Transportadora de Gas del Sur S.A. - Q3 2021

Transcript

Carlos Almagro (Director of Investor Relations)

All participants will be in listen-only mode during the presentation. After the company remarks, we will host a Q&A session. Starting this quarter, we'll be using Zoom for the webcast platform. As a result, all questions will need to be submitted in writing through Zoom chat box. Before we begin the call today, I would like to remind you that forward-looking statements made during today's video conference do not account for future economic circumstances, industry conditions, and company performance, and financial results. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. All figures, including GE, were prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS, and are stated in constant nominal Argentine pesos as of September 30th, 2021, unless otherwise noted. Joining us today from TGS in Buenos Aires is Alejandro Basso, Chief Financial Officer, and Leandro Pérez Castaño, Finance Manager.

Now, I will turn the video conference over to Mr. Basso. Alejandro, please begin.

Alejandro Basso (CFO)

Thank you, Carlos. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today on this video conference to discuss the 2021's third quarter earnings and highlights for Transportadora de Gas del Sur. To begin the call today, I would like to share with you some relevant news that have occurred since our last quarterly earnings call in August. Firstly, as a result of increasing natural gas production at Vaca Muerta, driven by higher prices of natural gas attributable to the Plan Gas launched by the government at the end of 2020, we made a $16 million CapEx in our natural gas conditioning plant placed in Tratayén.

This investment allow us to more than double its natural gas liquids treatment capacity from 600 cubic meters per day to 1,400 cubic meters per day, thus permitting us to increase our capacity to condition a higher volume of natural gas of 7.8 million cubic meters per day from 5.4 million cubic meters per day. In addition, we signed new agreements with gas producers, allowing us to transport and condition higher volumes of natural gas at Vaca Muerta. We are very excited to have reached such a milestone in our history and business, and we hope to continue expanding our infrastructure and closing new agreements with gas producers.

Secondly, in terms of natural gas transportation tariffs, ENARGAS start working with TGS in order to define a potential transitional tariff increase to be granted at the beginning of 2022, in compliance with what ENARGAS established last May. I should remind you that TGS is not obliged to make any mandatory investment, but at the same time, the company cannot make any dividend payment until tariff revision is completed. Thirdly, as a result of having firm transportation contracts with a capacity of 5 million cubic meters per day that will expire in 2022 and 2023, we launched an open season last September. After receiving tenders from the clients, we were able to assign almost 100% of the capacity in new firm capacity contracts with an average term of 20 years.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that in September and October, we bought back our own 2025 bond with a face value of $2.8 million. As a result, we currently hold $22.4 million of our bonds in treasury. Turning to slide four, I will now briefly address some of the highlights in our 2021 third quarter results. To remind you, all figures presented this quarter and comparisons made with the previous quarters are expressed in constant pesos as of September 30th, 2021, following the provisions established by the IFRS for financial reporting in hyperinflationary economies. As seen on the slide, we reported a net income of ARS 4.4 billion during the third quarter of 2021, compared to almost ARS 600 million reported in the same quarter of 2020.

Total EBITDA decreased by ARS 3.1 billion, mostly due to a nearly ARS 2.6 billion decline of the natural gas transportation EBITDA, and it's almost totally related to the lack of a tariff adjustment. In addition, the liquids business EBITDA also fell by around ARS 900 million. It is worth mentioning that liquids business EBITDA generation during last year's third quarter was particularly high, as natural gas cost was very low and we were able to export about 65,000 metric tons of LPG, when we usually export a much lower volume in the third quarter period, considering that it is winter season and liquids production is lower due to higher natural gas residential consumption. However, financial results generated a positive variation of ARS 7 billion, which more than offset the total EBITDA decline mentioned before.

This positive variation is mostly explained by financial asset loss generated in the third quarter of 2020, and a lower foreign exchange rate loss as the valuation in 2021's quarter was much lower. Moving on to slide five. The EBITDA from natural gas transportation business decreased by almost ARS 2.6 billion. Once again, as it has happened since 2019, when we received the last tariff increase. The decline is only explained by the lack of a tariff adjustment while operating in an economy with high inflation. Therefore, our operating margins have been deteriorating quarter after quarter. However, most of our transportation revenues have been generated by take-or-pay contracts with an average life above 10 years, allowing us to generate a steady flow of nominal cash flow revenues.

A positive variation was the ARS 131 million revenue increase due to the higher natural gas volume transported under interruptible transportation contracts. On slide six, you can see that the EBITDA from the liquids business declined in the third quarter of 2021 from ARS 4 billion to ARS 3.1 billion. As we mentioned before, the EBITDA generated in the third quarter of 2020 was high due to the low cost of natural gas and the high level of LPG export volume. In the case of natural gas cost, the impact is mainly due to the increase from $2.2 to $4 per million BTU, declining EBITDA ARS 3.3 billion.

In addition, lower volume of liquids sold generates a negative variation of ARS 2.1 billion, of which 1.2 corresponded to lower volume of exported LPG, down from 66,000 tons to only 8,000 metric tons. We also recorded a decline of almost ARS 900 million due to lower sales of ethane, which fell from 101,000 to 80,000 metric tons. Another negative factor was the ARS 1 billion loss generated by the monetary effects of the annual inflation of 50% and the foreign exchange rate annual increase of 23%. Higher international prices positively impacted our revenues by ARS 2.8 billion, as well as higher ethane prices increased sales by ARS 1.1 billion.

This ethane price adjustment was related to increase of natural gas cost as it is established in the agreement signed with PBB Polisur. Due to the lower volume of liquids sold in the third quarter of 2021, we purchased a lower volume of natural gas, which reduced variable cost by ARS 1.8 billion. Turning to slide seven, EBITDA from the other services increased by 37%, mainly due to higher revenues of ARS 600 million generated by midstream services. Most of these higher midstream sales were generated by the services rendered at Vaca Muerta as the result of lower volume of treated gas we transported in our Vaca Muerta pipeline and conditioned in our plant located in Tratayén. In addition, we generated higher revenues of ARS 86 million due to some construction services.

As the annual inflation rate of 52% was higher than the annual foreign exchange rate increase of 33%, its revenues were negatively impacted by ARS 332 million. On slide eight, we can see that the financial results recorded a positive variation of ARS 7 billion. This variation was mainly explained by the financial asset loss of ARS 4.6 billion generated in the third quarter of 2020. In addition, we recorded a lower foreign exchange rate loss of ARS 2.7 billion, which was attributable to the lower increase of exchange rate of 3 pesos in third quarter of 2021 versus almost 6 pesos in the same quarter of 2020, as well as a lower dollar-denominated net liability balance. In addition, financial asset income increased by ARS 355 million due to higher revenues.

Increased by ARS 355 million due to higher financial investments denominated in pesos and higher yields. These effects were partially compensated by a lower inflation exposure gain of ARS 700 million. Finally, turning to cash flow on slide nine. Our cash position in real terms remains stable at around 33 billion pesos, equivalent to more than $33 million. EBITDA generation in the third quarter amounted to ARS 7.3 billion, out of which 64% was generated by the non-regulated businesses. CapEx amounted to ARS 2.2 billion and our working capital increased by the same amount. We also bought back $1.5 million nominal value of our own debt and paid income tax for ARS 710 million.

As you can see, our cash position remains robust with no debt amortization until 2025. We expect to continue generating positive free cash flow in the short term, despite the continuous deterioration of the natural gas transportation operating environment. This concludes our presentation. I will now turn over to Carlos, who will open the floor for questions. Thank you.

Carlos Almagro (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Alejandro. The floor is now open for questions. If you have a question, please send that through Zoom chat. We will read and answer them in the order in which they are received. Also, please make sure your name and company are explained to introduce you to the audience. Please lower your hand once your question is answered. Should any participants need assistance, send us a message in the chat box. Please hold while we poll for questions. Hi. Konstantinos Papaliadis from Puente. Thank you for your questions. He's asking about the level of the natural gasoline that we see a high price. His question is if this price will sustain in the fourth quarter and the third quarter of 2022.

Alejandro Basso (CFO)

Okay, Konstantinos. How are you? Thank you for joining us. Okay, regarding the natural gas prices for the next two quarters, our expectations are that they will remain high. They will remain at a high level. It's very hard to predict that the prices, but the futures and the market are saying that to us.

Carlos Almagro (Director of Investor Relations)

Second question is, will you share your view on the potential impact on expanding the national truck line system on the Cerri NGLs facility?

Alejandro Basso (CFO)

Well, you know that this expansion is under analysis by the national government. They have given a couple of steps in these weeks. The country needs this expansion for that to be able to evacuate all the gas that we have in Vaca Muerta. You know, maybe next year without expansion, the capacity of our pipe, our TGN and TGS' pipelines will be at the limit. Regarding the impact of the new pipeline on Cerri, it should be a positive impact. At the same time, there are different facilities under study at Neuquén. It may...

It's probable that the liquids coming from the new gas in Neuquén is going to be processed at the wellhead, right? Also, TGS has a project in that respect.

Carlos Almagro (Director of Investor Relations)

Last question is, how did the mega mantenas impact on operations with best efforts to capture more upside from the lower operation on the mega facility and in the system with high international prices?

Alejandro Basso (CFO)

We had this positive effect in October, but it was just a 15-day impact. We have more rich gas, richer gas at that survey. It's not a huge impact. Yeah.

Carlos Almagro (Director of Investor Relations)

The next question, Chasez, Simik, thank you for your question. Is the Vaca Muerta transportation service excluded from tariffs set by the government?

Alejandro Basso (CFO)

Hello, Chasez. Yes. The answer is yes. The transportation tariffs at the Vaca Muerta pipeline are non-regulated. They are established by us in free negotiations with the gas producers. What we cannot do is to discriminate, to charge different tariffs for the same distance. Yeah, the tariffs are lower.

Carlos Almagro (Director of Investor Relations)

Next question is from Bruno Montanari from Morgan Stanley. Will you provide more color on the transitional tariff scheme, and if the company expects this to allow it to fully recover margins? Or will normalized transportation margins require further tariff hikes ahead?

Alejandro Basso (CFO)

I don't know whether that's more difficult to predict. Okay. Regarding the conversations that we have with ENARGAS, they just told us that they want to move the tariffs, increase the tariffs, and in the first quarter of 2022. They have just started working on the tariff review. They have contracted a couple of consultants to work on the rate base and the cost of capital and the allowance for fuel gas. I cannot say that we will have the normalized transportation margins in the near future. Maybe in 2023, but it's difficult to predict.

As you know, inflation is very high in Argentina right now, 50%. Maybe our transitional increase in tariff, if it happens, will be lower than that. Yeah. It's hard to predict.

Carlos Almagro (Director of Investor Relations)

Okay. Next question is from Ezequiel Fernandez Lopez. He talk about that the OpEx have increased transportation business quarter-over-quarter materially in third quarter of 2021. Any particular reason?

Alejandro Basso (CFO)

Well, Hi, E zequiel. If you're talking about the increase in 2021 as compared to 2020. In 2020 we have the pandemic situation down here as in many parts of the world. Our capability to perform maintenance works were diminished. Okay? You can see higher OpEx all through this 2021 as compared to 2020.

Carlos Almagro (Director of Investor Relations)

Next question is from Matt Muschamp. Can you speak to the shortage of gas for processing experienced in the third quarter of 2021?

Alejandro Basso (CFO)

Well, hi, Matt. The shortage is what we were expecting. 2020 was a very positive particular year in that aspect. We know that gas supply for our serving plant in the winter is always reduced in the winter season due to the need of the large consumption center in Buenos Aires for the residents in winter. It's expected. We took advantage of that lack of gas to perform some very important replacement at our serving plant. We changed two turbines, and we have one additional to be changed next year.

Carlos Almagro (Director of Investor Relations)

Next, question is from Agustín Pacheco. Will you remind me what will be the adjustment for the regulatory tariff for 2022? Also, I remember that you were about to start legal actions for the lack of tariff adjustment. What is the status of this process?

Alejandro Basso (CFO)

Hi, Agustín. We cannot predict what is the next adjustment or the next transition adjustment. For that, it was said that it surely will become below the inflation, the annual inflation, but we cannot predict it. As regarding the legal actions, these legal actions are in place and if we reach an agreement with the government for this new for the transition agreement, in that case we'll be obliged to suspend those actions. If we reach an agreement for the regulatory tariff revision