Vibra Energia SA

BOVESPA:VBBR3

Earnings Call Transcript

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Vibra's video conference to discuss the fourth quarter '24 earnings result. This video conference is being recorded, and the replay can be accessed on the company's website, www.ri.vibraenergia.com.br. The presentation is also available for download. [Operator Instructions]

Before proceeding, please bear in mind that the forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Vibra's management and the current information available to the company. These forward-looking statements may involve risks and uncertainties as they relate to future events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors, analysts and journalists should bear in mind that events related to the macroeconomic environment, the segment and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.

Present at this video conference are Mr. Ernesto Pousada, CEO; and Augusto Ribeiro, CFO; as well as some of the company's executives.

I would now like to turn the floor over to Mr. Ernesto Pousada, who will begin the presentation. You may proceed, sir.

[Ernesto Pousada, executive]

Good morning, everybody. It is a pleasure to be with you. I'm going to begin by summarizing the year 2024, and then I will give [indiscernible] focus on the fourth quarter.

2024 was marked by major achievements in the 5 growth avenues. We come out with strengthened relationship with our resale for the second consecutive year. We concluded an event [indiscernible], where we had 4,000 resellers. The event was a success. We were able to hold 1,000 new deals in new stores, BR Mania, new service stations, enhancing our value proposition. So we came out with our resale strengthened.

In terms of market share, we were able to stabilize and have a minor growth, especially when we speak about our focus on B2B consumers and resellers. This has been our focus, and we have fully complied our goals, and we do have goals for further growth that we will materialize in 2025.

We centralized pricing for retail. We had significant legal…

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wins and these benefits will come in, in the coming months: the ethanol single-phase taxation and new RenovaBio. This will bring in greater competitiveness.

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to Vibra and RenovaBio with its regulation should be concluded in the first half of the year.

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This is a process that will contribute significantly our competitiveness and sourcing options developing further and new bases, the growth of the bases. We have a new base in Santarem and expansion in Belem. We have increased our market share. We have grown year-on-year with lubricants. We have a new plant in operation. And of course, we have boosted profitability in terms of lubricants. They have become a very relevant platform within Vibra.

I go back to the renewables. We worked with the closing of Comerc. Comerc surpassed the guidance we had for EBITDA.

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and the free cash flow is BRL 3.3 billion for 2024. Because of our integrated flow in Brazil, we are one of the companies that most convert EBITDA into free cash flow.

Our average has been 60% of conversion, and these are truly significant figures when you look at the different sectors of Brazil. This is one of the fundamental metrics stability in our market share, 0.1 percentage points in the chain, 0.4% in B2B clients.

We have declared BRL 300 million payout to shareholders as interest on equity totaling BRL 1.075 billion. We do have a proposal that should be approved in the assembly of BRL 561 million in dividends, totaling BRL 1.6 billion in payouts for 2024. So in 2 years, we're paying…

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BRL 3.2 billion in dividends, very few companies in the country paying BRL 3.2 billion as payouts in 2 years.

And the company…

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closing of Comerc, we have achieved our EBITDA guidance, which shows you the year 2024 was quite sound. We had 2 years of EBITDA record, attaining margins that in the past would have deemed to be impossible, and now they have become normalized as margins for the sector.

[Augusto Ribeiro Junior, executive]

Good morning, everybody. This is Augusto. It is a pleasure to be here with you. Before speaking about the figures of the fourth quarter '24 in the next slide, simply a comment to put into context the fourth quarter for the industry and for Vibra.

I'm sure you have followed up on this. There was a surplus of products in the market because of 2 points. First, an increase in the inventory, an increase in taxes in February at lower levels equivalent to 2024, but yes, an increase in inventory and the agribusiness did not have the same performance that the market expected. This generated a product surplus impacting the entire industry.

We also had the lack of mixture of diesel that is to say selling this in the market, and this impacted the industry, creating a mismatch between companies that do work with a mix according to legislation, those companies that do not and of course, are working illegally. Now if we consider taxation, the market and biodiesel, this explains the more challenging environment for the fourth quarter '24.

Vibra had some one-offs in the fourth quarter, and this is the only time I would like to comment this, BRL 150 million. We had events that do not belong to the fourth quarter or are one-off events.

The inventory adjustment, considering Vibra's market share in the market, we felt this more than other comparable companies. We had the fees for the acquisition of Comerc, 100% of which were accounted for in the fourth quarter. And I'm not going to go into details here. You can analyze this in our release, but this explains what the fourth quarter meant for us.

We began with a very poor fourth quarter. And we -- what we had developed in 2023 was our ability to react, keep control of expenses and optimization of our working capital, maximize or minimize the impact we felt in the fourth quarter.

We began the quarter with lower profitability that we recovered during the quarter. We don't offer guidance. We don't speak about the future. But in this first quarter, we have a better profitability vis-a-vis what we developed in the fourth quarter.

Now having said that, I will now delve into the fourth quarter per se, because quarter-on-quarter, as you know, we are returning results above the previous quarter. We had a ROIC of 15.5%, BRL 900 million for the year. And we ended the year with a leverage of 0.9x without the extraordinary events that I mentioned. With these, we would have had 1.5x adjusted EBITDA of BRL 1.307 billion.

In the next slide. We have that slide where we share with you the results of the efforts of our team of each and every one of the Vibra employees. For the fifth consecutive year, we had growing margins. This, of course, poses a challenge to the company.

2025 means we will continue on with this goal. But in 2024, it was the fifth consecutive year where we had a growing adjusted EBITDA margin. And in the fourth quarter, we delivered 3.7% below BRL 95 per cubic meter for the same period. We still have a very strong footprint, and I'm going to speak about what we have ahead of us in 2025. And in volume, we reached 9 million cubic meters, a drop of 1.7% vis-a-vis the previous year.

In the next slide. From the viewpoint of capital allocation, we ended the year in BRL 1.9 billion of gross debt and CapEx BRL 1.821 billion for the year 2024. Net income BRL 510 million in the period, BRL 1 billion more vis-a-vis the same amount delivered in 2023.

Dividends, we have already referred to. The proposal to be approved will mean payout totaling BRL 1.636 billion, the second largest in the history of Vibra for the last 2 years. This would total BRL 3.2 billion of payout, which is truly a historic milestone.

If we think about the market, BRL 1.636 billion is what we paid out last year our operating profit besides the cash from extraordinary events based on higher net income, 26%.

2025 will be a year where we have very strong ambitions. Our ambitions are of the utmost importance. We're seeking growth and profitability. We do want to achieve records. We want to achieve a record in cash. We have several points aligned. We want to reduce expenses -- both costs and expenses. This is a full package. And we're going to seek to offer that growing profitability with growth.

CapEx for the year 2025, we will seek out the same figures of 2023. We are in a more challenging scenario. The cost of capital is higher. So tirelessly, we will seek a reduction of less than 2x in leverage. And 2025 shows BRL 1.5 billion, which was what we had at the end of 2024.

Here, we're going to speak about our service station networks. We have leadership in additive-enhanced products, and our mix of premium products continued to grow, reaching 21.3%, 27.8% of the company's gross profit. This is our continuous goal, and this is what we would like to enhance.

EBITDA of BRL 996 million EBITDA for the network, reaching BRL 4.065 billion for the year. The network market share remaining stable year-on-year, quarter-on-quarter, and a slight reduction of 0.6% in our white flag network.

In this next slide, more information about our service station. We ended with 7,897 service stations with a growth of 2% in volume. Well, this is simply a matter of optimization. We eliminated the service stations that were no longer adding value in terms of volume for the company.

In lubricants, extremely satisfied with the plant. The plant is growing. We're using its full capacity, a growth of 6% volume growth year-on-year. Now the lubricants division is doing very well, and we're happy with the indicators.

BR Mania. Besides the growth and new convenience stores, we have launched 2 new store formats to enhance our ability to grow in locations where we do not have any physical space. We have new models: super compact and premium. We have more than 300 SKUs available for sale there.

Here in the next slide, I share with you B2B, a growth of 3.5% in adjusted EBITDA, reaching BRL 2.480 billion year-on-year. Total volume practically stable vis-a-vis the fourth quarter '23, reaching 3,391 cubic meters.

We had growth in the 3 categories. We had growth in diesel, 7.2%; in aviation, 7%, vis-a-vis the same period last year; and in lubricants, 6%, vis-a-vis the previous year. In market share, a growth of 0.6 percentage points in B2B, and in TRR, a slight reduction of 3 percentage points compared to the previous year.

Here, we have a slide regarding Comerc. We're very satisfied. We have achieved the EBITDA guidance. We had spoken about BRL 1 billion. We're above this, BRL 1.077 billion, a growth of almost 70%, and operating cash flow reaching BRL 729 million in 2024, a 74% increase.

Some operational highlights for Comerc, 2.1 gigawatt p, 7 plants (sic) [ 27 plants ] delivered in 2024, totaling 96 during the year. Centralized generation, 1,542 in solar energy, 230 for wind energy. We had 20,000 new consumers added to the DG platform, totaling 69,000 clients at the end of 2024, 562 MtM of future contracts.

The operation closed in January of 2025. Now the plants are proceeding as expected. We will have more information going forward. Now the synergies are on a good path, and we maintain the guidance. We now have a second guidance of BRL 1.3 billion to be delivered in 2025.

Finally, our last slide. We're extremely satisfied. We had a reduction of 8% in scopes 1 and 2 in 2024, and the zero sexual violence for children and adolescents, along with Childhood Brasil, Instituto Liberta, and the group Mulheres do Brasil. This movement will be launched in March, and we have huge expectations regarding this.

I return the floor to Ernesto. And thank you for your attention.

[Ernesto Pousada, executive]

Thank you, Augusto. And I would like to underscore some points regarding 2024. We have to have a broader look. We have 8 quarters, 2 consecutive years with EBITDA above BRL 6 billion despite all the macroeconomic challenges.

We have one of the highest EBITDA conversions into free cash flow in Brazil, above 60%. In 2024, we generated BRL 3.4 billion in free cash flow, and payment for 2 consecutive years of BRL 3.2 billion in dividends.

I reiterate, few companies in Brazil have this type of payout. We have had the closing of the acquisition of Comerc in January, and we still have strong trade. We continue with our commitment -- our tireless commitment of reducing leverage.

And to speak about 2025, our ambitions for 2025 to hit new EBITDA record to continue with a cash generation that will be surpassing what we had in 2023. And we will attempt to speed up our deleveraging with a growth in the company's volumes, maintaining the level of margins that you have observed during the last 12 months. This is the culture. This is the Vibra management model. And this is the summary of 2 years of my management.

Very well. With that, we would like to open the floor for questions and answers.

[Operator]

The first question comes from Luiz Carvalho from BTG.

[Luiz Carvalho, analyst]

We have 2 questions at our end, the first geared to Augusto. You spoke about all of the nonrecurring impacts on your margin. You also spoke about the regulatory environment regarding biodiesel and the lack of mixture. If you could quantify these impacts, these one-off events, with more clarity. And which is your recurring margin for the quarter?

Now the issue of biodiesel, as several others that always happen in this sector, does not seem to be an isolated fact, something that will be limited to the fourth quarter. There's a difference of BRL 0.30 per liter between the distributor that buys 14% and the one that does not. How do you think this will play out in the future?

The second question, I go back to the last comment made by Ernesto to speak about capital allocation. Now if you could comment on Comerc and how you view this company in the Vibra portfolio? What is it that has to be done from the strategic viewpoint looking 2 to 5 years forward [indiscernible] discussion on the payout to shareholders in interest on equity and dividends, you did make announcements. Wouldn't it make sense to have a buyback therefore? So the first question about margin, the regulatory agenda. The second question about capital allocation.

[Ernesto Pousada, executive]

Thank you, Luiz. I'm going to touch upon some of these parts. Nonrecurring events, I mentioned 2, the Comerc fees representing more than BRL 60 million in impact. We had some provisions for relevant clients of Vibra. Well, clients with a relevant impact on our results. So there are minor events, several of them they're not recurring and they're not specific for the quarter.

About the margin, what it would be like or not, there are different ways of analyzing this. Our margin could have gone from BRL 10 to BRL 15 per cubic meter were it not for these events. And I can discuss this in more detail for you. The impact was BRL 15 approximately.

Luiz, I'd like to underscore something. It's important to look at the year. We had 175 as margin. That's our reference. That's our benchmark. The sector has fluctuations. The quarters have oscillations upwards or downwards. They can vary between companies, nonrecurring events. But doubtlessly, when you look at the year, this is the most relevant piece of information. There are one-offs, of course, but they are more linear. So this is the message that I would like to leave with you that we should look at the year margin.

Regarding the biodiesel, initially the sector obtained expressive victories, perhaps the greatest in history. The change in the Renovabio program that, in fact, should have an impact as of the second quarter. There will be regulation in the first quarter with an impact in the second quarter, and the one-phase taxation of ethanol correcting a historical problem, something that is relevant for Vibra, the federal taxes for ethanol regarding all of the similar companies, whether small or larger distributors. So it corrects a very important factor in the ethanol market. These are important victories.

In biodiesel, we're acting. This is a recent problem that has become exacerbated. The national agency is already acting, and we're acting on several fronts. And nobody will have margins by doing something illegal of BRL 300 per cubic meter. This cannot continue on through time.

And I can state at this point that it may impact our first quarter. As Augusto said, the first quarter is more normal in terms of margins. We still have the problem of biodiesel. It is less impactful than it was in the fourth quarter. And we're going to continue to struggle to do away with this problem. I'm confident we will do this.

The third question, capital allocation. Regarding Comerc, we're moving ahead strongly. We still see a great deal of synergy that we can extract from Comerc, perhaps not synergy, but efficiency. We are seeking additional efficiencies apart from those we had observed initially. We will be able to make strides in that efficiency agenda. And we need to wait a bit. The energy market as a whole is not a place for investment. This is not our focus to allocate additional capital in Comerc.

Our focus for Comerc in the next 12 or 18 months is cash generation and free cash flow. That's where we would like to get to with free cash flow from Comerc, making the most of the market moment that would not justify any investments at this point in time.

Well, dividends versus buyback. Vibra has a commitment with shareholders. We comply with our policy, and we have fully complied with our dividend policy, paying 40% of everything that became cash in the company during these last 2 years. Therefore, dividends versus buyback, we want to comply with the dividend policy that we published, set for 3 or 4 years ago.

Now the payment of net debt considering the high cost of capital because of SELIC does become a relevant issue. Part of this cash generation, we're going to try to hit another record this year. And part of that cash will obviously be allocated to a reduction of gross debt.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Gabriel Barra from Citibank.

[Gabriel Coelho Barra, analyst]

I have 2 questions. When we look at the quarter results, I don't know if you shared this with us, I was somewhat disappointed because of 2 factors. In November when we were discussing the third quarter results, you had a very positive vision for the fourth quarter. And the worst month had already happened, which was October, if I'm not mistaken. You said that November and December would be better months doing away with that negative impact of October. The impact of BRL 125, well it does cause a certain disappointment, first of all, in terms of margin; secondly, because of margin volatility.

This is something we had debated at length. And this is what did happen in the fourth quarter. I would like to hear more about you from that, which is your diagnosis regarding that situation and the strategic decision of the company. You focused on rationalizing volume, improving margins, but you did have that problem in the fourth quarter with the situation being contrary to what we had imagined. This would help us understand the dynamic for 2025 for the company.

The second point factor regarding CapEx. We have discussed the rationalizing of CapEx because of the higher interest rates. Well, how do we think about this rationalizing? You spoke about an advance into agribusiness, investing in logistics during Investor Day. Now how can we think about this…

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is this a way of rationalizing this? So if you could focus more on CapEx and how to do this based on cash generation and perhaps paying out more interest on equity?

[Ernesto Pousada, executive]

Thank you for the questions, Gabriel. I would like to reinforce a point that I understand. We would have liked to have a better quarter. BRL 125 of margin 2 years ago would have been a milestone, but this is not our recurrent margin. We had several one-offs, as Augusto mentioned. Our market reading was not mistaken. In October, we had a month that certainly was not positive and November and December evolved. We had better results in November and December, perhaps not sufficient to offset the month of October. Now even with the biodiesel situation that we could not have foreseen and that became exacerbated during the quarter.

When we speak about volatility and I look at the annual graph of margins, I don't see any volatility. I see a reduction in volatility. We have oscillating margins every year. Now oscillations during quarters, this is very difficult to do. When you look at the graph of the unit margin for the last 6 years, we have had growth in that period, and I don't see ups and downs in that graph.

Now between quarters, if that is your question, it's continued to happen. It wasn't the case, but we have variations in inventory as well as other nonrecurring aspects, that will always cause volatility. Look at our margins in the annual graph, that is the best benchmark of what we expect for margin. Of course, we expect to grow, that's our target, to grow margins for '26, '27 and forward, growing with volume and with a market share increase.

From the viewpoint of CapEx, Gabriel, we look at this in a consolidated way. We don't have a specific action or growth avenue that could be postponed to accelerate another avenue. This isn't only Vibra, it's Brazil as a whole. The macroeconomic situation in Brazil demands higher prudence. There is a return, of course, but we have to be more prudent when allocating capital. We're going to change all of the items.

Now in service stations, we have enormous ambitions, and there's a great deal of things involved in this. If we're going to reduce this or not, this is what will have the lowest impact. We could reduce expansion in some regions, invest in tanking. Now we're not canceling anything. We're postponing some things to be able to work better with the macroeconomic situation now to generate more cash, more dividends. They go hand in hand. 40% is our policy. We're going to pay out more, grow more, generate more cash and create a virtuous cycle for the future. There haven't been any changes here.

There has been a closer follow-up on CapEx foreseen for 2025. Our absolute focus in the company is cash generation to pay off the gross debt. We're going to analyze all of the possibilities of creating contingencies or delaying things, of course, but we're going to optimize everything to have free cash flow for the company.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Monique Greco from Itau BBA. [Operator Instructions]. Our next question comes from Bruno Amorim from Goldman Sachs.

[Bruno Amorim, analyst]

First, a follow-up on the issue of tax evasion or informality. Could you quantify the potential gains that will emanate from the resolution relating to ethanol more specifically? 10% of your volume refers to ethanol in a simple account, your margin in ethanol is 0. If you resolve that problem, we could have an upside of 10% for your consolidated EBITDA. Does it make sense to think about these lines if the problem is fully resolved?

A second question, a follow-up of the damage -- potential damage going forward. You have had a ROIC of 15% in the last quarters. It's a ROIC above the cost of capital, which is steep. So how far can this return on invested capital go? We used to argue that the return was very low and that your margins had to increase. Now the question presently that ROIC of 15% to 20%, doesn't this adequately price the competitive edge of Vibra? Or is this not your opinion? Can you continue to deliver higher returns going forward?

[Ernesto Pousada, executive]

Thank you for the questions, Bruno. Informality that mono phase of ethanol, 10% is too much. I would prefer to refer to 4%, 5%. That should be the gain that we could have in margin as well as in market share. That's the order of grandeur that we're referring to in volume or market share once again. Augusto can speak about ROIC.

[Bruno Amorim, analyst]

I'm sorry, Ernesto, a follow-up. You're referring to 4%, 5% with federal taxes or once the entire problem of tax evasion is resolved?

[Ernesto Pousada, executive]

Yes, BRL 250 million, BRL 300 million of gain that will come either from margin or market share. If you go back in time when we didn't have PIS/COFINS during the Bolsonaro government, that total elimination of PIS/COFINS for some months, Vibra was a leader in market share in ethanol in 2022. We had better margins. There is a very clear proxy. And beginning in May, we should have something along those lines. It's a given. It's inexorable.

[Augusto Ribeiro Junior, executive]

Well, in terms of ROIC, we did have a restructuring of profitability. The capital employed remained stable. Now what do we do to improve return on capital? We have at Vibra all of our balance lines, looking at the capital we use. We look at CapEx base 0, a review of logistics. We're reviewing expenses in a very broad fashion. And this is a continuous process with a view towards 2025. We look at the capital employed, operating capital used in the balance. We can seek improvement, 15% to 18%. Well, if we're able to deliver that consistently aligned with our growth, where could we have growth in an increase in the company profitability.

And this will take longer because of the struggle against informality, market adjustments as well as other factors that we're working on. We have recovered profitability, not only in Vibra, but in the entire industry. And the opportunity for growth in the coming 5 years is what will support the growth of return on investment capital, 15% to 18%.

Well, the top management of the company has full alignment. This is one of the metrics that is part of our long-term incentives, more than 2/3 lie in the return on invested capital and TSE. So this is a highly relevant metric that we follow up on very closely. and we're 100% aligned with the shareholders' interest, TSR, ROIC and of course, capital employed or used.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Monique Greco from Itau BBA.

[Monique Greco, analyst]

We have one question specific to the dynamics of 2024 and a broader question for 2025. First, your share dynamic. In the fourth quarter, we saw a different dynamic in B2B and retail segments. You moved back a bit in B2B. You maintained your share in retail. What explains those different dynamics between the segments? And what will happen going forward?

The second question regarding lubricants, Augusto spoke very quickly about the plant you are ramping up. What happened in 2025 in terms of growth for lubricants? At which level would you like to get to in the plant, which is the EBITDA goal that you have for the year? And when answering about lubricants, if you see any impact, any change in the recent market dynamics because of the parallelization that happened in the new plant now in February.

[Ernesto Pousada, executive]

Well, thank you, Monique. The share for B2B, we had a higher drop in TRR. And the effect of this is the biodiesel. This is a channel that we used broadly to fill in great volumes without the addition of biodiesel. That is why we suffered more in the TRR in B2B because of the expansive use of this channel. As I mentioned in the previous question, I'm sure we will make strides in this agenda and 2025 will be different from biodiesel. I'm confident in stating this; we're going to redress this in January. We're going to redress this rapidly. We resolved the bio, the mono phase for ethanol. We will also resolve this problem with biodiesel. The sector is working with that goal.

About the other question regarding lubricant for the year of 2025 and the market situation, our ambition is to continue growing. We're second in terms of market share in Brazil with a few fluctuations, but we should consolidate our position as a second player. We're expecting a growth of volume in lubricants, a significant growth in volumes, occupying our plant more. We now have the capacity to embark on this growth and maintaining the same level of margins. We're going to continue to move forward on this journey to take the EBITDA forward more than we have done in last year. So the trajectory of lubricants is one of growth in volume and in terms of consolidated EBITDA.

Regarding the market, you referred specifically to a fire in the plants of one of our competitors. First of all, we have offered them a great deal of aid at the moment of the fire and presently as well within our possibility by providing products and helping them in general.

Of course, there are market opportunities, onetime market opportunities. We're going to assess what makes sense and what does not make sense to continue on with our growth plan. This does not change our plan to grow the lubricant business. We're also working with them to contribute so that they can eliminate this problem that was really very impactful for industry.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Bruno Montanari from Morgan Stanley.

[Bruno Montanari, analyst]

First, the cleaning out of service stations. You have done interesting work in reducing the network. Is there more potential in doing this and eliminating service stations that are not attractive for the company? And which is the gain in margin that this efficiency could bring about regarding cash generation? What other levers, besides the operational ones, can you use to reach a good level of cash generation, if you could increase the sale of assets, if you have more work to be done in working capital?

And a third very quick question. What do you foresee as the main risk for 2025 that could impact your cash generation goal or your annual averages that you mentioned formerly?

[Ernesto Pousada, executive]

Well, I will answer the first question, Augusto the second. Now that cleaning out or elimination of service stations more to do, we're doing this gradually. To gain a better understanding, we discussed this case by case. The main goal is to have a service station network that is fully engaged with us. And yes, we're going to continue doing this in the coming months and quarters.

At the same time, Bruno, I raised another topic. As we mentioned in Investor Day since the end of last year, we are speeding up in terms of using our banner. We have been able to speed up this agenda. We had a very relevant event called [indiscernible] Vibra, Come to Vibra. We see high commitment from our network. Our banner is the banner preferred by consumers. And our value proposition fits in very well for the resellers.

And we see nowadays that there is demand for the use of our banner, and we're going to work with the right prices, preference for certain service stations and continue on with this work. So through time, we will see the exit of some service stations that have become disengaged and the opening of new service stations and the growth of our market share gradually as we bring in new businesses.

Now Bruno, referring to your second question, there's no secret here. We're going to do what is in the books, increase the company profitability as a whole. And differently from what we did in the last 2 years, we're going to act more on the expenses and not on the top line as we have done in the last 2 years. There are still several opportunities for Vibra. We have a gain in mix that should help us with profitability. We have an ambitious plan for lubricants. We have achieved several goals at the beginning of the year. We're quite positive about the growth of this business. We're going to phase out our investments in CapEx. This releases cash for the period.

Sale of assets, well, we have to have the expected return, adequate cash levels. Strategically, all of this has to make sense, but we continue to work here. Working capital always poses an opportunity. Last year in 2024, we ended the year in inventory days at the same level with a significant reduction of more than BRL 1 million in 2023.

We continue to try to operate in the best way possible: expenses, logistics. We're a complex company present in all of the Brazilian states. So we're going to continue on with this, and all of this will have an impact on our working capital. It's a bit of everything to generate more cash in 2025 as we did in 2024, 2023 to preserve our track record.

You spoke about the risk for 2025. Well, the greatest risk is macroeconomic. Evidently, our business is very connected to the demand and the growth of GDP, and that's a risk. We saw some of the effects in the fourth quarter when we had a drop in demand, a dip in demand, and I think this represents the main risk that is outside of our control.

Now a topic that we haven't discussed in 2025, the company will gear its attention, its focus, to cost reduction. Augusto mentioned this. We have a significant focus with Marcelo Braganca and the team under Augusto's leadership and all of the P&L line items to look at opportunities to further reduce cost. I'm confident that the results will come in 2025 because all of this is under our control, cost control and a reduction in costs with greater logistic efficiency, looking at our basis if they're in the right location with the right volume with the right people. And we have the opportunity to look at all of this, and we will focus on this throughout the year.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Matheus Enfeldt from UBS.

[Matheus Enfeldt, analyst]

I think this has been discussed, but I would like to speak further about B2B, the closeness that the company is looking for in agribusiness with middle or lower-sized customers. What have you done in terms of this? You spoke about new products. What else has to be done to build bases, bases with different formats, pricing with a different format perhaps? And perhaps this is one of the points that you will leave for 2026 as your focus is on CapEx in 2025.

In terms of B2B, we have heard about your intention of coming closer to the end consumer of competitors as well with direct sales and other formats. We saw something along these lines with coke in the past. Which has a risk here? And what could happen that means that you will no longer work as a go-between in this chain, a risk for B2B in truth?

[Ernesto Pousada, executive]

Well, regarding the B2B question, the first question, agribusiness, we have 2 products that have been a true success with expressive growth despite the small base. Agri topic is one of the products with margins that are higher than the margins of our standard diesel because it offers benefits to the producer. And it has scaled up very rapidly. We have ambitious plans in terms of percentages, and this won't have an impact on the entire B2B business. But we're going to see this scaling up throughout the year. Our sales force is very focused in bringing in these results. We have several engaged customers, other customers demanding the products. We have it at several of the bases that service the agribusiness. It was a matter of logistics, and we have resolved this.

We're highly satisfied with the advance of agribusiness. We have Unitractor, a specific lubricant for agribusiness. So the strength of B2B has redesigned this specific area. It is geared on agribusiness, and there is a potential for growth.

As we showed you in Investor Day, we have an agenda for 2030 through gradual growth with additional movements increasing loyalty and products that set us aside in the market. And in agribusiness, this solution will definitely take us in the right direction.

Regarding your second question, Matheus, for all of those who play within the 4 lines, it's the game and we're not fearful of competition. Very few will have the same logistics efficiency and the capacity to service clients and resolve problems as Vibra. This is very complex, and that is why we have a distributor. The distributor is there to better service the customer and to offer unequaled logistic services. And anybody who attempts to do that within those 4 lines will be competitors. It's part of the game, and we're going to get involved in that game. That is our belief. Now if something could happen, it always could. But we don't expect it will be highly relevant.

[Operator]

The question-and-answer session ends here. We would like to return the floor to the CEO, Mr. Ernesto Posada, for the closing remarks.

[Ernesto Pousada, executive]

Well, first of all, I would like to thank all of you for your attendance, for the questions. Augusto, myself and our IR team are at your entire disposal. These are 2 years with expressive results at the company despite a very challenging quarter in 2024. We continue on with our unit margin. The cash conversion, return on capital are metrics that the management is focused on now more than ever before. 2024 will have growth, a gain in share with margins, and aggressive deleveraging in the company until the end of the year. This is our focus to deliver these results to have another year to consolidate our consistent trajectory of results. I would like to thank all of you once again. Have a good day.

[Operator]

The Vibra conference call ends here. We would like to thank all of you for your attendance. Have a good day.

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