Corporacion America Airports SA

Good morning and welcome to the Corporación América Airport's fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call. A slide presentation accompanies today's webcast and is available in the investor section of the Corporación América Airport's website. As a reminder, all participants will be in listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Patricio Iñaki Esnaola Head of Investor Relations. Patricio, please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Speaking during today's call will be Martín Ornequian, our Chief Executive Officer, and Jorge Arruda, our Chief Financial Officer. 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 statement 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. Now, let me turn the call over to our CEO, Martín Eurnaquian.

Thank you, Iñaki. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings call. First, I will provide a quick summary of our financial highlights presented on slide three, and then provide a brief update on the industry trends and cargo activity. I will then hand the call over to Jorge to discuss the fourth quarter and annual financial results. To begin, we are pleased to have ended the year with a strong quarter delivering sustained and continued growth in revenues and adjusted EBITDA. These results underscores the recovering demand for air travel globally, and the good performance of our countries of operation in particular. Total revenues, excluding IFRIC, were up 10.6% against fourth quarter of 2019, supported by a strong growth in commercial revenues and continued recovery in passenger traffic. This, along with our ongoing focus on cost control, allowed us to report an adjusted EBITDA of $123 million in the quarter, increasing 27% against the comparable figure in the fourth quarter of 2019, while passenger traffic in 2022 stood at 88% of pre-pandemic levels. During the quarter, we obtained $13.6 million in economic re-equilibrium compensation in Brazil in connection with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic during 2022. This compensation was utilized as a credit towards the payment of the fixed concession fee due 2022 and follows the economic re-equilibrium compensation of $25.5 million and $32.2 million received in 2021 and 2020, respectively. On a full year basis, we delivered revenues ex-IFRIC of $1.2 billion and an adjusted EBITDA of $457 million, most importantly with positive contributions from all countries of operations. We ended the year with a healthy balance sheet. We are netted to adjusted EBITDA, further improving to 2.4 times down from 7.1 times at the end of December 2021, driven by the significant recovery in adjusted EBITDA while we were able to maintain stable debt levels. This healthy position provides us with the flexibility to continue selectively expanding our airport portfolio. We are proud that in a recent passenger survey, Conducted by ACI World, recognizing the best airports for customer experience worldwide, our Guayaquil International Airport in Ecuador was awarded the best airport within the 2 to 5 million passenger range. The airport with the most dedicated staff and the most enjoyable and cleanest airport in Latin America and the Caribbean. to providing exceptional service and ensuring a seamless travel experience for all travelers that pass through our airports. As shown on the left chart on slide four, we are encouraged by the continued recovery in travel demand with passenger traffic in the fourth quarter reaching 88% of fourth quarter of 2019 levels compared with the 82% in the third quarter. We are also seeing this trend continue in the first two months of the year, reaching nearly 90% of pre-pandemic levels. Overall, a total of 66 million passengers traveled across our airports during the year, reaching 78% of 2019 levels and up to 84% year-on-year. Let's go briefly on a country-by-country basis. Armenia, we continue to deliver a strong performance. Entrance of new airlines and increased flight frequencies contributed to the third consecutive quarter beating pre-pandemic traffic levels and leading to the recovery with passenger traffic up 37% above fourth quarter of 2019. This rebound continued into February when traffic was up 91% versus February 2019. In Ecuador, passenger traffic was nearly at pre-pandemic levels, supported by a higher number of flight frequencies in both domestic and international travel. Strong traffic with the US, Europe and Panama continues to support international performance, which continued into February, when traffic was up 1% compared to February 2019. Argentina continued the pace to full recovery at slightly over 92% of pre-pandemic levels from 80% in the prior quarter. This was driven by a good performance in both domestic and international traffic. Domestic traffic, which accounts for 70% of the total traffic, has almost fully recovered, reaching nearly 98% of pre-COVID levels. while international traffic improved to 82% of four quarters of 2019 traffic. In Uruguay, passenger traffic, which is mainly international, also continued to recover, reaching 83% of four quarters of 2019 levels, up from 68% in the prior quarter. Traffic in Italy reached 86% of pre-pandemic levels. fairly stable compared to the prior quarter, which benefited from the summer risk season. In February, traffic in Italy reached 90% of February 2019 levels. Software performance in Brazil reflects lower traffic from government officials during the change in Brazilian federal administrations compounded by higher airfares, which impacted overall travel demand. In February, traffic in Brazil reached 82% of February 2019 levels. Moving on to slide five. During the fourth quarter, cargo activity reached nearly 81% of pre-pandemic levels, with notable contributions from several regions. Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, and Uruguay were the main contributors to cargo activity, which together accounted for almost 85% of total volume in the quarter. In Argentina, cargo volumes have been suffering from a deteriorating macroeconomic environment as reflected by a lower level of imports. By contrast, cargo volume in Italy and Armenia exceeded pre-pandemic levels, indicating a strong recovery in those regions. Meanwhile, cargo volume in Uruguay and Ecuador were at 97% and 93% of pre-pandemic levels, respectively. Overall, we are encouraged by this positive trend in the cargo industry and remain committed to supporting our customers as we continue to navigate the ongoing macro challenges. I will now hand off to Jorge, who will review our financial results. Please, Jorge, go ahead.