Sigma Foods SAB

Recording in progress.

Later, we will conduct a question and answer session with instructions given at that time. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Hernan Lozano, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Lozano, you may begin.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to OneFest's fourth quarter earnings conference call. Further details about our financial results can be found in our press release. which was distributed yesterday afternoon, together with a summarized presentation. In addition, our guidance press release was distributed this morning, all available on our website in the investor relations section. Let me remind you that during this call, we will share forward-looking information and statements, which are based on variables and assumptions that are uncertain at this time. Calante, Alpha's CFO, and Roberto Olivaes, Sigma's CFO. As you know, we completed the spin-off of Accel during the second quarter 2023. Thus, our discussion will focus on Alpha at the parent company level, Sigma, and Alpec. Please refer to Accel's earnings report for its latest financial information and analysis of its operations during the year. I will now turn the call over to Eduardo.

Thank you Hernan, and good afternoon everyone. We appreciate your participation today. The past year was highlighted by several key events that bring us closer to completing our transformation process. Main developments include the Axtell spin-off, the refinancing of parent-level debt, providing us with flexibility for near-term liability management, a stronger self-sufficiency of our subsidiaries, reflected in further simplification of Alipha's corporate structure, and importantly, our capital allocation, which prioritizes transformational efforts to lower dividends and share buybacks as we advance towards the final phase. In addition, Sigma advanced much faster than anticipated to enhance its financial flexibility, and Altec took decisive actions as it faces low cycle industry conditions. Sigma delivered record annual EBITDA and posted its lowest leverage ratio in eight years, which is key in anticipation to a potential Altec spin-off. On the other hand, ALBEC experienced a major shift in the competitive environment, following favorable conditions that contributed to record figures in the two previous years. To maintain a solid position as a standalone entity, our petrochemical business focused on achieving structural cost reductions and maximizing free cash flow. On the financial front, our consolidated results reflected a significant contrast between ARPEC and SIGMA throughout the year. Alpha's fourth quarter revenues and EBITDA were down 13% and 19% respectively versus 4Q22. while full-year revenues and EBITDA declined 9% and 33% year-over-year attributed to Altec in both periods. The decrease in global reference margins, higher Asian imports, and temporary price disparity in raw material prices weighed heavily on our petrochemical business during 2023. Lower average prices and volume in both business segments of Altec resulted in a 31% year-over-year decrease in revenues during the fourth quarter and 26% for the full year. Altec's EBITDA declined 71% year-over-year in the fourth quarter and 65% for the full year. reflecting the underlying headwinds that I mentioned earlier, as well as the negative impact from extraordinary items, totaling $221 million in 2023. This figure includes non-cash effects derived from hyperinflation accounting in the Argentinian operations under IFRS. This impact has been presented throughout the year, But the abrupt spike in Argentine inflation and devaluation during December significantly amplified it. Adjusting for extraordinary items, Alpex 2023 comparatively with that was $734 million, down 47% versus 2022. In line with our customary classification, Each figure considers Argentine inflation and currency devaluation as extraordinary effects given their non-cash nature. For reference, the hyperinflation impact totaled $100 million in 2023. Looking ahead. Altec expects to mitigate this kind of non-cash financial impact by transitioning its functional currency in Argentina to U.S. dollars. Regarding its operations, Altec has taken proactive measures to achieve over $75 million in annual savings as it navigates the current market challenges. difficult footprint rationalization decisions were undertaken to close two facilities in the U.S. and Mexico during 2023. These actions are expected to deliver more than half of the savings target. Other initiatives are being implemented to capture efficiencies across administrative functions and production facilities to reach the remainder of the projected benefit in 2024 and 2025. ALPEC also focuses on cash-maximizing efforts as it prioritizes strengthening its balance sheet by lowering debt. The downward trend in petrochemical field stock prices optimizations in inventory management, and other improvements contributed to a $596 million recovery in its net working capital. ALPEC also rationalized CAPEX by 38% versus initial guidance through proactive actions such as the pause in construction of the Corpus Christi project. In turn, Arctic achieved a net debt reduction of 7% year-over-year, supported by a strong free cash flow. Still, its leverage ratio increased to 3.4 times at the close of the year due to the decline in EBITDA. Adjusting for the Argentine devaluation and one-time expenses associated with planned closures, leverage would have been 2.9 times. Altec is fully committed to returning towards its 2.5 times internal leverage target by the end of this year. The company's 2024 guidance includes EBITDA of $600 million and optimized capex of $200 million. Altec also expects to benefit from additional networking capital efficiencies and will suspend dividends to the shareholders, prioritizing leverage reductions. I will now turn the call over to Roberto Olivares, Sigma CFO, to let him discuss the company's outstanding fourth quarter and four-year results and progress on strategic initiatives. Please, Roberto.

Thank you, Eduardo, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm eager to share the remarkable performance of SGMA throughout 2023. I will begin with an update on annual financial results, followed by recent advances in innovation, in our growth business unit, and in ESG. Lastly, I will comment on 2024 guidance. We have recorded SGMA's 11th consecutive quarter of year-on-year revenue growth. culminating in an all-time high annual consolidated volume. Record annual revenues reached $8.5 billion of 15% versus 2022, driven by growth in all regions. Our annual consolidated EBITDA of $893 million represented a new full-year record. reaching 37% higher than in 2022 and surpassing the 2023 adjusted EBITDA guidance. Shifting to regional highlights. SIGMA's solid growth in Mexico covered all categories and channels, reaching record annual volume and revenues. The all-time high annual EBITDA was also supported by a strong Mexican peso. In the U.S. as well, we reached record annual volume revenues and EBITDA figures boosted by the robust performance of our Hispanic brands and the seamless integration of Los Altos Foods. Although Europe's environment throughout 2023 was complex, during the fourth quarter, we saw significant EBITDA growth fueled by better results in our fresh meat business and the benefits following the reinvestment in income. As we turn to our innovation initiatives, our commitment to positioning the consumer at the center of everything we do continues to drive our success. By understanding and anticipating consumer pain points, needs, and motivations, we can craft compelling value propositions. This approach has led to the launch of more than 700 new products in 2023, marking a nearly 10% increase compared to the previous year, and totaling nearly 2,000 product launches in the past three years. As such, in 2023, sales from innovation products represented 10% of our total revenues. We are determined to expand our presence in novel categories through initiatives of our Growth Business Unit. In a strategic move to spearhead the development of the premium plant-based whole-cut meat segment in Mexico, we have initiated a collaboration with Chalkwoods, a pioneer in plant-based meat alternatives with patented solid-state fermentation technology. The aim of this partnership is to contribute to the continued expansion of our portfolio into high-value-added products. On the ESG front, we have steadily advanced in integrating ESG criteria into every facet of our decision-making. In 2023, we improved our S&P Global CSA score by 7 points, and announced this benchmark to the market for the first time in our history. Our sustained BS4 in the CDP for climate change of water remains above the industry average. And we have solidified our commitment to the environment with our 2019 CO2 emissions baseline, which was independently verified by Carbon Trust. Looking forward to our 2024 guidance, we forecast sales of 8,650 million, EBITDA of 920 million, and a capex of 250 million for the full year. These figures consider a 2% Euro appreciation and a 5% depreciation of the Mexican peso when compared to the US dollar year-on-year. Our outlook reflects growth and resilience, bolstered by our strong performance in the Americas and ongoing improvements in Europe. As we step into a new year, we do so with balanced perspective, ready to tackle the challenges head-on and seize the opportunities that will allow SIGMA to continue delivering sustained values for stakeholders. Thank you for your attention. I will now turn the call back to Eduardo for additional comments and closing remarks.

Thank you, Roberto. Throughout Alfa's transformation process, we have emphasized the importance of ensuring a strong financial position in each step. The final phase involves the separation of Alfa, leaving Sigma as the only business under the Alfa umbrella. SIGMA's strong rebound in EBITDA and its encouraging outlook for 2024 gives us the confidence to step up our transformational efforts. Considering that the potential separation would have virtually no financial or operational impact on our petrochemical business, ALPEC is ready to continue building upon its unique competitive position as an independent entity. Under the current conditions, the final building block to move forward is debt reduction outside of Alpec. Excluding Alpec, our consolidated net debt was 3.19 billion at year end. We estimate this needs to come down closer to 2.5 billion to have an acceptable leverage supported by Sigma's EBITDA. Alpha reduced dividends to its shareholders in half and suspended share buybacks during 2023. Moreover, the dividend proposal will be presented in our upcoming annual shareholders meeting represents another 50% decrease year over year. as completing the transformation is being prioritized. Most importantly, we are actively seeking inorganic alternatives to accelerate debt reduction through selective non-core asset monetizations in the near term. We strongly believe it is in our shareholders' best interest not to disclose specific information about potential transactions until we reach binding agreements. In terms of next steps upon potentially closing the deal, we envision a straightforward process. The final phase shall include an element of debt reduction and liability management that wasn't required in previous steps. The actual spin-off will follow the same process we executed for NIMAC and XTEL. We are very excited by the prospects of completing Alpha's profound transformation. All efforts are aligned to fulfill the necessary conditions as soon as possible. We look forward to continue delivering regular updates on our progress on this front. Before opening the call for questions, let me provide a quick overview of our 2024 consolidated guidance based on the outlook for each of our businesses. On the macro front, we assume slower GDP growth in Mexico and the U.S., but the Eurozone is expected to improve slightly versus last year. we are considering average Brent crude oil prices of $85 per barrel versus $83 in 2023. For the Mexican peso, we conservatively estimate an average exchange rate of $18.7 pesos per dollar, which represents a 5% depreciation year on year. For Alpha, consolidated revenues are expected to be $16.4 billion, 1% higher than 2023, reflecting similar growth in Alpec and Sigma. EBITDA is projected at $1.5 billion, up 9% year-on-year, driven by another record high contribution from Sigma. adjusting for Extraordinary Islands in 2023, comparable EBITDA would decrease 7%, attributed to Alpec. A capex of $450 million represents a 21% decrease versus last year. As Alpec continues implementing cash-maximizing efforts, and Sigma compares against a higher base, which includes acquisitions. My sincere recognition and heartfelt appreciation to each of our talented team members at Alpha and the operating units. Their extraordinary work allowed Altec to navigate a complex environment, accelerated Sigma's growth, and positioned Alpha for the final phase of its transformation. This concludes my remarks. We are now available to take your questions. Please, Hernan.

Sure. We would like to begin the Q&A session with questions on ALPHA. Eduardo and I will take questions on ALPHA or corporate matters. As a reminder, Stigma and ALPHA will be available to answer later in the Q&A session. Operator, please instruct the participants to queue for questions on Alpha.

Dear participant, if you'd like to ask a question about Alpha, please use the raise your hand button of your Zoom tool.

Our first question comes from Federico Galassi of Royal Group. Please go ahead.

Hi, Eduardo. I'm taking my question. Two questions. The first one is, in all this process that you are having in the last year, in this year, what are you seeing of corporate expenses?

That's not a question.

Thank you for the question. Let me talk a little bit about corporate expenses. As part of the simplification that we are doing in Alpha, as we have reported before, we have focused on lowering significantly the corporate expenses, both in terms of the actual expenses as well as the headcount. Let me give you some figures. If you compare... the 2023 corporate expenses for alpha corporate versus 2019, the reduction we have had is 80%. Furthermore, we do expect an additional reduction for this year. Of course, we expect that to be not that large. main reductions have already been in place. We're also very, very, what I would say, very happy to have been able to lower the headcount of Alpha Corporate significantly versus 2019. We have made a reduction of over 35%. Basically, basically, moving most of those people to the business units in order to be able to make them self-sufficient and not dependent on the corporate services. So we'll continue moving towards that path. And you mentioned you had two questions. If you want to go ahead with the second one.

Yes, Eduardo, the second one is after the... We saw the numbers of ALPEC and you issued the guidance, etc., etc. Are you worried, and again, thinking in this process of unlocking value, are you worried if ALPEC could lose some rating qualification? from the rating agencies, or do you believe that if this could happen, and I don't know, nothing to see with the unlocking value process?

You know, I think Alpec is implementing all the right measures. started implementing the right measures last year, considering the reduction in EBITDA. They made, as I mentioned earlier, and ALPEC also did in their conference call this morning, they did a significant effort to reduce CAPEX. to focus on cash flow for the year. They did a significant reduction in networking capital, almost $600 billion. So I think they are taking all the right measures. They announced that they are not going to pay dividends this year in order to focus on reducing the leverage. So we are confident that the improvements that we expect for ALPEC going forward and don't do any, that ALPEC won't have any impact on Australian. We do expect ALPEC to be close to two and a half times net leverage at the end of this year, considering, again, the cash flow maximization efforts that they expect and they are planning to do, as well as the improvement in their EBITDA for the year. So we're confident. We're confident. But ALPEC is in the path to improve the metrics and therefore we don't expect any impact on the rankings.

Okay, thank you Eduardo.

You're welcome.

Our next question comes from Till Mowis of Scroders. Please go ahead.

Hello, Cleo? This is Hernán. Can you hear us?

Hi, can you hear me now? Thanks for taking my question. It is about free cash regeneration at alpha level. You provided some guidance figures, but not so much on the capital allocation side, except for CapEx. So I was wondering, by how much do you think can you organically first of all reduce your debt level and get towards the 2.5 billion combined between Sigma and alpha?

Sure, Gil, and thanks for the question. We do expect, first of all, we do expect to improve our net leverage at the end of this year on a consolidated level, coming down from three and a half times at the end of last year to close to three times at year end. So we think that is a step forward. Regarding the cash flow, specifically at the holding company, we will be receiving, at least that is what we consider in the guidance, about $150 million from SGMA, which is the level that SGMA usually pays out in terms of dividends regularly every year. And we expect to have, as I mentioned, lower corporate expenses this year, as well as lower taxes this year when compared to the previous year. All in all, we think we are going to be, with those dividends, we will be able to slightly lower the debt at the holding company, certainly not in the magnitude that we discussed that we need to do. Two actions we're looking at. The first one is hopefully Sigma will be able to achieve a better than expected year in 2024. And something that may be on the table in the future is additional dividends from SIGMA. For the time being, again, we are considering only the 150, but hopefully they can do better. And secondly, we are working on the monetization of selective to accelerate debt reduction at the holding company. We think we can complete some of those during this year in order to be able to reduce the debt. We will continue in terms of alpha focusing on that debt reduction. Two additional steps that we are taking during the year is the dividends payout of alpha is being reduced this year, 2024, by half. In addition, in 2023, it was reduced by half. So there has been a significant lowering of the dividends. And we also decided to suspend, for the time being, the buybacks or buybacks program to, again, to focus on debt reduction. I would say those are the main actions that we plan to undertake.

Great, thank you. You're welcome, Tim. Our next question comes from Agustin Bonasora of Pinebridge. Please, go ahead.

Hello, Eduardo and Anne. Thank you for taking my call. Just got to follow up on your recent comment regarding the non-core assets. Just want to clarify, if you are talking about non-core assets at the holding level, like headquarters, offices, or are we talking about non-core assets at the up-to-levels? Just trying to understand that. a little bit more. And if you think guidance, what are you expecting to get from this non-core assets divestment? I mean, you have a number in your mind that we can try to understand a little bit more about this strategy. Thank you.

Sir, thanks. In all honesty, we have looked at everything. We have looked And alternatives at the holding company, we do have some non-core assets at the holding company, like the real estate we have here in Monterey. We have a couple of lands here in Monterey. The most important one is the one where the corporate offices are located, and that is certainly an option. But we are also looking at non-core parts of the businesses, We think there may be some opportunities regarding parts of the businesses that we may be able to monetize. We are not ready to discuss specifically nor what assets we are looking at or the amount. But we are engaged in a strong effort to do so and hopefully you understand that we are not able at this time to disclose anything since we are on the way with those processes. Regarding leverage, as I mentioned before, we plan to be in alpha at around three times by the end of the year. That is before any asset monetization. And the plan is to use the proceeds from those projects to leverage.

Greg, thank you. You're welcome.

There are no further questions at this time.

Thank you. We do have a question from the chat function, and this relates to Alpha's plans for 2024, any 2024 bond. And the answer here would be, focus is on debt reduction. So anything we do would be related to liability management towards the transformational process. And we're not thinking about new debt for us.

Sure, thank you, Juan. And let me talk a little bit about the debt. Today we have 1.2 billion as outstanding principal amount at the holding company. Basically we have two different debts in Alta. One is a bond due 2044, it's a $500 million bond. And we also have bilateral bank loans for the rest, basically due 2025 to 2028. Most start towards 2028. was the way we obtained those loans in order to refinance another bond that we had before. And the idea of doing it through bank loans was to be able to get a position to prepay at any time that they saw as we move along the monetization of the assets that we discussed before, we'll be focusing on reducing those bank loans. So that's pretty much the plan. Certainly, we will need to look at the appropriate time at the 2044 bond in order to make a decision of what is going to be done with that. But for the time being, we'll focus on prepaying the bank loans.

Thank you, Eduardo. And there's another question about the rationale for the non-corrupted monetizations. And let me just confirm that this is exclusively related with Alpha's transformational process and the importance to ensure a strong financial position once Altec leaves the portfolio. So make sure that we're servicing an adequate level of debt with Sigma's standalone EBITDA. And that was a final question coming in from the chat. So with that, we would like to begin questions on SGMA. Roberto Olivares, SGMA's CFO, is here to answer your questions. Operator, could you please prompt for questions on SGMA?

Dear participant, if you'd like to ask a question about SGMA, please use the raise your hand button of your Zoom tool.

Our first question comes from Juan Ponce of Bradesco. Please, go ahead.

Hi, Roberto. Thank you for taking my question. Just wanted to get your thoughts on the performance in the U.S., In the fourth quarter, we saw Vita fall slightly. Just want to get additional color there. And also, what are you expecting in – what are you baking into your numbers regarding Mexico, especially this year, electoral year, also in the U.S.? So just want to get your thoughts on this guidance that you provided in the Americas. Thank you very much.

Thank you Juan, thank you for the question. Let me first talk about the performance in the 4Q in the U.S. First, in terms of revenues, we, the team deliver a record revenues, mainly driven by solid demand and some revenue management initiatives as our national and Hispanic branch businesses. 2023 at the end resulted in an all-time high, as I explained in my initial remarks, annual revenues in any time in the region. boosted by volume, some performance, and integration of Los Altos Foods. Particularly in EBITDA, we saw a decrease of around 2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, and this was mainly due to three factors. One, temporarily decreasing our funds volume within our mainstream business as some clients adjusted their inventory levels at the end of the year. Second, a reduction in margins in our European business. This was a temporary effect of increased raw materials that we have particularly at the end of the year. We have some raw material that was a little bit at a higher cost that we and completely used by the fourth quarter, we don't have that raw material anymore. So starting this year, we will not have that additional cost. And third one, as we have mentioned in the last couple of quarter, we have the production ramp up of our Iowa plant, the new plant that we specialize in sliced ham that we took possession in June, and we have that in particular. Let me move to the guidance in Mexico and the U.S. and what we're doing. First, we do maintain some performance in Mexico and gradually improve our European operations, particularly in Mexico with incremental volume across all channels and categories, but mainly in yogurt and the traditional channels. We expect to continue seeing growth in the food service channel in Mexico, particularly because we're planning to capture new customers and also entering into new categories. For the U.S., we see some volume growth, particularly in the Hispanic cheese market, both from the acquisition of Los Altos that we acquired meat last year and also of organic growth. We saw also slight volume increments in the mainstream business, in the hot tub business, particularly in the hot tub and common poultry business, particularly due to the Iowa plant capacity. And we also see some improvements in the performance of our European branch business, particularly since we're not gonna have that additional cost. In general, let me comment briefly on Europe because also a lot of the improvement on guidance next year come from Europe. We saw some improvements in margin, we saw some improvements in margins, capitalizing also on some structural initiatives, better sector conditions, and higher volumes in some of the countries. Particularly due to the Italy divestment that we had last year, we do expect to have a benefit.

Thank you, Roberto. That was very clear. Thank you, Juan.

There are no further questions at this time.

Okay, so in the meantime, we can go over a few questions that we got from the chat function. So the first one would be, Roberto, whether you could elaborate a little bit on raw materials, on your raw material price outlook for 2024. Thank you.

Sure. So regarding raw materials, let me split into two categories. Two different areas. First of all, in the Americas, we do expect to continue having a positive value. Last year, prices of pork decreased around 15%. It was explained mainly by higher pork production. And we do expect that production continues to increase a little bit in the U.S., In the case of turkey, turkey breast last year decreased significantly, around 60% year-on-year. And this was also due to higher production. Just in terms recently, we have had some cases of avian influenza affecting the turkey sector in the US. Those putting some pressure on type meat, particularly turkey type meat. And we have been able to source some raw material from other countries to ease some of the pressure. And we were expecting to look at what would happen to that particular market. taking some measures in order to mitigate all the effects. In the case of Europe, particularly Europe, mainly about corn, at the end of last year, at the beginning of this year, we started to see prices of live pigs decline, actually. In 16 weeks, we saw prices in Spain of live pigs declining. Right now they're normalizing a little bit, but we do expect to have a more friendly, as of right now, positive raw material environment in Europe, just helping capturing some of the mining that we lost last year.

Great. Thank you. And the next question is related to M&A, whether there's any further M&A for 2024. Thank you.

So, first, we're always looking into opportunities to our fiduciary responsibility to create value for stakeholders. As of right now, we don't have any process ongoing that I could comment about. Okay.

And lastly, about a potential bond issuance in Mexico for Sigma. You could elaborate a little bit on that.

Sure. So we're establishing a long-term revolving PESA bond program. We're actually working on that since a couple of months ago. We will have a potential issue under this program by the first week of March, and this will mark six months' return to the local bond market after 15 years. And these sources will be used to refinance some of the debt that we have outstanding.

Okay, thank you. And lastly, I think I'll take this one. This has to do, it's just to avoid any kind of confusion. The question says, reducing the debt at the alpha level using dividends provided by Sigma doesn't benefit the consolidated level. So could you explain the rationale behind this? Thank you very much for your question. What we were referring to is the possibility of alpha being able to use organically generated cash flows from sigma. So you're right in terms of not affecting the consolidated debt, but we're focused on the alpha sigma entity and those incremental cash flows could benefit to some degree the level of debt that we're trying to reduce for the transformation process. So having said that, There's another question coming in about CapEx for Sigma in 2024. And the question asks to explain a little bit further on higher CapEx for Sigma in 2024.

Sure. So first, we see CapEx, we're trying to be very disciplined and try to optimize as much as possible the cash flow. not only CapEx, but in all roles of the cash flow, particularly around, out of the 250 million, around two-thirds of that CapEx is maintenance CapEx, given that we have around 64 plants around the war and distribution centers, the fleet, et cetera, that base out of a solid proportion of that, to get maintenance to that. And then one that will come from a strategic project related to achieve higher efficiencies for increased capacity. And that is the main explanation.

Okay. Thank you. So with that, we would move forward and take questions on Alpec. We have Jose Carlos Pons, Alpec's CFO. So, Operator, could you please prompt for questions on Alpec?

Dear participant, if you'd like to ask a question about ALPIC, please use the raise your hand button of your Zoom tool.

Our first question comes from Alejandro Lavin of Santander. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. So I have a couple of quick questions. So first of all, if you expect to pay dividends for Alpec this year and maybe next year, and second one would be what would you expect for net working capital for Alpec this year? Thank you.

Thank you, Alejandro. This is Jose Carlos Javarri. We indicated in our call previously that we will not be paying a dividend in 2024. That's something that we are committing to as we are entirely focused on maintaining the 2.5 net debt dividend target. So our idea is to end the year close to that number. And as we are implementing many different actions, that's one of the areas that we're also focusing on protecting our advantage. So no, the short answer for 2024 is no, we will not pay a dividend. 2025 hopefully we'll be in a better position and we'll continue to pay the payout dividends as we have paid for the last many years. In terms of net working capital contribution, we did have a very strong improvement in 2023. So the majority of the benefit has already been achieved. We focused in improving the entire, let's say, areas where the capital, the working capital covers. However, we're thinking on a small improvement in 2024. Less than $100 million. That's more or less what we're thinking.

Okay, understood. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Andres Cardona of Citi. Please, go ahead.

Thank you, Jose Carlos. I want to check on the polyester side of the business. It's for 2024. Your contract policy remains at around 60% of the volumes. And if you can give a sense of what was the integrated PT margin that was included in that negotiation. Thank you.

Thank you, Andres. Nice to talk to you. Yes, we basically maintain a similar ratio of contracts in our polyester business. The majority of our larger customers, they want to have some predictability or be able to predict, let's say, on their margins. Certainly one of the reasons that we see a normal margin decrease is on owner guidance vis-a-vis 2023 because when we renegotiated the contracts some of them had to have a lower margin aligned to what we were seeing in the market so yes that's one of the reasons that you you'll see it and uh however we remain optimistic that some of these spot just sales that we have on portable portfolio could improve by the second half of the year

Carlos, just to clarify, if you can share some color, what is the magnitude of the decrease in the contract margins?

Just a second. I'm just looking at some numbers here.

It's more or less what you see. It's an adjustment around $30 or $30 and $40.

Thank you, Jose Carlos. Thank you.

There being no further questions, I would like to return the call to management.

Thank you. Let me just take one question that we got from the chat function. And this is for Alpik. Can you provide some color on how close the 600 million comparable EBITDA guidance is to your expected reported EBITDA? So the question goes on with the guidance is and represents an 18% reduction from versus year-end comparable EBITDA, and they would like to know whether you expect that kind of reduction in reported EBITDA as well.

The short answer is no, and the difference is minimal. We do not expect to have such a big difference between comparable and reported EBITDA as we had in 2023. I think as Lovato indicated in his part, there was a big adjustment that we needed to make to our accounting results in Argentina per IFRS in the last part of 2023, and that's what created the big difference between the two numbers. And why we don't expect it in 2024? It's because we're moving into a functional currency, US dollars in Argentina, which will make the numbers closer. And it was a non-cash adjustment, which is also relevant.

Thanks for the clarification. So there are no further questions at this time, so I would just like to thank everyone for their interest in Alpha. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to us. We would be pleased to assist you. Thank you for joining us today, and have a great day.

We will now disconnect. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect