Good morning, everyone, and welcome.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this webinar to discuss the results of the fourth quarter 2024 of Grupo Carso. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this event is being recorded and that information discussed today may include forward-looking statements regarding the company's financial and operating performance. All projections are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Hosting this conference today is Mr. Arturo Spínola, Chief Financial Officer of Grupo Carso, and me, Angélica Piña, of Investor Relations, who will take you briefly through the fourth quarter financial results, and then we will take your questions. Consolidated sales of Grupo Carso totaled MXN 59 billion, growing 6.6% in the quarter. Grupo Condumex, Elementia- Fortaleza, Grupo Sanborns, Carso Energy increased its revenues related to positive impacts coming from higher volumes, holiday season, and the exchange rate.
On the other hand, it is important to mention that Zamajal, the hydrocarbons operation which started consolidating in the past quarter and is in the developing process, contributed with an additional MXN 364 billion. Due to the completion of large infrastructure projects, Carso Infraestructura y Construcción posted a 5.8% reduction. Consolidated operating income reached MXN 7 billion versus MXN 6.4 billion in the fourth quarter 2023. This reflected mainly a higher profitability coming from Grupo Sanborns and Elementia- Fortaleza, and to a lesser extent from Carso Energy and Condumex, while CICSA reduced their operating income. Consolidated EBITDA for Grupo Carso from October to December 2024 was MXN 9.2 billion compared to MXN 8.6 billion a year ago. The EBITDA margin improved by 20 basis points from 15.5% to 15.7%.
The consolidated controlling net income grew 27.1%, reaching MXN 4.2 billion, higher than MXN 3.3 billion last year, reflecting both better operating and financial results. The performance by division was. Grupo Sanborns recorded higher sales with a 2.2% increase due to El Buen Fin promotions, the launch of new technology models, and higher fashion sales. Operating income totaled MXN 2.5 billion compared to MXN 1.1 billion a year ago. This improvement in profitability was explained by a 23.1% reduction in operating expenses since an extraordinary item related to credit provisions was recorded last year. EBITDA went up 75.8%, with an EBITDA margin that recovered from 7.4% to 12.7%. Net income improved 83.6%. Regarding the sales floor, the retail area ended with 451 stores due to the opening of three iShops, two DAX, and the closing of two Sears stores.
In the industrial division, Grupo Condumex sales totaled MXN 12.7 billion versus MXN 10.3 billion in the same quarter of last year. This improvement in performance came primarily from higher sales of construction and automotive cables and harnesses. Regarding operating income and EBITDA, these items reached MXN 1.3 billion and MXN 1.5 billion, a higher profitability compared to MXN 1.2 billion and MXN 1.2 billion a year ago, respectively. Carso Infraestructura y Construcción sales totaled MXN 10.9 billion. The divisions that had the best performance were manufacturing and services for the oil and chemical industry, with additional turnkey comprehensive works for land reading and civil construction, which improved due to the progress in construction of private projects. The performances mentioned before offset lower volumes observed in infrastructure, where the Tren Maya is currently in administrative closure, and pipelines where lower telecom networking installations were recorded.
The operating income and EBITDA in CICSA went down 58.4% and 53.7%, respectively. Controlling net income reduced 52.1%, totaling MXN 749 million. The projects currently in place are telecom installation services, equipment for the petrochemical industry, drilling of deep wells for Pemex, the construction of shopping centers, hospitals, apartment buildings, and the conclusion of the Mitla-Tehuantepec Highway. The backlog totaled MXN 23.9 billion compared to MXN 33.3 billion a year ago. The sales of Elementia- Fortaleza increased 12.3% from MXN 7.8 billion in the fourth quarter 2023 to MXN 8.8 billion in the fourth quarter 2024. This was related to higher volumes from its three divisions, coupled with the peso appreciation, since most of these divisions' revenues are generated outside of Mexico, either from exports or commodity-based.
Due to better margins in cement and an extraordinary item from the declaration of assets in cement USA recorded last year, operating income and EBITDA grew 344% and 24.6%, respectively. Carso Energy's performance in the fourth quarter improved 9.7%, with total sales of MXN 959 million. This was attributable to an increase in tariffs from natural gas transportation services from the pipelines of Waha-Presidio and Waha-San Elizario in Texas, USA, and the Samalayuca-Sásabe pipeline. The operating income and EBITDA of Carso Energy were MXN 733 million and MXN 842 million, with increases of 10.2% and 12.5%, respectively. The net result totaled MXN 356 million. Lastly, beginning in the third quarter, the oil operations to explore and exploit the Ichalkil and Pokoch fields in the Campeche coast are being recorded and consolidated within the Grupo Carso numbers, where additional MXN 364 million in revenues were recorded at the Zamajal division.
Due to startup activities, the operating result was a loss of MXN 313 million pesos, while EBITDA totaled MXN 243 million pesos versus a loss of MXN 2.3 million pesos a year ago. With this, I finish my general comments to proceed to the Q&A session. Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand and we will open your microphone. Carlos, I think your microphone is open now.
Hello, good morning. Thank you very much for the call and congratulations for the results. I have two questions. The first one, where do you plan to invest the cash from the sale of Giant Cement Holding? And could you give us more color on what percentage of Condumex sales growth can be contributed to the favorable exchange rate and how much to higher volumes? Thank you.
Thank you, Carlos. Regarding the Giant Cement Holding plants that we are selling this year, part of the, you know, we own 55% of that company. The rest, 45%, is owned by a Spanish company. Then we are going to obtain around $300 million. Part of that money is to pay credit to Fortaleza Holding and the rest to invest in the plants in Mexico mainly. On the other hand, regarding the Condumex sales, as you know, the exchange rate has an increase around 14% if compared with the fourth quarter of 2023. But in the case of the automotive sector, we are increasing not just for the exchange rate, but for new businesses that we are obtaining in the last months. Then more or less 60% of the increase in the sales is regarding the exchange rate, and the rest is high volumes, mainly in the harnesses division.
That is the main reason.
Okay, thank you, Arturo.
You're welcome.
Hello, Emilio. Your microphone is open now.
Hi, Arturo. Hi, Angélica. A quick one regarding Zamajal. Could you provide some details?
I think my microphone wasn't working, but can you hear me now?
Yes.
Yes, Emilio. Just a minute, Miguel. Emilio, go ahead. Thank you.
Sure.
Thank you for taking my question. I got two questions. Firstly, regarding Grupo Sanborns' increase in EBITDA performance, can you give us a little more color what was the reason for this? And is it due to an improvement on collection performance or in the credit portfolio? And secondly, I was wondering if you could give a little detail on your 2025 guidance. Thank you.
Yes, Emilio. In Grupo Sanborns, if you remember the last year, I mean 2023, we had some corrections in our clients' accounts, and we recorded a negative impact, an important negative impact, and that was the main reason of the increase in the EBITDA in this year. On the other hand, we have now a better control. We have regulated the accounts with our customers. We changed some policies, and now we are having a good level in bureaus and other matters regarding the accounts that are available. That was the main reason of the increase, is mostly because of the negative effect that we recorded the last year. And the second one was about the 2025 year.
In the case of the industrial division, we have good perspectives because we are having new businesses in the harnesses division, and we are looking for more customers in the rest of the world for the cables division, and as you see, we are increasing our sales, and we are confident about this year for the industrial division. We think that the problems that we are facing with the U.S. and the new decisions of the government of that country, we are confident about the effects, the possible effects, because the main products that we manufacture in Mexico, the harnesses, is a little difficult to go back to the U.S. because we are intensive in labor, in blue-collar. I mean, we have around 15,000 people working in that, then we are confident about our situation, but we need to wait what is going to do the new USA government.
In the case of the construction division, the CICSA, as you know and all we know, this is a government change year. We don't expect the new projects maybe in the second semester of this year, but we are going to reduce mainly our sales in the infrastructure division. We are confident about the civil construction division, the services for the oil companies, mainly Pemex, the installation, etc. We are going to have. I don't think we are going to reach the same level of sales that we obtained in 2024. Maybe we are going to decrease around 9%-10% this year, but we are confident about the next years in this division. We accomplish all of the projects with the government, and we are confident about the future because of our results in the Mayan train and other projects with the government.
Regarding Grupo Sanborns, we now have our credit system improved. We are now with a better control, and now we are optimizing all of the floor sales. I mean, we are reducing in the cases that we do not have the profitability that we expect. As you know, we closed some stores in the last months, but we are opening other stores, for example, in the case of Saks or iShop. Then our goal is to improve the efficiency of the sales floor, and we are waiting maybe a two-digit increase for the next years. In the case of construction materials, I mean, Elementia and Fortaleza, we are improving our margins. We are increasing our sales. That is a result of the increase of our capacity in Laredo and other plants.
We are increasing our sales, our exportation sales, and we are optimizing our lines in Mexico as in the copper materials, cement, and fiber cement products. We are expecting an increase for the next year's work of 5% or 6% in the case of Carso Energy, the construction materials. Carso Energy, our division of pipelines and hydroelectric plants, as you know, we begin with the fourth pipeline that we are going to have in the north of Mexico, the Centauro del Norte, Centauro del Norte. That pipeline is going to be ready in two years, more or less. When we finish that pipeline, we are going to increase our sales, our consolidated sales in around 80%, increasing our sales of Samalayuca-Sásabe pipeline.
On the other hand, we expect that with the new government in Mexico to obtain our permits to continue with our geothermal projects in Mexico. Finally, our Zamajal division, that is where we purchase PetroBal, and we have the investment in Talos, Mexico. We are going to continue in our developing phase, and we are going to increase our production in the case of PetroBal in this year, maybe to the double because of the newest drills that we are going to do. In the case of Talos, we are going to continue with the investment, but in the Zama camp, maybe we are going to take two or three years more in order to begin the production. That is the general guidance for this year in the different divisions.
It's going to be a year maybe with surprises, but we are confident that we are going to face in the best way. Thank you, Emilio.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Miguel Ulloa. Miguel, we are opening your microphone.
Hi. Thanks for the space and the conference. The first one would be regarding Zamajal and the margins that you reached during the quarter. Could you provide some color why the profitability is so big, and if you're expecting similar levels going forward?
Thank you, Miguel. Good morning. Yes, regarding Zamajal, as you know, we are now even in the developing phase, but we are going to have an important investment in this year. Now we are having sales for MXN 300 million per quarter, but we are going to increase around MXN 600 million maybe for the fourth quarter. That is our goal. As you know, it depends on the result of our new drills and exploration phase. We have an important task for this year in this project as in the Lakach project that is part of Zamajal too. Regarding the margin, we are closing the year with about 15%-16% EBITDA margins for the group. We have good possibilities to increase our margin in Condumex and in Elementia- Fortaleza, but as a group, we are expecting about 15%-16% EBITDA for the 2025 year.
That is our goal, Miguel.
Thanks. That's helpful. But in particular for Zamajal, what kind of profitability should we expect going forward?
In Zamajal, maybe we are going to look for the breakeven because we have a lot of expenses in order to conclude our exploration phase, but maybe we are going to eliminate the losses. But an important profitability may be to the 2026 year or 2027. This year is not going to be maybe with the earnings for this division.
Thank you very much, Arturo.
You're welcome, Miguel.
Our next question comes from Bernardo Malpica. We are opening your microphone, Bernardo. You can.
Hi. Thank you so much for taking my question. My question is regarding Grupo Sanborns. I just want to understand what is both the short-term and medium-term plan in terms of store openings for Grupo Sanborns. If we could get a bit of color for that.
Yes. Thank you, Bernardo. New stores, we are having just for the DAX format and the iShop. We have some projects in this year, maybe 10 or 15 stores in the rest of the year, maybe in the DAX format. We have maybe four or five iShop stores for the rest of the year. But on the other hand, we are optimizing our sales floor in the case of Sears Sanborns and the retail formats. That is our plan, is more to invest in optimizing the sales floor than not to open a long store.
All right. Perfect. Thank you so much.
Can you repeat the question?
Alejandro Azar Wabi.
Hello, Alejandro. We are opening your microphone.
Hola. Hola, Angélica. Arturo, thanks for taking my question. Just a quick one, Arturo. What do you expect to do on CapEx for this year? And does that include oil projects in Zamajal? And that's it. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you, Alejandro. Good morning. We have an important year in order to CapEx because we have an important investment not just in the hydrocarbons division, but in the industrial and Elementia and Carso Energy, then we are planning around $800 million for this year. In the case of the Zamajal projects, we are reviewing. Maybe could be a little more, a little more. But at least we are facing $800 million for this year in the different divisions.
Okay. And one more, if I may, Arturo, on Carso Energy and the compressor station, it's been a little bit hard to see almost an average of 6% growth year over year in the second half of 2024. What's the business that's doing bad there? The hydroelectric plants. If you would separate how much the Samalayuca is doing on EBITDA, can you give us some color on that? Out of the 3 billion EBITDA you generated for the full year, how much is the Samalayuca gas pipeline?
Yes, Alejandro. Maybe it's important to say the Samalayuca-Sásabe increased around 25%-27% in sales because of the compression station that we began in May, June of the last year, of the 2024 year. On the other hand, the hydroelectric plants faced a decrease in the price of the energy in the region, and we have for around two or three months, one of the hydroelectric plants stopped because of a maintenance issue. We must have a better result in this year because the increase in the Samalayuca-Sásabe pipeline sales were compensated with a decrease in the hydroelectric plants. We are expecting an EBITDA of 85 or 88% in the case of the pipeline, and in the case of the hydroelectrics, it all depends on the situation of the pricing and the water levels in the region that we face in this year.
Okay. And I'm sorry, one more if I may, Arturo. On Elementia, I was surprised by the sale of the plant. What is your strategy in the Fortaleza, in the cement business? I mean, you're going to be left out with smaller plants in the U.S. Are you planning to divest those assets and focus entirely on Mexico? And on Mexico, what is your current capacity with all the expansions that you've made since you took over this subsidiary? And where do you want to take the capacity in the next two, three years if you guys have an objective or a target?
It's important to say, Alejandro, the sale in the U.S. of the giant plants were more strategic projects because we were having not the best results in that plants in the U.S. The company that is purchasing that plant is a company that had an important presence in the U.S. Then for us, it was a good opportunity to sell. I think it's a very good price that we are obtaining by the dollar because we were having MXN 25 million-MXN 28 million EBITDA per year. Then I think it was a very good deal. On the other hand, we want to concentrate in Mexico and in the rest of Latam. As you know, in the case of Cementos, we have that in El Salvador and Costa Rica. In Elementia business, we are in Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, etc., Honduras, etc.
Then we are going to concentrate in Mexico and in the rest of Latam. We are going to decrease the volume this year because of the sale of Giant Cement Holding, but we are going to increase our margin. That is our goal for this year and to continue the increase of our capacities with that money. That is the plans, Alejandro.
Okay. Great. And on Mexico, Arturo, if you can comment on your current capacity after, I don't know if you made some debottleneckings. Are you planning to add additional capacity in Mexico?
Yes. I don't have now the final numbers, Alejandro, but let me confirm that and I can share.
Okay. What's your view on Cement Mexico, Arturo, for this year?
Maybe the last quarter, maybe the last two quarters, we were seeing an increase of the demand in Mexico. I mean, the construction, not just in cement, but in cables and other products that we sell for the construction division. And it seems that we are recuperating the demand in that kind of products. We are confident about the next quarter because we are seeing new plans of the government in order to do infrastructure projects, etc. And as you know, we are in CICSA having important private projects as hospitals, more shopping centers, etc. And we are consuming our own cement. Then we think we have a good opportunity to increase our demand in Mexico. We are seeing good signals about that.
Okay. Thank you very much for your time and for my questions, both.
Thank you, Alejandro.