Grupo Rotoplas SAB de CV

BMV:AGUA

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q3

[Operator]

[Audio Gap] Please note that today's call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The host will open the floor for questions later. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the environment as we currently see it, and as such, there may be certain risk and uncertainty associated with such statements. Please refer to our press release for more information on the specific risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, further events or otherwise.

Please allow me to remind you that the company issued its earnings press release yesterday after market close. It can be found in the Investors section of its website. Also the presentation for the call and the webcast link are in the Investors section. Today's call will be hosted by Mr. Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Mario Romero, Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Carlos Rojas.

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining our call today. We are always glad to have the opportunity to talk to you about our recent efforts, and of course, our results. We are pleased to share with you that our revenue and EBITDA reached a new historical record for our company for the second quarter in broad. And just as importantly, we have achieved these records while continuing to strengthen our core traditional business and pursuing new avenues for growth. That is to say, we continue to leverage our current strengths with innovation and agility just as we continue to lay the foundation for our company's future. Before we get into that, however, I would like to take a step back and talk about the broader care concerns that our societies are facing and particularly the issue of water scarcity.

We are all very familiar, no doubt with the current uncertainty brought about by inflation, interest rates and the complex economic growth outlook across the United States, Europe and our Latin American markets. It is crucial, however, that in dealing with these immediate concerns, we don't lose sight of the trends that have been shaping and will continue to shape the daily lives of millions of people in our hemisphere. The effects of climate change continue innovated, heat waves, wildfires, hurricanes and droughts become faster and more predictable, and the demand for clean and good quality water constantly exceeds the supply of many regions. As we look at the heat maps of water stress across the world, we can see how some regions where we operate are increasingly at risk of running out of the water, and crucially, there are areas in which this is already happening.

In this context, a commitment to bringing about matter-- smarter, more efficient water solutions as well as broader observance of ESG principles makes not only good business sense at this moment, it is also indispensable for the world being above our societies of today and tomorrow. At Rotoplas, we strive to respond agilely to the opportunities that arise in the short term as well as to address the longer-term needs of our societies. And we are able to do so by leveraging our market leadership and traditional innovation with the agility brought about by our transformational program below. We are creating value for our investors while continuing to ensure that we remain at the forefront of the industry. So how are we doing it? For starters, we continue to invest in new business opportunities that strengthen our presence in market-- in key markets and contribute to our ability to bring smarter water solutions to our customers, enabling them to make the best use of the water they have available.

This is, as we have talked about in previous calls, our investment in building the world plus for the future, taking advantage of the investment opportunities that arise and that we firmly believe will be strong growth and technological innovation drivers in the near future. As we continue to build our company's future, we also remain firmly focused on strengthening our core business. The strength of our brand and the strong relationships we have built with our suppliers, distributors and customers over the years are amongst our key assets. The positioning of Rotoplas and the networks which we have created as well as our financial position enable us to bring new and traditional solutions to the market with greater efficiency and impact as well as to respond to changing market conditions agilely and quarterly. In fact, as we have discussed in previous calls, we have succeeded in maintaining a steady supply of raw materials in the midst of major supply chain disruptions to continue investing in modernization of our production processes and to implement a mature pricing strategy. As a result, we are not only able to meet the demand for our solutions, but we also enhanced our market leadership and took very steps to reducing our own environmental footprint. The water industry has proven to be resilient in downturn economic cycles as it addresses the key and constantly evolving need for water. As Mario will discuss in further detail in a moment. Our core business, which we consider to be solutions to adapt to climate change continues to demonstrate its strength.

As I mentioned, this is the second quarter in a row in which we have achieved a historical record for both revenues and EBITDA, driven by the demand of our solutions and our pricing strategies as well as our relentless focus on profitability and on creating value for our investors. We have achieved a ROIC return on invested capital of 230 basis points above the cost of capital. And most importantly, we observed a changing trend. On the other hand, we see our new value proposals were developing businesses where we charge solutions to mitigate climate change and are aligned to more sustainable consumption patterns. These businesses are still in investment phase but have a strong earnings and growth potential. As we move forward, we will continue to monitor closely both the macroeconomic trends and the evolution of each of our markets, making sure that we prioritize initiatives that have the most potential in terms of value creation and impact. And with the agility brought about by global [indiscernible], make any adjustments necessary to ensure that our most important growth and value-creation drivers remain on course, while maintaining our steadfast commitment to be best ESG principles and process. I am proud to share that we have increased our score in the S&P rating corporate sustainability assessment showing our efforts to maintain Rotoplas as best-in-class sustainable company. Also Rotoplas was recognized by HSBC as winner in sustainable innovation in the governance that mentioned amongst its category, Mexican companies with total revenues above MXN 5 billion. Thank you very much for your time. I will now turn the call to Mario and I look forward to your questions.

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

Thank you, Charlie. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today. Our results this quarter highlight the strength of our core business and the agility with which we can now respond to changing market conditions to pursue both profitability and long-term sustainable growth. We have maintained a strict expense and capital allocation discipline as well as a continuous adjusting pricing strategy, all of which has enabled us to leverage our market leadership and financial strength to continue developing our new businesses and modernize our traditional ones, continuously improving our margins to ensure our sustainable business model. Quarterly sales increased 23% year-to-year, totaling MXN 3.5 billion, and our EBITDA reached MXN 582 million. Both quarterly sales and EBITDA represents a new historical record for our company, surpassing the previous record established in the last quarter. Sales have grown 19% in the first 9 months of the year, 400 basis points above guidance. Quarterly sales of products grew 25% year-to-year. We registered growth across all 3 segments: storage, water flow and water improvement, both as a result of our pricing strategy and an increase in the sales volume of storage solutions in key markets, partially driven by the drought in Northern Mexico, producing excess sales that represented 4% of total revenue for the period.

The continued strength of product sales has compensated the performance of services, which have had a slow recovery after the pandemic. Our pricing and expense control strategies have also enabled us to continue improving our margins, both sequentially and year-over-year. In fact, our quarterly gross margin expanded almost 800 basis points year-over-year and more than 400 basis points for the 9 months. Our quarterly SG&A increased slightly more than our sales as the expenses associated with the development of septic in the United States, bebbia in Mexico and the water treatment and recycling plants business in Brazil exceeded their marginal contribution to sales.

These investments in new businesses aim to mitigate climate risk impacted our EBITDA by MXN 79 million during the quarter and MXN 232 million year-to-date. Nevertheless, our quarterly operating results grew more than 2.5x, whereas the quarterly EBITDA margin increased 370 basis points. That is to say, we carry on growing and improving our profitability even as we continue to invest in new growth avenues, and we are on track to meet our guidance for the year. Furthermore, as some of you may recall, as of this year, we are not adjusting EBITDA to account for the expenses associated with flow. In the next slide, we can observe the 2 sides of the company. On one hand, on the left-hand side, the traditional businesses and on the other hand, the new businesses.

As you can see, traditional business offers value, while new business offers potential for growth. The market leadership position of our brands and solutions, which has built over many decades, provides a solid technical and financial platform for both continued innovation and the pursuit of new growth opportunities. The cash flow generation and profitability of the value side of the business has allowed us to pay dividends and invest in new businesses. Now moving forward to our geographic breakdown. Quarterly sales in Mexico grew 16% in the quarter and 12% year-to-date. As we registered a strong demand for our storage and water flow solutions, driven by the drought in Northern Mexico, triggering excess sales of MXN 152 million for the quarter.

Bebbia's user base continues to grow at an accelerated pace. Despite the strong growth in bebbia, it does not compensate the lag in the demand for water plants. Nevertheless, the increase in demand for products and our pricing strategy still led to strong overall growth and a continued improvement of our margins. The quarterly EBITDA margin reached 20% and 19% on a cumulative basis. In Argentina, quarterly sales grew 63% and 55% in the first 9 months of the year. This factor level of growth exceeded inflation was driven by our price and commercial strategy. As we successfully leveraged our leadership position in the region. Additionally, the operational leverage allow us to increase profitability and close with a cumulative EBITDA margin of 18%.

Sales in the United States grew 2% in the quarter and 10% year-to-date, driven by sales related to government relief programs for droughts, especially in California as well as the development of the septic business. Pre operating expenses for septic business and technological expenses for the expansion of the e-commerce platform negatively impacted the EBITDA, resulting in 4 million in the quarter and negative 44 million cumulative. I would like to highlight the sequential improvement in EBITDA, which turned positive in the third quarter. Sales in Central America and Peru decreased as a result of market economic contraction and the resulting reduction in the month. However, the effect on our overall result was not significant.

Acuantia Brazil’s pipeline continues to expand aided by the new regulatory framework that incentivizes private investment in water infrastructure. In terms of portfolio mix, sales of products accounted for 97% of total sales, growing 25% year-to-year. Sales of services decreased 11% despite the accelerated growth of bebbia due to the factors I outlined before. We maintain a strong balance sheet, which as we have discussed, provide us a solid financial platform to both pursue growth and profitability. Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio is 1.6x, slightly lower than that of the previous quarter as a result of the increase in EBITDA and in line with our 2x leverage policy. It is worth noting that our debt position only considers a sustainable bond IRS 17/2x.

We continue to manage our supply chain to ensure that we have the necessary raw materials to meet the demand for our products, which has increased our cash conversion cycle and our working capital needs as we continue to see instability in Acuantia's supply chains, albeit with relatively stable raising price. CapEx for the quarter amounted to 5% of total sales in the first 9 months of the year totaling MXN 452 million. Most of these capital expenditures are being directed to upgrade the technology in our core products businesses. Increase the sustainability of our manufacturing operations and strengthen the leadership position of our brands to increase profitability and strength-- the leadership position of our brands, all of which enable us to continue moving forward with the development of our new businesses as we have already mentioned.

Moving forward, we will continue to be disciplined and all within our capital allocation and spending ensuring that we prioritize the key drivers for our sustainable growth and profitability. Our ROIC reached 14.4% as of September 2022. As mentioned by Charlie, 230 basis points above our cost of capital and exceeded our guidance, bolstering our focus on long-term sustainable value creation and in keeping with the goal selling our 2020, 2025 sustainable growth. Just to note that the cost of our capital has increased 40 basis points year-over-year. I would like now to highlight a few key initiatives we undertook under the ESG space during the quarter. We successfully concluded our joint pilot project with Acciona, which provided rainwater harvesting system to support 20 families in WACC.

We launched the second edition of the Rotoplas-FUNAM Award in alliance with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, FUNAM and UNAM Foundation. The word seeks to promote research female students at UNAM on wastewater treatment at reacting at any social impact. 22 of our team members bothered to participate in Renacer del Suelo, a reforestation air quality in Mexico City. With regard to diversity and inclusion, we conducted a series of workshops and training stations on the rule of [indiscernible] in the workplace and unconscious biases. Finally, we concluded that the second vision of Agua en Debate, an educational program aimed at increases awareness of water issues in Argentina. This year, the program reached 864 students and 47 teachers from 36 different calls.

For our guidance, given our growth and the improvement of our margins, we continue to expect sales growth greater or equal to 15% for 2022, a return on invested capital, 100 basis points above our cost of capital and EBITDA margin between 15.5% and 16.5% and net debt-to-EBITDA ratio below 2x. We are committed to the wellbeing of people and planet and the sustainable creation of economic value, leveraging our solid business model and our market-leading brands to pursue new high potential growth opportunities across the Hemisphere. Our company's financial strength and strict capital allocation discipline has enabled us to create value for our shareholders through an improved ROIC as well as dividend payments and stock buybacks.

And as we continue to adapt and adjust with agility brought about by flow, we will also continue to ensure that we remain at the forefront of the efforts to address the challenges of ensuring access to water in our societies. Thank you very much for your attention. We will now answer any questions you may have.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We will start with Carlos Alcaraz from Apalache Analisis. Congratulations on the results. And the question is, do you have any estimate on how much operating margins will improve due to the recent investment in technology?

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

Sorry, do you want to be on this one?

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

Go ahead Mario.

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

Mr. Carlos, good morning, and thanks for joining us today. We are aiming to improve somewhere around 190 basis points due to this new technology in manufacturing that we have. And that we're expecting to start seeing those benefits going into 2023. And then to your second question is, as we have mentioned all that supply chain and stability has created more needs of working capital. Despite the fact and as explained, we are seeing now more stability on supply chains. So we aimed to improve 5 days during the last quarter, [indiscernible] conversion cycle, which equals roughly to around MXN 200 million.

[Operator]

Let's move to another question. Lucila Gomes from Compass Group. She's asking about the U.S. operations. Considering the U.S. impact on margins are the pre-operating expenses from the septic business and technological expenses for the expansion of the e-commerce platform, a one-off? Or should we expect moving forward U.S. margins to continue under pressure directly.

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

So thank you very much for your question, Lucila. And thanks for joining. There has been a lot of investment in that opportunity. We believe there's a huge market that is not being very well serviced. And as we are finding traction in that market, we will most likely continue to invest in developing that opportunity. So we expect the U.S. to grow revenues in an aggressive way going forward. And the investments for this happening will follow. So we do see a U.S. business that will have a result that's very close to breakeven, slightly above or slightly below, but that will be growing aggressively in revenues going forward. Mario.

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

And just to go to on what Charlie mentioned, and thanks to Lucila for joining us this morning. Yes, margins are going to be under pressure at least for 2023, given our net on the static business in the U.S. So you expect though and going into 2024, we think the story is going to be quite different.

[Operator]

Next question is from Martin Lara, Miranda Global Research. Congratulations for the strong results. I have various questions. I will start with the first one. What can we expect in terms of additional price increases during the rest of the year?

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

We'll go one by one by one. I think you can answer all 3 for me.

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

Well, I think we'll take the 3 of them at the same time. I think-- good morning. Martin is asking about additional price increases during the rest of the year, what to expect on rising costs for the last quarter and inventory days and supplier days in the fourth quarter. I guess on the first one, we don't see more price increases during the rest of the year, only Argentina to keep with inflation, but the rest of the countries, I think we have our setup in pricing is good and the gross margin in the third quarter speaks out on that. The rising cost on fourth quarter is going to be very similar to the third quarter. And finally, on inventory days, I think we already addressed that. We are expecting to reduce 5 days our cash conversion cycle, which represents roughly MXN 200 million. So those MXN 200 million that there will be a cash flow effect -- a positive cash flow effect going to the closing of the year. So thanks again for joining us this morning. I hope we have answered your questions.

[Operator]

We have Felipe Barragan from BTG Pactual. Marion and Carlos, congratulations on your results. I have a question on the pricing strategy in Argentina. Inflation is obviously high in the country. Could you give us a little more color on what strategy you're implementing to capture greater profits? And also how often are these pricing changes? Does the profit spread change significantly in each of these pricing changes?

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

Well, thank you very much for your question, Felipe, and thanks for joining. Argentina is a very different market to the rest of our markets that were participating. We're now experiencing high inflations all over our market spot Argentina is in a whole different level. And I think we have been operating that country very successfully, and we've been able to increase prices very successfully in the past multiple quarters. And the way we do it is we're always leveraging the strength of our brands with about 3 different brands that are leading brands in Argentina. And with the strength that we have from these different brands that we integrate and we go to the customer as one company integrating these 3 different lines of products, we were able to increase prices in alignment with inflation in the fence.

And so we have been very profitable in Argentina in the past few years. Doing that, we will continue to do that. And that is mainly the strategy for Argentina. But it is a very dynamic practice. In terms of frequency, it's almost monthly. It's very -- it's a very dynamic practice. That's compared to the other markets. Mario, anything else that you like to share?

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

No, you nailed it out. It's a very different market and pricing is done on a monthly guidance.

[Operator]

We have another question about CapEx. What will be the priorities for the remainder of the year and for 2023?

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

Well, we are investing very heavily in our core of our business, particularly in storage on the water storage solutions. So that will continue to be the main focus. Unfortunately, we've seen more traction in all trailing plants in terms of on interest from new customers. So that will be another one that we will be investing in going forward. But the main one is on products. Mario anything else you would like to…

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

Sure. complementing Charlie's answer, most of the CapEx is already committed and its aim as we explained, to update our portfolio solutions, mainly in water storage. So CapEx is being executed. We expect to close the year a CapEx percentage to sales in the neighborhood of 6%. That's where we're going to be landing for 2022. And most of the CapEx is already compromised. But as you know, CapEx cannot be booked until the investment phase is concluded. So as we speak, we are running into that and suspect somewhere around 6% for year-end.

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

And then maybe just worth remembering our guidance for 2025, which is having a return on invested capital in the ballpark of 20% and we having 200 basis points above weighted average cost of capital. So I just wanted to mention that our CapEx is in alignment to get into that target by 2025.

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

And then just on the other side of your question on 2023, we'll obviously speak in more detail on the other day that will be at the beginning of December. But the priorities we were prioritizing the same we did this year and last year. We have a bunch of initiatives that are coming from our transformation program. Some of them have our CapEx, all very aligned to our strategy. So do you expect pretty much similar to what you've seen in 2022.

[Operator]

Regina Carrillo from GBM. Congratulations on the results. Can you give us a little bit more color on how bebbia behaved during the quarter? And on the long term, has the expected time of breakeven has changed.

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

Thank you very much for your question, Regina. In terms of the quarter, it continues to grow in terms of new subscriptions. The amount of new subscriptions per quarter continues to grow. And obviously, the total number of customers continues to grow. It grows at similar rates. So in terms of volume, it's much larger volumes. And in terms of the breakeven, it is not changing. But again, since we are having the installation cost and the product cost be a cost of the solution and they won. The more we grow, the higher the investment. So it is a business that will have negative EBITDA for whatever the period is that we're growing at these accelerated rates. And we're expecting to be growing at this accelerated rates all the way through to beyond June 25. So Mario I don’t know if there's any other information that you'd like to give regarding the...

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

No, no I think you got right, Charlie, nothing to complement your answer.

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

Thank you, Regina.

[Operator]

The next question is from Mauro [indiscernible] from [indiscernible]. And his question is about the legal business. Could you please share the status ambition for the next years.

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

Sure. Thank you, Mauro, for joining us this morning. Well, the vision for the next year is pretty much what we have explained to you guys in previous calls. It's a space we like very much because of what are the needs to improve water management in that space. And obviously, the growing pace of the ag as a total. The performance, we've been keep on developing the market. For the first 9 months, sales have grown more than 10x, 2021. But obviously, the base is very small. So it is easy to grow at that pace. But what we will understanding is that there's a huge need for technology and new ways to manage the agricultural business.

[Operator]

We have another question is from Rodrigo Salazar AM Advisors. Could you talk about your expectations going forward in the region reported as others. Do you expect an improvement in demand and consequently in margins? And then he has another...

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

Let's say first that one and then we go to the next. But thank you very much for joining on your question. In terms of demand for the others countries, which is Central America, Peru, Brazil, mainly. Demand will continue to grow in the longer term, not even the short term though. The short term will be impacted by macroeconomic performance of the whole region. And I think it’s what we need to wait and see what's going to happen in the whole region in terms of macroeconomic performance, but in terms of water scarcity, which is a big demand driver, it continues to get more challenging, generating more demand going forward. Brazil particularly, we're in the water treatment business. And Brazil has seen some major changes in terms of the regulation which promotes a higher consumption of these tens of water treatment plants, which is centralized water treatment plants. And so we do expect demand to also continue to grow in Brazil. Mario, regarding demand for other countries?

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

I will just add that you will see an improvement going into fourth quarter, on margins. And 2023, we'll make them come back, mainly the ones to America, which as Charlie explained, has been value hit by economic performance and some political and stability in some of those countries. And Brazil is going to be a developing business, which will be a negative EBITDA where we keep on building the water treatment and recycling business.

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

[indiscernible]

[Operator]

Perfect. And the other question is about flow expenses. If we expect to have those expenses, I would say next year or the remaining of this year also. And where can we see the benefit of these expenses finishing? And how big can the chain be?

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

You want to answer that one, Mario?

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

Sure. Well, as you know Rodrigo, we are not adding up this year flow expenses to the adjusted EBITDA as we did in 2020 and 2021. So for next year, what you're going to be seeing is a decrease in SG&A because we will not be doing more of these one-timers. So you'd expect a better EBITDA performance for 2023.

[Operator]

That was the last question.

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

And sorry Rodrigo, thanks for joining us this morning.

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

Thank you for being this morning with us.

[Operator]

Okay. So you can submit a question by pressing the Q&A bottom. We can just give like some seconds, and if we don't have any more questions, we can close the webcast. I would say that that was the last question. So thank you, Mario. Thank you, Charlie.

[Carlos Rojas Aboumrad, executive]

Thank you very much, everyone.

[Operator]

And I see that-- thank you, everybody, for joining us, and see you next quarter.

[Mario Antonio Romero Orozco, executive]

Thank you all. Have a great day. Bye-bye.