Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Thai Beverage. The first half of 2025 ended the 31st of March 2025 financial results conference call. I am Namfon Aungsutornrungsi, Head of Investor Relations. For the call tonight, I will start with the summary of the results. Then we will open the line for Q&A with our management team here. Please note that following the consolidation of Fraser and Neave in September 2024, which is accounted for as a business combination under common control by the same ultimate controlling shareholder, the group's financial results for the first quarter—sorry, for the second quarter—and the first half ended 31st of March 2024 have been restated for comparison purposes. For the summary of the first half results, the total sales revenue of the group for the first half was THB 177,617 million, an increase of 1% when compared to the same period last year.
This was due to an increase in sales revenue of beer business, non-alcoholic beverage, and food business, while there was a decrease in sales revenue from spirits business and other business. Net profit, including associated companies, was THB 17,769 million, a decrease of 9.2% compared to the same period last year. This was due to a decrease in net profit from spirits, non-alcoholic beverages, food business, and other business, partly offset by an increase in net profit from the beer business. Thai Beverage's Board of Directors agreed to propose an interim dividend payment of THB 3,770 million, or THB 0.155 per share, the same as last year. The company remains committed with our full-year dividend policy of not less than 50% of the net profit after deducting of our specified reserves, subject to our investment plans and as the Board of Directors deem appropriate.
In the first half of 2025, the spirits business generated sales revenue of THB 64,520 million, a decrease of 1.5% year-on-year. This was due to a decrease of 1.9% year-on-year in total sales volume. In addition, higher raw material costs alongside increased brand investment and marketing activities led to a 10.3% year-on-year decline of net profit to THB 11,601 million. The beer business recorded sales revenue amounting to THB 66,201 million in the first half, an increase of 3% year-on-year. This was mainly due to a 7.4% year-on-year increase in total sales volume. The net profit increased by a robust 19% to THB 3,152 million, driven by a decrease in key raw material costs and improvement in production efficiency.
The non-alcoholic beverage business recorded a 2.5% year-on-year rise in sales revenue to THB 33,438 million in the first half, supported by a 4.1% year-on-year increase in total sales volume, driven by the drinking water and carbonated soft drink. Despite this, net profit decreased by 11.3% year-on-year to THB 3,114 million, due to a lower share of profit from associated companies and higher tax expenses from expired tax incentives. In the first half of 2025, the food business registered THB 11,145 million in sales revenue, an increase of 0.7% year-on-year. Despite this, net profits fell by 61% year-on-year to THB 124 million, weighted down by a rise in raw material costs, labor and marketing expenses, and increased depreciation expense from restaurant expansion. In the first half of 2025, the group's other business registered a decline in sales revenue of 12.8% year-on-year to THB 2,438 million.
This was mainly due to a decrease from licensing income impact from depreciation of Thai baht against Singapore dollar, partly offset by an increase in education sales in this year. The net loss was THB 222 million due to no profit sharing from FPL in this year. That's a summary of the first half result. We now open for the call to any questions on our results. Operator, please help open the line for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you. We now begin the question and answer session. Participants are with questions to pose. Please press star one on the telephone keypad, and you will be placed in the queue. To cancel the queue, please press star two. Our first question comes from the line of Llelleythan Tan from UOB Kay Hian Research. Please go ahead.
Can everyone hear me?
Hi, Leo Llelleythan. We can hear you.
Hello. Okay, thanks for letting me ask my question. I have three questions. I'll start off with the spirits. I see that the cost of salt increase was increased in for the second quarter. It was an increase in raw material costs for the second quarter. I see it in the explanation. I remember from the last meeting we had six months ago, it was stated that the crop yield for this year is like 10%-20% lower than as compared to, sorry, the crop cost is 10%-20% lower than the previous year. That means there will be lower raw material costs. Have we actually seen that coming through yet, or will we start seeing that come through in the third quarter? I'll go on to my second question, the beer business.
I can see that it was stated as challenging market conditions overseas. I'm assuming that's in Vietnam. Based on the past results of tobacco, volumes usually depress when market economy is not so good. Given that with this tariff and Vietnam facing some larger tariffs than others, there will be some market, sorry, some economic uncertainty there. Do you see volumes actually going down like previously, or will the volumes be stable moving forward? Lastly, my last question is more of a general question with tariffs. How does that impact costs, let's say for steel, for packaging? Is there any indirect impact to cost for the group as a whole? Yeah, these three are my questions. Thanks.
Llelleythan , this is Suk Pon from Bangkok, the separate group. The first question was on the MOLA assets, I believe, that the impact of the lower costs coming and when that will be happening. I think from our estimation and following on the numbers, it will be to our average cost will be around the fourth quarter this year, our budget year. Thank you.
Hi, Llelleythan . This is Lester here. To talk about your question about how you see the outlook for international markets for the rest of 2025, I guess I speak only for the Vietnam market. We've seen the research numbers, the initial numbers for consumer confidence, and that has come down. One of the lowest rates, one of the lowest, not the lowest since COVID. It does not look good in that sense for consumer confidence. On the bright side of things is when the market takes a downturn, companies like Sabeco tend to do well because people downtrade. We are primarily a mainstream brand company, and the bulk of our volumes are there, and we sell in channels that cater to the mainstream.
With the downturn, I believe there is a silver lining for Sabeco moving forward, but the entire market, the entire beer market in Vietnam, I believe will be challenging.
Yes, Mr. Ngo is speaking about tariff. I will be answering in a very short way. We have only one item that we do have the business with the USA. That is only hops. And we have already closed all the risks by bringing in all the hops that we ordered from the state into our hand in Thailand and keep it in our freezer. There will be nothing, no impact at all to us, no matter what's going to happen. About the machineries or the spare part or technology or whatsoever, we don't rely on them at all. I think we will not be harmed or anything by this trade war. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Thank you so much.
Our next question comes from the line of Selviana Aripin of HSBC. Please go ahead.
Sure. Thank you very much for the opportunity to ask questions. My question, I guess, primarily is probably a follow-up to the earlier question on beer, particularly in Vietnam. I guess your competitor actually showed pretty robust numbers, which probably implies, I guess, Sabeco losing market share. And so I guess I do believe that confidence is actually taking away. Thank you. Thanks for what?
Hi, Selviana. I think we lost your line. Are you still with us?
It seems that Selviana 's line is disconnected. Shall we move on?
Yeah, sure. Sure.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Zheng Feng Chee of DBS. Please go ahead.
Yep. Hi. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
All right. Okay. A couple of questions here. Firstly, in terms of the spirit, can I check what has actually changed in the spirits market in Thailand that warrant that step-up in marketing spend? Should we expect that level of spend to persist? That is my first question. My second question would be, in terms of beer, I understand that you actually took a one-off loss. If you remove that one-off loss, if you look at the first half, what would the growth be like to exclude that one-off kind of expense loss? Those two questions for now. Thank you.
Okay. Hi. Zheng Feng Chee . This is Song Wei from Bangkok. From your questions about the situation of the spirit in Thailand, I would say that from the last meeting, I think overall, as you may be aware, that overall situation in Thailand, for the overall economy, still not doing really well. That creates for the poor consumption. I would say that our spirit in Thailand are not really growing. I would say that we align with the growing of the overall economy in Thailand. Okay. For the overall A&P for Thailand, I think right now we are trying to control in order, I mean, our priority is to protect our bottom line. We are in the control mode of the A&P.
Hi, Zheng Feng. For the one time in the beer, especially on the we put on the queue too, actually that one is coming from if you can see in the note to financial as well. Because of the Sabeco itself in this quarter, we have acquisition. The used to be the associate company called Sabeco. So then by the accounting principle, we need to revaluation of the associate company. So we have some of the loss from fair values about THB 120 million. But actually, it's a non-cash one. The difference will go to the goodwill. That is a one time, which is going to be not happening in the next quarter.
Okay. Got it. Thank you. I'll move back to the queue. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Xuan Tan of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good evening. My first question is on Vietnam beer. If you look at Heineken's results, it seems that they actually gained share in first quarter. Just wanted to understand what is happening there because is it just purely because of Tet or because it is kind of counterintuitive to what you mentioned about downtrading?
Hi, Xuan. Yes. Yeah, the downtrading part is the outlook for 2025. It's for the upcoming quarters. Yes, you answered your own question there about the effect of Tet. I will show it on our call on Monday because Sabeco's call is this coming Monday. I was going to present one of the very rare times, a share chart. Yes, we did lose share in January and February. It was the Tet effect. We rebounded very well in March. If you look at the brand chart, beer Saigon hit the highest share, I think, in the last four or five years in the month of March. Yes, it was the Tet effect. We caught up in March by the end of March already.
Got it. Thank you. Super helpful. Second question is on Thailand beer. Sorry. Yeah, on Thailand beer, we've seen pretty strong volume. And on the flip side, I guess spirits is a bit weak. Can you help us understand on the ground what you've seen for first half and what's the expectation for this two-month going to the full year?
Okay. Hi, this is Tiff for Beer Thailand. For us, the market situation for Beer Thailand going forward, it looked pretty okay over the past quarter. Going forward, we start seeing the downward trend, especially from the ACNS, and it start dropping over the past two months. We see the future, it's not that positive or still challenging. However, we protect our profitability. We try to manage our costs and whatever that we can manage to protect our bottom line.
How about Thailand spirits?
Actually, I mean, from the report that if you see between the first quarter and the second quarter, you may see that we see a little bit growth in the second quarter. What I maybe just add a bit that we also for the Songkran, I think we also see a little bit of the positive factor as well. That is all I can say. Thank you.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Permada Darmono of UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening. Can you hear me?
Hi, Permada. We hear you.
Hello?
Hello. Hi. Hi, Permada.
Good evening. Thanks for the, yeah, thanks for the opportunity to Nongnuch in management. I wanted to clarify on the beer revenue in Vietnam. That's my first question. It's down 19% year on year. Yeah, there's a Tet effect, but down by nearly a fifth. That seems a little bit steep. Can you give us some color why that might be the case? I know your main competitor is known for being very promotional during Tet, but this is a comparison against your own numbers in the first quarter of last year. So down nearly a fifth. If you can give us some color on that, Lester, that would be much appreciated.
Hi, Permada. Yeah, no issues. The main, there are two big reasons for that. One is the timing of Tet. Because Tet was a little earlier this year, we saw some of the benefits of an early sell-in in November, December already. Tet Q1 versus Q1 does not 100% equate to Tet versus Tet because of the timing of Tet. That was a big one. The second issue also was internally, we deliberately held back a little bit of the Tet sales. What we did not want to happen, as we have seen in previous years, is overstocking for Tet. Immediately after Tet, you see price instability of our agents dumping stock. I think we did a good job controlling that, which is why we see our share shoot up in March right after Tet.
Again, like I mentioned, it's the highest in the last four or five years for beer Saigon. It was some intentional holding back of Tet loading as well as timing of Tet last year versus this year.
How would you characterize the inventory level in the distribution system now? Is it healthy or quite short?
Yeah.
How would you characterize?
It's healthy. We cleared out a lot of stocks in March and April. We are cleaning up the pipeline. Obviously, we did not want an overloaded pipeline as we used to see in previous years right after Tet. It is healthy now, single digit in terms of number of stock days.
What about for the industry? Is the level of stock for the industry, is there an overstock in the distributors, like are you worried? Because my question is also, obviously, that could impact aggregate sales or your own sales.
Yeah. Permada, it's hard for me to comment on our competitors, especially on their stock levels. Yeah, I don't have a very, very clear picture. Although walking the market, I would say it's quite high. Maybe we can answer this in a lot more detail on Monday.
Yeah. Permada, normally we do not want to comment on our competitors though. Yeah. We are more talking about our performance. Yeah.
I understand, but it was for the entire industry. Because like the.
Yeah. Yeah. But the industry, who's in the industry? So yeah, we refrain from making the comment.
Okay. Moving on to Thailand. Normally, in a slow environment in Thailand, spirits tend to do better than beer. If I look at the second quarter, the rate of growth in spirits is weaker than beer. I would have anticipated spirits to be stronger than beer in a slowdown. How can we understand the numbers?
Okay. Yes. Hi. This is Song Wei again from Bangkok. Overall, I mean, if I understand well, your question is what happened for the spirit in Thailand in the second quarter and why it is go slower than beer Thailand in the second quarter. I would say that, yes.
Yeah. Why did spirits grow slower than beer?
Yes. Yes. Okay. It was, how to say, not a growing economy in Thailand. For our spirit, we still were selling a little bit stronger than last year. However, we do not get any benefit from the tourists that are coming to Thailand. The tourists, they prefer to take the other beverage than the spirit.
Permada, this is Zheng Feng Chee. I think because beer benefit a lot from tourists. Tourists drink beer. They don't drink white spirit. So spirit really depend on local economy, which you can see. You understand that it's not very good during this time. So that's the reason why beer overgrown spirit. Okay? But if the economy coming back, then the spirit will probably follow the growth of the general economy.
Okay. Thank you, Ueychai. So it's just purely the tourist effect that essentially that's driving the beer volume growth incrementally versus spirits.
Correct.
Okay. That's a fair explanation. Thank you. I'll go back to the queue. I'll ask some more questions later if I do have any. Thank you so much and best of luck in the subsequent quarters. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Meghana Kande of CGS International. Please go ahead.
Hi. Can everybody hear me?
Yes. We hear you, Meg.
Okay. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I have three questions. The first is on beer volume growth, I think, and the second quarter was a bit of a slowdown compared to a really strong first quarter. It was also a bit slower compared to industry beer sales as well. I am just trying to understand what was the trend in your market share in the second quarter and any color on whether you see the need to be more aggressive in your promotions going forward. Maybe just any color on also your performance during Songkran recently would also be helpful on the beer side. That is my first question. The second is on the input costs for beer. Any color on how that is trending for beer and even for S&N.
I think today they posted really strong revenue, but input costs impacted their gross margin. I am just wondering how the input costs for your S&N side and the beer side are going. The third question is on Vinamilk, the reasons behind the poor performance this time. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Hi. This is Tiff again on Beer Thailand. Actually, our beer volume for the second half is also growing. We actually grow from our market share local. Okay? We gain from the market share, which not only the tourist. Okay? We still see good momentum in the second quarter, especially after Songkran. We also good momentum continue. Okay? On the cost side, I would say that we thanks to everyone and also God, we actually get a very good price, actually, especially from our raw mat and the packaging materials. For example, the malt also decreasing, and we hedge and book in advance. At least we confirm that we can protect our profit as planned. Thank you.
Hi. This is Kosit. Let me answer on the input cost on the F&N side. I think if you're aware of, I think we have a very favorable situation on the packaging side. Tin can, PET, ration, I think both costs are coming down. I think the only issue we keep watching is the palm oil, which is the cost actually increased a little bit. I think pretty much on the sugar side is also a good trend as well. I think for the F&N, that's not so much worried about, yeah, because the dairy products with the volume that we are now growing, I think we have anticipated on this one and we have a good stock on our raw material. Thank you.
Yeah. In response to your question regarding Vinamilk and the reason for the poor performance in the first quarter, I think the general question, the general answer really is consistent with what we've seen in Sabeco. There's basically been a poorer consumer sentiment, poorer trade sentiment. I think that affects all the consumer goods. That's what's going to be the challenge, I think, in the months ahead. I think the uncertainties created by the tariffs recently and what's been going on geopolitically has affected consumer confidence. I think that's generally the main reason. I mean, of course, you know also that Vinamilk has done some restructuring of its own route to market, and that takes time, of course, to show results. These are all publicly available information. They just had their call, I think, last week.
You might want to speak to their investor relations people. Thank you.
Thank you so much. I'll join the queue again. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Chew of Phillip Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hi, Paul.
Paul, please. Paul, please unmute your line and go ahead with the questions.
Ray, you can switch to the next in the line.
Got it. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Meghana Kande of CGS International. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you again. It was just a follow-up from one of my previous questions about the inventories for malt beer. Just wondering how long you expect these inventories to last and when you would have to replenish them. Yeah. Second question would be on the tourism side with the recent news about a potential lift of ban of alcohol sales during the afternoon and during Buddhist holidays. Just wondering how much of an incremental impact you see from that. Is it pretty sizable or just any thoughts on that? Thank you.
No, no, no. Let me take your question. I think only for you that I'm going to give this. I think it is up almost 20% down from last year. And our purchase can cover the whole of this year. Oh, special. Personally, probably not much because currently, even on that religious day, they're still drinking anyway. I do not think that it would be impacted very much.
Okay. Got it. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Selviana Aripin of HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. I wanted to check on, I guess, the outlook around your, I guess, brand building, particularly for spirits. How should we think about, I guess, your brand building for spirits outlook going ahead into the second half of the year? Should we expect any more?
Hi Selviana . This is Song Wei from Bangkok. I think if I understand correctly, you're asking about the activity or brand building expense for the second half of the year. I would say that normally in Thailand, the second half of the year is what we call the low season after Songkran. I would say that for the overall brand building, going to be, let's say that in our control that due to the seasonal.
Okay. Sorry. Just to get my understanding correct, the spirits brand building is primarily targeted at your, I guess, your local brands, right? We're not talking about one of your travel channel or that sort of thing. Am I right?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, actually, for Thailand, I would say that the majority for the first half of this year, we launched two brands. The first one that we call Pakan, that the first Thai whiskey, single malt. That one, due to the first launch, we have that expense for the first quarter. Then, second quarter, we just launched the, we call the local spirit, that local spirit that we call the Sato in Thai. It is a very innovative product because it is the first Sato sparkling in a can format. We have just for the extra expense for the new product launch in the first quarter and the second quarter.
Any more that we should expect in the second half of the year?
Right now, we don't actually, I mean, we don't have any final plan for the launch for the new product yet.
Okay. Understood. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Chew of Phillip Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Sorry for the technical issue earlier. Just three questions for me. The first is regarding the product mix of your spirits. Could you maybe share a bit of the performance between the brown and white spirits? That's my first question. My second question is just on the weaker US dollar. Just wondering, can we expect some creep up in margins if the trend continues or all else being equal of a weaker US dollar against the Thai baht? And my final question is, could you maybe give some color on maybe just consumer sentiment in Thailand? I think you mentioned it could be challenging. It was never great in the first place, but I just wondered, has it maybe worsened recently because of the tariffs? Thanks so much for taking my question.
Hi, Paul. For the first question about the breakdown, actually, if you see our report, we do not really separate white and brown. For this question, sorry that we cannot really break down for you. Yeah. You can see it as all or majority still coming from Thailand anyway.
Yeah. No, I was wondering if the mix in performance, not so much the percentage share, but has there been any particular difference in performance or generally in line? Yeah. Thanks.
Paul, this is for Pakon. I think on the breakdown of white and brown, we normally don't disclose this. Generally, they are all in line with the same trend. Just a matter of different growth factor when they go up and go up together, but it normally does not diverge from each other. Anyway, back to the questions on foreign currency exchange or US dollar strengthening or weakening. The current what we've seen, and we are on a consolidated basis, we are an Asian company or Southeast Asia company. Our revenue is a basket of both Thai baht, Vietnamese dong, or Malaysian ringgit and Singapore dollar. So far, the currency has been moving in the same direction. I think whether weakening or strengthening of US dollar, I think we do not see that playing a role in shifting profitability or margin around.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Llelleythan Tan of UOB Kay Hian Research. Please go ahead.
Hi. Sorry. It's me again. I actually have two questions, but one was just—so I have one question about any potential for price increases. Are there any SKUs within both spirits and beer that you see a potential for any price increases moving forward? I guess with higher cost of goods, so higher raw material cost and packaging, do you see any potential for some SKUs that price increases haven't been implemented before to actually see some potential in actually increasing it in the next few quarters? Yeah. That's my question. Thanks.
I think on potential price increases, it remains to be seen as how the economy is affected or not affected by the ongoing change in trade environment. I think because the difference in tariff or change in trade environment may impact each economy differently. We actually remain to see that first before we make any decision. If the market or if the economy remains soft, it is not likely that a price increase will be factoring in any of our major core markets at this point.
Okay. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Xuan Tan of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Can I follow up on Thailand spirits? If you look at past cycles where economic growth was weak, do we see downtrading from brown to white, or is it just weaker volume as a whole? If you look at the current cycle that we are in, do you expect a similar trend to follow, or is there any difference that you think could happen this cycle?
Yes, that's Song Wei again. Thanks for your question. Normally for the consumer trend in Thailand, it is true that if the economy is not really well, it seems that consumer may be a trend downward from a brown spirit to white spirit. That's right. Thank you.
Is that what you are observing now as well?
Not so apparent right now. We are watching it. I think normally it's happening like that. In the history, it's always like that. Currently, we haven't seen that much yet. We are looking forward to see what happens.
In terms of, I guess, while you are still monitoring that, in terms of your marketing activity, how you're running the spirits business, what is your strategy over the next one year?
Yeah, yeah. I think that's right. I mean, based on our marketing, actually, it should be our A&P spending strategy. Right now, I think you may hear that we as a Thai Beverage Group, we have the call the area management. Also, we also focus on the position management. That means if we have to spend, we have to spend based on the area or based on the product category in each region or even the province or the amp. I would say that we have more control and we are also more precise for the spending. Thank you.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Xuan Tan. Sorry. Our next question comes from the line of Andy Sim of DBS. Please go ahead.
Hello. Can you hear me?
Yes, Andy. We can hear you.
Hello. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for the opportunity to ask a question. My question actually pertains to the financial position. If we look at the net debt to EBITDA, it has actually creeped up now to above 3.11 from 2.9. Can we sort of get a sense of the onward or rather going forward, the plans for continued deleveraging? Also in relation to that, maybe in terms of plans or rather updates with respect to beer core as well as the talks about strategic investor. This is actually two parts of one question.
Andy is for Pakon. On debt to EBITDA training, I think our EBITDA, yes, our EBITDA is a bit slightly weaker than earlier year. I think we'll continue to monitor and we'll focus on profit generation, cash flow generations at this point to see if the economy gets soft and we'll tighten our expense even more. I think that's the game plan that we have. In terms of the debt, there's some spending that was required for the expansions at the moment that has been announced or discussed earlier. That's continued. I think based on this, we still foresee in our forecast that our headline or our total indebtedness will continue to come down. We don't expect that to just continue to creep up.
At the moment, we'll probably have to see in the next six to 12 months after we complete all this spending, our debt will start to probably hit back down again. I think that's two things that arrive to that ratio. I wouldn't comment on the potential IPO and the strategy because the investor discussions, because I think if we have anything, we'll make a proper announcement, timely announcement on that. At the moment, the market remains soft. I think we'll continue to monitor our potential beer IPO, I think, depending on where the markets are.
Thanks, Kong. Just follow up on the debt and EBITDA. In the line of case, will you see I probably assume that there's no issue in terms of refinancing of your debentures that's upcoming. How will you see in terms of the interest rate in the light of current environment? Do you expect to see lower interest rates?
Andy, so let's just, I think, back and then future potential. Back is the interest rate has been rising the past two, three years since COVID ended. We have experienced somewhat of an average interest cost that rise over the past two years. That came from just the base interest rate itself. It has nothing to do with our credit spread. Our credit spreads remain very competitive. We generally have our funding from Thai Beverage Groups in Thailand. We continue to benchmark ourselves against all these blue chip names. We have very competitive funding. On a consolidated basis, we also have F&N now, and F&N continues to have a very good pricing as well what we're seeing. Now, going forward, future-wise, there are two things that we see. One, interest rates are coming down. The base interest rate is coming down.
The central bank in Thailand has started to reduce interest rates. There's more expectation of interest rates to come down further. Currently, on the IRS basis, the floating rate is actually more expensive than the fixed rate. Fixed rate is basically 30-50 basis points cheaper going out to five years. We have started to take advantage of that as well. Basically, what I'm saying is the past two, three years, the interest rates have risen. We think our interest costs have peaked. We believe that in the next 12 months, we will start to enjoy lower interest costs on our debt, both from Thailand perspective or even Singapore's perspective. The last factor is that we do see ample liquidities from both banks, bonds, and capital markets. We do see ourselves as a blue chip company that we sought after security in terms of issuing bonds.
Also, lending-wise, banks continue to lend to us at the credit spread that are shrinking. That is what we are seeing. I think we are quite confident both the interest rate and credit spreads are lower for us going out next 12-18 months.
Thanks, Kong. Thank you. If I may, a follow-up question with respect to the spirits A&P spend. Because traditionally, when the economy is soft, I understand that the company's strategy is actually to pull back on spending because no point spending if consumers are not buying or consuming. With respect to second quarter, in terms of investment in brand investment and marketing activities for spirits pertaining, would this be arising from the new brand that was launched that Kong has indicated earlier, or is it on other things? Yeah. That's my question.
Yes, yes. Thank you. I mean, for the, I would say that for the second quarter, it's the activity that we have one brand that we launched. Also, we have the marketing activity that we have did for the brown spirit in the second quarter.
Can we assume that or rather expect that this, given that it's a second half, it's similarly weaker and also a lousy season, would you expect spending to taper off as a percentage of sales?
Yes. For the second half, that's true. During the low season, I think all the marketing activity is going to, let's say, lower activity compared to the first half of the year. Yeah, we already managed it. For the ACNA for the second quarter, mainly just for the normal trade promotion.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you a lot.
Our next question comes from the line of Meghana Kande of CGS International. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you so much again for taking my question. Just one regarding the marketing side for the beer segment. Just wondering if you're at a comfortable level right now or just your thoughts on the marketing strategy going into the second half for the year. Thank you.
Hi. Yes, in terms of the marketing spending, I think it's one part of it. It's the one that is a key driver of our volume growth. We're still spending for the second half, but definitely, it will be more efficient because of the activities. Festive season is probably lower. The spending in terms of the ratio will be continued.
This is Y Chai. Normally, first half, we have International New Year and Thai New Year. So A&P spending in Thailand is quite heavy in the first half. Second half is a lot lower, especially from July to September. It is a lent period, Buddhist lent period. During those times, A&P will be very low. Bottom line is the second half A&P will be lower than the first half on both beer and spirit in Thailand. Thank you.
Meghana, let me talk a little bit about the Vietnam beer market A&P spending. I think similar to Thailand, we also have heavy spend at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the Christmas New Year season, as well as Tet. For us, we don't have Buddhist lent. We do have a heavy summer coming up. Summer is also another big drinking season for us. What we want to do is control the spend. This year's Tet season spending overall, I think the entire market was a little bit heavier than last year, and we had to keep up. We're hoping that we can be a lot more efficient in the upcoming summer season for all the spending for the high drinking season.
Got it. Thank you so much for that.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Permada Darmono of UBS. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Just wanted to get an update on your plans on Agri Valley. Previously, it was stated that the rationale to basically combine or consolidate Fraser and Neave is partly to deepen Thai Beverage's exposure to high-growth non-alcoholic beverages and dairy segments. One of this is, of course, Agri Valley. I note that F&N has taken the first 2,500 cattle with a final plan to ramp up to 20,000 cattle. Can you just maybe provide us with some kind of guidance how long the startup losses will persist and what's the ramp-up to the full capacity when we start seeing the higher growth rate that we can expect from your dairy operation?
Thank you, Permada. This is Kosit. I think you have done a lot of homework for our Agri Valley projects. Thank you very much. I just would like to correct that 20,000 ramp-up was at the phase two. I think the initial projection for us is to reach 10,000 cows. That was the part of the first phase. You are right that actually we have imported a cow from Chile. I think that was more than 2,500. It just arrived in April. I think the indicator of the first milking has gone quite well. We have anticipated higher than industry average in Malaysia. This is too early for us to judge. The rate keeps improving at this point.
If it all goes well as planned, I would say I think for this project, the ramp-up period would take close to about two years, as what we actually planned. That depends on a lot of factors, right? I would say at this point, it would be early to tell whether or not. Everything looks good on our side. It seems to be on plan. Please continue to keep studying us and perhaps following us. We'll keep you posted on the updates. So far, I can say that things are going well. If it all goes as planned, it would be close to about two years for us to be able to reach the target that we want. Thank you.
Sorry. Thank you, Kong. Is that two years to 10,000 milking cows for phase one or two years to 20,000?
Yeah. I think it's quite a simple mathematic because when you bring in 2,500 cows, it carries the babies, right? That 2,500, we grow to 5,000. We need to bring another 2,500, and it will give birth to another 2,500. We're going to reach 10,000. I think the point is not about reaching 10,000. It's about having a very quality meal. Meaning that there's a lot of factors that we need to be mindful. I think, for example, you know that this Agri Valley, it's three parts of it, right? Cow is just one part. The biggest part is the crops. We are growing a lot of crops to feed the cow, especially corns, yes. The third part is we have the processing plant, which will be coming online in the coming August or if not September. That's what is our target.
10,000 cows would be easily achieved. I think what is a challenging part for us is to have 10,000 cows and more giving birth and giving good quality of milk and a good, I think, cost of the crops that can actually feed all the cows. Thank you.
Maybe just one follow-up on that. Is the target solely for Malaysia? The dairy penetration per capita in Malaysia is already quite high. Or is it also to consider other export markets?
At this point, I think our initial goal is to address the is to have a good milk supply for Malaysia. Malaysia consumption is not high. I think just to correct you, it's more that Malaysians actually consume a lot of recombined milk, right? Not the fresh milk. Our goal is to provide good access to quality fresh milk for Malaysian people.
Got it. Thank you so much for all the clarity. Kong, thanks again. Much appreciated.
Thank you. There are currently no questions on the line. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Again, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. As there are no further questions, we will now begin the closing comments. Please go ahead, Ms. Namfon Aungsutornrungsi.
Thank you, everyone, for joining the call tonight. If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact IR Department at ir@thaibev.com. Thank you and have a good night.