Grupo Aeroportuario Del Sureste (ASR-NYSE, $300.96) Declares Intention to Raise the 2023 dividend.

At the general ordinary annual meeting to be held on April 26th, ASUR will vote upon approval of the annual dividend. An ordinary cash dividend in the amount of 99.3 pesos per ADS is proposed, as is a special dividend of 100 pesos per ADS from retained earnings. At todays’ exchange rate of 1 MX peso = $.0544 USD, this would represent a total declaration of $10.84 US for 2023.

In 2022, the dividend payments amounted to 150.3 MX pesos per ADS. Adjusted for the USD exchange rates on the day of payments, the prior year’s total payments were $7.65 US.

The proposed 2023 amount represents a potential increase, in MX pesos, of 32.6%.

As the peso has appreciated rather sharply vs the USD in the past 6 months, the USD cash payment, providing the currency remains unchanged as of today until received, would represent a 41.7% increase to a US holder of the ADS.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/asur-calls-for-a-shareholders-meeting-301768293.html

In other news, ASR reported a traffic figure through all airports operated by the firm, in the month of February 2023, of 5.513 million persons, up by 25% from the 4.41 million persons moving through the airports in February 2022.

This growth rate is unsurprising to those covering the traffic patterns post-pandemic. The abnormal rate of growth is highly unlikely to persist beyond US college spring break. What is encouraging is the fact that the ratio of passenger volume growth at the Mexican and Puerto Rico airports exceeds that of the Columbian airports, which bodes well for retail revenues in Q1.

Roughly 1.5 more months of estimated above average comps on a year over year basis remain. After that time, a truer indication of post-pandemic airport volumes should emerge. In order for ASUR to continue to outperform on a revenue and EBITDA basis for 2023, not only does the passenger throughput need to increase, the overall mix needs to favor Mexico and Puerto Rico, with a lesser financial contribution from Columbian airports. Furthermore, the ratio of international tourists flowing through the airport needs to continue to keep pace, more or less, with volumes of domestic passengers as it is the international tourists that primarily drive retail spending at airports.