Motiva Infraestrutura de Mobilidade S.A. (MOTV3) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for holding. Welcome to the CCR S.A. conference call to discuss results regarding Q1 of 2022. [Operator Instructions] Before we proceed, we would like to clarify that any statements that may be made during this conference call regarding the company's business perspectives, forecasts and operation and financial goals are based on beliefs and assumptions of CCR's management as well as on information currently available to the company. Forward-looking considerations are not performance guarantees. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions as they refer to future events, and therefore, they depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could have an impact on the company's future results and might lead to results that materially differ from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I would now like to give the floor to Mr. Waldo Perez, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. Please, you may proceed.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for participating in this conference to present Q1 '22 results. I would like to inform you that we have today with us Flavia Godoy, our IR Superintendent; Douglas Ribeiro, Caue Esteves and Caique Moraes, also from our Investor Relations team. The year of 2021 was full of achievements that generated significant value for the company and allowed us to move forward in consolidating our long-term strategy. In Q1 '22, we continued to create value for our shareholders. We entered into a contractual instruments providing the acquisition by mass of all shares and [ quick call ]. According to the announcement disclosed by the company, this operation was concluded on April 11, 2022. This week, we announced the sale of Total Airport Services, or TAS. It was sold to Alliance Ground International. This will represent the departure of the CCR Group from the North American market. This move is in line with the company's strategic focus, as well to -- as well as our capital allocation strategy. Another important achievement was the signing of the addendum terms #5 and 6 between the VLT Carioca or the light rail transit system and the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. The purpose of Addendum #5 was to include in the scope of the agreement the implementation, operation and maintenance of the integration terminal called Terminal Intermodal Gentileza or TIG, that's the acronym. And also the extension of the VLT system or the light rail transit system in Rio from Rua do Equador to the area of the gasometer, where the TIG will be implemented. This enables the integration between BRT Transbrasil, the light rail transit system in Rio de Janeiro and the bus system. Addendum #6 implemented the economic financial rebalancing of this concession agreement. On June 29, 2021, we also signed the final agreement aimed at establishing the final amounts calculated from the calculations performed by our test to each of the economic financial imbalances of the contracts that are the subject of the final agreement. They were acknowledged irrevocably and irreversibly in the preliminary agreement. It also disciplines the responsibility of the parties and our test regarding the necessary measures for the termination of the claims that are in the final agreement, recognizing the remaining balance of the imbalance in favor of AutoBAn and also, the goal of promoting economic financial rebalancing by extending the term of validity of the AutoBAn concession agreement by 3,911 days with a term that will land on December 31, 2037. With the signing of the final agreement, the parties then granted reciprocal waiver in relation to any current or future claims or disputes, which have their objectives, the events of economic and financial imbalance effectively rebalanced by the preliminary and the final agreements. That same date, Amendment #25 was signed with ViaOeste would establish the addition of new investments referring to the new access to the municipality of Osasco in the state of São Paulo and also on the works of the marginals of highway SP-280 between kilometers 23 and 32. The economic financial rebalancing will be implemented by means of an extension of 380 days in the term of the ViaOeste concession agreement. We were victorious in several projects in '21 and the results were partially consolidated in Q1 '22. We concluded important rebalancings, which required a long period of discussions and brought us even more legal certainty to continue implementing our growth strategy. Now, I'd like to talk a little bit about the recovery movement. This is a path that remains as demonstrated in most recent data. When we compare the data on the same basis, it is worth highlighting the airport sector, which presented strong growth of 81.8% in passenger numbers in Q1 '22 when compared to the same period of last year. For that same period, the volume of passengers transported in our urban mobility projects showed a significant growth of 39.7%. Another positive news is that the vehicle traffic in our highways grew by 6.2% this quarter. On May 10, we reported our monthly performance for April 2022. When compared to the same period of last year, this grew by 11.7%, 108.2% and 141.8%, respectively, for highways, urban mobility and airports. This data corroborates the path of recovery and growth of our portfolio. Our financial position remain solid, and there is plenty of room to leverage new opportunities, which is at the heart of our strategy. We finished this quarter with a sound cash position and we presented a leverage measured by the net debt/EBITDA ratio of 1.8x, a level which is below the 3x observed in Q4 '21. This EBITDA already takes into account the costs of Lines 8 and 9 in airports, the South and Central blocks. These projects contributed to partial cash generation in Q1 '22. We continue with an active management of our debt levels. We finished Q1 '22 with BRL 3.8 billion in addition to an operation of $130 million including funding and refinancing, the vast majority of which began in Q4 '21. In 2021, we started anticipating several refinancing processes for 2022, and we have been able to complete with great success. The goal is to optimize our debt management and also to increase the duration of our debt. Regarding dividends, we remain and will remain to act diligently in managing our cash. Dividends paid in December '21 and April '22, totaled BRL 330.4 million, representing a payout of 47.5% of 2021 results. We remain very optimistic regarding the opportunities ahead, and once again, I reinforce the extensive pipeline in all the models we operate in. In highways alone, we have the bidding or rebidding processes for 14 federal highways by 2023. In addition to the National Development Bank or BNDES package, that has more than 6,000 kilometers in length and other state programs, including CRT and Rodovias Integradas do Parana. Regarding state government projects in Minas Gerais, we have the Belo Horizonte beltway and 2 lots, the [indiscernible] and South of Minas. These are highway concession programs. On state highways in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, we have 850 kilometers of highway the public bidding process, and they are divided into 2 lots. As for state highways in São Paulo, we expect the publication of the request for proposals for the [indiscernible] lot and the Rodoanel Norte lot. In the airport sector, several public bidding processes are planned for 2022. The process of the seventh round of concession for federal airports is in progress. The auction is expected to take place in the third quarter of '22. In addition, the Brazilian Aviation Agency, or ANAC intends to rebid this year the airports of São Gonçalo do Amarante and Viracopos. For 2023, we have the eighth round of concessions for federal airports comprised by the Santos Dumont and Galeao airports in Rio de Janeiro. As for Urban Mobility in São Paulo, we have the bidding documents for a concession of Line 7 of the metropolitan train CPTM, together with the TIC of Campinas. We also have the concession of CBTU in Minas Gerais, which is the subway system for Belo Horizonte and other projects are under analysis, such as the subway in the federal district or Brasilia and the VLT also in Brasilia. Finally, I would like to point out that in March, we had our first ST Forum were the main objectives and results for the CCR Group were presented. In addition to the strategic sustainability objectives, 11 ESG KPIs are part of the composition of the executives' variable compensation, and they were drilled down to the company, enforcing our transparency and commitment to this agenda. Our ESG master plan is structured across our whole business. Finally, it is worth emphasizing that we continue to work in a structured manner to define clear medium term goals for these KPIs, as well as concrete action plans to achieve them. I would now like to give the floor to Mrs. Flávia Godoy, who will present more details of our Q1 '22 results.

Thank you, Waldo. Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to highlight the main IFRS figures for Q1 '22. For the same base numbers, we exclude new projects and nonrecurring effects as detailed in our earnings release. Let's start with the highlights for this quarter. We highlight the vehicle traffic, which grew by 5.6% versus Q1 '21. If we exclude traffic from vehicles data from RodoNorte, NovaDutra and Rio SP or Rio São Paulo, this growth was up 6.2%. This traffic performance on the same base was the result of a 10.6% growth in light vehicles compared to the same period of last year, and also to the 2.5% growth in heavy vehicle traffic versus the same period of last year. As a result, net revenue reached BRL 2.4 billion in Q1 '22, which represents an increase of 29.8% versus the same period of last year. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 30.7%, reaching BRL 1.4 billion. The adjusted EBITDA margin reached 60.4%, a growth of 0.5 percentage points when compared to Q1 '22. This sound result demonstrates CCR's efforts to control costs and to maintain the operational efficiency in a business which was mostly fixed costs and also in this pandemic environment, which had an impact in several business units. Now, taking a deep dive in costs. Total cost decreased by 3.9% in Q1 '22 versus Q1 '21, reaching BRL 1.8 billion. With the same base of comparison, cash costs totaled BRL 1.7 billion, an increase of 33%. This increase was mainly due to the impact of profit sharing in Q1 '22 with BRL 101 million when compared to an impact of BRL 20.4 million in Q1 '21, and also to receiving BRL 38 million in Q1 '21 related to the TAS CARES Act, something that was not repeated in Q1 '22. Same base net income was negative by BRL 89.3 million in Q1 '22 versus a positive result of BRL 204 million in Q1 '21. This negative result was mainly due to the increase in interest loans -- and interest rates for loans, financing and debentures as a result of the higher average annual CDI rate. There was an increase of 8.25 percentage points between these 2 periods, and also, due to the higher debt levels of the company. This is also due to nonrecurring effects of Aeris and MSVia. Excluding the nonrecurring effects of Aeris and MSVia, the result on a same basis would be a positive BRL 89 million. Regarding net debt, we reached BRL 20.9 billion in Q1 '22, which represents an increase of 0.4% and also a 54.3% when compared to Q4 '21 and Q1 '21, respectively. I would like to conclude by highlighting that in spite of the impact of the pandemic, which has a direct impact on our business, the company has been able to deliver sound operating results, as one can see, from a full analysis of our earnings release. We would now like to open for a Q&A session. Operator, please proceed.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Victor Mizusaki from Bradesco BBI.

Congrats on your results. I have 2 questions. First is regarding CCR's positioning regarding our asset portfolio. In recent months, we've seen CCR announcing the merger of [indiscernible] and [indiscernible] and also the selling of TAS. Does it make sense to monetize the investment? And also, regarding leveraging, second question. In Q1, we have some regulatory changes and the positive impact of new concessions, the ramp-up of new concessions. Could you comment a bit of CCR's leveraging, excluding this regulatory impact and looking at this full year for concessions?

Thank you, Victor. Regarding your first question, the CCR Group and its managers constantly review the assets portfolio based on our capital allocation strategy. Regarding Samm and any other asset that we own, we are always looking at opportunities where constantly are analyzing, bringing partners. We are constantly looking at assets, possibilities or looking at opportunities for this investment as well. Always focusing on reallocating our capital as to reach the highest possible returns for the company and shareholders. Regarding leveraging, we had considerable deleveraging based not just on results, but also based on the São Paulo agreement. If you exclude this impact, our leveraging levels would have finished in 3.3x, which is still a very comfortable figure below the cap established in our policies. As you know, we have a policy. We want -- we don't want to go over 3x unless this is approved by the Board. And unless we have a very clear strategy to go back below this level in a time frame of 24 months. So we still have a very sound position. And as I mentioned in my early comments, the impact of new concessions in terms of cash generation, this impact was still partial in Q1 because these concessions took place in February, March this year. So throughout the next few months, this impact will become more relevant as these concessions evolve through time.

[Operator Instructions] Next question comes from Guilherme Mendes, JPMorgan.

I have 2 follow-up questions. First, regarding projects. Waldo mentioned the future pipeline. What are you looking at closely? And also, my second question is regarding CapEx. We are looking at inflationary pressures around the world. Do you see any risk of a CapEx review moving forward?

Good afternoon, Guilherme, and thank you for your questions. Regarding our pipeline, the company is constantly looking at new opportunities, whether in the primary or secondary markets. Our time line for public bidding processes, whether that's in airports, urban mobility and highways, is a public knowledge. Next week, we will have the BRT for -- the bidding process, sorry, for CRT. So yes, we are looking carefully at all opportunities. We are currently focusing on Brazil and the 3 segments we operate in. And for each project, we always analyze a risk-return matrix. And we make our decisions based on this analysis and based on the discussions in our committees and work groups. And that's how we decide whether to move forward in the public bidding processes and how aggressive we will be. So yes, we are still looking carefully and always focusing on sustainable growth. Regarding CapEx, there is certainly a global inflation pressure going on. And the CapEx volume for 2022 is preserved. The company, since the second semester of 2020, where -- when we were already foreseen this inflation pressure, we designed several initiatives to control costs. So we had some midterm contracts that ensured prices and in different cases, we even acquired supplies directly from manufacturers. And now, we have 25 concessions. We have a central supply area, which leads to gains of scale. This is really helpful for us, of course. Regarding tarmac, we also internalized some services, such as the mixing of materials for our asphalt, in the melting process, we also have higher quantities of mill products to reduce costs, and we are constantly looking at engineering as to optimize our projects and therefore, reduce costs or investments. It is a challenge, but we are facing this challenge in a very sound manner.

[Operator Instructions] So we now finish our Q&A session. I would like to give the floor once again to Mr. Waldo Perez for his final remarks.

Thank you, operator. I would like to finalize by thanking everyone for joining this call and for your interest in our company. I once again highlight that our Investor Relations team is constantly available. See you soon. Thank you very much.