Anima Holding SA
BOVESPA:ANIM3
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Anima Holding SA
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Let us start. Welcome, everyone, once again to our earnings results webinar for Anima Educacao. It's a great pleasure to welcome all of you. We have almost 150 people participating. I'm Marina Gelman, I'm IR Officer. Most of you know me. I am virtually accompanied by Guilherme Soarez, CEO, Inspirali; and in person by Atila, who is our CFO; and Paula, our CEO.
So without further ado, Paula, please, it's up to you.
Thank you, Marina. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our webinar to share our results of Q3 2024.
I admit, Atila, that with everything that we do for the first time, there are lots of butterflies in our stomach norm. Well, it would be rare not to have them. It's an unprecedented time for me, although I was here at the previous webinar following this passing of the baton with Marcelo. I'd like to thank Marcelo, Professor [ Consanto ], so many people that have welcomed me upon my arrival, especially that have paved this transition way, Marcelo leading as CEO, but he's still mentoring me. We're still interacting. But we are closing this transition in a very smooth way within the company. I'd like to leave this initial gratitude and a second acknowledgment. It's important to highlight for our team.
We are here today making this earnings results presentation 5 days before, right, Atila. We were able to do it earlier as part of the process. When I follow the webinars, I saw Marcelo saying that that's a move that Anima is proposing to do to bringing you firsthand opening the earnings results of our company in this time with all the efforts that this requires that shows the maturing of the company.
Without further ado, let us start. I cannot see the screen. We've made several tests. Let's see if it's working now. Yes. Okay. As you can see the results, we very happily share the results that reflect a management that is results of thousands of educators. These numbers reflect sound consistent trajectory of financial results.
Some highlights we'd like to give. First, the leverage reduction, quite significant, BRL 178 million, having paid BRL 178 million in dividends in this third quarter, we have a leverage of 2.71, quite significantly lower. Atila will give you some details as to how we got there. Our cash generation is still solid, BRL 328.5 million in this quarter. And if we look year-to-date, BRL 778 million cash generation in the company. Our revenue with quality of strategy of looking at our ticket along with the student base and prioritized quality of revenue has brought significant gains. We're talking about a growth of our ticket of almost 5% in the core and about 7% when we look at the Inspirali medical school.
It's important to highlight the growth in EBITDA, both in absolute terms and margin. We look at the trajectory of growth of margin -- I even met Botafogo. I don't know if Botafogo is here with us. I met him on Monday. Very nice to get to know all the Anima ecosystem. Looking at this track record, 11 consecutive months of margin expansion, plus 3.1%, over 28%, closing the quarter with BRL [ 265 ] million EBITDA accumulated year, BRL 860 million, getting to net profit of BRL 49 million in the third quarter and BRL 178 million accumulated in the year.
Without further ado, I'd like to turn over to my financial colleague, Atila. Let's bring some more details to these numbers.
Thank you very much, Paula. Thank you for introducing our tradition here. Botafogo, his elegance that all of you know, was kind enough to send a message to me and Marina, "I won't be able to be with you. I won't be there, but I'll follow later." Botafogo, we have a responsibility.
So jokes apart, in the previous quarter, we joked that we were changing our league, mentioning football, we are leaving a cycle, 4 quarters of significant EBITDA growth, showing important numbers when compared to the same period this previous year. And this naturally would give us an additional challenge since then. And I'm very happy to see that even changing league, the company kept on winning the games. This shows the skill and cohesion of the team, this energy that you report quite well and bring to the company. And once again, we grow EBITDA LTM. We keep on expanding margin, very solid trajectory that we should highlight that it's been 11 quarters expanding margin. This is very important.
Moving on, we also highlight something, Paula, you've emphasized that quite well when you started speaking, reducing our leverage. This is the result of very disciplined work in the evaluation as to how we deal with the cash generation of the company, quality of revenue, execution discipline. This makes us be able to sustain and grow results of cash generation of the company. As you can see, we generated in the period BRL 328 million. Discounting the debt charges, there will be BRL 218 million, significant cash, 3x the debt charges in the quarter added to the dividends that have been distributed in the quarter allowed us to reduce leverage from 2.76 to 2.71. This is very important. When we informed the Board what our outlook was and gave them the necessary information to make a very well-based decision, we were confident and this is proven by the numbers we've published.
Moving to the next chart, an important element of this work, we see a new cycle of monetary tightening. As a country, we are quite sad. But as you put it quite well, Paula, we cannot use the term preoccupy. We have to use the term occupy. We have been occupying ourselves. And as we occupy ourselves, I'd like to highlight that the brilliant work conducted by our financial teams, I'd like to make special mention to Tiago from Inspirali, [indiscernible] from Anima Holding, who have led renegotiation initiatives with banks and managed to reduce from early this year 700 basis points of the cost of our debt, Paula. So we have been occupying ourselves, and this helps us face this new cycle of monetary tightening with the confidence that we're going to have these results in a very disciplined way. We have been able to reduce the cost of debt that also impacts the net income to continue.
It's important to look at this trajectory of reducing leverage and cash generation of the company and highlighting a number. Every company reports their financial results in a way or another. There is something that is unequivocal. How much do you reduce in terms of debt? So the bank statement does not lie. And this is the information that brings the trust that we have in the soundness of our results. So we leave early this year, leverage 3.25. We generated -- reducing net debt in the past 9 months, BRL 331 million. It's a lot of money.
Sometimes I look at the value, net worth of the company and the stock exchange compared to the BRL 361 million, and I say something is wrong. So as one of our Board members says, well, the sound does not match the video. It's important to highlight that keeping our leverage on a downtrend, debt trajectory and the consistency we have been working with. And all this work -- our cash generation care and the discipline of execution, management of bank liabilities, reducing spread, places the company in a very robust liquidity position to face any kind of period. So we give the confidence, Paula, that the company needs to look to new horizons, look ahead and seek and go after its ambitions.
When we look at this liquidity positioning, we did some renegotiation work. We have sufficient resources to face amortizations by the end of 2026. This is beautiful work conducted by all the treasury team. And as a result, I think this change places us in a growth pace that many people have asked us, where does the growth come from? It will be spread throughout the whole company working under the same philosophy, taking care of every real that leaves our pocket. We have to respect the tuition fees students pay, this is shown by taking good care of the money we spend.
So here, we see some red lines with explanation. We're going to see that better over the next slides. The ensemble shows continuous margin growth even compared to a quarter that had been quite strong previously. This also is a reflex of what you put it quite well in the presentation, Paula, of strategy of making a product and a revenue of quality. So we have been able to sustain ticket growth quarter after quarter. We have been able to also reduce dropout. We improved significantly ticket -- reduced dropout significantly, and we keep consistency of results at very healthy levels. Our numbers reflect all this dimension, core in digital Inspirali.
And now I turn over to Guilherme.
Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me all right? Very well. Good morning, Marina, Paula, Atila. Fernando is there backstage. I'm speaking directly from the United States, so Paula, I'm here at a yearly event, our Inspirali convention, with the leaders. And therefore, I'm not able to be with you in person, but I'm very happy to be here at the earnings results webinar, quite sound, of Anima and Inspirali, stressing that over this quarter, we reported the beginning of the course of Una Tucurui with full capacity in the opening. Very happily I saw the opening ceremony of the gown. It's a ritual passage which our freshmen receives symbolically and physically, an apron actually, showing that now they become female and male doctors. That was a very moving moment.
Our results, just some brief comments. We have had consistency in our student base in the undergraduate studies in medical school, although in 2024, we have a peak graduations in the first semester because of the legacy of semester entrances in the schools that have been recently integrated. Our student base is quite solid result, a very important work of positioning of attracting new entrants and very strong work in the permanent retention of our students with dropout rates below -- quite low, but even before -- with the previous results.
I reinforce our ticket, consistent with our positioning and our strategy, and this is shown by our continuous capacity of maintaining our sound positioning. And lastly, I'd like to comment the result of continuous or lifelong medical education, an important pillar of our project. Our operations of EMC, as we call it internally, lifelong medical education. It has its basis in Porto Alegre. We saw an impact to our growth rates that were momentarily due to the tragedy of the floods that we had in Rio Grande do Sul state. But we see that the past few months are back to the pre-flood level and makes us very confident to start 2025.
I thank you very much, and I turn over to [ Atila ], and I'll be here to answer any questions you may have. Good day to everyone.
Thank you, Guilherme.
Well, these results have been well presented in a detailed way. They are yet another evidence that we are on the right track to have this solid paving. We look up, we look at the horizons, and we bring to us this mission, which is Anima sustainable growth, this new cycle of growth, that we are internally calling with this name, a third wave. And we have this revenue sustainable growth. This is a cornerstone of our initial path. And this is a new design that reflects a strategy that brings focus to each one of these 3 great growth avenues we've identified. So once we have the right design, we have to find the right person in the right places, very detailed and careful work of setting up a team. I profoundly believe in a high-performance team. Nobody does anything alone. This to me has been a great focus of my energy in the first 60 days, precisely when we announced the new Executive Committee of Anima, focused and agile committee that without letting go all this disciplined management of efficiency, of taking very good care because this is key to us to be extremely careful and efficient in our present to finance the future growth of the company.
Without further ado, I think we have a final message that is important to share just to give you some spices of this movement, this third wave, when we talk about movement. Change is not something you decree. We cannot say we're going to change in the company. So what's happening at Anima, if you measure the temperature, you see these images. These images reflect just a chapter of this movement. These are photos of students in the high schools, over 100,000 students taking part in a movement that was very large. And we reactivated rescuing best practices that were traditional of Anima. We have to rescue things that are essence, culture and strategy of the company that were kind of simmering on the side.
And I'd just like to give you a flavor of it and make an invitation. We want to invite you to our Anima Day. We rethought about that. That's Investor Day -- Anima Investors Day, a day for you to be there, take part to get to know closely what's happening, the new strategy of growth at Anima, this new movement, how we are preparing and acting at this new time of looking at horizons and building a new growth cycle of Anima, 19th of November, 8:30 at our Anhembi Morumbi, Mooca. They're all beautiful. This is a very special place. Marina, everyone is preparing, IR, communications team, and we will be looking forward to seeing you all there.
We can open up for questions.
Right. Thank you very much, Paula. In addition to Paula, ourselves, the whole Executive Committee team will be there on Investors Day. It will be a great opportunity for you to meet a lot of people.
The first person that raised their hand was Leandro Bastos from Citi.
I have two questions. The first, talking about fundraising, the company has had cycles of the strategy of reducing funding, focusing on quality, stronger ticket. I'd like to understand a bit taking these months of, Paula, how do you view for next year the possibility of maintaining these contours and seeing stronger volumes? I know there is a bit of futurology there. But I'd like to understand what would be -- what are the levers with discipline, how would you bring better volumes ahead? Second one is on bad debt, well controlled. When we look at the business units, we see 0, almost positive, for distance learning and for Inspirali. And I'd like to know if there is any specific answer or approach for these lines.
Thank you, Leandro. Look, as you've mentioned, we don't do the forecast or betting on who is going to win the championship. But what I can tell you is that we're working on this process that we call having the attraction cycle of 4.0, quite different from what we worked last year. We have several initiatives in the premise that is quite clear. I've been mentioning all over the place, it's strong in the company, it's an important element to highlight what we walk our talk. We guide and we do what we say, and this gives strength to our strategy. Power to the edge is tangible in several initiatives. I've showed some images of thousands of students that we had in over 60 of our units taking part in these professional shows, trade shows. There were over 1,000 schools, 500 buses visiting over the past few weeks. So this is one of the different actions, another important action. We have very clear ambition on our goal. We have a strong commercial team working closely to the edges, the branches, power to the edge, strengthening the edges.
So being in every territory is doing that, showing how vital it is for our game, territorial, regional and local. And there are movements happening. Marina, for example, was mentioning [indiscernible] our SAT. We had several professors and teachers taking part of [indiscernible]. And once again, some of these trends, as Marina said it on the 19th on Investor Day, all the Executive Committee will be there with me. We will all be there to tell more details, tell you about our strategy. We have long, mid, short-term approaches.
So the other day, I was at the kickoff, you should see the energy all over Brazil. So movement that happens throughout Brazil. So I was in one school. So we had a lot of people together, whole of Brazil connected. So this energy, when you talk about this new context, it is different. So I can tell you. And there is a lot of focused follow-up, looking at our ambitions with great confidence in the capacity and the team of being able to -- it's important to highlight what we did not have before a different strategy for each brand that reflects this assumption or premise that is very important for Anima, power to the edge, brand to brand, local communication agencies. This is all in the street looking at 25.1
Thank you, Paula. Moving to the second part of your question, Leandro. When we talk about the P versus Q versus -- times I, I is a set of things, not using the balance sheet, making the revenue getting closer to the cash, improving the ticket, helping you having a greater difference between what you charge and what you receive and there is greater payments and less delinquency. We see better levels of payments or non-delinquency, this is naturally translated into our results and our bad debt. Our provisioning policy remains the same. We look at every area of maturity, the portfolios, the effective delinquency, and we provision from the history we have. We have internal controls that we keep from time to time. And this kind of work together with I is also translated into better levels of provisioning.
When we look at things from time to time, you see that we don't need more provisioning because your bad debt is better. When you see it's improved, it's increasing, you increase provisioning. So actually, our level of provisioning is absolutely healthy. When you follow quarter after quarter over the year, you see bad debt in these financial statements dropping, but this makes us feel confident regarding our certainty of covering the bad debt on our portfolio.
Next person registered is Lucas Nagano from Morgan Stanley.
Two questions. First, I think I'd like to follow up on the intake strategy for next year. How do you see the balance of P and I? Is it more optimized? And can you focus on the intake with greater focus on volume? Or is it going to be similar to 2024? Second question is on CapEx, went through a more reduced period and now it's recovering, it feels. I'd like to confirm whether we should see a cycle of margin for investments and which areas should it grow?
Thank you, Lucas. We connect your question to the previous question and Paula's answer. We are prepared to the third wave. What does it mean? We have changed a lot from '23 to '24 from financial aspects, also operating aspects. On operational, Paula mentioned the thousands of students that visited our schools. So the relationship with the high school seats, intake of 25.1 started in February '24. We had seats that we have grown that we expect them to be reaped. And that was born with the philosophy of P times Q times I. We do not let go. As Marcelo always said, there is no price, it has value. If we propose ourselves to having better quality education, we have to charge the price or the value it has. So we've consolidated our discipline of cash generation of converting revenue into cash. And this, consolidated, gives the company the assurance of looking at P, since P and I are controlled and operating and stabilized, now I can look at Q.
And Q part of your question, Lucas, is our strategy. And then you say, is it volume or price? And then we have within our brand portfolio, it's important to stress, Anima has a portfolio of businesses, younger ones has been added, but there are certain brands, some of them, we do all this work of segmentation and power of each brand, some holds volume and price much more strongly. Today, we have a keyword to us, which is differentiation. That's precisely what Atila says. The experience has to be different. And the attribute that differentiates a brand is precisely different from what differentiates it, listening to what students value with this process, as Atila said, we've been sowing the seeds, and it gains more strength now. So we start with new fronts that beyond commercial, we have academic experience. Today, we have a program that's just been launched. So [indiscernible]. So the company is focusing on customers, serving in a different way. It's not the exercise of attracting. It's just selling, becoming a school that is more attractive, where students have a unique experience.
The other day, actually at Mooca, we were at the customer service and asked a student, the student was registered? Well, a friend of mind registered and delighted. We know a strong brand and reputation goes through word of mouth. So we have been involving in this sense. So it's a summation of effort that converts into strengthening the brands, better experience, enhancing our academic project, which is also an important work front for this new moment for Anima.
And CapEx, in the quarter, we had some effects, Lucas. We are building a new campus for the medical school in Cubatao. This is very specific, taking place. Another lap of maturing of courses that we had in the quarter. So we have some things that were kind of out of the curve. I look at this item, I tell everyone with the following metaphor. Whenever you move -- you move into a new house, you always spend a lot. So you buy a new fridge, a new couch, et cetera, and then you get uptight. This has happened to us recently. On the other hand, once you move to a new house, this is happening to Fernando, who's right next here to me, he knows exactly what I'm talking about. When you move, you have a new fridge and you take some time without having to change the furniture and this stabilizes over time.
So I see that when we look at the CapEx, we should not just look one quarter or another one. We should see the whole picture. When you see this year's numbers, this is a very consistent number, and it reflects a bit of this time of someone who's just moved into a new house.
Next person registered, Vinicius Figueiredo from Itau BBA.
I have a question here regarding the regulatory environment. If you could take the opportunity to talk a bit about the measures or regulations regarding medical schools. Every week -- every 15 days, we see some approvals of listed companies, of private schools, some that we even didn't know exactly what were like. I'd like to know a bit about Anima's positioning regarding those debates on the various court injunctions, some places that have been denied to the company. It would be good to get an update there. And another point I'd like to ask to see that must be recurring to you getting this interest rate scenario. We had another piece of news, although it was quite expected. What would be the capital structure level that would be ideal for the company in this new scenario, trying to conciliate the agenda of compensation to shareholders. This is it.
Just one thing, there was a person that mentioned that could not hear the questions, only the answers. I think we could repeat so that everybody can hear. So Lucas's question was on the court injunctions on the medical schools and the second part was on the adjustment of capital.
Thank you, Vinicius, for the question. I think this is a topic that has been closely followed by the market with several reports published weekly. And actually, at some point, we are in doubt on the criteria applied and the court injunctions that we had no approval are being questioned or challenged both administratively and legally to understand the rationale. And there are some that are still being assessed. This is a topic that is being looked into very closely by the whole team, and we keep on following them.
Thank you, Guilherme. Vinicius asked about interest rate and our capital structure and shareholders' composition. And Vinicius, I'm going to tell you that as Brazilian, I will not be tired of repeating, that it's very sad. I think the greatest blocks of this country is our interest rates. We all have to work to get higher interest rates or actually lower interest rates in all dimensions we can work with. We actually are occupied making a company that is increasingly more profitable, more solid with better cash generation, converting EBITDA into cash so that we can keep on delivering, reducing net income, revenue growth and better margins and all of that making us to follow a trajectory of leverage. We prepare the company, we do liability management. We reduce spreads, thinking about a worse future that is about to -- this only increases our motivation to work more on this front to keep on reaping all those fruits.
We believe in the company's potential of maintaining the trajectory of reducing leverage because it finds a solid cash generation that is robust, giving it this security to have healthy capital structure, giving us a balance of reducing leverage, return to shareholders and keeping our growth strategy and trajectory. This is responsible, diligent guidance that drives our capital structure decisions.
Our next person registered is Flavio Yoshida from Bank of America.
My question is regarding this third wave mentioned. You've shown that in your core business, you have three major avenues for growth. I'd like to understand the details of those avenues, which are they and more details on that. And the other one for -- well, it's to you, Paula. As you've taken over as CEO, what is the legacy you want to leave for your management? What were your first impressions and I understand with your experience in other industries different from education previously, how they can help you in this management in an industry that is totally new to you? We know that you were following it closely from the Board, but being an executive, you have to put your hands on.
Thank you, Flavio. First question, this third wave that -- this name that we're giving this context at this moment, it's not smaller. It's a new context so that new things can happen. But it's been happening in a more pragmatic way, our strategy with the three major avenues. One of them is new organizational design in core business with three clear avenues for growth. So it's a revamping of the core. Looking at our core, our undergraduate education, and boost, creating a unique experience, improving our product, improving the experience, bringing strength to the brands and this work has been gaining momentum, but we still have ambitions ahead that are quite bold in strengthening our brands and this better academic experience that we know actually, several of those brands have much more potential than others where we have a portfolio, but it's a major growth avenue for the core of the company.
A second avenue is revenue expansion in new modalities of teaching, in lifelong learning, continuous education and other revenue sources, I would say, hidden assets within the company that we know and some avenues that were not -- or have not been totally structured. So restructuring several growth fronts, these three avenues have 18 growth fronts. We don't talk about initiatives, but there are work fronts, three avenues of growth and 18 work fronts and this -- with this pace that has started recently.
And the third one creates a view to the creation of new business opportunities. So some are bets, some are more specific, looking at trends and market moves that we understand that we have the conditions to looking at this unique strength, what is the competitive advantage of Anima? Where can we not only expand revenue but actually be very good in these new opportunities we're thinking about exploring? We understand that we have unique competitive advantage. And I make you the invitation to be there at our Investors Day and talk to the leaders working on these major avenues so that you can get to know them closely.
This is important when you look at Anima. It's not Atila talking about, well, interest rates, well, we do that, we follow. We have mixed scenarios, A, B, C, D. We do the math. But the great focus of what we control, our strategy, our team where we're placing our energy for the growth of the company.
The second question is on my legacy. Two words: sustainable growth. When we look back this period -- this mission, I think it's not a mandate. It's a mission of Anima resuming a new cycle of growth -- a sustainable growth, and we can look back. We can say, well, it's -- Anima has grown and in a sustainable way. It's grown in the right way, the way it likes to grow, generating genuine growth, giving quality education, transforming lives. Well, I was there, there was another graduation with you with the Cubatao team. You see the apron there, you see the families with the shirt, they had photos of the professors. So people graduating. We know we create impact. It's impacted -- we measure, we follow. We know how many of our youngsters are actually working on the areas they've studied. They are actually fulfilling their dreams. We are able to expand this real impact power Anima has.
And looking back, we can say, well, we've been able to take Anima to this impact of power of transformation over time with strategy, team and disciplined execution. I am confident this is the most important work. We are confident that we're going to be able to conquer that together.
Congratulations on your results, and we'll certainly be there on the 19th.
Thank you very much, Flavio. Next person registered is Samuel Alves from BTG.
Two questions. The first is a follow-up of the previous question and answers on the three great avenues. Paula was talking about the second expansion of network and new modality of teaching. I'd like to hear you on distance learning, if you intend to accelerate that within the second avenue. A second question, also a follow-up regarding the question on capital structure. Considering monetary tightening, what about the other agendas that could reduce indebtedness, the parallel agendas you talked about in previous -- on previous occasions, sales back, sales of assets, do you still have this agenda in the company or?
Samuel, on your first question, when we look at where this movement, this legal framework, where this is heading to and the opportunities this creates for Anima -- because of Anima, as I said, competitive advantages, where Anima has its competitive differentials. Our evaluation is that we have great opportunity, both for the expertise. Anima has this capability. It knows how to play on this very well. When we talk about distance learning, this is a great chapter. It is continuous. For the first time, we have placed this chapter on the table in a much clearer way. And today, we can view within this great ocean, which is the red part, which is an orange one, which is the yellow, the green, exploring all the modalities from a virtual library to the in-person. It's not an isolated chapter. We're looking the whole offer and what's the best way of having our portfolio offers through marks, through brands and to where the market is going so that we understand we have conditions of being ahead in our differentials. This summarizes your question.
And again, today we have our leaders, it's not just one person. It's actually a front that is being worked on. We have the leader of this growth of expansion along with the core, with marketing, various leaders looking at those chapters. This is very important. They are not islands. We're looking at Anima's ecosystem. And we have a strategy that converges and has great ambition, is this growth that is sustainable of our revenue, EBITDA and cash generation.
Second question on capital structure. Samuel has asked about our initiatives we have been working on to possibly speed up the deleveraging process. All those initiatives, we continue with the same mindset. We understand that there are opportunities that we must evaluate with discipline and diligence so that we can speed up trajectory of deleveraging the company. Marcelo said that previously at an agenda that he is taking care of, and we maintain all the initiatives. They are -- all the conversations, the thoughts, the models, they're always being taken care of very carefully, waiting for the right time to be matured.
So -- well, sales back, so we see the long-term rates for that too much. This places great devaluation of assets at the moment. And because of several other issues, our mindset is we're working in a diligent, disciplined way. We understand that those avenues must be watered, taken care of, and we should be ready for the time when opportunities come up.
Next question registered is Andre Salles from UBS.
I have two on my side as well. First one is on Inspirali's margin dynamics. You mentioned here greater maturing of the cost and additional costs linked to that. How should we view this margin dynamics considering this change? And adding to the trajectory of deleveraging in the company, we have fourth quarter historically more difficult in terms of cash generation season, in terms of -- because of seasonality. How do you see the leveraging of the company at the end of the quarter, considering payment of dividends to minority, cash pressure because of holidays, 13th salary, et cetera? This would be an interesting point.
Okay. Let me take your question. Thank you, Andre, for your questions. We are quite confident on the stability of the performance, operations and our results. In the past 12 months, I think LTM is a good proxy of the stabilization already observed with the maturity of our courses. And we had the two past years of the medical school. We have the internships and this requires a bit higher operational cost. When we compare to the first 4 years, the results presented are quite consistent to this maturation moment.
Thank you, Guilherme. Andre, naturally, fourth quarter in our segment is a quarter that is quite intense in terms of working capital, we pay holidays, 13th salary when students get to the end of the year with no breathing room. We have time in which we consume working capital. This naturally contributes to an increase in net debt. Naturally, we consider all of that. It's a totally predictable process and controlled. And looking at this scenario, we understand that even because of this process, we keep our leverage level well controlled with no type of issue that concerns us beyond what we have seen and, everyone, I am quite comfortable when I look at these dynamics, it's expected, natural. We should face it just as we have been facing it in the past quarters, taking care of cash generation efficiency, making revenue to get faster to the cash with the growth of EBITDA. And with that, we keep healthy trajectory in this process of deleveraging.
Next person registered is Marcelo Santos from JPMorgan.
I have two questions on my side. First, I'd like to talk about resuming growth. You had great gains this year in terms of margin ticket, cash generation, receivables. Well, I've asked before, and I'd like to ask again so that everybody can hear the answers. Do you have to return a bit of those gains to be able to attain your goals? I understand that you must have internal improvements. Should there be some kind of return? Should the market expect some return of the gains or not? First question. Second question is related to the three points that have been brought up on the growth avenues. I'd like to better understand the difference between the second and the third. You talked about the expansion of revenue, new modalities of teaching. And the third one is creating new opportunities. I'd just like to understand, I'm sorry if I didn't get the difference between the two.
Marcelo, I'm going to start here in a playful way. We have the commitment to Botafogo's chart. This answers the first part of your question on returning a bit. When you said returning, Paula, if we're going to return -- if we have to spend more with something, to return the growth of the company. So I'd tell you that we have the commitment with Botafogo's chart of keep sustaining margin growth for the company.
Having said that, on the other questions, I turn over to you.
So on this question, Marcelo, so the more efficient we are, the better we finance the future. Again, we have this mantra that we have in our message, which is the past teaches us, present determines us and the future inspires us. This discipline, this efficiency, this management is key and vital for the company. We cannot -- so it's a matter of balancing, knowing where to put our resources to attain our goals. The order of the question is, what will you want? The second is what do we need? We're going after our goals, our ambitions. So what we need is resources or funds as a consequence. It's not subordinating the goal to resources. Otherwise, we have a limited positioning. So it's a bold, courageous thinking that requires this discipline and this execution and this efficiency as Atila put it quite well, being preserved. So it's a fine-tuning. You call it a concept with -- sometimes we have a concept with this or fixing here. So this is the fine-tuning of this work, looking very much where we place our time, focus, energy of our resources to boost this growth agenda.
And when you ask about the difference between the two great avenues, the difference is, in the second, the action is structuring the avenues of growth. So the opportunities are on the table. We generate revenue, but we must grow and increase revenue on those avenues that already exist, those fronts, the second avenue. That's why we have a team focused on continuous education, our digital modalities, looking at our expansion, looking at the whole agenda that brings other things. I'm anticipating things. So the team can give you more details on that. They're very robust.
When we look at the third horizon, it would be horizon 3, sometimes it's too cliche in the market. But actually, it's looking at opportunities that are new opportunities. Where is education of the future heading to? What do youngsters want ahead? What are the new careers, the new ways of learning? What would be 1, 2, 3 bets? We already have within Anima some efforts, but -- I think somebody has an open microphone. It's Marcelo -- sorry. I was getting some feedback. So this third horizon, this third great avenue are opportunities that we see that we have, the opportunities of tapping into, because of our competitive advantage, and we see capability of adding revenue of a new source of revenue that may be created in the company and actually creating a format of many partnerships, Marcelo.
So we are choosing carefully some partners and some of those opportunities that we are bringing some more long-term bets for the future of the company.
Next person -- well, we're going to take the last question. We're almost over our time. Before opening for Caio Moscardini from Santander, just briefly, questions that were on the Q&A, we're going to answer them via e-mail. If you have any questions, so you can send us an e-mail, ri@animaeducacao.com.br. The link for registering of the Investor Day is going to be posted today. You should get the mailing today with the link for the registration. So you can go on our IR website with the link for the registration.
With that, I give -- turn over to Caio.
Two questions on my side. First, if you can share with us the freshmen ticket vis-a-vis the ticket that we see on the base, what's the differential of price between one and the other? If you could share that with us, it helps a lot. Second question, Atila, you mentioned the opportunities of sales leaseback and what's the size of the opportunities, how much of assets you have? That helps us a lot, too.
Thank you, Caio. Thanks for your question. This differentiation between freshmen and upper classmen, we don't make this distinction. We understand this is information that we would like to keep because of competition issues, but I may say P times Q times I applies both for freshmen and upper classmen. With this, I think you can sort of understand our strategy. As to those two opportunities, they are smaller opportunities. They are opportunities that were from the acquisition of Laureate and units in the Northeast of Brazil. They would be worth BRL 70 million, BRL 80 million. They are just minor. So they were just examples I gave to make our discipline more tangible and our timing to you.
Thank you all very much. With this, I turn over to Paula to conclude.
Thank you, and we would like to thank you for your presence. Anima invites you to be part of this time of the company to understand better what's behind the name of third wave, the new design, especially of the people that make Anima to happen as Marina reminded us and highlighted this executive committee. We have a new [ comex ]. It's chosen very carefully, what do we need here and here, so we have the capabilities for each one of the great talents of the company and something that we have brought -- actually carefully chosen in the market to -- we understand it important to have it strengthened at the moment. So you will have the opportunity of meeting those -- this great team, these great people are making to happen the new history of the company at the moment. And we are confident actually, Marina. This is the feeling that I like to convey to you that places us actually confirming these numbers, putting us in this ability of looking up to new horizons. Thank you very much and see you on the 19th. Thank you. Have a good day. Thank you, Guilherme.
[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]