Localiza Rent A Car S/Adr

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Good afternoon and welcome to the Localiza and Co. webinar regarding the results of the fourth quarter and the year of 2024. With us today are Bruno Lazansky, our CEO, Rodrigo Tavares, CFO, and Nora Lanari, Director of Investors Relations of the company. We would like to inform you that this webinar is being recorded and will be made available at ri.lucaliza.com, where you can find the complete disclosure of results material. This presentation is also available for download on our RI website. For the Q&A session for analysts and investors, we kindly ask you to indicate your interest in participating through the Q&A icon on the bottom of your screens by typing your name, institution, and language. When called upon, a request to activate your microphone will appear on the screen. To submit questions in writing, please use the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and fill in your name, institution, before the question. Please note that the values of this presentation are in millions of BRLs and information herein and any forward-making statements that may be made during the video conference regarding Localiza's business outlook projections and operational and financial targets constitute beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as information currently available. Future considerations are not performance guarantees. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. as they refer to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Now I will hand the floor to Bruno Luzansky, the company's CEO, to begin the presentation. Good afternoon. In 2024, we redoubled our focus at executing the company's strategic priorities, and throughout the second half of the year, we began to see consistent results from our initiatives. The year was marked by revenue growth in all of the company's divisions, with 17% in car rental, 25% in fleet management, and 37% in semi-novos. In car rental, We continue the process of price adjustment, which increased by 15.4% in the year, ending the last quarter at 147 million BRLs, reflecting the strength of the brand and commercial excellence of Localiza. We focused the capital allocation on higher return segments. Thus, we reduced the heavy-use fleet by around 25% and improved the global fleet utilization. We highlight that, excluding trucks and heavy-use vehicles, the net revenue in 2024 grew 32.4%. to 32% with a volume of daily rentals growing 13% year-over-year. On the operations front, we expanded our network of decommissioning centers to 13 units, increasing the speed, quality and management of the preparation process, which contributed to improving the channel mix. Seminovals doubled the volume of cars sold in only two years. During the year, we expanded the store network and increased productivity per store. 280,000 cars were sold, which contributed to reducing the average age of the cars sold in the car rental division from 28 to 23 months. As a result, in this year we presented consolidated net revenue of 37.3 billion, EBITDA of 11.9 billion and net income of 1.8 billion with a ROIC spread of 3.1 percentage points, evolving to a spread of 5 percentage points in the second half of 2024. In addition, the year was marked by increased cash generation. from car rentals, contributing to the reduction of our leverage ratios, even with the increase of payment of interest on equity and the repurchase of the company's shares during the year. We continued to improve our customer experience. For example, we doubled the number of 100% digital pickups during the year, launched a new Localiza Mail app with unique features on the market, and transformed the delivery and return journey in fleet rental, all of which contributed to an excellent NPS and a differential in delight. In addition, Localiza was recognized once again as one of the 15 best companies to work for by Great Place to Work. In terms of technology, we completed the ERP update, as well as the migration of 100% of our applications to the cloud, contributing to greater agility, efficiency, and performance of our technology environment. In 2025, we are facing a scenario of rising interest rates and potential slowdown in economic activity and reduced credit availability. In this context, we have defined five priorities for the year. First, scaling up of semi-novos to renew the fleet. Two, re-establishing rental prices, prioritizing revenue growth and ROIC spread. 3. Efficiency in cost and productivity. 4. Optimization of the segment portfolio focusing on more profitable segments. 5. Improving the experience of our customers to increase even more the differentiation of delight. 6. Concluding the process of systemic integration and corporate simplification. These initiatives are crucial for the gradual recovery of profitability levels. We are confident that we will emerge from the current cycle by further expanding our market leadership, competitive advantages, and resuming our growth trajectory with value creation. To present the highlights of the year and the quarter, I will now hand over to our CFO, Rodrigo Tavares. Thank you, Bruno, and good afternoon, everyone.

On page 2 are the highlights of the quarter.

We maintain solid results driven by Rupa's revenue growth in car rental, fleet rental, and seminovals, combined with efficient cost management. The car rental division reported revenue of 2.6 billion BRLs for the quarter, a 13% growth year-over-year. In fleet rental, we continue the portfolio optimization process, which will contribute to the recomposition of our work spread. Net revenue totaled 2.2 billion, a 16% growth year-over-year. In Seminovos, we expanded our network with the opening of 123 sales points throughout the fourth quarter of 2024, strengthening our market presence and driving a gradual free renewal process in 2025. Net revenue from Seminovos achieved 5.1 billion in the quarter, a 35.3% increase year-over-year. The gradual fleet rejuvenation will continue to contribute to the improvement of the sales channel mix, positively impacting the average price of cars sold over the year. Consolidating net revenue grew by 24.6% to 9.9 billion, a bid that increased by 15% to 3.3 billion, and profit reached 837 million in this quarter. Now, to present the details of our quarterly results, I will hand over to our investor relations director, Norella Nari. Thank you, Rodrigo, and good afternoon. Going into the details of the results on page 3, we start with the car rental division in Brazil. In 4Q24, the net revenue for car rental division achieved 2.6 billion, a 13% increase year-over-year. due to the increase in the average daily rate. Compared to 4Q23, volumes adjusted by 2.9%, due to the strong comparison base and prioritization of price recomposition. Compared to the 3Q24, volumes advanced by 1.4%. In 2024, revenue grew by 16.8% year-over-year, totaling 9.6 billion, with stable daily rental volumes for the year and acceleration in the average rate recomposition, which advanced by 15.4% over the year. On page 4. We present another quarter of average daily rate advancements, which added the year at 147.4 million, a 16.3% increase year-over-year. The utilization rate remains at a healthy level of 79% for the quarter, reflecting price and mix management. Moving to page 5, we see the evolution of the car rental branches network. We ended the year with 537 owned agencies in addition to 18 branches in Mexico and 151 franchises, totaling 706 service points in Latin America. On page 6, in fleet rental division, volumes and prices continued to rise in 4Q24, resulting in net revenue of 2.2 billion BRLs. a 16.4% increase compared year-over-year. In 2024, there was a 10% increase in volume, 25.1% increase in revenue for this division compared year-over-year, excluding the effects of reduction of heavy-use contract portfolio net revenue would have advanced by more than 30% in the year. On page 7, we present the daily average rate of 97.7% and 11.3% increase compared year-over-year, The utilization rate increased by 0.5%. In 2024, the average daily rate advanced by 13.7%, with a slight reduction of 0.7% of fleet utilization year-over-year due to higher number of deactivated cars resulting from the portfolio optimization process. Moving to page 8, the revenue of Seminovas achieved 5.1 billion, a 35.1% increase year over year. The volume of cars sold grew by 27%. In 2024, net revenue of Seminovas in Brazil grew by 37.3% year over year. totaling 19.2 billion BRLs, with sales volume growing by 26.4% in the year. Acceleration in sales volume reinforces the company's operational and execution capacity, which increased by 11.7 billion in sales in 2022 to 19.2 billion in 2024, with productivity gains per store. This is the result of improvements in the car preparation process, adjustments and maturation of the store network and sales team, as well as expansion of credit for financing. On page 9, we have the semi-novos. network in 2024 we expanded the number of stores totaling 27 opening for the year and in the quarter with 242 sales point distributed across 118 brazilian cities store openings were concentrated at the end of the year and should contribute to sales volumes throughout 2025. even with the network expansion We advance in productivity per store, ending the year with an average 40 cars sold per store per month. 2025, we will maintain our focus on scaling up Seminova's productivity gains, expanding the number of stores, sellers, and channels. Moving to page 10, we show the balance of car purchases and sales. In the fourth quarter of 24, we purchased 103 and 64 cars and sold 71,750 cars, resulting in a fee growth of 31,314 cars and a net investment of 4.1 billion. The sales volume in the quarter was impacted by rising interest rates and fewer business days, which affected demand in December. Even so, we presented a 27% growth in sales volume, Year-over-year, January and February, we saw an acceleration in sales volume again and reduced car purchases after holiday peak in order to reduce the fleet to seasonal rental demand. On page 11, we present the average purchase price and sales prices. In the car rental division, the average purchase price was $84,000 and the sales price $67,700, resulting in a renewal investment of $16,300 per car. In the ERG, the average purchase price was $83,300 and the sales price was $66,800, resulting in a net renewal of $16,300. 16,500, a reduction of 3,000 PRLs per car compared year-over-year. A gradual advancement in fleet rejuvenation process should contribute to maintaining a renewal capex reduction trajectory. In fleet rental, the average purchase price was 96.1 thousand for Q24. The average sales price was 76.7 thousand, resulting in a renewal investment of 19.4 thousand BRLs. In the year, the average purchase price was 95 thousand and sales price 72 thousand, resulting in a net renewal capex of 23 thousand, a reduction of 8.5 thousand per car year over year. On page 12, we show the fleet growth at the end of the period. We ended the year with 669,362 cars, 21% increase and 1.2% increase in the car rental. The increase of the end-of-period fleet in car rental reflects the opportunity for purchasing 4Q24. After the high season, we expect a reduction in the pace of car purchases. 2025, we will continue to prioritize price adjustment and seek fleet efficiency and productivity. On page 13 in the quarter, consolidated net revenue advanced to 24.6% year-over-year, totaling 9.9 billion BRLs. Rental revenue grew by 14.9%, 13% in car rental division and 16.4% in fleet rental division. Seminov's revenue totaled 5.1 billion in the quarter, a 35.3% increase year-over-year, resulting from a 27% increase in volume and higher average sale price. For the year, consolidated net revenue advanced 29%. year-over-year, totaling 37.3 billion, with strong growth in rental and semi-novos. On page 14, we present consolidated EBITDA. In 2024, we stopped adjusting margins for business combination and impairment effects, and in 4Q23, we began allocating car preparation costs to car rental and fleet rental, excluding them from semi-novos. Thus, we will only make comparison with 4Q24, whose bases are comparable. In 4Q24, the EBITDA margin for car rental division was 65.6%, a 2.9% increase over a year. The robust margin in the quarter mainly reflects rental pricing as well as advancement in rejuvenation process and reduction in average mileage of the fleet, resulting in lower maintenance costs per car, partially offset by higher preparation costs, explained by a 24.3% increase in the number of cars prepared. In fleet rental, the margin was 69.8%, a 1.7 percentage point reduction year-over-year, mainly explained by higher preparation costs due to a 29% increase in the volume of cars prepared and greater deactivation of severe-use vehicles. Allowance with bad debt expenses also increased for the quarter, especially in trucks. Telematics and other initiatives brought 50 million in revenue and 200,000 diluting the abated margin of the division by 1.6% in the quarter. Seminov has presented a margin of 2.6%, especially reflecting price adjustment in December. Throughout the quarter, 21, 22, and 23 models adjusted in line with historical pattern. On the other hand, we saw a stronger adjustment in 2024 Model U cars. In January and February, volumes sped up again. On page 15, we see the evolution of average depreciation per car. For car rental, the average annual depreciation per car was within the range expected for the company and in line with pre-Q24 depreciation. For the year, the annualized average depreciation was impacted by the revision of residual value and operational life estimates for the fleet made into Q24 depreciation. to reflect price adjustment for used and semi-novice cars. In fleet rental, the average depreciation was 8,577 BRLs, including trucks. The depreciation for light vehicles was 8,075 within the expected range. In the year, the annual depreciation was impacted by the revision of residual value estimates made in 2Q24. On page 16, in December, we saw a greater adjustment in the prices for the 2024 model year cars. But in January and February, volumes of price behaved in line with the company's expectations. Thus, we maintained the 1Q25 guidance. At the beginning of the year, automakers increased the list prices of new cars. We continue to monitor the input of these increases on new and semi-novel cars. On page 17, we see consolidated EBIT for Q24, which achieved 2.5% increase year-over-year. For the year, EBIT was impacted by the adjustment in car depreciation made in Q24 to reflect the widening gap between used and new cars. On page 18, we present the profit of 837 million, an 18.7% increase year-over-year, reflecting the increase of 446 million in EBITDA and a reduction of 8 million in net financial expenses due to the reduction in the average CDI for the period and the hedging effect of derivatives linked to fleet rental contracts. partially offset by the increase of 220 million in depreciation of cars and 103 million in income tax and social contribution due to higher taxable income and the increase in effective IR rate. Now I would like to return to Rodrigo to present cash generation, leverage, and ROIC. On page 19, we present the fleek cash flow. 2024, the company generated 9.8 billion from rental activities, a 37.9% increase year over year. Net investment for fleet renewal showed significant reduction due to smaller gap between the purchase and sales price of cars. For the year, 472 million were spent on renewing 280,000 cars. cars, a sharp reduction compared to 3 million spent on renewing 221,000 cars in 2023. In addition, the company reduced the net fleet addition, which contributed to a 960 million reduction in net investment for growth compared year over year. As a result, the company went from a cash consumption of 2.9 billion before interest and others to cash generation of 3.3 billion in 2024. Throughout 2025, we will continue to adjust rental prices to reflect the higher interest rate. Additionally, we will maintain discipline in cost and productivity management. Both, combined with lower renewal and growth capex, should continue to contribute to positive cash generation and reduce leverage indicators. On page 20, we present debt evolution. We ended the year with net debt of $30.1 billion. During the year, 940 million were paid in interest on equity, net of income tax, in addition to repurchasing 8 million of company shares. On page 21, we present the company's debt profile and cash position. Considering the funding and settlements announced up to February 27th, The cash position totaled 13.1 billion. The company has been taking advantage of debt market opportunities throughout 2024 to reduce costs and extend debt duration. On slide 22, we present solid debt ratios. For the year, the higher operation... Cash generation contributed to the improvement of debt indicators, even with the repurchase of company shares and the distribution of interest on equity. On page 23 is the ROIC spread. We ended 2024 with a ROIC spread of 3.1 percentage points. In 2H24, the rug spread reached 5 percentage points, resulting from price recomposition initiatives as well as efficient cost and productivity managed. Now we are available to answer any questions you may have. We remind you that for the Q&A, we advise you to signal your interest in participating with the Q&A icon on the bottom of your screen indicating your name, institution and language. When called upon, a request to activate your microphone will appear on the screen. To send written questions, use the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and fill your name and institution before the question. Our first live question is from Mr. Alberto Valerio. From UBS, please, Mr. Alberto. Please, your microphone is free to be open. Good afternoon, Bruno, Nora and Rodrigo. Thank you for taking my question. I want to know more about what we expect going forward. We expect a strong increase in rates, a recomposition of ROIC spread, maybe a slowdown of the recomposition in third and fourth quarter. Maybe because of the car market in December, that was worse than expected. January, March and February, how do you see the rate recomposition if it will continue strong, and if you can see a semi-novel market a little bit better. I know that the FIBI table is not the same that you use, but we had an improvement in January and February compared to November and December last year.

Thank you, Alberto.

Let me split your question for Seminovas and then I'll talk about rental. For Seminovas, what we've seen was, in fact, the last quarter started strong. It settles down in December in price and volume. We have less activity in December and at the beginning of the year, January and February, already going back to normal, we see stability in prices and a volume level much healthier for the two months of the year when we talk about the semi-novel market. About rental, we continue constituting our profitability. especially now with the change of the macroeconomic scenario and interest rates. But as you've seen, we had a lower growth in this segment, but we followed the policy of reconstituting our profitability. Thank you, Rodrigo. Alberto, just to answer your question about FIPI, we monitor at the beginning of the year. We saw that the automakers increased their prices. It takes some time for the practice price. So we're waiting because the dealers have old inventory. So we... are looking at that at the beginning of the year. On the other hand, we know that this year has more limited credit and affordability is worse than it was in the past. Thank you, Nora. Our next question is from Mr. Gasparetto from Itaú BBA. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I also have two. I would like to know about the questions about car rental, how you see the demand and going into... Monthly and seasonal, we see the volume suffers a little bit more. And the second question is about your opinion of a trade-off for this year. Like Nora said, more limited credit. if you would choose between aging the fleet or maintain a volume of semi-novos like you have been. I would like to understand that trade-off. Thank you, Daniel, for your question about the volumes.

Clearly, we have a priority to...

reconstitute our profitability, and we've been having that consistently in our prices. It's important to say that for a relevant part of our customer base and segments, the alternative is to buying a car, obviously in either subscription or monthly, for app drivers that

the total cost advances when you have an increase of interest rates.

So that's the first consideration. About the demand, what we've been seeing is that, in general, the segments are resilient. However, we've been seeing at the end of the year, due to the scenario, Some companies are postponing projects or reducing investment projects, which have impacted especially the corporate segments in car rental. So we see a robustness in the segment, except a point of attention is corporate because of the scenario. Our customers are more cautious. For your second question, I'll pass to Rodrigo. Thank you, Gasparet. Your second question is excellent because it's a trade-off that the company has to consider. But being very straightforward, we are monitoring and if the credit conditions Credit is less available, but still at healthy levels. It is more expensive for the consumer, which means a smaller conversion in funding, but still at healthy levels. If we have a stronger credit restriction, the company will probably delay its rejuvenation process instead of a stronger drop in prices. This said, I would like to make clear that we're saying that you delay a little bit the rejuvenation process, but continue to rejuvenate. We don't see any scenario of aging the fleet, even with more restrictive credits. Perfect, Rodrigo. Thank you. Thank you for your answer. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Our next question is from Mr. Guilherme Mentes from JP Morgan. Mr. Guilherme Mentes, you have the floor. Good afternoon, Bruno Rodrigo Nora. Thank you for taking my question. I also have two. It's a follow-up about depreciation. I understand that the beginning of the year is in line with expectations and guidance, but going beyond the first quarter, does it make sense to consider that we have this depreciation increasing from the second quarter forward. And on semi-novals that the company mentioned as one of the priorities for the year, what are the main KPIs you're looking at? Activity per store, what are you looking at for the margin of 2025? Thank you. Thank you for your question, Guilherme. I'm going to talk about depreciation first, and then Bruno talks about the KPIs. As we mentioned, December was a month of adjustment. We saw more volume and price in January and February. As Nora mentioned, for the short term, we understand that it's a little bit more stable, both in volume and price. When we think about the rest of the year, two forces contributing positive and one negative will interact. The first is price increase of new cars. On the first day of the year, we saw a public increase of 3% to 4% in new cars. There's still a lot of inventory, so it wasn't reflected in the market price yet, but it can happen if these prices reflect in practice prices and have an effect in the semi-novos and used cars. On the other hand, you have eventual credit restriction that could affect demand putting a negative pressure in the market. So the year starts within normalcy, but it's early to say how this will behave throughout the year. We have to continue monitoring to understand these effects and see if we have to take any action to adjust our depreciation. Now I'm going to pass to Bruno to talk about Seminovos. Thank you, Guilherme, for your second question. When we think about Seminovos, We've been talking about the scaling semi-novas to rejuvenate the fleet with efficiency. There are three pillars. The first... increase sales per store. The second is expand new stores and routes and wholesale and expand channels. As you saw, we had success, more than doubled our sales two years, expanding with efficiency the number of stores in the last quarter, which will continue to help scale sales in 2025. About the indicators that we look at, we look at efficiency and also the customer indicators. So in terms of efficiency, we follow what we obtain with the car sale compared to the new cars. We also look at indicators that are what makes this sale feasible, like availability and cost of credit, as well as efficiency in terms of cost per car sold and how fast we can turn over our fleet. So we see this in semi-novas and we follow closely the indicators of delight of our customers to repurchase, purchase again and recommendation for future purchases. Okay, very clear. Thank you very much, Rodrigo and Bruno. Have a great afternoon. Our next question is from Mr. Lucas Marchiori from BTG Pactual. Mr. Lucas, you have the floor. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you for the call. Rodrigo, in the volume of demobilization of seminovals, you mentioned credit. You don't know if it's going to speed up or slow down the fleet rejuvenation. What is the range if you're speeding up or slowing down car demobilization to know what is the target you're using for the year. The second point, in a scenario of slowing down fleet rejuvenation, what could you unlock in terms of cash or leverage stopping to buy cars? What is the leverage you're aiming at? maybe reducing purchases of cars.

Thank you, Lucas.

I'm going to answer the first question a little bit more conceptually. If you look at the number of cars that we have at rental car and our inventory of fleet, putting in a cycle of 15 months, we would need to sell 340,000, 350,000 cars per year to achieve a constant volume, considering our volume of rental car and our fleet. To achieve our ideal cycle, we need 15 months of rent-a-car. In fleet, it varies according to contracts, but around 34, 35 months, that volume of 340,000 to 350,000 would be the target to find a balance at the company. If we see something around 28,000, 29,000 cars, we would reach this equilibrium. This said, as I mentioned, there are many variables involved in credit. So if we need a trade-off, maybe that volume will be a little bit lower than that figure. But once again, we don't expect aging the fleet, but a delay in rejuvenating the fleet. About cash, you're right. In a scenario in which volume grows less or is stagnant, the company is cash generator. When you look at our levels of leverage, especially two, one for the net debt over EBITDA, you will see a gradual conversion and this number should be close to to lowers in terms of net debt over EBITDA. If it's net debt over the value of the fleet at the beginning of the year has a slight increase because you pay the automakers, so you reduce your accounts payable, which has a short-term effect in your ratio of net debt over fleet. and it reduces throughout the year in cash generation and is below what we closed in 2024. Okay, Rodrigo, thank you. Our next question, James Morgan Stanley. James, you can proceed.

Yes, hello. Thank you for taking my question. I'll do it in English. So I just want to ask, how much do you expect or are targeting to increase rental rates for each of the divisions this year versus last year? And also, if... Do you plan to introduce a formal depreciation guidance for upcoming quarters at some point? Because I think it has been quite instrumental to have both the depreciation guidance and your price expectations to fine-tune numbers in general. Thank you.

Jens, thank you for your question. I'll start with the second one. I'm going to start with your second question.

It's easier. We don't intend to go through the depreciation guidance. We did one for three quarters and then an adjustment in the third quarter where you have high volatility of expectations, and since Localiza's policy was never to give guidances, go over guidances, we go back to our policy. We won't have any guidance for the rest of the year. About recomposition, with the increase of interest rates,

expectation.

This has to be repassed to our rates. In general, every BPS equals to an increase of tariff. When you saw what happened in the last quarter of 2024, we had an increase of expectation of future interest of 50 to 300 BPS. So we need to readjust the profitability and rates, but also to offset this increase in cost.

Perfect. Thank you.

Our next question, Mr. Victor from Bladesco BBI. Victor, you may proceed. Good afternoon. Two questions, a follow up on our side.

The first about excluding deactivation of severe use vehicles.

If you could confirm how much is the increase of rate now in the fourth quarter for this effect? And second, about depreciation. When we look at the guidance of the third and fourth quarter, and now for the first quarter, 2025, we see the range and what was reported. And since January and February, this scenario is more in line with the company's expectations. Can we expect something closer of the middle of the guidance for the quarter, 6,800, 7,000. Thank you, Victor. Year over year, the lightweight and subscription segments grew 10 average as a reference. About the guidance. Just to add for this first point, sorry Nora, it's very important to look at the information and understand the portfolio of fleet management. We have about 31,000 vehicles in the segment of severe use and all the others are light and subscription cars that has an annual Growth of 32%, which shows that within this portfolio, we have a very healthy majority with good profitability, good origination, and it's important to interpret that when we look at the growth and total evolution of the volume and revenue in the business. I would like to highlight this point so we can have more visibility of what this division is like. and our plan to continue to have these two dynamics on the one hand, continue to allocate capital with discipline and good profitability segments with good generation of value, and continue to discontinue or close the contracts as they get to the end of the cycle, those that have lower profitability. Now I would pass to Rodrigo. Victor, as we mentioned, December, we had something different than other months, then January, February, more stability. But when we look at the quarter, we're talking about the top of the guidance, not the middle of the guidance. We're still adjusting, especially the effects that took place at the end of the year. So the current expectation with the information we currently have, we don't know if this scenario of stability will continue. It's going to change. It's going to get better. The price of new cars will start to affect positively the price of used cars. But now it's more looking to the top of the guidance, the middle of the guidance. Okay, thank you. Our next question, Mr. Bruno Amorim from Goldman Sachs. Mr. Bruno, you may proceed.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for taking my question. First question is a follow-up about the elasticity of demand. You're going to a growth rate close to flat in volume. And I imagine that the more discretionary segments are shrinking. And those segments, like Bruno mentioned, in which the alternative is to purchase the car, might be responding better to price increases. Do you see this shrinkage in the segments more related to leisure and car rental and those segments in which the car purchase is increasing? Just to see if the evidence corroborates with this theory. The second question is about the company's view to buy bags. the share prices are much lower than they were so it probably makes sense to buy back shares but the interest rates are high managing the balance sheet how do you think about this trade-off and lastly Rodrigo mentioned about a sustainable and recurring level of selling vehicles about 350,000 cars. Should we expect to see the company converging towards that level and then the average age of the car being lower? Does it make sense that it will go a little bit beyond sell even more to reduce the average age and stabilize in 350,000 later?

Thank you, Bruno, for your question about your first question.

As I mentioned, we are seeing a resilient demand in those segments that you call discretionary, like leisure, as well as the monthly rentals for individuals and even app drivers. And we see a little bit more accommodation in the corporate segments as of the second quarter of last year. Because of the macroeconomical landscape, the companies are re-evaluating or postponing their projects. We also see a clear determination of the company to continue to reconstitute the price It's important to remember that the company learned to do these repasses and increases, price adjustments gradually, working with the customers in order to continue our relationship and continue the business and more specifically in the corporate segments that we see this um accommodation then the segments that you mentioned and called discretionary and to conclude it's important to take a step back also and remember that we're talking about segments that have a very large addressable market still so once we achieve the price levels that Rodrigo mentioned, we need to reconstitute the profitability, which is our goal. We still have a lot of space to grow in the various segments that we mentioned. I will pass to Rodrigo for him to complement my answer. Bruno, thank you for your question. I would like to address the two additional questions and using what Lazansky just answered. With greater stability of volume, the company goes back to its focus on cost efficiency and a relevant cost efficiency. When you're growing strongly, you have many activities and you generate a natural inefficiency in some processes. When you have greater stability, that's also part of the company's focus to gain efficiency and review all our processes. And we expect this to contribute to generate profitability to the business even reducing the need to repass the prices that we still need to do. About the two questions of buyback, we bought about 800 million BRLs in our shares, and the company is always looking at buyback as a possible capital allocation. Since we have a more robust cash generation, we can always allocate the capital either by more cars, reducing our debt, or increasing the payout in terms of buyback. If the company sees that as interesting, We do that, but we do that recurrently without it being a policy. It's something we always look at. About the semi-novos, just to make clear, when I mentioned 350,000 cars, I was talking about the level that we need to achieve to get an optimized cycle of cars for rental car and fleet. I would like to make clear that we're not at that level yet of 350,000 cars per year. We expect that at some point we achieve that, and it depends on macro conditions. What the company is not willing to do is to speed up reaching those 350,000 cars more aggressively in terms of price. We will respect market demand and coordinate the fleet rejuvenation with the scenario that we're facing. Thank you. Just a follow-up to see if I understood. When you normalize the average car, the company has to sell 350,000 cars per year. Is that it? Yes, that's correct. But once again, we're talking about a constant fleet. If the company grows again, that level will change. But look, Aliza, today, if they don't grow their fleet achieving 350,000 vehicles sold, we would stabilize car sales in 15 months for car rental and 34 months for fleet. So, That's the figure for the steady state, and to do that, the company has to make more effort to sell more cars to normalize the average age, or will that converge naturally? If we sell more, we converge quicker, but achieving that level, we can reach that throughout the year. Okay, thank you. Our next question. Rogério Araújo from Bank of America. Mr. Rogério, you may proceed. Good afternoon, Bruno Rodrigo Enora. Thank you for taking my question. I have two as well. First, I would like to explore the severe use segment. If you could talk about the expected time to end the contracts and sell the assets that are still in the fleet, the 30,000 cars, and just to confirm my understanding. You increase volume and price, right? Can we understand that instead of growing 5% over a year, it would be 15%?

Yes.

And if you could comment, if we can use that as an expectation for when you finish selling those vehicles, if that increase of growth... I can ask the second question after. Rogério, your question isn't clear because your audio was a bit choppy. I can help, Rogério. I'll answer, Rodrigo, if you need, you can compliment. First, about the timing, these contracts are three years on average. So we started the demobilization process last year, and this should take some time to happen. We have about 30,000 vehicles at the end of the period that we will discontinue. So the process will respect the expiration date of these contracts, so the next two years. About growth, we commented on the previous answer that if we look back, we exclude the effects of severe use segment. The company would have a 30% growth in revenue, which is half price, half volume. We're not giving guidance. We don't have the practice of guidance, so we're not having the guidance going forward. We have to take into consideration a few things. First is a macroeconomic scenario that tends to worsen going forward, which would reduce the appetite of large fleet, as Bruno said. But given the better affordability of vehicles, we have other customers going into the base for subscription or third-party fleets since the price to finance also increased. But it's not the run rate that we find going forward. Our main focus is to reconstitute profitability, and the trade-off is very clear for us. Okay, thank you, Nora. It was very clear.

The second question...

For semi-novos, if you could give us more details on how October and November and December were in terms of margin, if we can better understand a normalized market, how much cushion do we have in margin? Thank you. Thank you, Rogério. Talking about price volume, we see October with strong volumes. and the market accommodating a little bit below the 50 vehicles that we were expecting. November was in line with our expectation. We see some macroeconomic effects at the end of November with the change of expectation. When we look at December, without talking specifically about Localiza, I talked to several colleagues from the market. It was a month for the economy in general, retail, industrial production, These are activity markers. We had two effects. First, December, the volume was below what was expected, even considering that it's a month with vacation, holidays, and holidays. The price elasticity was higher, especially for those cars model year 2024. When you look at model cars year 21, 22, that went back to normal. 24 specifically in December, January and February. We recovered the volume and stability in prices. And several of these model vehicles, year model vehicles. I know that I wasn't specific about margins, but I just wanted to give you more flavor of how The price and volume evolved throughout the last fourth quarter. If I could add, Rogério, in terms of margin, it has to be clear that we expected margin accommodation in the fourth quarter, quarter over quarter, because of the impairment that we did in the second quarter. that had a positive effect in the book value of the cars in the third quarter, Rodrigo had signaled that the margin in Seminovos wasn't expected. The lower volume in December, because of the star expectation, does get in the way of fixed costs, but it doesn't have that much of an effect at the margin of the fourth quarter Seminovos. We expand the network of Seminovos to increase sales volume. We think that the volume in January and February are stronger and can help to dilute fixed costs, but we also want to expand channels, especially for a more restricted credit scenario. It's important to mention, Nora, about the dynamic of the first quarter. It's usually stronger in the wholesale than retail segment. A lot of retailers reduce their inventory so they don't have to pay the vehicle taxes in the beginning of the year. They resume purchasing to replenish their inventory. So you have an effect in the first quarter, which is increase in wholesale that is stronger than retail. because of the seasonal issue. Okay, very clear. Can I just very quick last one about the 91 billion, about 34 above historical levels. How much of this was in trucks?

Thank you.

I think it's an important point for this quarter. Let me be very specific. We have the macro issue and the micro sectorial issue. What happened in the first quarter was specific for the sector. Some customers... especially the agribusiness. They are going through restructuring, financial restructuring, and that led to bad debt, especially for heavy vehicles. And in lower level for fleet management and even less for rent-a-car. So we have the effect of this segment associated to the agribusiness. So it wasn't something generic. It was very specific. This effect will still have some lasting effects in the first quarter, but it was specific for those customers of the agribusiness industry and more focused on the heavy-use vehicles. It's also starting to stabilize and get better.

This said,

We have the macroeconomy and interest rate increase, and we didn't see any effect yet of this, so it was specific of a subsegment that impacted more specifically heavy vehicles, a little bit fleet management and even less RETFAR. We will still see this effect in the first quarter, but we think this is already at its end, and it will be stabilized by the end of the quarter. Very clear. Thank you.

Now, we're almost at the end.

We have a question from Rodrigo Faria from Sulamerica that is important to answer. A 25% of fleet reduction was all in heavy-duty vehicles. The heavy vehicle segment is... These are usually agribusiness or light vehicles that have more severe use. So the answer is no. The reduction of fleet in heavy-duty severe use is the company's strategic decision to reduce those contracts with a lower ROIC spread. And to conclude,

Marco has a question in English.

If the purchase and sales ratio is improving, how much of this improvement has to do with the change of mix of the purchase and sales car? The mix of purchase is already stable. Can you answer, Rodrigo?

Yes.

We have to split what we're talking about in the mix. It's expected to have an improvement of the mix, but in the model, the fleet rejuvenation, you start selling a higher proportion of cars that are one-year-old than cars that are two- and three-year-old. With this, the spread of purchase and sales improve, like we saw And as we mentioned before, a strong reduction in maintenance costs. That's also an effect of rejuvenating the fleet that we have in our fleet. So if it was the mix of models, sell more SUVs and buy more 1.0 cars, the answer is no. It's a better mix of year models, a newer car that is aligned with our strategy. With this, we conclude our results conference call, and Bruno will say his closing comments. Thank you for your presence and for your questions. Also, I would like to acknowledge the dedication and engagement of our team of employees for the results. I reiterate that our I-team is here to answer any additional questions. Thank you very much. This conference call is over. Please disconnect your devices.