8/3/2022

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

Good morning. We are now starting the conference call to disclose the results of Q2 2022 of Engie Brazil Energia. I'm Rafael Borrosio. I'm the IR manager. And as of now, you are all connected in listen-only mode. Later in the Q&A session, you will be able to send your questions on the chat. This conference call, this video conference is being recorded. On our site, you may find all the files related to this presentation, the earnest release, And there you will find the analysis of the financial statements in the quarter in addition to operating results and the monitoring of new projects. Before proceeding, I would like to clarify that any forward-looking statements that may be made during this conference call relating to the company's business outlook should be regarded as predictions. They depend on the country's economic conditions, on the performance of the electric sector, and are therefore subject to change. Today with me, Mr. Eduardo Satamini, CEO and IRO, and Marcelo Malta, CFO. They will comment on the performance of Engie Brasil Energia in Q2 2022. Journalists may send the questions by email to our PR agency. I now turn the floor over to Mr. Satamini to start his presentation. Good morning to all. Thank you, Rafael. It's a pleasure to be again here with us to disclose the results of ENGIE Brazil Energia. On slide five, as you can see, we have made very brief presentations. We go straight to the point and focus on the main elements so we can have enough time for the Q&A session, which is where we can actually address your needs. All this data is available. on our site. We start with the highlights adjusted EBITDA grew 23.8% quarter on quarter and 15.4% six months and six months And this basically attests to our growth strategy. And this has been very successful in the last few years. The investments that are being made are showing in terms of the volumes of energy and our ability to generate revenue. And the net income as well has increased 20.4% quarter on quarter and 20.3% when we regard six months 2021 and 2022. However, we are suffering with the acceleration of inflation. We have debt, which is linked to inflation, especially IPCA, and this inflates also our revenue. But now, As inflation is rising, we have to bear the financial expense. And then in time, we will also see the price of our contracts readjusted. So there is this mismatch, and this starts to happen when inflation is growing. The drivers of these results are here. 6.9% have to do with the average increase in the sales price. and this is not linked to inflation. Inflation in 12 months was 12%, but most of our volume is being liquidated at spot price, and this has to do with the greater hydrology. We have a hedge, a reserve of energy, which we save because of the asymmetry in risk in the short-term market and our net price of sale was not significantly higher and did not follow, did not track inflation. This was offset by the volume. the volume was 321 megawatt average more, 7.9% increase. This has generated 279 million, which has to do with a combination with a higher price and sales volume. Also, the transmission segment contributed 92 million in the quarter, and we are going to talk a little bit more about the projects that generated this increase. Graal Azul and Novo Estado. And the result of CCEE, which is positive relative to last quarter, And this has to do with a more favorable hydrology in 2022 relative to 2021. As regards the negative impacts on the result, 215 million came from the purchase of energy, which has to do with the transaction involving the Jorge Lacerda power plant. We have committed to buy energy from this TPP, and then we will be able to decarbonize our energy portfolio. We will talk also a little bit more about another sale. We are talking with the first who are interested in Pampa, and we believe we can give you good news very shortly, and this will allow us to decarbonize our assets in terms of financial result. It was impacted by monetary restatement and by interest. Here you see the non-financial highlights. Within our growth strategy, we were successful in getting Block 7 in the auction in January 2022, and this has to do with our substation in Novo Estado. We are going to talk a little bit more about it later, but we received a discount and we also got better deadlines, so our auction was very successful. Our bid was very successful in a very competitive auction. Some prices are extremely aggressive. We can't understand how that is. But with this block, we are very comfortable. It's a small one, and we will be successful in transforming it into a very sustainable and profitable block. We have completed the acquisition of Serra do Asuruá. 880 megawatts, we are paying 260 million for the acquisition, and we should make investments in the region of 6 billion for this wind complex to be installed and be operational at the end of 2023, the beginning of 2024, or rather 2024, I correct myself. So this is an important factor. an important highlight, because this will ensure our growth. We have been growing in the last few years. You will see the level of investment, which has been in the region of 4 billion, and this is what has allowed us to see our EBITDA grow by nearly 120% since 2016.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

We have positive and negative highlights.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

We had to do yet another impairment relating to the sale of Pampa as a result of the allocation of risk, the discussions, but this is being absorbed by the result, by the bottom line, and this is a non-recurring factor. Also, 300 million will be invested. We have signed an agreement to implement through TAG pipeline with Centrais Eletricas de Sergipe to connect the generation, the thermal generation terminal to the TAG network. This is extremely important because it is essential for all the agents in the gas market to be connected to the transportation network. This will allow the market to operate in an efficient way, and we will therefore be able to optimize the resources of that segment. So we are very happy to announce this agreement. It's an investment that will give additional returns to TAG. We were also awarded the best ESG company in 2022 by Ezami Magazine, And this was together with IBMEC Business School. And the last highlight is that we started the remote operation of the Ita hydropower plant. It's the largest belonging to ENGIE, which is operated through the generation operation center. So 71.6% of our generation is generated through ENGIE. power plants which are remotely operated. Some are not operated through the COG because they're too old, they have analog controls and we are replacing these controls. This is quite substantial investment that has to be made to allow us to operate them remotely. And for some assets, this doesn't make sense, it's not cost effective. We rely on human resources. The power plant operates in commercial hours. But in some assets, the investment required to make them remotely controlled is too high. So it's not cost effective. So we have been making those decisions relative to the cost effectiveness of the investment. Then in terms of ESG, as you can see, we continue to grow in terms of installed capacity of renewables. Very shortly, 100% of our capacity will come from renewable sources. The emission intensity is a proxy, and we will see this decrease once Pampa is sold. Pampa stopped. this quarter to fix the boiler and we had to stop operating it because the spot price was below the variable cost of the power plant. So this shows what's going to happen with our intensity of emissions once Pampa is sold. The company will rely on renewable sources under Scope 3. In terms of water input and consumption, in the case of Pampa, for example, Pampa is one of the major consumers of water. It requires vapor. steam to generate thermal electrical electricity. And we also have been increasing the percentage of women in the workforce. This is something we have been working at. We have some very specific programs for engineering trainees and for operators because we need more women to choose these technical professions, these technical roles. So we are encouraging women and we have programs to attract and retain women so that we can have a better balance of in terms of the workforce. In terms of social responsibility investments, our objective is to use 100% of incentivized resources. We also invest all the funds, but as regards incentivized funds and resources. We aim to have 100% of them employed in good projects through our sustainability committee. And now let's talk about sales. In sales, the main point is that we see Cerrado Asurua inside our portfolio already, and this allows us to have more energy available as of 2025. The portion which is available in 22, 23, 24 tends to cover our hydrology hedging. We need to have uncontracted energy in order to face droughts and unfavorable hydrology conditions because there is an asymmetry. When this happens, we lose energy and we have to repurchase it at very high cost. So we need hedging. to hedge against unfavorable hydrological conditions. So in 2025, 26, we will have more energy available. And the good news is that we have been able to sell energy more recently in substantial amounts at very reasonable prices. We've seen the markets on increasing prices, and this is especially driven by the marginal expansion cost, which has been rising. When we look at cost drives, they are higher in wind energy because of the increased cost of cement, copper, and stainless steel. Local inflation as well is driving costs up, and this has an impact in the futures market. On the right-hand side, you see the risk We try to diversify and operate in different segments. We never go over 15% in any segment, for example, steel. And then we have the food segment. We sell to different industries. And in the other industries as well, we have diversified our clients. And we always look for medium to long-term contracts. And we maintain the resilience of our activity, the consistency of our sales, and the resilience of our results.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

In terms of consumers, we have been growing very strongly.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

And that was going on until 2020. And then during the pandemic, we tried to look better quality clients. And then in 2021, the hydrological conditions were very poor. So we had to be more conservative in terms of our sales volume.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

And we have been keeping the same number of clients.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

And here you have the main indicators for the commercial part. In terms of expansion, we are implementing the Santo Agostinho wind complex with 434 megawatts of installed capacity. It's going to start operating at the end of this year. There are 70 aerogenerators. All the bases have been completed. 63% of the substations have been completed and we should start mounting the equipment very shortly.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

Graal Azul also is

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

It is the last quarter where we present these slides. It accumulates 94% of the total RAP. The other 6% depends on some other lines that should connect to the last substation, which is Yerati. Once that happens, and if that happens until March 2023, this 6% will come on stream. 2023 is the deadline for the distributor. And then anyway, we start receiving as of 2023. But the project has been fully built. It is finished. We now depend only on this last bit, which depends on the distributor. As regards Novo Estado, we have executed 93.4% of the works. 49% of the RAP, and we are now working on the stretch between Xingu and Serra Pelada. And according to our program, this should come on stream. We have three contractors working. We have more contractors now to be able to implement it faster, but it should come on stream at the end of this year in commercial operation.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

Block 7 is the one we have recently acquired in the last auction.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

It is connected here to Takayuna's substation. The capex is $110 million. The concession term is 30 years, and we want to bring the operation forward by 24 months, and we want to reduce the capex by 30%. We always show some data on Jirao. The operation is very stable. The production of energy was low. But this doesn't have an impact from an economic point of view. This has to do with worse hydrology in the north in the beginning of the year. The availability is very good, over 99%. We present Jirao because, as you say, the controlling company wants this asset to be added to Engie Brasil Energias, and we should also start to operate this major unit in the group. We talked about projects under development and I highlight here that we have been growing our pipeline. We have been looking at opportunities to generate future growth and this is why we made the decision in this quarter or rather in this semester to retain dividends a bit We want to be conservative, and if we should need, we are going to invest in Serra do Asurua. Some other projects as well might require investment in the near future, so we are making a conservative payout of dividends. This might change. In case we are not successful in some of the projects, it might change. decide to pay out 100% of the dividends. However, we're being conservative to ensure that our cash flow will be enough for investment and growth, which is extremely important at this time. This is something about our financial performance, and I turn the floor over to Malta. Thank you, Satyamini. Good morning to all. I'm going to talk a little bit about our financial performance in the quarter. As you can see on the slide, the returns have been consistent throughout the years, and this attests to our financial discipline and efficient capital allocation. On the right-hand side, you see our financial performance in the last six years. We have made substantial investments. our installed capacity increased substantially, and we made investments in renewable energies. We also acquired a stake in TAG, and we entered into the transmission business with 2,800 kilometers under construction. Our adjusted EBITDA grew very significantly and in a sustainable manner. And we have distributed dividends also at very significant levels. In many of the years, we paid out 100% of the dividends allowed. This bridge shows the evolution of our net operating revenue, and part of this has been already explained by Satamini. We had a significant increase in sales volume, also an increase in our average price. And then in the trading operations, there was an increase by 134 million and also a reduction in the cost by 133 million, which took us to a margin of 1 million Reais. In the transmission segment, we saw a decrease because of the reduction in capex quarter on quarter. And I think these are the main factors that explain our net revenue and its evolution. This slide shows our share in the bottom line of TAG, of TAG. The results have been very consistent, and they closed the quarter with an income of R$492 million, which to us represents 160 million. So this is on account of our stake in TAG.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

This slide shows the change in our EBITDA.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

We have deducted non-recurring effects. In the second of quarter 2021, we had an impairment. for the Jorge Lacerda assets. And now in this quarter, as Satamini has said, we had an impairment of 118 million Reais.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

We are presenting the EBITDA in a new way.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

We are purging the economic effects of the transmission assets. In the last quarter, We had an effect of 159 million, and in this quarter, 177. These economic impacts have to do with the remuneration of the financial assets in construction. And here we have the RAP, which was captured in the quarter, and that is for 92 million. As said by Satamini, We had an increase in the price and sales volume, and we also had an increase of sales in our portfolio, which has to do mostly with Diamante, the assets of Jorge Lacerda. This is our net income change. The main impact comes from the increase in our EBITDA, and as said by Satamini, there was also an increase in our financial results because of inflation and interest, in addition to the loans of Floresta and Paracatu, which are accounted in our liabilities after we acquired these two assets.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

This slide shows our debt in the quarter.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

Net debt over EBITDA was 2.1 times and net over adjusted EBITDA was 2.8 times. This attests to an appropriate capital structure that can support our growth strategy. This slide shows the profile of amortization of our debt, the maturity schedule, which is very balanced, and it also shows the competitive cost of our debt. Today, it is in the region of 15% yearly, and that's a nominal cost which, can be translated into 3.5% of actual interest.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

And just to end, here you can see the makeup of our debt and the

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

73% of our debt is linked to IPCA, which is hedged by our sales contracts which are also linked to IPCA. The duration today is 7.4 years, which is also a comfortable level.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

This slide shows our investments in the last few years.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

These investments have had an appropriate return, and they are supported by our strong cash generation and by an appropriate funding strategy.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

As you can see here, there is a history of our dividend payout.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

In many years, the payout was 100%. And in this quarter, as Satamini said, we are going to pay out 55% of our income. And with this, I finish the presentation on our financial performance, and we will now open for the Q&A session from you. Hello, Satamini and Malta. Thank you very much for the presentation. I have some questions. I'm going to try to consolidate some of these because some of them focus on the same issues. We have five questions, and the first one is from an investor from Infinity, and he asks, what is the base scenario relative to the transfer of Girao? Should it be transferred to Engie Brasil Energia? Is that your expectation? And what has to happen for this to take place? Thank you for the question, Verna. Yes, yes. This is still on the table. We keep the asset in our presentation, quarter after quarter. But the controlling company believes it will only transfer once the project is financially balanced. As of July 2022, or rather 2023, there will be a reduction in TUST. And TUST is frozen for 10 years. And then after 10 years, it starts to vary. And there is going to be a significant reduction by 30% in TUST, which is an expense in the region of 1.1 billion reais per year. We are talking about extra cash for the company coming from geral in the region of R$330 million. This should make the operations financially balanced, and then that might be the time when the controlling company comes should bring the matter to the committee of related parties so that we can undergo a fair evaluation with advisors with a definition by the representatives also of the minority shareholders in the board. So you should see something in 2023 in the sense of beginning to study the transfer. And this is also because of the difficulties of these large structuring projects, additional CAPEX, delays, GSF, the hydro crisis. So all of this brought concerns to the controlling company who doesn't want to bring problems to our company. But once these issues are sorted out, we are going to evaluate this transfer in a professional and impartial manner. Thank you, Satamini. The next question comes from Arlindo Souza, Sellside Traders Club. Good morning. Congratulations for the delivery. The debt in the company is comfortable. Do you have any targets regarding capital structure, especially for the expansion of projects or expansion projects such as Asuroa? Yes, all projects are. have to include our basic premises regarding leverage, which is 5.7 for structure, or rather 70, 80% of financing and 20, 30% of equity. This is normally our leverage for projects. Our global leverage in the company. We always have as a target 2.5 to 3 times net debt over EBITDA. So this allows us to continue to be competitive in the capital market with AAA, good liquidity, and this is an advantage, a competitive advantage. When we place bids for projects, our cost of debt is lower than our competitors. Thank you, Satamini. Next question comes from Marcelo Sa, from Itaú BBA. You had a capex of 6 billion for 880 mega in Asuruá, so he's saying it's 6.8 million per megawatt installed, which is quite high, but in line with what he claims he sees in the market. What level of prices for energy would be needed to make this complex feasible? And what is the factor expected? What is the strategy for selling this energy? And if you could contract 70% of the volume before construction or not? So he's asking about the capacity factor and level of price expected. The capacity factor off the top of my head is in the region of 45, 46%, just off the top of my head, yeah. And what I can say is that it is higher than we expected, the capex per megawatt installed, As I said in the beginning of the presentation, it has been rising, and this will require, depending on the expected rate of return by the investors, the leverage level and level of risk, this will require prices above 200, 210 megawatt hour. And this is what we believe is the marginal cost today of implementing a new project, a new wind project. So this should drive prices to that level in the medium term. Prices may be lower because of supply and demand in the short term. Some may have older stocks that they sell in a competitive environment at a lower price, but this tends to come to an end, and the prices for wind energy should be the prices that will determine the prices of energy in the future. Wind energy, solar energy, biomass, small hydropower plants will no longer have the discount of fuel as of 2026. So as of 2027, when all of these projects come on stream, and everything is contracted, there will be no energy with a fuel discount. So the marginal price of expansion will become the market price in general, not only for the incentivized energy, but for conventional energy as well. We believe that there are factors that in the short term might be driving the prices. good hydrological conditions this year was spectacular relative to the last 10 years and just to give an idea in the last 10 years we had a new critical period period 49 56 and then in 2012 to 2020 and in 2021 It was the worst year of the series, so this would be added to a new critical period. That is, the hydrology was very bad. This year is very good. So the prices are being impacted by this expectation of better hydrology. These elements are impacting prices in the short term, but the trend is always increasing. for the medium to long-term prices to be driven by the marginal cost of expansion, which is 210, depending on the return expected by the investors, a bit less, a bit more. I see also, Rafael, that he's asking about the strategy to sell this energy. This energy, the energy from Asurua, will represent 7% of our contract portfolio. This energy will be included in our portfolio and will be sold at the right time. We have a strategy for contracting our energy in time, and this energy, once it is in the portfolio, it will be contracted. Unlike many players who have to sell energy because they don't have enough cash or they don't find proper funding, we are different. We have a large portfolio. We have a large volume of clients, and we are able to meet the needs of these clients. We don't have to sell at low prices now, and we will have more appropriate times to sell this energy in the near future. Thank you, Satamini. Thank you for your explanation.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

The next two questions have to do with the payout. And the questions here are, is the 55% payout going to be the payout for the year?

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

You have said it is not going to be so. We have been conservative here.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

we decided to pay out 55% so that we do not have to go for high leverage when the interest rate is high. Fighting inflation will require higher interest rates.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

It has already happened. So if we need to invest, we would rather not invest. make any loans with a high interest rate. So we want to grow. We don't want any exposure to high interest rates. And it might be that at the end of the year, the situation has changed and we will be able to pay out 100%. If you look at our history in the last 10, 15 years, there were only three times that we paid 55%. But remember, as we reach the optimal indebtedness, we will have to balance the volume of investments and the payout so that we can continue to grow. So this is what we have to watch for. If we continue to grow, and you see, we have to grow in terms of the volume of the

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

income we distribute. We have increased our debt, but we have increased even more our EBITDA.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

As a result, the cake is bigger. The percentage may be lower, but the cake is bigger. That's the most important thing. Another question from Renan. So going forward in the next five years, he says, what is the scenario for self-production, especially companies that are clients of Engie Brazil? He asks if we are concerned about self-production, if this would have an impact on price, and what the company's strategy would be to hedge against this impact. We resisted entering into the self-production scheme for a very simple reason. There is an asymmetry between the benefit and the investment on the part of consumers. We believed that the other consumers who do not have self-production would end up paying the bill. But the market went in that direction, and we have that product to offer to our clients. They can do self-production. They can have a partnership with us in some projects. We have some discussions already going on. So will this have an impact on our business? No. We are adapting our commercial strategy to serve those clients. This happens. has a smaller impact as of the 414 regulation, which is being discussed in Congress. There will be a limitation for self-production. So producers will be clients for large volumes. So not everybody can go into self-production. We will participate. This is now part of our commercial offerings. But at some point, this market may grow at a slower pace. A question now having to do with sustainability from Flavio Ferraz, our investor. Doesn't the investment in TAG come into conflict with the decarbonization policy?

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

No, we don't think so. Gas is a fuel.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

that allows us to replace other fossil fuels which have a bigger impact in terms of greenhouse gases, and gas helps us do it. Many plants are still relying on oil.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

Many industries still rely on oil or other polluting fuel.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

So it's not possible to have 100% renewable matrix because this is resources from nature. So you need to have some energy coming from thermal power plants, which is reliable. so that you have a renewable and balanced supply of energy.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

Another factor as well is that gas will become greener in time with biogas with the introduction of hydrogen.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

in the makeup of gas, so this also takes us towards decarbonizing our clients. Thank you. Next question comes from Guilherme from Santander Southside.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

Could you make any comments about

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

about how you are able to get prices for the medium term above inflation. And what about overcapacity impacting prices downwards? We have increased prices, but not above inflation. That's the truth. When we see the contracting prices in the quarter, for this quarter, it's lower than inflation, slightly lower. And this is the impact. of the, not over capacity, over supply, but it has to do with the need of many players to have projects to capture the benefit of feel before the deadline, before it ends. And that has enabled us to be very aggressive with some players. And the market price was then pushed downwards. But once this is over, we believe there won't be, the prices will have to go to levels which are in line with the implementation of new generation capacity. That's why I said the marginal price of expansion should be slightly higher than what we saw in the market in recent times. Next question comes from Bruno Ferreira, our investor, and has to do with the two main transmission assets. The effects of the RAP will be full as of Q4 2022 or later? We will have 100% of the RAPs as of March 2023. We still have 6% of Gralha Azul to go. The complete cycle of billing of our APs will only be seen as of March 2024, so 12 months between March 2023 and 2024.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

Do you want to add anything, Rafael? No, no, that's it. As of March, we will achieve 100% in Graal e Azul.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

So we will have in 2024 the first full year in which these projects will contribute to the bottom line. Next question is from Fabio Faria from Bank of America. Could we make some more comments about generation? Why did we decide not to participate? we decided not to participate because, in our opinion, there were three or four plants which accounted for almost all of the project, but there were small shares of Eletrosul and some issues relating to corporate shareholdings, which made it complicated for us. Those were the basic reasons. But it's not that we don't want to invest in new capacity in hydro. But we also have to think that investing in solar and wind will allow us to diversify our portfolio, which is now mostly based on hydro. And this gives us better conditions to manage the portfolio. It's not because it's hydro. There are other reasons. But also, we now prefer to invest in wind and solar because they are complementary to our portfolio, which is mostly hydro-based. There is a question now. by Tiago, and he asks if we are interested in investing in hydro or only in wind and solar. Yeah, I believe I have answered that. Jose Renan, our investor, he asks, what are the prospects in relation to transmission? Is there any guidance or any possibility of increasing the percentage of transmission? So the question is, what are we planning for transmission? Is there any guidance, prospect of increasing transmission in the top line? Yes, we do. We are interested in increasing the percentage of transmission in our top line. But Greenfield comes through auctions. There are concessions. And Brownfield, which would be M&A, is extremely competitive. So probably we will go down the route of exploring new projects, new concessions, new constructions. And this is also because we have the expertise in terms of construction. We know the market very well. We know the infrastructure market really well. And that's where we add value the most. We are going to look into auctions, and we are going to try and find ways to be competitive and profitable. It's no use being competitive without being profitable. We want returns for our investors.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

Next question comes from Matthew Prado.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

Could we comment on the expected return in generation and transmission? And he also asks whether CAPEX for construction, for the projects under construction has remained the same. We can answer to a certain extent. Let's put it like that. Good to see Marcio back. Marcio has been with us for a long time. Yes, Marcio, we had some CAPEX issues. especially in those projects that were developed during the pandemic. There were some problems, you know, some of the works were stopped. And thank God, COVID is now not that big a risk because of the vaccines. But, yes, we faced problems. There were some CAPEX increases, but nothing. The macroeconomic factors also were in the favor of these projects. So the projects today that we have in terms of infrastructure, transmission, and generation, despite the increasing capex, they are still profitable or have a greater profitability relative to our expectations. Enrique Peretti from JP Morgan asks, is the company going to be long in the spot market for Serra do Asurua if we take into account the change in the method to calculate the spot price? I'll repeat the question. If the company plans to stay long in the market given the change in the method to calculate the spot price, the PLD, Yeah, that method is extremely important. It increases the risk and the spot price, but this is not the reason why we plan to stay long. With Asurua, we are bringing energy into our portfolio, and with this energy, we will be able to sell to clients within the portfolio following our strategy. to have uncontracted energy for future years. And this volume of contracts and contracts renewed with our clients is a warehouse strategy to have energy in stock.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

We're not selling energy before to guarantee the flow.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

Because, as I said before, prices in the market today are not appropriate. They're not adequate.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

We believe the prices will rise. And in our warehouse, in our stock, we will be able to serve clients who are migrating.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

These clients don't allow us to have a ballast for a large project, but these are clients who in the next few years will migrate from the captive to the pre-market with small amounts. So this would be thousands of clients who are willing to pay higher rates because of the migration. They are now paying a lot. They go to the free market, obviously. They're looking for better prices. These are small clients. So we are going to work with many clients with small amounts, but acting very strongly in the digitization and training of our commercial force.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

There's one last question here. And then I have two questions here relating to Giral.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

And we will be in touch with the people who ask these questions. We have one last question from Emerson Pereira, our investor. And he's asking about the privatization of Eletrobras. Will there be major changes in the market in regards to generation and transmission that could impact the company? I believe, yes, there is going to be an impact. But maybe in the part of the market that you didn't mention, and that has to do with commercialization, generation and transmission will compete against us like any other competitors. But when Eletrobras is privatized, Eletrobras becomes flexible and can have its own sales force. and offer what they have to the market. Today, what happens is that the companies that belonged to Eletrobras, they didn't have any flexibility regarding commercialization. They had to sell the energy in auctions. And the energy was sold then to commercial companies who drove the price down and then offered the energy price plus margin to the clients. So it was a bad competition. They had a very low price and added just a small margin on top of that. Once that energy is sold by Eletrobras, as any other player, Eletrobras will try to be competitive, but will also try to capture the surplus consumers. We all want to do that. We want to sell energy. at the best possible price, and I think this will be healthy once we have a competitor that acts in a competitive manner to sell the volume of energy that Eletrobras has. Thank you very much, Satamini. Thank you very much for the excellent questions. And I now turn the floor over to Satamini for his final remarks. Thank you so much for participating for the great questions. The pandemic made so that we have virtual meetings, which is very efficient, but I really miss being face-to-face with you, seeing friends, and discussing in person. Let's see if we can create an opportunity for that in the short term. We cannot live only in the virtual world. We have to be together.

speaker
Eduardo Satamini
CEO and IRO

and build relationships. Thank you very much, and we'll see you in the next call. Thank you very much.

speaker
Rafael Borrosio
IR Manager

See you next time.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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