Simpar SA

BOVESPA:SIMH3

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to SIMPAR's conference call to discuss the results for the fourth quarter of 2024. This session is being recorded, and a replay will be available on the company's website, ri.simpar.com.br.

[Operator Instructions] Before we proceed, I'd like to remind everyone that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of SIMPAR's management and on information currently available to the company. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties as they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.

Investors, analysts, and journalists should be aware that macroeconomic conditions, industry trends, and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements.

Joining us today are Fernando Simoes, Chief Executive Officer; and Denys Ferrez, Executive Vice President of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations Officer.

Now, we'll hand the call over to Mr. Fernando Simoes, who will begin the presentation. You may go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. We are now starting the earnings release for SIMPAR's fourth quarter and full year of 2024.

On behalf of our more than 57,000 team members, I'd like to thank you all for joining us today, and also express our gratitude for the commitment and hard work of our people. And on their behalf, we thank our customers for the opportunities to give us work. Through the quality of our deliveries, we evolve and generate results. Thank you all for those who choose us to provide services.

Let's get started on Page 3, the highlights of the fourth quarter and full year 2024. We reached a record consolidated gross revenue in '24, BRL 45.2 billion. That represents a 27% increase over 2023. Net revenue from services reached BRL 32.6 billion, also a record, up again 27% year-over-year.

It's important pointing out that in 4Q alone, we posted revenue of nearly BRL 9 billion. If we analyze this picture, this would also be growth over 2023, and reported a record EBITDA of BRL 10.5 billion, up 28%, reflecting a slight margin expansion. Adjusted consolidated net income reached BRL 548 million for the year.

On Page 3, still on the right-hand side, we share a few insights for you. When we talk about efficiency. EBITDA margin increased by 3.5 percentage points year-over-year, reaching 46.5% in '24, that excluding dealerships and the retirement of assets. And why? Because dealerships now represent a larger share of the business and carry lower margins, so it wouldn't be comparable to the previous year.

And in terms of efficiency, we reduced admin and selling expenses on net income from 10.2% to 8.6%. This reflects, again, a scale and operational efficiency. We are entering a new cycle where scale plays a central role and costs will reduction relative to revenue. Looking at EBITDA per employee, we saw a 12% increase year-over-year, reaching BRL 181,000 in '24 per active, per operational employee.

Basically, we're talking about quality of our assets. We always say that the quality of our assets is very important. We always purchase thinking about the sale, thinking about the resale. In '24, we reached record revenue from asset sales of BRL 7.8 billion, up more than 28% year-over-year.

We have an asset base of BRL 42 billion, all of the high quality and similar to the ones we sell, demonstrating our ability to sell and the liquidity of our assets.

We have strong cash position. This is part of our strategic plans. We continue to have broad access to a diversified range of capital sources, and part of our strategy is to have liquidity in our cash. Today, the consolidated group holds BRL 15.6 billion in cash, 3x our short term debt, and we raised BRL 13.7 billion in '24, which reflects the capacity of our financial team to manage liquidity and anticipate opportunities.

With everything we did, we began a deleveraging process closed in 4Q with 3.6x net debt-to-EBITDA ratio. Also at the end of '24, we completed our corporate reorganization at Vamos and Automob. This reorganization was approved by 92% of Vamos voting minority shareholders.

With this move, in line with our plans, Vamos now focuses exclusively on truck machinery and equipment lease and Automob has become the largest, most diversified dealership group in Brazil, listed on B3 as of December '24 as AMOB3, the fourth listed operating company, and the fifth when we consider SIMPAR, in line with our strategic plans and creating major opportunities for both Vamos and Automob.

Now moving on to Page 4, we show the consolidation of the foundations we've built over the past few years, in line with our strategic plans defined by our Boards of all companies with built - scale, infrastructure and people that are prepared. And now we are entering a new cycle to extract value everything we built for each of the businesses.

On the left side, we show SIMPAR's evolution as an ecosystem from '16 to '20 and -- when we had the major restructure and then '24, how we are today. Eight, all independent companies, 5 of which publicly traded, each with independent management teams, Boards and committees appointed by the respective governance structures.

More than 350,000 assets and a value of approximately BRL 42 billion. And revenue and business diversification with independent companies, in '26 (sic) [ 2016 ], 75% of our EBITDA came from JSL. Now only 17% comes from JSL, the remainder generated by other companies.

What is important consolidated gross revenue from '16 to '24 grew more than 6x, and EBITDA more than 10x. EBITDA margin rose from 16.3% to 25.9% compared with '16 to '24. This is focused on business that generate better margin and cash to meet our commitments.

And when we look at leverage, in '16 we got to 5x. Remember, SELIC was higher than today. In '24 we closed that 3.6x, even after everything we built in recent years and that we still are not enjoying the full benefit of what has been built.

Still on Page 4, again, we make some comments. We are now entering a cycle focused on extracting value from the foundations built across our companies, the consolidation of these businesses. Today, we have scale, networks, talent, creating a natural barrier to entering our system.

Over the past 4 years, we delivered average annual revenue growth of 43%. Without setting expectations, we believe we are now fully equipped to generate more cash from our businesses with less investment, not only due to greater efficiency, but because the foundations that are laid to unlock value. Value extraction will result in higher cash generation and lower investment needs, because investments have been made. Now it's time to cash generation.

Higher efficiency of our assets. We have the right asset mix, high utilization levels. We buy every day high-quality, high liquid assets, and we have the modesty of our team to exceptionally manage these assets, which is good, not only in deploying but also in retiring the assets. And that shows our capacity to sell.

Disciplining contract management, both for existing and new contracts. And also with due modesty, we have technical operation capacity to renegotiate and realign contracts whenever needed, even beyond scheduled annual price adjustments, and we are working hard to reduce costs and expenses to offset inflation and interest rates.

As a reminder, across our companies, we've done this many times before. We don't pass through costs just for the sake of it, but when it is necessary, when we have to do that, we have always done that to have our companies healthy and sustainable in the long term.

Now I'm going to move on to Page 5, talking about JSL. JSL has already released this result, so just a few brief comments about the company. This is a company that is over 68 years old, has been market leader for more than 24 years, has 37,000 direct employees, an extensive ecosystem of contracted truck drivers.

And this ecosystem as a whole, although has had transformational growth, if you compare '23 to '24, JSL grew more than 16% in revenues, including FSJ and Fadel, which are not fully consolidated, and I see -- I'm sorry that we're not consolidated in '23. This reflects the ability to grow even in a challenging market, even being the largest company in Brazil.

And the capacity to generate cash, its EBITDA margin declined slightly due to pre-operational costs, and the lag between cost increases and price pass through to customers. But we believe this will normalize soon. In other words, it has a lot more to be done, more than it did before.

On Page 6, we have Movida. I'd like to take this moment to congratulate the entire Movida team for everything they accomplished in the past 10 years. As you can see on Page 6, we have some operational and financial metrics from rent a car, GTF businesses that lead us to believe that they are the best metrics in the sector.

Movida grew and developed on its DNA of serving customers. We believe that through this it contributes to the business of rent a car in Brazil. The execution of its strategic plan has significantly improved its performance across all business lines. And for the first time in '25, Movida is starting a new cycle.

What is this new cycle all about? Today, Movida has scale. It has the stores, the infrastructures in place, it has team. It knows pricing very well, it has the necessary reach. And the auto industry has returned to pre-COVID levels. So we have availability of fleet, the right mix and fair pricing, and this creates a major opportunity for Movida now with scale and fully ready. We are proud of everything Movida has accomplished, but we believe that our team will enter an even further cycle of value creation.

On Page 7, we talk about Vamos. Vamos completed its corporate reorganization, speeding up its truck machinery and agriculture business leadership -- dealerships. Now it is only focused on the lease of trucks, machinery and equipment. And we believe this will result higher productivity, greater operational efficiency.

It starts '25 with a significant portion of its CapEx already execution, which will require less net investment, but still it will grow margin, improve revenue. And the capacity of selling assets showcases the quality of assets and sales capacity. In '24, BRL 705 million, up more than 34% year-over-year, showing sustainable return profile, both in terms of ROIC and ROE.

So it starts focusing on leasing trucks, machinery, equipment, operational efficiency and optimize invested capital. And as a result, we expect continued deleveraging. We are very pleased with this new phase and the resilient path of Vamos, a market leader in its segment with a strong potential for continued growth.

Now Page 8, we have Automob. Automob, following the spin-off from Vamos with the dealerships, is now the largest and most diversified dealership of vehicles in Brazil. In line with our strategic plans for the upcoming quarters, the team is focused on operational efficiency, increasing productivity per location, per business or productivity and also spreading best practices across the network.

It's natural to see variations in the different dealerships and locations. So optimizing capital structure is a focus by improving working capital, reducing agricultural inventory or others. There is significant room for improvement in capital structure.

And I'd like to invite you to think about that. Think of prepaid inventory in its balance sheet. I believe it's around BRL 1.5 billion. This more than covers the company's debt. It is an extremely differentiated business with significant potential for both organic and inorganic growth through future acquisitions.

Now on Page 9, we have CS Infra with a portfolio of concessions, which focus is low CapEx and service quality, providing services. We truly believe that the company's biggest differentiator is our DNA of service, our people. So whether it's a public partnership or concessions, we focus on delivering high-quality services.

Based on these pillars, we have confidence that we'll stand out in services, helping society, helping governance, better serve the population. We recently were awarded a new highway concession in the state of Mato Grosso. We're very pleased with the strategic step for CS Infra.

We have the right people in place, a CEO, a dedicated Executive Director for each business, giving us agility and focus. All these operations are almost preoperational with large part of CapEx already executed. But as you can see, the returns from revenue and results are still to come.

Going to Page 10, we talk about Ciclus Ambiental, also a concession but in waste management. Thanks to its focus in cost and expense control and the contract rebalancing of the main concession in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Ciclus has seen an improvement in results, but it's just beginning.

Three key developments have been instrumental: reduction in cost and expenses, the rebalancing of its core concession contract, and also the rebalancing of a biogas contract, where we have a commercial alliance with a partner operating within our landfill. But these results have not had a full impact on '24. They will partially impact '25 and fully impact 2026, which will further improve the company's capital structure and bottom line.

We are very optimistic and focused on operational efficiency, cost reductions, and revenue is already locked in through long-term contracts. It is a high-quality environmental asset.

Moving on to Page 11. CS Brasil specialize in fleet outsourcing with driver services. In '24, it posted 15% revenue growth compared to '23, and we see strong potential in this business as governments continue to seek more efficiency and productive service models. So there is room for logistics services that involve both fleets and operations in CS Brasil.

Now on Page 12, we have BBC. Here, you can see the growth through new operations organically, the generation of new contracts, but more than that, the beginning to see initial contributions to results. If you adjust the upfront commissions typically paid at the start of the contract and you dilute those numbers, the results would be even stronger.

But anyway, we are operating within and outside our ecosystem, enormous potential of growth. But important, this is a niche bank, very judicious about credit spreads and developing products that offer down payments from 30% to 40% and fair spreads that reflect current financial costs and interest rate cuts.

More important, we have an outstanding asset quality with delinquency levels below market levels. So we are building a solid and safe credit operation.

On Page 13, we have some of the main consolidated highlights. I'm going to turn to Denys that will give you more detail on that.

Denys? Thank you.

Thanks, Fernando. Good morning, everyone. Now I'm starting on Page 13, talking about consolidated financial highlights with both quarterly and annual comparisons. Starting with net revenue in 4Q '24, it reached BRL 10.7 billion, up 24% (sic) [ 26% ] compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.

On an annual basis, total net revenue for the group reached BRL 41 billion, up 29% year-over-year. On the right-side, we see EBITDA and margin, BRL 2.7 billion in the fourth quarter, up 32% compared to the same period last year, growing faster than net revenue. For the full year, EBITDA reached BRL 10.4 billion with a margin of 25.9%. This is a 28% increase versus the previous year.

Operating profit measured here by EBIT totaled the quarter with BRL 1.6 billion with a margin of 15.4%, reflecting an improvement compared to the same quarter last year and growth of 38%. On an annual basis, EBIT reached BRL 6.7 billion, up 28% with a margin of 16.6%.

Adjusted net income, a key here, excluding non-recurring items and one-off items mostly related to the corporate reorganization that we had in the last quarter of the year and in the fourth quarter, we had BRL 82 million consolidated basis, reversing the loss we had posted in 4Q '23. For the full year '24, adjusted net income totaled BRL 548 million, also reversing the negative result from 2023.

Here on the right side of the slide, looking specifically consolidated EBITDA margin, in '24 it reached 25.9%, which is 0.1 percentage points better than in '23. But I'd like to emphasize that when we exclude from this margin, the impact from dealerships, which operates on a retail model, our service EBITDA margin without dealerships was 46.5%. That represents on a comparable basis an increase of 3.5 percentage points.

With this, I'm going to move on to the next page, 14, where we discuss the group's debt profile. First, on a consolidated basis, and then we'll talk about SIMPAR as the holding company on a standalone basis.

Consolidated numbers. Total net debt reached BRL 40.7 billion with a cash and liquidity position of BRL 15.6 billion. Average debt maturity of 4.3 years and short-term debt coverage ratio of 2.7x. In other words, our available liquidity and cash today is sufficient to cover all amortizations through the year of '27.

Over the course of '24, we've raised a total of BRL 13.7 billion across the group at an average cost of CDI plus 1.7% a year, average, maturity of 5 years. Out of that total of BRL 13.7 billion, BRL 2.7 billion (sic) [ BRL 2.5 billion ] was raised in the fourth quarter of '24.

Now at the bottom-right corner of the slide, talking about some subsequent events this year, the group raised BRL 1.9 billion in March now in a 3-year transaction. The original currency was U.S. dollar, but it was swapped to Brazilian reais at a cost of 100% of the CDI.

Before closing the slide, I want to highlight one point. While we present consolidated leverage figures here, it's important to note that several of our subsidiaries, because they are publicly traded companies listed on Brazil's Novo Mercado, the highest corporate level in Brazil and have different investor bases, that enables the view of the group, reinforcing overall credit quality.

But each of these companies' credit profile should be analyzed independently. There is no cross liability amount there and this is important to say.

So now turning to Page 15, talking about SIMPAR as the holding company alone and its debt profile. We closed the year with net debt of BRL 2.7 billion, a cash and liquidity position of BRL 3.5 billion, average maturity of 6.3 years and short-term debt coverage ratio of 12.7x.

As publicly disclosed, we had the corporate reorganization in the fourth quarter of '24, which resulted in a cash inflow of approximately BRL 1 billion to SIMPAR, and this helped to reduce the company's net debt position, especially when you compare third quarter of '24 and the year-end figure. And with these proceeds, we repurchased SIMPAR issued bonds and debt instruments in amount of BRL 510 million (sic) [ BRL 520 million ] in the fourth quarter '24.

On Slide 6 (sic) [ Slide 16 ], we discuss our current strategic planning cycle, where we see a lower investment need and a higher cash generation capacity. In the chart at the center of the page, we show that we invested about BRL 10 billion in '24, in line with the cash generation for the year. However, it's important to highlight that part of this investment was an acceleration of CapEx plan for '25. As a result, '25 will benefit from this anticipation.

In previous years, when we were in an intense phase of scaling up the business, investment volumes exceeded cash generation by more than 2x. Now it's a new phase.

On Slide 17, we show the different leverage ratio and the conceptual differences between them. The most commonly used and reported metric is net debt-to-EBITDA ratio based on the criteria for international bond issues. That closed the year at 3.6x, which is not only lower than what we reported in 3Q '24, but also lower than the ratio at the end of '23.

Now we also have 2 important metrics. One, net debt-to-EBITDA-A and the other the business leverage. And these are very similar metrics. For net debt-to-EBITDA-A, we have 2.3x and business leverage 2.5x.

Now remember, what is this business leverage? Basically, it is a scenario that considers all the group's net debt plus payables to suppliers of vehicles and equipment plus for plan, plus acquisitions, plus any other credit rights deducted from the present value of the expected residual value of the assets at the end of their contracts.

This is our business model, which is a convergence between business leverage of 2.5x and net debt-of-EBITDA-A of 2.3x, which is very different than the traditional net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 2.6x (sic) [ 3.6x ] because the traditional metric does not take into consideration if we have mid- to long-term contracts and therefore, are going to have an end. And that the assets with which we operate retain an important residual value at the end of contracts when they are going to be monetized. Therefore, we understand that this is a business leverage ratio. And again, in our criteria this is at 2.5x.

On the next page, we talk a bit about return on invested capital. Remember that this is a key priority, and it's part of our executive compensation targets. We present here what we call productive ROIC that is calculated based on the portion of the capital base that is already fully operational and generating cash or adjusted for temporary distortions such as excess inventory.

It was 13.3% in '24, and if we compare to after-tax cost of debt was 8.8%. That means our return exceeds the cost of debt by 4.5 percentage points.

Now I'm going to turn back to Fernando for his final remarks.

Thank you, Denys. On Page 19, we highlight how our companies are prepared to extract the maximum value from the foundations built. Today, we have more than 57,000 direct employees, all in line with our values and culture. More than 355,000 active assets. Governance, including 5 Boards of Directors for our listed companies. And in the others, we have 3 further committees that oversee the unlisted companies.

We manage over 1,500 service locations interacting with customers every day. More than 1.5 million square meters of warehouse space operating for our customers or our own operations to customers. These are just a few numbers that were built over nearly 7 years of the company. And we had net CapEx of BRL 40 billion in the last 4 years.

That's why we believe the foundations are built, solid pillars that will contribute for us to extract more value through greater operational efficiency and profitability because the foundations were built along the years. And now it is a phase of operations more than construction.

With that, we'll have lower investment needs and therefore, higher cash generation. And it also improve our EBITDA and overall cash flow by leveraging the structures we have built.

Greater operational efficiency includes tighter inventory management, shorter collection cycles because of financial costs and faster deployment and retirement of assets and sales, which will certainly improve our operational efficiency.

With all due modesty, our team is highly skilled. We have strong governance and pricing capabilities, not just fair in the beginning, but also managing the contracts through well-defined adjustment clauses and also realigning prices together with customers whenever necessary. That is the quality of the contracts we start and how we manage them plays a crucial role in our results, especially in an environment like this with higher inflation and rising costs.

Our capital structure, I'll say it again, everybody see the CapEx we make, but you don't see the revenue that CapEx that has already been made will generate. This will come in the next few quarters. And with efficient operations, smart contract management and executed CapEx, we will improve our capital structure and further deleverage our companies.

All our business are diversified by sector, by services and also geographically. Our businesses are highly resilient and essential to the lives of people. As I always say, people may live without our companies, but they cannot live without the services we provide.

And quite modestly, we have assets that are high-quality for our customers to use with safety, for resale, and more than that, we have within our ecosystem, a truly service-oriented DNA. And we only purchase assets that we believe in, that we can operate, that we can manage and that we can sell. It's a full cycle that makes the difference in our business. That's our DNA.

And above all, most important is our people. It is through our people that we maintain long-term customer relationships, some which go back 68 years, one of our customers, many others with 30, 40 years. This is only possible because our greatest asset is not hard asset. It is our people.

It is the major differentiator of our company that work with excellence, with confidence, everything the Board of Directors decides to do. This gives us the confidence to say without no overpromising that we strongly believe in the results that will come in the coming quarters, both for the ecosystem as a whole and for each company.

Once again, I'd like to thank you all for joining us today and open for your questions. On behalf of our 57,000 team members, thank you for your time and attention.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Andre Ferreira from Bradesco BBI.

I have 2. One, you talked a lot about operational efficiency in your presentation. So I'd like to understand if you have a target or how much that can generate in terms of impact, thinking of absolute numbers or percentage of revenues?

And the second question is, well, looking at the EBITDA over net CapEx ratio, because net CapEx for Vamos is going to decrease, do you think you're going to have a record for this metric in '25? Just doing a quick math, it would be something like 1.2x. Do you think that's a doable number for this year?

Andre, this is Fernando. Thanks for your question Andre. When we talk about operational efficiency -- this is Fernando here -- for the first time, we are going into a cycle in which all our businesses are built with the right scale and size, and now they are ready to enjoy and take actions with greater operational efficiency.

And as a consequence, you have better returns, deleveraging and you increase revenue with less CapEx. This is in line with our strategic plans. So when we say that we have a management model that is unique, very much based on our people, our main differentiator, with everything that has happened that we have been monitoring, we have our cost reduction program. From September to December, we worked very hard to enjoy the benefits of this program this year.

I'm not giving you numbers. But just for you to think with us, if we can, every 1% of cost efficiency in our costs, we have BRL 500 million in the year. I'm not creating expectations. I'm just considering that with you. And we have a history of deliveries and at times of difficulty, of volatility, as you see what happened, we had this in '16, '15, we are very fast and we take deep actions.

Another movement when you talk about improvement is realigning prices regardless of price adjustments. It's really passed through prices to cope with the increasing costs of inputs of everything. And the company has been doing that with excellence. It happened in Movida. JSL is talking about opportunities. And again, just think about if it's just 1% in terms of price realignment, and this is below of what we are having. And you can improve that, we would have again another BRL 500 million.

But when you talk about efficiency, with everything built in recent years, certainly, Andre, we have opportunities of having much less inventory of assets at Vamos, at Automob, of improving processes and prices in Movida even more than what's happening in the period of asset retirement, in the sale of used vehicles, the mix of used vehicle sales are higher in retail now than in the whole of our history.

Movida mix for occasional daily rentals and monthly daily rentals has also contributed to better prices. This is all we consider operational efficiency.

JSL has been awarded contracts. It has considering leasing or buying assets. So all this is operational efficiency, and we truly believe this will contribute to the improvement of our results.

So operational efficiency in practice, the example of Automob, the number of sales per store, new or used vehicles, you have a history that Automob showed and you had growth of more than 30% in the first year and in the second year. Of course, it's not going to be able to do that every year. But this is delivery, this is operational efficiency, again, without creating expectations.

But you have stores with BRL 23,000 per productive employee, other [ BRL 16,000 ]. If you level this difference with 2,000 employees, see the amount of revenue that you can get. So much to be enjoyed. And for the first time, the group is focused on that after building all the foundations.

And then synergies, F&I, there's a huge opportunity. I'm going to turn on to Denys. I'm sorry, it took me a long time to answer this question, but it's very important that you understand that the opportunity of operational efficiencies are in every single company and will certainly show in this new cycle we are starting. Denys?

Andre, just to understand what you're asking, and if I'm wrong, just let me know. You're asking EBITDA divided by CapEx and then you could have [ 1.3 ], that would be a record. Is that it?

Well, without making any projections, but using the information we received from companies, in the case of Vamos, we have assets available in-house for lease, which will certainly benefit this metric for Vamos.

We have focus on efficiency in the case of Movida, as it was mentioned before, which also favors this metric. And at JSL, you have focus on operations that are asset-light. So without again making projections, I think we should have something very positive in this line. That is that EBITDA compared to CapEx based on everything that was disclosed will be very different from what we experienced in the last 4 years in which we were building the foundations that we want to enjoy from now on.

Again, I'm not giving you a hard number, but I'm optimistic we can get to the number you mentioned.

Our next question comes from [ Mateo Santana ] from XP.

I have 2 questions to focus on debt. The first, thinking about the debt of the holding. What do you think are the main measures you can take to improve your scenario? And if possible, an idea of what you expect to see by year-end?

Second question is thinking about the repurchase of your own debt. You talked about the BRL 520 million you did in the fourth quarter. Could you give us an idea of your appetite for the first quarter -- it's almost ending -- and for the future for you to carry on with these transactions? These are my questions.

Mateo, this is Denys. I'm going to apologize, but I couldn't hear you well. Could you repeat your questions?

No problems. The first question is thinking about debt reduction at the holding. What are the measures you can take? And then the repurchase of your own debt, what is your appetite in the first quarter and for the coming quarters for these kind of transactions?

Okay. The problem with this answer is what I mentioned in previous quarters. Whenever we say what we are going to do in terms of repurchase, as we announced the BRL 520 million in the fourth quarter, it affects the secondary price. So today, I see 2 things that are interesting in to group. First, focus on execution that Fernando just mentioned; and the second, enjoy distortions that we have in the secondary debt market because the group is comprised of real assets with strong secondary markets and these assets at different times of crisis have proved their value.

I have had the opportunity of being with the company for 17 years, and I'm convinced that our assets have value and sometimes you have distortions. And this is part of our agenda for the year.

We announced the BRL 1.9 billion in March. But today, we just completed -- the group completed another fundraising for SIMPAR of BRL 420 million with an average maturity of 4 years. So we are going to continue on this management model to generate value for our shareholders. But sharing numbers, I think it will more hurt than benefit our shareholders.

No problem. I understand that.

The next question comes from Pedro Tineo from Itau BBA.

I think most of my question has been answered. But if you could give a bit more color on operational efficiency. I think this is a point that really draws our attention, especially when you talked -- so could you give us a bit more color on that?

And also thinking that the interest rates are high, the economy is decelerating, how do you see your businesses in this more adverse scenario?

I'm sorry, Pedro, I don't know if there's another mic open. If you can repeat your questions. I'm sorry, we could not understand. I think it's for everyone, but there are other people speaking. We cannot hear that well.

Is it better now?

You have some background noise. There are people talking. I think there's someone speaking next to you, and we cannot hear your voice.

Is it better now?

Yes. Yes, much better. Not super clear, but better.

Okay. So I'd like just to explore with my first question, talking about operational efficiency. So if you could give us a bit more color on Movida and JSL?

And also, when you talk about opportunities for dealerships. And the second point, just in a scenario of higher interest rates, how do you see the resilience of your businesses?

Pedro, I don't know -- operator, I don't know if there is an open mic, but we can hear a lot of noise. Can you hear us all right?

Yes, very clear.

Okay. Pedro, I'm going to repeat your question just to know if it's correct. With interference, what we understood is that, you want some examples of operational excellence in Movida, Vamos and JSL?

Yes, that's it. Some examples, yes.

Okay. Okay. So I'm going to start with Vamos. I know that Vamos had its call. They know their business more than ourselves, although we are really a holding that participates. We are always in line with the Board of Directors to know where we are going.

Some numbers, 75% of the contracts that expired in '24 at Vamos were renewed for another 12 to 24 months with the same assets. We always said we had an opportunity of extending contracts with the same assets. This is proven now, last year 75% of contracts were extended. This is one example.

Vamos has started a process to lease products in what we call Sempre Novo program. And the return of the market is fantastic. Remember, we had repossessed assets and now we are re-leasing them. And that is operational efficiency. You get used vehicles and you re-lease them because the market has the potential to lease Sempre Novo products and also used 5 year of old vehicles.

Sale of assets in Vamos, if I'm not mistaken, BRL 700 million last year. That shows the capacity to sell its assets. And without creating expectations, we believe we are going to have a much higher number. So this is just a few examples. This is operational efficiency, carrying over inventory levels for several reasons. This is really being worked at Vamos. This will become working capital. We want to decrease our levels to 0, and that's what we believe in operational efficiency for Vamos.

For Movida, you know, just think about the main operating metrics of Movida, prices, EBITDA per car, price per car, yield. We have the feeling that today, we are a reference in the market. This is a model of operational efficiency. And although Movida has been showing that in its results, it still has a lot to unlock: improving deployment times, asset retirement, maintenance costs.

This program of price realignment has been continuous, and I think you're going to see more and more of that for the future. This is operational efficiency. And our focus is again to do more with less.

In a company like JSL, it has been growing 16% to 20% organically. If you do the math, you're talking about BRL 1.8 billion higher revenue -- revenue, '24 against '23 organic contracts. I don't think any other logistics company in Brazil has revenues of BRL 1.8 billion. I think the runner up perhaps does not even have that.

So when you're talking about operational efficiency at JSL, you have lots of opportunities, cross-selling, synergies, cost reductions, and this is being extracted day-after-day. So these are some of the examples when we talk about operational efficiency.

And when you talk about our business, and so now, I'm going to turn to Denys to talk about high interest rates and others. I'm 57 years old. I started working at 14. I never knew Brazil much different than this with volatility. And when we went public, and you know that, since 2010, we are talking about 15 years. And the last 15 years, we had it all. We had the crisis of 2009, '10, '14, '15, COVID.

So what we do? How do we overcome difficulties? I say it again. Our people is our main differentiator, but we are also fast. We manage our businesses in-depth. And our managed model enables us to be even more consistent after a crisis. And I don't think this is going to be different now. The only thing is that now we are starting this time with everything built with huge scale. And I believe with operational efficiency, we are going to surpass the higher interest rates, needing less CapEx and delivering better results.

Denys will certainly talk about the high interest rates.

Well, that's it. Now we saw your second question in writing. You talked about '25, given the high interest rates and the potential economic deceleration, how we viewed the businesses?

I will use the opportunity to make a comparison of the moment we are now with the year 2016. At the time, interest rates also rose fast in a short period of time. You had an average rate slightly above 14%. This year, we are talking about 15%. But I think it is very interesting to think about that. I'm not saying that everything is exactly the same.

But just for you to have an idea, in the back we had one listed company, 3 independent company. Today, we have 5 listed company, 8 independent companies. Our gross revenues in '16 was BRL 7 billion. Our gross revenue in '24 was BRL 545 billion, 6x higher. BRL 1 billion of EBITDA. Now EBITDA is over BRL 10 billion. Our EBITDA margin between '16 and today grew by more than 10 percentage points. Leverage in '16 was 5x net debt-to-EBITDA ratio, and we just reported now 3.6x.

So what I understand happens with our business and with our operational model is the following: We have the benefit of being leaders in almost all segments in which we operate. So for example, logistics, which is logistics based on long-term contracts has always shown resilience in the most diverse scenarios. And this happens because carriers, for instance, shippers, they, of course, look into costs, but they want operational safety.

And so, what I say is that JSL is not a good parameter in economic deceleration because as you know, logistics sector in Brazil is highly fragmented. And this environment makes smaller companies weaker, unfortunately, which benefits JSL. Remember, that long-term contracts with parametric formulas that enables us to pass through our prices.

Movida today is already a company that is based mostly on long-term contracts, daily rentals, monthly leases makes Movida to have a much more affordable rate than its competitors. So again, I think we are very resilient and very flexible here.

In Vamos, again, you're talking about 5-year contracts. The whole group is based on 5-year contracts. Other businesses that are still maturing and are going to be a bit mature in '25 like the ports are extremely resilient. They already have take-and-pay contracts being signed.

So when you put it all together, we see resilience in operational performance, a portfolio that adjusts to new macroeconomic environment as we did before. And if you have an increase in interest rates, you have inflation. And if you have inflation, your assets are also appreciated and they are almost like a protection to inflation.

So historically, the company has been built in a hyperinflationary environment and the company is 68 years old. So the inflation memory, the memory of interest volatility is part of our DNA. And it is intrinsic in the management of the money of those that trust on us. So focus is execution. You have an adverse scenario, but we have our plans, as Fernando described in detail, and make our deliveries, which we believe because of our people who are highly experienced in making the deliveries we ask for them. Is it clear?

Very much clear.

Our next question comes from Gabriel [ Tibb ] from Alpha.

Congratulations on your results. I have 3 questions. New concession awards you talked about not impacting your deleveraging process. Fernando in a recent interview said that you can possible have leverage below 3x in the coming quarters. But I would like to understand a bit more on your rationale for capital allocation. What is the real rate of return that you expect from these concessions?

Second, many people talk about zeroing the holdings net debt. This is the first quarter we saw a relevant decrease. Do you expect in the mid-term to further decrease this? And what would be the counterparts? That is, which assets would you like to divest to decrease the holding level?

Finally, the results of Ciclus Ambiental positively surprised me. Should we expect margins at this level from now on?

Gabriel, this is Fernando. Thanks for your questions. And thank you, Gabriel for joining us on behalf of our 50,000 employees. We reached a record, more than 340 participants. We're very, very happy. I'm going to say a bit and then I'm going to turn to Denys.

First of all, we have always had the strategy of a new cycle and deleveraging. And when you talk about deleveraging, quarter-after-quarter with confidence and consistently, we are always going to ask you to compare year-over-year because you can have seasonal quarters.

For instance, our first quarter as a group, and it's good that we have the diversification, but you can have the differences. But year-over-year, we want to have a deleveraging structure. This is part of our strategy, even below 3x. And one thing that is important is that, we are not here just by chance. That was aligned with our strategic plan and the Board of Directors of our companies to build everything that we built before and extract value from now on.

So when you talk about extracting value, concessions or PPPs, today, we have CS Infra. We have business manager -- executive directors, I'm sorry, per business. So we want businesses that do not hurt our capital structure, demand lower CapEx and have revenues faster in the first, second year with consistent returns to cope with interest rates and which vocation is services. Because the population wants quality services and working with the government to be a really differentiator that is providing quality services to the population, this is what we've been doing with all concessions, and you see the quality of our concessions. And this quality has been bringing potential investors.

You're talking about cash exposure that is low, one business, BRL 40 million, other BRL 80 million, but we have investors that are interested. And we don't rule out, it may be part of our strategy so that we can improve our leverage structure even further. This is what I can say about CS Infra. And the trend in Brazil is to have better government administrations. And with that, we can contribute with the quality of our services.

When you talk about divestments and to be very clear to you, we have assets that are highly liquid. We have 2 ports, but we are not here to divest. There are other moves that we can have. We can have partnerships, joint ventures. What is important is to contribute to 0 the holding debt. This is true, but step-by-step focusing operational efficiency and allocating capital, and having liquidity based on what we have built. And we can have partnership. We have different possibilities that can help us with that.

And Ciclus, for 4, 5 years we went through this contract rebalancing process. It was a fair balancing, but it can be even better. So now we have adjustments that are on an annual basis. And from now on, you're going to see that. For instance, we have contract for gas for the sale of 50% we produce. We renegotiated the 50% and connected to sales of its full that's going to start as of April this year. So Ciclus is improving. You are right, but it applies in lots of operational efficient, less leached, renegotiation with the main suppliers. So we improved in '24, but I think that in Ciclus, you're going to see much more improvement in '25 and '26.

And again, Ciclus is a fantastic asset, 60% of methane that -- biomethane that is generated from waste comes from our waste treatment center. So it is the largest waste treatment center in Brazil and one of the largest in the world, 290 tons of waste per month. So this is the quality of Ciclus. And I think that the ports, we also are going to have 70% of utilization already contracted for '26.

So these are some of our alternatives. We have several possibilities of growth to create value and 0 holding debt. As for returns and everything, I'm going to let Denys answer.

Yes. In returns of projects, we don't usually disclose that because there is an impact on competition. But just for you to have an idea, we -- according to the bid notes, this is not the projection. What was the expectations of the bid notice with regards to EBITDA?

And then, it's important to say that these are projects with low execution risks. There is nothing that you don't know. The realities are given, and you know what is going to be done and you even have the possibility of verifying your assumptions. But just to give you a reference, I would say that if you think of spread, considering the cost of capital from third parties, we have at least 6 percentage points for the project, that is for the shareholder. It should be even higher than that. I don't know if that helps you, but that's a ballpark.

Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now start the questions in writing. Denys Ferrez, you can go on.

Okay. I'm going to read some of the questions that we got on the Q&A. Lucas from Santander. Lucas, thanks for your question.

The question is, I'd like to ask about your balance trend. What do you expect for the assignment of rights and suppliers for the year?

To answer your question, assignment of rights in the short to mid-term, we did have a reduction of '24 compared to '23. If I did my math right, I think it was BRL 2.3 billion in '23 and now BRL 1.9 billion. So I think this is a line that is hard to predict. I don't see a major change in this line. We are not able to have projections. But I would like to say that what's important is that this is always a possibility, and it is a huge instrument that is available for the group companies, and it can be used on a timely basis.

As for suppliers, and I'm going to turn to Fernando, I don't know if he agrees with me, but I see stability in some business with a trend that perhaps having more favorable conditions based on the suppliers. But I will let Fernando answer.

Thanks Denys. I'd like just to say something. When we talk about suppliers' line in '23, the number was higher than '24, the assignment of rights. Yes. The assign of rights was higher in '23 than '24. We have a much larger company in '24. So we are doing a lot less than what we did in '23, just for you to know.

Suppliers, it's also important to say we don't have any supplier that is extended with banks. You're talking about real payment terms. And most of it you're talking about OEMs, I just see opportunities for this to improve in the future. But then, you're going to say you are losing discounts. No. We are not losing discounts, because it is better sometimes for the OEM to give you payment terms than holding the inventory.

So we are losing very little discount because of longer terms, which is extremely strategic for our business. And we have the buyback, which is our car that Vamos leased from the OEM. We don't have this in Brazil. So the trend is to have better terms. That's it.

I'm going to move on with the other questions.

We have a question from Gabriel that talks about the impact of interest rates. And it wouldn't be a good idea to have more of that indexed to the IPCA, which is more predictable.

This is an old reflection that we've talked about. Whenever you reprocess what happened to IPCA + spread and CDI, IPCA most times gets more expensive than CDI. It brings a bit more volatility.

Now, whenever you are prefixed and your contracts end before the credit lines, at the end of the contract or after having the payback, you can be outside the market in terms of cost of funding from third parties. So it is a discussion that is recurrent here. We've revisited the topic many, many times. We already had derivatives that protected us when the financial cost was acceptable. But we remind you that, our assets generally respond to higher inflation, which is almost a natural hedge to the process. So this is Gabriel.

Now we have a question from Alexandre Mendes.

The question is, is the company is being vocal in deleveraging for more than 2 years now? Wouldn't it be better to have a more controlled leverage?

I think that we said that before when we talked about EBITDA vis-a-vis our CapEx. And I think that's exactly that. We know that the beginning of the year of '25 is when you settle what was contracted the year before. So just for everyone to be aware, we think our trend is to deleverage. But remember, you have a seasonal effect.

And then after the beginning of the year, we have our infrastructure projects that are yet to mature. So they still add indebtedness because we have monetization, we have investments made. But then you're going to start enjoying the benefits, not fully in '25, but I think that we should see that in all our companies.

[ Florencia ] asks a question.

If there is any update on the divestment of any asset?

Florencia, just one question about the deleverage of our companies. As Denys mentioned, this is a natural trend. Now, I'm going to say it again. We are going to do that ongoing and consistently. For the first time, we are enjoying the scale that was built, and now we are going to extract value. But we are a company for the long-term.

So this deleverage is going to be consistent, resiliently and where does the deleverage comes from? Let me share that with you. We are not here and saying, now I'm going to change everything. Now we have the size that our companies need, even more than that.

If we had BRL 5 billion in net CapEx, I don't have where to place my assets. How is the company grow if I don't have the need for more assets? Well, Movida, you haven't seen the annual numbers for the company this size. Perhaps you saw the fourth quarter. You are going to see the first quarter '25, Carnival.

But the volume of fleet it has now with the current ticket prices, you're going to see significant growth without the need of new CapEx, just renew CapEx. That's why we are going to have less CapEx, more deliveries. At Vamos it's the same thing. Just to tell you that deleverage is natural process. Remember, do not compare quarter-on-quarter, but year-on-year.

And the question on assets and divestments, we don't have anything for sale. But as shareholders, as a member of the Board, we always have our mind open to assess opportunities. And it is our obligation in governance to share with you where we are and where we are going. But how we are going, it would be irresponsible to share with you or how we are going. So as shareholders, we are going to be together and making deliveries consistently and in a strategic way.

Thanks, Fernando. I'm going to continue to read the questions. Now a question from Daniel.

In recent days, we saw several companies at SIMPAR negotiating with higher discounts. Is the company being pressured? Are you thinking of a different dividend payout, share buyback in situations like that? Perhaps that could be interesting.

Yes. The Brazilian Stock Exchange not only for us, but half the listed company are below value with an average discount of 50%. So we do look into opportunities, but we have been prioritizing a decrease in indebtedness, which in a way matches this. So now we are prioritizing reducing indebtedness.

Our next question comes from [ Eloisa ]. Thanks for your question Eloisa.

How do you see the possibility of new assets at CS Infra and Ciclus? Do you have a pipeline? What would be needed in terms of cash flow and return rates?

Okay. First question of Daniel. Just to add to what Denys mentioned, we hear and thank the market for their opinions and a conference like that helps us, and we want to better communicate to the market. But everything that has happened in the group sometimes we failed in communication, and we tried to do it better.

I'll give you some examples, 5, 6 years ago, Movida -- people said Movida was not going to be able to survive, and it did with better metrics, and it grew organically. Vamos, this is a market we didn't have before. People said we wouldn't sell assets. We are extending our contracts. We are delivering assets.

Now people are talking about Automob. That's interesting, a company that has close to BRL 13 billion revenues, that was developed by consolidating the market which was our strategy since 2010. We had to wait, but we are now consolidating the market. Then we had the reorganization together with Vamos. There is so much synergy to explore in the future.

And if you look at it, I think it has to do with the size of discount. Automob today, you see the debt of Automob, but it has BRL 1.7 billion in inventory of cars paid up, machinery. But that's agriculture. No, you also have light vehicles. So in our strategy, we have the debt, but the inventory has been paid for.

And if you consider our debt compared to our inventory, this is a retail company. Most retail companies buy installments, they get paid before and they have no assets, completely different from Automob. So the opportunity of transformation for this market of extracting more value is just starting.

So we believe future deliveries, again, after the foundation is being built, is going to be better perceived by the market. And the discount, I think is going to decrease as we show our deliveries. We don't work only for that, but I think the result of our work will be a consequence of that.

And Eloisa to answer your question, our new assets for CS Infra and Ciclus, is there a pipeline? What would demand in terms of cash flow and return? Eloisa, we are always looking into opportunities. This is our main focus, operational efficiency. Now, there is potential businesses, but there is a committee that assesses each concession or PPP.

If we should take part, what returns, what are the threats, what are the risks, what are the guarantees, what is the quality of assets, how much we can absorb? So in this process of selection, we are not going to have many opportunities, but we can be surgical to add to value creation without hurting our capital structure and perhaps attract people, other funds to be with us on this journey and generate further value to us. I don't know if Denys has anything to add.

No. That's it. I think in terms of return, Fernando mentioned several points. But the perceived risk in execution in something that you have to find out in terms of difficulties affects the necessary return. So, if you consider a broader range, I would say that for our shareholders it would be 20% to 30%, just to give you a ballpark, but it depends a lot on the project.

A question from [ Felipe ].

Movida has a market valued in BRL 2 billion. Do you think of going private?

We always consider all opportunities, respecting the market as we have always did in the last Vamos move, CS Frotas and Movida. So we have to respect governance and value creation for our shareholders of Movida and SIMPAR. So we look into all opportunities, but nothing in this regard. Quite the opposite, there are other ways of creating value other than going private. We had companies of ours with lower value, and we didn't do that.

Now, are we prohibited to think about that? No. Everything is considered respecting our shareholders and the development of the business and again considering it for the long-term. So everything is possible, but we are not looking into it right now.

Carrying on, we have a question here, and I will use it just to make it clear. The question comes from Felipe.

And he says, what is the main adjustment to net income in this quarter?

The main adjustment is the transaction performed. We created a purely lease company, Vamos, and we created Automob, the largest and most diversified dealership group in Brazil -- heavy, light vehicles. So in the spin-off, you have the write-off of tax credits at a nominal value of BRL 237 million and present value of BRL 40 million. So this is the adjustment of this specific deal, and it is non-recurring, and we only did this to make it clear, okay?

And the final question comes from Elosia. Again, thanks, Elosia.

Do you believe that all subsidiaries will need to deleverage or Vamos that is working at a higher ROIC and ROE could keep its pace of growth?

I'm going to let Fernando speak, but just my take on it. Vamos already has a guidance in terms of CapEx based on what was disclosed. It can grow and deleverage. So we said that it is a much more cadence. Its focused on quality businesses, but it will continue to develop. And the others we think are going into a moment of maturing. We talked about them individually. And JSL specifically has been focused on operations that are more asset-light. So it will continue to grow. So it's much more a matter of operational profile. Fernando?

I have to be cautious with what I'm saying, just to be very well understood. I just said that you're not seeing a group and company that are going to turn their leverage because they are afraid of it. That's not it. If there is a good deal, money, we are not short of money. So we are not holding CapEx. We are not missing opportunities. If one day it happens, you're going to see that we are not going to miss opportunities. Companies to live longer have to keep returns. And we as shareholders, have to find a way. If one day we are starting being running over by growth, it's better to sell your asset rather than hurting people, shareholders and society.

So going back to the question, Vamos has the right size, the right inventory, the right opportunity to grow significantly with less CapEx. So to answer your question -- and again, do not look numbers quarter-on-quarter, consider the year. All companies are going to deleverage by delivering growth with less CapEx without missing out opportunities. This is what we see for the future.

Vamos is not different because of return on equity, return on invested capital. It will do what it has to do. It is prepared to do so with the level of CapEx that we understand right, part of it for inventory, part of it for Sempre Novo assets. So it is the moment the company is going through and its scale that makes the difference.

And with that, it can create more value, and I'm saying that as shareholders and as a Board member. The market support us. We have the capacity of our financial teams to raise funds, but we are going through a time to enjoy what was built, bringing more value to shareholders, paying less debt -- less interest on debt and have a deleverage lower than 3x. And then in the future, we can look into better opportunities with a lower return.

So we are not pressured because of leverage. It is because we believe that the companies now can be leaders and continue to grow based on everything that was built before. That's the reason for us to have less net CapEx. We are not scared, and we work every day with lots of good people to grow through any volatility of the market. And the Board of Directors help us a lot with that, really anticipating the needs of our customers and anticipating our own needs. Okay. Thank you very much.

Denys, do you have another question?

No. We are at the end of the questions we had on the web. Just to say that BRL 420 million to SIMPAR, they're saying the maturity is 5 years. So average maturity 4.5 years, final 5 years.

Fernando, you can have your closing remarks.

Well, people make the difference in our lives. We are working. We are telling you about our people, but we have our people in operations, which always help us a lot. Well, to close, I think we already said everything, but I would like to reinforce some points that I think are extremely important.

Our history of being fast, of being simple, in terms of volatility make us really overcome and leave this period stronger than when it started. This is a model. We don't think we are the best in the world. Quite the opposite. We wake up every day as if we were just starting.

We have a lot to do, but our managed model, our differentiator, our people, our resilient business and our long-term partnerships. And I'm not talking about JSL contracts of 40, 60 months. I'm talking about partnerships in retail where we want to have more and more customer loyalty. And Movida is proof of that, growing organically and bringing in new customers. Automob, improving the stores we acquire.

So in times like this, what happens is that we have a reduction of costs and passing through of prices in a fair manner. We have to be healthy to provide services to customers. And customers understand that. We can prove that. And this is what we have been doing.

It's a new time for the company. The foundations have been built. I'm reinforcing that. And that will give us opportunity to have better working capital, low inventory levels. I gave you the example of Automob, BRL 1.7 billion, not agricultural machines, also agricultural machines, but also vehicles, and we can have less with Vamos, you can work with less of new and used vehicles that are stopped. And we are focusing on efficiency.

The time before was growing. Now it is operational efficiency. It's very difficult to do both things together. So it's now time to focus on operational efficiency and our people can do that, better working capital, better sales, new, old trucks, vehicles. With that, we believe the consequence of execution is going to be our bottom line.

Again, do not create expectations for one or other quarter. It is quarter-after-quarter better return, deleveraging by the end of the year. Organically deleveraging can be faster, but less CapEx because we already invested what we had to invest, but significant growth. I'm not giving you guidance, but growth with less CapEx, a new time for the company.

And once more, I'd like to thank you very much for following us during the time we were building everything we did, for interacting with us, sometimes giving us a [ North ] of what to do. And we are very happy about our management model, very much focused on our companies. And we are certain and we have the commitment to improve every day and develop, especially in this new phase that we're starting based on everything that was built.

On behalf of our more than 50,000 employees, Denys, our team, I thank you very much for attending. It was a record in terms of number of participants, more than 340. Thank you all. And I have an invitation to you. Continue to follow us in this new cycle in the year of '25, because together we are going to show the deliveries and you are going to be able to assess our work.

Once again, thank you very much. Be with God, and all the best.

SIMPAR's conference call is now closed. We thank you very much for joining us, and wish you a good afternoon.

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