Plaza S.A. ($MALLPLAZA)

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Mallplaza's First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. Today with us are Pablo Pulido, CEO; Derek Tang, CFO, and Rodrigo Sirhan, Finance Manager. This presentation and the 1Q '26 earnings release are available on our Investor Relations website and will also be available for download in the chat. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to Rodrigo Sirhan. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, and welcome to Mallplaza's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. I'm Rodrigo Sirhan, Director of Finance and Investor Relations. Joining me today are Pablo Pulido, our CEO, and Derek Tang, our CFO. Before we discuss our first quarter 2026 results, please note that management may make or refer to forward-looking statements during this presentation relating to our company, its results, operations, expenses, strategy, potential restructurings and other similar matters. Such statements are based on assumptions and expectations of future events that are uncertain and contain risks. For further information on this please refer to the disclaimer displayed on the screen. Today's presentation will follow the following structure. First, we'll review our financial and operational performance during the first quarter. Next, we'll share key strategic milestones and progress on value creation initiatives, and lastly, we'll open floor to Q&A. During the first quarter, Mallplaza advanced in the execution of its growth strategy, highlighting the advancement in our investment plan, which currently totals more than USD 600 million and the optimization of our tenant mix towards high productivity format. Currently operating 2.36 million square meters of consolidated GLA, our management focus remains on elevating the value proposition of our urban centers and increasing our share of Tier A assets across the Andean region to ensure long-term value generation. With that, I will now turn it over to Derek, who will walk us through the details of the quarterly results.

Thank you, Rodrigo. During the first quarter, we maintained a resilient operational performance within a more stabilized assumption environment. Our results reflect sustained operating efficiency and healthy occupancy levels across our urban centers, even as several of our assets are temporarily intervened by our ongoing investment in transformation pipeline. Ultimately, this performance demonstrates the structural stability of our portfolio and our disciplined approach to strategic execution. Turning to our operational performance on Slide 5. Footfall across our urban centers reached 95.8 million visits, representing a 2.9% increase compared to the first quarter of 2025. This increase was supported by the optimization of our floor space offering and the performance of specific assets. For instance, Mallplaza Trujillo in Peru and Mallplaza Cali in Colombia grew by 20.7% and 19.3%, respectively. This traffic generated a 5.8% increase in tenant sales year-over-year, totaling CLP 1.6 trillion for the quarter. This result was supported by a 2.6% growth in same-store sales, demonstrating our capacity to maintain positive performance across our portfolio in a more stabilized consumption environment. At the asset level, top-performing urban centers included Mallplaza Outlets Concepcion with a 13.6% increase in tenant sales, Mallplaza Trujillo at 23.2% and Mallplaza Cali at 14.2%. While the sales growth rate reflects current market dynamics with a slowdown in Chile and a solid increase in Peru and Colombia, our consolidated same-store rent increased by 5.1% during the quarter. Our index contract structure and commercial management allows us to systematically outperform regional inflation, protecting our operating margins and ensuring long-term revenue generation. We achieved these metrics while maintaining a consolidated occupancy rate of 95.6% even as we advance with our portfolio transformation and expansion projects. Furthermore, occupancy cost [indiscernible] remained stable at 9.3%. Moving to our financial performance on Page 6. Net revenue for the first quarter totaled CLP 165.5 billion, a 6% increase year-over-year. Our average remaining duration of lease contracts is 6.9 years, with 55.5% of those contracts extending beyond 5-years. Furthermore, 93% of our rent is fixed, which contributes to a stable and predictable cash flow with inflation pass-through. In the first quarter of 2026, total cost and expenses reached CLP 36.2 billion, representing an 8.9% increase compared to the same period in 2025. Our SG&A increased by 28.3%, reaching CLP 25.5 billion. This variation primarily incorporates the impact of onetime effects such as the recognition of an equity tax in Colombia and severance packages due to downsizing totaling CLP 2.7 billion. Adjusting for these factors, total costs and expenses saw a 0.9% year-over-year increase and SG&A growth stood at 14.8%. EBITDA for the quarter reached CLP 130.3 billion, increasing 5.2% year-over-year, closing the quarter with a reported EBITDA margin of 78.7%. Excluding the aforementioned nonrecurring impacts, our EBITDA would have reached CLP 132.9 billion, resulting in a 7.3% growth year-over-year and an adjusted margin of 80.3%. This represents a 0.9 percentage point expansion compared to the 79.4% recorded in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting the underlying operational efficiency of our assets. On Page 7, net income attributable to the controlling interest reached CLP 85 billion, a 20.5% increase. This was primarily driven by a 71.5% reduction in losses from indexation units, the UF due to lower inflation in Chile. During this period, the FFO per share growth of 6.3% outpaced the EBITDA expansion of 5.2%, reflecting an optimization of our financial structure. This was primarily driven by a 10.6% reduction in financial costs resulting from the optimization of financial liabilities in Peru. Additionally, financial income rose by 68.5% due to a higher average balance of cash and equivalents and higher yields on investment funds. Regarding capital markets, as seen on Page 8, Mallplaza's weight was increased in the MSCI Mid-large Cap Index. Furthermore, our category in the FTSE Index was upgraded to large cap. These milestones have supported increased liquidity with our average daily trading volume, ADTV over 180 days, rising 98.3% to $10.3 million. These developments enhance our visibility and strengthen our appeal to both active and passive investors. On Page 9, we outline our solid financial position. We closed the quarter with cash and equivalents of CLP 393 billion and a financial debt of CLP 1.6 trillion. Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio stands at 2.3x with a loan-to-value ratio of 17%. Our debt maturity profile is predominantly long term with 93% of our maturities exceeding 1-year and 16% exceeding a term of 10-years or more. Furthermore, financial debt is denominated in the same currency as the cash flows associated with its repayment, with 78% denominated in UF. This structure is backed by our investment-grade ratings, Baa2 from Moody's, BBB from Fitch and AA+ locally from Feller Rate and Humphreys. During the quarter, we successfully placed our first corporate bond in Peru for PEN 150 million, approximately USD 45 million with a 15-year term, a 7.16% rate, which represents a spread of 76 basis points to local rates. This financial strength supported by our investment-grade ratings provides us with the flexibility to execute our ambitious growth plan. With that, I'll hand it over to Pablo, who will guide you through our strategic road map.

Thank you, Derek. Good morning, everyone. During this first quarter, we continued to execute our business strategy with a focus on initiatives that positively impact our visitors' daily lives. During this quarter, we continued to execute our business strategy with a focus on initiatives that positively impacts our visitors' daily lives. Our growth road map is structured around three main verticals: creating value through our assets, growing through new square meters and maximizing value through our complementary business. Central to this strategy is the execution of our investment plan, which currently totals more than $600 million through 2028. This plan focuses on expanding and transforming more than 1 million square meters of GLA. The objective is to increase our share of Tier A assets to 70% of our total GLA. Currently, more than 50% of this capital is committed to the strategic assets that have already begun or are about to begin construction, such as Mallplaza Trebol, Mallplaza Oeste, Mallplaza Norte, Mallplaza Trujillo and Mallplaza Piura. These new square meters will enhance our tenant mix, specifically incorporating categories such as food and beverage, entertainment and specialty retail. This execution aims to strengthen the value proposition of each asset, ensuring they adapt to changing consumer needs while improving productivity of our portfolio. In terms of value creation within our current assets, we are making progress in the transformation of large surfaces with more than 14,000 square meters of GLA to be transformed to retail, gastronomy and entertainment at Mallplaza Norte, Mallplaza Los Dominicos and Mallplaza Iquique during the year. At a regional level, we are incorporating restaurants and terraces at Mallplaza Arequipa and Mallplaza Huancayo, new entertainment areas at Mall Plaza Buenavista and retail categories in Cartagena. Regarding our new business format, the Premium Outlet continued to show positive results during the quarter. Mallplaza Premium Outlet Concepcion grew by 13.6% in tenant sales and 19.7% in net revenue. Regarding new uses, we are pleased to share our residential densification strategy. This vision contemplates a potential of more than 10,000 units around our urban centers at regional level under the build-to-rent, build-to-sell and sell-for-development models. Of this, we currently have 2,000 units in execution originating from sales for development along with the Mallplaza Vespucio building to rent multifamily project. This development will feature 320 units across 27 floors, adding 11,000 square meters of GLA to the asset. We expect to break ground in late 2026 with a project 24 months construction time line. This specific vertical is a strategy for generating stable, resilient and diversified long-term cash flows. On Page 14, we detail the performance of our complementary business. During this quarter, revenue from this vertical, which primarily consists of advertising and parking grew by 17.3%. Finally, on Page 15, we outlined our ESG progress. Mallplaza was included in the S&P 500 Sustainability Yearbook for the fifth consecutive year, maintaining our positioning within the global real estate industry. Regarding environmental performance, we successfully met our water reduction target, decreasing our direct water consumption. Additionally, we implement operational adjustments across our regional-urban centers to reduce energy consumption during the Global Earth Hour initiative. On the social front, we continue to advance our Silver Ecosystem Programs, focusing on physical activity and digital inclusion for seniors across our assets. To conclude, Mallplaza closed the first quarter of 2026, demonstrating operational stability and financial discipline, achieving an EBITDA of CLP 130.3 billion and a net income growth of 20.5%. We continue to advance on the execution of our USD 600 million investment plan. Our focus remains on our strategic expansions and transformations that will elevate our urban centers and increase our share of Tier A assets. Furthermore, the optimization of our financial structure highlighted by successful placement of our corporate bond in Peru provide us with the flexibility needed to execute this long-term strategy. Throughout 2026, we will maintain our focus on growth, tenant mix transformation, regional integration and operational efficiency. I want to thank our teams for their dedication and our investors for their continued trust in our vision.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Mr. Igor Machado from Goldman Sachs.

I have two points here from our side. First one in Chile, if you could walk us through the Malls performance. We saw 4 Malls with decline in sales per square meter and 5 Malls with declines in revenues per square meter. I just trying to better understand here the dynamics. And also on the negative same-store sales for Chile. So we are trying to better understand what are the expectations for the rest of the year? And my second point here is on the SG&A because we see an increase -- 15% increase that's extraordinary. So why did -- we're trying to understand why did it outpace the revenue growth? That's it.

Okay. Thank you, Igor. For start, I will answer the first question you mentioned about the Chile portfolio performance. We are in a great moment of transformation. As we mentioned in the press release, we have many assets that are impacted short term, but will be impacting value in long term because we are transforming and working and having a lot of works, in different assets and mainly in the Chile assets that are really resilient and have a lot of traffic. So the first is the Chile performance. We are really happy with the performance we have, and we expect a great performance during the year, but we have a temporary impact because of the transformation of the assets we are doing in Peru, Oeste and the different Chile assets.

And then to your second question on the SG&A, I think it's important to highlight, as we pointed out in the earnings release that while -- when you look at SG&A, it increased by 28.3%, if you take into consideration, cost of sales dropped by 19.9%. So combined, total cost and expenses increased by 8.9%. Now it's also important to highlight that in this particular quarter, there were some nonrecurring effects that brought by an impact to our G&A, namely the equity tax in Colombia and higher severance expenses due to restructuring. These totaled -- these both effects combined totaled CLP 2.7 billion, which excluding these effects, total cost and expenses would have increased 0.9%, while the SG&A would have grown 14.8%. And when you take this into consideration towards the EBITDA, the EBITDA margin would have gone from 78.7% that we reported, to 80.3%.

Our next question comes from Mrs. Alejandra Obregon from Morgan Stanley.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

I guess mine is on the transformations and the expansions that you guys have announced for the coming years. I'd like to understand what is sort of the scope of change once this project starts? Like should we expect any disruptions early on? But more important, on the other side of the project, once these are finished, are these redevelopments about major internal tenant relocations and layout changes? Or are these projects more about just bringing new tenants into new spaces? Like what is the scope of these redevelopments across all your assets?

Thank you, Alejandra. First, when we approach an expansion, we see the asset as a whole. It means what we see is not only the extension, we see how this extension can create halo effect to our asset in the future. So what we do is we transform 100% of the assets. So we will have many of the things you mentioned, we will have tenant relocation, we have tenant replacement in the current asset, and we will have also new tenants and new product to the market. So what we are doing in all of our assets is as we saw in Vespucio is we are not only expanding, we are also changing the proposal of the assets we have. That's why we say that we are transforming more than 1 million square meters in the total portfolio transformation.

And just if I may add, Alejandra, to what Pablo mentioned is that this is a total investment pipeline is of $600 million up to 2028. And this transformation that Pablo mentioned of the 1 million square meters of GLA will help us towards our objective, which is taking our level of Tier A assets to 70% of our GLA.

Got it. And if I may follow up on your backlog for demand in these particular assets, like to what extent are these expansions and transformations driven by new demand that you already have in the assets or more about your forward-looking expectations on what can be driven in each of the particular assets?

Yes. It depends on the asset. But what we do is -- what we work is to push forward to the future. It means what demand are we seeing in the future. And also, we have some assets that have a lot of demand in some categories that we are growing. One example of that is, for example, in Trebol, we have a lot of demand for restaurant and retail that we have already leased in this expansion. So we have both, but what we work is to have a product of the future in every one of our assets.

Our next question comes from Mr. Gustavo Fabris from BTG Pactual.

I have two quick questions here from my side, especially on capital allocation, right? The first one is perhaps I would like to understand what would be the maximum leverage ratio, which you would be comfortable going to, considering that you have a relevant pipeline of projects and CapEx guidance going forward, right? And the second one here, I wanted to get maybe your view on what is the company's appetite right now for M&As, where are perhaps the best opportunities here and how much M&As could add up in CapEx in this $600 million guidance you have? These are the questions.

Gustavo, thank you for your questions. First, in terms of capital allocation and balance sheet. So we just recently mentioned, Pablo mentioned the pipeline, the expansion pipeline that we have in place. That's an active part of our growth strategy as well. In general, we are seeking sort of double-digit level of returns for these kind of investments. And in terms of a leverage standpoint, as you well noted or observed in the earnings release, we ended the quarter with a 2.3x net-debt-EBITDA. We typically operate the company between 3x to 4.5x. We acknowledge that we are under that range. And in terms of -- from a ratings perspective and rating agencies, typically, we could reach up until 5x sort of on a sustained level. It's not that there would be an automatic downgrade if we surpass those levels. So at the end of the day, bottom line is that this provides us ample room for us to continue to invest in our growth strategy, be it through brownfield or be it through eventually M&A. So we'll continue to seek opportunities to continue to grow the company.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Mr. Marcelo Motta by JPMorgan.

So it's just about what are the expectations for the rest of the year, like the first quarter, probably not the greatest one. We see some deceleration on revenues, impacted by the transformation, you guys explained about it. But just thinking about maybe the situation in each one of the countries like Peru, there was like the tailwind from the withdrawals, Chile, maybe some pressure from tourists, but maybe not that much on the Mallplaza asset [indiscernible]. So just thinking how the company is seeing the dynamics for second quarter and the rest of the year in each one of the countries?

Thank you, Marcelo. We are very optimistic about the following quarters because we have a great transformation in place. It means -- it depends a lot on what we do, not about what we expect in the different markets. I mean you're right about what you mentioned in Peru about the withdrawals. They will have less liquidity, but we have a lot of actions in place that from the -- our perspective is both Chile and Peru, we will have very good quarters in the following quarters because what we are doing in the transformations. So what we expect is this year to be -- to have -- to continue the transformation process we have in place and to start delivering to the market the different projects that we are working on.

[Operator Instructions] This concludes the question-and-answer section. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Derek Tang for any closing remarks.

Well, thank you all very much for connecting in this first quarter of 2026 earnings call for Mallplaza. As always, both Pablo, myself and all the Investor Relations team are fully available for any follow-up questions you might have. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. This does conclude today's presentation. You may disconnect now, and have a nice day.