Auren Energia SA
BOVESPA:AURE3
Auren Energia SA
In the vibrant landscape of Brazil's energy sector, Auren Energia SA has emerged as a significant player, knitting together the threads of sustainability and innovation. Founded with a vision to harness the nation’s vast and varied natural resources, Auren Energia has steadily built its operations across diverse energy segments. The company stands as a crucial bridge between the past reliance on traditional energy and a future pivot towards greener sources. With hydroelectric power at its backbone, Auren Energia captures the immense power generated by Brazil's extensive river systems. This not only positions them as a dominant force in the renewable energy sector but also aligns with global trends towards carbon neutrality. Moreover, Auren has been expanding its portfolio into other renewable arenas such as solar and wind, ensuring a diversified energy mix that caters to the ever-growing demands of the domestic and international markets.
Auren’s business model thrives on the dual pillars of production and efficiency. By owning and operating numerous hydroelectric plants, they can sell electricity directly to both regulated and free markets. The company capitalizes on long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) that guarantee a steady revenue stream. The liberalization of Brazil's energy market has further augmented Auren's profitability, enabling them to offer competitive rates to large corporate clients. However, generating energy is only part of the equation. Auren Energia invests heavily in cutting-edge technology and infrastructure to optimize their supply chain, reduce transmission losses, and maximize generation capabilities. In doing so, they not only uphold operational excellence but also cement their role as a leader in crafting a sustainable energy future for Brazil and beyond.
Earnings Calls
In the first quarter of 2025, Auren Energy celebrated a record EBITDA of BRL 1.2 billion, marking a 66% increase compared to the previous year. The company achieved significant operational synergies of BRL 56 million, contributing toward a target of BRL 250 million for the year. Moreover, net debt to EBITDA decreased from 5.7x to 5x. Exceptional performance in energy trading, with EBITDA peaking at BRL 165 million, and improved asset availability at 90% underscore strong operational resilience. Auren remains focused on integrating AES assets while navigating energy market fluctuations effectively.
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Auren Energy's conference call to discuss the results for the first quarter of 2025. This conference is being recorded, and the replay will be available on the company's Investor Relations website, ri.aurenergia.com.br. The presentation will also be available for download. [Operator Instructions]. We -- before we proceed, I would like to remind you that the forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Auren's management and on information currently available for the company. These statements involve risks and uncertainties as they refer to the future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors, analysts, journalists should be aware that macroeconomic conditions, industry dynamics and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Joining us in this conference call are Mr. Fabio Zanfelice, CEO of Auren; Mr. Mateus Ferreira, CFO; and IRO. The Investor Relations team is also with us today. I would now like to hand the floor to Mr. Fabio Zanfelice, who will begin the presentation. Please go ahead, Fabio.
Thank you. Good morning to everyone. It is a pleasure to have you here in our call for our earnings call for the first quarter of 2025. I will now already go to the highlights for this quarter. The first quarter, certainly the first highlight is the record EBITDA of BRL 1.2 billion in this quarter. This is a 66% growth compared to the first quarter of 2024 with a reduction of our leverage to 5x the net debt EBITDA, considering that the last quarter call, we had 5.7x EBITDA. This is the first quarter where we present the full quarter with both companies combined. We will follow our dedication to improve the asset improvement of our eolic or wind power and the first numbers already reaching 90% of the availability of our assets with regards -- which grew 2.4% with regards to the same 2024 quarter. In terms of synergies, we have captured in this quarter BRL 56 million, which will put us in the right path of reaching until the end of the year, BRL 250 million in synergies as announced in the last 2024 quarter. With regards to our capital structure, the company has captured BRL 2 billion in debentures with very competitive cost, CDI minus 0.5% per year with a 10-year term with a very good rating by Moody's, and we already have amortized around 60% of the acquisition finance we contracted in order to purchase AAS. This is a record result for our company, BRL 1.1 billion, BRL 1.1 billion is directly related to the trading. generation activities. And we highlight that a very strong activity in energy trading with BRL 165 million for this quarter, which will total an EBITDA growth of 66% with regards to the first quarter 2024. As we heard, this shows our commitment in one of our priorities, which is the conclusion of the process of transition of AES acquisition and the reduction of our leveraging. So this will reduce a 0.7 reduction with regards to our leverage for this quarter. On this next slide, we can see the energy market, the power market in Brazil with regards to the natural energy or ENA in Portuguese, the beginning has been very good with a good fluency since October, showing that we had an important period going back to our normal levels. However, in mid-February, there was a reversal of the scenario with an important reduction of ENA or affluent natural energy in March, as considered now the worst month in the history with regards to affluent natural energy. The good fluency by the end of last year contributed to the refurbishment of our reservoirs. At the end of the quarter, we have 70% of storage, which also contributed to the maintenance of our hydropower generation. For this quarter, it was 7% above the consolidated physical guarantee for the sector. But this is mainly a numerical relation because quarter-by-quarter, the generation has been the same, the first quarter in 2025 with an average generation that is very close or almost the same as the fourth quarter '24. And this positive GSF happens mostly because of the seasonality of the physical guarantee then a natural improvement in the hydro generation. We're talking about a total consolidated of our MRE, and we have a better performance of the company as we will see in the next slides. Just a detail here, we have the seasonality of our physical guarantee or firm energy of the MRE profile. On the next slide, we have energy consumption. The consumption continues growing strongly in this quarter, 5% above the 2024 first quarter with almost 4 average gigawatts in the national system, and this is driven mostly by the increase in temperatures. And we have a positive line for the quarter with regards to the historical averages with record temperatures and, of course, higher demand. We also were able to observe a more intense economy, more movement in the Brazilian economy. So this is a substantial movement in this quarter following the trajectory of the last quarters we have observed. On the next slide, so with regards to our market, we have a reduction of the so-called PLD, the difference in settlement prices. I guess the great model for the sector in this first quarter was the separation of the market between the Southeast and the Northeast or South and Southeast, North and Northeast with an average difference of BRL 100 megawatt hour for the quarter and also back to the volatility. Starting in February, we have a greater volatility in the month of March, which is also seen in the Southeast center and South systems with a constant price in the Northeast and North markets. With regards to our operational performance, we bring here the performance of our assets with regards to energy production. As you can observe, our portfolio for the quarter, which is the composition of our company, we have the 62.8% and the contribution was hydropower for -- in the small part also for solar. So this is our generation, 104% of our generation. The hydro has a better performance than the market average. Our generation for the first quarter of 2025 was 23% above the first quarter of 2024. This is associated to the different features in terms of our power plants, especially the 2 largest [ Agwavamila ] and Porto Primavera, these are the main ones. And with regards to wind power, we had a positive performance also regardless of the curtailment we observed in the market, especially in the curtailment for the electric power. For the first quarter of 2025, the company has performed in line with P90. And if you consider the potential generation, which would be the observed generation plus what was described by -- restricted by the curtailment, we would reach this number. So this is an important figure to be observed because even with unavailability with a 90% availability of the installed capacity, we were able to reach almost 100% of the P50 if there was the curtailment. So this just comes to show that the potential of this portfolio and the robustness of this portfolio that even with the availability beyond what we would reach -- below what we would reach at the end of the year will bring an important solid generation. Regarding solar power, we have a greater impact in the curtailment we reached 96% of stability, but with a generation of 80% -- 86% of P90 and a potential generation that could reach 93% of P50. Even though it's a very small part of our portfolio, we are impacted by these curtailments and also the reliability in the location where we find ourselves today. We believe that this process will improve with time. On this next slide, we would like to highlight wind power. As we said, it's a very strong, very solid generation. We have generated 995 megawatts average. We've reached P90 of our certification. It is 41% above what was observed in the fourth quarter 2024. Of course, here, we also have the operation of Cajuina 1 and 2 and also Tucano, which will contribute to this greater generation. But as we can see here on the slide, if it wasn't for the curtailment, we would have performed even above P50 in both -- in our set of wind power. So I would like to highlight the geographic dispersion, which certainly helps us giving a great resilience to our portfolio, given that we do not have today a concentration in any specific region of the country, which also will help us minimize the impact of energy curtailment in our portfolio. On the next page, we will talk about one of the pillars of our integration of AES assets, which is the improvement of our operational performance. We have asset by asset here, the distribution until the end of the last quarter, the availability of each one of these assets, you can see that almost all of them had a better performance with regards to the first quarter 2024, more availability, and a highlight here, considering that the month of March 2024, we went from 79.7% in May to 90.7% in May 2025. And in April, we've reached the availability consolidated of 91.4%, which is almost 11% higher than the same period of last year. Of all the assets here, I would like to highlight Tucano and Cajuina, which had very strong operations in their performance and also Mandacaru today, the asset that has a smaller performance. Mandacaru has, as identified when we did our due diligence during the acquisition, some important components that we are now solving. This is a fact against which the greater availability of Mandacaru because the park is now in a maintenance stoppage to change major equipment. On the next slide, -- we would like to refer about the benefits of this optimal portfolio. We have our results both with regard to the difference in market prices in the quarter as well as the impact of the flexibility of this portfolio with the modulation results. Today, the company has a firm guarantee or energy of 4.2 megawatts average. And of those, most of them are located in the Northeast of the 74%, almost 88% has to do with sales either in the submarket in the Northeast or in the national system sales, which will give an exposure of 12% in this portfolio of 17 megawatts average, which would be the power today that will be allocated in the Southeast. So -- it's a small part of our portfolio that has this exposure to a submarket that is not the Northeast market. As we presented in the previous slides, there was an important difference in market prices between the North and Northeast, South and Southeast. We observed here on this chart in the lower chart here, reaching BRL 265 megawatt hour in March, and the average for the quarter was BRL 100 megawatt hour. The difference between these 2 market blocks and our position here considering the trading activity that anticipated this movement allowed for some negotiation in the Northeast market, more specifically the sale of power in the existing power auction last year. So for that quarter, we have a long exposure in the Southeast of 74 megawatts hour and a short of 193 in North and Northeast. So we were purchasing at fixed price. So this has generated a gain of BRL 60 million to our portfolio for this quarter, as seen here on the left side of the slide. On the other side, we can see the impact of the flexibility. The chart shows an average of the daily generation profile compared to the PLD, the difference in settlement prices. We have a gain of modulation of BRL 100, considering half of the quarter, the price was flat. The modulation of the price variation happened in mid-February until the month of March, which already shows a very important results in terms of the portfolio flexibility. On the lower right side, we can show a bit of the balance of these benefits and how we have been working in the hedging for this portfolio. The curtailment cost us BRL 49 million, BRL 60 million of which is an impact of -- for our power, the REL impact, the curtailment was very intense in that quarter because the [indiscernible] brought about this curtailment. And part of this was not reimbursed because it was a franchise of our assets. So they have reached already the level of energy generation and the residual was due to reliability and any kind of power reasoning. So these BRL 49 million -- BRL 18 million are compensated because this is an effect of modulation. So this modulation only happened in the half of the quarter. So this resulted in a net impact for our portfolio of BRL 31 million. So we are not putting here in this calculation the market effects because we knew this is also sporadic. We only include here the impacts that are structural impacts of the RN portfolio. On one side, we have the exposure of renewable in the curtailment setting and the structural issue related to the portfolio that will bring benefits in terms of modulation on a continuous basis throughout the years to come. Very well. And now considering the commercial performance, we've had negotiations throughout the quarter. And net, we had a reduction in megawatts average, 55 megawatts average sold at an average price of BRL 163 and 33 average sold in the model of high production for our Sol de Jaiba project. We consider with a hiring or contracting level that is very high over the first 2 or 3 years of our portfolio. And we've reached 60% of the hiring level with prices that are quite important. We see here in the lower part, the average price of sales for the Generation segment between BRL 190 and BRL 217 per megawatt hour, a very important price -- average price for the segment. Very well, I will now pass the floor to Mateus to talk about our financial performance.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Fabio. As presented by Fabio, our operational result has been very strong and solid in this quarter, translated also in a strong earnings -- financial earnings. As we heard by Fabio, we had a record EBITDA with BRL 1.2 billion of EBITDA for the first quarter 2025, representing a growth of 60%, 60% with regards to the first quarter of 2024. And this is a pro forma figures with already the combined companies. The 2 segments had positive results, generation with a growth of 50% of EBITDA in the quarter, with BRL 1.7 billion and plus an EBITDA in the first quarter of '24, BRL 713 million. And in trading, we have a growth of more than 200%, reaching BRL 165 million of EBITDA for the quarter. This growth is mainly a result, as Fabio presented of the operations of 3 different parks to wind, to Cajuina and the solar park of [ Vajaib ], which went into operation last year in the first quarter was already 100% operational. Also an improvement in the availability as Fabio presented and also greater adherence to the power curve in some of the assets that were incorporated. We also had the benefit of a better GSF and a modulation gain of BRL 18 million that Fabio also presented. Also here, in this EBITDA, we will explore this on the next page. We already have the benefits of synergies, we have a PMSO reduction of BRL 56 million for the quarter. And also, we had the declaration of the dividends of the interest or participation of BRL 58 million JV in the Tucano with [ Unipar] , which we do not consolidate, had EBITDA in the quarter of BRL 10 million. The conversion -- cash conversion index or rate is very significant, 45% for the quarter. If we see now the next page here, here, we can see the PMSO figures. For the first quarter of 2024, the companies -- the combined companies had a pro forma number of BRL 309 million. When we look for the first quarter of 2025, this figure was BRL 302 million. This is translated in a synergy of BRL 56 million for the quarter. We have on the fourth quarter of 2024 figure that we disclosed, we have a synergy of BRL 43 million. We continue in the right path in order to reach BRL 250 million of synergies for 2025. On the next slide, -- now looking into the leverage issues. As Fabio presented in the beginning of his presentation, this quarter is the beginning of the deleveraging of the company, we had an important reduction of 0.7x of the ratio of net debt to EBITDA from -- to now 5x from 5.7 to 6x now in March 2025. The gross debt in 2024 was BRL 27 billion, and now we ended the month of April with BRL 24.8 billion, a reduction of BRL 2.2 billion in the gross debt. Also, we should highlight the issuance we did in April of a 10-year debt and debenture debt is support incentivized the swapp by the CDI minus 0.5. And in the same month, we paid 60% of the acquisition finance that we had raised in October 2024 in the amount of BRL 5.4 billion to pay and finance most of the acquisition of AES. We paid BRL 3.2 billion in April, representing 60%, 3 years before the actual deadline, which was 2028. We will now work in terms of finding the adequate windows to refinance the remaining 50% that needs to be refinanced. When we look into the amortization time line on the lower chart here to the left, we have an average term of 5.6 years, an increase of 5.6% compared to December -- 0.6 compared to December, and we have no relevant due date in the next few years. Our work now for the treasury is to refinance this BRL 2.2 billion of the acquisition finance, which is due in 2028. In the middle chart, when you see the profile of our net debt, only 20% is exposed to CDI. Most of our debt is exposed to IPCA and TJLP. And this is one of the reasons for which that the consolidated company's debt reduced from CDI 0.7% to CDI minus 1.7% for this quarter. Also, the average cost of the debts related to CDA and TJLP will remain the same since December and the cost of those related to CDI had an important drop from December until now due to this new financing. The ratings of the company was already AAA by Fitch from the first quarter. Moody's also had a company rating AAA for the company. So I will now pass the floor to Fabio for the concluding remarks.
So the final takeaways, we believe that this quarter, not only historical for us from the -- in terms of earnings with this EBITDA record of BRL 1.2 billion, but also it will show the company's ability of adding value through the combination of a portfolio that is resilient, robust and the market variations that what we have ahead of us, including the transformation of the Brazilian energy matrix, as well as this portfolio aligned with a greater company or energy power trader with the ability of having different markets that has been able to anticipate all the opportunities of adding value as well as working to mitigate any risks of our portfolio. We continue dedicated to integrate the different AES assets. We have very strong positive results, both in the last quarter 2024, and we continue on the first quarter of 2025. And as usual, this one and all the leverages are the priorities for our company. So we are very pleased that the first quarter we have already generated the results that will show that this is the company's results. So I would like now to thank all of our collaborators here at Auren for their dedication, allowing us to reach these very historical and positive results for our company. Thank you very much. I guess we will now go into the Q&A session.
[Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Mr. Filipe Andrade from Itau BBA.
2 questions. The first one has to do with the future margin that was now added to this quarter and the balance of BRL 450 million. How much do you believe will be actually executed this year? And how much would be for the midterm? And also the curtailment reimbursement for external availability of the values that went above the quota, how much the company expects to receive and if there's truly an integral reimbursement of these values that is already defined, something that we have heard from some of the other agents that there are still some definition if this will happen fully or not.
I will answer the last part, and then I'll pass to Jason, our Controller Director to talk about the first part of your question. With regards to this reimbursement, we follow the same figures that are presented here in our company. These are figures that we received from ONS and that follow the network procedures and the CCE. So we do not see any kind of risk to recognize this value for the electric restitutions. What does happen and here, I will try to make a difference between this question. ONS, when they prepare the curtailment calculation, they are based on the data from each one of the wind parks or solar parks. They will use as a base the wind that is registered in the different towers of each one of these parks. It's a very technical detail. I'm sorry. So in the past, if a company has an issue with data in terms of the towers, the measuring towers, there will be a restriction in terms of the recognition of curtailment. We do not have that this quarter, any kind of issue information of ONS data. We didn't find any kind of procedure. I will pass the floor to Jason for the first part of the question.
So in terms of the additional value that is made available in the consolidated performance, this is a temporal effect and this projected forward-looking margin is already part of our margin that we see in the trading segment. I believe this margin is already within our energy balance. I will look into the market in the trading are where we have the additional margin. And so this is an accounting a temporal effect.
We have another question from Mr. Daniel Travitzky from Safra Bank.
My question is about the turnaround CapEx of the operational assets acquired from AES, especially here in Mandacaru, these are assets here that still are not available. They have a lower unavailability. So I'd like to understand how the evolution of this CapEx and the recovery of these assets compared percentage-wise for you to get where you want to get to? And how long do you imagine that it's going to take to reach this enability that you imagine for these farms?
Daniel, thank you for your question. First of all, Mandacuru is actually quite small in the portfolio. It's about 100 megs, but it's important anyway. So what is it that happens? We had already seen this in the diligence because it has an exchange of the blades. So we stopped the farm to recover these blades. It is within that scope of CapEx of BRL 200 million total, which you already had this CapEx that is what we're going to have in all the wind farms. And we can give you the exact details in Mandacaru and the solution of the problem is going to be concluded in the second semester. So the blades already are being reconditioned and we'll be back with the total part working farm working with this topic will have been solved. And just to add, for the other wind farms that where you have to do this turnaround, do you imagine that this will be concluded in the second semester? Our goal is to reach 95% availability in all the wind farms up to December. This is our normal, our global goal with things solved. And it seems that it hasn't recovered in the first semester. We did a lot of maintenance now in the wind farms because it's the time of low winds, so we didn't expect such a rapid recovery. This is the period where we stop everything for maintenance, and this is where we accelerated the maintenance. And now we will have the high winds.
Our next question comes from João Pimentel from Citi.
First of all, congratulations for the results. I have 2 questions. The first one is about Cajuina III. I think the expectation is to complete the project up to the end of 2026, but I'd like to know how the PPA negotiations are on this project. That's the first question. And then we go back to curtailment. I'd like to know all the conversations that are happening in the ministry about potential reclassifications of the type of curtailment if there will be an effective result. How do you see the evolution of these discussions? And what is the basic scenario in your opinion about this topic.
Thank you for the recognition. Well, first of all, about Cajuina, the expectation is the end of 2026. We are already advanced in the conversations, very close to the end to sell the totality of the quantity of energy with a high production model. So I don't -- we can't affirm, but the conversations are advanced and we will be successful with the sale. About curtailment, I think we have to highlight 2 things, the conversations with the government and what comes out in the media. I think the interaction increased a lot in the last week. We have meetings with the associations, wind associations to solve the topic. And there is a we are available to do this, to make this happen. We'll see how the meetings go this next week to have a vision of the time frame where this will be solved. But I think it is important besides the negotiations with the government. I think the CMSA, this determines a revision in the operation procedures to also evaluate where we can have more flexibility with the operation with an exchange between the Northeast and the Southeast. Studies are being carried out. We're seeing this in a positive way to install a protective system and re-evaluate the operation. And at the end of the semester and the second semester, we'll be able to have a bigger exchange than what we observed in the past. And I think this will have a practical effect to reduce the impact of curtailment. So we have the negotiation that we're observing. We still don't have an evaluation, but we also see a positive way and this initiative, DNS to make this flexible and reduce the impact in the solar and wind farms.
Questions and answers have ended. Now I'll give the floor to Mr. Fabio for the final considerations.
Well, I'd like to thank everyone for the availability. I'd like to thank the results. We're also very happy with what we're able to do in the semester. We still -- we are going to continue producing these results that we have committed to do when we acquired AES. I thank you very much, and we will see you again when we disclose the results of the second quarter of 2025. Thank you very much, everyone. The conference has ended. We thank you all for your participation, and we wish you a wonderful day.