INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CALL ABOUT GENERAL SHOPPING BRASIL S FIRST QUARTER 2009 EARNINGS May 15, 2009

Transcription

1 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CALL ABOUT GENERAL SHOPPING BRASIL S FIRST QUARTER 2009 EARNINGS May 15, 2009 Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. This is General Shopping Brasil s conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listenonly mode. Later we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will be given at that time. If you need assistance during the call, please press the star key followed by zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Gabriel De Gaetano of FIRB Financial Investor Relations Brasil. Please go ahead. Mr. Gabriel De Gaetano: Good afternoon and welcome to General Shopping Brasil s conference call to discuss the first quarter 2009 earnings. This conference call is being broadcast live on General Shopping Brasil s investor relations website, The presentation is also available on that site. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the safe harbor of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of Actual performance could differ materially from that anticipated in any forwardlooking comments as a result of macroeconomic conditions, market risks and other factors. With us today in São Paulo are Alessandro Poli Veronezi, CEO and Investor Relations Director, and Ricardo Castro, CFO. First Mr. Castro will go through the 1 st Quarter 2009 results. Afterwards, Mr. Veronezi will comment on the company s financial and operating performance. After that, management will be available for a question and answer session. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Castro. Mr. Ricardo Castro da Silva (General Shopping Brasil): Good afternoon, everyone, thank you for joining us in our presentation. Starting the presentation of the 1Q09 financial performance. On page 4 the figures of gross revenues. Gross revenues totaled R$ 25.1 million in this quarter, of which R$ 19.7 million of rent and R$ 5.4 million of services, and approximate growth of 16% in rent and over 85% in services. Rent revenues growth is mainly due to an annual tenant contract increase. The rent revenue breakdown was 83% of minimum rent; 5.9% variable rent; 4.6% advertising; 4.6% key money and 2% others. 1

2 The growth of R$ 2.5 million in services revenues from R$ 2.9 million in 1Q08 to R$ 5.4 million in 09 was due mainly to the growth in parking management revenues, that, of these R$ 2.5 million, represented R$ 1.8 million. The service revenue breakdown was 71.5% parking management; 18% energy; 6% water; and 4% management. On next page, page 5, in this page we show the rent revenue and service revenue per square meter in the original portfolio figures, that is Internacional Shopping, Poli Shopping, Auto Shopping and Shopping Light. The original portfolio was increased by the Internacional Shopping expansion of 3,000 square meters, totaling around 96,800 square meters of GLA. Rent revenue per square meter was R$ 128 versus R$ 114 in 1Q08, a growth of 12.3%. Service revenue totaled R$ per square meter, up more than 33% compared with the 1Q08. In the portfolio the gross revenue per square meter presented the growth of over 27%, totaling R$ 108 per square meter. Service revenues per square meter registered R$ this quarter and R$ 4.51 in 1Q08. Rent revenues per square meter grew 6.5% and was under the negative impact due to the great period of Suzano's new tenant and to Top Center tenant who were reallocated due to the reforms. The total company's gross revenues per square meter was R$ , a 19.3% growth in comparison with R$ in 1Q08. On next page, page 6, we present the vacancy indexes. The company's total vacancy was 4.5% in this first quarter, in line with that of the 1Q08. As I said, this number was negatively affected by Top Center 1,500 square meters that were being reallocated due to the reform. Disregarding this number, the company's total vacancy would have been 3.7%. The acquired portfolio vacancy, which stood at 5.3%, would have been 3.6% disregarding this Top Center effect and shows the company's ability to implement turnaround at the acquired shoppings. On next page, page 7, we present more details on services revenues. Services revenues in this quarter represented 21.5% of General Shopping Brasil s total revenues. These revenues totaled R$ 5.4 million in this quarter, up 85% when compared with the 1Q08. Parking represented 71.5% of total services revenues and reached R$ 3.9 million in this quarter. On next page, page 8, we present our main performance indexes. In 1Q09, NOI totaled R$ 18.2 million, up 21.4% as compared with the R$ 15 million of 1Q08. NOI margin totaled 80%. 2

3 Adjusted EBITDA showed a growth of over 21%, totaling R$ 15 million, with a 70% EBITDA margin. The company's adjusted net profit was over R$ 9 million and FFO was R$ 11.6 million, a growth of more than 200%. On next page, page 9, we show the figures of total debt and net debt. The company's total debt on March 31 st was R$ 326 million, represented by 80% of CCI and 20% by other banks. The indexes were 55% TR rate and 25% of IGP- M rate - that was the CCI loan. The short term debt was represented by 18.6% indexed by CDI and 1.2% fixed rates. Regarding our amortization timeline, the CCI operations are due in 10 years. We are working on a new CCI issuance to extend our short term debt profile with the banks. By this week we approved with BNDES a new line, new credit line in the amount of R$ 18 million. Now I pass the word to Alessandro. Thank you again. Mr. Alessandro Poli Veronezi (General Shopping Brasil): Thank you, Ricardo. Good afternoon for all those attending the conference. I will start my presentation on page 11. Here again we show which are the competitive advantages of the company. It is a market-driven company with a retail approach beyond the traditional real estate approach which we also have to consider. As of this, we also have a focus on consumption classes and we are focused on B and C consumption classes as clients of our tenants, the retailers inside the malls. We are also innovative in complementary services and some of these services you will see ahead which are also making a difference in the revenues and other lines that we notice in the income statement, also on the turnaround for shopping malls. And finally we have a majority ownership policy for all the malls, so with that we can control the destiny of these malls and implement the advantages that we have above. On next page we have an updated table with the malls that we already have, already considering the expansions of Internacional Shopping and Suzano Shopping, which happened on 4Q08 and also these can be already noticed the effects of these two expansion openings. It can be noticed on the balance sheet and income statement already increasing revenues, NOI and consequently the EBITDA figures, which improved the numbers of the company and its balance sheet. On next page, page 13, we have the evolution of the GLA of the company table and in this table we already have the timetable for the greenfields, as already announced on the last results conference, last March, and also this has to be 3

4 considered according to the analysis that we will carry on ahead in this presentation. On page 14, we notice which is our stake in the shopping center market in the state of São Paulo comparing to the peers, also listed companies. We have here a comparison presenting how we have a dominant presence in the state by either the GLA or also the amount of shopping centers that are owned by us and this helps us to have the best understanding of the retail performance in the state and the best relationship also, a better relationship with the retailers in this area. When we have on page 15, which is the next, we notice that these are the malls that we have in the state of São Paulo and how representative the state is in terms of GDP and also on the retail representation throughout the country. In both figures it represents more than 30% of the total figures in the country - just the state of São Paulo. Extending this analysis to the other shopping malls of the company, we can flip to page 16 and the go to the Southern and Southeastern regions of the country, which besides also having a proxy to the examples that we have in the State of São Paulo and better proxies than throughout Brazil would be for analyzing the retail, these areas - Southern and Southeastern states also - are very much representative of the larger amount of what happens in GDP and PIB in Brazil. It represents almost 3/4 of both figures in Brazil. Now we move to page 17, once again presenting the outlet mall case as the first outlet in Brazil and it is intended to be open next month, already with almost all its area leased. The construction by the owners, us and our partners, has almost been finished, just the construction by the retailers is being carried out in a fast pace inside their own stores nowadays. Flipping to page 18, we have a table with complementary services and this is how we update which services are already implemented in each of the malls, with the dark checkmarks, and the light checkmarks, we have the services which can still be implemented in our malls. This timetable and the evolution of this table throughout the time in our last presentations is the explanation for why we had such a growth of 85% on services revenue comparing 1Q08 to 1Q09, representing these revenues now by 1Q09 already more than 20% of the company's revenues. Next page, on page 19 we have a comparison here of stock valuation. We consider here the assets value as carried by us and considering liquidating the debt and also we compare these to the figures of the stock price at the market one day prior to our release, so the day before yesterday. And finally, on page 20, we have the general information about governance and the information about the listing of the company. 4

5 Now I ask your attention to start talking a little about fundamentals in the market and some analysis. As we noticed previously, the analysis of economic factors and microeconomic modeling of consumption and demand are really important to our business model, so we would like to comment these briefly according to the information which is made available here. The effects of the global economy downturn led us to have caution appeared not to affect Brazil and the Brazilian economy as intensely as expected by some of the strategists. So despite a major decrease that we had in the industrial production, it appears to have reached the bottom from where it is slightly recovering. We have some analysis of one of our Board members which also works for other Boards on industrial institutions and according to the industrial production trend index provided by FGV and AES also, the industrial production in the state of São Paulo, for example, has already increased 3.2% in April comparing to last March, already seasonally adjusted. So this is a positive indication of the worst that might be back at least for this first time. When we move into page 22, we notice that despite the unemployment in 1Q09 having a more accelerated growth curve than seen in the previous three years, the nominal figures and the proportional figures are still below the years of 2006 and 2007, as you may notice. Also notice that the total real income is something that has to come out of the amount of people employed and which are their wages and income - and this is one of the things that leads to the consumption, the fundamental of income - we may flip into page 23 and then in this page we notice that although it is slightly decelerated during this first quarter, its slight decrease in this first quarter is very much above the last three years - the total real income for the employed population. However, although these fundamentals still remain strong we also have to notice that due to the news and the mood that has been spread throughout the market over the last quarters, there has been a decrease in the consumer confidence index and also we have been noticing until this first quarter. And then when we flip into page 24, we have some of these figures, but we may also notice that for the last month we already have some positive figures and when we compare since the beginning of the global economic crunch as the beginning of September 2008, the evolution accumulated till February is stronger than it was like to March, so it is already decelerating. And also we may notice that the behavior is worse for the higher classes than for the middle and mid-low classes. This behavior, together with the decrease in the availability of credit, has led to rather erratic results in various retail categories as one may notice on pages 25 and 26. 5

6 And among the various reasons for this behavior we notice the greater or lesser need for the consumer finance; the retailers' capability to provide financing; the industry pricing, which leads to retailers costs; the price policies or reduction for retailers - and some categories like electronic goods have presented this, as well as presenting inventory reduction policies - and also finally government support through financing or tax reduction, among other factors. Considering these factors, we continue to see positive fundamentals for the medium and long term for the Brazilian economy, although one must be careful in the current environment. The continuation of our greenfields and leasing of these greenfields is still carried, continuing, but this schedule has already been adjusted as already noticed and said in the previous conference for the fourth quarter according to this current environment. The existing operations also demand special attention of the management according to these scenarios because although we consider the long term and medium term good fundamentals, we have to be aware for the scenarios in the short term. Thank you very much and now I will pass to the operator for the Q&A session. Q&A Session Mr. Veronezi: Thank you for all those attending to the conference as we monitor here and also through the webcast and we also make ourselves available through the IR Department on my figure and also Marcio, the IR Manager. We are available to you if you need any further information and also we will be available visiting and attending to conferences outside the country. Thank you very much. Operator: That does conclude our General Shopping Brasil s conference for today. Thank you very much for your participation, have a good day. 6