A group of large Argentine companies registered so far in 2022 a “boom” both in billing and in operating results and profitability, in addition to a drop in labor costs, according to a report by the Center for Argentine Political Economy (CEPA).
The entity analyzed the balance sheets of large companies such as Ledesma, Aluar, Molinos Río de la Plata and Arcor and, on the other hand, the supermarket network La Anónima, the multimedia company Clarín, the sheet steel manufacturer Ternium Siderar and the oil companies Pan American Energy (PAE) and Tecpetrol, reaching to the conclusion that in all cases the results so far in 2022 reveal substantial improvements compared to previous years.
“Ledesma, Aluar, Molinos Río de la Plata and Arcor have an average turnover in their last fiscal years, all presented in 2022, which is 18.5% above the previous fiscal years, measured in dollars”, indicated the Center directed by Hernán Letcher.
The entity considered it “striking” that these companies in the first months of the current year “practically manage to match what was invoiced in the previous years of 2021.”
In this sense, he specified that the sales of these four firms “amount to US$ 5.4 billion for all of 2021 and in the partial period of 2022 (approximately six months), they amount to US$ 4.15 billiononly 23% less”.
Consequently, CEPA remarked that “2022, for these four companies, is signifying a boom in billing.”
1A- Billing: companies such as Ledesma, Aluar, Molinos Río de la Plata and Arcor, recorded in 2014/2021 an evolution in sales of, on average, USD 6,100 million per year. Between the four firms they reach almost USD 50,000 million. They obtained favorable results all eight years. pic.twitter.com/tOxmALfenQ
— CEPA Center (@ctroCEPA) September 11, 2022
For their part, La Anónima, Clarín, Ternium Siderar, PAE and Tecpetrol recorded higher sales by 34.6% in their last years, totaling more than US$ 11,000 million and “here too it is recorded that all significantly improved their year-on-year performance” , he highlighted.
Regarding the operating result, this year “Ledesma, Aluar, Molinos Río de la Plata and Arcor have an improvement of 62.5% compared to 2021,” said CEPA, adding that “it is surprising that only some months of 2022 exceed the operating result of the previous period” by these four companies.
In this regard, he stated that “In 2021 the operating result of the four companies amounts to US$426 million, while in the partial period of 2022 – according to the latest balances of each case- the result is US$519 million”
“It is also observed that only six months of 2022 are equivalent to the entire average annual operating result from 2014 to 2021 of the four cases: US $ 528 million,” the entity highlighted.
Likewise, the operating result of La Anónima, Clarín, Ternium, PAE and Tecpetrol reflects an improvement of 52.4% compared to the equivalent period of the previous year and amounts to more than US$ 1,587 million, he indicated.
On the other hand, the profitability (measured as operating income on sales) of Ledesma, Aluar, Molinos Río de la Plata and Arcor increased from 9.1% to 12.5% and that of La Anónima, Clarín, Ternium, PAE and Tecpetrol was 14.4 %, “also improving the situation of the same period of the previous year”, he highlighted.
Finally, the labor cost for Ledesma, Aluar, Molinos Río de la Plata and Arcor it fell to 16.7% in the last partial data that was known in 2022, compared to 17.8% for the same period in 2021, while for La Anónima, Clarín , Ternium, PAE and Tecpetrol the drop in the same period was from 15.4% to 15%.
“The salient data is that the variation in sales moves above the variation in wage costs, illustrating the transfer of income derived from such a process,” concluded CEPA.
