Earnings Labs

Corporación América Airports S.A. (CAAP)

Q1 2020 Earnings Call· Fri, May 22, 2020

$24.88

+0.28%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. And welcome to the Corporación América Airports First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. A slide presentation accompanies today's webcast and is available in the Investors section of Corporación América Airports Investor Relations Web site at http://investors.corporacionamericaairports.com. As a reminder, all participants will be listen only mode [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this call is being recorded.At this time, I would like to turn the call 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. Also with us today are Raúl Francos, our Chief Financial Officer and Jorge Arruda, Head of Finance and M&A. All will be available for the Q&A session.Before we proceed, I would like to make the following safe harbor statement. 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 for a better understanding of the underlying performance in our presentation today, we will be discussing results, excluding hyperinflation accounting in Argentina, which became effective July 2018. Additional information in connection with the application of rule IAS 29 can found in our earnings report.Now let me turn the call over to our CEO, Martín Eurnekian. Martín Eurnekian: Thank you, Gimena. Hello, everyone, and welcome to today’s call. I wish you and your families are safe. Trends and dynamics we have seen since the second half of March are not comparable to anything we have seen before. The COVID-19 outbreak has severally impacted the travel industry worldwide, leading to an situation in which air traffic has dropped to minimum levels in a matter of weeks.On today’s call, I will discuss briefly our key operating and financial highlights for the first quarter and the most recent trends across our airport network. I will then provide an update of the strategic initiatives we shared with you in our previous call to mitigate the impact of this crisis on our business.Before I begin, I would like to highlight the significant progress…

Operator

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session [Operator Instruction]. Our first question is from Ian Zaffino from Oppenheimer. Go ahead.

Mark Zhang

Analyst

Good morning guys. This is Mark on for Ian. Thanks for taking our questions. Just quickly on your CapEx spend. Can you guys flush out how much of the $52 million of CapEx in the quarter is maintenance versus expansionary? And then can you just give a sense of what's normal CapEx required for operations going forward, and how much can you potentially take that down by? Thank you.

Gimena Albanesi

Analyst

We have maintenance CapEx in a minimum that now in fact most of our maintenance is initially recorded under operating expenses. So usually the maintenance CapEx is minimum for us. Although, we don't have the breakdown right now of the $62 million that we did in the first quarter. Just to give an idea most of the $62 million were in Argentina where you know we are developing and have been developing a station [indiscernible] works and also some work in [indiscernible] as well that are mainly expansion CapEx. So although, we don't have the breakdown, this is mainly for expansion not so much for maintenance.

Mark Zhang

Analyst

And then just another quick one, I believe you guys have mentioned that you started to see signs of recovery. Can you guys share any metrics? Maybe better passenger traffic in certain regions, or what sort of signs of recovery are you guys seeing? Thanks.

Gimena Albanesi

Analyst

As you know the situation is very uncertain still, you know that the recovery [indiscernible] our industry has enrolled and it has started to see sign, initial signs of recovery, mainly in Europe, the countries gradually starting to lift restrictions, including some potential European borders. So this could indicate that we are starting to see to some recovery. Although, as I said restrictions remain uncertain. And as of today, we are not able to provide an estimation of how long the situation will remain as it is today or an estimation of recovery in the next few months.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Our next question is from Chris Vicari from Maritime Asset Management. Go ahead.

Chris Vicari

Analyst

I guess just two things. Is it possible to give us an idea of sort of what monthly cash burn you have given the current situation where 98% reduction in passengers? Just sort of how, if we can just sort of get a general sense of what the monthly cash burn is now? I expect it to obviously be reducing as travel comes back, but that would be helpful if you can, number one. And then number two, although don't expect there has been much progress on this, given the sovereign restructuring and the coronavirus issues and everything else. Just curious if there's any progress made on talks about extending the concession in Argentina? Thanks.

Gimena Albanesi

Analyst

So let me take the first question regarding cash burn. And as you know, April for us was the first month where we had a full impact in all of countries for 2019. So as we discussed during the call, we actually rapidly we started doing several initiative on cost reductions and mainly on maintenance salaries and so on. So for -- an estimated cash burn for April is around roughly $14 million according to our monthly estimates. And so as I said before the first month the full impact of the decline in activity, as well as measures for past preservation. And I will hand over to Martín for the second question. Martín Eurnekian: Well, regarding the extension, as we've been saying before, this contract has every reason to be ready to have that discussion with the government. We had it before this huge crisis. And we believe that given what is going on now, it becomes even more obvious the need for the extension of the contract. Having said that, we hope to begin negotiations with the government as soon as possible. But given the quarantines and the priorities that have shifted towards crisis that has not happened yet, but we hope to begin as soon as possible.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] At this time, we have no questions, so we will conclude our questoin-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Martín Eurnekian for closing remarks. Go ahead. I’m sorry, there is a question. I’m sorry it just came up. There is a question from Roberta Versiani from Citibank. Go ahead.

Roberta Versiani

Analyst

Just a quick question, are there any governments suggesting some level of financial support beyond the deferral of the concession payment? And just double checking, you said $14 million for cash burn in April. Just double checking. Thanks.

Gimena Albanesi

Analyst

So yes, the cash burn for April $14 million, this is largely estimating cash burn. So regarding the support from government. I would say that what we have and already in play in the referral of consistencies in both Brazil and Italy. We are in discussions also for the deferral concession fees in Uruguay and also Ecuador. And that is where we have so far already implemented in final payment. We are also requesting some financial relief in Argentina through these plans for the government implemented for companies and to support wages. And in Italy, we are moving forward also with specific relief method for the industry. Although, that is not in place yet. We will let you know as soon as we have something on that front.

Operator

Operator

At this time, we have no question. So we will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Martín Eurnekian for closing remarks. Go ahead. Martín Eurnekian: I'd like to thank everybody for joining us today. We really appreciate your interest in our company. We look forward to providing updates on our business initiatives as they become available. In the meantime, the team remains available to answer any question that you may have. Thank you everybody. Bye, bye.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.