Mahle Metal Leve SA

BOVESPA:LEVE3

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Operator]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the video conference of MAHLE Metal Leve to discuss the results relating to the first quarter of 2024. This video conference is being recorded, and the replay will be made available on the company's IR website. where you can also find the presentation. [Operator Instructions]. Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that any forward-looking statements that may be made during this video conference are based on beliefs and assumptions on the part of the company's management and on information currently available to the company.

These forward-looking statements may involve risks and uncertainties as they have to do with future events, which depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors, analysts and the public at large should take into account that events relating to the macroeconomic environment to the company's segment and to other factors may make results turn out to be materially different from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.

Today with us are Mr. Claudio Braga, CFO; Mr. Daniel Alves, Corporate Communications and Marketing Manager; Mr. Fabio Peres, Financial Manager; and Mr. Everton Lopes, Director of the Technology Center. I'll now turn the floor over to Mr. Braga to begin his presentation.

[Claudio Braga, executive]

Thank you very much -- good afternoon to all, and welcome to this video conference to discuss the results of Q1 2024. Before starting, I would like to thank you all for being here, especially at this time when we are all showing our solidarity to the people of Rio Grande Do Sul. Many are facing difficulties in view of the catastrophe. And in order to provide our support, we are now collecting donations at all of our units throughout Brazil. We express our solidarity to the victims and their families.

We will remain available to the Q&A session at the end of this presentation. This is our agenda for today. We will begin by making a presentation about the results of the company. We will then give you the highlights, then an overview of the market, then the performance of our net revenues. Then a summary of our results. And soon after that, we will give you a summary of our financial position.

At the end, we will open for the Q&A session. In addition to myself, we have with us today, Fabio Peres, Daniel Brasil Alves; and a special guest, our colleague Everton Lopes, the Director of the Technology Center of MAHLE Metal Leve. And he's going to make a short presentation about one of the highlights of the quarter. As highlights of the quarter, we had the payment of dividends, which was approved in the assembly of April. And in the 29th of May, we are going to pay out BRL 221 million to our shareholders.

Then in terms of technology, I'm going to invite Everton Lopes to talk about our biomobility Global Center. This is an initiative, which is in line with global measures to contain global warming and decarbonization is a must. At COP 28, and as said by the global alliance for the fast decarbonization of mobility. We have 2 programs as well, and Everton is going to give us some more color about these initiatives.

Also in Q1, as you can see, our EBITDA margin in Q1 2024 was 28.2%. We have the effect of inflation as always, but 28.2% once we deduct 6.5% positive points, which come from the hyperinflation of IAS 29, we have 22% in terms of the EBITDA margin, which is very similar to Q1 2023. Then another highlight, and Fabio is going to give you more details about it is our net debt over EBITDA. That is our leverage, which is now extremely comfortable at 0.42x.

On this slide, you see our global mobility center. And I now turn the floor over to Everton.

[Everton Lopes, executive]

Thank you very much, Claudio. Good afternoon to all. It's a great pleasure to be with you here today. I'm going to give you an overview of our technology. And this was a big highlight in Q1. As Claudio said, it is part of the all the sectors of society of the economy are now mobilized to decarbonize. And this had become something very prevalent within the transportation industry.

And MAHLE Metal Leve has been working in Brazil. We have spoken about this topic in different presentations to the market. And we have talked about mobility in the future. And we look at mobility and are working to lower the use of carbon and fossil fuels. Brazil is very strong in terms of biomaterials and biofuels. We have this experience in the region, and this has been going on for over 4 decades.

So this is a very unique moment. And we decided to use our knowledge to create more technology so that our company can be in the vanguard. And we are using a platform, a research center in Jundiai. It's a center that has a track record since the 1970s, a track record of innovation, and we are now expanding the technology center. This will allow us to have a more global view. We are looking at those countries where biofuels are important. So we are talking now about biomobility, biomaterials and biofuels to support the decarbonization of mobility. This center is the second largest technology center of South America. We also provide support to our other regions in terms of developing technology.

We have served in the past 50 customers, and we have carried out validation tests. Also now within our technical competencies, we have biomobility. And we want to support the global implementation of sustainable engines, especially in the southern hemisphere. This will be important in the mid- to long term. We do have the competencies in Jundiai, and we want to be a global center for R&D to apply this type of technology so that it may be used at scale globally. There are 2 very important programs, [ Movey ] launched by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and there is a pillar within this program, which is biofuels. And this will be fundamental for the country in the next few years. So MAHLE is aligned with the legislation and with the direction taken by the government.

Also in September last year, within the G20 Summit, the global alliance for biofuels were launched, including the United States, India, Argentina, Italy and others. And this attests to the importance of this type of technology for the short term. And this type of initiative that we are carrying out makes a lot of sense. We have the mobility industry, research industries and also research promotion agencies. MAHLE has holds over 100 active patents. We have partnerships with technology institutes and universities. And we are consolidating all of these initiatives within this technology center.

Brazil has a network of research agencies, we have the government and entities and all are focusing on this type of technology. I'll give you some very general numbers. We have Today, 11 universities who are working with us, 9 companies, 5 research promotion agencies. We have the development of new fuels, reduction of emissions and also renewable materials. These are all very important topics under the [ Movey ] program. On the 25th of March, we opened this center in Jundiai. And just to give you an idea of the importance of the center, government authorities were there with us, authorities from the Ministry of Energy, Consulates also sent representatives and partners who have been working with us were already there.

So this is an initiative that will maintain MAHLE Metal Leve in the vanguard of the development of biofuels and new technology. So we remain available to take any questions you might have at the Q&A session.

[Daniel Alves, executive]

Good morning to all. We will now move to the next slide and talk about sales and production in Brazil and Argentina and production in North America and Europe. On Slide 7, you see the sale of light vehicles in Brazil. There was a growth in the first quarter relative to the first quarter of 2023 of 10.8%. According to ANFAVEA, there was going to be a 5.7% growth.

In Argentina, there was a drop by 12.2% in the quarter, a negative expectation -- and this should be minus 20% or minus 15% by year-end. But in terms of the consolidated results for Brazil and Argentina, the growth in the quarter was 6.8% and an expectation that what happens in Brazil will offset the drop in Argentina. Argentina is undergoing an economic adjustment. ANFAVEA made its projections. April was a very strong month in Brazil, over 200,000. The manufacturers have given bonuses, more credit.

The interest rates have been reducing, and these have been -- has been helping the sale of light vehicles. So by year-end, we expect the growth -- consolidated growth for Brazil and Argentina between 2% and 4%. In terms of heavy vehicles in Brazil, there was a reduction in sales by 12.2%. And this is because in the first quarter of last year, it was possible to sell Euro 5 vehicles. Euro 6 came on stream last year in 2023, but we were still able to sell vehicles with the Euro 5 technology. The price was lower than the Euro-6 vehicles. And this explains the drop according to ANFAVEA by the end of 2024 that we should see a growth by 13.6%.

In Argentina as well, -- there was an effect in the quarter. There was a drop by 30.7%. And when we take the consolidated result for the quarter, we saw a reduction by 13.9% for the sale of heavy vehicles. Brazil has offset the drop in Argentina, but we should see a 10% growth in the sale of heavy vehicles by year-end. Now in terms of production, in the quarter in Brazil, there was a drop by 1% according to ANFAVEA, by the end of 2024, we should see a growth by 4.8%. And here, you can see a mismatch between the growth in sales and production in sales, growth by 10.8% and in production, a drop by 1%. And there are 2 things that explain that. First of all, there was an increase in the share of imported vehicles.

And we see that and ANFAVEA also highlighted that and also a drop in exports. So the main destination markets for Brazilian vehicles had slowed down like Chile and Colombia with the exception of Mexico. But there was a significant slowdown in some markets, and this is what explains the mismatch between sales and production. In Argentina, minus 23.2%. So by year-end, we should see a drop by minus 15% to minus 20%. In the combined figures, minus 5.7% in the quarter.

And by year-end, it should be between 0% and 1% of growth. So unfortunately, because of the economic adjustment, which is being carried out in Argentina, we are not going to see a growth. The interest rate in Argentina is going down. We expect an improvement in the mid- to long term. But this year, we will see the sale and production of vehicles affected by the adjustments in Argentina. So we expect a modest growth, maximum 1%. In heavy duty vehicles, a growth by 25.6% in Brazil, which can be explained by what happened last year.

The inventory was quite high for Euro 5 trucks and buses. The production of Euro 6 vehicles took some time to ramp up. So this is what explains this figure. The projection of ANFAVEA is to close 2024 in the region of 35%. In Argentina, we saw growth by 10.8%, and the combined figure was 24.8% for heavy-duty vehicles. So a positive outlook of a growth of 20%, 25% by year-end. We are monitoring what is happening in Rio Grande Do Sul. We are calculating the impact in terms of production of vehicles, but we do believe that there's going to be a recovery that the impact is not going to be that significant.

We hope that the state can be rebuilt. And in terms of specifically the production of vehicles, we expect an increase by 20%, 25% by year-end. In terms of exports, we have the production of vehicles in Europe and North America. In the quarter, the production in Europe dropped by 4.5%. In North America, there was a growth by 0.3%. And if we exceed the combined figures, the drop was by 2.3% in the quarter.

We have an external projection. In Europe, that should be a drop by 2% to 3%. And in North America, a growth by 1% to 2%. If we consolidate the figures for the 2 markets, this should be between 0% and minus 1%. And as regards heavy-duty vehicles in the quarter, there was a growth by 3% in Europe and America drop by 7%. And if we consolidate both figures, we see a drop by 2% in the quarter and the outlook in terms of production for 2024 in Europe is a drop by 10% to 15%. And in North America, a drop by 5% to 10%. So the destination markets for us in terms of light vehicles and heavy duty vehicles, the outlook is that we are going to see a reduction by 10% to 15%.

This has to do with the war in Ukraine and a weaker demand. Last year, for heavy duty vehicles, there was a 2-digit growth for Europe and North America. So there's going to be an impact, unfortunately, in the demand in 2024. On Slide 8, you see the change in the sales net revenue in the first quarter in terms of original equipment for the domestic market, there was a drop by 4.6%. And the main driver has to do with the following. Last year, we provided parts to our clients in Brazil for heavy vehicles. There was high demand abroad. There was a problem in terms of capacity for producing components. So MAHLE Brazil provided components to customers in Brazil. And these customers then exported these items to the companies in Europe.

So this was a spot sale, spot figure, so this explains a lot of this drop by 4.6%. And also, there was a reduction in the agricultural market in Brazil. In terms of original equipment for export, there was a drop by 4.4%, BRL 302.9 million. And so there was a reduction in both markets for light and heavy-duty vehicles. And we also see the effect of the exchange rate. This impact was also the result of the exchange rate. And in terms of original equipment, the impact was by BRL 579.5 with a drop by 4.5% in the net revenue.

In the domestic aftermarket, there was a growth by 2.9%. And the same problem that we saw in Argentina with the sale and production in Argentina, there was also a significant drop in the aftermarket in Argentina, but our sales in Brazil offset the weaker demand in Argentina. Demand was strong in Brazil. We had greater penetration. We acquired more market share. So we had this growth of 2.9% despite the reduction in Argentina. In terms of exports in the aftermarket space, we had 78.7%.

It suffered in 2023. We saw this market shrink. And this year, it has recovered. Political and economic uncertainties in our aftermarket destinations have a better outlook. So there was a growth by nearly 25%. We now have a dedicated sales team for those markets in Colombia, Peru, in Chile, a dedicated sales team. And of course, this team can understand the demand and can better serve these countries. We also have a new commercial policy.

The aftermarket, therefore, grew as a whole, 6.2%. So when we put together original equipment and aftermarket, the revenue was the same as the revenue roughly of the first quarter of 2023. So this attests to our resilience in the domestic and export markets in the original equipment and in the aftermarket. I now turn the floor over to Claudio.

[Claudio Braga, executive]

Thank you, Daniel. Now speaking about our financial results, you have the results here. And on the site. And as Daniel said, sales were very strong, BRL 1 billion in the first 3 months of this year, practically the same as Q1 2023. The cost of goods sold is 69% pretty stable as well. there is a small change in terms of the cost of the goods sold, material services, impacts of IAS 29. At the end of the day, despite different changes in the different components of the costs, the costs remained stable at 69%, and the gross income was 31%.

This can be explained by what Daniel said, our 3 pillars, sales are very strong in OE, aftermarket and exports. So these 3 pillars compensate and offset what happens in the others. We are also very efficient at managing the factories and the cost of raw materials is also under control. So the cost is at a very healthy level. Then in terms of overheads and general expenses, this is in line with last year's. SG&A, 10.4% on sales and expenses with R&D in addition to the CapEx in the R&D, we have 1.3% in terms of expenses. And there are 2 lines that stand out gains in the monetary position in a controlled company abroad.

As you can see in the explanatory notes, you see BRL 65 million, 6.5% and this is the adjustment of hyperinflation in Argentina. Hyperinflation is adjusted in all the lines in revenues, in the costs in all of the accounting lines and in terms of consolidation at MAHLE Metal Leve, we sum up all these adjustments, and this gave us BRL 34 million, more than half of this BRL 65 million and BRL 31 million positive that you see here is the adjustment of fixed assets and inventories. Another adjustment that we made in the balance sheet has to do with the net worth, which is also adjusted.

But this is not seen here. This is seen in the controlling company. In the consolidation, this is eliminated, but this has an impact in the net worth of the company. And that impact was [ BRL 468 million ]. Once we add up everything, we see income before financial expenses of taxes, 25.7% versus 23%. And if we eliminate 3.1% of last quarter, we would have 19%. Then we have financial income and expenses, very much in line, 1.2% of sales. And then the last line is income tax and social contribution.

There is a slight increase relative to Q1 2023. It is now 7.3%, and this is because of the effective tax rate. Brazil is adapting to the OECD regulations. And in the financial demonstrations, we -- you see the Brazilian subsidiary in Austria, MAHLE Metal Leve Austria, and this is the explanation for this increase in the effective income tax rate. And this will go on in the future. This was not a one-off thing. So if we take out the adjustments of hyperinflation and this increase in 2 percentage points in the income tax.

Our result is extremely healthy. in a very difficult year, especially now in Q1, but the company has very healthy results. I'll remain available to take any questions you might have. And I'll now turn the floor over to Flavio -- to Fabio, apologies.

[Fábio Peres, executive]

Good afternoon to all. Thanks for participating in the call. I'm going to talk about the financial management. The net financial result, and you see here a comparison between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024. In terms of interest, the variation was BRL 23.7 million negative, and this has to do with the drop in interest rates in Brazil.

Our debt grew, our borrowings grew we rose -- we raised money last year and you have the volume and the interest rate, and this has an impact. So obviously, we have more interest to pay in Q1 2024. In the past, in MAHLE Metal Leve, we had BRL 7.8 million and this year, BRL 5 million negative because of the growth in our debt. So in terms of interest, this is what happened.

Then a second point is that within this BRL 23.5 million, BRL 6 million have to do with investments we made in bonds in Argentina. They were classified as income -- as interest, sorry, but then they were reclassified on the foreign exchange variation. So BRL 6 million have to do with the Argentine bonds. Then on the second line, we have the net FX variation and the derivatives. Last year, rates were a bit more stable. And at the end of the year, the peso was devalued and this had an impact on our investments. And because of that volatility, in Q1 2024, we saw the impact of the devaluation of the peso last year.

So we see here 19.7%, which came from the results in Argentina. In Brazil, things were flat, but because of the devaluation of the peso, you see the impact on this line. And then in terms of net monetary variation, we saw an increase by 2.2%. And here we have amounts coming from risks and labor contingencies, which are corrected throughout the year. And in the total, as Claudio said, things remained quite flat, 1.2% relative to 1.4% with a delta of BRL 3 million negative.

Then in terms of our net position, assets and -- financial assets and liabilities, we are comparing the end of the year of 2023, where the cash position was BRL 383 million. And now at the end of Q1, we have BRL 466 million. The delta has to do with the cash generated by the company. And in terms of the borrowings, there was an increase by BRL 15 million which has to do with the accrual of interest in the period.

There were -- we didn't raise any money, and we had no amortizations in Q1. So the increase here has to do with income, apologies with the interest on that. And also in terms of our leverage, it is calculated taking into account net debt over EBITDA. So we have BRL 467 million, and the annualized EBITDA, so 0.51x. And in 2024, in Q1, it was 0.42x, which is very healthy in terms of leverage and debt. And now we are going to start the Q&A session. We will be all available to take your questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Mr. Jonathan Koutras from JPMorgan.

[Jonathan Koutras, analyst]

The first question has to do with the margins. We saw an improvement in the quarter year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. Do you think margins will be at 30% at a recurring level? Or given the events in Rio Grande Do Sul. So does MAHLE see any impact on its operations, customers who might not be able to buy equipment or...

[Claudio Braga, executive]

This -- very relevant questions and we might give you the answer in 2 parts. So I'm going to take the first part of your question. In relation to gross income at 31%. This is very healthy, but we cannot guarantee that it's going to continue like that. We have 3 pillars of our operations, OEM, aftermarket and exports. So we are able to offset results in terms of like cost of goods sold and so on, especially in O&M -- OEM, we have contracts with clients that allow us to pass on costs increases, but there is a timing for those contracts.

So there might be a mismatch. These contracts are being respected. There might be a small mismatch between the reduction, for example, in the price of copper, aluminum or iron in one of those commodities where we get benefits and we might have to pass the prices on to our clients. But I think the margin is going to be very healthy. I cannot say what the percentage will be, but we don't expect major changes. The floor is yours, Daniel, to take the second part of the question.

[Daniel Alves, executive]

I think what is happening in Rio Grande Do Sul is very relevant. We are working very close with our clients to understand what the impact is going to have and to adapt demand to demand and to have a recovery plan in place. We believe we can recover the volume that will be lost, but we cannot quantify the impact. There is going to be an impact. However, it was a real tragedy.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Mr. Felipe Lenza from Citi.

[Felipe Lenza, analyst]

I have 2 questions. The first has to do with the use of equipment and how to identify imbalances in the batteries of electric vehicles? And the second question has to do with the biomobility initiative. What kind -- is this going to be used in the controlling company. I think there is an agreement between MAHLE and the controlling company.

[Everton Lopes, executive]

I can take the question. Thanks for your question. And what we see is a global movement towards electrification. There is a mismatch there in terms of timing, it is lagging behind. We had been talking about the logic of this decarbonization, CO2 and the cost of implementing those technologies I think we have to think in terms of biofuels for internal combustion engines. We have to think about electrification as well, especially in Asia and Europe. But in Brazil, when we take all the drivers, policies, market indications and the moves of companies, hybrid internal combustion engines will continue to be very strong in the short, mid and long term.

And this allows us to develop our strategy, focusing on electrification, which is very strong for the controlling company. And once we have the need for those technologies, we can bring these technologies under license to Brazil. In terms of the technology center, things are different. The biofuel technology developed by MAHLE is based in Jundiai in South America and our patents, our technologies, the technologies that are developed in Jundiai, if they are employed in other places, they will be employed on the license as well, just like there is a contract with the controlling company.

So this is valid for the electrification solutions that are developed by the controlling companies and also by our technologies in terms of biofuels. We can export not only technology but also services, our technology center in Jundiai provides services as well to other regions, engineering services, which are paid for. So these are 2 important avenues for us to explore new business lines.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] MAHLE's Q7A session is now closed. We now turn the floor over to Mr. Braga for his final remarks.

[Claudio Braga, executive]

Thank you very much for keeping us your time, your attention. We are all very concerned about what's going to happen in the next few months. We are anxious to see what's going to happen, but we remain here available to take any questions you might have. We wish you all a wonderful day, and thanks for participating.

[Operator]

MAHLE Metal Leve conference is now over. Thank you for participating, and have a good afternoon.