Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Heineken's Trading Update 2015 Q1 results. For your information, this conference is being recorded. There will be an opportunity for questions at the end of the conference. Please press star one if you would like to ask a question. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Heineken Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our Q1 results conference call. I'm joined by René Hooft Graafland, CFO and member of the Executive Board for what's a rather special call, as it's his last conference call at Heineken. Following some prepared remarks, we will open the call for your questions. With that, I'd like to hand the call over to René.
Okay. Thank you, Sonya. Good morning, everybody. Let me start by taking you through some brief slides highlighting the key developments in the quarter before taking your questions. Just as a reminder, the first quarter is seasonally less significant for us in terms of volume and profit for the full year group results. Despite the challenging backdrop, we made solid progress throughout the first quarter. Whilst the earlier timing of Easter helped us, there were also some negative pressures in specific markets, most notably more challenging markets in Nigeria and Indonesia. Within this context, group revenue was up 2.2% organically, with group revenue per hectoliter up 0.3%. Excluding negative country mix, revenue per hectoliter would have been up 0.9%. Group beer volumes were up 2.2% organically, with positive growth momentum continuing in Asia Pacific and the Americas.
Volume growth was more subdued in the Africa and Middle East region due to the impact of lower oil price on consumer sentiment in Nigeria. Volumes in Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe were slightly down. Heineken volume growth was particularly pleasing and up strongly by 6.2%. Given the solid start to the year, we are reiterating our full year outlook as shared with you in February. At a consolidated level, reported revenues was up 7.4%, driven by an organic increase of 2% and benefiting from EUR 227 million favorable currency impact. Slide four shows the usual breakdown across the regions. I would like to highlight here that as requested in today's release, we have restated revenue per hectoliter to include only third-party revenue and to exclude the interregional revenues.
In the quarter, Africa, Middle East volume grew in the low single digits, reflecting the impact of more difficult market conditions in Nigeria. In addition, revenue per hectoliter was impacted adversely by a high license volume in Cameroon and high growth in the lower revenue per hectoliter countries, including Ethiopia. Although short-term, the outlook for Nigeria is uncertain, nothing has changed in terms of our view of the compelling longer-term positive fundamentals of this region. In the Americas, we continue to see strong momentum in Mexico and Brazil. Our portfolio strategy is also driving good results in the U.S.A., and the Caribbean markets also saw favorable momentum. Whilst there was some Easter benefit, notably in Mexico, this only added around 1% to the region's organic volume growth.
In Western Europe, the Easter benefit to volumes was offset by the adverse impact of the excise increase in Italy and the lower export volumes to Angola from Portugal. We continue to execute the Not an Inch Back strategy to drive market share. Revenue per hectoliter was slightly lower and down 0.6%, partly due to the deflationary and off-trade pricing pressures, which we highlighted already to you in February. In Central and Eastern Europe, volumes were down 2.6%, primarily due to Russia. Excluding this impact, volume would have been up 1%. As a reminder, whilst Russia is meaningful for regional volumes, it is less significant from a profit perspective, and we are encouraged by the improving profitability from this country. Elsewhere, we saw more encouraging volume trends in Poland, although it's still early days.
Greece was down slightly with the latter part of the quarter recovering from a weaker start to the year. Revenue per hectoliter was up 1.9% with the continued focus on driving value and premiumization. Group beer volume in Asia was strong, up 8.4%, driven by a successful Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, strong growth in Cambodia, and positive momentum in some of the export markets. Indonesia is clearly more challenging given the implementation of the new regulation banning the sale of alcohol in minimarts, and this will put some pressure on full-year results from this country. Adverse country mix weighted on the revenue per hectoliter, which if excluded, would have been up in the single digits. We are pleased to report strong performance of the Heineken brand, which grew 6.2% in the quarter.
This reflects particularly impressive growth momentum across several key markets, including Vietnam, Brazil, China, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan and Canada. Heineken lager volumes in the U.S. were positively supported by our sponsorship of the Major League Soccer. Slide six runs through the breakdown of the 2.2% organic group revenue growth. Currency, as you can see from the chart, was a material benefit, adding almost 6% to revenue growth, mainly driven by the Mexican peso, the U.S. dollar, U.K. sterling, and the Vietnamese đồng, partly offset by the Russian ruble. The impact of consolidation was very limited with 1.8% consolidated volume growth and 0.2% consolidated revenue per hectoliter growth. In summary, I think we made a very solid start to 2015. Briefly, I would like to mention our recent announcement regarding the organizational changes, geographical regions, and streamlining the head office will lead to a number of benefits.
The benefits include evolving the business to become more agile in terms of serving changing consumer needs, allowing for faster decision-making, and being more cost-effective. On this latter point, I would stress that this is not the main reason for this reorganization, but that this will underpin our medium-term margin guidance. Finally, whilst the markets are clearly challenging, we remain confident in delivering on our full-year expectations. This as an introduction, I would like to open the floor now for questions.
We will now take our first question from Richard Withagen from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead, sir.
Yes, good morning. I have two questions. First of all, on the U.S., can you tell how new product introductions have done in the U.S. given the marketplace is increasingly crowded? I would especially think about a comment on perhaps Dos Equis, Dos-A-Rita, and Tecate Michelada, which have been introduced some time ago. The second question is on Asia. Your price per hectoliter growth in Asia remains low. At least the growth in there, is that still driven by moderate pricing, a shift in the regional mix, or does the portfolio mix continue to have a negative impact, and should we expect some improvement in that number in the course of 2015?
Yes. First of all, on the U.S.A., we see a continued double-digit performance of a brand like Dos Equis. That continues its strong growth. The new line extensions and new products in the portfolio play just a minor role in that growth because it is very much regionally contained, and we don't do that across everywhere where we sell Dos Equis. In that sense, the growth of Dos Equis is coming from the two main SKUs, the lager and the amber beer. At the same time, when you look at the new products, cider is continuing to perform very strong, and Strongbow is on a very strong trajectory there. Regarding the price mix in Asia, as I said in the introduction, country mix is playing an important role there. Vietnam overall has lower price levels and lower revenue per hectoliter compared with the overall level in the region.
When you see the strong growth of Vietnam, that has obviously a negative impact on the regional revenue per hectoliter. If you look at the individual countries, so the underlying revenue per hectoliter, that was up in the mid-single digits. Overall, you see that rebalancing of the portfolio is pretty much done, and you see now that we are growing from the existing portfolio.
Okay, thanks for that, and all the best, René.
We will now take our next question from Trevor Stirling from Bernstein. Please go ahead, sir.
Morning, René. René, before the question, just to give my personal thanks for all the questions you've answered over the year with profound expertise and good grace, considering perhaps some of them were not quite as good as the others, and wish you a very productive and relaxing retirement.
Well, thank you very much, Trevor. It was always a pleasure to answer your questions.
Very good. The question for today, René, not directly related to the trading statement, but in February, you gave us an estimate of what the foreign exchange impact would be on earnings, if spot rates continued to prevail. From memory, it was about a 5% boost to underlying earnings. Is that still the case, or given the weakness in the euro, do you think the benefit could be slightly higher?
What we gave in February, what it would be at the spot rates of that moment, and that was out of my head, EUR 130 million on EBIT and EUR 80 million on net profit. We said we would update you at the half year again, unless there was a material change in that figure. The fact that we don't update you is that there is not a material change to that figure. Obviously, currencies go up and down, so it won't be exactly what it is, what we guided on. Overall, we feel comfortable with that guidance, and we will update you precisely again, halfway the year.
Great. Thank you very much, René.
Our next question is from Edward Mundy from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Morning, René. Three questions, if I may. The first is on African revenue per hectoliter. You are lapping, I think, a relatively easy comparison on that. Do you expect this to trend better through the year? Second, on Asia, could you perhaps quantify the benefit from Tet in Vietnam and what you think would be a better underlying run rate for Asia Pack? Finally, just on Nigeria, could you provide a bit more granularity on both the Nigerian market and your market share there?
Yes, thank you. First of all, on the revenue per hectoliter in Africa, we still see the effect of the higher license volume in Cameroon, which is taken into revenue at the royalty rate. That growth is disturbing the revenue per hectoliter, I think we have said it's about half of it. Secondly, you see that since the new brewery in Ethiopia is on stream, we are growing very, very fast in that country. By the way, much faster than we have thought of, we filled the brewery just quickly after the opening. So we are busy now again with plans to expand that capacity further. Ethiopia has a lower average price level than what we have in, for instance, markets like Nigeria. That plays a role.
The last part which plays a role, that is mainly a thing in Nigeria, is where you see that the value segment is growing. Since a year, we are playing fully also in that value segment. It has also been one of the reasons why we combined our two businesses in Nigeria into one company to be more effective in competing in that value segment. That has some pressure on the revenue per hectoliter. We have taken some price in Nigeria selectively, you see that the mix is obviously going in the wrong direction from a revenue per hectoliter point. Now, asking on the market share in Nigeria, as we have indicated in the release, we lost some share in the first quarter, you have to see that in an all-time high market share, what we have last year.
We are down again to around 70%. What is influencing very much the Nigerian market, at least in this first quarter figures, is the growth of the ready-to-drinks. Certainly, Diageo, with its Orijin, has made big inroads, and that part has been growing. When we look at beer, the overall beer market is down around 5%-6%, but including the ready-to-drinks, the decline is much less. The good figures we saw from Diageo are very much driven by these ready-to-drinks. Meanwhile, we have launched also a ready-to-drink in that segment, Ace Roots. Very encouraging in March that took already a quarter of that market. We have good foresight that we will rebalance a bit what we lost there. The last part was Tet. When you look at the strong volume developments in Asia, clearly Tet played a role in that.
It's very difficult to completely single that out. Also without Tet, we would have had a very strong volume performance in the Asia Pacific countries.
Thanks. Are you able to quantify what your volumes were in Vietnam in the first quarter?
I don't think we give that specifically, but it was a strong double-digit up.
Okay, thanks. Just a final on Nigeria. The RTD Ace Roots that you've launched in March, are you able to provide some color on how it is for revenue per hectoliter? Is it positive for revenue per hectoliter in Nigeria or negative?
We price it at the level of Star. It will be in the middle of the market. The margins are pretty much comparable with our lagers there. It is certainly from a margin and value perspective, an attractive segment.
Very good. Thanks so much.
We will now take our next question from Chris Pitcher from Redburn. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning. Good morning, René. Thanks for taking the question. A couple, please. Could you give a bit more detail on the strong export growth that you're seeing in the first quarter? We're seeing in the U.S. import numbers, very strong growth behind the Dutch brands. A little bit more color behind that. Is this you sort of rebuilding stock levels within your own enterprise? Just to give us a bit of color on that. On the Americas pricing up over 2%, are you able to give us a bit more feel for what pricing is like specifically in, say, Mexico, Brazil, and the U.S., and to give us a feel on that? Thanks very much.
Yes, Chris. On the U.S., you always see that sales is slightly higher than depletions in the run up towards the season. If you just compare percentage-wise, sales versus depletions or the growth in sales or the growth in depletions, we see that the growth in depletions is actually higher than the growth in sales. It is not that we are now building up more stock than we normally do. On the contrary, we built up slightly less stock, if you look at it on a percentage basis. Second question was on the price mix, which was positive in the Americas. Obviously, it is a bit different country by country. Mexico took or has some effect on revenue per hectoliter and price mix. You know we are there in the mix improvement game and the price levering in the market.
We will still take some pricing in Q2. Overall revenue per hectoliter was in the low single digits in Mexico. We took some selective pricing in the U.S. There you see some movement coming. We have very strong price mix in Brazil, and that is driven partly by pricing, but mainly by the very strong continued growth of the Heineken brand.
Thank you very much, René. Good luck for the future.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
We will now take our next question, Tristan van Strien from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, René. Two questions, if I may. One, can you just expand on your Sagres exports to Angola? What is happening? Is this because you started brewing locally, or is this more U.S. dollar availability issue or the Angolan market? The second one is on Poland. Some good results there going on now. Are you seeing some pricing discipline happening in that particular market, or is there still a lot of discounting happening?
First of all, on Angola, yes, we export Sagres from Portugal. The market is almost closed. Currency is an issue, a lot of import restrictions. All brewers will have difficulties to get products into Angola unless you produce locally. Yeah, that affects obviously the European figures because as that is third-party export, that is in European or in the Portuguese figures. Poland, we had a good first quarter. Last year, we were delisted in one of the modern trades. We are back in, so that has obviously a positive effect. At the same time, that company is going through a massive restructuring. There's a lot of focus on the cost. We are happy with a very solid and positive first quarter, but it is still early days.
You know me, I'm a conservative guy. Let's not cry victory yet, but at least it's encouraging what we see there.
Just to follow up on Angola, how far are you from commissioning the brewery in Angola?
We are not commissioning a brewery in Angola. I'm not aware that we have communicated anything on Angola.
All right. Thank you very much, René, and good luck. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you.
We will now take our next question from Simon Hales in Barclays. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Morning, René. A couple of questions, please. Firstly, you talked about Easter being about a 1% benefit, I think, in relation to the Americas volumes in the quarter. Can you tell us what the benefit of Easter was across the whole group, in Q1? Secondly, on Indonesia, clearly there's a regulatory change just coming in there. Could you just flesh out a little bit more, what the impact was of the destocking in Q1 and perhaps more importantly, what you're budgeting for as we look forward in terms of what that impact of the banning of sale in many markets might have on your business in the remainder of the year?
First of all, Easter. We alluded on it, what it did in the Americas. If you look at what it did for us as a company, it's less than 1%. At the same time, when you, for instance, had the main effect is in Europe, there it was pretty much balanced by the excise increase in Italy, the Angola exports, which I just mentioned. Underlying, I think that Western Europe gives a pretty good picture because the plus of Easter was balanced out by the two other effects. If you just single out Easter on a group level, it is certainly less than 1%. Secondly, in Indonesia, there's a lot of unclarity.
There was a new regulation which banned the sale of alcoholic products in the mini marts, which are the convenience stores in Indonesia, which do around 15% of our volume. We saw in the first quarter that the effect on our business was beyond that, because you see that a lot of other small stores are very hesitant to stock because there is unclarity. Is it just the organized mini marts, or is it also the warungs? These are these small street stalls. Are they not allowed to sell anymore? The impact in the first quarter was quite substantial, was around a 30% volume drop in the first quarter. Going forward, you see there's a lot of opposition against this regulation. Indonesia is certainly a country which values their investment climate. They want to be open for foreign investment.
They will certainly not want to be seen as a Muslim state, although it's the biggest Muslim country in the world. We hope that that comes quite quickly.
Also on Nigeria, when was the last time you've seen an excise duty increase?
That we had during the elections, quite a number of days where we couldn't sell. The outlets were closed or trading was closed. We were very happy on how the elections went. I think President Jonathan or the ex-President Jonathan, did the country a great service to admit immediately his defeat and hand it over to Buhari. He will get in charge, I think, mid-May, somewhere. It is still a bit in between situation. The transition went very well, and we see that there is much more confidence coming into the market. Will Nigeria be a different market this year? That is much too early to comment on. The oil price has its impact. You were asking about the excise increase. To be honest, I don't know when the last one was. We have to look that up.
I can get back to you.
It could well be that Buhari wants to get the state budget into order, and you will see things happening in Nigeria. Will that be excise? Will that be VAT? Will that be other taxes? That is to be seen.
Thank you very much, René. All the best.
Thank you.
We will now take our next question from Andrew Holland from Societe Generale. Please go ahead.
Just a few. Returning to Nigeria, just thinking of the timing of your synergies. Obviously, you haven't quantified those, but can you give us any clue, as that process presumably is now sort of ongoing, how front-loaded those are, whether the synergies perhaps in the first half will be enough to compensate for the lower volumes? Second question is, I think you mentioned in your opening remarks that the repositioning of Tiger was complete in Vietnam. Can we therefore assume that the margin this year will not decline and may even grow again from a rebased level? Thirdly, on Indonesia, can you give us an idea of the profitability of that country relative to the volumes? In other words, is the profit roughly proportionate to the volume in your Asia region?
First on Nigeria, as we have always said, the merger of the two companies is not primarily driven by the cost synergies but by being much more effective in the marketplace and having a full portfolio to compete with instead of two different companies operating in different parts of the market, not so much geographically, but one in the economy or value side and the other in the mainstream and then premium. The driver has been to be more effective in the market. At the same time, there are cost synergies. There are also some cost dyssynergies, given the fact that salary levels were obviously different between the two companies. Overall, there are cost synergies. As we always have said, that has not been the big driver of that integration.
These synergies you reach pretty quickly because in a market like Nigeria, you can make the steps very fast. Secondly, on Vietnam, I probably expressed myself a bit clumsy in saying the repositioning has been done. Effectively the repositioning has been done. Both brands, Heineken and Tiger, have the role and the position and the support and the way we treat them as we want to have it. Does that mean that the percentage of growth of both brands will be the same? Certainly not. We will see that Tiger will continue to grow faster than Heineken. The good news of Q1 is that we saw that Heineken was solidly back into growth, and that you see that both brands have found their natural place in the market.
Overall, as we have seen last year, that continues in Q1, as a company in Vietnam, we are growing market share and are further building our position. Last question on Indonesia. No, it is one of the profitability outpaces in a significant way the volume. It is a small country in volume terms. It is a sizable country in profit terms, and it has very, very high operating margins. In that sense, it is not insignificant what is happening in Indonesia. On the other hand, it is early days to see what the overall effect is. We have a strong position in the market. There are a couple of levers which we can pull, not only in the discussion with the governments, but also in terms of self-help, what we will do to mitigate the effects as much as possible in that country.
Okay. Thank you, René, good luck for your retirement.
Thank you.
We will now take our next question from Sanjeet Aujla from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Hi, René. Most of my questions have been answered. Just wanted to get a sense of the strong growth you're seeing out of Brazil. How much of your portfolio there is premium relative to mainstream? Thanks.
In Brazil, you see that the biggest part of the portfolio is still mainstream or even between economy and mainstream. All the growth is coming from premium. We maintain that mainstream volume to be a basis in that market and to give skill in the breweries, but also to the Coca-Cola bottlers in their distribution. The full focus of our Brazilian company is on getting premium to grow. There we see a very solid performance with the Heineken brand again doing very well. That continues. We have now enlarged the premium portfolio. Sol is in that market. We have launched Desperados in that market. Gradually, that company will become more and more a premium company.
When you just look at the volume figures, we still have, I would say out of my head, something like 8 million hectoliters of mainstream economy products.
Thanks.
We will now take our next question from Andrea Pistacchi from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes. Good morning, René. I have three questions, please. First, on Western Europe, which was a bit lighter than expected, I'd say. You said that the 1.7% volume decline broadly reflects underlying conditions, which is a bit of a deterioration versus prior quarters. I know it's a small quarter, is it a comp issue or are there other factors driving this? Could you give a bit of color on Western Europe, please? Secondly, just a follow-up on Brazil. When you acquired FEMSA, I think at the time Brazil was roughly break even at EBITDA level. Since then, partly cost savings and the strong growth in your premium portfolio there, I'm guessing it must start to be a reasonably profitable market, if you could sort of confirm that. Finally, in Americas, you called out Caribbean, which you don't normally, as being strong growth in double digit.
Could you just say what's happening there, please, where the growth is coming from? Thank you.
First of all, Western Europe. Look, we have always said that the underlying developments in Western Europe will be against us because of the demographics. At the same time, you can make up for that by more innovation, more premium, and you see that that strategy is continuing. Very strong performance of the Heineken brand again in Q1, also in Europe. For a quarter, certainly in Western Europe, it's such a small quarter. You know, last year we have had very strong comps. I don't think that Europe has changed in that sense. We see strong performance in countries like Spain. Actually, in a country like the Netherlands. We saw Italy bad because there, the excise plays a role, and the U.K. is slightly negative. As we always have said, don't look too much at volumes in Europe. Look very much what is behind that.
Our Not an Inch Back strategy is absolutely what we execute and what we will continue, and our view on Europe has not much changed. Brazil, yes, it's getting better from a profit perspective. Still, if you look at margins in Brazil, they're still not at the level where you would like to have them, and they dilute our margins on a group level. Looking at the commercial success, you see a way out of that, and each year we improve there. We will invest in further capacity extension. We will make sure that our logistics flows in Brazil are better geared so that all will help to get to better margins in Brazil. We are very positive on the developments in that country. Your last question was on-
The Caribbean
The Caribbean. That has to do with Haiti and Panama. Certainly Panama doing very well, but also Haiti, which is getting now through a couple of supply issues which we had last year, so they can serve the market in a much better way. Next to that, our export positions, but that is a very scattered landscape, had a very good first quarter.
Thank you. All the best, René. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We will now take our next question from Marco Gulpers from ING. Please go ahead, sir.
Yes. Good morning, René. This is Marco from ING.
Hi, Marco.
I've got two small follow-up questions for Western Europe. First, could you provide us with an update on the Radler performance, and whether there are any further line extensions to be expected in the second quarter? The second is, could you update us on the on-trade performance so far and what you're expecting for this year? Thank you.
Yeah. Radler remains a strong thing. Radler is more seasonal than the rest of the portfolio, I would not take too much out of the Q1 figures. We continue to extend the Radler portfolio. We would put more emphasis even on the alcohol-free Radlers. In that sense, I think it's a very active and thriving part of the business. On-trade, we see still being under pressure. That has also, when you look at the revenue per hectoliter in Western Europe, that is to a certain extent, the result of a different growth or a stronger decline in the on-trade than in the off-trade, and where the on-trade has obviously much higher revenues per hectoliter than the off-trade. That also reflects in the wholesale business in Western Europe, which has even higher revenues per hectoliter.
That slightly negative revenue per hectoliter figure out of Western Europe is very much linked towards the on-trade and the wholesale, although off-trade and the big retailers put quite some pressure on prices in Western Europe.
All right. Also from my side, of course, all the best for your future.
Thank you, Marco.
We will now take our next question from Gerard Rijk from SNS Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, René. Two small questions. One about your reported net profit and the book profit of the impact there. If I exclude that, does it mean that your net profit, beia, has increased in the first quarter, and what were the driving factors next to the currencies? Second question is, I was a bit surprised by the strength again in the Netherlands in this first quarter, while weather conditions were worse than last year. What is exactly the reason for that? Or is that just a buildup of volumes for the festivities around your retirement?
If that would be true, many more people would retire, and we run our business on that. No. The Netherlands had a good first quarter, and is winning share in the market. That is primarily a share-driven growth. I don't know if we have already the full Q1 market data. You see everywhere in market shares that it's difficult to read because the quarter is small. In most countries, we don't have already the official data for the full quarter, you base yourself on January, February. If I look at the growth of the Netherlands, it must be that we are winning some market share. Sorry.
Will it be an example for the other countries, this strategy in the Netherlands, or is that already rolled out also in all the other countries?
It became time that the Netherlands won some share. Other countries were the example for the Netherlands, because we are winning share in France, we are winning share in Spain, we are winning share in the U.K. The Netherlands has been always, from a profit perspective, delivering a lot, but each time at the expense of a bit of market share. That is now turning around, and I think they have the right commercial strategy in the Netherlands now to gain a bit of share. On the net profit, obviously that is a trading update and not something where we elude on profitability. We put the reported net profit in because of FEMSA. They, in their release, have to release that number, we say it's a bit stupid if we then don't do it. We don't comment on it.
You can deduct the EUR 375, and then obviously, there are other things in between. I'm not going to comment on the financials apart from what you have seen in the release.
Yeah. Last year, first quarter, you mentioned that net profit beia was up. There was a comment, in fact.
Yeah. This year, we don't do apparently. I think the two figures must give you some comfort here.
Yes. It is.
Okay.
Okay. Thank you. Good luck.
Good. Thank you.
We will now take our next question from Chris Blaine from African Alliance. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good morning, guys. I just wanted to find out, you mentioned some volume growth out of East African countries. I was hoping you could provide a bit more granularity, specifically maybe Rwanda.
You go into detail. You are invested in the company on the Rwanda Stock Exchange, in the Kigali Stock Exchange or not? Let me see quickly on Rwanda. Single digits volume growth in Rwanda. We are there at the market, or we have 95% of the market. That will be us developing the market.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
As there are no further questions in the queue, I would now like to turn the call back to René for any additional remarks.
Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for the questions. On a personal note, thank you for all the thank yous. More importantly, I would like to wish you, or wish Laurence Debroux all the very best with the forthcoming appointment. If everything goes well, tomorrow she will take over and will be appointed at the AGM. Now, for the last two months, Laurence has been very much involved in getting to know the business at Heineken. We had together a very intense handing over period. I must say, I'm very confident that this leaves her very well-placed in her new role as CFO, and I think you will have very positive interactions with her. For the time being, thank you very much for your constructive dialogue during my time as CFO at Heineken, and I wish you all the best for the future.
This is it for now. You know our investor relations team is always available for further questions. Thank you very much, and hopefully we see each other somewhere someday. Bye-bye.
That will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect.