Unifin Financiera SAB de CV

BMV:UNIFINA

Earnings Call Transcript 2018-Q4

[Operator]

Good morning, and welcome to UNIFIN's Fourth Quarter 2018 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. David Pernas, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance at UNIFIN. Sir, you may begin.

[David Sánchez, executive]

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to welcome you to UNIFIN Financiera's earnings call. This morning UNIFIN's senior management will discuss the company's fourth quarter and full year 2018 consolidated results for the press release distributed yesterday. If you have not received the copy of the earnings release, please contact Investor Relations team to obtain a copy immediately.

Prior to introducing our management, I would like to remind you that forward-looking statements may be made during this call. These do not account for economic circumstances, industry conditions, the company's performance or financial results. As such, these forward-looking statements are based on several assumptions and factors that could change, causing actual results to materially differ from current expectations. Therefore, we ask you to refer to the disclaimer located in the earnings release prior to making any investment decision. We are very pleased to present today Mr. Sergio Camacho, Chief Executive Officer; and Sergio Cancino, Chief Financial Officer.

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Sergio Camacho for his presentation. Please go ahead, sir.

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today.

During 2018, UNIFIN reported growth in its annual results that demonstrate the resilience and strength of its business model. Net income increased by 8.6% during the year. The level of capitalization reached 19.2% after the perpetual bond issuance. The leasing yield increased to 38%, while the net interest margin was healthy and stable at 8%. And we continued with reported NPL levels below 1%.

The results are especially noteworthy, given the uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment of the year, especially by the last quarter, where concerns around volatile economic slowdown caused a surge in market volatility. As a result, world financial markets were under pressure. Some tumbled. Some emerging market currencies weakened and investors preferred investment-grade bonds over high yield, seeking safe haven investments.

On top of that, Mexico had to face its own uncertainty. Following the July Presidential election, [ and long-grown ] out of negotiation of NAFTA and the consolidation of the Mexico City airport project. Furthermore, the Central Bank of Mexico played a decisive role in contracting inflationary pressures and strengthening the macroeconomic fundamentals by adopting a restrictive monetary policy, with 2 interest rate hikes in the fourth quarter for a total intake of 100 bps in 2018, leading to a tightening of the local trade and market conditions.

In addition, a more conciliatory approach from the new government by approving a fiscally responsible 2018 (sic) [ 2019 ] federal budget provided certainty to market participants.

UNIFIN is well known for its conservative risk management strategy and act accordingly. Currently, in 2018, we anticipated our financial risk. We had a successive issuance of 2 bonds in international markets, insulating us from any potential credit crunch, although as a consequence, our economy crunched like by 34 basis points. This gave us the liquidity to support and execute our commercial strategy for 2018 and shield the company from potential adversities. Our financial decisions are based on the long-term perspective and motivated by previews, hence the proactive approach to the markets.

We also were very selective in the underwriting of credit, focusing on the highest quality of clients. This, in addition to the overall environment, led to a slowdown in growth of our credit portfolio, but allowed us to keep nonperforming loans below 1%. Meanwhile, aligned with change in management, the company implemented a new strategy that impacted the historical blended structure, Power for your business, based on 2 pillars: data management and advisory to our clients. This change allows us to offer our clients in informed financial guidance and provide the value-added advice they require to boost their long-term growth of their businesses and this across sales between our different products.

From an operational standpoint, this new approach will drive additional synergies and efficiencies across all areas of the organization. The aforementioned is supported by new technological platforms that will enable us to have continuous monitoring of the productivity of our commercial, operational and financial strategy, improving the profitability of the company.

Although 2019 will be a challenging year, we are convinced that the business fundamentals are solid, and we are committed to generate value for the stakeholders. UNIFIN is confident in Mexico's positive long-term outlook and will continue investing in the country, thereby helping small and medium enterprises to grow.

Regarding our business strengths for the quarter. As previously mentioned, the fourth quarter turned out to be a challenging one for the Mexican economy due to a combination of factors such as the volatile global markets and some domestic concerns such as the cancellation of the new airport in Mexico City, causing the Central Bank to act accordingly by increasing interest rates.

Notwithstanding these headwinds, total revenues increased 21.2% in the quarter against the same period a year ago. As we mentioned last quarter, we are disclosing 2 new metrics that will allow the market to track our progress in meeting the goals of improving our profitability, leasing yield and net interest margin. The leasing yield is calculated by dividing the last 12 months of the lease income by the average lease portfolio, while the NIM is a division of the last 12 months of nominal financial margins and the average total portfolio.

We have seen in the origination of loans, the claim appetite for extended maturity has increased. Over the past quarter, the yield has experienced a contraction, mainly explained by lease extension on the average maturity of our leasing portfolio from 35 months back in 2015 to 41 by the end of last year.

By extending the maturity of the new lease contracts, the nominal rent amount to be received is divided by the larger number of payments, hence the reported contraction. The extension of the lease originations and essentially on the average portfolio maturity is a consequence of market and client demands, as we do not notify the commission on existing contracts.

Given the continuous efforts to increase the implicit rates in the leasing portfolio, the yield gap continues to improve in the second half of 2018. They were a reported 31.1% (sic) [ 37.1% ] in the second quarter of the year, 37.4% in the third quarter of the year and 38% in the fourth quarter. And we expect this metric to continue improving going forward.

The net interest margin in the fourth quarter came at an 8%, down from a year ago, but nearly stable against the third quarter of the year of 8.1%, which was offset by the improvement in drawing of credit facilities.

Let's move to the financial margin results, which nominally reached MXN 1 billion, a 14.7% increase year-over-year. Financial margin as a percentage of total revenues declined to 20.3% compared to the 21.4% in the fourth quarter of 2017. However, the deterioration in the margin vis-à-vis a year ago was due to higher interest expense, which rose 29.7% during the fourth quarter, again explained by our conservative drawing of credit. I would like to highlight that only MXN 294 million of this higher expense were caused by an increase in the cost of funding, whereas MXN 1.4 billion of the increase were related to incremental debt, which were related to the decision to perform our financing needs early in 2018 [ coupling that with the current rate ].

The company continued to focus aggressively on keeping costs down. And OpEx as a percentage of revenues fell to 6.1% from 7.7% a year ago. This was achieved despite the investments in our IT platform to better manage our commercial, operating and financial structure.

Our operating income for the quarter reached MXN 663 million compared to MXN 710 million in the same period of last year.

During the fourth quarter of 2017, the company reported MXN 148 million before taxes of additional operating income related to our insurance facility rebate due to lower claims, hence the apparent contraction versus last year. However, at the start of 2018, such income was registered monthly under other lease benefits, which for the full year represented MXN 170 million, explaining the higher comparative base of 2017.

Consolidated net income for the quarter reached MXN 502 million during the quarter, a 2.2% increase versus last year. As mentioned before, during the fourth quarter of 2017, the company reported additional income of MXN 102 million net of income tax that positively impacted our results. For the full year 2018, consolidated net income increased 8.6% year-over-year.

The company was able to keep nonperforming loans down to below 1% of the portfolio. And our allowance for loan losses represented 110% at year-end. The adjusted NPL ratio, which is the full amount of lease receivable, stood at 3.1%. It is really important to highlight that UNIFIN maintains ownership of the assets under lease contracts. The insignificant and a potential claim has successful recovery of the assets. Additionally, the book value of the assets represent approximately 60% of their market value, which is not considered in the allowance for loan losses, therefore making our provisional methodology even more conservative.

As of year-end, total assets increased 21.1% (sic) [ 24.1% ] mainly due to the growth of the total portfolio and net fixed assets during the quarter. The current cost of funding is 10.1% versus 9.8% at the close of 2017. Notwithstanding the reference rates increased by 100 basis points in 2018, providing the importance of the conservative measures the company took to shield the balance sheet.

UNIFIN average debt maturity profile stood at 47 months vis-à-vis 39 months of the total portfolio. And all of our U.S. dollar-denominated debt is fully hedged to maturity. The stockholders' equity stood at MXN 13 billion at the end of 2018, a 71.3% increase versus 2017, explained by the capital infusion related to the perpetual notes, which are classified and treated as equity.

In addition to return earnings, UNIFIN capitalization ratio was 19.2%, up from 13.9% reported in the fourth quarter of 2017. Excluding mark-to-market, our MXN 670 million capitalization stood at 18.4%.

As we previously mentioned, we are focused on improving efficient capital allocation, and we continued to increase the share repurchase activity, buying 7 million shares during the quarter. We believe that this approach is an effective way to return value to our investors.

Now let me talk a little bit about financing. As previously mentioned, the company has disclosed its decision to financing to fulfill the budget for 2019. Such needs were announced in the amount up to $1 billion. It is important to highlight that over 35% of that budget considers rollover of existing local securitizations. The intent is to improve the tenure of budget end and benefit from an extended revolving period. Additionally, the remaining 65% will be used as working capital to meet our origination budget for 2019. We will closely monitor credit market, and by no means, UNIFIN will jeopardize the cost of funding curve for higher-than-anticipated growth.

As we have done over the past 25 years, the company will always follow a prudent and conservative financial strategy. And thus, we will review our different options in light of market conditions to maintain a sound and healthy balance sheet at all times.

And with that, I will bring my remarks to a close and will now take questions. Operator, we are ready for the Q&A.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Carlos Rivera with Barclays.

[Carlos Rivera Zermeno, analyst]

Just wondering if you could give us a little bit of an update in terms of demand, what you have since so far this year. I mean, the last quarter [ of the year the ] results were solid, given the macroeconomic conditions and having uncertainty. But just wondering if you are seeing already a pickup in demand. Or what is the outlook for this full year? And also, we could lead that to the outlook for the business more medium term. So an announcement by the municipal finance [ the ] association, trying to increase financial inclusion and which banks are committed to increase the penetration of SMEs financing options. So do you see that as a competition for the new term? And what is your take on that now?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes. Getting back on the outlook on how do we see now the current trends on economic activity. I would like to highlight that the fiscal budget that we saw from the government was a good one, but in a very conservative way. And what we see by this, first, we recently saw the [ UMS ] issuance that also proved that the investors continue to have confidence in Mexico. Getting to the local markets and to the economic activity, we haven't seen really a pickup yet, as we just have like [ 27 days ] on -- early on the year. But that's why we are, on our side, doing everything on business intelligence efforts and on these power to the businesses' strategies that we had in order to boost the origination. We are very close to the market. We're very close to our clients. And yes, we're expecting to see some pickup -- significant pickup by the end of the quarter as long as all these projects such as the Train Maya or the other things that this new government has on the pipeline start to materialize. And getting also to what the government has said on putting a lot of support to the SME sector in Mexico, we are very close also to these developing banks such as Nafinsa and Bancomext. What they have already said is that they want to use Mexican entities such as UNIFIN to really develop, and let's say, disburse all these supports and this monitor, they want building on the system for boosting the SME sector. So we're already also in that front, and that's also part of our strategy.

[Carlos Rivera Zermeno, analyst]

Okay. A quick follow-up on that. Is there any program where you could get cheaper funding from the development banks? I don't -- do you have right now any funding that's coming from there? Are you in any talks to develop that if you're going to increase the [ lines of companies ]?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes. We have both income and commensurate facilities. And yes, we have already touched base and have meetings with the new administration, and they're preparing some programs that we could take advantage of.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Alonso Garcia with Crédit Suisse.

[Ricardo Garcia, analyst]

My question is if you could provide some outlook for the margin this year. And how dependent that is on growth in new regions where you -- where the competition is lower and probably you can charge higher rates?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Sure, yes. As you may recall, on the second quarter call, I announced this plan of starting to improve our profitability. So far, we have already gained roughly 70, 80 bps on the margin. And we have an expectation to basically double that for this year. Of course, it will be a matter on how the new funding and the spreads for the new funding are going to be. Once again, that's one of our main priorities for the company to have an improvement on profitability.

[Ricardo Garcia, analyst]

And regarding -- I mean, the growth in new regions, I mean, how much do you expect new regions to contribute to the business in 2019 compared to 2018? Or how they are going to contribute in terms of the margin outlook?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes. Of course -- I mean, there are several co-ops in the country that require different type of attention. Of course, in the Mexico City and metropolitan area and probably in places like Monterrey and Guadalajara, there are -- these are more sophisticated markets and there is significantly more presence there. So competition to a point could put some -- a little pressure in terms of -- with pricing the originations. However, the focus we'll keep on -- we'll continue to be diversifying our originations, opening new areas, looking out for regions like the Bajío, like the regions of tourist sectors, which are outperforming, and that's more of where the focus will be this year. Both -- in reality, we don't anticipate that we're going to have any pressure or any complications on passing the cost of funding to our clients. The rationale behind that is, given the low penetration -- the very low penetration to the market entirely, and given that, we have seen and we have anticipated with this business in terms of efforts that we have on with many data analytics in the industries and surveys to client. And the cost of funding or there would be increasing rates that we charge are not even the first-in-line consideration for them to decide on our financing conditions. Hence, the airports on repricing, if you remember, early last year, we announced that the minimum rate that we're going to be charging was 22%. And we'll continue embracing that policy, and we'll continue to successfully repricing our portfolio.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Jason Mollin with Scotiabank.

[Jason Mollin, analyst]

Can you talk about, first, the competitive environment? Just what's going on in terms -- you just talked about interest rates and what your kind of rates you're offering? And I'm just thinking about the demand for leasing products from your clients and how you think of pricing would be my first question. So competition, demand, pricing. And then secondly, if you can talk about how you think about going forward the government's talk about implementing more financing or providing more financing for SMEs on the leasing side, if you can talk about how you think that will impact your business.

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Sure. Thank you, Jason. I mean, competition continues to remain stable. What we are starting to see is that as long as the credit has been less available for small leasing companies, we believe or we are working to take advantage of that and actually trying to gain share, particularly in some cities in the country where the presence of leasing was less important, we are taking advantage of that. On -- regarding the government, once again, I mean, they've already announced their increased support to the SME and in today's [ world ] of their target for the Sexenio to boost the SME sector. And on that, they are, as I said, approaching to Mexican financial entities to really help them in delivering that support to the final entrepreneur. And on that, as I said, we have already been close to the Bancomext and Nafinsa to see how we can work together in order to take those supports to their SMEs. And there is nothing yet on paper, because those were like initial talks, but we are -- really acknowledge that they want to work with entities -- or financial entities like UNIFIN.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Guillermo Diego with Santander.

[Guillermo Delgadillo, analyst]

My question is regarding in the provisionals line. I don't know if you could give us more color about that line, please.

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Provisions for NPLs, the 110% that we have announced? Yes.

[Guillermo Delgadillo, analyst]

Exactly.

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

If you recall, 2 quarters ago, we improved our methodology on estimated losses on the portfolio. And we had a hike in, I believe, was in the second quarter, an increase from 100% to 108% on that date. The reason why now it's 110% has to do with the model and the calculation that we apply for the estimated losses and that is just the way that we rated some guys that are on the [ sales group ], but nothing has changed on the policy. This policy, as we said on the past, has to do with how well the banking commission wants to guesstimate the NPLs and we agree that and because it's a more safe way to calculate estimated losses. And that's why we have this reserve on the NPLs.

[Sergio Manuel Rodriguez, executive]

And sorry, just to complement a little bit on that. As said through the call, I think it's also very important to highlight that in that estimation, we have not put explicitly or we have not considered the potential recovery value of the asset, which is better for the bank, because we keep property of the asset. So it makes it even better for us to have a claim on the asset. And then when we realize the asset in the secondary market, we will get the benefit from the book value vis-à-vis the secondary market value of the asset per se.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Joe Kogan with Scotiabank.

[Joe Kogan, analyst]

I wanted to ask a question about the slight up trend in NPLs. I know it was 0.6 in 2016 and up to 0.7 and now 1%. And I was wondering if there's any commonality in that, any trends we should infer from that or if it's really just a couple of loans in it you expect to just go up and down around those levels? And also in line with that, I noticed while the NPL ratio was going up, the adjusted NPL ratio has actually fallen a little. So I was wondering why that is.

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

On the adjusted NPL, the way it's calculated and it's basically adjusted for methodology to be comparable with the banking methodology for NPLs and so on, it takes basically the full outstanding amount of the lease. But if you analyze the actual NPL by considering the full amount of the lease, you might to a point have different clients with different full outstanding amounts from one point to another. If you analyze one quarter on a quarter, there might be clients that go into the NPLs with lower full amount of exposure. So that's the explanation on the adjusted NPL.

[Sergio Manuel Rodriguez, executive]

And on the region-wise, you see that this has slightly increased, particularly in the fourth quarter. It has to do with the change in government. We have some clients that even though are not like 100% exposed to the government, the government has -- change in the administration, but somehow are delay on payments. And that, of course, had an impact on their payments or for the rental. But we do not anticipate any deterioration further as long as we have already taken the preventive measures for getting very close to these clients and knowing the situation. And we have already done some internal analysis on our maximum exposure to these clients that are exposed to the government. And that's why I will not foresee any further deterioration.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Jamie Nicholson with Crédit Suisse.

[Jamie Nicholson-Leener, analyst]

I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about your capital ratio. You've mentioned how it was boosted to quite solid levels with the perp issue last year. And I'm just wondering how long you feel this capital will last, if it's sufficient to support your business in the foreseeable future. And how you balance your potential needs for capital with your share repurchase program and how you analyze that balance.

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes, sure. Let me start first with the last part of the question. On the share buyback, the impact on the capital is not as much, since they registered their cost issuance. So the impact on that -- we decide to cancel then would not be important. On the perp, and the perp has a non-call 7 clause. So at least for 7 years, it's going to be there. And based on our internal expectations for growth, we will not see a significant deterioration on the capitalization ratio for at least 3 years.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Chelsea Colón with Aegon.

[Chelsea Colón, analyst]

I just have a couple of questions. First of all, in terms of liquidity, I've noticed that this quarter short-term debt increased again, while your available credit lines have fallen over the past few quarters. I assume that these are related. So I'm just wondering what your strategy is going forward in terms of your available credit facilities and the short-term debt and just understand what happened in fourth quarter. And then my second question is your view on rates in Mexico going forward. It seems that you increased the variable portion of your debt a little bit now to 15% of total debt. So I'm just wondering what your outlook and strategy is with that?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes. Thank you, Chelsea, for the question. As we have said, I mean, we are continually analyzing the different sources of funding. What I can anticipate to you is that, as we speak, for the MXN 1 billion that we have previously announced as a need for the year, we have already secured like roughly $450 million on that. And it's basically on product securitizations with some financial institutions and some credit facilities. We do not anticipate significant further increase in the rates. Actually, we're working on a stable methodology or the frame is on the reference rate in the local markets. And these product securitizations I am referring to are in terms of spreads very -- pretty much in line to what will be market securitizations locally. So our analysis as of today for this $1 billion of debt, which is part of its 35% on rollover and 65% for growth. We are anticipating no further than 80 bps on the cost of funding on the overall.

[Chelsea Colón, analyst]

I'm sorry, can you repeat what you just said on the cost side?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes. So basically, as of today, we announced that the cost of funding of the company is 10.1%. That's the way -- the average. Considering the new debt that we have secured and the outlook that we don't anticipate, then the increase in the reference rate locally, we estimate that the new incorporation of debt will at the end -- at year-end 2019 will represent that, that cost of funding of 10.1% will go to probably 10.9% by year-end. So expecting only 80 bps expansion in the actual cost of funding of the company. Of course, this is not going to happen from one day to another. This is going to happen through the course of the year.

[Chelsea Colón, analyst]

And does your team internally have a forecast as to when rates locally might begin to come down?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

We don't anticipate this year any reference rate cost. Likely for that to happen slowly by the second half or -- this is the first and second quarter -- sorry, the second quarter and third quarter of 2020.

[Chelsea Colón, analyst]

Okay. And so your amount of variable rate that should stay around 15%?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Nik Dimitrov with Morgan Stanley.

[Nikolai Dimitrov, analyst]

I have a couple of quick questions. So the first one is on asset quality. I was looking at your NPLs in the factoring in auto loan book, that's where growth has been, if I remember correctly, it's about 45% year-over-year. And if I look at NPLs there, they went from like 72 basis points to 4.7%. So clearly, that's going to be kind of a high NPL-type of business line. But if you can, kind of, give us some idea where do you think eventually NPLs to settle specifically for that part of the book?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes, on factoring that, actually, it's -- actually one exposure to 1 client. And that basically accounts for 60%, 70% on the top NPL for factoring. We are on precautionary measures, and in 2018, we actually reduced our activity on factoring. If you see the growth that was not so high now because we were very, very conservative. And of course, we will continue with that policy -- with that measures going forward, because yes, I mean, we know that if you are in certain environment and some slowdown, those businesses are more exposed to NPLs than the leasing, no?

[Nikolai Dimitrov, analyst]

Got it. Okay. So it's one particular borrower. But my question is going to be on capital, I apologize as we got to go back there. But if I look at your tangible equity to tangible assets as of the end of 2017, that was prior to you issuing the perpetuals, right? So you are at 13.9%. If I look at where you are today, you're at 12.5%, right? So obviously, the organic capital generation hasn't been sufficient to kind of match growth. At the same time, you're buying shares back. If you can kind of -- and I know that Jamie asked, I know, the same question, but if you can give us some more clarity in terms of how you want to manage capital in terms of tangible equity to tangible assets, excluding the perps, right, going forward? And again, the ratio right now was 12.5%. At what point do you think that you might have to raise capital if you see a decline into I'd say, don't want you to give us numbers, but maybe, I don't know, 11% or 10%?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

That's part of the whole analytical strategy of the company in terms of improving the profitability going forward. As you know, for the past, I would say 24 months, we have seen a deterioration in profitability for the company. One which was definitely directly related to the perp. The other one was because of top line margin compression and so on. Going forward, as we try to reprice and as we will be successful on repricing the new originations, we expect profitability to increase. Now the other consideration on the capitalization will be that we definitely do not anticipate that the shares that we have bought on the buyback program will significantly impact the capitalization, if we decide to cancel out, no? So it's really mostly focused on the profitability the company is looking to have in the outcome in 24 months. That will drive the ratio sustainably for the next 2 to 3 years without needing any requirements of further equity. And of course, we will keep a significant track on the tangible assets because that's a rating agency methodology for the current rating, and that's very important for us to actually maintain the current rating of the company.

[Nikolai Dimitrov, analyst]

Got it. So is there a certain level that you are -- I mean, it does seem like you're comfortable with the current capitalization. Is there a certain level that you're targeting? Or how should we think about it?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes. On the 11% on tangible, we might start considering doing something additional. But at this point -- yes.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Gilberto Garcia with Barclays.

[Gilberto Garcia, analyst]

A question on the outlook for operating expenses you grow in new regions. Could that translate into higher expenses? Or could your operating efficiencies remain stable?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Well, definitely, efficiencies will continue to improve. The opening of new offices and the expansion of our presence in Mexico will not impact anything. Remember, that we do not carry branches. And the offices that we open in regional areas are not necessarily expensive. And as the learning curve of our advisers starts developing and they bring in more business, it becomes significantly more efficient. So we expect efficiency to keep on improving going forward.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Carlos Flores with Santander Bank.

[Carlos Batista Flores, analyst]

You have said that you have been improving your leasing yield quarter-on-quarter basis. Can you give us some color on what actions you have made to accomplish that? And also, if you have a potential target to reach by 2019 year-end?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes. Well, I mean, the result of that have been the constant repricing efforts on the leasing implicity that we're charging. If you analyze the impacts of the originations in the past years, let's say, in 2016 or '17, the leasing yield that we were charging in our contracts was close to 16%, 17%. Now the minimum rate that we have today is around 23%, okay? The minimum rate is 23%. Last year, it was 22%. This year, we started increasing. We started already with a new policy, which is 23%. Those constant repricing efforts as the vintages of previous originations are basically coming due now. The new originations will surpass those and make that the yield -- the leasing yield more profitable. Hence, what you've been seeing in the leasing yield specifically. Now the outlook for 2019 will be that, more or less, we expect an expansion of 100 basis points in 2019 or by the end of 2019.

[Carlos Batista Flores, analyst]

So that will be nearly 40%?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

That's correct.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Luis Adaime with Newfoundland Capital Management.

[Luis Felipe Adaime, analyst]

Just on the share buyback program, what's the authorized or value in pesos or in dollars that you have to buy for 2019? And also on the cancellation of the shares, you've been very transparent on what earnings per share it is and how much you have canceled. But just on an annual basis or on a per basis, when is the cancellation procedure made on the shares that you've been buying back?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Yes. That amount for this year, it needs to be approved in the shareholders' meeting, both the approval for share buybacks, but also the cancellation, we'll have to cancel some shares from the share buyback program. We haven't had that board meeting, that is on proposal with shareholders meeting. So I cannot anticipate any number right now.

[Luis Felipe Adaime, analyst]

And when is that meeting going to take place?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

I would think that in mid-February.

[Luis Felipe Adaime, analyst]

All right. And just to remind us, last year, you canceled all the shares that you bought back? Or how did you proceed with...

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Basically, all of them were canceled.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Natalia Corfield with JPMorgan.

[Natalia De Melo Corfield, analyst]

I have 2 questions. One with regards to loan growth, you're sounding kind of optimistic. So I'm wondering if you are expecting similar phase as of 2018. Or if you're expecting that to increase or decrease throughout the year? And also, if you could disclose a little bit more on your dividend policy for this year. If you think your payout ratio is going to be around 20%, 30%? That would be very helpful.

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Sure. No, I think that we will be -- we'll have a similar year to one that we have last year in absolute terms. Of course, we are not blind to the macro environment, but we have done our job and our homework internally to increase our services, to increase our product offering and basically, to change and improve our advisory to the clients. So that's part of what we feel capable of continue growing under this environment. The dividend policy is that we don't have a dividend policy. Since IPO, we paid MXN 1 per share. And we take that to continue for this year. Once again, it has to do on -- proposed on our board meeting and approved by the shareholders' meeting, and that meeting has not been taking place.

[Natalia De Melo Corfield, analyst]

All right. Do you know when this meeting is going to take place?

[Sergio Camacho Carmona, executive]

Mid-February.

[Operator]

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call back over Mr. Pernas for any closing remarks.

[David Sánchez, executive]

Hi, thank you for your trust and interest in UNIFIN and for participating in the call. Please do not hesitate to contact us remaining questions you may have. We look forward to hearing from you again. Have a good day.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.