Localiza Rent A Car S/Adr

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And welcome to Localize and Close webinar on the third quarter 2025 results. Joining us today are Rodrigo Tavares, CFO, and Nora Lanari, Head of Investor Relations at the company. Please note that this webinar is being recorded and will be available at ri.localeza.com, where the full earnings release material are also available. The presentation is also available for download on the IR website. For the Q&A session for analysts and investors, we recommend signaling your interest in participating via the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen, typing your name, institution and language. When called upon, a prompt will appear on your screen to activate your microphone. Questions may be asked either in Portuguese or English. To submit writing questions, use the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and enter your name and institution before your question. Please note that the figures in this presentation are in milieu of reais and follow IFRS standards. We emphasize that the information contained in this presentation and any statements made during this conference regarding business outlooks, projections, and operation and financial targets of Localiza represent the beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as currently available information. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. 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 it over to Rodrigo Tavares, CFO of the company, to begin the presentation.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our third quarter 2025 webinar. In the third quarter of 2025, we maintain a consistent trajectory of executing our strategic priorities, focusing on restoring the ROIC spread and consolidating operational and financial efficiency gains. The results for this quarter, adjusted for the effects of the IPI reduction, reflect solid progress on this agenda. We reported net revenues of 10.7 billion, EBITDA of 3.5 billion, EBIT of 2.3 billion and a net income of 871 million reais. The annualized ROIC for this quarter reached 15.4% with a spread of 5.3 percentage points over the cost of debt. Guided by a long-term vision and a commitment to generate its sustainable value, we continue to execute our strategy with discipline and focus on continuous transformation. Our investment in innovation drive improvements in customer experience and operational excellence across all divisions. In car rental, initiatives such as AI-powered virtual assistant LISA handled more than 4,000 daily interactions with NPS above 85, delivering agility and resolution in over 90% of cases without human intervention. Another highlight is Fast Digital Pickup, a benchmark in the industry innovation, available in 252 branches, where 1 out of 3 individual customers contracts in open fully autonomously. This generates significant productivity gains and supports our trajectory towards reaching 1 million contracts in 2025. Fast customers report higher NPS scores for the pickup experience and indicate that this journey will influence their next rental decision. In Fleet Rental and Localiza Mill, results are strengthened by initiatives that enhance our customer experience, such as Localiza Pit Stop, which since 2019 has offered high-quality maintenance in private and comfortable environments. The process ensures excellence in standards, combined with cost efficiency, allowing customers to maintain their routine while their vehicle is serviced with convenience and agility. Additionally, the digital journey for this customer has evolved consistently, driven by vehicle connectivity, which improves management, enhances safety, and delivers a smart solution for a more integrated experience. In operations and semi-novals, we reaffirm our commitment to high standards of quality and trust through rigorous expansion carried out our 15 deactivation centers, where 360 items are evaluated by specialized professionals using cutting-edge technology, ensuring technical precision and operational excellence. These practices reinforce brand credibility and guarantee that every Seminovu delivered exceeds customer expectation. In the third quarter of 2025, we continue investing in the evolution of our technology stack, cloud solutions, and artificial intelligence initiatives, positioning the company for the future. These advancements strengthen our competitive edge, elevate customer experience, and increase the value delivered to all stakeholders. This quarter, we recognized the one-off effect of the IPI reduction in our results, totaling $929 million in pre-tax impact, including $137 million in impairment adjustments affecting EBITDA, and $792 million in additional depreciation. Unless otherwise indicated, year-over-year comparison, this representation will exclude these effects. To present the details of the third quarter of 2025, I'll hand over to our head of investment relations, Nora Lanari.

Thank you, Rodrigo, and good morning, everyone. On slide two, we begin with the car rental division in Brazil. In the third quarter of 2025, net revenues for the car rental division reached R$2.6 billion, an increase of 6.2% compared to the third quarter of 2024, driven by the rise in the average daily rate despite of a strong comparison base and stable volumes. On slide three, we show the 5.7% increase in the average daily rate for the quarter, which ended at 150 real. The utilization rate rose almost one percentage point, reaching 80.8% and reflecting efficient pricing and mix management. moving to slide four we present the fleet rental division which posted net revenue of 2.3 billion 6 higher than the same period last year we continued reducing exposure to severe usage vehicle contracts which ended the period with around 20 000 cars versus 31 000 as of december 2024 The volume impact was more than offset by the increase in the average daily rate contributing to the recovery of return levels in this division. On slide five, we show the average daily rate of 104 rallies, 8.5% higher than the third quarter 24. The utilization rate of 94.9% reflect the reduction in severe usage contracts, which require longer preparation and deactivation times. Moving on to slide 6, we present the revenue evolution of Seminovas, which reached R$5.8 billion in the quarter, an increase of 14.6% compared to Q3-24. Average selling price rose in both car rental and fleet rental divisions, mainly reflecting a better model year mix. On slide seven, we highlight the significant reduction in average mileage at sale. The company continues to reduce average mileage, especially in the wholesale, contributing to higher selling price and lower maintenance costs. The age and mileage of the sold cars continue to show a gradual downward trend over the coming quarters. On slide eight, We present the car purchase and sale volumes. In the quarter, 77,344 cars were purchased, being 50,930 for the car rental division and 26,414 in the fleet rental. And 75.4 thousand cars were sold, a historical record for the company. After a second quarter impacted by the IPI reduction announcement, we saw a recovery in sales volumes in Q3, contributing to a slight reduction in the average age of the car sold in the rental car division to 21.3 months. Following the decree that reduced the IPI tax for entry-level cars, we observed a gradual adjustment in semi-novice prices throughout the quarter. Despite the impact of the IPI reduction on the semi-novice price, we recorded an increase in the average ticket in Q3, mainly due to a better model year mix. On slide 9. we show the evolution of average purchase price and sales price. In the car rental, the average purchase price was R$82,500, and the average sale price reached R$73,600 in Q3, resulting in a fleet renewal investment of R$8,900 per car, significantly lower than the R$18,100 in Q3-24, reflecting the gradual fleet rejuvenation. In fleet rental, the average purchase price was 97.4 thousand Reais in Q3, while the average sale price was 83.1 thousand, resulting in a renewal capex of 14.3 thousand Reais per car, lower than the 20.6 thousand of Q3 24, mainly reflecting the sale mix and the participation of trucks on the sale end. On slide 10, we show the end-of-period fleet. The company ended the quarter with a fleet of 632,267 cars in Brazil, stable compared to Q3 24. But in the fleet rental division, the reduction in the end-of-year period fleet reflect portfolio optimization with reduced exposure to trucks, to heavy-use contracts. Moving on to slide 11, the company posted consolidated revenues of 10.7 billion reais, a 10.8% increase in Q3-25 compared to the same period last year. Rental revenue grew 6.1%, totaling 4.9 billion, while Seminova's revenue reached 5.8 billion reais, a 15.1% increase year-over-year. On slide 12, we present consolidated EBITDA. In the quarter, EBITDA was impacted by R$137 million due to the expected effects of the IPI tax reduction. Excluding these effects, adjusted consolidated EBITDA totaled R$3.5 billion, a 6.8% increase year-over-year. In the third quarter of 2025, the adjusted EBITDA margin of car rental division was 67.7%. A 3.5 percentage point increase year-over-year, reflecting rental pricing improvements combined with efficient cost and productivity management. Rental revenues increased 151 million, while costs and expenses decreased 37 million. Maintenance and preparation costs saw a significant year-over-year reduction. On the other hand, SG&A increased due to the higher provision for doubtful accounts and increased technology spending, mainly related to artificial intelligence. In Fleet Rental, the adjusted margin was 73.4%, a 3.5 percentage points increase compared to Q3-24. The margin was positively impacted by accelerating tax credits with a one-off effect of 50.6 million reais. The SG&A increase reflects higher provision for doubtful accounts showing cautious regarding the macroeconomic scenario. Seminovos posted an adjusted margin of 2.6%. In Q3, we again saw increases in sales volume and average prices contributing to the dilution of the selling expenses, which dropped from 5.6% of the net revenue in Q3-24 to 4.8% in Q3-25. This quarter, $118 million was recognized as an adjustment of the book value of the cars available for sale, whose selling prices were impacted by the IPI reduction, affecting the accounting margin of the quarter. On slide 13, we show the evolution of the annualized average depreciation per car. In Q3, the average car rental division posted annualized average depreciation per car of 7,652 REL, excluding the effects of the IPI reduction, a slight sequential increase as expected by the company. Including the IPI effect, depreciation would have been of 15,177 REL. In fleet rental, annualized depreciation per car was 8,602 REL, excluding the IPI effect. following the upward trend signaled by the company. Including the IPI effects, the precession totaled 12,298 real. On slide 14, we show adjusted EBIT of 2.3 billion and 11.2% increase year over year. The impact of the IPI reduction in the quarter totaled 929.2 million real. To present net income, I will hand over to Rodrigo.

Thank you, Onora. On slide 15, we present adjusted net income of 871 million, excluding the effect of the IPI reduction. The 7.3% increase in adjusted net income in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the third quarter of 2024 reflects the 224 million increase in EBITDA, partially offset by 175 million increase in net financial expenses due to higher CDI and debt balance during the period. On slide 16, we present free cash flow before interest. In the nine months of 2025, cash generated from rental activities were partially consumed by CAPEX for cars and other fixed assets, as well as reduction in accounts payable to automakers. Free cash flow before interest totaled R$ 4.5 billion. On the slide 17, we show net debt movement, which ended in the quartering $31.1 billion, a 3% increase compared to the debt of the end of last year. Moving to slide 18, we present the debt profile. The company ended the quarter with $12.3 billion in cash, enough to cover short-term debts and accounts payable to automakers. We continue active debt management to capture cost reduction and duration extension opportunities. On slide 19, we present debt ratios highlighting the net debt to fleet value at a comfortable level, even with the reduction in fleet value due to the IPI tax cut. The net debt EBITDA ratio continues to improve, reflecting our price recovery and cost efficiency agenda. Finally, on the slide 20, we present the ROIC spread. In the ninth month of 2025, the company posted an increase in the adjusted ROIC, which closed the period at 14.3%, contributing to a spread of 4.5 percentage points over the cost of debt. It is important to highlight that the third quarter of 2025 brought an annualized ROIC of 15.4% and a spread of 5.3 percentage points in line with the company's goal to restore return levels. Before we start, I'd like to point here our view about this quarter. This was a very strong quarter in our view. The rental car has strong performance, the all-time productivity here, our utilization is also in one of the highest of our history, and we presented a sequential growth both in volume and prices. Fleet, we continue a consistent improvement in our portfolio. The target segments are already at the right, right spread. And those segments are growing in double digits in terms of revenue. Depreciation in both rent-a-car and fleet rental are under control. Seminovals, we're posting record volumes. Gross margins are at healthy levels. SG&A are being diluted with focus on productivity. We see semi-novice margin stable going forward, even though there is IPVA discounts in the fourth quarter. Issues and cash flow show the very strong cash generation, and we are continuing to reduce the spreads and increase the duration of our debt here. One final remark. Yesterday, we showed material fact-informing about the selling of Vol, a travel tech that we invested in 2021. This was a very strong investment for Localiza. The return was 5.1 times the invested capital in just three years. With us, the company grew its revenue sixfold and reached break-even. We're going to maintain a partnership through the commercial agreements. And I'd also like to highlight and thank the founders for this incredible journey and wish the best luck and success to Arbor Pincus and the founders going forward. Now we're going to be available for the Q&A session.

Thank you. As a reminder, for the Q&A session, please sign all your interest in participating via the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen, indicating your name, institution and language. When called upon, a prompt will appear on your screen to activate your microphone. To submit writing questions, use the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and enter your name and institution before your question. Our first live question is from Mr. Philip Nielsen from Citi. We will open your audio so you can ask your question.

Hi team, thanks for taking my question, congrats on the results. So, my question is all regarding depreciation. So, we started this training according to what you've been guiding in past quarters. It's gradually increasing, but I was wondering if you have any indications on how this is going to trend in the fourth quarter and into 2026. You mentioned that Seminovus is healthy, but just wondering if maybe you're accelerating the pace of Seminovus sales and fleet turnover This could enable some reductions in depreciation already next year and maybe if the car market continues going stable or even improving. you should maybe prefer to see all those IPI adjustments and high depreciation going into a higher semi-novice margins, or you would prefer to reduce depreciation faster and maintain a stable semi-novice margins. Thank you.

Thank you, Felipe. First of all, like we see now as the market behaves, the depreciation is under control both in rental car and fleet rental. in regards of the movements of depreciation going forward we would like to see the semi-novice margin going up first before we actually reduce depreciation so what we should see in order to question if the depreciation should be reduced is first an upward trend in the semi-novice margin before we see consistent increase in the semi-novice margin quarter over quarter i think it's premature to talk about reduction in the depreciation Having said that, at least the way we're seeing the market, we see the depreciation of the control in both our segments.

Great. This is super clear. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Mr. Guilherme Mates from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, Rodrigo Nora. Thanks for taking my question. I have two, both on the rate of card segment. The first one is on tariffs. I wanted to pick your brains on how much more ruin you see on a tariff adjustment. We saw a small sequential acceleration. So I wonder if there's much more room for increases in real terms going forward. And the second is on margins, something that we have been discussing for the past conference calls, that you do expect margins to accelerate by the time you rejuvenate your fleet. And assuming the run rate, once you fully renew your fleet to a younger age, what can we expect in terms of margins on the rental card division? Thank you.

Thank you. First thing, it's very important that we look at the tariffs, but we cannot look at the tariffs alone. We have to look at utilization altogether. If you control for utilization, we see that we are gradually progressing our tariffs. If you do even more than that, if you look at the tariff divided by the total cost, that's the one that really matters. You're going to see that also we have been improving our efficiency consistently across quarters. If you look, of course, the last quarter is a very strong quarter in terms of seasonality, so you have tariffs going up just because of that. What we just noticed, especially in the middle of September, is a little bit of change in the behavior of some competitors, especially on the daily rentals, that we saw some pressures on the daily rentals at tariffs here. This is not a segment that we are highly exposed, so the impact for us is not that relevant, but we're going to continue to price base on the willingness to pay of the customer, our return, and, of course, the competitive dynamics. Once again, the last quarter will be a strong quarter in terms of tariffs because of seasonality, but specifically on the daily rentals, we're starting to see some competitive pressures here, okay? In terms of the more long-term trend, it is important to highlight that you're right, as we accelerate the sales of semi-novice, we're going to collect the benefits of the rejuvenation of that fleet, mostly in the cost of preparation of the car and the cost of maintenance, and there are some percentage points in EBITDA margin to be captured.

A couple of points, if I may add, Guilherme, and thank you for your question. First, on the tariffs, I would like to point that with the level of tariffs, actually, we grew volumes on a quarter-over-quarter base by more than 4%, and we added average rental rates. with increasing utilization. So it was a very positive quarter on our view in that sense. But more important than that is the ROIC spread already in the band in the car rental division. So it points for a more mild need to increase prices. And we go for Q4 with appetite for daily rentals. On the second part of the question, margins. More important than the margins per se is the ROIC spread. Why am I saying that? We do have some room to optimize the costs in the car rental division based on the renewal of the fleet. We do have, of course, some pricing lever. But if the interest rates decline next year, we can adjust to that. So pretty much the major TPI for the company is the ROIC spread. And as I said, this quarter we entered in the historical band of the company.

Very clear. Thank you both.

Our next question comes from Mr. Andre Ferreira from Bradesco BB. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, Rodrigo and Nora. A couple of questions from my end. So first, regarding the provision for bad debt in rental car and fleet management, the worsening that you referred to in the release was year over year, but they're was actually an improvement quarter over quarter. So if you can comment on what drove this in Rent-A-Car and GTF, in the case of GTF, if it's still more related to the heavy segments and if you're seeing improvements or deterioration in both segments at a marginal level. And my second question is related to the gap between the average purchase and selling price of cars closing quarter over quarter. If you can just break this down in what is mix and what is actual comparable improvements, and also if in the latest weeks you see this gap closing or widening. That's it from my end. Thank you.

Thank you for the questions, Andrea. And let me start with the first one. End of last year Q4, we started raising the provisions for bad debt considering the macro, the hike in the interest rates and so on. So we've been seeing some deceleration in economic activity. But since Q4, we increased the provision for bad debt. So it's a year over year comparison. I think Q4 will be a easier comp. Having said that, when we look to the evolution of the bad debt provision. It declined from 100 million last quarter to roughly 75 million. So we are seeing improvements in that sense, mostly explained by trucks. Remember that trucks increased the allocation of bad debt because of a couple of clients. We increased a bit the number of repossessions of trucks. and we are reselling those trucks now. But the trend is positive and we are seeing improvement on a quarter-over-quarter base, not only in Q3 but also in Q4, okay?

Most of it was in the first half. I think that now in the second half we see a more positive scenario, okay? So as Nora said, the comp of the third quarter of last year was a strong one, but sequentially we see that most of this happened in the first half. In the terms of the price gap between the acquisition and the sale, this trend is supposed to happen, right? As we renew our fleet, especially when you rent a car here, we're going to see that gap closing, right? So this happens most because of a mix of a model year. Just to give you a sense, we started selling the 2024 cars last year in November. This year, we started in June. So this brings prices up and reduce that renewal cost, okay? So, of course, there can be a quarter-over-quarter mix adjustment, but the majority here is the fact that we're starting to sell the cars at a younger age and in a model year that represents the model year of the current year. So this is an effect that was already expected and is happening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Lucas Esteves from Santander. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Rodrigo, Nora. Thanks for the space here. I have two questions. The first one regarding the recognition of tax credit on DTF. Even though you mentioned a one-off effect of circa 50 million reais in the period, I would like to understand what could we expect about the recurrency of this tax credit recognitions going forward. Since in my understanding, you were not accelerating depreciation in a share of your fleet related to Locamerica before the system integrations due to a matter of tax efficiency. And now you would recurrently recognize this accelerated depreciation for the whole fleet. So just to get the sense of this tax credit recognition going forward and the impact on GTF margins. And on a second matter, I would like to hear more about Seminova's margins. since you recognize the one-off fleet depreciation in the period, also continue gradually increasing normal depreciation, while it seems from your current results that the scenario improved a bit more than you expected. and as we can see, margins. So, could we expect a margin overshoot of the next quarters, in your view? Thanks.

Thank you, Lucas. I think you pointed correctly. The tax credits, before incorporation, we were not taking an accelerated appreciation for a part of the fleet, the part that remained at Locamedica, of course. This reflects our owner mentality. It doesn't make sense for us to recognize a credit just for accounting purposes. And now we did that. Of course, that in the first quarter that we start to accelerate, you have a small, let's say, one-off effect here. But going forward, the tax recognition should be higher than it was before the incorporation for fleet rental. So we should expect this to be a positive influence of the margin of fleet rental going forward. In the semi-novice, as I said, we have recognized the IPI. We see so far the market is behaving well. We see so far at least stable margins going forward. We have to see more probably a positive scenario to see this margin overshoot. That's not our main expectation, at least in the short term, okay? There is an impact in the fourth quarter that it's commonly companies tend to give the discount of the IPVA, right? This is relevance, 1% of the price. But even with this discount, we think that the margin should remain stable at least for the last quarter of this year. So it's a positive trend, but I wouldn't assume an overshoot at least in the short term. That's very clear. Thanks, Rodrigo. Mozec.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mr. Daniel Gasparetti from IBBA. Please go ahead.

Hello, guys. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

Yes, we can, Daniel. Good morning.

Thank you very much. So two questions also. The first one I'd like to ask Rodrigo, his view regarding the size of the impairment. Looking right now after a couple of months since the first announcement, how conservative do you think that this impairment is? I mean, you are close to the top of the range that you provided. And so far we have seen feedback and comments, not only from you, but from other peers in the industry, that seminars are behaving well. So I would like to get your view about how conservative this is. And secondly, I would like to ask you a little bit more about how do you see the uso severo, the severe use going forward, and how that could benefit margins as well, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Gasparete. First of all, once again, the incremental depreciation is a technical adjustment here. We just replicated exactly what the IPI decree, car by car here, and that was the fact that we booked it. We really hope that this is a conservative. I think only time will tell. Usually the markets do not adjust everything at once. So, of course, the market is behaving well. But it is a bit too soon to judge if that was conservative or not. Once again, that it was a technical decision with no judgment from the company, just replicating what the decree had an impact on the new, assuming that all the impact of the new cars would be replicated in the used cars. So that was basically the methodology. Once again, hope that this is conservative, but we have to wait to see if this price is will not be impacted going forward. The severe usage, the main effect is not just in the EBITDA margin, I think, because usually they tend to be priced higher, but the semi-nobs and the depreciation are much higher. So the main benefit is actually in the ROIC and the ROIC spread here. Because not only you have a higher capital base, but the depreciation is much, much higher than the average. We started this year with roughly 31,000 cars. We're probably going to end up this year with half of that. And going forward, we're probably going to reduce another 50% next year. So, gradually, this severe usage will not have a major impact in our balance sheet. I believe that in 2026, you are going to see a much cleaner results of fleet with just a remainder of those cars in our balance sheet.

Thank you, Rodrigo. If you allow me just to follow up something that you mentioned in the first part of your answer. How much time do you think we should take to see semi-novice prices reflecting the IPI reduction? You said that it usually takes a few months. How much time do you think that we should wait until we see stabilization? That would be the first follow-up. And the second follow-up would be, first of all, please go on this first one, and then if there's time, I'll make the second one. Sorry.

I think it's hard to precise. What we saw in 2023, that it took more than six months, right, to see that. So I think that at least in the beginning of this year, the next year, we have to wait to see if there are some evolution here. But it's hard to give you an exact date. But I think that by the beginning of next year, we should know clearly what was the effect, the total effect of the IPI tax on the used car market.

Perfect. Angel, let me just do a second follow-up. Since you are buying cars cheaper, given they have their price reduced, but you're not seeing similar prices coming down, is it fair to assume that you are seeing that your purchase sales spread is improving?

We're not only buying it cheaper, but we're getting additional discounts as well. Once again, that will depend. Okay, in the short term, we may see that an improvement in the gap of the price that we buy and the price that we sell. But as I mentioned before, a part of it actually comes from the fact that we're selling younger cars and the cars of the 2025 model rather than the 2024 model. Okay, thank you very much, Rodrigo. Thank you, Bernardo.

Our next question comes from Alberto Valerio from UBS. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Rodrigo and Nora. Thank you for the opportunity. One question on my side here, also on Seminovos. I remember that Localiza Day, when you announced the impairment last year, You guys mentioned the spread to the car that you bought that would be selling this car for 2% and 4%, between 2% and 4% negative. It used to run at positive space. And with the current depreciation that you are presenting after this impairment of this year, we estimate that this gap would be more close to the minus 4% than the minus 2%. Is that the correct, is how we should think for the future, for modeling for next year, that the depreciation is at the correct level at this moment, or we should see some difference in the future? Thank you.

Thank you, Alberto. I think if you run the math the way that you do, okay, you can get to this minus four or minus five. But one thing that you have to consider is that today we're not selling cars with 15 months old, right? It's cars that is 21, 20 months old. So we have actually to consider the impact of not only the price of a younger car, but there is an impact on the channel that you sell the car. So not only you sell a younger car for a higher price, but you sell a proportion in retail that is much higher than you would sell otherwise, okay? So in order to run your map, you have to consider a little bit these adjustments. And if you consider that, you may reach a number that is below the minus five that you're reaching right now. But if we consider the 19, 20, 21 months, I think your numbers seems pretty reasonable.

Fantastic. If I may follow up as well on tariff for next year, we see some competitors a little bit more optimistic about tariff for next year. Localiza has the same idea that it's still some space for increased tariff for 2026.

Competitors are always optimistic. Having said that, we see that it will depend on several factors, right? First of all is the interest rate, right? That is a major driver. We look at right spread, right? We don't look at the tariff individually. We don't look at EBITDA margin individually here. We look at our right spread. I think the company has been very ready for our next cycle here. Our efficiency, our utilization is very strong. As I said, we are ready to focus more on the daily rentals here, even if the competitive environment is a little bit tougher on that specific segment. So it will depend on all these parameters here, but I think the macro will have a very strong implication here. Having said that, We, for the first quarter, in rental car, we reached the bend of right spread. It's the lower end of the bend, but it's the first time that we reached the bend. The next quarter is a stronger quarter in terms of seasonality. So, once again, I think the company has done its homework, and it's ready for the next cycle.

Thank you. Very clear.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mr. Lucas Marchiotti from BBG Pactual. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Yeah. Hey, guys. Good morning. Yeah, two questions as well. One is still a follow-up on this yield on rental car trends overall. And I know we have been focusing on the tier dynamics, but, I mean, Since electric cars are buying cheaper cars, so if I were to look to yield trends, right, and how much are you pricing on top of kind of a cheaper fleet cost overall, can we say that actually yields are on the margin better going forward, right? So I'm not looking to the nominal kind of a price, but actually looking to the yields similar to our buying cheaper cars. This is the first question, and, of course, if you're kind of a, kind of a throw that trend for 26. And question number two is on the cost agenda, guys. And I know you have been kind of talking about that for a while now. I mean, when should we start seeing the real benefits of the integration? And do you believe, for instance, a strong season like Q4 and maybe Q1 is maybe the time for us to start to see better margins on both rent-a-car and fleet besides the tax credits and some kind of cost gains on that end as well? Just to kind of hear your thoughts on that. Thanks.

Okay, I'll start and then Laura can complement here. First, Lucas, for me, especially in rent-a-car, yield is not the best metric that we can follow, right? I can give you several examples. If I rent a monthly rental of 5,000 kilometers a month, that will have a very high yield, very poor return. Usually, economic cars have a higher yield because, of course, the fixed costs are much higher for an economic car. So for the store, for the rent, for everything that I have, I need a higher yield. So yield is really not the best metric. If you have to look, also you should consider the whole fleet, not just the rented fleet or the operational fleet to check that. So I much rather see the returns than the yield. But having said that, as I said, we have been delivering a strong price increase if you adjust by utilization or even without adjusting for price utilization. You're talking about the benefits of this integration. The benefit mostly is on fleet, right, because you have some operational procedures that are simplified here. Of course, there are some challenges, too, when you change the system and you incorporate. And the only thing is that we are – We're already seeing a lot of these benefits, right? You see margins increasing. You see costs under control, right? We are allowing ourselves to do more investment, especially on technology. So I think it's going to be gradual. We're not going to see a one-off. thing in the the next quarter or the quarter after that but it's going to be something gradual but the main main lever here is rejuvenating our fleet is renewing our fleet in rental car you know if you want to point something in order yeah just to add a couple of points here on the yield part and and both in the integration but let me start with the last one lucas

We just completed integration of the systems in the fleet rental. We should be able to see some additional synergies being captured in Q4. But having said that, we mentioned in the release that the right spread of the targeted segment is already in our goal. So it means that we don't need to raise much more EBITDA margin because we are more or less on track. If we assume that interest rates tend to decline, we can actually have the benefit of that. So that's why we say the ultimate metric is the ROIC spread, not the margin per se. Having said that, growing on the subscription is one of the segments that are growing faster, and this segment uses a little less the car, so the depreciation is lower, so we can adjust the margin based on that. So just to reinforce the point here, but we do have some margin gains going forward. We continue with a very strong cost and efficiency agenda that should help on the margin, but again, we'll follow up on the ROIC spread and price eventually. And that leads to the second point on the yield in the car rental. Conceptually, as little as possible impact on the pricing would be great to help on the demand front. So we are doing our homework on the cost side to be able to impact as little as possible the rate. So yield is definitely not the best metric for us. We have to consider the yield, plus the cost, the productivity, and by the end of the day, the capital invested, so we can get the full picture of the ROIC spread.

Okay. Got you, guys. Thanks very much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from João Friso from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two quick follow-ups. The first one relates to used car sales volumes. You guys are now running around 76,000 cars sold per quarter. Just wanted to get a sense from you what should be the level to get the age of the car sold back to 14, 15 months, and how long should it take for you guys to get to this level of car sold per month. And the second question relates to the negotiations with the OEMs for 2026. Just wanted to get a sense from you guys on how are those going. If anything, you could comment. Thank you very much.

So thank you, João, for your question. First of all, we're delivering, as you said, 75,000, 76,000. We continue to push to increase that number. This is something that probably will happen gradually. To get to the 15 months, we need something close to 85,000 per quarter, okay? This is the number that we need to reach to get to these 15 months. And we expect – we have, once again, this is a long journey. We are increasing. This quarter was the record in terms of sales for Localiza. We have been able to increase quarter over quarter and deliver good results, but this will be gradually. but once we reach this 85,000 mark, first we have to surpass the 80,000 mark, we're going to get to the time that we can get to the fleet to the optimal level again. In terms of the OEMs, still a lot of the negotiations going forward, so it's a bit early to tell about the conditions, but we don't expect anything to change significantly going forward.

John, just adding up to what Rodrigo just commented on the first question, we sold the record 75,500 cars this quarter. We are in a pace more or less at this level of 19 months, 19 to 20 months or so. So we are not yet in the pace of 15 months. For us to get that, we have to reach a bit over 80,000 cars. But I wanted to add the point that we are increasing the ROIC spread, and we will continue to increase the ROIC spread in spite of getting back to the 15 months. Once we get, we have even more room here to adjust pricing and eventually accelerate growth.

Perfect, guys. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Our next question is from James Peace from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Jens?

Jens, you can talk now. Your audio is open.

Oh, sorry, I was on mute. You can hear me now, right? Yeah, thank you, Rodrigo and Nora. I just wanted to make a question. building up on the previous question on the amount of cars you've been selling. So first of all, congrats on improving the pace of cars sold and getting towards your target. I was just wondering, should we expect, like for modeling purposes, that you will continue to be able to increase that pace in the next few quarters? Are you seeing favorable dynamics in October, November, so that we can already assume a slightly higher number, or should it be relatively similar to the current number that you just reported? That's on the amount of cars sold. My second question goes, regarding the the the ipi tax impact on on the used car market um just to clarify you mentioned that it still remains to be seen if the impairment was conservative or not um and i just wanted to ask have you seen no impact whatsoever of the ipi attacks because we we did see several models depreciating at a higher rate to the typical monthly rate according to FIBA data. So just wondering how much of an impact you've already seen, and maybe if you could elaborate on how much, like, the monthly depreciation was in the past few quarters would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you, gents. First of all, we don't provide any type of guidance in terms of amount of cars that we're going to sell going forward. Seasonality, the third quarter is usually a strong quarter in terms of seasonality. October is a strong month. November and December, not so much. So it will really depend here. But having said that, we don't expect anything to happen to be gradual, okay? Nothing major, either up or down. We don't expect anything major to happen here, okay? In terms of the IPI effects, definitely we're already seeing some impacts. If you consider that the regular depreciation should be these 50 bps, the 0.5%, any number that you look, you're going to see that the cars are depreciating more than that. This is already a reflection of the IPI. So the past three months after the IPI, the cars have been depreciating more than it usually has. So, but it is still not everything of the IPI impact. So, that's why I said that we still have to wait going forward. This trend will continue or if the cars will come back to depreciate the average of 50 bits per month. Okay.

Okay. Sorry, again, just one quick comment before you follow up, if I may. On the car rental, we still have in Q4 number of locations to open. Q4 is the quarter that we usually concentrate some of the openings. So we are working on increasing capillarity, but more important than the capillarity per se, is the productivity per salesperson and commercial efficiency here. So we do expect a gradual improvement in the volumes of cars sold, but not necessarily in Q4. Q4 usually delivers a very strong October, but some deceleration in November and December as vacation and summer peak season hits. But sorry, I interrupted you. You were going to ask something else, right?

Yeah. Yeah, so pace of car sales basically should trend gradually higher, but there could be a bit of seasonality going on. Yeah, that's fair. Now, on the IPI tax, so of the impairment you did, like, how much is already – how much already happened, you know? How much, like – cushion do you still have from the impairment? Like, is it 80%? Is it 50? Is it 90? Just a sense of how much room there is still.

Thank you. It's more like three quarters. We're already seeing.

Okay. Okay. All right. Perfect. Thank you for the clarity. Thank you.

And there is one question here in the Q&A, if I may, Danielle Spielberg. Rodrigo Nora, next year the market is pricing an easing cycle starting in January. In a scenario of lower interest rates and ROIC spreads converging towards 7 or 8 percentage point, is there any reason that could prevent Localiza from applying the long-term strategy of volume growth and market consolidation? Great question, Daniel. I think in that sense, if interest rates decline and the ROIC spread follow to the right pattern, soon we can resume the growth mode of the company going forward.

We look forward to having this strategic dilemma, right, that when we reach the seven and eight, and then we're really going to have here, maybe you can resume to grow to another cycle of growth here in market consolidation. We have a strong balance sheet that will allow us to do whatever strategic optionality that we want. But if really the interest rates converge, it's a matter of a decision if the company would like maybe to over earn a bit or to increase growth passing through part of this interest rate efficiency through tariffs unlocking additional growth.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Rogério Araújo from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hey, Rodrigo Nora. Thanks for the opportunity. One follow-up here on the ROIC spread subject. As I understood, the idea is not that Localiza is going to pass through interest rate reduction to consumers before the company reaches 7, 8 percentage points. Is that correct? Or if the interest rates start to drop, we could already see some kind of fair reduction or fair increase below inflation or some sort like that. That's the first one. And the second, if you could elaborate on your expectations for new car prices. And there was a 5% currency appreciation recently in Brazil. There are some Chinese brands coming to Brazil and producing locally. So if you could talk a little bit about their expectations for car prices and also any change in mix for OEMs that Localiza usually buys vehicles from. because the market is changing, right? I want to know if Localia is going to follow somewhere closer to the mix of the market within brands or not in the foreseeable future. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Roger. And the first question, like, we have first to reach our targets in terms of profitability first before discussing actually passing through efficiency of interest rates through the tariff, okay? In a scenario that, of course, the rates fall sharply and now we are surpassing our goals here of profitability, then we can discuss eventually to reduce or to increase the tariff slower than inflation to unlock a new growth cycle, okay? In terms of the OEMs, of course, that there are some changes here but we don't see of the dollar is depreciating right uh in the hell so we don't believe that car prices will go up more than inflation but it's it's difficult to see at least the public or or or the transactional prices going down now oems are not making a a robust profit in brazil of course they are healthy but it's not that they have a lot of margin to burn here in brazil so we expect here A dynamic that's somewhat stable. Of course, there are new entrants. In the terms of our portfolio, we always assessing based on expected profitability. If we understand that we can have a return better by switching or adjusting our portfolio, we will do so. But all the decisions in terms of the adjustment of our portfolio will be based on our expected profitability on those buys.

Okay, that's very clear. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Rogério.

Thank you. Now to close, I will hand back to Rodrigo Tavares. Please go ahead.

I'd like to thank you all, and we remain available if you have any other questions. Thank you very much.