The Barraqueiro transport group closed 2021 with a loss of 12.4 million euros, recovering from -18.3 million in 2020, but registering the second consecutive year with negative results due to the “strong impact” of the pandemic.
According to the report and the accounts of the group, in the last year, EBITDA (earnings before taxes, interest, amortization and depreciation) amounted to 29.2 million euros and the investment amounted to 12 million eurosof which two million refer to investments made in 2020, but paid in 2021.
“The year 2021 was still very marked by various measures to combat the pandemic with a significant impact on the Group’s road business,” reads the document, according to which, “in the field of the Barraqueiro Group, as in the entire sector of collective passenger transport, the pandemic crisis had a strong impact.
As he explains, “as a large part of the public service companies are highly dependent on school transport, the school breaks decreed by the Government throughout the year to control the spread of the pandemic, as well as the mandatory periods of teleschooling and teleworking, they had a significant impact on the number of passengers carried throughout the year”.
“Another measure to prevent the spread of the covid-19 virus maintained in 2021, with a great impact on the number of passengers transported, was the limitation of the capacity inside the buses,” he adds.
Thus, despite the 12.6% increase in passengers carried in 2021 compared to 2020, there was still a 34.4% reduction compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
Last year, the consolidated income of the Barraqueiro group increased by 11.6%, to 350 million euros, but was still 26% lower than in 2019.
In the road passenger transport component, the group highlights the “obvious contrast in the mobility of the public service versus the commercial service”: “In 2021, while billing in the public service was approaching pre-pandemic values, in the commercial service, fears about the spread of the virus continued to prevent the recovery of the non-itinerant mobility levels of 2019, with a special focus on the first semester, so the income from this service is still 94 million euros lower than in 2019”, he explains.
Regarding the cargo business, it registered revenues of 36.8 million euros, which represents 10.5% of consolidated revenues, and compared to 2020, revenues from the cargo/goods transport segment registered an increase of just 2.7%, still 22% below the 2019 figure.
According to the group, “this slow recovery is fundamentally related to the global crisis of lack of microchip and semiconductors for engine, multimedia, navigation and air conditioning management systems, a situation that had a very negative impact on the production and transport of vehicles, an activity carried out by Rodocargo and which represents around two thirds of the total income of the cargo transport business ”.
Regarding the turnover related to the holdings in Brazil, it had a weight of only 3.6% of the consolidated income and, in local currency, the three companies in which Barraqueiro has a holding in Brazil presented a total income of 186.3 million reaisan 18% increase compared to 2020.
Given the percentage of participation in each of these companies and the average devaluation of 7.6% of the real against the euro, the contribution to the consolidated turnover of the group was 12.5 million euros, 9.7% more than in 2020.
Analyzing the weight of each business segment in the Barraqueiro group’s revenue, the commercial road passenger transport service accounted for 31.7%, followed by the public road passenger transport service (29.3%), the service rail public passenger transport (24.9%), cargo/merchandise (10.5%) and public road passenger transport service in Brazil (3.6%).
In 2021, the financial debt of the Barraqueiro group reached €196.6 million25 million less than in the previous year.
“THE performance The economic and financial performance of the Group in 2021 fully corresponded to the post-covid recovery path outlined by the Board of Directors at the beginning of 2021 for the coming years”, reads the report, according to which, “it is almost certain that the 2023 will be the first full year without mobility restrictions derived from the effects of the pandemic, […] there will be a resumption of commercial service”, already planned, until the second half of 2022.
As for the threats, we already know that inflationary pressure continues, accentuated by the war in Ukraine, which creates additional pressure on operating costs. However, the support already exists, and we assume that in the coming years, either by this indirect means or by adapting the prices of transport services to inflation, it is possible to foresee a gradual increase in the group’s profitability,” he said. add.
Thus, “with the progressive recovery of EBITDA and the reduction of investment levels”, the group foresees “a significant deleveraging in the coming years” that “will converge towards the financing and solvency ratios reached in 2018/19, years prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
For the 2022-2024 period, the Barraqueiro group plans to invest in the renewal of the bus fleet, with a view to acquiring 124 vehicles this year, 35 in 2023 and 84 in 2024. Of that total of 243 buses, 173 will be electric.
The group assures that it has also signed a collaboration protocol with Salvador Caetano for the development of a hydrogen vehicle “that can respond to the needs of the tourism/express segment, as well as in the urban segment”.
Source: Observadora
