Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to SMU's Q3 2023 Conference Call. At this time, all participant lines are in listen-only mode. The format of the call today will be a presentation by the management team, followed by a question-and-answer session. Without further ado, I would now like to pass the line to Ms. Carolyn McKenzie, Head of Investor Relations at SMU. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Thank you all for joining us today. I'm here with our CFO, Arturo Silva. As usual, we have some slides describing some recent business highlights as well as financial results for the first nine months and third quarter of this year. Arturo will be happy to take any questions at the end of the call. You can send questions by chat or you can raise your hand and we can unmute you. An audio recording of this call will be available on our website later today. Please note that we may be making forward-looking statements today. As always, please remember to take a look at the caution regarding forward-looking statements on slide number two of our presentation.
As usual, we will start with the recent highlights from our three-year strategic plan for 2023 - 2025, with its four key pillars, starting with omni-channel growth on slide three. In the year to date, we've opened five Unimarc stores, including two in the third quarter in Puerto Montt and in Santiago. We also opened an Alvi store in Santiago during the third quarter, and in the first half of the year, we had opened a MaxiAhorro store in Peru and inaugurated our fifth Super 10 store. We're making progress on the remodeling process of the Montserrat stores that we have received to date. The first six stores should be ready from a construction standpoint in December, and with an additional non-Montserrat Unimarc also set to open in December, as well as a MaxiAhorro in Peru.
On slide four, we have the customer experience pillar of our plan. We recently relaunched our loyalty programs for Unimarc, Mayorista 10, and Super 10 under the names Club Unimarc and Club 10, placing an increased focus on delivering immediate benefits. We've also added new partnerships that allow us to offer discounts on products and services such as airfare and restaurants, as you can see on the slide. On slide number five, another element of our customer experience strategy is to continue growing our private label offering, providing customers with excellent quality at attractive prices. So far this year, we've added 135 new products in different categories and under different specialty brands. We have a couple of examples on the slide from some of the more recent launches. Another part of our private label strategy is to increase the number of products with recyclable packaging.
This year we certified a further 140 products with the ecolabeling seal, moving us closer to our goal of having 50% of private label products certified by 2025. On slide six is the third pillar of our strategic plan that targets efficiency and productivity. We've been consistently implementing different initiatives, tools and technologies. For example, self-service modules such as self-checkouts. We've also expanded coverage of our Blue Yonder automated demand planning tool, which uses artificial intelligence to provide more accurate forecasting, contributing to higher in-stock levels and lower shrinkage. We continue to roll out voice picking at additional distribution centers, reducing order picking time and thereby improving logistics efficiency. Targeting productivity while maintaining the level of service that we provide our customers has consistently been a key element of all of our strategic plans over time.
Thanks to these initiatives, in August, we were able to carry out an optimization plan that will help us to generate savings on operating expenses going forward. Between 2019 and 2022, our productivity, measured as monthly sales per full-time equivalent, improved 47%, and we have achieved a further 9.3% improvement when we compare the month of September of this year to 2022. On slide seven, another component of our efficiency and productivity pillar is energy efficiency. Here we've continued implementing our energy management system as part of our goal of having all of our facilities in Chile certified under ISO 50001. Most recently, we completed the internal audit and the next step will be external verification. We've also been increasing our use of energy from renewable sources.
Last year, we signed renewable energy supply contracts for facilities that account for 20% of our energy use in Chile, and those contracts have been progressively going into effect, which is how we've gone from 3% renewable energy sources last year to 14% in the year- to- date. Our goal is to have renewable energy contracts for 40% of our energy consumption in Chile by 2025. Finally, we've incorporated additional electric trucks into our supply chain for deliveries from distribution centers to stores towards our goal of using electric trucks for 10% of shipments by 2025. On slide eight, regarding our committed and sustainable organization pillar, we wanted to highlight the recent results of the S&P Corporate Sustainability Assessment, where our latest score improved from 56 points to 61 points, which puts us in the 93rd percentile.
We've consistently been improving over the last several years since we began participating in the assessment, which shows how both our ESG management and our transparency in reporting have been getting better over time. Going on to the numbers on slide nine, we have revenue for the first nine months and third quarter of 2023. We had top line growth of 3.1% in the first nine months and a 1.2% decrease in the quarter. This was consistent with industry trends where, according to the National Statistics Institute , sales growth was lower in the third quarter. This is also consistent with the challenging economic conditions which have affected consumer behavior.
We've seen higher income elasticity from customers buying fewer quantities and substituting for cheaper products, which leads to a lower average ticket. However, the number of customers has increased across formats, and customers are visiting the stores more often. Therefore, we believe that once the consumption levels start to recover, we will be well positioned to capture higher sales. The other thing to keep in mind with these numbers is that the 2022 comparison base is very challenging, as we will see on the next slide. On the gross margin side, we had an increase of 130 basis points in the first nine months of 2023 and an increase of 140 basis points in the third quarter, reflecting improvements in commercial efficiency.
On the next slide, we have our consolidated same-store sales growth for the first nine months of 2023 and the third quarter, where the high comparison base is very clear. Same-store sales growth for the first nine months of last year was 15%, and it was 1.6% for the same period this year. Whereas for the third quarter of 2022 it was 13%, and for the third quarter of this year we had a decrease of 2.6%. The high comparison base is particularly relevant in the cash and carry segment, which had same-store sales growth of 28.1% in the third quarter of 2022, reflecting the very high demand for basic products.
On the next slide, we have operating expenses, which grew 11.4% in the first nine months and 8.3% in the third quarter. Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue increased 170 basis points in the first nine months and 190 basis points in the quarter. The two main drivers behind the increase are the higher minimum wage, which increased 15.6% year-over-year, affecting both personnel expenses and the cost of services, and accumulated annual inflation, which was 11.2%, affecting not only personnel expenses and the cost of services, but also leases and distribution costs.
In fact, as you can see in the pie chart on the right, out of the total CLP 47 billion increase in operating expenses in the first nine months, 51% of that increase comes from personnel expenses and 14% comes from service expenses, where we have higher rates on electricity as well as security and cleaning services. Moving on to slide 12. We have EBITDA, which was basically flat in the first nine months of the year and decreased by 5.7% in the third quarter due to lower revenue growth and reduced operating leverage. Our EBITDA margin for the first nine months was 9.1%, which is slightly below last year, but in line with our long-term target of 9% despite the challenging macro environment.
On the next slide, we have net income, which was down compared to 2022 in both the nine months and the quarter. If we break it down, we can see that in both periods, operating income was lower in 2023, which is mainly due to higher depreciation as we've been investing more over the last several years, combined with the flat EBITDA in the nine months and lower EBITDA in the quarter. However, this is offset by improved non-operating income, which we will get to on the next slide. In the end, basically, the entire decrease in both the nine months and the quarter is because of taxes. Last year, the higher levels of inflation had a significant positive non-cash impact on our deferred taxes, which we didn't have this year.
The comparison between 2023 and 2022 is made difficult by two non-recurring impacts that affect non-operating income. We've added a slide on pre-tax income to try to get to numbers that are comparable. In slide 14 on the left, we have pre-tax income for the first nine months, where we start with CLP 62.9 billion for 2022. That number includes the sale of OK Market, which generated a non-recurring gain of CLP 18 billion before tax. Without OK Market, pre-tax income would have been CLP 44.8 billion. From there, we take the lower operating income down CLP 7.3 billion, and the higher non-operating income, which without the OK Market effect, improves CLP 25.2 billion, which is essentially due to lower inflation losses on inflation index liabilities.
That brings us to our pre-tax income for the first nine months of 2023. However, this includes another one-off, which was the optimization plan we implemented in August of this year. As I mentioned before, the implementation of strategic initiatives has allowed us to increase productivity, mitigating higher levels of operating expenses. The plan had a one-time cost of CLP 8.2 billion, but we started to see savings in September of this year. Excluding the second one-off, our pre-tax income for 2023 would have been CLP 70.9 billion, which is 58.4% higher than 2022 when we exclude the one-offs in both periods. We have the same exercise on the right-hand side of the slide for the third quarter, where we only have to adjust for the optimization plan, and pre-tax income improves 45.4% year-over-year, excluding the one-off.
On slide 15, we have our dividend yield of 8.5% for the last 12 months, which is lower than 2022, partly because the dividend for the last 12 months doesn't include the extraordinary amount from the sale of OK Market, and partly because of the very strong share price performance over the past year. The return on equity was 10.5% for the twelve months to September 2023, similar to 2021 as 2022 includes the one-off from the sale of OK Market. On the next slide, we have financial ratios, including as reported figures, as well as figures that are adjusted for store rental expenses. On the left, net financial liabilities to EBITDA, including store rentals, has improved from 3.9 x in 2021 to 3.5 x in September of this year.
When we adjust for store rentals, we went from 2.7 x in 2021 to 2.4 x in September. On the right, net interest coverage, as reported, is up from 4.9 x in 2021 to 6.2 x in September 2023. When we adjust EBITDA and interest expense for store rentals, we started with coverage of 9.5 x in 2021, up to 16.5 x in September. The slight decrease compared to 2022 is mainly because we have lower financial income as interest rates have come down with respect to last year. On slide 17, we have our bond covenants, where we continue to have plenty of flexibility.
Net financial debt to equity is at 0.56 x, well below the 1.03 limit, and interest coverage is up to 6.2 x, well above the 2.5 x requirement. On slide 18, we have a summary of our cash flows for the first nine months of 2023. We started the year off with a cash balance of CLP 125 billion, significantly higher than the minimum we like to have on hand, which is in the neighborhood of CLP 45 billion-CLP 50 billion. Our operating cash generation for the period was CLP 205 billion.
We were able to comfortably cover all of our cash needs, including lease payments, interest payments, dividends, and CapEx, which was significantly higher than the CapEx for the same period of last year, as we have been making progress with our omnichannel growth strategy. We also had net debt amortizations of CLP 15 billion, which included CLP 69 billion in financial debt that we paid back, and a new bond that we issued for $1.5 million, which is around CLP 54 billion. The final cash balance was CLP 115 billion, only CLP 10 billion below the opening balance. This solid cash position means we're very comfortable with our debt maturity profile, which is on the bottom half of the slide and includes the Series AP bond that we issued in September, which matures in 2033.
On slide 19, we have a couple of financial highlights from the quarter. First of all, at the end of August, both of our local credit rating agencies, Feller Rate and ICR, upgraded our rating from A+ with a positive outlook to AA- with a stable outlook. They had both assigned a positive outlook to our rating back in March and April, and we met the expectation of continuing to maintain consistent financial and operating indicators for additional periods, which led to the upgrade. As I mentioned on the previous slide, in September, we placed bonds for $1.5 million or around CLP 54 billion with a bullet structure maturing in 10 years at a placement rate of 4.44%, which was a spread of 179 basis points over the benchmark.
Demand for this transaction was nearly double the placement amount. This issuance allows us to flatten out our debt amortization schedule by refinancing some of our upcoming maturities. That's it for our presentation. Thank you so much for listening. If there are any questions, Arturo will be happy to take them now.
Thank you. We'll now move to the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star two on your phone and wait to be prompted. If you're dialed in by the web, you can type your question in the box provided or request to ask a voice question. I think our first question comes from Alonso Aramburu from BTG. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Two questions on my end. First, if you can provide some additional color on the organizational restructuring plan that was implemented and how much would be the recurring benefits of the plan. My second question is on the cash and carry or discount formats. Can you give us a breakdown of how Super 10 or Mayorista 10 is performing relative to Alvi? Thank you.
Okay, first question about the optimization plan. We implemented this plan in August. In September and October, we will recover part of this investment of these expenses that we had in August. Therefore, we will recover part of this. In the future, in the next month, in Q4, the positive impact will be higher and also in the full year of 2024. The idea is to recover this non-recurring expense in six or seven months. We finished the plan optimization in Q3. With respect to the cash and carry and hard discount performance, the comparison base in both formats is too high.
It's very demanding. In terms of frequency, in terms of the number of clients, we have a very good performance. We are expecting that in the rest of the year or especially in 2024, we recover the level of consumption in the country with improving the GDP and to obtain benefit or higher revenues in both format because we have a healthy format in terms of the frequency and number of clients or customer. In both cases, the new stores of Super 10 where we implemented the new operational model, the performance in these new stores in the five stores is very good in Super 10.
We have a better performance in comparison with our plan for each store. For the same, we are implementing openings in Alvi and also in Super 10 this year and 2024, 2025, because the profitability of the new openings is better or are better than our expectation.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Just a reminder, if you have a question, please press star two on your phone or type it in the box if you're signed into the webcast. We'll just wait a moment or two for some more questions to come in.
Everybody's shy today.
Maybe we'll just give it another 10, 20 seconds or so, Carolyn, and then perhaps we can close the call.
Maybe our presentation was just too complete and we covered everything that you all wanted to know.
Yeah. I think that seems to be it, Carolyn. I can hand over to you for some closing remarks. Oh, well, hold on. We have one more. We have one question. Sorry, Carolyn. We have a question from Tertius Pelser from Cuthman Capital who asked by text, outlook and October trading.
The behavior of the sales is very similar with the Q3 in October and in the first days of November. In terms of sales and in terms of same-store sales in those formats, the comparable base continues very demanding in this quarter. We have a good expectation because we maintain the growth in terms of the frequency, transactions and number of customers in all formats. Therefore, we are expecting the recovery of the level of consumption in the country and we recover also the level of revenues as well, because we have the customers visiting our stores, and that is very good in spite of the negative economic scenario.
In terms of the margin, a commercial margin is in the same level as Q3 and the rest of the year. Very good performance, because we're not investing in the margin or in the promotions without financing because we believe that this is not a good decision to sacrifice commercial margin with the idea to recover sales because the general economic scenario is not good. Therefore, it is so difficult to recover the investment in margin through incremental or additional sales.
In terms of expenses, we've implemented the optimization plan where, as Carolyn mentioned, we are implementing technological tools in the store and also in the distribution center with the idea to improve our level of productivity. Also with the idea to have the level of expenses very fit with commercial margin to receive the improvement in our revenues or same-store sales. With the idea to keep the level of EBITDA margin at 9% or over 9%. That is our outlook for the Q4.
Okay. Thank you. We haven't had any additional questions. Perhaps I can hand back to you, Carolyn.
Great. Thank you so much everybody for joining us. If there are any other questions, feel free to get in touch with me and Sofía. Everybody have a great day, and we hope to have you with us next quarter. Take care.
That concludes the call for today. Thank you, and have a nice day.