ABEV

Good afternoon, and thank you for waiting. We would like to welcome everyone to Ambev's 2026 first quarter conference call. Today with us we have Mr. Carlos Lisboa, Ambev's CEO, and Mr. Guilherme Fleury, CFO and Investor Relations officer. As a reminder, this conference presentation is available for download on our website, ri.ambev.com.br, as well as through the webcast link. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After Ambev's remarks are completed, there will be a Q&A session during which we kindly ask that each participating sell-side analyst asks only one question. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the safe harbor of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Ambev's management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Ambev and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I would also like to remind everyone that, as usual, the % of changes that will be discussed during today's call are both organic and normalized in nature. Unless otherwise stated, % of changes refer to comparisons with 2025 first quarter results. Normalized figures refer to performance measures before exceptional items, which are either income or expenses that do not occur regularly as part of Ambev's normal activities.

As normalized figures are non-GAAP measures, the company discloses the consolidated profit, EPS, operating profit and EBITDA on a fully reported basis in the earnings release. I will turn the conference over to Mr. Carlos Lisboa. Mr. Lisboa, you may begin your conference.

Good afternoon, everyone, thank you for joining our first quarter earnings call. As we start the year, here's the message I would like you to take away today. In tough moments, great companies and cultures find a way to get stronger, and that is what this quarter begins to show. We entered this year in a better position than we started last year, despite the dynamic operating environment. From day one, we frame our mission around three priorities: avoid disruptions, keep momentum, and build a stronger company. Last year was demanding, and that made the third objective the hardest to deliver. As a team, we embraced the challenge, elevated our market intelligence capabilities and focused on what we could control, guided by our growth strategy. Within that context, Ambev delivered a solid start to the year.

Total volumes were broadly flat against the toughest comparison base of the year, while beer returned to growth, up low single digit. Net revenue grew high single digit, supported by net revenue per hectolitre growth. Even with continued cost pressure, we delivered double digits, EBITDA growth with margin expansion of 60 basis points, while net income grew by a low single digit. The quarter also reflected solid operational cash flow generation and continued discipline in returning cash to shareholders. That is why the first quarter matters. First, it materialize the strengthening we've built over the past year, boosted by continued improvement of the beer industry across most of our footprint, coupled with our commercial momentum. Second, it delivered a balanced shape of P&L from top to bottom, being a solid first step for trading the kind of year we want to have.

What give us confidence is not only the quarter itself, but how it reflects the way our strategy is evolving across the company. Under Pillar one, as the category captain, our mission is to lead, develop and grow the beer industry, bridging the gap between the category's potential and actual consumption. Across our footprint, the mission is to continuously strengthen the core segment where many of our most loved brands sit, and which remains the foundation from which the category can expand, while continuing to build the segment, shaping the future of beer: premium, balanced choices, no alcohol and flavored beer. In doing so, we are developing a more complete portfolio and broadening the reach of the category over time. Under Pillar two, we are building a true digital ecosystem and becoming an even more outside-in organization.

On the direct-to-consumer front, we are strengthening how we understand and address consumer needs, so we can serve them better with the right products for the right occasions. On the B2B front, data, insights, and digital tools are helping us support customers better, recommending the right portfolio and activation strategy for each point of sale, and ultimately, driving stronger sell out. By doing so, we allocate resources more efficiently, improve returns, and make pillar one stronger. Under pillar three, we continue to build the muscle that makes the other two pillars scalable. The discipline we have built on revenue management, costs, expenses, cash generation, and resource allocation is what allows us to free up resources to reinvest behind our brands and strategic priorities while protecting profitability and improving return on invested capital over time.

Our ambition is for these 3 pillars to evolve simultaneously and work as a flywheel, reinforcing one another and perpetuating our profitable growth journey. As we continue to implement our strategy across our footprint, the breadth of our results stand out. We delivered flat or positive net revenue growth in all of our business units. EBITDA grew across all of them, with margin expansion in 4 out of 5. Within that, let me turn to the main highlights across our markets. In Brazil Beer, the quarter had the toughest comparison base for the industry year-over-year. In this context, it still declined by mid-single digit in the period, although improving sequentially versus the fourth quarter of last year. The distinction matters because the softness is explained much more by cyclical factors affecting occasions than about structural drivers.

Fundamentals remain solid. The weather continued to be the main drag, concentrated in the South and Southeast, but with lower intensity than in previous quarters. As we said during our last call, what changed was not whether consumers wanted beer, but how often the right occasions happened. Within that context, Ambev outperformed commercially. Our volumes grew 1.2% in the quarter, building on the progress achieved in the second half of last year, and we entered this year from a stronger commercial position, supported by continued market share progression. Brand equity also kept improving, reinforcing the link between stronger brands, better portfolio execution, and share gains across all beer segments, according to our estimates. We continue to win where the category is expanding the most. Premium grew more than 20%, led by Stella Artois, Corona, and Original.

Balanced choices grew over 70%, with Stella Pure Gold and Michelob ULTRA more than doubling. No alcohol beer grew low teens, with Corona Cero growing over 70% and Skol Zero Zero gaining traction in the regions where it has been introduced, closing the quarter, reaching double digits of the no alcohol segment mix. At the same time, our core plus value portfolio, although more exposed to weather and macro consumption dynamics, perform ahead of total industry, declining by low single digit. Even so, it continued to improve sequentially with a more balanced performance across brands and regions and gain market share versus last year. Beyond Beer also continued to gain momentum, growing in the 20s, with our portfolio addressing unmet consumer needs on more occasions, led by Beats, Brutal Fruit, and our newest portfolio member, Flying Fish.

All together, this is bringing to life the most complete portfolio we have ever had. One that allow us not only to sell more, but to sell more to more consumers on more occasions and create more value for longer. This portfolio supported a solid net revenue per active liter performance, up 8.3% in the quarter. As we began to implement our revenue management agenda, our digital platform allowed us to manage prices, discounts, and mix with more precision and better returns. On the customer side, BEES Marketplace also continued to gain relevance, with around 75% of our customer base already buying through the platform, driving GMV to double, supported by continued expansion of 3P.

On the consumer side, Zé Delivery remain a key activation stage for our brands and one of the major convenience platforms in Brazil, representing mid-single digit of our beer volumes in the country. In the quarter, GMV grew a high single digit with 16 million orders delivered to 5 million monthly active users, of which around 80% are millennials and Gen Z. In essence, Zé Delivery gives us a direct window into the future, and that is visible in our portfolio. Premium represents around mid-thirties of volumes on the platform versus nearly mid-twenties in Brazil beer, while balanced choices are around 50% above Brazil beer average. More broadly, Zé Delivery is becoming both a growth engine and a catalyst of transformation for the organization, helping us accelerate the digital data analytics and AI-driven culture, and improving how we understand consumers, develop our portfolio, and operate the business going forward.

Everything that was said translated into a solid P&L. Top line grew 9.6% and EBITDA grew 7.6% despite cost headwinds from FX and commodities. In Brazil NAB, 2025 was marked by 2 distinct phases. In the first half, strong commercial execution and favorable pricing position supported solid volume performance and market share gains. In the second half, however, despite our consistent revenue management, market share performance came under pressure as that pricing relativity became less favorable. In the first quarter of this year, we cycle a tough comparison base, and although both relativity and market share improved sequentially, volumes were still down 3.9% versus last year, underperforming the industry. Regarding our portfolio, Guaraná brand equity reached all-time high at the end of 2025, significantly ahead of its market share.

While our non-sugar portfolio grew in the mid-teens, led by Guaraná Zero, Pepsi Black and H2OH!. In the quarter, our disciplined execution showed up in the P&L with top line growth of 1.8% and EBITDA up 16.4% with 400 basis points of margin expansion. In Argentina, the macro environment has become more stable with lower inflation and less FX volatility than what we faced a year ago. That improvement, however, has not yet translated into a meaningful recovery in consumption. The beer industry remains soft in the first quarter, the demand continued to reflect a cautious consumer environment. While the industry appears to have found a more stable level since Q4, we continue to believe in a gradual recovery. Within that context, our performance in Argentina continued to strengthen.

Despite volumes declining by low single-digit, sell-out market share increased versus last year, supported by mega brands equity and consistent execution. Above core grew high single-digit, led by Stella Artois and Michelob ULTRA. We remain focused on protecting our commercial position with a disciplined revenue management agenda while continuing to invest behind our brands to reignite the category growth. As we build momentum toward the FIFA World Cup, Quilmes and Michelob ULTRA will be key consumer connection platform in the country. In the Dominican Republic, we had a solid start to the year. The consumption environment continued to improve, supported by a more constructive macro environment and healthier category dynamics. Beer continued to gain share of alcoholic beverage, helped by better price relativity. In that context, total volumes grew high single-digit, supported by disciplined commercial execution.

Market share remained stable, and Presidente's brand health continued to strengthen, reaching all-time high levels. In Canada, the beer industry remained soft in the quarter, declining mid-single digit, affected by a weak consumer backdrop and unfavorable weather conditions. Within that context, we maintain stable share in beer and continue to gain share in beyond beer, supported by momentum of our mega brands. In beer, Busch and Michelob ULTRA were the top two fastest growing brands in the industry, while Mike's, Natural Light and Cutwater led our market share gains in beyond beer. All in all, despite volumes declining 2%, EBITDA grew 6.7% with 160 basis points of margin expansion. With that, I will now turn it over to Fleury for financial highlights.

Thank you, Lisboa. Hello and good afternoon, everyone. We entered the year maintaining the same financial discipline that has guided us over the past quarters to drive long-term value creation through our capital allocation framework. We delivered normalized EBITDA growth of 10.1%, translating to an increase of 0.3% in normalized net income. From an operating cash flow perspective, we delivered the strongest first quarter performance in the past 10 years, which not only allows us to continue investing behind our brands, but also reinforces our commitment to return excess cash to shareholders over time, materialized through the execution of our ongoing share buyback program and our IOC announcements. Let me walk you through the quarter in more details.

On the operational side, normalized EBITDA reached BRL 7.6 billion, with 60 basis points of margin expansion, supported by top line performance and continued financial discipline. Consolidated cash COGS per hectoliter excluding marketplace increased 9% in the period, with Brazil beer up 14.6%, reflecting the expected pressure from FX and commodities headwinds, which should gradually ease starting in the second quarter, as previously anticipated. That said, we continue advancing on cost initiatives towards capturing efficiencies. Consolidated cash SG&A grew 4.8% in the quarter, with efficiencies coming mainly from distribution expenses, driven by operational leverage in Brazil beer. We continued to invest consistently behind our brands in the period, and consolidated sales and marketing grew 5.1%.

Most importantly, I want to remember that our sales and marketing expenses tend to follow our mega platforms events calendar, which this year includes the FIFA World Cup in quarter 2. Looking at our financial performance, net financial expenses totaled BRL 1 billion in the quarter, about BRL 200 million higher than last year, mainly driven by higher carry costs on derivative instruments. As a result, normalized net income reached BRL 3.8 billion, which a normalized EPS of BRL 0.24, growing 0.5% versus last year. Turning to cash flow generation. Cash flow from operating activities totaled BRL 3.2 billion in the quarter, an increase of BRL 2 billion year-on-year.

This was mainly driven by improved working capital dynamics, particularly through better packaging raw materials inventory management, as well as improvement in payables, mostly coming from a reduction in barley payments in the period and lower bonus payments following last year's performance. Cash flow used in investing activities totaled BRL 2.4 billion, BRL 1.6 billion higher than Q1 2025, mainly coming from a BRL 2 billion impact of the deconsolidation of assets previously reported as restricted cash in CAC, as per applicable accounting standards. For more details, please refer to note 5.1 to our financial statements.

Cash flow used in financing activities totaled BRL 1.2 billion against BRL 8.8 billion year-on-year, reflecting the execution of our previous share buyback program and the timing of our 2024 dividends payout, which in 2025 together consumed BRL 7.7 billion of our Q1 cash position. Under our priority to return excess cash to shareholders, we continue executing our ongoing share buyback program announced in October last year. Yesterday, the board of directors approved the payment of BRL 1.2 billion related to the second tranche of the IOC declared in December of 2025 and a new IOC declaration of BRL 700 million to be paid by December 2026. In summary, we started the year with momentum. We will stay focused on what we can control while continue to invest in long-term value creation.

At the same time, we remain mindful that the global geopolitical environment continues to be dynamic. Therefore, we are closely monitoring developments across all of our markets, and we maintain our Brazil beer cash COGS per hectoliter excluding marketplace guidance unchanged from 4.5%-7.5% increase in 2026 and continue to pursue our ambition of expanding consolidated margin over time. With that, let me hand it back to Lisboa.

Thank you, Fleury. As I close, I would like to leave you with three message. First, our conviction in the category remains unchanged. Beer is one of the largest, most loved and most profitable consumer categories in the world, and its potential is far from being fully captured across our footprint. We continue to see room to broaden the category's reach, remain relevant to consumers as their needs evolve over time, and participate in more consumption moments. Second, we have a growth formula anchored in the three pillars of our strategy, presenting encouraging results. In our view, that is the way not only to build momentum, but to make it last by turning one, two, and three into a true flywheel. Third, while the environment remains dynamic, 2026 is also shaping up to be the year of socialization.

It has started with Carnival, and the month ahead bring a strong occasion-driven calendar, including the FIFA World Cup. These are the moments when our brands connect more deeply with consumers and when, as people come together, beer becomes part of what makes those moments very special. Our ambition remains the same: always strive for our better version. This quarter was an important step in that journey, and it give us confidence in what comes next. Before I finish, I want to thank our teams across Ambev. Your ownership, resilience, and discipline in executing our strategy are what made this quarter possible. Thank you very much for joining us today. With that, let me hand it over to the operator.

We will now begin the Q&A session. To ask a question, we kindly ask sell-side analysts to click on Raise Hand button at the bottom of the screen. To remove a question from the queue or after your question has been addressed, please click Lower Hand button. We kindly reinforce our request that each participant asks only a single question. Our first question comes from Henrique Brustolin with Bradesco BBI. You can open your microphone.

Hello, Lisboa, Fleury. Thanks for taking my question. My question is about net revenue per hectoliter in Brazil Beer. For us at least, it was the main highlight of the quarter, especially given how your volumes also performed. If you could qualify, you know, the 8% year-on-year increase, what drove that in terms of, you know, the contribution from mix? Any contribution from price increases in case they took place in the first quarter would also be very helpful. Also seasonally, Q1 usually has a weaker pricing than Q4, right, because of state taxes in Brazil. If there was anything different in this ICMS dynamic this year that may also in part explain the pricing performance in Brazil Beer. That would be my question. Thank you very much.

Hey, Henrique. Nice to talk to you, and thanks for the question. Look, I think it's always important to, as you said, explain what are the components driving the net revenue per hectoliter performance. First and foremost, in terms of hierarchy, the first component is exactly you know, all the effort put behind our revenue management agenda in 2025 and the carryover we brought into the first quarter of 2026. Keep in mind that from 2024 to 2025, we didn't have pretty much a carryover, right? In other terms, it is a easier comp. The second component in the hierarchy comes from our revenue management agenda into 2026, right? The third component comes from the mix since our, you know, above core segment continued to grow in a very solid pace, right?

All together drove a pretty healthy net revenue per hectoliter around a high single digit, as you mentioned, right? Keeping our strategy unchanged, right? We wanna keep rate broadly in line with inflation over time and capture post mix, and evolve in a solid basis moving forward. Just to complement here, Henrique, Fleury, on the tax side, there was nothing that was important to highlight during the quarter, so same as last year.

That's very helpful. Thank you very much.

Thank you too.

Our next question comes from Nadine Sarwat with Bernstein. You can open your microphone. Nadine, you can open your microphone. I believe she is having some technical issues. We are gonna go ahead to the next question from Thiago Duarte with BTG. You can open your microphone, sir.

Yeah. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Lisboa, Fleury. My question is really now jumping to volumes in Brazil beer. In the presentation, we shared that the industry was down by mid-single digits in Q1. At the same time, I think, Lisboa, you continue to suggest that you think this was due to cyclical factors, such as the weather, right? Last quarter marked, I think, the fourth quarter in a row of falling industry volumes at a relatively steep pace. In theory, starting now in Q2, we are cycling through that, I think, easy comparison base. My question to you, Lisboa, and I think you've mentioned in different occasions in recent past how confident you are about the potential of the category.

Obviously, this year you have a positive calendar effect, such as the World Cup. My question to you is really how confident you are, now that we are cycling through this easy comparison base, how confident you are that volumes can grow in the balance of 2026, in the next three quarters. Thank you.

Hey, Thiago. Nice to talk to you, and thanks for the question. Just a clarification. First, actually, the industry is cycling through the toughest comparison base, not the easiest comparison base, right? Since Q1 2025 was pretty much the only quarter when the industry pretty much landed in a positive territory. From that onwards was, man, a solid negative performance in all quarters, from 2 to quarter four, right? When the category, the industry landed around mid to low single digit in this quarter versus last year, in our point of view, is a continuation of a recovery because we are, the category is again landing in the toughest comparison moment, right? About the drivers, I think it's always good to understand what happened last year.

We always emphasize that the issue was not whether consumers wanted beer, but how often the right occasions happened, right? Given the fact that what mostly impacted the industry were cyclical drivers, which is pretty much the same that happened in this quarter in '26, right? Being the, you know, the most relevant impact coming from the weather. In a lower intensity vis-a-vis what we saw from quarter 2 to quarter 4 from last year, right? I think it's important for you to keep in mind, Thiago, that the correlation between industry performance and the weather is very visible for us. This is something that we have been dedicating a lot of time and effort here to improve the capacity we have to read what is happening around us, right?

Regarding the context or in other words, cyclical drivers impacted the industry performance and also the structural drivers. When we look at everything that impacted last year the industry that still impacted this year the industry, and we look forward, we do expect that first and foremost, the calendar will bring a pretty interesting ground for the industry to continue recovering moving forward. A combination of long holidays, a combination of FIFA World Cup coming exactly in the moment when the industry declined the most. High single digits against 2024. After that, have in mind that, you know, the major impact came from the weather. We don't expect, despite the fact that we don't control this piece.

We don't expect the weather to impact the industry the same way it happened because, right, the issue came from the distance, the gap between, you know, a very warm weather in 2023 and 2024 against a cold and long winter time in 2025. That gap was the main reason why, right, we saw such a big decline, which is very unusual for the beer industry to, you know, face in a, in a region like Brazil, right? The other piece of the equation, which is still in place by the way, right, is the households, household income pressure, which is something that we continue to pay attention. However, the category usually shows its resilience in moments like that.

Beer is seen as an affordable entertainment for consumers in Brazil, and that give us the chance to, despite the pressure, continue to see, you know, and drive category industry momentum moving forward. I hope to have answered your question.

Lisboa, Fleury here. If I could just add, I think we all heard Lisboa mentioning a few moments ago about the momentum of our portfolio this year compared to what we had before. The compounding effect about the momentum of our portfolio is also very relevant when you think about volume for this quarter and when you were to put together a view for the year.

Yeah, yeah. That's clear. Thank you both.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Lucas Ferreira with J.P. Morgan. You can open your microphone.

Yes. Hi, guys. Thank you very much for the time. I wanted to explore Fleury and Lisboa, this topic you just mentioned about the momentum of the brands. If you can go down into the category levels and also brand specific, especially the key brands in premium and core, how they have been performing. What has been sort of the surprise in your view of in terms of resilience, right, in this tough environments in both premium and core. Especially in core, how things look like, you know, in your view going forward at through the rest of the year. Which seems where, you know, maybe the market's a bit more competitive or maybe where you guys had a bit more trouble.

Basically, how to think about this momentum going forward, especially regarding the core segment, which was maybe on the weak side this quarter? Thank you.

Thank you, Lucas. I think the first point to highlight here is the mission we set for ourselves to really not only lead, but also develop and make this industry, the category, grow over time. In other words, we wanna be truly a captain of the category here in Brazil. With that in mind, the way we should, you know, land this mission is by, you know, protecting, elevating the brands that compose, in our point of view, the core of this category here, our domestic, right, large core brands. We have been doing that, and we discussed about it, last year. Also putting, you know, efforts behind a portfolio playing this game.

We wanna have more than one core brand playing this role because we know that Brazil is a very large country, and our competitive dynamics, they change depending on the region, right? In other words, it's important for us have more than one brand, and this is a large piece of the equation, piece of the category, and we have a very high share level there, right? By having this, you know, strong core segment, you can really play the game to expand the category, right? Develop the category to attract more consumers to jump into more occasions, right? We are doing so in a pretty, you know, solid way. I think the first point to highlight is the premium segment. Again, a portfolio game.

There we find brands like Stella Artois, Original, right, Corona, you know, placing very solid and consistent, right, volume performance along quarter-over-quarter. You know, taking us to regain the leading position and also today having the, you know, the brands growing the most in the Brazilian market within this segment. On the other side of the story, a new, you know, a new toy for us, right? The one we call balance portfolio, right? The piece of the portfolio composed by no-alcohol beers, right? Which by the way, continue to, you know, to deliver very solid results. You know, the new brands like, you know, Stella Artois Pure Gold and Michelob ULTRA, which have been, you know, growing in exponential way here.

All together, this portfolio jumped from 1.5% of our mix, right, to this quarter delivering almost 4% of our mix. It's a very solid pace of growth, right? We are complementing this game with new members like Flying Fish, right? We are bringing to life the versatility that the category brings to us, right? By doing so, we are, you know, creating new experience to our consumers to learn, you know, everything that beer can be here. This is what really excited us, and it's nice to be part of a global enterprise. Because we It's almost like having crystal ball in your hands, right?

We know what beer can be, and we know that we can make this love category even stronger in Brazil, and this is exactly the mission that we set for ourselves since day one. I can guarantee you know, all InBev, you know, partners, they are in love with this idea, right, to drive this category even further.

Thank you, Lisboa.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Carlos Laboy with HSBC. You can open your microphone. You can open your microphone, sir. I believe he's having some technical issues as well. We're gonna go ahead to our next question from Ben Theurer with Barclays. You can open your microphone.

Good morning, or good afternoon. Lisboa, Fleury, thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to follow up a little bit on the COGS outlook. If you could help us understand and frame maybe the cadence throughout the year. Obviously, we saw the pressure as in first half as expected. Just given the current environment with higher aluminum prices, et cetera, how should we think about the cost flow through for you guys based on the hedges for the rest of the year? Thank you.

No, thank you, Ben. When we do, and as we have done last year, let me go back a little bit for 2025, which will probably ease for you to understand how we are working in 2026. When we start the year, we have extensive analysis, and we have our hedges, which give us a very good predictability on the forecast going forward. Last year, you remember that was a very tough year for us because when we gave the guidance to the market, we didn't have a view about how the industry would perform throughout the year. Last year, I would start by saying that we had to reignite the muscle of the organization of looking into very details of cost, production, distribution, so on and so forth.

That is working altogether different areas, which allowed us to end the year despite the volume decrease, at the lowest part of our cash COGS guidance for the year. When we are starting 2026, what we have said to the market is our range between 4.5 for Brazil beer cash COGS per hectolitre exclude the marketplace from 4.5 to 7.5. We understand that the market is still dynamic. That's what I just said to you guys. The information that we have today, with also the discipline, with also the cost discussions and projects looking forward to different areas, we are maintaining our cash COGS from 4.5 to 7.5 for the year.

We know, and that's something that I also comment, that we know that Q1 is probably the highest on cost, and that should start easing through the second quarter onwards. Allow me also to mention one thing that make very clear for everyone. When we think about not direct costs, but investments that we do in sales and marketing, we understand and we made it clear that Q2 is probably will be more skewed when I look into the FIFA World Cup and activations that we have compared to the prior years. Probably expect Q2 to be more skewed on the sales and marketing on H1. We are confident that we're working very hard to maintain the guidance throughout the year.

Thank you very much.

Our next question comes from Gustavo Troiano with Itaú BBA. You can open your microphone.

Hello, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. My question also relates to Beer Brazil, especially on the FIFA World Cup impacts here. Basically, I just wanted to understand your perspective on how much of that consumption related to the World Cup is something that you can already see a few months in advance from the event, so potentially starting to flow through your results as early as the first quarter versus something that really only becomes clear as we get closer to the event itself by the second quarter. How do you think it works, this timeline for this demand to flow through your P&L? Related to this timeline, I was wondering whether you're already seeing any early pricing movements from competitors ahead of this demand peak.

Would you say that this period ahead of the World Cup could create any opportunity to fine-tune relative pricing across SKUs, or whether if you think it makes sense to adjust pricing ahead of the World Cup as well? Thank you very much.

Hi, Gustavo. Thank you for the questions. I will keep the protocol in place. I'm gonna answer one question to give you all the chance to interact with us, okay? Regarding your first question, World Cup contribution. Look, historically, the World Cup usually bring a contribution of around 0.3 to 0.4 industry growth year-over-year, annually speaking. That contribution usually impacts as well, you know, the second to third quarters. Which is exactly when we're gonna see, you know, the event taking place. For sure, you have prep games in different regions across our footprint, and those are moments as well when we activate our brands, right, with campaigns, promo, different sorts of activations. That create additional consumption moments. Which is good for the category.

Keep in mind that in Brazil, what we missed the most last year were occasions, frequency. Whenever you have the chance to activate frequency, it is good for us on a year-over-year basis. I think you saw during the beginning of the session, we already have our portfolio of brands, exploiting the moment in different ways. This is beautiful because, you know, we have a complementary, you know, portfolio of brands, and they can, you know, use the platform to create new bonds with consumers in different ways.

This is wonderful in my point of view as a marketer, right? This is exactly what you're gonna see moving forward and gaining even more traction, right? As we speak, our teams are ready to land everything that we developed last year to reach such a unique moment for us in pretty much, you know, across our footprint in a very stronger way to keep our momentum forward. As, you know, Fleury mentioned before, we jump into this year with our portfolio delivering solid results, right, across the board from core to high-end to beyond and, you know, flavor BEES. Now, you know, the World Cup comes in a very interesting moment for us to keep this momentum forward, right? That's it.

I think very excited about the opportunity and ready to make it happen.

Just to add one thing here, Lisboa. I think it important to remember that on this World Cup, different from the prior, our digital platforms are much more evolved, so we're gonna see a lot of activations through something that we've been developing for a long period of time. The connection that we make with consumers through Zé Delivery and the connection that we make with our POCs, points of sales that we interact directly through BEES, I believe it'll be amazing. We're gonna be, we're gonna see a lot of activation, and it's our job, as Lisboa said, to help grow the industry.

Well said.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Robert Ottenstein with Evercore. You can open your microphone.

Great. Thank you very much. Apologies if I missed it. I know there was a question, I think it was the first question, was on the price mix. You mentioned some carryover from 2025 business mix and RGM. Can you be a little bit more specific in breaking things out? I think CPI in Brazil is running around 4%, so should we think in terms of 4% pricing and then 4% mix? How should we look at that? Perhaps in connection with that, can you give us the latest breakout of the premium segment?

What percentage of your business is premium, how much that is up, and the impact of that on the revenue per hectoliter? Thank you.

Robert. Look, as you said, we detail a little bit, you know, what you just asked in the beginning of the conversation. I'm gonna, you know, emphasize the key message here. The revenue management agenda has a mission that is composed by twofold, right? One is protect the industry growth, category accessibility in other terms, right? While protecting our profitability, right? That's the reason why we're gonna always, you know, aim a rate strategy aligned with inflation over time to allow our consumers, especially those coming from mid to low socioeconomic ends, to access the category, right? That's exactly what we see happening in the beginning of this year. The main difference is the carryover against a easier comp from last year, given the fact that we didn't have a carryover from 2024 into 2025, right?

Three components, you know, building up the net revenue per hectoliter in part of one. First and foremost, carryover. Second point, our revenue management agenda taking place already. The third component is the mix contribution, right? To your complimentary question, the mix for us represent 20% of our, you know, volumes growing around 20%, right? In a very consistent base. That's the reason why you see an interesting contribution coming from the mix, which usually represents around 15% of what we see in our net revenue per hectoliter performance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes the Q&A session. I would like to invite Mr. Carlos Lisboa to proceed with his closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you for joining our call today. As we close, I would like to reinforce a few message. First, this quarter marked a solid first step into the kind of year we want to have. Second, our growth formula is based on the 3 pillars of our strategy working as a flywheel. When these pillars advance simultaneously, they show encouraging results, strengthening one another, and supporting our profitable growth journey. Third, we are confident in beer. It is a loved and versatile category with clear headroom to grow. 2026 is shaping up to be the year of socialization. When people get together, beer has a unique role in making those moments more special. With that, I would like to thank you all and hope to see you soon.

This concludes today's presentation. You may disconnect and have a nice day.

Good afternoon, and thank you for waiting. We would like to welcome everyone to Ambev's 2025 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results Conference Call. Today with us, we have Mr. Carlos Lisboa, Ambev's CEO; and Mr. Guilherme Fleury, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. As a reminder, this conference presentation is available for download on our website, ir.ambev.com.br as well as through the webcast link. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the safe harbor of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Ambev's management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore, depends on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Ambev and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I would also like to remind everyone that, as usual, the percentage changes that will be discussed during today's call are both organic and normalized in nature. And unless otherwise stated, percentage changes refer to comparison with 2024 fourth quarter and full year results. Normalized figures refer to performance measures before exceptional items, which are either income or expenses that do not occur regularly as part of Ambev's normal activities. As normalized figures are non-GAAP measures, the company disclosed the consolidated profit, EPS, operating profit and EBITDA on a fully reported basis in the earnings release. Now I'll turn the conference over to Mr. Carlos Lisboa. Mr. Lisboa, you may begin your conference.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. As we close the year, here is the message I hope you take away today. We made meaningful progress on the mission we set from day 1, even in a dynamic context that stress tested our strategy. Here is how we progressed. First, avoiding disruptions. We built on a strong foundation and maintained execution consistency across the company. Through active listening, we protected what was working and implemented improvements without destabilizing the organization. Second, keeping momentum. Over the course of the year, we advanced quarter-by-quarter on different fronts, finishing the year with a better performance for 2026. Third, building a stronger company. We avoided changing directions with the context. We advanced simultaneously on the 3 pillars of our strategy because that is where our differentiation comes from. This is what we mean by being ambidextrous. And it is building a flywheel that strengthens each year and sustain our performance over time. As a result, we ended 2025 stronger than we started. We strengthened our portfolio, got closer to our customers and consumers and advanced profitability. Volumes, however, were pressured by the environment, and that matters because it frames our ambition for what comes next. To use a simple analogy, 2025 was a tough season to play with a wet beach, cold weather and a game that kept changing. It forced us to build muscle, resilience and adaptability, and it strengthened our collective ownership as a team. And just as important, that strengthening showed up in our people. In a demanding year, employees' confidence in our future increased, driving engagement indicators to all-time highs, back to post-pandemic peak levels and reinforcing that our culture truly stands out in challenging moments. All that means we are coming out better prepared for the next season, which in 2026 happens to be the FIFA World Cup, a big passion point in our markets. So let me touch on another passion, beer. What we saw in 2025 reinforces our view that the headwinds were primarily cyclical and occasion driven, not a sudden change in beer fundamentals. A strong proof point is this. The most engaged consumers, our beer lovers, got closer to the category and the category equity strengthened over the year. In other words, beer continues to be loved, culturally relevant and deeply connected to socialization across our markets, where it holds a high share of alcoholic beverages. And we continue to see meaningful runway ahead. The category has headroom to expand, supported by favorable demographics in Latin America and growth through occasions development, both out-of-home and at home and through a broader portfolio that addresses trends and needs, recruiting new consumers. Simply put, what changed in 2025 was not whether consumers want beer, but how often the right moments happen. Now let me connect that to our strategy. Under Pillar 1, as the category captain, our job is to bridge the gap between beer potential and actual consumption, fostering category growth. In 2025, we led where the category expanded the most, premium, balanced choices and nonalcohol. We elevated the core segment through innovation and investments while building adjacencies like flavored beers. And that leads us to our Pillar 2, where we are using data and technology to shape our own future and stay ahead of the curve, strengthening the core business while building new growth engines. On the B2B side, our priority is to go deep with BEES as an enabler to make the core business stronger, helping us win through better execution at the point of sale. Our ecosystem is built on the idea that the better our customers perform, the better we perform. That is why we are embedding digital sellout activation tools powered by our data and insights, benchmarking what works across points of sale and translating it into sharper activation and portfolio recommendations. Also, BEES marketplace continues to scale with full year GMV growing 70%, driven by 3P expansion and gross margin up 3.5 percentage points versus last year, reinforcing both relevance and improving economics. On the consumer side, Z� Delivery closed 2025 with all-time high performance, delivering BRL 4.7 billion in GMV, up 13% versus last year. 67 million orders and 27 million yearly active users, up 11% versus last year, consolidating its position as one of the major convenience platforms in Brazil. Strategically, Z� put us close to young adult consumers with nearly 80% of buyers either Gen Z or millennials, and it accelerates both execution and our test and learn innovation loop. It is our food in the future. And this brings us to our third pillar, the muscle that makes the other 2 pillars scalable. In 2025, we set a clear ambition to expand Ambev's consolidated EBITDA margin again, EBM. Despite industry softness and FX and commodity headwinds, we delivered a meaningful evolution from top to bottom line that came from thoughtful choices on resource allocation, revenue management, productivity and expenses governance while sustaining brand investment. That discipline translated into delivery. At the consolidated level, we expanded organic EBITDA margin by 50 basis points, marking our third consecutive year of margin expansion and by 110 basis points in Brazil Beer. And that reinforced our confidence in capital allocation. Consistent with our commitment to return excess cash to shareholders over time, we announced approximately BRL 20 billion in shareholder returns in 2025, the highest in our history through BRL 13.2 billion in dividends, BRL 4.2 billion in interest on capital and a new BRL 2.5 billion in share buyback program. And we are starting the year paying the first BRL 1.2 billion tranche of the IOC declared by year-end. Now let me give a quick overview across our footprint. In 2025, we grew EBITDA across all our business units, and we expanded EBITDA margin in 4 out of 5. In Brazil Beer, full year volumes were in line with the soft industry, and our performance reflected 2 different halves. Our revenue management initiatives weighted on share in the first half. As conditions improved in the second half, market share expanded meaningfully. In Q4, as weather sequentially recovered, so did our volumes. October was the main drag, and we returned to growth in December. For the quarter, we delivered a low single-digit market share gain in Nielsen sell-out. We continue to lead where the category is expanding the most. premium and super premium volumes increased high teens, and we closed the year as leaders in the segment, reflecting stronger portfolio brand equity. Our balanced choices brands grew high 60s and nonalcohol grew around 30% as we continue to expand leadership and unlock incremental occasions. In the quarter, we delivered 100% of the Brazilian beer industry's growth in premium and nonalcohol according to our estimates and Nielsen sell-out data. In the core segment, softness was more pronounced given its higher reliance on out-of-home socialization. We are sustaining its recovery through stronger trade activation, marketing campaigns and continued innovation, and we started to see progress with market share gains in Q4. In Brazil NAB, during 2025, the disciplined execution of our strategy and resource allocation supported EBITDA growth with margin expansion. At the same time, Guaran� Antartica's equity improved, showcasing the strength of the brand. In the first half, volume momentum and commercial execution supported market share gains despite margin pressure given higher costs. In the second half, the CSD industry decelerated amid the same cyclical drivers that impacted beer. and price relativity became less favorable following our revenue management decisions, resulting in market share pressure while delivering a better profitability profile. In Argentina, the macro environment continued to improve with lower inflation and less FX volatility. The consumption recovery, however, is taking longer than we expected and continued to weigh on results in 2025. Still, performance improved sequentially throughout the year with a more balanced dynamic between top line and bottom line in the fourth quarter, supported by tighter execution and revenue management. Looking ahead, we remain constructive on a gradual recovery as the consumption environment improves. In the Dominican Republic, the consumption environment also improved sequentially through the year despite a weather-related disruption in Q4. In this context, beer gained share of alcoholic beverage in full year, supported by healthier dynamic between categories, while Presidente's brand health reached all-time highs. In Canada, we outperformed both beer and beyond beer industries, supported by our beer mega brands and continued beyond beer momentum while maintaining disciplined cost execution and delivering EBITDA margin expansion. With that, I will now turn it over to Fleury.

Thank you, Lisboa, and hello, everyone. As we enter 2025, we made it clear that this would be another year focused on long-term value creation through disciplined execution of our capital allocation framework. In a dynamic operating environment, we focus on what we can control and delivered another year of normalized EBITDA growth with margin expansion, EPS growth, resilient cash generation and a higher capital return to our shareholders. Let me walk you through our financial performance for the year, starting with the margin improvement dynamics. We closed 2025 delivering consolidated normalized EBITDA margin expansion of 50 bps reaching 33.4%, mainly driven by 3 factors: First, net revenue per hectoliter growth of 7.5%, supported by stronger brands, revenue management strategy and continued premiumization across our portfolio, leading to net revenue per hectoliter growth across all of our business units. Second, financial discipline. Consolidated cash COGS per hectoliter performance benefited from productivity initiatives and operational efficiencies across our industrial and logistics operations. Brazil Beer is a clear proof point. Despite the cost headwinds anticipated at the beginning of the year and the operational deleveraging associated with lower volumes, our cash COGS per hectoliter, excluding non-Ambev marketplace products increased by 6.1% in 2025 at the lowest quartile of our guidance. And third, efficient resource allocation. In SG&A, we continued to invest behind our brands while keeping total cash SG&A growth under control. Now moving to below EBITDA lines. We closed the year with almost BRL 4 billion in net financial expenses mainly explained by FX variation losses related to foreign currency-denominated assets and the BRL appreciation, coupled with expenses related to sourcing U.S. dollars in Bolivia. In terms of income taxes, our effective tax rate for the year was 17.7%, reflecting some one-off effects mainly from Q3, such as the Barbados divestment, the partial reversal of tax liabilities associated with the 2017 Brazilian tax amnesty program and certain effects related to tax credits. Absent such one-offs, our consolidated effective tax rate would have been approximately 20% for the year. As a result, stated net income reached almost BRL 16 billion with stated EPS increasing 8.2% year-on-year, while normalized EPS increased by 2% in the year. Now turning to cash flow. Cash flow from operating activities remained solid and totaled BRL 24.5 billion, BRL 1.6 billion lower than last year, mainly due to softer volumes that impacted working capital. Cash flow consumed in investing activities totaled approximately BRL 5 billion, mainly driven by CapEx investment broadly in line with last year. Cash flow consumed in financing activities amounted to BRL 26.8 billion, driven by shareholder payouts and the completion of our 2024 share buyback program. In total, we returned BRL 21.7 billion to shareholders on a cash basis, meaning that approximately 90% of our operating cash flow was returned to shareholders in 2025 and reinforcing our commitment to sustainable long-term value creation, our return on invested capital continued to be meaningfully above our weighted average cost of capital and improved in 2025, driven by NOPAT margin. For 2026, we remain consistent towards our capital allocation priorities of: one, reinvesting in our organic growth to keep supporting the development of Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 of our strategy; two, maintaining a disciplined approach towards M&A opportunities; and three, consistently return excess cash to shareholders over time. In terms of costs, in 2026, we expect Brazil Beer cash COGS per hectoliter, excluding non-Ambev marketplace products to increase between 4.5% and 7.5%, driven primarily by commodity prices, aluminum, in particular, and portfolio mix with higher cost pressures anticipated in the first half of the year. At the same time, we remain focused on identifying opportunities and enhancing efficiency as we continue to pursue our ambition of expanding consolidated margin over time. And before handing it back to Lisboa, I would like to share a team update. Patrick Conrad, a seasoned finance professional, is joining our Investor Relations team, succeeding Guilherme Yokaichiya. Yoka, in turn, will transition to a fully dedicated position leading Ambev's treasury team. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Yoka for the outstanding work he has done leading Ambev's Investor Relations team over the past 5 years and to wish both continued success in their new roles. Now back to you, Lisboa.

Thank you, Fleury. As I reflect about 2025, it was another year marked by a very dynamic operating environment, and that strengthened our ability to read and adapt to market changes. 2026 will certainly bring its own dynamics, but it is also shaping up to be a promising year for socialization, and those moments have already started. Carnival is underway, not only in Brazil, but across several of our Latin American markets. From there, we begin to warm up for the FIFA World Cup, the biggest additional record in favorable time zones for our footprint, creating another interesting backdrop for people to come together. On top of that, in Brazil, a holiday-rich calendar adds several long weekends throughout the year, creating additional occasions for socialization. In this context, I want to leave you with 3 reminders. First, beer is a loved category in Latin America with strong fundamentals, and that strength comes with headroom for growth, given its versatility to address consumers' trends and needs. Second, we, as a company, are advancing simultaneously on our 3 strategic pillars, strengthening a flywheel we can compound year after year. And third, we entered 2026 as a stronger company with momentum carryover and how we navigated 2025 was another proof point that our culture stands out in times like this. And none of this happens without our people. I want to close by thanking our teams across all markets for their ownership, adaptability and execution through a very demanding year and for the energy they are bringing into 2026. With that, let me hand it over to the operator.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Nadine Sarwat from Bernstein.

I'd like to double-click on Brazil. So firstly, great seeing that commentary about December beer volumes being in growth. Can you unpack that a little bit, the magnitude factors behind that? Was it all weather? Or were there any other favorable shifts? And are you able to comment any trends in January? And following up to that, secondly, Brazil NAB, I know you guys called out your revenue management strategy as a reason behind the volume decline. Can you add some color as to what the exact decisions were that resulted in that decline? And then what can we expect for volumes in '26?

Nadine, nice to talk to you again. Lisboa here. Look, I'm going to follow the protocol. I'm going to get the first answer. Regarding Brazil Beer, to your point about what are the drivers. So quickly reminder, what happened last year made 2025 like an outlier year for the beer industry in Brazil. Prior to that, 10 years' time, 5 years' time, 3 years' time, there was consistent growth and pretty much driven by favorable demographics and disposable income increase. Last year, and we mentioned that during the result announcement, what we saw was unseasonable weather impacting mostly the wintertime and boosted by the La Nina phenomenon that somehow made the winter go deeper and longer in the second half. And that created unfavorable type of situation for beer because it impacted the most an occasion and out-of-home occasions that are where the beer category volume resides. So that's the reason why we saw the impact. Obviously, it was not an easy situation for us to manage. As I said before, it was the first time that we saw such a strong impact in our industry, but I think the team put all the emphasis behind things that we could control. And by doing so, we kept evolving quarter-by-quarter. And when the weather changed during the last quarter of last year, we were ready to ride together with the more favorable weather impacting the demand again. And this is exactly how the situation went through. In October, pretty much the month represented the vast majority of our decline in the quarter view year-over-year. We got to a better position in November. And then in December, when you combine the better weather with the market share gain that we got in the final round, the final quarter of the year, which represents around a low single-digit in sell-out data growth, that explains the positive territory that we landed. I won't go into the details about the first quarter of this year. But what I can say, Nadine, is the following. Actually, that weather pretty much came into the first round of this year, the first month of this year, what puts in a year-over-year comparison, the weather impact is neutral, which is important for us.

Sustaining and even improving profitability in 2025. You ended up doing that. There was an impressive performance on the SG&A, especially distribution costs. I would just like to get your thoughts about how you're thinking about this going into 2026, when you think about the hedging that you have for Brazil Beer as well as the room for additional efficiencies, how you see all of that shaping up for the year?

Thank you, Henrique, Fleury here. Can you hear me well? Just checking the mic here on my end.

Yes, I can.

Great. So let me start with how we put your question. I think 2025, just to recap, was really a year that when we started, we saw important cash COGS pressure. I'm talking about Brazil Beer. That's why we have given a guidance last year of 5.5% to 8.5%. And we have done here a series of, I would say, projects looking to different lines of our P&L. As I said in my speech, we focus on the industrial side, we focus on the distribution, always privileging the investment behind our brands because that is what we need to continue to focus to make Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 work better. By a series of implementation of these strategies, we are happy that we landed on the 6.1%, which was the first quartile of our guidance, okay? Now when we look into '26, I think there are 2 things that remain the same. One is we need to continue to work very hard on the initiatives. We need to continue to make it very focused on our side to -- with our ambition of coming with another year of margin expansion, and we are already doing that as we started the year. And when we do our analysis, when we look into the costs, our hedging, which is nonspeculative, when we look at the commodities, so on and so forth, we are giving the guidance to the market of 4.5% to 7.5% for the full year of '26, which is midpoint broadly in line with what we have done in '25. And that is pressured, as I said in my speech, from commodities, aluminum in particular, and portfolio mix. But be in mind that we will continue to work very hard. It's our job here to do the work and probably throughout the year, come narrowing or come with news on here. So far, that is the guidance that we have.

Henrique, Lisboa here. Just to complement Fleury. You can imagine that nobody here, we are not expecting such a challenging context in terms of volume drop for the industry, especially here in Brazil. So that put a lot of stress on our ambition to protect margins for Ambev again. And I think last year was -- that's the reason why we said it was a stress test for us. Because if we could somehow overcome the FX, overcome commodities, and on top of that, overcome the lack of capacity to dilute costs without having the volumes that give us confidence. Somehow, I think the obstacle made us develop internally the right muscles to be prepared for another ground, but in a way better shape in my point of view. So again, was not a training season for us, it was already a hard game last year, and I think it was good, you're right, to test and be prepared for what's coming.

Our next question comes from Gustavo Troyano from Itau BBA.

My question relates to capital allocation. And how should we think about your approach towards dividends throughout the year? Last year, you paid interim dividends on a quarterly basis, but I just wanted to touch base on how you're thinking about the policy for this year, not only in terms of the final payout target, but also on the timing of the distributions throughout the year. So it would be nice to understand if we should expect dividends being concentrated towards the end of the year as we were used to see until 2024 or if there is something new towards this discussion?

Thank you for the question. Let me just start highlighting again what we have done in '25. I think you have seen a very proactive discussion that we have had with Lisboa and our Board here to make sure that we are able to change the payout or return to shareholders on a consistently basis quarter after quarter on last year. On this quarter or beginning of this quarter, Lisboa just mentioned on his beginning introduction that we're also paying part of the IOC that we've approved with the Board at the end of 2025. I cannot -- this is not a guidance. I cannot tell you how that will come over the year. But what I can say as a CFO that we continue to have every quarter discussions. We continue to look into our cash position, the cash generation on our side, taking into consideration always the 3 points of our capital allocation, invest in organic growth, look into selective M&A and deliver sustainable shareholder return over time.

Our next question comes from Thiago Duarte from BTG Pactual.

Yes, in my question, I wanted to circle back to some of the topics I think we discussed a year ago, right after the return of both of you to Ambev and things that are related to the strategic vision that you shared with us at the time, and I wanted to comment, if possible, in light of not only the quarter, but I think 2025 results as a whole. The first one is to you, Lisboa, when you referred to make, I remember a year ago, bigger investments in the core brands as part of your analogy of making the company more ambidextrous and fostering the category growth. You mentioned briefly about elevating the core in your initial remarks. But when we look at the portfolio and the way it performed throughout the year, it appears that was premium, not the core that really stood out. So I wanted to hear how you think core stands a year later in terms of potential or whether you think it will continue to be gradually eclipsed by the premium brands and the portfolio will be somewhat transitioning more into premium and core losing relevance. So that would be the first of the topics we discussed a year ago. And the second one is related to the portfolio itself. In the past, I don't know, 5 or 6 years, Ambev made lots of investments in innovation, introduced many new brands, you repositioned the pricing. And obviously, I think this led to higher costs and expenses to support that expansion. And I remember a year ago, you mentioning that you believe the portfolio was stronger and it was time to reap the benefits of these investments. So on the question of the SG&A dilution, whether you think what we saw this year is really related to that and obviously, the sustainability of that going forward, which you mentioned a little bit before in the previous question. So those will be the points.

Thiago, nice to connect to you again. Look, one of the feedbacks we got from you all was about following the protocol, one answer only. So I'm going to get the first one. Okay, the first question. So based on the core question, what is the core role here for us? And I understand your point is more related to Brazil, given the fast growth rate we are delivering with the premium. I continue with my point of view, Thiago, regarding us being a company capable of managing ends not only one side of the portfolio partition especially because the part that you are alluding to the core, it is the stronger part of the industry. And if -- when you take in consideration the majority of the population in Brazil still rely pretty much on one minimum salary. The core has a meaningful play to gain in the game because it promotes accessibility to the category. On top of that Brazil is composed by different regions. Those regions is very interesting. I think I never told you that, but one of the things that caught my attention is how cyclical the portfolio is per region. So some places in Brazil that used to be a Brahma place today is an Antarctica place. Another one is a Skol place. And at a point in time, I told you guys, Skol is still a very relevant brand in several states of Brazil, here in Sao Paulo, for instance. So it's critical for us to protect that strength that our company has, the category has because somehow these brands, they represent the category. And there's plenty of room for us to make these brands very relevant in the future. How? Take as an example, what we are doing as we speak with Skol. We just brought to the game a new brand variant, which is Skol Zero Zero. We are not just following the zero trend. We are doing so with novelty because this brand extension brings something different from the others, zero alcohol, zero sugar. And this is the way, one of the ways we keep these brands relevant for our consumers in the future. And it's interesting because when you do so, when you find a way to be really ambidextrous is when you see the full potential coming to life. I'm going to give one example, which is the last quarter of last year this is when we saw the full potential of our portfolio coming to [indiscernible] because the share gain not only came from the new partitions being premium, being nonalcohol or being balanced, it came from the core as well. And coincidentally or not, this was the time when we started to see Skol also stabilizing, gaining momentum, especially in those states where we put more emphasis behind the brand. So -- and as a consequence, our share improved not only through the segments, but also through the channels and also through regions in Brazil. And this is what we want because we believe that our strength relies on the portfolio strength, and this is the game we want to play. And the core side of the business plays a very meaningful role there.

And Lisboa, if I can just add like one thing here, Thiago, quickly. I think connected with the strength of our portfolio, core was more impacted by, I would say, weather-impacted occasions, which were not fundamentally impacting the category. And with the other side of the portfolio, we led where the category expanded. And that's where we came with the bulk of the growth in premium and zero in Brazil.

Our next question comes from Renata Cabral from Citi.

My question is related to GLP-1 drugs and the potential impact on company's portfolio. We are seeing the discussion a lot developed in the U.S. Of course, the penetration of the drug has been much higher than in Brazil. So my question for you is the weakness of the portfolio this year somehow can be attributed to that. And more than that, since in March, one of the patents will expire in Brazil. So the usage can expand in 2026 or maybe '27. What is the expectations of impact in the portfolio and what the company is working to mitigate that and offer other options to consumers, not only in beer but also in the portfolio?

Renata, thank you for the question. I think it's always important to go back to '25 in order to really understand what happened. There are 2 different kinds of impact. One is attitudinal change. The other one is behavioral change. What happened last year was a change on the behavioral side due to the weather, mostly, okay? When you have bad weather when you have colder and longer winter time, the most important drinking occasion in Brazil, which is the out-of-home among friends sharing beer is the one mostly impacted. And this is what explains the majority of the drop that we saw last year. And by the way, as explained by Fleury, the brands that depend the most on this occasion are core brands. And that's the reason why you saw the core brands somehow following what happened with the industry, okay? So what is good about that is the fact that even with such a challenging circumstance context we measure the attitudinal side of our consumers regarding the category constantly. And we see not only protection of the relationship between consumers and the category, but with those that are more -- that are closer to the category, we saw a strength, which doesn't mean that those that are more unfrequent consumers, sporadic consumers do not fluctuate. And for those consumers, we are working with a very versatile category to attend more needs and trends. That's the reason why you see us developing zero alcohol beer. We are developing functional beers like gluten-free, lower calories. And we are also attending those consumers with more sweet flavor beers like Flying Fish that we introduced last year. So regarding the point about the GLP-1, we haven't observed any meaningful impact on our business. But like any other emerging trend, it requires time, more evidence, and as a consequence, I just want to say that we're going to keep monitoring and acting accordingly.

Our next question comes from Isabella Simonato from Bank of America.

I mean my question is about 2026 beer Brazil. I mean, as you mentioned, last year was quite challenging in terms of weather and occasions, and you highlighted several tailwinds this year, especially regarding that the World Cup and et cetera, more holidays as you mentioned in the past. But at the same time, you're coming -- your guidance probably shows that costs will grow above general inflation. And you're coming off from a base of SG&A that seems tough in the sense that, that was a very good performance in the last year. So when you balance things between maybe a more favorable backdrop and what you're facing internally, I wanted to hear your thoughts on your pricing strategy for 2026. And also if you could give us a little bit of a color on how should we think about mix, especially during the World Cup? And among those variables, across those variables, what do you think should be more relevant when we're thinking about volume growth for the year?

Isabella, it's a long question. So let me take the point about pricing, which is very sensitive. So I'm going to try to answer without going to any -- a territory that we don't want. So our pricing has a mission composed by twofold. One side of the pricing story is keep our industry accessible. And the reason why for that is what I mentioned before. A good -- the majority of the population in Brazil still depend a lot on accessibility to be close to the category. So we must keep an eye on it. That's the reason why core has a role to play. That's the reason why packaging assortment has a role to play because we want to give them accessibility alternatives. If we rely only on premium, we're going to make their lives even harder. On the other side of the story, pricing has the role to protect our profitability moving forward. And as you know, we have an ambition to continue expanding margin in the -- ambition. The same way we anticipated to you in the beginning of last year. We keep this ambition alive and Fleury mentioned that in the beginning of the session. So we're going to -- we need to be always balancing the 2 sides of the story. So it's not an or, but it's an and game. The beauty about our situation today is when you look to our flywheel, first and foremost, our portfolio is more complete today. And it is complete regionally speaking. So it gives us alternatives to move forward with our revenue management strategy for the year. On the second side of the story, the second pillar of our strategy, you find the digital ecosystem. And I already mentioned to you all BEES is enabling us to strengthen our core business while creating new growth engines. On the first side of the story, go deeper on the core business. We are using technology to go more granular, to execute our revenue management strategy in a different way than we used to do before. We are more effective today than before in terms of dollar invested in promotions and so on and so forth. Our algorithms help us to recommend the right portfolio of brands for each type of point of sale and so on and so forth. By doing so, we not only improve our capacity to execute the pricing per se, but we also bring together a very interesting mix impact for the game. And the 2 together should be enough to offset what kind of impact we see on the COGS side as we did last year. That's pretty much the balance we have to keep in place every single day. And I must confess that the more we do it, the better we get. So again, similar to what I said before, I feel like last year was a very good acid test, stress test for us to be ready for the year to come.

And Lisboa, Fleury here, just to add one thing here, Isabella, when you look into our costs, another way of thinking about that cost and expenses, you look at that in a holistic way. You always do the resource allocation over and over, as Lisboa was mentioning, measuring returns from market promotions from everything that we do. And it's also fair to say that, as Lisboa mentioned, over time, we want to increase -- we have the ambition of increasing our margin. But most likely, we're not going to be able to do that every quarter because when you look into Pillars 1, 2 and 3, those will be maximized over time, but that's our long-term ambition. Looking to our costs, taking out of the equation what didn't make sense and refuel and reinvesting behind our brands. And that's what Lisboa mentioned as a flywheel. So that's what we want to continue to gain momentum over and over.

This does conclude the Q&A section. I will now hand the floor back to Lisboa for any closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you for joining our call today. I would like to close reinforcing some messages. Our mission is to always strive for our better version. And we will do that by leading and shaping a loved category with clear headroom for growth. Advancing simultaneously on the 3 pillars of our strategy is what set us apart. 2025 stress tested our strategy, and we closed the year stronger and better prepared for what comes next. Thank you, and hope to see you soon. Enjoy carnival.

This does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day.