Eneva SA

BOVESPA:ENEV3

Earnings Call Transcript

[Lino Cancado, executive]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in Eneva's Fourth Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. We will start with Slide 4 with the main highlights of the period. We ended 2024 and began 2025 with significant progress on several fronts. This was another quarter of solid operating results. The company's adjusted EBITDA reached a record quarterly level of BRL 1.243 billion, an increase of 20% compared with the fourth quarter of 2023.

In 2025, the trend is for even better results within the first quarter with the start-up of the Parnaiba VI TPP and the start of the regulated contract [indiscernible] and also with the contribution, that is, increasing contribution from our recently created gas trading desk. It's worth remembering that in the fourth quarter of '24, we had only a partial contribution for the period in 2024. The total amount of cash flow already contracted will be added to the results of the next quarters.

The company's leverage, which had already been gradually reduced as we delivered our business plan with the discipline of costs, fell substantially with the inflow of funds from the follow-on and the cash flow of the mergers and acquisitions we completed last year. So we went from a 4.4x leverage at the end of June to 3.5x at the end of September and then to 2.4x at the end of 2024. We have thus opened up an important space for a new cycle of growth for the company.

In December '24, in Sergipe, we completed the replacement of the riser successfully, the riser that connects the FSRU to the Sergipe Hub, allowing operations to resume with minimum financial impact on the company's results. In Parnaiba, we reached the planned nominal capacity, and we also signed up with another contractual partner for long-distance services, ensuring long-term contracts to 100% of our production. This is an important milestone that proves that our off-grid gas commercialization model is successful, where we are pioneers and contribute significantly to reduce pollutants to the grid.

We also started the commercial operation of Parnaiba III and also Parnaiba VI, improves our complex with higher generation capacity without the need of increasing the gas consumption. On the financial front, we completed the merger of Linhares, Viana and [indiscernible] subsidiaries into the holding in January. So this is an important initiative that simplifies the group's corporate structure and allows us to capture significant financial synergies. In addition, we approved a new share buyback program with the aim of maximizing the generation of value for our shareholders through efficient management of capital allocation.

Finally, as part of the 2025 capacity reserve auction scheduled to take place on June 27 this year, several important documents and regulations were released during the first quarter of '25. We have already registered projects, and the next steps will involve completing technical qualification stage. I would like to stress that we have existing assets and expansion projects ready to go in incentivized regions with efficient gas supply solutions and proprietary infrastructure, which make our offer extremely competitive.

Moving on to Slide 5. We show how the company faced the challenges in the replacement of the riser and also mitigated its unavailability. On December 28, we successfully completed the replacement of the riser, reestablishing us movement from the FSRU to the Port of Sergipe TPP and to the gas transportation network. So attention to details was crucial for this operation in a short time without any problems. And to mitigate the possible financial impacts related to the risers unavailability at the Sergipe Hub, we used our operational and commercial skills combined with the flexibility of our assets and the existing reserves, gas reserves we have so that we eliminated the financial impact on the results of the company.

We recently opened our gas trading desk with an alternate solution to the Port of Sergipe TPP, comprising both the necessary infrastructure and the gas supply itself, avoiding problems of unavailability. We also commercialized the LNG, minimizing the impact on the hub. So finally, through our flexible thermoelectric portfolio at the Parnaiba Complex connected to the national interconnected system and supplied by our proprietary reserves. We have been able to meet a large part of the hub's demand in generation by replacement operations with positive margins. As a result of this action plan, the impact on our consolidated EBITDA was only BRL 0.8 million, which could still be optimized if the change in the remuneration for the replacement generation of the Parnaiba Complex from PLD to CVU is approved.

We are able to provide solutions for this case that serve an example of the resilience and flexibility of our portfolio and also the commercial capabilities of the company. Eneva has a diversified platform with unique skills and business models in the value chains that operates, demonstrating not only ability to overcome major challenges in adverse situations but also the requirements that will allow us to take advantage of the multiple opportunities that will present themselves in the near future.

Now moving on to Slide 6. We would like to highlight the start of commercial operation of Parnaiba VI and the gas is liquefaction plants, small scale LNG at Parnaiba. The beginning of the operations of steam turbine and the start of Parnaiba VI regulated environment contract are yet another milestone for the company. This company adds BRL 110 million in fixed expenses tagged to the inflation for a 5-year time, 25 years, allowing efficiency gains by increasing complex generation without adding gas consumption. This marks the end of the cycle for the last turbine in the Parnaiba Complex, which now has about 1.9 gigawatts of fully optimized installed capacity with a reduced rate of emissions per kilowatt hour of generated energy. And the startup of the second train of the liquefication plant shows the end of the stage of selling liquefied gas on the small scale to off-grid customers. These contracts of this business model increases opportunities to monetize natural gas in Bacia do Parnaiba, ensuring firm volumes guaranteed by take or pay clauses. We should also mention that the expansion and disbursement of CapEx can be done in stages as new contracts are signed.

We believe in the potential market to be unlocked for the use of LNG for heavy-duty automotive sectors where the company has already structured the first green corridor of the country with partners so that we can take natural gas to places that currently use more polluting fuels. With all the nominal capacity of the plant contracted, we plan to continue with the project to expand the asset to this market that is expanding. In the last Board of Directors, we approved CapEx to start the implementation of the expansion project this year. I will now hand over to Marcelo Habibe, who will present the financial highlights of the quarter.

[Marcelo Habibe, executive]

Thank you, Lino, and good morning, everyone. In this quarter, we achieved a quarterly adjusted EBITDA of BRL 1.2 billion, representing a growth of 20% vis-a-vis the fourth quarter of '23. This is a significant result achieved through the rigorous implementation of the strategic plan. In the first quarter of '25, we had 2 projects, Parnaiba VI and [indiscernible] LNG to increase the full availability of the Sergipe Hub and increasing our activities in the gas trading desk with a full contribution of the assets that we acquired. So we tend to go beyond the results of the first quarter of '25 already in the first quarter of '26. We also look ahead in receiving better prospects considering not just what we have already contracted like Azulao 950 project as future growth opportunities, which are already materializing in the form of LRCAP and also exploratory campaigns among others.

So finally, it's worth mentioning that in this quarter, we recognized the impairment in our coal-fired power plants. The effect is the result of a change in the assumptions used to evaluate the contractual renewal of the assets after the end of their current contracts, which now assumes the plans to be converted to natural gas. This is an accounting effect only.

Now we'll turn now to Slide 9. These are the main impacts on EBITDA in Q4 vis-a-vis Q4 2023. As mentioned in the last slide, if we disregard the impairment of coal, consolidated EBITDA grew by 20%, by BRL 207 million. This record result owes to the performance of third-party gas generation segment, which grew by BRL 206 million in the period on a pro rata basis of the assets acquired, which helped to offset the effects of the end of the contract of Fortaleza TPP at the end of 2023. The Parnaiba Complex also made a significant contribution to EBITDA in the period, a growth by BRL 106 million, arising from the start of the regulated contract for Parnaiba V with higher fixed margins and variable margins. In terms of upstream, the increase was by BRL 79 million, thanks to the greater dispatch and the transfer of the variable margins of the Parnaiba Complex thermal plants.

The segments that showed the reduction in EBITDA between the periods are -- this reduction by BRL 62 million in energy trading, which was impacted by lower commercial margins quarter-on-quarter, then the reduction by BRL 54 million in the holdings EBITDA, which reflects the positive one-off impact in Q4 2023 of the reversal of expenses related to long-term incentives, and in Q4, the nonrecurring effect of expenses related to the follow-on and M&A. Another negative impact by BRL 59 million was the Solar segment because of the partial unavailability of the complex between mid-November and December. Consequently, there were higher costs with the purchase of energy and reimbursement to meet bilateral contracts in the period. And finally, a reduction by BRL 10 million in Sergipe because of the one-off accounting effect of the riser write-off.

On Slide 10, you see the impacts on the financial result between the quarters. The net financial result was negative by BRL 1.354 billion, relative to BRL 1.012 billion negative in Q4 2023. This is explained by some noncash impacts such as the one-off impact in Q4 2023 of one-off expenses relating to the refinancing of CELSE's debt and the reclassification of the fair value of debentures with a negative effect of BRL 564 million. The exchange rate variation on the lease of the FSRU of Sergipe with a negative impact of BRL 560 million in the variation between quarters. And finally, the impact of the variation of mark-to-market of swaps with a negative effect of BRL 414 million quarter-on-quarter. If we eliminate this noncash impact, our financial results would have improved by 4.1% quarter-on-quarter.

On Slide 11, we have the operating cash flow, which generated BRL 1.140 billion in the period, driven by strong EBITDA and partially offset by higher tax payments associated with the high margins of the assets acquired. The investment cash flow saw a disbursement of BRL 1.583 billion for the acquisition of thermal assets for Azulao 950 and for the maintenance of our operations. In terms of financing cash flow, we had an inflow of BRL 2.186 billion, boosted by the inflow of funds from the follow-on, which were partially offset by principal repayments and debt service. As a result, at the end of Q4, Eneva had a robust cash position of BRL 3.866 billion.

Moving on to Slide 12, you will see our capital structure. The first graph on the left shows the company's net debt and its gradual reduction over time. At the end of Q4, it was BRL 13.5 billion, its lowest since Q3 2022. The net debt over EBITDA ratio maintained its downward trend, reaching 2.42x at year-end. Again, for the first time below 3x since Q3 2022. If we disregard the one-off impact of the coal impairment, our leverage would have fallen even further to 2.18x, which is an improvement relative to 3.5x at Q4 2024. And then you see the quality of debt. It continues to improve, thanks to our liability management initiatives. If we consider the pro forma effect of the liability management, our consolidated debt had an average maturity of 6 years, a comfortable situation in the short term with a concentration of maturity in the long term. Our current cash position is more than enough to cover all the commitments we have relating to principal in the next 4 years. With this increase in interest rates, as is the scenario, we are trying to reduce the exposure to CDI, reduce the spreads and increase the exposure to IPCA, which is the indexing factor that adjusts our fixed expenses. We have also reduced the spread on the CDI, and our exposure to this indexing factor has dropped as well.

With this, I turn the floor over to Andrea Monte, who is going to give you details on investments in capital projects.

[Andrea Monte, executive]

Thank you, Habibe. Good morning to everyone. In Slide 14, I would like to highlight the investments made by the company, which totaled BRL 1.124 billion in the quarter, mainly for projects under construction and the upstream, which accounted for approximately 70% of the total invested. At the Azulao 950 Complex in Amazonas, a total of BRL 554 million were invested in the quarter with the following standing out; BRL 250 million in construction and assembly service at UTE, UTG, substation and transmission lines; BRL 102 million for the completion of civil works and contractual milestones; and BRL 83 million for GE contracts and costs related to logistics and commissioning. In sustaining activities and in the development of projects at the holding and other companies, investments totaled BRL 350 million in the period; BRL 112 million for the placement of the riser, including the costs of chartering vessels and logistics; BRL 62 million directed to G&L Brazil for the acquisition of Transpipeline's assets and BRL 124 million earmarked for sustaining activities in the coal and gas segments.

Finally, in the upstream, investments totaled BRL 152 million in the quarter, especially the highlight, BRL 76 million invested in developing the Gaviao Belo and Gaviao Mateiro fields and BRL 32 million invested in mobilizing seismic in the Amazon in the [indiscernible] field.

Now let me move to Slide 16, where I present the updates on the Azulao 950 project updates. So at the end of the fourth quarter, the physical progress of the project was 53%, a 13 percentage points increase compared to the third quarter. I would like to highlight the completion of the installation of all 33 transmission line towers and the positioning of the steam turbine generator at the base. In addition to these highlights, in the period, we had the completion of 2 critical milestones. The first is the arrival of the last generator on the power island, which now has all its main equipment in its base and they are being assembled. And the second critical milestone is the completion of the transmission line, which mitigates one of the project's critical points of failure and reduces the risk of delay of the project as a whole. We also began the co-commissioning of Cluster 3 and the electromechanical assembly at the UTP or TPP and TPG. At the TPP, we have completed the positioning of the generation of the base. At the GPP, we have started the civil foundations for the thermal oil heating system and welding of gas pipes. We also completed the construction of the hydrostatic testing of gas pipelines in Cluster 3, 4 and 7.

Finally, at the substation and transmission line, in addition to installing the towers, we have also started to lay the foundations of base main equipment. The project continues at very comfortable levels of adherence to its schedule, especially considering the timing of the start of the private and also public agreements. So commissioning of Azulao I is expected to be completed in the second quarter of '26 and Azulao II in the first quarter of '27. The next milestones are the completion of the construction and commissioning of UTG and energization of the plants, which we expect to be completed by the end of 2024.

Now I'll hand over to Felippe Valverde for the Q&A session.

[Felippe Valverde, executive]

Thank you, Andrea. Good morning to all. We are now going to start the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] First question comes from Mr. Fillipe Andrade from Itau.

[Filipe Andrade, analyst]

Would you please give us some more color about the results of the trading company and the operation carried out in Q4 2024 in terms of mark-to-market?

[Unknown Executive]

Q4 2024 was a quarter where we started with a price trending upwards. If you remember, the rains have been below average, and the prices were quite high. And we had a position in the trading company, making a bet on higher prices. As the market could see, this trend reversed in November and the prices dropped in November and even more so in December going back to the minimum PLD, the spot price. So the results of Q4 suffered. This long position is something that we believe in for 2025. And in March, we have seen prices rise, which shows that November, December and January were atypical in terms of the conditions in the system. Very likely, the system will see higher prices. And part of the results that we lost in Q4 have been recovered in the beginning of 2025.

[Felippe Valverde, executive]

The second question comes from Guilherme Lima from Santander.

[Guilherme Lima, analyst]

We are seeing prices for 2025 rising. Could you comment on your expectation for prices and dispatch? And in relation to Futura and Energy Trading, what do you expect is going to happen in terms of cash EBITDA in 2025 and from then on? In terms of cash EBITDA, I'll ask Habibe to intervene.

[Marcelo Habibe, executive]

But as regards to prices for 2025, what we see, as I just said, is that there were rains in January and February, but drought in March. So prices have been driven up in March, and this is what we expect for the year. In 2025, we saw the entry of a hybrid model and a security factor of the model used by the ONS. Because of these 2 things, we would see prices being driven up. But particularly what matters the most is an unfavorable hydrology, which is what we saw in March. Our expectation is that the prices should move upwards, which will have an impact on thermal generation, especially after the rainy period in the north. So if we add the hydrology and the prices, we will probably see a need for complementing the energy to meet the power needs. So in terms of power generation for power needs, but also for demand, we should see this happening in Q2. And in terms of the trading company, we think there should be a similar scenario. Obviously, I can't give you more details about it.

As regards to Futura, the scenario of higher prices may have an impact together with the curtailment, not so much last year because we think that the level of curtailment would see a reprieve. There are many more things happening in the transmission system. So although prices may be driven up, there should be a partial offset because of the limits in transmission. And just complementing relative to Futura, the first point is that we have to be head on about it. We had been stabilizing the park. And then we had a high level of curtailment, 20% of the energy. Then in Q4, this level of curtailment was reduced to less than half, but we had a problem in a transformer of Futura so half the complex was more or less shut down. We had to buy energy. We had to replace energy. We have to indemnify our bilateral contracts and the results were negative in Q4 2024. But this problem has been overcome. There is curtailment, but it has been decreasing quarter-on-quarter with the entry on stream of some transmission lines. We no longer have problems with the transformer. The complexes have been operating normally ever since the end of December. So we expect a normalization of the results with cash generation and so on. And this is what we are seeing in January, February and also in March.

[Felippe Valverde, executive]

Next question is from Daniel Travitzky from Safra. The first part of his question we answered already about thermal dispatch and also the price scenario. But the second part of his question relates to market. Still focusing on price, how exposed is the company to price differences between submarkets?

[Unknown Executive]

We do have some exposure to submarkets, but within the limits of risk aversion that are approved according to the trading company's policy that has been approved. So we actively manage these amounts. And even on long-term contracts, we still have some volumes sold in the long run that include sales in submarket and also generation in a different market, but these differences are managed actively. From time to time, we close bigger volumes or smaller volumes. So we are not very concerned with that because it's not relevant considering the complete scenario.

[Felippe Valverde, executive]

Next question is about net income. What would be the level of net income for the fourth quarter of '24, not considering the runoff effects and the cash effects in the period.

[Marcelo Habibe, executive]

That's a very important question. After EBITDA, we see that there are many variables that impacted relevantly in our net income, but they are one-off situations. We still expect some volatility on these lines above net profit, net income because of some accounting exposures. The net loss is BRL 963 million in the quarter, that includes BRL 630 million impacted by impairment. So just an accounting effect, not a cash effect or tax effect. That's the first important adjustment that we need to make. And there was another adjustment of BRL 402 million of exchange rate variation, especially related to our leasing and a contract that goes all the way to BRL 240 million and accounting to the accounting rules, we need to put these balance as part of our liabilities, and it is tagged to the dollar. So every time there is a dollar exchange rate variation, this has an impact in this account. The dollar exchange rate moved from BRL 5.54 at the end of third quarter of '24 to BRL 6.18 at the end of the year, $0.74 that impacted at a relevant balance of our balance.

But now we see the reverse situation. Before we started this call, it was about BRL 5.68, the dollar exchange rate. So then we could have a gain of $0.50. So for the first quarter, we see an accounting reversal. So it's important to say that, that will lead to a positive result on this line. So this is why I'm saying we're going to have some volatility on these lines. It's important to say that when we see this accounting movement, the cash flow of the company is protected. We have FCRU, that is a leasing contract that is entirely in dollars. So we have over BRL 400 million in payment and also have income in dollar with a small-scale project. So the G&L sales in the Parnaiba will be equivalent annually. Its revenue is equivalent to the annual cost to the company. So it's being compensated. So -- another important point that led to a loss in the quarter was a variation of the swap that we have in discount of receivables, especially of [indiscernible]. So we had this receivables discount that is exposed to CDI today. It's CDI plus 1.40. So every time CDI curve goes up, we need to do the market marking, and we need to enter this difference since there was -- the CDI curve was steep than the last quarter, so we had a negative impact on these results for the quarter.

And let me talk about cash flow. The discount we have in receivables is about BRL 3.5 billion. So this is our exposure and our cash position is over BRL 4 billion, fully in tag to CDI. So in terms of cash flow, this curve increase gives us some positive exposure because cash remuneration is positively impacted. If you just remove all these effects from the equation in addition to one-off effects such as the negative EBITDA that related to coal because of the use of an inventory that was accounted for at a price that was higher than the actual price that it will settle. So once we take into account all these adjustments, the net income of the company would have been positive by some hundreds of million reais, depends on the adjustments you take into account. But ultimately, the results are positive. There were a lot of one-off effects, negative mostly, but without having an impact on the cash flow of the company.

[Felippe Valverde, executive]

Next question is about the Sergipe Hub. So you mentioned in the release that BRL 111 million were spent with the replacement of the riser. Are you negotiating with insurance companies to reimburse this amount at least partially.

[Marcelo Habibe, executive]

Since day 1 that we experienced this problem in October, we got in contact with the insurance company, and we already have the first report of inspection and conclusion. In our understanding, it was a positive result, but it takes time because of the insurance company. So we're probably going to hear more from that in the second or third quarter because it takes time. But we expect this to be positive for the company. That's what I can share with you at this point.

[Felippe Valverde, executive]

Well with that, we don't have any further questions. So we will wrap up the session and our earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2024. Thank you for attending, and I hope to see you again in our next quarter earnings call. Thank you.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call].