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Good morning, everyone, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the earnings call for our third quarter in 23 at Açaí Atacajista. I want to highlight that if you do need translation, we have this tool available on our platform. In order to do so, please select the interpretation button through the globe icon at the bottom part of your screen and choose your language of preference, Portuguese or English. We'd like to let you know that this earnings call is being recorded and will be available on the IR website at the company, at ir.asai.com.br, where you can already find the earnings release. So during the presentation, all participations will have their mics off. Soon after, we'll begin our Q&A session. So, to submit questions, please select the Q&A icon at the bottom part of your screen, write your name, company and language to enter the queue. As you are announced, a request to activate your mic will appear on your screen. and then you should activate your mic to submit your questions. We'd ask you to send all of your questions at once. We also want to highlight that the information in this presentation and possible statements that could be made during the earnings call related to business perspectives, forecasts, and operational targets and financial targets at SAE represent beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as information that's currently available. Future statements are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, as they refer to future events and thus may depend on circumstances that could or not occur. Investors must comprehend that general economic conditions, market conditions, and other operational factors may affect the future performance at SAE and lead to results that differ materially from those listed in such future statements. Now we'll pass the floor on to Gabriele Lou, our Investor Relations Director at SAIT. Hello everyone, good morning. Thank you for participating in our earnings call for the third quarter of 23. Today we have Belmiro Gomes, our CEO, Daniela Sabag, our CFO, Flamir dos Anjos, our commercial VP, and Anderson Castillo, our operations VP. As normal, normally we'll submit the floor to Belmiro for his initial remarks. Thank you, Gabi. Good morning, everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you all for your participation during our earnings call for the third quarter. The third quarter of 23 had this big highlight, which has been on the news and media, which is the fact that Açaí is the company in the food sector that has the greatest presence in Brazilian households. We reach 25% of all Brazilian households. So one in every four households visits an Açaí store. This is a result of our value proposition and our expansion plan with a bigger amount of stores, but especially the business model that within our different projects that we're going to discuss up ahead in the conversions, this allowed us to reach this important milestone. Since above all, the company that's in this major expansion project and will attract new customers, providing guarantee that this was determined in our project and it can be Besides this, we also have the acknowledgement and recognition of a cash and carry brand that's most admired in Brazil with an award that was granted by Estadão. So before we begin the presentation, I want to thank all of our customers for this acknowledgement and recognition. We can move on to the first page. Then the third quarter is still in a market scenario that we all know is very challenging with numbers that are very positive from the perspective of sales evolutions. And we reached a gross sales level of 18.5 billion reais. we were able to reach in the last 12 months a total level of over $70 billion in revenue. And as a consequence of strong expansion, 52 stores in the last 12 months, we had over 100 stores that were opened in the last 36 months. Part of these store openings come from the conversion project with the hypermarkets, which was necessary and required many different adjustments in our business model and even in our value proposition, adding on services, changing the assortment and the mix. So that this proposal, which is something we had already been developing through previous conversions, organic stores deployed in downtown areas are really what we had already been developing. So I want to thank our team from different areas, almost 80,000 people. I want to thank them all for the results and numbers achieved in the third quarter. And in the third quarter, we also finished, as we all know, as I went through some shareholding structure changes, With Casino's exit and in the third quarter, we had the last change in our board with the exit of the last member that represented Casino, Mr. Felipe Alarco and Enes Pestana coming in. I want to thank our board as well for the support in all of the work that has been performed within this new phase of the company as a non-controlling shareholder company with a true corporation profile. So our performance is very strong. We've been advancing in our expansion plan. We entered the third quarter with another state in Brazil, which is the state of Espírito Santo, with the store you can see on the screen. This is a store that was built and complete in Espírito Santo, continuing our expansion plan. Moving on to sales, besides the $70 billion, the $18.5 billion... In revenue in this third quarter, this represents an evolution when it comes to the second quarter of over 1 billion reais. So we have a very strong base that is a bit complicated compared to last year because we started opening this extra stores at around August last year. So you have growth rates that are going to be adjusted over time. But we kind of call your attention to look at the total growth rates overall. and also look at the growth rates in the sequential evolution throughout the quarters in 2023. Within the third quarter, I think even with the amount of stores, as we had mentioned, an important achievement is that the company reached the highest level of EBITDA margins in the year. And we're bringing in this EBITDA margin in both views, although the IFRS standards mentioned that we should highlight this. We also believe that the pre-IFRS vision reflect the company's numbers better and the analysis of the analysts. And so we're also delivering an EBITDA margin of 5.4 in the pre-IFRS vision, which is the same margin that we considered in the previous year before the beginning of this process. when we consider the amount of stores open in the period, the pre-operation costs and a lot of the stores that are still ramping up and other costs we have initially until the store is more productive in our view with positive numbers. So the same stores in the quarter have a series of different effects. The main point is that we're experiencing a moment of deflation in food prices some categories that are very important in the food market. And some of them have a price progression as well. And so, subproducts of milk, as well as other commodities, as beans and other categories. And so these are more connected to agricultural factors and external factors as well. But at the moment when you have deflation that's concentrated into different categories, then normally these movements consider one or two categories. But then at this moment, we have... at least five categories that are really important with deflation. And this kind of changes the dynamic of the business, especially in the individual legal entity public because when there's a drop in prices, they're a little more careful in their volumes and the amount of stock. And this, of course, impacts our same stores. which is negative by 0.9. There's also an impact besides the deflation, which is the group of stores that considers a bit of the cannibalization in this project with the amount of almost 100 stores and also the conversions that extra. At a moment where we closed Extra, we had some benefits in the amount of stores in last year. And so there was already a forecast within the beginning of the project that we would have some cannibalization compared to the base in 2021 and also throughout 22 at the period where Extra was closed down. And now these stores naturally, as we open these stores at Extra, we also have an impact in same stores, which also leads to an impact... When we consider the numbers... in 2023 and 2022. So a big highlight is expansion, which allowed the company, even with deflation and negative price points, could advance in the 3 billion revenue, leading to a growth of 22%. So this growth comes supported by an increase in the amount of tickets and customers. We have 15 million tickets additionally in this third quarter compared to last year. When we consider the regularity of the purchases that customers perform at Cash & Carry, this shows the size of the dimension of the new customers that we've been able to attract into these new stores. And so, is what's going to make us the company that's most present in Brazilian households. And so even with this big amount of stores, this project is still underway, and we were able to keep a gross margin that's very stable compared to last year, demonstrating that our business model, whether the food sector and also the value proposition, is extremely resilient and resistant to all of this. And considering the very strong level of stability, even with all of the changes and challenging economic scenario, and even going through a very intense cycle of store openings, we were able to reach the highest level of EBITDA margin of 7.1. And as I mentioned, stability of 5.4 in the pre-IFRS vision compared to the period before the beginning of the IFRS. The net income is something that Danny will highlight up ahead. But of course, there's an impact in the investment levels that the company performed and the cost of the carryover in this debt. And so we're going to end with $185 million in the quarter. An important highlight in our vision is that cash generation. Historically, SIE has grown generating its own cash. And we're going to talk about this up ahead as well, about our cash generation that reaches $4.9 billion in the last 12 months. Most of the biggest investments we've performed in growth are and expansion, you can advance now, is really supported by the strong cash generation, which is a traditional factor for us. When we look at this today, and Danny will give you the overview on the debt in the company, when we look at even our current debt level, most of them Most of it comes from the split process with GPA. And what we want to highlight here is that the company is probably performing one of the biggest projects in the food sector, which is the acquisition of the commercial spots at Extra. And so when you add all of this to our organic expansion, this is part of our growth and our expansion that the company has been mentioning in the market. And so when we look at this overall period, we're bringing in a vision from the end of 2020 until the end of the third quarter. The end of 2020, we had a company with revenue of 39 billion riyals and 184 stores under operation. And so at the end of September 23, we have a company, and we still consider this is not stabilized because all of the benefits with the store openings and other conversions and also maturity ramp, And so the company was capable of going from 39 to 70 billion, which is an add of 31 billion reais in revenue. And just this additional revenue would already be the third player in the Brazilian food sector. So, in order to do this, we had to perform investments, plus cash generation is really our important lever. We generate 9.4 billion riyals in this period, and this supported our investments in short conversions, organic expansion from 6.8, part of the payments of the acquisition of the commercial spots as well. Our capex also for maintenance is relatively stable, so about $800 million that was invested in this period. It's not only the maintenance of the stores, but also some other areas and expansion. And so the company distributed $400 million in dividends in this period. But we had a cost of debt, which is above what we mentioned, especially when we had the acquisition project for the hypermarkets. There was another expectation about Selic. But even so, with these $3.3 billion, we were able to have this variation in the cash flow of $4.6, highlighting the $9.4. And this was important to support all of the investments the company performed during this period. So within these processes and the expansion that had been done, SAE was a company that had 14 stores only when GPA purchased this in 2028 or 2010, and the company has been generating cash and growing, but there was also a need to perform a movement that would be stronger. With the acquisition of the hypermarkets, you can advance to the next slide, and this movement is not only related to taking on the same model to a new region, but it's also related to modifying the cash and carry model, which is the channel with the biggest penetration in Brazilian households. Cash and carry today is a sector that really has the biggest volume of sales. And within the sector, we have the objective of always standing out and differentiating our operations, innovating. So the conversion project with the hypermarkets is not only about taking more of the same. We had already developed some important new projects and new stores and organic stores with a model that could allow us to enter the downtown areas in the cities and also work with a different target audience, a different income level and make B2B customers that are especially in the food service sector could have a quicker option for supplying their operations. Everyone knows about the difficulties and logistic challenges in big metropolitan centers in Brazil. And the cost of logistics in Brazil is so high that makes it difficult for the industry to perform door-to-door deliveries. And so to be able to enter these new opportunities, we bought these spots that increased the level of leverage in the company. But when it comes to execution, it's probably one of the most challenging projects. And we were converting the hypermarkets for the cash and carry operations. But I also believe that at this moment, as we perform this project, with all of the different entities participating, we can really see a change and a shift in behavior in how the Brazilian families supply their homes and businesses as well. So we know about the importance of this project, and this project has been on a growing maturity curve. We highlighted this in our shareholding base with potential investors, analysts, about the company's expectations to triple the amount of sales. This multiple in sales reached, in the third quarter, 2.7 times even with the stores still on average uh 10 months of operation only and so we still have a ramp up and maturity that needs to be captured uh adjusted according to each market and each store reality these stores already deliver a gross revenue of 13 above average in the history of the company. And when we look at the 47 stores that were opened in 22, the EBITDA margin in our pre-FRS vision already delivers a historical level in the company of 5.4, which is still strong with this ramp up to capture. So why is this vision of the pre-FRS vision? Well, because there's a dynamic of the behavior in the lease, which is different than what we had where most of this was prospecting the spots, detecting and building the new locations. And so with this margin, we already go over 7%. This demonstrates that we're on the right path and that the customers came in, gave back, and before the return on capital we have to deliver the project, we have to guarantee that the customers like the value proposition and also come back and give back to one of the acai stores, right? So that's the return on invested capital as well. And so here we have both views on the pre and post IFRS, because you have this dynamic with different aspects. But in our vision, both EBITDA margins, even in this phase, and the adjusted EBITDA, It's still not what we would imagine in a mature store network because there's many stores that are still in this maintenance phase. And I also want to highlight the discipline with our expense control because at the end of the day, we have... deflation and the top line for the same volumes as negative pricing and a lot of the expense lines still follow an inflation level with the payroll and a series of other expenses. There's a lot of discipline among the team to keep these levels of EBITDA and really thank everyone for the efforts in the operational areas that have been very careful with this, keeping the operational costs so that we could deliver the EBITDA level that we had seen in the third quarter. In the pre and post vision. So this is a bit lower than what we expected, but considering the amount of stores, we consider this to be very positive as an evolution. We can move on. And here I want to move on to Danny. We also mentioned the aspects on the company's obligations, adjustments in the debt, considering this transition as well, where the company stops being just a subsidiary of the controller, but also a true corporation. And so, Danny, the floor is yours. Thank you, Belmedo. Thank you, everyone. Good morning. And now we're going to talk about the financial results in the quarter. And this is a result that added up to about 737 million. It's an increase. It's very significant. 77% impacting the company's results and an increment of almost 300 million. So when we talk about this blue part here in this bar and We mentioned the financial expenses coming from the cost of the net debt. We have a level of $506 million, an increase of 61% compared to the previous year, and it represents 3% of our net debt. So, it's a super important level, and these results in the period were, of course, impacted by the high level of interest, but also considering the higher level of debt, because we have almost $2 billion additional in the debt. And so this will also mention the, we even talked about this in the second quarter where we had an issuance of a CRI and we had already announced this in the third quarter. And we completed this fundraising initiative of 1.1 billion with a CDI plus 26 at a cost of the debt, which is actually lower than the cost in the company. And so in this quarter, we also have an accounting effect that's important to mention. that we should mention the reduction of the capitalized interest. So at this quarter, the effect is only 53 million. And this is because last year, this impact was 247 million. And so this is, of course, interconnected to the advances in the expansion project. So now we're already at the final phase and we have these values dropping more and more. Now, moving on to the second part of our slide, as we talk about cash generation, Bill Mididu has already mentioned a highlight here, but in the last 12 months, the cash generation in the company has reached almost $5 billion, so very relevant growth of $1.7 billion year over year. And this comes from greater EBITDA in the company from the pre IFRS vision and also has been growing over 373 million. And of course, due to better cash working capital management. So this strong cash generation, when you look at this, well, it was essential. for this important level of investments. we have a total of 4.7 billion. So this is basically paying off the level of investments. And on the other hand, we have the negative effect considering the level of the interest that increased the cost of the net debt. So the variation we see here in this net debt going from 7.3 billion to 8.6 billion is basically due to the effect of the interest rate that negatively affected our debt. And so, this is why when we consider this concept, we reach 2.7 times the EBITDA. And in this quarter, we bring in this new concept where we add up all of the receivables and the balance payable from this acquisition. And in this concept, we can reach 4.4 times EBITDA. So that's where we see this reduction. Before we move on to the next slide, where we're going to be discussing this concept and an important highlight with the reduction of these 4.4 times EBITDA. EBITDA, which in the previous year was 0.2 times net debt to EBITDA. So we can move on to the next slide. And here, We can see this vision of the leverage, as you can all see, and you're used to seeing us present these 8.6 billion. We also go back to the non-discounted receivables, and we can also add up the total receivables and the total balance, and this concept, as I mentioned previously, reached 4.4 times the EBITDA, and this reduction is already considering the previous year of 0.2. We can bring the view and the history of this leverage. And so we can also bring these elements. We can also mention the seasonality of the fourth quarter in 22. And we see this level that is very similar ever since the second quarter of 22. So the fourth quarter, of course, has the seasonality. And the other quarters as well seem to be very similar. And then in the fourth quarter, sorry, in the third quarter of 2023, these 4.4 are very comparable to the 467 in the third quarter of 2022. So I think here it's worth mentioning that we are mentioning the closing of the conversion project and Here we see a growing cash generation, which we've highlighted a lot. So the cash generation grew about 54%, 1.7 billion. And this is really what's going to add speed to the deleveraging of the company at an even greater speed than this drop of 0.2 that we noticed here in the last 12 months. So, of course, along with this, we have a lower cost of debt coming from the interest and all of this leads to greater deleveraging, which we will, of course, notice in the next quarters. So, I think these are the main highlights on this slide. And now we'll pass the floor back to Belmedu for his comments on profit and, of course, the final slides. Right, Belmedu? Yeah, thanks for that. Well, the net income, of course, is... is impacted by the carryover cost of the debt. But in our vision, the project was very significant and a determining factor, although there are some impacts now. At this moment, we are building this company when it comes to the value proposition and customers. And it's a company that's growing very strongly. So in the quarter, one of the biggest impacts is not in the sales or performance, but in This still, of course, reflects higher level of debt among consumers and interest rates that are higher than what we expected, of course, in the beginning of the project. But it also demonstrates that the resilience of our business model, even with all of these factors, even with high interest, even deflation, and even with the environment for purchases still being a little cautious on behalf of the consumers, the company continues to deliver positive results. And in this third quarter, we have an impact of renegotiation that we had to perform with the controller's exit. We had two topics that are very relevant, and these are the only two topics that were pending. We have no other aspects related to Casanova, but with Casanova stopping to be the shareholder of the company, we had to redo the contracts for a batch of stores since they had a clause that considered the contracts would be canceled if the controller left, and there was still an impact marginally in the third quarter with the waivers achieved with the financial institutions that also considered changes in the contracts if the controllers left. So as we notice, considering that the conversion project is a project that has a beginning, middle and end. So this project is now reaching its final phase and we still have two payments that are very relevant, one now in the fourth quarter and another one to be made in the first quarter of 24 in regards to the commercial spots. from extra stores, but we still have a big amount of stores to open. We have opened another conversion in Rio, which in October, we also opened up a store in Paz do Iguaçu, an organic store, and another one in São Luís do Maranhão, as well as another store in Fortaleza and Ceará. And now we're finishing a total of 19 stores open this year. And we still have a challenge in the fourth quarter. We have some expenses even from an administrative front, that also reflect a bit of the preparation for the opening of another 11 or 12 units we should be opening in the fourth quarter so that we can complete that conversion project for the hypermarket. And from then on, the company will, of course, have cash generation from the current store network, the growing amount of new units, and along with the expectations for interest rates should definitely lead to a readjustment in the levels of investments, which will help us deleverage and reach the levels of net income that the company had before. Now, when it comes from an operational aspect, that's pretty much it. And I want to move on to the next slide where we have some important ESG advances. Acai is a big reference for investors and an important benchmark. If you can talk to our IR team and our sustainability department, you'll see how much we've advanced in this. And now in the third quarter, the company is the only company in food retail that's within Acai. the B3 indicator called the EG virus with over 25% of women in leadership positions and 43% of leadership positions occupied by black people. So this is a constant initiative and it's an ongoing effort when it comes to inclusion, but the company is very proud of promoting within our social responsibility pillar these different aspects, and not only considering our employees, but also considering the fact that we're a company with the biggest presence in Brazilian households, with diversity in our stores, with employees and customers, which really helps us achieve this social responsibility. So we have different highlights in ESG, but we also have two important achievements in the Acai Institute, where we launched a call for response through our institute and through our Mais Escola card, which is a project we started in Santarém, in the Amazon region. Now in the third quarter, that will benefit over 2,000 families within the Amazon region and in other areas as well, with So with major poverty, with financial resources as well that can be used for food, for buying food. So we have important advances also with waste, achieving the gold seal and certification in the Brazilian program and also a reduction of scope one and two emissions there. And of course, if you're interested in getting to know more about ESG with greater details, look at our sustainability report and see how many different initiatives the company has been implementing in this role of social responsibility. I would like to end before I move on and pass the floor to Gabby so that we can discuss some Q&A as well. Thank you. Okay, now we can move on to Q&A as we follow on with a queue of questions. Now we'll begin our Q&A session, guys. I want to thank you all, and if you do have a question, please select the Q&A icon at the bottom part of your screen, write your name, company, and language so you can enter the queue. As your name is announced, a request to open up your mic will appear on your screen. Then you should activate your mic and submit your question. We'd ask you to please submit all of your questions at once when you present them. As we begin, our first question comes from Dani Eiger, our sell-side analyst at XP. Dani will open up your mic so that you may proceed. Please. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I have two questions, actually. The first one is more of a perspective mixing the short and midterm, which is I would like you guys to give us a little color on how the dynamic with the evolution of same store indicators and volumes have behaved in October. And we would mention this would mention an inflection on the consumer perspective when it comes to deflation that has been pressuring results over time and also when it comes to the renegotiation of leases and how we can think about the impact in the profitability of the company as a whole because there's only 28 stores and by what I understand we have 10 to 20 beeps on pressure and so We just want to know if you would imagine a more relevant impact on the company as a whole. And then the second point is, as you mentioned, the issue with the deleveraging and this expectation to accelerate this after the first quarter. You also talked about the readjustments in the level of investments. And I think it's interesting if you could also mention some discussions on this point and what this would be like. when it comes to the adjustments in the store formats. And you even talked about the stores that are under construction that are expected for 2024. But I wanted to understand what would be this readjustment and possible levers as well that you're looking at. If you consider the scenario with the drop in interest rates, it's a little more gradual and that we could imagine, of course, depending on other dynamics in the macro scenario. I think these are the main points. Thank you, Danny. As we move on to this a bit, I think September was a very positive month. We started off with a 49-year campaign, and this was very strong adherence. And so what we've seen so far is the same levels in regards to the third quarter. So we notice that there's not a big change in the dynamic when it comes to the perspective of stability and pricing. But you have the same concern with and consumers also keep their standards of consumption. So what we've seen so far is very similar to what we've seen in the third quarter. Of course, there is an expectation when you are a little more positive consumption. When you consider the impacts of the pandemic, that would affect some of the purchases as well. There is a bit of an expectation for December, but we want to be a little more cautious and conservative. So what we've seen is that consumers are keeping up their levels of purchases. B2B customers are also very careful and cautious because they're also pressured when it comes to working capital. So you see pretty much a similar dynamic. as a third quarter. But the lease with Peninsula Fund was an impact that in this group of 28 stores, when we look at, of course, these stores, they're very relevant stores. But when you look at the total base in the company, it's a very marginal impact. There is an impact, but this 0.10 or 0.20 is maybe going to go to 0.2 or something like that. So it's not that relevant when you look at the overall numbers in the company and when you look at the future. Now, when it comes to investments, there is a drop, which is already going to be natural. We're closing and ending the major project with the conversion of the hypermarkets, which allows us to get back to the organic projects. And some stores for 2024 are already being constructed now. And so throughout the fourth quarter, we should balance this out to understand exactly what the level of investments for 2024 will be. But there's a big focus in the company to deleverage so we can reduce our debt if interest rates continue to be kept high. But even though interest rates continue to be high, I think the main point is really our cash generation capacity that makes the business solid. With the cash generation of the legacy stores and also all the new stores, really in the pre-FRS EBITDA vision, you can see that historically our conversion rate from EBITDA to cash is 100%. So we've always been able to convert the EBITDA into cash. And if you look at our balance of accounts of taxes, to monetize, these are dropping as well. So the new stores also come in with strong cash generation, which is above all the strength that will allow us to leverage the company. I hope that answered your question. Yes, you did answer. Thank you so much, Palmeiro. Thank you. Now moving on. Our next question comes from Maria Clara Infantosi, the sales site analyst at Itaú. Maria, we'll open up your mic. You may proceed. Hi, Belmedo. Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. On our side here at Itao, we wanted to understand how your mindset is in regards to the perspectives for growth and the revenue in 2024. On one side, the food deflation should prevail in the first semester of the year. The competitive environment is a little more complex. But on the other hand, the conversions are doing really well. The ramp-up has been evolving quarter over quarter with the uplift in sales. And I wanted to understand... how we could consider the build-up of the productivity versus the daily expansion. And I even want to mention the issue with the organic expansion as well. If you guys could mention a bit of the main locations that you're looking at when it comes to opening up this new state in Espírito Santo as well. Okay, thank you, Maria Clara. And about the organic expansion, as you mentioned, we already have some stores that are under construction. We also will have some completion in this expansion pipe for the next year. We already have some regions in certain areas where you see Acai is divided into many different regions. We have construction projects in the north, in the northeast, in the southeast as well. We just opened up an initiative in the south in Fazil Gasul. So there's not a specific region, but even in areas where we're already present, there are many different cities where For example, in Rio, we have one of our biggest market shares. And in Angra dos Reis, it's a very big city where we don't even have any store yet in that region. And other areas in Sao Paulo, like cities like São José do Rio Preto, where we're starting our first store there. So we still intend to enter cities that have 300,000 to 400,000 inhabitants that are very relevant but don't have an açaí store yet. So when it comes to revenue for 24, of course, this is going to depend on how many of these stores and organic stores we're going to be able to add to our base in 24. I think in 2024, the deflation scenario and the prices in our perspective, I think Vladimir can even talk about this a little more, right? Do you expect that we're... We're going to have prices dropping more or are we already at a plateau? I'll ask Lamy to pop in right now. Hi there, Maria Clara. Good morning, everyone. Also, I think just about the inflation aspect, our expectation really is we have, when we take a look at commodities, for example, these variations in prices are really a perfect combination, really, as we've seen in the last quarter that we ended. So we had at the same time many different commodities dropping in pricing. So we don't expect or imagine that this is going to happen with the price reduction up ahead. But it's really volatile because now we have currency issues. We also have issues with the war, petroleum, oil costs, and even the impacts in the petroleum costs. So there are many other factors. And sometimes it's a little difficult to expect or foresee what will happen. But what we've monitored throughout the quarters and months is the normal. the average price, when you see the overall basket and there are pressure, soy going up or going back 29%, then you have sugar going up a bit as well. And so there's a bit of a balance, but we don't see that much room for big peaks in prices or a bigger reduction in pricing. of commodities. But on the other hand, we've seen an impact in all of the rest of the assortment where you leave dairy and you see the basic commodities with a small inflation that comes along, but we see more stability in the average price of sales up ahead. So we're not seeing maybe, well, there could be maybe some factor related to the war or that's happening in Ukraine and the Middle East that could maybe even impact the commodity prices. But this is very uncertain and it's difficult to foresee anything in this sense when it comes to inflation. So it's a topic that's very complex, but we had imagined that at this point in time, we wouldn't have the impact of the deflation. And so we were expecting the deflation in the first quarter, in the first semester, but now it happened in the second semester. um but we do imagine a price stability from now on okay great very good it's clear that we still haven't closed the guidance for the expansion in 2024 but now how many openings are you expecting for this year In 2023, it's going to be about 30 stores. And then in 2024, we're going to expect the fourth quarter. We're going to wait on this and see. We have like seven under construction, but we're going to wait for the fourth quarter to close this number. But of course, we have the opening of new organic stores, many different initiatives and work that needs to be done with the approvals and the licenses. The company has a big amount of projects in the land bank, but we have to balance the leveraging as well and the amount of stores that are going to be open. And we're going to have to wait for the fourth quarter to be able to disclose the definite number of new stores. Okay, thank you. Well, moving on, the next question is from Vinicius Estrano, the sell-side analyst at UBS. Vinicius will open up your mic so you may proceed. You may proceed, Vinicius, please. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking my question here on the dynamic of working capital. Could you guys talk about what you're seeing when it comes to levers that could improve our working capital up ahead? And also, if you could talk about what would be a more normalized timing for stocks and suppliers, I think that would be great. And another question. A point also would be if you could discuss the mix between individual and legal entity customers in the converted stores at Extra and how this mix is going to evolve up ahead. And also when it comes to the converted stores, if you could discuss a bit of the gross margin in this store network of 47 stores you mentioned. Thank you. Thank you, Vinny, Susan. I think I'm going to start from backwards forward, and I'm going to ask if I may talk about the working capital level, stock, supplier level, and what the expectation is from now on. So for the converted stores, they already have a gross margin that's greater, and we had already expected this. We highlighted this in the beginning of the project. When you consider the product makes and a purchase power, it's a little different. But they do work with a margin that's higher than what we expected. So then, of course, you have greater participation from the consumers in these stores, but they're stores that are still ramping up. So we do expect to continue to advance with them a little longer to see what the level of stability will be in certain stores. And then, of course, you have this aspect with a lot of the stores that are not standard or homogeneous. There are some stores in regions that we already expected that are more downtown or central regions have higher adherence, especially for B2B customers, and also utilizers that have stores that are very close to ours and use our store for supplying their own stores. So we know how it's become more complex and expensive to perform door-to-door distribution. And I think it's valid. You probably saw some of the changes in the laws and rules in Brazil for transportation that will make... logistics even more expensive, which is the new driver law. And that will make it even more difficult for the distribution door to door by industries and delivery wholesalers. And so, especially in the downtown areas, which has made this store format and this model really be a quick supply format for this B2B customer. They don't have to have like a minimum purchase. They can buy the quantity they need, and they have access to different brands, qualities, and types of products, especially for perishable goods, which allows us to have strong adherence. But, of course, we did, of course, expect that there would be a bigger participation from end customers. And there's a ramp-up process to attract consuming customers and also B2B customers. And I'll pass the floor to Lamie so he can talk about the working capital aspects as well. Thank you, Vinicius, about the working capital. If you notice, this is even on our release in the third and fourth quarter last year, we were operating with eight or nine days more in our stock due to the amount of stores and the stock structuring. But as we were able to balance this out a bit more properly. The amount of stores has been a lot smaller than what we've seen last year. And if you look at this historically, we reduced by eight or nine days the working capital. Sorry, then our stock. And this has been kept at about 44, 45. And so this is the trend from now on. So we want to keep the stock levels at these levels, but also the negotiations for deadlines, which take place later. monthly and quarterly as well, so we can keep a very healthy relationship with this and also a strong discipline in our working capital. And so, when it comes to the expansion, we won't see many variations. And so we should imagine a trend in this sense, and this should be expanded as well now in the fourth quarter with the expansion in the level of stock. And this is a normalization in the amount of days as well that we should be looking at quarter for quarter without too much of a variation. So the team has been able to work. on this with a commercial logistics and operation area with a lot of discipline and a rigorous approach towards stock levels without harming sales, with rupture levels at normal levels and within what we expect for the company. And so the stock issue is pretty much stable in Acai. I hope that answers your question. That's fine. Thank you, Vladimir. Thank you, Bomido. Thank you. So moving on now, the next quarter is from Joseph Giordano, the sell-side analyst at J.P. Morgan. Joseph, we'll open up your mic so you may proceed. You can proceed, Joseph. Hi there. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Thanks, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I want to explore this issue with the CapEx a bit. When it comes to deleveraging the company, what would be a level, a CapEx level for these new 30 stores? I know that This is a guidance that's not that strong yet in these 30 stores. But what would be a CapEx level that the company believes is reasonable? for 2024. And then going back a bit to the working capital issue, I would like to explore a bit of what is possible to improve even in this initiative. Thank you, Joseph. I think maybe there was a misinterpretation because when we talked about 30 stores, we're talking about the 30 stores in 2023, which considers conversions and organic stores. For 2024, we have seven stores that are under construction and we're still going to define during the fourth quarter what will be the amount of stores and then, of course, the amount of capex we'll consider. But for 2024, it wouldn't be 30 stores. We were considering a maximum of 20 units. or 25 units at most. But throughout the fourth quarter, we're going to review this. I think when we talked about 30 stores, we're talking about 2023. We have seven for 2024 that are already under construction that we need to open, especially in remote locations, Manaus, Makapa, and other regions that are very far that are under construction already. But the total amount for 24 will be defined now throughout the fourth quarter as we look at expansion and we look at the spots and locations that have the best returns on investments. But of course, also considering the company's level of leverage. And from a working capital perspective, as we mentioned, we've already performed many Of course, we're always searching for bigger changes and improvements, working capital, improvement of terms with our suppliers. But at this moment, we're just presenting to the market that there will be stability in our working capital at the levels we've seen in the third quarter. And if I can also contribute, I think it's important to say that we have a big concern, Joseph. with of course you consider you want to try and increase in the terms with suppliers but that could interfere in your competition competitive advantage reduce stocks and even harm sales maybe depending so we try to find a balance between a ratio between the stock and terms and if we can keep this balance point we're going to be in a very healthy position in the company from now on So it's more about maintenance than actually gaining any differences. Of course, we always want to improve our conditions and our terms with our ratio of days and stock, but I think we're at a level that's very healthy right now. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. Moving on, our next question is from Eric Huang, the sell-side analyst at Centon there. Eric will open up your audio so you can begin. Please, you may proceed. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking your questions. So on our side, I think we have two questions that are pretty much in line. One, you mentioned you entered the state of Espirito Santo, so it's more about understanding what the level of receptivity is in the state, the competitive environment, and also understand potential expansion for more stores there and how you're looking at this environment. And on the other hand, when you consider organic expansions, we want to understand what we can expect when it comes to the sales levels in these stores. Are they going to be more in line with what we had seen in the legacy stores or maybe more in line with the expansion stores? I think we want to understand a bit more about the economics in these organic expansion stores. Thank you so much. Thank you, Eric. Well, Espírito Santo, we should have already entered this market a long time ago, but we opened our first store in Serra do Passaguá, and I want to talk about this a bit. The receptivity at Serra has been, and also what we've been doing in Espírito Santo, and then we'll get back on discussing the level of sales. Hi there. I think Espírito Santo was very positive. We were very anxious to enter the community. Their customers welcomed us very well there. And the value proposition there for our store, whether when it comes to services, level of service, the mix of products, which is something we're very careful about, we always talk about this issue with the regionality. To give you an idea, we started a unit there where we added about 1,500 new SKUs registered, as we always want to look at the regional population characteristics. So we want to reach the region delivering products a value proposition that is really unique, working with customers that have a better level of service, but also providing local products. And this is always very positive. So the store has been very successful. We have already been working in this process for organic expansion. Next year, we'll have another store in Vittoria as well. That's all we're already starting to build now. So this is going to strengthen our brand presence a lot more. And when we look at Serra, this region in Espirito Santo, I think the store opening was fantastic. We got it right. We had a great start. The market understood a size entrance as a very strong differential. And now we're not just... the acai from the southeast, but an acai from Espirito Santo that's strong. With the second story, we thought it was going to strengthen our position even more. And also this regionalized perspective, which was very important with the local brand, local culture, local team. And so this caution, which has really been important. And so this has been a very careful process we've been doing. So... We also had a complementary point, which is... Of course, we can't mention all of the stores. We have some organic projects as well in downtown regions that are also connected to the conversion stores as well. So we have a conversion spot from a former macro store in Villa Maria that has high expectations. It's in the northern region of Sao Paulo and some other organic stores. But overall, organic stores should lead to... We have... More revenue expected from the legacy stores, maybe one or another exceptions in the more downtown regions that could have exceptional levels of revenue. Well, thank you. Perfect. Thank you for your answers, Bermudo. So, moving on, our next question is from Alexandre Namioco, the sell-side analyst at Morgan Stanley. Alexandre, we'll open up your mic so you may proceed. Please. Good morning, and thank you for taking our question. When we get back to the point on the openings and when we talk about more of a long term, we want to understand how you're considering expansion when it comes to stores and also when it comes to markets where there are not other cash and carry formats available. that are not necessarily acai brands, but compared to other locations where you already operate with at least one brand, especially when it comes to the city level, I think that would be interesting to look at. Thanks. Okay, thank you, Alexandre. I think at the end of the day, there's nowhere in Brazil where there's no cash-and-carry brand present. So, of course, there's always some kind of competition level that's pretty high in most cases, and we see a big amount of players operating the sector in Brazil. So, in our expansion projects, we have regions that are very significant, such as São José do Rio Preto or other places in the state of São Paulo and Rio, where we don't even have stores yet, and Another example is Falls de Guaçu. We just opened a store in the southern region. We already had stores in Paraná, but our closest store was Maringá. That's 400 kilometers away. So the company has been continuing to work with a big amount of stores in cities that are actually big cities with 300,000 inhabitants sometimes. We don't even have a store yet. where we have a city with 600,000 or 700,000 inhabitants, and we only have one single store. So within this pipeline of organic stores, we've been looking at cost of deployment, returns on investments, et cetera, and defined which are the priority projects. So it's difficult to balance this out because we can't say, look, it's going to be this region or this city. But just as the store networks, the new stores, we always also – we consider it's really fragmented and spread around all regions in Brazil. Of course, we have a bigger focus in becoming very established in states we're already in and in big cities where we're not present in yet, such as São José and Angra dos Reis, which would be good examples. I hope I answered your question. Thank you, Alexandre. Okay, yeah, that's perfect, Bermuda. Thank you so much. So moving on, the next question is from Irma Scartz, a sell-side analyst at Goldman Sachs. Irma, we'll open up your mic so you can proceed. You may proceed, please. Good afternoon, or actually good morning. And I have a question on a follow-up here from Joseph's question about CapEx. Theoretically, I understand it's only seven stores that you have under construction and we'll still have maybe a definition more specifically on the... plan for organic openings, but what's the capex levels that we should expect, even if just for those seven stores? I understand it's a very specific store network. It's a little smaller. Maybe there's some points out of the curve. But generally speaking, I think this is one of the main reasons for this question, which is due to the strong inflation. in the costs of the stores in the last few years due to many different external factors. And I think it's very important to get some alignment on this and have this kind of clear in the minds of the investors and from the logistics perspective, Do you think that today you already have the necessary infrastructure for DCs and logistical network you need to continue to support this new batch of store openings? Or do you have other projects that you're looking at as well up ahead to expand this capacity, not only for 24, but for the next two or three years? Well, I'm going to pass the floor on to Bamir on logistics, and then I'll get back to CapEx. Well, Irma, good morning. about our logistics. What we did is, if we look at 2021 and 22, considering this movement with the expansion that we had in the acquisition of the commercial spots from hypermarkets, we've already prepared the logistics. We performed investments in Pernambuco, São Paulo, Rio, Pará, and in the last two years. But what we've been doing with logistics is, as we grow our operation and the amount of stores are expanded, then we adjust our logistical structure. So to give you an idea, We have a model where the stores operate as a mini DC. So we have stores that operate 100% directly from the suppliers and industry. So this is a big advantage in our model because it's different than other operations with other retail operations where in supermarkets or hypermarkets where you rely on logistics to be able to operate. In our format, we can open up a store anywhere in the country and we don't depend on logistics. But as we grow, we'll invest, of course. And we do have some things we're looking at as potential opportunities in the Midwest region. But we're still studying this. Nothing to find yet. And as the operation grows, we invest gradually. So the investments are very low. CapEx is normally very low because we don't. We normally lease DCs and we don't have to perform major capital investments in our logistical operation. But we look at the operation as it grows in each region and we structure the necessary support. But for 2024, we should have some kind of investment in the Midwest region where we grew a lot and we didn't have any problems. major investments there. We have a small DC in Goiânia. We'll maybe expand it a bit in that region, but we still don't have anything else. We're still performing the studies. Just as we haven't defined the amount of stores, we also haven't defined the investments for logistics in 2024 and 2025. But we will have this a little more up ahead. And so the logistics grows as the operation grows. So to give you an idea, what makes us very comfortable with all of this is the fact that we can grow and open up stores anywhere in the country without depending on the logistical structure. So this is the biggest strong point in our business. So I would like to have answered your question. Okay. So there was an inflation in the construction work. The peak was probably last year and the beginning of this year. But we did see some materials, especially like steel and cement, keeping up at high levels. But today, when you look at the cost of square meters for an organic store compared to the past, there's already a drop of about 8%. compared to what this would be in the same period last year. So it's not like the prices are cheap. Of course, they went up just as food items also went up during the pandemic period. But from the seven that are underway, they have a total investment of about 450 to 500 million reais. And this, of course, is not coming into the capex of 2024. But we have to mention, of course, the maintenance costs. And we have to consider the services we're working on, but there's also a carryover of the stores in this year that's going to drop in 2024. So we'll see the amount of stores and this will probably mention the amount of investments the company will perform in 2024. Okay, got that. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Now moving on to our next question. It's from João Soares, a sell-side analyst at Citi. João, we'll open up your mic so you may proceed. Okay, thank you guys. Two points here on my side. First, Filmito, I feel like your discourse is a little more cautious on store openings for next year. I could be wrong in my interpretation, but if I'm right, what would be keeping you from... having a more clear perspective on the store openings for next year? Is this related to some kind of restriction in a balance sheet, or are processes a little more difficult to map out store openings? Anyways, if I'm right here, what could be in some way harming or hindering your visibility? And the second point is really quick. It's just when you look at the G&A chart, There's a very interesting control level. In the last quarter, it dropped 8% year over year. This year, it's flat. So can we imagine that this quarter, the $200 million could be analyzed at a stable level, looking at the S&A up ahead? Well, when you look at the... I think the SG&A is something we've been able to keep controlled when you look at the operational level. This has, of course, had the impact of the stores and conversions. And the administrative front, there's a drop when you look at the proportional results compared to the sales, of course, with the exit of the controller, costs with the board and the cost-sharing agreements. But we... Of course, the company always has the need to enter new areas or start new projects. But of course, we do expect a dilution in administrative costs. And this is an important point because as we grow, administrative costs are not going to keep up the same level of growth in the sales. But then for 2024, our caution is just because we're going to define this during the fourth quarter. Considering that the company now is at this true corporation phase, we're being a little more cautious with how we present information in a more precise manner. So the fact is really that we haven't made this decision yet. So we have many projects in our land bank, but what we're looking at in 2024 is really finding a balance point. between expansion and leverage. So when you have uncertainty in the interest rates and the drops of the interest rates, that also generates uncertainties about investments and expansion. So how are we accelerating this? Well, one of the levers is holding on investments. So within the scenario of interest rates, we see that interest rates, well, we have a very certain interest rate drop, then we could be a little more optimistic. But the investments in the organic expansion are really a decision that depend on us. So the major costs come from when we decide to perform a construction project. Once we start a project, we have to keep it up till the end. So... And then we just have to define what's going to be the target of the amount of stores for the next year. So about competition, we've seen some markets that became a lot more saturated in some way. And we even saw that some players changed their expansion plans. So this is not in any way influencing your decision, is it? No, I think the biggest decision really is the level of leverage. Take advantage of your pound saturation. If you can imagine that cash and carries are all the same, then you're going to say, oh, we're saturated, but that's not the case. We don't have one-fourth of the stores in Brazil. We have about 8% of these stores. And we have one-fourth penetration among the Brazilian population. So, there is a big differential when it comes to the proposal, advances, and, of course, in a market with a bigger amount of players. But actually, the main decision point is really the leverage. We also had impacts, as Irma mentioned, with the cost of construction that we've been able to also reduce gradually. And We do hope to disclose this number now in the fourth quarter as well. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much, guys. Well, thank you all. We've ended our Q&A session at this point in time. And now we would like to pass the floor back to Bill Meadow for his final remarks. Well, thank you. And I think that first of all, I just want to thank you all for your participation. Those of you who have participating on this call, and I want to thank my team as well since 2023 and 2022 due to the amount of stores and the new units created. It's been a big challenge involving different areas and departments. When we look up ahead, we see a scenario that still does not have that much visibility when it comes to changes in purchase powers. But if you separate the effects of the general context and scenario, the company has continued to keep up with a stability level. And I think we would even expect to have higher impacts considering the expansion project or the impact and deflation. But the company continues to be very resilient, very strong and stable. very predictable when it comes to the sequence perspective. And this is how the group and the company as a whole with all of its members and employees are working to keep this up. And so we want to continue to advance, gain market share and open new stores, generate job opportunities. And then, of course, completing this process, which was, as I mentioned a few times before, was one of the projects that has been most challenging for execution within the Brazilian food sector. due to the amount of square meters involved, the galleries and the stores and the stores, the amount of people we had to have working on this. But of course, now we start seeing the results and reaping these fruits and contributions from sales, cash generation perspectives. And this allows the company to be more solid, stronger to face the year of 24, 25 and 26, 27 and 28. So we always look at the long term. Historically, an organic store takes maybe two, three, four, five years even to approve the project. And so between the point where we make the decision and actually open up the store. So looking at the long term, when you look at the positive numbers, you can see that there is a very positive expectation for the company. in the mid or long term so i think these are the main comments and i want to thank my team as they were with me in this earnings call and i want to thank all of the board members as well that have really supported and worked hard in this transition phase with all of these different changes that took place with casino's exit but we're really on the right path now to have a company that is a stronger cash generator with a bigger volume sales conquering more and more households in Brazil. So on my side, that's it. Thank you all. The Açaí earnings call for the third quarter of 23 is officially ended. The Investor Relations Department is available to clarify any questions. Thank you all so much, participants, and have an excellent day.