Alicorp S.A.A. (ALICORC1) Q3 FY2025 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and I'd like to welcome you to Alicorp's Third Quarter 2025 Results Call on the 31st of October 2025.  [Operator Instructions] So without further ado, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Roberto Dongo-Soria, Investor Relations at Alicorp.  Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Alicorp's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. Speaking to you is Roberto Dongo-Soria, Investor Relations Officer. We are pleased to have you with us today. Presenting today will be Mr. Alvaro Correa, Chief Executive Officer, and Luis Banchero, Vice President of Finance and Strategy. Other members of our management team will join us during the Q&A session.  Today, we will review the company's results for the third quarter of 2025, following the release of our financial statements and earnings report published yesterday. If you haven't had the chance to access these documents, we invite you to visit our corporate website at www.allicorp.com.pe, where you can also find the presentation accompanying today's call.  Please note that this conference is intended exclusively for investors and analysts. Therefore, we will not be taking questions from the media. If any members of the press are on the line and wish to follow up, we kindly ask that you contact our team after the call.  Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that some of the statements made today may be forward-looking. These statements are based on assumptions and factors that may change, and actual results could differ materially from current expectations. We encourage you to review the disclaimer included in the earnings report before making any investment decisions.  Now I am pleased to turn the call over to Mr. Alvaro Correa, CEO of Alicorp, to begin the presentation. Alvaro, please go ahead. 

Thank you, Roberto, and good morning, and welcome, everyone. Let me start by giving you an overview of the most relevant recent events on Slide 5. Earlier this month, we announced the closing of the acquisition of JabonerÃa Wilson, an Ecuadorian company with more than 80 years of experience in the home care industry.  Following a rigorous due diligence process, our subsidiary, Alicorp Inversiones, acquired 100% of its shares for an enterprise value of $125.5 million. This acquisition strengthens our portfolio in key categories such as dishwashing, detergents, and laundry soap, while also expanding our distribution network in Ecuador, particularly in the traditional channel.  It is also worth highlighting that as part of the transaction, we acquired Disanu in Peru and Sanuss in Colombia, both of which operate as Wilson's distributors in those markets. I would like to congratulate our team on achieving this important milestone and warmly welcome JabonerÃa Wilsonto the Alicorp family.  On the political front, in Peru, on October 10, Congress approved the impeachment of President  Dina Boluarte, and José Jeri, then serving as its President, assumed the presidency of the country in accordance with the constitutional line of succession. Despite this sudden political event, Peru's macroeconomic fundamentals remain solid, providing a stable and favorable operating environment.  Additionally, as many of you know, in the recent national elections in Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz was elected President, representing the Christian Democratic Party, marking the end of nearly 2 decades of socialist governments in the country. He is scheduled to assume office on November 8, 2025. This transition comes at a time when Bolivia faces major macroeconomic and structural challenges, such as inflationary pressures, commodity price volatility, foreign investment uncertainty, and ongoing efforts to raise productivity and infrastructure capacity.  These are relevant not only for the broader economy, but especially for the consumer goods sector in which we are relevant players, given challenging consumer demand dynamics and cost pressure. Early signals suggest that the incoming administration will prioritize economic stability and a constructive dialogue with the private sector. We will continue to monitor this evolving environment closely.  While political transitions always bring uncertainties, we believe our strong local footprint, our portfolio of leading brands, and our deep understanding of consumers position us well to continue delivering consistent performance regardless of near-term headwinds.  Now I will hand the call over to Luis Banchero, who will walk you through the operational results of the quarter and share our outlook for 2025. 

Thank you, Alvaro. The figures we will discuss exclude nonrecurring impacts for each respective period. For further details on these nonrecurring items, please refer to our earnings release and the footnotes throughout this presentation. Let's move to Slide 7 to review our consolidated results for the third quarter of 2025.  During the quarter, adjusted gross profit reached PEN 798 million, a 6% increase compared to the same period last year. This growth was driven by the positive performance of most of our business units, particularly Aquafeed and B2B, which contributed PEN 50 million and PEN 36 million, respectively, to the year-over-year improvement. These contributions were mainly explained by higher sales volume during the quarter.  In the case of Aquafeed, mainly supported by our new production facility in Ecuador, and in the case of B2B, by additional inorganic volume. Refineria del Epino reported a total gross profit of PEN 60 million during the quarter and continues to contribute positively to the company's overall results. It is important to note that the third quarter of 2024 included only 1 month of this operation, as it was incorporated as part of Alicorp since September 2024. It is worth noting that these gains were partially offset by the performance of our international business unit, which continues to operate in a challenged macroeconomic environment.  Moving on to Slide 8. We can see that the increase in adjusted gross profit also contributed to a higher adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter reached PEN 467 million, representing an 8% year-over-year increase. This result was mainly driven by the strong performance of our Aquafeed business during the quarter and, to a lesser extent, by our B2B business unit.  This result was partially offset by Consumer Goods Peru due to higher advertising expenses linked to strategic initiatives to fuel future growth and by our international business, which recorded a PEN 42 million decline versus the same quarter of 2024, mainly reflecting the challenging macroeconomic environment mentioned previously. Despite a 0.8 percentage point year-over-year decrease, adjusted EBITDA margin reached 15% in the quarter, consistent with the level recorded in the second quarter of this year.  Now, please turn to Slide 10 to review the operational performance of our business units, starting with Consumer Goods Peru and our International business. During the third quarter, Consumer Goods Peru business delivered a solid performance with an 8% increase in volume sales, driven by the strength of our brands and the contribution from Refineria del Espino.  Excluding this latter effect, organic volume growth reached 2% year-over-year, reflecting the resilience of our portfolio and our strategic discipline.  This growth was led by key categories such as detergents, which increased 13% year-over-year, and sausages, which grew 6% over the same period, demonstrating the relevance and strong consumer preference for our brands. This performance reinforced our market position, particularly among our emblematic brands. AlaCena reaffirms its leadership in the sauces category, gaining 0.7 percentage points in market share during the July-August period compared to the previous bimester. Similarly, Don Vittorio continued to strengthen its position in pastas, also gaining 0.7 percentage points in market share over the same period. In detergents, we're beginning to capture the benefits of the initiatives implemented to protect and accelerate our business, achieving a 2.1 percentage point gain in market share versus both the previous bimester and the same period last year. As a result, adjusted gross profit grew 2% year-over-year, while adjusted gross profit per metric ton reached PEN 2,402, its highest level so far this year. Adjusted EBITDA totaled PEN 207 million, down 6% year-over-year, mainly reflecting higher advertising investments and expenses related to enhancements in our go-to-market model aimed at strengthening our connection with consumers and customers and better navigating the current competitive environment. Turning to our international business. We continue to face a complex macroeconomic environment in Bolivia, marked by high inflation, limited access to foreign currency, and exchange rate volatility. These factors have temporarily impacted consumption and volumes in some categories and, in certain cases, have encouraged an increase in informal cross-border trade. As a result, adjusted EBITDA in Bolivia reached PEN 18 million compared to PEN 54 million in the same period last year, mainly due to higher FX costs associated with securing foreign currency for imports and locally sourced inputs linked to international prices and a 21% year-over-year decrease in volume, primarily driven by lower consumption, inventory reductions across our different retail chains and a surge in consumer demand for contract items. These impacts on adjusted EBITDA were partially offset by broad-based price adjustments across the economy, reflecting the overall inflationary environment and currency volatility. It is worth noting that last year's results did not include the FX-related effects, as our portfolio then still included the crushing business, which generated U.S. dollars locally and acted as a natural hedge. Since the divestiture in November 2024 of our crushing business, our results now recognize the current FX environment and our ongoing operations in Bolivia, which we continue to manage with discipline and efficiency. Despite these challenges, our operations remained EBITDA positive year-to-date, supported by a solid supply model that effectively mitigates foreign currency exposure and ensures a timely and effective sourcing of raw materials. We continue to focus on efficiency, cost discipline, and portfolio optimization, allowing us to navigate volatility with agility. In Ecuador and other geographies, adjusted EBITDA decreased by PEN 0.4 million and PEN 5.3 million, respectively. mainly reflecting lower sales volumes. Nevertheless, gross profit per ton improved 3% in Ecuador and 11% in other geographies, underscoring our continued focus on portfolio optimization and ongoing efforts to strengthen profitability. Now please turn to Slide 11 to review the performance of our B2B and Aquafeed businesses. Our Alicorp Solutions-B2B business delivered a 16% year-over-year increase in volume sales during the quarter, mainly driven by the integration of Refineria del Espino operation. Excluding this effect, organic volume grew 1%, reflecting a steady recovery in demand. Although out-of-home consumption continued to recover throughout the year, competitive intensity remained elevated in key categories such as flour, edible oils, and detergents. Nevertheless, we successfully protected our market position through targeted initiatives across our portfolio while continuing to advance our strategic priorities, such as the development of the bakery segment. As a result, adjusted EBITDA reached PEN 124 million, a 26% year-over-year increase, primarily driven by higher gross profit. These results further reflects the ongoing recovery and growth of our business amid the competitive environment discussed earlier. Turning to Aquafeed. During the third quarter of 2025, global shrimp and salmon markets remained broadly stable. Shrimp prices, which had bottomed out in May, recovered steadily throughout the quarter, while salmon prices continued their downward trend. Ecuador's sustained export growth supported by favorable production conditions and productivity gains, reinforced its position as a competitive supplier with relatively limited tariff exposure. Meanwhile, Chilean salmon exports exceeded expectations, driving regional growth despite emerging trade headwinds in North America. In this context, we advanced our value creation agenda by strengthening partnerships with leading producers in Ecuador through high-performance solutions, enhancing commercial execution in Central America, and securing new supply agreements in Chile. We expanded across all of our markets, gaining share and reinforcing our strategy to capture growth as trade flows. Pricing dynamics and raw materials costs stabilize. EBITDA reached $36 million, a 74% increase year-over-year. This strong performance was driven primarily by a remarkable 36% increase in sales volume, along with margin expansion and continued evolution of our portfolio towards higher value-added products. Now let's turn to Slide 13, where we will review our leverage, debt, and liquidity indicators. We continue to deliver stable cash flow and sustained EBITDA growth, mainly supported by this quarter operating performance. This contributed to a further reduction in our leverage ratio, which improved from 2.5x in September 2024 to 2.0x in September 2025. It is worth noting that this improvement was achieved despite the acquisition of JabonerÃa Wilson and the execution of our share buyback program this quarter. Excluding these effects, our leverage ratio would have been approximately 1.7x. In terms of liquidity, as of September 2025, our available cash position reached PEN 1.2 billion, PEN 564 million lower than the same period last year. This decrease mainly reflects the transaction mentioned earlier, which were financed primarily with existing cash and organic cash generation rather than additional debt, a clear sign of our strong liquidity position. Our cash position covers 1.3x our debt maturities over the next 12 months, and it will include committed credit lines, such as coverage increases -- such coverage increases to 1.7x. Looking ahead, we will continue to focusing on efficiently managing working capital, which should allow us to sustain stable cash flow generation and therefore, maintain healthy levels of leverage while keeping financial flexibility. To close, let's move to Slide 15 to share our expectations for full-year 2025 results. This year brought important challenges, particularly in our Peruvian operations and amid the complex environment in Bolivia. These conditions have led us to make strategic short-term decisions, although never losing sight of our long-term goals, aiming to strengthen competitiveness and protect the sustainability of our results. On the other hand, our Aquafeed business has recovered strongly, making a solid contribution to our consolidated performance. Likewise, the integration of RefinerÃa del Espino continues to enhance our value proposition in key categories. As we approach the end of the year, we remain focused on execution and discipline. And thanks to the strength of our strategy with clearly defined roles for each business and geography, and to the resilience of our company, we're updating our expectations for the full year 2025. We now expect revenue growth between 14% and 16%, adjusted EBITDA growth of approximately 10% and a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio in the range of 2.1x to 2.5x, and CapEx for the year of around $67 million. We remain confident that even in the challenging environment, our business model, our brands, and our people will continue to deliver sustainable value creation and position us well for the future opportunities. Finally, our recent expansion in Ecuador is fully aligned with our strategic direction, strengthening our presence in a key market and supporting the continued growth of our company. Before moving to the next section, I would like to comment on the recent announcement for a general shareholders' meeting on November 4th next week. On November 3rd, our Board of Directors approved the call for a virtual general shareholders meeting to discuss the approval of a reduction in the share capital by redeeming treasury in common shares, a new share buyback program of up to 10% of outstanding common shares, a share buyback program for investment shares and a dividend distribution of PEN 202 million, which represents approximately PEN 0.35 per share. As such, we just want to note that our guidance mentioned before considers the effects of successfully approving these matters at the upcoming general shareholders meeting. With that, we will now open the floor for any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Alonso Aramburú from BTG.

I wanted to ask about Bolivia and whether you're seeing any improvements to the situation you saw in the third quarter? Or if we should expect the same difficult situation to continue at least in the short-term?

This is Luis Picasso here. Thank you for your question. Yes, good question, by the way. So in the short-term, we expect the situation to continue. We know that the new political situation may change in the medium-term, but changes take some time. So we expect for the next couple of quarters for the situation to continue.

And if I can follow-up with one more. In Peru, you have been talking about the tough competitive environment, especially in detergents. You mentioned that detergents were growing this quarter. Can you just give us some color as to what's -- how is that developing competition and growth in that segment?

Hello Alonso, this is Alvaro Correa. Thank you for the question. We have been taking several decisions over the last few months on detergents. We are taking full advantage of a broad portfolio of six brands, and each brand plays in a different tier. So this is a comprehensive strategy of using the lower-tier brands to face foreign competition in those tiers. But at the same time, we implemented a strategy of price adjustments in the top-tier brands, and that has brought interesting business, more value, greater profitability, and it's having a very relevant and strong impact in the category. So yes, we are very happy with the results so far, and we expect this to continue in the short run.

[Operator Instructions] So we have a question from Santiago Petri from Franklin Templeton. Could you please give us the shareholders structure breakdown? What percentage of your company is in the hands of IFP? What percentage is really free float?

This is Luis Banchero here. Okay. So to your specific question of how many shares are in the hands of pension funds, Peruvian pension funds, that's less than 2%. I don't have the exact number, but between 1% and 2%. That's the answer to that. And to the free float, I will say that it's hard to say. If we take out the shares that Grupo Romero own and the pension funds own and some lesser tradable shares, I would say it's less than 10%, between 8% and 10% of the float.

We will give it a few more moments for any further questions. Okay. It looks like we have no further questions. I will now hand it back to the Alicorp team for the closing remarks.

Okay. Thank you. Before closing today's call, I would like to take a moment to share a few personal words. As some of you may know, today marks my last day as CEO of Alicorp. Over the past few years, I have had the privilege of leading an incredible team through an important stage of our company's evolution, one focused on strengthening our strategy, sharpening our focus, growing organically and through acquisitions, and most importantly, building a cohesive leadership team. I'm very proud of what we have achieved together. I would like to thank everyone who has been part of this journey, our shareholders, the Board of Directors, our clients, partners, and especially the amazing people of Alicorp. Their talent and commitment are what makes this company so special. Looking ahead, I am confident that Alicorp is in excellent hands. As of November 1st, Gonzalo Uribe will assume the role of CEO. Gonzalo brings strong leadership and extensive experience from world-class organizations, and I am confident that he will continue driving the company forward, ensuring continuity of the strategy developed and strengthened over the past years. With his vision and expertise, Alicorp is well-positioned to sustain its growth, capture new opportunities and continue creating value for all shareholders. It has been an honor to be part of this great team. I wish Gonzalo and everyone at Alicorp the very best in this next chapter. Before we close, I would like to hand the floor over to Manuel Romero, Vice Chairman of the Board, for his closing remarks.

Good morning, everyone. I just want to take a few moments to recognize and commend the remarkable contributions of Alvaro over the past couple of years. Two years ago, we embarked on an aggressive transformation to bring Alicorp back to its core. Strengthening our emblematic brands, revenue growth management initiatives, and recovering supply chain productivity. Thanks to Alvaro's leadership, we have accomplished these goals faster than we expected. Additionally, Alvaro has played a key role in promoting collaborative decision-making and trust between different teams, leaving a more cohesive and effective leadership team. Thanks to the successful execution of our strategy and the strengthening of our leadership team. Today, we believe Alicorp has the tools and the competitive advantages to accelerate organic and inorganic growth, both in Peru and internationally. Thank you, Alvaro, and congratulations for everything you have accomplished. It has been a privilege to work with you. I also want to thank Javier Rota for all his contributions over the past 20 years in Alicorp. Javier joined Alicorp as an intern and has been promoted several times to eventually be a part of our Executive Committee. Your contributions to grow in several categories in Peru, Bolivia, and other geographies has been invaluable. We will miss both of you and wish you the best for what's next. Thank you.

That concludes the call for today. Thank you, and have a nice day.