Cementos Argos S.A.

For 2025, Cementos Argos reported revenue of COP 5.2 trillion and adjusted EBITDA of COP 1.3 trillion, up 6.6% versus 2024, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 25% and 215 basis points of margin expansion. Full-year cement dispatches were 9.3 million tons, flat versus 2024, while ready-mix dispatches were 2.3 million cubic meters, down 12%. In Q4, cement volumes rose 3% year over year and ready-mix volumes rose 2%, with COP 347,000 million of EBITDA and a 27% margin; in Colombia, Q4 revenue was COP 735 billion, EBITDA was COP 226 billion, and margin was 30.7%. For 2026, management guided to adjusted EBITDA of COP 1.3 trillion to COP 1.4 trillion, EBITDA margin of 24% to 26% over the next 2 years, ROCE above 16% over the next 2 years, and LatAm CapEx of $80 million to $100 million, plus around $80 million to $100 million for U.S. growth plan investment. They also said Phase 1 of the U.S. aggregates platform would require about $500 million of CapEx to reach about $150 million of EBITDA by 2030, and that the U.S. business should be an $6 million EBITDA drag in 2026.

Juan Esteban Calle framed 2025 as a year of reinvention and execution, saying the company adapted to weak or mixed conditions in core markets while strengthening commercial and operational capabilities. He emphasized three strategic wins: achieving the 25% EBITDA margin target a year early, delivering record shareholder distributions, and re-entering the U.S. through aggregates. He was notably bullish on Venezuela as a future reconstruction opportunity and on Colombia’s recovery, while presenting the U.S. platform as a long-term value-creation engine.

Felipe Aristizabal focused on capital allocation, liquidity, and shareholder returns. He said cumulative TSR reached 764% in dollars since SPRINT launched in February 2023, with $1.2 billion in distributions, and outlined an ordinary dividend proposal of COP 430 per share plus an extraordinary COP 150 per share dividend, alongside a proposed COP 450 billion buyback program for the next 2 years. On the balance sheet and U.S. plan, he said the company expects a 2026 EBITDA drag of $6 million from the new business and that 2025 investment in that business was only about $3 million to $3.5 million. He also said impairments were nonrecurring, should not hurt cash generation, and should reduce cash taxes going forward, with no further impairments expected.

Analysts pressed management on the timing and milestones for the U.S. aggregates business, potential ADR listing, the size of future bolt-on M&A, the MSCI index inclusion process, Colombia margins amid minimum wage pressure, and impairments. Management said the U.S. platform would likely spend most major capex in 2H27, 2028 and some in 2029, with early shipments already in Tampa and additional shipments likely into Houston and New Orleans; EBITDA positivity depends on ports and terminals in the Dominican Republic. On ADRs, they said the listing path depends on the business plan and could be viable in around 2 to 3 years. On MSCI, management said it was surprised by the decision but still expects an upgrade in 2026, citing strong liquidity and market-cap metrics. For impairments, they clarified that Panama’s charge was tied to clinker inventory and Puerto Rico’s was nonrecurring, with no further impairments expected.