Good morning, everyone. My name is Erika Sandoval from the investor relations team at Aguas Andinas. Today, I will be moderating the company's first quarter 2024 results video conference. First, a presentation will be made, and then we'll move on to the Q&A section. If you have any questions, you can send them in the chat box provided for this purpose. If you wish to listen to this presentation in English, you can access it by clicking on the icon at the bottom of your screen and selecting the English option. [Foreign language] Dicho esto, quisiera presentarles a los panelistas de hoy. Miquel Sans, Director Financiero de la compañía, cuenta con estudios en Administración de Empresas por la Barcelona School of Management. [Foreign language]
Cuenta con más de 10 años de experiencia en diferentes áreas de la industria como la Jessow y Barcelona. Cristian Torres, Gerente de Control de Gestión y Contabilidad de la compañía, contador público y auditor de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Es un MBA en Finanzas de la Universidad de Chile. Tiene una experiencia de más de 20 años en el Grupo Veolia, con responsabilidad en las áreas financieras, control y proyectos financieros. Antonela Laino, Gerente de Finanzas y Relaciones con Inversionistas, economista de la Universidad Católica de Argentina y magíster en Finanzas de la Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez. Se ha desempeñado profesionalmente en más de 10 años en distintos ámbitos de la industria, como la banca y distintas compañías del área de las telecomunicaciones. Ahora les doy paso a los participantes para que puedan comenzar con su presentación. Good morning, all.
En esta ocasión quisiera empezar la presentación de los resultados remarcando con orgullo los 25 años desde que empezó la alianza público-privada. Remarcaron cómo compañía como país ha crecido a este nivel y están esto nos da la energía para seguir enfrentando los desafíos climáticos con ideas que desconocen ustedes. Es importante decir este año que esto en un año que tenemos buenos volúmenes en los ríos Maipo y Mapocho vamos a tener buenos resultados. Esto permite y realmente ver estos frentes con este tipo de especificaciones. Esto es parte del corto plazo con el desarrollo de la idea.
Económicamente, este fue un primer trimestre con altas oscilaciones en la inflación y con una presión importante en el tipo de cambio con el dólar, aunque en el tipo de cambio ha habido una corrección importante en las últimas semanas de mayo. También la situación negociatoria con la mina División Andina. Hablaba antes de desarrollar las soluciones de futuro para asegurar nuestro suministro hídrico, pero quisiera destacar también los pasos que hemos dado estos últimos meses, enfrentando el futuro con esfuerzo a todos los niveles en planificación y en preparación para el mismo. En el 2023 dimos los primeros pasos con el inicio de las distintas iniciativas que lo componen, y esto en el 2024 debe ser el año de aplicarlas o para sentar las bases para poderlo hacer en 2025 en ejecución.
Aquí hemos destacado algunas, algunos de los frentes en que estamos trabajando, pero es una mención muy sencilla para entender el plan con estos frentes. Como digo, no voy a entrar en ellos, pero sí que quisiera destacar la dimensión de redes, cuyos primeros resultados ya van más adelante en estos puntos. Antes de entrar en este apartado, quisiera recordar que la Junta General de Accionistas del pasado 24 de abril aprobó la distribución del 100% de los resultados del año 2023, y el mismo se pagó el pasado 17 de mayo. Finalmente, nos vemos en este punto aquí, pero este mes de mayo tenemos cerrado básicamente el presupuesto para 2024, una proyección que al final de la sesión explicará Antonela Laino en detalle de cuentas.
Si pasamos a la siguiente lámina, no voy a tener mucho, porque el énfasis que vamos a necesitar en el año 2024 ya fue ampliamente descrito por estos números en las distintas juntas de accionistas, y related to what we have discussed last March, but I would like to underline what I have said before. Given the snow of the year 2023, the flows of the Maipo River and Mapocho have been positive in the first months of the year. This has allowed the defrosting of the snow of last year in the first quarter, and this factor was never included for a long time. The 22% is a data that is very positive for this time of the year.
Now I'm going to leave the floor with Cristian Torres, that is going to go over this first term of the year.
Hello, Miquel.
Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you here because it is very important, the introduction of the results. First of all, we would like to say that the company keeps having the path of recovery and the operational results with a growth of the EBITDA that is kept stable. At the level of incomes, we are going to introduce the first variations of the EBITDA of these areas. It is part of the closure, where we have a positive variation of 1%, even if it is for, like, those that are non-residential. At the level of this information, with these 12 last months, we have had a positive that is part of this positive valuation at the level of this EBITDA.
The income that is non-sanitary and non-regulatory, we have here some compensations in the first quarter. We want to show that explicitly we have the first level of units. It is part of the closure. At the end of March, we have recognized the recovery of the insurance. Here, I want to remember something important with the warehouse of the company, of the shipment. There was a fire, and at the close of March, we did recover the insurance. On the other hand, also, remembering of the high activity in incomes by the missionary services and the engineering, this last were associated to the construction work of the line of the subway.
During all the year, we are considering the variation with the one that we're going to introduce that is negative concerning this line. It is growing in a 4.2%, reaching the CLP 89 million at the closure of the term. Concerning the costs, it is important to say that, as Miquel has said at the very beginning, the hydrological conditions of the Mapocho River has been quite positive. This is also something thanks to the rains that we have had over the year 2023 and, of course, all the resources of the company and the things that we have been developing in the last time. This allows to have a closure with lower costs with a difference of water for more than CLP 4,008 million.
This added up to the efficiency because the company keeps developing the closure of the last term. We had a recognition of the cost by operational areas, and we're going to have to assign that to the Maipo River. It is very important because it is a matrix that has been included, and this explains, on one side, the problem of the costs. Looking at the analysis of the operational results, it is important to say that we have several factors that boost these costs. First of all, growth associated to the effect, and it has been raised before, the exchange rate, and most of all, the chemical part, the electricity explaining these higher levels of costs.
The second term, in terms of operation, we have two things that are important that we're going to get into detail in some time. The second term is the cost of the energy, but not consumption, but with the effect of the regulated closures. In fact, in this type of conditions, we have an increase with the surface sources of water more than underground sources. In terms of uncollectible debts, here I wanted to say that we have a transitory effect in the second term, where this year we have a debt of more than 2%, a bit more than last year, basically, because last year for effects that are non-recurrent, it was associated to these type of basic services that generated a backlog due to pandemics.
This trend, we know that it's going to be standardized. All of this explains the growth of the EBITDA, more than 4.8% associated to the commerce, with a figure of a bit more than CLP 207 million with a margin of EBITDA. This operational result, the level of results, it is financial, and it has an evolution. This is associated to the debt, the financial debt, with an improvement of these million pesos. This is another level of inflation with the first term. This is compensated with the financial income and these improvements that the company likely part of the treasury as well.
We have seen a net agility like with an improvement of 12.3% with the period of the year last week. Now, here we are going to specify, and we're going to share a zoom of the operational strategy. It is important for the drinking water to see some strategic things because all together represents more than 25% of the net accounting value. Here, the important thing is to dimension these more than 13,000 km of drinking water. It is important to see that the management it is quite complex, it's multi-variable. Due to that, for us, this has been a focus of attention in the last time. Here, what do we see?
We want to talk about what has been the situation of the networks. In the last year, we've seen that we are observing an implementation that is important in the claims and the requirements that are associated to obtainments and also to repairs. Like some factors that are going to explain what is going on. The city is still moving in different points that interact with the network, and they associating this type of idea what is being the request. Given this, we have activated different action plans to be able to first of all contain these growth and separately to recover a path of decrease of this type of incidents. When we increase the request, this is part of the collection.
As you can see, this doesn't mean this type of cartography after all. Therefore, with this type of look, we start reinforcing different initiatives and action plans to then be able to obtain the positive result and containment in the associated claims of said waters. At the end of the year 2023, we talked about the immediate solution at short-term with critical points where we had something important to deal with. This is how we discovered in an effective manner all these types of requests that were urgent. All these connections that had structural damages and to be able to close the closure plan.
Additionally speaking, everything that is the diagnosis turned out to be very relevant to have a timely diagnosis of a network and be able to prioritize where is our level of prevention. The increase, this level of increase of our Aguas Andinas had this objective. It is very important to incorporate new technologies, so we have a diagnosis that is very effective, and this allows to have and to give a much more efficient use of resources and a much more agile response to our customers. Here we have to underline the technology, SewerRide. That is an acoustic technology that allows to diagnose and give this path. And also the diagnosis that is the use of the technology applied. Everything that is the management of the assets shows and proves how to be able to use all the cost of repair and maintenance.
For that, what is important, it is important to have a system of information that is in detail with the cost, the effective cost. It is measured with the depreciation and the cost of repair for kilometers of network. Lastly, and not less important, we have identified different campaigns of communication to be able to prevent the bad use of many aspects. Many times this can be caused by third parties and some networks and many times our networks of sewage generates these type of things and are answered as part of what's going on. It is important to say that for this in this idea, we are implementing this effort. It means, like, this level of cost, because we are visualizing the preventive area that is going to convey this movement in the curve.
At a midterm, we're going to have the management of networks. Here, what do we have? I want to simulate that the flows of cash during the first term is quite similar to the collection. At the level of payable accounts, these events deal with the payments of suppliers, directed sales and payment of rates, contribution, among others, and management of the general services that explain the flow of cash that is operational during the first term. These transitory situations
I will give that a go as well.
are dealing with the collection, although this has been maintained quite stable and solid. At the level of taxes, what do we have? We have our specific perspective because we have adjusted some rates of payment that are per month and the results in terms of income, we see that the flow of cash is going to be less than last year. In the matters of CapEx, with the big investment, we have a transitory effect that is explained because we have concentrated a great part of the solution. This is going to be for the investment, so part of what is going on.
This is part of the investment outflow, and it is part of the idea of doing our effort, and part of the services and part of the service and is part of the network. Because why? The association that we have keeps being one of our priorities, and these waters and the hydraulic emergency, and part of the timely repair and everything that is deep-rooting. This is part of an hydraulic reference that keeps being strategic. This is part of the association of the investment projects and part of the collection. This is part of the average. This is CLP 2.2 million. This is part of the efforts. This is part of an internal quite an important return and quite interesting for everything that is relevant.
I would like to underline for the financial area and part of the company that what is showing the skills and the strength and all the indicators in terms of the leverage. This is point six and like these indicators that ratify this last time thanks to the financial management that we have. I'm going to hand the floor to my colleague so they explain.
Muchas gracias, Cristian. Buenos días a todos y a todas. Bueno, continuando con el apartado de endeudamiento de la compañía.
Uh, she want to-
Como pueden observar en el primer gráfico, seguimos con la diversificación estable de instrumentos. Aguas Andinas tiene una mayoría de su deuda alocada en bonos, pero como se acordarán, desde el año 2022 hemos comenzado a diversificar mercados. Por ende, en este 66.8% que ustedes observan, tenemos bonos emitidos bajo la modalidad de emisión privada que hemos hecho en 2022 en yenes y dólares australianos. Luego comentaremos la reciente emisión en francos suizos, pero que obviamente también viene a contribuir la diversificación dentro de este ítem. Otro tema importante de mencionar es que el 13% de nuestra deuda es social o verde. Básicamente con la reciente emisión que acabamos de hacer, que ha sido bajo el formato sostenible, tendremos un porcentaje de 22%.
Lo que quiero decir con esto es que el compromiso de la compañía ha ido creciendo y básicamente cada vez que realicemos una emisión de deuda vamos a velar porque tenga algunos de estos, de estas características. Por otro lado, la diversificación en cuanto a moneda, como pueden ver debajo, tenemos principalmente, previamente, algunas otras monedas distintas al USD y al peso. Básicamente, debido a que la compañía ha emitido durante muchísimos años en el mercado local, tenemos 77%, perdón, de nuestra deuda alocada en USD. Importante destacar también que pese a que hagamos emisiones en monedas distintas a nuestra moneda funcional, todos los instrumentos de deuda son cubiertos a término con la moneda local, puede ser USD o puede ser peso, pero desde un punto de vista la compañía tendrá exposición a una moneda distinta.
Refiriéndonos a la exposición a tasas variables, tenemos un 4% de exposición y básicamente tenemos la explicación en créditos bancarios locales que están expuestos obviamente a tasa flotante en CLF. En el lado derecho tenemos la posición de caja de la compañía. Hemos disminuido un 14.4%, como pueden ver. El déficit del ingreso operativo han sido CLP 292 million, por lo que la variación realmente corresponde a amortizaciones de deuda, tanto de AFC como de bonos en este primer trimestre. Cuando nos vamos directamente a la variación de la deuda financiera neta, esta se ha mantenido casi estable, con un incremento de un 1.1% respecto a lo que veíamos en diciembre 2023.
Esto tiene relación directa con el efecto de revalorización del USD o la exposición que les mencioné previamente y básicamente esto es un efecto en caja.
If we go to-
comentó el compromiso de la compañía en mantener sus indicadores riesgo de crédito su rating crediticio estable en los niveles que hoy en día estamos y que nos hemos mantenido a lo largo del tiempo. Mantemos nuestro rating nacional tanto por Fitch como por ICR en AA- y nuestro rating internacional que es clasificado por Standard & Poor's también ha sido ratificado en A-. Por otro lado respecto a los temas ESG seguimos como les comenté previamente con el fuerte compromiso en seguir posicionando a la compañía en este ámbito. En Chile nos hemos reincorporado luego de dos años al índice FTSE4Good lo cual ha sido también un gran improvement para la compañía en este ámbito.
Por el lado del ESG Rating from Moody's , otro índice importante relacionado con la infraestructura, hemos incrementado nuestra clasificación de B hacia A con 89 puntos. Como comentaba previamente, todo esto radica o redunda en que cuando hacemos emisiones de deuda y justamente vamos a los clasificadores, en este caso nosotros, Aguas Andinas, ha sido clasificado desde su creación por Moody's. En la reciente revisión que hicimos también fuimos clasificados por ellos, hemos tenido la clasificación máxima de poder tener una compañía. Por ende, todo este trabajo ha llevado a resultados muy positivos para nosotros. Nos vamos a la siguiente slide.
Aquí haciendo referencia al período, al cierre del primer trimestre del 2024, queríamos contarles que hemos hecho nuestra primera emisión pública que consistió en un bono denominado suizo, un bono público por CHF 100 million a 5 años de plazo y algunas de las características importantes que nos gustaría mencionarles es que tiene vencimiento en 5 años financieros, al igual que la emisión que hemos hecho privada en 2022 en dólares australianos. Esto representa un gran logro para la compañía, porque hemos tenido gran demanda, gran pool de inversionistas, una muy buena diversificación, obviamente, del rating de la transacción. Esto ya ha sido publicado por Standard & Poor's y pues, ustedes pueden acceder a esto en Bloomberg o en cualquier plataforma.
Básicamente, como les comentaba previamente, posiciona a la compañía nuevamente con gran demanda en un nuevo mercado. Por ende, es un signo de crecimiento también en nuevos mercados de endeudamiento. Esto se suma a un crédito bancario que hemos ejecutado también durante mayo por CLP 30 mil millones. De todo esto, resume el plan de financiamiento o el refinanciamiento que tenía la compañía para el año 2024. Como ustedes pueden ver en el gráfico, teníamos 27%, CLP 45 mil millones. Es decir, que igualmente estamos refinanciando un monto inferior por el, con el objetivo de ir intentando reducir el stock de deuda de Aguas Andinas. Sin más, abrimos la sección de Q&A para las preguntas que puedan haber en esta materia o previamente con las que se puedan presentar más todo lo resto. Muchas gracias.
Muchas gracias a los tres expositores. Miquel, what is the process of the planning? What is going to happen during that period of reclassifications?
Bueno, donde estamos, sabemos que es un proceso largo. Empezó a finales del año pasado y termina el 17 de 2025. Somos conscientes que el mercado ha comenzado a trasladar ya estas nuevas categorías, que serán cambiadas, a principios de octubre. El próximo hito relevante es la definición de las filiales y sociedades significadas, lo que es el padre del proceso de definición. Y destacar que el proceso se está desarrollando normalmente, poco más que esto. Como decía, es un proceso largo y se está desarrollando de la forma, yo diría que normal que debería tener.
Muchas gracias, Miquel.
Thank you so much, Miquel. Next question is,
Felicitaciones por el reciente refinanciamiento en Estados Unidos. En relación a los financiamientos que vienen en los próximos años, donde hay un gran interés de los mercados internacionales, ¿será posible hacer nuevas inclusiones en la deuda? Gracias. [/Foreign language]
[Foreign language] Sí, por supuesto que creemos posible y de hecho ya estamos trabajando como compañía y como lo hemos comunicado siempre al mercado, nosotros evaluamos, por supuesto, el mercado local, las distintas alternativas, las que podemos acceder sin dudas y cada vez con más fuerza en las alternativas alrededor del mundo. No descartamos ningún tipo de mercado. Por ende, ya estamos trabajando y seguramente, haremos algo dependiendo el contexto, local e internacional. Veremos en qué mercados se termina colocando la deuda, pero vamos a hacerlo. </Foreign language]
La siguiente pregunta es abierta.
Next question, please. It is open. Which was the electrical cost of the term?
Okay,
I'm going to answer that. The total cost, including the drinking water and the collection was CLP 1 million. Thank you very much, Cristian. The next question is, from the pandemic, we have seen some increases of more than 50%, far away from what it was. The costs of raw material is 7% and 8%, right? It is depending on the cost of maintenance, less than 3%, with a 2.5%. In these three elements, we have 3 extra points. Is there any possibility that we see these costs coming back to these levels, structurally speaking, and therefore this margin of EBITDA of the 50% being that is the new reality?
Um,
Concerning this question, I put it divided in two parts. The first one, there's a part of these costs that are here to stay. Cristian has explained this is part of the improvement. This is a season that is going to take with that. We have other realities that in the year 2019, when we defined the rate for this period, so permanent with a permanent vision. With the part of the definition of the volumes, we are in the growth, but this is the basis of inflation. We have some structural changes that we have done, and we consider them to be at midterm. We have to consider an increase of the volumes. When the rate is considered to be with some superior volumes, we need to do them.
This is part of the 2%, 2019, and this is around 2%. We have another level as well. In terms of the costs of production, we have a mix in a significant manner with some additional costs that we have in the process of what has been shown. We have other expenses like, for example, the opportunity cost of these materials that we consider them to be defects that put us in a situation that's different from 5 years concerning that amount. The cost, we have the important area here. The rate is not reflecting that. Thank you so much, Miquel.
The next question is, in the conversations that you have had with the regulator, we're looking at the real increases of the company in the context of recognizing them in the evaluation of the model company.
Um,
I'm going to answer. The definition of the extensive network on the model is going to be discussed in this process, yes. We want to see what is the cost, the cost of what has been improved by this third party. We have a total cost that is included to determine this rate. Thank you so much, Miquel. With this last question, we close this presentation. Thank you so much to Antonela, Cristian, Miquel for their information sharing. Next time we will be introducing our new results. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you.