Grupo Mexico S.A.B. de C.V. Class B

Grupo Mexico S.A.B. de C.V. Class B

12.00
EUR
+0.19
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78.69BMarket Cap
Feb 04Next Earn

Q3 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptOctober 22, 2026

Operator

Hello, everyone, and thank you for holding, and welcome to Grupo México's third quarter earnings conference call. With us today are all of Grupo México's top executives who will discuss the financial performance of the company during the third quarter 2026 results, giving you a summary of the latest news and addressing any questions you may have at the end of the call.

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that information disclosed on today's call may include forward-looking statements regarding the company's results and prospects, which are subjects to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially and the company cautions not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Grupo México undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. All results are expressed in full US GAAP.

The presentation may be followed through our webcast, but if you wish to ask a question during the Q&A session, you will need to do so via phone call by pressing star 1 1. A copy of the slides that the company will be reviewing today is available on the website at grupomexico.com.

At this time, I would like to remind everyone that your lines must be in listen-only mode until the Q&A session. Now, we will begin with Marlene Finny.

Please proceed.

Marlene Finny

Thank you so much, Carmen. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Grupo México's third quarter earnings conference call.

Sitting with me today are the top executives from our three divisions. During our call, we will be following, as Carmen mentioned before, a presentation that can be downloaded from our website or followed by accessing the webcast.

Today's detailed program can be found on slide number 3. I'll start with Grupo México's ESG highlights, followed by the quarter scorecard and financial highlights.

Then Mr. Leonardo Contreras will provide detailed information regarding our Mining Division's main highlights, project updates, and comment on the industry's economic environment.

He will then be followed by Mr. Fernando López Guerra, who will go through the financial results and main events of our Transportation Division.

Lastly, Mr. Francisco Zinser will comment on the Infrastructure Division's relevant events and numbers.

As usual, at the end, the line will be open for your questions and answers. Now let's go to our main ESG highlights on slide number 5.

Firstly, four of our operations in Sonora received the renowned Silver Helmet Award, the Casco de Plata Award, for outstanding safety performance and accident prevention, making this the first time that four operations from the state have been recognized in the same edition, reflecting our commitment to the workers' safety. Then, at Michiquillay in Peru, the Participatory Environmental Committee concluded its third environmental performance verification of 2026.

This committee, which includes community leaders and public and private sector representatives, plays an active role in environmental monitoring, reinforcing transparency and supporting effective management of environmental and community affairs. Additionally, our construction company was selected from more than 50 companies in six countries to receive the FIIC Corporate Social Responsibility Award, recognizing its commitment to community well-being and responsible operations.

Lastly, during this quarter, El Doctor Vagón, the health train, provided free medical services to more than 17,000 people across 12 communities in five Mexican states, continuing to bring essential healthcare and medical support to remote communities. Now, I will continue on slide number 6 with our scorecard.

I want to note that we reached record financials this quarter, starting with our accumulated revenue for the first nine months of the year that totaled $17.6 billion, representing an increase of more than 25% when compared to the first nine months of 2025. Our EBITDA topped $10.6 billion, showing an increase of close to 50% when compared to the same period of last year.

Our copper production reached roughly 776,000 tons for the first nine months of the year. This is a slight decrease when compared to 2025.

This is very important: our net cash cost settled at $0.38 per pound, an improvement of almost 60% when compared to the first nine months of 2025. Lastly, our board approved a stock dividend equivalent to one common share for every 194 common shares outstanding.

This distribution, which follows the share repurchase program executed during the quarter, represents an estimated $1.26 per share and an annualized dividend yield of 2.1%. This reflects the company's forward-looking approach in an environment with market volatility and rising interest rates where we are looking to remain flexible.

Turning to slide number 7, Grupo México continues to have a solid balance sheet with $3.6 billion generated during the first nine months of the year. As you might already know, our debt is mainly denominated in US dollars, and this represents 82% of our total debt, while the rest is in Mexican pesos.

And 89% of our debt was issued at a fixed rate. On this slide, you can also see the dividend paid since 2024, along with the corresponding payout ratios and implied dividend yields.

For this quarter, the dividend is calculated based on the closing share price of the declaration date. Moving to slide number 8, we continue to have a comfortable debt maturity profile with no payments of over $1 billion until 2037.

Our cash position stood at $13.8 billion at the end of the first nine months of 2026. That's all from me now, and I will let Leonardo Contreras comment on our Mining Division's performance.

Leonardo Contreras

Thank you, Marlene. Good morning, everyone, and thank you again for joining us today.

I will start today with a brief remark on the current copper market on slide 10. The LME copper price increased 44% from an average of $4.24 in the third quarter of 2025 to $6.41 during this quarter.

In the COMEX market, we saw a 34% increase with an average of $6.48 per pound during the third quarter. Now, based on current supply and demand dynamics, we think there will be probably a slight copper market surplus for 2026, as supply growth is expected to modestly outpace demand growth from key end markets such as decarbonization technologies, artificial intelligence, and electric vehicles.

Copper inventory worldwide stood at 1,105,000 tons as of October 9th. We estimate that this inventory level can currently cover around 14 days of global demand.

Now, let's continue with the Mining Division's financial highlights on slide 11. This quarter, we showed exceptional financial results that represent a record for the Mining Division.

During the first nine months of this year, sales stood at $14.4 billion, almost a 40% increase versus 2025, driven by higher sales volumes of zinc, paired with stronger copper, molybdenum, zinc, and silver prices, which increased roughly 31, 35, 26, and 108% respectively. Our EBITDA totaled just more than $9 billion, a 60% improvement compared to the first nine months of 2025 with a 63.5% as margin.

Our copper production reached close to 736,000 tons, a slight decrease of 2.8% when compared to the first nine months of 2025, mainly due to lower ore grades, as we budgeted for 2026, within our Peruvian operations. This was partially offset by higher production of our mining units in Mexico.

Our net cash cost for the first nine months of this year settled at $0.38 per pound, a significant 58.8% improvement compared to the same period of 2025, reflecting a $0.55 reduction and showing a very competitive level. Now let's move into CapEx.

We invested $1.4 billion during the first nine months of the year. I would like to continue talking about projects and their progress in slides 12 to 14.

Starting with slide 12, Tía María continues to make steady progress, reaching nearly 50% overall completion. As of September 30, we have committed $1.1 billion, of which $884 has already been invested.

Milestones as of September 30th included the completion of major earthworks, continued progress on the project's power infrastructure, and the advancement of construction activities across processing and operational facilities. Key equipment orders also continued to advance.

Also, the project has generated more than 6,800 jobs, of which 1,200 are local positions, and remain on track to begin operations within the first half of 2028. Now let's move on to Los Chancas, in which we continue implementing social and environmental programs in award local communities while advancing efforts to secure the project's area and address illegal mining activities.

If we move to Michiquillay, we continue advancing key technical studies and project planning activities. During the quarter, the mineral resource report was completed, while development and infrastructure studies continue to move forward.

Lastly, we are formal sharing our potential expansion of Cuajone. We're currently evaluating an expansion of the concentrator's milling capacity from 90,000 to 120,000 tons per day to maintain or potentially increase production.

The expansion would support an increase of roughly 55,000 tons of copper and 1.4 thousand tons of molybdenum per year, translating into a 33% increase in milling capacity. In addition, we are evaluating the feasibility of a potentially larger expansion to 150,000 tons per day.

Now, moving into Mexico, we are glad to share that El Pilar has obtained all required environmental permits, and early site preparation activities began during the quarter. Development activities continue to move forward across key infrastructure areas, including power facilities and the SX-EW plant, keeping the project on track for construction to begin in 2027 and production to come in line by 2029.

If we turn to slide 15, you will see a timeline of our main projects. Please, if you have any follow-up questions, we would be happy to address them during the Q&A session.

Now, I will let Fernando comment on our Transportation Division.

Fernando López Guerra

Thank you. Thank you, Leo, and good morning, everyone.

Thanks again for joining us. Continuing with the Transportation Transportation Division results on slide 17, I'm going to go through the our financial highlights for the first nine months of the year.

Our sales reached $2.8 billion, a solid 14% increase compared to the first nine months of 2025. Our EBITDA for the nine first nine months of 2026 totaled just shy of $1.2 billion.

This is a 9.3% higher than 2025 where the EBITDA margin stood at 41.1%. Both in revenue and in EBITDA, this is a record for our division.

As for net income, it totaled $332 million during the first nine months. This is 11% lower than the same period of 2025.

Transported volumes grew 5.4%, both in net ton-kilometers and in carloads, reflecting a solid accrued growth in the division. Continuing with the main variations of our revenue on slide 18, as a reminder, these variations are considering results in Mexican pesos.

I'll start with the segment that delivered the stronger strongest revenue growth through the year through the quarter, which is intermodal, leading the segment with a 16% increase, driven by growth in domestic traffic in both US and Mexico, as well as our cross-border operations. In metals, we had a solid 14% increase supported by a recovery in Mexico's scrap and steel slab market.

Lastly, in minerals, the segment grew by 13%, reflecting strong volume growth driven by longer iron ore hauls. In the mid-growth range, cement the cement segment delivered a 9% growth in revenue, driven primarily by stronger