CPFL Energia SA

BOVESPA:CPFE3

Earnings Call Analysis

CPFL Energy Reports Mixed Q3 Results

CPFL Energy's Q3 2023 reflected a mix of progress and challenges. The EBITDA grew by 5.6% to BRL 3.1 billion, underpinned by a 14% increase to BRL 1.7 billion in the distribution sector, largely due to market and tariff gains totaling BRL 204 million. Overall, profits fell slightly by 7.5% to BRL 1,313 million, affected by financial expenses and inflation. The company's debt closed at BRL 23.1 billion with a leverage ratio of 1.71, well under the covenant limit of 3.5. A new E-commerce portal was launched to streamline customer acquisitions and offer a variety of energy products. Load growth was noted in residential (5.1%) and commercial (2.9%) sectors, while industrial sales dropped by 2.7% signaling a stagnation in industrial demand. Delinquency rates stabilized at 0.82%, and energy losses saw a slight increase of 0.09%. However, energy production experienced a 9.9% drop, largely due to regulatory restrictions; without these, there would have been a growth of 2.1% instead.

Company's Performance and Financial Results

In the recently concluded quarter, the company reported a consistent performance, with EBITDA climbing to BRL 3.1 billion, marking a 5.6% increase compared to the same period last year. The profit for the quarter, however, saw a decrease of 7.5%, landing at BRL 1,313 million. This dip was attributed to augmented financial expenses and inflation rates. Over the nine-month period, the company's EBITDA grew by an impressive 14.9%, with profits up by 9.5%, indicative of solid underlying financial health despite quarterly fluctuations.

Operational Highlights and Market Position

The company has been making strides in operational efficiency and market expansion. It launched an e-commerce portal for Group A clients, offering a suite of energy-related products and services. Notably, the load grew by 2.8% within its concession area, with residential and commercial segments driving the growth despite a downturn in the industrial sector. As part of its ongoing dedication to environmental responsibility and social governance, it also received accolades recognizing its efforts in ESG and diversity.

Challenges and Opportunities in Energy Distribution

The company faces challenges with CPFL Paulista and CPFL Piratininga regarding energy losses but managed to stabilize these at an increase of 0.09%. Sales saw a minor dip of 0.2%, with significant growth observed in residential energy consumption. The distribution segment contributed substantially to EBITDA, accounting for BRL 1.7 billion of the total and seeing growth owing to market factors and updated tariff regulations.

Investment in Renewables and Emission Reduction

The generation segment, which includes renewable energy, presented near-stable EBITDA results, despite the impact of ONS restrictions on wind farms. The company is particularly focusing on fostering innovation in electrical mobility and has invested around BRL 90 million in testing electric vehicles. These initiatives are aligned with the company's long-term commitment to sustainability.

Financial Stability and Debt Management

The company reported a net debt of BRL 23.1 billion, with a leverage ratio that remains a comfortable 1.71, well below its covenant limit. In terms of financial management, the company has displayed prudence with its recent issuance of BRL 1.75 billion debentures, aimed at financing future investments while leveraging competitive costs in the market. Liquidity is also in a robust state with BRL 5.6 billion in cash covering short-term obligations.

Forward-looking Statements and Future Plans

In looking ahead, the company appears ready to tackle the inevitable oscillations in the energy sector, underpinned by strategic investments and a continuous augment of its asset base. While the company acknowledged the adverse effects of severe weather conditions on its operations in certain regions, it remains focused on strengthening its energy network to be more resilient and digitally modernized.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q3

[Carlos Cyrino, executive]

Move to our results. Today, we will talk about the third quarter of 2023. I'm Cyrino, Director of Investor Relations. And today, I'm going to conduct all the dynamics of our event. Today, we have Gustavo Estrella, our CEO; Mr. Pan, our CFO; and the other executives of the company.

The whole presentation will be done in Portuguese with interpretation to English. Therefore, click on the button interpretation that shows up on the bottom part of the screen of the platform. If you want to see the presentation in English, you will find it on our website, CPFL Energy.

I'd also like to inform all the participants that at the end of the presentation, we will start the Q&A. All the questions will be done live. And to request this, all you have to do is click on the button, raise a hand, which is also on the bottom part of our platform. Remind you that this event is being recorded. I'm now going to give the floor to Gustavo Estrella to begin the presentation of the results.

[Gustavo Estrella, executive]

Thank you very much, Cyrino. Good morning, everyone -- good morning. Thank you for being here at the call of our results of the third quarter. I'm going to go through highlights. EBITDA has reached value, a hike of 6 -- 5.6%, the accumulated of 9 months an increase of 14.9%, our profit reached BRL 1,313 million with a drop of 7.5% in relation to last year. He will see -- we'll see more in details. The biggest effect is financial expenses and the inflation rates. The accumulated in 9 months, BRL 4,210 million, and that is an increase of 9.5%.

Our debt is -- has closed in BRL 23.1 billion, leverage, which is comfortable 1.71, and the criteria of our financial covenants, reminding you that our limit is 3.5. We also issued debentures for infrastructure of BRL 1,750 million at an average cost of IPCA plus 6.18%. And it is important to talk about liquidity short term, with the entry of BRL 1,750 million in cash. But the time frame of these debentures, which will allow us to extend the time.

We're going now to the next slide here, CPFL Solutions. We launched E-commerce portal with digital sales focused on clients of Group A with a series of products that are available migration process, free short-term energy, carbon credits, I-RECS. The idea is to have a new channel besides the channel that we already have so that the client can access CPFL in a quicker way.

Two recognitions that we had here. The first one is the recognition value [ 1000 Valor ]. CPFL was considered the best company in the energy sector. It's a similar recognition as Época Negócios also considering as the best company in the sector. The IDIVERSA Index, we -- I'm now part of this rating, recognizing all the initiatives and the actions that we have in ESG, specifically on the topic of diversity.

Okay. Let's go to the next slide. Here, we have our market distribution. We have a load with a growth of 2.8% in the area of concession. Sales is practically stable, a drop of 0.2%. And we can see here for the business segments that it's a market with an important growth that comes from residential and the commercial classes as well. Residential growing 5.1% and commercial growing 2.9%. This is a reflex of the increase of the revenue compared to 2022 and also an effect of the temperature especially the second -- 2 weeks of September with an important effect in the increase of load.

When we look at the industry, the industry continues with negative growth of 2.7%. We can see a lot of resilience in the uptake of the industrialization. So we have negative performance when we look at all the segments of our industry, the values are negative with the exception to food with a timid growth of 0.2%, but the rest all values are quite negative, composing this value of 2.7% negative.

We can also see the spreadsheet on the right side, 1/4 of the distributed generation, which is strong compared to 2022, an important impact in residential and the market in January, we have the distributed generation impact of 2.2%. In the accumulated of 9 months, it's very -- it's similar. So we have here a small increase of load of 0.5%, with a drop in sales of less than 0.5%. But when we look at the segments, residential and commercial continue positive, and they show themselves as being more positive in the more recent months due to the effect of the temperature and the income also continues with this effect and the industry less 1.6%. This continues the whole year and the expectation for the fourth quarter is very similar for us to have a weak industry compensated or more than compensated by the commercial and residential performance, which -- and will have even a higher impact of temperature.

Next slide, this is default. I think that we've reached stability here in our index of delinquency and 0.82% with a small drop in relation to the quarter of last year. This is a bit of expectation. Is delinquency more or less constant up to the end of the years and closing in [ 0.8% ] up to the end of the year. And it's what we have is volume of cuts, which is still high, above 210 per month in the third quarter. This should repeat itself in the fourth quarter. And in 2024, depending on the behavior of the delinquency, we can revise and reduce these values during the year.

About energy losses. Energy loss is stable in relation to 2022, an increase of 0.09%, also due to stability with the general losses. We can see here, RGE and Santa Cruz performing with a volume of losses below. The challenge continues with CPFL Paulista and CPFL Piratininga.

In generation, we start here with the PLD or DLP. It's stable in relation to last year. This expectation or this forecast will still be the same for the next months. Going close to the base, we have an impact here in the third quarter because of the increase of temperature, increase of load. And so in a few days, some peak days, but I would say that, in general, given the growth of the load, it's relatively stable. And also the offering of energy, the forecast that we have is that will be close to the base during the next few months.

When we look at the wind farms, we've had a drop of 9.9% in the production of energy. Here, very much impacted by the restriction of the ONS. Without this restriction, we would have had a growth of 2.1% of the generation. The volume availability of wind is stable 95.6%. And this effect of temperature. We have [ FCG ] a bit higher than last year's about 80%.

Now I'm going to give the floor to Mr. Pan, and he will be talking about the financial results.

[Yuehui Pan, executive]

Thank you, Gustavo. Good morning. The results in this quarter, we reached an EBITDA of BRL 3.1 billion, a hike of 5.6%. The distribution performed well with an EBITDA of BRL 1.7 billion, a hike of 14%. The highest gain came from the market and tariff BRL 204 million. The update of the finance asset of the concession had a hike of BRL 105 million due to the higher IPCA and the larger base of assets when compared to the same period of 2022. Other revenues had a gain of BRL 8 million and other items, BRL 6 million.

On the other side, we have negative effects. In 2022, we had a huge effect in the pension fund of CPFL Piratininga, which generated a revenue of BRL 75 million. PMSO with the pension fund had an increase of BRL 33 million, and [ PDD ] was higher BRL 3 million.

In generation, the EBITDA reached a value of BRL 1.1 billion, an increase of almost 2%. The main fact was the consolidation of Enercan, which increased the EBITDA to BRL 141 million. And on the other hand, we had an increase of BRL 80 million in the expenses with PMSO and taxes. The wind generation reflected the impact of the ONS restrictions, and it had lower results BRL 33 million. The contractual readjustments added a negative effect, BRL 7 million.

The segment of trading, services and others had an EBITDA of BRL 60 million, an improvement of BRL 46 million mainly to the recovery of CPFL Brazil with a gain of BRL 40 million. The segment of services had a hike of BRL 8 million during the period, especially CPFL Services and Alesta. Other services added a loss of BRL 2 million.

And EBITDA results, IFRS of the transmission segment, we had a drop of BRL 112 million, and the variation relative to CPFL Transmission of BRL 49 million due to the conclusion in 2022 of the process of tariff revision of 2018. The other transmission projects had a negative impact of BRL 63 million due to the inflation adjustment carried out last year.

As you can -- for you to understand better what happened in this quarter, we have to analyze the regulatory EBITDA, which you can see on the right side of the slide. The regulatory EBITDA reflects better what is happening with the transmission projects. We had an increase of BRL 87 million during this period. I highlight the increase of BRl 38 million due to the readjustment of the concession contract. We were also able to reduce PMSO in BRL 32 million, especially due to the reduction with legal expenses. The other transmission projects had a positive impact of the BRL million due to the beginning of the operations of project, South I and South II.

In the next slide, I would like to show you the performance of the net profit, which was BRL 1.3 billion during the period, a reduction of 7.5% in relation to the third quarter last year. In the financial result, we had a decrease of BRL 203 million due to the monetary update of regulatory asset BRL 78 million and the lower balance. Also had expenses with a net debt with an increase of BRL 70 million, explained by the increase of the IPCA and index debt to the CDI reduction of MTM BRL 60 million due to the risk spread reduction. The depreciation increased BRL 40 million and taxes BRL 31 million.

In the next slide will show you the accumulated performance of the year. We reached an EBITDA of BRL 9.7 billion, an increase of 14.9%. All the segments had positive results. Distribution with an increase of 12.7% was favored especially due to parcel B and for the evaluations of the tariff revisions this year. In generation, the increase was 18.2%, which reflects the consolidation of Enercan and the higher generation of the wind farms in the beginning of 2023. The transmission segment had an increase of 5.1% due to the reduction of expenses with personnel and the beginning of South I and South II.

Below, you can see the performance of the net profit, which was BRL 4.2 billion in the period, an increase of 9.5%. The increase of the EBITDA was partially compensated by the worsening of almost BRL 360 million in the financial results impacted by the update of the financial assets of the concession and for the higher cost of debt. Depreciation increased in BRL 191 million, and the tax is BRL 344 million.

In the next slide, we have the net debt in the criteria of covenants, which reached BRL 23.1 billion. The EBITDA of the last 12 months was BRL 13.5 billion. Therefore, the leverage measured by the net debt was 1.71. I also highlight the recent emissions of debentures finalized this week, which add BRL 1.75 billion with a medium time frame of 9.6 years and an average cost of around IPCA plus 6.18%, where we have already done the swap to CDI plus 0.5%.

Once more, we benefit from this favorable moment of the market to capture resources with competitive costs to finance the investments that we have planned for the next few years. We have the debt costs, which is in 12.9%. There was a light increase of the IPCA. This justifies the increase of the gap between the nominal costs and the real costs observed this quarter.

Below, we have the gross debt profile. Largest exposure, CDI 74%, IPCA 24% and TJLP 1%. On the right side, we have the cash at the end of the third quarter, which was BRL 5.6 billion with a coverage, which is more than sufficient for the short-term amortizations. The average term of amortization is 3.1 years.

Slide 18, BRL 1.2 billion million represents a reduction of 23.1% in relation to last year. This drop was already expected. Once the year of 2022, there was a huge effort for the [ bar ] tariff revision. In distribution, our main -- the main destination of the CapEx, a total invested of BRL 896 million with the larger focus in service to the client, expansion and improvements. In the segment generation, we invested BRL 114 million, investments also of BRL 181 million in reinforcements and improvements in our transmission projects.

We also destined BRL 44 million for commercialization, services and others. In the accumulated, we can see that in distribution, there was a total of BRL 2.7 billion, in generation BRL 273 million, in transmission BRL 477 million. And finally, the investments in commercialization and services, a total of BRL 65 million.

Now I will give the floor back to Gustavo, and thank you very much.

[Gustavo Estrella, executive]

Thank you, Pan. Well, I think to end our presentation, we are going to talk about innovation and mobility. We had an innovation week. This is an internal event. The goal is to engage all the 16,000 collaborators of CPFL in terms of innovation. We did this in 16 locations with 28 projects, electric truck, second life batteries, thermovision projects. The idea is really to engage all the collaborators in innovation and highlighting our mobility -- electrical mobility project. We inaugurated a sustainable charging area in Campinas. It's complete.

We have the solar panels on the roof, battery and vehicle charging. This is -- we have over 40 electric vehicles circulating with drivers for us to test not only the vehicle but the charge. They have a specific app where they can charge the cars. And the idea is that we have 9 of these in our region so that they can supply and charge the cars so that we can test this model in real life, testing the electric cars and the circulation of drivers that work for apps. So this is about BRL 90 million in investments. And the idea is to be able to use more and more electric vehicles.

I think that's more or less than I had to say. This is what I wanted to share with you. So now we will move towards the Q&A session.

[Carlos Cyrino, executive]

Thank you, Gustavo. Thank you, Pan. Thank you for the presentations. So as Gustavo mentioned, we are now going to the session of Q&A. And we're going to follow the order in which the questions will be asked. The questions are live. [Operator Instructions] So the first question that we have here, I have a question from Julia from Santander. Julia good morning. Go ahead.

[Julia Zaniolo, analyst]

Good morning, everyone. We read some news about the concession of transmissions. Is there any update about this topic. I'd like to hear what you have to say about the interference of the Congress in this process.

[Gustavo Estrella, executive]

Julia, thank you for your question. I think this is the subject that's been on the table for a long time. This is a discussion that is led by the Ministry of Mines and Energy after public consultation, all the contribution. So our expectation continues being that we are very close to a definition of the subject as was already expected. I think what we've lived here this week was very, very challenging. I think for us, for all the companies in the state of Sao Paulo with all the occurrences of storms that we had.

So I'm sure that it's natural that the subject comes more intensely, but these are -- we have an operational, and this has been solved after a very aggressive storm like we had. It affected the whole state of Sao Paulo. And I think this is a discussion. I think there have been lessons learned, what can be improved from the regulation to the regulation of the companies itself, but also the renewal topic. I think still in this topic, we've talked a lot about investments, everything that CPFL has done. We've put Piratininga, Paulista, RGE everyone went -- who went all these companies went through the tariff revisions and we more than doubled our base of assets. That means a network, which is much more robust, much more trustworthy. So I think this is a challenge, and we have to continue with this volume of investment. So I think these are 2 subjects that end up by confusing in the heat of the moment.

All of us, we visit our clients who also suffered with these storms. But once more, these are independent subjects, and that's how it should move along. Thank you very much.

[Carlos Cyrino, executive]

Let's move to the second question, which will be then from Daniel from the Safra Bank. Good morning, Daniel.

[Daniel Travitzky, analyst]

In fact, I have 2 questions. One is perhaps adds to the together with these new regulations, we've seen a while ago new regulations being proposed by the Ministry, putting [ the PL to 114 ] with the solution for the tariff reduction. So also addressing the migration to the free market impacting the distributors a lot. So I would like to understand your vision about this theme, your expectation about the timing, what can be proposed in the sense?

And then if I could ask a second question, when you think of allocation of capital, if you can share a bit about your vision of participation in the next transmission meetings and how you can see the current context for investments in renewables?

[Luís Henrique Pinto, executive]

Thank you for your question. I'm going to answer the first part. In relation to the opening of the market, this question of the Group A, which is going to intensify, I think, the distributors, they are protected. So there's no impact for the distributors. This is all resolved. And for Group B, you're right. And this has been very much debated. It's in the Congress to be evaluated. So supply of the issue of the opening of the tariff, the component energy, all this is discussed and I believe that for the future, when these issues will have been solved.

[Gustavo Estrella, executive]

The second part of your question of capital allocation, we continue looking at the process -- the auctions that have to do with our strategy. So we should have some laws with these characteristics, the first auction in 2024. We're going to participate following the same line that we have been doing. So trying to be competitive, obviously, in these auctions, but preserving the expectation of return, knowing the risks, the challenges and the building of a new -- this is -- gives return to our shareholders. So we will not advance.

In terms of renewables, I think I talked a bit here in my presentation, but we have a small variation of short-term prices, which doesn't change our perspective of tariffs midterm and long term. So I believe that this makes the generation segment and the renewable segments very challenging for new projects. So we continue in the same line. We have a pipe -- a huge pipeline. And while we don't have good conditions for this pipeline to be executed it won't be. So our vision continues very similar with a medium, long-term perspective and a large offer, which will still last for a few years.

[Carlos Cyrino, executive]

Excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you for your participation. Well, we don't have any more questions. So we will end our Q&A. And if there is any question or any doubt, the Investor Relations group is here available for clarifying.

Before giving the final word to Gustavo, I would like you please to cooperate with us with perception research. There's a QR code that you're going to see, and it's very important for us to be able to improve and development. It's very quick this survey. Now I'm going to give the floor to Gustavo Estrella for his final considerations and for the closing of this event.

[Gustavo Estrella, executive]

Well, once more, I'd like to thank you all for participating in our results call. As I said, I think we've lived through months of a lot of challenge on the operational side. In September, we had the worst competition of the state of Rio Grande do Sul affecting our network a lot more recently in Sao Paulo with a storm, which was totally an outlier. And for sure, one of the worst of the story of the state of Sao Paulo. I think this has to do with the focus of attending our client the best way possible. The focus in the last days was to give the client back energy, the quickest possible. This was a huge challenge for us in Sao Paulo. Just on Friday, there were over 1,500 large trees that fell on our network.

So rebuilding is -- I think, this focus of giving energy back to our client is fundamental and planning that we've been done with investments. It's very important to have a robust network, more and more digital automated. This has made and makes a big difference so that we can respond the quickest possible in a critical situation, such as we've lived through in September in the state of Sao Paulo. So we continue with this perspective that the investments very important for us to be able to deliver the quality that our client desires and deserves. And I think we've demonstrated this. I thank you all for your participation, and I wish you all a wonderful day.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]