Hello everyone, and welcome to the Logista 2021 results presentation. My name is Daisy, and I will be coordinating this call. You will have the opportunity to ask your question at the end of the presentation. If you would like to register a question, please press Star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand over to your host, Gloria, to begin. Gloria, please go ahead.
Good morning. I'm Gloria Martín, Director of Investor Relations. I should like to welcome you to this audio webcast and conference call, which will consider the results of the 2021 fiscal year, about which you will find more details on our website. Today, I am accompanied by Íñigo Meirás, Logista CEO, and by Manuel Suarez, our CFO, who will lead this conference call together. If you have any questions, you will be able to ask them during the Q&A stage, which will take place at the end of the presentation and will be moderated by the operator. The document which accompanies this presentation and the observations which will be made as it progresses include forward-looking statements and projections concerning future results.
I invite you to read the disclaimer which accompanies the document and which mentions the various factors that could cause the real results to differ materially from the projections or forward-looking statements. I'm now handing over to Íñigo Meirás. Íñigo?
Okay. Thank you, Gloria, and welcome ladies and gentlemen. During this webcast, we are going to deal with the highlights of the results, a review of the businesses, a financial review, and we shall end with an outlook for the forthcoming fiscal year. Afterwards, as mentioned by Gloria, we shall open a session of Q&A. In the fiscal 2021 fiscal year, which we can describe our understanding, our results began to grow again following the slightly regression which they had experienced in the previous fiscal year in an environment that was still affected by the new waves of COVID-19, and despite the fact that the pandemic began in the second half of the 2020 fiscal year.
In this context, thanks to appropriate management of the businesses, Logista compensated in record time for the adverse effects of the pandemic and achieved a 6% increase in economic sales, a 13% increase in EBIT, and 17% increase in the net profit from continuing operations, and an increase of 11% in net profit, including both continuing and discontinued operations. Throughout the fiscal year, our effort will focus on adapting our operations and businesses to the new reality in which we find ourselves, reengaging the business toward the areas with the greatest capacity for growth, continuing to support our customers through service of high added value which satisfy their needs, and something which is innate at Logista, controlling costs while seeking maximum operational efficiency.
Our successful business model, whose essential characteristics are flexibility, asset-light, and customer-integrated approach, is the cornerstone which enables us to maintain a solid financial performance even in adverse circumstances. This year, we have also continued to increase transparency in our communication, this time in connection with ESG. In view of the importance which Logista attaches to the ESG agenda and the need to find a uniform benchmark for comparing companies in the same sector and geographical area, and at the same size, which would enable us to continue improving our standards in this field, we have decided to seek an evaluation from an independent rating agency. In early October, Sustainalytics concluded its assessment of Logista by assigning to us an ESG risk rating of 14.1 points, which signifies a low risk of experienced material financial impacts due to the ESG factors.
That rating placed us at number three out of 75 companies evaluated in our sector, air freight and logistics. This rating can be added to our AA in the MSCI ESG Ratings to our inclusion for the fifth consecutive year, the CDP's A List for climate change, and to our recently obtained recognition as a leader in supplier engagement, also by the CDP. In addition to that, this year we have again been recognized by the Financial Times as a leader in diversity, and we remain part of the FTSE4Good Index. The eruption of the pandemic only a couple of months after my appointment as Logista CEO obliged us all to focus our attention in our day-to-day activities in the short term.
As to ensure the normal functioning of our operations, almost all of which, as you know, in our particular case, were regarded as essential activities in all the countries in which we operate. For this reason, and although it was never put aside, the implementation of the strategic agenda that we were setting up, centered on boosting logistics growth by means of diversification, had to be slowed down during the 2020 fiscal year. However, since the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year, we have returned to that agenda, and its greater ambition for growth has become a priority in our organization. Starting with transport, there are opportunities in the sector that offer the potential of recording high rates of growth with the right positioning. In the case of Nacex, our parcel subsidiary, we are concentrating on developing B2C distribution for sales made directly by the manufacturers via e-commerce.
As for Logista Freight, our long-distance transport subsidiary, it has come to be regarded as a core activity within the group, using a strategy of differentiation through added value services, going beyond its former profile, which was that of an activity that supported our other businesses. Moreover, the new reality brought in by the pandemic has prompted Logista to extend its strategy to include the opportunities presented by working in the public health system. This scenario has revealed the importance of the role that Logista Pharma can play in the public and private sectors, and its potential for replication in new geographical areas where, although Logista is present as a group, Logista Pharma is not. As I have told you, our strategic focus for the coming years will clearly be on growth.
We are convinced that Logista has the necessary capacity to grow at a faster rate than the single-digit rate recorded in recent years. We are concentrating in exploring new avenues for growth other than tobacco distribution, which is today our most important business, but in which the trend is now towards decreasing volumes. This does not mean that we are going to abandon the distribution of tobacco. This line of business, as well as being profitable, enable us to provide our customers with undoubted added value as a result of our deeper understanding of the sector and of the efficiency that our operations have acquired over the years. Diversification towards new verticals, which grow faster, will accelerate our transition to be a growth profile company and will offset the tobacco volumes decline in the future.
Our intention is to increase the speed at which organically we achieve this objective of growth, and to help us to do that, we have a solid balance sheet which enable us to tackle M&A transactions while maintaining the payment of dividends. We are aware that Logista has not completed any acquisition for many years, so in order to minimize any risk in execution or integration associated with this kind of transactions, our roadmap is based on the acquisition of medium-sized companies in an ordered manner. The focus will be on companies that provide complementary capacities and also synergies with the businesses in which we are already present which enable us to quickly acquire critical mass to develop. In Italy and or in France, some of the businesses in which we are currently only have a presence in Iberia. Let's now review the progress of the business.
Let's now review the progress of the business, both overall and in each geographical area. Before we start the review, I should like to take a moment to explain to you the three changes that we have made in the way in which we have been reporting financial information, which in some cases have necessitated a restatement of the annual accounts and segment reporting of the 2020 fiscal year to enable the current fiscal year to be compared with the previous one. The first change, which will not bring about a restatement of accounts, but which did involve more transparency in relation to developments in one of our growth businesses, consisted in separating the report of Logista Pharma revenues and economic sales, which up to now had been reported together with those of our publishing distribution subsidiary in the segment Other Businesses.
This change only affects segment reporting. The second change affects the annual accounts and the segment reporting and consists of classifying our subsidiary Supergroup, which deals with the distribution in France of convenience products other than those of tobacconists, as an asset held for sale. This classification means that its results in the fiscal year and the estimate of the costs associated with its restructuring are reported in the P&L account as results of discontinued operations. From now on, France will have only one reporting segment: tobacco and related products. As we mentioned at the close of the 2020 fiscal year, the poor results of that subsidiary, especially after the crisis of the pandemic, led us to decide to discontinue Supergroup activity and to concentrate on developing businesses which are more closely aligned with Logista strategy.
The third and final change only affects segment reporting, and it consists of sharing the cost of the corporate center among the other three segments, Iberia, France, and Italy, and of including Poland's activities within the Iberia segment, in keeping with the real reporting relationships of the business. In spite of the pandemic, the result of the fiscal year were solid, and the adjusted EBIT reached EUR 298 million compared with the EUR 263 million last year.
The adjusted EBIT increased by 13% thanks to the solid behavior of regular operations, combined with a change in the valuation of inventories, which amounted to EUR 5 million compared with EUR -2 million in 2020, and thanks to the improvement in the net impact of COVID, which we consider was not significant this year, but which was EUR -14 million last year. Performance in Iberia was very positive, the recorded increase in economic sales being of almost 7%, which brought the total of EUR 634 million. By activity, the economic sales in tobacco and related products increased by 3.5%. There was a double-digit increase in the economic sales from the distribution of convenient products, thanks to the penetration of Logista Retail into the points of sales and thanks to the expansion of the customer base in e-commerce.
The added value of services provided during the year and the variations in the value of the inventories following the manufacturer's price increases helped to compensate for the reduction in the volumes of tobacco distributed in Spain, which decreased by almost 1%, mainly because fewer tourists arrive in Spain due to COVID. The economic sales from transport grew by 6.9%, performing well in all segments. In long-distance transport, increases were recorded both in tobacco and in non-tobacco. In Nacex, our business and parcel, there were double-digit increases, thanks to the large increase in sales through e-commerce, and thanks to the new B2C strategy. Sales in industrial parcel again reached the levels of 2019.
The economic sales from pharma distribution grew by 20% with the acceleration in the capture of new customers from among those whom we could call traditional, and thanks to the launching of new services during the pandemic. The pandemic also contributed to the development of agreements with the public sector, which had not previously been one of our traditional customers, and which, in this situation, has become a new avenue for growth in the business, being associated with the need to distribute products especially connected with COVID. Total operating expenses in Spain and Portugal increased by 4%, making the adjusted EBIT EUR 134 million, which was 90% more than the figure in the 2020 fiscal year. Performance in France was slightly positive. Economic sales amounted to EUR 225 million, and were almost stable compared with those of the previous year.
Economic sales from the distribution of convenience products plus electronic transactions were slightly positive, with a very positive performance in electronic transactions, which grew by more than 13% on top of a base that was already growing last year. The sale of the convenience products, which was facilitated during the new confinements as the tobacconists remained open, was adversely affected at the end of the period by the introduction of the health pass in the HORECA activity in the cafés tabac. Economic sales from the distribution of tobacco were less than those of the previous year, and volumes of distributed tobacco fell by 3.7% after the reopening of the borders and the increases in sales prices of the products during the year.
The changes in taxes and prices resulted in a variation in the valuation of the tobacco inventories, which produced an adverse effect of EUR 2 million on the results of the fiscal year. Last year, that adverse effect amounted to about EUR 3 million. As I explained to you at the beginning of my intervention, the results of the other business activities ceased to be included among those of the continuing operations in the 2021 fiscal year. The data reported in France for the 2020 fiscal year were restated in order to ensure that the two fiscal years could be fairly compared. Total operating expenses in France decreased by 0.8%, resulting in adjusted EBIT of EUR 66 million, 1.4 % more than the figure obtained in the 2020 fiscal year.
Italy's performance was very solid, recording economic sales of EUR 325 million, an increase of 6.5%. The commercial effort that is being made to accelerate growth in the distribution of convenience products resulted in reaching a new agreement with manufacturers in the beverage sector. This, combined with the good performance in the snacks and sweets, has resulted in a double-digit growth in the economic sales of convenient products. The economic sales from tobacco distribution were also higher than those of the previous fiscal year due to the increased volumes of distributed tobacco, spurred by the developments of the heated tobacco category and the services of greater added value to manufacturers, which were largely associated with the new generation category of products.
The variations in the valuation of tobacco inventories, which were the result of the change in tobacco taxes and prices during the fiscal year, have a positive impact of between EUR 4 million and EUR 5 million, compared with EUR 1 million of last year. Cost control and restructuring measures, together with the gradual improvement in efficiency, resulted in an increase of 3.6% in total operating expenses, which produced an increase of 14% in the adjusted EBIT to EUR 98 million. Logista's operational performance in the fiscal year was very positive, demonstrating once again the resilience of our business model as well as the company's solid financial position.
These characteristics are the basis for the commitment undertaken by the board of directors when the company went public, and involving a high percentage of payout in every case of more than 90% of the net profit. In the last three years, the board has demonstrated its preference for maintaining a dividend which is stable or growing in absolute value. For that reason, has decided this year to propose to the general shareholders meeting distribution of 95% of the net profit of the fiscal year, which represents an increase of 5.1% compared with the dividend distributed in 2020, corresponding to EUR 1.24 per share. Now, I give the floor to Manuel so that he could continue with the financial review of the fiscal year. Manuel.
Thank you, Íñigo. Thank you to all of you attending this Logista fiscal year 2021 results presentation. Financial statements for fiscal year 2021 were formulated by the board of directors of Logista Holdings in the meeting held yesterday and are already backed by clean opinion by our auditors, EY. Main commentary of changes in accounting methods, as Íñigo pointed out, is that our wholesale activity in France to other networks and tobacconists that is made through Supergroup, has been classified as held for sale in our balance sheet, and its impact in the P&L is included as discontinued operations. Obviously, 2020 figures have been restated to make them comparable with 2021 ones.
The activity of the company during the period has increased both in revenues that reflect mainly the value of the goods we distribute and in economic sales that is a better indicator of the evolution of the value of our services. As it is typical in our company, the economic sales grew over revenues in almost two percentage points. Just 10% of the economic sales growth comes from inventory valuation changes. Especially remarkable has been the growth of pharma, e-commerce, and convenience throughout distribution. The activity reduction in countries and business lines, with the exception of tobacco distribution in France, was offset by the growth of the activity in telecom and wholesale.
The 5.6% growth in economic sales transforms into a 13.2% growth in adjusted EBIT to EUR 298 million, leveraging in a 3.2% operating expenses growth. Especially remarkable, one of the growing lines has been transport, where margins are typically lower. This is due to the effort made identifying and implementing optimization plans all across the company, and is reflected in a margin increase of 170 basis points to 25.2%. COVID impact was valued last year in EUR 29 million in economic sales and EUR 14 million at EBIT level. We consider that the negative and positive effects compensate this year, while the valuation of inventories represents EUR 5 million in 2021 and was - 2 in fiscal year 2020. The restructuring expenses have been split among the three main countries.
Italy represented the largest portion with the organization of the operations in the north of the country, and are altogether lower than last year by EUR 2 million that are not enough to compensate the impact of lower capital gains in EUR 11 million, so the reported EBIT grew 12.8%. Bottom line, net profit of the company has grown at 11% after the impact of EUR 11 million in discontinued operations because of Supergroup sale decision. This is a particular issue related to the reorganization of the activity in France. Net of it, the result of continuous operations has improved by 17%.
Financial results have improved significantly due to the collection of interest on excess interest corporate tax payments in Spain during fiscal years 2017 and 2018, as declared by a constitutional court sentence, and some lower legal provisions coming from a positive evolution of the debt market. Tax rate favorable evolution is mainly due to a gain case in Italy against the tax administration that allowed to release some provisions. Other than that, the effective tax rate is around 27%. Cash position was unusually high during October and part of November due to the temporary changes in the rules to pay excise taxes in some countries that soon were back to normality, assuming the customary seasonality of having lower working capital figures at the beginning and mid of the year, to increase towards year-end and with the increase in consumption brought by touristic season in the South of Europe.
Also, the minimum cash position has changed due to the de facto delay in payment terms of the installment payments in one of the countries, resulting in an increase of the average balance. Investments are in line with the customary figure in the company, devoting a very important part of them to technology to support the development of various services and the improvement in operations to improve margins. In 2020, technology investments were a bit higher because of the renewal of basic infrastructures in IT. The EBITDA has grown in line with operations to EUR 370 million, while financial revenues were very positively influenced by the interest collections from tax authorities on the excessive tax paid in Spain that we already mentioned, and by higher minimum cash position.
The normalized cash flow gives enough room for the EUR 165 million dividend the company will pay for 2021 results. Working capital figure is now back to a normalized situation after the extraordinary delay of excise tax payment measures undertaken by some governments due to the pandemic. Company dividend policy stated during the IPO in 2014 is to pay at least 90% of net income as dividend, split in an interim one of one-third of previous year's total dividend to be paid in the Q4 of our fiscal year and a final one in the Q2 of the following fiscal year. Last year, the board took the decision to raise the payout close to 100% to offset the effect that the pandemic had in the net profit, so to keep the absolute dividend per share.
This year, it has been considered appropriate by the board to show the commitment with shareholder remuneration via dividend by paying 95% of net income, EUR 1.24 per share, which means a 5% increase of total dividend. As a consequence, a final dividend of EUR 0.83 per share will be paid during the Q2 of our fiscal year. During fiscal year 2021, the share price moved from EUR 14.6 to EUR 18.2 . Although this positive performance of 25% is behind that of the index and other comparable during the period, it has gained momentum since the beginning of the calendar year, outperforming clearly IBEX 35 and IBEX Medium Cap in this period. Total shareholder return during the year was 33.7%.
In summary, for our investment case, the resilience of our traditional business enhanced by the growth activity has delivered in this fiscal year a 4% increase in the value of the contracts we distribute that has been translated to 6% in our tariffs. After a careful cost management and the optimization plan, moved to 13% increase in operating results and 17% increase in continued operations that provides a net income and normalized cash flows to afford the non-organic growth without jeopardizing the dividend policy of the company. I now hand back the floor again to our CEO for his final remarks. Íñigo?
Thank you, Manuel. During the presentation, we have reviewed the operational and financial performance of the group businesses, and we have also drawn attention to the progress that we have made this year in an area which we regard as critical, namely the ESG agenda. In all of this, we can conclude that the 2021 fiscal year was very positive for Logista, in spite of the still challenging environment in which all of this took place. Now, I would like to dedicate a moment to our new brand identity. Since our foundation in 1999, the company kept the same logo, but this summer, we launched our new image that reflects Logista evolution while retaining the company's essence and values based on innovation, flexibility, reliability, and service excellence, a design that symbolize the Logista's evolution I have been sharing with you along today's presentation.
I shall now like to explain to you our outlook for the business over the coming year. The progress since the beginning of the COVID crisis, as well as the current market conditions, suggest that in 2022 fiscal year, there could be a mid-single-digit increase in the adjusted EBIT compared with the figure in the 2021 fiscal year. I should like to draw your attention to the fact that in accordance with our strategic plan, focusing essentially on additional growth and diversification of the existing businesses, the group continues to look for M&A opportunities of a small million-sized targets, which are both complementary, sorry, to and synergetic with our base operations. In any scenario, the maintenance of the current dividend policy will be a priority. Okay. Let's now proceed with the Q&A session. Gloria?
We will begin with the questions received by telephone and finish with those received via the audio webcast platform. If that is the case, I will read them out, identifying the person who formulated each question. Operator?
Thank you very much. If anyone would like to register a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure you are unmuted locally. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. Our first question comes from Pablo Cuadrado from Kepler Cheuvreux. Pablo, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. [Foreign language] Íñigo, Manuel, Gloria. I have three questions, please. The first one is looking to the reclassification that you have included in the results of the Supergroup and now reclassify as a held for sale and undertaking new restructuring charges there. Which are your perspectives for these assets? Do you think that after you know the plan making the new restructuring and putting out of the accounts you may be achieving a sale or a disposal of that asset during the next few quarters? Or what. Basically to know a little bit the perspectives there.
Second question will be on the M&A aspirations. I think you have explained and following the presentation that you just did. It seems like you are speeding up, or at least the message, towards opportunities of M&A out of tobacco and trying to grow. Here, I would like to ask if you can give a little bit more detail about you know assets or even areas. I don't know, between looking to transport or looking to pharma, if you think at the moment, where do you think there could be more chance to grow?
Even when we talk about expanding out of Iberia into France or Italy, do you think any of these two markets have better options to achieve M&A alternatives? The last question will be on the financial income segment. I mean, this year, clearly you have explained that you have this reimbursement of interest coming from tax payments linked to the past. But I was wondering if you can detail us, given that that was for 2017 and 2019, if there are any pending amount that you think you should be receiving on the interest of the past taxes that you did, and if you think that that's going to affect 2022. Thank you.
Okay, thank you for your three questions. I have the first and second, and probably the third is for Manuel. Regarding the Supergroup status today, I think that after the restructuring, as you say, we consider that as an asset for sale. Clearly our focus is to sell the company as soon as possible, which means that we are considering that there will be something there in the coming months, probably in the first half of this fiscal year, which means before March 2022. Regarding the second question on M&A, as you can imagine, I cannot share with you where we are exactly for different reasons. As you say, we are speeding up our message that we are more proactive within M&A opportunities.
I can share with all of you that today we have at least three transactions in our pipeline. If we are right in our assumption, probably we'll be back to the market probably by the end of the first half of this year with news on that in terms of M&A. We are mostly focused in transport opportunities and pharma. Those are the two key sectors at this moment that we are considering seriously, okay? We are open to consider on an opportunities basis other operations. But as today, our focus is on transport and on pharma, okay? Regarding the third question, probably the answer is for Manuel.
Okay. Yes. Yes.
Yeah. Thank you. The increase in financial revenues this year has been EUR 8 million. Half of it is due to this increase or collection of undue amounts collected by the tax administration. You're fully right that happened just 2018 and 2017, but the practice continues. It's basically consisting on the internal international dividends collected are not considered the asset when kind of making the calculation of the interim payments of the corporate income tax. They are considered the assets at the moment or practically the assets, 95% of it, when making the final declaration of the tax, creating then relevant accounts collectible for the company.
That wouldn't be the case if that were, I mean, consistent in both ways. As the practice continues, we are claiming the payment for all the remaining years. It's 2019, 2020, 2021 when we are going to pay it will also be claimed. Also, as the principle stays the same, we expect we will finally gain it in the tribunals. We expect to collect similar amounts in the future. I mean, that's going to depend on when the tribunals act on this if they are finally acted on from our side as we expect.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Pedro Alves, from CaixaBank. Pedro, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Just coming back here to the M&A topic. Sorry for being a recurring topic, but we have been talking about acquisitions for a long time, yet none has been announced so far. My first question is why? Because you're seeing lack of opportunities at reasonable prices. Secondly, if you could be a little bit more specific on the opportunities you are targeting in transport, if it is more related to B2C commerce. And then in pharma, if it is more to distribution to pharmacies or to public administrations. And if this inorganic move would eventually dilute your margin going forward. Then my second question, or the second topic, is related to Supergroup in France. If you could-
Just clarify a little bit better the expected outcome. Should we expect you to receive any cash in from this business, or should we think more of a full restructuring and exit? If you could clarify inside the EUR 19 million of negative results, how much is the restructuring provision expense, and how much is the adjusted EBIT contribution? Thank you.
Okay, Pedro, thank you for your for the two questions. The first one regarding M&A. You know, I cannot share with you exactly where we are in on our M&A pipeline, no. But being a little bit more specific on transport, that's for sure that the focus there is to try to strengthen our capacities on B2C first. Second, we are looking for opportunities in the long-distance transport to add more volume and capacities to our current exposure, okay? Regarding pharma, I cannot be more specific, but as I say on my presentation, until now, Logista Pharma was only focused on the private sector. After COVID, clearly we are now more open to work with the public sector, especially in Spain, where you know this is our strong presence on that one.
Regarding the Supergroup, there are two questions within your question of Supergroup. The first one is related to if you can or we are considering any positive outcome on the sale of the company. The answer is here, no. I think that we cannot expect a positive impact on the disposal of the company if we achieve that. Regarding the breakdown of the EUR 19 million, probably I pass this question to Manuel.
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Looking at the results affected, for those of you following closely the company, you've got a full disclosure of how this is booked in the annual accounts in note nine to the, i have re- statements. As a summary, I say that trading results last year for Supergroup was particularly EUR -7 million . That's what is there in the accounts now as discontinued operations. This year, those trading results are EUR 2.5 million. So it would be, I mean, better, a better result. However, we consider a restructuring provision of EUR 19 million for the company and also make an asset impairment for the assets Supergroup, putting them at zero value, particularly EUR 4 million.
This together with the positive tax impact on all these measures, accounting-wise, you have to do. At EUR 6 million, provide these discontinued results of EUR 19 million this year.
Thank you, Manuel. Quite clear. If I can just follow up on that. So basically, the way we should think about this Supergroup exit is that you are paying or you will pay EUR 19 million to exit and to avoid having a business that would hardly break even and consume management time. Is that it?
Yes and no, Pedro, because I think it is a breakeven, but it's just that when we allocated the indirect costs and others, it's a bit negative business for Logista. This was built into our business plan for the coming years. In that context is where we took the decision to pursue the disposal and not to spend more time of our management in France trying to deal with this subsidiary.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Pedro. Our next question comes from Francisco Ruiz from Exane. Francisco, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much and good morning to all. I have three questions. The first one is on the track and trace. Remember that last year we were talking about that after the implementation of the track and trace, there would be some opportunities in some markets in which you are not present. Could you give us an update on how is the situation and if you could give us or share with us some market share data on Poland and Portugal? The second question is on your guidance. You have guided to mid-single digit growth in EBIT or adjusted EBIT.
If we take into account the positive impact that the pricing or the higher prices in tobacco in Spain would have next year, excluding any kind of tax increase, you will be almost there. Could we see this guidance as conservative? The third question is a follow-up on the accounting of Supergroup. First, if you could give us what the book value is right now? It should be zero. If you do expect any negative impact from the lower critical mass that you would have in France after the disposal of this business.
Okay. Thank you, Francisco. I'll take the second question, and it's regarding the guidelines for next year. Yes, I confirm that we are being conservative regarding our outlook for next year because you are right, after the price increases in Spain, we should be a little bit more positive. At the same time, we are balancing in our guideline for next year that we are monitoring until now, you know, some costs important for the company, like electricity costs and others, which mean that we prefer to be a little bit conservative in our guideline because today we don't have a clear visibility of all our costs for the next 12 months.
Until now, for example, something to add some more color to my answer, electricity cost increases didn't affect our P&L because we have prefixed prices till next year, next calendar year. But in any case, we have to consider seriously the situation in the market in terms of some costs, not only with the utilities, and because of that, we prefer to be a little bit even more conservative than in the past. But let's see what happens. Then back to you with the Q1 results of this fiscal year to say if we can be more positive or not. Regarding the other question, I pass to Manuel in terms of Supergroup and track and trace.
Okay. Yeah, well, in terms of Supergroup, the value of Supergroup in our groups is now zero. I mean, having this provision on restructuring probably will be necessary anyway in the future because the workforce is there. And also, in terms of track and trace, it's clear that there have been no transactions made, but it's very soon to see which is the result of the track and trace because of all the, I mean, ups and downs that has been this year with the pandemic to compare figures, which has been the final result in terms of market share movements or effectiveness of this track and trace policy.
Okay, thank you very much. Just a follow-up on the cost. As you have already highlighted the electricity, how do you expect the transport cost to evolve next year, please?
Well, as you know, we are an asset light company. In any case, it is a question of faith to see what happens because you analyze the cost today of the diesel. This is picking up if you compare with six months ago and a year ago. We don't know exactly. In our position, we are positive, and we believe that probably now there is a peak on the price of the diesel. That's a good example of that. Having said that, it is a question of time to see what happens there.
We have some protection on that because in the case of our transport activities, especially in long distance, which is the business where we consume more diesel, we have the option, okay, to ask for a price increase to our customers. As you can imagine, there is always a gap between the time you start to suffer that increase in your cost and the opportunity that you have to pass back to the customer asking for higher tariffs, you know? I think that we prefer to be conservative. In any case, at this point in time we are not very negative in terms of very negative impact in our cost of these different dynamics with the gasoline, with electricity and with other important costs.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Our next question is from João Safara, from Banco Santander. João, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. Two very quick questions. The first one, just if you could give us the guidance for corporate tax rate. There was it was slightly below what I was expecting for this year. If you can guide what's the level, let's say, for 2022. Then the second one just on pharma distribution. After a year of 20% growth, what is your expectation for next year in terms of pharma? Do you still see growth coming in this division? Thank you.
Well, regarding your second question, in terms of pharma growth, our views for this fiscal year, of course, we are not considering in our internal budget a growth of 20%. But still we are very bullish with the evolution of our pharma businesses, especially in terms of revenues and economic sales. But we cannot share with you exactly the target for this year in our internal budget. But it is clear still we are very positive with the pharma evolution for the time being. Regarding your first question of tax rate, Manuel.
Yes. It goes around tax rate. What we can comment is that this year there have been a positive impact on the in the tax rate coming because of the revaluation of one issue particular issue in Italy that having won one case in the tribunal allow us to release provisions there having this This tax rate around with 26% , but I mean, out of net net of it, the the effective tax rate of of the company would have been 20%-27% . This is going to to move slightly slightly low for the year 2022 because of the evolution in in France.
I mean, the regulatory evolution in France is probably going to affect 20 basis points, therefore the effective tax rate, and then a bit more aggressive in the year 2023 to probably 26.2%, and from then on, stable as the legislation is now.
Great. Thank you.
We have no further questions on the conference call, so I'll hand over for any webcast questions.
Okay, most of the questions that we received via internet are already answered. I will select some of them that have not been answered or not completely. In any case, if you need further clarification, please just drop me a line, and I will be more than delighted to answer them. Okay, first question is coming from Rubén López, Dunas Capital, and is regarding our firepower, okay? Do you have an amount in mind for M&As, and how would you finance it? Current share balance, capital rise, debt, et cetera.
Okay. I think Manuel correct me if I am wrong, but as you can imagine, I cannot share with you our firepower, our internal firepower. In any case, it depends on the size of the transaction. Assuming that we already said that we are looking for small or medium-sized investments, we believe that we can digest with our own resources. At the time that we have to take that decision, we need to consider all the options. If we can optimize the return of our investment with some debt, we are open to consider that option, assuming that we will need at this moment in time. It depends on the financial analysis and the returns that we are expecting for.
Okay. Next question coming from Miguel Igualada, Prosegur. Please confirm why fiscal year 2020 figures explained along the presentation do not match with those presented the last year. For instance, as shown, the last year were EUR 10.5 billion, and in this presentation, sales are EUR 10.4 billion. The same concern applies to the other items of the P&L.
I think the question. I think, Miguel, this was answered during the presentation. The fiscal year 2020 financial statements have been corrected or reworked in terms of to properly reflect the Supergroup transaction to make them fully comparable. Again, it's in the note nine to the financial statements, you will, I mean, approved and stated by the auditors of the company, how this restatement is done. It's basically taking out Supergroup results and impact in the balance sheet last year, classifying the balance sheet as assets held for sale or liabilities also of assets held for sale, and the result being included as discontinued operations in the P&L. That's all.
Next question coming from Jorge Losa, Cartesio, and it's only part of the question: Well, I think this has been answered, but as it is repeated several times, I wanted to go through. Could you please clarify how rising fuel costs impact the company? And are you experiencing any labor shortages that have not allowed you to grow faster?
Well.
Do you mean Manuel?
Yeah.
Manuel, you first, please.
No, I mean, in terms of fuel cost, I mean, currently, it's not a very important pressure. But I mean, it's clear that there is pressure. We count on it when we are providing this, the increase for next year in our result and even in our margin. Finally, we have there the power to also talk to our customers or review our rates. This is included in our contracts. That's the same for the rest of the costs you mentioned.
Next question, Rubén López, Dunas Capital. In pharma, what is the percentage of COVID-19-related sales?
I mean, there is clearly one part of it that even we relate to, that is not very relevant, although this has been, I mean, this year, we've grown partially related to it. We expect that, I mean, considering that, although this is not the figure to disclose, we are considering that for this year 2022, even having a certain decrease of all the issues related to COVID, we will show again growth in the pharma activity.
Next question is from Jorge Losa, Cartesio again. On pharma business, yesterday you announced a new initiative to boost medicine delivery to patients' homes. Could you please develop a bit more on the opportunity and other potential opportunities you see on pharma going forward?
Can you repeat the question, Gloria, please?
Yes. Yesterday, you announced a new initiative to boost medicine delivery to patients' homes. Could you please develop a bit more on the opportunity and other potential opportunities you see on pharma going forward? I think he's asking about the special services that we are developing for the sector.
Yeah. Yes, I think that there are a lot of initiatives in the new world after the pandemic, but the specific option that you mentioned, which is to sell medicines to the patients at home, I think it's a business that we are offering to our customers and to the hospitals. It clearly is not one of our main drivers of growth for pharma, no. I believe that the main growth of pharma in our view and in our current strategic plan for pharma are more related to work more with the pharma industry because still we believe that there are a lot of opportunities there, and we are adding customers year on year.
Regarding the second driver of an opportunity for growth is to open more the opportunity to work with the public sector. Okay? There are now huge investments in the public sector because of pandemic. After the pandemic, our belief is that in any case, the public sector have had to reallocate more money in the pharma industry and in the pharma as a sector. Because of that, we believe that there are a lot of opportunities, taking the public sector, in the case of Spain, a more important role than that they've done in the past.
Okay. The next question is an addition from Jorge Losa, Cartesio. What are the impediments you are encountering when executing M&A deals?
This is a conceptual discussion, no? As you can imagine, all the time it's the same. In this case, when you are looking for small and mid-size opportunities, usually you have to deal with family-owned business in most of the cases. If not, in any case, are companies in the mid-market, non-public, and sometimes you need to spend more time and money on a proper due diligence to be sure that you don't have red flags after the acquisition, no? This is something that is not only regarding our approach as Logista. This is more of a concept, no?
Yeah. Okay, I think that's basically all. With this last question, we finish the conference call today. Thank you very much for everyone. Enjoy your weekend.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you everyone for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your lines and have a lovely day.