Operator
Good morning, and welcome to the Corporación America Airport's fourth quarter and year-end 2024 conference call. A slide presentation accompanies today's webcast and is available in the Investor section of the company's website. As a reminder, all participants are in a 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 Inaki 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 Ormequian, our Chief Executive Officer, and Jorge Arruda, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we proceed, I would like to make the following safe harbor statements. 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. Please note that throughout this call, all references to revenues, costs, adjusted EBITDA, and margin, will refer to figures excluding IFREC-12. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Martín Orniquian.
Thank you, Iñaki. Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. i'd like to start by sharing some key highlights from our fourth quarter 2024 performance afterwards corfi will provide a more in-depth financial review and then we will open the floor for questions strong performances across most markets were key in driving our overall results this quarter underscoring the strength of our diversified portfolio while argentina's performance remained soft in the fourth quarter as a whole we were encouraged by a notable rebound in domestic passenger traffic toward year's end total passengers reached record heights in december 2024 with continued positive momentum in january and february passenger traffic declined by 1.2 percent year-over-year but increased 1.5 percent excluding natal notably we saw a solid 11.3 percent increase in international traffic in argentina supported by a continued recovery in outbound tourism in total we served nearly 80 million passengers across our airports in 2024 with approximately 20 million traveling in the fourth quarter alone as jorge will discuss briefly fourth quarter year-over-year comps were affected by the sharp devaluation of the argentine peso in late december 2023 and the indemnification payment received in the fourth quarter of last year in connection with the friend determination of the natal airport concession excluding these two factors, revenues were down by 0.6% year-over-year, in line with lower passenger traffic, where revenue per passenger improved slightly to $19.3 from $19.2 in 2023. In turn, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter declined by 7%, pressured by weaker domestic traffic in argentina lower cargo revenues and reduced duty free sales which were unusually high in the fourth quarter of 2023 as they benefited from a favorable official exchange rate until the peso devaluation took place in mid-december 2023 importantly all other countries of operations reported positive year-over-year contributions to adjusted ebitda notably we maintained a strong cash flow and a robust financial position with our leverage ratio remaining at low levels this solid footing gives us the flexibility to confidently pursue strategic growth initiatives the balance across our portfolio continues to demonstrate the resilience of our business and our ability to deliver consistent performance despite localized challenges now let's move to slide four to discuss passenger traffic trends in more detail Turning to page four for a review of passenger traffic trends. Overall, total passenger traffic declined by 1.2% year-on-year to over 20 million. When adjusted for the discontinuation of Natal Airport, passenger traffic was up 1.5%. As a reminder, effective February 2024, we had terminated our concession agreement for the Natal Airport. World traffic improved from a 1.5% decline reported in the previous quarter to a growth of 1.5% when excluding Natal. Domestic traffic showed sequential improvement but remained 7% lower year-over-year or down 2% excluding Natal, mainly reflecting weaker demand in Argentina, particularly in October and November. However, international traffic rose 7% year-over-year, supported by strong performances in Argentina and Italy, underscoring the resilience of our international operations. Let's take a closer look at some key year-on-year trends by region. Starting with Argentina, passenger traffic declined just over 1%, showing a marked improvement from the 6.2% decline posted in the third quarter. This recovery was supported by record high passenger volumes in December. The year-over-year decline was primarily driven by software domestic traffic in October and November, reflecting the absence of the Previaje government incentive program that had bolstered local tourism in 2023 but was not repeated this year. Encouragingly, international traffic remained a bright spot, up 11% year-on-year, supported by additional routes and increased flight frequencies. American Airlines resumed its essays at Dallas route and expanded services to Miami, while Delta introduced a second daily frequency to Atlanta. Meanwhile, British Airways increased ship capacity by nearly 22%, while Avianca launched its new Guayaquil-Eseiza route. Additionally, Emirates, Iberia, and United boosted their frequencies, further enhancing connectivity. The strong momentum achieved in December continued into January and February, with passenger traffic growing by 13% and 10% year-on-year, respectively. In Italy, traffic rose by 11%, reaching 2 million passengers. Growth was driven both by international travel, up high single digits, and an impressive high-thin increase in domestic travel, reflecting strong demand in November and December, particularly at Pisa Airport. This performance continued into January and February, with passenger traffic increasing by 6% and 14% year-on-year, respectively. Turning to Brazil, traffic continued to recover, rising in the high single digits when a adjusted for the discontinuation of Natal Airport, despite ongoing challenges in the aviation sector and aircraft availability in the country. This recovery trend extended into January and February, where overall traffic, excluding Natal, increased by 3% and 9% year-on-year, respectively. In Uruguay, passenger traffic increased by mid-single digit, supported by new and resumed routes, including American Airlines' restatement of its Montevideo-Miami route, as well as new services from Sky and LATAM Airlines connecting Montevideo to Rio de Janeiro and Punta del Este, Santiago de Chile, for the summer season. Additionally, Parana Air resumed its Montevideo-Salto route, reestablishing these connections after more than two decades. Traffic in the first two months of the year performed well, with year-on-year increases of 5% and 2% in January and February, respectively. In Armenia, traffic was slightly up by 1%. Following a strong 2023 performance, growth was supported by the introduction of several new airlines, including China Southern, Air Cairo, Salam Air, and Sky Express, which began operations at Yerevan Airport during the quarter. Traffic in January rose by 7%, while in February it declined by 5% year-over-year. Lastly, in Ecuador, passenger traffic declined by less than 1% year-over-year. A slight increase in international traffic was upset by a low single-digit decline in domestic travel, which remained affected by high airfare prices and ongoing security concerns, which continued to weigh on demand. Traffic in January performed well, increasing by 8% year on year, while in February it declined by 2%. In summary, while Argentina's domestic market faced challenges earlier in the quarter, we closed the year on a positive note with record high volumes in December. Meanwhile, strong results in Italy, Uruguay, and Brazil further underscored the resilience of our diversified portfolio. Next, as shown on slide 5, growth in cargo volumes accelerated to 16% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, with positive contributions from all countries of operations. Cargo in Armenia was up over 51%, while Argentina posted an increase in the high teams, benefiting from the flexible import regulations and improved macro conditions. Despite volume growth, cargo revenues, XIAS 29 declined 3% year-over-year, primarily due to fewer storage days for imported goods in Argentina. This negatively impacted last year's billing scheme, which we already have revised this We remain focused on maximizing operational efficiencies across our network and continue to monitor cargo revenue trends closely. I will now turn the call to Jorge, who will review our financial results. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Martin, and good day, everyone. Before I start, I'd like to remind you that fourth quarter 2024 year-over-year comps were affected by the sharp devaluation of the Argentine peso in late December 2023 and the indemnification payment received in the fourth quarter of 2023 in connection with the termination of the natal airport concession therefore for a better and proper understanding of our performance we will present and discuss our results excluding the impact of rule is 29 in argentina in both years as well as the contribution from natal in the fourth quarter 2023 in line with our fourth quarter earnings discussions from last year. Let's start with our top line on slide six. Total revenues, Exifreak 12, were slightly down 0.6% year-on-year in line with passenger traffic, while our revenue per passenger was up 0.6% to $19.3, leveraging CAP's global footprint. Aeronautical revenues were up 1.7% year-on-year despite a 1.2% year-on-year decline in traffic with positive contributions from all countries of operations except Brazil. Notably, in Uruguay, we recorded a strong 12% increase in aeronautical revenues, capitalizing on robust momentum in this country. Importantly, in Argentina, aeronautical revenues rose 1.3%, supported by an 11.3% year-on-year increase in international traffic, and to a lesser extent, by a domestic passenger tariff increase that took effect on November 1st. Commercial revenues were down 2.9% year-on-year, but improved sequentially following a 6.6% decline in the third quarter. This decline was mainly driven by lower cargo and duty-free revenues in Argentina and lower fuel revenues in Armenia, partially offset by higher revenues from VIP lounges, parking, food and beverage, and catering services, particularly in Italy, Ecuador, and Uruguay. As Martin pointed out, duty-free and cargo revenues in Argentina were extraordinarily high in 2023 due to a significant disparity between the official and parallel FX rates and the expected evaluation, respectively. Now turning to slide seven, total cost and expenses, excluding I-FREC-12, were largely stable year over year. While the cost of services declined by 2.8%, this was offset by higher SG&A expenses, in in part impacted by the inflation level in Argentina. Importantly, we remain committed to stringent cost controls across our operations, particularly in Argentina, where challenging macro dynamics persist. Nonetheless, we anticipate a more stable environment for this year. Now, moving on to profitability on slide eight. Adjected ABTDA EXIFIC-12 was $151 million, a 6.7% year-on-year decline, largely explained by Argentina's soft performance. This was partially mitigated by strong contributions and growth from all other markets, particularly Uruguay and Italy, which posted another quarter of solid growth in adjusted EBITDA, along with strong margin expansion. We are particularly encouraged by the performance of our operations in Brazil, which benefited from solid traffic recovery, excluding Natal, higher VIP lounges, cargo and duty-free revenues, as well as favorable impact this quarter from a $110 million economic compensation related to the liquidation of the concession for COVID-related losses for 2024. Coming to slide 9. Supported by our stock and flow generation, we closed the year with a total liquidity position of $526 million, up 15% when compared to year-end 2023. Furthermore, all of our operating subsidiaries reported positive cash flow from operating activities during the 12-month period. As a reminder, cash-using financing activities included the previously announced $31 million acquisition of our indirect stake in AA 2000. Now, moving on to debt and maturity profile on VLICAN. Total debt at year end was $1.2 billion, while our net debt decreased to $780 million from $963 million at December 2023. Our net leverage ratio stood at 1.1 times at year end, reflecting debt reductions from the amortization of scheduled principal payments, as well as early redemption in Argentina and Armenia during 2024. Wrapping up, we close the year with a robust balance sheet and healthy debt profile, which position us well to capture future growth opportunities. Despite the headwinds we face throughout 2024, our business remains resilient.
As we look ahead, we remain committed to cost efficiency enhancing our commercial operations and expanding our portfolio to deliver value to our shareholders i will now hand back the call to martin who will provide closing remarks and discuss our view for this year moving on to slide 12 as we conclude i would like to highlight a few takeaways from the quarters our solid results across key markets largely offset software performance in argentina where domestic passenger traffic showed encouraging signs of recovery reaching record highs in december 2024 as well as in january 2025. while adjusted ebitda margins improved across all countries of operation except argentina we are confident that ongoing initiatives to boost commercial revenues and strategic developments across our concessions, we support improved results in the quarters ahead. On the commercial front, we are advancing on key projects to enhance the passenger experience and boost commercial revenue growth across our network. In Argentina, we are expanding the duty-free area at the Seiza Airport's arrival terminal, increasing the space by over 50% to 1,100 square meters. In Brazil, we inaugurated a logistics center, signed agreements with three car dealerships, and are progressing with the construction of a new lifestyle center. Lastly, in Uruguay, the construction of a new cohort parking facility at Montevideo Airport is moving forward as planned. We also achieved important milestones across our concessions. In Argentina, a domestic tariff increase became effective in November, which will provide additional support to our local operations. In Brazil, we reached an agreement with the government on a new methodology for long-term economic re-equilibrium to compensate for the impacts of COVID. Meanwhile, in Uruguay, we inaugurated a new state-of-the-art private aviation terminal at Punta del Este Airport, and last February completed the works on Durazno International Airport. In Italy, we continue advancing on the 425 million euros master plan for Florence Airport. While in Armenia, we are progressing on approvals for our $425 million CAPEX program. Both initiatives remain key strategic priorities aimed at delivering long-term value for our shareholders. Finally, we close the year with a solid balance sheet and a net leverage ratio of 1.1 times, reinforcing our financial stability and flexibility to invest in growth opportunities. Looking ahead, we are cautiously optimistic about Argentina in 2025. While international traffic continues to perform well, we expect a recovery in domestic traffic supported by the positive momentum posted in January and February. To conclude, in 2025, we remain focused on executing on our strategic growth objectives while capitalizing on the initiatives taken throughout 2024. With a strong foundation in place, we are confident in our ability to drive sustainable growth and deliver value. Operator, please open the line for questions.
Operator
Thank you. ladies and gentlemen we will now begin the question and answer session should you have a question please press the star followed by the one on your touchtone phone you will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised should you wish to decline from the polling process please press star followed by the two and if you are using a speakerphone please lift the handset before pressing any keys your first question is from alejandro de michelis at jeffrey's please go ahead yes good morning gentlemen thank you very much for taking my questions two questions if i may please the first one is could you please update us on how you see the the concession review process in argentina how much progress you're making what are kind of the next steps we can see from there
and then the second question is martin you talk about your strategic priorities and initiatives Maybe you can also add how you're seeing the opportunities for inorganic growth, say in Latin America and also outside of the region, please?
Thank you very much, Alejandro, for your interest and for your questions. Martin here. In terms of Argentina and the contract, a little bit, as we said last time, we expect things to happen during this year, hopefully. Although the official timing was expected for the end of third quarter and second quarter, we do not have exact days as of today to be able to know when the regulator will finish the work they are doing. But we have very good expectations that during this year we will have positive news on that side in terms of having a path to move ahead and as we said last time the regulatory environment in Argentina the lady buses which is the the law approved in the last year by the government gives the executive and the regulator very good tools to be able to do this to do a comprehensive revision so we are very positive on that side but we still do not have details or exact dates although we hope it will we will have news during this year and regarding inorganic growth we are happy to say that we're looking at very diverse opportunities in different geographies and different sizes and shapes let's say we have strengthened our M&A team adding more talent and people to the team to be able to take on more challenges so hopefully you will see us very active in the market as the opportunities arise and become public. Thank you Alejandro.
But these opportunities are mostly in Latin America or can we expect something outside of the region?
No, definitely, you can expect us in very diverse regions. We have already participated in ongoing processes in the Middle East, in Africa, and in Latin America, and in Europe, so we're looking at many opportunities, yes.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from Fernanda Reykjia at BTG. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Martin, Jorge, and Naki. Two questions from our side as well. The first, I would like to explore a little bit further the traffic trends for the year of 2025. So as we look, the year to date, the trend has shown a better trend for Argentina, especially on the domestic route. So if you could provide some call on what is their expectation for Argentina this year. Also, Brazil is suffering on a year-to-date basis, so I would appreciate any thoughts and comments on Brazil as well. This is the first question. And my second question is regarding the projects in Armenia and Italy.
I think Martin mentioned that we are progressing well on closing remarks. but if you could provide any further details in terms of that line and what is missing for us to have the final approval thank you thank you Fernanda for for your questions and for your interest starting with the traffic for 2020 25 you asked about Argentina that I think there are two main two main issues affecting the real positive dynamics we are seeing in Argentina. One is the macro environment where more people have more access to US dollars and to buy international tickets as we have seen the international passengers growth that we have seen in the last two months is substantial but also domestic has picked up so we are very positive on the trends in Argentina given those dynamics and the fact that the government has worked through last year very aggressively on opening all sorts of red tape for the aviation industry firstly signing open skies agreements with a lot of countries which give the possibilities for more airlines to put more flights without any preconditions and also the the opening of the internal regulations themselves which also allow companies foreign companies and foreign aircraft and foreign crews to work domestically and internationally in Argentina with far less restrictions than before so these two things combined are unleashing the growth potential that we're seeing in the traffic in Argentina you mentioned Brazil I understood you mentioned the suffering of Brazil maybe you are looking at the numbers adding Natal which is not there anymore but if you take out Natal the dynamics in Brazil are quite interesting Jorge here he can comment but above 5% in growth in the first two months for Brasilia Airport almost almost 6% so although the industry as a whole has challenges in Brazil as we mentioned in the call we think that these dynamics are not are not bad given the overall Brazilian environment and regarding Armenia and Italy in both cases in different dynamics we are progressing really well in Armenia we're waiting feedback on the government on the negotiation to do this new capex that we mentioned in the presentation but for that a lot of things need will probably be revised we're waiting for feedback on government on that side and as soon as we have an agreed model we will let the investors know about it with with more details and regarding Italy we are very well advanced into all the technical requirements to receive the most important approval that we need which is the environmental one but the teams have been working very hard with the different sides of the government that work on this and we can say we're fairly fairly advanced and hopefully in the next few months we will have news positive views on on the approval for the environmental the environmental approval that we need to be able to start construction on the capex program for Florence which is the one that's going to be more transformative for the company and for value creation thank you fernanda thank you martin and just a follow-up and thinking on a consolidated figure can we expect traffic to keep this next single digit that we saw on our year-to-date pages yeah i would say i would say that the trends that we that we are seeing in the beginning of the year for for most of our regions uh um look promising uh probably armenia where we saw a negative february it's a little bit of an outlier uh where we expect to have um and i know we're all consolidated here on the positive side um so yes i think i think that you can say that whatever we're seeing uh in the first two
Operator
months uh we expect those trends to continue thank you so much thank you the next question comes from stephen trent at citigroup please go ahead good morning gentlemen uh thanks very much uh for the time the first question um i was wondering um how you think about weighing uh potential growth opportunity the potential investments in new concessions you know any view as to whether geographic or air traffic diversity is sort of the main thing you look at, or are you more interested, for example, in acquiring assets that are single-till or dual-till or inflation-based or something along those lines? We'd just love to hear a little more about that. Thank you.
Hello, Trent. Thank you for your question. I think it's a difficult question to ask on our own to answer on our side because as we have always mentioned we have a view on being first of all a creative to our portfolio second very discipline on on how we look at and how we analyze the opportunities and and very opportunistic in the end to be able to to get all that so I wouldn't say I wouldn't be able to like to classify a regulatory scheme that we think is better I think we need to look at an opportunity as a whole and analyze case by case to see whether an opportunity is interesting or not and I wouldn't say that the regulatory scheme needs to be one or the other for it to be interesting as you see in our portfolio we have all the cases that you mentioned and we like them all no I would think that each of our concessions as of today is a success story and being very diverse and very different so I couldn't tell you that we are looking for a specific regulatory scheme when we go for a concession but we do an in-depth analysis of the potential the capacity of that opportunity to add value to our shareholders and regardless of the type of concession or even geography you know because as we said before we we are working publicly in in opportunities in the Middle East in Europe Latin America and Africa so so we're fairly open into the geographies that we think our management will be capable of adding value okay I really appreciate that that's very helpful my team and just one quick follow-up for me You know, you guys have had some success in amending your existing concessions, adding more years to the concession tenor. Do you think it's reasonable that we could expect more potential contract extensions over the coming years? is this is something that you're still discussing with your grantors thank you well in this case as we always say our teams are focused on on creating value for our shareholders but for our stakeholders as well because if we do not create value for all it'd be difficult to have sustainable business in a public service as the one we run so with that mindset you will see our teams finding ways to keep investing keep creating value keep working towards the growth of the companies and the concessions that we have and sometimes to get all that mixed together the extension and the extra a time and a very good way to create value for all stakeholders including of course our shareholders so you can say that we are always in the lookout to create value in this and in other ways as well okay very helpful my team thank you thank you Steven thank you we have no further questions I will turn the call back over to Martin and that can for closing comments I just wanted to to thank everybody for joining us today and also remind you that our investor relations team is available for any further questions or discussions you wanted to have about our company. Thanks again and enjoy the rest of your day. Bye-bye.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and we ask that you please disconnect your lines.
