Medellin Metro Full-Year 2022 Net Income Plummets 99% Year-on-Year
Public transit agency Metro de Medellin – 50% owned by the Antioquia departmental government and the other 50% owned by a city of Medellin public entity – announced March 31 that its full-year 2022 net income dropped 99% year-on-year, to COP$3.2 billion (US$688,000), from COP$328 billion (US$70.5 million) in 2021.
Part of the net-income decline in 2022 is explained by the elimination of a previous COP$95 billion (US$20 million) subsidy from the national government to help cover a huge decline in passengers in 2021 caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other factors include a 46% hike in operational costs during 2022 versus 2021, a 163% increase in bad debts and lawsuit costs, a 73% decline in government grants, a 43% decline in revenues from consulting and other services, and a 26% decline in patrimony, according to the filing.
On the other hand, Metro saw a 37% rise in passenger trips during 2022, hitting 300 million for the year, versus 219.8 million total passengers in 2021.
Daily average passenger trips in 2022 likewise increased by 37%, or 255,626, passengers, to a total of 952,532 average daily passengers in 2022, up from 696,906 average daily passengers in 2021.
“The increase in traffic generated a 45% recovery in fare revenue, corresponding to COP$176 billion [US$37.8 million],” according to Metro.
“With the entry into operation of the Picacho aerial tram since June 10, 2021, a total of 5.7 million trips were added from January to December 2022,” the company explained.
Meanwhile, Metro presented a debt balance that at year-end 2022 totaled COP$6.4 trillion (US$1.37billion) in principal-plus-interest.
“Of this value, 96.18% corresponds to the loan payable to the national government as originated in the construction process of the first and second lines of the Medellin Metro in the 1990s and whose restructuring materialized in a repayment agreement entered-into between the nation, the Medellin Metro, the Department of Antioquia and the Science, Technology and Innovation Division [for the city Medellín] in 2004,” the company added.
Much of the debt repayment is covered by a surtax on gasoline in the Medellin metro area, along with income gained from departmental tobacco sales.
