4/20/2021

speaker
Rob
Operator

You are now connected to Alpac's webcast presentation. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. Alejandro Elizondo. Thank you. You may begin.

speaker
Alejandro Elizondo
Investor Relations Officer

Thank you, Rob. Good morning, and welcome to Alpac's first quarter 2021 earnings webcast. I'm Alejandro Elizondo, Alpac's investor relations officer, and I have the pleasure of being joined today by our CEO, Pepe Valdez, and our CFO, Jose Carlos Ponce. Please turn to slide two. This presentation is divided into two parts. First, Mr. Valdez and Mr. Ponce will provide commentary on ALPEC's first quarter 2021 performance and an update on relevant events. Afterwards, we will move on to the Q&A session. Please note that the information discussed today may include forward-looking statements regarding the company's future financial performance and prospects, which are subjects to risk and uncertainty. Actual results may differ materially. And the company cautions the market not to unduly rely on these forward-looking statements. Alpec undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Today's webcast presentation is being recorded and will be available on the company website at alpec.com. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Pepe Valdez.

speaker
Pepe Valdez
CEO

Thank you, Alejandro. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I hope you're all staying safe and doing well. Today, I am excited to share with you that ALPEC has started off 2021 on an extraordinarily strong note. During the first quarter, in addition to achieving outstanding results, we also made important strides in terms of our financial initiatives. Let's turn to slide three to briefly review the main topics for today's webcast. First, APEC has greatly surpassed financial performance expectations for the first quarter. Jose Carlos will review this in greater detail. Second, APEC successfully issued a $600 million bond at a record coupon and spread for the company. And third, we will provide additional insight into our revised 2021 guidance per the earnings report released yesterday. Turning to slide four, and as context for the squatted results, we can see the result of the global economic resolve that is taking place as COVID-19 vaccines become increasingly available and are further distributed. This is strong growth, which is driven partly by the Chinese economy, has caused demand for petrochemical products, including pet, to rise. As such, in the first quarter, Asian integrated polyester reference margin improved to an average $330 per ton. This is much higher than ALBEC's original guidance figure of $245 per ton, which was based on the supply-demand balance that was prevalent towards the end of 2020. Now let's turn to slide five to discuss the unprecedented polar vortex that, as many of you know, hit the US Gulf Coast this past February. Increasing temperatures, which lasted for several weeks, crept across Texas and Louisiana, interrupting the supply of power, natural gas, and petrochemical feedstocks. As such, close to 90% of the petrochemical plant in this area were adversely affected by this phenomenon. However, ALPEC operations continue mostly uninterrupted for three important reasons. One, our facilities are not located in the affected region. 2. We operate a small business unit specifically focused on commercializing natural gas from the U.S. into Mexico, thus helping guarantee our supply of natural gas. And 3. We have worked diligently on developing alternative sources of raw material supply outside of the U.S. Gulf Coast. This polar vortex caused natural gas prices to temporarily spike for two weeks, peaking at over $400 per million BTUs. It also caused an industry-wide reduction in inventory levels for various petrochemicals, leaving polypropylene average margins to increase to 32 cents per pound. As a result, Altec was able to not only navigate but capitalize on both effects. First, by operating throughout the crisis to capture these attractive polypropylene margins. Second, by commercializing part of our natural gas inventories at market prices to third-party buyers in Mexico. At this point, I would like to turn the call over to Jose Carlos, who will go into more detail regarding the positive impact these events have on our financial results.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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