Company Reports

In 2000, 3G Capital merged two Brazilian brewers, Brahma and Antarctica, creating Ambev. Like its majority owner, InBev, Ambev acquired brewers throughout Central and South America and is now the largest brewer in Latin America. Ambev has monopolistic positions across regions, including 60% beer market share in Brazil, over 65% in Argentina, El Salvador, and Uruguay, and over 70% in Bolivia. With this, Ambev enjoys significant fixed cost leverage and procurement pricing power. This is reflected in the firm’s excess returns on invested capital and superior working capital management and cash cycles.

Ambev’s second-quarter fiscal 2026 results included year-over-year organic revenue growth of 6.1%, with volume up 1.4%. Normalized EBITDA increased 8.9%, reflecting cost management offsetting higher marketing expenses during the FIFA World Cup. Shares fell around 2% in early trading on July 30.

In 2000, 3G Capital merged two Brazilian brewers, Brahma and Antarctica, creating Ambev. Like its majority owner, InBev, Ambev acquired brewers throughout Central and South America and is now the largest brewer in Latin America. Ambev has monopolistic positions across regions, including 60% beer market share in Brazil, over 65% in Argentina, El Salvador, and Uruguay, and over 70% in Bolivia. From this, Ambev enjoys significant fixed cost leverage and procurement pricing power. This is reflected in the firm’s excess returns on invested capital and superior working capital management and cash cycles.

Ambev’s first-quarter 2026 results included year-over-year organic revenue growth of 8.1% and normalized EBITDA growth of 10.1%. Net revenue per hectoliter was up 8.0%, with all segments reporting growth except Canada. Shares rose around 16% in early trading on May 5.

Ambev’s full-year 2025 results included year-over-year organic net revenue growth of 4.0%, a total volume decline of 3.3%, and net revenue per hectoliter growth of 7.5%. Gross profit and Normalized EBITDA rose 3.4% and 5.6%, respectively. Shares rose nearly 5% at the market open on Feb. 12.

In 2000, 3G Capital merged two Brazilian brewers, Brahma and Antarctica, creating Ambev. Like its majority owner, InBev, Ambev acquired brewers throughout Central and South America and is now the largest brewer in Latin America. Ambev has monopolistic positions across regions, including 60% beer market share in Brazil, over 65% in Argentina, El Salvador, and Uruguay, and over 70% in Bolivia. From this, Ambev enjoys significant fixed cost leverage and procurement pricing power. This is reflected in the firm’s excess returns on invested capital and superior working capital management and cash cycles.

Ambev’s third-quarter earnings included year-over-year organic net revenue growth of 1.2% and normalized EBITDA growth of 2.9%. Ambev announced a share buyback program of BRL 2.5 billion to be executed within the next 18 months. Shares rose nearly 5% at the market open on October 30.

In 2000, 3G Capital merged two Brazilian brewers, Brahma and Antarctica, creating Ambev. Like its majority owner, InBev, Ambev acquired brewers throughout Central and South America and is now the largest brewer in Latin America. Ambev has monopolistic positions across regions, including 60% beer market share in Brazil, over 65% in Argentina, El Salvador, and Uruguay, and over 70% in Bolivia. From this, Ambev enjoys significant fixed cost leverage and procurement pricing power. This is reflected in the firm’s excess returns on invested capital and superior working capital management and cash cycles.

Ambev reported year-over-year 3.4% organic net revenue growth and 7.6% normalized EBITDA growth in the second quarter. Shares were down 5% at the market open on July 31.

Ambev reported its first-quarter results with organic revenue up nearly 7% year over year and normalized EBITDA margin up 180 basis points. The board of directors approved the distribution of intermediary dividends equivalent to BRL 2 billion. Shares were up around 3% at market open on May 8.

In 2000, 3G Capital merged two Brazilian brewers; Brahma and Antarctica, creating Ambev. Like its majority owner InBev, Ambev rolled up brewers throughout Central and South America and today is the largest brewer in Latin America. Ambev has monopolistic positions across regions, including 60% beer market share in Brazil, over 65% in Argentina, El Salvador, and Uruguay, and over 70% in Bolivia. From this, Ambev enjoys significant fixed cost leverage and procurement pricing power. This is reflected in the firm’s excess returns on invested capital, and superior working capital management and cash cycles.

We are relaunching coverage on four of the largest global brewers: InBev, Ambev, Heineken, and Carlsberg. We maintain our wide moat ratings for InBev and Ambev, while we upgrade Heineken from narrow to wide, and upgrade Carlsberg from none to a narrow moat. Ambev is our preferred pick, as we believe the market does not fully reflect its region-leading growth potential, offering 33% upside from current levels.

We maintain our BRL 18 per share fair value estimate for wide-moat Ambev after the firm reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 results that were in line with our expectations. Similar to AB InBev, Ambev's full-year 2024 organic volume declined, while net revenue and profitability were up. 2025 guidance was vague, with the firm expecting input cost inflation headwinds and continued volatility across markets. Within Brazil Beer, Ambev's largest segment, the firm expects cost of goods sold per hectoliter to increase 5.5%-8.5%. Despite the stock rising 6% following the announcement, we continue to view the stock as undervalued.

Wide-moat AmBev reported its third-quarter 2024 results, which were in line with our expectations for revenue and profitability. Similar to AB InBev, AmBev saw a decline in organic total volume in the quarter, however we were encouraged by the firm's normalized EBITDA growth. We expect the firm will deliver overall top-line growth as well as gross and EBITDA margin expansion for 2024. However, we remain wary of weakness in certain markets weighing on results. With our long-term forecasts unchanged, we maintain our fair value estimate of BRL 18 per share and continue to view the stock as undervalued.

Brahma, the Brazilian brewer, was the first foray into the consumer product manufacturing industry by private equity group 3G. In 2000, 3G merged two Brazilian brewers; Brahma and Antarctica, creating Ambev. The company has gone on to roll up brewers throughout Central and South America and holds several monopolylike positions in large markets, including an 81% volume share in Argentina, 68% in Brazil, and 61% in Peru.

Brahma, the Brazilian brewer, was the first foray into the consumer product manufacturing industry by private equity group 3G. In 2000, 3G merged two Brazilian brewers; Brahma and Antarctica, creating Ambev. The company has gone on to roll up brewers throughout Central and South America and holds several monopolylike positions in large markets, including an 81% volume share in Argentina, 68% in Brazil, and 61% in Peru.

Wide-moat AmBev reported solid results for the second quarter of 2024, with net organic revenue growing by 5% compared with last year and net revenue per hectoliter increasing by 5%. The top-line growth was largely driven by strong performance in Brazil and Central America and the Caribbean, while Latin America South and Canada struggled with declining volumes caused by weak demand. Overall volume growth of 0.4% was in line with the company-compiled consensus, while normalized EBITDA outpaced the estimates by 3%, showing a 110-basis-point margin improvement compared with the last year. However, AmBev fell short of the consensus on normalized profit by 7% because of lower income tax deductibility in Brazil after a change in legislation in December 2023. We keep our fair value estimate of BRL 18 per share.

Wide-moat Ambev reported a good quarter with normalized EBITDA of BRL 6.5 billion, up around 12% organically and slightly above company-compiled consensus. The results were mainly driven by double-digit EBITDA growth in Central America and the Caribbean, or CAC, and Brazil, in both beer and NAB. We are reiterating our wide moat rating and our BRL 18 fair value estimate. The stock price remained stable, and at current levels it has an upside potential of around 40%.

Brahma, the Brazilian brewer, was the first foray into the consumer product manufacturing industry by private equity group 3G. In 2000, 3G merged two Brazilian brewers; Brahma and Antarctica, creating Ambev. The company has gone on to roll up brewers throughout Central and South America and holds several monopolylike positions in large markets, including an 81% volume share in Argentina, 68% in Brazil, and 61% in Peru.

Brahma, the Brazilian brewer, was the first foray into the consumer product manufacturing industry by private equity group 3G. In 2000, 3G merged two Brazilian brewers; Brahma and Antarctica, creating Ambev. The company has gone on to roll up brewers throughout Central and South America and holds several monopolylike positions in large markets, including an 81% volume share in Argentina, 68% in Brazil, and 61% in Peru.