Alicorp S.A.A. (ALICORC1) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and I would like to welcome you to Alicorp's Third Quarter 2024 Results Call on the 5 of November 2024. [Operator Instructions]. The format of the call today will be a presentation by the Management and IR team followed by a question and answer session. So without further ado, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Roberto Donggosoria, Investor Relations at Alicorp. Please go ahead, sir.

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Roberto Dongo-Soria, Alicorp's Investor Relations Officer. We are very pleased to have you with us in our third quarter 2024 earnings call. Presenting today will be Mr. Alvaro Correa, Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Luis Banchero, Chief Financial Officer. Other members of the management team will join us during the Q&A session. We will discuss the third quarter 2024 results after the financial results and earnings release were issued last Thursday. If you have not received a copy of the earnings release, please visit us at www.alicorp.com.pe, where you will also find the webcast presentation to accompany our discussion during this call. Please be advised that today's call is for investors and analysts only. Therefore, questions from the media will not be taken. If you are a member of the media and wish to direct any questions to the company, please contact our team directly after the call. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that forward-looking statements may be made during this conference call. These statements are based on several assumptions and factors that could change, causing the actual results to differ materially from the current expectations. We ask that you refer to the disclaimer included in the earnings release prior to making any investment decisions. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Alvaro Correa, Chief Executive Officer of Alicorp, who will begin the presentation. Alvaro, please go ahead.

Thank you, Roberto, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining the call today. Before we move on to our financial results, I want to take a couple of minutes to announce some recent changes in our management. First, as we announced last August, Luis Banchero has been appointed as our new Chief Financial Officer. Luis brings over 15 years of professional experience in leading roles at companies such as Credicorp, Advent International, Hochschild Mining and Citigroup and most recently served as Chief Executive Officer at Apollo Capital. Accordingly, starting in September, Manuel Romero transitioned the CFO role to Luis while retaining his position as Deputy CEO. After 3.5 years with Alicorp, Manuel will be leaving the company at the end of December to take on a new leadership role at Grupo Romero. Although his time with us has been relatively short, Manuel has made significant contributions and generated substantial value in various strategic roles including Director of Corporate Finance, CFO, temporarily leading the Supply Chain Vice Presidency, while serving as Deputy CEO since September of last year. I would like to express my gratitude to Manuel for his leadership, which has driven Alicorp's transformation over the past 1.5 years through a shift in our strategic vision. Thanks to his contributions and incredible drive, we are now able to deliver sound operating and financial results, laying a strong foundation for the future of our company. We wish Manuel all the best in his future endeavors. On behalf of the [Technical Difficulty] Alicorp family, thank you, Manuel. On the other hand, Roberto Dongo-Soria, Managing Director of Financial Planning, costs and Productivity, who just did the introduction of this meeting, has assumed the role of Investor Relations Officer as Misael Alvarez begins the transition to his new position as Country Manager in Bolivia. Moving on to the business. We will start today with an update on the acquisition of Refineria del Espino and the divestiture of our crushing business. Following that, we will discuss both our consolidated and business unit financial results. We will then review our leverage indicators and finally, provide an update of our guidance for the end of the year before moving into the Q&A session. Let's go to Slide #5 to review the acquisition of Refineria del Espino, please. Last August, we announced the signing of the agreement to acquire Refineria del Espino, a company that was already part of Grupo Romero and the parent company of Industria del Espino and Industria de Grasas y Aceites. We are pleased to report the successful completion of the acquisition. Following a rigorous due diligence process led by the special committee composed of 4 non-related Board members, 90.55% of the shares of Refineria del Espino were acquired for an enterprise value of $221 million, reflecting an implied last 12 months EBITDA multiple of approximately 7x. It is important to highlight that this amount is subject to standard adjustments typical in such transactions as well as deferred payments associated with certain obligations of the counterparty. An additional amount of up to $13.6 million may be added for contingent variable payments based on achieving certain results. Refineria del Espino is a Peruvian company dedicated to the production, processing and sale of palm oil-based products under derivatives. Serving both B2B and B2C segments, it is the second largest player in the oils and laundry soap industry in Peru and the leader in palm-based fats. Its main production facility is strategically located in the Eastern region of Peru, adjacent to the [indiscernible] extraction plant, which is included in the scope of the transaction as well as next to the palm plantations. This prime location [Technical Difficulty] oil reduces raw material risks and generates significant cost efficiencies. This acquisition will enable us to strengthen our position in key categories such as industrial and edible oils, shortenings and laundry soaps, especially in the Eastern region of the country, providing access to coverage to approximately 86,000 points of sale through 290 external distributors. Additionally, we will be able to develop new markets through specialty fats such as fat fillers, cocoa butter substitutes, chocolate coatings and fats for the bacon industry, among others, which we believe have significant potential in both the local and international markets, given their multiple applications and the solid customer base we currently serve. Last but not least, this acquisition presents an opportunity to hedge against potential fluctuations in the palm soybean spread by accessing competitive crude palm oil costs, which could lead to optimization opportunities in the formulations of our products. Now please let's discuss the business performance figures of Refineria del Espino on Slide #6. Sales volume of Refineria del Espino reached 250,000 metric tons in 2023, while in 2024 as of September, it reached 164,000 metric tons, showing a trend similar to that of the previous year. Regarding EBITDA, following 2 years of historic results, achieving PEN 159 million and PEN 185 million in 2022 and '23, respectively, a lower performance is expected in 2024. On a year-to-date basis, as of September this year, Refineria del Espino reported an EBITDA of PEN 87 million. This performance is mainly attributable to the gradual correction in the palm soybean oil spread, which remained at high levels in 2022 and '23, coupled with an aggressive competitive outlook in the edible oils category, especially in the lower-tier segments. It is important to note that both factors are in line with our expectations and were considered in the business case and financial projections that support our investment thesis. Additionally, our analysis shows material synergies potentially resulting from the integration of the companies. We anticipate a net present value ranging from $40 million to $60 million, representing 15% to 25% of the enterprise value. These synergies include improvements in working capital due to more favorable purchasing terms for raw materials as well as synergies from the implementation of the new governance model proposed by Alicorp for Refineria del Espino and operational improvements through the identification of efficiencies primarily in the Eastern regions of the country. Lastly, it is important to consider that tax benefits provided by the special regime of the Amazon, which includes a reduced corporate income tax rate and sales tax rate. The capture of these synergies as well as others identified will be implemented progressively as the integration process evolves. We are proud to welcome important brands such as Tondero, Pamerola, Deloitte, Manpan and Don Manolo to our portfolio, all of which will continue to contribute to the generation of value for our customers, consumers and shareholders. Now please, let's move on to Slide #7 for an update on the sale of our crushing operations. As we announced yesterday, we successfully completed the sale of our crushing business in Bolivia to ASAI Capital Holdings, following the signing of the purchase agreement in July and the completion of the carve-out of our consumer goods business from the transaction perimeter last month. While reinforcing our commitment to efficient capital allocation, this transaction is aligned with our strategic goal of focusing on growth through our core businesses where we can most effectively leverage our competitive advantages. Additionally, it will allow us to reduce volatility in our leverage indicators and improve the predictability of our financial results and significantly decrease our working capital requirements. For illustration purposes, our crushing business working capital requirements ranged between $450 million and $600 million per year. The enterprise value of this transaction amounted to $173 million, of which approximately $28 million correspond to a potential deferred payment expected from the counterparty within the next 24 months. This amount is associated with certain customary obligations typical of transactions of this nature. Having said that, we would like to express our gratitude to our crushing business team for all these years of collaboration. We are confident that they will continue on the path of growth alongside ASAI Capital Holdings and all their stakeholders. Before moving on to the next section, I would like to make some general remarks about the context in 2 of the main geographies we operate, Bolivia and Ecuador. In Bolivia, product of structural government policies, the last months have been characterized by a shortage of dollars and strict controls in the market, which translate into inflationary pressures, primarily impacting our cost structure. As of now, we have been able to partially transfer such cost pressures to prices and still hold healthy margins. We stay vigilant to any events that may impact our core operations, prompting us to be prudent in our decision-making to mitigate associated risks. Regarding Ecuador, due to insufficient rainfall in the region and a lack of energy generation infrastructure, there have been energy shortages affecting various industries. In our specific case, this has mainly impacted Vitapro's operations. However, we have already activated our contingency plans to mitigate these impacts on our production sites through the acquisition of on-premise generators. These circumstances, although negative, are part of the context in which our company and comparable terms in the sector operate. However, our resilience and ability to respond to these challenges give us confidence in addressing these issues effectively going forward. This is reflected in our operational results for the quarter for both businesses in Bolivia and Vitapro in Ecuador. Now I will turn the floor over to Luis Banchero, who will provide a more detailed discussion on the operating results and an update on our expectations for the end of 2024.

Thank you, Alvaro. Let's review our consolidated results, starting with our adjusted gross profit on Slide #9. Before we present our financial results, we would like to highlight that as disclosed in recent quarters, the following figures are being presented on a pro forma basis. These adjusted figures exclude nonrecurring impacts incurred during the respective periods and incorporate foreign exchange effects in our crushing business as part of the crush margin and therefore, as part of our gross profit. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, Refineria del Espino officially joined Alicorp in September. Consequently, this quarter, the results reflect 1 month of operations of the acquired company. Our consolidated adjusted gross profit amounted to PEN 777 million in the third quarter of 2024, representing a 26% increase compared to the same period last year. This result is driven by positive contributions from all our businesses, particularly in the Consumer Goods unit, with increases of PEN 40 million in Peru and PEN 30 million in International. Excluding the crushing business, adjusted gross profit amounted to PEN 752 million and adjusted gross profit per metric ton reached PEN 1,363 per ton, increasing 14% and 9% year-over-year, respectively. These results continue to reflect the outcomes of our new strategy, which focuses on core brands and prioritizes key categories and channels that add incremental value for our company, particularly with our consumer businesses. Let's move on to Slide #10, please. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA reached PEN 447 million, representing a 45% year-over-year increase in the third quarter of 2024. This growth is attributed to positive performance of all our business units, particularly Consumer Goods International, which increased by PEN 37 million and Peru, which experienced an increase of PEN 25 million. Our B2B and Aquafeed units also demonstrated growth during the quarter. These results include the impact of Refineria del Espino, which contributed PEN 11 million in adjusted EBITDA in September, benefiting our B2B and Consumer Goods Peru operations. Excluding the crushing business, adjusted EBITDA amounted to PEN 435 million with adjusted EBITDA per metric ton reaching PEN 789 per ton, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 19% and 15%, respectively. Please let's move on to Slide 12 to discuss our operating results by business unit. As discussed in previous calls, our new strategy in Consumer Goods Peru has proven successful over the past quarters, prioritizing growth primarily through our emblematic brands and leveraging our distribution channels to ensure volumes that generate greater value for our company. This approach has allowed us to continue recovering market share in our emblematic brands for the bimester of July, August 2024 compared to the immediately preceding bimester. Notably, Primor gained 0.8 percentage points in edible oils, Bolivar increased 1 percentage point in detergents and 1.6 percentage points in laundry soaps and Amaras rose by 1.1 percentage points in shampoos. Our volume mix continues to improve on a year-to-date basis in 2024, with a portion of core products reaching 75%, an increase of 2 percentage points compared to the same period of 2023 and 6.9 percentage points compared to 2022. It is important to note that despite intentionally letting go of unprofitable volume in recent quarters, we achieved a 5% increase in volumes sold this quarter compared to the same period of 2023, primarily driven by laundry products, cookies, bleaches, edible oils as well [Technical Difficulty] from the acquisition of Refineria del Espino. Excluding this acquisition, the increase was 2%. Additionally, our emblematic brands continue to demonstrate significant growth in the traditional channels with a 28% increase [Audio Gap]. In this context, our financial performance remains strong on our Consumer Goods Peru unit with adjusted EBITDA amounting to PEN 220 million, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 13%, primarily due to higher adjusted gross profit from volume growth in our core segment and reduced pressure from raw material costs. This was partially offset by higher SG&A expenses. Furthermore, our adjusted gross profit per metric ton reached PEN 2,530, representing a 7% improvement compared to the same period of 2023. Excluding the impact of acquisition of Refinerias del Espino, adjusted gross profit and adjusted EBITDA amounted to PEN 383 million and PEN 218 million, respectively. Regarding the performance of international businesses, adjusted EBITDA registered a very positive trend this quarter, reaching PEN 49 million, which represents a year-over-year increase of PEN 37 million. This result is primarily attributed to Bolivia, which recorded an increase of PEN 35 million due to improved performance in detergents, edible oils, shortenings and margarines. These improvements were driven by: one, strategic price actions and two, reductions in raw material costs. Similarly, Ecuador saw an improvement of adjusted EBITDA of PEN 1 million despite a decrease in volumes sold compared to last year. This reduction in volume is attributed to prioritization of key categories, which was -- which has resulted in a significant 15 percentage points improvement in our adjusted gross margin, reaching 37.7%. It is important to highlight that performance of the [indiscernible] pastas, which has increased 9% in volume this quarter compared to 2023, along with a 1 percentage point increase in market shares in the traditional channels for July, August 2024 bimester compared to the same period of 2023. Finally, other geographies also demonstrated a significant recovery in adjusted EBITDA of PEN 1.5 million compared to last year as we continue to focus on profitable categories and markets. Additionally, as we discussed in previous quarters, we have entered the U.S. market with our Tari brand in the hot sauce category. [Technical Difficulty] points of sale and secured placements with 2 of the country's largest distributors, [indiscernible] and UMFI. Furthermore, we have become the fourth best-selling hot sauce brand at 2 prominent retailers, the Fresh Market and [indiscernible]. Moving on to our B2B unit. As mentioned in previous calls, we continue to deliver growth, primarily driven by the recovery of core categories in our B2B markets, including flowers, shortenings, sauces and edible oils. This has led us to achieve sales of 190,000 metric tons, representing a 13% increase compared to the same period in 2023. We remain focused on maintaining healthy profitability levels. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2024 amounted to PEN 98 million, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 3%. This growth is primarily attributed to 10% increase in adjusted gross profit, driven by higher sales volume and lower cost pressures from raw materials despite the palm oil shortage in Peru. It is important to highlight that excluding the effect of the acquisition of Refineria del Espino from our B2B results, volumes sold and adjusted gross profit increased by 5% and 2%, respectively, while adjusted EBITDA decreased by 6% due to higher SG&A expenses. Now let's move on to the performance of our Aquafeed and crushing units on Slide 13, please. Both the global shrimp and salmon industries continue to face a challenging environment with climate-related and sanitary issues further impacting production levels and consequently, the financial performance of farmers. As of September 2024, Ecuadorian shrimp exports experienced a slight growth of 0.5%, while Chilean salmon exports have declined compared to previous years. In this context, farmers are actively seeking improved commercial terms to mitigate these challenges. Unfortunately, the recovery of the shrimp industry is still progressing more slowly than we have anticipated at the beginning of this year. However, we're starting to observe a slight uptick in global prices that could indicate a more favorable outlook as the year concludes. Regarding business performance, adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter of 2024 increased by 9% year-over-year compared to the same period 2023. This improvement can be primarily attributed to the increase in adjusted gross profit, which was partially offset by reductions in SG&A expenses. In this complex market environment, we remain committed to enhancing our feed formulations and increasing our market share among key clients in Ecuador. These initiatives are gradually strengthening our financial results compared to the previous quarters, and we anticipate a continued steady recovery in the coming months. We maintain confidence in Ecuador's significant competitive advantages over other shrimp producing countries, positioning Vitapro to capitalize effectively on potential future market recoveries. Moving on to our crushing unit. Despite a lower-than-expected harvest, which resulted in reduced crushing volumes during the quarter, we achieved an increase of $90 million in adjusted EBITDA. This improvement is primarily attributed to higher costs driven by the recovery of the soybean oil basis; and two, gains from exchange rates arbitrage compared to last year. With that, let's move on to Slide 15 to comment on our leverage, debt and liquidity metrics, please. Regarding our debt metrics, we're maintaining our cash flow generation, primarily driven by significant improvements in our profitability of our core businesses. As a result, this quarter, we achieved a substantial decrease in our leverage, reducing our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio down to 2.2x, a reduction of 1.6 turns compared to the same period in 2023, supported by a remarkable decrease in PEN 1 billion in net debt. This outcome was accomplished despite the acquisition of Refineria del Espino and the execution of our share buyback program during this year. If we had not completed either the shares buyback and the acquisition of Refineria del Espino, our leverage would have been approximately 1.5x. Regarding the financing of the acquisition of Refineria del Espino, we successfully closed a $200 million unsecured 5-year syndicate facility with international banks. Additionally, we also renewed our committed credit lines of $120 million for an additional 3 years. In the coming months, our focus on strengthening our core brands and improving our channel mix, along with active management of working capital will support cash flow generation and help maintain our current leverage ratios. Additionally, the divestiture of our crushing operation, which has historically required a high working capital will further contribute to our deleveraging efforts. In terms of liquidity, as of September 2024, our available cash position amounted to PEN 1.7 billion, an increase of approximately PEN 700 million compared to June 2024. This improvement is mainly attributed to enhanced cash flow generation from operations driven by improved margin and reduced working capital needs, particularly in our crushing business. This cash position covers 1.2x our debt maturities over the next 12 months. And when considering our committed facilities, this ratio increases to 1.5x. Now let's wrap up today's presentation with a glimpse of what we expect for our full year 2024 results on Slide 16, please. Okay. In 2024, we have observed a positive trend in our operational and financial results, particularly in our consumer businesses, thanks to the redesign and implementation of our new strategy. Despite headwinds in the international shrimp market that have added pressures to the results of our strategic discipline and the gradual recovery of the market, despite headwinds in the international shrimp markets that have added pressure to our results, our strategic discipline and the gradual recovery of the market give us confidence in a solid performance in the near future. In this regard, excluding the crushing businesses, we estimate a mid- to high single-digit decrease in our revenue. This decrease is attributed to lower volumes resulting from the redesign of our strategy and the previously mentioned shrimp market outlook. Additionally, we have been able to cautiously implement certain pricing actions in response to specific reductions in raw material costs, a trend we're observing conservatively as we look ahead to the upcoming quarters. Regarding adjusted EBITDA, also excluding the crushing business, we expect to close the year with a growth of 20% to 25%, primarily driven by the strong performance of our consumer goods businesses, both Peru and international throughout this year. As for the CapEx investments, we estimate we will close 2024 with investments totaling $81 million and $52 million, excluding the investments in our shrimp feed plant in Ecuador. Finally, our leverage ratio should remain at levels similar to those presented today. Considering the divestiture of the crushing business and supported by continuous cash generation from the strong performance of our core businesses, this, coupled with working capital optimization initiatives, will allow us to maintain a healthy leverage position and remain well below the 3x threshold. Here, I would like to stop and open the session to any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions]. We will take the first question. This question comes from Mr. Aramburú from BTG Pactual.

I have a question on the strategy overall. It's obviously been very successful the last few quarters in terms of profitability. When you think about your strategy, how to grow the next 2 to 3 years, where do you see that growth? And where do you plan to invest over the next 2, 3 years to get some top line growth? And then my second question is regarding, you mentioned the decline in volumes in Ecuador. It was significant. It was like 75%. What's your strategy there? What's the end game? Are you completely exiting Ecuador? Or are you just refocusing some of the products you sell there?

Okay. Let me take this one, Alonso, thank you for your question. This is Alvaro. With regards to growth, certainly, it is not easy to grow in a market that is not growing that fast. That's for sure. However, we have seen in the past few months that it is possible to gain market share in certain categories, especially in the main brands that we carry. Second, as you can imagine, it's not very easy for us to go and buy another company in the same categories because of antitrust regulation that is getting more stringent in the country. But we could either -- and both, I would say, develop internally new products in different categories. That's one thing. And the other is to look for -- always look for opportunities, both in Peru and in other places to introduce in Peru to potential targets is always an option in categories where we do not necessarily participate in other markets, in other countries, it's both. It's growing organically by introducing some of our brands wherever we find spots where we can add value and always and together with that, looking into potential partners or acquisitions. In the B2B business, there is an interesting potential in share of wallet in certain channels or clients like restaurants and bakeries we can get there with newer and more creative alternative for those clients. So we will have -- we will continue to find ways and spaces where we can continue growing. As for the Ecuadorian reduction and the strategy going forward, I would say, first of all, we needed to go back to basics and maintain the more profitable, the more relevant brands that we have in that market. So there has been a reduction in the number of products that we offer in that market. But together with that, we are changing the go-to-market strategy because the model that we have implemented in Ecuador was probably a good fit for a much broader base of products, but now we have to change that and go with a different strategy through distributors, through macro distributors, and that will bring us to a more positive bottom line. That's what we're trying to do in Ecuador, change the model, and that's in progress.

Our next question comes from Mr. Juan Guzmán Calderón from Scotiabank.

I have a couple here. First, regarding Refineria del Espino, we appreciate if you could elaborate more on the strategic opportunities for this acquisition. I mean we understand this is a business that complements your geographic footprint in Peru. But besides the initial plans and cost synergies you just mentioned, what other opportunities do you see to scale up its portfolio and categories in Peru and through exports? What measures are you planning to strengthen this business profitability, especially because it's obviously very dependent on commodity cycles? And also, I don't know if you can share what is your EBITDA margin -- a target EBITDA margin for this business in the future? And my second question is regarding Salmofood in Chile. I very much appreciate if you could give us an overview of how this business has been performing recently. And what's your strategic outlook for it in the near future?

This is Quesada. I'm going to answer for Refineria del Espino. Regarding the strategic opportunities and where we see potential in this transaction besides the items you have mentioned, we are -- with the acquisition, we are incorporating a specialty fat business, which is a portfolio and SKUs that we currently do not have. And as Alvaro mentioned in his remarks, we're incorporating products like cocoa butter substitutes and that will provide food applications to industrial customers. On the other hand, on the current portfolio that it's complementary to what we have, we have found brands like [indiscernible] that have a very strong brand power as well as in oils with the Sendero brand that we believe are going to complement not only our position in the eastern part of the country, but also in the North and in the Lima region as well. On regards to target EBITDA, we're expecting that probably we're going to be in the range between 12% and 15% EBITDA margin in the future as we conclude the incorporation and integration of the business, which should be happening within the next couple of months or 3 months.

[Operator Instructions]. It looks like we have a follow-up question from Mr. Juan Jose from Scotiabank.

Thank you very much for the answer on Refineria de Espino. Maybe you missed my second question that was regarding Salmofood in Chile. It was if you could give us an overview of how this business has been performing? And what's your strategic outlook for it in the near future?

Yes, Jose, let me take that question. The situation in Chile is not an easy situation. Due to regulation, current production levels are not growing. So [Technical Difficulty] unfortunately, right now, there is an overcapacity. So the industry is operating roughly at 65% utilization rate. Unfortunately, Salmofood and our competitors are in a part of the value chain where we don't necessarily have a lot of levers to achieve attractive returns. So as we have explained in the past, in Salmofood, we are mostly focused on achieving efficiencies, reducing SG&A expenses to try to mitigate some of the reductions in profitability and the increases in accounts receivable that are happening due to the situation that I described previously. So we are focusing on efficiencies and hopefully, that will mitigate some of the impact. But as I began my response, we're not seeing too many opportunities to improve profitability, and we'll probably need to wait until the production volumes in Chile recover and expand, hopefully, as regulations become a little bit more flexible because in the past years, it's been a very tough moment for the industry as a whole.

[Operator Instructions]. Okay. So it looks like there's no questions at this point. I'll be passing the line back to the Alicorp team for any concluding remarks.

Thank you. I would like to take a couple of minutes to say goodbye and thank our investors and different shareholders for their trust in Alicorp. Over the past few years, we have embarked the company in a profound transformation journey, bringing Alicorp back to its core. I want to thank our team for flawless execution during this strategic shift that is already bringing very relevant improvements in profitability and return on capital. It has been a privilege to work alongside such a talented and passionate team. I am confident that with the current leadership team, we will continue delivering strong returns. Thank you.

Thank you, Manuel. Thank you for those comments. I would like to close this call by noting that despite the significant challenges we have faced in recent years, not only for ourselves, but for the sector and the economy as a whole and amid a significant shift in our corporate strategy, we have been able to continue generating value for our shareholders and stakeholders through our strong portfolio of brands, innovations, social initiatives as well as our recent investment and investment decisions. We are confident that this is the right path for the coming years. leveraging our competitive advantages and seizing opportunities that may arise in each of the geographies where we operate. Thank you once again for your time and continued support. In case you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Goodbye.

Thank you very much. This concludes today's conference call. We'll now be closing all the lines. Thank you, and goodbye.