Wal Mart de Mexico SAB de CV

BMV:WALMEX

Good afternoon. I'm Salvador Villasenor in charge of Investor Relations at Walmex. Thank you for joining us to review the results for the fourth quarter of 2024.

Today, with me is Ignacio Caride, President and Chief Executive Officer of Wal-Mart de México Centroamérica; Raul Quintana, our Chief Omnichannel Operating Officer; and Paulo Garcia, our Chief Financial Officer.

The date of this webcast is February 13, 2025. Today's webcast is being recorded and will be available at www.walmex.mx.

Before we start, let me remind you that the content of this webcast is property of Wal-Mart de México, S.A.B. de C.V. and is intended for the use of the company's shareholders and the investment community. It should not be reproduced in any way. This webcast may contain certain references concerning Wal-Mart de México, S.A.B. de C.V.'s future performance that should be considered as good faith estimates made by the company. These references only reflect management's expectations and are based upon currently available data. Actual results are always subject to future events, risks and uncertainties, which could materially impact the company's actual performance.

Now it is my pleasure to turn the call over to our CEO, Ignacio Caride.

Thanks, Salvador, and good afternoon, everyone. As always, I'll start today by saying thank you to our associates, the dedication to our customers and members remains unmatched, and together, we've successfully navigated a Q4 and another year of intense activity.

In my role, I'm privileged to be able to get out to stores, clubs and supply chain facilities across Mexico and Central America. It's one of my favorite things to do. I love meeting with new associates that has come to work for us, catching up with those who have been with us for a while and talking to customers and members about their experiences. I'd like to hear from them on what they think we do well and what we can improve. Their feedback make us better.

As a company, our story is about growth. We're focused on running great stores and clubs tied together with a leading digital experience that help people save money and live better. In my more than 20 years in the omnichannel retail industry, I've found that people really want 4 things: they want value for their money, they want a broad assortment of items, they want a great experience, and they want to do business with a company they trust. Across these dimensions is where Walmex excels. And as we think about delivering across this, we look at it through the lens of our strategy. That's winning discount, leading omnichannel and be the ecosystem of choice.

We know when we are executing at a high level being customer-centric and controlling the things we can control, that we'll have an opportunity to deliver strong sales growth and improve our return on investment in the long term. This is what we are after and what we are actively shaping.

Looking at 2024, we have navigated through a complex macroeconomic environment, marked by volatility and uncertainty. Despite these challenges, our team's resiliency and adaptability have allowed us to maintain a steady course, focusing on our long-term strategic goals while managing the daily operations demand.

Looking at the quarter, I am pleased to report that our same-store sales have outperformed ANTAD self-service across all of our formats again, with a 4.3% increase in comp sales overall, driven by a 4.5% average ticket growth. With flattish growth from transactions, the latter improving versus the previous quarter, growth was led by Sam's Club and Food and Consumables.

The quarter also helped by El Fin Irresistible, to those unfamiliar with the event, it's our most anticipated seasonal event of the year, and I'm thrilled to share that it reported record figures, including the highest sales figure in a day in Walmex's history, which was on the 18th of November. Raul will go deeper into the specific of the event later on.

Overall, we grew ahead of the self-service and clubs market measured by ANTAD by 220 basis points in the quarter and 190 basis points in the full year, making it the 11th consecutive year achieving a positive gap versus ANTAD. This quarter, we saw an opportunity to increase our price investment, including during El Fin Irresistible, high-level execution of these investments and our value proposition paid off.

While same-store sales make up the majority of our top line growth today, and our plans call for that to continue looking ahead, new store growth is also important. During the year, we opened 180 new stores, exceeding the number of openings from last year and representing record figures since 2013. These new stores contributed 1.7% to total sales growth ahead of our guidance provided at our Walmex Day in March. During the quarter, we opened 104 new units, 91 in Mexico and 13 in Central America. These openings include our 2,500 Bodega Aurrera store in Mexico and our 4,000 store overall in the region with the opening of Walmart Naranjo in Guatemala, which is the first hypermarket opening in the country since 2016.

Our growth strategy is as focused as ever, and we are committed to sustaining this momentum moving forward. As we shared with you in our last Walmex Day, we plan to accelerate openings in the coming years, and we are optimistic as we see plenty of room for this.

Very quickly, since Raul will expand later, let me share with you some of the other important results of the business.

To complement our growth through traditional retail channels, we're also building a set of businesses that naturally connects to that core, which help us develop an ecosystem that is mutually reinforcing. As we think about it, our business model and P&L are changing, comprised of businesses that deliver structurally higher margins, this portfolio gives us the flexibility to deliver on our financial targets and make the necessary investment to grow the business going forward.

As the adoption of eCommerce continues at a rapid pace, growing 20% in the year, we are scaling a marketplace to complement our on-demand offering from stores and clubs. Marketplace GMV was up 21% for the year, boost by seller count growing more than 50% and adding 60% more SKUs. While we keep investing to have the right tech stack which will enable us to untap our full eCommerce potential, we are still growing and gaining market share. And as we attract more eyes to our site, we are able to serve more advertising, resulting in a Walmart Connect growth of 26% in 2024.

Finally, our new businesses that naturally connects to our omnichannel business have seen significant growth. We are helping our customers and members solve the strengthening of all these digital connectivity trends, too. In 2024, Bait reached 18.3 million active users, while we sold 2.5 million health membership programs and our recent digital connection Beneficiso Program reached 46 million contactable customers from whom we are learning every day how to better serve them. Each one of those numbers by themselves would represent incredible results from successful stand-alone businesses in each of the industries they play. These businesses increase the loyalty of our customers, driving increased frequency, higher ticket and therefore, we capture a higher share of wallet. I am really proud of what we're building with our ecosystem.

Now, moving to Central America. Please consider that we are referring to figures on a constant currency basis. I am very happy with the efforts our team are putting in as, given the economic slowdown in the region, commercial and pricing efforts are more important than ever for our customers. In Q4, Central America reported a 3.1% same-store sales growth, mainly driven by volume growth. Good to see Costa Rica gradually getting out of the deflation mode. Our customers continue rewarding us with their loyalty and appreciating the efforts in in-store experience as we continue with an NPS positive trend in all of our banners and consistent improvement in price perception.

Regarding our omnichannel ambition, eCommerce reported a 60% growth, also increasing 50 basis points sales penetration. Thanks to footprint expansion, mobile app launch among other initiatives. The construction of our ecosystem in the region continues moving forward. During the quarter, Walmart Connect increased its sales by 34%, while we are also working on offering the best experience in our remittances service, with initiatives like remittances, payments at cashiers coming in following quarters.

Regarding revenue growth during the quarter, consolidated total revenue grew 8.3%, driven by a 5.7% growth in Mexico and 4.6% in Central America in constant currency. Reported results were benefited by Mexican peso depreciation.

For the full year 2024, consolidated revenue grew 8.1% with 7.4% growth in Mexico and 5.2% growth in Central America in constant currency.

Before I wrap up, I would like to remind you all about COFECE's resolution. COFECE concluded that Walmex had engaged in a single relative monopolistic practice regarding supplier contribution. COFECE fined Walmex in an amount lower than $5 million and imposed certain behavioral remedies. COFECE recognized that Walmex can continue negotiate on contributions with its suppliers, except for 2 specific contribution out of the 4 originally investigated. On January 6, 2025, Walmex challenged the COFECE resolution through an amparo, filed before Specialized Federal Courts. Until the amparo lawsuit is resolved, Walmex's subsidiary will continue to work together with its suppliers to ensure business continuity in compliance with COFECE's ruling.

I close my remarks today by saying that I feel good about the business overall. Our performance ahead of the market demonstrates the preference of our customers and members, the strength of our diversified portfolio and our value proposition, which shines further in tough market conditions. As we move forward in 2025, we remain optimistic. We are aware of the challenges that lies ahead, but we are confident in our ability to navigate through them. We will continue to prioritize our customers and invest in our people and technologies, driving towards a prosperous future for our stakeholders.

I would like to thank you all for the trust placed in me during my first quarters as CEO of Walmex. I hope to see you tomorrow morning in our live Q&A. I'll ask Raul to step in now so he can go through some of our operational highlights for the quarter, and then Paulo will share more details around financial highlights.

Thank you, Ignacio. Hello, everyone. I'm happy to share our operational highlights with you again. Let's begin with our first 2 strategic priorities: win in discount and lead in omni. Focused on running great stores and clubs tied together with leading in digital experience to help people save money and live better. Our value proposition focuses on offering value, experience, assortment and convenience.

Regarding value. In quarter 4, we saw an opportunity to invest further in pricing and accelerate share gains. In price perception, we saw an improvement of 70 basis points during the year with growth in all formats, efforts in communication, key value items and the strength of our brands are behind this result, which has been one of our priorities to match with the price gap we have built.

Regarding assortment, in quarter 4, we expanded our offering in Supercenter with licenses of renown brands like Mickey Mouse, Harry Potter and Hello Kitty with great success. Additionally, as every year from September to the beginning of January, we had our Juguetilandia toy annexes in more than 100 Supercenters in Bodegas with additional licenses. These store extensions have good results positioning us as the prime destination for toys purchases in Mexico.

Our efforts under Walmart Express turnaround continued to pay off. Since our clients are appreciating our initiatives regarding improved customer experience, assortment and fresh. We had a great season in bakery with over 1 million of our premium bakery products sold after the change we've made throughout the year with our reintroduction of our premium bakers.

Our brand penetration continues to improve. This quarter, penetration increased 60 basis points versus last year with growth in both self-service and Sam's Club. In self-service, Fresh was the category with the highest increase in penetration, while in Sam's Club, our seasonal products drove the highest gains. Our private brands have been and will remain a priority for us in the coming years, offering price points that customers can afford so you can expect the participation to increase consistently.

To finalize, we continue working on efficiencies across the whole organization and reviewing each and every process. We have been sharing with you every quarter some of the results. During quarter 4, we have implemented Smart Receiving internally from our distribution centers to stores and clubs as well as direct store delivery with vendors, with benefits on more deliveries from suppliers, faster on-shelf availability to customers, better inventory turns and overall improved productivity.

Continuing with eCommerce, let's review this business quarterly performance. Our customers are embracing the convenience of online shopping, and we are continuously refining our digital offering and assortment to cater to their evolving needs. During the fourth quarter, eCommerce GMV grew 20% ahead of the market and represented 8.5% of total GMV in Mexico, again, driven by on-demand and market price, the latter growing 15%. For the full year, eCommerce GMV grew also 20% and represented 7.4% of total GMV. On Demand, as main driver was boosted throughout the whole year by Bodega's “Despensa a tu Casa”, which has proven to be a success with the highest growth rate among the formats.

Supercenter and Walmart Express also doubled their growth rate versus 2023, thanks to the faster deliveries through increased same-day slot availability and Pronto's up to 90-minute deliveries. For extended assortment, we have been improving lead times for marketplace aiming to deliver products faster to our customers, thanks in part to Walmart Fulfillment Services.

During the quarter, we had our El Fin Irresistible event, our biggest seasonal event of the year that took place from November 7 to November 20. We had more than 170 million eCommerce visits during the whole event. Particularly, November 18 was the day with the most sales ever in the company. Historic figures during the event were broad-based across all formats. Bodega's “Despensa a tu Casa” had a 72% growth versus last year, while our 2 Walmart formats had an all-time high in service levels during the event. And Sam's Club reached a record number of affiliations.

Along with the tech transformation, we have been and will continue working on the implementation of Walmart Global Platforms. We are also focusing on digitalizing and simplifying some key processes along the way such as store picking, guide generation, our picker app among others, which help us reduce times and improve store productivity, delivery times and overall customer experience.

Finally, turning to our third strategic priority, which is becoming the ecosystem of choice. Bait, our telecommunication business reached 18.3 million active users, increasing more than 3 million in the quarter. We're excited about how this business continues to help our omnichannel strategy by increasing frequency while growing sales and profits on a stand-alone basis each quarter that passes.

Regarding Financial Solutions, during El Fin Irresistible event, Cashi was the #1 most downloaded financial app in Mexico. We continue testing Cashi open-loop banking capabilities on our friends and family pilot test.

Our highly profitable advertising business, Walmart Connect, delivered a 26% revenue growth for the full year. During the quarter, we continued deploying our in-store digital initiatives like expanding advertising space throughout the TV walls in more than 200 Bodegas and digital totems in 80% of our supercenters, which have a camera to measure audience engagement and very valuable metrics for our advertisers.

To finish, our program, Walmart and Bodega Aurrera Beneficios is gaining a lot of traction. At the end of quarter 4, we have reached 46 million contactable customers. The penetration of the program already represents around 1/3 of the total transactions, enabling us to better understand our customers in ways that before we could not. This is helping us to better know our customers and their shopping missions, leading to a better communication to target their needs. Soon, we we'll be able to share additional information of what we are learning from these customers. We're still developing the capabilities to unlock the full potential of the program.

Now I hand it over to Paulo to comment on the financial results. Thanks again for your time, and see you all tomorrow at our quarterly live Q&A tomorrow.

Thanks, Raul, and good afternoon, everyone. I will cover Mexico results first and then move to Central America. So let's begin with Mexico results. Total revenue grew 5.7%, driven by 4.3% same-store sales growth. Gross margin contracted by 10 basis points since the contribution of new businesses was offset by price investments as we took the opportunity to capture additional share gains as well as by a prior year one-off and to a lesser extent by a small impact from COFECE resolution, given the limited deadline to comply with the remedies imposed.

SG&A increased 13.1%, 110 basis points above the same period of last year, driven by labor costs and investments in growth, in new stores, eCommerce and new businesses. I would like to mention again that for the coming years, we should expect slower growth as a consequence of more moderate labor cost increase. We will go through the gross margin and SG&A breakdown in just a moment.

Operating income decreased 3.2% and EBITDA margin contracted by 70 basis points to 10.2% as a consequence of the aforementioned.

Let me now expand on gross margin. During the quarter, we had a benefit of 20 basis points from contribution from new businesses such as Walmart Connect, Bait and Financial Services, which were offset by price investments set to help our customers when they need the most, while taking the opportunity to accelerate market share gains as well as a small impact to comply with remedies from COFECE's resolution in the deadline demanded.

As said before, this quarter's margin was also impacted by 10 basis points from the net effect of the two one-offs from quarter 4, 2023, resulting in a gross margin of 23.6%. For the following quarters, without one-offs impact, we should see again a gross margin expansion versus last year as verticals from the ecosystem will continue to contribute positively.

Now let's review our SG&A. We increased 30 basis points Run expenses, mainly because of increases in labor costs and utilities. As has been the case in recent quarters, investments behind our growth strategy such as new stores, clubs and DCs, new business, tech as well as our associate value proposition continued as a priority impacting expenses by 80 basis points, leaving SG&A at 15.6% of total revenues. We should see expenses deleverage to reduce significantly during 2025. We expect our SG&A to grow at single digit during the year.

Now moving to Central America results for the quarter. Please consider that I will refer to figures on a constant currency basis. Total revenues increased 4.6% versus last year, driven by the 3.1% same-store growth we mentioned before. Gross margin improved 10 basis points compared to last year at 23.9% of revenues. Walmart Connect and Logistics benefits continue to offset the price investments to reinforce our value proposition. SG&A represented 17.4% of revenues, flat versus last year. We continue investing in growth to support strategy acceleration for eCommerce, new stores in the ecosystem. The above-mentioned results and other income benefits resulted in operating income growing 11.6% and an EBITDA margin of 8.7%, 30 basis points above last year. For the full year, Central America increased total revenues 5.2% with operating income increasing 9.7%, almost 2x above sales while EBITDA margin improved 10 basis points versus last year to 9.2%.

At consolidated level, total revenue increased 8.3%, benefiting from a lower peso with new stores contributing 1.7% to total growth. Gross margin remained flat at 23.7%, and SG&A expenses grew 14.7%, mainly to what I recently explained in our Mexico's results.

Operating income grew 0.6% year-over-year with a 7.8% operating income margin. Finally, EBITDA margin contracted 50 basis points to 10%, while consolidated net income increased 1.4% with a 5.5% net margin.

During the year, we conducted a review of the useful lives and tax values of fixed assets, resulting in an updated of deferred and current tax. It should be noted that in the fourth quarter, we had a negative effect of $15 million on consolidated net income due to the recognition of interest associated with taxes, a tax adjustment in expenses, SG&A, which were partly offset by a benefit in the effective tax rate. For the full year, we posted a strong set of results with a consolidated growth increasing 8.1%, 7.4% in constant currency, almost in line with our goal to double the business faster than before, whilst reporting a 6.5% EBITDA growth with a 10.4% margin.

Briefly speaking about the balance sheet, cash decreased 10.2% versus the same period in 2023. We'll see the sources and uses of cash in the next slide. Inventories grew 16.4%, above sales growth due to buildup for higher stock levels in early 2025, and the lower sales in certain categories during the quarter. We are making improvements of our days on hand, a priority for 2025, strengthening our capital discipline in this area. And finally, accounts payable grew roughly in line with the sales reporting a 6.6% year-over-year growth.

Moving to the cash flow. In the last 12 months, we generated MXN 92.1 billion in cash. We invested MXN 34.8 billion of CapEx in high-return projects to accelerate growth ahead of the market and in line with the guidance provided on our Walmex Day. We returned MXN 37.4 billion to our shareholders as dividends. Our working capital for the period required MXN 8.3 billion due to the increase in inventories mentioned before, and we paid MXN 16.4 billion in taxes. All in all, our cash position finished the quarter at MXN 36.5 billion.

We will continue creating value for our shareholders. Walmex' total dividend payout ratio averaging 70% in the last 3 years. Despite our increase in CapEx, we have always returned value to shareholders in excess to our ordinary dividend policy. At our next Annual Ordinary Shareholders' meeting in April, we will propose a combination of dividend and share repurchase program. We will propose a dividend per share of MXN 1.69 for 2025, MXN 1.30 per share as ordinary dividend and MXN 0.39 per share as extraordinary dividend. Both ordinary and extraordinary dividends will be paid in two installments in November and December. Also, we will propose a share buyback program of MXN 8.8 billion as we continue with great confidence in our business model.

Current valuation is low and will trigger a share repurchase execution, if unchanged. Our intention is to execute in full the share buyback, but always subject to overall capital allocation priorities and share price at the time. In 2025, we expect to offer our shareholders a total payout ratio in line with historical levels, this time through a different combination of dividend and share repurchase program. At our Walmex Day in March, we will announce the CapEx for 2025, which will continue to increase as previously mentioned, but always invested with discipline and in areas of highest return on investment.

To finalize, I would like to leave you with 3 key messages of the quarter; accelerated gross momentum ahead of the market with 11 consecutive years growing same-store sales ahead of the self-service market measured by ANTAD. Record number in store openings in over a decade with higher contribution to total sales than guidance; record figures, too during El Fin Irresistible and on our new businesses, which continue to grow at a fast pace. Our ecosystem is sticking and driving increased share of wallet. And three, despite macro headwinds, we remain committed to our growth strategy and to our shareholders, investing with discipline in high-return areas.

Looking ahead, we know we have diversified format portfolio and a value proposition that resonates with our customers and members across almost any environment. And while our business is not immune to dynamics happening around us, we believe we are well positioned to deliver sustainable top line growth ahead of the market, leading to better returns on investment. When we last shared our plans to grow the business, our assumptions were based on a stronger macroeconomic environment than we see in the near term.

As such, we believe it's prudent to guide business performance in 2025 to a rate of growth that's reflective of the backdrop we see today, which is a range of 6% to 7%. This strong rate of growth supports our capital plans to grow stores, gain market share and invest for the future. We remain very confident in doubling this business as we continue to see many growth opportunities to unlock in regions in the short term and the long term.

What I'm most encouraged by, as I look at the year ahead is how we will remain focused on the things we can control and serving our customers and members the best way we can every day while delivering superior value to our shareholders. Ignacio will share more about our strategic priorities on our Walmex Day on March 27.

As always, thanks for your interest in our company. We'll be happy to answer any question you may have tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. Mexico City time on our quarterly live Q&A. You can reach our IR team if you have any questions regarding this or our Walmex Day event.