LATAM Airlines Group SA Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Michael Linenberg - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Oh, hey, good morning, everyone. And congratulations Ramiro on your new role. Moving up. Great to hear. I have, just some of these are more sort of technical. I guess I noticed when you report, you do not report on an earnings per ADS basis. I know in your financial, the full financial documents, you do look at what your earnings are on a per share basis, and I was not sure if it was just a function of the fact that you have a lot of movement in your non op area. Like, for example, we took a tax credit this quarter, sometimes it is a tax charge. So, it makes sense to focus on maybe EBITDA and EBIT margins as opposed to earnings per ADS. And so maybe that's something that's going to feature in the financial results for 2025. So, can you talk about that and just the thinking around that? And also just, what is the appropriate tax rate to use? Just because you know, this quarter was a credit. How should we think about it may be going forward? Thanks.

Question: Michael Linenberg - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Okay. Great. And then just squeeze in one sort of last big picture. I am sure like everybody. We have all been watching the results of the US election yesterday, you know, we saw the weakness in emerging markets, we saw the peso sell off. We saw the real, the Mexican Peso, the real thoughts on, you know, whether, you know, things that we should be mindful of, you know, now that we have a new administration, you know, sort of anything that you potentially see on the horizon as a company. And this is, this is a question probably, you know, Ramiro, this is probably the Roberto or, or you can chime in as well. You are thinking on the new change in administration in the US and, what that may mean for LATAM. I would just throw in the fact that you do, you are a dollar-based reporter, and you do have a lot of your operations in international markets. It may be less of an impact for you than say for somebody else in, in Latin America. But I am just curious of how you are thinking about how things stack up going forward. Thank you for, thanks for taking my questions.

Question: Michael Linenberg - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Great. Thanks Roberto. Thanks everyone.

Question: Guilherme Mendes - JP Morgan - Analyst : Hey, good morning, everybody. Roberto, Ramiro, Andres and (Inaudible) congrats on strong set of results and Ramiro, good luck on the new role. Two questions as well. The first one is on huge. If you could give more color, what is the main explanation on the year-to-year drop? I guess effects could be part of it. But if there's anything else in terms of competition or, or demand and second question, it is on capital allocation, another quarter of strong free cash flow, leverage and liquidity clearly under control. So, is it fair to assume that dividends could go up into 2025 or potentially a buyback program? Thank you.

Question: Guilherme Mendes - JP Morgan - Analyst : Super clear. Thank you very much.

Question: Stephen Trent - Citi - Analyst : Good morning, everybody and, and thanks very much for taking my questions. Romero congrats to you ad it is been great working with you over the years. Could you just give me a sense as to where you guys are now in terms of executive roles with you mere transferring to the, the CCO role, you know, and are, are there any kind of missing heads. At, at the moment in in case I missed the commentary.

Question: Stephen Trent - Citi - Analyst : Okay, Roberto, appreciate that. And, and just as, as my follow up question, you know, elements of the market compare you guys with the US big three, you know, do you have any high-level thoughts as to whether you will start reporting free cash flow on a basis that's more in line with them or just love to hear you. You are contemplating anything like that? Thanks

Question: Stephen Trent - Citi - Analyst : Okay, I appreciate that. Thank You

Question: Jen Spiece - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Yes, thank you. Congrats on the strong results. I also have a few questions in the international segment. You have done extremely well. Load factors are at very high levels. So, I was just wondering and more or less, what is your split there of wide body versus narrow body aircraft in terms of number of flights because I was wondering if you have similar load factors across like short to medium range international routes and, and long-haul routes. And, and secondly, if you could give any indication of, your fuel hedges at, I mean, you do provide the percentage amount of what is hatched going forward. But if you could give any indication of the average price level that you are that you close those hatches, it would be very useful. Thank you.

Question: Jen Spiece - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Perfect. Thank you.

Question: Pablo Benavides - Barclays - Analyst : Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question a little bit in line to my question on the FX depreciation in the case of Brazil, if we expect a sustained depreciation, what's your sense of the market's ability to, to hold a higher yield in case you look to protect your yield in us dollar terms, Thank you.

Question: Pablo Benavides - Barclays - Analyst : Perfect. Thank you very much.

Question: Joel Brizo - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Yes, thanks. Good morning, everyone. Just a quick question from my side related to the guidance you guys updated added further caller yesterday. So, I am just trying to understand what are the assumptions behind pricing for the fourth quarter. Because when I look at fourth quarter trends, normally EBIT margin is higher than the third quarter, right. So, in order for you guys to meet the guidance for the full year of 12% to 12.5% in EBIT margin, this would imply a deceleration in margins quarter over quarter, which seems to be a bit conservative assumption to make, right So I just wanted to get your sense on what the view driving this, this expected deceleration in margins. Thank you very much. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 07, 2024 / 1:00PM, LTM.SN - Q3 2024 LATAM Airlines Group SA Earnings Call

Question: Joel Brizo - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : That's great. Thank you very much guys.