Ana Maria Mora
Analyst · Auna with some -- to proceed with the closing comments for the webcast platform
Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Auna's Conference Call to review our First Quarter Results. Please note that there is a webcast presentation to accompany the discussion during this call. If you need a copy of the presentation, please go to our Investor Relations website or contact Auna's Investor Relations team. Please note that when we discuss variances, we will be doing so on a year-over-year basis and in FX-neutral or local currency terms with regard to Mexico and Colombia, unless we note otherwise. Let's move to Slide 2. In addition to reporting unaudited financial results in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, we will discuss certain non-IFRS financial measures and operating metrics, including foreign exchange neutral calculations. Investors should carefully read the definitions of these measures, the metrics and reconciliations included in our earnings press release published yesterday after market close to ensure that they understand them. Non-IFRS financial measures and operating metrics should not be considered in isolation as a substitute for or superior to IFRS financial measures and are provided as supplemental information only. Before we begin our remarks, please also note that certain statements made during the course of today's discussion may constitute forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ, including factors that may be beyond the company's control. This includes, but are not limited to, our target leverage ratio, suppliers and information systems in Mexico, the results of the key initiatives we are implementing in Mexico, Colombia and Peru, the expected capacity and market of Torre Trecca once built, the execution of our strategic plan, including the recovery of our growth levels and the rollout of the AunaWay in Mexico, our planned investments, our expected revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA growth, our revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance and the creation of further growth and sustainable value for all stakeholders. For a description of risks that may impact our forward-looking statements, please refer to our Form 20-F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and our earnings press release. Slide 3, please. On today's call, we have Suso Zamora, our Executive Chairman and President; Gisele Remy, our Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President; and Lorenzo Massart, our Executive Vice President of Strategy and Equity Capital Markets. They will discuss Auna's consolidated and segment financial and operating results for the first quarter as well as provide an update on our various strategic growth initiatives. After that, we will open the call for your questions. Suso, please go ahead.
Jesús Zamora Leon: Thanks, Annie. Let's move to Slide 4, please. We got off to a good start in 2026, building commercial momentum across our regional health care platform, accelerating growth and generating strong cash flows. We have stabilized and restored growth in Auna Mexico's hospital platform. We have strengthened Auna Colombia's hospital platform by expanding our unique risk-sharing businesses and deepening our relationships with the country's largest and best capitalized payers. We continue to grow revenues from Auna Peru's hospital platform by further expanding our higher complexity services and by growing plan memberships. Our path forward is clear: simplify our model; do more of what we do best; and extend the reach of the AunaWay. Now turning to our financial results. Our topline grew 10% FXN in the first quarter, with revenues increasing across all segments. However, due to 2 extraordinary items, which we will detail later in the presentation, adjusted EBITDA decreased 5% FXN and margin contracted by 2.9 percentage points. Nonetheless, we are tracking well against our 2026 guidance. In Mexico, we delivered higher service volumes and utilization levels increased. More importantly, utilization grew in high complexity services, particularly in surgery and oncology. Our operations in Mexico have delivered as planned, 19% quarter-over-quarter increase in adjusted EBITDA. The Peru segment of our integrated platform performed well, maintaining its growth momentum during the quarter despite adjustments related to payer reconciliations that impacted revenue and, therefore, profitability. Revenues increased 9%, supported by strong volume growth in health care services, including high complexity services, while OncoSalud continued to add new planned members through growing B2B sales. In Colombia, we have largely put the intervened payers behind us, thanks to risk-sharing businesses with established new payer relationships. These unique agreements have consistently produced more predictable topline and cash flow growth. Turning briefly to our balance sheet. Our leverage ratio was 3.7x. Our cash position increased 22% to PEN 409 million, with free cash flow increasing 2.6x versus the comparable period last year, an important indicator of our ability to optimize our operations for effective cash management across our regional platform. Let's turn to Slide 5. Growing volumes at a higher levels of capacity utilizations in health care, combined with increased plan memberships helped drive the quarter's strong topline growth and cash flow. As you can see in the bottom left of this slide, total utilization increased 1.4 percentage points to 66%. However, our focus is on increasing utilization in higher-margin, high complexity services rather than on-bed occupancy alone. In Peru, where our business is vertically integrated, health care plan memberships grew 6%, while oncology plans grew 3%. Furthermore, the oncology MLR was below 50% within its expected range. The run rate profitability of our regional platform also improved significantly during the quarter. Again, adjusted EBITDA was down 5% FXN, primarily due to revenue adjustments and certain payroll increases. Let's now move to Slide 7 for a closer look at the performance of each segments of our platform, starting with Mexico. Our Mexico operations recovered strongly during the quarter, with revenues increasing 8%. This resulted from our new status in preferred provider tiers with 2 major payers at Doctors Hospital, the substantially improved economics of our new ISSSTELEON contract, expanded B2B service packages and additional growth in the out-of-pocket segment. This also produced a 19% quarter-over-quarter increase in adjusted EBITDA and a 3.5 percentage point increase in margin. On a year-over-year basis, EBITDA increased 23% year-over-year. Please turn to Slide 8. Revenue growth in Peru was 9% and was impacted by revenue adjustments related to higher revenue reconciliation penalties implemented by payers in the market. Revenues from health care services grew 7%, reflecting the advantages of our growing scale, commercial initiatives drove most of the volume and utilization increases. On the insurance side, OncoSalud revenues grew 12%, driven both by annual price increases and growth in B2B plan memberships, including the 20,000 employees of a new group policy for the nation's judiciary that we were awarded. We see a growing opportunity for commercial initiatives to increase our share of the B2B segment of Peru's insurance market. First quarter adjusted EBITDA decreased 3%, with margin contracting by 2.3 percentage points, impacted by the aforementioned revenue adjustments as well as a delay in rebate recognitions and an increase in doctor compensation. Excluding the revenue adjustments, Peru's adjusted EBITDA would have increased 7%. Let's move to Colombia on Slide 9. Our revenue growth in Colombia accelerated, growing 13% in the first quarter as we further reduced our reliance on intervene payers and increased the proportion of risk-sharing agreements with payers, which rose 6 percentage points to 21% of Colombia's total revenue. It is important to note that revenues from intervene payers fell 5 percentage points year-over-year from 19% to 14%. At the same time, revenues from new payers increased 1.5x versus the prior year quarter and currently represent 12% of total revenue. Clearly, our franchise is strong in Colombia. We have effectively navigated the falloff from last year's payer interventions and have emerged growing at a faster pace. Adjusted EBITDA increased 7%, with the margin decreasing by 1.7 percentage points. The lower margin mainly reflects the higher proportion of risk-sharing contracts and increased at variable costs related to higher volumes serviced in high complexity care. Now I'll turn the call over to Gisele, who will review our results in more detail.