Direcional Engenharia SA

BOVESPA:DIRR3

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q2

[Operator]

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for participating. Welcome to our earnings presentation for the second quarter 2022. Together with me today is Ricardo Ribeiro, our CEO; Henrique Paim, CFO; and Andre [ Damian ] from our IR team.

And like the other quarters, we will begin with a presentation. And immediately, we will begin -- we start questions and answers. [Operator Instructions] This event is being recorded, and we will give you the recording immediately after this presentation in our IR site.

And I would like to give the floor to Ricardo, who will begin the presentation.

[Ricardo Valadares Gontijo, executive]

Good morning, everybody. It is a huge pleasure to be here once again in this earnings release, and where we always have the opportunity to tell you about the main points of our operations, answers any questions that we have. And this is a very wealthy moment. Once again, we are delivering results, and in our view, they are very satisfactory.

The main point, yes, we have been able to deliver results that are in line with everything we have discussed in this quarterly conversation we have with the market. This gives us huge satisfaction to see that what we have traced in the company, we have been able to deliver. And this allow us always to add value to our collaborators, our clients and our customers.

And very quickly, before I go into the presentation, I would like to give you an overview of something that is very relevant to all of you. In the last 3 years, we have gone through a most unpredictable, challenging scenario where inflation and in cost increases with a main theme, and specifically with conversations and when we talk about the Civil Construction sector in the country, the Residential sector. And the main point of concern of all of yours was gross margin. And here, have always tried to highlight gross margin is fundamental, but it is also important to pay attention to the gaining scales that we've had, opportunities we have captured, and this is what I'd like to highlight.

So you'll see during my presentation, I will give you some point here where it will be very clear to see the gross margin resilience we are delivering here in Direcional. And the gaining scale we have had in the last quarters, and the consequent dilution in a very relevant way of the expense lines of the company.

Just some very quick numbers. When we compare the results of the second quarter this year to the second quarter '21, we had a G&A dilution of 1.4 percentage points of our revenue. Commercial expenses, plus 1.2 percentage points. Minority interest line, and we've talked a lot about this. When we compare the second quarter this year to the first one three months ago, there was a reduction of 1.1 percentage points of the revenue. Our revenue grew 25% quarter after quarter, and the minority interest dropped in absolute values.

Everything I'm saying here allowed us, when we compare 6 months closed June this year to 6 months closed June last year, even with the cost pressures, the challenges, the focus given on gross margin, the net margin of Direcional just increased. So all of this data tell us about the way we have operated the company, and all the opportunities have been captured here by us and always appear in this very challenging moment. So I would like to highlight what we said, this is becoming very clear in our balance sheet.

And lastly, the effect of this operating leverage we've had, you can see when we compare the revenue of the company in the second quarter this year to the first one this year, the revenue goes up 25% and net profit adjusted goes up 55%. So these points are very relevant to stress here in the beginning of our presentation.

Now going to Page 3, the highlights. Before we go into operational and financial data of the quarter, net sales of the company in the last 12 months closed now in June exceeded BRL 2.7 million, a growth of 31% in 12 months when we look at the net sales of the last year. The net revenue of the last 12 months closed in June reached practically BRL 2 billion, 22% growth when we compare to 1 year ago.

Now, a very important point. The net revenue is still in very -- in levels that are inferior to sales, which makes very clear the continuity perspective of revenue recognition and the consequent continuity of the dilution or expense lines that can lead to a more accommodated inflation scenario. And still, we have an improvement of the operations and results delivered by the company.

Page 4, where we address the growth of our revenue, once again, we see the fact that we are growing more than what we're doing. So our REF has grown. So you've seen that at the end of our quarter, our backlog revenue was more than BRL 1 million, 34% more than the backlog revenue closed June last year.

And another thing that I'd like to show you, those of you that are not here. If you see our results, the backlog revenue had an increment of 0.6 percentage points in the quarter, so we are able to sell our products with margins that are over than what we had before. We are being able to sell the project with a recomposition of prices that are already offsetting the price increase we've had in the last 2 years.

It is difficult to say when this reflects the gross margin. It depends on the harvest, the projects that are further advanced with the works, and that's an increase in revenue. But this tipping point of the backlog revenue is very important for us to see in the numbers and data that are here.

So now going back to Page #5, I would like to highlight what I said in the introduction, the resilience of the gross margin. This quarter, we had 35.4% gross margin when adjusted with the production financing rates, which comprise the cost of our product. So here, we have some quarters here, already here for you of the recurring gross margin of our business. It should be around 34%. We delivered 35.4% even within this very challenging scenario, which we experienced specifically after the Russia-Ukrainian conflict.

I would say that the convergence of this gross margin to this level, close to 34%, has occurred in a term that is longer, slower than what we had imagined in the beginning. That is, we have done a repricing product of our work, working very consistently. Our supplies team has worked managing the inventory of material in our work sites. We anticipate the purchase, the procurement of certain products, delay others to deliver results. In our view, that is very, very positive with regards to gross margin, and I believe has differentiated us in the sector where we have gone through enormous challenges. But we've been able to go through this moment in a smoother way.

We have a mix of products, right? And [indiscernible] now, Level 1 and 2, our work with regards to supplies, product pricing and projects have had a most important role in the resilience of this gross margin we have delivered. And always, I'd like to make clear that here in the company, we're going to go after the best gross margin possible. As long as we have a very happy speed of sales, which we've shown in the second semester. Increasing speed of sales in a scenario where capital cost is higher, specifically when we have a greater -- when it's larger with regards to the behavior expected of the products in our sector. So this incremented speed of sales and capital cost greater generates value.

So Page 6, once again. So we've had with the group of -- so this is a very relevant point. We have been able to deliver huge growth of revenue with expense lines that are very well behaved. So we've had the second quarter '22 compared to the first quarter '21, a net revenue that grew 39%. G&A growing 8%. This is what allowed this gain of 1 point -- percentage points of revenue in terms of efficiency in our G&A. And in this quarter, dropped below 6% of the revenue. It was 5.9%.

This same dilution effect, we had already talked about the improvement points here. The second point was commercial expenses. And here, it is clear in the results all the benefits that we've been able to capture. Commercial expenses also compared to 1 year, 1.2 percentage points, reaching 9% of our revenue in the second quarter.

So when we consider G&A dropping 1.4% of the revenue, commercial expenses, 1.2% dropping. And the total here is 2.6 percentage points in relation to the revenue. In a revenue of BRL 2 billion in the last 12 years, it is BRL 2 million of efficiency gains. It's expressed specifically when we see the growth of the backlog margin. And the maintenance of revenue below the sales, we see the perspective of continuing capturing gains in the pipeline.

So on Page 7, this is a consequence of what I said here, when we consider the net margin before minority interest. And so here, here we're comparing the data before minority interest when we consolidated the revenue of these minorities in certain SPSs. So when we look at the effect in the net margin, we see the net margin has grown in a recurrent way. So in spite of a pressure of costs that has led us to reduce, to have an expected reduction of gross margins, we have more than offset this reduction through a gain in scale and operational efficiency that we've had in the other parts of the balance sheet.

And it's important to stress here and say publicly of the exceptional work of our team, up to this and now, [indiscernible] team, the work that they have done here to contain, to hold back expense, sustaining products -- productivity, automating processes that has allowed us to have a huge competitiveness.

And lastly, on Page #8, and as a consequence of everything that we have adjusted in our operations so as to navigate the best way possible within our conditions, we are very satisfied to see this trend that we were able to deliver a constant growth of return of equity. So when we look at the results of this last quarter, it gets to 16.4%. So all the efforts, a long cycle, the results we're having now were -- imagine, 3, 4 years ago. So all the efforts, dedication, discipline in capital allocation. We have now this quarter after quarter an improvement in our operations, greater value generations, greater allocation of capital. This has led our ROE to have grown quarter after quarter.

So now, I'd like to use the moment also to highlight that in a very diverse scenario, challenging scenario in a sector that has a long cycle where, specifically in the capital markets, it's extremely liable to interest rate variations. Specifically in the -- every day, the program, Casa Verde e Amarela, at the moment, the interest rates did not affect here -- things here.

I'd like to say that with strong demand, strong -- we need social adaptation. Our business is very resilient here. So the resilience of business and the capacity of our team, even in very adverse moments to find the opportunities and use opportunities, transform them into results. I think this is a point to be very highlighted here, stressed here in the beginning of this presentation.

Now, I'd like to give the floor to Paulo Sousa, who is going to tell us about the operational highlights. And then Paim is going to talk about the financial highlights. And at the end, we'll be available for questions and answers.

[Paulo Henrique De Sousa, executive]

So good morning, and thank you very much for your participation and for the introduction.

Now, in the next slide, very quickly, I will show you the operational highlights. In the second quarter, we reached BRL 700 million launches-- BRL 790 million, 38% growth. And in line with 2021, it's important to stress that together with our strategic plan to diversify portfolio, Direcional represented 62% in the second quarter, 38% with Riva. And in the quarter, the diversification was [ BRL 655.5 million ] for Direcional aligned with our mid to long-term planning.

And when we see sales, I think the highlight here, we had the first quarter in sales of the company, BRL 836 million, representing a 34% growth compared to last quarter, 36% compared to the second Q 2021. And when compared to the second best quarter of the history, for example, which had been the fourth Q last year, the growth was 25%. And with these results, we reached in the first quarter BRL 1.468 billion of sales volume, 30% growth relative to the same period last year, showing the assertiveness of our inventory, our launches and a huge step that we are taking here in the growth of the company, reflecting in results according to what Ricardo said before.

In the next slide, we have the net sales speed. And we see here, always we have looked very carefully here, launches have to have demand and sales. So we always try to show the market that we consider net sales speed between 18%, 20%, 22%. And now with higher capital cost, we want to have a better version, which happened this quarter, and consolidated with 20%. Direcional, 33% sales speed, Riva, 17%.

And from here on, we will calibrate prices versus speed sales to maintain the PSO level, and with the increase of launches, grow the sales. This is the path. So when we look at the details, the VSO, the net sales speed was an important highlight of the quarter.

Now, I would like to give the floor to Paim to show us the financial highlights.

[Henrique Paim, executive]

Thank you, Paulo. Thank you, Ricardo. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for your participation in our earnings release of the second Q '22.

We are very proud to give you these results here that will reach until this moment. We have delivered everything we have arranged with the stakeholders, which makes us very happy to see the results. We can see the results of all the work that has been done here with you. And also creating value for the shareholder and following our purpose, which is to transform lives and create a better future for society. So the next slide, please.

So here, with the net revenue and growth revenue, I would like to share with you, we've been saying in the last quarters, our business has a launch. We do prospecting of land lord with launch, we begin selling the projects, and then we concomitantly begin to construct, to build these projects. And we noticed that quarter after quarter, we would notice a very healthy, solid evolution of launches and sales. And we always said revenue would come, and finally, it has began to come.

And so now we see an important growth of -- data of revenue growth from comparing both semester, right, from '22 to '21, 39% growth. And when we -- this quarters, right? And semesters, when comparing semesters '21 to '22, we've had 26%. And this is what we've been saying in the calls -- the previous calls. And we believe this will continue growing. We have noticed that we have sold more than what -- the revenue. And since the works have been advancing in a very satisfactory and sales are under control, this revenue will appear and will bring about operational leverage elements that are even better than what you had seen in our results.

To the right of the slides, we can observe that the net profit reached BRL 55 million, a growth of 36% relative to the second Q of '21. And when we compare the semesters, 34% growth, getting to BRL 91 million of net profit, demonstrating the assertiveness of our operations, the capacity of maintaining resilient gross margins and the management capacity where one includes a lot of technology here. Using technology as a competence, the company has transformed itself into a contract tech.

Many things are happening. Many good things will happen in the future. Today, we have more than 100 robots operating in our back office area, which allowed us during this growth cycle -- no growth of -- we have had more headcounts. We did have -- need more headcounts. We allowed time to be able to be more accretive, also delivering value to stakeholders in general.

So here, we have to mention with you, ladies and gentlemen, our EBITDA. We have delivered a very solid EBITDA margin, around 20%. An important growth when we compare the first semester '21 to '22, reinforcing the positive vital signs of our growth, and we're very satisfied with this EBITDA margin. And as an analogy with other sectors that compare EBITDA margin and net indebtedness in the middle of the year until now, the first semester '22, the first half, we managed to reach BRL 216 million EBITDA. And our debt --

So when we analyze this EBITDA in the first quarter, we here would have a leverage rate of net debt over EBITDA of 0.5%, which is very healthy in any sector you see. It's a leverage. It's a conservative vision, very prudent in our capital structure.

To the right, we continue with cash -- relevant cash position, almost BRL 1.2 billion cash position. Growth indebtedness, our adjusted debt of EUR 1.2 billion, cash position of less than BRL 1 billion, generating a net debt of BRL 216 million, 16, right? And our leverage reduction in our sector, we see just adjusted net debt over equity. We see -- everything is based on this indicator.

So here, we're getting to 14% adjusted net debt over equity and our financial covenants of 50%, showing the sustainability of our business. And we have 41 years of history. We want to remain another 120 years, and we'll be able to do this in a conservative manner, looking at capital structure and also other business diversification as we did in Riva and also having success with these models.

Next slide, please. So here, lastly, we have delivered debt amortization schedule, which has been very extended, right? A duration of 38 months of debt amortization, which makes us very comfortable with the cash position we have that we'll be able to deal with almost 4 years of amortization of the gross debt. Also, we've had here an important relevant material factor, which was subsequent to an increase of this -- the quarter, which was a CRI. We settled it. It was BRL 300 million at a maturity of 10 years -- a duration of 10 years and [ 7 months ], and this will -- our duration will go from 38 to 47 months extension of indebtedness.

And this shows us how the capital market received well the Direcional name. We are a AAA-rated company by S&P. And we will consider this liability management very quickly, trying to anticipate market movements to have more money in our balance and also allowing us to be able to have a very conservative and prudent cautious capital management here.

Now, I would like to go to question and answers. Thank you very much, all of you.

[Operator]

Well, everybody. So now we will begin with our questions-and-answer session, and I will give the floor now to --

The first question goes from Bruno Mendonca, Bradesco. Bruno, you are -- you can unmute yourself and ask your question.

[Bruno Mendonca, analyst]

Ricardo, you said in your presentation about a better balance in terms of net sales speed and margin, but we see Direcional now in a slightly different situation compared to other peers. They focus on the changes of the Casa Verde e Amarela program, and they will focus on improving margin when they will have a tighter profitability. So you're parting from a better point, a better moment, right? With regards to this average.

With the new rules of the program, what changes in Direcional's strategy, in your criteria with regards to the VSO and margin balance? And also in line with this, can you say that the increase that we saw in the backlog margin is a consequence of these new conditions? Or are there other reasons behind this?

[Ricardo Valadares Gontijo, executive]

Bruno, thank you for your question.

With regards to new rules of the program, we already had the implementation of part of it. Here, the increase of the populational factor adjustments in income levels that have access to different interest rates, giving an increment to purchasing capacity. So before, companies that were out of the market began to have the capacity to buy a product again, which is exceptional. And also, there is a relative measure with regards to an increase in term, and also have -- and depending on presidential sanctions. And also we have to see how they will be implemented by financial agents, specifically cash that has 99% of shares in the program. So with regards to the new changes and after the announcement of cash and we understand, then we'll understand the real impact.

When we analyze here into this amount, we have been able to work with solid gross margins. You've seen here that the backlog revenue has grown. It is difficult to say when this revenue increment gets to the statement of accounts. But I still see the possibility of some months with continuity of this conversion going to 34% and then a tipping point, and also because the REF already shows this very clearly.

So the impact of the program adjustments in this quarter, I would say, were very small. They began basically in July. And until we have the approval of credit here, the approval of credit, you have a delay here. So the impact of REF margin was very small because of the changes of the program. And they should have a greater margin and parting from August, so there is a possible improvement with regards to price adjustments to minimize this loss of gross margin in the last 2 years, and changes in the program will be very important for us.

In terms of net sales here, sales is healthy. As long as we remain close to 20%, you will see us trying to recompose our gross margin, which was reduced so as to avoid a huge loss of customers and customers we can address in this business. We should try to recompose this margin, reconstitute this margin, and specifically after the 2 measures that are in effect and how the customer will see things, right? So I would say that our deferred revenue doesn't have an impact when you see all the way to July. The changes were mid-July, the first 2 changes. And I would say the main impacts are July and August, specifically after August.

So further on, I believe the scenario is positive. We see a very well balanced market between supply and demand, a strong demand for the program, several families being -- with purchasing capacity, and we have here a more benign scenario in terms of inflation. Several commodity prices have dropped. We had a drop in the diesel price, which impacts the freight here in our sector, which is expressive. So we see huge affordability, a demand and supply that is balanced and very well-behaved costs, giving us comfort to operate with a larger VSO at this moment without having to allocate equity of the holding of our project and returning -- a return on capital allocated, okay?

So this is how we have worked, and I think the perspectives with adjustments of the program are still to happen. We can't see this in the results yet.

[Bruno Mendonca, analyst]

Okay. I was going to do a follow-up, but I think you answered. Because the net sales you have recently delivered is greater than historical net sales speed of Direcional, and I think it's because of the competition. In case the conditions of the program improves, it will come back, it will return. So the idea is to have this VSO's net sales still closer than to what it is.

[Ricardo Valadares Gontijo, executive]

Well, Bruno, I believe that within this higher capital cost that we have at the moment, yes, we are trying to have our cash flow the closest to the current moment, shorten the duration of our cash flow. So here, if we -- the greater risks that exist with the associative model is because the inflation. Everything is fixed once the customer has a finance granted by the bank.

When we begin to have more comfort relative to the cost of products in our sectors and in a moment where everything is expensive, it makes sense to shorten this cash flow and use VSO for this. So it's difficult to see what kind of scenario we will see before us in the future. But at the moment, the idea is to have a VSO closer to what we had in the second quarter than the VSO that we had 1.5 years ago or 1 year ago. So this is how we're working with. This is what we're working with.

[Operator]

Thank you, Bruno.

Next question, Pedro, Credit Suisse.

[Pedro Hajnal, analyst]

I have a question.

So with all the Casa Verde e Amarela adjustments, considering that we came from a moment where there was an emptiness of the program, I'd like to see with this margin growth that you had, that you believe you had, and this price gain, does it make sense for us to think of the new size of a company? Have you had time to think of the pipeline of launches and company's strategies? Will it be accelerated from here on? This is my question.

[Unknown Executive]

Pedro, this is a very good question. We have noticed very quickly a strong demand for our products you see in this VSO that we delivered in the second quarter.

However, when we analyze the company, I would say in terms of launches, we had a very expressive growth in the last years. Let's say a certain growth with regards to last year, but also in terms of launches in our view, specifically, when we look at 2022 on the growth, it shouldn't be so expressive. We've had a strong space for sales to get to launches, and as a consequence, revenue getting to the same level of sales.

So the first step for continuity of growth here, of value being generated to our shareholders, a return of equity. And because of the increase of the gross profit -- the net profit of the company, this should happens because of a stabilization here, and we see revenue getting to the number of launches.

And this -- at a second moment now, and this has happened, we try to make this clear. The share of minority interest as a percentage of launches has dropped. As a consequence, we have sales. And you've seen in this quarter, the representativeness of minority interest dropping when compared to the revenue. But we still have gains to be captured here with this growth of our share in projects without pressuring at all whatsoever the engineering or production capacity.

So I would say that at the current moment, we are going after capturing gains that are very clear within what I said to you, stabilized production. It is a lot of people that we have to -- and also, we have to have synergies without new -- going into new states, taking of the places we're already in. Gain of efficiency, dilution, incremental productivity. And when everything is captured, when we have comfort in the capacity here of our engineering, we can began considering a growth of sales again. But we believe we'll get to the end of '22 at a large level, and that shouldn't grow so much in '23 on. And here, we will have a gain in our efficiency in operations.

There is a lot of value to be generated now, more than to keep the pace of launch growths we implemented. So when everything is in-house and capture, then we will think the next way to generate value for the shareholders. But this is further on in the pipeline. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you, Pedro.

Next question, Gustavo Cambauva, BTG Pactual.

[Gustavo Cambauva, analyst]

I'd like to ask 2 questions.

The first one has to do with what Ricardo mentioned with regards to growth. I'd like to understand what you see for Riva in this current scenario? Do you -- you continue to launch and sell well, but the scenario is more challenging with this mid -- with the low to mid-term segment is suffering with affordability. And perhaps you want all these adjustments that Casa Verde e Amarela have.

So I would like to understand in a mix point of view, what are you going to do? Are you going to direct more effort to Casa Verde e Amarela in detriment of Riva? How do you see this balance between the 2 segments?

My second question has to do also with the sales of portfolio that you have been doing. I'd like to understand because of the context, the high interest rates, the macro context, can you continue doing, making these sales? Or is the penalty too high now because of higher interest rates we see? Or is there still a huge demand for -- in terms of investment for this portfolio profile, and how much you should do from here on?

[Unknown Executive]

Cambauva, thank you for your question.

Now with regards to Riva vis-a-vis this context of higher interest rates, we've seen that real estate credit, there was a growth of interest rate. Not in the same proportion as SELIC because they have savings account that is specific for the sector. There was a growth, but below the growth we saw of the interest rates in the market.

Cambauva, I'd like to divide the Riva issue in 2 parts. First, we see a demand for Riva products, specifically in markets that are less obvious. When I say less obvious, less served markets. This is all over Brazil. We see strong demand for Riva project even within a higher interest context. So Casa in a SELIC scenario of 2%, where we had over 7% there, Casa was the bank in a period of lower SELIC that had the largest SBPE interest rates. When the market -- when there was a turnaround, the private bank raised the interest rates over the Casa. And I would say that today, Casa has the most competitive rates in the market.

So what was the penalty for Riva 1.5 years ago, 2 years ago, today, is a stronger competitiveness point because Casa -- so that became a differentiation for the product. So it offers a lot of quality. It's very competitive cost because of the constructive process we have adopted, allowing us to have a cost benefit that is almost unbeatable.

So we have noticed, of course, the market has been reduced in value. You've seen this. It's a strong year this year, specifically when we compare to 2020, 2019, but it's still below 2021. But when we see Riva, the second semester was very strong, right? So it's the first semester of strong demand for sales. We are very animated here, very -- we see strong demand. So we are still very optimistic here, specifically because the premise of plant transfers are being maintained, our plant transfers. So we mitigated the main risks that we had in terms of development.

Very unpredictable cash flow needs to work in a leveraged way to deliver satisfactory returns, specifically when you're growing operations. In the conventional, you need -- and you don't have cancellations yet. So when we had costs under control, the Riva model is similar to the Direcional model in terms of cash flow. Return of invested capital, when needing the necessary leverage for this return, it makes sense. We consider -- very excited here, and there are differentials that has allowed us to navigate in this high interest rate scenario.

What we have to now -- to do now, because of the long cycle, we're going to see what is going to happen in terms of the interest rates next year. We might go back having a very positive scenario for Riva, and we have to try to see through this demand that might be a surprise in the future if we have a reduction of interest rates. But we are in a very important moment here. In order to design the pace, we're going to implement for Riva operations. But we are very enthusiastic here because we're working with low risk and high returns and very solid demand.

The sale of portfolio, you are right. Vis-a-vis this context of more expensive capital, higher interest, the purchases of these assets grew. So discount rates grew too, and the present value of this portfolio was reduced. We had in our results when we adjust profit, we see the impact resulting from the sale of portfolio in the second quarter. But in our vision, it still generates a lot of value for our shareholders in the current moment because of the costs here.

With regards to demand for this product, I would say -- and surprisingly, Cambauva, we had a moment where we noticed that the buyers of these assets were less liquid, less -- they had less liquidity. And I would say that in the last weeks, the last 2 months, the demand grew, so we've seen more demand for this asset. And as it continues generating value and interest -- discount rates are inferior to our capital, we will continue with operations. We want a company with the lightest balance possible.

You all see 2017, we were launching less than our net equity. And when we look at the last 12 months, we're launching more than two-fold of our equity, and this is how we want to continue. And vis-a-vis this context, it makes sense to monetize these assets. And the demand continues high.

And the same bias of the first CRI offer is still talking to us, buying portfolios. And the December 2020 where we originated and innovated in this market, and we would be able to do the first through sale of our pro-soluto, they -- the people here are still talking with us for new sales. Meaning, once again, this is a sustainable operation and there is interest here. There was an important amount of investors participating in the last sale that we had in the market, and it came to stay.

[Operator]

Thank you, Cambauva.

Now our next question, André [ Jimny ] with Itaú.

[Unknown Analyst]

I'd like to ask you a question with regards to a comment made by Ricardo. He said that he sees a very well-balanced supply and demand, and he talked about the demand very well during the questions here, the management of the program.

But could you tell us a little bit about the supply? Do you think it's normalized? Or do you still think that things are weak here, difficulties to launch here? And do you have deadlines here?

[Unknown Executive]

André. We -- in several areas we work in, we have seen companies with weaker capital structures going through more challenging, delicate moments. So in a certain way, these are opportunities that emerge specifically in this less obvious areas.

And in my point of view, we still are in the beginning, in the middle of this movement. And I believe that we still have time where this market somehow will go through this process of separation of companies, those that worked more conservatively separated from those that worked in a more aggressive way vis-a-vis this very challenging context that we have seen. I believe still we are going to have people going through a very difficult moment. This should allow us to use opportunities that we believe will emerge in those areas we work in. The movement is only in the beginning.

An important part we have in our balance sheet, the expenses where you have premium. And in general, we have this when we buy the share of minority interest in our -- when we have the minority interest. Here, we had -- we bought full share -- minority interest shares in our project. So this talks about the challenges that certain companies have gone through in the current moment because they have less capital. They have to sell their products very quickly to cover the cost of the works and allocate less capital to have inventory. They had to solve very quickly.

You end up having -- blocking the revenue at that moment because of cost increases, right? I would say that after the beginning of Russia and Ukraine conflict, we went through a very challenging moment, and I see many companies with costs that are over the sales cost. And we are in the beginning -- in the beginning stages, right? In the middle of this process, where we adapt companies to this scenario we have gone through and are still going through. So these are opportunities that emerge.

But still, there is a lot of things happening -- to happen here with regards to the supply of products, specifically to those companies with weaker capital situation position.

[Operator]

So our next question, Ygor Altero from XP.

[Ygor Altero, analyst]

This has to do with the update of the program. There are some initiatives that go all the way to the end of the year. Do you believe there is a chance of renewing some of them? Is -- we also have the [ illusion ] of the use of the 8% of FGTS to abate the share here in real estate, right? So do you believe you can use this 8% full way of the FGTS share?

[Unknown Executive]

Ygor, it is difficult to say what happens in the end of the year. In a period where we don't know exactly what the increase of subsidy will be due to the inclusion of new families in the market because of the purchase of new products. This is exceptional because before families couldn't buy their own home, and now they can. So this is very positive.

But still, it is very important to have a clearer vision as to the increase, the consumption pace of the subsidies. Because of these changes, I think it's still early to say anything. In my personal point of view, because of the new cost reality in the sector, it is probable that the budge will be-- budget will be enough to absorb a whole year of product supplies. But still, we have to have visibility in the next 2, 3 months to get to a more concrete vision.

Relative to the 8% of FGTS, this is a measure that hasn't been sanctioned yet. So we don't exactly know the Casa's interpretation here or the cash -- Casa's credit relative to this new possibility. I'd say this step has been done. It's just fantastic. FGTS can be used to amortize the debt balance. So if you can use every 2 years to amortize the debt balance to do this every month, it's the same.

And on the other hand, it allows credit granting from financial agents, things that make it much safer. The possibility of default is lower. Income will be more -- available because he has 8% more, and he couldn't count on this before. And somehow, he will be able to use for the payment to the financing of this house. This is a fantastic measure, and certainly will increase the attractiveness of the program because certainly, default will drop here.

And once again, personally, I don't believe it makes sense to compromise an income where installments can compromise 30% of the buyer's income. It doesn't make sense to increase this income plus another 8% here, right, of the income. Ygor is calculating this impact, so you have to be very conservative because it doesn't seem to make sense to me. So I would work with continuity, with the income.

As it is today, you have to be conservative, but families that had an income or installments where the cash would not allow for an increase here, specifically weaker company with lower income, higher turnovers. Oftentimes, the cash will only approve 25%, 20% of the income of the customer, right? As being used for the payment of the installments of the house. So I believe that there might be an increase of the purchasing capacity coming from this 8% of the FGTS.

But it is important to see the [ information ] given by the Casa's credit area, and its impact in the market. I would consider no impact at the moment, but certainly, default tends to drop as the program becomes more attractive for operators, and this scenario being so things will be very positive.

[Ygor Altero, analyst]

Okay. Ricardo, Paulo, Paim.

[Operator]

Thank you, Ygor.

Next question, Rafael [ Ylla ] from Safra Bank. Your mic is on.

[Unknown Analyst]

I have 2 questions.

The first one has to do with the different areas you operate in. I would like to know if there was a surprising performance? Something you didn't expect? Something that is positive or negative?

And this second one, I would also like to ask about the income for quota holders? If you see an important impact here coming from Riva? That's my question.

[Unknown Executive]

Rafael, the performance of our operations in the different states or areas are very similar. There is no area that is surprising in this case. I would even say not so surprising, because the performance is very positive here. So I don't think that anything is really negative or positive. I would say that the moment is good in general.

One area that we are more careful with is Sao Paulo, has performed better than it was performing 3, 4 months ago in our case, which is a very positive point. This is the one state we were more careful. The amount of capital required to operations versus pricing, sales and margins. So this is one area we were more careful with.

[Unknown Executive]

Just to add, we had a competitive advantage vis-a-vis the market, which is off plant transfer, and this measure is a transition measure. And I think that in the case of the quota holder, to have this in the plant, to serve this opportunity at the moment is a huge differential.

[Operator]

Next question. [ Antonio Pedro Dos ], Santander. .

[Unknown Analyst]

Paulo. I would like to know when we see the behavior of the cost change in the next months, if there is eventual stabilization of cost, some -- to better affordability? If it makes sense to expect gross margin, 34%. Do you see a better scenario than this?

[Paulo Henrique De Sousa, executive]

Antonio. What we have seen in the last weeks, in the last 1.5 months is very positive with regards to cost perspective when we look on in the future. Because of the huge reduction we had in commodity prices, a better behavior of our exchange rates, we have seen cost reductions here in several products we buy. So the scenario, the inflation scenario is more benign, which is very positive. We are going to try to do the best work and also balancing better net sales paid with gross margin, trying to deliver the best gross margins and operating.

For years, above this recurring gross margin that we have seen, right, around 34%. We were saying that the margin would eventually go to 34%. I think it's early to say what we're going to be able to deliver in terms of margin from here on. I would still work and stay with -- by seeing that the margin is slowly being reduced to 34%, but in this quarter specifically, when we see a more benign cost scenario, we've had a tipping point of the backlog revenue, right, and the deferred revenue. So we've seen prices, any sign of greater optimism would be too precipitated at this moment. So considered 34% from here on for gross margin.

And here in Direcional, we -- you can be sure we will do the very best possible.

[Operator]

Thank you, Antonio.

Next question Marcelo Motta.

[Marcelo Motta, analyst]

Could you tell us about the Direto? You haven't told us about the growth, the outlook, high interest rates don't help. But what do you see here for the second semester in this business?

[Unknown Executive]

No doubt, Motta, in this moment, where funding costs for Direto is higher. This is natural. I would say that operations that are happening now are below a scenario of lower interest rates, but we've had strong demand where capital more expensive, people need to monetize assets, right, and -- with products from Direto.

In the second quarter, we continued with an important growth and important integration of Direto with the main players, with map for funding and Direto works as a service ranger, trying to allow conventional financing and the best conditions. And here, Direto, receives a fee, basically. So here, revenue in the -- it has revenues in the short term, but lower margins.

This business has grown. Integrations are almost concluded with banks. This is positive. And also, we have gone for synergies between Direto, Direcional, Direto and other developing companies trying to anticipate cash flow owners of land lords, purchase a portfolio with longer maturity. So this was lower than the first quarter, but I'm sure that we'll be able to deliver at the end of this year. Give no multiple values to Direto, but this is an operation that will give us a lot of opportunity.

It seems contradictory because you have less feasible operations, more expensive market, but companies need capital. So a lot of things are being done here, and we believe there are some operations that will be concluded here, and it will be very relevant until the end of the year.

[Operator]

Next question, Renata Cabral from Citi.

[Renata Fonseca Cabral Sturani, analyst]

And my question is about insurance. Since cost pressure seems to be relieving a bit, and there is room for margin gains, I'd like to know your first action with regards to the ministerial of regional development? I'd like to know more about this. And how would you estimate the cost that this would incur?

[Unknown Executive]

Renata, this was a theme that was disclosed, published, I think in an ordinance by the Regional Development [ Ministeriat ]. And I would say that this issue has been addressed. Companies can either opt for the SPE or the SGP, with some extra guarantees that before were not covered by the insurance we had before the publication of this ordinance. So here, you had -- this has happened. So I would say that this is being addressed. There will be a demand from the insurance company. But there are the 2 options for developers to contract.

At the current moment, I do not see any increase here because of this insurance. The main point that is being worked with insurance company by associations is this increment of coverage in the [ SGPE ] insurance. And this extension of the insurance is not being demanded yet, but discussions are well advanced. And I don't believe that this cost increase would be representative as the SPE would be. That originally would be the only option, and then you had this upward opportunity of having a broadened coverage here by the SPE -- [ SGPE.] I don't see a problem here.

[Renata Fonseca Cabral Sturani, analyst]

Yes, I understand. You have the normative instruction which were the ordinance. This was in April, so you expect to see stability here?

[Unknown Executive]

Yes. In spite of there not be contracting of this SGP with this broadened structure, because this hasn't come into effect yet. But in case this is --

becomes a possibility, I don't see this as a problem affecting the cost of the sector.

SPE is an insurance with larger costs and I think it will have a huge impact on the sector, but the ordinance does not demand. It allows you to have another opportunity with more competitive costs.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]

With no more questions here, I will give the floor back to Ricardo for his final considerations.

[Ricardo Valadares Gontijo, executive]

I would like to thank you for your participation here. And we and the IR team, are here to answer any other questions you might have. Once again, thank you very much for your participation here in this earnings release. I would like to thank the team that asked all the questions, and contributed to enrich this conversation so that we can really focus on those focus -- these points that have been most relevant to you.

Here, it is important to stress that we are going through a more benign scenario in terms of inflation. The demand is resilient. The program where adjustments have been done, including several families in the market. And this somehow, when we look further in the pipeline, it removes a series of clouds from our path and gives us a greater visibility with regards to future perspectives.

So in this moment, everything has changed a lot in the world and Brazil, this has not been different. Challenges are always emerging in places we don't even in a moment. But in the current moment, I'd like to stress, I'd like to say that we are -- we have greater comfort than we did some months ago. And this makes us very optimistic to continue here in this journey to improve our results, generating value even in an adverse scenario, but apparently, it is much easier now.

Thank you very much. Good morning to all of you, and we are still at your disposal for any questions that you have, in this period that we have between now and our next call. Thank you very much all of you. Good morning.