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.
11/6/2025
Good morning and welcome to the Engie Brazil Energia's Third Quarter 25 Earnings Results video conference. I'm Adriana Bachmet, Investor Relations Analyst of Engie Brazil. and i would like to make a few announcements before we start the video conference at this moment the people connected are in listener mode later when we open the q a session participants will be able to send their questions through the Zoom Q&A option. It is worth remembering that this video conference is being recorded at our site, www.ng.com.br. Investors, we have made available the results presentation and earnings release. filed at the CVM, which analyzes financial statements, operational results, ESG indicators, and progress in the implementation of new projects in detail. Before proceeding, I would like to clarify that all statements that may be made during this video conference regarding the company's business outlook should be treated as forecast depending on the country's macroeconomic conditions of the performance regulation of the electric sector besides other variables. They are therefore subject to change. We remind the journalists who wish to ask questions that they can do it through email sending it to the company's press conference to present the results we have with us today, Mr. Pierre Leblanc, the CFO and IRO, Guilherme Tejada, Renewable Energy and Storage Officer, Marcos Keller, Director of Energy Trading, and Leonardo Depinet, Manager for Investor Relationships. I would like to give the floor to Pierre to begin the presentation.
Okay. Hello. So good morning, everyone. I will do it in English. So I hope it will be fine for everyone. So thanks for joining us during this hour. Always a very, very important moment for us to meet you and to explain you the financial results and the main highlights for the last quarter 25. So if we start with the highlights, it can be the main achievement we realized during this quarter. are the following. First of all, regarding our project Asfou Roi and Asfou Sol, we now almost complete the physical phases and we are starting the operational commercial operations. So we are on time and it's a very, very great achievement for us. Then we complete also the acquisition and the integration in our portfolio of the two hydropower plants, San Antonio, Dojari, and Cachoeira. So now the two assets are fully embedded in our portfolio management since mid-August, and they are starting to contribute in our EBITDA. And we won for the 15th time the Trophy of Transparency in Accounting, ANEFAC, which recognizes the transparency and the quality of our financial statements. And it's a very, very great job from Romary teams and our accounting team. We also be certified as the best place to work according to the GPTW, Great Place to Work Brazil. So good company and good achievement from our HR team. Then I have to mention that there is a subsequent event from Q3. This is an increase of our social capital. So we decided because we need to comply with the law and our profit reserve was above our social capital in late 24. So we need to increase our capitals through the profit reserve incorporation. So we will do it during November month and we will do it through bonus shares. Then Q3 results in terms of finance is a very, very good, robust, and solid results. As you can see on the slide, our EBITDA grew by almost 12.54% compared to last quarter, 24, which is good results. And if we look at year-to-date EBITDA, of course, on a recurring basis, we increased our EBITDA in 25 by 6.4%. Okay. It's a little bit less true regarding the net recurring results because we do, you can see that we decrease by, in year to date, by 8.4% our net income. due to the two main mainly three factors uh uh first of all we so we see the an increase of our depreciation of assets because we do have compared to last year uh three big assets you would uh in in now in operation like cruzeiro uh cashware uh we also have an increase of our financial expenses linked to the high interest rate in Brazil in 25, much higher than in 24. And we do have an increase in our tax expenses also. But overall, Very good results. Robust. We deliver what we say. So NGEB is an healthy company on that. Then, regarding the ESG KPIs, well-oriented, to be fair, all of them, except maybe, and unfortunately, we have to deflore four accidents during the last quarter, 25, four accidents with ESG. work stop days, some works of days. So we are still paying a lot of attention, a lot of focus on that. And we also support a lot the increase of the women in our leadership team. So we are on track. We are on the good way to achieve our results. We increase the percentage of women in our leadership team. and we continue to invest uh in um in the innovation and in our response responsibility social responsibility even if we decrease a little bit our contribution on that now time to leave the floor to guillaume in order for him to present the operation in for in renewables
Very well, I'm going to explain what underlies these figures. Here we have the availability of our wind, solar and electric assets. Our performance continues to improve, especially in wind and photovoltaic. We have a team that works closely with our suppliers so that we can have greater availability in our equipment this is the effort of our team of course with the help of investment always seeking good performance of our assets now the performance has been significant in these two technologies in energy, we're subject to seasonality, but we're also following a very good availability standard in transmission. also a very high availability and, of course, these are assets that are more predictable in terms of operation, except for unforeseen things, but we're doing well in transmission as well. Now, regarding containment, the hot topic in the sector of renewable energy, it has been significantly impacting our generation. The impact is on wind, solar assets, and very much aligned with what is happening in the system. We attempt, of course, to minimize this, optimize everything with maintenance, management of these curtailments. We hope that a solution for curtailment will come. in the fourth quarter with operational adjustments that should come from ANEL and the National Integration System. Now, another important point that has already been mentioned by Pierre is the acquisition of Cachoeira Calderon and Santo Antonio do Jari. And I think you can go on to the next slide. No, perhaps not. If you could go back, therefore, the organic growth in this quarter where we added 680 megas additionally from Cerrado al Surua and Azul Sol. And additionally, the two hydroelectric plants mentioned by Pierre Cachoeira Calderon and Santo Antonio de Jari with 612 megawatts. Next slide, please. As has already been mentioned, we see a growth in generation. This comes from our organic growth and from the M&A operation we have just carried out. Once again, it's organic growth and an enhancement in performance. This year, the wind situation was above what we had expected, helping us to minimize the issue of curtailment, operational enhancement, better natural resources, both solar and wind. All of these are helping us have an increase in power generation. Next slide. keller you have the floor good morning to everybody and i think this slide summarizes our trading activity for the quarter it was an excellent quarter And in the graph to the right, you can observe that we had very good sales during the quarter. Now, this is a comment we made in the call of last quarter that some operations that were under negotiation are still not reflected in our balance. And this is the case of this quarter where they are reflected. the variation is due to the accounting of new productions with high production levels and we're showing the availability new contracts for all the years until 2029 so we have good volumes as you can see. And besides these good production volumes, you can see the number of our consumers. We have a good evolution in that figure of consumers when compared with the same quarter last year, 17.6% increase of consumers. We have 2056 at the close of the year. quarter, and a growth of 24% in consumer units served in the third quarter of 2025 until the end. Once again, very positive figures in energy sold, volume sold, as well as in our consumer for its folio with a lower ticket perhaps, but with higher margin. We can see the position of our resources available until 2030 going forward. This means that we continue with that strategy of contracting through time, fine-tuning tactical adjustments, gradual growth, guaranteeing revenues, and the predictability of our results. I think this is what I wanted to say regarding that slide, and I am at your disposal during Q&A. Well, to go back to the projects that are under implementation, the Asurua wind complex, as Pierre mentioned, the physical progress has been concluded. It is 100% operational. We're waiting for a new dispatch to enter commercial operations of 100% of this complex. And we're waiting for the decision of ONS that has created new procedures. to obtain, well, the license and to test these assets. It's worth highlighting that the Asurua wind complex, as you already know, has quite a bit of supply and the performance has been much above what is expected. It surprises us in terms of its performance. It's the largest wind complex in Brazil and also the park with the best performance throughout Brazil. This project was delivered within the foreseen budget, within the right timeline, with health and security fully complied with. And we're in the final stage of execution, the environmental part, the recovery of degraded areas and investment in social areas surrounding the asset location. Next slide, please. Asusó, we have concluded it. We are progressing in installation activities and because of this new procedure of the ONS, we're waiting to signal all of the procedures to be able to enter commercial activity. This is an asset with very good performance, top-line performance. Now, in terms of CAPEX, it's all according to what has been scheduled. It is in accordance to our scheduling. And the same holds true for health and security. We have a recovery plan for the degraded areas. These are activities that tend to take longer, but within what is foreseen and as part of the social work that we carry out.
Next slide, please.
Our first transmission project in this presentation is Asa Branca. The first stretch is between Chapéu II and Poisson III. It's about to be concluded. This should happen in the fourth quarter. Now, at the end of this year, we will have 33% of the project wrap, a relevant amount compared to what we expected in the auction. Now, the second stretch is awaiting the license for The continuation, this should take a few weeks and this should begin the coming year. The final stretch of the project will only come into operation at the end of 2027. Well, in Graúna, this comes from a recent auction at the end of 2024. It's still in the environmental phase, but going according to plan. Now, that red line that you see, the brown field on the map at the beginning of july we began to operate that line we have five percent of the total wrap not that much but an important framework for it is the first brownfield that we take on with our own operation not with third parties and of course this is important for ng Regarding Vidal, now if anybody would like to add something, please do. No great updates compared to the last quarter.
We... Well, we are...
fully mapping everything out in the graph that you see and regarding the transfer which is a frequent question that we receive. We're still awaiting the stance of the controller and there's nothing new this quarter regarding that topic. And the last one, Guilherme, who will speak about expansion where there is nothing that novel, nothing new here. We continue to maintain our project pipeline, and we are awaiting, and the market is reacting, of course. There are real demands. We hope this will not be impacted by curtailment. We continue to keep these in our portfolio, especially the wind assets, so that we can follow on with their development. Expansions are always marginal but highly welcome and as part of this context, we have the possibility of the auction for capacity the coming year we have two of our assets Santiago and others that will participate but we well we will be able to take part in this auction and another important point refers to the batteries We're beginning to look at these with greater attention, the development of batteries, to also take part in the auction that will take place the coming year. Well, thank you, Guilherme. We'll go to see our financial performance, return on equity and return on invested capital at satisfactory levels, showing how resilient we are. We invested more than $38 million in the last years, which means that our asset base has increased and, of course, It is outdated. The prices in the past were old. It seemed to be greater with this new updated base. The prices have dropped a bit, and some of these projects are not delivering 100% of their EBITDA. This will become more clear in 2026. Asuru and others delivering their full performance, and so the levels will be more recurrent. Now, for the nine months of 2025, we have a slightly higher share of transmission vis-à-vis 2024 as part of our strategy of diversification. One-fourth comes from transmission, gas transportation, 75% from generation. Here we see our revenue changes at 31.8%. Most of this due to IFRS, 22 million in transmission, but we do have an important organic effect in growth of revenue and volume, inflation and new assets coming into operation vis-a-vis the same period last year. And if we look at EBITDA, this will become more clear. Now, to go to the results of TAG, that continues to deliver a very consistent performance, 2,300,000,000 of NOR and a billion, almost a billion of profit this quarter of net income, very similar to the first quarter, somewhat below the second quarter, where we had a non-recurrent effect. doing very well. Here we have a more complex graph for this presentation, referring to EBITDA at one end, the accounting EBITDA that is published, then we have the intermediate bars, that is adjusted EBITDA, This quarter, there were very few adjustments, as you can see, and in the middle, adjusted EBITDA and the effect of IFRS all have a similar growth between 10 and 13%. Transmission varies significantly. stable, equity income of tax somewhat lower, so we're left with generation with an increase of 287 that we have called performances, price, volume, and expansion, and reductions. due to costs associated to expansion, connection cables, material service, and sundry costs. This is a positive result coming from generation. Now, in the middle, we have a growth of 10.5% net income change, a very similar panorama. In the center, an increase of 10% from 666 to 738. Most comes from adjusted EBITDA, income taxes, negative variations due to depreciation, new assets, and partly due to financial results. Our indebtedness has increased a bit, and we have, of course, the interest rates. that are higher than the third quarter last year, leading to a 10% increase. We'll speak about our indebtedness, balance debt. It's increasing, which is expected, $3 billion for the acquisition of Jardí and Cachoeira. We have 600 in debt, 3 million impact on our debt. Only this acquisition changed the EBITDA. It was 2.7 times last year. It has now reached 3.2 times. This is still a satisfactory level that guarantees a triple A, which we would like to maintain. In gross debt, 3.8 times a well-balanced debt, as you can see. Of course, as of now, we need to be more cautious in our coming steps, but a healthy indebtedness. Now, in this slide, we show you the debt profile and maturity, a very smooth schedule after 2030. Therefore, this profile is 2 billion a year in terms of debt payment. fully under control. We continue to be AAA, one-third in CDI and the rest in IPCA. The cost of the debt evidently has increased a bit, 6.4 on average compared to 5.6 in the same period last year. Of course, there is pressure from the financial conditions throughout the country. Regarding our Capex, no significant changes. A detachment year on year, almost 10 billion year on year. This year, 6 billion, which means the three from Jardim and Cachoeira and the rest for the conclusion of Jardim, the transmission companies, that is where our Capex is going to. And in 26, 27, everything at lower levels. We will be left with maintenance and the two transmission companies, Graul that extends to 2028 and Azabranca till 2027. And finally, well, this slide I believe is the same as that of last quarter to show you our payment of dividends. Uh-huh, 20, 21, 100%. And since 23, we maintain there's that 55% without significant changes. And that is it. Abdi will now... lead the Q&A session for us. Why, thank you. We will now begin the Q&A session. Should you wish to pose a question, please send it to the Q&A icon on Zoom. Our first question is from Daniel Kravinsky from Safra. He has two questions. I will pose the first question and put it together with another question from Juan, an individual investor. about the share bonuses. Could you explain the rationale to do that now? And we have the question from Juan on the bonus and other model for the payout of dividends and shareholder capital.
You compliment if you want. So why we are doing that? It's just because hand of 24, our profit-reserve was above the capital social. And to be compliant with the law, we need to increase our social capital. This is the first point. The second point is We add space to increase our social capital until the authorized capital we do have. And his authorized capital is today at 7 billion of reais. So we take the opportunity to go up to the limit or close to the limit. and um we we proposed to the board yesterday and and it was approved to increase the social capital up to 6.9 million billion and it will be done through a bonus action why just because we wanted to also to to have a better liquidity of our shares in the stocks. And through these mechanisms, we will increase the liquidity of our shares without any financial impact at short term for our minority shareholders. Depine, if you want to complement or not, up to you.
No, that was perfect, Pierre, simply to complement the remuneration model besides the shareholder equity payment. In the future, we can alter the company stock. I don't think this will be done in the short term. This is a model that will be analyzed to see if there's any advantage in doing that.
Thank you.
The second part of the question refers to your vision on the solution proposed for the curtailment provisional measure 384. This is also part of Juan's question. Who asks about curtailment and how to deal with it in the medium term? I would like to begin the answer, then I will give the floor to Guilherme O'Peller. This provisional measure 304 was approved but not sanctioned. We have to wait for it to be sanctioned and we need to understand the regulation better. Perhaps Guilherme would like to comment on what is included in this provisional measure. This is simply to add information. We're faced with several uncertainties in terms of the real impact which will be the reimbursement. We still have doubts if there will be reimbursement regarding power or if there will not be reimbursement. And there's an issue that we already mentioned, regulatory issues that could make investments in generation have a different technical conditions to the ones we have presently, creating another obstacle to the incredible growth of generation companies now. All of this strongly impacts our projections going forward. Well, I don't have very much to add. Everything has been said. We would have to see the final version of Provisional Measure 304. There are two articles that we need to analyze before we can estimate what will be subject to reimbursement and those articles that refer to us. and the impact, the effect that this causes on physical distribution and distributive distribution. These are points that need to be further assessed at the end of this legislation. Now, there is a positive point in the midterm, and it is interesting for the long term, better conditions to insert batteries into the system. This will help us overcome several difficulties that we face at present. and physical containment can be mitigated if we make good use of these batteries now in the coming months and years we will see how this plays out to complete that topic and others We're going to approach this in great detail in NGD that will be held in São Paulo at the end of November. If you can't be with us, we will record the session. Thank you very much. Our next question is from Joaquim. The question is, will the company think of similar acquisitions compared to the assets recently acquired. Will this go in detriment of new assets in the renewable sector? I will begin, and then Depine and Keller, please feel at ease to add your comments. Now, evidently, the market, with this over-supply, ended up thinking greenfield made no sense. And with curtailment massively impacting the results, greenfield has been put aside. Now, this is a factor that will make us postpone our decision to invest in greenfields. And when we look at M&A for wind and solar operations, the curtailment factor is a fundamental assumption. Of course, the seller will try to... insist on curtailment, the buyer will insist on a more realistic curtailment, and this leads to a great difference in values. Potential M&As for renewable wind and solar energy will have to wait until we have a clear vision of the impact of Provisional Measure 304 and the regulation that will come about to work with distributed generation. Now, emanating hydro plants, well, this is not only our desire, but that of other players, but it is scarce in the market, there are few opportunities. Whenever an opportunity arises, we will look at it, of course, following the line that we followed for Cachoeira and Jardim. We will see the quality of the asset, labor. I think labor qualification is fundamental, and that was a positive point in these two assets. We were able to maintain all of the employees that we're already working there, bringing in the knowledge since the phase of conception until the beginning of operation, and we're adding Engie's knowledge to enhance the quality of these assets. We have to carry out an in-house analysis, and as I said, these assets are scarce in the market. There are not very many opportunities. Thank you, Guilherme. The next question comes from Bruno Oliveira, sales side analyst. Two questions. Any planning on CAG, a possible partial sale in the horizon? And as part of your investment project, any outlook for a dividend payout of 100% or is it too early for this discussion?
The answer is quite easy. It's no. Nothing planned in the very, very short term or short term or medium term for TAG. Depine, maybe you can take the second one.
Well, regarding the dividends, for the time being, no, our indebtedness continues to grow somewhat above three at present and will continue further increase because of the two projects under construction until mid-2026. I think Bruno asked about this. It doesn't make sense for the time being to go back to 100% of payout with indebtedness above three. I think we had already referred to this in the second quarter as well. Very good, thank you. To continue with the next question from Victor Burg, a sell-side analyst for JPMorgan. any update in the revision of tariffs in the Northeast, TAG? Well, from TAG and the regulator itself, we have heard that this tariff revision should happen in the first half of the coming year. The last information is that this review will be carried out in two stages. They're going to work on work and the asset base So this process will be displaced through June, perhaps will be concluded in June. This is the last statement we heard from the regulator. We shouldn't expect anything very concrete in the short term.
Very well.
Our next question comes from Bruno Vidal, a sell-side analyst from XP Investments. Does the company have an outlook on participation in BP and which would be the modality, capital stock increase or increase of indebtedness?
We are still studying this opportunity to prepaid our UBP topic. We are waiting for the NL calculation and then we will have until beginning of December to to discuss with Annelle and then Annelle will give us if we are interested to pay the deadline to do the cash out. How we will do it, so it will be probably now in 26, not in 25. It's still under discussion inside the EBE. We do have a lot of different options. Increase of capital may be one, but it's not the only one. So we will take and choose the best option for EBE to finance the prepayment if we decide to do it. I hope that, as Depine said earlier, I hope that at the end of December, during our Investor Day in Sao Paulo, we could give you more detail on that.
Well, thank you very much. Our calculation in the timeline, the payment could be until the end of... march or the beginning of april so we have the first quarter of 2026 to discuss these options Thank you. Our next question is from Lorena from Itaú BBA. Our trading strategy, which is the outlook of maintaining part of the portfolio uncontracted, considering the price of energy in the coming years? I can answer that if you could tell me the first part. our trading strategy, which is the outlook of maintaining part of the portfolio uncontracted, considering our viewpoint on energy in coming years. We continue with that vision, with that strategy of having gradual un-contracting and we make tactical adjustments in terms of sales. This is the best for a company that is capital intensive and works with generation. We give ourselves the opportunity to make the most of higher prices in that long arm. Now we're thinking of year plus one, year plus two. We have future prices that are higher than years further ahead. So there is space for that long arm. while the market prices react in the upward position it's important to make the most of contracting and not move away from this now there's also a limit in liquidity in the market so we can't contract everything on the spot with this very volatile price model We know there are scenarios where the price will be much too low and spot prices will be low and we have to counterbalance our vision that there is room for future prices to improve. vis-à-vis the risk in the short term, not allowing huge volumes for the short term, because we'll end up in the spot market. This is a bet, of course. Our profile is to have an appropriate management between results, our revenues and the risks that we take on. To summarize, we're going to continue following our broader strategy of gradually contracting future energy. Thank you. Thank you very much. At this point, we would like to end the question and answer session. I will return the floor to our officers and Mr. Dupinet for their closing remarks. I would like to thank all of you for your attendance, and we hope to see you at our next events. We'll meet at our event at the end of November, and we hope to have a better vision of the impacts of PM304. Thank you all very much. Have a good day, and we hope to see you in our next event.
Thank you all.
Obrigada a todos, a participação de todos aqui hoje. We thank all of you for your attendance, the energy, video conference, and see you have a very good afternoon.
