Loma Negra Compañía Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anónima (LOMA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the Loma Negra Third Quarter 2021 Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Also, Mr. Sergio Faifman will be responding in Spanish, immediately following an English translation. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to conference over to Mr. Diego Jalon, Head of IR. Please, Diego, go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Loma Negra's Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. By now, everyone should have access to our earnings press release and the presentation for today's call, both of which were distributed yesterday after market close. Joining me on the call this morning will be Sergio Faifman, our CEO and Vice President of the Board of Directors; and our CFO, Marcos Gradin. Both of them will be available for the Q&A session. Before I turn the call over to Sergio, I would like to make the following safe harbor statements. Today's call will contain forward-looking statements and I refer you to the forward-looking statements section of our earnings release and recent filings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new or changed events or circumstances. This conference call will also include discussion on non-GAAP financial measures. The full reconciliation to the corresponding financial measures is included in the earnings press release. Now I would like to turn the call over to Sergio.

Thank you, Diego. Hello, everyone, and thank you for showing up today. As usual, I'm going to mention a few highlights of the third quarter, and then Marcos will lead you through our market review and financial results. After that, I will provide some final remark and then we will open the call to your questions. As you could see from our release yesterday, we are pleased to share our third quarter results where we observed solid demand in high historic figures, as we keep our core business margin at world-class level. Going -- core starts the strong momentum experienced in Cement sales since the start of the COVID in mid-2020, has reached level most equivalent of the tools seen in record industry years. Our high efficient production standard enabled us to deliver another robust quarter despite the impact of the normalization of operations and the subsequent effect of regular seasonality maintained cost and the higher energy input in our adjusted EBITDA margins. Despite these effects, when measured in U.S. dollar, our adjustment EBITDA increased to $51 million from $48 million in third quarter 2020, even improving the result from last quarter, keeping the U.S. dollar per ton above $30. Finally, regarding the expansion project of L´Amalí, we are delivering Cement to the market and already seen promising results from the first production budget. We expect to show its benefits in the coming quarters. I will now hand off the call to Marcos Gradin, who will review through our market review and financial results. Please, Marcos, go ahead.

Thank you, Sergio. Good day, everyone. As you can see on Slide 4, leaving behind the key drops of GDP in 2020, we saw a sharp recovery in the second quarter and an improvement in 2021 GDP estimated growth reaching 8.3%. Construction activity measured by the ISAC also had a strong performance in recent months, starting to present a more moderate growth, as third quarter 2020 showed a start of the post-pandemic recovery. Regarding Cement national industry health, they have kept on growing strongly, even above our previous expectation. Consolidated in high figures with 10 months accumulated volumes almost reaching industry's year record, less than 1% down from the same period of 2017. Although we do not see large private infrastructure project, bulk has recovered mostly on the back of smaller projects. So when breaking down the consumption by dispatch mode, we observed figures in line with historical pre-pandemic average. Certainly, the economy, as a whole, still faces different challenges, particularly on the macroeconomic outlook that may impact our future growth expectations. Turning on to Slide 5 for a review of our topline performance by segment. Consolidated revenues increased year-on-year by 8.5%, mainly reflecting the continued recovery of the other segments, more affected by the pandemic restriction and the growth of our core Cement business. Cement, masonry and lime segment was up 2.4%, with volumes expanding 8.4%, with softer pricing dynamic. Concrete and Aggregates showed sharp revenue recovery of 117% and 47% year-on-year, respectively. As we mentioned before, these segments suffer more deeply the effects of the pandemic restrictions. In the case of Concrete, volume expansion of 111% was underpinned by a positive pricing recovery performance. Regarding Aggregates, the segment volume was up 7.2%, boosted by a recovery in pricing and a positive pricing mix. Finally, Railroad revenues increased by 25.4% in this quarter versus the same quarter in 2020. As the higher transported volumes were coupled with a good pricing performance and a positive product mix. Moving on to Slide 7. Consolidated gross profit for the quarter slightly declined 0.1% year-on-year with margin contracted by 222 basis points, mainly impacted by the normalization of seasonality costs and higher energy inputs. Segment gross margin contracted by 577 basis points from 35.5% to 29.8%, with the comparison affected by regular add-on maintenance costs this quarter against the third quarter of 2020 with a maintenance schedule affected by the pandemic restriction. We also experienced some pressure from seasonal energy charges as winter production in 2020 was abnormally low due to the sharp drop in the month of last year. For the next year, the brand new line built in L´Amalí plant will give us the flexibility to maximize production out of the winter months, avoiding higher energy charges. SG&A expenses as a percentage of revenues remained almost flat, decreasing by 5 basis points to 7.6% from 7.7%, mainly due to cost dilution from higher sales volume. Please turn to Slide 8. Our adjusted EBITDA was down 9.1% in the quarter, reaching ARS 4.7 billion, with consolidated EBITDA margin contracted by 512 basis points to 26.4%, mainly explained by a lower segment adjusted EBITDA and the impact of the recovery of the other segments, which as they have lower margins contributed negatively to the consolidated margin. On a 9-month basis, adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 55 basis points to 30.7%. When measured in U.S. dollars, our third quarter EBITDA reached $51 million, up 6.5% from $48 million in the same quarter a year ago and sequentially. Cement segment adjusted EBITDA margin contracted by 484 basis points to 29.5%, mainly due to the impact of regular seasonality, maintenance and winter energy costs, coupled by a softer pricing dynamic, partially offset by the increase in sales volume. On a per ton basis, EBITDA remains at a top notch level of $30. Concrete adjusted EBITDA increased ARS 42 million compared to third quarter '20, explained by the recovery in sales volume and a positive brand performance, yet margins remained at negative 4.0%. Aggregate adjusted EBITDA improved sharply from negative ARS 64 million in third quarter '20 to ARS 1 million in third quarter '21, with margin of 0.3% as better pricing mix and volumes at weighted cost increase. Finally, Railroad adjusted EBITDA improved ARS 34 million to ARS 110 million for the quarter, with margin expansion from 6.3% to 7.3%, mainly explained by higher transported volume, positive product mix and good pricing performance. Moving on to the bottom line on Slide 10. Our profit before tax stood at ARS 2.6 billion with a comparison to third quarter '20 affected by an extraordinary result in such quarter. Total final cost stood at ARS 0.3 billion in third quarter '21 compared to a net gain of ARS 3.1 billion in third quarter '20 due to an extraordinary result in foreign exchange gain of ARS 3.1 billion during that quarter. Gain on net monetary position was ARS 0.3 billion in third quarter '21 compared to ARS 0.2 billion in third quarter '20. As a result, our net final expense increased by ARS 79 million to ARS 0.3 million compared to the same quarter of last year, driven by lower FX depreciation effect compared to the evolution of inflation rate. Finally, during the quarter, we recognized a noncash impairment of Sierras Bayas asset facility of ARS 131 million due to its obsolescence and the future higher efficient production scheme of Loma. Moving on to the balance sheet. As you can see on Slide 11, we ended the quarter with a cash position of ARS 4.3 billion and a total debt of ARS 4.0 billion. Consequently, our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio stood at minus 0.02x compared to 0.16x at the end of 2020. In third quarter '21, we reduced our debt in USD 16 million, standing at $40 million, 83% of which is denominated in U.S. dollars. Additionally, as we continue with our third share repurchase program, we acquired a share for a total amount of ARS 600 million in the quarter. Our operating cash generation stood at ARS 5.4 billion with a positive seasonal working capital effect. Regarding capital expenditures, we spent ARS 1.5 billion, 36% of which were dedicated to L´Amalí expansion project. As a second line it's already delivering in Cement, the capital requirements are almost completed. Now for our final remarks, I would like to hand the call back to Sergio.

Thank you, Marcos. Now to finalize the presentation, I please ask you to turn to Slide 13. To wrap up, I would like to highlight the strong evolution of the Cement demand, with accumulated volume, until October, almost reaching industry record. Even though, we expect this trend to continue in the forthcoming quarter, we remain caution through the medium term, as Argentine face macroeconomic and political challenges that could affect the evolution of the economic activity. Regarding our new line at L´Amalí, we are glad about the advance in the project, as we are already delivering Cement to the market. We are enthusiastic with the preliminary results and expect to start seeing the operational efficiency and economic benefit in future quarters. Furthermore, this additional capacity will allow us to minimize production in winter, avoiding the seasonality higher energy inputs and also reducing the need of solid fuel that lead to a more environmental-friendly energy metrics. Natural gas will remain our main source of thermal energy, giving us flexibility and avoiding the hike in pet coke international price. We continue to work, analyzing alternatives through the near future to support a system of growth path for Loma Negra, underpinned by our highly efficient operation, a standard and solid capital structure. Last but not least, I would like to thank all our people and stakeholders for the commitment to Loma Negra operational excellence without whom the set of solid results would have been much harder to achieve. We are now ready to take your questions. Operator, please open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Please note that Mr. Sergio Faifman will be responding in Spanish immediately following an English translation. [Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Alejandra Obregon with Morgan Stanley.

Congratulations on the results. I have 2 questions. I'll ask the first. I was just wondering if you can comment, please, on the different trends you're seeing across the different verticals, residential, infrastructure, formal and informal housing? If you can help us understand how that's developing as we go into 2022?

Alejandra, thank you for the questions. [Interpreted] So regarding the trends for next year, we are observing similar levels with moderate growth. In the last few months, we had observed some announces regarding infrastructure projects, which did not started yet. So for the -- therefore, for the next month, we are optimistic regarding the housing demand, residential demand. And to start some infrastructure projects, which has been approved to start ramping up in the next period.

That was very clear. I have another question, if I may. And this one is regarding the Olavarría quarry. I was just wondering if you can comment on whether the quarry is supplying limestone normally to Loma Negra? And if you have seen any stop of supply over materials in the area or whether this is just operating at normal capacity?

[Interpreted] So the conflict in Olavarría with Loma was through our -- supplier of ours. It was regarding a small difference of criteria, which has been solved already. So it's not illogical to foresee similar conflicts, but the company is prepared to deal with this kind of complex. So we decided the stop of our production for around 3 days. We did not have any other impact in the Olavarría plant.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, there are no further questions. So this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Diego Jalon for closing remarks.

Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your participation and interest in our company. We look forward to meeting you again in our next call, the coming quarter. In the meantime, the team remains available to any questions that you may have. Thank you.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.