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Good morning, and thank you for holding. Welcome to Unipar's Second Quarter of 2020 Results Conference. We have here today with us, Mr. Mauricio Russomanno, CEO; and Mr. Christian Schnitzlein, CFO. This event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] This event is also being broadcast live via webcast, and it may be accessed through www.uniparcarbocloro.com.br/ir, where the presentation is also available. The replay will be available shortly after the event is concluded. [Operator Instructions] Participants may view the slides in any of the order they wish.
Before proceeding, let me mention that forward statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Unipar management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to the future events and, therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts should understand that general conditions, conditions related to macroeconomic situation, industry and other factors could also cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I would now like to give the floor to Mr. Mauricio Russomanno, CEO. He will begin the presentation. Please proceed.
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. The second quarter of 2020 was marked by the global pandemic. It brought an important challenge for all markets. The situation became even more severe with the reaction of several sectors that were concerned with the situation and even because of legislation demand, they reduced their activity. This is the case of of civil construction, transportation and commerce. At the same time, there was an interesting growth in areas connected to hygiene, cleaning products, sewage treatment, personal protection equipment and hospital materials. They are all somehow connected to the prevention of COVID-19. Unipar showed agility and commitment to mobilize its teams, its operations and its whole chain to face this very severe period. We created a crisis committee to avoid the contamination of our collaborators and their family members. We ensured the continuity of our operations, and we implemented initiatives to contain and remediate problems. And we supported our collaborators, our community and the society as a whole. We adopted a series of measures quickly based on all prevention protocols. In our operations, we had rules for social distancing, smaller shifts. We measured employee temperatures. We moved collaborators away if they were in the risk group. We made masks and alcohol gel available and that all allowed us to protect our collaborators. We mobilized our clients, our suppliers, trade companies and partners because we wanted to ensure the supply for the whole chain with essential raw material for this period.
We implemented a 24/7 telemedicine system to solve out and support employees and their family members. We hired [indiscernible] to define severe protocols, also social workers, psychological support services, and we also have our balance or [indiscernible] program that provides meditation classes, physical activity classes and benefits for the families. We support the communities with awareness campaigns, periodic meetings with the community council. We donated together with clients and we donated equivalent to BRL 17 million in cleaning products, personal hygiene products, protection equipment, such as masks and ventilators and we did this both in Brazil and Argentina. Throughout this period, we reinforced further our mission to take quality of life to people through Unipar products, such as chlorine, soda and PVC and we did make a difference.
An important project that was in Congress -- the Brazilian congress was the approval of the framework for sanitation. This is very positive for our country. It universalizes -- it intends to universalize sanitation for the whole of the population. This will benefit over 100 million Brazilian citizens that currently have no access to sanitation and 30 million people that have no access to drinking water. The social impact is going to be huge. This is going to improve the quality of life of people, it will increase the frequency of children in classes, and it will reduce the number of people affected by basic diseases that take millions of people to hospitals and even to death. Economically, the potential of this new measure is going to be of BRL 1 trillion. This is a consequence of investments in infrastructure and indirect investments in real estate, tourism and the chemistry sector, among others.
The Brazilian Congress is also looking at the new gas legislation, which will be key for the development and improvement of competitiveness of this sector in Brazil. It will increase distribution of gas and it will also attract investment in new products or projects.
When we look at the international markets for soda and PVC, the paralyzation of civil construction in several countries took to a dramatic decrease in demand for PVC. World inventory was very high, and therefore, prices -- international prices dropped down. On the other hand, the supply of soda was reduced because it is part of the same production process. And the impact here was an increase in price during this quarter. For Unipar, we've been affected by this, and we've acted to maximize our soda production so that we could meet the needs of the market and we managed our PVC inventory.
Other chlorine products faced an increase, which was benefited by demand and by new clients and new geographies coming in. I'd like to highlight also that the use of our plants -- of our installed capacity is aligned to market demand. We would highlight Cubatao that had a usage higher than the same period of last year.
I now give the floor to Christian, our CFO, who's going to give you a highlights of this period. Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being part in our call. I hope you're all doing well and in good health.
On Slide 5, you can see the highlights of financial results. We compared the second quarter, compared it to the first quarter of 2020. Our net revenue was BRL 737 million in the second quarter, a slight decrease of 8% when compared to the first quarter of the year. This decrease is due to the demand of PVC. In the controlling company, the increase was of 12% when compared to the first quarter, BRL 278 million.
Consolidated GOGS was of BRL 526 million. This is a decrease of 11% compared to the first quarter of the year. This decrease is explained, most of all, by smallest consumption of raw material. Consolidated EBITDA of the company BRL 136 million in the quarter. This is an increase of 53% compared to the first quarter of the year. This increase is due to a reduction in expenses -- administrative expenses. At the controlling company, the EBITDA was BRL 65 million, that's positive, which reverted the trend from the first quarter of the year.
Besides reducing expenses, we also reduced costs. We increased our revenue and we decreased our losses due to some assets. The company showed a net income of BRL 19 million in the consolidated and BRL 20 million in the parent company, the controlling company, in the second quarter of 2020. So that also changes the trend of losses that we faced in the first quarter. In both cases, the net income had an impact, which is still going on, by the exchange rate variation -- fluctuation, which has an impact on our financial results.
In the following slide, you see a comparison of the results between the first and the second quarter, the first quarter of 2020 and the same period of 2019. You see BRL 1.538 billion. That's our net revenue, 1% above the first quarter of 2019. This is semester on semester, excuse me. In the parent company, we had a decrease of 4% when we compare to 2 products. The first semester of 2019 and 2020 GOGS, in 2020 was of BRL 1.1 billion. This is aligned to the first semester of 2019, as you can see on the slide.
The company presented an EBITDA of BRL 225 million in the first semester of 2020 compared to BRL 282 million in the first semester of 2019. At the parent company, the controlling company, the EBITDA was of minus BRL 36 million when compared to positive BRL 150 million positive in the first semester of 2019. The decrease is due to price decreases. And in the parent company, there was an impact in terms of assets. We have the negative currency exchange impact.
And in the first quarter of 2020, we had net losses of BRL 75 million in consolidated, BRL 72 million in the parent company. These losses are also the fruit of currency exchanges and an increase in administrative expenses that had an impact in the first quarter of 2020 due to the [indiscernible] process. On Slide 7, you have the net debt of the company from BRL 163 million in 2019 to BRL 4 million in June 2020. The ratio is 0.01x. The parent company, net debt in June 2020 is the BRL 209 million. In the semester, there was a cash generation, which allowed us to maintain our liquidity. And we allocated resources for the repurchase program. This allowed us also to meet our commitments. And we also targeted investments to our CapEx that is already committed. Low debt levels, and we have strong cash generation so the company maintains our commitment to search for an appropriate capital structure, always focusing on the long-term and always assessing very severely our projects.
Thank you very much. I'd now like to open for a Q&A session. If we cannot answer your questions right now, our investor relations team will contact you later. We can proceed, please, operator.
[Operator Instructions] We now give the floor to Mr. Christian. He will answer the questions we received through webcast and the questions that the company received previously through email.
We have a question from [ Alan Fabricio ], and I'm going to read it for you. A few years ago, Unipar said that it might go private again. What are your intentions in that sense?
Well, Alan, a few years ago, the controller, the parent company, communicated the company that there was this interest. Right now, we do not have anything in that regard, no communication from the parent company or any shareholder. And the intention of the company is not to go private again. So we are looking at the future. We are looking at the long-term without any sort of movement in that sense coming from the control company or the parent company.
I have here another question that was sent by Mark Coney. A huge problem -- just hold a minute, please. [indiscernible]. This is a question once again. A problem that stop some funds from going to Unipar is the low liquidity. Is there any study to split the share so that we improve the situation?
[indiscernible], thank you for your question. This is Christian. We have no study currently for splitting shares at a time. We've increased the liquidity in the last quarters due to a distribution -- a larger distribution of shareholders. Our liquidity is very much concentrated on PNB and that should be the case. So we have a program for repurchasing shares that the company uses as capital allocation strategy. Next question comes from the [indiscernible]. Congratulations on your results, he says. Could you please comment whether there was an increase in demand and volume and in the use of installed capacity in June -- or July, sorry, and early August. Is there any sign of resuming the PVC production. I'm going to give the floor to Mauricio Russomanno, the CEO. He's going to answer that.
[indiscernible], This is Mauricio. As I mentioned previously, the demand for PVC is directly connected to civil construction activities, most of it anyway. So yes, there is a rebound in the civil construction sector and that will probably lead to a PVC rebound in this period.
Next question comes from Gustavo Polage. What is the forecast for plants -- for mercury plants?
I can answer this one. It's Mauricio here. Gustavo, we are constantly assessing this matter of mercury and exchanging the plants and we are looking for the best time to make this technologic change. Our deadline is 2025 to complete this transfer of technology, this change of technology. So that will happen certainly in the next few years.
Next question is from [indiscernible]. The question is this, on Page 3 on the presentation, there's a reference to soda and PVC prices in the second quarter of 2020. Is this an average for the quarter or is it a final price? How are the prices currently regarding the PVC soda numbers?
I can answer that, [indiscernible]. It's Christian. Yes, in our presentation, you see the evolution of prices. So you look at the trend, it's the average, okay, when we compare the first quarter to the second quarter. We don't give price guidance. Current prices, you can follow them on Bloomberg, they have some price references there. Our prices are a reference in the international market, both for PVC and soda, but they are not the prices that are offered in these markets. Next question comes from [ Gabriela Casado ]. She says, can you please comment about the cost of industrial gas? Was there a reduction of price in the margins? Or what we see is just a reduction of produced volumes? Mauricio is going to answer that.
Gabriela, this is Mauricio. Regarding industrial gas, we had 2 impacts, actually. Of course, we had -- we faced the impact a lower consumption of natural gas and we also faced an impact because of regulatory issues. There's a regulation, a small reduction in the price of gas during the pandemic and until the end of this year. This is the specific benefit that was provided in the price of gas for this period.
Next question comes from [indiscernible]. Does the company intend to migrate for better governance levels, such as the Novo Mercado? Is there any plan in that sense?
I can answer. It's Christian here. Thank you [indiscernible]. We do not have a plan to migrate to Novo Mercado here in Brazil. Our company has shares between preferred and ordinary shares. The controller, which is Frank, is the grandson of the founder. He controls the company through voting shares. We've always looked for the capital markets to fund the company and this has an impact in our capital structure. So that's probably how this is going to be. We should not migrate to Novo Mercado. As for governance, we have implemented for a while now, a very strong governance policy ever since the joint venture, when we had the Oxy and Carbocloro in Unipar and this policy is constantly updated. We fulfill all these rules. So when it comes to governance, we are constantly evolving. We always follow best market prices.
As for capital structure, we should not migrate, as I said, but governance, yes, this is a constant work that we are always at the forefront of all these movements and even ESG. So this is a very strong work we do in terms of governance. We know that these will make the company sustainable in the long term, just like we are right now. Next question is from [indiscernible]. He says, I'd like to know if now with the decrease in interest rates, do you have an intention of making acquisitions or CapEx, such as a new plant, because the cost of capital is reduced right now due to interest rates.
I'm going to give the floor to Mauricio. He's going to answer that one, [indiscernible].
[indiscernible], this is Mauricio here. We are an active company, and we are constantly looking at opportunities, whether of organic growth, acquisitions or other products that might improve our competitiveness. So lower interest rates, of course, they help to make these projects more feasible. So yes, it is a better situation when we have lower interest rates because we can get the returns expected. I'm going to give you an example.
Last year, we announced a joint venture with AES to produce wind energy. And this is a project that has the goal of increasing our competitiveness when it comes to power or the production of energy. And these projects, with this interest rate, it makes -- it helps us to go on with these projects. So, yes, this is in our radar, and we are constantly looking at investment opportunities to take advantage of that.
The next 2 questions come from Lucas. Was there an increase in delinquency or renegotiation with clients? Will that have an impact in the next quarters? Second question, why did you pay so much income tax in the first semester?
Lucas, thank you for your question. This is Christian. We acted fast. We set up a crisis committee, right when the pandemic hit Brazil. And this was indeed 1 of the topics that we discussed in this committee as a priority for us. We know that we have a duty as a company to Brazilians and we have to meet our metrics as well. What did we do well? We approved some credit lines with some clients, we assessed some renegotiations with suppliers, we tried to maintain an aligned financial cycle. But we also want to help, of course -- with responsibility, always, we want to help our clients. So in terms of generated impact, the impact was quite reduced in our case.
Thank you, operator. Thank you, our colleagues that were a part in this call. Our second quarter was quite challenging for all of us. We had to change several habits, many of us are still working from a home office system. And that asks for our flexibility our resilience of all of us so that we could work in this new environment and in this new system of working.
Regarding Unipar, the second quarter we had operational continuity in spite of the pandemic. We supported our collaborators, family members, and we contributed to the communities we work in with donations, with information and with support. We had a sound cash generation and as Unipar, we will go on fighting for a continuous improvement of our processes, of our plants so that can keep our sound operations. We have a huge responsibility during this pandemic, which is to keep supplying essential products right now that will go into sanitation, into hospitals, into the food industry, personal protection equipment, so that we can fight coronavirus.
So I thank the Unipar team for their commitment and their dedication for continuing to work and doing your best in the face of such a complex situation we faced in the last month. Thank you all very much. Please stay safe. Please pay attention to the social distancing protocol, safety protocols and see you next quarter.
Unipar's call of results is finished. We thank you for your participation. Have a good day.