Almacenes Éxito S.A. (EXITO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. Welcome to Grupo Éxito's Q1 2025 Results. Thank you for joining us. I am very happy to be here today. This is my first time presenting Grupo Éxito's quarter results, and it's a pleasure for me to be here with all of you. I'm excited to partner up with Carlos and the rest of the team to transform Grupo Éxito and deliver significant value for our customers and shareholders. Now I would like to introduce Tatiana Yepes, our Finance Head for Grupo Éxito in Colombia. Tatiana will help us guiding this session. So let me hand over to Tatiana.

Thank you, Fernando, for your introduction. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Grupo Éxito's first quarter 2025 results. Please note that this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It's my pleasure to introduce Mr. Carlos Calleja, CEO of Grupo Éxito; Mr. Carlos Mario Giraldo, General Manager Colombia; Fernando Carbajal, CFO Grupo Éxito; and myself, Tatiana Yepes, Head of Finance for Colombia. Please move to Slide #2 to acknowledge the notes on forward-looking statements. Turning to Slide 3, we have the agenda. We will begin with words from our CEO, Mr. Carlos Calleja followed by an update of the ADS and BDR releasing process, then we have the review of the financial and operational highlights to continue with our financial performance for the first quarter 2025. The call will end with key takeaways and a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you for your attention. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Carlos Calleja.

Thank you, Tatiana. Before I start, I want to congratulate Fernando and Tatiana for assuming new roles within the organization. Fernando, our CFO; and Tatiana who's leading up finances in Colombia, have stepped up, and I'm really excited and proud of them. So happy that you guys are joining us here. Carlos Mario, great to see you as always. I prepared some words, as I always do, sort of just to give you a sense of where we are and how we're thinking, and then I'll pass it over to Carlos Mario and Fernando for more details. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for the presentation of our first quarter results. For over a year now, our team has worked tirelessly to deliver robust, consistent results. We are looking to ensure profitable operations across Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina. The numbers from this first quarter confirm we're on the right path, and we're excited to share our progress with you. Through steadfast dedication and strategic focus, we are witnessing positive momentum build. This first quarter of 2025 marks a milestone. We achieved the highest net profit for the first quarter in the company's past decade. With COP 93.147 billion, we've not only returned to positive territory after last year's negative result, but also surpassed the total net profit of 2024. This success builds on the strong performance trend we've sustained, driven by dynamic commercial strategy that fuels sales growth, maintain solid margins and enforces rigorous cost and expense control across every level of the company. We're also making steady progress on our delisting initiative from the New York and Brazil stock exchanges, hitting key milestones as shared with the market. While Carlos Mario Giraldo and Fernando Carbajal will dive into the details shortly, I'd like to spotlight a few highlights before handing it over to them. Our commercial strategy built on targeted savings initiatives and expanded product assortment and unified brands and formats is a true win-win. In Colombia, this approach has driven a 90 basis point gain in market share for the same square meters. Suppliers are seeing sales growth and customers benefit from the consistent savings and enhanced shopping experience. For Q1 2025, Grupo xito posted revenues of COP 5.4 trillion, reflecting a 3.9% increase, excluding exchange rate effects and a 5.6% rise in same-store sales. This is super relevant because, as you know, our focus is on our current platform and strengthening that current platform. So 5.6% rise in same-store sales is a solid number. Our retail and real estate businesses in Colombia, alongside a stellar performance in Uruguay have been key drivers offsetting challenges in Argentina where low consumption post significant hurdles. In Colombia, our operations accounted for 74% of the group's consolidated revenues with a 2.6% growth in the quarter. Meanwhile, Uruguay and Argentina contributed with COP 1.4 trillion in revenues, making up 26% of the group's total. Our consolidated recurring EBITDA reached COP 371 billion, a 24.7% increase from last year. I'd say that's another solid number, close to 25% increase year-over-year EBITDA for the same quarter. This translates into a 114 basis point improvement relative to sales, excluding exchange rate effects. This reflects the strength of our commercial strategy, particularly in Colombia and Uruguay, underpinned by more efficient operations and disciplined cost and expense management across the region. Uruguay's vibrant tourism season drove revenues of COP 1.1 trillion, showcasing strong commercial dynamics. In Argentina, despite tough macroeconomic environment, we're actively stabilizing and transforming the business to reach breakeven and ultimately God willing profitability. We're optimizing every aspect of the operation to ensure efficient, sustainable growth. I was down in Argentina a few weeks ago, focusing on this. On the financial front, we made notable strides in our debt structure. Grupo Éxito reduced financial costs by 14 basis points this quarter, and we continue to lower our absolute debt levels. With that, I'll pass the floor over to Carlos Mario Giraldo and Fernando Carbajal to walk you through some of the details.

Thank you, Carlos, and good morning to all of you. Let's go to Slide #6, where we will give you an update on the listing of the ADS in the USA and BDRs in Brazil process. The rationale, as you know, has been to have a more efficient structure to concentrate gradually the floating in Colombian stock Exchange. By the end of March, we had 13.2% float distributed in the following way, 9.3% in Brazil, 2.6% in Colombia, 1.3% in United States. By April 30, this has changed in an important way and now we have 9.7% in Colombia from 2.6% before. This is following the very successful sale of the remaining ADS in Colombia and -- to Colombia and the movement of Brazilian holders that remaining float in Brazil today is 3.5%. Let's go to Slide 7 so that we can see the delisting ADR and the discontinuation of BDRs is proceeding as expected. First the ADS in January 1 was the effective date of termination of the program. March 3, the process of remaining ADS began. By May 5, the settlement of ADS sale was announced by JPMorgan and in May 8, the payment to ADS holders was completed. So this completed successfully this process of the ADS. Let's go to the BDRs in Brazil. April 16 CVM and B3 approved, the voluntary discontinuation of the BDR program. Between April 22 and May 22, BDR holders have up to 30 days to inform the depositary Itaú the surrender of BDRs for cancellation and conversion into common shares in Colombia in the Colombian Stock Exchange. As you have seen, some of this in an important way has started to happen. May 27 to August 25, there's a 90-day period for sale of remaining BDRs not submitted for cancellation. And September 5 to September 8, the payment of BDR holders and request to deregister from B3. Let's go to Slide 9 and to speak about the consolidated results and then the results by country. Grupo Éxito in the consolidated vision had a very positive result in Q1, thanks to a commercial consistent strategy driving top line revenue growth of 3.9%, excluding foreign exchange effect and same-store sales up 5.6%. Recurring EBITDA growing by a solid 24.7% ex FX with a margin of 6.9%, improving by 114 bps. Total 604 stores, of which 488 are in Colombia, 92 in Uruguay, 24 in Argentina and in the last 12 running months, 45 openings, conversions or remodeling of stores. Going to Colombia, revenue was up 2.6% and 4.7% in same-store sales. Recurring EBITDA growing by 28.4% to a margin of 5.7% with a progression of 114 bps. In Uruguay, the revenue went up by 5.3% without FX impact, same-store sales plus 5.6%, EBITDA in a very positive growth of 28.7% ending in the strongest margin of the group, that is 14.3% growing by 260 bps. In Argentina, we had a revenue growing 18.9% without FX impact, that is below inflation and with an EBITDA margin decreasing from a positive 0.9% to a negative 2.9%. Going to slide number 10, we speak about a net income. As Carlos said before, we had for the Q1 a record net income for a first quarter in the last years, near to COP 93,000 million, but coming from a negative quarter last year of minus COP 37,800 million. If we take this to U.S. dollars at the current exchange rate, this shows a variation between one quarter and the other of $31 million. The main drivers for this were operational result growth, lower non-recurrent events, better financial result and a positive 2-year credit business performance. Gross debt reducing and stable cash level when we exclude the effect of the factoring that was done in previous years. CapEx COP 46,000 million and 56% of this in Colombia dedicated to retail and real estate. We had a closure of underperforming stores in Colombia, 9 stores in the last quarter and the revenue contribution by country remains at 74% Colombia, Uruguay 20% and Argentina 6%. Slide #11, we speak about the Colombian sales gradual recovery driven by non-food. As you know, food grew by 1.9% and non-food by 5.5%, showing in non-food, especially in appliances, the confidence of customer, something that we are seeing going forward at least during the month of April. Comparable sales in Colombia grew by 4.7%. The share by banners was Éxito Banner 70%, Carulla 19% and low-cost banners and other revenues 11%. Omnichannel share remains stable at 13.6%, that is near the equivalent to $125, which shows the materiality in Colombia of omnichannel activity. In Slide 12, the Colombian strategy is based clearly in differentiation, as Carlos Calleja has said, promoting customer experience, portfolio expansion and with the company of a very strict cost control that you can see in the expenses that are seen in the results. Let me get to some detail of this strategy. First, the [indiscernible] banner unification towards Éxito and Carulla. Until now, we have intervened 40 stores the sales of these stores since intervention grow by 9.2% and we continue this implementation and aim this rest of the year between 10 and 16 of these implementations. Best assortment at national level has been already established. That means more than 30% SKUs in average per store. We have done a massification of this assortment to all regions in Colombia. And up to date, the new assortment, the new products represent a 5.1% of sales in consumer goods. And third, there has been a successful and consistent application of the genetic base special days with special permanent discounts. Tuesday in fruit and vegetables growing against last Tuesdays last year in fruit and vegetables, 11%, Wednesdays for meat growing by 23% and Friday for spirits growing by 18%. Let me speak about the unbeatable price products, which is very important for the price reality and the price perception, near to 1,000 products, including the best brands, national and international global brands with a promise of having in these products, the best price in each city where they are present. As a whole, they 10.1% against the first quarter of last year. And those represented by national brands, which is an innovation that was done in unbeatable price products grow by 45%. Let's speak about the complementary businesses to retail in Colombia. Starting with real estate, which is clearly the most important complementary business in contribution. As a whole, we have a GLA 807,000 square meters with a very high occupation level of 97.5%. They are represented by 33 assets, shopping malls or commercial galleries of which 17 of the most important were contributed to a vehicle of Viva Malls, of which Éxito holds 51%. Viva Malls is today the #1 shopping mall operator in Colombia with 580,000 square meters. The valuation of Viva Malls at 100% in December of last year was COP 3.7 billion that is growing by 10.9%. Viva Malls had in the first quarter a revenue growth of 16% and an EBITDA of COP 47,000 million, growing by 25%. Going to Slide #14, we see a good performance of all businesses, Tuya credit business and Puntos Colombia loyalty [indiscernible]. Tuya has a very important comeback. It has had profits in all the months of the first quarter. As of today, it has 1.3 million cards, 1.9 billion outstanding portfolio and has been ratified AAA by Fitch. The most relevant aspect for profitability is the improvement in nonperforming loans up to 30 days by 590 pbs. As a result of this and other actions that have been taken, the profits for the first quarter of Tuya were near to COP 8,800 million compared with a negative COP 23,700 million in the first quarter of last year. Puntos Colombia, you have to remember that it is the first brand in loyalty programs in Colombia, according to Kantar it is present in near to 1 of each 3 households in Colombia with a very important and growing penetration. Today, it has 8 million customers with a habeas data to use their data and with frequent use of points retention of points growing by 13%, and it has within the coalition more than 5,700 allied brands. I will now give the word to Fernando Carbajal to go through the financials.

Thank you, Carlos Mario. I want to share a few highlights. So we will start with an overview of the financial growth model for the company. During the last year, the company has been consistent with the implementation of commercial and operational strategies that we believe will bring an improvement in our clients' experience, but also in our financial results. In Q1, there is a consistent improvement in the main financial KPIs [indiscernible] we are getting a positive net income, which as Carlo mentioned before, it was important milestone for the group, the highest net profit for the first quarter in the past decade. Net revenue grew by 3.9% when excluding ForEx effect, growing across all geographies, while we are winning market share in Colombia lose 19 bps and Uruguay loss 70 bps same-store sales. Also gross profit improved by 52 bps as a result of balance between sales growth and sustainable profit margins and amplified commercial strategy, efficiencies and logistic costs is [ shrinkable ] level. Margin in Q1 landed at 25.6% we have a reduction in cost and expenses improved by 61 bps thanks to efficiency across the region. As a result of that, we have an EBITDA margin improvement of 114 bps. Finally, the company also financial cost and improving the debt position. In addition, we are getting improvement in total. So all these benefits are allowing us to reach 1.7% of the net result margin, which is 244 bps better than Q1 2024. These results are the financial pillar for transforming Grupo Éxito into a consistently high performing business. Next slide, please. Let me share with you a few highlights about the source of growth. So despite challenging market conditions, revenue grew 3.9%, excluding ForEx effects, driven by 2% of the growth came from Colombia operation, driven by a moderate performance of the food segment, the recovery in non-food categories, mainly from a high single-digit growth in electronic and stable performance in other areas. Another 1% growth came from the Uruguay operation, where net revenues in local currency grew by 5.3%, driven by commercial dynamic and outstanding tourist season. The remaining 1% of the growth came from the operation in Argentina with a net revenue growth of 18.9% below the country inflation and under a scenario of slow consumption. Next one, please. Let me complement some comments about Colombia. In Colombia, as you can see on the graph, net revenue for the quarter hit COP 4 billion, growing 2.6%, meanwhile recurring EBITDA reached COP 227,000 million, increases around 28%, improving by 114 bps, which is a margin of 5.7% of net revenues. The improvement in EBITDA was driven by 3 factors. The first one, sales. Like-for-like sales grew 4.7%, confirming that the company is in the right direction, aligning with the strategy implemented. Gross profit up 21.8%, driven by a balance between sales growth and sustainable profit margin alongside with a reduction in logistic costs and the contribution of the real estate business. And finally, general expenses with outstanding performance decreased 2.2% during the quarter and improved 95 bps, thanks to ongoing cost control action plans detailed in the next slide. Next one, please. In Q1 2025 expenses in Colombia decreased by 2.2% despite the 5.2% inflation rate with a high increase in minimum wage. This marked the third consecutive quarter of decline in expenses, this result reflect the success of ongoing cost control initiative, which delivered COP 100,000 million in savings during the quarter, driven by structure optimization and key efficiencies in all our operation optimization. Let me recap here. The company has a strong and discipline control over cost and expenses. For us, is an important process as part of the DNA of the company is part of the daily operation we have. Let me share some highlights about Uruguay. Uruguay continue to deliver a sustained strong performance in both commercial and financial results. Growth was driven by food category growing 4.6%, non-food category with outstanding performance growing 9.3%, omnichannel grew by 11.3% and fresh market grew 9.2% with 54% share of the net sales. However, the company remained focused on identifying improvement opportunities and as a result 2 stores were renovated, increasing the sales area by 50% and sales by 36% since the intervention. On the other hand, some convenience on the performing stores were closed. Next slide. Uruguay net revenue for this first quarter is COP 1 billion, growing 1.7%. Recurring EBITDA reached around 24%. This represent a margin of 14% of that net revenue. Net revenue in local currency grew 5.3%, where the sales performance was driven by commercial dynamic, stable political and economic environment and the contribution for the 33 fresh market stores, which grew around 9.2% versus Q1 2024. Also gross profit increased by 11%, excluding ForEx effect and margin rose to 38%, which is an improvement around 197 bps versus same period last year. All of that driven by the social sales during the tourist season and improved the shrinkable control. G&A expenses improved 54 bps due to implementation of the cost control action plan. So finally, Uruguay EBITDA margin continued on the most profitable business unit for Grupo Éxito. Now let's talk a little bit about Argentina. So Argentina continue operate in a challenging macroeconomic environment. In response, the company has implemented commercial plan, a leaner operation in maintaining the real estate contribution. Under this strategy, 2 main stores were renovated to optimize retail spaces while 3 of the performing wholesale stores were closed. Also the company implemented expense and control initiative aiming to mitigate inflationary pressures. In the real estate business unit, where the company operated 14 shopping centers, the results were positive, with an occupancy rate that rose 95% and EBITDA margin of 81%. Next slide. From financial perspective, in Argentina, financial results, despite effort and commercial strategy and expense control, continue reflecting a negative EBITDA. Net revenue for the quarter reached COP 0.3 billion, growing 3.7%, while recurring EBITDA was negative at around COP 8,000 million Colombian pesos. When we see the different P&L lines, net revenue in local currency grew 18.9%, while the retail performance was impacted by the slower consumption. While the real estate business remained resilient, the growth in real estate was 100%. Supported by improved commercial activity and a strong occupancy rate, which is around 95%. Gross profit increased by 15%, excluding ForEx impact within Q1 '25, but negative 108 basis points below the same period last year. The contraction in the margin is a result of the lower consumption trend and the price investment. And finally, the general expenses grew 14% during the quarter due to inflationary pressure, despite the cost control effort. So, as a result of that, Argentina reported EBITDA margin at negative 2.7%, which is negative 351 bps less than Q1 2024. In Argentina, we are taking the right step to transform the Argentine operation in a cost efficient and profitable business. But this is something we are working really, really hard with the team. We are expecting to have a better performance in the coming months. Next slide. Thank you. After explaining the main drivers of each country's results, we can summarize in the following forms. Net revenue for the quarter grew by 3.9%, which is driven for its effect in like-for-like at 5.6%, which is a good percent of internal growth. Gross profit in general expenses efficiency drove a total 114 bps improvement in EBITDA margin, reaching 6.9% of net revenue. And net result reached around COP 93,000 million during the Q1 2025, compared to a negative result in the same period last year. This turnaround was driven by improved operational performance, lower financial costs, reduced non-recurring expenses, and positive contribution from Chile and Colombia, resulting in a net margin of 1.7% to 244 bps better versus Q1 2024. Next slide, please. Let me share with you a few highlights about cash. Cash lever was impacted by working capital requirements affected by the cancellation of special factory operation to reduce the financial cost and get the P&L benefit during the year. Gross debt decreased by COP 0.2 billion when we compare with Q1 2024. So, at the bottom of the slide, we can also see a decrease of 80% in gross debt when we compare with Q3 2024, where we have the highest debt last year. And finally, as a result, net financial debt was slightly impacted, but the company is committed to ensure liquidity and protect the cash flow. Next one, please. Conclusion. So, to conclude, let me summarize the key messages from the group. First one, we have started the year with a strong performance, setting a solid foundation for continuing momentum. Also, we are delivering solid results of our consistent commercial strategy, focused on customer experiences. We are committed to creating value for all customers, providing us the best alternative for everyday purchases. We are working to unlock value through a solid commercial margin and effective cost reduction initiative. We are maintaining a disciplined approach to cost and expense control, ensuring operational excellence. As I said before, cost control is part of the DNA of the group. We have a robust and disciplined process to ensure the success of this process. Also, we are increasing investment with responsibility and discipline, ensuring the best-in-class return. And finally, the Q1 2025 performance reinforced our confidence in achieving significant milestones in the rest of the year. However, we have good results in Q1, but it's not enough for us yet. So, we are working really hard with the rest of the team to capitalize all the opportunities that we identified in the operation to get better results for the rest of the year. And last but not least, thank you to all the dedicated team and group members for their hard work and commitment. This is my part. So, many thanks. Carlos, over to you.

Sorry I forgot to connect. Thank you, Carlos Mario. Thank you, Fernando. Great presentation. I have a few words here prepared to close out before we go over to Q&A. Thanks to the unwavering commitment of our teams and the collaboration of our suppliers, we are witnessing a clear shift in performance, stronger sales, improved margins and growing profits at Grupo Éxito. We're confident that 2025 will continue this positive trajectory, and we look forward to sharing more successes with you. Our teams across the region are working closely to drive continuous improvement in all our operations. In Colombia, we're focused on sustaining our upward trend. In Uruguay, we're maintaining the group's highest margins. And in Argentina, we're tackling the complex challenges with targeted strategies to strengthen the business. Rest assured, our interest, governance and strategy are fully aligned with the goals of our stakeholders, especially our shareholders and investors. The road ahead demands our full dedication, passion and focus. And you have our commitment to deliver the best outcomes for you and the company, both now and the future with God's help, as I like to say. We'll keep pushing forward relentlessly pursuing initiatives that drive value in the short, medium and long term. And here, I want to pause for a second. Fernando made reference to this and for all of those investors who are with us or people who are thinking about investing with us, we're definitely motivated with the numbers that we're seeing, and we are seeing a shift in performance, but we're not satisfied. We know we can do better. And the message to the entire team is that we can't get complacent. There's a lot more work to do and a lot more road to travel to get to where we think we can get. As mass, we actually believe that you never get to where you think you can get. Perfection is impossible, but you have to reach it. You have to look to reach it every day, and that makes us better today than yesterday and it will make us better tomorrow than today. Like we say, there's no ceiling to what we can achieve. And that's our mentality. So yes, optimistic and positive what we feel because of what we're achieving, but just drives us to do better. And that's the message I wanted to give to the market, to our current investors and to those people who are possibly looking to invest alongside us. Let me close with a message of optimism, confidence and hope for the communities we serve in Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina. We believe every customer deserves the best regardless of where they live, how wealthy they are, whether it's the best labor, the best prices, the best product assortment, the best service or the most convenient shopping experience. We're committed to creating opportunities that unlock the potential of our employees, suppliers, customers and partners. Thank you again for being with us today. It's been a pleasure, as always. And we're ready to open up to any questions. Please feel free to share that.

Thank you, Carlos. This concludes the presentation for this call. We are now open for the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]

This is Nicolas Larrain from JPMorgan. I don't know if you can hear me well.

Yes, Nicolas. Go ahead.

I have 2 specific questions. The first one is, of course, in Uruguay. We saw strong improvements in gross margins there. We've also seen that tourism, in particularly from Argentina has been helping a lot retailers across LatAm. I wanted to understand how recurring do you see this gross margin expansion in Uruguay. I understand also that you've been making, of course, operational improvement. So I wanted to know how much of that better profitability you see as recurring and maybe what can be attributed to the higher tourism that we've seen? And my second question has to do with Tuya. We saw positive results this quarter. I was under the impression that maybe it was going to take longer to see this recovery. Also, again, I wanted to understand if maybe there was a positive one-off, maybe some reversion of provisions or something that helped particularly on this quarter? That will be my 2 questions.

Thank you, Nico. Great to have you as always. In terms of Uruguay, Uruguay did have a stellar vacation season, as you say, and that definitely helps in terms of the top line sales. But I wouldn't say that it's a nonrecurring thing going forward. We're actually -- and as you know, sort of in terms of the work we've done to try to strengthen the business, turn around the business, if you want to call it that or improve on the business. A lot of the work last year was done because of the dimension and size of the operation in Colombia. So we started focusing end of last year, early this year more on the [ Conosur ] because we have more bandwidth in terms of -- I mean, you can't go into everything at once, right? So we worked very, very hard on Colombia last year, and you're starting to see the results. Uruguay, even though it's a nice business, we love the business, we also think it can give more in terms of value and to shareholders, to investors. And the team there has accepted the challenge and is in agreement. So what I would say is that Uruguay is, as of late last year, early this year in a process of improvement as well, where we're hoping to make the business stronger. We're working with suppliers in a new methodology. We're implementing [indiscernible], which is a methodology which is much more professional and sophisticated than what they were working before, something that we do in El Salvador, something that we do in Colombia well. So we see opportunities to improve the business in terms of the margins and the way we use our inventory and our value proposition to attract customers and sales. So I would say that Uruguay in terms of our plans is below where we think we can take it, and we're actively moving it in that direction. I don't know if that helps with your Uruguay question at all.

Just let me complement the answer, Carlos. Nicolas also in Uruguay, we are starting implementing the same program on the cost control that we implemented in Colombia. So we're expecting to get savings, a lot of benefit in the year to go for this implementation. So we are working really, really hard in to capitalize all the opportunity in terms of efficiency, especially in logistics.

Yes. As you know, that's our thoughts, right? We look to drive sales strengthen margins and find efficiencies. And we see opportunities in Uruguay across all. I would say relative to what we may have found in terms of bringing costs down to -- in Colombia, Uruguay may not be as -- there may not be as much fat in the organization to use those words that they tend to use in the United States, but we do see definitely opportunities for efficiencies and are working actively for that. And Tuya, so with Tuya, like you said, and I don't want to say that the Tuya business has turned around. I'd like to say that the first months have come in positively. And what we've asked the company from our end, remember, that's a 50-50 operation with Bancolombia and Grupo Éxito, we want to stay in positive territory if we can, in terms of monthly results. What drives Tuya's results too in terms of whether it's net income is positive or negative is how much you invest to grow the portfolio because you have to invest in the business in terms of growing the credit card portfolio again. It's definitely a healthier business. All the indicators say that it's improved. Now if we were super aggressive in growth, that could affect the results. But as owners, what we said, we'd rather be a little bit less aggressive on the growth side and make sure in what we can that the results stay as positive as possible going forward. But I don't want to say that every month of this year we'll be net income positive. I don't have a crystal ball, but we're working to make sure that, that business is as profitable as possible and slowly restrengthens itself.

Do we have any other question, Tatiana.

No, there are no further questions to start.

I think we can conclude, Carlos.

Excellent. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. It's been a pleasure, and we'll see you on the next call.

See you. Have a nice day. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Thank you.