Earnings Call: Q4 2020

Mar 5, 2021

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for waiting. Welcome to CCR S. A. 4th Quarter 2020 Earnings Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen only mode during the company's presentation. Right after the company's remarks, we'll hold a Q and A session when further instructions will be given. Before proceeding, we would like to inform you that forward looking statements made during this conference call relating to CCR's business prospects, operational and financial estimates and goals are based on the beliefs and assumptions of the company's management and on information currently available. Forward looking statements do not guarantee future performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, sector conditions and other operational factors could also affect the company's future results and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward looking statements. Now I'll turn the conference over to Mr. Marco Antonio Caldura, CR's CEO. Mr. Caldura, you have the floor. Thank you. Good morning. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us in our Q4 2020 earnings results conference call. After 6 months heading the company, I would like to share the positive perspectives we have for 2021. We concluded a reorganization of our management and we now have a more horizontal structure aiming to give more agility to the decision making process that will be key to support our growth agenda. In the final stage of this process, Luis Tomed joined us this week, our new Director that will be in charge of the maturing of our management model and also in charge of our people's management. I would like to highlight the resilience and execution capacity that our company showed during the COVID-nineteen pandemic. Our operations continued with the same excellency and operational safety. I would also like to highlight the financial robustness of the company that keeps with its growth agenda, consolidating its leadership and competitiveness position. To support our growth agenda, we have recently created a new business department that aims to assess the set of projections in the concession agenda in Brazil for the next 3 years with a CapEx of around BRL140 1,000,000,000. Our main focus is on roads, urban mobility and airports. I would like to highlight that the growth of the CCR Group is based on our diligence, our capital discipline that aims to generate value to our shareholders. Therefore, throughout this journey, we need to call your attention to the excellent service that we provide, always delighting our customers and working with social and environmental responsibility. We are committed to the planet and to society and this is reflected in our long term plan with the expected key goals and expected results, bringing ESG practices to our decision making process. I would also like to express my deep gratitude for our employees who are working on a daily basis with passion and determination to provide our customers with excellent service and safety. I would also like to thank all the healthcare professionals who are dedicated and working bravely in the midst of this pandemic that has hit us hard. We are still committed to collaborating to healthcare measures and protective measures to minimize the impact of the pandemic. So CCR has joined a major group of companies donating BRL8 1,000,000 to the Butan ten Institute to build the new COVID-nineteen vaccine plant. We are living right now, but we expect better days to come in the second half of twenty twenty one. Now I'd like to turn the floor over to Waldo, our Financial Director, who is going to give you the highlights of the Q4 of 2020. Thank you, Marco. Good afternoon, everyone. Joining me today are Marcos Macedo, our IR Directors Flavio Godoy, Douglas Ribeiro, Natalia Sialho and Kaike Moraes, also from our IR team. Before I give you the Q4 highlights, I want to talk about the year of 2020 in general. This was an uncommon year marked by the consequences of COVID-nineteen pandemic. The pandemic brought about a series of new and extremely complex challenges. We had to learn how to deal with them with agility and efficiency to manage our business and to offer more safety to our stakeholders in such a difficult moment. Since the beginning of the crisis, CCR has structured and adopted several measures in order to go through that moment of uncertainty and to prepare for the recovery time. We focus on cash preservation, anticipating the financing lines, funding and borrowing lines that we were planning for the year and also strict capital allocation measures for the investments made throughout the year with a prioritization process. However, I reinforce that we have kept our contractual obligations and the level of safety in our operations that has always been a priority for CCR. As a main element, we always had solid cash management and financial discipline, which helped us go through the most critical time of this crisis. I would like to highlight the main actions that we took throughout the year to face this uncommon times. We suspended the payments of the financing contracts with BNDES from April to September 2020 and we renewed the benefit for another 6 months in some of our assets. We adopted MP 936 reducing the wages and the workload of the management for 3 months starting in May 2020. We also included at the airport additives to reprogram payments of fixed contributions and debt reimbursements among other cost and investment management measures. Another important highlight is about CCR's leverage measured by net debt over EBITDA. In spite of the challenging scenario, we kept our robust cash position and leveraging of 2.9 times, a bit higher than the Q3 of 2020, which was 2.7 times. We believe this is a healthy level to maintain the growth of the company and we would like to say that our results were impacted by the effects of the pandemic. Once the results are normalized, we'll see a consequent reduction here. So talking about growth, I would like to highlight the extensive pipeline we have ahead of us for which we're very well positioned. We have opportunities in all the segments we work in, in the several years. For Roads only, we have a bidding process or rebidding process of 18 federal roads up to 2023 plus state programs. These projects account for BRL140 1,000,000,000 investment in Brazil with BNDES. There are several projects that may occur in 2021. BR 153 in the end of April, BR163 R381, CRT, Rodunao in Belarozonte and Dutra. Recently, we have announced to the market the approval of a contract extension up to the end of February 2022. In the airport sector, we are forecasting 2 rounds of bidding, the 6th and the 7th rounds comprising 39 airports. The federal government has published the competition documentation for the next round and the auction is planned to take place in April 2021 and the 7th route for 2022. For urban mobility, the bidding of the 7th line of CPTM and the intercity train Encampinas, which is in the final stages of the studies for a public hearing phase. We also expect lines 89 of CPTM, which had an auction for March 22, but it's been temporarily suspended. We are watching that process from up close. I'd like to conclude saying that in spite of the pandemic still being around, we have overcome many challenges in 2020 and we are facing the situation in a very straightforward and resilient manner and we continue optimistic about the future, especially considering the many opportunities that we see ahead of us, some of which I just mentioned. So these are my main messages before I could talk about the Q4 results. So before Marcos give you further details, I'd also like to say that in the Q4 of 2020, in spite of the effects of the pandemic affecting our results, the traffic of the roads continued presenting results that show resilience and a small trend of improvement compared to the beginning of the pandemic that can be shown in our numbers as you've seen in the weekly notices that we published and the urban mobility and airport indexes have been stable with a few oscillations. And although they represent significant impacts, they were much smaller than what we saw in the beginning of 2020. So we're still optimistic about the recovery of this market. Now I'll turn the floor over to Marcus, who will give you further details about our results. Thank you, Waldo. Good afternoon, everyone. Now I'm going to show you the main numbers, IFRS numbers for the Q4 of 2020. We excluded new projects and assets in which there was a change in the company's stake. So starting with the quarter highlights, vehicle traffic increased by 4.6% year over year excluding Viasol that was just a drop of 0.1 percent, so a great improvement compared to the Q3 of 2020. This was the result of a drop of 8.5 percent in light vehicles year over quarter on quarter and a growth of 4.7% in the traffic of heavy vehicles year over year. At the end of our earnings release, we have a chart showing that although there was an impact caused by the pandemic, we are in a clear recovery trajectory compared to the beginning of the pandemic either in Roads or in the other businesses of our company. So adjusted net profits achieved BRL2.6 billion in the Q4 of 20 20, a drop of 3.6% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by 30% with a margin of 41.2%. So same basis adjusted EBITDA with a margin of 4.2%. So a decrease of 15.6 percentage points. This EBITDA drop is due to the impacts of the pandemic and also no recurring effects such as the impact of the effect caused by the return of MSVIA and balances obtained in the San Jose Airport, BH Airport and the provision for Metro Bahia. Excluding these effects on our profit and EBITDA, we would have a drop of net profit adjusted at the same basis of 9.8% year over year, but adjusted same basis adjusted EBITDA would have had only an 11.4% drop and not 30% as we reported, including non recurring effects and same basis adjusted EBITDA margin would be only 1.4 percentage points lower year over year. So these results show that the company is working hard to keep costs and maintain operational efficiency and the business that has majoritarily fixed costs in times of pandemic that impacted several units of our businesses. More details about the non recurring effects that I just mentioned can be seen in our earnings release. So now let's talk about total costs. Same basis costs had an increase of 13.2%. This increase is mainly due to the impact of larger depreciation and amortization costs because we are almost near the expiry rate of Novo Nordisk contracts. And although there is no cash effect, this impacts the net profit of the quarter. Also, the exchange depreciation had a negative impact on the dollar businesses of the company. The revenue of these businesses was reduced because of the effects of COVID-nineteen. So I'm talking about airport businesses that were hardly hit during the pandemic. And this quarter, we also saw some non recurring effects on our costs. And I want to mention the MSVIA return. We have a provision of loss of recovery of BRL105 1,000,000 considering that this process is already at an advanced stage. If we considered only this effect, the total cash costs of Brazilian companies would have had a 2.9% reduction. So once again, this shows our efforts and disciplines of cost contention. For further details, take a look at our cost 4th quarter and a profit of BRL395.4 million last year. And reported net loss was BRL74.8 million on same basis and a profit of BRL392.6 percent year over year. This drop shows the effects of the pandemic as well as the non recurring effect of MSVIA as well as the non recurring effects of depreciation and amortization since we're going we're near the end of the contracts of Novadruta and Novo Nordisk. If we exclude only the non recurring effects of MSVIA, we would have had BRL176 1,000,000 same basis profit and not loss. Now net profit, we had BRL13.6 billion in the Q4 of 2020, a reduction of 2.3% 2% compared to the 4th quarter 2019 and the Q3 of 2020. Company's leverage measured by the net debt over adjusted EBITDA increased compared to last quarter or the Q3 of 2020, 2 point nine times in the Q4, which reflects our financial discipline that tried to reinforce our financial position to face such a challenging moment that the pandemic has brought upon us. So we are in a comfortable position to continue with our qualified growth strategy and financial discipline. As we commented previously, as soon as our results are not as hardly hit by the pandemic, this number tends to decrease. I would like to say that once we analyze the results of the company without non recurring effects and in spite of the impact of the restrictions of the COVID-nineteen pandemic, the company has been able to achieve solid operating results as we can see in our earnings analysis. We now would like to open for questions and answers. Ladies and gentlemen, we shall now begin our Q and A session. Our first question is by Mr. Enrique Simoes from Credit Suisse. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking our question. So you asked about whether the leverage you said the leverage will help you continue with your growth agenda. So what is the power of this new leverage? Now you also asked about you also said, would you like to know the timing of your new projects in the pipeline? Okay. Thank you, Enrique. About leverage, We've been reinforcing our cash position. We closed the year at around BRL6 1,000,000,000 in cash. The projects and concessions that we are currently analyzing and we have robust projections. As I said in the beginning of the call, it includes a cash EBITDA. When we look at our balance, which is quite robust, we have a relevant pipeline of new opportunities and we should add to that the leverage that we can include in the new biddings that we may win. So we feel very comfortable. We think this is a competitive differential that CCR has. So that's the first point. Now a second point, when you look at the leverage, as you know, it's not just a snapshot. You have to look at the profile of debt repayment compared to the So when we structure our funding and capital structure, we look at that very carefully. So not necessarily when we win a concession and we have a higher leverage in the beginning, I mean that can be a problem because at the end of the day the structure will be generated to the cash generation not only of that project, but of the company. So we think that this is a competitive edge for CCR. Now about Sao Paulo balances, As we said in the past, we are still very engaged in this process. The conversations continue to be highly constructive. The state administration knows that investments in infrastructure are those that will bring economic growth and jobs as quickly as possible. So there is a great advantage there and we believe that we're willing to close this deal and so is the state administration. The conversations have been progressing well, but we don't know when this agreement will be approved because these are negotiations, analysis and conversations that are quite complex and so they are also time consuming. But I can tell you that we are on the right track, I believe. Okay. Thank you very much. Next question by Victor Mizusaki, Bradesco Bibi Chaim. I have two questions. First about MSVIA. I would like to know whether you have any idea of the timeline of when this process can be concluded, the MSVIA process? And since this has been done internally, you have an assessment report. Do you have any idea of how much the indemnization would be in this rebidding process? And now about the balances in Sao Paulo, I mean, this negotiation with the state administration, Can you tell us a bit about the stages of the negotiation? You're still discussing numbers Or are you at a more advanced stage discussing contract clauses? Thank you. Thank you. Now let's start talking about MS Via. This provision was made because there was an accelerated progress in this process in the 4th quarter with a finalization of the PPI, which was published in the official journal in January 2021. So that was the 3rd stage of the process. Now we are under a process of approval of a presidential decree that is about to be published soon. Once it is published, we would have to sign the additive, which is also at an advanced phase. And then there is the rebidding, which should happen within 24 months after the signature of the additive I just mentioned. So this is the process and what I can tell you is that this is moving really fast. Now about the compensation or indiuminization, This is going to be calculated at the time of the rebidding this indemnification. So for now, we don't know how much we're going to be paid in indemnification, but of course, we're going to be keeping an eye on that. Now your second question, I answered about it to Enrique from privy. And yes, we are at a final phase of negotiation, so very advanced stage of negotiation. Whenever an agreement is achieved, we are going to announce it. And then after that, we would need the additives for each one of the concessionaires. Okay. Still about MSVIA, In order to calculate the amount, did you conduct a report? I mean, you conducted an assessment to see how much it's worth and how much investments were made and then you can make a write off of part of the investment? Is that what the process was like? Yes. We are always conducting long term assessments of our assets. And when we know there will be a return, then the future profile for that asset's operation changes, so we conduct a review, which is what generated the provision of BRL305 1,000,000. So it is a complex calculation. We discussed this thoroughly with our auditors, but things like tariff, differential, probable fines, low maintenance provisions and other provisions considering predictability of future operations, all that is included in the calculations that is indeed done the way you described. Okay, thank you very much. Our next question is by Fernanda Oliveira from BTG Pactual. Hello. Thank you for taking my question. I would like to talk a bit more about the new investment opportunities that you mentioned in your introduction. Well, you mentioned a few projects of Dutra and other roads. So what do you see in terms of competition for these projects and how competitive do you intend to be? Now I would also like to explore opportunities outside your area. You said that you wanted to go into different sectors. So what are you planning? Do you still keep that plan or you want to focus now on your core business sectors and then maybe leave this expansion for later? Thank you. Thank you, Fernanda. Now about the competition in the projects we are focused on, that highly depends on the type and magnitude of the project as well as on the capacity of implementing the CapEx because the larger the project, the more complex it is, not only in terms of vendors, suppliers and all of that, but in many other aspects as well. So I would say that we're very focused on the projects that we prioritized as essential. We don't see any new entrants, relevant entrants in the market. So I think the competition is the same as usual. And in the most competitive projects, we only have a few players with the capacity and expertise of CCR as well as financial capacity that we have. So this is pretty much what I can say about the competition in general and about investing in other sectors outside those that we already operate in. As Marcos said in his introduction, we have a new business department that is focused not only in growing in the models or sectors in which we already operate, but also considering the attractiveness of different sectors. Sanitation is 1. As you know, as the market knows, we analyzed the sector. We continue with our study and our analysis until we can be convinced that the risk return profile makes sense for us to go into that segment. So So we're going to continue focusing on a pipeline that is currently huge of the sectors we already operate, but we'll also consider the attractiveness of other sectors such as that of sanitation. And if we find the right risk return profile, we might make investments in other sectors indeed. This is Marco speaking, Fernanda. Thank you for your question. Now just a comment on what Valdo said. First of all, the company has a set of skills that were developed throughout the last 20 years. We have a group of people who have been working in this market in these models for over 20 years even before CCR was founded And we do have a very competitive positioning in roads, urban mobility, and we want to become a relevant airport operator and a very competitive one as well. So considering our deep competence, our leadership in sectors and an appropriate risk matrix of the projects that will come and the current models that we already work, we feel like we can price these risks appropriately. And as we can make use of all the competencies that we have in terms of strategy, finances and others to participate in the main concessions of these 3 models. So we are one of the main infrastructure players in the region and therefore we have the duty of considering new businesses, new models. There are indeed other businesses that need the skills that are very similar to those that we have developed in the last 20 years, but there are businesses that require other skills and competencies that we'll need to develop to be an operator of excellence and we always want to have relevant and high scale businesses providing public services of excellence. So the focus of our company for the coming years in terms of capital allocation will be focused on the models in which we already operate. And this is a very robust pipeline as you know and it enables us to look at the sectors in which we already operate and have a leadership position. But at the same time, through our new businesses department, we will assess new models and new businesses in a very Our next question is by Victor Musosaki, Bradesco BBI. I have 2 further questions. The first one, as you already mentioned, EBITDA leverage, EBITDA grew about 3 times. You mentioned a BRL2 1,000,000,000 plan for 2021, EBITDA and cash generation still being impacted by the COVID-nineteen pandemic. And looking ahead, we have Roto Norte and Novadruta contracts to expire. And you also mentioned your project pipeline, there is a lot to happen. So what is your take on dividends versus growth? And my second question about the investment potential, there is a lot to happen here in Brazil. But in the long term, and this is something that you did in the past, what is the outlook for growth abroad outside Brazil? Thank you. Okay, perfect. So your first question about dividends, As it's always been the case, CCR has been paying dividends twice a year, one around April and the other one around October, November. We are going to keep our dividend policies, nothing will change there. And we're also going to keep the dates and the times the number of times a year the dividends will be paid. So we know this is an important point for many of our investors, so we keep on paying them twice a year. Now about growth, we see the financial capacity in our balance sheet. We also see a relevant range of funding sources for those projects and the funding dates in the market are good for these projects. Now about growth growing outside Brazil. While we believe that we have a competitive edge here in Brazil. And if you look at the opportunities, this is where most of the opportunities are. So what makes sense is to focus on the Brazilian market in the models where we operate, where we already have the skills like Marco said and the competencies we need. And if there is an opportunity abroad in a region in which we feel comfortable with the risk return ratio, we might consider it. Our next question is from Andressa Baruto, UBS. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I have a quick question about the pandemic rebalancing. Are you discussing this with other regulators? Can we expect something to happen in that area in 2021? So talking about the pandemic, We've been working with some administrations that said that we have the right to get this rebalance. You've probably seen that in airports like Belo Horizonte's airport, we have implemented already something there for COVID-nineteen and our yearly payment at the end of the year, I mean, we did not have to pay because of this rebalance, but that's a partial rebalance. And as the pandemic continues, we'll have further discussions for around airports. Now for roads in Sao Paulo, we've held many discussions. We have a consultant who is doing the math to see what the amount is, but we're still facing the pandemic. So we have to wait for this to finish. And on Federal Roads, our initial calculation has already been submitted and we are waiting for ANTT's positioning or response. But we will have this rebalance for all models and for the airports this has already happened at least partially. Okay. Thank you. There being no further questions, we are now closing the Q and A session and I'd like to turn the floor over to the company managers for their final remarks. Thank you all very much for your participation. It's always a great opportunity for our company to be able to report our results and hear your feedback. So I'd like to close the session saying once again that we understand the moment we're going through. This is the worst moment of the pandemic. And I would like to emphasize that we continue implementing and keeping all the safety regulations with our employees who continue working relentlessly in all of our models and we want to keep them protected and continue providing our clients with high level service. So I hope we can see each other again in our next earnings conference call in a more positive moment for our society. Thank you very much for joining us and have a great afternoon. This closes CCR's earnings conference call. Thank you all for joining and have a great afternoon.