El Puerto de Liverpool, S.A.B. de C.V. (LIVEPOLC1) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. My name is Sophia, and I will be your conference operator. [Operator Instructions] This is Liverpool's Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Today, we have with us Mr. Gonzalo Gallegos, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Jose Antonio Diego, Treasury and Investor Relations Director; Mr. Enrique Grinan, Investor Relations Officer; and Ms. Nidia Garrido, Investor Relations. They will be discussing the company's performance as per the earnings release for the fourth quarter 2024 issued last Thursday, February 27. If you did not receive the report, please contact Liverpool's IR department, and they will e-mail it to you, or you can download it at its IR website. Please note that this call is for investors and analysts only, and questions from the media will not be taken nor should the call be reported on. Any forward-looking statements made during this earnings call are based on information that is currently available. They are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations and assumptions discussed today. This may be due to a variety of factors, including the risks outlined in El Puerto Liverpool's most recent annual report. Please refer to the disclaimer in the earnings release for guidance on this matter. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Gonzalo Gallegos.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter earnings call. On behalf of El Puerto de Liverpool, we thank you all for joining us today. On today's call, we'll provide a comprehensive overview of our fourth quarter financial performance and share our outlook for 2025. As you know, we released preliminary results on January 13 to provide some recent developments for our debt capital market transaction that week. I'm pleased to confirm that preliminary numbers were on target with total revenue slightly above our expectation. Furthermore, we continue to strive and achieve positive results across our ecosystem, consistently outperforming and top benchmarks. Q4 consolidated revenue reached MXN 75.3 billion, a 9% increase year-over-year. Retail revenue was 8.2% above a year ago, and we continue to achieve double-digit growth rates in both our financial services and real estate business units, growing 17.4% and 15.1%, respectively. On a full year basis, 2024 consolidated revenue of MXN 215 billion increased 9.6% versus last year. These results demonstrate balanced growth across all our business segments. Starting with retail, we recorded a solid 8.2% growth year-over-year driven by a well-executed commercial offering, the strengthening of private brands, the expansion of value-added services, customer loyalty and seasonal promotional strategies, such as El Buen Fin and Venta Nocturna. Liverpool same-store sales increased 7.3% in Q4, maintaining a balanced contribution from both hardlines and softlines. Customer behavior remained positive, particularly during the promotional periods. We remain focused on aligning our sales plans with customer demand while also emphasizing our marketplace and value-added services such as extended warranties and installations. On the other hand, Suburbia same-store sales grew 5.2%. We continue strengthening our merchandise offerings and implementing new in-store services, coupled with significant investments to improve the shopping experience. Our private label strategy has focused on a sharper brand identity, clearly signaling each brand and providing a more intuitive navigation for customers. We've also strengthened key categories, including babies and toddlers, footwear and men's sports apparel. Notably, 26 of our stores now offer optical centers, providing prescription glasses and a wide selection of eyewear accessories. Our consolidated inventory position at quarter end reflects a 24.1% increase year-over-year, primarily due to delayed merchandise arrivals and early arrivals for Spring/Summer 2025. We anticipate the normalization of inventory levels during the first half of the year. It is important to note that the retail sector as a whole experienced a slowdown in Q4. Our quarterly performance significantly outpaced ANTAD results, demonstrating the strength of our strategies and execution in a challenging environment. ANTAD Department Stores reported same-store sales growth of 2.4% with apparel and footwear growing 1%, while general merchandise increased 3.3%. Our digital channel continues to thrive. Total GMV grew 16.1% from last year, in line with our expectation. Liverpool's digital share reached 28.7%, a 180 basis points increase and Liverpool Pocket up monthly active users increased 14.1%. Suburbia also delivered significant growth with its digital share reaching 6.7% of sales, a 153 basis points increase. The Suburbia monthly active users grew 14.6%. Our marketplace continues its strong growth. Q4 GMV increased 29.2% year-over-year, and we closed the quarter with 21% more SKUs and 31% more sellers. On a full year basis, marketplace GMV growth was 41%, considerably above our expectation. We remain focused on expanding our marketplace platform to drive growth in the future. In Q4, 41% of digital orders were delivered within 48 hours, an increase of 40 basis points versus last year. Click & Collect accounted for 42.6% of orders, a 3.5 percentage point increase year-over-year, and direct store deliveries reached 36.9%, an 8 percentage points increase. Moving to our Financial Services business. Revenue increased 17.4% compared to last year, mainly driven by the expansion of our credit portfolio, which increased 12.9%. Credit revenue also grew due to the increase in card holders, a higher share of sales with our own credit cards, purchases of us and new credit products. For perspective, total cardholders grew 8% to over 7.8 million. In terms of payment options, Liverpool shares of sales with our internal payment methods reached 48.3%, up 50 basis points, while Suburbia's share reached 30.7% a 180 basis points increase. On a full year basis, financial services revenue of MXN 19.3 billion was 18.4% higher than 2023. Moving to real estate. Our business continues to deliver good results, mainly driven by our acquisition of Altama Shopping Mall and a 40 basis point increase in occupancy, reaching 92.3%. This contributed to a 15.1% increase on revenue. On a prior year basis, excluding a onetime benefit in Q4 2023, total revenue of MXN 4.9 billion was almost 13% above a year ago. Regarding other financial metrics, our consolidated gross margin was 39%, a 1.1 percentage point contraction mainly due to margin pressure in our retail business, partially offset by financial services. Operating expenses increased by 2.4% for the quarter including a favorable comparison with Q4 2023, mainly due to nonrecurring items such as expenses related to weather events in Acapulco and negative impacts from the expected relocation of our softlines warehouse. Excluding these onetime items, comparable operating expenses grew 7.8%, significantly lower than previous quarters. Quarterly results include a MXN 1.5 billion provision for bad debt, 63% higher than previous year, driven by overall portfolio growth and a more conservative approach compared to the previous year. This is partially driven by the higher issuance of credit cards in the fintech sector, which has impacted delinquency rates and customer indebtedness, increasing strain on some of our early credit management indicators. However, this effect was fully offset by higher revenues in the Financial Services segment. NPLs closed the year at 3.2%, a 50 basis point increase, in line with our expectation. This result is aligned with our strategy of controlled portfolio growth and gradual measured risk expansion. Importantly, our NPL rate remains below pre-pandemic levels of 4% to 5%. Our coverage ratio at the end of the quarter was 8.8% of the gross credit portfolio, a 30 basis points increase year-over-year. Furthermore, our bad debt reserve represented 3x the NPL balance, underscoring our commitment to prudent risk management. Consolidated net profit after tax increased 11.4% year-over-year to MXN 9.7 billion. Fourth quarter EBITDA was MXN 14.9 billion, up 5.3% from last year, while our EBITDA margin was 19.7%, 70 basis points higher than last year. On a full year basis, 2024 EBITDA of MXN 37.6 billion was 7.3% higher than last year, while full year EBITDA margin was 17.5%, 40 basis points below last year's. Let's turn now to capital expenditures. Our Q4 investment, including real estate trusts reached MXN 3.6 billion, bringing our cumulative investment for the year to a historic MXN 12.1 billion. This represents a 40% increase year-over-year and marks the company's largest ever investment in Mexico. These investments are strategically allocated across key areas. We're significantly focused on enhancing our logistics networks and IT infrastructure alongside store renovations, expansions and new store openings. We made a substantial progress on the construction of our new softlines warehouse, which is on track to commence operations in the first half of 2025. This state-of-the-art facility equipped with advanced technology and automation will lead to greater operational efficiencies and faster delivery times for our customers. Cash flow from operations for the quarter was MXN 16.4 billion, bringing cumulative operational cash flow to MXN 17.6 billion, a contraction of 49% versus last year. These results is fueled by strong EBITDA performance and the seasonal trends in our credit portfolio, offset by inventory buildup and accounts payable. At the end of the quarter, cash on hand was MXN 24.7 billion, and our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio is close to 0. Regarding dividends, the first installment of MXN 1.77 per share was paid on May 24, and the remainder of MXN 1.18 per share was paid on October 11. We kept expanding our store footprint. We opened 5 new Liverpool Express units for a total of 40 locations. Suburbia also expanded this quarter with 5 new stores: 2 in Veracruz; 1 in Nogales; 1 in Santa Fe, Mexico City; and another 1 in Merida. In line with our strategy of providing innovative financial products and services, we expanded the offering of our new financial product Activa, savings and investment accounts operated by Banco Actinver which is fully integrated with our digital platforms. Earlier this month, America published their ESG responsibility Mexico 2024 report in which El Puerto de Liverpool ranked 21st out of 100 listed companies. Notably in the corporate governance section, we reached the 5th position. This recognition demonstrates our ongoing commitment to strong ESG practices and reinforces our position as a leader in responsible business conduct in Mexico. Turning to the Nordstrom transaction. I'd like to provide a brief overview. On December 23rd, we announced a definitive agreement with Nordstrom Inc., in which Liverpool and members of the Nordstrom family will jointly acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Nordstrom Inc., that are not owned by either party at a price of $24.25 per share. This transaction represents a new investment by Liverpool of up to $1.7 billion. As you know, this acquisition is subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approvals in the U.S. and approval by Nordstrom shareholders. We expect to close this transaction in the first half of 2025. In recent developments, in mid-January, we executed a debt capital markets transaction to finance a portion of our investment related to the merger. We successfully issued $1 billion in senior notes on January 22nd. The transaction was divided in 2 tranches of $500 million each with maturity dates of 7 and 12 years. Base management-wise, we decided to hedge the principal of these notes. And at the same time, we also improved the profile of our overall derivatives to deliver a weighted average rate of 10.34% in pesos. These notes were rated BBB by S&P and BBB+ by Fitch. I would like to express our appreciation to our global coordinator, JPMorgan, and our joint bookrunners, BBVA, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Santander and also our legal counsel, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Galicia Abogados for their support for this transaction. Before we open the call for questions, I'd like to share our guidance for 2025. We entered this year with a strong foundation. And as we look ahead, we recognize the dynamic and evolving retail landscape. We are confident that our strategic initiative and agile approach will enable us to capitalize on opportunities and navigate challenges effectively. We plan to strategically expand our reach and presence across Mexico by opening 2 Liverpool stores, one of them a reopening and another one, a conversion from a current Suburbia location. Furthermore, we plan to open 20 to 25 new Liverpool express formats and 3 new Suburbia locations. This expansion will allow us to get closer to our customers by extending our geographic footprint and reaching new market segments. We anticipate same-store sales growth of 5% to 6% for Liverpool and 7% to 8% for Suburbia, capitalizing on our robust online platforms and fueled by our continued omnichannel strategy, Digital GMV growth is estimated at 15% to 17% and Marketplace GMV growth between 19% and 21%. Maintaining our present conservative approach to credit risk, our projected net loan portfolio growth is between 8% and 9%. We anticipate NPLs to reach levels of 3.8% to 4.1%, with NPL provision growing between 21% and 24%. This remains within our risk tolerance and reflects our intention to gradually return to prepandemic NPL levels of 4% to 5%, reflecting our commitment to responsible lending practices. Importantly, during 2025, personnel costs will remain a great pressure point on our cost structure. Additionally, as we ramp up operations of our new logistics center in Arco Norte, we expect to incur approximately MXN 1.2 billion of onetime expenses related to the transition between our current and new warehousing facilities. Approximately 40% of these expenses are already accrued in our books as they relate to impairment of assets and people-related costs, while the additional 60% will reduce our full year 2025 EBITDA. Accordingly, we anticipate an EBITDA margin adjustment to 16% to 16.5%, primarily due to extraordinary logistics and other expenses, as well as a challenging macroeconomic environment with slower GDP growth. However, we see this as a temporary impact rather than a structural shift in profitability, and we remain committed to leveraging our strengths, sustaining solid profits and maintaining a healthy balance sheet. As these headwinds subside, we are confident in our ability to enhance EBITDA margins in the future. Our 2025 capital expenditures plan is MXN 10 billion to MXN 11 billion, primarily due to complete the bulk of our investment in our Arco Norte Logistics Center with continued investments in supply chain, new locations, store renovations and technology. Despite the unusual and rapidly changing external conditions of recent years, our organization has demonstrated remarkable adaptability and execution, leading to continued success. We are prepared to seize opportunities that lie ahead, fueled by the same passion and dedication that have driven our achievements. As we move forward, we remain focused on executing our strategic initiatives and capitalizing on new opportunities in the year ahead. Now let's move on to our Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Antonio Hernandez Velez.

This is Antonio. A quick question regarding what competitive trends are you seeing so far this year for both Liverpool and Suburbia format? And I mean you already mentioned about a quick comment on the inventory. But anything else that you could provide? That would be great.

Thank you, Antonio. Well, as you have seen, their retail competitive environment is very active. So what we are seeing from a competitive trend perspective is basically a continuation of everything that we have witnessed so far. So we have on one front, the pure e-commerce layers that have a very strong presence in Mexico, and we expect them to continue with that presence. And we have some other entrants, particularly from China that even though we've seen the Mexican government trying to limit some of the practices, we certainly expect them to continue their growth in the future. And obviously, on the retail, on the brick-and-mortar section, we expect all the brick and mortars to continue doing more or less what they have been doing so far. So in a nutshell, we expect a very competitive environment. So that's why we are continually improving our in-store experience, curating the merchandise and being very focused on customer behaviors. So we can provide a good experience with good brands coupled with a seamless integration with not only our page but also our marketplace and continue thriving in logistics to provide some value-added services. Now on the inventory front, as I said earlier, we have a 24% increase, so that's because the combination of items include a warm December. So we have done during January -- February we have been aggressive to increase inventory turnover. So the promotional side has been very active. But during the first 2 months of the year, we have sales in the 2-digit range in order to reduce the overall inventory position. And even though it remains high, we expect that to normalize somewhere in the second quarter.

Our next question comes from Ben Theurer.

This is Ben Theurer from Barclays. Two quick ones. So first of all, you've obviously talked about the logistics costs. Did you expect to have an impact on your profitability. So just wanted to see if you can give us maybe a little bit more granularity. And I guess it's probably related to the opening of new distribution center, et cetera. So how to think about the cadence throughout the year? Is this generalized through the entire year that you're expecting that margin pressure of approximately 100 basis points? Or is it more skewed towards the period of the transitioning from -- into the new DC. So that would be the first question. And then I have a quick follow-up.

We expect to -- thank you for your question. We expect 2 commence [indiscernible] in the second quarter. And the reason why we're expecting an impact is because we will be operating from the current DC and also the new one. So obviously, in terms of manpower, having 2 very large warehouses running, it requires a lot of manpower. And also the trade cost will be higher because some vendors will be delivering the new warehouse, and some others at the old one. So the overall efficiency of transportation will decrease for a few months. So if we do commence operations in the second quarter, a lot of these expenses will shift towards the end of the second quarter, the third quarter. And as the operation normalizes, we are able to shut down our current distribution center, expenses should turn to normalize to their normal levels. On the margin front, we expect some margin pressure. I mean the EBITDA reduction is partially due to logistics, but also we have seen some margin pressures primarily due to asset exchange rate. So the margin pressure will be across the whole year.

Okay. Expected. And then second, it's -- I mean it's like competition trade in general related as we think about it. I mean, obviously, the U.S. administration is trying to put certain pressure on the Northern and Southern neighbors. So with Mexico potentially being asked to introduce tariffs on Chinese products. So I was just wondering if that is something that you have like kind of like partially accounted for in your guidance? And how much of your sourcing actually of products comes out of China and could potentially be impacted if Mexico were to introduce a larger amount of tariffs against Chinese produced products?

Okay. So let me start by answering on the supply chain front. Direct imports from the U.S. in the case of Liverpool are very, very low. So even with the tariffs between the U.S. and Mexico, we are not expecting an impact on the overall inventory or supply chain impact. Now talking about tariffs, with -- in a higher tariff environment, that translates to additional costs for our overall supply chain. Direct imports that we do -- not only from China, but from overall Asia account for about 15% of our inventory. And then imports that our vendors do -- I mean, the Mexican subsidiary of the vendors like Apple, we buy from them, but obviously, the iPhone is not sourced locally. So it's sourced from China. So that the indirect inventory accounts for another 40% to 50% of inventory. So that's overall imports. And China certainly represents a significant portion of that. So that would translate to higher costs that we have a forecast not only on the overall exchange rate but also on the expected imports cost. So a part of that is already accounted for in the -- our pricing strategy for the 2025 collections. And so eventually and gradually, we would eventually pass on that to a customer, but it's a balancing act because it's not like automatic that if we have an x percent increase in tariffs, that translates to an x percent price increase. It's only gradually and on a brand-by-brand basis. So I guess it's partially accounted for in our guidance because with a higher -- higher cost and higher consumer prices, obviously that will translate to a challenge regarding same-store sales. And so it's partially considered. But eventually, we will try to transfer those additional costs to our customers.

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Ruben.

Andrew Ruben from Morgan Stanley. Thanks very much for the question and the commentary so far. One of the items you mentioned for the Financial Services business was the impact of fintechs, I think you mentioned how that impacted overall consumer debt and perhaps some of your own credit models. I'm just curious if you could elaborate in a bit more detail on each of these points, the fintech backdrop and how you see direct and indirect impacts to Liverpool.

Thank you, Andrew. What we have seen is that the overall credit card issuance in Mexico has increased a lot in the last year, particularly in the fintech sector. And as part of our regular credit management business, we have some early credit indicators. And we have seen some -- some pressure on that early management, early credit management indicators. So we have seen more strain in some of those KPIs. We decided to be more conservative on the fourth quarter. So we were projecting to have our bad debt provision, representing about 8.5% of the portfolio. And so we increased that to 8.8% in order to cope with this strain on the early indicators. So even though we are not seeing an increase in our current NPLs, that decision is due to the stress on the early indicators.

Our next question comes from the line of Irma Sgarz.

It's Irma Sgarz from Goldman Sachs. Just a follow-up on the gross margin. I know it's a bit backward looking at this point, but in the fourth quarter in the gross margin for the Retail division, there was some degree of pressure and I understand the competitive field may have played a role and maybe also the dynamics around temperature and promotion that you mentioned that may have started already a little bit in December, but could you just elaborate a little bit more on what may have sort of been a source of pressure and how we should think about gross margin specifically into the first quarter given the promotions that you spoke to earlier, and whether those promotions can be offset by perhaps operating leverage to the extent that you drove pretty strong sales in the year-to-date? And then just as we look out a little bit beyond the current logistics project that you spoke to in terms of transferring the inventories in the second quarter and then sort of transitioning just to the Arco Norte project, when would you expect us to start seeing some of the benefits come through and in what shape and form would these benefits come through like are you thinking like sort of first inventories, but also gross margin. I would imagine conversion rates or both in-store and online could also benefit. So you just talk a little bit about the benefit side and when to start sort of looking for those indicators to pick up.

Let me start with the gross margin question. During the fourth quarter, we had a very active promotional caliber. We had El Buen Fin, Venta Nocturna, Singles Day, Cyber Monday. So it was packed with a lot of our promotional activities. And given that the sales were coming in a little below our expectations, we were more aggressive in some categories in order to push more merchandise. So in the fourth quarter, the combination of higher discounts and a more robust promotional strategy led to some strength in the margin. Moving to the first quarter, particularly during January, we had very strong sales, but heavily supported on promotional activity. You recall last year, we did very good -- given that we were in a bit of the opposite direction, we had a relatively low inventory. So we were very cautious about not pushing all the categories at the same level of discounts throughout January of last year. And this January we were more aggressive on that given that we had a higher overall inventory. So what we expect in margin in particularly in January and February is to see some strength but we expect to pick up better margins for March and in March, April and May, particularly around Mother's Day. So that's on the margin front. Now moving to logistics. We expect the operation to normalize at some point in the third quarter. And even though we are not expecting to derive significant logistics benefits out of this new operation in this year, the type of benefits that we expect in the midterm is a higher frequency that would lead to inventory reductions, and that would lead to increased margin. And quite frankly, to have faster delivery times across the board. So the combination of higher frequency and reduced time to ship, we expect that to have the overall customer service and also some inventory reductions.

Our next question comes from the line of Robert Ford.

This is Bob Ford at BofA Merrill. What proportion of credit lines are taken on your active cards? And what comes to your 8% to 9% portfolio growth, how is that split between existing and new cardholders? And then when it comes to Nordstrom, how are you thinking about possibly operating brand properties of Nordstrom and Mexico, particularly the off-price segment?

Can you repeat the second question?

No, of course, Gonzalo. I was thinking more about the Nordstrom Rack in Mexico. And if you're thinking there's a role for the rack in Mexico.

Okay. Okay. So the percentage of new credit lines, I don't think I have that with me right now. So I will follow up on that. Unless [indiscernible] do you have that at hand? If not, we will follow up because I'm not sure I have that, the acceptance of new credit cards.

Yes. I guess we'll have to follow on. I'm already taking a note of it.

Okay. Well thanks. So -- but regarding the growth, it comes from -- it will be mainly driven by the sales growth. So the growth in portfolio is mainly driven by the sales on our retail business and also by the increase of sales of us and the increase in overall financial services, like savings or personal loans. Those type of services that are not directly related to our revenue. So we don't have a split between new credit customers and current credit customers obviously, as we have 7.8 million customers, the bulk of the growth would be driven by the current cardholders rather than the new. But the way -- I think the way we look at credit portfolio growth is a combination of retail sales, sales of us and the growth of new financial services. Now regarding Nordstrom, at the moment, we have no intention of bringing the Nordstrom brand to Mexico. I think that from a competitive standpoint, it's interesting to assess whether some of the off-price in the U.S. has applications in Mexico. So that's something we're thinking about to understand what the potential of some of these off pricing practices to see whether we can accommodate that into our stores in Mexico to have a more robust competitive front and to offer something different to a customer. But at the moment, we have no plans to bring in any of the Nordstrom brands in Mexico.

Our next question comes from the line of Julio Martinez.

[indiscernible] Investments. Could you please elaborate on the strategic rationale behind the Nordstrom acquisition? We would appreciate further insights into the key drivers and objectives behind this decision? And how do you expect for this acquisition to add any value?

Thank you. From a strategic standpoint, we see a number of benefits out of this transaction. The first is that it provides diversification in geography and currency. Through department store, which we believe is one of the best well-managed department stores in the U.S. So that's one. There are also some potential synergies or some potential learnings for Liverpool Mexico, including e-commerce, advanced analytics, logistics, private labels and loyalty programs, customer service practices and so forth. So there are some similarities between Nordstrom in the U.S. and Liverpool in Mexico. So we believe there are some fronts where we have -- we could have some collaboration. Then -- we have -- this is not a completely new target for us. We have been an investor in Nordstrom for over 2 years. So we've learned about the company throughout their public information, but we have monitored that very closely for the past 2 years. So it's not like we are new to a company. And we have a very solid partnership with the Nordstrom family. And we expect to grow on that partnership in the near future. And also -- and finally, it provides an opportunity to leverage on a very strong balance sheet for Liverpool in Mexico, as we have a very strong balance sheet, we have entertained ideas to have some inorganic growth. And as you know, we have seen a number of options in the past. So we believe we can leverage in our balance sheet to provide more value to our shareholders through leveraging on that balance sheet. So the objectives in the near term is for the company to continue with our current plan. So at the moment, we -- well, at the moment, we're focused on closing the transaction. And that's why I say that we expect company to focus on management's long-term plan as it is today. And the type of value that we expect to derive is as we continue to build on this -- on the collaboration front and the current Nordstrom strong performance, as you have seen, throughout the last quarter, Nordstrom management has reported very strong financial performance. So we expect to benefit out of that strong performance.

Our next question comes from the line of Cecilia Velasco.

This is [indiscernible]. I have a question in relation with Nordstrom. Regarding the financing of the $861 million for Nor Holding, will it be financed with a commitment letter with JPMorgan for $900 million or how this will...

Thank you for your question. We expect to finance the transaction partially with cash on hand. As you saw in our balance sheet, we have -- we closed the year with a cash position of over MXN 24 billion. So we expect to use part of that cash to finance the transaction. And the remainder, with the bond that we issued in mid-January. So the combination of cash on hand and the bonds that we issued, we expect the combination of both to finance the transaction.

Okay. And how -- what is the objective for this commitment letter that $900 million?

Back in December, when we were signing a contract between Liverpool Nordstrom Inc. and Nordstrom family. And we wanted to provide some guarantees on Liverpool's ability to close the transaction. So the bridge letter was used to provide the guarantee at the moment of signing. Now that we issued a bond, the commitment letter is not that useful anymore. So we -- I'm not sure we already canceled it. But if we haven't, we are about to cancel the commitment letter because it wouldn't make sense to have the commitment letter and also pay the carry on the bond. So it's a bit of a timing issue. Back in December we had the commitment letter. Once we issue the bond, the bond replaces the commitment because we no longer require it.

Our next question comes from the line of Álvaro García.

Álvaro García from BTG Pactual. Two questions. One, you mentioned that the Mexican government is maybe a little bit more active sort of regulating or trying to regulate the Chinese players. I was wondering if you could maybe give more color on sort of what you've seen on the de minimis front in Mexico? And my second question is on pricing. Obviously, between tariffs and a weaker peso, what should we expect in terms of pricing actions? I know that the first quarter is obviously you discussed sort of some of the markdowns or whatnot, but what should we expect from pricing into the second half of the year?

Thank you, Álvaro. We have seen a couple of actions to -- from the Mexican government. One is generating VAT on the Chinese items about x amount of dollars, so that makes investor, the customer more expensive. And that, in theory, that would drive a reduction on overall shipments, particularly the very low cost. So -- and that kind of levels the playing field for all, I think we all benefit from using the same playing field. The thing is that as we look at regular tariffs, not only these players, but the whole of the industry, including Liverpool. So the regular tariffs from China they have an impact in our cost structure because we import some of them direct -- some of the merchandise directly from our vendors in China, particularly in private brands, but also our Mexican vendors have imports from China. So that doesn't trigger a difference reduction between the Chinese players announced, I think that in some instances, it creates actually the -- it's the other way around because it may impact Liverpool and similar players more than the Chinese pure players. And then moving to pricing. It's hard to tell because we're very capital regarding pricing. So we have a forecast on what we expect the exchange rate to be and the import costs and the overall cost of structure. And based on that forecast, we project pricing. And then as time moves forward, we were assessed based on maximum margins on actual cost when adjustments need to be done in the future. But that's very detailed, is done on a case-by-case basis. So what you should expect is that we may see some increases, but they are done not across the board, but rather on a case-by-case basis. And it's done regular throughout the year. As you can imagine, Liverpool is a very old company. So if you look back at the '80's and '90s in peers with higher cost of structure, I think Liverpool has a very strong history of being able to do these gradual increases on a very responsible fashion.

Our next question comes from the line of Laura Hernandez.

This is Laura Hernandez from ServiceNow. And our question is could you please elaborate in what role does and will technology play in the company's financial strategy this year, which KPIs do you aim to target with this?

Regarding our overall technology investment?

Yes. What do you want to leverage as a company from your technology investments that could impact your financial and overall strategy?

Well, we have very high expectations on our overall technology infrastructure because Liverpool in -- on one hand, is a very large retailer, and the volumes in retail tend to be very large. So we have to have a very robust technology infrastructure in order to cope with the volume. We have at any given point between 1.6 million and 2 million active SKUs. And we have -- if we want to do trends of, say, the last 10 years, we need very detailed information. So -- so our expectation, just to being able to manage the overall volume, it's very high. And that's why we've evolved a significant part of our CapEx to continue growing our technology infrastructure. And on the other hand, Liverpool is not only a retailer but because of the financial services, those type of -- that type of technology is more similar to what you see in the banking industry than what you see in the retail industry. So if you look at the overall IT ecosystem, it's kind of -- it's integrated, but as some of this infrastructure that is related to the -- to our retail business, but a separate one regarding to our financial services. And in the case of Financial Services, as we continue to grow, we're almost 8 million cardholders and we develop new services and we have insurance and loans -- well, personal loans and savings accounts, we -- even though we do not operate all of the ecosystem ourselves, we need to have very strong technology because we want to make sure the technology is aligned or surpasses the customer expectation regarding service levels and security. So we intend to continue to invest very heavily in technology throughout 2025 and the upcoming years.

That concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to hand the call back over to Gonzalo Gallegos for some closing remarks.

Well, thank you all for your time and questions. We appreciate your interest, and we will look forward to updating you on our progress during next quarter. Thank you.

That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.