Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Anadolu Efes' Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. Our presenters today are CEO Mr. Onur Altürk and our CFO Mr. Gökçe Yanaşmayan. The first part of the call will be in listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will open the floor for a Q&A session. You may submit your questions at any time using the question box on your screen. However, we kindly encourage you to do so before the Q&A session begins to ensure we have adequate time to review and address them. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all financial information disclosed in this presentation is presented in accordance with TAS 29. Just to remind you, this conference call is being recorded, and the link will be available online. Before we start, I would kindly request you to refer to our notes in our presentation regarding forward-looking statements.
Now I'm leaving the ground to Mr. Onur Altürk, Anadolu Efes CEO. Sir.
Good morning and good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Anadolu Efes' Third Quarter 2025 Conference Call. Thank you for joining us today. As you may recall, due to the continued uncertainties around our operations in Russia, we have classified these operations as financial investments on our balance sheet at the beginning of the year. Accordingly, they are no longer consolidated in our income statement until there is more clarity. However, we separately disclosed the financial results of these operations in our earnings releases for the last two quarters. Starting from quarter three, we decided to stop providing separate disclosure for Russia. This is primarily because the information flow has not been as stable and consistent as before. We will reassess this approach as the situation evolves. Looking at the third quarter, it was a mixed set of results where the profitability was solid.
However, the volume momentum came with its own set of challenges. Even so, our broad market presence and agile execution helped us to preserve overall stability, as growth in several markets balanced softer demands in others. We maintained our growth trajectory from the second quarter with consolidated volumes reaching 31 million hectoliters, up by 7% on a pro forma basis compared to the same quarter last year. The volume growth was driven by our Soft Drinks operations, particularly supported by robust performance in international operations, Beer Group volume performance was softer, mainly impacted by domestic markets. Strong volumes supported top-line growth, but the revenue per hectoliter was pressurized due to the ongoing focus on affordability and increased discount rates. On top of strong top-line results, through gross profit improvement and strict management of operational expenses, we are able to record an expansion in EBITDA margin.
Additionally, we successfully generated positive cash flow amounting at TRY 9.4 billion, which was mainly driven by strong operational profitability. As of September 30th, 2025, our consolidated net debt- to- EBITDA ratio stood at a level of 1.5 x. As we shared before, as part of our Vision 2035, one of the key pillars of our growth strategy was geographical and categorical expansion. In this regard, I'm truly pleased to share two important milestones today we achieved during the quarter. Firstly, we have recently started the distribution of Mercan Rakı spirit in the final days of October, while the discussions regarding the acquisition of 60% of the company are still ongoing. Secondly, we have signed a licensing agreement with Salyan Food Products, which will enable us to produce, sell, distribute, and marketing of Efes and Efes Draft brands in Azerbaijan.
Turning Beer Group performance, during the third quarter, our consolidated beer volumes declined by around 5% year-on-year on a pro forma basis. This was mainly driven by a slowdown in Türkiye, where volumes were down by 8.4%. In our international Beer operations, volumes were down low single digits on average. As expected, Moldova reflected the slowdown following last year's high base. Georgia was temporarily affected by export-related business. On the positive side, Kazakhstan delivered solid growth supported by strong portfolio execution. Ukraine also contributed positively by growing low single digit thanks to ongoing recovery and a low comparison base. Let me discuss Türkiye in more detail. Volumes declined by 8.4% in the third quarter. As mentioned earlier, this was mainly driven by affordability pressures stemming from persistent inflation and weakening of consumer purchasing power.
In the second half of the year, the absence of mid-year minimum wage adjustments further deepened the pressure on consumer purchasing power and made its impact increasingly evident in the markets. In addition, the price adjustments we implemented in early July had a temporary impact on demand, while the slowdown in tourism also weighed on overall volumes, particularly in on-trade and HoReCa channels. This quarter marked a period of strengthening our portfolio, ensuring it remains well-aligned with the customer expectations and market trends. We launched Jupiler 0.0% non-alc beer in Turkish markets, which marks an important step in expanding our product range. Although it's very early and it's very small, we expect these launches to be a new strategic pillar for growth for the future. About our CIS operations, starting with Kazakhstan, we delivered low single-digit volume growth supported by strong brand activations and robust export performance.
Our premium segment continued to perform well, driven by effective brand activations like strategic pricing and new can designs that further enhanced brand visibility in the markets. During the quarter, in line with our KEG focus, the RAF focus, we also launched successfully the Pegas brand SKU, Khmelnoy Los. In Georgia, volumes declined by low to mid single- digits, in line with expectations, actually, mainly due to the restructuring of our export business, which had no impact on profitability right now. Additionally, the introduction of Löwenbräu Oktoberfest Limited Edition helped us to maintain our market presence and customer engagement. In Moldova, volumes contracted in low single digits, as expected, reflecting last year's high base. Moreover, year-on-year volume decline was affected from calendarization impacts. Let's briefly review our Soft Drinks operations too.
In the second quarter of the year, CCI's consolidated volumes increased by 8.9%, driven by positive contribution of all international markets. Türkiye volume declined by 1.7%, mainly impacted by weakening consumer purchasing power and deteriorating weather conditions during September. Whereas international volumes demonstrated a remarkable growth, posting a 16.1% increase, mainly supported by Central Asia and Iraq. In Pakistan, volumes increased by 0.7% year-over-year, despite severe floods and ongoing political sensitivities. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan delivered robust growth with 24.2% and 36.5% growth, respectively. Lastly, Iraq volumes upped by 7.8%, marking the 10th consecutive quarter of growth. When we move on to our operational results, in the third quarter, we continued our solid volume generation on a consolidation basis, although effective portfolio management and price adjustments made in certain markets helped to ease the impact of the discounting and affordability focus, and revenue per hectoliter decreased by 3%.
With improved gross profitability margin and limited increase in operating expenses, EBITDA increased around 8%. As a result, margin also expanded, which was supported with contribution from international operations in both Beer and Soft Drinks businesses. Our consolidated net income was recorded around TRY 5 billion, although operational profitability remained solid. Higher financial expense and lower monetary gains weighed on earnings in the third Beer Group delivered a year-on-year decline in earnings as a result of higher financial expense and a softer operational profitability and a challenging environment. Following a softer quarter two performance, we delivered strong free cash flow generation at the consolidated level, driven by our Soft Drink business. On top of strong operational profitability, we benefited from improving working capital, lower CapEx, and tax expenses compared to the same period of last year.
In the current environment, as I emphasized in our previous conference calls as well, there is no doubt that strengthening free cash flow remains a top business priority. Of course, Beer Group. gökçe will share more details about this. Consequently, our consolidated net debt- to- EBITDA ratio stood at a level of 1.5 x as of September 30th, 2025. Now, Gökçe will give details on financial metrics. Gökçe, please.
Thank you, Onur. Good morning, good afternoon to everyone. Onur covered, as usual, Anadolu Efes's consolidated results, so I will provide an update on Beer Group's performance for the third quarter. Before I start, again, I want to remind once more that disclosed figures in my presentation are on a pro forma basis, meaning that they exclude the financial results of Russian operations as of January 1st, 2024, to ensure comparability. In the third quarter, Beer Group sales revenue declined by 6.9% on a pro forma basis to TRY 15.7 billion. Even if volume performance and revenue in local currencies were high, international Beer operations sales revenue was recorded at TRY 5.9 billion, with a 4.5% decline.
Like previous quarters, the decline in sales revenue was driven by TAS 29 implementation, as inflation in Türkiye exceeded the depreciation of Turkish lira against local currencies of international Beer operations. Excluding TAS 29, international Beer operations revenue was up 24% on a pro forma basis, again reaching TRY 6.7 billion. Türkiye Beer operations generated a revenue of TRY 9.6 billion in the third quarter, representing an 8.7% decline. Despite price adjustments during the quarter, revenue per hectoliter decreased due to lower volumes alongside more controlled yet still elevated discount level, in line with the market dynamics we have in the country. Thus, on a pro forma basis, Beer Group revenue decreased 5.3% to TRY 41.4 billion in nine months of 2025.
Beer Group gross profit declined 11.1% on a pro forma basis, again to TRY 7.8 billion in the third quarter, and that came with a margin contraction of 236 basis points. Gross profit margin remains at a remarkably good level of close to 50% still. The decline in the gross margin stemmed from softer volume performance and higher COGS per hectoliter, driven by increased material cost across our operations and higher hedge levels in packaging cost, especially in this period of the year for Türkiye. In the next slide, I am going to present the EBITDA. With an EBITDA of TRY 3.4 billion, Beer Group had a 22% margin in the third quarter, indicating only a 57 basis points decrease. The decline in the top-line performance and gross profit in Beer Group was actually partially limited through disciplined operating expense management this quarter, particularly in Türkiye operations.
On the international front, CIS region, on average, continues to deliver above 30% margin performance. However, profitability was moderated in this period due to high base of last year. Consequently, Beer Group EBITDA in nine months was TRY 6.4 billion, with a 15.4% margin. Again, in the third quarter Beer Group generated, unfortunately, a negative free cash flow of TRY 1.3 billion, softer profitability that we mentioned, together with a temporary deterioration in working capital. Lower monetary gain collectively weighted on cash generation, despite an absolute reduction in capital expenditures year-on-year. Next slide, please. For information purpose, I'm going to show you the financial statements without excluding the impact of TAS 29. However, I have to, again, say that Anadolu Efes financial statements are prepared in accordance with TAS. The standard for financial reporting in hyperinflationary economies.
The numbers that you are seeing here are just presented for analysis purposes. Excluding the impact of TAS 29, Beer Group revenue was TRY 40.5 billion, with a growth of 27%. Excluding the impact of TAS 29, Beer Group EBITDA would increase by 21% to TRY 8.8 billion. Net income was reported as TRY 1.8 billion, excluding the CTA impact coming from the scope change in consolidation of Russian operation. About cash and debt management, as of September 30th, 2025, we had 63% of our cash in hard currency denominated in the Beer Group and 61% in the consolidated Anadolu Efes level, which is pretty much in line with our previous practices. The net debt ratio for the period was 1.7 x for Anadolu Efes and 3.9 x for Beer Group.
About the risk management, the key figures to update them, actually no new news for 2025. We are almost done with the year. As for 2026, we have already started hedging aluminum, and 16% of our exposure of next year's—sorry, 14% of our exposure of next year for Türkiye and CIS countries have already been hedged. For the FX of next year, actually, as usual practice, we are going to start hedging towards the end of the year for next year. That basically ends my part of the presentation, and I hand over to Onur. Thank you.
Aslı, let's check the Q&A. Do we have any questions on this one?
There are a couple of questions from Evgenia. Let me start with the first one. Thank you for the presentation. Could you please provide more color on Azerbaijan? When will you start production sales in the country? What are the potential sales volumes and EBITDA contribution? Also, CapEx. Let me address this to Onur Bey, and then there are a few questions more, then I'll address them to Gökçe Bey.
Let's briefly discuss Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a promising market, actually, and CCI already has a strong footprint in the markets. Population is around 10 million, with per capita beer consumption is around, again, 7 L. In quarter three 2025, a license agreement was signed with Salyan Food Products in Azerbaijan for the production, sales, distribution, and marketing of Efes and Efes Draft brands. We already started production of Efes in Azerbaijan. We see it as a strategic step, expanding our regional operational footprint. Of course, we want to strengthen our local presence in the market. No CapEx is used for that because it is a toll-filled third-party manufacturing. If we see more potential in the markets, there will be an M&A, so we are evaluating this. Also, let me mention a little bit about Uzbekistan, just like because these are the two potential markets for us.
Uzbekistan is an even more promising market, where, again, CCI already has a strong footprint. The population is around 36 million, and adding up 1 million every year. The per capita beer consumption is around 12 L. That is a more favorable tax environment that is expected in 2026. It used to be 3x compared to the local ones. Now it is 2.5x. At the end of 2026, we are expecting the equalization of local and import tax. If the gap is fully closed, there will be a huge potential. Imports from Kazakhstan have already started in July. Our legal entity and on-site team have been established in Uzbekistan. Our business development team is closely analyzing the market dynamics and potential opportunities, like toll-filling. We are so close to start toll-filling in Uzbekistan as well.
Again, we are chasing M&A opportunities with very small investments in this country as well. The reward seems to be, I mean, very promising in these two geographies.
The next question from Evgenia. Could you please also provide more color on the working capital move at the Beer Group level? What are the initiatives you undertake to improve it? Gökçe Bey?
Sure. Sure. I mean, overall, as Onur I think mentioned in his presentation, one of the key focuses for us is the cash flow generation on the Beer Group side. To turn our free cash flow generation into positive in the coming year is a very important component of that, working capital, one of the important components of that. On the group level, we can say that our working capital, on average, is mid-single digit. However, there are certain countries hitting double-digit numbers, some countries close to zero. On the average, we end up with mid-single digit. For those who have double-digit or higher working capital, we have started a clear focus project this year and very clearly working on targets for next year to improve the numbers. At the same time, where we want to focus.
In every other country that we have these high numbers. Therefore, that's especially critical for Türkiye because this working capital financing requirement is being financed with high interest rates. All the efforts are focused now, especially in Türkiye, to decrease this number and the interest payment of next year.
Thank you very much. Another question is regarding 2026, about Beer Group outlook for volumes and profitability. It's a bit early to comment on this. Let's postpone this to.
Yes, we are at the beginning of our budgeting cycle now. I mean, we are changing the numbers very frequently as the assumptions are changing. We would prefer to give better color towards the end of the year or next year, beginning of next year.
Exactly. There is a question from Hanzade, Gökçe Bey. Do you expect cost pressure in Türkiye after rising food inflation, which may impact wheat and barley prices due to weather conditions? Or have you hedged this cost?
I can give a very, very general color here, maybe just to help you think about it. Recently, our cost base was acting very in line with the inflation in the country. Therefore, for next year to come, initial expectations, again, I mean, we have to work on them towards the end of the year. More precisely, initial indications show currently a slow decline as inflation will decline in the country. That gets reflected into COGS per hectoliter as well for the next year.
Another question from Adnan Bey. Can you give more information about Türkiye gross margin and EBITDA margin in the third quarter?
I mean, very roughly, we can say that the numbers are in the gross profit in the range of 50s, let's say. EBITDA margins in the third quarter are 20s, we can say so. Those numbers in gross profit margin level, we've seen more contraction as we have discussed in the presentations. That had been compensated to a great extent with OpEx management. Therefore, the contraction in EBITDA is less than 100 basis points overall.
Thank you very much. There seems to be no more questions. Let me remind once again. If there are any questions, we can wait a few seconds. If there are none, we can close down the session. Okay. There seems to be no more questions. Thank you, everyone, for joining.
Thank you.