Cyrela Brazil Rlty S/Adr

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Cirela Brasil Realty Essay's fourth quarter of 2024 earnings call, or rather first quarter 2024 earnings call. Today with us are Mr. Miguel Mikkelberg, CFO and IRO, and Yuri Kompus, Senior Investor Relations Manager. This call is being recorded and simultaneously translated. You can hear the translation by clicking the interpretation button. To those hearing the English translation, you can mute the original audio in Portuguese by clicking mute original audio. You can also find the slide deck in English on the company's investor relations website at www.ri.sirela.com.br. During the company's presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, we will hold a question and answer session. To ask a question, please click the Q&A button and enter your name and organization. When your name is called, a request will pop up on your screen to unmute your microphone before asking your question. We would like to inform you that any statements that may be made during the call related to Cerela's business perspectives, operating and financial targets are projections made by the company's management that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that political, macroeconomic, and other operating factors may affect the future of the company and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. To open Cirella's 1Q24 earnings call, I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Miguel Mikkelberg. Mr. Mikkelberg, you may proceed. Good morning, everybody. First, we would like to express our solidarity to those affected by the tragic events in Rio Grande do Sul, a state in which we have been operating for almost 20 years. And it is also my home state where I started my career 17 years ago in Sirela. At this time, we are focused on supporting those impacted by the tragedy and making efforts to contribute to the local community. Our hearts go out to the victims and to the entire population of the state. Cirella posted solid operating results in 1Q24. Although this is a period of lower activity in our sector traditionally, we launched nine projects this year with a total volume of 1.2 billion, a 37% growth year-on-year. We also had a strong sales performance of inventories and launches with a total PSP of 1.6 billion, 43% higher year-on-year. The highlight this quarter was the launch of La Isla project in Rio de Janeiro with 500 million in BSV and excellent performance in its first days of sales. Currently, it is approximately 90% sold. Our financial result was also positive. We reached 1.6 billion in net revenue, 23% more year on year. with a gross margin of 31.4% and a net income of 267,063% above 2023. Net margin was 17% and ROE in the last 12 months exceeded 14% following the trajectory of improvement in our profitability levels. Finally, during the quarter, we observed some deterioration in the macroeconomic scenario, but we are prepared to deliver solid results even in this context. We will follow our philosophy of staying focused on each of our projects and we'll continue to constantly seek greater value generation for our shareholders. Now, Judy will comment on our operating results. Thank you and good morning, everybody. Thank you for participating in our call. On slide four, we will address Rela's launches. In 1Q24, we launched nine products with a PSV of 1.7 billion reals, 26% higher year on year, and 35% lower quarter on quarter. The company stake in the volume launched was 78%. Excluding swaps, the volume launched was 1.2 billion reals in the quarter. On slide five, We highlight the launch of La Isla in the city of Rio de Janeiro with a PSV of 501 million reels. On slide 6, we will talk about our sales performance. In 1Q24, pre-sales came to 2.1 billion, 39% higher year-on-year, and 17% lower quarter-on-quarter. The company's stakes? In the volume, sold in the quarter was 79%, totally 1.7 billion reals in sales in Sorella Stakes. Excluding swap sales in Sorella Stakes came to 1.6 billion reals. On slide 7, we'll address sales speed. The company's SOS in the last 12 months was 50.5%. Looking at sales speed by launch, vintage projects launched in 1Q24 have been 53% sold. On slide eight, we'll talk about our total inventory. At the end of the quarter, inventory at market value totaled 9.5 billion reals, 5% lower quarter on quarter. Inventory totaled 7.1 billion reals in the company's stake. The change in our inventory can be seen in the chart on the left. Slide 9 shows our finished units. In 1Q24, we sold 11% of the finished units at the beginning of the period, adding the inventory of projects delivered along the quarter and pricing of units at market value. Finished units dropped by 11% quarter on quarter, reaching 1.4 billion reals and 1.2 billion reals in Cirella's stake. On slide 10, we can see our delivered units. Cirella delivered six projects in the quarter with a PSV of 676 million reals as of the date of their respective launches. Now let's talk about our financial results. Net revenue came to 1.6 billion reals in the quarter, 23% higher year on year, and 8% lower quarter on quarter. Gross margin in the quarter was 31.4% against 30.7% in 1Q23 and 33.7% in 4Q23.

Now on slide 13, let's take a look at our net income and profitability.

Our net income came to 267 million reals compared to 164 million in 1Q23 and a net income of 248 million in 4Q23. In 1Q24, our return on equity net income over the last 12 months over the average shareholder's equity was 14.5%. On slide 14, let's take a look at our debt. Gross debt at the end of the quarter was 4.8 billion reals. The cash position was 4 billion, thus our net debt was 738 million reals. 83% of the total gross debt is long-term and our net debt over equity ratio was 8.8%. Now, moving towards the end of the presentation, let's take a look at our cash generation. In 1Q24, our cash generation was R$103 million against a cash burn of R$35 million in 1Q23 and a cash burn of R$94 million. in 4Q23. Now we can go to the Q&A session.

Thank you. We will now begin the Q&A session.

To ask a question, please click the Q&A button or click the button Raise Hand and enter your name and organization. When your name is called, a request will pop up on your screen to unmute your microphone before asking your question.

The first question comes from Tainan Costa from UBS. Please go ahead. Good morning, everybody.

I'd like to talk about 2024 operations scenario. I'd like to know more about the second quarter in terms of launches, PSV, and sales and also your perspective for the rest of the year. Is there any competition for a land bank? And also I would like to know if the news about the interest rates will impact your plans for the rest of the year. Thank you. Thank you, Tainana. Thank you for your question. About our operating performance, we had a very good month in April in terms of selling inventory. We sold on average the same level across the three months of the year, the first three months. So in April, we sold at the same level. Performance is very good. And as for launches, we had launches of smaller units for... investors mainly, and we had a very good sales performance in that product. But we have seen impacts on our launches because the city hall of Sao Paulo has to regulate a decree after the new land use and zoning law was passed, and that has not occurred yet. So we have delays in some launches that involve the payment of concession fees, which will harm our second quarter. And we also had two launches. We actually would have two launches in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and that will not occur. And therefore, we are going to have a smaller launch volume into Q24, but that does not change our predictions for 2024. We continue to see an increase in launches for the year. Of course, this will depend on the market and approvals, but that's our base scenario. As for the macroeconomic scenario, the interest rate curve suffered a bit early this year, and that impacted some projections for the drop of interest rates, but the market is still bullish. It's healthy with a good demand. So we don't see any change so far in our plans. As for land banks and workforce, we don't have many highlights about that, but I think that we will have more specific questions about that. So I'll give you more details later, but we haven't seen any changes so far. Okay, thank you. Next question comes from from Mr. Elvis Credendillo with BTG Pactuel.

Please go ahead. Hello, good morning. We have two questions.

The first one is about sales. I'd like to get some more color and your opinion about why the company has had an SOS that's better than the rest of the industry. Is that related to competitive prices or maybe the neighborhoods where they are located? I would like to understand the reason behind a stronger SOS and also your expectations internally, considering your inventory and the inventory profile that you have and also the launches for the rest of the year. Should we expect a stronger SOS to be maintained, at least stronger than the industry? And the second question is about cash generation. In April, you said that you are at 45% of sales of inventory. Does that change your expectation in terms of cash generation for the year? And also, I would like to know if you're considering dividend distribution, considering the new scenario. Thank you. Hello, Elvis. Good morning, and thank you for your question. When it comes to our performance in comparison with the peers, well, we try to be very cautious in the way we pick our land bank, we pay attention to the cycles and all details of the projects. We have a very good talent pool in the company, which translates into high quality projects and sales offices and good engineering. And maybe that very dense talent pool is why we offer such a great solution to our customers. And in our industry, we start from scratch every time. If we have a successful project, that's no guarantee that we are going to have the same performance in the next project. So we have to continuously work hard to deliver good continuous performance. When it comes to cash generation, this quarter was unusual. in a positive way. Across all lines, we outperformed our predictions. We received more from the fourth quarter of 2023. We had less construction activity, which is normal for the first quarter of the year. We have smaller disbursements for construction. We also did not have big land bank disbursements and that is a seasonal line. It's very erratic across the year. We had very few payments this quarter. And we also have a concentration of interest payment in the second and fourth quarters because most issuances happened in March and June and the interest payment happens every six months. In the first and third quarters, we usually have less of that. So if we put together and combine all of those effects, there was an improvement of 200 million in comparison with for Q23. We continue to believe that cash generation for the year is going to be slightly positive, excluding the non-recurring events. For example, the sales of Curie shares. The recurring cash generation will be between zero and 200 million reals, roughly. We made 95 million this quarter. So there is a risk that we are going to have an upside in this projection. It's hard to say, but it's more or less along the lines that we expected because many of the effects were non-recurring. They are seasonal. When it comes to dividend distribution, this is something that we traditionally address towards the end of the year. We've been doing that for five or six years now. We discuss and decide the payment of dividends on an extraordinary basis between October and December. And that is going to depend on our cash position and our cash flow projection, sales performance, land bank appetite and it's still too early to tell if it's going to happen or not.

Thank you. That's very clear. Have a good day. The next question comes from Igor Altero with XP Investments. Please go ahead. Hello, good morning. I have two questions.

First one is about gross margin. I would like to know more about the effect of swaps in your Rio de Janeiro project. Is that a one-off situation? Do you expect to resume to normal levels in 2Q for 24? And also, I would like to know about the gross margin for the new projects. And the second question is about the impact of the tax reform. What is going to be the impact on your segments? Thank you. Okay, well, about gross margin, we have three effects that we can highlight here that drove our gross margin downwards. The first one, as we mentioned in our press release, we had an effect with the larger units that had lower liquidity. We sold four of the five units that we had of that type and the effect of them on our gross margin was about 50 basis points and we also sold a plot of land that would be used in the Minha Casa Minha Vida segment in the southern region and that drove our gross margin in about 40 bps, and also it decreased our gross margin in the Minha Casa Minha Vida segment with a 3.5 point impact in the Minha Casa Minha Vida segment. And the third effect is La Isla. I don't think it is one-off because we have a land bank with gross margins above 40 bps, and sometimes below 30, but we don't necessarily see the profitability of those projects as being different. The La Isla project had a very good performance and profitability. We had to invest very little capital. We're going to have a very good return on invested capital, but swaps need to be recognized in our revenue and therefore the gross margin will be naturally lower but with a high profitability and the impact of that is 30 basis points if we put together all those three factors the gross margin would be a little below 33 percent and if we consider the vintages from 2021 and 2024 that accounted for about 90 percent of our revenue and a gross margin around 33 percent which is uh the recurring level that we should expect. Of course, we're going to see seasonality and some volatility in that line item, but we believe that the normal level that we should expect is around 33%, which is roughly what we had in the second half of last year. About the tax reform, we read the documents and we also made our estimates. There's still a lot of uncertainty around this topic, especially around the calculation base for a land bank. The law mentions reference value, which has to be discussed. There are some rules about transition, and it's still not clear how much credit we will have in the first moment. But overall, What we can say is that the text of the reform, as it is right now, would bring a negative effect on our medium to high income segments. And the positive impact would be on the low income segment. Our concentration is bigger on the medium and high income segment. Therefore, we would have a negative impact with a higher tax burden But I think that this is going to entail a lot of discussions and debate. We need to understand the details of regulation and credit so that we can have more clarity about that impact.

Thank you, Miguel. Thank you, Yuri. The next question. comes from Mr. Jorrell Guilotti with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Good morning. I have two questions.

I would like to talk more about gross margin and understand what the average gross margin should be for each type of project, the launches, the finished inventory, and also the inventory under construction. And the second question is about the financing situation for your customers when they receive the keys. I'm curious because the interest rates are high, so I would like to know if they are getting financing easily and what type of financing they're getting, what type of interest rates are being charged, and if they are using mortgage or other type of financing. If you could give us more color about the average situation of your customers, that would be great. Thank you. Thank you, Jarell, for your question. About the gross margin, well, Considering all the vintages from 2021 and the new launches in 2024, the margins are surprisingly similar at a high 32% and low 33%. So the margin is very similar for all those categories that you mentioned. For finished units, our gross margin is a little bit higher than that. but there's a lot of volatility depending on what we sell in each quarter. For example, the margin for the projects that we just sold was below that 12 to 14%. And there are some other projects with finished units with much higher margins, but they are not necessarily selling at the same speed. So, you can see a lot of volatility there. And if you could please repeat the second question. Sure. I would like to have more color on the financing strategies for your customers because interest rates are still high. So I would like to understand if it's easier for them to get financing, if they're getting financing easily from the banks and what level of interest rates that they are paying. If you could give us any color about that, I would appreciate it. Yes, sure. I'm sorry. I forgot the second question. There was a slight reduction in the average interest rates for our customers financing this quarter. It was about 10.2 to 10.3. It goes from 9 to 11, really. And we believe that the reduction on the average interest rate is related to a higher share of the public banks. They usually have lower rates. Although we know that the major private banks reduced origination for real estate credit, but we have not seen a tightening in the credit for our customers. Rates have not gone up since February 2023, so... It's been more than a year that we have had a very similar level. And the banks have not changed LTVs or their assessment of real estate. So especially for the big capital cities, Sao Paulo, Rio, Porto Alegre, the banks have not changed their appetite level. They are originating less credit overall. But the projects from... big construction companies, they have not suffered. So we have not seen any change in the financing strategies for our customers.

Okay, thank you very much. The next question comes from Mr. Andrea Manzini from Citi.

Please go ahead. Good morning, Miguel and Yuri. Thank you for the presentation. First question is about São Paulo. Another company mentioned that approvals from the City Hall of São Paulo are very slow because of the changes to the City Master Plan and the rules. And therefore, the city hall agents now need to understand the new rules and that is causing the process, the approval process, to be very slow in the city of São Paulo. Are you impacted? Are you impacted by that at all? And what is the effect of that on you in terms of the diversity of the projects, since you have a lot of land banks? Can you dodge that problem because of the diversity of land bank that you have? And the second question is about still your land bank. I'd like to know about the mid and long-term launches and why you changed some of your land bank. Are you not going to launch products in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro? Thank you, Masbini, for your questions. About the City Hall of São Paulo, I touched on this briefly in a previous answer. After the new legislation was passed, for the use of land, the city hall was supposed to issue a decree to regulate the concession fees charged by the city hall when you use an index that exceeds the basic index, where you don't have a concession. And that decree has not been issued yet. There's a lot of discussions about this, and I believe that we are reaching a solution, but until it is published, we are not going to be able to launch new projects according to the new plan. So that harms our plans for the second half of the year. We are going to delay some launches. We actually work on a very tight rope. We approve the projects and launch them immediately, so we don't have a project backlog that is approved for us to replace the projects that will be delayed. We don't have that cushion. We need to have a very efficient approval process. So yes, we're going to struggle and suffer in the second quarter, but that is not going to impact the rest of the year significantly. As for the land bank, our focus behind that change was on the competition. Since we're a relevant player, many people are looking at what we do. They're looking at the information that we disclose. And we believe that the purchase of land bank is the most strategic point in our sector. So we... decided to publish the purchase of Land Bank only when we receive the documents, when you receive the deeds, when we sign a commitment for purchase. So we believe that that allows us to feel more comfortable and protected in terms of the competition. We had a criterion related to the approval of the purchase. But now we wait until we have the deed of the plot of land to disclose the purchase. And at the end of the day, the strategy has not changed. The way in which we operate does not change at all. The only thing that changed is the way we disclose the purchase of plots of land. It is more formal now, and I think it's better for everyone.

Okay, thank you.

And Rio lost a lot of importance in the new way of disclosure. So you're not launching so much there, especially in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca. It lost relevance, it appears to me. Yes. Barra da Tijuca lost relevance. And as Yuri said, we have not changed our strategy in Rio de Janeiro. It is a place where we can launch 1.5 billion per year or something along those lines. And that's what we expect for this year. We have had great results, such as in the La Isla project and other projects for many years. So our appetite in the region of Rio de Janeiro has not changed. Okay. Thank you, Miguel and Yuri.

Have a good day. The next question comes from Aline Caldera with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Miguel and Yuri. Thank you for taking my question. I would like to talk about the JVs you sold Curie stake this quarter. I would like to know more about your perspectives for investments in the JVs this year. The JVs. And it seems to me that your balance sheet is comfortable. And the contribution of the JVs in your result has been relevant as well. So I'd like to know more about your perspectives on the JVs. Thank you, Aline. Yes, we sold Curie shares in March and April. And we have not sold any more shares since. The number that we disclosed in our publications were those that you saw and we have not sold anymore. And really we cannot disclose a lot of information here because that could impact our strategy since the other players participating in the calls. So we don't have a defined strategy. What we always highlight is how proud we are of the performance of the three JVs and Our equity line shows exactly that. If the profit of the three JVs falls within the range projected by the market, they are going to contribute to our ROE. So that shows the excellent performance that they have had. We are very proud of being a partner in those JVs and we don't have any strategy or any plan specifically for them.

Okay, thank you. The next question is from Pedro Lobato with Bradesco BBI.

Please go ahead. Good morning, Miguel and Yuri. Thank you for taking my question. I would like to understand some details about CashMe. I would like to know more about the dynamics of this segment. The asset dropped 9% quarter on quarter, although the net income improved quarter on quarter. So I'd like to know more about the dynamics for origination. Thank you. Thank you, Pedro. Starting in 3Q23, we changed the structure of CashMe to take advantage of a tax benefit in our holding that has recurring tax losses. So the holding is buying some shares of subordinate CRIs and since We recognize on our liabilities that balance because of the IFRS 9 rules, because the risks and returns, the variable ones are not transferred since the risk is higher than the default that we have. So we recognize everything. And what we did in 3Q23, is that part of that portfolio fall under the controlling company. And you can see that on our liabilities and the cash me debt, we break down each debt. In the first quarter of this year, cash me had 200 million in origination. So cash me portfolio as a whole increased a little bit. And that origination level is in line with our This year, we last year, actually, we had 840 million. We expect to have a little bit more than that this year. The first quarter is usually lower. We had a very good first quarter and the net income for cash me. Combined with part of the controlling company because of the remuneration, the compensation of the shares of the CRI company. is a little bit above what we expected. Since the portfolio is increasing, the top line is also increasing and the profit as well. So for this year, our ROE for cashment should be about 16%. So it should contribute to our overall results as well. Okay, thank you, Miguel.

The next question is from Fanny Oring with Santander. Please go ahead. Hello, good morning. I have two questions.

The first one is about the payroll. And the second one is about the month of May, which is usually... a month where there are salary increases. And also, I would like to know your perspective about the offer or the supply of workforce in the city of São Paulo. Thank you. Hello, Fanny. Thank you for your questions. About the payroll, I think that this is a very good day to have this call because we learned a few new things. from the negotiations between the federal government and the Congress. We are probably going to keep the payroll taxes as they are for 2024 and things will change in 2025. For Cirela, the direct impact is very little. I believe that MRV mentioned that in their call and our situation is very similar. Of course, that we are going to have to change our format and we are going to have a bigger concentration of workforce in SPEs, but that shouldn't have a direct impact on our results. And honestly, it's very hard to estimate the indirect impact that we would have from the contractors because the market is fragmented and we don't have much visibility on how they would organize themselves. So what we can say is that with the current rule, we are going to have a very little direct impact. We can tell exactly what the impact will be indirectly. When it comes to the salary or wage increases, well, the INCC rate has been low and also the IPCA inflation rate is lower. And honestly, if there's any increase above the INPC rate for the past 12 months, it should be a small increase Last year, it was 0.8% of the INPC rate. Workforce is still challenging in the state of Sao Paulo. We have been able, however, to reorganize ourselves and we have not seen any specific or particular worsening in the scenario.

Okay, thank you. The next question comes from Rafael Reder with Saffron. Please go ahead. Good morning. I have two questions too.

The first one is about your perspectives for your minimum income. margin that you are pursuing or if there's any sales curve that would be ideal. And the second question is about the price dynamic. In 2024 and 2025, you're going to have a number of projects delivered. Do you think you're going to suffer from price pressures? Have you been able to pass on the inflation increases? What do you think is going to happen with prices for the rest of the year. Thank you, Rafael, for your question. Well, we use the NPV margin as a criterion for investment decisions. We cannot disclose a lot of details about discount rates or hurdle rates because this is sensitive information in terms of competition. As I said, when I addressed the question about NBank. We are a benchmark in the sector, so competition-wise, this is a sensitive point. I cannot disclose too much about it. And the second question is about prices and inflation. Well, we have sold 82% of the projects to be delivered this year. The customers have paid 54% of the units sold well and it is being paid at a good level as well. For 2025, the projects have been 70% sold and payment is at 30%, which is a very healthy level because we're only going to start delivering those projects in eight months. The prices have been below our predictions in the three main regions. So I don't think that the delivery volume in 24 and 25 will be a major factor on prices in the market. We have been able to pass on the inflation increases so far because inflation has been under control. I think price is more impacted by supply and demand. If there is an increase in supply, we might see some impact, but so far the market has been healthy with good sales. We have not had to decrease prices and we have been able to preserve our margins. Okay, thank you.

The next question comes from Marcelo Mata with JP Morgan.

Well, I have a question about the explanatory notes on your release. We had a loss in the FPEs of about 6 million last year, and it's now 25. So I'd like to know what is the reason for that gap? Thank you, Mata, for your question. Well, we have 10 million reels from projects in the city of Goiânia with a local partner called EBM. And we had a better result at SKR. In 2023, they had had a flight loss and that's why there was a a higher impact. And considering the equity income line, we had 101 million and the only non-recurring effect is this one related to SKR. This concludes the Q&A session. Now I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Mikkelberg for his closing remarks. Thank you very much for your participation. I'd like to take this chance to once again express our solidarity to those affected in the tragic events of Rio Grande do Sul. We have a commitment to help and support the victims as much as we can. And as a citizen of Rio Grande do Sul, I would like to thank the entire country of Brazil for your support and solidarity. I'm sure that you all have been giving a lot of strength and support to the local population. About our results, I believe that we are following the right path and we are confident that the rest of the year will be very good. Thank you very much. Have a great weekend. This concludes Cirella's earnings call for today. Should you have any questions, please contact the investor relations team at ri.cirella.com.br. Thank you very much for your participation. Have a good day.