AmRest Holdings SE (EAT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the AmRest First Half and Second Quarter 2024 Investor Webcast. My name is Lydia, and I will be your operator today. [Operator Instructions] I'll now hand you over to your host, Lukasz Wachelko, to begin. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lukasz Wachelko. I'm presenting WOOD & Company, and I'm unusual moderator of quarterly results call with AmRest. Today, the company is represented by Eduardo Zamarripa, Chief Financial Officer; and Santiago Aguilera, Chief of Strategy and IR and I won't take too much of time of yours. Ed, mic is yours.

Thank you, Lukasz. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today in second quarter 2024 AmRest results presentation. It is my pleasure to share with you an update of AmRest situation at the end of the quarter. In this period, the major European economics have shown relatively weak economic growth and moderate increase in private consumption driven by real wage growth. However, with relevant differences across countries, as we are going to see later on, we had a very good performance in countries such as Spain and Poland, while businesses development in France and especially in Germany, were negative. In addition, inflation pressure continues to moderate across the region, supporting an EBITDA margin expansion in most of our markets. But let's just start with today's presentation, if we go to the Slide 2, please. As we usually do, let me remind you that AmRest is Europe's leading restaurant operator with a portfolio of almost 2,200 restaurants in 22 countries across Europe, Middle East, and China. We keep a balanced portfolio of franchise and proprietary brands that covers a wide range of consumption occasions. As a result, more than 30 million customers visit our restaurants and remote, where they find a distinctive service providers by over 45,000 passionate AmRest repeat. If we move now to Slide 3, I'm going to try to summarize in 5 points, the most relevant depends for the first half of the year. First, AmRest generated revenue of EUR 1.2 billion in the first half of the year, with a growth of 5.3% compared to the same period in 2023. Second, the EBITDA generated amounted almost EUR 194 million, up nearly 13% versus the same period of 2023, which puts the EBITDA margin at 15.7% over 1 percentage points higher than the same period of 2023. Third, the operating profit generated in the period amounts to EUR 23.5 million after registering a value correction of EUR 41 million in the goodwill of Sushi Shop. The total impairment book reached EUR 44 million. Fourth, the financial risk profile of the group keeps very stable with a leverage of 2 times. This is at the lowest end of the target leverage range defined for the group. And finally, during the first half of the year, we opened 40 new restaurants and renovated 140 units. In the following slides, we will go into more deep and detail on these points. But let's start with what we are doing in our different brands on the Slide 4. The commercial position of our brands play a crucial role in the value generation of AmRest. Let me start with a quick service and coffee brands in this business on Slide 4. Starbucks maintains its long strong leadership position among coffee shop users. We have kept our strategy focused on customers' daily coffees [ habit ] through coffee offers and everyday beverages. In KFC, since the beginning of the year, we are being delighting our customers by consistently offering totally new products as the follows: Delos shakes with the new flavors as bubblegum and Popko, or Pizza Twisters creating a culinary revolution with a delicious solution of our Icon KFC Twisters and the worldwide [ lobsticks ]. For Burger King, we are happy to inform that a new Burger King app is now working in Poland, Czech and Romania. This gives our guests the opportunity to check current offers, spots, find restaurants and be able to use a special on the app user offers. During the following months, additional app solutions will be run as mobile ordering and loyalty process. Now moving to the fast casual and dining brands in Slide 5. Regarding Sushi Shop, we already referred to the goodwill impairment booked. 2 regions have triggered this new value correction. The first one related to economic factors reflected in the increase in the discount rates used in the model. And the second is the reduction in terms of our growth expectations for the brands until profitability is fully restored. Commercial initiatives as the new manual elaborator by the Spanish Chef Albert Adrià for an unprecedented collaboration with a connect video main character batman, will help this group complemented by a rigorous program of operational efficiency, commercial positioning and the creation of synergies with the rest of the group. At Pizza Hut, we are cooperating with Garfield Movie premiere in Poland and Czech Republic. At La Tagliatella, following the demand and our goal to let everybody enjoy our dishes without the return limitation, we have opened a new La Tagliatella Senza Glutine in Pamplona. This is the second restaurant of this kind that shows our commitment with the Celiac audience and our objective of increasing our strength in this segment. And finally, at Blue Frog, we are providing to our case with an unforgettable taste adventure. We have introduced our new order menu in May, appetizers, snacks, and revolutionary grill products make a delicious blend of activity and value for Blue Frog, which has been a great success in mitigating the difficult consumption situation in China. If now we move to Slide 6. As I mentioned, AmRest generated a revenue of more than EUR 1.2 billion in the first half of the year which growth of over 5% compared to the same period in 2023. This growth is relevant in a context where consumer spending has been subdued, I think that the success has been to adapt in this moment to a very price-sensitive and value-seeking cost. On the right-hand chart, you have the evolution of the 12-month trailing average revenue per store that continues with a steady growth for the last 3 years now, providing a good indicator on both the health of our business and the level of expectation of economies of scale through the sales leverage. Moving to Slide 3. As can be seen in this slide, the good progress in digitalization is another factor that continues to support our activity levels, as sales through digital channels, making up 57% of total sales during the quarter. In terms of consumption channels, dining consumption remains stable as the preferred alternative for AmRest's consumers according to 45% of consumption locations. We see stability of the distribution channel breakdown during the last quarters. Now moving to Slide 4. The EBITDA generation stood at EUR 194 million during the first half of the year. This is an increase of 13% compared to 2023. The EBITDA margins reached almost 16%. This is over 1 percentage point higher than the same period of 2023. The main factors behind this margin expenditure are lower cost pressures and the positive effect generated by the increase in the average sales per restaurant. The continuous progress in efficiency and the achievement of clear strategic objectives aimed at promoting optimization and saving initiatives throughout the group. The graph on the left shows the price evolution according to the file of some of our main inputs, it is clear that the enormous cost pressure experienced in a few quarters ago is now behind us. And our margin is benefiting from the rotation of new content. If we can go to Slide 9, please. In terms of operating profit, the generation amounted to almost EUR 24 million, representing a margin of 2% after working impairment for EUR 44 million in the period. Let me share a few thoughts on this for an important level of adjustments. More than EUR 41 million corresponds to an extraordinary value adjustment of the goodwill associated with Sushi Shop. Therefore, it has no impact in the group's liquidity or cash generation capacity of the group. These remaining parts is associated to restaurants impairments where the number of restaurants where impairments are reversed. 41 surprised the new [indiscernible] for 40 restaurants. Let me straight this idea. This number of 40 restaurants impaired is less than half of the last year's number, which is 89. I think this is a good indicator that the evolution of the quality portfolio of results. For this reason, I consider that it's also very important to look at the results generated in our ordinary operating business. excluding the extraordinary items. This adjusted operating profit, excluding Sushi Shop impairment that you can find in the graph of the -- graph shows a generation of EUR 65 million during the first half of the year and a margin of more than 5% with an expansion of 1.1 percentage points versus last year. In other words, a clear sign of the strength of our core business. Moving to Slide 10. You can see that AmRest operates directly or via franchisee portfolio of 2,177 restaurants. This portfolio has undergone structural changes during the last years in order to provide a better and more efficient capital allocation, which resulted in the transfer of closure of underperforming business. We have listed the most relevant transfer of business performance and their EBITDA contribution. As I explained, currently, we are negotiating the transfer of an additional business units that comprise the 123 so franchise Pizza Hut restaurants of the French market and the equity that we operate. In addition, you can see that the gross number of restaurants opened during the period reached 40 units. With this, Santi, if you can cover the main financial highlights, please.

Thanks, Eduardo, and good afternoon, everyone. Always it's my pleasure to have the opportunity to address you on our quarterly results presentation. I would like to highlight a few ideas before starting. The results that we present today have a bit of strict pace. On one side, as Eduardo has explained, the ordinary course of our business has been very positive despite the very challenging situation in some of our markets and for some of our brands. This fact precisely highlights the distinctive advantage of the diversification of our business model. Second, margin expansion is still to improve, and record-level nominal amount of revenue and EBITDA continue to be our dynamic. Behind this growth, there is a huge work in terms of digitalization, data analytics, marketing, logistics and so on that allow us to be close to our customers and serve efficiently to million of guests across 22 countries every day. The bitter part, of course, is this further deterioration that we have produced [ 30 ] in Sushi Shop' goodwill. A lot of this have affected this brand over the last quarter. The situation in the French market that is very challenging and that we have told on several occasions. Also, the impact of the salmon prices, the transformation of the delivery business [indiscernible]. However, I think that it is important to stress that the value correction register is mainly due to a revision on the growth expected for this graph, which is conditional on an improvement in profitability. But by the way, it's already taking place, but this trend should consolidate. As we have underlined this adjustment, has no impact on liquidity or on the cash flow generation capacity of the group. AmRest is a well-diversified company with many brands in many countries. And we don't see any reason for changing the full year guidance that we shared at the beginning of the year. The weakness that we are experiencing in the French or German markets are being compensated by the excellent performance in other markets. Now back to the presentation. On Slide 12, we have the main financial data for the half year, which is seen, already -- Eduardo had already covered. So let me zoom in on the figures for the quarter on Slide 13. During the second quarter of the year, revenues amounted almost EUR 639 million. This is 5% higher than in the same period of 2023 with a same-store sales level of [ 100 ] last year. In this regard, the most accurate information for the middle of August points to a level of [ 101 ]. These are aggregate numbers that includes excellent performances in some markets has fallen in Spain, but the important contractions in other relevant markets are France and Germany. Nonetheless, this has not prevented us to report today a new record in revenue generation for the group. The EBITDA generated was almost EUR 113 million. This is also a new record in nominal terms with a year-on-year growth of 11%, which puts this EBITDA margin at a very decent of almost 18% level, which is over 1 percentage point higher than 1 year ago. In terms of operating profit, EBIT, we generated EUR 4.9 million due to the value correction already explained. This represents an EBIT margin of almost 1%. Finally, the CapEx stood at EUR 47 million, which is almost 40% higher than 1 year ago. In this regard, let me remind you that we expect a more leading allocation during the year of investment, a new restaurant opening that on previous occasions. Moving to Slide 14. You can find the quarterly sales and same-store sales index evolution. The upward trend in terms of revenue generation continues with a 5% growth in nominal terms, which I referred before. Again, let me explain that this aggregated numbers include growth in many markets as 16% in the case of Poland, 7% in the case of Spain, but decline of 9% in the case of Germany or 2% in the case of France. In Slide 15, we have closed the quarterly EBITDA evolution, almost EUR 130 million were generated with a growth in nominal terms of 11%. This figure once again is a new record, but equally important is the recovery in profitability with a margin expansion of 1 percentage point. In terms of operating profit, the figure decreases at almost EUR 5 million. Moving to Slide 16. The adjusted or recurring operating profit is up EUR 46 million. This is 25% more than a year ago and represents a margin of more than 7%. As we have reiterated this adjustment of the theoretical value book value has no impact on the group's operating cash flow generation, which, however, due to seasonal factors of the business cycle and payment terms should increase in the coming quarters. On Slide 17, I would like to point out a few things. First, we have a net increase of 80 equity restaurants during the last year. In the last 12 months, we have increased our equity portfolio in 80 restaurants. In terms of franchisees, the number has been flat due to the decrease that we experienced in the French market. Second, the 5% increase in revenue with a flat same store sales. We consider that it is a good performance given the extremely challenged commercial conditions that we are having. And of course, this is for you to judge but we are seeing that we are doing better than our neighbors in most of the markets. Sorry. If we move now to the Slide 18, you can find the organic change in the restaurant portfolios. Just to recap that we have a net growth of sale reference during the quarter with 22 new openings and the closure of 15 units. With this, at the end of the quarter, AmRest operated a portfolio of 2,177 restaurants. Moving now to Slide 19, please. Here, we have the cash and debt evolution. The group's gross financial debt was slightly reduced to 2158 EUR [ 616.4 ]million after EUR 12 million repayment during the last quarter. The risk profile has not changed much, and the leverage remains at the low end of our target at this good time. In terms of liquidity, we keep a cautious level of almost EUR 137 million at the end of the quarter. This inflates a decrease of EUR 31 million during the period as a result of accelerated investments. This level of liquidity together with additional liquidity line and credit facilities for more than EUR 255 million we consider is a proven by section level according with the group. In Slide 20, you can find our financial debt structure and maturity profile. Basically, no changes with respect to the previous quarter. More than 90% of the current financial debt is long-term debt. Going to the Slide 21, we can find the breakdown of revenues, EBITDA, and the number of restaurants that we have in each segment. This segment comprises businesses in 22 countries where we observed pretty [indiscernible] commercial dynamics, as we have expressed during the presentation. In Slide 22, as usual, we will start with Central and Eastern Europe. Our more relevant region from business perspective that represents 58% of the group revenue. Revenues generated during the quarter in the region reached EUR 369 million, with an increase of more than 10% over the previous year, highlights the excellence performance of the [ Polish ] market where revenues increased by almost 16%. Moving into profitability. The EBITDA generated during the quarter amounted EUR 74 million, representing a margin of 20% and 8% increase year-on-year. The restaurant portfolio amounted 1,189 units following the opening of 5 restaurants and the closure of 1 during the quarter. Cumulative openings for the year amounted 17 and closure 5. Let's continue now in the Slide 23 with Western Europe where quarterly sales in the region amounted EUR 224 million, basically flat compared to 2023. This development has significant resurgence in the evolution shown by different countries. While sales in Spain grew at a rate of more than 7%, Germany reduced a decline of 9% and France almost 2% contracted. Nonetheless, the EBITDA in the region reached almost EUR 37 million, representing a margin of more than 16% and a growth of also 16%. The restaurant portfolio closed the period with [ 902 ] units after the opening of 40 new restaurants and the closure of 8. In cumulative expense [ 18 ] restaurants were opened during the first 6 months of the year and 14 units were closed, 8 of them in France. If we move now to Slide 24. We have the performance in China, where sales during the quarter declined by 6% in [ Europe ] to a total figure of EUR 25 million. However, the decline in sales in local currency were 4%. The macroeconomic situation and the global downturn construction explain the decline in business generation. However, I would like to remark the recovery in activity as the year progress. Behind this, it is the commercial management carried out by the Blue Frog team that is adapting well to this complicated environment, which has resulted in a significant expansion of margin and growth in EBITDA generation. EBITDA generated was almost EUR 6 million, representing a margin of 24% compared to less than 21% 1 year ago. Finally, the number of restaurants managed by Blue Frog in the region at the end of the quarter were 86 units, following the opening of 3 restaurants and the closure of 5. During the first half of the year, we have opened 5 restaurants in the region and closed 7. With this, Eduardo, back to you. Thank you.

Thank you, Santi. And with this, we are open to any questions that you may have.

[Operator Instructions]

Okay. Maybe I will take the privilege of moderator and start with some questions from my end. Thank you very much for a very detailed presentation. I wanted to ask you for more flavor on the 124 franchise, Pizza Hut restaurants in France. How the project actually look like? Where are you heading towards? And what's the general idea for those outside of years?

Thank you, Lukasz, for the question. We are still in discussions with Pizza Hut in terms of having the -- having the transfer of the market to them. We consider that this should take place in the following weeks even. No. We wanted to give an update on this on the market. And this is part of our strategy of allocation of resources to the most profitable investments and regions.

Okay. Could be the write-down for that and the impairment? How should we look at it?

Not really, as we mentioned, we only have 1 equity store. So of course, the transfer will have some impacts on the financials, but nothing that is relevant or significant for the company. So just to point out, we have provided the detail of what it has been the contribution of previous transfers of businesses. And in this case, the pillars should be also similar. So this goal with the strategy, as Eduardo was pointing out, this efficient capital allocation and to get rid of underperforming business in our portfolio.

Okay. Great. And speaking of impairments, would -- the bottom-line Europe for a second quarter looks a touch worse than it could because of the Sushi Shop. Can you remind us if there is any goodwill left at Sushi shop. What should we expect going forward?

Yes. Lukasz, there's a -- of course, there's still some goodwill, and it is in the level of EUR 70 million.

EUR 70 million?

EUR 71 million, in fact. EUR 71 million.

Okay. Great. And -- well, we are seeing you doing deep restructuring, hence improving the efficiency. Now you are speaking of handing over a Pizza Hut business in France to Yum. What's the time horizon for this restructuring? When should we expect your chain of restaurants being ready cut to the core, and you should go no money without any impairment? Do you have any time horizon?

Particularly for this transfer should take place in the remaining part of this -- of this year.

Okay. But other than that, are there any large projects of yours to trim the fact? Or you -- once this project is as pretty much as you want?

Nothing at this point. This is pretty much. If you see -- as we have been mentioning, is focusing on the latitudes and the businesses that generate a higher contribution for the company. And this is the aim of this office project that we have been carried out for several years. But now that we see in the different latitudes of different businesses, we are there.

I think that Eduardo was pointing to a very important -- was providing a very important data before with a number of restaurants that have been incurred during the first half year. So the total number of restaurants in Turkey was 40 units. We have 43 units in were impairment where were reversed. And this is the lowest figure that we have in many, many years, and it's less than half in the figure of restaurants that require impairment on previous years. So I think that despite the fact that we have this goodwill impairment in the case of Sushi Shop because we have reviewed this growth potential of the brand at this stage. The quality of the portfolio is quite old bills that the number of these nonperforming restaurants that we have is getting lower and lower.

Okay. So as you are closer and closer to end of restructuring, and there should be no longer refresh from the -- on the bottom line. Should we expect the dividend any time zone. What was your strategy for this and sales?

That's an interesting point, Lukasz. And we are in an evolution of the company that we have been stating for quite several quarters, being very focused in terms of profitability. And we have been very, very vocal on this. We are working towards a value company without designing for the growth story of the company. And we have several steps that we have taken in place in order to go towards this. The first one, optimizing the portfolio, which we discussed now briefly in the call. Second one, stabilize the profits. There has been very challenging times in terms of consumption, in terms of economy topics which unfortunately are not closed yet. There are still challenges in terms of the -- on the economy that are happening around the world, and Europe is not the difference. The third one is in terms of margin recovery. We are seeing that -- we are seeing that coming in the numbers that we have shown in the latest quarters. So we are working to that. And is the path to get there. So that's where we are getting to.

Okay. So do you have any milestones and any ratios you want to achieve to be able to think of dividend?

Still early to talk about that, but we have been working, as I was saying, in order to get this. And we are at the -- at a good pace to get that, but it's still preliminary to enter into those details.

Okay. Great. Operator, I don't want to monopolize the call entirely. So if there are any questions, please.

We have a question from Jakub Krawczyk with RBI.

I hope you can hear me all right. Congrats on the figures. I have a question about Sushi Shop. I apologize in advance if I missed something from the call. But what is the strategy forward with Sushi Shop and whatever -- how would you rate the chances for further goodwill impairment on the EUR 71 million? And can you please remind me, is this the first goodwill impairment for Sushi Shop? And obviously, I think there could be a worry that should you adjust your business plans further, there should be further impairments so that's in the mix, let's say, after Q4, for example, or something. So can you just give some color on that, please?

Perfect. Thank you, Jakub, for the question, and thank you for the comments on the results of the company. I think we're really happy on that the company's delivery on that. But also, as we have highlighted, we have this topic of Sushi Shop. And I would split the answer in 2 parts. First one is still, there are economic factors that are affecting the businesses. And there are particularly France as a country is having a challenging time. It's not alone also Germany, Germany is having a difficult time. So that's one thing that we need to take into the consideration in order to drive the premises that we have over there. So that's why part of the impairment is related from increase in the discount rate of the model that we have there. But what is important here is to pay attention to the development of the countries in which Sushi Shop is present. The second one, and also is related to this one is we want to be more prudent in terms of the growth -- of the growth of the business. We are not, as I was mentioning before, we are not resigning to the [ globe, ] but we are -- we want to be more prudent on that because our main focus right now is profitability of that business. And we have established a task force in which, of course, all the Sushi Shop team is involved but we have a direct involvement of the CEO of the company [indiscernible], a direct informer -- involvement for myself, the marketing team the operations team, development. So it's a key priority of the organization right now, the development on that market. And we are working on a lot of initiatives commercial ones, how to drive more traffic to the -- more traffic to the -- to the store's revenue management initiatives, value delivery for the consumer, how to make the brand more relevant to the consumer. And also, we have initiatives in terms of the procurement in the local team, but also on the global team. A lot of efforts have been done in terms of negotiations for salmon has been a very tough time in terms of pressures of salmon. And it's a very important -- it's the most important [ process ] for us in that business. So we are working on all the fronts to deliver what we have in the current plan.

Okay. I mean I actually noted that your EBITDA margin in Western Europe, in general, has narrowed the gap to Eastern Europe. So I think that's a big win despite the headwind you mentioned in France and Germany. Can you just clarify one thing for me? Because you mentioned, I think, Santi mentioned -- I believe it was Santi mentioned that you have communicated on the previous transfers. Of course, you have communicated in due course, but is there like a -- could you now remind the market about the impact of the previous transfers in some organized fashion? Or is it -- but we have to now sort of go back in history to your previous documents to find the details on how things were booked like then? Or have you now reminded us exactly in some forms on the slide or in the...

No, thank you for the question. So on those previous transfers, they were not the impact on the book value. And basically, what we were illustrating is that they have negative contribution to our EBITDA margin. Our similar story, it should be expected in this case.

And let's just Pizza Hut France, correct?

Yes. This is Pizza Hut France. We have the MFA in this market in where what we have is 123 franchises where we have only this 1 equity store. So at the moment, we are in these negotiations for transferring the managing of the whole country to Pizza Hut Europe.

And do we -- is there any update on the strategy for the brand -- for the Pizza Hut flag from Yum! or from yourselves on where this business is heading because obviously, it's been having a bit of an identity crisis or maybe positioning crisis for many players right across the industry. So I'm just wondering, is there -- do you see any developments on that side on the brand?

Yes, Jacob, I would say that in the market in France and in Germany, it was very centered in terms of delivery. It's still a little bit different in the sea markets in which we operate because we have more dine in. And we have been working a lot in terms of the Pizza Hut brand in that segment, which we have been working and we have been developing for many, many, many years. So we have the segment, which is very relevant to delivery, which pizza is a great category for having that. But part of the distinctiveness that we have on sea markets that we have restaurants. And on that what we have done is having a better or a big offer for our consumers. Now we have pizza, we have salads, we have pastas. So we have menus that complements -- that complement the portfolio to give to the consumer a better experience. We are having and investing a lot in terms of the applications to get in the restaurants, a very nice experience. In fact, one of the projects that we are doing right now. And if you have the opportunity to visit one of our restaurants in Poland, we are having in some of our restaurants. Some products are helping us to give the service in the restaurant. Of course, that has efficiency overall in terms of the operations. But these roles, what they are doing is they are -- with that, we send to the -- to our consumers in the table and gives a very nice approach to the -- a very nice approach to the service in terms of the organization. Also, we are working in terms of payment in the table or ordering from the table besides having the what the waiters. So we are enhancing the experience that we have over there with very good results on the sea market.

I think that this has like one point that the -- sometimes when we speak about Europe, we think Europe as a whole and for some brands, and the situation in different countries, the position, the perception of the case on those countries is quite different. So in the case of France, of course, what we are reporting here is that we are in negotiations of software transfer of the business. What we can tell right now is that there are not more transfers on the table at this stage and that we are very happy with the position that we have in the other countries. And we have a lot of initiatives, are taking place as Eduardo has already explained.

[Operator Instructions] We have a written question, which reads, did you stop reporting revenue from the sale of licensed Starbucks locations in your 2Q '24 results in the German market.

No. We have a special situation for this specific pool of restaurants. There are 22 restaurants, Starbucks restaurants in Germany and that we don't manage. So basically, what we are doing is to provide some services to them, analyzing the situation and where we don't have the right to grant those licenses or to revoke them, and we consider that it is better not to report those restaurants in the portfolio of AmRest. So what we have done is to exclude these number of restaurants from the restaurant count. But for these services that we are providing to them, we get some money. And of course, we will continue to do so. So part of the beauty of our business. And group, of course, is that we have different business lines that generate revenues, and this is one -- one of them.

We have no further questions on the line. So I'll turn the call back over to management team.

Maybe one question more from my end. Like-for-like was 2% in the first quarter. In the second quarter, it was 0. Can you share with us what are the current trends over the third quarter. Any kind of trading updates and even better will break down into Western, Eastern Europe would be really helpful?

I think that one factor that this has been before time is the Easter week. So what we were expecting for this year, and this is part of what we are seeing is that it was to be a challenging year. We were expecting to have a gradual recovery of activity according to the year progresses. This is what we are seeing. But during the first Q, what we have, it was the abnormal effect of the Easter. So that was [indiscernible], if you want in the Q1 numbers. On the opposite, this is damaging the comparable figures on the Q2. So perhaps there really weren't -- no delays as we have stressed during the call on several occasions, is this big diversion that we are seeing across different countries. We were expecting the different monetary policy approaches will generate different situations where desynchronize the economic cycles across the countries. And this is what we are seeing. But one more, no part of the ability of the business that we have is we are present in 22 countries, putting everything aggregate to come together, we are able to propose a 5% growth. But this is very important in our business as well is to be better than our [indiscernible] and as we were stating before, I see that our numbers are good numbers from this perspective. And of course, we have a better size of the EBITDA phase that we mentioned before about this issue in terms of the growth in one of our -- on our brand. that is something that we are working on. But we know what we have to do, and we are doing.

I will also take the opportunity for the questions. Traffic is very important, as you were mentioning, like like-for-like, no. And this is a metric, and this is the KPI that we follow very, very closely in all the regions, in all the formats, all the restaurants because traffic is really important. We want our guests to continue visiting restaurant number, that's why everything is focused on the consumer, and we measure this a lot in these times in which there are certain constraints in terms of the economy is one of the topics that give us a very good sign of how we are performing. And up to now, even the geography diversification that we have, we are performing and we are giving the results that we are showing. But this is not over. As we were saying, there are a lot of economical challenges that we have in the future, but we're focusing on delivering very close to our consumer so that we can continue delivering positive results.

Okay. Great.

If there are no further questions, thank you very much to everybody for attending this conference call. It was great to have you here and to have the opportunity to share the results of this quarter of AmRest. And as I was saying traffic is very important for us. We are working towards that and hope to see you soon in one of our restaurants to increase that number. Thank you, very much. And have a nice weekend.

Thank you.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.