Pilar Gil: “Prisa is stronger than ever, with very valuable assets and adequate management”

Prisa has closed its issue of convertible bonds for an amount of 100 million euros. A significant operation that comes at a time of growth in the different businesses, explains Pilar Gil, vice president and financial director of the company.

What assessment can you make about the operation?

The operation has been a success. We have completed an issue of bonds necessarily convertible into shares of up to 100 million euros that we launched a few weeks ago, with demand exceeding supply. This result means three points, in my opinion, very relevant. Firstly, the unconditional support of our shareholders, whom I thank for their loyalty and support for the project. They believe in the future of the company, they believe in the assets we have, and they support management.

The second relevant point of the success of this operation is that we continue to take steps in our roadmap that is fundamentally focused, on the one hand, on business growth, and on the other, on debt reduction and deleveraging of the company, publisher of

El País

and

Cinco Días

.

Finally, the third relevant point is that the operation opens up opportunities for us to be able to evaluate alternatives for refinancing the company, at a time when the debt markets are in quite favorable environments. This result will undoubtedly help us to be able to study and analyze refinancing options that allow us to have more flexibility, and therefore, to be able to continue taking steps on our roadmap.

This is going to be the last capital operation that we are going to carry out. We have asked the company's shareholders for an enormous effort, but, on the other hand, the group is paying off. In the last three years, the company's EBITDA has increased three-fold, and leverage or debt has reduced from 10 times to four times. Therefore, the summary I can give, today, is that we are stronger than ever.

Therefore, there have been no problems completing the broadcast in its entirety...

The 100 million euros have been covered, and the demand and appetite of investors has exceeded the offer of the operation of those 100 million.

What has been the evolution of the group's businesses?

We are a listed company and in the latest results that we have reported, those for fiscal year 2023, it was seen that both the education business and the media business showed very strong and solid growth, both in income and operating results. When I say that business is going well it is because, with the effort and the change in management that has been made in the last three years, what I mentioned before, the EBITDA has multiplied by three. In addition, we have very ambitious growth plans for the coming years.

The first quarter results are absolutely in line with what we expect. We cannot communicate anything yet because we are a listed company, but we are fully following our roadmap. In 2022, we communicated a business plan, and today, we are very satisfied with its fulfillment. Even right now, and after the operation that we have closed, and combining it with the refinancing that we are going to explore, we are going to contemplate and work internally and study a new, more long-term plan, to be able to fulfill the projects and the future of this company.

Pilar Gil, vice president of the Board of Directors of Prisa, during the interview.Samuel Sánchez

The rating agencies have just improved Prisa's rating. What effects could they have for the company?

A few weeks ago, the rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's published an

upgrade

of the company's credit rating. This is super relevant and is the first time it has happened in the last three years. This improvement begins to recognize the changes and everything that has been done in the group. The credit rating increase helps us, and will allow us, in these debt markets that now offer very relevant opportunities, to take advantage of this situation. This rise in ratings, together with the success of the issuance of convertible bonds that we have just completed, and the good evolution of the businesses, will allow us to provide a little more visibility and flexibility to this company, we will be able to continue with the plans that we have, and bring out all the value of the strong and solid businesses that we have.

To what objectives will the funds obtained in the issue be used?

What we are going to do with the 100 million that we have obtained with the operation is to allocate an important part of the funds to reduce the most expensive debt section that the company has today, and we are going to allocate another part to be able to continue growing and developing businesses.

How are these businesses going to be promoted?

I believe we have two different businesses, but both with enormous growth potential. On the one hand, there is the media part, where we have the largest group of Spanish-speaking media, and we are leading the transformation of the sector. We continue with our leadership positions that we are consolidating, and audiences do not stop growing, both in the press and on the radio. We continue to take steps with the spectacular performance we have had in the El País subscription model, where we have exceeded 350,000 paying subscribers, and with great growth potential. The plans continue in that direction, and we have many ideas and projects, and I think we have grasped the future of the media very well. This is going to help us and push us towards that transformation that we are leading.

On the other hand, there is the educational business part, where we have the largest K-12 education group in Latin America. We have a leadership position in 19 countries. There we began a long time ago to promote a digital transformation focused on student subscription models and, currently, there are 2.8 million students subscribed to this digital model. We continue with this wave of digital growth that presents enormous opportunities.

How do you see the current situation in Latin America?

Well, today, the company has been in Latin America for more than 50 years. The history of this group even began with Santillana. We are used to experiencing different situations with different Governments in different countries and, despite the instabilities that may occur, we have a very resilient business, which is the education business. All governments promote education and teaching models, and we believe that the three main countries we are in, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, the circumstances are favorable and we are going to take advantage of them, and we are seeing their evolution.

Prisa's stock has started the year with increases. What assessment do you make of this market support for the company's evolution?

The assessment we make is of the support for the project that exists, which has been demonstrated with this new capital increase. In the end, we have very strong assets, which in the last three years we have managed to manage in a more efficient way and this has produced results. This is being seen in the evolution of the company's progress. The market has supported the capital increase, and we are going to continue because I believe that, today, after having been in this company for 24 years, we are stronger than ever, with assets that are super valuable and with a management team which is appropriate and correct, with a commitment to continue promoting this project and continue looking for opportunities.

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