Mexico's Alfa deepens losses in fourth quarter on petrochem slide (updated)

Alfa Laval AB

20/02/2024 21:16

(Updates with additional detail)
       MEXICO CITY, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Mexican conglomerate
Alfa  ALFAA.MX  on Tuesday posted a fourth-quarter net loss of
$652 million, sliding even more from the losses seen a year ago
on weak performance from petrochemical subsidiary Alpek.
        Sales at Alpek  ALPEKA.MX  slipped 31% year-over-year,
Alfa said in a release, as both prices and volumes dropped. 
  
        Alpek was also impacted in December by the "abrupt"
depreciation of the Argentine peso, Alfa said, as the new
government of President Javier Milei 
    slashed the currency's value
     over 50% compared to the dollar as a shock measure to put
the beleaguered South American nation's economy back on track.
  
    The Monterrey-based Alfa, whose business lines also include
food subsidiary Sigma, said the unit's growth was able to
partially offset Alpek's performance.
        Revenues from Sigma grew 10% year-over-year in the
fourth quarter on growth in all regions, Alfa said. For the
conglomerate, revenue for the last three months of 2023 dropped
13% from the year-ago period to $3.89 billion.

 (Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle)
 ((Kylie.Madry@thomsonreuters.com;))