Cyrela Brazil Realty SA Empreendimentos e Participacoes

BOVESPA:CYRE3

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Cyrela Brazil Realty S.A.'s Fourth Quarter of 2024 Earnings Call -- or rather First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. Today with us are Mr. Miguel Mickelberg, CFO and IRO; and Iuri Campos, Senior Investor Relations Manager. This call is being recorded and simultaneously translated. You can hear the translation by clicking the interpretation button. To those hearing the English translation, you can mute the original audio in Portuguese by clicking Mute Original Audio.

You can also find the slide deck in English on the company's Investor Relations website at www.ri.cerela.com.br [Operator Instructions]

We would like to inform you that any statements that may be made during the call related to Cyrela's business perspectives, operating and financial targets are projections made by the company's management. That may or may not occur. Investors should understand that political, macroeconomic and other operating factors may affect the future of the company and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.

To open Cyrela's 1Q '24 earnings call, I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Miguel Mickelberg. Mr. Mickelberg, you may proceed.

[Miguel Mickelberg, executive]

Good morning, everybody. First, we would like to express our solidarity to those affected by the tragic events in Rio Grande do Sul, a state in which we have been operating for almost 20 years. And it is also my home state where I started my career 17 years ago in Cyrela. At this time, we are focused on supporting those impacted by the tragedy and making efforts to contribute to the local community. Our hearts go out to the victims and to the entire population of the state.

Cyrela posted solid operating results in 1Q '24, although this is a period of lower activity in our sector traditionally. We launched 9 projects this year with a total volume of BRL 1.2 billion, a 37% growth year-on-year. We also had a strong sales performance of inventories and launches with a total PSV of BRL 1.6 billion, 43% higher year-on-year. The highlight this quarter was the launch of La Isla project in Rio de Janeiro with BRL 500 million in PSV and excellent performance in its first days of sales.

Currently, it is approximately 90% sold. Our financial result was also positive. We reached BRL 1.6 billion in net revenue, 23% more year-on-year, with a gross margin of 31.4% and a net income of BRL 267 million, 63% above 2023. Net margin was 17%, and ROE in the last 12 months exceeded 14% following the trajectory of improvement in our profitability levels.

Finally, during the quarter, we observed some deterioration in the macroeconomic scenario but we are prepared to deliver solid results even in this context. We will follow our philosophy of staying focused on each of our projects, and we'll continue to constantly seek greater value generation for our shareholders. Now Iuri will comment on our operating results.

[Iuri Zanutto J. Campos, executive]

Thank you, and good morning, everybody. Thank you for participating in our call. On Slide 4, we will address Cyrela's launches. In 1Q '24, we launched 9 products with a PSV of BRL 1.7 billion, 26% higher year-on-year and 35% lower quarter-on-quarter. The company's stake in the volume launched was 78%. Excluding swaps, the volume launched was BRL 1.2 billion in the quarter.

On Slide 5, we highlight the launch of La Isla in the city of Rio de Janeiro with a PSV of BRL 501 million. On Slide 6, we will talk about our sales performance. In 1Q '24, presales came to BRL 2.1 billion, 39% higher year-on-year and 17% lower quarter-on-quarter. The company's stake in the volume sold in the quarter was 79%, totaling BRL 1.7 billion in sales and Cyrela's stake.

Excluding swap sales in Cyrela's stake came to BRL 1.6 billion. On Slide 7, we'll address sales speed. The company's SOS in the last 12 months was 50.5%. Looking at sales speed by launch vintage projects launched in 1Q '24 have been 53% sold. On Slide 8, we'll talk about our total inventory. At the end of the quarter, inventory at market value totaled BRL 9.5 billion, 5% lower quarter-on-quarter. Inventory totaled BRL 7.1 billion in the company's stake. The change in our inventory can be seen in the chart on the left.

Slide 9 shows our finished units. In 1Q '24, we sold 11% of the finished units at the beginning of the period. Adding the inventory of projects delivered along the quarter and pricing of units at market value, finished units dropped by 11% quarter-on-quarter reaching BRL 1.4 billion and BRL 1.2 billion in Cyrela's stake. On Slide 10, we can see our delivered units. Cyrela delivered 6 projects in the quarter with a PSV of BRL 676 million as of the date of their respective launches.

Now let's talk about our financial results. Net revenue came to BRL 1.6 billion in the quarter, 23% higher year-on-year and 8% lower quarter-on-quarter. Gross margin in the quarter was 31.4% against 30.7% in 1Q '23 and 33.7% in 4Q '23. Now on Slide 13, let's take a look at our net income and profitability. Our net income came to BRL 267 million compared to BRL 164 million in 1Q '23 and a net income of BRL 248 million in 4Q '23.

In 1Q '24, our return on equity net income over the last 12 months over the average shareholders' equity was 14.5%. On Slide 14, let's take a look at our debt. Gross debt at the end of the quarter was BRL 4.8 billion. The cash position was BRL 4 billion. Thus, our net debt was BRL 738 million. 83% of the total gross debt is long term, and our net debt over equity ratio was 8.8%. Now moving towards the end of the presentation. Let's take a look at our cash generation. In 1Q '24, our cash generation was BRL 103 million against a cash burn of BRL 35 million in 1Q '23 and a cash burn of BRL 94 million in 4Q '23.

Now we can go to the Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Tainan Costa from UBS. Please go ahead.

[Tainan Costa, analyst]

Good morning, everybody. I'd like to talk about 2024 operations scenario. I'd like to know more about the second quarter in terms of launches, PSV and sales and also your perspective for the rest of the year. Is there any competition for landbank? And also, I would like to know if the news about the interest rates will impact your plans for the rest of the year?

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Tainan, and thank you for your question. About our operating performance, we had a very good month in April in terms of selling inventory. We sold on average the same level across the 3 months of the year, the first 3 months. So in April, we sold at the same level, performance is very good.

And as for launches, we had launches of smaller units for investors mainly, and we had a very good sales performance in that product. But we have seen impact on our launches because the city hall of Sao Paulo has to regulate a decree after the new land use and zoning law was passed, and that has not occurred yet. So we have delays in some launches that involve the payment of concession fees, which will harm our second quarter.

And we also had 2 launches, we actually would have 2 launches in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and that will not occur. And therefore, we are going to have a smaller launch volume in 2Q '24, but that does not change our predictions for 2024. We continue to see an increase in launches for the year. Of course, this will depend on the market and approvals, but that's our base scenario.

As for the macroeconomic scenario, the interest rate curve suffered a bit early this year, and that impacted some projections for the drop of interest rates, but the market is still bullish. It's healthy with a good demand. So we don't see any change so far in our plans. As for landbank's and workforce, we don't have many highlights about that. But I think that we will have more specific questions about that, so I'll give you more details later, but we haven't seen any changes so far.

[Operator]

Next question comes from Mr. Elvis Credendio with BTG Pactual.

[Elvis Credendio, analyst]

We have 2 questions. The first one is about sales. I would like to get some more color and your opinion about why the company has had an SOS that's better than the rest of the industry. Is that related to competitive prices or maybe the neighborhoods where they are located? I would like to understand the reason behind a stronger SOS and also your expectations internally, considering your inventory and the inventory profile that you have and also the launches for the rest of the year.

Should we expect a stronger SOS to be maintained at least stronger than the industry? And the second question is about cash generation. In April, you said that you are at 45% of sales of inventory. Does that change your expectation in terms of cash generation for the year? And also, I would like to know if you're considering dividend distribution considering the new scenario?

[Unknown Executive]

Elvis, thank you for your question. When it comes to our performance in comparison with the peers, well, we try to be very cautious in the way we pick our landbank. We pay attention to the cycles and all the deals of the projects. We have a very good talent pool in the company, which translates into high-quality projects and sales offices, and good engineering and maybe that very dense talent pool is why we offer such a great solution to our customers.

And in our industry, we start from scratch every time. If we have a successful project, that's no guarantee that we are going to have the same performance in the next project. So we have to continuously work hard to deliver good continuous performance. When it comes to cash generation, this quarter was unusual in a positive way. Across all lines, we outperformed our predictions. We received more from the fourth quarter of 2023. We had less construction activity which is normal for the first quarter of the year.

We have smaller disbursements for construction. We also did not have big landbank disbursements, and that is a seasonal line. It's very erratic across the year. We had very few payments this quarter. And we also have a concentration of interest payments in the second and fourth quarters because most issuances happened in March and June and the interest payment is -- it happens every 6 months.

So in the first and third quarters, we usually have less of that. So if we put together and combine all of those effects, there was an improvement of BRL 200 million in comparison with 4Q '23. We continue to believe that cash generation for the year is going to be slightly positive, excluding the nonrecurring events. For example, the sales of Cury shares. The recurring cash generation will be between BRL 0 million and BRL 200 million roughly. We made BRL 95 million this quarter. So there is a risk that we are going to have an upside in this projection.

It's hard to say, but it's more or less along the lines that we expected because many of the effects were nonrecurring, they are seasonal. When it comes to dividend distribution, this is something that we traditionally addressed versus the end of the year. We've been doing that for 5 or 6 years now. We discuss and decide the payment of dividends on an extraordinary basis between October and December. And that is going to depend on our cash position and our cash flow projection, sales performance, landbank appetite, and it's still too early to tell if it's going to happen or not.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Ygor Altero with XP Investments.

[Ygor Altero, analyst]

I have 2 questions. First one is about gross margin. I would like to know more about the effect of swaps in your Rio de Janeiro project. Is that a one-off situation? Do you expect to resume to normal levels into Q4 '24? And also, I would like to know about the gross margin for the new projects. And the second question is about the impact of the tax reform. What is going to be the impact on your segments?

[Unknown Executive]

Okay. Well, about gross margin, we have 3 effects that we can highlight here that drove our gross margin downwards. The first one, as we mentioned in our press release, we had an effect with the larger units that had lower liquidity. We sold 4 of the 5 units that we had of that type and the effect of them on our gross margin was about 50 basis points, and we also sold a plot of land that would be used in the Minha Casa, Minha Vida segment in the Southern region and that drove our gross margin in about 40 bps and also it decreased our gross margin in the Minha Casa, Minha Vida segment with 3.5 points impact in the Minha Casa, Minha Vida segment.

And the third effect is La Isla. I don't think it is one-off because we have landbank with gross margins above 40 and sometimes below 30 but we don't necessarily see the profitability of those projects as being different. The La Isla project had a very good performance in profitability. We had to invest very little capital. We are going to have a very good return on invested capital. But swaps need to be recognized in our revenue and therefore, the gross margin will be naturally lower but with a high profitability.

And the impact of that is 30 basis points. If we put together all those 3 factors, the gross margin would be a little below 33%. And if we consider the vintages from 2021 and 2024, that accounted for about 90% of our revenue and a gross margin around 33%, which is the recurring level that we should expect, of course, we're going to see seasonality and some volatility in that line item. But we believe that the normal level that we should expect is around 33%, which is roughly what we had in the second half of last year.

About the tax reform, we read the documents, and we also made our estimates. There is still a lot of uncertainty around this topic, especially around the calculation base for landbank. The law mentions reference value, which has to be discussed. There are some rules about transition and it's still not clear how much credit we will have in the first moment. But overall, what we can say is that the text of the reform as it is right now would bring a negative effect on our medium to high income segments, and the positive impact would be on the low income segment.

Our concentration is bigger on the medium- and high-income segments. Therefore, we would have a negative impact with a higher tax burden. But I think that this is going to entail a lot of discussions and debate. We need to understand the details of regulation and credit so that we can have more clarity about that impact.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Mr. Jorel Guilloty with Goldman Sachs.

[Wilfredo Jorel Guilloty, analyst]

I have 2 questions. I'd like to talk more about gross margin and understand what the average gross margin should be for each type of project. The launches, the finished inventory and also the inventory under construction. And the second question is about the financing situation for your customers when they receive the keys. I'm curious because the interest rates are high. So I would like to know if they are getting financing easily and what type of financing they're getting, what type of interest rates are being charged.

And if they are using mortgage or other type of financing, if you could give us more color about the average situation of your customers? That would be great.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Jorel, for your question. About the gross margin, well, considering all the vintages from 2021 and the new launches in 2024, the margins are surprisingly similar at a high 32% and low 33%. So the margin is very similar for all those categories that you mentioned. For finished units, our gross margin is a little bit higher than that, but there's a lot of volatility depending on what we sell in each quarter.

For example, the margin for the projects that we just sold was below that 12% to 14%. And there are some other projects with finished units with much higher margins, but they are not necessarily selling at the same speed. So you can see a lot of volatility there. And if you could please repeat the second question?

[Wilfredo Jorel Guilloty, analyst]

Sure. I would like to have more color on the financing strategies for your customers because interest rates are still high. So I would like to understand if it's easier for them to get financing, if they're getting financing easily from the banks and what level of interest rates that they are paying. If you could give us any color about that, I would appreciate it.

[Unknown Executive]

Yes, sure. I'm sorry, I forgot the second question. There was a slight reduction in the average interest rate for our customers' financing this quarter. It was about 10.2 to 10.3. It goes from 9 to 11 really. And we believe that the reduction on the average interest rate is related to a higher share of the public banks. They usually have lower rates.

Although we know that the major private banks reduced origination for real estate credit but we have not seen a tightening in the credit for our customers. Rates have not gone up since February 2023. So it's been more than a year that we have had a very similar level. And the banks have not changed LTVs or their assessment of real estate. So especially for the big capital cities, Sao Paulo, Rio, Portalegre, the banks have not changed their appetite level.

They are originating less credit overall. But the projects from big construction companies, they have not suffered. So we have not seen any change in the financing strategies for our customers.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Mr. Andre Mazini from Citi.

[André Mazini, analyst]

Good morning, Miguel and Iuri. First question is about Sao Paulo. Another company mentioned that approvals from the City Hall of Sao Paulo are very slow because of the changes to the City master plan and the rules. And therefore, the city hall agents now need to understand the new rules and that is causing the process -- the approval process to be very slow in the city of Sao Paulo.

Are you impacted? Are you impacted by that at all? And what is the effect of that on you in terms of the diversity of the projects since you have a lot of landbank, can you dodge that problem because of the diversity of landbank that you have? And the second question is about still your landbank. I would like to know about the mid- and long-term launches. And why you changed some of your landbank? Are you not going to launch products in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Mazini, for your questions. About the City Hall of Sao Paulo, I touched on this briefly in a previous answer. After the new legislation was passed for the use of land, this City Hall was supposed to issue a decree to regulate the concession fees charged by the city hall when you use an index that exceeds the basic index where you don't have a concession. And that decree has not been issued yet. There's a lot of discussions about this. And I believe that we are reaching a solution.

But until it is published, we are not going to be able to launch new projects according to the new plan. So that harms our plans for the second half of the year, we are going to delay some launches. We actually work on a very tight rope. We approved the projects and launched them immediately. So we don't have a project backlog that is approved for us to replace the projects that will be delayed. We don't have that cushion. We need to have a very efficient approval process.

So yes, we're going to struggle and suffer in the second quarter, but that is not going to impact the rest of the year significantly. As for the landbank, our focus behind that change was on the competition. Since we are a relevant player, many people are looking at what we do. They're looking at the information that we disclose, and we believe that the purchase of landbank is the most strategic point in our sector. So we decided to publish the purchase of landbank only when we receive the documents when you receive the deeds, when we sign a commitment for purchase.

So we believe that, that allows us to feel more comfortable and protected in terms of the competition. We had a criteria related to the approval of the purchase. But now we wait until we have the deed of the plot of land to disclose the purchase, and at the end of the day, the strategy has not changed the way in which we operate does not change at all. The only thing that changed is the way we disclose the purchase of plots of land. It is more formal now, and I think it's better for everyone.

[André Mazini, analyst]

And Rio lost a lot of important in the new way of disclosure. So you're not launching so much there, especially in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca lost relevance. It appears to me.

[Unknown Executive]

Yes, Barra da Tijuca lost relevance. And as Iuri said, we have not changed our strategy in Rio de Janeiro. It is a place where we can launch BRL 1.5 billion per year or something along those lines. And that's what we expect for this year.

We have had great results such as in the La Isla project and other projects for many years. So our appetite in the region of Rio de Janeiro has not changed.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Aline Caldeira with Bank of America.

[Aline Caldeira, analyst]

Miguel and Iuri. I would like to talk about the JVs. You sold Cury shares this quarter. I would like to know more about your perspectives for investments in the JVs this year, the JVs. And it seems to me that your balance sheet is comfortable and the contribution of the JVs in your result has been relevant as well. So I'd like to know more about your perspectives on the JVs.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Aline. Yes, we sold Cury shares in March and April, and we have not sold any more shares since the number that will be disclosed in our publications were those that you saw and we have not sold any more. And really, we cannot disclose a lot of information here because that could impact our strategy since the other players participating in the calls. So we don't have a defined strategy.

What we always highlight is how proud we are of the performance of the 3 JVs and our equity line shows exactly that. If the profit of the 3 JVs falls within the range projected by the market, they are going to contribute to our ROE. So that shows the excellent performance that they have had. We are very proud of being a partner in those JVs, and we don't have any strategy or any plan specifically for them.

[Operator]

The next question is from Pedro Lobato with Bradesco BBI.

[Pedro Lobato Garcia Fernandes, analyst]

Miguel and Iuri, I would like to understand some details about CashMe. I would like to know more about the dynamics of this segment. The asset dropped 9% quarter-on-quarter, although the net income improved quarter-on-quarter. So I'd like to know more about the dynamics for origination.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Pedro. Starting in 3Q '23, we changed the structure of CashMe to take advantage of a tax benefit in our holding that has recurring tax losses. So the holding is buying some shares of subordinate CRIs. And since we recognized on our liabilities our debt balance because of the IFRS 9 rules because the risks and returns, the variable ones are not transferred since the risk is higher than the default that we have.

So we recognized everything. And what we did in 3Q '23 is that part of that portfolio fall under the controlling company. And you can see that on our liabilities and the CashMe that we break down each debt. In the first quarter of this year, CashMe had BRL 200 million in originations. So CashMe portfolio as a whole increased a little bit. And that origination level is in line with our expectations. This year, we -- last year, actually, we had BRL 840 million.

We expect to have a little bit more than that this year. The first quarter is usually lower. We had a very good first quarter, and the net income for CashMe combined with part of the controlling company because of the remuneration, the compensation of the shares of the CRI is a little bit above what we expected since the portfolio is increasing, the top line is also increasing and the profit as well.

So for this year, our ROE for CashMe should be about 16%. So it should contribute to our overall results as well.

[Operator]

The next question is from Fanny Oreng with Santander.

[Fanny Oreng Avino, analyst]

I have 2 questions. The first one is about the payroll and the second one is about the month of May, which is usually a month where there are salary increases. And also, I would like to know your perspective about the offer or the supply of workforce in the city of Sao Paulo.

[Unknown Executive]

Fanny, thank you for your questions. About the payroll, I think that this is a very good day to have this call because we learned a few new things from the negotiations between the federal government and the Congress. We are probably going to have -- we're probably going to keep the payroll taxes as they are for 2024 and things will change in 2025. First, relative direct impact is very little. I believe that MRV mentioned that in their call and our situation is very similar. Of course, that we are going to have to change our format, And we are going to have a bigger concentration of workforce in SPEs, but that shouldn't have a direct impact on our results.

And honestly, it's very hard to estimate the indirect impact that we would have from the contractors because the market is fragmented, and we don't have much visibility on how they would organize themselves. So what we can say is that with the current rule, we are going to have a very little direct impact, we can tell exactly what the impact will be indirectly.

When it comes to the salary or wage increases, well, the INCC rate has been low, and also, the IPCA inflation rate is lower. And honestly, if there is any increase above the INPC rate for the past 12 months, it should be a small increase. Last year, it was 0.8% of the INPC rate. Workforce is still challenging in the state of Sao Paulo. We have been able, however, to reorganize ourselves and we have not seen any specific or particular worsening in the scenario.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Rafael Rehder with Safra.

[Rafael Rehder, analyst]

I have 2 questions, too. The first one is about your perspective for your minimum margin that you are pursuing or if there's any sales curve that would be ideal. And the second question is about the price dynamic in 2024 and '25, you're going to have a number of projects delivered. Do you think you're going to suffer from price pressures? Have you been able to pass on the inflation increases? What do you think is going to happen with prices for the rest of the year?

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Rafael, for your question. Well, we use the NPV margin as a criterion for investment decisions, we cannot disclose a lot of details about discount rates or hurdle rates because this is sensitive information in terms of competition. As I said, when I addressed the question about landbank, we are a benchmark in the sector.

So competition-wise, this is a sensitive point. I cannot disclose too much about it. And the second question is about prices and inflation. Well, we have sold 82% of the projects to be delivered this year. The customers have paid 54% of the units. So sold well, and it is being paid at a good level as well.

For 2024 -- 2025, rather, the projects have been 70% sold and payment is at 30%, which is a very healthy level because we're only going to start delivering those projects in 8 months. The prices have been below our projections in the 3 main regions. So I don't think that the delivery volume in '24 and '25 will be a major factor on prices in the market. We have been able to pass on the inflation increases so far because inflation has been under control.

I think price is more impacted by supply and demand. If there is an increase in supply, we might see some impact. But so far, the market has been healthy with good sales. We have not had to decrease prices, and we have been able to preserve our margins.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Marcelo Motta with JPMorgan.

[Marcelo Motta, analyst]

Well, I have a question about the explanatory notes on your release. We had a loss in the SPEs of about BRL 6 million last year, and it's now BRL 25 million. So I'd like to know what is the reason for that gap?

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Motta, for your question. Well, we have BRL 10 million from projects in the city of Goiânia with a local partner called ABM. And we had a better result at SKR. In 2023, they had, had a slight loss and that's why there was a higher impact. And considering the equity income line, we had BRL 101 million and the only nonrecurring effect is this one related to SKR.

[Operator]

This concludes the Q&A session. Now I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Mickelberg for his closing remarks.

[Miguel Mickelberg, executive]

Thank you very much for your participation. I'd like to take this chance to once again express our solidarity to those affected in the tragic events of Rio Grande do Sul. We have a commitment to help and support the victims as much as we can. And as a citizen of Rio Grande do Sul, I would like to thank the entire country of Brazil for your support and solidarity. I'm sure that you all have been giving a lot of strength and support to the local population.

About our results, I believe that we are following the right path, and we are confident that the rest of the year will be very good. Thank you very much. Have a great weekend.

[Operator]

This concludes Cyrela's earnings call for today. Should you have any questions, please contact the Investor Relations team at [e-mail]. Thank you very much for your participation. Have a good day.

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