Interconexión Eléctrica S.A. E.S.P. (ISA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. I am Mateo Ochoa, and I'm part of the Investment Relations team at ISA. I want to thank everybody for being with us for this conference in which we'll show the results for the second quarter of ISA and its companies. Throughout the presentation, you can ask your questions through the screen that you can see on the right side of the part of the -- on the right part of your screens. You can write your name and organization. And at the end of the event, we'll answer your questions. Today, we have with us Gabriel Melguizo, he is the interim CEO of ISA; Jaime Falquez, VP of Corporate Finance; Patricia Castaño, Corporate Strategy VP; and Sebastián Castañeda, Growth and Business Development VP. We'll begin with the relevant facts for the second quarter, as explained by Gabriel Melguizo and then Jaime Falquez will inform about the financial results. Finally, Gabriel will provide some closing messages and we'll move on to the Q&A. Let's move on to the next slide, and Gabriel will take the floor.

Thank you so much, Mateo. First of all, good morning, everybody. It's my pleasure to say hello to you, and thank you so much for being here. Let's move on to the next slide. As you know, the ISA2030 strategy is based on 3 pillars for generation of sustainable value. On the first dimension, our responsibility is to create value for our shareholders. And that being the case, we maintain our commitment through solid results and implementing projects that will increase our assets and income and the continued search for new bids. As of the end of June, we have 39 projects in construction, which will be -- when powered will add approximately COP 1.8 trillion to our annual revenue, once again, COP 1.8 trillion. The net income for the quarter, and we're talking about the second quarter of 2024, is COP 708 billion. This represents an increase of 2% compared to 2023. For the first 6 months of the year, the net income goes up to COP 1.3 trillion. Our return on average equity for the end of June 2024 is at 14%. According to our last dividend that we decreed, we've made 2 of the 3 decreed payments with a value of COP 370 per share for each payment, which adds to about COP 820 billion. Within our second dimension of our strategy, which is creating a social -- a positive social environmental impact, we got third place in terms of sustainability as a leading company in the ALAS20 and they recognized our social programs in relation to interest groups, servicing concerns, needs and expectations of our audience and our management of risks and value creation for sustainable development. Likewise, in this dimension and supported by the Jaguar Conexión program, we started a new project for the keeping or conservation of more than 40,000 hectares in the Amazon in the Acre state in Brazil. And with this, we'll be reaching a total of 424,000 conserved hectares with the benefits of the Jaguar program. And we'll move on to the third dimension, which aims to ensure corporate oversight. And here, I want to highlight that in this second quarter of 2024, we were able to connect cellular projects, cellphone projects with electrical substations. And likewise, I want to highlight that we closed this second, third quarter of the year with a backlog to execute for 2030 around COP 28 trillion. This is a backlog in bids for the order of COP 28 trillion. At ISA, we understand that the responsible implementation of investment commitments is key to ensure sustainability and growth of income in the long term. Thus, our goal is to maximize return on investment by aligning ourselves with sustainable development goals and the goals of our audiences. Let's move on to the next slide, please. At ISA, we keep strengthening our capacity of the grid of electrical transmission by increasing the capacity of transmission. And for the second quarter, I want to highlight a few things. For instance, in Colombia, the [ Caño Limon ] substation, we connected a transforming part which allows for greater transmission of the oil wells that we have in those regions. And this has been done with clean energy, which has a positive effect on the environment and decarbonization as well. In Peru, we included the broadening for the tension change in [indiscernible] in Chile, broadening of the electrical network began its operations with the installation of power switches in these different substations. And we also had 13 reinforcements for the ISA CTEEP network in Brazil. All these new powered projects represented investments of around COP 141 billion, and they'll result in around COP 20.5 billion in annual revenue. And while we sign, the screen doesn't correspond to the 13 reinforcements in Brazil, which had an executive CapEx of about $16.5 million. Let's go to the next slide. For the second quarter of 2024, COP 1.1 trillion in investments were carried out, a similar number compared to the same quarter in 2023, and the CapEx was distributed as follows: Colombia represented 19% of total of executed investments for ISA in the second -- in this quarter. We made progress in the construction of connection and UPME projects, including 5 projects that enabled renewable energy sources in the country. Brazil represented 48% with investments of 191 reinforcements in the transmission grid and 7 projects bidded for Chile represented 25% of investments, where in terms of energy transmission, we made progress in the construction of 4 increases in the grids of ISA INTERCHILE and the new substation in Nueva Lagunas. In terms of roads, we made progress with several works in these different routes. And yesterday, July 31, the Ruta del Loa began formally its operations and a project that we were carrying out. This is a project that we were carrying out in Chile and it began operations yesterday. Peru represented 6% of investments, which corresponds to reinforcements and broadening of associated substations and construction projects. In terms of companies controlled by ISA, right now, we're making progress in the construction of 39 projects. Energy transmission projects will add close to 5,700 kilometers of lines. And in terms of roads, we have 407 kilometers, including 246 kilometers for the improvement and maintaining of the Eastern Pan-American road. Once this works going to operation, they'll turn -- they'll create annual revenue of about COP 1.8 trillion. With the executed investments in the quarter, the backlog of committed investments for the next 6 years closed at COP 28 trillion. In the second quarter, we added projects to our growth process. In Colombia, we signed 2 private contracts for the connection of solar energy due to power 1, 2 and 3 and the broadening of the Atlantic photovoltaic substation in Brazil. ISA CTEEP got -- won the bids for 24 reinforcements with the CapEx at around BRL 705 billion. In terms of roads, we gathered supreme decree issued by the Ministry of Public Works of Chile, which means that we'll be able to build and operate the south arbitral route, which will enable mobility in one of the main exits of the Chilean capital. As you can see at ISA, we continue to expand our business with the -- with all these new projects that we're adding to our investment portfolio. Before we move on to the financial section, I want to introduce the person that will be with us for this section, Mr. Jaime Falquez. As you know, he is the interim Corporate Finance VP who was the Director of Financial Resources at ISA from 2011. Jaime is an industrial engineer, graduated from the University of del Norte in Barranquilla. He has a master's degree in business management from the same university. And he has more than 20 years of experience in management, corporate finance in different geographies and different companies, which include ISA. Let's move on to the next slide, and I'll give the floor to Mr. Falquez.

Gabriel, thank you so much. It's an honor for me to be with you today to present ISA's results for the second quarter of 2024. The most important message for these results is they continue to have a solid performance in each of our geographies, which are coherent with the strategy of our company. In terms of EBITDA, it was COP 2.2 trillion for the second quarter and that represents a 7% increase compared to the same period last year, not taking into account the exchange effect. And this is mainly due to 2 effects, which is the starting of operations of 3 projects and the reinforcements that we had in Brazil as well as some contractual improvements and the results of the controlled companies. It's important to underscore that the strengthening of the Colombian peso versus the dollar and other currencies in the region has seen the financial numbers reduced once they're consolidated to Colombian pesos. At the accrued level, EBITDA reached COP 4.5 trillion, increasing 1%, not taking into account the exchange effect, thanks to the new projects that began operations. And once we considered the conversion or exchange effect, as we can see at the graph, the accrued EBITDA decreases 12%. So let's move on to the next slide. Let's talk about net income. The net income for the second quarter went up to COP 708 billion representing an increase of 2% against the prior year and 19% if we exclude the conversion effect. The income was benefited from that -- or benefited from back-weighted EBITDA that we saw on the previous slide and financial expenses that were decreased by the exchange difference for the debt in Brazil and Chile. Year-to-date, net income at ISA closing COP 1.3 trillion, representing an increase of 3%. This is due to the projects that began operations in July 2023 and which are generating new income. As you remember, in following up with the presentations of -- the last presentations we had from the last quarter of last year, we are including in the management report the calculation of adjusted EBITDA, aiming to ease understanding of ISA's business and having a measure that is closer to the operational generation of cash flow. Here, we're presenting a summary of our accrued EBITDA in the segments of energy transmission and roads, which are the ones that impacted the most results, both IFRS and compared to adjusted EBITDA. Year-to-date, EBITDA under IFRS regulations for the segment of Energy Transmission, as it was explained earlier, was COP 3.8 trillion, which if we exclude the conversion effect reflects an increase of 3%. EBITDA benefited from a greater operational income given the new projects and the effect of the scalers for the contracts as we explained earlier. Here, we have adjusted EBITDA for the transmission -- energy transmission as well for the same period, where if we exclude the conversion effect, the indicator shows an increase of 19%. And here, we can see how it grows 3% when we exclude the conversion effect, but adjusted for 14%, and this is mainly due to an increase in cash operations flow and also the scalers and also what we saw in CPT, but also the termination of the application of the lower charges that we saw for 2026. In terms of roads, here we can see in the lower part of the slide that we're seeing, we can see that EBITDA in IFRS shows a decrease, explained mainly by the valuation of the Colombian peso against the Chilean peso and lower return for the financial asset. These impacts were compensated partially with the adjustment for the nonchargeable provision at Maipo. In the lower part, we have that same analysis, but with the adjusted EBITDA with -- which without the conversion effect, shows an increase of 12% compared to the same semester of the prior year. Here, under IFRS regulations, we don't include the conversion effect, there's a decrease of 5%. When we adjusted, we have an increase of 12%. And this is mainly due to the income or the increase thereof in terms of the prepaids received by the Ministry of Public Works in Chile, the greatest -- the greater collection of roads, trips that were complementary in that same country. In conclusion, as we can see, the adjusted numbers here show a solid performance for each of our business lines. In this comparative slide of the main numbers and indicators in terms of IFRS and adjusted, even though with IFRS, income goes down 10%, the operational reality of the business reflects an adjusted P&G for the same period. A similar behavior is observed with EBITDA, which goes down 12% in IFRS. Nonetheless, just the numbers show an increase of 2%. Finally, I'd like to underscore the EBITDA margin of 63% in IFRS, while in the adjusted EBITDA reflects a margin of 78%. The year-on-year variations for the adjusted indicators reflect a healthy situation in terms of cash flow to keep growing and executing our investment commitments. In this slide, we present the movements in terms of debt and financing. We see healthy levels of debt. As of the end of June of 2024, the debt balance was COP 33 trillion, which reflects an increase of 6% compared to 2023. This increase is explained in the following way: 3% due to the valuation of the Colombian peso against the dollar and 3% due to the financing of our investment plan. The movements in terms of the debt balance shows due to net effects of amortizations and disbursements of bonds and financial obligations for COP 922 billion and a conversion effect of COP 900 billion -- and with the conversion effect, COP 929 billion. The main debt movements were in Brazil, the issuance of debentures for COP 1.7 trillion in ISA CTEEP in Peru. We also got the disbursement for COP 30 million for the investment plan. In Colombia, the issuance of bonds in the local market for COP 400 billion, and this was last June. We got good signs from the market. In Chile, we had variations corresponding mainly to the disbursements received in the Ruta del Loa for the execution of the project that just began operations recently. Net of amortization of the Ruta del Maipo bond for the second quarter of the year, the consolidated debt portfolio in ISA has an average life of 9.5 years, which is in line with the profile of this biddings in ISA's business. We highlight that over EBITDA, which closed 3.7x, which is greater than last year's 3.4x. And this is due to the support we've given to our investment plan. And this indicator is within the levels suggested by rating companies for other companies rating, which allows us to keep financial flexibility and to continue our growth strategy. With this information, we finished this chapter on financial results, and I give the floor to Mr. Melguizo for some closing messages.

Thank you so much, Jaime. So let's provide some closing statements to finish this first part and to move on to the Q&A. First of all, we would like to aim to make emphasis on the fact that we're focused on the effective execution of our investment commitments. We said that as of now, we have a backlog of COP 28 trillion for the next 6 years, which will generate a sustainable income and returns, which align our decisions with the strategic objectives and expectations of our interest of stakeholders. In different geographies, our businesses continue to grow supported by the operations of new projects and the contractual scalers. We kept a level of stable returns, highlighting return over equity at 14% -- or return on average equity at 14%. We added new victories to our portfolio in this commitment to enable an energy transition. We have a solid balance and financial flexibility to leverage growth with debt indicators within the reference levels or benchmarks from rating companies. And we're committed to the generation of value to our shareholders. As of date -- as of now, we carried out the second payment of dividends for a total accumulated of COP 820 billion. Thank you so much again for your attendance, and we will give the floor to the Q&A.

So let's begin our Q&A session. We have several comments. So let's begin with the first question, and this is general. I'm going to summarize [ Florencia and Felipe's ] comments. They want to know about the election of the new CEO in terms of the selection of the new CEO. I would like to thank Gabriel if he can help us with this answer.

Who made the question again?

Of course, Florencia and Andres Felipe. Florencia is an investor of MetLife and [ Andres Felipe ] is a shareholder.

Thank you so much, Mateo. Florencia and [ Andres Felipe ], thank you so much for your question. The answer is for everybody, of course. The CEO election process is supported completely by the corporate government of ISA. So the process is the responsibility of the Board of Directors of ISA with the support of a specialized firm in the search for high-level executives. This is [indiscernible], the name of the company, and this is a well-positioned company for all companies at the international level. This process is taking as long as it should take, and we're sure that the Board of Directors comprise of 9 members of the highest level of the professional level will reach the best decision in terms of the future CEO of ISA. In the meantime, here at ISA, we continue, like you saw in the results, carrying out and materializing our strategy. We have a strategy that is solid with important investments. We have working teams that know what they're doing. Right now, I am the Interim CEO and have a team that has been in ISA for many years and in other companies that are of the highest caliber. And that's why we're sure that ISA will keep along spot with the support of the Board of Directors and with its 5,000 employees in all geographies. That's the answer, Florencia and [ Andres Felipe ], and thank you so much for your question again.

Thank you so much, Gabriel. Let's move on to the second question from Florencia, and it's regarding an update about the rumors, the CREG would want to change the indexation of charges or tariffs in Colombia.

Thank you, Mateo. I'll take the question. The CREG, the indexer is needed. So the CREG issued on July 16, a resolution project where they made an index or proposal. We are carrying out an impact analysis and the pertinence of these indicators, and we'll provide an answer in August within the time frame allowed for comments, and we're very much focused on analyzing the impact and the best alternatives for an indexer that truly gathers the cost variations for energy transmission companies. So we're making progress, and we hope that with the support of all the different groups of institutions, we'll be able to develop a proper indexing proposal. Thank you, Florencia, for your question.

Thank you, Florencia and Gabriel. Let's move on to our next question by Ana Maria, where she asks, if looking at the decrease observed in financial expenses, she would like to ask what's the debt cost of the company. Maybe Jaime Falquez can help us with this answer.

Ana Maria, thank you for your question. In general terms, as was presented at the consolidated level and taking into account the portfolio of debt that we have of COP 33 trillion with an average life of 9.5 years, a consolidated analysis and forecasted analysis would tell us that our debt is close to the 7% in dollars for that medium life. Of course, our average life. Of course, we're making debt in reals, from Brazil, Colombian pesos and so on, but it's a good pricing nonetheless for comparing reasons.

Perfect, Jaime. Thank you so much. Another question. [ Andres ] asks if you expect in what's left of the year having more operations for debt management. Maybe Jaime can help us with this answer as well.

[ Andres ], thank you so much for the question. Yes, at ISA, we are always carrying out the management of our liabilities, making sure that we have competitive conditions that allow us to have a cost of capital that is actually efficient, looking at the long term. This year, we carried out an operation in Colombia, and we are assessing other potential operations, which could be in Colombia as well. And we're always talking. We don't have another one in the landscape, in particular. We have a company in Colombia that we're assessing and this depends on market conditions, but that's what I can share with you as of now.

Thank you so much, Jaime. Another question from Florencia from MetLife. And they're asking if leverage is calculated with what type of EBITDA, it's adjusted or under IFRS?

Yes, Mateo. Thanks again, Florencia. We use IFRS actually. And that's how the rating agencies measure us based on income, minus IOM, taking the net effect for construction and incorporating what we gather from the RS. It's an EBITDA that with IFRS, we have some adjustments that could not be cash flow related, but the concrete answer is that we start with IFRS.

Thank you, Jaime. Allow me a moment to see the questions we have. So just one moment, please, to look at these questions. All right. So let's ask one more question regarding whether ISA would be interested or not in acquiring the [indiscernible] Package.

Thank you, Mateo. The Eletrobras is carrying out some investments in CTP shares. ISA has a controlling share with the shares we have right now, and we're not considering right now increasing our share.

Thanks, Sebastián. One more question, where [ Andres ] asks the model of without transition, there's no transmission. How much is it understood by the Colombian government? And what's the outlook in terms of how the Colombian government relates to this transition?

Thank you for the question. I think that in general, this role of transmission for transition is not something we're doing at ISA, but something that is being done and considered by all companies and countries around the world. Everyone understands the importance of transmission. In the case of Colombia, the UPME recently published its vision regarding what they referred to as the transmission vision, where they are updating the system and declaring on the 4 dimensions a series of solutions that should start answering the structural needs of the system. Within those dimensions, we have some urgent works that given the needs, they will not be very -- in a very -- they're not happening in a very expedited way, and we have another approved plan for 2022, but they highlight the actions carried out on the one hand to formulate and issue which it should by December of this year, the expansion plan and a fourth dimension that has to do with the modernization plan of the system. And this is completely aligned with the vision we've had and with the work we've been carrying out with them, trying to boost that transmission solution to introduce the flexibility required by the grid. So we're seeing a positive response from UPME in terms of this need of transmission.

Thank you, [ Andres ], for your answer. And we have a question from [ Simon Diaz Lopez ]. Given the impact of currency exchange variation, have you contemplated strategies for currency hedging? Or are they not necessary? Maybe Jaime can provide a good answer. Thank you.

Thanks again for the question. I think it allows us to strengthen the message that we keep a natural hedge for each of the geographies and countries that we have a presence where the functional currency, the debt, the income is in the same currency. So for instance, in Brazil, we have debt in reals, income in reals. So the exchange rate is mitigated and the resources needed to service our needs are insured and they're not exposed to currency risks. But as you understand, in given regulations, we got to report everything in Colombian pesos for Peru, Chile and Brazil to Colombian pesos. And here's where we see an effect from one period to the next, depending on the appreciation or depreciation of the Colombian peso, which can show a variation as it is expressed. But for each of its original currencies and businesses, the results are not volatile, and they're growing based on the expectations of the business.

Thank you, Jaime. And with this question, we'll close our conference for this result sharing for the second quarter of the year, and we thank everyone for being with us today. Thank you so much, and have a good day. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]