Earnings Labs

Corporación América Airports S.A. (CAAP)

Q2 2019 Earnings Call· Fri, Aug 23, 2019

$24.88

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Corporación América Airports Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Call. A slide presentation accompanies today’s webcast and is available in the Investors section of Corporación América Airports Investor Relations website at http://investors.corporacionamericaairports.com.As a reminder, all participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions at the end of today’s presentation. As a reminder, this call is being recorded.And at this time, I would now like to turn the conference over to Gimena Albanesi of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Gimena Albanesi

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Speaking during today’s call will be Martín Eurnekian, our Chief Executive Officer; and Raul Francos, our Chief Financial Officer. Also with us today is Jorge Arruda, Finance and M&A Manager. All will be available for the Q&A session.Before we proceed, I would like to make the following Safe Harbor statements. Today’s call will contain forward-looking statements and I refer you to the forward-looking statements section of our earnings release and recent filings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new or changed events or circumstances.Note that for comparison purposes and a better understanding of the underlying performance in our presentation today, we will be discussing results, excluding hyperinflation accounting in Argentina, which came became effective July 2018. Additional information in connection with the application of rule IAS 29 can be found in our earnings report.Now, let me turn the call over to our CEO, Martín Eurnekian. Martín Antranik Eurnekian: Thank you, Gimena. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. It’s a pleasure to welcome you to Corporación América Airports second quarter 2019 earnings conference call. I’ll begin my presentation today with an overview of the highlights of the quarter and then Raúl will take you through our financial results. Afterwards, I will provide an update on our key business segments and our view for the remainder of the year. We will then open the call to your questions.Starting off with an overview of our performance on Slide 3. We are operating in a challenging environment, particularly in Argentina, our largest market, and to a lesser extent in Brazil. Operations in Argentina remain impacted by weak macro and currency depreciation.In turn, we saw a continued mix shift towards…

Operator

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And our first question today comes from Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Mark Zhang

Analyst

Hi, good morning, guys. This is Mark on for Ian. Thanks for taking our questions. So just to start off first question, in regards to the AA2000. Is there any updates on discussion with government in regards to potential extension, just given what has been going on down there in terms of the shift and government election coming up? And any insights on timing will be much appreciated as well? Thank you. Martín Antranik Eurnekian: Thank you, Mark, for your question. As you can imagine, the situation in Argentina is really confusing right now, because we have a virtual winner of the primary elections, and we’re waiting for October to have a real result on the elections. So my best guess would be that the government will be ready to start discussions with us once we know who it is after the elections.

Mark Zhang

Analyst

Okay, great. Thank you. And then just another quick one in regards to your balance sheet. Are you guys looking to potentially look at new M&A or new concessions, just given where your balance sheet strength is? And if so, are there any that are also coming or you guys are interested in? Thank you. Martín Antranik Eurnekian: Thank you for the question. As we always say, we are always – our development team is always looking for opportunities that can bring an upside to Corporación América Airports and its shareholders. We are looking at the opportunities that have arised recently in the regions that we operate. But so far, there are no formal processes in which we are involved.

Mark Zhang

Analyst

Okay, great. Thank you guys very much.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Stephen Trent with Citi. Please go ahead.

Stephen Trent

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead.

Good morning, gentlemen, and then thank you, gentlemen, and Gimena, and thank you for taking my questions. I was curious in regards to the kind of a follow-up from the gentleman from Oppenheimer, aside from the potential extension of AA2000, can you give anymore granularity with respect to how that asset’s IRR is running versus the guaranteed IRR, and whether that gives you leverage to have some conversations? Martín Antranik Eurnekian: Thank you for your questions, Stephen. As we always say, we believe that the mixture of required investment for future growth in the next years of the concession and the way the concession has performed so far opens an opportunity for us to discuss the extension clause in our concession contract. Nevertheless, to comment on that, we wouldn’t really need to understand the regulator’s point of view once they review the economic equation of the concession. Once that happens, we can have a clear view and also have a position on whether if we agree with it or not.So in that sense, we hope that we will soon get news from the regulator. And as soon as that happens, we can have a clear view on that. Although, within the company, there is a belief that we are lower than the target. But we still have to discuss this with the regulator in terms of the numbers they create.

Stephen Trent

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead.

Okay, Martín, that – that’s very helpful. And just two quick follow-ups. Just to be clear, I mean, that guaranteed IRR was something that was granted by a former Kirchner administration, if that’s correct? Martín Antranik Eurnekian: The current form of the contract was signed in 2007 during the first government of Nestor Kirchner, that’s correct.

Stephen Trent

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead.

Yes, great. Great. Thank you. And just one last question from me. And apologies if I missed it, as I had some trouble dialing in. But I wasn’t sure if there’s an update on the El Palomar Airport and how that process is progressing? Martín Antranik Eurnekian: So we have two airlines operating at El Palomar, two low-cost airlines, Flybondi and JetSmart from Chile that’s also started operation in Argentina. The airport’s performing really well. It runs in the top airports in Argentina by traffic right now. We have there a recent ruling. We have started the international flight from the airport as well.We recently had a ruling from a judge, cutting flights during nighttime from 11 P.M. to 6 A.M. But aside from that, that is being contested by the authorities. The airport is running really well.

Stephen Trent

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead.

Okay. I appreciate it. Let me leave it there. Thanks, Martín. Martín Antranik Eurnekian: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Bruno Amorim with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Bruno Amorim

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. So my question relates to CapEx, which has increased in the second quarter. So just wanted to confirm if all these CapEx can be considered as part of the additional $1 billion that has to be included in the contract, or is part of this CapEx you have made in Argentina in the second quarter? Is this related to the original agreement you had with the regulator?And also in that regard as well, and to what point do you intend to keep doing the CapEx prior to discussing with the regulator, the offset for this additional CapEx on top of what was initially expected? So do you intend to continue doing the CapEx at the same pace going forward, or can we see a deceleration until you have a final agreement on either concession extension or other way for the company to be compensated for those additional investments? Thank you. Martín Antranik Eurnekian: Thank you for your question, Bruno. Towards the end of last year, we reached the CapEx amount that was foreseen in the original contract. So what we have done since then has been in excess or beyond that. We are definitely going to finish all the different works that we started.And going forward, we most probably will sit down and discuss with the government the continuity of the CapEx program and how that translates into the broad extension. Although, I wouldn’t say a definitive answer, because we would make decisions as we go in terms of the dialogue that we will have with whomever is in the government in – during the next year.

Bruno Amorim

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Martín Antranik Eurnekian: If I can make an addition to your question, everything – all the CapEx we are doing is approved by the regulator. And hence, it’s put in the regulatory accounting of our concession contract and the IRR.

Bruno Amorim

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Understood. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Juan [indiscernible] with TBCG. [ph] Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi, good morning. I’m – I was wondering, given that you are going to finish this investment in Argentina. How much CapEx is left to finish the projects that are ongoing? And also, following what you said about the Italy Airport, the Italy expansion in Pisa, how much do you plan to invest there? And also in Brazil, I don’t know if you’re still planning to do the expansions there? Thank you. Martín Antranik Eurnekian: Thank you for your question. During the second-half of this year, we expect to invest around $150 million in Argentina. The work in Italy has not started. We have some budgets, but we will probably come into that when we start the works and we assign the works through a public tender process there. And that can freeze the right amounts of the works we’re contracting. And you had a question on Brazil regarding CapEx?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yes, exactly. I believe before in other calls, you mentioned you were planning to do a commercial expansion there. I don’t know if there has been any development regarding that, or is there some other type of expansions in Brazil? Martín Antranik Eurnekian: The only expansion we foresee in Brazil – go ahead, Jorge.

Jorge Arruda

Analyst

Okay. Hi, thanks for your question. This is Jorge Arruda, I’m Head of M&A and Corporate Finance and also Head of Brazil. So I’ll take this question regarding Brazil. Regarding your specific question about the commercial area, this would be a third-party funding. This would be – we would lease the area to a third-party that would do the CapEx.And regarding that, we have redesigned the projects to further adapt with the reality of the airport and the region and the trends of the market and are discussing with investors that will, as I said, put the money. So this is progressing nicely, but again there’s no CapEx from our side.From our side, as was mentioned during the conference call, we began construction of what we call pickup plaza to concentrate all the car pickups from Uber and other call-hailing companies, car rental – some of the car rental companies and creating a new gravity center. It’s not the huge CapEx, it’s about $ 2 million to $3 million. We have a plan to expand international area.As Martín has said, Gol has put – has just put the fourth international flight and LATAM announced officially, in fact, the day before yesterday, free new international flights out of Brasilia, Lima, Santiago and Asuncion. So we will very closely watch how these flights perform. The initial task looks good. That’s the feedback we have from the airlines. We are also in discussions with some other airlines to introduce new flights.So if we indeed see that this is a trend that is there to stay, we will more seriously consider expanding the international terminal. It’s again not a huge CapEx. We’re talking about $10 million to $12 million maximum and which can be executed in 12 months.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. Okay, perfect. That’s very clear. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to Martín Eurnekian for any closing remarks. Martín Antranik Eurnekian: Thank you very much. Thank you very much for joining us today. We really appreciate your interest in your company. We look forward to meeting more of you over the coming months and providing financial and business updates on the next quarter. In the meantime, the team remains available to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you very much, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Operator

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.