Earnings Labs

Ultrapar Participações S.A. (UGP)

Q2 2015 Earnings Call· Fri, Aug 7, 2015

$5.87

+1.21%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+3.29%

1 Week

-0.32%

1 Month

-11.13%

vs S&P

-4.81%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. At this time we would like to welcome everyone to Ultrapar's 2Q '15 Results Conference Call. There is also a simultaneous webcast that may be accessed through Ultrapar's Web site at www.ultra.com.br/ri. Please feel free to flip through the slides during the conference call. Today with us we have Mr. Andre Covre, Ultrapar's Executive Officer, together with other executives of Ultrapar. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After Ultrapar's remarks are completed, there will be a question-and-answer session. At that time further instructions will be given. [Operator Instructions] We remind you that questions which will be answered during the Q&A session may be posted in advance in the webcast. A replay of this call will be available for one week. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are made under the Safe Harbor of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Ultrapar Management and on information currently available to the Company. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Ultrapar and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, I’ll turn the conference call over to Mr. Covre, who will present Ultrapar’s results in the quarter and discuss about perspectives. Mr. Covre, you may begin the conference.

Andre Covre

Analyst

Good morning to everyone. It’s a great pleasure to be here with you once again. And as you already know for the last time as the CFO of Ultrapar. Next September I will complete 12 years with Ultra, eight of which as Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer. Throughout these years I have had the pleasure and the privilege of being able to develop significant and transformational projects for the company together with corporate centre team with the permanent goal of doing what's in the best of interest for Ultra. I'm very proud to look back to this history and now I'll be facing new challenges. As announced on July 25th, I took over as the CEO of Extrafarma. I will remain part of Ultra's Executive Board and will continue to contribute to development of the company's strategy as a whole. In February of 2014, my predecessor Paulo Lazera assumed the responsibility of leading Extrafarma's integration for a management model and so it was done. The next stage is to speed the growth in order to position the company among the market leaders. Paulo stepped down from the executive position in Extrafarma but he will remain with Ultra as a consultant, sharing his knowledge of the retail pharmacy sector and also as a shareholder of Ultra. The CFO position at Ultrapar was assumed in July 20th, by Andre Pires, he's here with me today. Since Pires joined Ultra, both of us have been engaged on a planned, comprehensive integration of transition process. Second quarter earnings release process is a great example of that. In order to allow adequate time for Andre Pires to get familiar with Ultra's processes I'm leading this earnings release season and he's following all the steps. During the next few weeks, we will conduct a series…

Andre Pires

Analyst

Thank you Andre, hello everyone. Today I'm finalizing my third week share income. And as I mentioned by Andre we've been participating together in the integration and transition process. As being positively impacted by the outstanding professional capacity of the people and their deep knowledge of the various issues related to our business. I also feel extremely aligned with the core values of the company especially to the corporate government spectrum which I believe to be one of the most important pillars of our successful track record. For now I've been more focused on internal matters but soon I'll be with all of you to further develop the accent relationship between Ultra and the market. I look forward to talking to you in our next earnings in November. Thank you very much and Andre.

Andre Covre

Analyst

One of the benefits of having Andre Pires is my successor you can continue to call the CFO Andre and this will be your last chance to ask me questions as CFO list on earnings conference call. So far away.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen thank you. The floor is now open for questions. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Cristian Audi from Santander. Please go ahead with your question.

Cristian Audi

Analyst

Andre I wanted to echo the words from the Portuguese call in saying, congratulations for a job extremely well done. I think that with your leadership Ultrapar who has always been a source of best practices for the markets improved even more, best practices in delivering consistently high quality results, best practices in generating value for shareholders and best practices in corporate governance. So, congratulations you will be missed, very happy to know that you just around the corner with Extrafarma and looking forward to working with Andre Pires going forward. I just have three follow-up questions. First, on CapEx where the company as a whole given this continually challenging macro-environment in Brazil, you still remain committed to the CapEx for this year or could we see adjustments to reflect as weak economic activity? Second on Ipiranga, are you feeling given again the difficult macro conditions that it's becoming maybe easier for you to convert and branded gas stations giving maybe the more difficult situation that smaller player, smaller distributors you have in the market. And then thirdly, was just a quick clarification on Ultracargo on the Santos terminal the 45% of the terminal whose operations are not -- have not stopped. I just wanted to double check that part of the terminal is in fact generating EBITDA. Those were the three questions.

Andre Covre

Analyst

Cristian thanks for your warm words and I repeat what I mentioned in the Portuguese conference call being a great pleasure to have the dialogue with the market from which I have learn greatly and I have to leave to help Ultra do a better company. As we said I'll be just around the corner or actually beyond the corner drug stores if you're looking from that trying to sell some medicines. I am also very pleased to have Andre Pires to replace me. He is an excellent track record on his carrier and has decline that our useful hand to continue the great job for Ultra. The important thing that we have already focus from Ultra is people are very important particularly when you with people going to institution and Ultra is an institution that will carry on relationship with the market with Andre Pires and the team that is here. Into your three questions on CapEx I'll take that business by business because the answer is not this time fully trend. In the case of Ipiranga for the making significant expansion investments we using to reduce them because the process of opening a new gas station or switching and the flat switching of the gas station is both driven by growth of economy and capturing market share from the white flag and to flow in a moment of weaker growth of the market we should carry on with the same speed and having into that carrying more market share that we would otherwise of economy and the market will boost. In the case of the ethanol Oxiteno having finished four years ago a very meaningful cycle of production capacity expansions in Brazil we moved basically to maintenance CapEx was from some occasion expansion to [board]. And this year…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Frank McGann from BOA Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead with your question.

Frank McGann

Analyst · your question.

Two questions, kind of following up on Cristian's questions. One just in terms of service stations, the increase in the expansion, how many stores or service stations are you expecting to add this year and then next year now and how are you seeing the market overall for acquisitions of smaller chains currently? And then in terms of Santos, it's unclear to me exactly when you get to mid next year will Santos be fully back or will it only be a portion of the area that is not shut down and if so what are the plans for potentially expanding capacity there back to where it was or perhaps adding capacity as well?

Andre Covre

Analyst · your question.

We have added -- on your first question, we have added over the last several years between 300 and 500 gas stations depending on the year and our outlook for this year is around 350 gas stations. In terms of market conditions for acquisitions, this is an area where maybe the economy is starting to have in effect breaking on the question of question about conversions. We have started to -- some people will be willing to have more reasonable prices and discussions with us. So, we could have some positive news in the next 12 months. Then on Santos, let me see if I can help clarify. 55% of the terminal is currently non-operating. Only a small portion of that was affected but a bigger part of the land has to be suspended. About 60% of the 55% is unaffected by the fire event. The region, the other 40% where the fire's entered place is owned by a customer of ours and we operate for them. So we can respond about that 60%, that is under our control, for that part we will do what it's called in English, a term decommissioning, removing all the materials from there and then being able to resume operations in that. The other 40% is up to our customer owns that part to make the decision. So I can't speak about what they will do, so we'll do on the 60% that we control the process of renewing everything, and we expect to be back operationally on that mid next year.

Frank McGann

Analyst · your question.

So, it's the customer decides say not to renew with you or to not to continue to operate in some way, the business itself will be somewhat smaller than, then it has been prior to the accident.

Andre Covre

Analyst · your question.

That is correct, the impact of that will be different than leasing capacity because given that terminal belongs to a customer, our remuneration was basically a fee for a service, therefore the impact is not proportional, impact in EBITDA and et cetera is not proportional to the reduction in the capacity.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Our next question comes from Andre Sabrera from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead you’re your question.

Andre Sabrera

Analyst

I have two questions if I may, first on Ipiranga, Andre we have seen increasingly over the recent months trade for Ipiranga to gain share over competitors high even but specially BR, and I was wondering if you think there is anything that has changed within the competitive dynamics between the three players and with a potential upcoming of the public markets. Do you think the competitors dynamics changes, will they fight for share with you or will they fight for share with against the white flags that will be my first question. And the second one is in Extrafarma, how do you feel about the mix in people with the business between people that come from of Extrafarma itself and people that were formerly from Ultra and are now with Extrafarma, how is that mix today and what you think is the optimal mix going forward given the growth perspectives?

Andre Covre

Analyst

First on the Ipiranga, gaining market share from [pricing] and BR is more a consequence than anything else. We are focused on capturing market share from the white flag, I mean with my depend on the pace that we do investments and our competitors do investment on a quarter-to-quarter basis, we might gain a little bit of market share but we might lose in the next quarter. So that shouldn't be an important trend and we haven't felt any change in dynamics. Along with same lines, an IPO of BR we don't see as relevant event for the market dynamics. So, we don't expect any improvement or worsening of the trends. On Extrafarma, the mix of people you called actually have two parts. The people were currently in Extrafarma, the people that Ultra can bring and the people that we might bring from the market to strengthen our retail knowledge. We are making a combination of these three things to create a company that has best in class profitability. So that's well underway and I feel good about it, to answer the way.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. You have a follow-up question from Frank McGann from BoA Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead with your question.

Frank McGann

Analyst

On Ipiranga, in terms of volume trends, you indicated that third quarter would be similar to the sort of trends you saw in the second quarter. I just was wondering how -- if you see any worsening overall in some of the mix trends, diesel gasoline, has there been any variation as you come through the second quarter into the third quarter that might suggest or be a reflection of perhaps a greater weakness in the economy. And then in terms of the mix between gasoline and ethanol, how are you seeing that, how do you see that affecting your profitability now and over the next 6 months to 12 months?

Andre Covre

Analyst

In terms of mix we've seen an important growth in ethanol expense of gasoline. In this past this was important because difference in gross margins of ethanol and gasoline was a very large given that ethanol had a significant [opportunity]. Over the last several years a lot of that has improved and ethanol margins today are approximately 60% of gasoline margin which is very close to energy content equilibrium point of 32%. So the shift between ethanol and gasoline happening at the moment doesn’t have a meaningful impact in profitability anymore. In terms of interest of economy obviously due to sales of economy is contracting diesel sales decline and the average diesel margin is smaller than average of the cycle margin the margin is potential for a mix gain there in an environment of weakening volumes. So not as fairly I wonderful, think to preferred volume is growing but that sort of a silver lining of it but overall the more important thing is how fast we can grow the volume that we're selling to reseller segment. That is the one element of mix that is in our hand and has a meaningful impact on profitability if we can make it fast and therefore that strengthens important of investment increasing the reselling network. Another reason why we should continue to do that.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen at this time this concludes the question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back to Mr. Andre Covre for any closing remarks.

Andre Covre

Analyst

I like to close emphasizing that the growth resilience of Ultra came to cash at the end in the first half of this year. And in the second quarter of the year we actually exclude three non-recurring items that I mentioned EBITDA doing 11% and that is in line with our 15 years of track record since our IPO and is a very good indicator of one can expect for the third quarter and for the whole year. Therefore demonstrating that again when past this dilute economy the engineering of resilience of Ultra continues to grow and therefore the company is able to deliver results at the level of the last 15 years is low. It is a great pleasure that I leave you now in the hands of Andre Pires for the next earnings release. It's been a great pleasure to work with you and I shall see you next time probably as the CEO of Extrafarma as I said some closing compile selling medicine and beauty product. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen this concludes Ultrapar’s 2Q '15 results conference call. You may disconnect your lines.