Grupo Argos Full-Year 2020 Net Income Drops 87% Year-on-Year
Medellin-based Grupo Argos – parent of cement/concrete giant Cementos Argos, electric power producer Celsia and highway/airport concessionaire Odinsa – on February 24 reported an 87.7% plunge in 2020 net income, to COP$154 billion (US$43 million).
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 30% year-on-year, to COP$3.35 trillion (US$935 million), while EBITDA margin dipped to 24%, from 28.5% in 2019.
Operating income also fell by 16.7% year-on-year, to COP$14 trillion (US$3.9 billion), according to the company.
Facing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, “a shock-and-austerity plan allowed the company to ensure liquidity of COP$3.4 trillion [US$947 million] through operational savings, rationalization of investments and expenses, liquidity credits and tax refunds,” according to the company.
As a result, the company “managed to close with the same level of consolidated net debt in a year with a high cash requirement,” according to Argos.
“During 2020 the company implemented a crash plan that allowed it to achieve efficiencies in operating expenses by COP$541 billion [US$151 million] and postpone investments totaling COP$1.4 trillion [US$390 million] that gave it greater flexibility to adequately face the situation.
“Additionally, we obtained credits totaling COP$1.4 trillion [US$390 million] to guarantee liquidity and that during the year were duly prepaid thanks to the solid cash generation of the organization,” the company added.
As for its three main business units, the fourth quarter of 2020 began to show improvements, the company noted:
Cementos Argos closed the fourth quarter with 4 million tons of cement sold, 2% higher than the volume of the same period of 2019;
Celsia closed the fourth quarter with 876 gigawatt-hours sold, “in line with what was registered in the same quarter of the previous year,” according to the company.
Odinsa reported a total of 123,000 vehicles per day going through its toll booths in December 2020, 3% lower than 2019, while the El Dorado Airport in Bogota registered 1.4 million passengers in December 2020, 54% lower compared to December 2019, “but with a marked recovery compared to the months of total closure” in 2020, the company noted.
