Embraer S.A.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thanks for standing by. This conference call will be conducted in English, but please let me say a short announcement for Portuguese speakers. My name is Gui Paiva, and I'm the Head of Investor Relations for Embraer. I want to welcome you to our first quarter of 2024 earnings conference call. The numbers in this presentation contain non-GAAP financial information to facilitate investors to reconcile EVE's financial information GAAP standards to Embraer's IFRS. We remind you that EVE's results will be discussed at EVE's conference call today at 9.30 a.m. New York time. It is important to mention that all numbers are presented in U.S. dollars, as it is our functional currency. This conference call may include statements about future events, based on Embraer's expectations and financial market trends. Such statements are subject to uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those extracted or implied in this conference call. Except in accordance with the applicable rules, the company assumes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements. For detailed financial information, the company encourages revealing publications filed by the company with the Brazilian Comissão de Valores Mobiliários, or CVM. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will give instructions later on for participation in the two Q&A sessions. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Participants on today's conference call are Francisco Gomes Beto, President and CEO of Embraer, Antonio Carlos Garcia, Chief Financial Officer, Luis Harrison, Corporate Communications Director, and myself. This conference call will have three parts. In the first part, top management will present the company's Q1 results. In the second part, we'll host a Q&A session only for investors. And last but definitely not least, we'll host a Q&A session only for the press. It is my pleasure to now turn the conference call to our President and CEO, Francisco Gomes. Please go ahead, Francisco.

Good morning and good afternoon to all. Thank you and welcome to Embraer's first quasi-2024 results conference call. Our commercial activity in 2024 continues to be strong in all business units, as we see solid demand in the company's main markets. Historically, Q1 is seasonally our weakest quarter. However, in 2024 our revenues were up 25% compared to a year ago, and our deliveries increased 67% helped by our production leveling initiatives. Speaking of production leveling, we expect further improvement as the year progresses, and more importantly, in 2025. These operational changes should help the company to increase efficiency, productivity, and post better financial results next year and years ahead. Our backlog reaches 21.1 billion, which is the highest level over the past seven years. In commercial aviation, American Airlines released an order in March of 90 E-175s with 43 additional purchase rights. The news demonstrated the still strong potential of this aircraft model in the U.S. market. Speaking of potential, we currently have concrete sales campaigns for more than 200 aircraft across the world, for both our E-1 and E-2 jet families, and also more concrete sales opportunities for our defense aircraft. We also kept the good momentum in executive aviation, with strong sales across all our aircraft. We recorded the highest Q-1 in terms of sales, deliveries and revenues for the division over the past 80 years. Sales and support continue to be a pillar of profitability and one of our main growth drivers. Its revenues increased 12% in Q124 compared to a year ago. The strong financial results of the company allowed us to reduce our gross debt without ease by an additional $276 million during the quarter, a total reduction of $754 million over the past year. Consequently, our gross debt to EBITDA ratio is now below five terms. It is important to mention that when we consider all the risks and opportunities for the company, we feel comfortable and reiterate our 2024 operational and financial burdens. I will now present the operational results by business units in the next few slides. In commercial aviation, the backlog rose 2.3 billion. or plus 26 percent quarter over quarter and reaches 11.1 billion with a book to view ratio above one for the whole year the american alliance order reinforced the capability of our e175 model and more importantly the partnership between both companies embraer A leading company, Azora, delivered the second E195-E2 to Royal Jordanian, the first E2 operator in the Middle East. As active aviation, the backlog registered a sequential increase of 300 million and ended Q1 with 4.6 billion, or plus 7% quarter over quarter, and a strong 2-to-1 book-to-view for the quarter. or plus 7% quarter-over-quarter, and a strong 2-to-1 up-to-bill for the quarter. We recorded our first set of firm orders from NetJets, whose deliveries will begin in 2025. In total, NetJets has purchased rights for 250 aircraft over the next 14 years. In the fashion security, we hosted the first Embraer D-Sex Day in the U.S. with the 59th Millennium and A29 Super Tucano. The event included a diverse guest list of government authorities. Military officials, prospects, and partners. In early 2024, Embraer and Mahindra signed an ABOU to jointly pursue the sale of the C-390 Milena to the Indian Air Force. The first Hungarian C-390 successfully completed its maiden flight. The aircraft continues to receive international recognition on the back of its remarkable operational performance and capabilities. We should note the division reported lower year-over-year revenues because of supply chain delays and business seasonality. In service and support, Revenue grew 12% compared to the same period last year, with solid double-digit profitability. The business reality backlog maintained the historical 3.1 billion record, reached in Q4-23, with a 10% plus EBIT margin. Another important step for our services division was the induction of the first practically GPS 1100 engine in AUGMA. our MRO in Portugal. The ramp-up should last four years, and we expect revenues to reach close to 500 million in 2028. Last but not least, EV, our EV top business, is on track to achieve important milestones in 2024. We have already selected now more than 90% of its component suppliers. And we successfully concluded a urban air traffic management trial. The company is on track to accomplish the next development steps. First prototype assembly conclusion, initial tests, and the definition of certification basis. We also began the definition of our easy-to-hold factory configuration. All in, we estimate it should have a total cash consumption between $130 and $170 million in 2024. I will now hand it over to Antonio, our CFO, to give you further details about the financial results, and then I will be back with closing remarks.

Thank you, Francisco. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone. I would like to highlight our operational performance in Q1 despite the historical seasonality. Total deliverance revenue margins were higher than the same period in 2013 and the company's cash consumption was better than a year ago. Our focus in Q1 was on business and financial efficiency. We want to lay down an important set of stones to put us in a comfortable position to achieve our three-year guidance, even with the ongoing supply chain constraints we continue to deal with. Let's now move to slide nine in the presentation. Deliveries. Executive Aviation delivered 18 jets in Q1. For an increase of 125%, versus a year ago and the highest Q1 level of the last eight years. The light jet segment was 83% higher year-over-year with 11 finals delivered, while the median jets were more than triple during the period with seven pre-sales delivered. Meanwhile, commercial aviation delivers were flat at seven aircraft into one compared to the same quarter of 2023 within four E1s and three E2s aircraft. In defense, we should note there were no C309 delivers in the first quarter of 24 and 23. We continue to work steadfastly to accomplish our production plan and reach the milestones in our defense and security programs, which includes four C390 million delivers schedule for the year. It is important to mention the company has developed and is currently implementing a production leveling plan to mitigate business seasonality. The plan should help the company to deliver less volatile financial results throughout the year in the near to medium term future. In slide 10, please. The company registered a strong total backlog of $21.1 billion at the end of Q1 for an increase of 13% quarter-over-quarter and the highest number recorded over the past seven years. Looking forward, our current backlog is accurate to our financial projections. The backlog for commercial aviation reached more than 380 aircraft in Cuba, and it is valued at $11.1 billion, or $2.3 billion higher than the last quarter. Meanwhile, executive aviation ended with a solid $4.6 billion backlog, or 7% higher quarter over quarter, helped by the inclusion of the first paper 500 firm orders from NetJets. We should note NetJet has other 246 options not included in the current backlog. The backlog for service and support is finished, stable at 3.1 billion in Q1. While for defense and security, it decreased marginally by 4% quarter over quarter to 2.4 billion. Again, we should there are 11 C3-119 aircrafts and three tender offers, one whose contracts haven't been signed yet, and those included in our backlog. Moving on to revenues, our top line reached almost 900 million Q1, or 180 million higher year-over-year for a 25% growth rate. If you look at the right charts, service and support represented around 41% revenue in Q1, followed by executive close to 27, commercial ratio from our 22, and excess at around 9%. Next slide. We generated 47 million in adjusted EBITDA in Q1, with a 5.2% Margin driven by higher aircraft delivery compared to the same period last year and better consolidated growth margin. Meanwhile, adjusted EBIT was 7 million for an adjusted EBIT margin of 0.8%. Reported EBIT for the quarter was negative 4 million for a negative 0.4% margin. Both figures were better than the first quarter, 23, supported by our volumes better mix, especially in executive and service and support. Looking at the right chart, we can see executives, aviation, and service and support generated positive evidence during the quarter, while commercial and defense presented negative results because of limited volume supply chain delays and more aircrafts in the early stage of assembly. In slide 12, please. In Q1, if we exclude ease, we had an adjusted free cash flow consumption of 346 or 53 million barrels in Q1-23, driven by customer-advanced payments. The Q1 cash consumption is basically due to the increase in inventories to support higher deliveries in the upcoming quarters. this stress should be reversed as more deliveries take place throughout the year. And we have our 220 million or higher guidance for the cash generation 2024. Moving to investment, and again, without ease, 47 million were allocated to research and development, 28 million to COPEX, and a net of 15 million to the pool program in Q1. for a $90 million total compared to $82 million a year ago. We highlight our capital allocation continues to be focused on segments with higher returns, which projects such as expansion of our production capacity in executive aviation and service and support. Our adjusted net income was negative $13 million for the quarter on a negative 1.4% adjusted margin. Historically, the first quarter of the year is the weakest because of the business seasonality. The positive report net income is driven by the mark-to-mark valuation of the even worth around 30 million. Next slide, going to our liability management plan. In first quarter 24, we reduced our gross debt without even by $276 million. only during the quarter, and by a more sizable $754 million versus a year ago, to a total of $2.6 billion. In addition, our net debt declined by $384 million year over year, to a total of $1 billion in the first quarter of 2024. However, on a sequential basis, our net debt to BTDA leverage ratio increased 0.4 times to 1.8 times, as shown in the top right corner. This variance is explained by the seasonality of the business. Our almost 2.4 billion liquidity position allowed us to cover our debt obligation beyond 2030 and leave us in a very comfortable position. With that, I conclude my presentation and hand it back to Francisco for his final remarks. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Antonio. The Q124 was another step in the right direction, supported by both external factors, like some marginal improvements in our supply chain, and internal ones, like our production leveling initiatives. Speaking of production leveling, we recently hosted a conference with our main suppliers to strengthen our partnership and operational plans for 2024 and years ahead. We remain optimistic that supply chain disruption will continue to diminish and improve our ability to deliver more aircraft in the next few years. To finish, I would like to thank you all again for your interest and confidence in our company. and a very special shout-out to our friends in Dallas. We are very grateful for their partnership and trust. We continue to focus on operational and business efficiency in 2024, having as foundation of our culture safety first and quality always. Let's now move into the Q&A session of the call.

We will now start the question and answer session. The first part of the Q&A session will be exclusively for equity research analysts and investors. The second part of the Q&A will be only for the press. We highlight again this conference call is being conducted in English with simultaneous translation to Portuguese. Please let me say a short announcement for Portuguese speakers. Essa conferência está sendo realizada originalmente em inglês. Para ouvir a tradução simultânea em português, pressione o botão Interpretação da plataforma e selecione o idioma português. We ask participants interested in asking questions to press star 9 in the phone at any time or press the Raise a Hand button on the platform. When your name is announced, press star 6 on the phone or make sure your microphone is on and start your question. We will also answer questions sent via the platform chat. If you need assistance, please use the Q&A button on the platform. To give everyone a chance to participate, we request to ask just one question per call. Please hold while we collect questions. The first question comes from Kai Von Remore with TD Cohen. Please go ahead.

Hello, Kai. Hi, good morning. So one question from our side here. You have just commented regarding the supply chain issues in the defense business, and they're expecting these issues to improve along the year. But I was just wondering whether the supply issues that impact the defense business, the specific components that impact your performance division, have some overlap with the commercial division as well. So if you could provide a little bit more detail on that, it would be great. Thank you.

Hi, Gabriel.

Francisco speaking here. Yes, I mean, as I said, we see improvements in the supply chain from, we saw from 22 to 23, 23 to 24, but it's still with challenges in the specific components that some are emitting our production in the year and also because of the delays. They are delivering the parts but not on time to help us with the production. And then we have to make adjustments in our production schedule that affects our productivity and in some cases we can risk deliveries as well. We made our plan for this year based on the plans that we discussed a lot with the suppliers. So, again, we are confident that delivery, the aircraft, we announced in the guidance in this year. For all the aircraft.

Just to complete, Gabriel, for the defense especially, there is, I would say, not an overlap in regards to the specific parts for the c390 there are different parts or in some cases suppliers and we just have i would say a concentration in q1 with uh less uh uh receiving parts for defense and also the mix of contracts will cause less revenue and impact or margins especially q1 but it is nothing that concerns us That's perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question comes from Miles Walton with Wolf. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. Francisco, could you elaborate a little bit on the sales campaigns for the 200 aircraft you mentioned, both E1s and E2s? And I guess a couple of questions, if you could give us some color on. One is the geographic dispersion of those campaigns. And the other is, in the case of the E2s, are these customers looking to fulfill capacity needs that aren't being satisfied by Boeing and Airbus? Do you see that sort of opening emerging? Or are these more expansion of customers that you would have otherwise anticipated, even if Boeing and Airbus had capacity? Thanks.

Thanks, Myles, for the questions. We had a campaign in all the regions, to be clear with you. I mean, all the regions, South America, North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. With the good opportunity, I can't disclose your details. of ongoing campaigns, but as I said, it's more than 200 potential sales. And, yeah, this is a combination of different factors. As we have said, it's a perfect solution to complement the operations of bigger . So we see now today the first flight of our company . in Singapore, that they are going to use the E-Tools to open new routes and to increase the frequency of flights. And we see that in different regions as well. So again, we are very, it's not easy, but we are very optimistic with the potential sales of E-Tools in 2024. What else, I mean, Myles, you asked it, please. Could you repeat?

Francisco, just more are you seeing these campaigns build demand because of the lack of supply offered by Boeing and Airbus, or is that not a major factor in how these campaigns are playing out?

Okay. Again, as I said, it's a combination of factors. And for sure, I mean, the fact that we have, I mean, it's a lot productive but available right from 2026 onwards this is uh can help the airlines to add the capacity sooner to their place yeah that's that's where i was going it's surprising you still have that availability given the absence of supply for rails just one quick follow-up if i could the arbitration timing with boeing is that still on track for this quarter thanks so much Oh, thank you, Miles. Yes, we expect this to end, you know, in the first half of this year. So we should be too, but it's not in our hands. It's a decision of the tribunal in New York, but we expect this to end, you know, no later than the middle of this year.

Perfect.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you. The next question comes from Kai Von Brumore with T.D. Cohen. Please go ahead. Kai, your microphone seems to be on mute. If you could please unmute on your end. The next question comes from Ron Epstein with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Good evening, Ron. A couple quick questions. Can you talk a little bit more just about supply chain in general and where you are seeing constraints still, both on commercial and in defense?

So, as we said before, we see improvements in average in our supply chain. But we still with some challenges in the with the specific products in terms of volume and also Now, the on-time delivery. We have a lot of suppliers improving, but few suppliers with difficulty to deliver the parts we need on time. And this again, this bring it to us more difficult in our production. As you know, we are working this production leveling initiative that we want to better distribute the production and delivery throughout the year. So we will still have difficulties in 2024, and we expect, but again, in line with our plan to deliver the guidance, and we expect even more improvements in 2025, in years ahead, from our supply chain, from both sides, commercial and defense.

Got it, got it. And then maybe one more follow-on, if I can. Can you guys speak broadly to how you're thinking about product development and new products?

Sure. Well, I mean, we fully understand all the excitement caused by recent media speculation. I mean, it highlights, you know, the the level, the high level of market confidence in our company, right? Because of the achievements driven by engineering excellence, you know, our enterprise efficience and our customer-centric philosophy. And we are, of course, we are always looking at future options. you know, our business. But however, as I said before, we have, we are now in our harvest season. So we are focusing on selling and on delivering the current, the existing portfolio products that is very modern and competitive. So we don't have a full expense to develop or launch a narrow body or other aircraft in the next few years.

Great. Perfect. Thank you so much.

You are very welcome, Ron.

Thank you. The next question comes from Victor Mizuzaki with Bradesco BBI. Please go ahead.

Hi. I have two questions here. The first one, apparently, some guys from Mahindra were visiting in Brazil. So, I don't know if you can give us some updates on the negotiations. When we take a look on the press release, there's a comment about provisions for bad acting service and support. So maybe you can comment a little bit if it's a kind of a specific situation, or there's something more to come that's important. Thank you.

All right, Victor, I'll stop you to the question one, and then Antonio will help us with the question two. Yes, we really have a... a very exciting visit last week to our facilities in Brazil of the Mahindra CEO and three other members of his team, where we had the opportunity to better know each other and talk about the next steps on this thank you process in India. to sell, you know, from 40 to up to 80 CP9s to the Indian Air Force. So, we believe we have a good partnership with them, and we were best to convince the customers that our products is the best one for the Indian Air Force. Antonio, you can help us with the second.

Yeah, good morning, Vitor. So, very simple here. We just built up $3 million. which were for the back desk provisions, just Q1 was a little, a bit higher concentration over due payments, and if not one specific customer, it's a bunch of customers who just applied the accounting methodology. I do not see it being a trend for the future, but probably half of it is going to be revert next quarter already because what concerns right now.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question comes from Marcelo Mota with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. Thanks for getting the question. It's regarding the defense. I mean, do you guys have any updates regarding, you know, the conversion of the orders from Netherlands, Austria, Czech Republic. I mean, you guys also mentioned on the deliveries and backlog report from the first quarter, you know, that there are ongoing orders from EMEA, Asia Pacific that are not incorporated to backlog yet. Could you please give us more color on, you know, maybe the size, potential size of these orders and, you know, or maybe expectations for defense backlog, you know, you know, for the coming quarters or year-end. Thank you very much.

Oh, hi, Marcelo. Thanks for the question. Yes, we will have high expectations to sign important contracts in defense during this year. You know already that we have been selected. in the past two years we expect to sign during this year and in parallel we are working in the in order new campaigns so either for the 829 the super to comes in the 69th we also expect 2024 to be a good year in terms of sales, not only in commercial, but in defense as well. And, I know, taking the opportunity and as Active Aviation, we keep a very good momentum in sales as well. So, again, this year, we are very optimistic in terms of sales in all of our business.

Perfect. Thank you very much.

The next question comes from Steven Trent. Please go ahead. Mr. Trent, your microphone seems to be muted.

Hello. I'm sorry. Can you hear me?

Yes, yes, we can, Steve.

Hi. Good morning, everybody. I'm sorry about that. Thank you for taking my question. I also had a sort of a follow-up on the defense side. I know that, excuse me, Brazil's Air Force and Sweden have a solid relationship with the Griffin fighter and other cooperation. And I was wondering if you might just give us some high-level color about – You know, how Embraer might be working with Griffin and what opportunities you could see from the new technology. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Stephen, for the question. Well, we do have a partnership with Saab. you know, to help them to sell gripping, not only in Brazil, but outside Brazil, and they too help us to sell the C39. So, we have been working together, and Sweden is one of our potential markets that we have been working on, so, but we don't have any other information than that. And regarding sales of gripping, this is better you ask Saab directly.

Great. Appreciate that. And just a quick follow-up, you know, any high level of color, how you guys are feeling about your supply of engineers in terms of hiring and retaining those people. Thank you.

Thank you again, Steve. Again, we have been working very hard on those topics that is, you know, the talent retention is one of the main focus of Embraer, not only engineering, but the entire company. And again, we have a lot of new programs for engineers working on in the future. improving our communication process. We have a lot of things, you know, to help us to retain our talents within the company. I don't know, Andresa, our VPHR would like to add some more information on that because you have to be personally involved in this topic.

Hello, everybody. Good morning. Thanks, Francisco. So, as I said, we're working very hard on that. We have a lot of initiatives, especially internally, by means of culture, the future of work, things that make our engineers, and not only engineers, all our employees, considered to keep Embraer. And we also have been granted as a great place to work, and this also helps to retain our employees.

Thanks for the question, Steve. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from Lucas Barbosa with Santander. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Francisco, Antonio, Gui. Thanks for taking my questions and congratulations to the results. So my question is looking a little bit longer term at the commercial aviation division. Embraer has deliveries to be done with better pricing conditions in the future, a higher mix of E1s given the AA or American Airlines order, and a cost structure that is leaner than in the several past years. So my question is, with all of those positive drivers, where can commercial aviation margins stabilize at in the future? Thank you very much.

Good morning, and thanks for the question. This is . So, look, the points you mentioned are all correct. We don't provide official guidance for individual divisions of the company, but if you look in the past, commercial aviation was able to sustain margins in the double-digit territory in the mid-teens. Obviously, that is far away from where we are now, but if we're confident that in the next few years, we should see margins continue to improve towards that direction.

Super clear. Thank you very much and have a great day.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Christine with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Ms. , your microphone seems to be on mute. Hello, can you hear me?

Yes. Hey, good morning, Francesco, Antonio, and Guy. Sorry about that. Maybe, Francesco, in competitive dynamics, Airbus continues to lose money on the A220, and, you know, they are aspirationally breakeven at 160 per year, but they're continuing to see pressure from labor costs in Canada and as well as their supply chain. Can you talk about what this means for the pricing environment for the E2, and how has the pricing environment for the E2 changed over the past few years since COVID? Are you seeing any improvements?

Well, Christine, thanks for the question. Good question, by the way. Well, when we have a free competition in the market, the result is pressure on the price, which benefits the curtains, right? In case of Embraer, I mean, even with the tough competition, we have been profitable in our commercial aviation. In the past year, in the past year, the past two years, we have been profitable, the commercialization without services. And we don't sell our aircraft below cost. So what we have done, we have tried to offer competitive prices to our customers to show the value of our products. Our product, we believe that we do have the most efficient aircraft in that category, and we continue to work on reducing our internal cost. with Kaizen programs, with cost reduction initiatives involving many engineers in the organization. So, again, we have prepared ourselves for this competition, but without selling products below our costs. So, again, we expect, again this year, to be profitable in commercial aviation without service. If we add service, we even improve the profit to our commercial business.

Thanks, Francisco. And if I could attack another one, I mean, following up on Miles' question, there is a shortage of aircraft globally, and Boeing continues to struggle with production, and Airbus can't meet all the demand out there either. Now, the E-2 is a very attractive aircraft. I actually flew it recently from Paris to Zurich. I mean, what prevents customers from committing to more firm orders? I mean, that said, right, you are sold out through the end of 2026. But, you know, what's preventing them from committing for the slots in 2027 and beyond?

Another good question. I think, you know, there was a wave of customers buying bigger aircrafts. But now, I mean, I think we see more and more opportunities for this, we call, small narrowbody. I mean, our V2 can fly up to six hours, you know, and it's very efficient, very quiet, and it's perfect. for if the airline wants to offer a higher frequency of flights to the passengers, also to explore routes, I mean, until the demand is big enough. to fuel a big narrow-bite, I think they too is a perfect solution. And we see more and more customer now. I mean, we see the interest growing more and more in that segment of small narrow-bite that will for sure benefit our intus.

Great. Thank you for the color.

Thanks, Christine.

Thank you very much. The next question comes from Noah Popanek with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Morning, Noah.

Good morning. What unit growth are you planning for based on demand backlog, how full the skyline is in the medium term in commercial?

Could you please repeat the question? I have difficulties to understand here.

Yeah, can you hear me okay? Yeah.

Yeah, I'm wondering from the starting point of 2024, you know, given you have to, you know, set the system, the production system in motion pretty far in advance, You know, and delivery, production deliveries are still pretty far below pre-pandemic in commercial. I'm wondering how you're, you know, triangulating all of the inputs you have to decide where you should take production over the next two or three years in commercial.

Okay. Now I've got your question. Thank you. Well, this year we are planning in commercial aviation deliveries between 72 and 80 aircrafts. And we, as I said before, we are working in a lot of sales campaigns for the future. Next year, we expect to grow the production of commercial jets. We should be, you know, very close, back to the three digits production, I mean, in the commercial jets. And we expect to keep that level of production with small growth in the years ahead. So, again, we believe that, you know, next year, the 25th, 26th, we'll be back to the production levels, pre-pandemic levels, which will bring our commercial aviation to an even better profitability performance. So, again, we are very optimistic with the production growth in the leaders of commercial aviation as well.

Okay, great. Appreciate that detail. And then at executive, the deliveries are up a lot year over year in the quarter. Obviously, it's off a low base. But have you had resolution of supply chain issues in executive such that the year can be more level loaded as you go through the year? Or is there an implication that there's upsides of the full year range?

No, you know, we had some difficulties last year. I mean, external with suppliers, but internal as well, because we were ramping up a lot the production. But no, since then, we have approved a lot of investments in our plants to increase the production capacity, either in Brazil and in the U.S., So, with that, we expect, you know, we are planning a growth this year and an even more important growth in 2025 and years ahead because of this, I mean, investments. We are implementing this year to help us to increase production from 2025 onwards in executive jets.

Okay, great. All right. Thanks very much. You're welcome.

Thank you all very much. This concludes the question and answer session for equity research analysts and investors. Now, we will start the Q&A section dedicated to the price. First, we will answer questions in English, and then we will answer questions in Portuguese. We will also answer questions sent via the platform chat. please let me say a short announcement for Portuguese speakers. Esta conferência está sendo realizada originalmente em inglês. Para ouvir a tradução simultânea em português, pressione o botão Interpretação da plataforma e selecione o idioma português. We ask participants interested in asking questions to press the Raise a Hand button on the platform when your name is announced Please make sure your microphone is on and start your question. If you need assistance, please use the Q&A button on the platform. To give everyone a chance to participate, we request to ask just one question. Please hold while we collect questions. Our first question. It's from the chat. It's from Richard Truman, a freelance aviation reporter. Hello, Francisco. Obviously, you were very happy with the large order from American for 1990 E-175s, but how do you rate the chances of Embraer to win E-2 orders from U.S. customers. They seem to favor larger aircraft.

Oh, thanks. Thanks for the questions. Yes, we are extremely happy with the order of American Airlines last March. It was a very important order for us that shows that our E-175 still has many opportunities. you know, especially in the US market. The E-Tools, you know, more recently, we have seen the E-Tools flying over US with the Porter Airlines. Porter is flying, you know, to New York, to Florida, to California with the E-Tools. And we, yes, we are in conversation with potential customers in the US and showing how good the effort is and how the aircraft can help them to fill the gap between the regional jets and the big narrowbodies. So again, we see opportunities, not only in the US, but in many other regions in the world for the E-tools.

Thank you. The next question comes from the chat from Richard Sherman, the same questioner. Do you have updates on the initial agreement with Richard Sherman-Lanzu for the conversion of E1 jets in China as announced at the Paris airshow?

No, we don't have any to share with you about that program at this point of time.

Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please. click on the Raise a Hand button on the platform. The next question comes from Gabriel Araujo. Please go ahead.

Hey, Francesca. Good morning. I was wondering if you could update us on the campaigns in Asia. We know India has a big market, China as well. Ibra has been trying to tap into the Chinese market for commercial airplanes, how the campaigns in Asia are developing, especially now that you are flying the V2 in Singapore now.

Oh, Gabriel, thanks for the question. Yeah, Asia is... In the region, we see a big potential for E-Tools. You know, last February, we inaugurated a full-flight simulator of E-Tools in the region, in Singapore. And this will help us, you know, to pursue more opportunity, sale opportunities in the region. And we are working in sales campaigns in many different countries. Now, we have already more than 300 aircraft flying over the region. I mean, in China, in Japan, in Australia, and we are working all those countries, you know, to introduce the E-2s as well. So, good opportunities for us in Asia Pacific, indeed, for E-2s.

Thank you. The next question comes from Juliana Rocha, a reporter from Red, and it comes also from the platform chat. Can you give details on the arbitration proceeding with Boeing? When do you expect it to be over?

Well, I mean, this process is not under our control. But it is the process in the final phase and we expect, you know, a decision still within this first half of 2024.

Thank you very much. This concludes the question and answer session in English for the press. This Q&A section is now being conducted in Portuguese. To switch to English, please press the Interpretation button on the platform and then select English. Agora, nós vamos iniciar a sessão de perguntas e respostas em português. Nós pedimos aos jornalistas interessados em fazer perguntas que pressionem a qualquer momento o botão Levantar a Mão e quando tiverem o seu nome anunciado, que ativem seu microfone e façam sua pergunta. Responderemos também perguntas escritas enviadas através do chat da plataforma. Se houver necessidade de assistência, por favor, solicite via botão Q&A na plataforma. Por favor, aguarde enquanto coletamos as perguntas. A primeira pergunta vem do chat de Paulo Renato, do jornal O Globo. O diretor disse que não possui pretensão de lançar modelos narrowbody, estando focados em entregar a carteira de modelos atuais.

É isso? É isso. No momento, nós estamos focados em... to sell and deliver the products that we have today, which are modern and very competitive. We continue to do studies on alternatives and new products for the future, but we do not have a concrete plan to develop or launch other large-scale aircraft at this moment.

Muito obrigada. A próxima pergunta é de Juliana Rocha. Ela é repórter do Red, reporter from Red. Vocês pretendem continuar com os exercícios de liability management nos próximos trimestres? Existe um target para alavancagem?

Obrigado pela pergunta. Target para alavancagem, a gente já está dentro do que a gente imaginava. which means gross debt by EBITDA below 5 and liquid debt by EBITDA below 2. So, that was our aspiration. And at the moment, we still don't have plans to go to the market in the next few weeks. The company's situation is relatively stable for that. And we still think that the interest rate is high. So, it's not the time to do any exercise in the market. Mas sempre olhando oportunidades de curto prazo. Obrigado pela pergunta.

Muito obrigada. Nós concluímos as sessões de perguntas e respostas e a conferência de resultados da Embraer. Muito obrigada pela sua participação. Tenham todos um bom dia.