Greetings, and welcome to the Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, OMA fourth quarter 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Emmanuel Camacho, Investor Relations Officer. Thank you. You may begin.
Thank you, Melissa, good morning, everyone. Welcome to OMA's fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Joining me this morning are CEO Ricardo Dueñas and CFO Ruffo Pérez Pliego. Please be reminded that certain statements made during the course of our discussion today may constitute forward-looking statements, which are based on current management expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including factors that may be beyond our control. With that, I will turn the call over to Ricardo Dueñas for his opening remarks.
Thank you, Emmanuel. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. This morning, I will highlight several important events and milestones. I will briefly review our operational performance and financial results. Finally, we will be pleased to answer your questions. First of all, in December 2022, VINCI Airports finalized the process for the acquisition of 29.99% of Series B and Series BB shares of OMA, which made VINCI Airports our largest shareholder. As part of the process, prior to the closing of the transaction, OMA held a shareholders meeting in which six new proprietary members of the board, all of them part of the VINCI Group, were appointed, and the resignation of the six former proprietary members of our board was accepted.
I would like to express my gratitude to our former board members, and I would also like to welcome our six new board members, which I am certain will contribute to OMA's value creation across the board. VINCI Airports is the world's largest private airport operator, managing 65 airports in 12 countries, and served 255 million passengers in 2019. Some of the assets managed by VINCI Airports include London Gatwick and Lisbon airports. At OMA, we expect to leverage from VINCI board expertise in managing and developing airport infrastructure and to adopt best practices to provide a world-class service to our passengers. In other news, in January, OMA was recognized for the second year in a row as one of the 12 Mexican companies to be part of the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index.
Last Monday, we held an ordinary shareholders meeting where shareholders approved the declaration and payment of an extraordinary cash dividend to shareholders up to MXN 1.45 billion and delegated to the board the power to determine the amount and dates of payments. Yesterday, we published a press release announcing that we will distribute an extraordinary dividend of MXN 1.45 billion to shareholders on March 2nd of this year. Payment of this dividend reinforces our objective of optimizing our capital structure. Moving on to annual performance. OMA delivered a strong performance in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2022. For the full year, we served records for passenger traffic, revenues, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, and consolidated net income.
I will start by discussing our full year's 2022 highlights, and then I will move on to our main Q4 2021 results. In 2022, our positive passenger traffic performance reflected a strong recovery in volumes from business-related routes as compared to 2021. The routes with the largest passenger increase were Monterrey to Mexico City, Monterrey to Guadalajara, and Ciudad Juárez to Mexico City, all of them business-oriented routes. Also posting strong increases in 2022 were the Monterrey-Tijuana and the Monterrey-Cancún routes. In total, these five routes jointly added a total of 1.9 million additional passengers, representing 36% of the total 5.2 million passenger increase during the year. Additionally, during the year, we opened 31 new routes, of which 20 were international.
We believe there is room for strong and continued passenger traffic growth prospects as business opportunities in Mexico continue to expand. As a result of our solid performance, 12-month passenger traffic stood at a new record level of 23.2 million passengers, which represents a 29% growth as compared to 2021 and has outpaced by 0.2% our 2019 levels. I am proud to say that the effects of the pandemic and traffic performance are clearly behind us. On the financial performance front, aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues reached record levels in 2022, growing each by 23% versus 2019.
As a result, our adjusted EBITDA for the year was MXN 7.1 billion, 27% above 2019. We set a new record for adjusted EBITDA margin, which expanded to 76.3%, aided importantly by our continued efficiency in our cost and expense structure. Consolidated net income for the year stood at MXN 3.9 billion, an increase of 21% versus 2019. During the year, we distributed value to our shareholders by paying out an aggregate of MXN 6.7 billion in dividends throughout the year and disbursed a total of MXN 3.3 billion in our Master Development Program commitments and on our strategic CapEx.
I will now review our fourth quarter operational performance. in fourth quarter of 2022, OMA's passenger traffic reached 6.5 million, an increase of 20.7% versus fourth quarter of 2021, and was 8.7% above the same quarter of 2019. The airports that led passenger traffic growth during the quarter were Monterrey, Ciudad Juarez, Culiacán, and Chihuahua. The routes with the strongest traffic growth compared to fourth quarter of 2021, all considered mainly business routes, were Monterrey to Mexico City, Toluca, Tijuana, Guadalajara routes. On the aggregate, these routes added 349,000 additional passengers in the quarter, an increase of 33% versus fourth quarter of 2021. Per-performance in fourth quarter 2022 confirms the current positive momentum of business travel segment in OMA's portfolio.
Primarily, as a result of the strongest passenger traffic performance, our aeronautical revenue grew by 26% in the quarter versus the fourth quarter of 2021 to MXN 2 billion. On the commercial front, revenues increased 35% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, driven by parking, car rentals, restaurants, VIP lounges, and retail. Occupancy rate for commercial space stood at 93.5% at the end of the year. Diversification revenues increased 24%. Our hotel services and OMA Cargo contributed most to this growth. In the fourth quarter of 2022, occupancy rate at our Terminal 2 NH Collection was 81.5%, while the Hilton Garden Inn hotel had an occupancy rate of 75.1%.
OMA Cargo delivered strong results once more as revenues increased 20% versus fourth quarter of 2021, mainly driven by the strong operation of air and ground imports cargo. On the capital expenditure front, total investments in the quarter, including MDP investments, major maintenance, strategic investments, were MXN 1.2 billion. During the quarter, some of the most relevant projects we're working on are: the remodeling of the Monterrey Airport Terminal A building, as well as the Ciudad Juarez and Culiacán terminal buildings. The configuration of the master plan terminal building. Major rehabilitations of platforms and taxiways in several airports. Platform reconfiguration at the Monterrey Airport. With that, I will now turn the call over to Grupo Aeroportuario for more detail on our financial highlights for the quarter.
Thank you, Ricardo, and good morning, everyone. I will briefly review our financial results. Then we'll open the call for your questions. Turning to OMA's fourth quarter financial results. Aeronautical revenues increased 26% relative to the fourth quarter of 2021, driven by the 21% increase in passenger traffic and an increase in our aeronautical tariffs implemented in the first quarter of last year. Non-aero revenues increased also 26.0%. Commercial revenues increased 34.6%. The categories with the highest growth were car parking, car rental, restaurants, VIP lounges, and retail. Parking revenues increased 46% due to higher penetration in the Chihuahua, Monterrey, and Culiacán airports as a result of improved business dynamism in those airports.
Car rentals, restaurants, and retail increased 58%, 28%, and 22% respectively, mainly due to higher revenue sharing and the opening of new commercial spaces. VIP lounges increased 48%, due primarily to the recognition of revenues from a direct operation, as well as an increase in number of users of the OMA Premium Lounge. Diversification activities increased 24%, reflecting the strong hotel operations and OMA Cargo's performance. Total aeronautical and non-aero revenues were MXN 2.6 billion in the quarter and grew 26% relative to the Q4 of 2021. Construction revenues increased 71% as a result of higher MDP investment execution.
The cost of airport services and G&A expense increased 15.9% relative to Q4 2021, mainly due to an increase in payroll expense as a result primarily of increased headcounts, higher salaries versus last year, and provisions, including statutory profit sharing. Other increases came at the contracted services line item, which grew due to overall higher activity in our airports. Insurance, which was partially offset by lower electricity expense as a result of a higher proportion of energy supplied from green sources. During the quarter, solar panels operating in our 13 airports generated 17% of OMA's energy consumption, and our airports were supplied more wind energy as compared to Q4 2021. Overall, during the quarter, 95% of our energy came from green sources.
Major maintenance provision was MXN 42 million as compared to MXN 118 million in Q4 2021. OMA's fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA reached MXN 1.9 billion, and the adjusted EBITDA margin was 75.8%. Our financing expense reached MXN 204 million, mainly due to higher interest expense as a result of additional debt issuance and the higher cost of debt. Consolidated net income was MXN 1.1 billion in the quarter, an increase of 11.8% relative to Q4 2021. Turning to our cash position. Cash generated from operating activities in the fourth quarter amounted to MXN 1.6 billion, and cash at the end of the quarter stood at MXN 3.4 billion.
At the end of the year, the total debt amounted to MXN 10.2 billion, and our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio stood at one times. In February of this year, we have started the process for the refinancing of our bonds maturing in 2023.
The refinancing is expected through the issuance of a new bond in the local markets in CEBUR. The terms and conditions are still being worked out, and we expect the issuance to close early in March. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the call for questions.
Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. Our first question comes from the line of Rodolfo Ramos with Bradesco BBI. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning, Ricardo, Rubén, Emanuel, thanks for taking my question. Just a couple on my side. The first one is, can you give us a little bit of your expectation in terms of your cost and G&A for this year? You know, there's a lot of moving parts. You know, you have payroll increasing sharply, and then you have, you know, these lower costs on the utility side. Just wanted to see whether you expect this number to be around MXN 400 million per quarter this year. Perhaps if you can elaborate on some of the cost pressures that the companies are seeing, whether it's vacation days, patient contributions.
If you can talk about that on your outlook for 2023, that would be very much appreciated. The second question is on alluding to some of your initial remarks, is on this value creation from having VINCI in your own... you know, as a controller, and on the board. If you can perhaps talk a little bit or elaborate a little bit more on, you know, where are the areas of opportunities that you see. You've been a couple of months, you know, having formally closed this control, this change in control.
Just wanted to see what are the priorities, some of the, you know, maybe if there's any operational changes that we can expect or something a little bit more big picture there, that would be great. Thank you. Everyone.
Sure. Rodolfo, let me. I'll take the second one. I'll leave Rubén to answer the first one. As for VINCI, we expect to leverage its operational commercial expertise to drive value creation at OMA. Some examples that have been identified on the build upon OMA strategy of the recent years are to continue to develop air service developments and increase international passenger mix, increase non-air revenues to improve commercial offering and diversification developments, leverage VINCI expertise in planning airport growth and expansion and cap this optimization, among others. As for management, they have given a vote of confidence to their current management, and we're working along with them very well. Rubén, do you want to answer the cost structure?
Sure. Thank you, Ricardo. Hi, Rodolfo. In terms of cost side, I think we should expect mostly inflationary increases going forward. The big surge in passenger growth that we experienced last year already had some pressure in our operational costs. As we expect stability in passenger growth in the coming months, we should also expect the same in cost side.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from line of Anton Morten Tadi with GBM. Please proceed with your question.
Hello, guys. Congrats on your results, and thank you for taking my question. It's just a quick one. I mean, I know that Aeromar is not significant on a consolidated basis, but I do know that they have strong operations in Acapulco and Tijuana airports. I was just wondering if you expect to see any impacts in those airports for your operations going forward or if any airline already took that market share?
Thank you, Anton. We've been anticipating this unfortunate event for some time. The, the participation of Aeromar Norma was very small, 0.6% of the traffic. That means there were other airlines covering that route. We expect all the traffic or the few traffic that was covered by Aeromar will be captured, very quickly by the rest of the airlines. In short, I don't see any impact going forward as a result of this unfortunate event.
Okay. Thank you. Just another quick one. What are you seeing in terms of trends for business travel? Talking about all of this nearshoring boom, though, are you actually seeing some... I mean, Monterrey has traffic has increased, but do you see this related to that? Or if you could provide some of your color there. Thank you.
yes, we're seeing the impact. We think the nearshoring fact that is real, is happening, and we're seeing it in our portfolio of airports. If you look at disaggregate the traffic performance in the last few months, nearshoring destinations, for example, Ciudad Juarez are growing at a much larger percentage than the average of the other OMA airports.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from line of Filipe Nielsen with Citi. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I have two questions on my side, and sorry, if you have already mentioned about that. I was curious about why did electricity and materials costs decline this quarter when we actually expected them to rise as everywhere else? The second question is regarding the tariffs. Like, do you see any risks of Mexican airports getting tariffs cut going forward when MDP negotiations start to resolve?
I'll take the first question, and then if you can repeat the second one because we couldn't hear completely. On the utility side, as you know, over the last 18 months, we invested in solar parks in all of our airports. In the fourth quarter of the year, our solar parks generated 17% of our total energy consumption, and that contributed significantly to the savings that you're seeing in the fourth quarter relative to the fourth quarter of 2021. With respect to your second question, if I may ask to rephrase it again.
Sure, sure. Thank you for the answer on the first one. The second one was regarding airport tariffs. Do you see any risks of Mexican airport tariffs getting cut during the negotiations of the next MDP developments?
I mean, we're still three years for the next negotiation. We're up for the November 2025, actually two years. Still too far, but the regulatory framework has been very clear. It is straightforward, and the Annex 7 is a concession title. It has been working well, and we have no reason to believe that it would behave differently going forward.
Great. Super clear. Thank you, guys.
Thank you. Our next question comes from line of Juan Macedo with GBM. Please proceed with your question.
Hi. Thanks for the call. to ask the results. I have two questions. My first question would be regarding M&A. Are you assessing any M&A projects? My second question is regarding your tariff increment you implemented early February. If you could tell us how that went, it would be great.
On the M&A side, we last year were still participating in the Barbados process, which has been called off. After the incorporation of VINCI in our capital structure, we are not expecting to conduct M&A at the OMA level, but our expectation that it would likely be done at the VINCI Airports level. As the tariff go, we're still working on the details, and we'll report as soon as we have more information.
Great. One more question regarding the tariff. What percentage of your approved tariff for 2023 have you reached?
What percentage of what tariff?
Of your maximum approved tariff for 2023. Are you at 100%?
Yeah.
Are you still...
For 2022, our maximum tariff was 90%. 90%, maximum tariff compliance.
Okay. you're currently at 90%, right? Is where I am understanding.
That is correct.
Thank you. Thanks for the call.
Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you'd like to join the question queue, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from a line of Gabriel Himelfarb with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.
Hi. Sorry. Good morning. Thanks for the call. Two quick questions. The first one, are you seeing any shift from transit passengers that come... well, that cross through Mexico City Airport toward your network, like, using Monterrey as a connection edge? My second question is regarding Canadian traffic. Do you have seen an increase in Canadian traffic incoming to Mexico to either a connection or a destination node? What percentage of the total international traffic does the Canadian traffic represent? Thanks.
Hi. In the case of the version of traffic out of the Mexico City Airport into some of our airports, it's a slow process, but it is happening. We're seeing more connections being developed at Monterrey. So you have further connectivity from that airport. We are also increasing our international presence. With the European route that we have, there was one announced to South America earlier this week. I think that that is evidence that Monterrey is starting to become a feeder for some of these international routes.
Also, in the aggregate, our connection traffic is still not significant. We do expect to gradually continue to increase and take advantage of the saturation of the Mexico City airport.
Okay. Regarding the Canadian traffic, can you give us a color on how what percentage about represent from the international traffic? Do you see a step up in traffic coming from Canada as they open their borders?
I will get back to you on specific Canadian traffic. What I can say is that the 2022 winter season, I mean, the one still currently going on is yet below the pre-pandemic levels. It has been significantly better than last year. Still, we are not yet at the pre-COVID levels in that specific market. We'll get you back to with the specific information.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. As a final reminder, it is star one to join the question queue. Our next question comes from the line of Francisco Suarez with Scotiabank. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning. Thanks for the call. Congrats on the results, gents. The question that I have is basically on your diversification strategy. We noticed that you are adding more capacity on warehouses with being your joint venture with PINSA. The market is totally sold out. Do you see opportunities to speed things up in terms of overall more capital deployment to open new warehouses in your airports on the back on your footprint and the nearshoring trends for sure? I believe that the second question that I have is on do you expect that now having VINCI, will that may have a positive effect on your funding costs? Thank you.
I'll take the first one. In terms of diversification, yes, it's part of the previous question about nearshoring. We're not only seeing nearshoring in specific airports, we're also seeing in the cargo and industrial park activity. We have, especially in Monterrey, we think there's still potential to grow. We have land area to increase the industrial park, and we will keep increasing as more tenants are looking to establish themselves in the airport. Regarding our funding strategy, remember that we primarily fund in pesos in the local market at a very competitive rate. Certainly the incorporation of a larger operation shareholder is a positive, and I think on the margin it will help us.
Since we are not in the international market, probably that effect would be somewhat limited.
Okay, perfect. Thanks. Fair enough. Congrats again. Take care.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question and answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Dueñas for any final comments.
Thank you. Thank you all for your participation today. Rafa, Manuel and I are always available to answer your questions, and we hope to see you soon. Thank you and have a good day.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.