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Genomma Lab Internacional reported a modest 0.5% increase in net sales for the second quarter of 2025, reaching 4,676 million pesos. However, the company faced a 43% decline in net income due to non-cash foreign exchange and inflationary losses. Despite these challenges, the company’s pro forma net income rose by 16.6%, and free cash flow surged by 65% to 2,700 million pesos. The stock price experienced a slight increase of 0.24% following the announcement. According to InvestingPro data, the company maintains a strong financial position with a "GREAT" overall health score and appears undervalued based on its Fair Value analysis.
Key Takeaways
- Genomma Lab’s net sales increased by 0.5% year-over-year, with a notable 5.5% growth excluding Argentina.
- The EBITDA margin expanded by 89 basis points to 23.8%.
- Net income declined by 43% due to non-cash forex and inflationary losses.
- Free cash flow increased by 65% to 2,700 million pesos.
- The company plans to open 120 new distribution routes in Mexico.
Company Performance
Genomma Lab’s performance in Q2 2025 was mixed. While the company achieved a slight increase in net sales, it faced significant headwinds from foreign exchange and inflationary pressures, particularly in Argentina. Excluding Argentina, sales growth was a more robust 5.5%. The company maintained or gained market share in 67% of its sales, supported by its iconic product development and efficient point-of-sale execution.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: 4,676 million pesos (0.5% YoY increase)
- EBITDA Margin: 23.8% (89 basis points expansion)
- Net Income: 43% decline
- Pro Forma Net Income: 16.6% increase
- Free Cash Flow: 2,700 million pesos (65% increase)
Outlook & Guidance
Looking ahead, Genomma Lab projects near-zero full-year sales growth for 2025, with a single-digit contraction expected in Q3. The company targets a 24% EBITDA margin and anticipates gradual growth in 2026. A capital expenditure of 500 million pesos is planned for 2025, focusing on distribution center and production line enhancements. InvestingPro subscribers can access exclusive ProTips and detailed financial forecasts, including analyst consensus recommendations and target prices, to better evaluate the company’s growth trajectory. The platform offers 12+ additional ProTips for this stock alone.
Executive Commentary
CEO Marcos Barbieri emphasized the company’s focus on entering a new growth chapter, highlighting the development of iconic products and speed to market as key competitive advantages. CFO Antonio Samora noted the strong underlying performance despite facing foreign exchange pressures and other external challenges.
Risks and Challenges
- Foreign exchange volatility, particularly in Argentina, poses a risk to profitability.
- Inflationary pressures could impact cost structures and margins.
- The challenging macroeconomic environment may affect consumer spending.
- Expansion efforts in Mexico require significant investment and execution risk.
- Soft Hispanic consumer sentiment in the U.S. could affect sales growth.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts focused on potential growth drivers for 2026, including product innovations, Argentine market recovery, Swerox distribution expansion, and enhanced digital marketing capabilities. The company also discussed its natural currency hedge through diverse market presence.
Full transcript - Genomma Lab Internacional SAB De CV (LABB) Q2 2025:
Conference Operator: Greetings, and gentlemen. Thank you for joining Genomelab’s Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded and will be available for replay from the Investor Relations section of Genova’s website following the call.
I’ll now turn the call over to Christian Ibanez, Genova’s Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Christian Ibanez, Head of Investor Relations, Genomelab: Thank you, and welcome, everyone. On today’s call are Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer and Antonio Samora, Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I’d like to remind you that the remarks today will include forward looking statements, such as the company’s financial guidance and expectations, including long term objectives and forecasts, as well as expectations regarding Genoa’s business, assets, products, strategies, demand and markets. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. They are also based on assumptions as of today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update them as a result of new information or future events.
Let me now turn the call over to Mr. Marcos Parlieri.
Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer, Genomelab: Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Chris. Turning to second quarter results. Genoma’s second quarter sales grew 0.5% or plus 5.5% when excluding Argentina, reflecting a significant Argentine peso depreciation and a weak beverage season in Mexico. Worth noting, the company’s profitability remains solid. We delivered a plus 4.4% EBITDA growth with a plus 89 basis points margin expansion to 23.8%, driven our ongoing productivity program.
Genoma also delivered continued momentum across the P and L, although net income was impacted by hyperinflationary accounting adjustments following the minus 18.8 Argentine peso depreciation, coupled with a lower inflation. Pro form a net income increased plus 16.6% when excluding these noncash effects. These profitability levels and a seven day improvement in cash conversion cycle drove a plus 64% free cash flow increase, reaching 2,700,000 in the trailing twelve months. Our business remains healthy with 67% of our sales maintaining or gaining market share and 75% of our sales outpacing inflation. The following graph shows a minus 2.4 degree Celsius drop in average temperatures during Mexico’s peak beverage season, significantly impacting isotonic category performance in the region.
In this context, Swirlux maintained its market share and outperformed the category with sell out down minus 4% versus a minus 20% year to date category decline. This slide outlines our traditional channel expansion across markets. Specifically for the Mexican market, we have accelerated our distribution expansion plans to mitigate weather impacts. Genoma opened 30 new routes in the Mexican Northwestern region, targeting higher temperature areas and plan to open a total of 120 new routes nationwide over the next twelve months, with an expected ramp up period of eighteen to twenty four months. The next chart shows year to date performance by business unit in Mexican pesos.
Despite a challenging beverage season in Mexico, the beverage division continues to drive growth with market share gains in Latin America and expanding U. S. Distribution. Personal Care grew mid single digits, led by the Asepsia relaunched and increased hair care sales. OTC performance was impacted by hyperinflationary accounting from Argentine peso depreciation with analgesics most affected.
Antonio Samora, Chief Financial Officer, Genomelab: The next chart
Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer, Genomelab: presents year to date performance by country in local currency. Argentina is growing in line with inflation, supported by continued market share gains in Ivo Cuacientos, Treg and Suerox, while lapping a tough comparison from last year’s Tafirl one grams subsidy. Most LatAm subsidiaries are in positive territory, except Chile, which remains a challenge. In The U. S, Hispanic consumption is disrupted, and we do not expect the market to recover into growth this year.
The next graph shows a sequential gross margin improvement supported by a favorable sales mix and manufacturing cost efficiencies. Gross margin has expanded plus 6.6 points over the last couple of years, a testament to the impact of our productivity initiatives and manufacturing capabilities. The next chart shows a steady sequential EBITDA margin with a plus 3.9 points expansion over the past couple of years, supported by our ongoing productivity program. Looking ahead, we will continue to execute our growth projects by reinvesting excess profits and cash while maintaining a 24% average EBITDA margin. The following chart highlights our acceleration momentum down the P and L with EPS significantly outpacing sales and EBITDA growth, achieving a plus 19% CAGR over the past five years.
This is resulting in a higher free cash flow where we have reached a 67% CAGR over the past five years, while returning a healthy dividend to our shareholders. Cash conversion cycle reached one hundred and fifteen days, a seven day improvement driven by a four day reduction in receivables and a ten day decrease in inventories, following the rollout of our inventory buildup post beverage season Mexico. A decrease in days payable reflects the company’s transition to in house OTC manufacturing in Mexico. All this efficiency has resulted in a much better ROIC, a central variable for our leadership team. In the chart, you can see the evolution of ROIC over the past four years.
Our current business model is delivering 1.4 times more value for every invested Mexican peso than four years ago. ROIC will remain a key metric throughout investments in growth projects. As we enter the second half of the year, we want to provide visibility into our year end 2025 expectations. Ongoing FX headwinds and related hyperinflationary adjustments are expected to bring full year sales growth to near zero. Q3 is likely to be the weakest quarter with a projected single digit contraction.
We expect the Argentine peso to reach the maximum depreciation allowed by the local government, which would significantly impact quarterly sales. Despite this, we remain confident in sustaining profitability, targeting an average 24% EBITDA margin for the year. As new routes ramp up, distribution expands and product relaunches advance, we expect gradual growth in 2026, keeping us on track toward our mid term double digit sales growth target. Our ongoing productivity program will continue to support our 24% EBITDA margin throughout this transition. Our capital allocation priorities remain focused on reinvesting excess profitability and cash into the core business, with $500,000,000 in CapEx projected for year end 2025.
Investments will fund the commissioning of the new Xerox production line, our new plastic plant and the expansion of the central warehouse. CapEx is expected to increase in the second half of the year with no additional needs anticipated for 2026. These projects are designed to support long term growth. The company plans to maintain its €800,000,000 annual dividend in quarterly installments with the excess cash allocated to strategic buybacks to enhance total shareholders’ return. Let me now provide more detail on the initiatives underway to gradually improve sales growth.
We remain confident in the company’s long term potential, momentum is building and the outlook is compelling. First, some historical content context. Following a high growth post IPO phase, the company faced a significant profitability challenges. Current management led a deep operational restructuring, during which sales remained flat as strong financial and operational controls were implemented. With these foundations in place, the company reignited profitability growth throughout expanded go to market, productivity and new manufacturing capabilities.
Today, we are entering a new growth chapter, our iconic product phase. Our growing market share still has significant room to expand across the large categories where we operate. As this chart shows, our current shares remain small relative to category size, highlighting the opportunity ahead. Sustained gains will require a competitive focus with a strategic edge. I would like to highlight the key competitive advantages that Genoma is leveraging to drive sales growth.
Our edge lies in three areas: firstly, on Genomic’s capability to develop iconic products secondly, on its speed to market and agility to adjust to market feedback faster than the competition and thirdly, on an impeccable execution in the point of sales underpinned by a culture of excellence. As we sharpen our focus on growth, we are doubling down on these trends. For 2025, 2026, we have laid out a clear road map for brand relaunches and innovation centered on clean, healthy, high performing formulas in minimalistic aesthetic packaging with fewer, more impactful messages. This slide shows a glimpse of the future state of our portfolio, reflecting refreshed brands and improved value proposition. We have already begun with Asepsia.
The brand was relaunched in Mexico with improved formula, refreshed design and expanded positioning from facial acne treatment to full body daily care. Leveraging our speed to market capabilities, we executed in just seven months from development to shelf. Execution was strong. Asepsia moved from a pharmacy niche to general soap aisle with increased shelf presence, in store media support and a price point well below category leaders. The relaunch continued to scale in Mexico with Brazil set to follow next year.
This graph highlights Asepsia’s sustained post relaunch sellout growth. Green bars represent weekly sellout in the current year, while the gray area shows the prior year in Q2 twenty twenty five. Asepsia achieved 27% sellout growth in Mexico and 15% year to date. In skincare, we are elevating our portfolio with EWG verified clean formulas that prioritize organic, natural derived ingredients. Our new formulas will eliminate parabens, sulfates and phthalates, featuring hypoallergenic fragrances and embracing vegan, cruelty free solutions.
Our multistep routines aim to enhance visibility and expanding shelf presence. In our premium skincare brand, Cicatrecure, we are aiming at delivering targeted solutions for two distinct growing segments, Gen Z and 45 customers, Based on our EWG VERIFI clean formulas, we are launching a skincare routine for Gen Z using probiotics and organic restorative actives providing a natural hydrated glow with a microbiome friendly formulation. For 45 plus customers, we are launching a multi benefit line catering to a more mature customer’s desire for efficacy and simplicity with clinically inspired benefits, lifting, firming and skin tone evening. In our affordable skincare brand, Theatrical, based on our EWG verified clean formulas, we’re aiming at democratizing high end skincare. We are launching a line of single active serums featuring hyaluronic acid, glycolic acid, miami seed, smell, mucin and collagen, a strategy that steps into the growing ingredients literacy trend, empowering consumers to mix and match for personalized results.
This strategy aims at positioning our brand as clean, transparent and science driven, while offering an accessible price point, making premium cosmetics available to a broader audience. Additionally, we are introducing a new size that will fit the affordability demand in the traditional channel, leveraging our go to market capabilities. In our premium hair care brand, Tionacho, we are repositioning from a specialized treatment to a daily clean three step hair care routine using EWG verified clean formulas and leveraging the brand’s existing natural ingredients. This strategy delivers the best cosmetic performance and cleanest daily hair care solution in Latin America’s mass market. Additionally, we’re introducing new Teo Nacho sizes that will fit emerging channels such as hard discounts and clubs.
In OTC, we are advancing with clean formulas and aesthetic packaging. We will expand our cough and cold portfolio with new pharmaceutical forms and functions while strengthening our gastro line with probiotics and enter the high potential sleep aid category. This slide shows the full portfolio under development for our upcoming sleep aid launch, leveraging the strength of the daily brand, the eye brand. We currently hold registrations for a 2026 launch of the Herbal SKUs formulated with Valeria, Paciflora and Melisa. Additional submissions for melatonin, magnesium and lavender are underway to support future portfolio expansion.
As we advance our product launches, we are seeing strong momentum in OTC registrations with submissions since 2023 now nearing approval, further strengthening our innovation pipeline. We expect to bring our relaunches and innovation to market in just ten to eighteen months, underscoring the organizational agility that sets GenoMa apart. This agility allows us to act as first movers, identifying emerging fragmented trends and translating them into accessible mass market solutions, capturing consumers’ demand ahead of competitors. Finally, our proven point of sale execution will be critical to turning this strategy from planned to measurable success. As we navigate macroeconomic headwinds in 2025, we remain sharply focused on executing our growth initiatives.
The team is energized by the potential of our new iconic product phase and fully committed to delivering on our growth ambitions. Before handing the call to Tonio, I want to thank our team for our focus and dedication, and I want to thank our investors for your continuous trust and support. Please, Tonio, go ahead.
Antonio Samora, Chief Financial Officer, Genomelab: Thank you, Marco, and good day, everybody. On a consolidated basis, Genome Lab reported net sales of 4,676,000,000.000, representing a 0.5% increase year over year or 0.3% on a like for like basis, which obviously excludes our hyperinflationary subsidiary. The quarter’s performance was negatively impacted by an 18% depreciation of the Argentine peso against the Mexican peso, coupled with a soft beverage season in Mexico, a trend that many of you are likely aware of. Offsetting these headwinds was strong sales growth in Brazil, the Andean Cluster, Central America and The U. S.
Excluding Argentina, this is very important because we’re going to be talking about hyperinflationary accounting effects. Excluding Argentina, second quarter net sales increased by 5.5%. As we all know, under IFRS accounting standards, IAS 29 and IAS 21, the results from Argentina the first quarter must be restated using the standards in order to express the financials of this subsidiary losing the value of the Argentine currency as of June 30. The inflation during the second quarter in Argentina was just 6%, while the devaluation of the Argentine peso versus the Mexican peso during the second quarter was 18%. The gap between inflation and devaluation in this country implied a negative accounting impact as a result of the restatement of the first quarter of Argentina.
Again, it’s important to highlight that we if we exclude Argentina and all of these hyperinflationary accounting effects, all of the other countries that are based on stable currencies reported a top line growth of 5.5%. On a consolidate and by the way, if anybody wants to look at how the mechanics work, let me remind you that we published a white paper back in the fourth quarter twenty twenty three that you can review in case you wanna follow the the math that may be useful for anybody who’s interested in understanding this hyperinflationary accounting effects in Argentina. Going back to our consolidated results, EBITDA margin reached 23.8%, that’s up 89 basis points or 4.4% year on year improvement. This reflects ongoing gains from our company wide productivity initiatives and manufacturing cost efficiencies. Additionally, a favorable sales mix also contributed to the margin expansion.
Net income for the second quarter totaled million, that’s a 43% decline year over year, primarily due to noncash ForEx and noncash inflationary losses related to our monetary position in Argentina. Again, it is worth noting that the main driver of the decline in net income comes from items that I will explain in a minute. As the Mexican peso appreciated against all currencies between March 31 and June 30, a noncash, nonoperational, nonextrapolable and nonrecurring impact was recorded in our P and L. This is a result of translating the balance sheet of the international subsidiaries. And the currency trend that you saw there with the U.
S. Dollar was also mirrored across several countries where we operate. And obviously, the most significant impact was seen in Argentina. If we adjust on a pro form a basis for all of these noncash and hyperinflationary effects, the pro form a net income grew 16.6% year over year, driven by higher operating income and lower net interest expenses. Pro form a EPS came in at $67 also a 16.6% increase.
Moving on to our cash conversion cycle. Genoma achieved a one hundred and fifteen day cash conversion cycle in Q2, marking a seven day improvement versus the same period last year. This was driven by a ten day decrease in inventory days and a four day reduction in receivables. As Marco noted earlier, this improvement significantly contributed to a 65% increase in trailing twelve months free cash flow, which reached 2,700,000,000.0. We converted 14% of our trailing twelve month net sales into free cash flow during this quarter.
Our days payable decreased by seven days from one hundred and three to ninety six days as we continue transitioning to our in house OTC manufacturing in Mexico. Let’s now move on to our regional performance. We will start with Mexico. Net sales in Mexico declined 1.3% year over year, impacted by the weak beverage season amid a challenging macroeconomic backdrop and unseasonably cool weather and rain. That said, these challenges were partially offset by double digit growth in OTC sales with strong sellout and market share gains in our analgesics and cough and cold categories.
Personal care growth led by double digit hair care sales, mixed skincare results and ongoing double digit growth in Asepsia following the relaunch that Marco mentioned earlier. Infant nutrition also posted strong double digit growth, driven by improved fill rates and market share gains in key formulas. Soyrox maintained market share with just a 3.7% sellout decline during the first half of twenty twenty five, outperforming the contraction in Mexico’s isotonic category. Mexico’s EBITDA margin also rose two zero seven basis points to reach 24.6%, driven by the productivity initiatives previously discussed. Before we review the performance of our international subsidiaries, I will be presenting a brief overview of the exchange rate environment to provide important context for our second quarter performance in International division.
On a year over year basis, the Mexican peso depreciated double digit against the U. S. Dollar. Now moving on to The U. S.
Genomab’s net sales in The U. S. Increased 11.2% in Mexican peso terms, primarily due to favorable ForEx effects. In local currency terms, net sales grew almost 1%. This modest growth reflects ongoing beverage expansion and strong hair care performance despite broader macroeconomic pressures in that country and softer Hispanic consumer sentiment.
EBITDA margin in The U. S. Reached 15.8%, which is also a two zero four basis point improvement year over year, highlighting continued productivity gains. Moving on to Latin America, if we exclude Argentina, net sales rose 10.5%, driven by solid performance in Brazil, Central America and the Andean Cluster. If we include Argentina, net sales only represent an improvement of 0.4%, but we explained the hyperinflationary accountings already.
EBITDA margin for the region, including Argentina, was 24.7%, down 44 basis points, again, driven due to hyperinflation NAREIT accounting impacts in that country. In Argentina local court, I think it’s important when we talk about Argentina, let let me exclude all these accounting effects. Because in Argentina, local currency sales increased 37% year over year, and this is very much in line with inflation that obviously help us to highlight a stable underlying demand in that country. Due to hyperinflationary accounting rules, Argentina net sales reported in Mexican pesos declined 14.2%, as we mentioned earlier, driven by almost 19% currency depreciation. Let’s move on to the capital structure and allocation.
We closed the quarter with a leverage ratio of just one point zero times net debt to EBITDA, maintaining ample financial flexibility. On June 3, the company successfully issued Ps. 1,200,000,000.0 in unsecured Mexican corporate bonds or Sebures. These instruments were rated AA plus performance. Was
Conference Operator: point
Antonio Samora, Chief Financial Officer, Genomelab: five times times
Conference Operator: the company’s
Antonio Samora, Chief Financial Officer, Genomelab: maturity profile, including the early amortization of existing debt. On June 11, we completed the full early amortization of last 23, totaling Ps. 1,000,000,000 and also repaid Ps. 400,000,000 in back debt ahead of schedule. Here you can see in these graphs how our debt maturity profile used to be before the refinancing and after the refinancing.
Capital asset capital allocation during the quarter also included a twelfth consecutive quarterly cash dividend of MXN200 million, a share repurchase of 4,600,000.0 shares totaling MXN 104,000,000, ongoing investment in the business that included CapEx for manufacturing equipment, such as the commissioning of our new SOEROX production line, the expansion of our distribution center and the investment on new packaging manufacturing equipment to drive future productivity. To conclude, as Marco mentioned, Q2 results underscore the resilience and adaptability of Genoa’s business model, even amid macroeconomic challenges. Despite facing ForEx pressures and other external headwinds that we discussed, we delivered strong underlying performance with EBITDA margin expansion driven by favorable mix, cost control and productivity gains. These results are aligned with our strategic objective to maintain a 24% average EBITDA margin, while scaling investments in core growth areas. Our working capital improvements and 65% free cash flow increase reflect disciplined execution and ongoing capital discipline.
We also enhanced our debt maturity profile through proactive refinancing and early repayments. Looking ahead, while the macro environment remains dynamic, we are confident in our ability to navigate volatility, sustain momentum and deliver long term value for our shareholders. Thank you once again for your trust and continued support. I will now turn it over to the operator to begin the Q and A session. Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you, Antonio. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may raise your hand using the icon, raise your hand, located at the bottom of your screen. To withdraw your question, press the same icon at any time. This will be required in order to allow you to turn on your microphone and ask your questions.
One moment please while we hold for questions. Our first question comes from Alejandro Foucs with Itau. Please turn on your microphone to proceed with your question.
Alejandro Foucs, Analyst, Itau: Thank operator. Hola, Marco, Antonio, Christian and team, thank you for the space for questions. I have two quick ones, if I may. First one for Marco. On the top line, especially 2026.
Wanted to see, Marco, if you could elaborate a little bit more on the top line growth. You mentioned double digits slowly going there next year. Maybe on a geographical basis, do you think that this top line growth is going to come, let’s say, from an Argentine recovery? Is this mainly Suez recovering OTC? How do you see Mexico?
Maybe if you can elaborate a little bit more into what’s driving the growth into next year. And also, thank you very much for all of the detail on the release per category, per country. I thought that was very helpful. That will be my first one, then I have a follow-up. Yes.
Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer, Genomelab: Thank you, Alejandro. So we have several buckets of growth that I foresee for next year. The first one has to do with all the initiatives that we have both in the OTC portfolio and the personal care portfolio. We have a significant amount of relaunches in personal care and a lot of innovation coming in OTC. Those projects will be impacting all the markets across in different timings, but it will impact from Mexico all the way down to Argentina, okay?
So that’s the first bucket of growth. The second one is Argentina. I think I hope that we’re going to see the worst of the devaluation this year. And we are expecting actually, we are forecasting the third quarter with a very strong devaluation of the Argentine peso, almost reaching the cap that the government put in place. We expect that, that cap will remain for the following years.
And so I don’t expect that the depreciation of Argentina will be impacting us in 2026. That coupled with the fact that we are growing market share right now in most of the categories where we compete in Argentina, we really expect Argentina to be a source of growth for 2026. And the third bucket of growth is mostly focused in Mexico, where that and that has to do with Swerox. And we are investing heavily this year in opening new routes of distribution and significant efforts on gaining more distribution in places where our numerical distribution has historically been a little bit too low. Okay?
So, you know, the third the three efforts that we expect to hit in ’26 are, I will repeat, all the projects of innovation across the world, OTC and personal care. Argentina, we really expect it to be a source of growth for next year. And Xerox Mexico from a distribution point of view. And if you add to that, that hopefully we’ll have a better summer season, then I think SUROX Mexico will be a very a very important source source of growth for next year. And
Antonio Samora, Chief Financial Officer, Genomelab: Thank you, Michael. That that that that’s
Alejandro Foucs, Analyst, Itau: also very clear.
Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer, Genomelab: That’s that’s that’s the way I see it.
Alejandro Foucs, Analyst, Itau: Thank thank you very much for all of the details.
Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer, Genomelab: Sorry. And one more thing. One more thing. The the other piece that I expect in 2026 to impact the business positively is the huge effort we are doing in creating this digital capability to drive demand. So that would be the fourth.
Conference Operator: Perfect. That was very clear. I’m going to
Alejandro Foucs, Analyst, Itau: do a follow-up maybe to Antonio real quick on buybacks. I believe on the cash flow statement on the release in the buyback line, there’s a cash inflow to the company. But both of the release and here on the prepared remarks, you mentioned that you bought back 4,600,000.0 shares. So I want to see, does this mean that you sold some of those shares back to the market and there was no canceling of them? Or is this a timing like, the the the dividend that maybe was done on July?
So maybe if if if you could explain to me, Tony, a little bit more on the buyback, that would be very helpful. Thank you.
Antonio Samora, Chief Financial Officer, Genomelab: No. Thank you. Thank you, Alex. No. We have not sold the shares.
We believe that at the current valuation, obviously, it’s an excellent opportunity to keep on accumulating our own shares and eventually do the cancellation. We haven’t done the cancellation this year yet. So no, I think it has more to do with the timing of the dividend because the dividend for the second quarter, we ended up paying that on July 1. So that may I think that may be the reason why you see that. But no, we we are we are net buyers, and we will continue to doing buybacks.
And eventually, when the board decides do the cancellation.
Alejandro Foucs, Analyst, Itau: Thank you.
Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Antonio Hernandez with Actimber. Please turn on your microphone to proceed with your question.
Alejandro Foucs, Analyst, Itau: Just
Antonio Hernandez, Analyst, Actimber: a quick one regarding CapEx expectations going forward. I mean, of these different moving pieces in terms of spread also distribution, more distribution, just as you mentioned, maybe other initiatives, what are your CapEx expectations going forward? Thank
Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer, Genomelab: you, Antonio, for the question. The we expect the third quarter and the fourth quarter to be heavy on CapEx, mainly behind the construction of the new distribution center. The payment of the second SURX line and the completion of the acquisitions that we need to make for the plastics, the injection plant that we are building in San Cagitano. After the third and the fourth quarter, we expect CapEx to be reduced again in 2026 to its normal levels.
Antonio Hernandez, Analyst, Actimber: Okay. Thanks for that color. For the second half of the year then, this ramp up, what does that translate into? Can you provide maybe a number or an estimate?
Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer, Genomelab: Sorry, can you repeat the question?
Antonio Hernandez, Analyst, Actimber: Yes. Can you provide maybe an estimate of how much will CapEx increase for the second half of the year?
Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer, Genomelab: Yes. We presented, I think, was in the range of 500,000,000.
Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Froylan Mendes from JPMorgan.
Froylan Mendes, Analyst, JPMorgan: Kind of a follow-up to one of my colleague’s previous question on the digital advertising channels that you mentioned also as a bucket of growth. Can you dig deeper into specifically what are you doing to conquer this channel? And what are the products that the products most dependent on these digital marketing channels? And as a second question, you mentioned this new iconic brand face. Does this mean, going forward, further simplification of the portfolio, focusing obviously on Sverox, other very specific OTCs, like even simplifying more of the portfolio?
And would these come at the expense of the agility to capture incipient consumer trends that you have had in the past, like being more concentrated, more focused, giving more time to develop a specific product? Will that entail that you might meet some of the incipient consumer trends and bring new products to the market in a slower pace than before? Thank you.
Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer, Genomelab: Yes. Thank you, Frohlen. No, on digital, I think we are creating a capability that no other company has. We think we estimate that we are going to be able to create 100 contents or assets per day to advertise in digital. So I think what we have done with television in the last decade or so, we are going to be able to do in digital.
And regarding to your question on which products are more appealing to digital, I mean, there’s some obvious brands that are more appealing to younger people like Asepsia. But in reality, we all know that television’s effectiveness is decreasing across the market in different pacing. But the overall trend is that television effectiveness is decreasing and that people are spending more and more time in social media and platforms and so on, YouTube. So it’s really important for the company that we finish this project, which I think is going to happen in the next month or so, and that we put it in place and put it to work at full steam. And I think you’re going to see a very strong impact in 2026.
I don’t know if that clarifies the question.
Froylan Mendes, Analyst, JPMorgan: Very useful, Marcos. Thank you.
Marcos Barbieri, Chief Executive Officer, Genomelab: Yes. And then regarding portfolio, we will continue to drive productivity across our portfolio. We’re going to be accelerating the pacing of innovation across the board. But at the same time, we’re going to be reducing or eliminating the STUs or brands that aren’t productive. So it’s not that we’re just doing one or the other because we don’t want to end up where we were like three or four years ago with like thousands of SKUs, unproductive SKUs.
So we’re doing this very diligently.
Froylan Mendes, Analyst, JPMorgan: Excellent. Thank you so much, Marco.
Conference Operator: Sure. Thank you. Our next question comes from Roberto Nava with HebeiME. Please turn your microphone on to proceed with your question. Hi.
Thanks, Marco, Antonio and Christian. I wanted to ask you, given this very peak volatility in Argentina, how are you mitigating currency risk ahead of the expected improvement in 2026? Are you relying on hedging, pricing actions or other operational levels?
Antonio Samora, Chief Financial Officer, Genomelab: For Thank your question, Roberto. Generally speaking, Genoma has a natural hedge because we operate in ’18 countries. So it is on a long term basis, we have that And actually, for the Mexican peso depreciates,
Conference Operator: you know,
Antonio Samora, Chief Financial Officer, Genomelab: our numbers are actually a little bit better. Okay? So the natural hedge is there. What we cannot manage is huge fluctuations with the Argentine peso. And as you and everybody knows, there are no hedging instruments that make sense, especially with that specific country.
So I think that the Argentine government has done tremendous jobs in terms of lowering inflation, and you can see that. The currency has been somewhat stable. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen this quarter. But, yes, it’s very it’s very hard to do any hedging against that currency. Having said this, as I as I said earlier, generally speaking, because we have a a fragmented or a very diverse portfolio of countries, categories, etcetera, we don’t need to hedge anything in particular.
However, if there’s big FX swings, we do have to record noncash, nonoperational, nonrecurring, and nonrefundable charges when we translate the balances from from the different subsidiaries. But, again, it’s noncash. It’s the same situation that we saw last year. In the second quarter twenty twenty four, we reported 126,000,000 in FX gains. Yeah.
It was a gain, but it was also noncash. So if it’s a gain or a loss, those are noncash. So I think that the important talking about cash is a free cash flow generation, and it’s it’s very important to highlight that we increased 65% free cash flow from the business. So that’s more of a balance sheet effect. That’s why we, in this particular quarter, we provided some proxies or pro formas of what the net income would have been excluding these effects.
I don’t know if I answered your question, Roberto.
Conference Operator: Yes. Thank you very much. One moment, please, while we hold for questions. That concludes our second quarter results conference call. Thank you for your
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