Minerva SA

BOVESPA:BEEF3

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q2

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the videoconference to disclose the results of Minerva relating to the results of Q2 2023. Today with us are Mr. Fernando Galletti de Queiroz, CEO; and Mr. Edison Ticle, CFO and IRO. We inform you that the presentation is being recorded with simultaneous translation into English. Translation is available by clicking on the Interpretation button. [Operator Instructions] Additionally, we inform you that the presentation is available for download from the company's website. [Operator Instructions]We would like to clarify that any forward-looking statements that may be made during this conference call relates to the Minerva's business outlook, operational and financial targets which are based on projections on the company's management which may or may not occur. Investors should understand that political factors, macroeconomic and other operational factors may affect the future of the company and conduct to results which differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.I now turn the floor over to Mr. Fernando Queiroz, CEO, to begin his presentation.

[Fernando De Queiroz, executive]

[Interpreted] Good morning to all, and thank you for attending this video conference to disclose the results of Minerva Foods for the second quarter of 2023. At the end of the quarter, Minerva delivered a robust operating and financial set of results, which attests to the consistency and discipline of our business strategy. The focus on operational execution, financial discipline, in addition to our commercial expertise and our ability to arbitrage across markets were fundamental for the quarter's performance. Our corporate strategy has proven right and has further consolidated our position as one of the main players in the global animal protein market.In Q2, our gross revenue was BRL 7.8 billion. EBITDA was BRL 711 million and contributed to a net income of BRL 121 million LTM. The results remain very solid. Gross revenue was approximately BRL 31 billion. Adjusted EBITDA totaled approximately BRL 2.8 billion and the accumulated net profit was in excess of BRL 350 million.Our capital structure remains stable and at the end of the quarter, net leverage was 2.7x net debt-over-EBITDA despite the recent disbursements related to the acquisition of ALC in Australia and the payment of dividends.As I always do in our conference calls, before moving on to the highlights of the quarter, I'd like to talk a little bit about the industry and how our strategy and business model uniquely positioned us to capture opportunities.The outlook in the international beef market remains very promising. The imbalance between global supply and the demand for beef remains one of the great drivers of our industry. This should become even more accentuated with the strong constraints on production in North America in the next few years.On the other hand, producers in South America and Brazil, in particular, continue to benefit from the resumption of the bovine cycle in a large part of the continent, which should last for at least another 2 to 3 years and expands the supply of animals in the region. The increase in the availability of finished animals in our continent, together with a tight supply of North American beef over the next few years, provide unique opportunities for exporters.On the demand side, we remain confident with the gradual recovery of the Chinese economy, the gradual reduction in beef inventories and the positive impact of seasonality in the second half of the year, which should encourage a more aggressive rebound in Chinese imports over the coming quarters.Additionally, there are persistent health issues in the animal protein market such as the recent outbreaks of avian flu in various regions of the world, including South America, and the persistence of swine flu, which continues to impact Asia.Finally, I cannot fail to highlight the challenges presented by climate change which creates volatility throughout the agribusiness chain. But because we rely on our geographic diversification strategy, this affords us several arbitrage opportunities in the global animal protein market. This scenario should afford new commercial opportunities for producers in our continent. Additionally, Brazilian beef has been approved for exports to Mexico and Canada and new plans have been approved to export to Indonesia.Now, let's move to Slide 2. Starting with gross revenue, it totaled BRL 7.8 billion in Q2 and approximately BRL 31 billion LTM. Exports accounted for 66% of consolidated gross revenue in the quarter and 65% LTM. Exports remain one of the company's main commercial drivers, evidencing our commercial expertise in serving international markets. Also we have international offices that allow us also to arbitrage across market destinations as well.As regards our operating profit, EBITDA for Q2 was BRL 711 million with an EBITDA margin of 9.8%, a 34% increase vis-a-vis Q1 2023.LTM EBITDA was BRL 2.7 billion with a margin of 9.2%. Our adjusted EBITDA which includes ALC's pro forma performance in 2022 was BRL 2.8 billion on an annual basis. As a reflection of our good operating and financial performance, net income was BRL 121 million in Q2 and BRL 235 million year-to-date, totaling approximately BRL 351 million LTM. Finally, free cash generation was also a highlight. We generated BRL 191 million in Q2 and when adjusted for the impact of the acquisition of ALC, we have reached almost BRL 1 billion in the last 12 months.On Slide 3, you're going to see a little bit more about our capital structure. We continue to create value for shareholders. In May, we paid out BRL 208.6 million as complementary dividends referring to the fiscal year 2022. That is BRL 0.36 per share. Since 2020, Minerva Foods has already distributed around BRL 1.4 billion as dividends, approximately BRL 2.49 per share. Just yesterday, the company's Board of Directors approved the payout of early dividends worth BRL 114 million, or BRL 0.19 per share, which must be paid now at the end of August.Over the last few years, the company has been very consistent in its capital allocation policy, always employing great discipline, with a focus on maintaining a healthy capital structure and on unlocking opportunities to create value for our shareholders. This is a strategy that we will not give up for the coming quarters.Still talking about our capital structure. At the end of Q2, net leverage remained stable at 2.7x net debt-over-EBITDA. Our liquidity remains comfortable with a cash position of BRL 6.2 billion, which combined with a debt duration of 4.2 years gives us peace of mind and flexibility in the face of the challenges and opportunities ahead of us.We will now move to the other highlights of Q2. In June, we signed a partnership agreement with NADEC, one of the largest agricultural food processing companies in the Middle East in Saudi Arabia. And it's an agreement that will bring excellent opportunities for both beef and lamb exports, thus contributing to consolidate our position in the animal protein export market.We also moved forward in innovation and we invested venture capital in Bluebell, a Brazilian climate-tech specializing in the development of environmental assets. This is yet another initiative that ratifies our commitment to sustainability, especially decarbonization in the pursuit of a more efficient, sustainable production chain with low carbon emissions.Further on our sustainability agenda, we continue to progress in the geographical monitoring of supplier ranches and now monitor 100% of our direct suppliers in Colombia, ahead of the schedule included in our commitment. We also made progress in the geographic monitoring of indirect supplier ranches and are working to engage suppliers in our social and environmental agenda through the use of the SMGeo Prospec application to further increase the monitoring of our production chain.Another highlight is the evolution of the Renove Program. We continue to expand our technical cooperation agreements and partnerships, innovation and financial support to partner ranches, with a focus on the implementation of regenerative practices in participating ranches. We pursue a production model with regenerative practices that increase productivity by reducing and removing GHG emissions.And finally, I would like to invite you all to access our 12th Sustainability Report published at the end of Q2. Its content was evaluated by an independent audit. This provides credibility to our commitment to transparency and attests to the pioneering spirit of Minerva Foods in sustainability.On Slide 4, we are going to talk about the operating and financial performance of Minerva. We start with the exports. We continue to lead exports of beef from South America with approximately 20% of the continent's market share. This confirms one of the main competitive advantages of our business model. And I speak here of geographic diversification.In the upper right corner of the slide, you'll see the Q2 gross revenue breakdown. The Americas region was the main driver of gross revenue with a total of 45% and Brazil was the highlight with 23% and Chile with 11%. Then comes Asia with 30% of the total gross revenue, and China alone accounted for 21%. As I said before, we remain confident about the performance of the Asian market over the next few quarters as a result of the recovery of the Chinese economy and the reduction in the local level of beef inventories as local consumption steps up and the constraints persist on the supply side.In the lower right hand corner of the slide, we give more details on the performance of our exports both for the beef operations here in South America and our lamb operation in Australia.Starting with the 2 graphs at the top with our operations of beef. Asia continues to be the main export driver both in the quarter and on a yearly basis, accounting for 43% and 46% of export revenues respectively. The Americas follow suit with approximately 20% for both the quarter and LTM, followed by NAFTA and customers in the Middle East and the European Union.Then we present a breakdown of our exports from our operations in Australia in Q2 with the NAFTA region being the main destination and accounting for 38% of total exports, followed by Asia with 25% and the Middle East with 21%.Before giving the floor to Edison, I would like to emphasize our optimism with the global animal protein market, in particular, beef. The outlook in the international market remains very promising. And the strong imbalance between supply and demand continues to provide relevant opportunities in markets of scale and rapid income growth such as the Asian countries as well as in premium markets such as Canada, the United States and Western Europe.We also have good prospects in Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa, regions that traditionally see greater volatility, and therefore, present great opportunities for arbitrage and value maximization. Our strategy is to implement our robust business model, maximize our competitive advantages, invest in innovation and in niche opportunities and work on risk management to achieve increasingly efficient and profitable commercial and logistical solutions designed to generate value for our entire chain of stakeholders.I now turn the floor to Edison, who is going to speak about our financial and operational performance.

[Edison Ticle Filho, executive]

[I Thank you, Fernando. Moving on to Slide 5. We'll talk about operating performance and gross revenue for the quarter and for the year. In line with our focus on exports, the export markets accounted for 68% of the gross revenue for the quarter and LTM. In the breakdown of the region, exports from the Brazilian operations reached 66% in the quarter and 67% LTM. In LatAm, operations ex-Brazil, exports accounted for 71% of the gross revenue and 70% LTM. The lamb operation in Australia was no different, exports reaching 68% of gross revenue at the end of Q2.On the right side of that slide, you see the revenue breakdown by origin. Brazil accounted for 47% of the gross revenue both for the quarter and LTM, followed by Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, which presents similar levels in the quarter and LTM. Australia comes next, accounting for 7% of the gross revenues, but this should go up to 10%, and then Colombia with 3%, and then [ new line ], others, with 5% which refers to the former trading division, which no longer includes the Australia operation.On Slide 6, we start with the net revenue which was BRL 7.3 billion in Q2, a 14% growth quarter-on-quarter. LTM net revenue was approximately BRL 29 billion. In terms of profitability, EBITDA in the quarter was BRL 711 million, a 34% growth quarter-on-quarter with a positive margin of 9.8% LTM.Our EBITDA totaled BRL 2.7 billion with a 9.2% margin. The adjusted EBITDA for the pro forma performance of the ALC when consolidated, reached BRL 2.8 billion LTM. I would like to emphasize again that we remain optimistic regarding the demand from the Asian continent, especially with the recovery of China, with the acceleration of consumption, reduction of inventories and growth of exports. This, together with the short supply in the United States and the reversal of the livestock cycle in Brazil, spells a very benign scenario for us.Now on Slide 7, you see our leverage ratio measured by the net debt-over-EBITDA indicator for the last 12 months and adjusted by ALC pro forma EBITDA for the year and at Q2 stable at 2.7x even after the acquisition of ALC and the payment of BRL 208 million in dividends relating to 2022.Just to be clear, the adjusted EBITDA reflects the organic performance of Minerva plus BRL 137 million of ALC's pro forma EBITDA in the 4 months before the consolidation. And this gives an adjusted EBITDA for ALC of BRL 2.8 billion LTM.We have been very disciplined in pursuing and maintaining a balanced capital structure and we have worked to reduce the company's leverage and financial liabilities. We are seeking to reduce not only net leverage, but also gross leverage. We pursue a less costly balance sheet with a better risk profile to create value for the shareholders.On Slide 8, you will see that our net income reached approximately BRL 121 million and BRL 235 million in the semester LTM. The net income was BRL 351 million. On the right hand side of the slide, you'll see the operating cash flow in the quarter which was positive by BRL 578 million and BRL 2.8 billion LTM.We are all aware of the difficulties in the credit markets in Q1. This had a negative impact on our performance on the working capital line, especially the supplier line. Well, as we expected, the positive changes in the credit market have allowed the gradual normalization of this scenario. We expect this movement to gain even more strength by the end of the year. This has enabled us to achieve a better working capital performance in the quarter, in particular, in the supplier line which returned approximately BRL 318 million to cash.On Slide 9, we speak about FCF. You see the buildup of the cash flow of the quarter. We start from an EBITDA of BRL 711 million, CapEx of BRL 187 million of which BRL 125 million were invested in maintenance and BRL 60 million enabled organic expansion of operations in the plants Palmeiras de Goias and a new line to produce private label, beef jerky.Then we see the working capital line which released BRL 62 million in the quarter and the cash base financial result which was negative by BRL 263 million. We have a recurring cash generation of approximately BRL 323 million in Q2. If we had the impact of nonrecurring cash-based derivatives which burns BRL 132 million, we ended the quarter with a positive free cash flow of BRL 191 million.In the last 12 months, free cash flow was negative by BRL 258 million as it includes other impacts of the acquisition of ALC over the period. During the buildup, we start with an EBITDA of BRL 2.7 billion, CapEx of BRL 678 million. Then we have the positive variation in working capital of BRL 431 million and the cash-based financial result which includes the negative impact of the financial hedge and the result was negative by around BRL 1.5 billion. If we exclude the acquisition of ALC of BRL 929 million for the 12 months ended in June '23, we have the final result. These cash flows does not consider BRL 337 million in dividends which were paid out in the period.Now, moving on to Slide 10. We will have the net debt bridge. This remains stable from Q1 to Q2, but we see that the debt should have gone up by BRL 209 million. We also have the non-cash effect of BRL 24 million from derivatives that was a negative impact. Then we have the non-cash impact of approximately BRL 50 million relating to the exchange variation of the portion of our debt which is pegged to foreign currency, which would reduce the level of debt. And then we have the positive free cash flow of BRL 191 million which reduced our gross debt. Adding up all those accounts, we see that the debt remain virtually stable despite a payment of BRL 208 million in complementary dividends relating to 2022.On Slide 11, we are going to talk a little bit about our capital structure. Net leverage measure this net debt over adjusted EBITDA, that is including the pro forma over ALC, was stable at 2.7x. The cash position at the end of Q2 remains at a very comfortable level with approximately BRL 6.2 billion which is enough to amortize our debt until 2031. 54% of our debt is exposed to FX variation and we have a hedging policy that is strictly followed. By that policy, the company has to hedge at least 30% of our long-term currency exposure and this has proven to be very efficient, especially given the recent volatility in Brazil.The debt -- duration of our debt is approximately 4 years and 80% of our debt is in the long-term, as you can see in the amortization flow. And finally, I'll talk a little bit about the liability management initiatives. In Q2, we had the cancellation of around $8 million relating to the 2031 bond, which shows that we maintain our commitment to a more balanced, healthy capital structure with a lower risk profile. We monitor the market for opportunities to improve our debt profile and improve our capital structure.Now, I hand the floor back to the operator so we can start the Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Mr. Alves from Morgan Stanley.

[Ricardo Alves, analyst]

[Interpreted] My question is about export prices in dollars from Brazil. This was one of the biggest surprises we had. If I'm not mistaken, there was a 20% growth in sequence. This SECEX data is lagging behind. We agree with a view that you have expressed in other calls, but the mismatch between Minerva data and SECEX data was bigger than it was before. So I would like to hear from you, is there a specific market that we are not following from a close range in terms of the export prices? Is there something more relevant that we should understand because the prices is a lot -- the prices are a lot higher than the prices we had?And then in terms of gross margin and SG&A, can -- we're also surprised with a gross margin of 21%. The EBITDA margin was above the expectation, but there was a smaller gap. So the gross margin, maybe because you achieved high prices in Brazil, is this margin going to be sustained in time? Should we grow and what about SG&A? Were there any non-recurring expenses? In your release, there was a comment about the acquisition of the ALC. Is there anything inflating your SG&A? Is it going to improve in the next few quarters? We have been talking about freight as well. So please give us a little bit more color about the SG&A?

[Edison Ticle Filho, executive]

[Interpreted] I'll start with the second question. In terms of SG&A, we wrote in the release, and I'll read it from it. Yes, there are some non-recurring -- [ BRL 28 million ] is the amortization of intangibles relating to the acquisition of ALC. This is a premium of the intangibles that we have to amortize according to IFRS rules. So in this quarter, we amortized BRL 28 million. It's a non-cash expense. Then we had BRL 35 million from the ELP plan and this is going to be reduced throughout the quarters. We completed 1 year from the new plan that we disclosed last year. And the company makes contributions as the shares are vested for the participants of the program. So there was a gross up of the contribution.The expense was a little bit higher. Normally, this range is around BRL 13 million or BRL 15 million. And this is what we accrue normally for the plan. But because 1 year elapsed since the plan, we had to gross up, make a bigger contribution, but this is a one-off thing.And then in terms of freight, freight prices have been improving, but we decided to lock 2/3 of our contracts. So we are going to see an improvement in this 1/3 that remained unlocked. But we locked the prices for 2/3. So you will see an improvement in the freight account, but it's going to be smaller than it would be because we made a commercial decision in the beginning of the year to lock the prices for 2/3 of the contracts.In terms of gross margin, it results from a good performance in sales and from our ability to buy as well. The cattle cycle is very good and we expect the gross margin to remain at very good levels, which will end up generating very good EBITDA margins. There's no secret there.As regards to prices, I will begin to answer and then turn the floor over to Fernando. SECEX, as I have been saying, is not a good proxy for what is happening to us. SECEX data are not updated or mixed and they don't give you an idea of what has been happening from a timeline point of view. There is a big mismatch. Fernando is going to give you more color about the outlook for prices. But we have been saying that for a long time our share has a relation with the SECEX data. But this doesn't make any sense. If you compare our prices with the prices of SECEX, there is a complete mismatch.

[Fernando De Queiroz, executive]

[Interpreted] Just to add to what Edison said, the first point is that Minerva less than 50% -- actually 45% of Minerva's revenue comes from Brazil. SECEX represents part of what happens. And despite that, there is this time lag with that data. But I would like to highlight our risk management policy. There are 3 points. We exercise arbitrage and we have been sharing this with the market for a long time. First is the futures curve, the geographies and the arbitrage between products. Increasingly more when we manage risks, we have been taking positions in the medium and longer term in defending the exchange rate, in purchase and in sales so that we can lock margins and have a more stable, less volatile EBITDA margin. So our policy is to manage risks, especially long-term pricing, in the 3 risk components: the cattle, the sale and the FX. These 3 aspects are essential. So SECEX does not reflect what we have. It's not an adequate proxy and we also have to think about the geography. 47% of our revenue comes from Brazil.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] The next question comes from Mr. Duarte from BTG Pactual.

[Thiago Duarte, analyst]

[Interpreted] I would start with a provocation discussion that we had in the last 2 calls and this has to do with the revenue performance in the year. In Q4, you showed a lot of confidence in the ability to grow the consolidated revenues of the company in the region of 2 digits. We were thinking about a stable average prices and a growth in volume. Obviously, when we looked at the performance of last year, the first semester would be difficult as a comparison basis, but this growth would have been delivered in the second semester. In fact, this is what happens. For you to grow 2 digits, you should ramp up in a very substantial way in the second semester. We are seeing less volumes but we are seeing prices a lot better than SECEX shows. So I would like to understand what you think about it? Is it feasible to talk about growth in revenues in the consolidated for the year relative to last year? And the second question…

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] Let me answer the first question. If you look in the last 12 months and compare, volumes are growing by 4%. Revenue is going down by 4.7%. That is a drop in prices, which was not on our radar. Why? Because we never thought that the price of cattle would go down by 35%. We have been improving the spread of the operation, but over less money. We are generating less money because the basis is not as high. The reduction in the price of cattle -- and here, I speak of the domestic market, this reduces nominally the revenues, although the volumes go up. Then there was an appreciation of the exchange rate. So the translation of revenues into reals is also smaller. We were not expecting this -- the strong appreciation of the real in the first semester. The positive fact is that volumes are growing by 4% LTM -- vis-a-vis LTM.If you look quarter-on-quarter, in Q2, volumes grew 9% relative to Q1 2023. And the prices are recovering. This is very clear, and continues to be so even more strongly in Q3. So once we think about all of these factors, it's difficult now to project growth above 10% year-on-year once we close the fourth quarter. But there is data there relating to our growth in terms of volume, prices in the second semester, then the FX prices, the price of cattle.So maybe not 2 digits, but we can be more positive than what happened in the first semester where there was a drop by 4%, 5% in the revenue -- in the nominal revenue because of these reasons I described. In Q1, we also had the ban of exports to China. So despite our ability to arbitrage, this had an impact. That has now been normalized.

[Thiago Duarte, analyst]

[Interpreted] Then the second and the third question. The second has to do with China. You have been saying even in this call that you are optimistic relative to the recovery of demand and prices in China. So I'd like to ask you, why do you think this recovery seems to be a bit slower? When we look at the price of beef in China relative to the competing proteins, they seem to be quite low. We always thought of that as a factor that would prop up prices, but this doesn't seem to be so. There seems to be a recovery, but not as strong. Could this be associated with the offer from other markets, supply from Argentina to China, from Australia to China? Could you tell us how fast you think this recovery will happen?And then lastly, you have dividends which are going to be paid out in August. So you seem to be very confident in the growth of EBITDA and the deleveraging of the company in this semester. So what do you think you can deliver by year-end in terms of leverage, in terms of net debt-to-EBITDA?

[Fernando De Queiroz, executive]

[Interpreted] First, speaking of China. What we know is that there was an inflection in prices. Prices have reached rock bottom and now are recovering. Why? Brazil was banned from exporting for nearly 3 months. The pipeline was there. The ports were full. We had products in bonded warehouses in China. So the products were accumulating in China. So it kept the prices a bit down. But prices are now recovering after reaching rock bottom prices. We are seeing now new prices. We are optimistic relative to China because, despite other problems, or rather because of the problems we are seeing with avian flu, swine flu, the image of these proteins has been hurt, especially for the youngest people. Beef has become an aspirational product for the middle class and for young people.So in steakhouses, burgers, in food service and also something that started during the pandemic, which is retailers selling beef for the Chinese to prepare at home. This has all been picking up. And the effect is very positive for us. We see markets that are more developed within China, they are opening more space for beef. So we are optimistic in the middle to long-term and we see signals on the short time that this growth will come.Increasingly more, we see South America becoming more and more important in the international market despite the variations in grains. For example, the prices are becoming stable at a higher level. So beef has 2 systems for rearing pasture-based and feedlots. So the spread now is bigger between producing in pastures and producing in feedlots in the Northern Hemisphere. So the Southern Hemisphere is now the main [ vector ] for supplying beef.

[Edison Ticle Filho, executive]

[Interpreted] The question was about leverage. Obviously, I cannot give a guidance about that, but let's be rational. The scenario is optimistic. Fernando has just spoken about China, which accounts for 40% of our exports. We expect more improvements towards the end of the year. So this will translate in better EBITDA, better cash generation and the leverage should go back to the levels we saw before the Chinese embargo. So the early dividends is just an expression of the benign scenario that we see ahead of us towards the end of the year.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Our next question comes from Mr. Troyano from Itau BBA.

[Gustavo Troyano, analyst]

[Interpreted] I just wanted to follow up on the question about leverage by year-end, but I want to approach it from the point of view of working capital. You said there was a release in the supply line, and looking at the [ ITR ] that came from the convenio from the agreement line. But there's still a lot missing there until we reach the previous levels. Is it reasonable to assume that this line will continue to normalize by year-end? And is it possible to see that line go back to the levels of Q4, BRL 350 million would have to be released?And then about working capital and other accounts payable. So there was an improvement in terms of this supplier. There was a burn there. And will this be reversed in terms of other accounts payable or at least a slowdown in that burn?

[Edison Ticle Filho, executive]

[Interpreted] First question has to do with the agreement, the convenio. So you should ask that to your employer. Actually, what are the banks going to do in the credit market? Are the lines going to be normalized or not? We have been working hard to normalize that. We have been able to see an improvement in the first quarter. I said that the cash we burn would be reversed throughout the year and the situation would improve. But it depends on the credit market, on the Americanas issue. We have debated that at length. There has been an improvement and we believe this is going to improve throughout the end of the year.In the account of advancements, we stopped China and we burned some cash. Then China -- when China came back, some clients have made an advancements and they use that to make -- to place orders for Q2. So when I liquidated the sales, I had to exclude these advancements. But this is a temporary thing and we have to wait for 2 quarters to normalize this situation relating to advancements, orders and liquidation. We have to look at the glass which is half full. It's a transition. The credit market is not like what we saw in Q4.We were able to return some of the working capital back. We sometimes -- people in general, or you, are not very careful in looking at the last 3 quarters. Working capital in Q4 released a lot of capital, a lot of cash. So in the last 3 quarters, the working capital situation was not too bad. In the last 12 months, it was not too bad. We released BRL 400 million. But we are looking just that this year.And despite that, I would say what I said in Q1, we are going to see a gradual improvement of this account. 70%, 80% of what was burned in Q1 will be released back. In Q2, we have seen some of this working capital coming back and this helped us generate free cash flow. But I believe this is going to be intensified in Q3 and Q4.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Our next question comes from Ms. Simonato from Bank of America.

[Isabella Simonato, analyst]

[Interpreted] I have some very quick questions. The first one has to do with China. Can you tell us what prices you are getting in this quarter? The average price includes also the local market, but what is the price for the export market? This would help me understand the performance. And then, if you can tell us a little bit more about other exports markets ex-China? Any highlights in the quarter that may have contributed to the performance? And then, you are saying that the price of cattle in Brazil is below what you expected some months ago. Can you give us a little bit more context about how this is playing out? And what do you see going forward?

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] First, Isabella, as I said during the presentation, our commercial structure is very fragmented. We have 17 offices which allow us to arbitrage markets. The other effect is that there is a lot of disintermediation going on with NADEC, for example, or Hilton Foods and other smaller deals. We have a lot of regional agreements. We are disintermediating the process and we can capture the margins of intermediaries, therefore. And then risk management, increasingly more we have market intelligence that allows us to have reasonable predictability to enable us to work with these 2 components: commercial channels, market intelligence, and this allows us to differentiate within markets.This is a very complicated comparison. We don't know for how much the orders have sold, but we see that we are differentiating ourselves from the average of the market. If you look at Minerva and compares it with exports from 3 other countries that export to China, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, you will see that we are the ones who depend the least on China. China is always the most important market, but it's not relevant for us as it is for other markets. In this quarter, I would like to highlight the Americas where we grew a lot.The performance was relatively better than we expected and partly offset what happened in China. The Middle East as well is a highlight for us. In the beginning of this year, we centralized operations in Dubai and we want to move forward in niche markets and -- based on market intelligence. And the Americas and the Middle East partially offset what happened in China. We are exporting some cuts to these markets rather than to China. This attests to our risk management strategy and how our team sees the opportunities for arbitrage. Did I miss anything?The price of cattle. The price of cattle dropped more than we expected. When we drew up the budget in the beginning of the year, we didn't expect a drop this size in the price of cattle. And this is because of the availability of finished animals and the cattle cycle. For the second semester, we have to look at what the market is saying. The futures curve shows a certain stability. So if we look at that curve and take it as a basis, I don't think it would -- I would be off killed if I bet on the stability of the price of cattle in the next few months.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] The next question comes from Mr. Harduim from Citi.

[Tiago Harduim Alves de Mello, analyst]

[Interpreted] I would like to explore ALC a little bit, and I would like to hear from you how the operation has been performing in terms of profitability? And what your expectations are for '23, '24? The region seems to be a lot more optimistic. What is the outlook then?

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] The ALC operation in Australia, or rather our lamb operation in Australia includes other operations in addition to ALC. It is performing really well, better than we expected. We have plugged, so to speak, lamb in our commercial infrastructure and this has allowed us to tap markets that were not under our radar. A major example and a good surprise was our performance in the Middle East with lamb. We expected that. We thought about it, but we were surprised at how much the Middle East was underserved. So we are giving more options now. We have more channels and at the same time we used the sales of lamb to also leverage the sales of beef such as the U.S. and Japan. We found new potential clients for beef, for example, and we are selling a combination of products. So we had a very good surprise with our lamb operations. Unlike beef, lamb is more inelastic because the price dropped below our budgets in Australia. This has been creating value for us.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Our next question comes from [ Mr. Fonseca from XP ].

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] The first question has to do with the origination strategy of the company. Do you see a good supply of feedlot? And the second point is about the volume. Edison has talked about it, but what is the company's strategy relative to the volume of slaughter in Q3? This slower rebound of China, was it one of the drivers for you to slow down the slaughter as well? What drove this slowdown in the slaughter in the volumes?

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] So starting with the second part. China is gradually rebounding. And despite that, if you compare Q2 with Q2 2022, the drop in slaughter numbers was just 1%. If we compare it with Q1, the slaughter grew 22%. So this is natural. For Q3 and Q4, there is no reason why we shouldn't operate at high capacity, or even capacity above what we saw in Q2 because there is availability of finished animals. And about the origination strategy, as I said before, we are acting to disintermediate sales. We opened commercial offices throughout South America. We are now closer to producers. We understand what their needs are and we also innovated especially outside Brazil.In terms of guaranteeing future prices stability, we partner to fund producers. So our strategy for origination is to be closer to ranchers. We have our view of the market. We have our own view about feedlot and our origination strategy is increasingly more a global strategy. In South America, we try to take the tools which are more advanced in one country to the other country and this allows us greater stability in terms of supply. This is key, and this also brings us closer to the ranchers.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Next question comes from Ms. [ Rodriguez ] from SMBC. [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from [ Mr. Rizzo from Intrazon Fund Management ].

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] Congratulations for the company's performance. The result was good. It was a challenging quarter. So give me a little bit more color about the structural context. Can you tell me about the prices of the finished animal in Brazil, Paraguay, the U.S., Australia, Uruguay that is -- and Colombia, please? And also could you please tell me what the trend is for prices?

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] One week before the release -- we release a document called the Sectoral Outlook. We explore the prospects, we give all the prices in relation to the variables that you have just mentioned. So I would refer you to the document. It's available from our site. And if you enroll in our mailing, you can also receive it every quarter.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] The Q&A session is now ended. I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Fernando Queiroz for his final remarks.

[Fernando De Queiroz, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you so much for attending this video conference. I again emphasize our optimism relative to the international markets. We started the second semester with a very positive outlook which reflects the gradual resumption, recovery of the international market. And despite the sanitary issues facing all the producers, we expect stable and sound growth in the beef space. Risk management, commercial intelligence and capacity of distribution are key for us. This allows us to capture value for all.Before finishing, I would like to highlight the soundness of our balance sheet and our capital structure which allows us to move forward in a strategic fashion. This allows us to be flexible to tap the opportunities ahead of us.And finally, I would like to highlight the excellent performance of our team. People make the difference. Our culture is strong and at Minerva, we speak the same language everywhere where we operate. Our team remains available to clarify doubts, to talk to you, to answer any questions you might have so that you can understand better what we do. Thank you very much.[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]