

將其與我們今天在巴西擁有的非常好的投資組合相結合，市場結構看起來比過去好得多，因此競爭對手在頂部進行更多競爭，使投資組合中的市場更加高端化。現在，隨著營運效率的提高，我們很高興看到這正在轉化為利潤。正如巴西和拉丁美洲的情況一樣，這一切都結合在一起，當我們在墨西哥一起時，我們在拉丁美洲看到了同樣的效果。所以它正在朝著正確的方向發展。

Our next question is coming from the line of Simon Hales with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的西蒙‧黑爾斯 (Simon Hales)。

So two for me, please. The first one is really around your marketing and sales investments as we go through the end of the year. Is it fair to assume that the rate of SG&A growth that we're going to see in the business into the fourth quarter will probably begin to slow versus what we've now seen in recent quarters as you lap that World Cup spend unwinding Q4 on Q4? Or should we still expect enough weighting of investment elsewhere in the business and at least your ongoing commitment to wholesaler support in the U.S. to maybe sort of offset some of that sort of theoretical Q4-on-Q4 benefits? So that's my first question.

請給我兩個。第一個實際上是圍繞著年底的營銷和銷售投資。可以公平地假設，隨著世界盃第四季度支出的減少，我們將在第四季度看到的業務成長速度可能會開始放緩，而我們在最近幾季所看到的成長速度可能會開始放緩緩。Q4？或者我們是否仍然應該期望在業務的其他方面有足夠的投資權重，並且至少您對美國批發商支持的持續承諾可能會抵消一些理論上的第四季度的第四季度的收益？這是我的第一個問題。

And then just secondly, just I suppose just I suppose as a point of clarification with regards to the share buyback. Can you start executing that immediately, Fernando? Or do you still need to appoint a bank to handle the process and go through some other approvals before you'll actually be in the market?

其次，我想我想澄清一下有關股票回購的問題。費爾南多，你能立即開始執行嗎？或者您是否仍然需要指定一家銀行來處理該流程並通過其他一些審批才能真正進入市場？

Simon, maybe I'll take a shot on the first one, and I'll leave Fernando to complement the buyback. So you know that we give the guidance on the EBITDA line, default rate as a way to simplify our conversations and making sure that we have both like the freedom and commitment to invest to the long term while the financial discipline to deliver profitable growth over time. So I don't think that it makes any sense for us to give too many details or guide for where the sales and marketing will be on the quarter 4 or quarter 1, quarter 2 next year. This is all built into our overall outlook for the year.

西蒙，也許我會嘗試第一個，然後我會留下費爾南多來補充回購。所以你知道，我們提供關於 EBITDA 線、違約率的指導是為了簡化我們的對話，並確保我們既擁有長期投資的自由和承諾，同時又遵守財務紀律，以隨著時間的推移實現盈利增長。因此，我認為我們對於明年第四季或第一季、第二季的銷售和行銷情況提供太多細節或指導是沒有任何意義的。這些都已納入我們今年的整體展望中。

But you have one point that's right there, which is we had World Cup last year. in which a lot of the expenses in sales and marketing were skewed towards the quarter 4 of last year. But we continue to invest for the long term now, and we are balancing well what we need to do as we keep developing and leading and growing the category with the needs that we have to activate demand across the market. So it's all built into default rate, which we just reiterated as we announced in quarter 3. Thank you for the question.

但有一點是正確的，那就是我們去年舉辦了世界盃。其中許多銷售和行銷費用都集中在去年第四季。但我們現在繼續進行長期投資，我們正在很好地平衡我們需要做的事情，因為我們不斷開發、領導和發展該類別，同時滿足我們必須激活整個市場的需求。因此，這一切都包含在違約率中，我們在第三季宣佈時剛剛重申了這一點。謝謝您的提問。

Simon, Fernando here. And on your question, the best answer is probably almost immediately. You need to go to a few administrative tasks that you can only do after you announce, but that takes almost no time at all, so kind of almost immediately. Thank you.

西蒙，費爾南多在這裡。對於你的問題，最好的答案可能幾乎是立即的。您需要執行一些只能在宣布後才能執行的管理任務，但這幾乎不需要任何時間，所以幾乎是立即完成。謝謝。

Our next question is coming from Brett Cooper with Consumer Edge.

我們的下一個問題來自 Consumer Edge 的 Brett Cooper。

Just one for me. Have your digital initiatives revealed any products or categories where the company has a small presence today that are areas where you've seen ABI demonstrated competitive advantage given your infrastructure?

只給我一個。您的數位化計畫是否揭示了公司目前業務規模較小的任何產品或類別，而您認為 ABI 在這些領域在您的基礎設施方面表現出了競爭優勢？

Brett, that's an interesting question. I think that I will take this in two parts. So we are focused now on increase the coverage with BEES as we get to new countries and, at the same time, get more people to convert to BEES marketplace. And the growth that we are seeing in BEES marketplace, both in orders and GMV, is very promising. This flywheel works with more partners and their products getting scale and reach as we roll them through BEES marketplace.

布雷特，這是一個有趣的問題。我想我會分成兩部分來討論這個問題。因此，隨著我們進入新的國家，我們現在的重點是增加 BEES 的覆蓋範圍，同時讓更多的人轉向 BEES 市場。我們看到 BEES 市場的成長（無論是訂單還是 GMV）都非常有前景。這個飛輪與更多的合作夥伴合作，隨著我們在 BEES 市場上推廣他們的產品，它們的規模和範圍不斷擴大。

When we think about products and services within BEES in the digital ecosystem, we are prioritizing on our own initiatives, things that we can use low capital and low infrastructure, but leverage and take advantage of the digital platform that we built. During the Capital Markets Day in Mexico, we showcased Vendo by BEES, which is basically a feature built within this to allow us to sell digital products or to work as a place, a channel where people can pay digitally their bills that they have. And this is scaling quickly. In Mexico, 100,000 orders so far, which is a big advantage -- a big improvement since we were together in Mexico.

當我們考慮數位生態系統中 BEES 的產品和服務時，我們會優先考慮我們自己的舉措，即我們可以使用低資本和低基礎設施的東西，但可以利用我們建立的數位平台。在墨西哥的資本市場日期間，我們展示了 BEES 的 Vendo，這基本上是其中內建的一項功能，使我們能夠銷售數位產品或作為一個場所，一個人們可以透過數位方式支付帳單的管道。而且這種規模正在迅速擴大。在墨西哥，到目前為止已經有 100,000 個訂單，這是一個很大的優勢——自從我們在墨西哥一起以來，這是一個很大的進步。

It's light structure, fast conversion, good margins. And BEES digital products and digital capabilities such as credit and digital campaigns is where we are focusing on more now. While we are supporting the development of the products of our partners, the physical products through marketplace, which continues to both expand and gather more consumers engaged. More than 60% of the BEES buyers are now BEES marketplace buyers. Thank you for the question.

它結構輕巧，轉換速度快，利潤豐厚。 BEES 數位產品和數位功能（例如信貸和數位活動）是我們現在更關注的領域。在我們支持合作夥伴產品開發的同時，透過市場開發實體產品，市場不斷擴大並吸引更多消費者參與。超過 60% 的 BEES 買家現在是 BEES 市場買家。感謝你的提問。

Our next question is coming from James Edwardes Jones with RBC.

我們的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行的詹姆斯·愛德華茲·瓊斯。

Yes. Michelob ULTRA, I noticed included in the global brand slide unlike Q2. How big is Michelob ULTRA outside the U.S.? And what are the main countries where it's sold? And secondly, you had about $10 billion of cash last year-end, which means that you're paying a coupon of more like 5% on your net debt rather than the 4% coupon on your gross debt that you talked about. Presumably, some of that's going to be used for the bond redemption. I guess my question is, how much cash does AB InBev need to operate?

是的。米獅龍 ULTRA，我注意到與第二季不同的是，它包含在全球品牌幻燈片中。 Michelob ULTRA 在美國以外的地區有多大？它的主要銷售國家是哪些？其次，去年年底你有大約 100 億美元的現金，這意味著你要支付淨債務 5% 左右的息票，而不是你所說的總債務 4% 的息票。據推測，其中一部分將用於債券贖回。我想我的問題是，百威英博需要多少現金才能營運？

James, Michel here. I'll take on the first question, and then I'll leave Fernando to complement on the cash question. I think that Michelob ULTRA, first and foremost, is a brand that is very well aligned with an important global mega trend, which is around healthier lifestyle and wellness as a way to socialize and complement our lifestyle. And this is a mega trend that you see present across the globe. Pretty much all markets from Latin America to North America to Asia are showing an opportunity in this area. And because Michelob ULTRA fits very well and complement our global portfolio in these more social occasions, we thought that would be the right moment to elevate Michelob ULTRA. And we showcased the reasons why and how during the Capital Markets Day.

詹姆斯，米歇爾在這裡。我將回答第一個問題，然後我將讓費南多補充現金問題。我認為 Michelob ULTRA 首先是一個與重要的全球大趨勢非常契合的品牌，這一趨勢圍繞著更健康的生活方式和健康，作為社交和補充我們生活方式的一種方式。這是全球範圍內出現的一個大趨勢。從拉丁美洲到北美再到亞洲，幾乎所有市場都在這一領域展現出機會。由於 Michelob ULTRA 非常適合這些社交場合，並且補充了我們的全球產品組合，因此我們認為這將是提升 Michelob ULTRA 的最佳時機。我們在資本市場日期間展示了原因和方式。

If you look at how the brand is developing, so in the U.S., we are all familiar with the growth path and the velocity of the brand. This is pretty much being replicated as a core plus proposition in Canada, where the brand has a lot of momentum, fastest-growing brand there. When you think about Mexico, which is a place that we launched the brand as well a couple of years ago, moving at speed and very healthy growth, premium price as well. We extended the brand to some other markets in Latin America, think about Panama and you go through the islands in the Caribbean, the brand has very good momentum as well. And we have plans now to continue to grow, choosing the most important countries where we want the brand to develop, where it can add to the portfolio as a core to us.

如果你看看品牌是如何發展的，那麼在美國，我們都熟悉品牌的成長路徑和速度。這在加拿大幾乎被複製為核心加主張，該品牌在加拿大擁有強勁的發展勢頭，是成長最快的品牌。當你想到墨西哥時，我們幾年前也在墨西哥推出了品牌，發展速度很快，成長非常健康，價格也很高。我們將這個品牌擴展到拉丁美洲的其他一些市場，想想巴拿馬，你穿過加勒比海的島嶼，這個品牌也有很好的動力。我們現在計劃繼續發展，選擇我們希望品牌發展的最重要的國家，在那裡它可以作為我們的核心添加到產品組合中。

So it's good for margins, but also can tap and lead this healthier and wellness type of trend in consumption because it is low calorie, low carbs, very good for everyday consumption as we see from the data in the countries that we already rolled the brand. So huge headroom for growth, premium core plus positioning, global mega trend that's present across majority of our markets and very important play as we continue to consolidate our mega brands. And we continue to drive both category growth and our performance with a more efficient portfolio. Thanks for the question.

因此，它有利於利潤，但也可以挖掘和引領這種更健康的消費趨勢，因為它是低熱量、低碳水化合物，非常適合日常消費，正如我們從我們已經推出該品牌的國家的數據中看到的那樣。如此巨大的成長空間、優質的核心加定位、我們大多數市場中存在的全球大趨勢以及在我們繼續鞏固我們的大品牌時發揮的非常重要的作用。我們持續透過更有效率的產品組合推動品類成長和績效。謝謝你的提問。

And James, Fernando here. On your question, the out of the debt, answer would be around $5 billion to $6 billion. That's normally what you say is the minimum cash you need to operate, and that's already coming from a safe place because it takes somehow into account seasonality and somehow take into account that they are not tapping any other liquidity sources, which we have a lot like the RCF or any commercial paper.

還有詹姆斯、費爾南多。關於你的問題，擺脫債務的答案大約是 50 億到 60 億美元。這通常是你所說的運營所需的最低現金，而且它已經來自一個安全的地方，因為它以某種方式考慮到季節性，並以某種方式考慮到他們沒有利用任何其他流動性來源，我們有很多這樣的流動性來源RCF 或任何商業票據。

So if you look at our cash balance, probably we're taking even a more conservative approach lately. If we finish the year with $10 billion, $10 billion is way more than we need to run the business. So kind of we -- and then again, depends on your strategy that give you a moment in time. I feel we're still focusing on deleveraging, but we are maintaining a healthy cash balance to make sure that any volatility, we can navigate with no issues at all. Thank you.

因此，如果您查看我們的現金餘額，您可能會發現我們最近採取了更保守的方法。如果我們今年的收入為 100 億美元，那麼這 100 億美元遠遠超出了我們營運業務所需的金額。我們太好了——話又說回來，這取決於你的策略，給你一個及時的時機。我覺得我們仍然專注於去槓桿化，但我們正在保持健康的現金餘額，以確保我們能夠毫無問題地應對任何波動。謝謝。

Our next question is coming from the line of Olivier Nicolai with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的奧利維爾·尼古拉 (Olivier Nicolai)。

Just two questions first. First, a follow-up on the recently announced UFC partnership. Could you perhaps give us a bit of background on it? And if it's a normal sponsorship with a fixed payment or if there's viable part linked to the potential recovery of the Bud Light brand over time.

首先只有兩個問題。首先，是最近宣布的 UFC 合作夥伴關係的後續行動。能為我們介紹一下相關背景嗎？如果這是一項固定付款的正常贊助，或者是否存在與百威淡啤酒品牌隨著時間的推移的潛在復甦相關的可行部分。

And then secondly, many staples companies have commented on how GLP-1 drugs could potentially affect consumer habits in the U.S. Obviously, I assume it's not going to be the main company being the most concerned about this, but considering that a lot of your portfolio is within the light beer segment already. But I was just wondering if you've done any work on the topic and the potential risk to volumes on beer or RTD or hard seltzer.

其次，許多主食公司都評論了 GLP-1 藥物可能如何影響美國的消費者習慣。顯然，我認為這不會是主要公司最關心的問題，但考慮到你們的許多投資組合已經屬於淡啤酒領域了。但我只是想知道您是否已經就該主題以及啤酒、即飲飲料或硬蘇打水銷量的潛在風險進行了任何研究。

Michel here. Thank you for the question. So I'll take both, starting with the UFC. I think that is just like emphasizing and overstating that UFC is like a global vibrant and growing international sport. It reached hundreds of millions of fans around the world, and it's a great fit for Bud Light in the U.S. and for Budweiser in our other markets. So the combination of global and presence in the U.S. gives us an incredible opportunity to partner with UFC and tap into the fan base both in the U.S. with Bud Light and globally with Budweiser.

米歇爾在這裡。感謝你的提問。所以我會選擇兩者，從 UFC 開始。我認為這就像強調和誇大UFC就像一項全球充滿活力且不斷發展的國際運動。它在全球擁有數億粉絲，非常適合美國的百威淡啤酒和我們其他市場的百威啤酒。因此，全球業務和美國業務的結合為我們提供了一個與 UFC 合作的絕佳機會，並利用百威淡啤酒在美國和百威啤酒在全球的粉絲群。

You know that as a company globally with support sports period, so from soccer and FIFA to basketball and NBA to football, NFL, golf and PGA and many, many other sports platforms because it's a great way to connect with consumers globally in a very relevant occasion. In the U.S., if you go back in time, Bud Light was the official, original UFC beer sponsor. That was like more than 15 years ago, and was only like a natural fit for these two great brands to come back together. So UFC has shown tremendous growth, has over 500 million fans worldwide.

You know that as a company globally with support sports period, so from soccer and FIFA to basketball and NBA to football, NFL, golf and PGA and many, many other sports platforms because it's a great way to connect with consumers globally in a very relevant場合.在美國，如果你回到過去，百威淡啤酒 (Bud Light) 是 UFC 最初的官方啤酒贊助商。那已經是 15 年前的事了，這兩個偉大品牌的重聚簡直是天作之合。 UFC呈現出巨大的成長勢頭，在全球擁有超過5億粉絲。

And since our original sponsorship, it's incredible, amazing to see the growth that the UFC and all the accomplishments of Dana White to create a truly global brand. So I think that beyond the passion for celebrating our fans, UFC and AB share this American roots, track record of employing American people, driving economic growth strategy, supporting veterans and first responders. So we could not be more excited about taking this partnership to the next level.

自從我們最初贊助以來，看到 UFC 的成長以及 Dana White 創造一個真正的全球品牌所取得的所有成就，真是令人難以置信、令人驚嘆。因此，我認為，除了慶祝我們的粉絲的熱情之外，UFC 和 AB 還擁有共同的美國根源、僱用美國人、推動經濟成長策略、支持退伍軍人和急救人員的記錄。因此，我們對將這種夥伴關係提升到新的水平感到無比興奮。

And to answer your question, is a normal partnership agreement with as any other partnerships fee payment and then activation around the platform. So there is no variable pay involved on any of the agreement. So it's a great partnership. I could not be more excited about joining or rejoining UFC on this comeback and to have Bud Light in the U.S. for the fans and Budweiser being activated globally, so leveraging the best of global and local.

為了回答你的問題，是一個正常的合作夥伴協議，與任何其他合作夥伴費用支付一樣，然後在平台上啟動。因此，任何協議均不涉及浮動薪酬。所以這是一個很好的合作關係。我對這次回歸加入或重新加入 UFC 感到非常興奮，並且能夠在美國為粉絲提供百威淡啤酒，並在全球範圍內激活百威啤酒，從而充分利用全球和本地的精華。

On the GLP, we've been seeing a couple of questions and people talking about that. But I think that the key point here is beer category remains vibrant, is growing globally, gaining share of throat and is projected for all sources, IFWR, Euromonitor, to continue to grow globally, volumes and gaining share of throat. At this stage, I think that's too early to assess any overlap or change in behavior in relevant consumer groups. You see that the penetration of this drug is still very small, and there is like a relatively wide range of points of view on where this is going with very limited data. I think that for us, we don't see any impact so far in the business. Our portfolio, as you know, have several different options for socialization, and consumers understand that.

在 GLP 上，我們看到了一些問題並且人們在談論這些問題。但我認為這裡的關鍵點是啤酒類別仍然充滿活力，在全球範圍內增長，贏得了市場份額，並且預計所有來源（IFWR、Euromonitor）將繼續在全球範圍內增長，銷量和市場份額將獲得增長。在現階段，我認為評估相關消費者群體行為的任何重疊或變化還為時過早。你看，這種藥物的滲透率仍然很小，而且對於這種藥物的發展方向，存在著相對廣泛的觀點，而數據卻非常有限。我認為對我們來說，到目前為止我們還沒有看到業務受到任何影響。如您所知，我們的產品組合有多種不同的社交選擇，消費者也明白這一點。

And the big distinction, because we are not in the indulgence business, right, so you see a lot of the conversations around sweet and more things that are related to indulgence, which is not the case of our portfolio. And on top of that, we have like an incredible range of offers with low calorie, low carb, non-alcohol, think about Michelob ULTRA, low calorie; Corona Cero, 56 calories; Budweiser Zero, 50 calories. So we have a portfolio that has some broad range. We see no reasons to make any consideration at this point. And I think that without more data and seeing the developments of deals is going to be more of speculation. So at this point, nothing else said.

最大的區別是，因為我們不從事放縱業務，對吧，所以你會看到很多圍繞甜食和更多與放縱相關的事物的對話，這不是我們的投資組合的情況。最重要的是，我們提供一系列令人難以置信的低熱量、低碳水化合物、無酒精的產品，想想 Michelob ULTRA，低熱量； Corona Cero，56 卡路里；百威零熱量，50 卡路里。所以我們有一個廣泛的投資組合。我們認為目前沒有理由進行任何考慮。我認為，如果沒有更多數據並看到交易的進展，猜測將更多。所以到了這一步，就沒有再說什麼了。

Our final question will come from the line of Andrea Pistacchi with Bank of America.

我們的最後一個問題將來自美國銀行的 Andrea Pistacchi。

Two please for me. The first one is on the consumer environment. I mean some of your peers have called out in some markets, mainly in Europe and Asia, some deterioration in recent months. LatAm seems to be quite fairly resilient for now. So I wonder if you could provide a quick assessment in terms of what you're seeing in consumer environment in your main markets around the region and whether you have seen any change since the last update at Q2.

請給我兩個。第一個是消費環境。我的意思是，你們的一些同行已經呼籲一些市場，主要是歐洲和亞洲，近幾個月來出現了一些惡化。拉丁美洲目前似乎相當有彈性。因此，我想知道您是否可以對該地區主要市場的消費者環境所看到的情況以及自第二季上次更新以來是否看到任何變化提供快速評估。

And the second question, please, is on your SG&A in North America, which increased 2.5%. Now there's clearly various buckets within your SG&A. I imagine distribution costs will be declining, support to wholesalers going up. But in terms of your media spend, a couple of quarters ago, you had -- you'd said that this year, it would be very focused on the summer months as there'd be a step-up through the summer month. So I was wondering whether that has taken place or whether maybe over the last few months, your plans have evolved a bit. Maybe you're waiting for the dust to settle before really stepping up media spend in the U.S.

第二個問題是關於你們北美地區的銷售及管理費用（SG&A），成長了 2.5%。現在，您的 SG&A 中顯然有不同的部分。我認為分銷成本將會下降，對批發商的支持將會增加。但就媒體支出而言，幾個季度前，您曾說過，今年將非常關注夏季月份，因為夏季月份將會增加。所以我想知道這是否已經發生，或者在過去的幾個月裡，你的計劃是否有所發展。也許您正在等待塵埃落定，然後再真正增加在美國的媒體支出。

Andrea, thank you for the questions. I'll take both here. In terms of the consumer environment, I will follow the sequence of your question, starting with Europe. I think that the categories, I think, dollar-wise remains resilient. And most importantly for us, consumer -- underlying consumer demand for our brands is going very well. So if we look at the volumes in this quarter, we saw a decline like high single digits, and a lot of that was weather related. And it's interesting because the south of Europe was very hot, but our footprint is more concentrated on the center and northern part of Europe that was very cold, very wet. And we saw July, August, very bad with some improvement in September and further improvement in the early readings of October.

安德里亞，謝謝你的提問。我會把兩個都帶在這裡。關於消費環境，我按照你提問的順序，先從歐洲開始。我認為，從美元角度來看，這些類別仍然具有彈性。對我們來說最重要的是，消費者對我們品牌的潛在消費者需求進展順利。因此，如果我們查看本季的銷量，我們會看到高個位數的下降，其中很大一部分與天氣有關。有趣的是，歐洲南部非常炎熱，但我們的足跡更集中在歐洲中部和北部，那裡非常寒冷、非常潮濕。我們看到七月、八月非常糟糕，九月有所改善，十月早期讀數進一步改善。

So difficult to precisely say how much was weather, how much is consumer environment, but was more on the weather, less on the consumer environment. And the consumer environment, of course, has inflation and prices up and salaries that are catching up. So as you see the disposable income, September also marked a point where disposal income because of the salaries increase is now at par and recovering versus inflation. So I think that, that is an interesting combination of better weather, more disposable income as we phase from quarter 3 to quarter 4.

所以很難準確地說多少是天氣，多少是消費環境，但更多的是天氣，更少的是消費環境。當然，消費環境也伴隨著通貨膨脹、物價上漲、薪資的上漲。因此，正如您所看到的可支配收入一樣，九月份也標誌著一個點，即由於工資增長而導致的可支配收入現在已與通貨膨脹持平並正在復蘇。所以我認為，隨著我們從第三季度到第四季度，更好的天氣和更多的可支配收入是一個有趣的組合。

In China, we saw a similarly complicated industry, mostly impacted by weather. So the El Niño hit the South China and the Southeast China as well. I just came from China two weeks ago, spent a lot of time there, 12 days in the region. The consumption, you see that is thriving. The market is open. Consumers are coming back. The beer category, resilient overall other than the ones (inaudible) [in pack]. And most importantly, for our portfolio, premiumization remains a very important trend.

在中國，我們看到了一個類似複雜的產業，主要受到天氣的影響。因此，厄爾尼諾現像也襲擊了華南和東南地區。我兩週前剛從中國來，在那裡待了很長時間，在該地區待了 12 天。你看，消費正在蓬勃發展。市場是開放的。消費者正在回歸。啤酒類別，除了[包裝中]的啤酒（聽不清楚）之外，整體上有彈性。最重要的是，對於我們的產品組合來說，高端化仍然是一個非常重要的趨勢。

I think that the overall environment in China is one of recovery with the GDP recovering, activity recovering. You see that some structural issues in the real estate, which is not our business, but of course, impacts the overall economy and a little bit more cyclical in exports. But this doesn't change the long-term prospects for China for our business, and particularly because both the industry remains very resilient. And the most important thing, which is premiumization, where our portfolio is performing very well, continues to move in the right direction.

我認為中國的整體環境是復甦的，GDP正在復甦，經濟活動也正在復甦。你會看到房地產領域的一些結構性問題，這不是我們的業務，但當然會影響整體經濟以及出口的周期性。但這並不會改變我們在中國業務的長期前景，特別是因為這兩個行業仍然非常有彈性。最重要的是，我們的投資組合在高端化方面表現非常出色，並且繼續朝著正確的方向發展。

And in Latin America, I think that we are seeing this strength that continues to manifest across majority of the markets. Of course, you have impact here and there from the El Niño climate. We just saw this big event in Mexico, in the Acapulco region. But you are also seeing strength across other markets, Colombia and Brazil, where inflation is more under control, [real sellers] are moving correct, and the strength of our portfolio is delivering the numbers that we need to deliver. So I think that this is like a big consolidation of how I see the industry and the consumer environment.

在拉丁美洲，我認為我們看到這種優勢在大多數市場上繼續顯現。當然，厄爾尼諾氣候到處都會產生影響。我們剛剛在墨西哥阿卡普爾科地區看到了這一重大事件。但您也看到其他市場（哥倫比亞和巴西）的實力，這些市場的通膨得到了更好的控制，[真正的賣家]正在正確地發展，而我們投資組合的實力正在提供我們需要提供的數字。所以我認為這就像我對產業和消費者環境的看法的一次大整合。

Yes, on the marketing and the media spend in the U.S. and the SG&A.

是的，關於美國的營銷和媒體支出以及 SG&A。

I'm sorry, I forgot the second question. Sorry about that. In short, we are managing very tight, as usual, our overheads. And we've been investing, as we said, behind our brands to the long term, and we didn't change our investment plans for the summer. We continue to invest, and we will continue to make the right investments and choices to the open.

抱歉，我忘了第二個問題。對於那個很抱歉。簡而言之，我們像往常一樣管理非常嚴格的管理費用。正如我們所說，我們一直在對我們的品牌進行長期投資，並且我們沒有改變夏季的投資計劃。我們將繼續投資，並將繼續公開做出正確的投資和選擇。

This was the final question. If your question has not been answered, please feel free to contact the Investor Relations team. I will now turn the floor back over to Mr. Michel Doukeris for closing remarks.

這是最後一個問題。如果您的問題尚未得到解答，請隨時聯繫投資者關係團隊。現在我將請米歇爾·杜克里斯先生致閉幕詞。

Thank you, Jessie. Thank you all for your time today and for your ongoing partnership and support of our business. Stay safe and well, and we will see you on our quarter 4. Thank you.

謝謝你，傑西。感謝大家今天抽出寶貴的時間，感謝你們一直以來的合作關係以及對我們業務的支持。請注意安全，身體健康，我們第四季再見。謝謝。

Thank you. This concludes today's earnings conference call and webcast. Please disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.

謝謝。今天的收益電話會議和網路廣播到此結束。請斷開您的線路，祝您有美好的一天。