Earnings Call Transcript - FMX Q1 2022

Operator, Operator

Good morning. And welcome everyone to FEMSA's First Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. During this conference call, management may discuss certain forward-looking statements concerning FEMSA’s future performance and should be considered as good faith estimates made by the company. These forward-looking statements reflect management’s expectations and are based upon currently available data. Actual results are subject to future events and uncertainties, which can materially impact the company's actual performance. At this time, I will now turn the conference over to Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. I hope you and your families are okay. Welcome to FEMSA's first quarter 2022 results conference call. Today, we are joined by Eugenio Garza, our CFO; and Juan Fonseca, whom you know well. As always, we also have Jorge Collazo on the line, who leads Coke FEMSA's Investor Relations team. Without further delay, let's just start with our call. We are very encouraged by the results achieved by all our business units during the first quarter. As you may remember, we closed 2021 with a positive momentum and things have continued to improve at the start of this year. I believe there are three things happening here. First, every one of our business units has been working hard to develop successful growth strategies to fit their momentum and situation, always leveraging the superior execution skills that our operators are known for. Second, the teams also worked through the last couple of years to adapt to the COVID challenges, and these often included streamlining the cost structure and becoming more efficient. Finally, we are continuing to see positive trends in consumer activity and mobility as the world continues to reopen, with these effects particularly visible in the month of March. At OXXO, the business accelerated sequentially during the quarter, and these favorable revenue trends resulted in positive operating leverage. As a result, the team was able to deliver record margins at the gross, operating, and EBITDA level for the first quarter. Internationally, we closed the acquisition of OK Market and organic growth continued at a great pace, including our joint venture in Brazil, where we opened the 100th OXXO store during the quarter. Our fuel business also saw positive demand trends as more of our customers increased their vehicle mobility as a result of the reopening of schools and higher levels of activity across the board. Our health operations again had a strong quarter across their income statement, building on a comparable base that keeps getting more demanding and delivering all-time high margins for the first quarter at the operating and EBITDA line. Our logistics and distribution business also saw a sequentially improving quarter, particularly in the United States, with the month of March reflecting better demand dynamics in the facility supply segment as more people return to the office. In Latin America, we also had a good quarter, led by improved performance in the warehousing operations. On the topic of logistics and distribution, it is worth mentioning that we remain committed to deploying incremental capital to build our US national platform. Most recently, we were happy to announce an agreement to acquire Sigma Supply, an important distributor of packaging solutions and Jan-San products that fits and complements our footprint well, strengthening our presence across the south and opening the door into the key Texas market. Staying on this topic for a minute, you can think of Envoy Solutions as a three-legged stool, where the legs are Jan-San, food service consumables, and packaging. Together, Jan-San and food service comprise what we call facility supplies. Each of these legs offers compelling opportunities for cross-selling and higher route density. As most of our customers need and consume products from more than one leg in their operations, and often they need all three. Packaging has the added benefit of generating high returns on capital. So Sigma Supply will be an important addition to our platform. I also want to talk a little about our digital platforms since we know many of you are interested in monitoring our progress there. Our numbers for customer acquisition continue to grow at a good pace, below industry cost, and we closed the first quarter with 2 million registered users at Spin by OXXO and 8.5 million at OXXO Premia. In both cases, active users are about 60%, and pretty much all internal metrics and key performance indicators like ARPU and tender are in line or exceeding our baseline expectations. Having said that, we keep working not just on growing our customer and partnership networks but also on accelerating the expansion of our product value proposition, focusing on increasing user engagement by adding new functionalities and services, improving customer experience, and ensuring a seamless interaction between our physical and digital networks. We are encouraged by these early signs and will keep you posted on our progress going forward. Before I turn it over to Eugenio, I want to recognize the remarkable job done by our teams in positioning our business unit for sustained growth and performing at a high level during the first quarter. The outlook is compelling as we look to the rest of this year and beyond. And with that, let me turn it over to Eugenio.

Eugenio Garza, CFO

Thank you, Paco, and good morning to everyone on the line. Starting with FEMSA's consolidated quarterly numbers, total revenues during the first quarter increased by 18.6%, while income from operations grew by 24.9% compared to the first quarter of 2021. On an organic basis, total revenues rose by 15.2%, and income from operations increased by 22.2%. FEMSA's net income decreased by 6.6%, reaching 5.8 billion pesos, due to higher income from operations and an increase in our participation in associates' results, primarily reflecting improved outcomes from our investment in Heineken compared to the same quarter of last year, along with a reduction in net interest expense. This was countered by a non-cash foreign exchange loss linked to FEMSA's US dollar-denominated cash position, which was affected by the appreciation of the Mexican peso during the quarter. Moving on to our operations, starting with Proximity, we opened 69 new OXXO stores in the first quarter, bringing our total net openings for the last 12 months to 794. The number of openings this quarter was below trend, following a highly active fourth quarter last year when we launched over 400 stores, leaving our new pipeline somewhat depleted at the beginning of this year. However, we are replenishing the pipeline and are confident that we will return to trend in the upcoming months, and we certainly anticipate achieving our goal of 800 net new stores in Mexico this year. OXXO same-store sales rose by 12.7% in the first quarter, driven by a 10.7% increase in the average customer ticket and 1.8% growth in traffic, reflecting a sustained recovery in mobility and consumption during February and March, along with a relatively easy comparison base against the first quarter of 2021, which was impacted by COVID-related restrictions. Gross margin increased by 110 basis points to 41.1%, demonstrating a strong rebound in commercial income from promotional programs with key suppliers. Income from operations surged by 54.6%, and operating margin rose by 190 basis points compared to the same period in 2021, reaching 7.5%. These figures are record highs and significantly above our pre-COVID levels, driven by a leaner cost structure and resulting operating leverage. At OXXO, revenues increased by 27.7%, and same-station sales grew by 18.5% compared to the first quarter of 2021 as vehicle mobility continued to improve. This quarter, gross margin was 12.3%, and operating margin reached 3.5%, reflecting strict expense management and enhanced operating leverage. Moving on to FEMSA's health operations, during the first quarter, we expanded our drugstore count by 66 net additions, resulting in a total of 3,718 units across our territories by the end of March, and 313 total net new stores over the last 12 months. Revenues increased by 5.1%, and same-store sales saw an average increase of 3.5%. On a currency-neutral basis, revenues grew by 12.5%, and same-store sales rose by 9.5%, showcasing strong momentum in our operations, even as the comparison base becomes more challenging. Gross margin increased by 60 basis points during the quarter due to improved efficiency and better collaboration with key suppliers across all our operations, particularly in Mexico, where the team successfully applied some commercial strategies that have proven effective in other markets. Operating margin expanded by 110 basis points, reflecting improved operating leverage and strict expense management across our territories. Next, in our logistics and distribution business, revenues climbed by 48.3% compared to the first quarter of 2021, attributed to the steady pace of acquisitions made by Envoy Solutions over the past 12 months. On an organic basis, total revenues increased by 12.2%, driven by a gradually recovering facility supply segment at Envoy, mainly due to employees returning to the office, along with positive demand trends in our Latin American operations, particularly in warehousing. Operating margin increased by 120 basis points, reflecting enhanced operating leverage across our operations, although this was partially offset by rising labor and transportation costs. Finally, regarding Coca-Cola FEMSA, volumes grew by 10.1% with contributions from most markets. Revenues rose by 14.6%, and gross profit increased by 13.5% despite supply chain disruptions and cost pressures on certain raw materials. Operating income grew by 16%, reflecting strong top-line performance, favorable raw material hedging strategies, and operational efficiencies. Overall, Coca-Cola FEMSA delivered robust results even in a volatile environment. In summary, as Paco noted earlier, we are off to a strong start across all our operations. While we need to stay alert as we adapt to coexist with COVID and not underestimate macroeconomic challenges like inflation and supply chain disruptions, we are optimistic about the level of control we have over our operations and the overall health of our business units as we look ahead. Now, we will open the floor for questions.

Operator, Operator

Your first question comes from the line of Benjamin Theurer from Barclays.

Benjamin Theurer, Analyst

I would like to ask about your recent acquisitions in the US, specifically Sigma Supply, and how they fit together. We've observed strong results from a growth perspective and also positive underlying growth in the logistics segment’s operating income. Could you provide some guidance on how you envision this segment developing in the coming years? What are your goals for its size, and what are your thoughts on future development? Is your strategy balanced between expanding your portfolio through mergers and acquisitions, leveraging your expertise, and possibly making some incremental organic investments? I would like to understand your approach to capital allocation—will it be primarily M&A, will there be organic growth as well, and where do you see this segment in the next two years?

Eugenio Garza, CFO

I mean, as you know, when we got into the segment, we were attracted by the dynamics of an industry that contains the same elements as in the rest of our business: small drop sizes, a big product bundle that allows us to segment markets and obtain good results, but also an industry that was highly fragmented throughout the United States. Besides Envoy, there are another couple of platforms that are following the similar strategy. We still believe that there is a long road ahead of consolidation as a lot of these regional distributors, both on the Jan-San side and the food service disposable side, and the packaging side are widely distributed across the United States with small distributors. So we feel that there is a long way ahead in terms of consolidation there. This consolidation is usually immediately accretive as you can bundle on the supply side, bundle some of our supplier partners, and create value relatively quickly there. So we still believe that the secular trends in the business can probably result in mid-single-digit growth for a number of years to come. If you add the potential for inorganic growth, this could enable continued growth at mid-double-digit levels. We still believe that there are significant capital allocation opportunities out there that can be value-accretive relatively quickly. We will continue to be disciplined, both from an evaluation perspective and from a capital allocation perspective, to balance the portfolio. But we do still believe that we could grow this business significantly and really become this fourth platform for FEMSA.

Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer

And just to add to that, Ben, the most recent acquisition Sigma, as you mentioned, it is in the path of consolidating our national platform in all the categories. Importantly, as we mentioned, it allows us to enter the south in a stronger way, particularly in Texas.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Bob Ford from Bank of America.

Bob Ford, Analyst

Eugenio, can you talk a little bit about how Spin and maybe Premia are impacting the way you are capturing data, and maybe how that's evolving within the business? You have a pretty big bill payment activity at the stores and certainly corresponding banking and other services as well. I was wondering if you're now able to identify those transactions with specific clients.

Eugenio Garza, CFO

I mean, we have had so much success, especially on the Premia side in terms of how easy it is for customers to get in and affiliate themselves. What we're seeing is not necessarily, I think, a strong pickup in traffic, but we are seeing that the customers that are using Premia, again, the tender as of the first quarter was 6%, and at this point we're closer to 10% given how fast it's going. We are now, as you said, able to detect not only what tickets are in the store and what kind of buying patterns customers have in the store, but who it is, at what time they're doing it, how frequently they come back. Those Premia customers are consistently increasing their ticket way above the average ticket price. We're talking about the average Premia customer being closer to an 80 peso ticket rather than a much slower average ticket for OXXO. We're obviously slowly but surely doing testing to start to have promotions targeted at the individual customer level. This data is giving us a tremendous amount of insights that we’re starting to use more efficiently as we try to extract value from that proposition. Given how fast it’s growing, we will likely see those results coming through. Again, hopefully on the traffic side but at least in the short term, on the gross margin side. As for the Spin product, as you said before, right now, it's a relatively simple product. It's basically a wallet with bill payments. It's capturing the marginal consumer that otherwise would not have done the transaction in the store. The more we start to put functionality into the Spin product, such as remittances from the US and eventually a partnership on credit, we believe that the use case for the product will become more compelling. The fact that you also earn Premia points by using the Spin product is allowing us to do the cross-selling of the services category along with the other categories at OXXO. Overall, we believe it's super accretive to the entire OXXO ecosystem.

Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer

And just to add to that, I think it’s worth mentioning that, not surprisingly, the store is proving to be a tremendous source of competitive advantage. Obviously, a lot of the transactions continue to be not only in the digital world but also in the physical world, and a lot of people get into the program by visiting the store. The combination of having the stores and the digital platform is just a fantastic way to ensure continuity across those four elements.

Bob Ford, Analyst

And as you look at your earlier cohorts, particularly with Spin, Eugenio, you mentioned that there is some evolution in terms of frequency or average ticket, but they are becoming more important clients. Can you talk about the evolution that you are seeing in the early cohorts and why you expect that to be replicated in more subsequent cohorts as you acquire new users?

Eugenio Garza, CFO

I think on that point, Bob, right now, the average Spin user is transacting about 10 times per month, which is up significantly from where our early cohorts were. I think it's basically just the network effect; as more people become spinners, the peer-to-peer function of sending money across peers is starting to become a lot more valuable. More and more we are seeing that part of the value proposition play out in terms of just the shared network effect.

Juan Fonseca, Executive

We are seeing people realize that they can do other things with Spin. Here I would highlight that a certain kind of power user is differentiating themselves. A lot of them are women that sell products, maybe beauty products or some other type of product, obviously entrepreneurial. They are realizing that this facilitates their lives in a big way and so they are using the product much more than your average Joe, just sending money to his sons. People are realizing how useful something like this can be for their professional lives, and that's something that we didn't necessarily anticipate.

Operator, Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Alan Alanis from Santander.

Alan Alanis, Analyst

I have a question regarding traffic. I mean, your same-store sales of OXXO, I mean, basically you are capturing clearly inflation there in the average ticket. But how did the traffic compare versus 2019? As we see inflation becoming more pervasive in Mexico and everywhere, how are you thinking about the business going forward with these higher levels of inflation?

Eugenio Garza, CFO

On the traffic question, we are still well below 2019 levels on a traffic basis. On a same-store sales basis, we’re up. Why? Because the ticket, as you know, went up as people started shifting their view of the OXXO store into other categories. In terms of home replenishment, more traditional categories, such as gathering, etc., are coming back. However, the traffic number actually needs to be drilled down into details. There is still a mixed bag. Locations closer to traffic-heavy stations, such as bus stations and more urban cities, those traffic levels are coming back up. But we still have some locations within schools that are still not back to 100% in-person classes or office buildings that are adapting to a hybrid model. In those locations, traffic patterns continue to lag. So it is a mixed bag regarding that. That said, the store has been resilient in terms of making sure that we are keeping the cost at the level of the new reality in terms of traffic patterns, and the ticket size is obviously helping. We are being very strategic about how we start the stores, the product bundle we put on it, etc. Paco, I don't know if you want to take the inflation point.

Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer

For the inflation, Alan, the reality is that Proximity is a very good channel for consumers to spend their money wisely. With the out-of-pocket costs being small, we carry the right items in terms of cash outlay. Another strong aspect for us, as you know, is our flexibility and how quickly we manage the portfolio of products that we offer. We are working and will continue to work with our commercial partners to make sure that we provide consumers with options moving forward that protect their out-of-pocket expenses. We are confident that there shouldn't be difficulties that we cannot handle as inflation persists until it is lower.

Alan Alanis, Analyst

But just regarding the traffic still being way lower than 2019, roughly how much in aggregate are we seeing traffic still below? What's the catch-up that we need to be to go back to 2019 levels?

Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer

It’s in the low double digits down from 2019 roughly across all locations.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Sergio Matsumoto from Citi.

Sergio Matsumoto, Analyst

I wanted to ask about the Premia and Spin success that you're seeing lately. With the context that for a long time the Mexican consumers preferred cash transactions but obviously, things have changed. I just wanted to hear from you, what do you think has changed in the Mexican consumers? For a long time, they kind of went out of their way to circumvent the financial transactions being tracked and always preferred cash. So in your mind, what do you think changed in the last couple of years, obviously, led you to launch these new products?

Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer

I don't think that there is a major change or fundamental change, at least for the time being, in terms of cash utilization. I think that simply consumers are seeing the opportunity to use their money and transact differently with the opportunities we are giving them. Going back to Bob's question regarding the cohorts, it's clear that, as Eugenio highlighted, we have a new cohort in terms of owners of small businesses that can transact differently using Spin, and some of those transactions are not in cash. Some of those transactions are of a different nature. We continue to have a number of consumers that favor cash transactions. They are there. We continue to serve them properly. But we are adding a number of other transactions, some of them from different consumers that are non-cash. I think that as we move forward and add different transaction abilities to our platform, we'll see more of that. As for Premia, the fact is that consumers transact the way they have been doing it in the store; they buy something and then accumulate points. That becomes a non-cash transaction at some point. Whether that will change moving forward is very likely, but I think that when that happens, we are positioned to capture that trend. It's an evolution; it's very fluid, and we are well-positioned to capture either side as we move forward.

Eugenio Garza, CFO

Putting it into context, Sergio, I mean, there are 1.3 million active users of Spin right now, and the active population, economic population in Mexico is nearly 60 million. It's still early stages with regards to this. I would say that it's not that they're changing, but the use case right now for Spin is primarily peer-to-peer sending money across Mexico. That is just one functionality. To the extent that we increase the network effect and add more functionalities, we feel there is still a long runway of people that may still use cash for their day-to-day activities, but especially for these kinds of use cases, they will find the Spin product to be good for them.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Alvaro Garcia from BTG.

Alvaro Garcia, Analyst

My questions are regarding gross margins in Proximity. Can you mention if the pricing architecture at Spin is the same? We've seen obviously a huge bump in users there. I was wondering if that had something to do with your gross margin gains, given how profitable that business is, or if perhaps that has to do with better beer dynamics, more commercial income there? Any more color on gross margin would be great.

Eugenio Garza, CFO

I think, Alvaro, it’s a combination of a bunch of different initiatives that have been taking ground over the past few years that may have been overlooked due to the pandemic. We are seeing a big increase in commercial activity from various supplier partners. We are also starting to see changes in the mix in beer and that category providing, I believe, more tailwinds in terms of gross margin perspective. We are also seeing the gathering use case for OXXO is back, which typically includes higher tickets of higher gross margin products in the home replenishment category. In addition, a lot of the efficiencies that were implemented on the distribution side and in other categories within the core offering of the OXXO store are starting to pay off as traffic, and more importantly, overall consumption, starts to kick in. It's a combination of several factors, Alvaro.

Alvaro Garcia, Analyst

And just a follow-up on the pricing architecture. Is there any kind of internal consideration on changing that pricing architecture as you move into a more digital sphere concerning things like bill payments, subsidizing a bit of those transaction costs to boost traffic, or are we not there yet?

Eugenio Garza, CFO

The digital team is actively engaging in testing strategies to figure out the elasticity of those products. We are actively engaging in those kinds of experiments to come up with the best solution, obviously, to continue to create value for the consumer while trying to cannibalize as little as possible of our business.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Luis Willard from GBM Group.

Luis Willard, Analyst

I have a quick question, and I apologize if this has already been covered. Regarding the 2 million Spin users mentioned in your report, can you tell us if they are entirely organic, or were some of them converted from previous Saldazo customers?

Juan Fonseca, Executive

I mean, this is organic in the sense that everybody comes in, and whether they had a previous product and lost their card or it expired and they want to open a new one, or they have never had a card like this, there isn’t an automatic transition of any Saldazo users. Consumers are going to look at Spin and hopefully see that it's a compelling product and then request and fill an application to get their card. The numbers being seen are mostly organic. I think in the sense you are asking the question, there might be some that in the past were Saldazo users. But this is basically people that have requested or thought positively about opening an account. Most of the Saldazo users are still using their Saldazo card, as we speak.

Eugenio Garza, CFO

The main benefit is that we now fully have that customer as ours. We possess their data and understand their consumption patterns, which is a significant improvement over the limited information we had before.

Juan Fonseca, Executive

From their perspective, they obviously now have automatic enrollment in Premia and begin to accrue rewards, and hopefully we will keep improving the value proposition. But yes, it's up to each individual consumer whether to open a Spin account or not.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Rodrigo Alcantara from UBS.

Rodrigo Alcantara, Analyst

Back on the logistics and distribution, I think that you were quite active in the part that you’ve said. Sigma, you also acquired a smaller company. I’m curious if this was the main reason behind the sequential contraction on the EBITDA margin that we saw? Also thinking on a very long-term basis, how should we think about the logistics and distribution division as a new core for FEMSA? Or perhaps as you create synergies, could there be potential strategic sales to capture cash from all these investments you are making? I know that it's quite a long-term question, but just wanted to know your thoughts about this.

Eugenio Garza, CFO

On your first question, just with regards to EBITDA margins. If you actually look at the EBIT margin, that is actually, I think, reflecting a little bit of what we're doing and the synergies that we're able to accrue. The issue on the EBITDA line is that in our Mexican logistics business, we did a sale-leaseback transaction of certain trucks that were being used in our direct contract carrier business, and that clearly affected the depreciation line. That's why you see a contraction in the EBITDA margin, but that is more a financial transaction and doesn’t reflect the underlying economics of the business. I don’t know, Paco or Juan, do you want to take the long-term view of the logistics division?

Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer

First of all, just to put it in context. When we decided to enter the US market, as Eugenio said before, we saw tremendous opportunity in consolidating an industry that was highly fragmented and still is to some extent, utilizing the knowledge we have of the distribution of items to different points and different industries. As we see what we have learned over the last 18 to 24 months since we decided to do this, all those premises have proven to be true. We have combined the expertise of the company that we have acquired and, at the same time, the expertise that we have at FEMSA to integrate those businesses into what is becoming a very powerful national platform. There continue to be opportunities to consolidate the industry and also work on the packaging platform, which is what Sigma is providing. That is going to take some time. We see the opportunities; we see the way to strengthen our national platform. The long-term proposition that we envisioned when we started this continues to be there. We are confident about the strategies we have to capture that value. As we said before, the opportunities for cross-selling that we have for these three categories: Jan-San, food service, and packaging are enormous because customers usually buy those three platforms. At this stage, we see a strong opportunity on the organic side as we consolidate and integrate the platform; we also see a lot of inorganic opportunities. Longer term, we are confident that we are in a business that will continue to provide value to FEMSA and to our shareholders. We’ll continue to work on the strategic targets we have set for that business.

Juan Fonseca, Executive

I think that's exactly right, Paco. As Eugenio mentioned earlier, there is a significant opportunity to substantially expand our operations. Currently, in the US business, once the Sigma transaction is finalized, we expect to exceed 2 billion in revenues. While we are uncertain about maintaining the same growth rate, it is clear that there is still a strong potential for growth ahead.

Operator, Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Thiago Bertolucci from Goldman Sachs.

Thiago Bertolucci, Analyst

I'd like to shift back the conversation a little bit to store expansion, especially when it comes to the growth out from Mexico. It seems that Brazil and Grupo Nós are scaling up really quickly. So in the very long term, let's say five to 10 years down the road, how do you think Brazil could compare to the core OXXO footprint in Mexico?

Juan Fonseca, Executive

If you look at store growth other than what we described in terms of the hiccups after a very active fourth quarter where we opened, I think something like 450 stores in Mexico, that has flowed into the start of the year as the pipeline gets rebuilt. Confidence is high that we are going to hit something very close to 800 stores in Mexico this year. What's happening outside of Mexico is remarkable, especially in Brazil. We already opened our 100th OXXO store just a year or slightly over a year after the first OXXO was opened in Campinas. If you look at OXXO international overall, we are looking at Chile and Colombia, which together should contribute anywhere between 150 and 180 stores per year right now. And then you have Brazil, which is a joint venture, so we only get credit for half of those stores. They have a plan for more than 200 this year. Thus, outside of Mexico, we’re adding something like 400 stores, plus the 800 in Mexico, and those curves are going to continue to converge. This is not to say that we will open fewer stores in Mexico, but we will be opening many more stores in South America. In a five-year timeframe, as you described, it is definitely possible that international could be adding an equivalent number of stores as Mexico. This is powerful, especially because we continue to see that, as soon as you reach a certain scale and assuming your value proposition is right, you begin to make money. We are already starting to see that in Chile and Colombia, where revenue per store is already above that in Mexico. Now that we are having more than 200 stores in Chile, we're very close to having actual profitability, not just at the store level, but at the company level. We are optimistic that international will increasingly contribute to the company's profitability, and scale is a big part of it. In five years, Latin America could potentially contribute equally to Mexico, and we’ll keep looking for additional locations where the model could work.

Eugenio Garza, CFO

Just to add, Thiago, a little additional perspective on that. I agree with Juan that definitely when you look in the next 10 to five years, there is no reason to doubt that we have the opportunity to see the same number of stores in Latin America as we see in Mexico today. On the second part, regarding Brazil, we must focus not just on the numbers but also how strong the value proposition is in Brazil. The model travels well across different countries. In Brazil, as in other markets, the teams have been able to tweak, modify, and improve our value proposition to fit the specific consumer needs in each market. Importantly, we've adapted it to the way consumers live in those cities. When you visit an OXXO store in Brazil, for example, you can see that many stores are in vertical developments, where a lot of people live close by. We've made adjustments to the proposition to reflect that, and it is performing very well. We are positive looking at the opportunities we have to expand our OXXO platform outside Mexico. The next five to 10 years should be exciting for Proximity in Latin America, particularly in Brazil.

Operator, Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Carlos Laboy from HSBC.

Carlos Laboy, Analyst

I'd like to hear from Eugenio and Paco on this. Gentlemen, we all know that the operators of OXXO and Coke FEMSA are great and they keep doing a great job, and the business models are great. But what does the board think about the source of FEMSA’s share price discount to NAV? And is there any insight you can give us on how the board may approach a repair to this discount?

Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer

Listen, I mean, clearly that’s top of mind right now for us. If you think about the debt of FEMSA for the longest time, being a multi-business company involved in several different businesses has bode well for us. It has given us access to capital, a lower cost of capital, and provided us the umbrella to be able to incubate initiatives that require patience to play out, such as OXXO. For a long time we’ve proven that those initiatives and that patience have proven valuable for all shareholders. Now we do realize, and the board is pressing us on it, that as our portfolio has become more complicated and the nature of our shareholder base evolves, there is a disconnect between the value of the individual businesses and what we are getting in the market. More importantly this year with Danielle's new role, the board has tasked him with running a comprehensive strategic review of all of our different business units and FEMSA as a holding company. We’re beginning that work, focusing on some of these pain points, including illustrating what we believe to be a structural discount to the sum of the parts. We’ll be sharing results of that analysis. I do think there are many levers where we could extract more value in the short-term, but there are also longer-term considerations we need to take into account. Issues such as giving more disclosure or being much more transparent about each of our individual business units are things we are trying to do slowly, as seen in the past couple of years. Overall, the board is confident that we will be able to crystallize the value of all these initiatives through different mechanisms going forward.

Carlos Laboy, Analyst

Do you think they would even consider breaking up the group, or is that off the table?

Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer

Nothing is off the table at this point, Carlos. We will be reviewing all different options considering both short-term value creation implications and long-term structural advantages of holding the group together.

Operator, Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that is all the time we have for questions today. I will now turn the conference back to Francisco Camacho for closing additional remarks.

Francisco Camacho Beltran, Chief Corporate Officer

Thank you very much for participating in the call today, and thank you for your continued support for FEMSA, its businesses, and its team. See you next time.

Operator, Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to replay the webcast for this call, you may do so at FEMSA's Investor Relations website. This concludes our conference for today. Thank you for your participation, and have a nice day. All parties may now disconnect.