CI Banco SA Institucion de Banca Multiple FF/00939

BMV:TERRA13

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q1

[Operator]

Good morning. My name is Shamali, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Terrafina's first quarter earnings conference call. [Operator Instructions]. Thank you for your attention.

I will now turn the call over to Francisco Martinez, Terrafina's Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.

[Francisco Martinez, executive]

Thank you, Shamali, and good morning, everyone. Welcome today to our first quarter 2021 conference call. We are pleased to have with us today from Terrafina, Mr. Alberto Chretin, Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Carlos Gomez, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Chretin will take us through the company's overview and operations, and Mr. Gomez will discuss the financials.

Before we begin, I would like to refer you to the forward-looking statements, as per the note in the quarterly report. Any information expressed or implied during the call may include forward-looking statements, which could involve certain risks or uncertainties. Terms such as estimate, project, plan, believe, expect, anticipate, intend, and similar expressions may identify such statements. Listeners are cautioned that forward-looking statements made during this call or by the company's management may change based on various important factors out of the company's control. These comments represent the company's judgment at the time of this call, and this company has no intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Thank you again for your attention. And at this point, I'll turn the call over to Mr. Alberto Chretin for his remarks.

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Thank you, Paco. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call. To begin, I hope that you and your families are staying safe and healthy. As we have said in the past, our top priority remains the health and safety of all of our stakeholders. And as we are starting a reopening of the economy, we are adjusting our operations to optimize returns while still maintaining this safety issue in mind.

The first quarter of 2021, Terrafina delivered results in line with our expectations. Our same property results when compared with the previous quarter are stable. Remember that after the portfolio sale, which closed in November of last year, the company has 3 million square feet less in GLA as well as an NOI decrease of approximately $12 million. And considering all of these, the first quarter results for '21, numbers remain strong.

As we have discussed in previous calls, an important number of lease maturities are coming up this year. Overall, 20.3% of our occupied GLA or 7.6 million square feet are set to mature in 2021. During the first quarter alone, our leasing activity reached 2.4 million square feet with a weighted average lease term of 4 years. We believe this says a lot about our tenants' operation strength as well as a commitment to operate in Mexico over the long run.

This leasing activity was mainly concentrated in the Central region, Cuatitlan Izcalli and Toluca, which amounted to 50.3% of the total renewals followed by the Northern region, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Gomez Palacio, Saltillo, Derramadero, Monterrey, which represented 42.4% of the total renewals. And finally, the Bajio region, Silao, Irapuato, and Queretaro with 7.3% of the activity. It is important to say that thanks to all this leasing activity, we were able to report an 83.2% renewal rate for the quarter. This is in line with expectations considering the current environment.

As for lease terminations, we registered a total of 550,000 square feet of GLA that was not renewed. In most cases, this was due to consolidation purposes in tenants with cost efficiency programs derived from the COVID-19 impacts on certain industries economic growth outlook. We are aware that signing renewals and maintaining a high retention rate throughout the year will be one of the biggest priorities in 2021. We are fully confident that our highly experienced team should be able to sustain an above 80% retention rate ending the year with an occupancy rate of 94% to 95%. As a result of all of the above, our occupancy rate decreased 60 basis points quarter-to-quarter to reach 94.6%.

The annual average rental rate per square foot was $5.30, a $0.02 increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. This rent increase is partly related to the November asset sale as well as the rent increase clauses based on the U.S. CPI. The results -- these results allow us to distribute a total of $23.5 million in dividends to our certificate holders or USD 2.97 per certificate, which implies an 8.1% dividend yield.

On the macro factors that support our strategy, it is also important to remind you that most of our clients are much more geared to the U.S. economy activity than to Mexico's. This means that the progress that we are seeing with the U.S. vaccination program as well as the large fiscal stimulus programs that had been announced should entice more activity for our tenants. Hence, we are expecting to be able to comfortably pay rent on their lease spaces and even search for new and bigger spaces as a recovery gain structure. On that note, we continue to be actively looking for new development opportunities as we are convinced there will be many accretive projects in the coming quarters as economic activity accelerates and near-shoring trends become more evident.

As we have discussed in previous calls, we are interested in increasing our exposure to strategic sectors of the economy, which are benefiting from near-shoring trends as well as the post-pandemic economic recovery. We intend to fund this through the continuous asset recycling effort to retain cash from our operations as well as our annual CapEx budget. On that note, we have already closed the acquisition of 13 hectares of land in Tijuana for $12.4 million. We are planning to develop 2 Class A buildings on this land plot, and we are currently in the process of signing a lease contract for one of them. We expect to have news on this front soon.

Finally, before I pass the call to Carlos, I'm very pleased to share with you that we have made significant progress in defining our ESG strategy for the future. As you will soon see in our sustainability report, we have defined key performance indicators and goals for all of our material topics. These KPIs cover topics as important as climate change and our contribution to the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals. We are convinced that considering the impact that pandemic has had on our planning, it is more important than ever to have a sustainable path for recovery. And in Terrafina, we will make sure we stand up to the challenge.

Thank you for your attention. And Carlos, please go ahead with the financial highlights for the quarter.

[Carlos Espinosa, executive]

Thank you, Alberto. And thanks to all the participants for joining us on today's conference call. Please note that all figures discussed in this call are in U.S. dollars. But Mexican peso figures can be found in the earnings report. Additionally, NOI, EBITDA, and FFO figures exclude noncash items as well as nonrecurring and transaction-related expenses, the latter of which are only included in the AFFO.

As Alberto mentioned, in November 2020, we closed an asset sale for 3 million square feet. This is why it is important to make same properties comparison for the main financial metrics. Therefore, my comments on the first quarter of 2020 represent adjusted financial figures for the exclusion of the assets sold by the end of 2020.

Same-store net collections reached USD 48 million, a 3.3% increase compared to the first quarter of 2020. Our rental revenue, it reached $47 million, which implies a 2% year-on-year decrease, which is basically explained by 0.5 million square feet of terminations.

NOI was $46 million, a 2.1% year-on-year increase versus the first quarter of 2020 NOI. This implies a 94% NOI margin. EBITDA totaled $41 million, a 1.7% increase or an 83.7% margin.

Finally, AFFO reached a total of $27.6 million, an 8.4% year-on-year increase. Considering an 85% payout ratio, our distribution for this quarter was $23.5 million, and distribution per certificate was MXN 60.26 per certificate or USD 2.97 per certificate.

Moving on to our balance sheet. We closed the quarter with $64.5 million in cash. Our loan-to-value ratio at the end of the quarter was 37.4%. Finally, as of quarter end, our average cost of debt was 4.5%, and our average weighted maturity of debt was 6 years.

Thank you for your time and attention. I will now ask the operator to open the line for questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Francisco Chavez with BBVA.

[Francisco Chávez Martínez, analyst]

I have 2 questions. The first one is regarding the very low amount of tenant improvements during the quarter. Is this low level sustainable for the rest of the year? And second question is regarding the acquisition of land in Tijuana. Can you share with us the expected returns? And when can we expect this development to start generating revenues?

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Yes. Thank you, Francisco, for your question. Well, first, in terms of the low TIs, yes, the TIs for this quarter were lower than expected because of the activity on the improvements for the tenants that we review the contracts. However, we stand by our guidance that we're going to spend between $12 million and $13 million for the total of the year, and that amounts to between $0.30 and $0.33 per square foot for the total portfolio. So to answer your question, I think that it was particularly low this quarter, but we expect that the following quarters is going to increase to the level that we guided on the amount that I just mentioned between $12 million and $13 million. On the second question, yes, we expect returns on the developments north of 10%. These developments that we are performing, that we're going to be doing in Tijuana, we're very close, as I mentioned before, to reach an agreement with one tenant and signing this contract in the very near future. And we will be announcing that when it happens. And in terms of when the income for these facilities is going to materialize, we think it's going to be towards the third or fourth quarter of this year, but for sure, for 2022. We bought this track of land in a prime location in which, as I mentioned, we do already have a -- we're very close to signing a lease contract in one of those buildings that we plan to build there. But the occupancy in that market is very high. There's almost no vacancy. There is a very robust pipeline of demand for space in Tijuana, especially in that market. So that's why we, as you remember, we usually are not land buyers, but this time, we felt that it was a very good opportunity, and we will continue to look for more opportunity like that.

[Francisco Chávez Martínez, analyst]

And just a follow-up on this. This decision to develop is a change in the DNA of the FIBRA because we usually -- you were consolidating the market through stabilized properties, but now you are starting to develop. What we should expect for the coming years?

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

That's a very good question. Thank you, Francisco. Yes, I think that we're making a midcourse correction in terms of some of our growth strategies because we see the opportunities in the markets, in the most -- in the prime market like Tijuana, around Mexico City and Monterrey and Guadalajara. And the reason is that we see a surge in demand for e-commerce. We see a surge also in demand for other strategic sectors that -- the new sectors that are growing due to the post-pandemic situation. And also because of the near-shoring activities as well as the conflict between the U.S. and China and the, what they call, the ally-shoring. So we see a different type of companies moving to Mexico. And since this is a new a new demand, there's not too many -- there's not almost any, let's say, e-commerce or last mile opportunities to acquire properties. And that's why we feel that in order to capture these opportunities, we need to put in motion more development. We know how to do it. We've done it in the past. These developing yields are better than the cap rates for acquisitions. And I think that we have room within all these [indiscernible] or the characteristic of the FIBRA to do that.

Having said that, we will continue to -- in the future, for opportunities to acquire portfolios or properties that are -- that suit our -- the profile of business for Terrafina. But for this year perhaps and for next -- for the near future, we will be more aggressive on development to capture these opportunities. As I mentioned, not only that we're going to -- like in this case that we bought land, we may have to buy additional land in some markets if we want to participate in the -- in the last-mile projects. But we also -- given that we have land also, we can -- we can develop another 5 million approximately per square feet of GLA. So this development is going to be within our land and perhaps also with some very specific and target-oriented acquisitions like this one. When we bought this property, as I mentioned, this -- we know this is the best market, one of the hardest markets in Mexico, which is Tijuana, one of the best markets also in Tijuana. So that's why we're very carefully buying land to capture this opportunity.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Francisco Suarez with Scotiabank.

[Francisco Suarez, analyst]

Two questions on ESG. One, considering that your bonds are currently trading at well above par with an indicated yields of 3.5% or so. What are the chances of you guys actually issuing a green bond sorting to even enhance further your overall balance sheet. And on that regard as well -- and what about certified buildings? Does your new developments, are you targeting those to be certified with either an EDGE or a LEED or any other certification? Or what are the chances to actually engage in sustainability loan or sustainability bond as well to fund that sort of development.

[Carlos Espinosa, executive]

Yes. Do you want to take this one, Alberto?

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Go ahead, Carlos.

[Carlos Espinosa, executive]

Okay. Excellent. Yes, Francisco, as you know, in 2019, we issued a 10-year bond that, as you mentioned, is trading well above par. So we are not expecting to make a tender offer or to take it out of the market. So on regards of the other bond, the 2022, as you know, it matures on the last quarter of 2022 with a very small amount. So we -- based on this amount and that we are not increasing our debt, we are not considering issuing any additional bonds for now. When our bonds mature, yes, we are considering explore any opportunities on regards of green bonds or any other alternatives.

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

So I think it's also important just to highlight that for Terrafina, it is important to find alternatives, issuing ESG-linked bonds or any other type of loans or a green bond, as you mentioned. One of the criteria is obviously linked to the certification process, which we are working. As you mentioned, it is important to have an important amount of your GLA certified. For Terrafina, we have a plan to certify almost 15% of our total GLA by 2030. For this year, we will start by doing certification of almost 3.5% of our total GLA. And later on we will be working on other projects. The certification standards that we are working as of today is related with LEED. And as well, we are looking into BOMA. But one of the bottlenecks and challenges we have found is that we also want to certify the performance of our total GLA. So knowing that there is a big challenge on certifying a 100% of our properties, we are choosing to certify on specific activities such as how we're working with energy or water management. In this way, it would lead us to have a full certification process. Or with the use of LEED or BOMA as I mentioned. So just to complement the answer for that Carlos just mentioned. I don't know if this -- you have any additional follow-up question, Taco.

[Operator]

And our next question is from Alejandro Chavelas with Credit Suisse.

[Alejandro Chavelas, analyst]

Just one on the lands. Perhaps I'm missing something, but when I checked your earnings statement, there was no change in the land reported. Was the transaction then completed in April? And the second one, just if you could comment a little bit on what you are seeing in terms of rent growth and lease spreads, in particular, in the border markets? We have been hearing a lot about significant growth ahead in terms of rents in several markets. So I wanted to get your perspective on that.

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Sure, Alejandro. Well, the reason why is that included is because this was -- you noticed this, it was a subsequent event because we bought the land after the end of the quarter. And that's why it was not included. In terms of the rent growth, I think that we have, as I mentioned, the $5.30 in [ transactions ] per square foot that we did right now. And we don't expect rent growth based on where we -- on the markets that we operate. As a matter of fact, I think that perhaps there may be a slight mark-to-market because as you noticed, the rent that we have in our portfolio is above the markets in which we operate. And the rent rate that we reported today is due to the fact that we sold the portfolio and then we had an increase in rent as well as the inflation clauses that we have on our contracts. So we don't -- to answer your question, we don't expect rent growth in the overall portfolio. There may be some rent growth in some of the market, for example, Tijuana, there may be something in Mexico City because of the low vacancy in those markets. But overall, we don't project a substantial growth based on rent growth. And the lease spreads that we have on the renewals, we think are going to even remain the same or even as I mentioned before, maybe a small mark-to-market in the markets where we have higher rent in our portfolio than the market.

[Operator]

And our next question is from Jose Sanchez with Citi.

[Jose Sanchez, analyst]

My first question is about how is the health of the aerospace tenant type, given the global COVID restrictions post-COVID? And the second one is, is the semiconductor shortage is affecting them too because you have the greatest exposure to this sector amongst all the FIBRAs?

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

You mean the aerospace or automotive? You mentioned automotive?

[Jose Sanchez, analyst]

Aerospace.

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Aerospace, okay. Yes. Well, in terms of aerospace, yes, I think that the aerospace sector was affected not only because of the pandemia and the consequence, a reduction in activity in the aviation as well as some of the deferral of purchases from airplanes from the airlines. So it was somewhat affected. In addition to that, the 737 MAX also grounded of all the airplanes, also had an impact on them. We contact all of -- the majority of our aerospace tenants, which are very important. And the feedback that we get from them and the consequent effect of all of this was that they slowed down their growth. And indeed the -- we had one tenant in Chihuahua with whom we have a campus of 4 buildings, and they were leasing and one of the buildings expired during this year. And they did not renew that building, were using that building as a buffer for operations. So they did not renew that contract. And however, they expressed also that they maybe wanted to do something there.

So yes, they were affected, but not to the point that they are giving us back space. The effect was that they, for example, this tenant did not renew 1 of the 4 buildings. But they continue to operate and they -- and their operations are very long-term. That's why we have a lot of early renewals with them because they want to confirm that they have access to the space for the long run. So we think that this is a temporary situation with them, and we expect them to continue to grow. This is a very solid industry with very effective collaboration with academia. They continue to develop suppliers and have very successful operations.

In terms of the semiconductor.

I think that the aviation, I do not hear a lot of comments from the aviation. The -- we did hear some comments from the automotive sector, which also we have a large percentage of our manufacturing for export companies are in the automotive. And that did have an impact on the automotive sector. And the comments that we had from our automotive suppliers is that they put in motion some contingency strategies in terms of procurement, meaning that they -- I don't want to say they totally cancelled, but they changed their approach to just in time. They increased the purchases. They increased the stock of semiconductors.

And in addition to that, the semiconductor suppliers also went to top production on their facilities. And also, as you probably saw that the U.S. government is providing some stimulus also to the semiconductor suppliers in the U.S., the names of the Intel, in order to increase production and to also transfer some of the semiconductor production that is being done on the Far East to the U.S. in order to reduce dependency of them. So the effect on the automotive and the aviation -- and let me include the aviation for this purpose, it was -- it's been temporary. They're taking some measures to deal with this.

And when I talked to one of the CEOs of our tenants, a very important automotive supplier, they said that this is not new to them. Whenever there is a shortage of something, they have some protocols that they trigger in order to protect themselves, to increase the inventories, to change the procurement strategy in that and kept a close contact with the suppliers.

So in summary, it did affect the automotive company. They're taking measures to address that. And they feel that this though is not totally solved, but they think that is in the process of being sold. And then again, this is going to be a temporary situation.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Adrian Huerta with JPMorgan.

[Adrian Huerta, analyst]

A quick question on what you see going forward on leverage plan for further asset sales and potential investments that you could be making a year over the next 2 to 3 years. If you can tell us a little bit about the balance of those things and where are you thinking for the coming years.

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Thank you, Adrian, and thank you for your question, Adrian. Well, in terms of leveraging, yes, I think that our intention is to continue to reduce leverage. We think we're going to achieve that through the sale of properties. And we're very focused also on making sure that we continue with our asset sales. As you know, we have made 2 very successful events of recycling of capital by means of the asset sales. We are also in the process of conforming another one.

So -- and the proceeds from that asset is going to be both to deleverage and also to fund the development opportunities that we have. We do have, as I mentioned before, midcourse correction in terms of our growth strategy, meaning that we want to dispose of some properties that are in secondary or tertiary markets and we want to increase our presence in the new sectors like the data centers or e-commerce, and we have been successful in getting some traction in talking to this profile of tenants. So that's why, for us, it's important to continue with this investment strategy with development.

As I mentioned before, we have done it before. We know how to do it. The development bureaus are very good and we're looking forward for that. Having said that, of course, we're considerably monitoring the market to assess and to be aware of good portfolios that may be out there because there are some good industrial real estate developers that are building facilities and that are leasing to new companies because of this new added demand for the ally-shoring in all of these new activities. So when the time comes, we also -- we keep good contacts with of all these developers in order to continue to grow the acquisition aspect when the time comes. But for now, I think that that's why we bought this track of land in Tijuana, which we expect to develop in the very, very near future and with very good developing yields.

[Adrian Huerta, analyst]

Alberto, and the leverage, would you like to see it more around the 40% or more around the 35% over the coming years?

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Thank you for the question. I forgot that. Yes. I think it's going to be in the low to mid-30s. We, as you know, we repaid a term loan that we had. We don't expect to increase the debt. We -- so I think it's quite the contrary, we're looking to deleverage to the mid to low 30s in our loan-to-value.

[Adrian Huerta, analyst]

So that means you might be looking to sell over the next 2 to 3 years, a couple of hundred million dollars of assets.

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Well, I think it's very early to say how much of assets we're going to be able to sell. I think that we're also looking to see by doing this development also and increasing the GLA, we're going to be [indiscernible] deleveraging also, but yes, the emphasis is to delever the company. And I think that the target will be for the mid to low 30s in the next 18 months.

[Operator]

Our next question is from [ Juan Mercado with GBM ].

[Unknown Analyst]

Sorry, but all my questions have already been answered.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Jorel Guilloty with Morgan Stanley.

[Wilfredo Guilloty, analyst]

I have 2 questions. My first one is around the Bajio region. The occupancy levels right now are about 10 percentage points lower than the North and Central region. And you spoke earlier about the aerospace region -- aerospace industry, which is concentrated there. But one thing I wanted to get a sense of, as we look at the occupancy levels in that region, what is the outlook? What should we expect over the next year or 2? Should we expect just a narrowing of the occupancy levels between that region vis-a-vis the other 2? And sort of connected to that, could this region be a potential part of the asset sales that you've mentioned?

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Thanks for your question. Yes, I think, let me start with the second one. Yes. I think that some of the target properties that we have to sell are in the Bajio region. And in terms of the occupancy in the Bajio, I think that that continues to be a challenge, I have to say. However, we do have 2 property managers that are very active in promoting that area in that we don't expect a substantial reduction of the gap between the occupancy in the north or the center in the Bajio. However, we do have a couple of good prospects for some of the large properties that we have in Bajio, which we expect to lease. However, the dynamics of the Bajio are not as active as at the north or at the center. So that's why we don't expect a substantial increase in occupancy debt. And again, as I said, some of the buildings that we're targeting to sell are in that region.

[Wilfredo Guilloty, analyst]

And one more question, if I may, to just sort of pick your brain on what you mentioned about data centers. So does this imply that there will be an investment on your part with people who're just focusing more on the skills around IT, security, and what have you? And then when you talk about data centers, are you expecting this to be an expressive part of your NOI in, say, the next 2 to 5 years?

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Well, that's a very good question. I think that -- thank you for opportunity to clarify. Data centers are -- we do see a demand, and I think it's going to be an important part of demand for industrial real estate in data centers. However, it's something that we are looking at a gradual participation that the first one may be some repositioning of some facilities to work as teleconference or data centers. And then the second one also would be also to perhaps grow through acquisition of some land in markets in which there are some demand for data centers. So to answer your question, I don't think that's going to move the needle as much. We're comfortable with the fact that we have about 70% of our facilities are manufacturing for export and then the other 30% are logistical distribution. And we think that that range, there could be some reposition of some properties to transform into data centers or teleconferencing facilities. This is something that we are starting to see some demand and we're analyzing what kind of facilities we can reposition to serve that. So we think it's going to be a new opportunity. However, within the 30% that I mentioned, we're focusing more and putting more weight on the e-commerce and last-mile opportunities. However, as I mentioned, we are looking at the data center and teleconference as new opportunities on a gradual basis.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Gordon Lee with BTG.

[Gordon Lee, analyst]

I have a question, Alberto, on the automotive sector, given not only your experience in the space, but also how relevant it is for Terrafina. I don't know if you saw, but GM announced yesterday that they'll be making the $1 billion plus investment in -- for electric vehicle production in their Ramos Arizpe facility. So I was wondering if you could remind us what exposure, if any, you have today to the electric vehicle side of the automotive sector? And how well positioned do you think Mexico is for that transition? Is it something that you're enthusiastic about or something that you're concerned about?

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Thank you, Gordon. Thank you for the question. I think it's a very good question. Yes, I saw the announcement from GM. I think this is very exciting. It's very good. And as you know, this is not the only one, also now the new Mustang, electric car from Ford is also, they're building in at plan is also now improved production.

To answer your question, yes, we're very excited. We're very enthusiastic about the penetration of electric cars and hybrid cars. This is an issue that we have been dealing with our tenants, automotive tenants for the last couple of years. And let me tell you that the response that we have from most of them is that they all have initiatives to participate in these hybrid or e-commerce cars because, let me remind you, the profile of our tenants that are in the automotive sector are Tier 2 and Tier 3 companies that are manufacturing for the Mexican -- marketing for the U.S. market.

And many of them are already participating in some of the harnesses. I just visited one of our facility at [indiscernible] neighbors, which is -- they have all this orange looking wire harnesses, which is -- which are the ones that are on the electric cars and that other tenants like Continental, they make the instrument clusters, they also participated directly with the electric and hybrid cars. So I think this is a trend that is going to continue. Indeed, are going to be some suppliers that [indiscernible] auto sector that may become obsolete, the ones that are directly related to exclusively large engines, and that may help you to change. But the sector continues to grow. There are still some challenges in terms of technology, in terms of the batteries, in terms of the availability of some of the components for battery production.

I think that the outlook for the auto industry in Mexico is good with the electric cars. As you see, as they announced it from GM, not only they're going to invest in the facility, but also they're looking at to building batteries and do other components for the electric cars. So in summary, I think that it's going to be good for Mexico. I think it's going to be good for the car industry. And in the auto sector, suppliers have proven before that they adjust and they're creative and they have a forward technology that is going to develop -- to be developed to continue to participate.

And another issue that we hear from them is that the speed. Although there are some comments about how quickly the electric cars are going to proliferate, there are still some time to adjust to those new needs and is going to continue to be very active. If you remember that we had in our technical committee, we have Eduardo Solis, who was a former -- he was for over 3 years the President of the Automotive Industry Association. And we keep very close ties with automotive suppliers and even the OEMs about their plans to operate in Mexico. And the prognosis is good for Mexico and things will be -- you will see transfer -- more components being transferred to Mexico on these new electric cars as well as the adjustment of some of the current suppliers.

[Gordon Lee, analyst]

Do you -- I was wondering, do you have on hand the percentage of your automotive clients that are already involved in EV component production or that service EV vehicles?

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

It's something that -- I think that when I say most of them have already plans or are already doing it. So it is -- when you talk to the manufacturers of instrument clusters, wire harnesses, switches, actuators, some other switch, they are already participating, a portion of their production, in a small portion perhaps at the beginning or even they are already supplying a small portion of their production or they are working on projects to participate in this in the electric cars.

So that's why, if I was to use a percentage of the ones that are either supplying or have plans to supply or are participating in opportunities is very high. But I wouldn't venture to give you a percentage of the ones that are already doing, which the ones that are already doing it, that I know, for example, wire harnesses, instrument clusters, some of the ones that are doing some switches and actuators, they're already participating with the large percentage.

As a matter of fact, if you talk to the procurement people from the 4 plants in Cuatitlan Izcalli, and I don't know about the GM for this new project, but they're already developing and they already have suppliers in Mexico, and they are developing suppliers that may -- maybe in Mexico are not supplying yet, but they want to encourage them to supply them also from Mexico. So I'm sorry that I cannot give you a more specific answer. But I will look for that, and I will try to give it to you to look for that and give you that information on.

[Operator]

And we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And I will now turn the call over to Alberto Chretin for closing remarks.

[Alberto Castillo, executive]

Thank you, Shamali. Well, thank you all for attending today. I would like to finish this call by reinforcing the message that we are convinced, it is the right time to be assertive and invest in the right developing projects. We will continue to work together with all of our stakeholders to make sure we are aligned and optimize our results for everyone. We look forward to speaking with you all again soon, and have a great day. Thank you again for your interest.

[Operator]

And this concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.