Grupo Traxión, S.A.B. de C.V.

Greetings. Welcome to the Traxion 3Q23 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Abby LeChain, Executive President at Traxion. You may begin.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome again. I'm very pleased to share with you the outcome of an all-successful quarter full of good news and positive results. There are many things to discuss in the financial, operating, and ESG fronts that will be explained in more detail by Rodolfo, Wolf, Antonio. But as usual, I want to take advantage to point out some relevant matters. We observe that demand was significantly higher than our estimates. That's why we decided to move forward with an equity follow-on on August 10th, which is another very relevant milestone in the company's equity story. We raised 2.7 billion pesos that we plan to deploy mainly to finance the organic growth for our people mobility segment. which continue to present us with profitable expansion opportunities because of the nearshoring. We also plan to use a portion of the proceeds to fund further M&A activity, mainly in the logistics and technology division, to boost our exposure to nearshoring, as we believe that we are the leading facilitator in Mexico for such trend. is one of the very few Mexican companies that has stopped the equity markets in the past few years, which translates into a strong vote of confidence from our investors. We believe that our business model is strong and our growth prospects are compelling. This financial strength is one of our most significant competitive advantage and is among the highest barriers of entry in the sector together with our modern technology and extensive operating infrastructure, especially in the most desirable location for nearshoring. In terms of PNL, Tracción posted record high figures. Revenue grew 18.9%, almost reaching 6.4 billion pesos, while EBITDA increased 25.7% and passed again the one billion mark. Moreover, net income grew more than 60%. Moving on to the operating side of the business, all our key metrics show healthy improvements. We continue to become more efficient in cargo, maintaining the revenue level with less trucks, focusing on cross border and specialized services. One interesting fact is that our fleet has not grown significantly since 2019, but over the last three years, we have added increased cargo capacity with Traxporta. We now operate more than 3,200 third-party trucks through this app. With that, we have more than doubled the cargo capacity of Traxion without incurring an expansion capex of the fleet. Thanks for your attention. With this, I end my remarks, and I will hand over to Rodolfo Wolf Antonio for a deeper dive into the figures. Please, Rodolfo.

Thank you, Avi. Hello, everyone. Thanks for your attention. There are several operating matters to discuss today. First, in the mobility of people segment, our fleet keeps growing, together with our revenues per kilometer, as we become more efficient in terms of costs. Demand level keeps coming in strong. mainly driven by new clients starting operation and current clients spending their existing ones. All of that is being driven by nearshoring. Both operating profit and EBITDA came in higher than the revenue of the segment, which is indeed very good news. EBITDA margin posted a healthy 25.7% in line with our expectations and with the level of growth of the division. which includes pre-operating costs and expenses to properly start new operations. We continue to leverage through our commercial muscle, operating capabilities, and IT platform to grow on the most profitable opportunities in this market. We continue expanding organically in this segment with great momentum, a strong balance sheet, and very favorable levels of demand. The sheer size of our infrastructure together with our high-quality service, are attributes that place Tracción in a very special niche, where the company is able to serve large clients with extensive complex mobility needs. Moving on, in the logistic and technology segment, we have exceeded 800,000 square meters of 3PL warehousing space under management, which represents a 33.7% growth compared to the same period of last year. This was mainly driven by organic growth of our regular business, together with strong expansions of the pharma division. We plan to continue growth this line by enhancing our commercial position as these services carry on penetrating in Mexico. Finally, in terms of mobility of cargo, we advance with a renovation and fleet management program. Additional to that, the average fleet decreased more than 140 units this quarter. Kilometer volume decreased 10.5% as well. However, revenues show a marginal increase. Despite of that, and in line with the reorganization strategy, both operating income and EBITDA came in 99.3 and 28.7%, respectively higher in the second quarter of last year. mainly driven by a growth of 12.5% in revenue per kilometer. This was achieved by expanded activity in specialized cargo operations, which typically carry better economics with reduced distances, which basically means that we are becoming progressively more efficient on a per-unit basis. All of that resulted in an EBITDA margin of 21.9%, well within our long-time targets. We expected to keep operating this segment with such efficiency. Indeed, this was another busy quarter. We are excited about prospects for the next year. Thank you for your attention. With this, I end my remarks. Please, Wolf, go ahead.

Thank you, Rado, and good morning. I want to discuss some relevant financial metrics in more detail. First, CapEx. We have been spotting much more demand than what we anticipated at the beginning of the year. Due to that, and after the following offering, we are now able to capitalize on more opportunities, and we plan to invest around 3.5 billion pesos of CAPEX, which is approximately 1.3 billion pesos more than what we budgeted initially for 2023. It is of paramount importance to observe that the benefit of such additional CAPEX will be seen over the next quarters, given the timing of the investments and the moment when they mature and start contributing to the top line. The plan is to continue to grow stronger with disciplined approach as we have done for the past. Our leverage level is now below two times, a very healthy ratio where we feel comfortable despite the accelerated growth plans for the future. We have been deploying the proceeds of the equity offering in a timely fashion, and the plan is to use approximately 50% this year and the reminder throughout 2024. Second, net income came much higher than in the past few quarters. and shows a more normalized level. This is mainly due to a great operating income driven by increased operations across the company and efficiencies, despite a higher interest expense environment. Third, margins. It's very important to highlight the margin recovery, both on a consolidated and per segment basis, mainly driven by cost efficiencies. Consolidated margin expands 100 basis points compared to the same period of last year. Most relevant, is a 476 basis point expansion in the mobility of cargo segments to reach 21.9%, a much normalized level compared to 2022 and was driven by increased efficiency in fleet management that resulted in a healthy expansion in revenue per kilometer and a much better cost management. Thanks for your attention. With this, I wrap up my remarks. Please, Antonio, go ahead.

Thanks, Wolf. I want to highlight some details of the following offering and the good news it brought to our story, and then talk about some other milestones in terms of ESG. There are several good news surrounding our recent equity offering. First, the float increased significantly. It grew from 38% to 63%. Second, liquidity has improved quite substantially. During the first two months after the deal, it has basically doubled as a result of more shares outstanding and much less shares in firm hands due to the secondary component. The process was executed in record time, taking advantage of favorable market conditions. Moreover, demand came in strong, especially from investors from the US, Europe, and Brazil, while several new local accounts participated. More than 77% of demand was from foreign investors as a result of an extensive marketing effort. Today, Traction's investor base is broader and much more diverse. We are very pleased about the feedback we received. There is genuine interest about how our business strategy connects with the nearshoring trend and the whole ecosystem it is creating in Mexico. Shifting gears, there are several important matters on the ESG front. We recently released our integrated report, which includes, among other things, an updated materiality analysis, the results of our verified scope one and two carbon footprint, and for the first time, an estimate of our scope three emissions. We have responded to two very relevant evaluations, the Corporate Sustainability Assessment from Standard & Poor's and the Carbon Disclosure Project, whose results and answers will be released toward the end of this year. Finally, we move on with implementation of pilot trials to increase the number of women in operating positions within our workforce. Thanks for your attention. With this, I wrap up my remarks and will open the floor to Q&A.

Certainly. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Your first question for today is coming from Pablo Ricaldi at Santander.

Hello, Traxion. Thanks for taking my question. I have two questions. The first one is on your guidance. I don't know if you can elaborate more on your top-line growth expectations for the rest of the year and maybe talk a little bit more on the margins. And the second question is related on cash deployment. I don't know if you can provide an update on your follow-on proceeds cash deployment.

Okay.

Hi, Pablo. I'm going to try to answer your two questions in one answer. In terms of top line, we expected to grow at least 20% in 2023. Margins should be around 18%, as we all have always said. We advanced with the cash deployment of the 401 proceeds, and we expect the benefits of such investments to be seen in the first months of 2024. We have already successfully deployed around 50% of the process. I mean, sorry, what I mean is that we expect to deploy successfully around 50% of the process of the follow-on within this year and the remainder in 2024.

Perfect. Super idea. Thanks, Tonio.

Your next question is coming from Guilherme Mendez with JP Morgan.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I have two questions. The first is regarding M&A. Part of the proceeds of the Apollo 1 should be targeting new acquisitions. So if you can comment on how new negotiations have been evolving, what kinds of sectors are you looking to? And what kind of ticket size should we expect for upcoming transactions? And the second question is regarding Traxporta. You mentioned about doubling revenues on a year-over-year basis this quarter once again, and congrats. The question is, can you provide more details on what kind of contracts have you been signing? So, this is contracts to companies that you've already been serving or new clients. what kind of the ticket size or those contracts so we can provide more details on how this growth has been evolving.

Thank you. Hi Gui.

The business that we're looking is for the cross-border logistics. So we're planning to add a custom agency broker in the border with Mexico or in the States so we can offer to our clients the full service. The ticket size, I mean, we are still negotiating, so I will look for a ticket size maybe could be...

between 50 to 70 million dollars. Thank you. Hi, Guy.

This is Rodolfo. So regarding your transport question, yes, as you said, we have been growing year-to-year basis, doubling the size of the company. The contracts and the new business we have there is both sides. We are getting more business from our clients that we already had in the cargo section. And also, we have been getting new clients, new customers that need this transportation services. So the expect for this business is to keep growing in the future. We have been receiving a lot of good feedbacks from our clients, and we're showing good prospecting of growth in 2024.

Super clear. Thanks, Tonio and Rodolfo.

Your next question for today is from Fernanda Retia with BTG.

Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my question. I have two as well. First, on logistics and technology segment, we noted a slight miss on the EBITDA margin, mainly related to the one-off expenses. So maybe if you could clarify how much was the amount related to one-off and how would be margins X this impact would be helpful for us to have a sense of normalizing EBITDA margins in this segment. And second, just a follow-up on the cash deployment related to the follow-on. Could you give us some visibility if you have already negotiated the contracts that you expect to deploy this year, the carpet? And if so, what are the IRR that you are seeing in this new contract?

Thank you. Hi, Fernanda. How are you?

Good morning. This is Wolf. Regarding your first question in terms of the evidence margins in the logistic and technology side, I will answer mainly the one off that we had will be something around 1% of the margin in that division. So if we don't have that one, just to give you an idea, if you compare the square meters that we have in this quarter compared to the previous one, it's almost 9% growth in terms of just in square meters. So the one off were something around 1% of the margin in that division.

Hi, Fernanda.

So for the growth of the mobility of people segment, so we have already signed the long-term contract with new clients to deploy the CAPEX at Tonomentron, which means 50% of the resources of the follow-on. And these resources are signed to get us a return, I mean, an IRA of around 20%. and an ROI also over 20%.

Thank you.

Your next question is coming from Martin Lara with Miranda.

Good morning. Congratulations for these results and thank you for the call. I have one question. Could you please provide us with an updated guidance on the CAPEX level for this year?

Hi, Martin. How are you?

I just mentioned a little bit earlier, so just to be on that number, instead of 2.2 billion pesos for this year, we're expecting something around 3.5 billion pesos, including, obviously, the resources of the following that we already mentioned.

Okay, and should we expect something similar in 2024?

I would say a little bit early, but I would say yes, but we are obviously preparing our budget for the next year, so we will give you any hint a little bit later on that number.

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you.

Your next question for today is coming from Jay Singh with Citi.

Hey, thanks for taking my question. My first one is that when do you see the accounts receivable normalizing? And as a follow-up, could I get a high-level view for the margins for the logistics and tech segment aside from the labor component?

Hey. Hi, Jay. How are you?

In terms of the account receivable, it's part of the business and obviously all of the levels of growth that we're experiencing. But we think that we will be in a very more normalized way by the end of the year.

Hi, Jay. This is Antonio. Let me answer your second question. Aside of the labor component in the margin of the logistics and technology division, there's another effect caused by the e-commerce market. What we have been seeing in the past few months is a reduced price environment because of more competition in that market. What we expect in the following months is that phenomenon to normalize because smaller competitors are going to close their operations eventually. And there's going to be consolidation. And after that, we expect normalized pricing levels again. But that's another effect within the margin of the segment.

Awesome. Thanks so much.

Your next question is coming from Pablo Monsiveas at Barclays.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering about the cargo segment. We have seen in the second quarter and third quarter of this year a decrease in the fleet. However, the unit revenues have increased, revenues per kilometer. What should we think going forward? Should we see fleet decreasing and positive growth on the revenues per kilometer? Thank you.

Hi, Pablo. How are you?

Correct. So if you can see the fleet in that segment, even though we operate with a little bit less fleet, we are moving more our fleet to the international cargo services and to the specialized services. So this is why, obviously, also we're growing our margins and we are making more profitable our fleet. And we will continue in these lines in the next future also.

Perfect, thank you.

Your next question for today is coming from Daniel Rojas with Bank of America.

Daniel, Adi Wolf, Buenos Dias. Thanks for taking my call. Following up on the previous questions, you mentioned that the e-commerce industry is going through some kind of transformation and some parties are likely to leave the market overall. Could you give us some color on what you think will be your role in this consolidation? Do you think it's attractive for you guys to look at it at some point and potentially be part of that consolidation process?

Hi, Daniel.

So, I mean, of course, we're maintaining our eyes open for opportunities. Tracciones is a strong company. So if we see opportunities in the e-commerce, we're going to get them. But I also see that the margin will get better over the time, like naturally.

Okay. And if we look at the export, and I think it's great that you guys are giving us an idea of the fleet that the app has been able to take. Is the growth you're seeing within the app continuing to be very high? Is it normalizing? How should we think about the growth in the app?

We see a huge growing opportunity with Traxporta. This year, we're going to be close to double the revenue from last year. We expect to have the same trend for the next So the growth that we're seeing ahead of us, it's very big. Remember that the industry is huge and we can grow fast because we are not buying the assets. So that's why we can grow so much faster.

Okay. And then my last question, if I may. When you see the mobility of Personnel Division and the buses you're buying, And we also read the headlines coming from the States regarding the United Other Workers strike and the potential problems it may cause down the line in deliveries. Have you seen anything when you're going out and buying the buses? It's normal business for you guys, or are you preparing for something that might happen in the future regarding the strikes?

Hi, Daniel. This is Rodolfo. So, yes, we haven't seen any impact in Mexico regarding the situations in the U.S. I think right now Mexico is positioned in a very good way with the nearshoring, and we have seen a lot of growth and a lot of demand for that service. That's why we're capitalizing and growing a lot in that business side. So we have been asking and seeing that that will continue in the near future for the next year.

Okay, thanks for taking the questions.

Once again, if there are any questions or comments, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. We have reached the end of the question and answer session, and I will now turn the call over to Abby for closing remarks.

Tracción is a leading insurance facilitator in Mexico. Demand for our services will continue to grow strong and steady as insurance penetrates further into several industrial ecosystems in the country. We plan to carry on sizing opportunities with a robust balance sheet and an active commercial force. As nature increases momentum, traction will grow efficiently and profitable over the next years. We see a great future ahead of us.

Thanks again for your attention and have an excellent week.

This concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.