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Welcome to Grupo EVAL's first quarter 2026 Consolidated Results Conference Call. My name is Regina, and I will be your operator for today's call. Grupo EVAL Acciones y Valores SEA, Grupo EVAL, is an issuer of securities in Colombia and in the United States SEC. As such, it is subject to compliance with securities regulation in Colombia and applicable U.S. securities regulation. Grupo EVAL is also subject to the inspection and supervision of the Superintendency of Finance as holding company of the Evolve Financial Conglomerate. The consolidated financial information included in this document is presented in accordance with IFRS as currently issued by the IASB. Details of the calculations of non-IFRS measures, such as ROAA and ROAE, among others, are explained when required in this report. On November 27, 2025, Banco de Bogotá subsidiary Multifinancial Holding Inc., MFG, entered into a share purchase agreement with BAC International Corporation, BIC, a subsidiary of BAC Holding International Corp., for the disposal of 99.57% of the issued and outstanding shares of Multifinancial Group Inc., MFG, the parent company of Multibank Inc. On March 18, 2026, After obtaining the required regulatory authorizations and fulfilling all agreed conditions precedent, the transaction was completed. For comparability purposes only, we have prepared and present supplemental unaudited pro forma financial information for the periods prior to 4Q25, which reflects the reclassification of the operations relating to MFG as noncurrent assets and liabilities held for sell and discontinued operations. This supplemental unaudited pro forma financial information is not intended to represent and should not be considered indicative of the results of operations or financial position that would have been achieved had the transaction occurred on the dates assumed, nor is it intended to project our results of operations or financial position for any future period or date. The pro forma financial information is unaudited, and the completion of the external audit for the year ended December 31, 2025, may result in adjustments to the unaudited pro forma financial information presented herein. This report includes forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as may, will, should, expects, plans, anticipates, believes, estimates, predicts, potential, or continue, or the negative of these and other comparable words. Actual results and events may differ materially from those anticipated herein as a consequence of changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in interest and currency rates, and other risks described from time to time in our filings with the Registro Nacional de Valores y Emisores in the SEC. Recipients of this document are responsible for the assessment and use of the information provided herein. Matters described in this presentation and our knowledge of them may change extensively and materially over time. We expressly disclaim any obligation to review, update, or correct the information provided in this report, including any forward-looking statements, and do not intend to provide any update for such material developments prior to our next earnings report. The financial statements of Grupo Global Acciones y Valores S.A.A., in accordance with Colombian regulations, must be filed with the market and with the Superintendency of Finance with the opinion of an external auditor. At the time of this solicitation, this process is still ongoing. The content of this document and the figures included herein are intended to provide a summary of the subjects discussed rather than a comprehensive description. When applicable in this document, we refer to billions as thousands of millions. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Maria Lorena Gutierrez Botero, Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Maria Lorena Gutierrez-Botero, you may begin.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2026 conference call. I am here with Diego Solano, our CFO, Camilo Perez, Chief Economist of Banco de Bogota, and Jorge Castaño, VP of Financial Assets and Efficiency. Before turning to our financial results, I would like to highlight two significant corporate developments of the quarter. First, on March 18, Banco de Bogota completed the sale of 99.57% of MFG's $464 million, concentrating on its strategic focus and strengthening its capital position. I am pleased to announce the appointment of Juan Carlos Echeverri as an incoming CEO of Banco de Bogota, whose leadership we are confident will drive the next chapter of the bank's strategy. Our tributary net income reached 336 billion Colombian pesos, a decrease of 2.3% compared to the first quarter of 2025. During this quarter, we recorded the equity tax, which amounted to 312 billion Colombian pesos in operating expenses, with a 210 billion Colombian pesos impact in accrual net income, reducing the quarter's ROAE by approximately 457 basis points. Excluding this one-time effect, our underlying performance reflects improving trends across our businesses. Acquired was characterized by improving asset quality and cost of risk, a strong contribution from our non-financial sector, and continued progress on operational efficiency. Funding cost pressures driven by the renewed tightening cycle and the impact of the equity tax were the main headwinds. This is also a strategically significant quarter for Grupo Aval. We launched our 2026-2031 corporate strategy, a long-term framework that reflects our ambition to increase our relevance in the market where we operate to capture efficiencies and deploy technology in a structured and disciplined way and to generate real impact for all of our stakeholders. Our strategy is organized around three core axes, relevance, opportunities, and impact, and materialized through 10 strategic pillars that we orient our evolution as a group over the next five years. Under the relevance axis, We are focused on strengthening our leadership position, deepening client centricity and optimizing capital allocation. Under opportunities, we are accelerating efficiency and standardization, leading digital transformation and turning data and artificial intelligence into competitive advantage. Under impact, we are committed to developing our challenge of holding the highest standards of corporate governance and risk management and ensuring that our growth generates a positive impact for society and the environment. This strategy is a shared commitment across Grupo Aval to consolidate our position as Colombian leading financial group. Now, I would like to invite Jorge Castaño, our VP, to share our advancements and other strategic matters. Jorge?
Thank you, Maria Lorena, and good morning, everyone. Turning to the first pillar that Maria Lorena mentioned, profitable business, the purchase and assumption transaction of Itaú's personal banking business by Banco de Bogotá marks a defining moment in Grupo Aval's retail banking strategy. Once fully executed, this transaction is expected to deliver $3.3 trillion in consumer portfolio growth, equivalent to 34 months of organic expansion, while adding 3.2 trillion pesos in mortgage lending, positioning Banco de Bogota in third place in the Colombian housing market with a 12.8% market share. On the deposit side, we expect personal deposits from individuals to grow by 4.1 trillion pesos, representing around 20 months of accelerated organic growth and reaching a high of 9.3% market share. On the client side, the bank will add around 277,000 customers, double its premium segment with 35,000 new high-value clients, and expand the preferred segment by 60%, adding 97,000 clients. Taken together, these results confirm that this transaction is just a growth initiative. It is a structural repositioning of Banco de Bogotá as a relevant force in Colombian retail banking, a unique opportunity to upgrade and relaunch its personal banking business, and a key step in its evaluation as a universal bank and flagship entity of Grupo Aval. We are expecting to receive regulatory authorization from both the competition authority and the financial regulator within the coming weeks. Once clearance is obtained, Banco de Bogotá is fueled, prepared to execute a disciplined 90-day integration roadmap. The operational groundwork, COVID-insisted convergence, client migration protocols, and commercial team alignment is being developed in parallel with the regulatory process, ensuring zero lag between approval and execution. The Panama operations comprising a $6.8 million loan portfolio and $140 million in deposits will be incorporated in the Consolidate Balance Sheet with the same window, reinforce capital efficiency and cross-border synergies from day one. Now, turning to Aval Fiduciaria, our asset management entity, the company successfully completed its integration process on January 2, 2026, establishing a strong foundation with 198 trillion pesos in assets under management, a platform of 33 collective investment funds and 5,700 trust mandates. This milestone is further validated by the highest counterparty risk and portfolio management ratings given by Fitch Ratings and subsequently reaffirmed by S&P Global, reflecting the institution's commitment to operational excellence and investor confidence. During the first quarter of the 2026, Avalfi Luceara reinforced its industry leadership. The company hosts a 19% market share in commissions, With revenue growing by 12.5% to reach 151.4 billion pesos, assets under management grew 4.4 billion pesos, assets under management grew 4.2% in the quarter to 206.5 trillion pesos. With collective investment funds gained 149 basis points of market share to reach 22.3%, capturing more than half of total market growth. The client base 4.7% expanded in the quarter and 13% year-over-year. On profitability, the company boasts a ROE of 33.0% with net income of $22 billion for the first quarter. Operational efficiency improved materially as well, bringing the cost-to-income ratio to 65.0% and improvement of close to 10.0%. Looking ahead, Avanzi Luceria continues to execute under its Destino 2031 strategy, highlighted by a collaboration with BlackRock to the Metal Etidida solution, which gives Colombian retail investors access to balance global ETF portfolios, alongside continuing investment in digital channels to democratize access to its full product suite. Now let me turn to our payment leadership business, GoPayment. The company continues to strengthen its position as Grupo Aval's interoperable payment and value-added service platform. During the period, GO secured two critical regulatory milestones, certification from the financial superintendents of Colombia and authorization from Banco de la República to operate with the private ecosystem. Commercial traction is already busy. Controlled pilots have engaged more than 120 users in initial phase, designing to validate performance ahead of full rollout. On the collection side, Go is enabled to prep by a bulk pattern across its existing base of 22,000 active agreements in a bulk pay center, while 635 corporate clients with specialized integrations are currently progressing to final development and implementation, representing a significant near-term revenue opportunity as interoperable connections accelerate across the ecosystem. Underpinning this growth is a proprietary technology platform built to the highest standard of security, resilience, and operational capacity capable of delivering value-added products, products, and services to both financial and non-financial institutions. Finally, we are strengthening both the organizational structure and the executive team, bringing in senior professionals with a proven track record and a strong recognition across the free tech payments industry. This investment in talent and infrastructure is designed to ensure best-in-class product development and the most effective commercial rollout possible as GoPayments moves toward full-scale deployment. Finally, turning to the efficiency segment, a central pillar of our 2026-2031 corporate strategy is the capture of efficiencies and synergies across the group through our shared service center, AVC. In procurement, we have already taken over processing Banco de Bogotá, Banco Occidente, Avevillas, GoPayments, and Aval Valor Compartidos. During the second quarter, we will take over Banco Popular, Aval Fiduciaria, and Grupo Aval Holdings. and we aim to close the year with their tally for veneer and coffee Colombiana and its subsidiaries. This center will operate on a controllable spending base of 1.4 trillion pesos, and for 2026, we have a savings goal of 62 billion pesos. Most of our contractual renovations are during the fourth quarter, for which we project 32 billion pesos in savings, equivalent to a 9% annual savings rate over the controllable spending base. In technology, During the second quarter, we began implementing a unified cloud migration roadmap for Group A1. This initiative will optimize our technology infrastructure, including data centers and modernizing technical communications network across the group. In property management, we have already taken over and installed our four banks and Coffee Colombiana. This center managed a 720 billion pesos portfolio of assets with a target to raise the commercialization rate from 27% to 37% by year end. In human talent, we manage payroll for 40,000 employees. In attraction and selection, we are managing an average of 750 multi-openings with an internal satisfaction score of 4.7 out of 5. We are also targeting a reduction in average time to fill from 24 days to 22 days. And in physical challenge and security, ABC oversees and has taken control of 4,110 properties across our banks, establishing an automation program through the network. That concludes my segment. Across every pillar we discussed today, Grupo Aval is executing with discipline and building the foundation for sustainable, profitable growth. Back to you, Maradona.
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