Good morning, and welcome to the Loma Negra Fourth Quarter 2022 Conference Call and Webcast. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions]. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Also Mr. Sergio Faifman will be responding in Spanish immediately following an English translation. [Operator Instructions]. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Diego Jalón, Head of IR Please, Diego, go ahead. Diego Jalón: Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Loma Negra's earnings conference call. By now, everyone should have access to our earnings press release and the presentation for today's call, both of which were distributed yesterday after market close. Joining me on the call this morning will be Sergio Faifman, our CEO and Vice President of the Board of Directors; and our CFO, Marcos Gradin. Both of them 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. This conference call will also include discussion on non-GAAP financial measures. The full reconciliation of the corresponding financial measures is included in the earnings press release. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Sergio.

Thank you, Diego. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As always, I would like to begin my presentation with the discussion of the highlights of the quarter. And then Marcos will take you through our market review and financial results. After that, I will provide some final remarks, and then, we will open the call to your question. Starting with slide two. We are satisfied to share another solid quarter that lead to closing a year that challenging macroeconomic environments from the industry setting a new record in volume term on the back of the dynamics shown by the construction sector. In this context, our result showed that Loma was up to the challenge not only with the volumes growing more than the industry setting a record in shipping, but also reaching an all time high fee rise in terms of EBITDA generation. These results will have not been possible without the strong commitment to invest in greater capacity and efficiency that the company has carried out in recent years. As you could see from our release news yesterday, our adjusted EBITDA for the quarter reaching $91 million compared with $63 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. When measured in pesos, it showed an increase of 5.4% compared with fourth quarter of 2021 assessment by inflation. Please note that the result of the quarter was boosted by the sale of non-strategic property for $19 million. When looking for our annual figure, we reached $289 million for the fiscal year 2022 from $215 million in 2021, achieving a new record for our company. We are focused to continue delivering strong results and maintain a world-class EBITDA margin. Despite the turbulence that we face this year in term of energy inputs and high inflation scenario. In the sense,…

Thank you, Sergio. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to slide six. As you can see on slide six, the GDP forecast for 2022 is expected to be about 5%, adjusted upwards from the listed Market Expectation Report from the Central Bank. As a preliminary figures for the third quarter stood at 5.9% growth. Construction activity measured by the ISAC increased 3.5% for 2022. With a reduction in December where the level of activity of the industry was mainly affected by less working days. Regarding seven national industry sales, despite the reduction shown in the last quarter, the solid demand pushed 2022 accumulated figures to record highs, growing 7% and almost reaching the 13 million tons mark. While the most -- while the first month of results in 2023 shows again a strong figure. While bulk cement remains strong, bulk cement is the dispatch modality showing greater dynamic and growth. On the back of concrete producers demand and private infrastructure projects, both residential and industrial, coupled with moderate level of activity in public works mainly at the municipal and provincial levels. When seeing the breakdown by dispatch mode, bulk shipments continues positive trend, showing a participation of 44% against 40% in the fourth quarter of 2021. Closing the year with a participation of 42% showing three percentage points growth from 2021. The first two months of this year are showing a margin growth. For the year, we remain cautiously optimistic as economic growth in Argentina faces many challenges in the short-term, while the election year may add more volatility to an already turbulent scenario. Turning to slide seven, for a review of our top line performance by segment. Top line was down 2% in the fourth quarter, mainly due to the decrease in cement and variables revenues, partially compensated by the…

Thank you, Marcos. Now to finalize the presentation, I please ask you to turn to slide 15. 2022 was a year of many challenge and opportunities. At the company level, we achieved historic, economic and operational results. And with the efforts and commitment of all our collaborators, we continue to consulate our position as a leader in Argentine cement markets. Looking ahead, we expect growth to continue in 2023. With a more moderate pace considering the high level of activity of the sector that we saw in 2022. Always subject to the outcome of local political and macroeconomic challenges that usually attend to in election years. In this context, we remain focused on delivering strong results and with our increased capacity we're in an excellent position to capture future growth. Also, we are very pleased to present the second edition of our Sustainability Report, maintaining our commitment to inform and share the impact or our organization, management on people, the environment and the economy. We know that we must frequently and clear communicate our operation on each part. So again, I would like to invite you all to read this report and showing us in the [Indiscernible] of building a sustainability portfolio. I would like to conclude by sharing our satisfaction with the results obtained in 2022. I thank all our people and stakeholders for their commitments and support. This is end of our prepared remark. We are now ready to take a question. Operator, please open the call for a question.

Thank you. We will now conduct a question and answer session. [Operator Instructions] Also please note that Mr. Sergio Faifman will be responding in Spanish immediately following an English translation. Please hold momentarily while we assemble our roster. Our first question is from Alejandra Obregon with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, Sergio, Marcos, Diego. Thank you for the call today. I have a question on the specific assets that was sold at Olavarría, whether you could elaborate on what was the asset? And if there could be any more non-core sale, asset sales of this kind in the future that could be worth considering? So that's my first question.

Hi, Alejandra. Good morning. Thank you for your question. The property that we sold, it was linked to our former facility in [Indiscernible]. Its a facility that we are not going to plan to use it in further expectation of our other property. The company has some other properties along the country. Some of those have potential results to be used in the future. And we are always analyzing if this context changes. If those properties could be add value in some other ways for the company.

Thank you. That was clear. And maybe a follow-up here. What does the sale and proceeds mean from a cash management perspective? Should we perhaps rethink the dividends and buybacks for the year or even your M&A strategy ahead as cash position grows for 2023?

As always that we mentioned before, we keep looking for maximizing value for our shareholders. And we are always analyzing share buyback programs and further dividend. If we don't have any other project demands, our cash flow generation, probably we are going to keep on focusing on maximizing value to shareholders. We think that that's the way that we add more value to our shareholders.

Understood. That was very clear. And I have a second question if I still may. So, I'm very curious about the outperformance of the concrete and the aggregates division. So, I was wondering if you could provide some color on what are you seeing on the ground with regards to permitting infrastructure and enough non-resi construction head? And whether these could be something that could continue to contribute more than you were expecting for 2023? Thank you.

By the end of last year, concrete and other rates were improving its performance. We have been seeing an increase in bulk cement demand. And that along with an increase in infrastructure projects that give us to those businesses a boost. With the last prices that we came through many small aggregates producers where growth or they decreased their production, and we kept on investing in those businesses. So we are taking advantage of that. In both businesses, we expect 2023 also better than what we saw in 2022.

Understood. That was very clear. So thank you again and congratulations on the numbers.

Thank you. You're welcome.

The next question is from Rodrigo Nistor with Latin Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Congratulations on the results. I have a question regarding the dynamic between price and volumes for the year. I mean, given the high volatility of the selection here, do you believe that Loma can replicate or exceed last year's volumes? And then, if you've seen a pickup in demand from the public sector already, And with regards to pricing, how are you adjusting your strategy to address the current high inflation environment? Thank you.

Hi, Rodrigo. Good morning. Thank you for your question. Regarding volumes, we are expecting a level similar for what we saw in 2022 with some slight or moderate growth. Considering what happens in election years, we could expect some demand from the public sector principally at municipal or provincial level. We have many, many works in the pipeline basically in the bulk dispatch mode. Regarding our price strategy is following the same trend that we have been following in the past quarters, which is to maintain our price dynamics following the different variables that we have in our P&L, like inflation and devolution. In the last months the price has kept, wasn't in line with the dynamics of inflation.

That was really helpful. Thank you.

You're welcome.

[Operator Instructions] Showing no further questions, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Diego Jalón for any closing remarks. Diego Jalón: Thank you, Barry. Thank you all for joining us today. We really appreciate your interest in our company. And we hope to meet you again in our next earnings call. In the meantime, we remain available for any questions that you may have. Have a nice day. Bye.

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