Grupo Traxión, S.A.B. de C.V.

third quarter 2025 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 Abbe Litsein, Executive President. Thank you. You may begin.

Abbe Litsein, Executive President, Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us again for this quarterly earnings call. Let me start with the good news. As you know, we executed the integration of Solistica early in the quarter and it has concluded successfully. It is the most relevant merger in the logistics industry in Mexico and a very strategic move on our side as it is transformational for Traxion. There are many synergies that we have captured so far. Among the most relevant are the transfer of the shared services center, together with all the logistics back office, to the Traxion platform. And I've executed several procurement efficiencies that have improved the bottom line. Traxion invested around 1.6 billion pesos in the acquisition and prepared the company to properly cope with the integration, which is expected to bring at least 8 billion pesos of additional revenue. Because of that, management decided to slow down organic growth to focus more on the successful merger of both operations. Most notably, Traxion significantly reduced its organic capex for 2025 to accommodate the acquisition of Solistica, which basically implies the same investment levels as in previous years, but with Solistica up and running in our platform. After the acquisition, the company remained with virtually the same level of leverage and interest expense, which is tremendously accretive. In summary, Traxion will post revenue growth with Solistica, but will not change its leverage profile or interest expense at the end of the year, which is very similar to having grown organically. Moving on, we experienced a downturn in both cargo and logistics operations. Even though export levels were in line with the same period of last year, there were some sectors affected by the tariff uncertainty, in which many of our clients faced challenges regarding their production and export operations, mainly the automotive and the iron and steel industries, and some in the consumer and e-commerce sectors as well. There is a clear area of opportunity for us there, as we have been shifting our capacity to other sectors of the economy with less volatility. Having said that, we are confident that our year-end top-line figure will grow in the mid-teens and will be within the range of the guidance we released in our previous call. Thanks for your attention. I will now hand over the others, for a deeper dive into details. Thank you, Abi.

Welcome, everyone. This quarter continued to be marked by a high level of complexity, driven by uncertainty surrounding tariff-related developments between the United States and Mexico, and other countries as well. I will now walk you through the most relevant operating highlights. First, I'm very pleased to share with you that the Solestika integration was implemented successfully. and that our 100-day plan concluded favorably according to our expectations, thus ensuring operating and financial progression and the retention of both talent and key clients. We designed an integrated structure aimed at collaboration, efficiency, and value creation, which in the case of Solistica has an even more enhanced effect, as this company came from a very institutional enterprise. Moving on, synergies are coming in as planned, and we have seen some effects in margin that will become more tangible in the next quarters. Among the most relevant synergies achieved so far are corporate reductions and adjustments, the shutdown of Solistica's Shared Services Centre and 3PL back office, with the procurement side reporting the most relevant efficiencies so far. In terms of mobility of cargo, severe disruptions continued during the third quarter, mainly in cross-border circuits on both northbound and southbound, that have resulted in prices dropping as demand became more intermittent, especially with clients of the automotive industry and those related to the steel and iron sector. Furthermore, the Mexican Piazo continued to strengthen, which, as you know, affects the US dollar denominated portion of the cross-border revenue. However, we are seeing signals of recovery in the retail sector in Mexico and an enhancement in general terms in the American side. There are no signals of structural changes in the fundamentals of our industry, so we think that this adversity is temporary. We have also achieved some cost efficiencies related mainly to fuel that have helped to improve cost per kilometer, among other smaller enhancements. Now in the logistics business, we continue to face challenges across the board that are explained basically by a downturn in cargo and some disruptions with our e-commerce clients, which typically import merchandise from the United States to Mexico. However, we expect the situation to normalize towards the end of the year. Finally, in mobility of people, we reported a slight increase in revenue, but a better performance moving to the bottom line. We were able to successfully close our commercial pipeline of the quarter, mainly combining capital expenditure with churning out fleet from older, non-efficient clients and allocating those units to new clients at more competitive prices. Such effects will become more visible in the coming quarters as those new accounts start contributing revenue and fleet productivity. As you can see, it was a very busy quarter with several highlights in many fronts. Thanks for your attention. With this, I end my remarks. Please, Wolf, go ahead.

Thank you. Welcome, everyone. There are many financial highlights. First of all, there was margin stability in our three business divisions, including Solistica. Cargo improved 430 basis points compared to the second quarter of this year. However, with the Solistica integration, Traction has a much larger component of AssetLight business lines. which was 45% in terms of revenues this quarter and thus consolidated margin, is lower compared to the same period of last year. As this business division continues to gain more relevance, the estimate consolidated margin for the company should be around 16%. Moving on, it is very important to note that the net debt to a bidder ratio was 2.35 times compared to 2.22 times reported in the second quarter. just before the Solistica acquisition was finalized. This is very noteworthy, as the ratio did not increase substantially, and that we expect to end the year at similar levels. That translates into an increased profitability for the company. In this line, there's even another important aspect to highlight, which is that the interest expense remained virtually the same, but with the acquisition of Solistica already in place. This basically means that we grew 14.5% our revenue base with virtually the same financial cost. This is indeed very good news and proof that this acquisition was exceptionally accretive and will continue to bring value over time as the integration is fully reflected in our P&L moving forward. Also, as Abby mentioned, we reduced significantly our capex for this year to accommodate the Solistica acquisition and still be within similar investment levels as in the past few years. In terms of financial result, aside from the interest expense that I just discussed, this quarter the company did not have the foreign exchange benefit that contributed to net income in the third quarter of last year. Having said all that, net income grew over 17% more than revenues and EBITDA, which is a great highlight to mention this quarter. With this, I conclude my remarks and hand over to Tonio. Thanks.

Thank you, Wolf. I will now walk you through some relevant ESG milestones and other tech-related developments. Perhaps the most important sustainability milestone is that this period we incorporated data regarding renewable electricity generation from solar panels installed in our facilities. This is indeed very good news and a tremendous step in terms of emissions reduction and energy efficiency as we continue to expand our logistics footprint and presence. Moreover, we released our 2024 integrated report in line with the most important ESG standards, mainly TCFD and GRI, which are the reflection of our strong commitment to governance, transparency, people, and planet. During this period, Traxion obtained the ISO certifications regarding anti-corruption and compliance management matters, thus reinforcing the company's integrity standards and corporate observance. Moving on, as you very well know, digitalization has transformed many of our business lines, For some years now, we have paid special attention to tech driven ecosystems and have conducted many upgrades that are now deeply embedded in our business model that have enabled traction to be one step ahead of clients needs and beyond competition. So in terms of tech advancements and digital strategy traction successfully implemented an in house developed artificial intelligence program. To help our commercial force predict and optimize opportunities enhancing the decision making process and boosting talent across the company. This milestone consolidates even more the company's digital transformation that has been its leadership trademark while strengthening the Intelligent Mobility Solutions platform. Thanks again for your attention. With this, I end management's remarks and will open the floor to Q&A.

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that 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. And your first question comes from Anton Morton-Cotter with GBM. Please state your question.

Hi, guys. Thank you. Thank you for the call and for taking my question. I have two quick ones. One is we've seen that the cargo trucks utilization has been dropping in the last quarters. I was wondering when do you expect this to normalize or what kind of levels do you expect to see or should be sustainable in the long term? And also, thinking about the industrial trends for the next year, the USMCA renegotiation, how are you positioning for that? And what are your expectations of it all? Thank you.

Hi, Anton. This is Antonio. How are you? Thanks for your question.

I'm going to answer the second question first. As many of you know, one of the biggest plans for Tracción is to expand into the United States because we think that is the natural geographic expansion for us, for the company. The cross-border market between Mexico and the U.S. is the fastest growing market in transportation and logistics in the world currently. and we want to position ourselves in that market and into the United States. So I think that would be the best way to approach a positive USMCA renegotiation and all the benefits that it is going to bring to the table.

Hi, Anton.

This is Javi. Regarding to the first question, So what we're doing is getting clients from different industries. We are now giving a lot of services to the car industry. So we are diversifying the industries from traction. So with that, we expect to be as good as it was before, maybe in the middle of the next year.

first or second quarter of the next year. Thank you. Thank you.

And your next question comes from Edson Murgura with Seneca. Please state your question.

Hi. Good afternoon. And thank you for taking my questions. I have a few of them. The first one is related to the personal mobility segment. you have a growth of 4.2%. And you mentioned in the release that you execute some efficiencies. So I was wondering if you can give us or you could elaborate more about what type of efficiencies did you perform during the quarter? And my second question is about the fee reduction. Looking at that, can we expect the same trend of reduction of the fleet?

Thank you. Hi, Edson. This is Toño.

Regarding your second question in terms of fleet reduction, yes, you're right. If you see, we have fleet reductions, slight fleet reductions in both segments. One has to do, in mobility of people, the fleet reduction has to do with the profitability program, which is basically churning out buses from older, not that efficient clients into new clients that are willing to pay more market prices. So when you do that, you need to take out the operation, the bus, and prepare it for the next one. that bus is not operating for some time, perhaps two or three weeks, and that reduces the average fleet on the quarter. It's not that we are reducing the fleet by design. It's just some metric that got caught up in the middle of the quarter. And regarding the reduction in the fleet, in the cargo fleet, it's a normal thing. We are conducting a regular... a regular renovation program, which is not linear. If we're going to renovate 400 trucks in a year, for example, it's not linear. Perhaps it's not 100 trucks every quarter. It's different. So that's basically the reason. We are not reducing the fleet. Quite the contrary. We want to keep it as it is. And regarding your first question, Edson, could you please repeat it?

Yes. What type of efficiency did you perform in the personal segment to achieve 4.2% growth?

Sorry, Edson. Can you please repeat it again? We are not hearing it clearly.

Perhaps. Yeah. Sorry. Probably it's my phone. But what type of efficiency did you perform? in the personal segment to grow 4.2% during the quarter.

Hi, Edson. How are you? This is Wolf.

So let me try to be as clear as I think it was the question. So in the mobility of people, as we mentioned in particular for this 2025, We run this program that is a profitability program client that we are basically, as Tonya mentioned at the beginning, shuffling the clients that pay less for clients that can pay more, considering the opportunity that we saw in the market to raise some of the prices. So this combined with the renewal program And obviously, let's say the overhaul of the units that we need to put in place so we can allocate the bosses to the new clients. This is basically what we're doing in particular this year instead of just growing as it was similar in the past. So it's basically the most different program that we've run this particular year. So this is what you are seeing that the margins in that business are growing, even though maybe the let's say the revenues are similar than the inflation.

Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you, and your next question comes from Felix Garcia with Oblige Research. Please state your question.

Hi. Felix Garcia from Oblige Research. Thank you for the call and for taking my questions. First, congratulations on the successful integration of Solistica. Could you share which operational or client synergies have already started to materialize and whether the 100-day plan helped identify additional efficiency opportunities? Secondly, we understand the freight division faced a temporary slowdown in cross-border operations. Have you started to see any signs of recovery in demand or contract reactivation, particularly within the automotive sector?

Hi, Felix. I'm Antonio. I'm going to answer your first question. There are many synergies, but perhaps the most relevant ones is that we basically unplugged the shared service center of Solistica and all the 3PL back office operation and plugged it into the Traction platform, which brought many cost and expensive savings in overhead, in corporate, in facilities, and other tech-related things. But perhaps the most significant synergies we have identified so far, and the most that have materialized in the first quarter, the faster ones, perhaps are in procurement, which as you know, we have a huge procurement platform, we do strategic negotiation and other things. And those are the main efficiencies. Effectively, in the in the first 100 days of operation, we identified Obviously, as you can imagine, we had identified some synergies that were more visible and evident. But once you have the company in your platform, there are others that are not that visible that are also achievable. So we have been with the company for three months. We think that there are going to be other synergies as time goes by. And I think that the next year, you're going to be able to see some

some other efficiencies and synergies more more tangible and more evidently in in margin uh mostly hi felix this is rodolfo so regarding your second question about the cross-border business or industry and the automotive As you're saying, the automotive has been hit in this cross-business services, and we haven't seen very much of recuperation in these months. That's why Abby just said it in the before question is we're looking for other industries to switch our equipment and our trucks so we can avoid the uncertainty that has the automotive industry right now.

Very clear. Thank you for your answers and congratulations on the results. Thank you.

Your next question comes from Martin Lara with Miranda Global Research. Please state your question.

Hi, good morning. Thank you for the call. Your leverage remains at very low levels. How do you see it going forward?

Do you think it would reach two times by the end of 2026?

Hi, Martin. How are you?

This is Wolf. So as we mentioned before, let's say in the previous calls, even though after the Solistica acquisition, we are remaining at similar levels that we were before the acquisition. So that's very good news for the company and for the leverage of the company. Let's say that, as you know, the CAPEX plan in organic way for 2025, it was lower than the previous years. So we're expecting to leverage the company in a couple of, let's say, quarters. And I think that's also good news regarding all the synergies that we're planning with Solistic and all the traction platform, plus the reducing capex and the generation of the cash flow.

Okay. And how do you see the margin, the margin in logistics and technology?

You saw this square, it was something around, let's say, even though 9%. As we mentioned before, Solistica basically comes at the beginning with similar levels of around 5% margin. Inside of Traction, we think that this particular acquisition could boost 100 and 200 basis points more inside of Traction. So at the end, let's say this particular division at the end could be something between 8% to 9.5% margin in this division.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. And your next question comes from Fernanda Recchia with VTG. Please state your question.

Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my question. Two from our side as well. So the first on the top line that you provided for this year in last quarter, You mentioned an expectation of reaching between 14% to 16% of top line growth. But when we look at the nine months, you are with 6%. I'm just wondering if you expect to still to reach the guidance, or maybe it could be a little bit lower because of the softer demand that we have seen. And second, maybe if you could comment on the cash flow generation for next year. Thank you.

Hi, Fernanda. This is Tonio. Thanks for your question.

Yes, regarding the first question is we are very confident that our year-end figures are going to be within the range of guidance that we provided in the previous call. So we are confident we're going to achieve it.

Thank you. Hi, Fernanda.

This is Wolf again. So regarding your second question, regarding the cash flow generation for 2026, as you know, and we mentioned since 2024, the company was able basically to, let's say, to stabilize the operating cash flow to neutral the previous year. So after, obviously, the holistic acquisition, we're planning to have a positive cash flow generation for 2026.

Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you.

And your next question comes from Jorge Eurdas with GZM. Please state your question.

Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. You mentioned you see the expansion into the U.S. as one of the best ways to capture next-year trends. If you could delve further into that, How would you prefer getting involved? Would it be via M&A or an existing competitor, or would it be through fleet expansion? Think in advance.

Hi, Jorge. This is Tonio. Thanks for your question.

Yes, we think that the best approach to tackle the opportunities in the cross-border market for us would be via an M&A transaction. We think it's faster and more efficient than establishing an organic growth operation. It's going to take more time. And, I mean, if you take a look at the multiples and the valuations of the cargo companies in the U.S., it's a very attractive entry point. And we also think that the USMCA negotiations are going to be carried out positively when this Sunset Plus comes due next year. So, yes, answering your question is via NMNA.

Very clear. Thank you. Thank you.

And a reminder to the audience, if you would like to ask a question now, press star 1 on your telephones now. We'll pause for a couple moments to see if there are any final questions.

Thank you.

This now concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back to Abbe Litzein, Executive President, for closing comments.

Our long-term view has not changed. We are confident that this downturn is temporary and that things are going to get back to normal as talks regarding USMCA evolve and the tariff uncertainty dissipates. We are confident that the North American trade will continue. It is the fastest-growing trade market in the world, despite the noise and short-term disruptions. Traxion will continue to seize the opportunities, grow, and improve its logistic solutions umbrella, as we have always done in the past. Thanks for your attention, and have an excellent day.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. Please disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.