Edited Transcript of BOLSAA.MX earnings conference call or presentation 22-Apr-20 8:30pm GMT

I would now like to turn the call over to our CEO, José-Oriol Bosch.

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José-Oriol Bosch Par, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – CEO [3]

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Thank you, Ramón, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the first quarter 2020 earnings conference call.

First of all, it is with a heavy heart and a deep sadness that I tell you that on Sunday, April 12, our Chairman, Jaime Ruiz Sacristán, passed away from complications related to COVID-19. Jaime always led the Board of Directors for 5 years, was a man of integrity, incredible insight, ambition and strong discipline to execute on his ideas. His character was a constant source of inspiration for those of us who worked closely with him. He was not only our leader. He was a mentor and a partner, but — and most important for me, he was a great friend. So all the employees from the exchange, the Board members, clients and shareholders will miss him. But despite our sadness, all of us will continue doing what he always wanted and for which he made a great effort in all those years, which is to have a better Bolsa, and I guarantee you that we will continue doing it. So our prayers are there with his family, and thank you.

After this introduction and regarding the first quarter results, we have decided to change the format of the call to make it more friendly to our listeners. So yesterday, we sent an e-mail with the press release and the conference call presentation for this first quarter. If you did not receive it, please contact Luis Ramon at lramon@grupobmv.com.mx. You can also download the presentation at BMV’s website, as you know, is www.bmv.com.mx, under the Investor Relations and then click on the Corporate Presentation.

So if we start with the presentation, and please you can go to Slide 3 after the cover and the disclaimer. Let me tell you that due to the current situation — and I would like to start by talking about the impact of the COVID-19 in the — in our business and what has been our response and priorities in this uncertain environment. Our main priority was and will be — continue to be to guarantee all our employees’ safety. Therefore, on March 16, I decided to activate our Business Continuity Plan and keeping a safe environment, but at the same time, having most of the group of Bolsa people operating remotely. Around 95% of our employees are currently working remotely with the same commitment and the same level of efficiency and quality of service that we have always been providing to our clients.

So I’m proud to tell you that our investments in IT infrastructure and business continuity have paid off. And we are operating from a solid position of strength of capital, high liquidity and balance sheet perspective. We also focused on risk management, cash flow generation and cost control.

And as previously mentioned, they will continue to work on building a better and a stronger Mexican exchange. Our goals have not changed. We see this sad environment as an opportunity to consolidate our strong position and contribute this way in the required economic growth of Mexico.

If you can go to Slide 4 please, and going to the financial highlights. Our revenue for the first quarter of 2020 was up 18% to MXN 996 million, mainly due to higher activity in trading or market-related businesses, services related to the global markets, to the SIC and a tax benefit in SIF Chile. On the expense side, expenses increased 8% as a result of operating expense of projects finished in 2019, mainly in technology and depreciation as well as the variable compensation due to a better performance in SIF ICAP. The operating income and net income increased 26% and 39%, respectively. And the EBITDA was registered at MXN 607 million with a margin of 61%. Worth mentioning that in the first quarter of 2020, we registered a historically record high in revenue, historically record high in EBITDA, EBITDA margin and net income.

If we go to Slide 5. As mentioned before, the total revenue was up 18%. If we look at the revenue growth by business line, almost all businesses had an increase. The largest was on the OTC market, including the tax — the already mentioned tax benefit in SIF ICAP Chile that grew 52%. The Central Securities Depository, Indeval, increased by 26%; derivatives trading and clearing, 19%; equities trading and clearing, 11%. And as we have always stated and we can see in this chart, we have a great business diversification.

On Slide 6, on the expense side, expenses were up 8%. So we continue to have a good revenue increase with a tight cost control discipline. Personnel expenses were up MXN 13 million as a result of variable compensation in SIF ICAP. Technology was up MXN 9 million, explained by operating cost of projects completed in 2019, an increment of central bandwidth and the purchase of data for the global market or SIC-related services. Depreciation was up MXN 6 million due to the acquisition of hardware, mainly for the Storage Area Network, the SAN, and Asigna’s risk platform as well as the amortization of project finished in 2019. Others were up MXN 6 million, explained by provision for promotion activities and events as well as the option to purchase the remaining shares of SIF ICAP Chile. When looking at revenue expenses, we have a net long dollar position, but on the other side, technology and sub-custody are the 2 categories that will be impacted in the next quarters if the peso continues to depreciate versus the dollar and the euro.

If we go to Slide 7 and business by business. Cash equities revenue was up 11%. The average daily traded value, the ADTV, for the first quarter of 2020 was MXN 18 billion, up 28%. The domestic market increased 10% and represented 49% of the total ADTV. And the global market increased 52% and amounted to 51% of the total ADTV. The Central Counterparty, the CCV, registered a similar figure to the first quarter of 2019 due to a larger number of crossed rates.

On Slide 8, the ADTV in March is mainly explained by the uncertainty and volatility in the local and global financial markets due to the COVID-19 impact. Our strategy to focus on the global market or seek listing new foreign values, stocks and ETFs, lowering the cost for the intermediaries and making this market easier and cheaper for the investors has been paying off. And as we did see, for first time, the global market, the SIC, accounted for more than 50% during this quarter.

On Slide #9, the revenue in MexDer on the derivatives side. The revenue in MexDer and Asigna was up 21% and 16%, respectively. We had higher volume in 28-day TIIE swaps, plus 203%, with a notional value of MXN 224 billion, and dollar futures that was up 50% The average margin deposits were MXN 39.4 billion, that’s up 27%. And the Bolsa will be — will continue working with the financial regulators to list new contracts as electricity and the overnight TIIE futures.

On Slide #10, on the OTC side. SIF ICAP revenue was up 52%; SIF ICAP Mexico, similar to that of first quarter 2019; and SIF ICAP Chile, up 98%. SIF ICAP Chile registered higher trading due to, first, volatility in the financial markets after rest of the world; second, the Chilean peso appreciating 16% against the Mexican peso; and third, the tax benefits in operations with residents abroad where the company was subject to a 19% value-added tax. The tax benefit in pesos was MXN 23 million for the period of November ’19-March ’20. And going forward, we expect MXN 4 million per month instead of those MXN 23 million.

On Slide 11, on the listing and maintenance side. The capital formation on listing and maintenance registered similar figures compared to the first quarter of 2019. Listing revenue was in line with the first quarter of 2019, but expecting weakness for the rest of 2020. We had 2 CKDs in the first quarter of 2020, Promecap for MXN 1.2 billion and Mexico Infrastructure Partners for MXN 1.9 billion. Maintenance fees were down 2% due to early debt amortization and lower listings in 2019.

On Slide 12, on the Central Securities Depository side, on the Indeval. The revenue was up 26% and its growth is mainly explained by the services related to the global market, to the SIC. Regarding the direct cost of the project, we expect some delays due to the COVID-19. Nonetheless, we continue building relationships with global custodians in order to start operations in the second semester of 2020. The average value of the assets under custody was up 5% for the quarter when compared with the first quarter of 2019. However, in March 2020, the average value of the assets under custody decreased 4% compared to February 2020.

On Slide #13, information services registered similar figures compared to the first quarter of 2019. On the market data side, in first quarter 2019, we had MXN 12 million of nonrecurring revenue. Excluding this concept, the revenue was up 13% as a result of sales with new and existing customers. In Valmer, revenues were down 8% because of onetime implementations in the first quarter of 2019. And in our LED regional project, we continue doing trials with potential clients in the U.S., but also expect some delays due to the COVID-19.

On Slide 14, our strategy is focused on delivering a strong result despite the current and challenging environment. We continue with the execution of our strategy that, as a reminder, includes further development of post-trade and market data businesses, strengthening legacy businesses by building new added-value services, working closer with clients and regulators and analysis and development of BMV’s technological transformation strategy.

On Slide 15, regarding the progress of the 2020 financial guidance. As a reminder, our EBITDA margin guidance for 2020 is between 58% and 61%, and the net income guidance is between MXN 1.4 billion and MXN 1.6 billion. As of the end of the first quarter, we reached an EBITDA margin of 61% as well as a net income of MXN 457 million.

And on the last slide, on Slide #16. In summary, in the first quarter of 2020, we continued with the execution of our strategy, positive results due to local and global market volatility and the strong demand for global market SIC services and analytics. Also a strong financial result, good progress in delivering 2020 guidance, but monitoring closely the economic impact due to the COVID-19. Focus on risk management, cash flow, cost control as we manage through challenging and also through non-challenging times. Well diversified and positioned to drive further growth. Solid revenues across all businesses and multiple growth opportunities. However, it may take us longer that — than we might have expected to start new businesses and new initiatives operations due to the COVID-19.

And that’s it. I hope that this was more friendly and useful than reading the long text. So I conclude the presentation. We are now ready to answer any questions you may have.

And I would also like to apologize in advance for any inconvenience answering questions. As mentioned, most of my colleagues that will and usually help me in this conference call are working remotely, but we will do our best.

So thanks. As every quarter, thanks for attending the conference call. And we’re ready for the Q&A. Thanks.

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Questions and Answers

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Operator [1]

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(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Ernesto Gabilondo from Bank of America.

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Ernesto María Gabilondo Márquez, BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division – Associate [2]

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I’m sorry for the loss of your Chairman and my condolences to the Ruiz Sacristán family. Congratulations on your results.

I have a couple of questions. The first one is we saw that the market volatility helped different revenues such as cash trading, derivatives, post-trading, OTC and Indeval. So what could happen if, in the next quarters, we start to see more lateral side market? And if you think that Indeval should continue to deliver around MXN 300 million per quarter?

Then my second question is we have seen the leasing of the new Fibra in the Mexican market, and I believe there will be opportunities for stories with strong fundamentals and good collaterals. However, I would appreciate your thoughts on how do you see the future equity and debt listings, considering the expected GDP contraction of the country and the risks associated of losing the investment grade. What could be the potential impacts on your business?

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Ramón Güémez Sarre, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – Director of Administration & Finance [3]

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Ernesto, regarding your first question, what can we expect going forward, it really depends on market volatility. We’ll continue to do as much as we can, but market volatility definitely helps us. In SIF ICAP Chile, as Oriol mentioned, we have a MXN 23 million nonrecurring onetime item from the VAT reimbursement. And going forward, we expect this to be around MXN 4 million per month, but definitely, SIF ICAP did have a good quarter as the same with Indeval. Whether we can expect MXN 300 million quarter-per-quarter is — that’s difficult to say. We’ll do — as I said, we’ll do all we can, but we’re definitely being helped by the volatility.

Regarding the outlook on future listings considering the economic situation, I would ask José Manuel Allende to take that question, please.

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José Manuel Allende Zubiri, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – SVP of Issuers & Information Services [4]

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Yes. I would say that our pipeline per actual conditions is weak and we think it will remain weak for the next month until the — this contingency passes. On the equity side, for the capital market on equity and FIBRAS, we think it will be challenging to see new players coming because of the actual level of prices on the market.

On the quarter, we had, as Oriol mentioned, the 2 CKDs. Some — we had some placements of long — medium- and long-term debt and then the Fibra IDEAL that we just did yesterday. But I will say that this weak activity comes since — has been reduced since November of last year. Many offers that were at that time were postponed into February. Some of them were placed in January, February and early March, but a lot of them were dropped and they were not able to be placed. We have had some solicited or requests that are hoping various times in the market to be out.

What I will — can tell you about the activity is that, as you may have seen on the material events that the issuers are providing to market, they are focusing in eliminating nonbasic expenses to keep liquidity. And some of them have activated bank credit lines and some of them are using them into — for paying, especially on the short-term placements that we have, all the — those vencimientos, the…

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Ramón Güémez Sarre, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – Director of Administration & Finance [5]

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Maturities.

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José Manuel Allende Zubiri, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – SVP of Issuers & Information Services [6]

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Maturities, all maturities, they are prepaid with the — with those bank lines. For the last 3 or 4 weeks, on the short term, we have renewed only 60% of the maturity. The other 40% has been prepaid with the line banks.

We think this can keep on going for the next 2 or 3 months. And hopefully, when we are back in business, market activity will be back again and prepay the bank lines that are using currently.

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Operator [7]

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And our next question comes from Claudia Benavente from Santander.

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Claudia Benavente, Santander Investment Securities Inc., Research Division – Research Analyst [8]

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First of all, my most sincere condolences. And then I was wondering what you expect regarding maybe opportunities to make acquisitions. You hold a very strong position in cash, and current timing probably could indicate that there could be interesting opportunities for making acquisitions, I don’t know, I think, information services line. So any color there would be appreciated.

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Ramón Güémez Sarre, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – Director of Administration & Finance [9]

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Claudia, we always have a large cash position or we’re always open and looking. If something comes up at the right price and we know we could have — there could be bargains out there. So if we see something, we will definitely look at it. If you have any ideas, we’ll be happy to hear that.

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José-Oriol Bosch Par, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – CEO [10]

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I fully agree with Ramón, Claudia. And I think that in this environment, cash is king. And we ended 2019 with MXN 3.1 billion in cash. Now we closed the first quarter with MXN 3.9 billion. So let’s take the MXN 3.1 billion but — we had on January 1. But once it is approved by the general assembly, we’ll be paying a dividend worth MXN 1.1 billion. After that, the remaining balance will be MXN 2 billion. And we generate close to MXN 2 billion cash a year. And this is operational flow. So we — given we have to pay taxes up to, let’s say, 30%, we will be ending with another MXN 1.4 billion. So total, MXN 3.4 billion, something like that.

So yes, we are — I think that our — we are in a good position. We have no debt. And if needed, we could raise money. So we’re definitely in the right position. And due to the current environment and the valuation — and this is a buyer’s market. So absolutely, we are already looking and ready for any available acquisition opportunity. If we can buy something cheap, that obviously fit with our businesses.

And also, I think that when mister — you were talking, Ernesto, about the investment grade in Mexico and something like that. But — and I’m not saying that Mexico will lose the investment grade, but you were asking what will happen to our market in this potential scenario with Mexico losing the investment grade. Honestly, I do not know, but if we look at the largest market in the region, the largest market in the region is Brazil, and Brazil is not an investment-grade country. Therefore, I think that this should not have a big impact. And I don’t know if — but I will say I don’t think that this is something that is going to happen in the short term.

And thanks to both for your words regarding Jaime, Ernesto and Claudia. Thank you.

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Operator [11]

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And the next question comes from Carlos Gomez from HSBC.

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Carlos Gomez-Lopez, HSBC, Research Division – Senior Analyst, Latin America Financials [12]

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Yes. You have already mentioned the dividend. We have seen the National Banking Commission to — making some recommendations to the banks. We understand that, that does not affect you. Have you received any recommendation to authorities in one way or another?

And then given this crisis and the need for people to work remotely, do you think you will be making any long-term changes as to how you operate the business? We’ll perhaps need less real estate? Or do you think this is going to be something that is going to have a long-lasting effect for your business?

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Ramón Güémez Sarre, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – Director of Administration & Finance [13]

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Carlos, regarding dividend, we have not received any recommendation from the authorities that — the recommendation that came out was for banks. So we will — the dividend will be voted as proposed in the general assembly. It’s MXN 1.81 per share dividend. It’s an 80% payout, 4.8% dividend yield. Total amount is MXN 1.73 billion. So we plan to go ahead and propose that to the general assembly this Friday.

Regarding the long-term plans, it’s something we’re looking at. We have never had so many people working remotely. And it’s worked at very well, but we have to — we’re beginning to analyze that. I don’t know, Oriol, would you like to comment further on the long-term change we could have on the exchange?

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José-Oriol Bosch Par, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – CEO [14]

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Yes, I agree. I think that, definitely, this is going to be an opportunity. I think that the way that we are all working, not just at the Bolsa — and not just working. I think that the way that we are all living is going to change looking forward once we come back to normality and it’s going to be a very different normal way to live and to work. So I do agree. I think that this is something that we have already been talking. Actually, a couple of days ago, we were internally talking about that. But I think that is too soon to say. But what we are already doing and that I already requested to all different areas is to start keeping track and having a very good feedback of the pros and cons of each one of the different businesses person-by-person and if this is going to be a possibility. And — but I think that everything is going to change, even the labor market in Mexico and in the world. So we’ll see.

I think that this could be an opportunity. But what I can tell you is that, as mentioned, we activated our contingency plan very soon — much sooner and earlier than most of the companies in Mexico, that we have been very successful. As of today, we had no problems. So we continued with providing the same service efficiency, everything to all our clients with 95% of our people working remotely. So this is — I think that this make us think about what are we going to do because we are already seeing that we can be successful with a different way toward that we were doing for years. But I think that it’s too soon, but we’re already looking at that.

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Operator [15]

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Our next question comes from Gilberto Garcia from Barclays.

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Gilberto Garcia, Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division – Assistant VP & Equity Research Analyst [16]

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My question is on the market share in cash equities trading. It has continued to come down gradually. And I was wondering if you had any thoughts on — or any comments on how you feel about your market share at this point.

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Ramón Güémez Sarre, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – Director of Administration & Finance [17]

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Oriol, would you…

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José-Oriol Bosch Par, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – CEO [18]

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Sorry, I didn’t hear very well. You are talking about the market share with BIVA, right?

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Gilberto Garcia, Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division – Assistant VP & Equity Research Analyst [19]

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Yes.

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José-Oriol Bosch Par, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – CEO [20]

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Okay. Thanks. Yes. Okay. If we look at the first quarter, the market share in the local market, we continued — and we are just talking about trading, right? So on the local market, trading local stocks, we maintained 96%, 96.3%; and BIVA, 3.7%. On the global market, SIC, during the first quarter, our market share was 78.77 and the SIC was 21.23 for BIVA. And on the consolidated market in total, we had 86.56%; and BIVA (inaudible), 13.44.

Talking about the local market. In the local market, we continued with a very good market share. If we look at the market share since BIVA started on July 25, 2018, the accrued market share we had was 97.58 and now we have 96.3. So we continue on the local market with a very large market share. That’s, again, on the trading side. If we talk about the listed companies on the equity market, obviously, BIVA has not listed any new company, but they have not been able to move any company that was already listed in the Bolsa to BIVA. So we are maintaining 100% of the local companies listed in the equity market.

On the global market, SIC, I do agree, we are not happy with losing market share. If we look at the accrued number, we had 84%. Now we have 79%. We know that this is — and as a reminder, on the local market, there is a best execution regulation. On the global market or SIC, there is no best execution regulation. So the — either the client or the intermediary, the Casas de Bolsa, they can choose to make the trade, the cross-trade. That is the case of the SIC in one or the other Bolsa. And we know that there is a big concentration of a couple of quarters in 2 or 3 pension funds, and we’re working on that.

And on the consolidated market, the accrued number, we had 91%. Now we have 86. So BIVA, they have — they had in this first quarter was the largest number, 13.44. But as a reminder also, the revenues coming from cash equity trading is 8% of our total revenue. So let’s take 15%, even more than that, 15% of it would be around 1%. So we are talking about 1% of our total revenue. So this would be the largest impact that we have seen from BIVA.

So — and as the quote says, “Never underestimate your enemy.” It’s not our enemy. It’s our competitor. But we are not underestimating BIVA, but we are not overestimating either. We are watching very closely and we will continue our competitiveness. We’re not happy, but with this number in particular on the global market, SIC, but we’re working on that.

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Operator [21]

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Our next question comes from Guilherme Grespan from JPMorgan.

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Guilherme F. Grespan, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division – Analyst [22]

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Firstly, my condolences as well. My question is related to the FX gains on financial income. We had a very strong quarter with roughly MXN 120 million gain from the peso depreciation, which we, of course, imagine is the result of a long USD position. And we would just like a little bit more color if you could provide what has actually drove this performance, meaning what is the asset behind it. And if you also could give a little bit more color on the notion of the size of this position would be great.

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Ramón Güémez Sarre, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – Director of Administration & Finance [23]

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Thanks for the condolences. You are right. I think it comes from a long U.S. dollar position. Our operating model generates U.S. dollars. We have more — we probably collect more dollars than we pay out on a monthly basis. So over time, we’ve built a position there. We’re currently long, about $16 million, that’s 1-6 million dollars. We have some dollar-denominated liabilities, mostly all the leasing operations. The added expense from that will come over time and not on a onetime shot as we see in — as we just saw this quarter. We expect that if the FX remains at this level, we expect to have around MXN 45 million of additional expense. So part of that gain would be offset by the dollar-denominated expenses that we have to pay on a monthly basis.

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Operator [24]

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(Operator Instructions) And we have no further questions at this time. I’ll now turn the call over to our speakers for final remarks.

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Ramón Güémez Sarre, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – Director of Administration & Finance [25]

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Thank you very much. Oriol, if you would like to just give us some final words?

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José-Oriol Bosch Par, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – CEO [26]

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No. In short, thanks once again for attending our quarterly conference call. Thanks a lot for your questions. And have a great day and take care. Thank you very much.

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Ramón Güémez Sarre, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. – Director of Administration & Finance [27]

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Thank you, everyone.

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Operator [28]

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Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.