Although electric cars are not widely popular neither in Latin America nor Colombia, the reality is that they are the future and should be embraced. Terpel is aware of these changes and since 2019 has been launching electric stations. Last month, the firm inaugurated its fourth electric station in Colombia, which aims to strengthen Terpel’s presence and allow greater mobility for electric cars.
“Until today, the owners of electric vehicles have been limited to making short trips within the cities as there is no supply of recharging points on the country's highways. With this new station and with the others that we hope to open this year, we want Colombians to be able to travel in their electric vehicles through the main road corridors throughout the national territory," said Juan Daniel Rueda, manager of New Mobility at Terpel.
Coupled with this news, the firm continued improving its results due to a fast recovery in most of the regions where it has presence. In this quarter, it not only returned to its pre-pandemic levels but surpassed them.
The highest peak of the pandemic took place in the second quarter of 2020, resulting in the worst quarter for most of the firms; hence, the comparison base could be tricky. However, some concepts did rise in comparison to 2Q19.
In this quarter, the company reported revenues of 5.1 trillion Colombian pesos, showing an advance of 93.8% compared to 2Q20 and a decrease of 5.0% against 2Q19. The decrease is mostly explained by lower volumes.
Gross profit amounted to COP 556.4 million, which represents an increase of 162.4% in comparison to the same period last year. In addition, gross profit rose 16.2% vis-à-vis 2Q19.
Another concept that experienced real growth was EBITDA. It not only recovered from the pandemic, increasing by 2,115.9% in comparison to the second quarter of 2Q20, but it also performed better than the second quarter of 2019. In this quarter EBITDA amounted to COP 269.6 million, representing an increase of 22.6% compared to 2Q19.
In this quarter, net income experienced a terrific comeback, passing from COP 151.590 million losses in 2Q20 to COP 90.03 million in 2Q21. This improvement is essentially attributed to the economic recovery in most of the firm’s regions. In addition, Terpel’s net income rose 203.8% compared to the second quarter of 2019.
The significant improvement, both in EBITDA and net income, reflects the firm’s effort to reduce expenses and strengthen the value proposition to recover sales in its business lines.
As of June 21, the company’s total assets ended up at COP 7.5 trillion, which represents an increase of 8.2% in comparison to June 2020. The increase is mostly explained by greater cash flow, which grew 107.4%. The investments made in Property, Plants, and Equipment rose 14% compared to June 2019.
Liabilities stood at the same level of June 2020, remaining at COP 5.2 trillion. Liabilities represent 69.4% of the assets and are mainly composed of bonds.
Cash flow experienced an improvement of 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Furthermore, cash flow rose 107.4% vis-à-vis the June 2019 balance. The most relevant cash flow source was EBITDA, which, as we have seen, had a solid quarter.
A significant portion of this concept was used to finance working capital, some disbursements, and the company’s investment plan in strategic projects, ending in a free cash flow of COP 93 mm.
Regarding debt behavior, total debt ended at COP 2.7 trillion, of which 92% has long-term maturities. Total debt is compounded by obligations in Panama, Ecuador, and Colombia. The latter is where the highest percentage of debt is found.
Concerning debt ratios, the firm reported a Net Debt/ EBITDA ratio of 2.2 x times the EBITDA.
