CEMENTOS PACASMAYO S.A.A. Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Pacasmayo's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please note that this call is being recorded. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Mrs. Claudia Bustamante, Investor Relations Managing Director. Mrs. Bustamante, you may begin.

Thank you, Danielle. Good morning, everyone. Joining me on the call today is Mr. Humberto Nadal, our Chief Executive Officer, and Ms. Eli Hayashi, our Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Nadal will begin our call with an overview of the quarter, focusing primarily on our strategic outlook for the short and medium term. Ms. Hayashi will follow with additional commentary on our financial results. We will turn the call over to your questions. Please note that this call will include certain forward-looking statements. These statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, trends, and other matters that are not historical facts, are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties that might affect future events or results. Descriptions of these risks are set forth in the company's regulatory filings. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Humberto Nadal.

Thank you, Claudia. Welcome everyone to today's conference call. Thank you for joining us today. During the second quarter of 2026, we demonstrated outstanding operational execution and financial discipline. We experienced a strong 15.5% increase in our sales volume for cement, concrete, and precast. This was primarily driven by a robust performance in the self-construction segment and higher demand for bagged cement. Consequently, our revenues grew by 15.4%, reaching PEN 558.9 million. Even more impressive is the profitability we achieved from this top-line growth. Our consolidated EBITDA reached PEN 174.8 million, an impressive 34.3% increase compared to the second quarter of last year. This resulted in our EBITDA margin expanding by 4.4 percentage points to 31.3%. Furthermore, our net income surged by 61% to PEN 77 million. This peak in profitability is a direct result of operational efficiencies, our extremely solid commercial strategy, and a shift towards higher margin concrete solutions.

Beyond our financial metrics, which are always important, we continue to lead the industry through sustainability, innovation, and specialized solutions. We recently received the official verification for our 2025 organizational carbon footprint from ICONTEC Perú, which validates the real emission reductions we are achieving across our operations. On the innovation front, we successfully secured a tax benefit from CONCYTEC following the approval of our technology and innovation project, reinforcing our commitment to long-term competitiveness and R&D. Our technical expertise is also shaping high-impact infrastructure across the country. To give you a couple of examples, we successfully prefabricated foundations at over 5,000 meters above sea level for the Yanacocha Sulfuros project. We also secured the specification of an additional 4.4 kilometers of concrete sheet piles for the Riverbank Defense Project in Piura, a crucial endeavor as we prepare for El Niño phenomenon.

None of these would be possible without our absolutely exceptional team. We are deeply honored to have entered the top 15 of the Merco Talento 2026 Index nationwide, maintaining our position as the number one company to attract and retain talent in the cement sector for the 11th consecutive year. We also recently concluded a new edition of our ALAS: Mujeres que inspiran, Women that Inspire program, empowering 25 women with Pacasmayo to drive our inclusive culture forward. Recently, Semana Económica published its ranking of the most profitable CEOs in Peru, placing us in the top six. Let me stress the word "us," because there's no "me" in CEO. I receive this recognition with deep humility, knowing full well that profitability is never driven by a leader behind a desk.

This is a direct result of the daily effort, resilience, and unwavering commitment of every single person at Cementos Pacasmayo. This achievement belongs truly, entirely to our team. I will now turn the call over to Eli to go into a more detailed financial analysis.

Thank you, Humberto, and good morning, everyone. For the second quarter of 2026, our revenue growth remained very strong, reaching PEN 558.9 million, up 15.4% compared to the second quarter of 2025. This brought our total cumulative revenue for the first six months of the year to PEN 1,114.5 million, representing a robust 13.3% increase year-over-year. This performance was primarily driven by strong core demand, with total shipments increasing by 15.5% in the second quarter of 2026, and 13.6% for the six months of 2026, led consistently by the bagged cement segment in the self-construction market across northern Peru. Cumulative gross profit for the six months grew significantly by 25.4% to PEN 455.5 million, following a 23% increase in the quarter, supported by structural operational efficiencies and higher shipments.

Turning to operating expenses, administrative expenses decreased by 7.5% in the second quarter of 2026 to PEN 65.1 million, and by 4.1% for the six months of 2026 to PEN 134.6 million. This reduction across both periods was mainly driven by lower personnel expenses, specifically reaching PEN 35.5 million in the six months of 2026, primarily reflecting a lower collective bargaining bonus compared to last year. On the other hand, selling expenses for the quarter remained completely stable year-over-year at PEN 22.4 million. However, for the first six months, selling expenses increased by 16.9% to PEN 52.7 million, as higher advertising and promotion initiatives related to marketing and loyalty programs for affiliate retailers were partially offset by decreased provision for doubtful payments. Moving to overall profitability, our consolidated EBITDA reached PEN 174.8 million for the quarter, an outstanding 34.3% increase.

For the first half of the year, cumulative EBITDA rose 33.1% to PEN 352.7 million. Consequently, our EBITDA margin expanded by 4.4 percentage points to 31.3% in the second quarter of 2026 and expanded by 4.7 percentage points to 31.6% for the six months of 2026. This remarkable profitability across both the quarter and the six-month period reflects our continued focus on operational excellence, discipline, expense management, and a highly profitable product mix. Breaking down our results by business segment, cement continues to be our primary driver. Cement revenues grew 90.5% to PEN 469.5 million in the second quarter of 2026, representing 86.3% of our quarterly shipments. For the first six months, cement revenues reached PEN 935.9 million, a 17.7% increase year-over-year.

In terms of margins, the gross margin for cement in the second quarter 2026 adjusted is slightly down by 1.5 percentage points to 45.2%, affected by a slight increase in coal prices and higher consumption of imported clinker during a scheduled kiln maintenance. For the six months of 2026, however, the gross margin remained incredibly stable and resilient at 46.7%. For the concrete, pavement, and mortar segment, quarterly revenues decreased slightly by 2.6% to PEN 66.8 million, while six months revenues decreased 9.3% to PEN 132.8 million. This decline across both areas is entirely due to a high comparative base last year, which included substantial volume from the Piura Airport project that concluded. Despite lower volumes, that segment profitability experienced a massive surge.

Gross margin expanded by a remarkable 17.9 percentage points in the second quarter of 2026 to reach 16%, and by 80.1 percentage points for the six months 2026 to reach 16.2%. This spectacular expansion reflects a regularization of profitability as the segment shifts away from low-margin infrastructure toward highly specialized, higher-margin concrete solutions, such as our work for the Yanacocha project. Our precast segment also delivered solid progress. Revenues rose 2.6% to PEN 7.9 million in the second quarter 2026, and 3.6% to PEN 14.5 million for the six months of 2026, fueled primarily by steady public sector infrastructure demand. Driven by higher volumes and an optimal dilution of fixed production cost per ton, precast gross margin jumped 6.2 percentage points to 10.1% in the quarter and expanded 6.8 percentage points to 9.7% for the cumulative six-month period.

Finally, our consolidated net income for the second quarter increased by 61.5% to PEN 77.2 million, bringing cumulative net income to PEN 159.2 million, a remarkable 58.4% increase year-over-year. This strong bottom-line growth stems directly from higher operating profit and reduced financial expenses. As we continue to constantly reduce leverage, our net debt to EBITDA ratio dropped further to 2.32. To summarize, both our quarterly and six-month performance reflect a highly successful execution of our commercial and operational strategies, allowing us to capture market upside while strictly defending our margins. Operator, can we now open the call for questions?

Thank you. We'll now move to the question and answer section. If you would like to ask a question, please press star two on your phone and wait to be prompted. If you are dialed in by the web, you can type your question in the box provided or request to ask a voice question. We'll just wait a moment or two for the questions to come in. Our first question comes from Francisco Suarez from Scotiabank. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning. Thank you, Claudia, Eli, and Humberto. Congrats for such outstanding results. My question relates with the following. You have for years developed Cementos Pacasmayo basically from a single plant or isolated set of plants to a multi-plant ecosystem. You have also developed a lot of building solutions, precast model. I wonder, now that you are part of the ecosystem of Holcim, where do you see the opportunities to integrate further in building solutions or perhaps with other operations with Holcim? Can you give us an idea of what to expect ahead?

Thank you, Francisco. Always nice to hear from you. Definitely, we share something with Holcim, besides we share many things, is our vision in terms of building solutions. They are an outstanding building solution provider on a worldwide basis. We're trying to do the same here in Latin America. Of course, we're looking into things that they can help us with, in terms of collaboration, in terms of operations, of building solutions, efficiency of the plants and the kilns on a ready-mix operation. Yes, we're trying to topicalize the solutions they may have to make our solutions to our customers even better.

Got you. If I may, a follow-up question on that. Do you think that there is room for opportunity to provide those building solutions also in the city of Lima, now that, as you know, Holcim already bought a couple of assets over there, so perhaps you can actually create some sort of synergies over there? Or the synergies will be mostly obtained in the northern Peru?

I can only talk for Pacasmayo. We are an independent company. The synergies I'm talking are things I think we are learning, and we are going to be able to do a much better job in the region we supply, which is fundamentally a northern part of the jungle of Peru.

Fantastic. Thank you so much, and congrats again. Take care. Thank you so much.

Just a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star two on your phone and wait to be prompted. If you are dialed in by the web, you can either type your question in the box provided or request to ask a voice question. We'll just wait a moment or two for the questions to come in. Our next question comes from Jhardel Ford from AFP Integra. Concrete margins improved from -1.9% to 16%, largely driven by the Yanacocha project. Given that Yanacocha is expected to contribute only until around the third quarter, how should we think about the sustainability of these margins going forward?

The 1.9% negative margin was explained not by Yanacocha so much by the fact that we were finishing the airport project on Peru, which was very complicated for us. Yeah, looking forward, I think 16% is more of a going concern, a sustainable number we should be able to achieve in the coming months or years.

Thank you very much. Another text question from Jhardel Ford. What projects in the current pipeline could replace that contribution? Could you provide an update on the outlook for riverbank protection projects and Chavimochic?

Thank you for the question. We are extremely excited with the new government coming in. We've seen clear signs of them really wanting to tackle not only infrastructure, but also, as you all are aware, El Niño phenomenon is expected to hit Peru around September. I think the new government is very interested in moving prevention decisions and in terms of riverbanks, in terms of lots of things. Yeah, I think in the coming probably 120 days, we should see a lot of movement in terms of these kind of building solutions.

Thank you so much. Our next question comes from Christian Choquecota from La Positiva Seguros. Thank you for the presentation. Could you please share your thoughts on the El Niño phenomenon? Could it boost demand for cement or concrete?

The answer is, my thoughts on El Niño, as Peruvian, as CEO of a very large company in north Peru, we're concerned, and we're trying to really plan ahead of things happening. We are fully prepared to face El Niño, not only as a company, but a very influential player in north Peru, so we can help our communities, our customers, our clients. As you see in the past, in El Niño, El Niño may cause a lot of struggle for some couple of weeks, probably, there's a lot of demand that should come in after that. It's going to depend also a lot in what does the new government and then the regional government in turn decide to do in terms of the structure. As I understand, it is a priority for the new government, we are very optimistic about it.

Thank you so much. Just another reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star two on your phone and wait to be prompted. If you are dialed in by the web, you can either type your question in the box provided or request to ask a voice question. Our next question comes from Diego Corzo from Inteligo Group. I have two questions. First, what level of CapEx should we expect for this and next year? Second, what is your outlook for cement prices over the remainder of the year and into next year?

Thank you for the question. In terms of CapEx, it's around PEN 100 million per year. That's been our sustaining CapEx for the last two, three years since we finished kiln number 4 in Pacasmayo. That should be the number remaining on that. Second, we've had some price adjustments over the last month, we're going to keep monitoring the market to see if there's any opportunities for some price increases for the remaining part of the year.

Thank you so much. Just a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star two on your phone and wait to be prompted, or you can request to ask a voice question via web. I'm not seeing any more questions, perhaps I can hand it back to Mr. Humberto Nadal for closing remarks.

In closing, our second quarter and first half results are a true testament for our strategic vision and the enduring strength of our northern Peruvian market. As we move forward alongside Holcim, we're uniquely positioned to merge our deep local roots with world-class capabilities. As we look ahead, we must also remember that true profitability is not measured solely on a financial balance sheet. It is measured on the real wellbeing we leave for our people and our country. Running a responsible business goes far beyond financial figures. It is about building solid foundations of trust and opening paths of opportunity for Peruvian families. The future of Peru does not depend on luck. It has never depended on luck. It is built every day through the decisions, hard work, and commitment of millions.

Peru is not just inherited, it is built together with the absolute conviction that when we put our country first, we're capable of achieving far more than we ever imagined. Thank you once again for your continued trust, and should you have any other questions, we are always here at your disposal. Have a very. That concludes the call for today.

Thank you and have a nice day.