Earnings Labs

Ultrapar Participações S.A. (UGP)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Fri, Feb 23, 2018

$5.87

+1.21%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to Ultrapar's 4Q 2017 in 2017 results conference call. There is also a simultaneous webcast that may be accessed through Ultrapar's Web site at ri.ultra.com.br in MZiQ platform. Please feel free to flip through the slides during the conference call. Today with us, we have Mr. André Pires, Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer together with other executives of Ultrapar. We'd like to inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be in 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 being 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 the 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 over to Mr. Pires. Mr. Pires, you may now begin the conference. André Pires: Okay. Thank you very much. Good morning everyone. It is great to be here with you to discuss Ultrapar's fourth quarter results and our consolidated result…

Operator

Operator

The floor is now open for questions. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Frank McGann from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.

Frank McGann

Analyst

Hello. Thank you. Two questions if I could. One is just in Oxiteno with the Pasadena operation. I was just wondering how you were thinking of that from an earnings standpoint in 2018/2019, what kind of contribution should we expect? How rapidly do you see that growing? And then, secondly, in Extrafarma, you mentioned that the gradual maturing of the stores should drive EBITDA in 2018. Are we at the point now that the improvement that you have from the stores that are maturing will be more important than the drag that comes from new store openings or if not when do you think we get to that point so that we could start to see perhaps a more consistent performance in terms of earnings generation. André Pires: Hi, Frank. Thanks for the question. First one regarding Oxiteno there should not be any material contribution from Pasadena plant 2018 results, marginal one for 2019. So still not a major contribution. Basically just taking a step back when we announced this project our expectation was that over time these operations would represent anywhere between 15% and eventually 20% of Oxitena's EBITDA over time, right? But this is not -- this is -- we maintain this expectation but this is not -- this is not going to happen either in 2018 or 2019. So the ramp up is between 1.5 to 3 years. And after that we expect that the contribution should start to become more important. For Extrafarma, yes, we believe that gradually the more rapid in maturing stores should continue to impact -- should start to impact EBITDA positively. So this should allow an important growth of EBITDA for 2018. But obviously, this will reflect on the overall economic activity. We will continue for the next two or three years to have an important portion of the stores that are still not mature. This can sweep back the short-term profitability, but over time this impact should become less important. Just keep in mind that 55% of our stores did not mature, I really would like to see that level below 40% to 30%. But, it's going to take some time until this happens.

Frank McGann

Analyst

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] I'm not seeing any further questions, so at this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Pires for any closing remarks. André Pires: Okay. Thanks everybody for participating in the call. And hope to see you again on our call for the first quarter of 2018 results. Good afternoon everybody. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's Ultrapar's 4Q 2017 results conference call. You may now disconnect your lines at this time.