Fomento Económico Mexicano - Earnings Call - Q1 2021

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning and welcome, everyone, to FEMSA's first quarter 2021 financial results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. 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 Juan Fonseca, FEMSA's Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to FEMSA's first quarter 2021 results conference call. Today, we are joined by Eduardo Padilla, our Chief Executive Officer, Eugenio Garza, our Finance and Corporate Development Director, and by Jorge Collazo, who heads Coca-Cola FEMSA's investor relations effort. Paco Camacho, our Chief Corporate Officer, is traveling this week and was unable to dial in today, so let me turn it over to Eugenio for some opening remarks.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Thank you, Juan. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. We hope your families and yourselves are doing well. The first message that jumps out from the data for the first quarter is that things are getting better. Most importantly, they're getting better on the health front, gradually, in some cases, painfully so, and there have been setbacks, of course, such as the big COVID wave we recently saw in Brazil, but little by little, and following the trends on the health front, our numbers also tell a story of sequential improvement, not just quarter over quarter, but month over month. This is happening across all of our business units, and it's encouraging. Another thing to keep in mind as we look at the numbers is comparability.

While the first 10 weeks of the year we faced demanding comps from a strong start in 2020 and an extra calendar day in February, after that, as you all know, we went into severe lockdowns across all our markets that remained in place one way or another for a full year. This will make for a low comparison basis in the next few months and quarters to come, so we must not get complacent. In fact, internally, we are using 2019 numbers as a useful reference to measure our progress across business units. On the disclosure front, we're also happy to present the Logistics and Distribution segment, providing much-needed visibility into this part of our company.

I take this opportunity to reinforce our message that we now have a solid presence in the business verticals that we have identified as attractive and that, importantly, offer a clear and compelling fit with our current capability set. The task now is to keep growing in every vertical and to drive incremental returns. Before we dive into the numbers, I just want to mention the EUR 1.2 billion bond issue we announced yesterday. As you probably know, this was the first sustainability-linked bond ever issued by a Mexican corporate, the largest one ever issued by a Latin American corporate. We also achieved the lowest all-in yields ever for a Latin American issuer in the Eurobond market at 0.55% and 1.07% for the seven and 12-year tranches, respectively.

This issuance will allow us to comfortably refinance our currently outstanding 2023 bonds, improving our maturity profile and further strengthening our balance sheet while generating a positive NPV of approximately €20 million on the reasonable assumptions, and just as importantly, it reinforces our commitment to deliver on ambitious ESG targets that are an integral component of our long-term business strategy. Starting with FEMSA's consolidated quarterly numbers, total revenues for the first quarter increased 1.8%, while income from operations remained flat. On an organic basis, total revenues decreased 3%, and income from operations decreased 2.4%. For this quarter, the difference between reported and organic figures reflects the results of our operations in the U.S., all of which came on board during the last 12 months. Still, our figures continue to post sequential improvements, which are encouraging.

As we mentioned before, keep in mind that the full effect of the pandemic and the mobility restrictions started in the late part of March 2020. Thus, the comparison basis is still high for this quarter. FEMSA's net income decreased 31.3%, reflecting a demanding comp pace in the first quarter of 2020 that benefited from a non-cash foreign exchange gain related to FEMSA's dollar-denominated cash position. This was partially offset by lower interest expense and an increase in our participation in associates, which mainly reflects the results of our investment in Heineken. In terms of our consolidated net debt position, during the first quarter, it decreased 5% to Ps. 72 billion at the end of March, reflecting high cash generation at Coca-Cola FEMSA that offset a slight increase in our debt balance during the quarter. For its part, CapEx was down 37% as every operation continued to rationalize non-critical investments.

Moving on to disclose our operations and beginning with FEMSA Comercio's Proximity Division. We opened 140 new OXXO stores during the first quarter, which are a net of 30 permanent closures that were carried over from last year's store pruning exercise, as well as 30 stores that are temporarily closed for maintenance. While we are not yet fully up to speed with our expansion pace, we are on track to achieve our full-year target. In terms of the operating environment, a significant percentage of our store base remained subject to COVID-related restrictions and measures for a good part of the quarter. However, many of these restrictions were gradually relaxed during March and resulted in better traffic and resilient ticket growth, which together benefited OXXO's overall performance.

OXXO's same-store sales were down 6.5% for the first quarter, reflecting an 18% decline in store traffic and an increase of 14.4% in average customer tickets. Gross margin remained flat at 40%, reflecting positive trends in our services category, which offset a decrease in commercial income activity and promotional programs with our key supplier partners. Income from operations decreased 21.1%, and operating margin contracted 110 basis points, reflecting operating deleverage. Moving on to FEMSA Comercio's Health Division, during the first quarter, we expanded our drugstore counts by 37 net additions to reach a total of 3,405 units across our territories at the end of March and 209 total new stores for the last 12 months. Revenues increased 16%, while same-store sales increased an average of 15.5% in Mexican pesos. We continue to see good momentum at our operations in Mexico, coupled with resilient conditions in South America.

Gross margin expanded by 50 basis points in the quarter, reflecting improved efficiency and more effective collaboration and execution with our key supplier partners across geographies. Operating margin expanded 210 basis points, reflecting increased operating leverage. Moving on to FEMSA Comercio's Fuel Division, we note that vehicle mobility remains below pre-COVID levels. In that context, we again saw some sequential improvement, even as many of our locations skew towards residential neighborhoods that have recovered more slowly than commercial ones. During the first quarter, we continue to see pressure on our same-station sales, which decreased 22%. Gross margin reached 12.7%, while operating margin was 2.7% of total revenues, reflecting tight expense control that partially offset operating deleverage. Now, let me talk a little bit about our logistics and distribution business. As you know, we are reporting its results as a segment for the first time.

In the U.S., we are making good progress integrating the four distinct entities that we have acquired into a single efficient platform that is primed for growth. We have capitalized on the very strong teams that ran the legacy companies and integrated them into a single highly experienced and motivated organization. However, the U.S. is reopening at different speeds in different regions, and some end-user categories such as hospitality and entertainment are still lagging. Therefore, we expect trends to improve further in the second half of the year. For its part, our 3PL logistics operation is also making good progress across its main Latin American markets of Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, even as economic recovery is expected to be slower in those countries than in the U.S.

Finally, moving on briefly to Coca-Cola FEMSA, Mexico and Central America delivered double-digit operating income growth, while currency headwinds in Brazil tempered the benefits of solid volume trends and gains in omnichannel capabilities in South America. You can listen to a webcast of the quarterly call held last Tuesday. Wrapping up, my final message today is one of cautious optimism. The pandemic has forced us to become a more flexible and agile organization, and those learnings are here to stay. Uncertainty levels in our consumer environments remain high, but relative to last year, it seems every day we take a small step in the right direction. We have strong operators that excel at execution, and we believe that we have the right strategy for the team to execute. This should be a better year.

It should be a year of recovery and growth, and we thank you for coming along with us. And with that, we can open the call up for your questions. Operator?

Operator (participant)

The question and answer session will begin at this time. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. Press star. Your question will be taken in the order that it is received. In the interest of time, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question at a time in order to allow for the maximum number of callers to ask their questions. Your first question comes from the line of Bob Ford with Bank of America.

Robert Ford (Analyst)

Hey, thank you, and good morning, everybody. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about Spin and some of the stuff we see in terms of early learnings and the timetable to roll it out nationally, and then when it comes to the changes in the labor law, do the outsourcing elements have an impact, or should we expect something from the PTU floor, or are there other elements that warrant consideration? Thank you.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Sure. Thanks for the question, Bob. With regard to Spin, as you know, we launched the initial program back in September in the city of San Luis Potosí, and so far, it is coming along to plan, and we still continue to believe that by the end of the year, it should be rolled out nationwide, so still early to tell, but so far, the rollout is going according to plan, and with regards to the labor law, we have been studying it carefully. We believe that there will be some administrative changes that we will need to make in company bylaws and some of the other legal requirements of registering companies and whatnot, and we should be ready to implement all these changes before the law comes into full effect in August.

At this point, we don't see any portion of the law affecting our view with regards to profitability or cash flow for this year. So far, we do expect, again, to be in full compliance by August and no major effect in our outlook for profitability.

Robert Ford (Analyst)

Great to hear. Thank you, Eugenio.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Ricardo Alves with Morgan Stanley.

Ricardo Alves (Analyst)

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the call. A couple of questions. Just a quick update on the OXXO same-store sales. The evolution throughout the quarter would be quite helpful. We understand that March was a little bit better than January and February, but whatever additional color you can provide on that would be helpful. But even more interesting, if you could provide some color on April, that would be helpful. On the margin evolution, second question, if you could comment a little bit more both from the gross margin perspective into the EBITDA margin at OXXO. Gross margin flattish year over year, certainly positive highlight to us. So just wanted to pick your brains if that's mostly driven by the financial services or if there's anything else there. But particularly on the EBITDA margin, really surprising to us, the slower pace of decline.

So if you could comment a little bit more on SG&A, that would be helpful. Those are my two questions. Appreciate the time.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Sure. Thanks, Ricardo, for your question. Juan, I don't know if you could provide a little bit more color in terms of the same-store sales trend, and I can talk a little bit about margins.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Sure. Sure, Eugenio. Hey, Ricardo. Yeah, I think it's a very relevant question that you ask because this was, from what I can remember, one of the most notable quarters, I think, in terms of how different one month was to the previous one. And what I mean by that is the level of restrictions that we had on our stores coming out of the holiday period was very, very intense, right? And so I think if you just look at the monthly evolution of same-store sales, we actually had a bit of a step back in January, February relative to what we had been doing towards the end of last year. But then in March, things really turned around. The level of restrictions became much more manageable. If you recall, the color code, the tiers in Mexico had a big improvement in March.

We began to see more states going to green. Probably half of the country went to yellow. I think we stopped having any red states. And what we mentioned last time around, and when we've had conversations with you over the past few months, what we observe is as soon as people feel like it's safer to go out or they have a reason to go out, they go to the store, right? And I think that reinforces our thesis that structurally there are no major changes to habits or patterns. As soon as people are able to go out and about, they visit the store as they always have. So what I would point out in terms of actual numbers is that if you look at the March data, same-store sales were flat to previous year.

So the number for the quarter, as you saw, was -6.6%, I believe. If you factor in two significantly worse months than that, and then March is significantly better than that, as I mentioned, going to flat. And I'll turn it over to Eugenio for the rest of the comments.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Sure. Thanks, Juan. With regards to your question on margins, you're right. I mean, part of the reason we've been able to maintain flat margins has been a very good performance by the payments business, which is obviously a higher margin. But the other encouraging fact there is that as traffic is coming back, we are seeing the ticket remain high, which is very, very encouraging, basically signaling that the consumer habits with regards to other categories such as pantry items, even liquor and alcohol, and the consumer patterns are shifting so that now they see us as a viable option for those categories as well, which should bode well for margins going forward once the lower ticket items come back. So that is encouraging. And with regards to the trends on operating margin and EBITDA margin, we are seeing sequential improvements month by month.

It's just basically a factor of operating leverage, as Juan described earlier. Although we are having tight expense control still, I mean, more and more we are getting back to normal scale levels across all of our operations, and that should bode well for operating margins going forward.

Ricardo Alves (Analyst)

Appreciate the call. They're very helpful. Very interesting also the stickiness of some of the new consumption behavior. Appreciate the time. Thanks again.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Thanks, Ricardo.

Operator (participant)

Next question comes from Alvaro Garcia with BTG.

Alvaro Garcia (Analyst)

Good morning, gentlemen. I have a bigger picture question on sort of what's going on internally, culturally, let's say, with the rollout of Spin and the long-term thinking you have there on the financial services business. I mean, because you have this choice, right, of really pushing the digital platform, but you probably don't want to move too fast because it impacts your store economics, and you don't want to go digital too fast. And we saw Banorte fall off the platform a couple of years ago. We saw Banamex fall off as well recently. And internally, I'm just curious as to how discussions are going on this front.

Is there a push perhaps to maybe lower short-term economic gains or the fees you receive for some of these services to really increase the size of the network, or do you foresee, or do you plan to keep these fees high for the foreseeable future? Thank you.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Sure. Thanks, Alvaro. Obviously, an interesting dilemma and an interesting question. First, with regards to just the cultural element, clearly to attract the right talent, we are keeping the Spin unit a little bit separate from the traditional OXXO business. So we have been brought in talent from the outside. We're using a lot of agile methodologies to pivot, learn, and react quickly to what the consumer wants. And I think the benefit of that going forward as we get those skills into the mainstream OXXO business and throughout FEMSA has actually been, I mean, very encouraging in terms of other opportunities that we can have to digitally transform the entire enterprise. So from that perspective, I think that Spin will bring us a lot more value to the table than just what it is with regards to the business.

And then with the more interesting question about the broader financial services platform, I mean, clearly the way we see it is that we want to provide the consumer with as much choice as he can and let the consumer adapt to whatever bodes the best for his usage of the financial services platform in Mexico. And although we have seen, as you said, I mean, a couple of banks whose target client segment maybe did not match up with our customer segment roll off the platform, we still are operating with 14 other banks. We have 7,000 associated services that can still be paid analogically through OXXO. And we will be bringing that to the digital platform as we roll out and bring more functionality and more have the customer decide where he wants to take his transactions, either analog or digital.

And we will be reacting to that as a business overall. Our strategy, again, from both a top line and a profitability perspective, is to be able to solve our customer needs in the best way possible. And whether they adopt quickly or whether they adopt slowly, it will be more up to the functionality that they want more than a strategy on our part.

Eduardo Padilla (CEO)

This is Eduardo. I would like to add that I think a good thing going forward is how our loyalty program is going to be connected with Spin as well. So I think those connections will enable us to provide a very wide base for services to our customers and let the customer really decide when to go to the physical store and when to use the platform.

Alvaro Garcia (Analyst)

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Alan Alanis with Santander.

Alan Alanis (Analyst)

Thank you so much. Hey, Eduardo, Eugenio, Juan, hope you're well. A couple of questions. The first one regarding the sustainability bond that you issued. I mean, congratulations. I mean, getting money for eight years at a 1% rate, that's fantastic. But what is the use of proceeds? What are you going to do with that money in terms of sustainability? I think we're getting a lot of questions from investors on that front, so you could expand on that. And the second question, the first time that we see the logistics business, but we don't have a history, and so we don't have a sense of how fast it's growing and how much of that logistics business, for instance, is servicing e-commerce, which is something that, as you can imagine, some of your competitors are doing in Brazil, like Sequoia or Traxión in Mexico.

That puts a pretty interesting valuation on those businesses. Could you disclose that if logistics is giving any service directly to e-commerce, and what is the growth algorithm for the logistics business going forward? Those will be the two questions. Thank you.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Sure. Absolutely, and thanks for the questions, Alan. First, with regards to the sustainability bonds, we just actually last week called or we redeemed our notes that were due 2023 billion dollars worth of euro denominated notes. So this was a liability management exercise in that respect, so no effect on the total debt level at FEMSA. Having said that, this is why we chose to do an ESG or a sustainability-linked bond rather than a green bond that's targeted at use of proceeds. As we are making a commitment, regardless of this refinancing exercise, we are making a long-term commitment as a business to achieve our sustainability targets of renewable energy 85% by 2030 and 100% diversion of waste from landfill by 2030 as well.

So with these covenants, I think we are committing ourselves to something that is not only, I mean, good for the environment and good for the ecosystem, but more importantly, good for our business and is in line with our business strategy. So again, not tied to use of proceeds, but definitely tied to our commitment to achieve these targets and putting our money where our mouth is in that respect by 2030. With regards to the logistics business, I think, I mean, just because we bought the U.S. logistics distribution platform in May last year, comparability would have been very hard to achieve. So as the quarters roll by, we'll be able to talk more about these kinds of trends.

But having said that, and to your point, I think a growing part of our less-than-truckload business and some of our warehousing business more and more is geared towards e-commerce companies. Remember, what we're trying to achieve with the 3PL strategy is to help our customers be able to be omnichannel, whether it be through digital stores or end-to-end solutions direct to the customer. And our solutions are tailored to that, not only e-commerce, but being able to offer omnichannel capabilities to our customers. So I think more and more, regardless of how much is actually delivered or sold through e-commerce, in a lot of ways, in some way, shape, or form, the 3PL solutions that we're offering will help them achieve. And I think that will become a bigger part of our mix going forward.

Alan Alanis (Analyst)

Got it, and could you give us a ballpark figure of what the expected growth of the logistics business?

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Yeah. At this point, I mean, it's too early to tell and given the mix of U.S. versus Latin American business, I think it's too early for us to make a prediction. Having said that, we do believe that this will be a prime engine of growth for the portfolio going forward.

Eduardo Padilla (CEO)

Yeah. Let me add, Alan. This is Eduardo. In the US businesses that we have acquired, we're very optimistic because some of them were selling services to the entertainment business, to big restaurant chains, even hospitality. We see those sectors coming back strongly. I think we are looking forward to that growth as well.

Operator (participant)

Next question comes from Marcella Recchia with Credit Suisse.

Marcella Recchia (Analyst)

Hi, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my question. Just to follow up on the distribution and logistics, although we understand that the figures are not fully comparable, if we were to compare reported figures for this new division versus the previous other division, we note that sales grew very solid at 25% quarter over quarter, opposing an 8% decline also quarter over quarter. So I just would like to understand if you can give us some color on the reason on this gap, considering that we saw a material improvement on the bottom line. Thank you so much.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Sure. I think in both the LATAM as well as in the U.S. operations, there was sequential improvement in sales as the lockdown ceased. Specifically, the 3PL business on the LTL front this quarter had a very, very strong quarter as mobility begins to take hold of a lot of the regions that have been subject to stricter lockdowns. So part of it is that. And then also part of it is just the acquisition on the U.S. business of Southeastern Paper Group and SWPlus, which have, again, on an inorganic basis, helped our sales. But nonetheless, the underlying trend month by month of our U.S. businesses continues to be positive as restrictions also in the U.S. open up.

So overall, I think encouraging signs that mobility is helping not only our US business, but more importantly, the Latin American business, which have lagged for the better part of the pandemic.

Marcella Recchia (Analyst)

Got it. But just to understand, what drove the EBITDA decline sequentially?

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

For what unit, Marcella?

Marcella Recchia (Analyst)

Sorry. I just understood the sales growth and the drivers of that. Just would like to understand a little bit better what is driving the sequential EBITDA decline.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Sure. If you go into the numbers, Marcella, because the other divisions were also comprised of the intercompany eliminations. And then, as you probably saw, within the Fuel Division, we are now reporting the wholesale margins as well. So there might be some profitability that you are assigning to the logistics that was not there. So we're happy to work out the numbers with you, but we did not see a significant decline in profitability in the core businesses within logistics and distribution. So there might be some confusion as we are now reporting different business lines in different buckets.

Marcella Recchia (Analyst)

Got it. Very clear. Thank you so much, guys.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Rodrigo Alcantara with UBS.

Rodrigo Alcantara (Analyst)

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Two quick ones, if I may. The first one related a bit about the ticket, which is quite interesting in my view. So if we take the 2019 mix, let's say beers around 15% of tickets, soft drinks, and cigarettes, snacks, service around 3%. Now that we have the full base of 2020, how would you say these years change in 2020? And how do you see this mix evolving in 2021? We have discussed a lot about spirits, some grocery items, but if you could give some numbers there, it would be extremely helpful. That would be my question regarding the ticket.

Eduardo Padilla (CEO)

Rodrigo, this is Eduardo. Basically, Rodrigo, the mobility has impacted us in OXXO. Of all the consumer occasions that have to do with the people on the street, the people on the go, and so the ones that have been affected strongly have been fast food, for example, let's say a quick craving or a quick need for thirst, and I think those are the main effects that we have had because the lack of mobility has affected us on the pedestrian stores or the stores that are very close to offices or the stores that are very close to business centers, and I think that so the impact, so while mobility is coming back, I think really that OXXO that also represents among the Mexican population is coming back strong.

So I think I will give you the main framework that those are the consumer occasions that were affected and the comparison related to that. And specifically, I think, Juan, why don't you try to address the specific question that Rodrigo was asking?

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Yes. So I mean, in terms of the ticket, Rodrigo, exactly what dynamic would you like to double-click on?

Rodrigo Alcantara (Analyst)

So, for example, let's say about spirits, the revenue contribution, how it evolved 2020 versus 2019, or any significant category that you may say that emerged in 2020 as a relevant category for OXXO.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

No, there's actually been some encouraging developments on that front because what we've been saying the past few months, really since the pandemic began. I mean, if we think about a year ago, we were talking in this very call about how beer, both brewers had been ordered to stop production. And so we were about to go dry on the beer front. What we didn't know at that time was that the consumer, I mean, I guess we could have assumed so, but what we didn't know was that consumers were going to begin substituting beer purchases with spirits purchases at the store.

I think this has had some very welcome developments because even though we had a very robust portfolio of spirits from before at very, very good price points and in fact, some presentations that are directed to the proximity format. I think a fair amount of consumers discovered that we had such a good assortment of spirits and even wines. The spirits category has been growing double-digit or very high single-digit for the past year. It looks like because obviously we only went without beer for a couple of months, but the pickup in spirits seems to have remained, right? We got beer back, and now we have higher spirit sales than we used to.

And I would make a similar statement on some pantry kind of supermarket-type items where, again, I think the pandemic made consumers take a look at OXXO's assortment in terms of things like food, milk and cheese and eggs and diapers and cooking oil and detergent and pet food. We have more than 3,000 SKUs. And some consumers clearly that had been visiting OXXO for the on-the-go transactions, the single serves, the preferred food, or the coffee discovered that we carry all these other products. And just as importantly, that the price point at which we sell these items is very much in line with what you would pay at the supermarket because of the purchasing power that we have as a company. So again, I think we're seeing some of those, many of those transactions remain.

I mean, when we talk about same-store sales, obviously you've seen the composition, right? You have a big double-digit fall in traffic and a big double-digit increase in tickets. And this reflects precisely what I'm discussing. Some categories that were not the typical OXXO categories 18 months ago that now are becoming a little bit more typical. So that's encouraging because if we continue to recover, the traffic seems to be the case as mobility comes back, and we're able to hold on to some of the ticket gains, then that bodes well for the future of the same-store sales number.

Rodrigo Alcantara (Analyst)

Yeah. Totally agree. Thank you very much for that. And the second one here, quite interesting on the discussions of logistics. I tend to agree on the revenue side. Just curious about the potential of profitability. I mean, when I look to this 9%, it appears to me that still we may see some opportunities for improvement here. Perhaps once you absorb the synergies, generate these savings, you could take this perhaps to the low teens. Would that be fair to assume? Or what could be a normalized EBITDA margin for this division in your view?

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

It's never served us well to actually put a target out there because, I mean, if I take the experience of OXXO, we've always managed to do better than we thought we would. And so hopefully that is the case again here. But what I would say is the numbers that you're seeing are definitely not of a normal quarter because of the pandemic. I think Eugenio was mentioning earlier how, and Eduardo, how some of the sectors of the end users in the U.S., for example, are not yet normalized, even though the U.S. has opened more quickly than Latin America because of the vaccination efforts. But you have big sectors. Eduardo was mentioning hospitality. We cater to hotels in a big way. Entertainment. We cater to stadiums, for example, that are in many parts of the U.S. are not yet functioning normally.

We cater to a lot of government and education facilities, so university campuses and government buildings that are not yet back to full occupancy, not even close, right? I mean, we're expecting, for example, colleges to go back fully in person in the fall. Some of them might ask for vaccination proof. We'll see about that. What I'm trying to say is things will get better as the year progresses, and also to Eugenio's earlier comment about acquisitions and non-organic growth, you know that we've said this from the beginning that a part of the strategy for the U.S. operation is to create a national platform, and we do aspire and hope that we will be able to do a couple of deals between now and the end of the year.

And you're correct in pointing out that that brings a margin expansion opportunity that comes with the scale of the bigger national platform. So directionally, I'm optimistic like you are. In terms of actually putting a number out there, I think we just rather let things work out on their own. And hopefully you're correct. I think, like I said, directionally, we're both on the same page.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Just to note that very clearly. Just the other thing to add to your point, you have to remember that some of these businesses in logistics are more asset-intensive than others. And we are growing the less asset-intensive ones. So even though you might see margins as these lower asset-intensive businesses take part of the mix, you might see margins coming down. The profitability and the return on capital is actually going up. So that's why it's also kind of hard to just look at the EBITDA margins and figure out what's going on, so.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question at a time in order to allow for the maximum number of callers to ask their questions. We will take our next question from Ulises Argote with JP Morgan.

Ulises Argote (Analyst)

Hi guys. Thanks for the space for questions here. I just wanted to get an update on the OXXO rollout there in Brazil. Many details on how the different business models there on the standalone stores and the Select stores are performing on these initial phases. And maybe if you can share some of your expectations for the year there in terms of the rollout and how the business should be expected to kind of perform? Thank you.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Sure. Thanks, Ulises. As you know, we started the rollout of the physical OXXO stores, the proximity stores in December. By now, we have, I think, in the teens in terms of the number of stores that are operating, and we're very positively surprised with regards to how they're doing, how we're adapting the value proposition to the local taste. I think Juan mentioned in a prior call the bread business there, which was an integral part of the value equation, is really, really doing very well in attracting traffic as people start to get accustomed to the value prop, so we're very, very encouraged there, and I think we continue to be on track with regards to the openings for the year there.

The other good piece of news there is that the Select stores that, as you know, are operating together with the Raízen gasoline business, those are actually, despite restrictions and despite constrained mobility, are doing well as they've been able to, I mean, upgrade in a sense the product categories that they're offering and have been seen as a different consumption pattern in the same way that we're seeing in Mexico as customers are taking advantage of their trips to pick up some items that they otherwise would not have. And as you know, most of these businesses are franchise business. We are starting some company-operated stores in the Select space as well, but we couldn't be happier with regards to how the numbers are looking at right now for Raízen.

Eduardo Padilla (CEO)

Also, Ulises, I would like to add this, Eduardo, that we are very happy with the partnership. I think we found the right partners. We are very fully aligned in terms of culture, in terms of way of doing things. And I think we are really leveraging the best of them and the best of us together. And we're very happy with the partnership, the way it was established. And although it's a 50/50 partnership, decisions flow. We have the right management with people from Raízen and the right management with OXXO. So we are very happy with the management and the JV, the way things and decisions are made.

Ulises Argote (Analyst)

That's perfect. Thanks so much for the call, guys.

Eduardo Padilla (CEO)

Thanks, Ulises.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Carlos Laboy with HSBC.

Carlos Laboy (Analyst)

Yes. Good morning, everyone. Congratulations on the green financing. It seems that you had to establish specific ESG targets on key projects to get these projects qualified for funding. But on waste, you did not. It doesn't look like you qualified refillable bottles. Do you need targets of refillables at OXXO and at Coke FEMSA to get refillables qualified for green financing? And do you have those targets? I ask, right, because it seems that it's very important an opportunity for you to get these green bonds to lower your cost of capital and the refillables up for boosting your ROIC.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Sure. The sustainability targets with regards to waste-to-landfill are company-wide. So they do include Coke FEMSA, OXXO, and the rest of the operations. And the idea is to get to 100% reducing of waste-to-landfill in that respect. But we don't have the target for refillables at Coke FEMSA as part of the green bond. Again, the target is more directed towards diverting total waste to landfill and related more to circular economy. So we are including, for example, recycled resin and other components in there. And the other thing to note is that the target has to do with what happens within the store, not post-consumer waste, which is what we can control. But more and more, we are assessing with third parties to include refillables in the future.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Yeah. I think in that sense, Carlos, this is Juan. The role of refillables as part of the strategy has always begun with the affordability strategy. But more and more, and to Eugenio's comment, more and more, it's also becoming a component of the ESG strategy as well. So I think you're going to hear more about that in the future.

Carlos Laboy (Analyst)

Do you see yourselves publishing refillable targets for Coke FEMSA and OXXO?

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

Again, we need to contemplate that. But at this point, we're still in the process of digesting whether that will be a part of the broader sustainability framework.

Carlos Laboy (Analyst)

Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, that is all the questions that we have for today. I will now turn the conference back to you, Eugenio Garza, for additional remarks.

Eugenio Garza (CFO)

I'd like to thank everyone for their participation in the call and your continued interest in the company, and hope to see you next quarter. In the meantime, if you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to the IR team or to myself. Happy to take the call. Thanks again and have a great weekend.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Thanks, everyone.

Operator (participant)

Thanks. 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.