M&A Announcement

May 14, 2021

Slides

Welcome to the Grupo Chedraui Conference Call to present the agreement reached to acquire Smart and Final Holdings. With us are Mr. Antonio Chedraui Eguia, CEO of Grupo Chedraui Mr. Carlos Smith Matas, CEO of Bodera Latina Mr. Humberto Tafoya Nunez, CFO of Grupo Chedraui and Mr. Arturo Velasquez, Head of Investor Relations of Grupo Chedraui. As a reminder, all forward looking statements on this call are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations and assumptions discussed today. This may be due to a variety of factors, including the risks outlined in Grupo Chedraui's Annual Report. At this time, I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Antonio Chedraui Eguia. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I am very pleased to announce that our U. S. Subsidiary, Orega Latina Corporation, has reached an agreement to acquire Smart and Final Holdings from Apollo Global Management for approximately $620,000,000 Noron Final, it's a value oriented warehouse style food retailer that provides one stop shopping for an assortment of both price club and traditional sized groceries, fresh foods and supplies for households, businesses and organization without a paid membership. It's a brand that resonates with customers and unique go to market capabilities. Smart and Final fits with our business strategy of utilizing differentiated formats to grow in both new and existing markets. We believe that Smart and Final is an excellent complement to our already existing platforms of El Super and Fiesta in the U. S. Through the combination of Grupo Comercial Chebrag, Odesa Latina and Smart in Final, we are well positioned to provide the best possible service to our customers to expand value oriented relationships with our U. S. And Mexican vendors and supplier partners and to enhance value for our investors. We expect the transaction to be accretive for Grupo Cheuvreux adjusted diluted EPS in the 1st full year of operations, excluding any purchase accounting adjustments. While the transaction is financed through debt at the Bodega Latina level, Grupo Chebrayo maintains ample financial flexibility for continued growth in Mexico. I will now hand the call over to Carlos to introduce in greater detail the company we're acquiring. Carlos, please go ahead. Thank you, Antonio, and hello, everyone. The agreement provides for Brico Chevarawi and Bodega Latina to acquire 254 discount warehouse grocery format stores located in California, Nevada and Arizona as well as its equity interest in a 16 store joint venture in Northwest Mexico. As an overview, Smart and Final generated sales in 2019 and 2020 of $3,700,000,000 $4,100,000,000 with adjusted EBITDA of $105,000,000 $167,000,000 respectively. Based on the purchase price of approximately 620,000,000 dollars this results in a 3.7x adjusted 2020 EBITDA. Further, Smart and Final has a well maintained leased store base with over 90% of its stores haven't been remodeled or upgraded in the last 10 years. We expect to close the transaction in Q3 of this year with timing dependent on U. S. And Mexican regulatory approvals as well as customary closing conditions. With respect to financing, we will finance this $620,000,000 acquisition at Bodega Latina with fully committed financing from Bank of America, EBVA and Scotiabank. At the closing of the acquisition, Supercellari's consolidated pro form a net debt to EBITDA ratio is expected to be 1.1x. The Game of Latina will also refinance its existing debt post transaction. We believe the acquisition of Smart and Final will provide short and long term strategic benefits. It will primarily serve as a growth driver in the U. S. Both in terms of geographic footprint and strategic capabilities, such as e commerce and private label. At the same time, we will broaden and diversify our customer base, including business customers, which represent around 30% of Smart Vinyls sales. Another advantage is the limited integration required for the business as we intend to retain the strong existing management team, which is also located in Los Angeles. In summary, the Smart and Final business is a highly differentiated everyday low price warehouse style food retailer with strategic locations that combine the key assortment and convenience of conventional grocers with the pack sizes and value of our warehouse clubs and discounters. It effectively serves both household and business customers with no membership fee required, products priced at meaningful discounts to conventional grocers and modest premiums to warehouse clubs. The product mix combines high purchase frequency perishables with broad selection of warehouse club packs, strong private label offerings and key SKUs for small businesses. The strong value proposition includes a history of positive same store sales trends through economic cycles with strong share gain performance during the COVID-nineteen pandemic. Its unique valve orientation has proved defensive in nature as it has thrived not only during periods of economic growth but also during economic downturns. With that said, I'll now hand the call over to Antonio for his final remarks. Thank you, Carlos. Well, we are delighted to with this acquisition to create a leading diversified chain in North America that is due to, of course, Mexico and a multi format food retail platform in the U. S. Which consolidates pro form a sales in excess of $11,000,000,000 We are convinced that the acquisition of Smart and Final will not only allow us to expand into new geographies and demographies of the U. S, but also create value for Grupo Echebrabi and stakeholders. With support, I once again express our appreciation. Lastly, I would like to express my appreciation to Apollo Global Management, whose work on placing smart and final as a leading retailer speaks for itself. Now if you allow me, we will go direct to Q and A session, please. We will now start the Q and A session. The first question is from Mr. Robert Ford from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Good morning, everybody, and congratulations on the deal. Antonio Carlos, how are you thinking about procurement in other synergies given the intent to maintain the dual administrative structures? And as you assess some of the struggling fiestasores, is there a role for Smart and Final in Texas? And when you think about Mexico, can you expand a little bit on the JV structure that exists in Mexico and how you're thinking about maybe accelerating that expansion within Mexico? It seems as if the warehouse concepts have been one of the big bright spots in the last few years. Thank you, Bob. Carlos, maybe you can talk about the synergies and growth in Texas and then I'll take a look at the Mexico part. Yes. Bob, how are you? Bob, thank you for your question. Yes, what we as we said, the Smart and Final management team is very, very strong and the lack of need for full integration like we've done in the past. This is not really a turnaround story like Fiesta was. So it allows us to allow Smart and Pharma's management to continue to operate at a very, very high level as they have been doing. And our job is to add value to the work that they're doing. As you can imagine, we have a significant overlap on the Hispanic store division with Smart and Final when it comes to items that we both sell, common so common items, common vendors. And yes, we think that there are very, very strong purchasing synergy possibilities that we will look to achieve. The benefit of both teams being in Los Angeles very close together makes that possibility very, very doable. Smart Vinyl is a great vehicle for growth in geographies where we now pack. Once you take a look at the overlap that our store footprints have, our positioning in California is enviable. As you know, we're already in Arizona and Nevada and the similar markets where Smart and Final is. But Smart and Final is not in Texas, and it is a format that could be very attractive for some of the small towns in Texas. The format hits different demographics very, very well. And we're excited about the opportunity of evaluating how Smart and Final could be launched in other geographies, distribution being a key component of how that growth is deployed. Thank you, Carlos. Well, about Mexico, as we already informed, they have a small partner has a successful joint venture with the Fimbres family, the owners of Calimax for Baja California and Sonora. Now they operate 16 stores very successfully. And we think there is a huge opportunity to expand the format in other regions of Mexico. There's also an opportunity for us to start a presence, a retail presence in Northern Oaxaca, California, where we don't have any presence at all and Sonora. So I think it's a great opportunity for Rupo Chebray with this format in Mexico. We think that this format that serves businesses as well as households, it's a great opportunity for regions where there is a big tourist activity, for example, to supply hotels, restaurants, etcetera. So the opportunities for this format in Mexico, in my opinion, are big as well. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations again. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Joaquin Le from Itau. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning, everybody, and thank you for the call. According to the data that we released yesterday, the EBITDA margin on U. S. GAAP for Smart Home Finance, about 4%. But I understand that sales performance in 2020 was particularly strong with same store sales about 11%. So when that normalizes, how should we think of margins for these leases going forward? And in order to make them compatible with your current operation in the U. S, how that 4% will look like under IFRS 16? And the 3.7x EBITDA at which you're buying, how does that multiple like under IFRS 16? Thank you. Thank you, Joaquin. Carlos, maybe you can talk about the margins. About multiples, let me just say that we try to do 3 synergies adjusted multiples without IFRS 16 in Mexico for the entry price value EBITDA multiple and to do comparable numbers. And it shows that in Mexico, we would be around 4.5x using the same type of multiples and calculations. With this acquisition, we grow to 3.7x. We are buying this small department at 3.7x. On enterprise value sales, we would be currently over 0.24x in Mexico, 0.24x. And this acquisition would be 0.13x. So those would be the comparable multiples, which I think are very accretive by Cebralo. I will allow Carlos to answer about the margins. Thank you, Joaquin. Yes. Thanks, Joaquin. So basic Joaquin, I think it's important to note that as we evaluated this transaction, we really stripped out most of the, what we believe to be onetime COVID effects. So having said that, you asked a little bit about same store sales growth of 11% during 2020. If you look at 'twenty one on a 2 year stack, we're looking at plus 7%. So still very, very healthy. You can imagine that during 2020, when COVID hit, a significant portion of their business was impacted, which is which is the business sector, right? That represents 30% of sales. It was quite impacted. To tell you the truth, I thought it would have been even more impacted than it was as we went through a due diligence, which shows me the leniency of the format. But all of that business, all of that excuse me, that consumer that's so important to Smart and Final is beginning to show a very strong turnover. And that goes to my comment about hedging earlier. During times when household consumers are bullish, smart and final does well. And when there's a lot of activity that's food away from home at the restaurants, Smart and Final does well there as well because of the business customers. So they're a very unique differentiated concept that is super well positioned and to manage some of these economic cycles. But on the cap, it's really plus 7% to your stack that we're looking at. Our next question is from Rodrigo Alcantara from UBS. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just have 2, 2 ones. A quick, a bit specific, just a follow-up on Joaquin's question. So looking here at your presentation, I'm looking at the EBITDA IFRS 16 of around $300,000,000 which implies roughly an EBITDA margin of 8%. So I was wondering if you can repeat the calculation of the EBITDA multiple that you pay on an IFRS 16 basis. If I hear correctly, you mentioned something closer to 4.5%, but not really sure if I'm getting the math correct here. Again, with an EBITDA of around $300,000,000 and an EV of around $6,000,000 and getting a multiple closer to 2x, right? So and according to the prospectus, this EV is already considering some leases. So I was wondering if you could help me to understand what I'm missing here. And from a and the other question, more like a long term question is, what does this implies for the growth strategy in Mexico, Antonio? What should we expect for the Mexican operations as you keep increasing your exposure in the U. S? I mean, in your view, the company is this in this position of inorganic growth in Mexico? Or you think that that's not an option considering the acquisition in the U. S? I was wondering if you can give us your view about the growth strategy in Mexico. That will be my 2 questions. Thank you, Rodrigo. Excuse me for my complicated answer, but the enterprise to EBITDA multiples that I just gave you are pre synergy and without IFRS 16. And we calculated then with just U. S. GAAP for both U. S. The new U. S. Operation, which is a small and final. And I did the comparison using the same methodology for Grupo Commercial Cereal. That's where I get 3.7 multiple in Smart and Final transaction, where we are currently trading using the training methodology at 4.55 multiple in Mexico using the same methodology. About growth in Mexico, we are very open to keep growing in Mexico organically or if there comes to the table any consolidation opportunities at the right price, and let me say it again, at the right price, we will be more than welcome to follow any possibility. We think we are going great in Mexico. We are gaining market share. We're being able to grow same store sales stronger than our competition. So we believe Mexico is still a bigger opportunity for Cebral. The problem is that at the moment, we're not seeing any consolidation opportunities at the right price in Mexico. But if there comes to the table, for sure, we'll go and look at it and try to pursue it. Organically, we'll keep growing in Mexico as we projected in our guidance. And we believe that, that will continue in the next coming years. Yes. That's very clear. Thanks for the clarification. And just a quick one for Carlos. You were very clear on the justification for the acquisition, right? So just to rephrase a bit, why not to acquire an asset that could enhance the scale of within the Hispanic market? I mean, why to acquire this why to enter this cash and carry format and not increasing your scale in the Hispanic market? That would be my final question. Well, thank you, Rodrigo. I don't think anybody had said that we will not continue to look for opportunities to acquire anybody in the Hispanic market space. It turns out, as you well know, that we are today the largest Hispanic food retailer in the United States. Our footprint is very, very strong and defensible in some of the key markets, right? So if you look at our Houston market, we are the strongest operator. If you look at Dallas, same thing. If you look at Los Angeles, we spread from the coast all the way to the Inland Empire. So in many cases, some of the other Hispanic operators, we have significant overlap in terms of store count, right? So we've been very careful about there's really in those circumstances, there's really no value to us when we look at a situation like that. But we certainly believe that there are other targets in other markets that we can grow our Hispanic division. Understood. That's very that makes sense. Thank you very much, Carlos, for that answer. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Sebastian Luparia from Fondamenta. Please go ahead. Yes. Good morning. Congratulations on the transaction. I have a couple of questions. First, would it be possible that you expand a little bit further in the JV that you're entering in Mexico? What's your participation? Who will be the operator? And then what are the expansion plans there? Then it would be great if you can share with us a little bit the financing side. You mentioned you have Bank of America BBA among the leading banks. What should be expected to be the financing cost? And then the last question is here some numbers for 2020. Will it be possible that you can give us the net income for 2020 and also total revenues, EBITDA and net income for 2019? Thank you, Sebastian. I'll answer the JV question in Mexico, and then I'll let Humberto Tafoya answer the financing of the transaction. And then Carlos can take over the specific questions you have for the 2020 numbers in terms of sales and net income. Well, Well, the JV that Smart and Final has already in Mexico has an operating team that operates the 16 stores at the moment. It's a joint venture fifty-fifty with the Fimbres family. We will our plan is to continue that joint venture. They have done it very successfully. And we believe there's big opportunities to expand the format in Mexico. It's also a great opportunity for Cebri to start a presence in that region. We don't have presence at all at the moment. And we believe so it's both ways. We think that this joint venture will allow us to expand this format using the infrastructure already created to operate these 16 stores, but also to start the presence in that region for Grupo Chirale. It's a great, great opportunity. Humberto, maybe you can take over the financing for the transaction? Sure, sure, Tejas. Thank you very much. So, Ceva 10, at the end, it will be a syndicated loan, And it's for EUR 620,000,000 and the rate will be below 2% in dollars. And maybe Carlos, you can talk about the questions of sales and net income. Yes, it's Philip again. The sales in 2019 were $3,700,000,000 okay? The adjusted pre IFRS EBITDA was 145,000,000 dollars And from a net income standpoint, in 2019, Smart and Final flushed out quite a bit of onetime costs related to the spin off of the cash and carry. So the net income number is really low, but at this time for them because that's when Apollo sold that division to them. So it wouldn't make much sense to us to discuss that right now. But I think the important number is the pre IFRS EBITDA of $145,000,000 Okay. Great for sharing that. I'm trying to consolidate what was the asset base in 2019 at the time in which Apollo paid EUR 1,100,000,000. My understanding is that they divested some of the operations, including the food and service. That's why I was looking to those numbers. Do you have any color on that? What's the comparable base with what Apollo bought at that time? And then if you go to the history of the company, Apollo first got engaged in 2,007, then Zolik in 2012, the IPO and then got back in 2019. Do you know do you have any thinking out why Apollo is getting out at this moment? Well, if I may, I certainly can't opine on Apollo. You would have to ask Apollo those questions. For us, the focus is on the great differentiated format that we see under the Smart and Final side, the great potential for growth and the fantastic fit it has with our organization. Our next question is from Antonio Hernandez from Barclays. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question and hosting this call for further questions. My question is regarding the integration process. I mean, there's a ramp up on all of the integration of the different systems and all of that. Are you expecting further investments or costs that you're going to be facing there as you integrate operations both in the U. S. And Mexico? Thanks. Carlos, maybe you can talk about the integration and integration costs because actually, we're a small and final. It's going to be consolidated within the U. S. So basically, the integration will be done by Bordeaux Latina. But let me just say that it's also good news that they do operate with the same systems that we currently use in Mexico, which is SAP, that will help us integrate financially a very simple, the whole consolidated company. But Candace will talk about the integration of the small and final into the development team. Yes. Thank you, Alberto. Look, as Antonio said, that's another one of the very attractive components of what we're looking at here. Let me back up by saying that unlike previous acquisitions that we've made, this is a company that is very, very well run and has a very, very strong management team. It is not a turnaround story like we've had acquisitions in the past that require immediate integration of many processes and functions. That is not the case here. Our role in the initial stages is to provide assistance and create additional value to the management team. As I mentioned in my remarks, the store base is recently remodeled and in very good maintenance shape. So we don't anticipate additional CapEx to bring the fleet up to standard. They've done a fantastic job. And from the system side, as Antonio mentioned, it mirrors a lot of what we're doing, both in the U. S. And in Mexico. So that was another very attractive benefit of what we're looking at here. Perfect. Thanks a lot, and have a nice day. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Alvaro Garcia from BTG Pactual. Please go ahead. Hi, Antonio Carlos. Thanks for the call and congrats on the transaction. My first question is on the original warehouse or I know there was 2 businesses that Apollo bought, right, that's just been referenced in the call. And my question is, if there were any synergies that the business you bought benefited from that warehousing business, from that other cash and carry business, which is no longer part of the company. Is there anything that any sort of dependence that existed that was crucial or important there that you might not have going forward? Or let's say, maybe 2020, obviously, as a standalone on a standalone basis, it's very likely operating on a standalone basis. Is there anything to be worried about there? That's my first question. Alvaro, good morning. Our assessment during the due diligence process is to look at the Smart and Final under its current state. So I would tell you that we don't really have a window into that, but it's meaningless from our standpoint because of the terrific performance in 2020 that reflects them as a stand alone operation. And we view our ability to provide value to them as significant in terms of improving their EBITDA. Great. So there's no sort of distribution relationships or relationships between both entities today? Certainly, from a supply chain standpoint, nothing. Right. And then a couple of other questions. One more for T. J. You mentioned the long term potential of e commerce and private label, private label specifically. And just sort of if you could expand on sort of what you're thinking is there long term? And then my second question is just, I was wondering if you could compare this format to a JETRO. How would it compare to something like a JETRO restaurant? Because he has much more focused on restaurants, but if there's any sort of comparable element to both of those stories. Thank you. Thanks for that question. I think 2 very important points. Smart and Final's e commerce penetration is very, very strong. They do about 4% of their sales through their e commerce platform, primarily through Instacart. They do very, very well there. And we still think I think Smart and Final believes that there are significant opportunities to strengthen that area. So we're eager to learn from them and to help them grow their e commerce penetration. Private label is a very a significant strength at Smart and Final. About 28% of their sales come through private label, which is outstanding. They have a brand called First Street, which has a very strong customer preference, And we're eager to understand that portion of the business and see how that can be deployed. Some of those capabilities can be deployed to the Hispanic division and even to Chiragali. So how it compares to JETRO? I think I'm not an expert on JETRO, but from what I do know is that we're dealing with a company that is 100% or mostly business oriented customers. And our format is a much more diversified customer base with household and 30% business customer. Great. Great. Thank you very much and congrats again on the deal. Great deal. Thank you. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Miguel Ulloa from BBVA. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Could you provide us with some guidance in terms of EBITDA margin going forward? What kind of margins should we expect for this new acquisition? Thank you very much. That was really difficult to talk about the small and final EBITDA margin. And then with the projections, I think that Arturo can send everybody the projections, the new guidance that we have, how it's going to change with the consolidation of Smar and Smar and China. But what we would project, it's a post IFRS 16 for 12 months operation of little higher than $820,000,000 But Arturo will send the new guidance including these numbers. So Carlos, maybe you can talk about the EBITDA margin projections for Smart and Final? Yes. So on a our 2021 projection for Smart and Final on a post IFRS 16 EBITDA number is a margin of 7.1%. Okay. And then of that, say, looking into the next 2 or 3 years, do you think you can expand that? Or do you think that's the roof that you're expecting? Look, we bought it because we think that there's a tremendous amount of potential. So I don't think anybody would acquire another company thinking that the first 12 months represent the roof. Thank you, Marcos. Thank you, Barry. Just consolidating purchases from vendors, the buying power we acquire, it's very, very important in the U. S. So we believe there's opportunity of margin expansion in starting panel, but also in our current operation in the U. S, just because of buying power that we are acquiring with this acquisition. I think that this puts us in a very optimal situation with the vendors in the region. Our next question is from Sergio Matsumoto from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Carlos, can you give me a comparison with El Super and Fiesta on how SmartTown Final looks in terms of things that you can kind of know at this time, like the locations, the stores in the suburbs or inner cities or how do the store size compare The number of SKUs that they carry? The overlap of suppliers? How do gross margins compare? Labor expenses, is it more or less than your existing operations? And are they affiliated with unions? Things like that, if you could share some of that, that would be great. Thanks. Sure. There's a lot of that that we've already shared in some of the decks that have been distributed. But let me start by talking about the footprint. So we actually have some of our stores located close to some of the Smart and Final stores, but it's not a significant overlap. The Smart and Final stores are located in areas where you can count on any type of demographic. They do well in lower income neighborhoods, and they do well in some higher income neighborhoods. So the concept travels very well across demographics as well as income levels, which is very attractive. Store size, they have 2 concepts, as you know, the Smart and Final Legacy and the Smart and Final Extra. The difference between the legacy and the Extra is primarily size of the store. Our legacy store is 16,000 square feet and then Extra is typically about 28,000 square feet. Now the other difference is the penetration of fresh categories. And now Super is about 45,000 to 50,000 square feet average size. As you know, we are very, very strong on the perishable side. Smart and Final does very well on the perishable side, and one of the objectives is to continue to grow the penetration of that category in sales. As you know, it is a nonunion workforce, which complements our strategy. And let's see, 60,000 SKUs at the Smart and Final concept, probably very similar for us. We're probably just above 10,000 SKUs on the No Super side. So a big difference is the penetration in perishables. We do over 50% on the Hispanic division, and SmartFond will be doing about 37%. Yes, that's great. Is it fair to assume that with the private label penetration so high, the gross margin is fairly higher at SmartZone Final? Well, their labor model, look, the important thing to compare is margin versus operating expenses. And their operating model is very, very lean. Average number of employees per store is about 45. So something that was very attractive for us is how efficiently they operate their stores, lots to learn from that angle. And when you do that, it allows you to be very, very aggressive with your pricing. So that's a formula that we like quite a bit. Something I didn't mention, Sergio, and guttailing to what Antonio was saying earlier, even though the two formats are different and unique in how they go to market, the vendor overlap is significant. So they sell certain brands, mainstream brands, let's call it Mazola Oil. We sell Mazola Oil. La Costena Chile, they sell La Costena products. So the vendor overlap is strong. And as Antonio mentioned, we see good opportunities for purchasing synergies. The distribution network is very well positioned, both in Southern California and Northern California, which we hope to take advantage of as well. Thank you. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Rodrigo Echadaray. Please go ahead. Thank you for the call, everyone, and congrats on the transaction. Two questions from my end. It seems that some of the assets you've acquired in the U. S, you've purchased from private equities. And so it is a bit surprising to see such a low IFRS, if I understand correctly, it's around 2 times EBITDA. So why do you think that you seem to have found an opportunity in the Hispanic market, which is pretty large? And what is it that you guys are doing that these private equities could not figure out in the past in such a large market? And then the second question is related to returns. I mean, obviously, you are finding very cheap assets in the U. S. You also can access very cheap financing. So, arguably, returns, despite a very competitive landscape, arguably, much more than Mexico, are potentially higher than the returns in Mexico. How do you compare and contrast? How do you think about strategic M and A in both regions given the differences in the competitive landscape, the financing and the valuations that you are able to pay for these assets? Thank you. Carlos, maybe you can answer the first question, and then I'll try to answer the returns. Yes. Well, Rodrigo, thank you for your question. I think that, first of all, I cannot speak for how private equity groups go about their strategic assessments of some of these assets. But for us, one thing that is clear is that we firmly believe that these assets benefit once a strategic buyer with long term holding objectives takes over. Some of the things that you need to do at some of these assets require patience. They require investment and they require the knowledge of an operator that knows the market and knows the business. That's where we see a tremendous amount of potential. Antonio, would you like to address the returns issue? I think that Rodrigo mentioned cheap assets and components of low cost financing, which are obviously very attractive to us. Yes. Well, about the returns, returns are going to be very, very attractive. I think we're buying a great company with a great team that is operating successfully. It's not a turnaround that we're buying at an extraordinary price that fits our strategy perfect. So returns are going to be higher at consolidated level. And they are actually higher at the moment in the U. S. Than what we have in Mexico. The cost of capital, it's very low for this transaction. So this is going to add value and it's going to be very, very accretive for us. So yes, it's going to show how it turns for us, Rodrigo. And so if I understand correctly, you're obviously open to M and A in both regions. But given that you are finding bigger opportunities at cheaper prices in the U. S, close the cost of financing and the higher returns, I mean, would it be fair to say that it makes more sense for now to continue consolidating your presence in the U. S. Rather than trying to do the same in Mexico? Well, in Mexico, it has been difficult to consolidate because the retail format that currently we are operating in Mexico usually are family businesses. There is a lot of innovation involved into them. So the prices that have come to the table are quite high, where we think there's very limited opportunity to predict the returns that we're looking for. But that does not mean that we are not looking for opportunities. We're looking for opportunities, but at the right price. We are very conscious about these. That's why we have not done some of the acquisitions that have been on the table in Mexico in the past because we believe they were expensive. And if one comes at the right price, for sure, we'll pursue it and we'll go after it. But it has to be at the right price. On the other hand, we will keep growing organically in Mexico with this new format that we're acquiring in Mexico in the joint venture that we have that we will have with the Fingos family, it brings a new opportunity to grow stronger and faster. And that's what I think about the opportunities in Mexico, Kevin. Got it. If I can just ask one last question. So obviously, you are looking for assets, physical assets in both regions. And I just wonder how do you think about investments on the technology side or even partnerships and acquisitions of startups? Obviously, with COVID, these become a lot more important. And I just wonder if you feel like you don't necessarily need to pursue those type of assets as of yet and rather continue to grow the store base? We would be open to both. Actually, our strategy is to open doors with any e commerce operator that wants to partner with us to develop strength and to be able to offer the customer the best possible experience. Right now, we partner commercially talking with Coreshop in Mexico and the U. S, Instacart in the U. S, Rappi in Mexico. We are planning to partner with MercadoLibre in Mexico and to expand that partnership. So we're open to partner with anyone that opens doors to customers to buy the products we retail in our stores and use our store presence not only to share physically the customers but as well as a base to serve the e commerce platform. So we are very, very open, Rodrigo, for that. Currently, in Mexico, we sell more than 5% than 4% through our e commerce platforms, our own as well as the 3rd party operators where we have partnered already with. Got it. Thank you for the color. You're welcome. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your questions. That was the last question. I will now hand over to Mr. Antonio Chirrau Eguia for final comments. Thank you all. I just want to close in that we really bought a great company with a great team of people at an extraordinary price that is going to fit perfectly in our strategy. Thank you, and I hope to be talking to you soon. Any further information, please go direct to Arturo and Olivia as well share everything we have and that you need to understand better this acquisition. Thank you so much. All conference hosts have hung up. This conference is over. Thank you.