Grupo Argos S.A. (GRUPOARGOS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning to you all. I want to thank you for your participation in this space, where we're presenting our actual results for the third quarter 2021. In this space, we have Jorge Mario Velasquez, President of Grupo Argos; Alejandro Piedrahita, Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Finance Grupo Argos, Rafael Olivella, Vice President of Talent and Corporate, Grupo Argos; Mauricio Ossa, President of Odinsa, María Clara Aristizábal, Manager of Urban Development Business; Pablo Arroyave, Vice President of Corporate Finance of Odinsa, [indiscernible] And this conference is being translated into English simultaneously. In addition, I want to remind you that in the website, we have made available all the quarter information together with the presentation that we'll be following under the teleconference. To download, you could access the financial information afterwards from the report section. We invite you now to move on to Slide #3 presentation to start the meeting. And I want to give the word to Jorge Mario Velasquez, President of to Grupo Argos.

Thank you, Natalia, and thank you all that are with us today, thank you investors and analysts for being with us in this day. Good morning to you all. I want to send you a special thank you for being with us in this conference. I want to make just a very short reference in terms of the picture that we saw at the beginning slide, which corresponds to the real estate and hotel investment in Calablanca Barú. This is one of the real estate businesses that we have been working with investments close to $100 million, it has hotels, residences and apartments, and it has 60 hectares part of the assets of the real estate business that the group has and that will be opened in short in order to start functioning one of the most beautiful hotel facilities of the country. We will also have the possibility of speaking a bit more about this aspect when we approach the real estate business developments. During this quarter, we recorded a very positive performance in our businesses, and we actually reached strategic advancements that continue consolidating Grupo Argos as the infrastructure asset manager that's highly relevant within the region. The most important of these milestones we shared in September with the signature of an alliance between our concession business Odinsa and Macquarie Asset Management, which is one of the largest infrastructure administrators around the world in order to jointly create an investment platform that would administrate road assets that Odinsa has in Colombia, in which we include Concession Pacifico 2 that has recently been delivered and completely finished. Also, the Aburra Oriente tunnel that connects San Nicolas and Aburrá Valley coffee highways and the [ metal ] several products that will be developed in the future. The value of this platform reaches COP 4.3 trillion. We'll consolidate it as one of the most important not just in Colombia, but within the region. This new vehicle will keep exploring growth opportunities and value creation opportunities through project developments that will demand jointly resources close to COP 4.5 trillion in the mid and long term for the creation of this vehicle, we are constituting a private capital fund that will count with Odinsa as its professional manager, which economic rights will be owned by Odinsa in 50% and Macquarie will own another 50%. And this last one, besides capital, I also want to highlight that we'll contribute with a broad global experience in the road sector in order to keep on strengthening our operational capacities. Besides, this is the asset management scheme and capital private funds, Grupo Argos is connecting the abundance of global liquidity with the needs of building regional infrastructure. Well, I had received simultaneously remuneration for its role as manager and success commission due to the asset performance. Without no doubt, this alliance with Macquarie sets a milestone in the strategic materialization of Grupo Argos that will leverage the possibility of growth, the profitability of our shareholders and that consolidates the experience that we have been developing through the years in the creation of this platform. An example we have followed in the real estate business and besides the ones that have been created, the energy businesses by Celsia for the solar and distribution -- energy distribution businesses that joined with Cubico sustainable investment. We've been developing platforms that have proven not just the profitability, but also fair capacity of accelerating development and opportunity capture. We will be discussing a bit more when we speak about the energy business. Moving on to the accumulated financial results for the third quarter of this year, and I want to highlight the strength of the operational leverage the organization has, has been driven and strengthened by the achieved efficiencies that were achieved as part of our short plan that we started to develop in order to face economic situation that we had in 2020. Many of these initiatives, optimizations, synergy and efficiency values have been -- have got here to stay. In September 2021 or up to September 2021, when we adjust the nonrecurring effects in both periods, consolidated revenues grew 40% year after year, while the EBITDA grew at 26% and net profit increased 410%. This multiplying effect of profitability is the materialization of the collective efforts -- broad and collective effort that the organization has driven in order to consolidate an expense and cost structure more efficient and a lighter capital structure that -- with which management allowed a very important reduction as we will see in the financial costs. Now let me move on and make a description of the main milestones that we have achieved this quarter and the different businesses of the group. Now I want to invite you to move on to Slide -- that speaks about the Cement business development and construction materials. The cement sales volume presented a favorable dynamic during the quarter with an increase of 12% pro forma. And I'll be explaining why this follows the good economic performance that we are seeing in a cross-cutting manner in these 3 regions that Cementos Argos operates: United States, Colombia and Central America. And through the implementation of these strategies, they have not just been allowing a better participation, but at the same time, an added value generation to the act participation in different segments and products that have a larger margin added to the efforts in terms of R&D that have been made in the company. On this slide, we want to highlight the offer of products, much higher value products, such as specialized cements, [indiscernible] cements, the strengthening of distribution capacities and reaching the final customer and the retail sector in Colombia has reported a growth of 24% in the year-after-year EBITDA. In addition, in terms of infrastructure in Colombia, we began the execution of the [indiscernible] contract for Bogota Metro. This contract for the next 40 months will allow a demand of 100,000 cubic meters of material. This is a milestone that houses to look towards the future with optimism. And I just talked, we speak also for cement and specialized services for this important work. In quantitative terms, that good and dynamic in terms of results and in terms of volumes, which translated into a 5% increase in the quarter's revenues with a growth of 13% for Colombia. The company reached COP 473 billion in this period. This is 2.4% higher same period last year. Once we exclude the contribution of the concrete operations that we had in Dallas and that were disinvested in our previous quarter, and that's what I mean when I speak about pro forma, the EBIT disability has been achieved, thanks to the dilution of fixed costs for larger sales volumes that besides have compensated -- properly compensated the effects of global inflation has been happening around raw materials and freights that is -- this and many other industries. But nevertheless, I would say that the competitive position that Cementos Argos has is broadly favorable in order to face this inflation pressure due to the installed capacity to produce concrete and cement in each one of the regions. The efficiency of its logistics network supported in a broad board network, maritime fleet, which are also strategic assets such as distribution centers that make the operation, and reaching the final customer is not just a broad coverage but of a very high efficiency. Now I want to invite you go over results of the Energy business. And last week, Celsia was awarded a contract of 225 gigawatts hour year, will be generated by a brand that's known as Celsia Solar Escobal 6. This is a plant, a solar plant has a capacity close to 100 megawatts that will be built in the outskirts of the City of Ibagué, and it will start operations in December 2024. And this is the result of Celsia's participation in the second energy auction made by the Colombian government that happened in 2019, where besides, we were also awarded to this large capacity that we have previously mentioned. The result -- the federal results for the company in terms of this renewable energy auction reassures not just the commitment that the organization has with energy transition that the country has been following in order to position itself as a leader in initiatives in order to reduce the climate change effects in the energy sector. But besides that, it positions Celsia as a key stakeholder in the nonrenewable energy metrics in Colombia. Let's remember that besides the household energy and business energy that the company has been developing in the last 5 years, more than 100 megawatts of plants. So our energy plants that are working now 160 megawatts through the whole country and some even in Central America, also occupied projects for more than 330 megawatts of wind energy in Guajira [indiscernible] Celsia consolidates as one of the most important asset managers in terms of nonconventional renewable energy in the country. This plant, as we previously mentioned, is a part of the strategy of reaching 650 megawatts in terms of solar generation in a vehicle -- investment vehicle with Cubico Sustainable Investments that today has its first megawatts, close to 50 in operating this vehicle, but we'll allow to accelerate development in upcoming years. I also want to highlight the positive advancements of the thermal electrical project at El Tesorito gas thermoelectric project that will make available close to 200 megawatts in the national interconnected system. It's going to be highly efficient, and that was awarded to our capacity in a previous auction. This project besides has particularly been located in [ indiscernible ]. It's very close to where the energy resources and directly interconnected into the national interconnection system which gives great flexibility, not just as a support asset, but also eventually as a participation asset and the dispatch metrics due to the difficulties that we have in order -- energy generation in the country. From an operational front, during this quarter, we recorded in Celsia a 4% growth year-after-year in generation and 11% growth in terms of energy commercialization. If these results validate the capacity and strength and resilience Celsia has and the power of its portfolio, which is based between different types of generations, it's also important to highlight the average price on the energy stock exchange for the country during the quarter reached a bit less than COP 100, COP 98 kilowatt hour, which represents a reduction of 37% compared with the same period previous year. This reflects a larger water contributions into the system. Having said that, they have exceeded the historic values in terms of contributions and make water energy to be more than 80% of the energy that has been used by the National Electric System. The good operational performance and the contracting strategy that has been developed with Celsia as well as the balance and development of transmission, distribution and commercialization that goes hand by hand with generation compensated broadly is a drop in the stock exchange price and allowed the company to close the third quarter with revenues of COP 978 million, which grew 19% if you compare this with the same period last year for mid-side, the quarter's EBITDA closed COP 216 billion. This is also a 23% growth even when we eliminate the nonrecurrent effect of contribution that we had recorded in 2020, okay, from a regulatory recognition of the Domiciliary public service superintendency. So Celsia's EBITDA is kept with an increase, with a 2-digit increase. I want to invite you to go over slides of the concession -- of the road concession business, the airport concession business. As we mentioned at the beginning of the conference, September, we signed a contract with Macquarie for the creation of a regional growth platform that will help us drive not just profitability, but also accelerate growth in this business segment. This transaction implies a partial monetization of the investment in this business with a gross DIR close to 33%, and I will be emphasizing in this figure. Meaning by this, the value generated for the shareholders, the gross value exceeds 33%, accounting for the flows since the moment of the investment in the different assets up to the value that is materialized in the [indiscernible]. The resources that come from this transaction, we hope that we'll be closed in the first quarter 2022 will be used mainly for reducing [indiscernible] that will guarantee at the same time, a larger flexibility and less financial cost in order to keep on growing in this business. In addition, in this period, we closed the refinancing of Oriente tunnel with an admission of close to COP 700 billion in the Colombian capital market that was over demanded 1.66x, which gave access to a much more competitive interest rate and turn it, I would say, in the first road concession and issuing in the local capital market, enabling a very interesting finance mechanism for assets and future assets. The strength of this asset was recognized by Standard & Poor's, which granted an AA+ rating. From its side, as it was mentioned before, the Pacifico 2 worked. One of the first work of the 4G generation, no one is -- the fourth generation road concessions in Colombia was delivered and inaugurated in the month of October, becoming the fourth generation project that starts working in the country. The first one in Antioquia and the first that has been fully constructed, financing structured and took to operation by Odinsa, so this has been part of Argos Business Group. This project in flight construction, rehabilitation of more than 90 kilometers of roads in the Southeast of Antioquia, this is an investment that exceeds COP 5.3 trillion and was delivered within heavy budget and with the best building standards. This work proves that projects in Colombia can be managed and carried out following budgets keeping times and keeping the highest excellence and quality standards. But besides that, with a very broad and large respect for the territory identity for the environment, contributing value to those communities where these types of assets are developed. This work, that's part of a road system, Pacifico 1, 2 and 3, which is under construction and development, and that represents in total investments for more than COP 6 trillion, will connect Medellin and [indiscernible] besides Antioquia with the Pacific and the Atlantic with the Pacific in a much more efficient manner. In the financial front, during the quarter, Odinsa kept a growing trend in terms of revenues and EBITDA, such as this been recorded last year in a very accelerated manner. And that's clearly -- it's clearly being driven by the vehicle traffic increase as well as airport passengers. It's gratifying to see the dynamic as happening how traffics are growing. Revenues closed in COP 280 billion, and the EBITDA closed in COP 209 billion. This is an increase of 49% and 77%, respectively. When we compare the results of this quarter with the same period 2019 pre-pandemic period, in order to eliminate the base effect we had in 2020, we also see that when we make this calculation growth keeps being very important and totalizing 53% in terms of revenue and 52% in terms of EBITDA. So this confirms not just the operational efforts and the efficiency efforts being driven by the business but also the important contribution of traffic growth in the value of an asset such as Túnel Oriente that I will also be speaking of further on. Currently all the roads that Odinsa operate are operating in normal conditions with the traffic that exceeds what we had before. In this quarter, they totalized 128 vehicles daily on average. We also want to highlight, as I mentioned before, the Oriente Tunnel that tends the traffic between Medellin and San Nicolas Valley that evidenced a growth of 174% compared with the same period 2020 and 25% more compared with the same period 2019. We also need to consider that these assets, and I just want to make sure I stop, this asset in October is generating a traffic over 424,000 vehicles per day. Something that -- sorry, 24,000 vehicles per day, which actually exceeds our forecast when we started working other project. And we need to say that even the airport traffic, more specifically international traffic, has not yet fully recovered. And this asset in particular has a vocation of observing not just exclusively, but in a very important way to that traffic that goes from the airports at the moment there's a reestablishment of the flying operations in Jose Mario Cordova Airport. We'll probably see the higher use of the tunnel over levels that we have today. In the airport traffic, besides that, September closed with levels, very positive levels. I want to mention month of October, where the Bogota airport administrated by Opain reached 2.4 million passengers. And that's the total of September figure. It's the largest that we've had since the beginning of the pandemic, despite the fact that's still a bit under September 2019, we're 29% under. But in accelerated growing curve, that has not stopped in terms of traffic recovery. So we also need to bear in mind that part of the international traffic has not yet recovered, but domestic traffic as we will be looking at further on, which is a very similar levels to the ones that we had before the pandemic. So we see with great optimism, this dynamic and not just about road traffic, but also airport traffic that have a tangible recovery. This is also leveraged in a very cautious words around efficiency, which allowed for the airport sector and the business sector Grupo Argos would have a positive profits for this quarter being the first period in recording a positive balance since the confinement measures began in March 2020. In this case, they have contributed close to COP 15 billion to the Odinsa's quarter. So this is a very good recovery in terms of traffic, not just in road traffic, but also airport traffic, very good positive contribution for Odinsa results. And because of that, for the group in terms of airport assets, we also need to highlight besides that, that during this period, we also signed second [indiscernible] to allow the recognition through the time extension due to the effects of confinement measures in an agreement that what you could [indiscernible] concessionaires. The grantor that allowed an extension in the concession that it adds up to the first agreement that we had already signed. So we are reaching now in 2 agreements with the granter in order to extend the period going to be a bit less than 24 months in each one of these extensions. That, of course, has a very important sense of economic value sense that recovers and compensates the [indiscernible] during 2020 and partially during the beginning of 2021. Now I want to invite you to go over the results of the real estate business on Slide 12. I want to highlight good results in terms of the net cash flow, which increased to tenfold, as you can see on that slide compared to the same period last year, and close to 4x had been accumulated in previous year. In the quarter, we keep advancement in the execution of the works in Barú. As I mentioned before, we're close to inaugurate one of the main milestones in terms of development of that variable real estate asset. And we keep working on urban development of Ciudad Mallorquín in the city of Barranquilla. This is a project we just closed a lot that was missing for the first stage, leading to an increase of 133% in the sales revenues. EBITDA grew 20%, including the price growth factor we saw in 2020. Partially, the [indiscernible] Ciudad Mallorquín by this, the quarter allowed the materialization of the development and value generation of this very important asset that we will be able to discuss later on because we're just starting the development of an asset that, in total, this case has an area over 150 -- that exceeds 150 areas. And we've started a development, developing is just a small part of it. In Barranquilla Santa Marta, we additionally signed 3 sale purchase promises, which allows insurance revenues for more than COP 44 billion. In addition, we carried out a call in the second phase of Ribera Mallorquín. And this comment that I mentioned before was about the first phase. So we have launched a second call. It's very -- it's just gratified to say that in less than 1 year of granting the first stage, we received more than 12 proposals of different constructors for 7x the -- that has been offered, which proves the viability of this project and the way that we could attract raw material, which also will lead to shareholder value. In Barú, we signed -- in addition, in Calablanca development, 2 purchase sale promises, 1 for a boutique hotel and another 1 for Four Seasons Hotel that will complement the Sofitel Hotel that will be opened in Calablanca. So these 2 are promises that we signed during the quarter meaning revenues for more than COP 50 billion. These 2 transactions approved, I would say, the effectiveness of the strategy of developing the Sofitel Calablanca hotel, and having an ambitious planning and at the same time, a very respectful planning around the history of social settlements, respecting the environment. And this also includes the totality of tree development plan for more than 1,300 hectares. The usage of 250 of these as a native forest that will be preserved and used as part of that valuable asset in order to offer a first-level development worldwide. So we are a very enthusiastically happy because the truth of the matter is that these milestones as the one that you'll be able to see as of December and enjoy of that natural beauty of Barú island in addition to the signature of a purchase sale promise for a Four Season development materializes that thesis that we have around these important assets and which is not just valuable for Grupo Argos, but also for Colombia, which consolidated its first level of development in terms of national, international tourism. So we've closed businesses up to this time of the year for more than COP 100 billion. In terms of the real estate business that has been developed through [indiscernible], the effective gross revenue was COP 88 billion, that grew 34% year after year. The EBITDA in the quarter reached COP 39 billion with an increase of 33% year after year. Assets under the [indiscernible] administration close to COP 4.2 trillion that have a light reduction of 0.8% compared with same period in 2020. This obeys to a fund strategy. We want to disinvest some of our nonstrategic assets that have reached a maturity level and we could materialize our value thesis properly. The total occupation of the portfolio for this third quarter, it was over 90%, which also gives a good signal of the strategies that have been developed [indiscernible] in order to overcome the pandemic effects and the confinement effects and coming back to levels that are not just normal but are also adequate for the use of different assets. I want to invite you to go over consolidated results on Slide #15, where we could see the aggregate effect in terms of our -- performance of our different businesses. Revenues reached COP 4.1 trillion, COP 11.9 trillion for this year accumulated value, which represents an increase of 14% compared with 2020 and of 2% compared with the same period to 2019, when we eliminate the nonrequiring operation effects that I'll be also mentioning that are also present in the balances of previous years. This level of activity was translated into an EBITDA growth at close of COP 1.2 billion and COP 3.4 trillion for this year, which implies a pro forma growth or healthy pro forma growth of 26% if you compare this with 2020 and 4% compared with 2019. So I would dare to say that the pandemic effects and the lockdown effects have been covered, but we're going back to 2019, have been overcomed. And we need to consider that there's some businesses, as I mentioned before, much broader growth potential, such as the airport business that's just starting in its positive cycle. Net profit increased even in a larger proportion, thanks to the good operational performance of the businesses, the financial expense reduction also allows to record a figure of COP 958 billion for this year. On Slide 16, I want to show you the quarter with revenues, EBITDA geographically. Here in the airport session, with initial contribution, COP 258 billion, COP 252 billion EBITDA leveraged with the real concession and the optimization and efficiency that have been developed inside Odinsa and their concessions. This allows us, once again, to evidence the operational leverage. For each increase of 100 basis points in the revenues, organization has a growth of 480 basis points in EBITDA, 1% -- we reached 1.8% of EBITDA. And this is the capacity and strength that the organization develops in a collective manner, thanks to the operational effort that have been synchronized from Grupo Argos in order to develop and maintain through time this leverage aligned with the consolidated expenses, we see a reduction of COP 11 billion, which grew 3% year after year. And nevertheless, we eliminate the nonrequiring effects of 2020, the consolidated expense would be increasing just 1%. If there is an increase, a pro forma increase in the expense, the efficiency strategy is reflected when we compare this with the EBITDA that grew COP 302 billion in the same period. This means for each COP 1 billion in terms of expense EBITDA grew COP 50 billion. Now let's move on, and I want to show you Slide #18 in order to see and analyze the indebtment evolution. In this front, I want to highlight the amortizations that have been done and we have been receiving for the last 12 months that reached a figure that's higher than COP 1.1 trillion, achieving a reduction of 7% of the consolidated gross debt. So within this recovery situation, we're able to reduce COP 1.1 trillion in terms of consolidated indebtment. In terms of net debt, we closed the quarter with a balance of COP 16 trillion. The largest part of the reduction is led by the material -- construction material business in Cementos Argos thanks to the short-term strategy that the company has. We keep a very strict discipline in the control of just invested CapEx, working capital, operational efficiency, cash flow by the operations plus generated by disinvestments will deleverage the business in an important way. I also want to mention that last figure that we have in terms of that net debt is close at 3.1x. So the level is very healthy in terms of indebtment product of the -- with the information of the cash flow and the usage of those resources in order to reduce the leveraging of the company. I want to invite you to go over separated results as well as consolidated ones this record pro forma of revenues compared with 2019. In the third quarter, they closed COP 171 billion EBITDA and COP 136 billion net profit and COP 112 billion, which represents an increase of COP 141 billion compared with a loss of COP 39 billion in the third quarter 2020. So as the consolidated one, into separate analysis, we see a very positive dynamic in terms of revenues, EBITDA and net profit. Moving on to the cash flow. On Slide 22, we could see the increase of net dividends compared with the previous period. Bear in mind that [indiscernible] of the year in the month of April and for the rest of the year from here till the end of the year, will keep on receiving dividends and more specifically, but not exclusively coming from Cementos Argos. In addition, I would like to also highlight the contribution of the development business -- the urban development business up to we have this year represents contributions for COP 79 billion, thanks to the great commercial dynamic that the business has following operational cash flow for the end of the year. We'll keep on strengthening, as I mentioned before, the measure that we receive dividends and without paying additional dividends or selling assets. So we keep on strengthening this position -- this cash position in a positive manner. The separated debt for the group closed this quarter at COP 1.6 trillion with expiries -- due to exclude 89% of the credits after 2023, which grants us a large financial flexibility and allow us closing this period with indebtment indicators that are healthy. And I would say with the commitments with the rating companies that we receive in terms of the solidness, strength in order to lead future projects, the cost of debt close to 6.2%, which represents an increase of 140 basis points compared with the closing rate of 2020. Obviously, this was driven by the inflation trends that we had during this quarter. But nevertheless, this growth is less than the inflation trend that during the same period, contributed with 290 points, which confirms the successful strategy in terms of not just structures, currencies, diversifications and costs of that indebtment that has been organized by the company. Now I want to move on to sustainability front. So the sustainability front, and I just wanted to make this online comment and contributing to the discussions that have been happening around the conferences that we had recently in Glasgow or the G26 that we had in Glasgow and how the different plans and initiatives and strategies, announcements fit with this purpose -- with this global purpose from our business -- from our cement business that we have publicly ratified our commitment of achieving in 2050, neutral carbon production and concrete production. This has been working with the global estimate Association -- Cement and Concrete Association or known as GCCA, which will allow the reduction of specific emissions in the 29% to 2030 towards carbon neutral in 2050. These 2 goals or ambitions and are aligned perfectly with the objectives that we have led from Grupo Argos in March this year that are a part of general sustainability strategy of Grupo Argos and its businesses within our SSC commitment for adapting, mitigating and compensating the environmental effects of our operations. From the energy business, we also want to highlight the gas thermoelectrical project in El Tesorito that will become one of the first thermoelectrical centrals that are carbon neutral within the country, thanks to a very ambitious and comprehensive reforestation project that will fully compensate the investments of these projects. This is also aligned not just with carbon neutral. But with the ambition of being a positive -- carbon positive in our energy business, given the transformation of the energy matrix and that mainly today is constituted by hydraulic generation assets, which are a sustainable conventional and the nonconventional ones as wind sources and sources that I previously mentioned. So these are very 2 positive advancements in these businesses. And in concessions, we also want to highlight the announcement made publicly in reducing 68% of offer focus is 1 and 2, and 50% in Scope 3, which have been in the value chain for 2030, which led for these calls to be approved by an initiative that you know, that's known as SGT, science-based targets, that positions Odinsa as one of the first -- as the first company -- infrastructure company in obtaining this very important validation. The commitment, the global commitment of Grupo Argos is switching reductions of our reach is 1 and 2 in terms of greenhouse effect, the CO2 equivalent 46% in our specific emissions due to revenues and 37% in our specific -- in our absolute emissions for 2030. Equally, I would like to mention that as the result of an authentic commitment and the commitment and conviction of strengthening the communication with our different stakeholders. We wanted to share with you that we have made available for our shareholders and investors market agents that are interested in this topic, a digital brochure that's actually in our website that will allow you all which have interest a direct and simple access to the main environmental indicators, social indicators, corporate governance indicators for Grupo Argos under the global report initiatives. And the merger of the 2 initiatives, IRF and SASB that's known as Reporting Foundation. This 2 report frameworks are broadly used by global investors for measuring the advancements and challenges of leader corporations around the world in terms of sustainability. And we also want to announce and invite you to visit our sustainability team. They're completely open for you to help you out with this tool, but it's a very dynamic and transparent tool that will be available for you all. So in that same train of thought, we have published a micro site for climate change with a route that we have defined in front of the mitigation, compensation and [ retention ] processes and more specifically what has to do with the reduction of the equivalent of CO2. Finally, in this field, I want to share with you last week, we received the results of the Sustainability Dow Jones index, which consolidates this organization as a reference in each one of the industries that we participate, Grupo Argos and Cementos Argos are consolidated in the first and second place in global construction industry. Celsia came out as the most sustainable energy company in Colombia. And for those recognitions and further than being the leaders and being that 100 percentile with a higher -- with a percentage that's higher than 82% -- 82 points, sorry, more than that recognition, I want to highlight that this is the product of a strategy, of a corporate philosophy that is based in a respectful, acting -- a proactive business acting in order to drive a collective well being as we see -- as we do businesses in our different operations, where we participate for more than 90 years. We are proud truly being part of a business group. That's a reference in the world due to its economic value generation capacity, but also due to its strength and the capacity of the leading positive transformation in society in the environment in which its collaborators have the main competitive advantage. We're completely convinced that today, businesses can just guarantee their future cash flows. And in such way, the economic value, respecting and working in harmonious and coordinated manner with all its groups of interests, meaning by this, and to make this clear, the sustainability concepts just don't have individual value attending the different groups of interest environment, society or collaborators or vendors. The way -- these businesses are led towards the future. That's the lever that allows us for growing projections and cash flow projections that we could afterwards, discount financially in order to determine the present value of business is credible and can be carried out transactions that don't execute under this plan will not probably just be questioned about the feasibility of those projected cash flows to be a reality, but we'll also have a deep effect with part of the society. So for close, the results of -- 2021 results. We have a goal in terms of results that we shared with you in the previous quarter and that you could see on the screen, leveraging our associates and the results that we have already achieved up to this third quarter. And in the strengthening of the operational leverage that has been translated as a larger generation of cash flow and EBITDA. I would like to close by sharing and reassuring the profound vision that we have around optimism and drive that our team has that comes from those transformational investments of the Grupo Argos strategy in terms of the performance and resiliency that our business has proven in the commitment of more than 13,000 men and women in 18 countries where we have our presence. In the immense opportunities that we are identifying this economic reactivation process in order to participate as proven players, in the infrastructure sector, we have our investments, we also have the conviction over our responsibility as a reference business within the region and to share good practices, this [indiscernible] vision in order to develop businesses that generate value for the shareholders, for the investors, for the collaborators, for the value chains in order to construct and propose alternatives that lead to recover and strengthen the institutionality in private sector and keep on building prosperity in our country. Finally, and before moving on to our Q&A session, I want to make an explicit reference to the authorization request in order to go over and open operation for the Grupo [indiscernible] shares given that Grupo Argos has a very important participation. As we saw or knew about just Wednesday last week, when some announcements were published by the financial superintendency, I want to be clear on this. And the information we have is to only preliminary information is the same has been known by public. We don't have any additional information and was shared through a relevant mechanism of the financial superintendency ones. We heard about this request due to an information that was published in the Colombian Stock Exchange. And based on that, last Friday, the Board came together, broadly discussed this information and agreed on hiring necessary advisors in order to lead gross cut evaluation in not just the economic aspects or value aspects, projection aspects, but also legal aspects, also strategic alignment of an eventual offer, if it really happens. That analysis will be done with all the care and with all required debts in order to evaluate effects over the company that this might have. But besides overall, the groups of interest being coherent with the responsibility vision. And that will include strategic economic effects and the impacts these might have in other groups of interest. As we have always done in this company, following transparency principles and good government, good corporate government is focused in transforming the life of millions of people through our investments. I also want to share with you that the Board decided to concentrate in me as the organization president, the need for any public announcement that we might have in terms of this announcement. Today, we don't have more information than this. This is the reality in the measure that we have more information and we will act in a diligent manner in order to make a rigorous in-depth analysis, not emotional, but rational. And we will inform timely-wise at the market any relevant information through those established channels. So under that context and asking your comprehension, I'd like to start the Q&A session, hopefully focus on what you can consider, but mainly in the financial results, given that the confirmation of this process. But I obviously understand that has all types of comments and doubts are natural, obviously. But truth of the matter is that we need to be rigorous, we need to be careful, we need to be objective and very transparent in the way that we approach this. And the moment that we have a formal information, we will want to share you. Thank you for your time. We want to thank you for being with us. And let me give the word to Natalia so she can open the space for Q&A.

Thank you, Jorge. [Operator Instructions] We'll start with Riana Gila. She says good morning to you all. I have a question about airport concession business. Given the pandemic changed the way of working and companies saw the opportunity works pretty well, if you hope of Eldorado traffic will come back to 100% pre-COVID or do you believe that part of the passengers what was lost?

A very good question from the following optics. Our vision is not very different from the vision that different international airlines have. You might have access to specialized consultants and many others. It looked not just of the airport concession or the airports industry, but everything of the airport logistics centers. And there's 2 great trends that seem a common denominator in all the global analysis. First of all, the pandemic brought and will consolidate a larger propension of human beings to dedicate spaces, resources in an incremental manner over what was done previously from the pandemic around tourism, recreation, family contact, exploration, not just top related with the traditional vacations, but also experiences throughout the world. Human beings, dearly speaking, we will be investing more money, more time of our lives in those types of displays, But this is the first thing. This is the first time. So this will generate a growth, and this is leading to an accelerated growth and higher than the projection curve that we had during pre-COVID that we had for tourists and passengers, recreational passengers, family visits and these types of things. Second element is that it seems also a consensus, and this might be -- there might be differences here. That is -- that virtuality will have a hybrid effect in the business development in the long term. There are some meetings, the types of conversations will probably be replaced for virtuality. But there's also a consensus about the fact that in terms of sustainable growth assimilating better practices, the face-to-face time will always be there anyway. So in order to surround this, we have 2 great trends, accelerated growth one in terms of tourism and displacement, but -- and next one with businesses. It's also worth to mention that our calculations is that under the combination of both, we will have a growth that's higher of what we had before. Obviously, I'll give the word to Mauricio Ossa with us for him to complement this vision with the data that is being generated through our asset consolidation. Mauricio?

Well, thank you, Jorge Mario. Good morning to you all. Thank you for your question. In addition to what had been previously mentioned by Jorge in terms of the trends, mega trends that are being consolidated and by which there's a consensus, the answer, the concrete answer is if there's going to be a recovery according to those 100% forecast in terms of passenger, that recovery will happen in the short term. We estimate that we should be reaching for the end of 2022, both for national and international passengers. Proof of this, and just to give numbers since November, but this is happening consistently every single day, the recovery of passengers in domestic flights is over 90%, in international flights with some destinations that have few constraints. But besides this, there has been a growth of 40% between October and November in terms of recovery. We're estimating that we end 2021 with close to 90% of national passengers being recovered and figures close to 78 -- 75% to 80% of international ones. If this really happens, if this happens, knowing that December and January are the most -- with the most activity, this is confirmed, we would be reaching for 2022 100% of the traffic that we had in 2019.

Thank you. Rodrigo Sanchez has also questions related with Odinsa. He's asking closing expectations, if the transaction with Macquarie will keep on for first quarter 2022 considering the call that would might be done. Mauricio, if you were to follow this. Maybe you could speak about the authorization not just in terms of financial results, but also group branches in terms of the authorities of each one of the fronts.

Well, thank you, Rodrigo. This -- on the schedule that we had established with the advisor group and with Macquarie, we had contemplated that in the case -- in this case, we'll go over the third round. So this is not a supplier within the estimation that we have, the estimation that we have, that we want to close around September next year, as you asked. In terms of the risk objectives that we need to develop, as Jorge Mario mentioned, financial industry authorizations of [indiscernible] the authorizations of the different organization in each one of the concessions to improve for us to make the movement. This is complying with the schedule. It has been without no delays. We are complying the follow up activities that we have proposed. Until the moment, we don't see something that doesn't have to do with paper work or the formal time paperwork takes first to be ready at the end of February 2022.