Loma Negra Compañía Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anónima Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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May 8, 2023

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Loma Negra First Quarter 2023 Conference Call and Webcast. All participants will be in listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Also, Mr. Sergio Fleismann will be responding in Spanish immediately following an English translation.

Operator

Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Diego Hallon, Head of IR. Please, Diego, go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Alba Negra's earnings conference call. By now, everyone should have access to our earnings press release and the presentation for today's call, both of which were distributed yesterday after market close. Joining me on the call this morning will be Sergio Feifman, our CEO and Vice President of the Board of Directors and our CFO, Marco Gradin. Both of them will be available for the Q and A session.

Speaker 1

Before we proceed, I would like to make the following safe harbor statements. Today's call will contain forward looking statements, and I refer you to the forward looking statements section of our earnings release and recent filing with the SEC. We resume no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect new or changed events or circumstances. This conference call will also include discussion on non GAAP financial measures. The full reconciliation of the corresponding financial measures is included in the earnings press release.

Speaker 1

Now I would like to turn the call over to Sergio.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Diego. Hello, everyone, and thank you for showing us this morning. As usual, I would like to begin my presentation with discussion of the highlights of the quarter and then Marcos will take you our market review and financial results. After that, I will provide some final remarks and then we will open the call to your questions. Starting with slide 2.

Speaker 2

We started the year in a very good shape and we are very pleased to share with you another quarter of solid results. Amid increasing macroeconomic uncertainty, the industry remained resiliently, maintained the positive momentum and setting another quarter of growth. Bulk cement demand is contributing to this strength boosted by pre rates and public small infrastructure works. Our top line for the quarter increased 2.9%, with cement volume growing above the industry and boosted by the increased activity of concrete and aggregates. Our assessment EBITDA for the Q1 stood at $63,000,000 up 15% from Q1 2022.

Speaker 2

When measuring pesos, it showed a decrease of 19.7% compared to the same quarter last year, adjustment by inflation. Although margin saw fair some compression to the higher energy inputs in the Cement segment and the increased participation in the top line of the other segments will lower margin. We keep on delivering world class EBITDA margin. In this sense, the U. S.

Speaker 2

Dollar EBITDA per ton stood at some $40 for the quarter, 1.6% above 2022 Q1. Continuing our focus of maximizing volume to our shareholders at the beginning of the year, we distributed a dividend payment of $19,500,000 Additionally, we recently announced and distributed in kind another dividend for the amount of ARS22.2 billion, always maintaining a strong balance sheet with a low indebted ratio of 0.46 times. I will now hand off the call to Marco Gradin, who will walk you through our market review and financial results. Please, Marcos, go ahead.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Sergio. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to slide 4. As you can see on slide 4, even though 2022 ended posting a 5% growth, the 4th quarter started to show a deceleration. The last market expectation report from the Central Bank shows a shift in estimations for 2023, driving the growth expectation to negative terrain and reflecting the increase in economic uncertainty.

Speaker 3

While the construction activity shows mixed results for the 1st month of 2023, With our traction in February, the Cement National Industry sales shows a resilient growth of 3.1% for the quarter. Despite a strong base of comparison and the challenging environment. Although still in high figures, bulk cement shows our year on year contraction, while bulk cement continues to be the dispatch modality boosting growth. Concrete producers demand is a principal contributor to bulk performance, driven mainly by private infrastructure projects, both residential and industrial, coupled with a small and midsized public works that are gaining more incidence in the shipments. In this sense, when seeing the breakdown by dispatch mode, bulk shipments continues to gain terror, showing a participation of 43% against 40% in Q1 of last year.

Speaker 3

Even this positive start of the year, we remain cautiously optimistic for the coming months as economic volatility will probably increase as we approach reductions and this might affect the level of activity. Turning to Slide 5 for a review of our top line performance by segment. Top line was up 2.9% in the Q1, mainly due to the increase in concrete and aggregates revenues. That model compensated the decrease in the Cement segment. Cement, majorly cement and line segment was down 3.5% with volumes growing 4.3 percent year on year with a softer pricing dynamic.

Speaker 3

Concrete revenues increased sharply 30 2.8% in the quarter. Volumes were up 26.2%, in line with the strong momentum of bulk cement, coupled with good pricing performance. In the same way, aggregates show a significant top line expansion of 65 0.3 percent with the sales volume increasing 47%, primarily on the back of concrete demand coupled with strong price performance. Finally, railroad revenues decreased 5.7% in the quarter year on year. Transported volumes were down 7.4 percent while the strong transported volumes of aggregates partially offset the decrease in cement and frac sand.

Speaker 3

Despite the negative effect in price of the lower volume of frac sand due to its higher transported distance, the prices had a good performance in this quarter. Moving on to Slide 7. Consolidated gross profit for the quarter declined 15.3% year on year with margin contraction by 591 basis points to 27.5%, mainly impacted by a lower price performance of our core segment, higher costs related to higher thermal energy inputs, mainly due to stimulus plans to increase natural gas production, partially compensated with a decrease in electrical energy inputs and depreciations. The significant increase in sales volumes in segments with lower margin also contributed to the compression of the consolidated figure. The contraction in Cement, Railroad and Concrete gross margin was slightly offset by a better performance of Aggregates.

Speaker 3

Finally, SG and A expenses as a percentage of revenues decreased 44 basis points to 9% from 9.5% in the Q1 of 2022. Please turn to Slide 8. Our adjusted EBITDA for the 4th quarter stood at $63,000,000 up 5.8 percent from $60,000,000 in the same quarter a year ago. In pesos, adjusted EBITDA was down 19.7% in the quarter, reaching ARS 10,600,000,000 with consolidated EBITDA margin of 26.2 percent, contracting 7 38 basis points year on year, mainly affected by segment margin contraction and the higher participation in the top line of the other segments with lower margins. Cement adjusted EBITDA margin stood at 31.2%, contracting 6 25 basis points, mainly affected by softer pricing dynamics and higher thermal energy inputs.

Speaker 3

In a per ton basis, EBITDA reached $40 per ton, increasing 1.6 percent from Q4 of last year. Concrete adjusted EBITDA decreased ARS 21,000,000 compared to Q1 2022, mainly explained by higher cost of aggregates and freights, partially compensated by a positive prior performance and higher volumes. Margin construction of 43 basis points reaching a negative 1.2 percent. Aggregates adjusted EBITDA improved ARS272,000,000 this quarter from negative ARS37,000,000 in the Q1 of 2022, reaching a margin of 17.6%, reaffirming the good momentum for the segment, coupled with a better operational performance. Finally, Railroad adjusted EBITDA decreased to ARS 237,000,000 to negative ARS 38,000,000 for the quarter, with a negative margin of 1.2%, mainly explained by lower transported volumes that put pressure on costs, partially compensated with better price performance.

Speaker 3

Moving on to the bottom line on Slide 10. This quarter, we posted a net profit attributable to owners of the company of ARS 5,300,000,000 compared with ARS 6,500,000,000 on Q1 2022, while the lower operational result was coupled with higher financial costs. Total financial costs stood at ARS 19,000,000 this quarter from a total financial gain of ARS 452,000,000 the same quarter last year. Where the positive effect on the result of the monetary position partially compensated decrease of the net financial expense generated due to the higher debt position and the higher negative effects of the exchange rate. Moving on to the balance sheet.

Speaker 3

As you can see on Slide 11, we ended the quarter with a cash position of ARS 19,400,000,000 and total debt at ARS42.3 billion. Consequently, our net debt to EBITDA ratio stood at 0.46 times compared to 0.47x at the end of 2022. Our operational cash generation stood at ARS 4,430,000,000, while the increase in the net profit adjusted with the non cash effects partially compensated the negative effect of the changes in operating assets and liability. Regarding capital expenditures, we allocate Ps. 1,800,000,000 mostly for maintenance CapEx.

Speaker 3

During the quarter, we increased our debt to $19,000,000 outstanding our net debt at $109,000,000 at the end of this quarter. Breaking it down by currency, the dollar denominated debt represents 30% of the total debt, while the rest is in pesos. As we mentioned before, in the quarter, we distributed dividends for $19,500,000 and we recently approved a new dividend of ARS 22 200,000,000 that was paid in kind through Argentine Treasury bills. Additionally, in the quarter, the company issued its Class 1 domestic bonds for the total amount of ARS 25,600,000,000 with maturity in August 2024. This first issuance was well received by the market and is a sign of the trust placed in our company.

Speaker 3

Now for our final remarks, I would like to hand the call back to Sergio.

Speaker 4

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Marcos. Now to finalize the presentation, I please ask you to turn to slide 13. To wrap up this presentation, I would like to highlight a few final takeaways. Even though we are pleased to see how firm the industry remaining at this start of the year, positing growth figure out despite the already strong base of the corporation. We are following with attention the evolution of the economy as we approach the presidential election, which could affect the volume of the industry for the remainder of the year.

Speaker 2

In this context, we remain focused on managing the business to keep on delivering strong results. We consider the maximization of value generation to our shareholders one of our main objectives. This is why in addition to the dividend payments that we distributed in January, we recently approved a second dividend payment that was distributed in kind, seeking to follow our goal in the most efficient way. I would like to conclude by thanking all our people and stakeholders for their commitments and supports. This is end of our prepared remarks.

Speaker 2

We are now ready to take a question. Operator, please open the call for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now conduct the question and answer please note that Mr. Sergio Fafeman will be responding in Spanish immediately following an English translation. Please hold momentarily while we assemble our roster. And the first question comes from Alberto Valerio with UBS.

Operator

You may now go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hi, Marcio and Sergio. Thanks for taking my question. One thing that I was a little bit surprised on the results was the increase on the energy expense. On the other hand of the global energy price, maybe Argentina dynamic is a little bit different. So if you could give some color about the contracts that we had for the remainder of the year and what we should expect on this line.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much.

Speaker 5

In thermal energy, we had an increase this year and also by the end of last year. The good news there is that this increment was lower than you could see in other regions And the outcome for the near future is also positive. This year we should be around 3.2 dollars 1,000,000 BTU. Several contracts that we already signed for the next few years are below $3

Operator

Our next question will come from Daniel Roxas with Bank of America. You may now go ahead.

Speaker 6

Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my call. Just a follow-up on the last question in terms of thermal costs. That contract you say you signed below $3 is this related to the gas pipeline expansion? And can we assume that going forward, one of your competitive advantages will be your ability to tap into much lower gas costs coming from Vaca Muerta?

Speaker 6

And I know it might be too early, but can you share with us the savings in terms of EBITDA or EBITDA margins that you think you can gain from this competitive advantage? Thank you.

Speaker 5

The pipeline is moving forward as scheduled. And several of the contracts that we signed are linked to this improvement in production. That we are paying is going to lead to an improvement also in our margins for the next few years. Regarding gas supply, we don't see any competitive advantage with the other 7 producers in Argentina.

Speaker 6

Thank you. A follow-up, if I may. I don't want I'm sorry for trying to for you to become political analysts. But if you could gauge a little bit of what's happening in the political scenario in Argentina. One of the candidates that's leading ground lately has talked a lot about changing the dynamics of how public bidding is done in Argentina or how public constructing is done.

Speaker 6

I know it's early, but what are your thoughts on the political change that may come and the implications for public spending?

Speaker 5

The macro political scenario is very volatile these days close to the elections. Of expanding in the total volume of semi demand is quite low. For every government, public spending, an incentive or a way to accelerate the level of activity of the economy. On the infrastructural deficit in Argentina, it's a point that we can see even in housing and infrastructure in general. The political parties.

Speaker 5

It's how this infrastructure issue should be financed, if it's only the public sector, the private sector or a mix between the We should all agree that if we think that Argentina needs to grow in the next few years, this infrastructure deficit should be taken care of. Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question will come from Rodrigo Niizdorf with Latin Securities. You may now go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Given the current elevated inflation environment, could you please discuss your pricing strategy, specifically the frequency of price increases and how these adjustments are impacting demand for your cement products? Also, if you have observed any changes in demand as a result of the recent fluctuations in the blue chip surface. Thank you.

Speaker 5

Rodrigo, could you repeat the last time? We didn't hear you well. The last part? The first question, please. If you have observed any changes in demand as a result of the recent fluctuations in the new chips to operate?

Speaker 5

Yes. Rodrigo,

Speaker 6

Rodrigo. Thank you for your question.

Speaker 5

Regarding prices, we are increasing prices in a monthly basis. We always say it's a combination between our cost inflation, obviously, for the It's the start of the year for the accumulative of the year. We are mostly in line with inflation. The macro politics situation always bring

Speaker 2

some noise.

Speaker 5

On the other hand, when the gap between the official effects and the blue chip effects widens, this typically brings some it's a driver for the

Operator

And this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Diego Hannon for closing remarks.

Speaker 5

Thank you all for joining us today. As always, we really appreciate your interest in Loma. As always, we will remain available for any other questions that you may have. Have a nice day. Thank you.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Loma Negra Compañía Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anónima Q1 2023
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