Good day, everyone, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Mallplaza First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To participate, you will need to press Star one one on your telephone. You will then hear a message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, simply press Star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Derek Tang. Please proceed.
Greetings and welcome to Mallplaza Earnings Conference Call. Thank you for joining us this morning. I'm here today with Fernando de Peña, our CEO and the only Latin American member of the Board of Trustees of the ICSC. Also with us is the Investor Relations Team represented by Sebastián Macabello and Matías Guerra. We're pleased to introduce the company's earnings results for the first quarter of 2024. First, we'll begin with a brief overview of the company's quarterly results. Second, we will highlight some strategic remarks regarding the quarter, and as usual, we'll end with a Q&A session.
We started 2024 with solid financial results, continuing the positive trend presented during last year with continued growth in revenues at FFO, an increase in efficiency measured by EBITDA margin compared to the first quarter of 2023, and high levels of occupancy in our urban centers, in addition to a good performance of our tenants. As demonstrated in page three, footfall to our 26 urban centers reached 72 million visitors during the quarter, a 3% increase compared to the first quarter of 2023.
This growth was mainly anchored by the solid commercial proposal of our urban centers, added to relevant openings during the second half of 2023 and first quarter of 2024, such as the opening of the first IKEA store in Colombia in Mallplaza NQS and six new H&M stores at a regional level, in addition to various traffic-generating offerings such as the opening of two civil registry offices in Mallplaza Vespuccio and Mallplaza Alameda, among others. Our tenant sales presented an increase of 3.9% compared to the first quarter of 2023, mainly explained by a 25% increase in sales in Colombia, in addition to a 3% increase in Chile. The good performance of the specialty retail, gastronomy, and entertainment was reinforced by a better performance of the department store segment with respect to previous periods.
The occupancy cost for the quarter was 11.5%, in line with the first quarter of 2023. Occupancy rate reached 95.1% during the first quarter, an increase of 0.5 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2023, boosted by the 196 new openings at a regional level during this period. This number of openings was anchored by the first phase of opening of Mallplaza Cali, our fifth urban center in Colombia, that inaugurated 94 new openings during March. All in all, revenues during the quarter reached CLP 114.1 billion, increasing 14% year over year, mainly explained by readjustment of lease contracts, increase in leasable square meters, an increase in 0.5% in occupancy rate, and higher parking revenues. Same-store rent for the quarter increased 3.7% year over year.
Turning to page four, cost of sales in the quarter reached CLP 16.4 billion, an 11.4% increase year over year, mainly due to higher expenses and contributions associated with the higher property taxes. In terms of administrative expenses, it increased 5.3% during the first quarter of 2024, reaching CLP 11.3 billion. This increase was mainly explained by higher bad-debt provisions and legal expenses, which were offset by lower remuneration associated with the simplification of the organizational structure carried out during 2023. All in all, EBITDA increased 15.9% year over year during the first quarter of 2024, totaling CLP 86.9 billion, with an EBITDA margin of 76.1%, an increase of 1.1 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2023, in line with the efficiency plan that we have been pursuing during the last years.
Net income reached CLP 54.1 billion during the first quarter, increasing 32% year over year, mainly explained by higher lease revenue due to growth in lease square meters, readjustment of lease contracts, higher parking revenues, lower readjustment units due to lower inflation during the period, and lower financial costs due to lower debt, which was offset by higher taxes, expenses, and lower financial income due to lower cash position and lower rates. Lastly, the adjusted FFO reached CLP 70.7 billion during the quarter, increasing 15% year over year, mainly due to better performance of the operation and less minority interest adjustment due to the purchase of the minority stake of the subsidiary Nuevos Desarrollos, executed in the second quarter of 2023. The adjusted FFO margin reached 60% during the quarter. Now, I turn the table to Fernando, who will share quarter strategic remarks regarding the business.
Thank you, Derek. The great results that Derek just mentioned are a consequence of the success of the execution of our business strategy that allows us today to have a diversified, improved, and customer-focused value proposition, and with new brand centers capable of delivering multiple and powerful proposals to business, with new brands, services, and categories. 2024 started in a great shape in terms of openings of new proposals in our urban centers, reaching during this first quarter 196 new stores at a regional level. From this number, 94 new stores came with the opening of Mallplaza Cali, our 5th urban center in Colombia, and the 25th at the company level, which opened its doors in March 2024 with great success.
This urban center adds 67,000 sq m of GLA to the company's portfolio and began its operation with 91% of GLA lease and with an occupancy rate of 70% in the first days of operation, hosting a vast amount of solid brands such as H&M, Decathlon, the full Inditex offering with Zara, Bershka, Stradivarius, and Pull & Bear, in addition to different entertainment and gastronomic proposals and the opening of IKEA with its first store in Cali. Growth continues to be an important pillar in the company's strategy, both organic growth with emphasis in our 10 Tier A malls and M&A. It is important to mention that specifically in our Tier A assets, organic growth will involve less CapEx since these are assets already in operation with construction potential, which offers lower risk, allowing for higher returns.
In Chile, we have an ambitious plan involving the development of more than 125,000 sq m of GLA, considering growth plans in Mallplaza Expulsión, Mallplaza El Huerto, Mallplaza Oeste, Mallplaza Norte, Mallplaza Antofagasta, Mallplaza La Serena, Mallplaza El Chique, and Mallplaza Biobío. Mallplaza Expulsión will continue to be a protagonist with the opening of the Lifestyle Project during the end of 2024. This new proposal of mixed fashion and convenience offering aims to capture the large number of visitors that are generated by the two nearby metro stations. In the case of Mallplaza El Huerto, we will open a new renewal entertainment proposal with a new cinema complex plus a gastronomic boulevard that includes 20 restaurants generating a unique proposal for the region.
In terms of M&A, as a subsequent event during April, we agreed with Falabella on the acquisition by Plaza of Falabella Perú S.A.A., which controls 100% of the operation of Open Plaza Perú and 66.6% of Mallplaza in Peru. This transaction was valued at an enterprise value beta of 9.9 times and a cap rate of approximately 11%, and will be executed through a takeover bid of 100% of the shares of Falabella Perú S.A.A. for an equity value of $589 million. This transaction will allow us to consolidate our current operation in Peru and add 11 assets of Open Plaza Perú, which means increasing our portfolio by approximately 619,000 sq m of GLA and consolidating 15 new urban centers. Not only are we adding new GLA and assets, but we will also consolidate the EBITDA. In fact, if we consider the EBITDA of Plaza S.A.A.
In 2023, we will go from $367 million to $448 million by consolidating Peru, which represents an increase of more than 20%. We have already designed a growth plan for these assets, consisting in developing 100,000 sq m over the next five years, as well as plan to improve and further develop the current commercial offering. The main assets involved in these plans are Mallplaza Arequipa, Mallplaza Trujillo, Open Plaza Tocongo, Open Plaza Piura, and especially Open Plaza Angamos, aiming to turn this urban center into our second Tier A asset in Peru, in addition to Mallplaza Trujillo and the first of this category in Lima. As Mallplaza, we have both the experience and the know-how on how to transform smaller urban centers into leading assets through an organic growth and turnaround capabilities. Mallplaza Arequipa is a perfect example of this.
As you can see in page 13, this urban center was acquired by Mallplaza in 2014 as a 12,000 sq m power center with Saga Falabella department store, a Tottus supermarket, and a cinema complex. The transformation includes the purchase of two adjacent land lots and the construction and development of an additional 30,000 sq m of GLA to host new retail, gastronomy, services, and entertainment proposals, along with the parking expansion. All in all, this new urban center reached 42,000 sq m with a renewed tenant mix and experience that positions it as a main urban center in the district of Arequipa.
In addition to all the potential synergies that this operation will create in terms of efficiency and scale, this transaction will allow Plaza to increase its geographic diversification in terms of EBITDA and GLA, with a distribution of leasable square meters of 62% in Chile, 27% in Peru, and 11% in Colombia, and a participation in EBITDA by country of approximately 75% in Chile, 18% in Peru, and 7% in Colombia. It is important to highlight that all this growth plan is possible by the solid financial position of the company, with a net financial debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 3.1 times at the end of the first quarter of 2024, an average debt duration of eight years, and with a mostly long-term debt payment profile. Now, I leave you with Derek for some final remarks.
Thank you, Fernando. Just to finish, I want to highlight some of our omnichannel and ESG initiatives and achievements. We're happy to announce that in the recent omnichannel index for 2023, conducted by Kalis Lab, which is specialized in consumer e-commerce and omnichannel evaluation, Mallplaza was ranked first place in the shopping centers category, in addition to ranking second place among IPSA companies and fifth place among more than 265 companies in different industries. Our 19 click-and-collect operations continue to deliver great results, reaching 180,000 packages delivered during the quarter. That's a 242% increase compared to the same period of 2023. In terms of parking, at the end of the first quarter of 2024, more than 250,000 Banco Falabella customers used our digital parking solution with a frictionless payment solution, with the goal of simplifying the lives of our visitors and improving their experience.
Finally, in terms of ESG, as part of our ESG commitments, among which is recovering 60% of the waste generated by our urban centers by 2025, we rolled out our Plaza Zero initiative in Mallplaza Expulsión. Through this initiative that started in Mallplaza Egaña during 2023, we expect to avoid the generation of 14 tons of waste during its first year of implementation. With this, I conclude the general remarks of the quarter, and we are now ready for questions, and we'll start with a Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, simply press Star one one to get in the queue. To remove your question, simply press Star one one again. One moment while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Jorel Guillotti with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.
Good morning. I have two questions here. One, I wanted to understand a little bit more of the occupancy cost dynamic that we saw for Chile. What we saw was revenues per square meter grew about 10%, while sales per square meter grew about 1%. Yet occupancy costs stayed level. It was flat year on year. Just trying to understand the dynamic there of what drove that. Recently, we saw that you receive shareholder approval in order to pursue the capital increase. There was both a total amount of capital and amount of shares.
I was just wondering, if I were to divide one by the other and I get a share price, is that the share price which you intend to pursue for the offer, or did you just receive permission up to those levels, and that share price will be determined at X point by the market? Those would be my questions. Thank you.
Hi, Jorel. Good morning. Thank you for your questions. With regards to your first question in terms of the occupancy costs, a couple of angles there. I think first and foremost, when doing this analysis of the variation of the revenue per square meter and the sales per square meter, they're not fully comparable due to the fact that there are some—I mean, we've been, over the past couple of quarters, making a big push towards increasing services within our malls. As you well know, I mean, services, they don't report sales, such as banks and other services as well. This leads to this mismatch when you compare. I think it's important to highlight that when we look at the overall trend in terms of occupancy costs, it's one in which it's been stable for this quarter, especially when looking at the discrepancies among the different countries.
I mean, Chile was flat at 11.7% year over year. In Peru, whereas you well know, we announced a sizable transaction, we have an occupancy cost of 9.9%, so it's lower than both Chile and Colombia. Of course, our focus here is always figuring out ways to generate more traffic to the mall. We've been doing a significant transformation in the tenant mix of our malls, which have led to more traffic, which we expect this to generate more sales. As such, be able to maintain a controlled occupancy cost, which will allow us to generate more revenue and increase rents for our square meter.
Now, with regards to your second question pertaining to the capital raise and the potential equity offering, according to Chilean, the way that it's structured and the local regulation, we have, when we call in a shareholders' meeting to approve a potential equity raise, we have to disclose information both on how much the capital will increase and the number of offerings that will be offered. At the end of the day, I mean, the key target here is really announcing the amount of shares and approving the amount of shares that will be offered. As you well know, from your experience in Brazil, I mean, typically, what is said and what is approved is the amount of shares and the price. I mean, we do not have a control over the price that will be set.
Typically, I mean, in this particular transaction, is one in which there will be a book-building process, and this book-building process will define the price based on the demand and market conditions. There is no guidance whatsoever, and this information should not be used as a read-through as to any potential guidance and information. The other aspect to it as well, which I think is relevant to mention, is that there could be market volatility both on the effects front and also on the share price front as well. Having this in mind, going forward, that's how the amount of shares was thought for this potential capital raise.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. As a reminder, that is Star one one if you do have a question. It comes from Alejandra Obregón with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Hi, good morning, Mallplaza team. Thank you for taking my question. It's actually two. The first question is on tenant sales and, more importantly, on the tenant health of your customers in Peru. If you can help us understand whether you're seeing signs of recovery in any category or any type of tenant, if there's any particular one that you think could be driving the consolidated trend there, and how should we think of it for the remainder of the year. That is the first one. On the omnichannel strategy that seems to be working very well for you, if you can help us understand how much of your CapEx is being deployed there today, and where you think that CapEx deployment will go as that progresses and is being rolled out towards a greater portion of your portfolio. That would be very helpful. Thank you.
Hi, Alejandra. Thank you for your question. At first, starting off then with tenant sales or the outlook, and specifically, to your point, in Peru, I think a couple of aspects here. One, it's important, and we did highlight this in the earnings release, that specifically in the quarter, there were two impacts with specific impacts within properties in Peru. One being the fact that Trujillo was closed for a couple of days in December and a couple of days in January that brought by an impact. The other one is at Bayavista, which there are some road detours there that are taking place in the surrounding area of this mall because of a metro or a subway station that's being built next to the mall, which brought by an impact in this very short term.
We expect this within the coming months to be done within the surrounding area of the mall. This metro line is to open within the coming months. Our expectation right now is within the next time frame of within the next 24 months, which, thinking on the long term, I mean, this should bring a significant pickup in traffic to the mall. I think this will be quite significant for this pickup. I think another aspect here, which is important to highlight here in Peru, and specifically to your question, if we look on a last 12-month basis, traffic there has increased by 13%. As a matter of fact, it is the country that had the greatest increase year over year in terms of traffic, if you consider it compared to Chile and Colombia. I think this has a lot to say with this market.
As answered just recently, when looking at occupancy costs, it is also a market that we see room there at a lower level compared to the other markets, such as Chile and Colombia, which allows us to seek future opportunities. I think another aspect also important to highlight when thinking about demand from tenants, Peru was the market that had the highest increase year over year in terms of the occupancy rate. We increased from 91.3% in the first quarter of last year to 93.7%. That is a 2.4 percentage point gain, higher than the increase in Colombia and Chile. We think it is an interesting moment. We did also disclose in our earnings release a case study of what we have done in the past. It is sort of a somewhat similar situation in Peru, which a couple of years ago, we acquired Arequipa.
Arequipa, back then, we were able to transform it into an urban center and really increase CSGLA, seeking growth opportunities there, transforming it from 12,000 sq m to an adding 30,000 sq m to a total of 42,000 sq m of GLA, and really enhancing the offering, the tenant mix offering there with a new Ripley department store, expanded supermarket, incorporating offices, gyms, and a select tenant mix. These initiatives have helped us to increase from 2015 to 2023 the growth in sales at a CAGR of 17%, the growth in income per sq m by a CAGR of 10%, or EBITDA per sq m by 11%. This is sort of our experience within navigating that market and in light of the significant transaction that lies ahead of us.
Now, to your second question regarding the omnichannel strategy, this has been an effort that we've been rolling out over the past couple of years. We think that there's an interesting opportunity in what is to come and how this integrates with our strategy going forward and how this enhances the offering and the appeal of our malls in general. As mentioned earlier in this call, if you look specifically to Click-and-Collect, there was a significant increase year over year. We currently have 19 pickup points in our main urban centers, which delivered about 550,000 orders in 2023. That's a 3X growth compared to 2022. It is a significant level of growth. Going forward, we expect this to continue to mature as more and more stakeholders see value in this offering that we have.
With regards to your specific question in terms of CapEx, it has not been a significant CapEx deployed in these initiatives. We really look to leverage up our partnerships and bringing into these initiatives specific and strategic partners that can help us roll out these initiatives. It is not a significant CapEx initiative.
Thank you very much. That was very clear.
Thank you. With that, I will conclude the Q&A session and conference for today. Thank you all who participated, and you may now disconnect.