Corficolombiana is the largest Financial Corporation in Colombia, with investments in five strategic sectors of the economy: infrastructure, energy, gas, financial services, and hotels, creating and taking advantage of opportunities for improvement in growth prospects and boosting profitability.
As the economy recovers, important sectors such as energy and financial are being boosted by the rebound. In this quarter, Corficolombiana’s consolidated results presented significant improvements in comparison to the last year.
Energy & Gas
Promigas is one of the strongest investments of Corficolombiana, with about 50% of participation in the firm. In this quarter, the gas transporter and distributor reported better results, mainly driven by the economic recovery in Colombia.
Whereas the volume transported by Promigas and its subsidiaries experienced a decrease of 5.7%, revenues grew due to higher exchange rates in the second quarter of 2021. In the same way, Gases del Caribe and Calida’s gross profit presented an improvement.
Infrastructure
In this quarter, the infrastructure revenues presented a significant improvement mainly due to the progress made in three of the concessions.
Gross profit amounted to 222.2 billion Colombian Pesos, rising by 247.2 % compared to the same period last year. Although the comparison mostly represents the recovery from the pandemic, 2Q21 gross profit was also greater than the one reported in 2Q19.
Hospitality
The hospitality sector is one of the most affected sectors around the world. In this quarter, it showed a slight recovery.
As it is well known, the tourism sector was one of several affected by the pandemic in 2020. Though the recovery is on its way, the hospitality sector has improved slowly.
In this quarter, the hospitality sector reported an improvement in its gross profit, going from COP 4.2 billion losses in 2Q20 to 24.9 billion. Even though the national strike somewhat affected tourism and hence hotels’ occupancy, in June occupancy returned to a positive trend, reaching the best rate of the year (43%).
Financial
Casa de Bolsa continued with a good performance, positioning itself as the second-largest equity broker-dealer (by volume) and one of the most relevant underwriters in the market.
On the other hand, Fiduciaria, Corficolombiana reported a net profit of COP 3.2 billion. Despite the current conditions, the average balances in mutual funds remained stable, amounting to COP 3 trillion.
Notwithstanding the good performance in Casa de Bolsa and Fiduciaria, the margin from financial activities experienced a reduction compared to the same period last year. This reduction is explained mostly by the lower profit related to currency derivates instruments in Corficolombiana.
Regarding its consolidated results, the company reported firm results.
In the second quarter of 2021, the gross margin of the real sector rose 104% compared to the same quarter last year. This improvement is mainly due to a better performance in all sectors, reflecting the recovery that the subsidiaries have been experiencing since January 2021. It is worth noting that gross margin also presented an advance in comparison to the second quarter of 2019, growing by 31.6%.
The recovery is also reflected in the firm’s EBITDA, which closed at COP 1.3 trillion, representing an advance of 111.9% vis-á-vis 2Q20. The figure also improved compared to the first quarter of 2021, increasing by 3.0%.
Another concept that presented an improvement as well is net income. Controlling net income ended up at COP 537.6 billion, representing a significant improvement against 2Q20, where it closed at 186.2 billion. This advance not only represents an improvement of 188.7% compared to 2Q20, but an increase of 2.7 set against the previous quarter.
The strong results are also seen in the firm’s balance sheet.
As of June 30, total assets ended up at COP 42.9 trillion, representing an increase of 19% in comparison to the same period last year. Likewise, total assets in this quarter were higher than those in 1Q21.
Regarding total liabilities, the concept totaled COP 30 trillion, growing by 18.1% compared to June 2020.
Annualized ROAA ended at 11.6%, improving by 2.4 percentage points compared to the prior-year quarter and 1.7 in comparison to the previous quarter. Likewise, the firm reported an ROAE of 22.5%, experiencing an increase of 4.4 percentage points versus 2Q20 and 3.1 against 1Q21.
