Our revenues totaled Ps. 115.47 billion in 2020, a 19.9% drop from 2019. Consolidated operating expenses declined 0.4%; operating income before interest, equity in Unicomer’s results and taxes totaled Ps. 3.81 billion, an 80.1% decline. Net interest expense came to Ps. 2.91 billion, and income tax was Ps. 2.18 billion. Net income including Unicomer and Sfera came to Ps. 750 million, a 93.9% decline; while consolidated EBITDA was Ps. 9 billion, a reduction of 62.3%.
Other data and material events
Grupo Unicomer, www.unicomer.com, a company that markets furniture, electronics, housewares, motorcycles, eyewear and consumer credit in 27 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, reported a net loss of US$ 36.1 million, during the fiscal year, due to a sharp rise in the provision for uncollectable accounts. It currently has 1,146 locations, 166 franchised RadioShack stores and more than 13,000 employees.
On August 18th, El Puerto de Liverpool, S.A.B. de C.V. placed and issued the LIVEPOL20 bond for Ps. 5 billion with a term of 10 years. We ended the year with a cash position of Ps. 26 billion, 12.8% of our total assets. We maintain a conservative approach to liquidity, debt maturity profile and financial risk management, which translates into low debt levels, our ratio of net debt to EBITDA closed the year at 1.0 times, and net debt/assets was 17.3%.
On May 19th, we paid off the LIVEPOL10 notes totaling Ps. 3 billion.
We took out a number of short-term bank loans for a total of Ps. 3.5 million during the year and paid them off by the end of December.
Capital expenditures as of December 31st, 2020 totaled Ps. 4.51 billion, most of it to develop the omni-Customer program and the logistics platform.
Ordinary shareholders’ meetings
In the Ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting held on March 12th, 2019, a dividend was declared totaling Ps. 2.01 billion, distributed among the 1,342,196,100 shares that make up the Company’s capital stock.
On May 14th an Ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting was held, in which a resolution was passed to postpone the dividend payment declared in the March 12th meeting, and delegating responsibility to the Board of Directors to decide on the dates for payment of that dividend, in keeping with the Company’s needs. In its October 16th meeting, the Board decided to pay that dividend, in equal amounts, on January 22th and March 26th of 2021.”
Stock repurchase reserve
The Company held 3.1 million of its own shares at the close of the year, with a value of Ps. 551 million.
Closing remarks
During the year, we overcame the challenges of a pandemic, including caring for our employees and clients, while we protected the Company’s finances dealing with a constant adjustment in the way we operate in response to the public health emergency and conditions imposed by the authorities.
Now more than ever we are grateful to our shareholders for their support, to our customers for their loyalty, and to our suppliers, tenants and employees for their collaboration during a year that put the strenght of El Puerto de Liverpool, its employees and its operating, digital and logistical infrastructure to the test.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors
Mexico City, December 31st, 2020