Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, S.A.B. de C.V. (NASDAQ:OMAB) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Ricardo Duenas: Yes, we’re seeing the impact within the nearshoring — that is real, is happening and we’re seeing it in our portfolio of airports. If you look at this aggregate, the traffic performance in the last few months, nearshoring destinations, for example, Ciudad Juárez are growing at a much larger percentage than the average of the other OMA airports.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Sally Nielsen with Citi.

Unidentified Analyst: So I have 2 questions on my side and sorry if you have already mentioned about that. But I was curious about why did electricity materials cost decline this quarter when we actually expected them to rise as everywhere else. And the second question is regarding tariffs. Like do you see any risks of Mexican airports getting tariffs cuts going forward when MDP negotiations start to resolve?

Ruffo Perez Pliego: I’ll take the first question and then if you can repeat the second one because we can’t hear competitively. But on the utility side, as you know, over the last 18 months, we invested in solar parks in all of our airports. So in the fourth quarter of the year, our solar parks generated 17% of our total energy consumption and that contributed significantly to the savings that you’re seeing in the fourth quarter relative to the fourth quarter of 2021. And with respect to your second question, if I may ask to you to rephrase then.

Unidentified Analyst: Sure. The second one was regarding airport tariffs. Like are you seeing any risks of Mexican airport’s tariffs getting cut during the negotiations of the next MDP developments?

Ricardo Duenas: I mean we’re still — we’re 3 years for the next negotiation. We’re up for the September 25, actually 2 years till too far. But the regulatory framework has been very clear. It is straightforward in the NH7 concession title. It has been working well and we have no reason to believe that it would behave differently going forward.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Juan with GBM.

Unidentified Analyst: Congrats on results. I have 2 questions. My first question would be regarding M&A. Are you assessing any M&A projects? And my second question is regarding your tariff impairment. You implemented early February, if you could tell us how that went. It would be great.

Ruffo Perez Pliego: So on the M&A side, we — last year, we’re still participating in the Barras process which has been called off. After the incorporation of VINCI in our capital structure, we are not expecting to conduct M&A at the OMA level but our expectation is that we likely be down at the VINCI Airports level.

Ricardo Duenas: And after tariff goal, we’re still working on the details. And we’ll report as soon as we have more information.

Unidentified Analyst: Great. One more question regarding tariffs. What percent of your approved tariff for 2023 have you reached?

Ricardo Duenas: What percentage of what, sorry?

Unidentified Analyst: Of your maximum approved tariff for 2023. Are you at 100% Or are you still .

Ricardo Duenas: So for 2022, our maximum tariff was 90%. 90% maximum tariff compliance.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. So you’re currently at 90%, right? Do I understand

Ricardo Duenas: That is correct.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Gabriel Himelfarb with Deutsche Bank.