Good morning, everyone. This is Catherine Chacón, Grupo Nutresa Strategy and Corporate Finance Director, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to Grupo Nutresa's second quarter earnings call, where we will share the main highlights of our performance across our operations and provide insights into this year's strategy.

Joining me today is Mr. Jaime Gilinski, Grupo Nutresa CEO, and Andrés Bernal, our CFO and Chief Strategy Officer.

We will begin with a presentation with a brief overview of the quarter's highlights and key messages, followed by a detailed financial review. Afterwards, we will open the floor for your questions.

To post a question, please refer to the chat box on your screen, and don't forget to state your name and the institution that you represent. Similar questions will be grouped in order to allow for everyone to participate.

To begin our presentation, I leave you with Mr. Jaime Gilinski, CEO of Grupo Nutresa.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Grupo Nutresa's second quarter 2026 results call. I would like to frame the quarter around four messages, and then hand over to Catherine and Andrés for the details.

The first message is our top line. Consolidated sales for the quarter were Colombian pesos 5.1 trillion, with strong performance in local currencies of our main geographies, excluding the B2B segment and exports, affected by the 14% appreciation of the Colombian peso.

Total sales in our reporting currency decreased 1.6%, mainly due to conversion effects. When measured in U.S.

dollars, total sales grew 14.4%. The second message is the composition of this growth, fueled by Colombia, which reports a sales increase of 11.8%, with broad-based performance across the portfolio.

The third message would be the positive results of our margins. Our gross margin expanded 450 basis points year-over-year, to 42.5%.

This expansion is explained by our productivity and efficiency initiatives, our proactive commodity and foreign exchange hedging program, as well as lower input costs from some key commodities. In addition, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter reached Colombian pesos 941.4 billion, an increase of 19%, with a margin of 18.5% against 15.3% in the same quarter last year.

The fourth message focuses on inorganic growth. We signed agreements to execute two strategic acquisitions: La Universal in Ecuador, the leading company in chocolate confectionery, and Tío Rico in Venezuela, the leading company in ice cream.

Both transactions are expected to close within the next six months, subject to conditions precedent and regulatory approvals. Additionally, we received regulatory approval for the Mimos ice cream acquisition in Colombia, which will close during quarter two.

Moving on to first-semester highlights, adjusted EBITDA was Colombian pesos 2 trillion, up 30.8% at a margin of 19.5%. Lastly, net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA stood at 3.84 times at the end of June, and 3.75 times on a run-rate basis, first semester annualized, including the recent hybrid issuance.

12 months ago, that same ratio was 4.68 times. We have therefore reduced net leverage by approximately one turn over the year, and we closed the quarter with cash position of Colombian pesos 2.5 trillion.

We affirm our guidance of an EBITDA in the range of US $1.15 billion to US $1.25 billion, with a margin between 18% and 20%. With that, I will hand over to Catherine and Andrés to walk you through the quarter and semester in more detail.

Thank you, Jaime. Let me begin on slide four with total sales for the quarter.

Consolidated sales were 5.1 trillion pesos, which is 1.6% below the second quarter of 2025. As Jaime mentioned, the currency translation effect is the single largest driver for this variance.

Underlying volume was 1.5% lower than the prior year quarter, mainly impacted by the decrease in B2B sales and exports during the term, due to the strong Colombian peso appreciation. On its part, Colombia reported positive volumes during the period, and prices were essentially flat, due to our strategy of increasing volumes and market share.

Looking at the charts, growth was mainly concentrated in four areas: food service, with a 21.9% growth, retail food at 20.7%, ice cream at 20.2%, and the other segment growing at a 10.2% rate. On slide five, we break the quarter down between Colombia and our international platforms.

Starting with Colombia, sales reached 3.3 trillion pesos, an increase of close to 12% year-on-year. Measured in dollars, that is $920 million, with a 30% growth.

Within Colombia, performance was led by the ice cream segment, which grew 34.1%, biscuits and snacks at 23.2%, food service at 21.9%, and retail food at 20.7%. Chocolates was flat in value terms, but I would highlight that it continued to grow in volumes, up 5% for the quarter.

In total, five of our eight business units in Colombia delivered double-digit growth. By channel, the traditional channel grew 17.5%, the modern channel grew 14.2%, and our restaurant chains grew 14.5%.

Turning to the international platforms, sales for the second quarter were $487.5 million, which is 6.8% below the same period of 2025. Translated into pesos, that is 1.8 trillion, a decline of 19.8%, and that decline reflects the appreciation of the Colombian peso against the dollar over the period.

Within our international businesses, ice cream grew 16%, biscuits and snacks grew 12%, and our other segment grew 10.3%. Coffee and chocolates were both affected by a contraction in the industrial ingredients category.

On slide six, we present the same view, but for the first half of the year. Year-to-date, sales were 10.3 trillion pesos, an increase of 2.4%.

What I would highlight here is that the underlying drivers were positive on both axes: volumes and prices. By business units, double-digit growth came from food service with 19.7%, ice cream up close to 18%, and retail food up 17%.

Biscuits and snacks, cold cuts, and our other segments also grew at more moderate rates. Lastly, by geography, Colombia grew 13% in local currency.

On slide seven, we share Colombia's and the international split on a cumulative basis. In Colombia, sales reached 6.6 trillion pesos, an increase of 13% year-over-year.

In dollars, that is $1.8 billion, with a close to 30% growth. Performance was led by ice cream, biscuits, food service, retail food, and coffee.

Pastas was the only business unit to decline, down 2.2%, reflecting pricing and competitive pressures specific to the category over the term. By channel, the traditional, modern, and our restaurant chains reported double-digit growth.

On the international side, sales were essentially flat at $1 billion, with 0.4% growth. Within the international platforms, biscuits and snacks grew 13.5%, ice cream grew 11.2%, and our other segment grew 8.8%.

As in the quarter, coffee and chocolates were affected by the contraction in industrial ingredients sales. By country, these figures are in dollar terms, Ecuador grew 73%, Peru grew 18.6%, and Chile grew 12.5%.

On slide eight, we share our revenue mix by geography, which reflects the diversification of the cash flows that support our obligations. Colombia represents 64.2% of consolidated sales, the United States follows at 12.2%, and Central America at 9.2%.

Taken together, our international platforms are 36% of revenue, spread across various markets, and no single foreign geography sits above the low teens. Two observations on this page: first, you will notice that Colombia's share moved from 58% to 64.2% year-over-year.

That shift is predominantly a translation effect. It is not a change in the underlying footprint of the business or the performance of our international sales.

Second, notwithstanding the currency volatility we saw during the period, our international platforms remained operationally resilient, even where the reported peso figures declined. Moving on to slide nine, we address input costs, which have been a critical driver of our gross margin expansion over the year.

Our commodities index, which is denominated in U.S. dollars, declined 29% year-over-year.

This reduction is concentrated in four components: cocoa, which declined close to 60% in global prices, sugar 21%, coffee 19%, and pork with a decline of 16%. Two relevant comments on this slide: the first is that a great part of the 450 basis points expansion of our gross margin is a result of our transformation program and proactive hedging decisions, not spot prices alone.

Our reported margin reflects execution as well as market direction. The second is that commodity price relief of this magnitude is cyclical in nature, and we do not assume it persists indefinitely.

In fact, we are seeing some increases in market prices over the past month in commodities such as coffee, increasing 9%, cocoa increasing 7%, and wheat with an increase of 14%. Therefore, the sustainable components of our margin improvement are the cost and productivity measures that the company continues to execute.

The technical specifications of the index are available on the link shown on the slide. I leave you with our Chief Financial Officer for a detailed look at profitability and our balance sheet position.

Slide 10 presents EBITDA for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes non-recurring expenses, was 941.4 billion pesos, that is an increase of 19% year-over-year, and it represents a margin of 18.5% against 15.3% in the same quarter last year.

Measured in dollars, adjusted EBITDA was $260.9 million, up 38.3%. Reported EBITDA was 913.5 billion pesos.

I will emphasize where that margin expansion sits. It's carried at the gross margin line, supported by cost optimization and by the lower raw material and input costs, as Cathy discussed.

It was sufficient to absorb a modest increase in expenses associated with market investment to drive growth. Growth was positive across the portfolio, led by ice cream, cold cuts, coffee, and chocolates.

Four of our business units -- chocolates, ice cream, cold cuts, and retail food -- delivered margin above 20% for the quarter. Slide 11 shows the cumulative position.

First-half adjusted EBITDA was 2 trillion Colombian pesos, which is an increase of 30.8%, with a 19.5% -- reported EBITDA was 1.95 trillion pesos. In dollars, adjusted EBITDA was $548.1 million, up 50%.

This improvement is broad-based across nine business units, with the first-half margin is within our target range and consistent with our guidance. Growth was positive in every segment other than food service.

Chocolates, cold cuts, ice cream, and retail food each delivered margin above 20%. Slide 12 sets out our consolidated net debt position.

Gross total debt at the end of June was 17.5 trillion pesos, cash was 2.5 trillion pesos, that gives us a net debt of 15 trillion pesos. Measured against trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA of 3.9 trillion pesos, net leverage was 3.84 times, or 3.75 times on a run-rate basis when analyzing first semester results.

The trajectory across the top of this table is the point I would ask you to focus on. Net leverage has moved from 5.29 times in March last year to 4.68 times in June of 2025 to 3.84 times today.

That is a significant reduction over the last 12 months, and it has been achieved principally through EBITDA growth. The increase in gross debt over the year is due to the April hybrid issuance, of which 50% is treated as debt for the purposes of this calculation, with the rest treated as equity.

Let me then turn to the composition of the debt, which I think matters as much as the quantum. 82.5% of our debt stack is fixed rate, and that certainly limits our exposure to any forward movement in policy rates.

Our foreign currency exposure on the debt is managed through principal-only swaps. Slide 13 is the last page of my section, and it shows our principal amortization profile.

You will see two significant concentrations in 2030 and 2035. Those correspond to the principal repayments of the 3 trillion issuance we completed last year.

Alongside them, there are smaller local market maturities in 2027 and 2036. The chart includes 50% principal of the hybrid bond issued in April of this year, as per the rating agencies' methodology, and assumes the execution of the first call date in 2031.

The weighted average duration of the debt portfolio is currently 5.46 years. The shape of this profile is deliberate.

Our near-term maturities are modest, both relative to our cash position and relative to our operating cash generation. In practical terms, we have no refinancing requirements of any consequence before 2030, and that gives us considerable flexibility.

With that, I will turn it back to Catherine to begin our Q&A.

Hello, Andrés. Thank you for your comments.

Before we begin our Q&A section, we wanted to apologize for the delay at the beginning. It was due to an earthquake here in Colombia that impacted the system of our webcast company.

Now, moving along to Q&A, again, I want to remind everyone who wants to post a question to please go to the chat box on your screen. Our first question comes from [unclear] Can you please describe the holding company transaction in detail, specifically what happened with the intercompany items, the CD asset, and the holdco loans?

Is there any change in the cash interest expense paid by Nutresa?

Andrés.

At the holdco level, it was a merger at the shareholder level, which did not affect Grupo Nutresa's structure or the operation at all. Regarding the intercompany loans is something that we have been doing for the last year and a half.

Any excess cash that is generated in different countries is deposited on a bank in Panama, and that bank lends the money on a back-to-back basis to local companies here in Colombia on a very efficient tax strategy. The CD asset still remains the same.

It's getting 8.5% interest rate, which is the average on the initial bonds that we issue at 8% and 9%. Obviously that represents $117 million in revenue per year due to that cash interest income.

Regarding the interest paid by Nutresa remains the same, and the loan that we made to the shareholders, which was another question you asked, it was $1.5 billion, and the sources were $500 million that they invested in preferred shares as we announced previously, and the issuance of the hybrid bond for $1.25 billion, which we used $1 billion for that. That is the processes we made within this quarter.

Perfect, Andrés. Thank you for your answer.

The next question comes from Julián, and it posts, 'What steps has Nutresa taken to preserve margins under the upcoming strong El Niño? What input cost pressures has Nutresa observed so far in 3Q '26 on cocoa and other inputs?

Detail any derivatives on the balance that aim to hedge commodity price pressures.' Similar question is posted by another of our audience members saying, 'Do you expect pressure on EBITDA margin in the second half of 2026 and in 2027 due to the commodity price increases which you have described?'

Jaime, if you'd like, I'll take this one. Perfect.

Now the first comment we want to share is that the first comments on El Niño were in March or April of this year, and it was confirmed a few weeks ago, and it's projected to bring significant heat during the final month of 2026 and the early months of 2027. That heat is not generalized across the globe, but particular in certain zones of the crop countries.

Now, Nutresa initiated action plans in early April that include advancing our hedging strategy. In fact, at this point, we are hedged up to 90% for 2026 across our entire commodity basket, and we accelerated hedges on very critical commodities, as our audience members have mentioned.

We mentioned advancements in cocoa, in coffee, and in wheat particularly. As we mentioned during the slides where we were talking about the commodity baskets, only in the last month, we have seen increases of high-single to mid-teens in these commodities.

However, we also have our treasury department implementing FX hedges to shield U.S.-denominated commodities from the volatility of these raw materials and effects. That also covers our expected EBITDA for 2027.

Lastly, Grupo Nutresa has seen these kind of volatilities over the past decades. Along with our commodity hedging, which again, we have accelerated, our FX hedging to protect U.S.-denominated commodities, and the operational and efficiency initiatives that we continue to implement at the cost level, we are confident that we're going to be able to maintain very healthy gross margins for 2027 as well.

Now, the next question is, 'What is the expectations of sales of Ecuador and Venezuela, given the latest acquisitions that the company has made in the region?'

Thank you, Cathy. Basically, I would like to explain that the acquisitions that we have made in Ecuador and Venezuela are both very strategic acquisitions.

In the case of Ecuador, we are buying the largest chocolate company in the country. It has revenues today in the neighborhood of $70 million.

We believe that once we are approved the regulatory, which should happen within the next six months, we should be able to implement the strategy of transforming the company and making it much more efficient using the same principles that we are using in our chocolate factory, especially in Colombia. We are very positive on this acquisition, and we expect that Ecuador as a country in 2027 should have revenues in the neighborhood of $170 to $200 million.

That's coming up from a $40 million number two to two and a half years ago that has been increased with the strategic acquisition of the Yupi business in Ecuador, and also now with La Universal, and the continuation of growth of some of our other categories from Colombia. In the case of Venezuela, it's also a very important, and we believe an accretive acquisition for the long term.

Venezuela, as you probably remember, about 12 years to 14 years ago used to be 20% to 30% of the revenues of Grupo Nutresa, and that almost became a very small number by last year. Last year, revenues were $14 million.

We still kept an organization in Venezuela all along, mostly to sell and distribute in the country. With the work that we have started from the beginning of the year, a series of visits that I have made to really understand the potential and opportunities of the country, we have strengthened our sales and distribution network.

In addition to that, the Tío Rico acquisition is a very strategic acquisition because of two main reasons. The first one, it's about 55% of the market of ice creams in the country.

It's probably the most regarded brand in ice creams in Venezuela, known by customers for many, many years. We believe that we are going to, with the support of our Colombian operation, with the support of our Colombian talent, we should be able to improve not only the margins, but improve the products and the innovation in Venezuela to allow us to have a much stronger ice cream business in the country.

Once the economy starts growing, we believe that this will become an interesting new engine of growth. In addition to that, the platform that we acquired has about 200,000 square meters of warehouse space and land that are going to allow us to implement in Venezuela a strategy of growth by bringing some of our other categories that we could produce in the country once volumes are required.

In the meantime, we are analyzing and we continue to export from Colombia. It has not been an easy process, but it has been growing.

We expect again in Venezuela that our revenues in 2027 with the Tío Rico acquisition and with some of the expected growth that we have should be somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 to $200 million, coming from a $14 million number last year. Thank you.

Thank you, Jaime, very much. The next question posts, 'Hi, can you please share the prices paid for the two M&A transactions, particularly, Jaime, the ones you were just talking about in Venezuela and Ecuador?

Any guidance for total M&A for 2026 and 2027?' This is posted by Carlos Alberto from UPB.

I think that the two acquisitions that we made between Venezuela and Ecuador will be about $100 million. We are at the moment consolidating all the regulatory approvals, and we expect that to be paid sometime end of this year or first quarter of 2027.

We are constantly looking at opportunities. I think that as since we arrived at Grupo Nutresa, we have made five major acquisitions.

The first one was the Yupi acquisition last year, which allowed us to be in the snack business and snack category, both in Colombia and in Ecuador and Panama and some of the other countries where Yupi is. We consolidated the 100% position in our food service business by acquiring Alpina's participation, and that business has continued to grow very well this year.

During this year, we have completed the Mimos acquisition, which is a strategic acquisition to strengthen not only our ice cream business in Colombia, but to give our retail stores in Colombia, our retail restaurants, the Mimos product in all of our restaurants, which is going to really increase the category of ice creams at the restaurant level. Both La Universal and Tío Rico are strategic deals in coffee and in Tío Rico, not only in ice cream, but the platform.

Constantly, we are looking at opportunities. We're looking at acquisitions, always being careful that we want to maintain and reduce our leverage ratios, as we have said, and to continue to grow our EBITDA margins during 2026 and also in 2027.

Important to mention that we have continued our transformation initiatives during 2026. A lot of work has happened around the company and around all the geographies.

We are really working on a series of initiatives. We have about 400 initiatives this year.

As you remember, last year we completed almost a thousand initiatives. This year we are working on different initiatives, which should mean for the company important improvements during the second semester.

We estimate those improvements to be in the neighborhood of $60 to $80 million. Go ahead, Cathy.

Thank you, Jaime. The next question relates to buybacks, and it says, 'Can you comment on buybacks and how much money you are going to invest in them in the second half of the year?'

Andrés, please.

Actually, the buyback that we made was already done early July. That was made with the cash that we have been generating.

Previously to that, we already prepaid $120 million in local debt. As today, we do not expect any additional buybacks, and we remain within the range that we have defined, which is 20% to 30% of EBITDA.

Thank you, Andrés. The next question relates to CAPEX, and it says, 'Good morning, what is the purpose of the reported CAPEX, and what percentage is destined to maintenance of the total CAPEX reported for this year, which again, to remind everyone, is close to 650 billion pesos?'

Andrés.

As Cathy mentioned, that is the amount. We continue looking at 2.5% of total sales.

Around 40% to 45% of that amount is used in maintenance, the remaining 55% to 60% is either increasing capacity or improving efficiency. Beyond that, that is probably 550 billion pesos the remaining part to the number that Cathy just mentioned is because we have been adding electricity generation through solar panels.

The last year, we have started 10 of them, and today Nutresa has 7% of the total energy consumption generated by ourselves. On top of that, on logistics, we have decided to create synergies reducing the sites.

Additional investment have been made on those, and will continue doing so in the main cities. As an example, in Medellín, we already have eight logistics centers, and we'll reduce that to two of them.

Similar situations in Bogotá, Cali, and Barranquilla.

Thank you, Andrés. The next question is posted by Alexey, and he asks, 'What year-end USD-COP rate do you assume for your EBITDA guidance?'

As an average for the year is 3,564 pesos, that's 3564, and for the end of the year, 3,300. To be honest, it has been quite difficult to forecast exchange rates.

The Colombian peso last month was the most rallied currency in the world. We're very confident on the new government.

However, we do have some risk on the budget capacity of the government, welcome as we see performance. We hedge loans, we hedge the commodities that we buy on a normal basis.

That's why it's quite difficult to forecast, but those are the numbers that we are using at this point in time.

Thank you, Andrés. The last question that we have at this time is posted by David, and he asks about the merger and whether or not the merger is going to have a significant impact in the finances of Nutresa for this year.

Again, to remember the audience that are joining us here today, this was already answered, and the merger is done at the shareholder level, and it has zero impact on Grupo Nutresa. With that, we conclude our second quarter 2026 earnings call.

Thank you very much for joining us today, and have a great day.