Eneva SA

BOVESPA:ENEV3

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Lino Cancado, executive]

Hey, good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for Eneva's Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call.

On Slide #3, I would like to start by highlighting the strategic importance of the year 2022 for the company. The achievements made during the year represent a great leap forward for the company and marks the beginning of a new growth cycle. Coming into operation of Parnaíba V in September added 335 megawatts to the complex and contributed positively to our results on that quarter with the export of energy to Argentina. The Jaguatirica project began operations last year and is stabilizing.

And the first quarter of 2023 showed significantly higher availability levels compared to 2022. The knowledge acquired with this with gas liquefaction and LNG transportation led us to develop a new line of business at Eneva, small-scale LNG that we have decided to call once again small-scale LNG. In 2022, we signed our first contracts to supply LNG to large customers, industrial facilities in Maranhão, while we were ending that first cycle of growth proving our ability for execution and to generate value, we took initial steps to begin a new cycle of growth.

Our 2 victories in auctions in less than 12 months, the first in December of 2021 to supply 295 megawatts of capacity near the Azulão field and to recontract Parnaíba IV and the second in September with Azulão II project to build 590 megawatts has materialized our great aspiration.

The Azulão 950-megawatt project replicating our R2W model in the Amazonas Basin. It guarantees to Eneva fixed annual revenues of more than BRL 2.1 billion over 15 years. The acquisitions were another important growth path in 2022. The incorporation of [ CELSE ] accelerated the implementation of our first gas hub and will become a relevant source of fixed revenue for the company to finance the purchase of this important asset, we launched a successful equity offering, where we raised more than BRL 4 billion with oversubscription of more than 5x.

In another region in Sergipe, we expanded our portfolio with the acquisition of Termofortaleza would give us access to an asset with a solid balance sheet and relevant recontracting optionality. We concluded the acquisition of Focus Energia, marking our entry into the renewable segment in the largest solar generation plant in South America. We have also created a stronger trading unit, optimizing the growth of Eneva assets. We are the fifth largest energy commercialization in the company.

Finally, we also added about 12 billion cubic meters to our reserves, 7.5 in the Amazonas Basin and 4.4 in Parnaíba with the declaration of commerciality of Gavião Mateiro, marking another major achievement of our experienced exploration team.

Let's go on to Slide #4 for the highlights of the quarter. To the left, we recorded EBITDA of BRL 563 million, heavily impacted by nonrecurring effects that Habibe will detail later. When we eliminate these effects, we reached a recurring EBITDA of BRL 770 million. This result reflects mainly the acquisition of CELSE and Termofortaleza operational assets with relevant fixed revenues in addition to the energy export operations to Argentina, which reached 554 gigawatt hour of energy, contributing BRL [indiscernible] EBITDA, as shown on the slide.

To the right of the slide, we highlight the milestones for the quarter. I have already mentioned some of these, but I would like to highlight 3 additional points. In Jaguatirica we received tax benefit granted by SUDAM. As of January 2023, the plant will have a 75% reduction in income tax on profits from energy generation for a period of 10 years. On our ESG front for the first time, Eneva was included in the B3 Corporate Sustainability Index portfolio, reinforcing our commitment to integrate ESG best practices to our strategy. As a subsequent event to the fourth quarter, we concluded in March the incorporation of CGFT (sic) [ CGTF ] in Eneva Holding, which will provide significant tax synergies for the company.

On Slide #5, I will show you the evolution of our reserves. The reserve certification report crafted by GCA Associates and disseminated in February pointed to a significant increase in our gas reserves, a 30% increase in natural gas vis-a-vis the volumes reported at the end of 2021. We incorporate 12 billion of cubic meters of 2P gas reserves while the annual production amounted to 1.1 billion square -- cubic meters.

In the Parnaiba Basin, the 2P gas reserves increased considerably going from 29.5 billion cubic meters to 33.1 billion cubic meters. This additional gas volume that comes from Gavião Mateiro will enable the Parnaíba I and Parnaíba III plants to have additional energy. In the Amazonas incorporation of 7.5 billion cubic meters of 2P gas reserves, made it possible to win the second auction for capacity reserve in September with the Azulão II project with 950 megawatts.

I would now like to give the floor to Marcelo Habibe, who will offer you greater details on the quarter.

[Marcelo Habibe, executive]

Thank you, Lino. A good day to all of you. We move on to Slide #6 to highlight 2 main events, the acquisition of CELSE and the commercial operation of Parnaíba V. The TPP Porto de Sergipe is the main asset acquired through the transaction with CELSE. The asset will add a fixed annual revenue of BRL 2 billion until December of 2044. And in the fourth quarter of 2022, generated an EBITDA of BRL 312 million. Parnaíba V that entered into operation in November 22 added 385 megawatts of power to the complex without consuming a single additional molecule of gas.

Since then, the plant has already been available for the Brazilian market for the export of energy. And beginning in January of 2024, will come into effect through its contract guarantee and annual fixed revenue of more than BRL 350 million for the company. In the fourth quarter 2022, Parnaiba V has already contributed with BRL 63 million to the company EBITDA.

On Slide #7, I present the net revenue impacts in the quarter. We recorded a net revenue of BRL 2.3 billion in the fourth quarter '22, a growth of 38% vis-a-vis the fourth quarter '21. The main factors that contributed positively to this result were the acquisitions of CELSE, Termofortaleza, the increase in volume traded by the commercialization plant and the coming into operation of Jaguatirica II. It is worth mentioning that a significant amount of revenue is fixed revenue for the company coming from the acquisitions and the increase in commercialization, representing more than BRL 1 billion in the quarter's revenue.

The low dispatching in the period impacted the revenue of coal-fired generated segments and the Parnaiba Complex as shown in the graph. We had a contribution of BRL 161 million to the net revenue in the quarter. We go on to Slide #8, where I would like to refer to nonrecurring items that impacted our EBITDA, [indiscernible] million that are nonrecurring, leading to a lower EBITDA. The first represents BRL 63 million with success fees related to CELSE acquisition and other expenses to be able to conclude the acquisitions and integrate them into the business.

The acquired assets have been fully integrated, and we're capturing synergy. We incorporated Termofortaleza. And as of now, we will take advantage of the fiscal loss we have, and we will have 0 expenses with this. The second effect was an accounting write-down that we had with the acquisition of Focus. We priced this as 0 and sold this for BRL 37 million with an accounting value of almost [ BRL 90 million ]. We had to launch the results of BRL 52 million.

Now a positive news for the company cash. But in terms of accounting, it did have a negative impact. The third item was a payment of BRL 69 million related to the cancellation of the coal contract due to a clause that was valid for the years 2022 and 2023. Because of the lack of dispatch in these 2 years, we negotiated this with the coal supplier and canceled the contract for the period, creating a penalty of BRL 69 million.

And finally, an extraordinary payment of BRL 27 million in terms of performance bonuses. If we eliminate these 4 effects that will not be repeated, the EBITDA would have reached BRL 770 million for the fourth quarter '22.

We go on to Slide 9 and present the main impacts of recurring EBITDA. Recurring EBITDA for the fourth quarter had an increase of 12% vis-a-vis the same period last year. The main factors contributing to this increase were BRL [ 450 ] million from the operating result of acquisitions, BRL 312 million referring to CELSE and BRL 142 million related to Termofortaleza. BRL 42 million from the generation of gas thermoelectric plant boosted by BRL 97 million from the export of energy to Argentina and BRL 31 million for the start-up of TPP Jaguatirica II in the first quarter of 2022.

The system is still in the stabilization phase and will increase its contribution to the company's EBITDA throughout 2023. The main negative impacts were felt in the Upstream and coal segments, mainly due to the reduction of dispatches and high variable margins in the fourth quarter 2021.

In the coal segment, the positive effect of the mismatch between CVU and the average cost of inventories in the 2023 EBITDA, there will be a positive impact because of the progress of the company projects, the availability of TPP Parnaiba V to export energy until December of 2023 and the beginning of commercial activities of Futura 1 at the beginning of the year.

We go on to Slide 10 to speak about the main impacts of our consolidated results. The financial result was negative by BRL 395 million in the fourth quarter, impacted mainly by the entry of CELSE's debt totaling BRL 157 million in the period. It is worth pointing out that despite a more restrictive market moment, the asset step still present optimization opportunities, and we are studying alternatives for its restructuring. Some factors also had a negative impact, the increase in the volume of debentures totaling BRL 111 million, the beginning of the classification of the results of the charges of debt raised for financing Parnaiba V and Jaguatirica II projects, which were previously classified under fixed assets.

This was also impacted by the increase of the CDI rate in the period, representing BRL 30 million and interest on leasing accounted for the FSRU ship chartered by Porto de Sergipe representing BRL 48 million. The positive effects are due to the cash earnings, representing BRL 40 million and exchange variation of FSRU ship lease amounting to BRL 125 million. And because of high leverage, there is an optimization opportunity, we expect fast delivering without any need of refinancing.

Now on Slide 11, we have the main variation within our cash flow. The company's cash flow on Q4 was heavily impacted by CELSE acquisition with a net value of the acquisition amongst its different components at BRL 6.4 billion. The cash flow of our activity, we had a result of BRL 441 million in the quarter. The main impact being the payment to GE Capital in BRL 200 million, which is part of the agreement of the CELSE acquisition. Now the cash flow from investments amounted to a cash -- well, this is an outflow of BRL 5.8 billion for the quarter, BRL 5.3 billion for the acquisition of CELSE.

The other amounts were allocated to the Parnaiba VI project. The increase of liquefaction capacity of Azulão, the down payment to the turbine supplier of the Azulão 950 project and Futura project amongst other investments and other current activities in the company, the cash flow from financing activity totaled a cash outflow of BRL 1.5 billion. This amount refers to the settlement of CELSE's existing financing of BRL 883 million and other amortizations totaling BRL 738 million, partially offset by the disbursement of the financing obtained together with the Banco do Nordeste and the Fundo de Desenvolvimento do Nordeste. As a result Eneva ended the quarter with a cash position of BRL 2 billion.

Now on Slide 12, I will better detail our capital structure. At the end of 2022, the company's net debt totaled BRL 16.6 billion and leverage was at 4.8x. This is net debt over EBITDA. The increase in leverage in comparison to Q3 of 2022 reflected the company's accelerated growth in the year, supported by quality of that this is a low-cost step with long-term maturities and a natural hedge on our income and cash earnings.

The average maturity of the consolidation debt was 5.5 years at the end of the quarter, with most maturities concentrated after 2026. At the end of the period, 42% of the debt was indexed to IPCA, 41% to CDI, 15% was pre-fixed. The average spread of the debt index to the IPCA was 3.8%. And for the other, that's 1.3% above CDI.

Now I will hand it over to Fausto, who will detail the quarter's investment and address the status of projects.

[Fausto Caretta, executive]

Thank you, Habibe. Now we will go to Slide 13. Here, we see the investments that totaled BRL 695 million. In the competency-based view, we have a number of projects running and were mainly allocated to the activities of Futura 1 and other projects under construction.

In relation to Futura 1, the resources were mainly allocated to the conclusion of works including commissioning. We -- in Upstream, we invested BRL 33 million in exploratory campaigns in the Parnaíba and Amazonas Basins. We also invested BRL 78 million in developing the gas fields in the Parnaiba Complex. Now in the Amazonas- the Azulão-Jaguatirica [ system ], we invested BRL 57 million in site improvements and in the purchase of 5 new cryoboxes, support equipment and installation service in addition to BRL 13 million investment in the maintenance contracts with the turbine supplier.

In the quarter, we continue to invest in the gas liquefaction plant at the Parnaiba Complex, which will supply LNG to the contract signed in Maranhão. We started the earth-moving process [ and the land and ] manufacture of the LNG storage tank by third parties.

Now going to Slide 14. We will talk about the project Futura. At the end of Q4 of 2022, we completed the construction of the plant. This event represents our entry in the renewable energy segment, also gaining expertise in the construction and operation of solar projects. During the period, the construction and assembly of 22 [ UF-Bs ] was completed, 1.6 million solar panels and an additional 5,000 kilometers of cables in addition to the energization and substations and completion of the plant commissioning. The plant now only awaits regulatory approval to start commercial operations and we want to achieve 100% of [ UF-B ], and this is scheduled for April of 2023.

Now going to Slide 15. I will talk about the other projects under construction. In Parnaiba VI, we already have 100% of our work contract and 97% of physical adherence and commercial operations scheduled for Q4 of 2024. Now the main milestones in 2022 include the delivery of the steam turbine in Parnaiba in September. And the transformer energization in 2024, we plan to complete mechanical assembly in February and start test operation in July.

The works of the natural liquefaction plant are 82% contracted with 100% of physical adherence scheduled to become operational on Q2 of 2024. The project milestone in 2023 include mobilization of the EPC of the site and may start the equipment receipt on the site and do conclusion of the [indiscernible], which are 100% contracted in August and the conclusion of foundation and civil works in December. For 2024, we intend to include in January, the receipt of equipment and the commissioning of liquefaction in April and of regas in May. The Azulão 950 project is the biggest Eneva project. It is currently in vegetation suppression and earth-moving phase.

Now in terms of cash flow, we have already carried out the down payment of the GE equipment that is being manufactured in the U.S. Now the engineering process are completed and now we're working with basic engineering. The mobilization of the civil works is foreseen for June this year and established in the energy commercialization contract. We have the COD of the simple cycle on the first semester of [ 2026 ] and the commercial start-up of the combined cycle estimated for Q4 of [ 2026 ].

Now I will hand it over to Felippe Valverde for the Q&A session.

[Felippe Valverde, executive]

Thank you, Fausto. We will initiate our Q&A session remembering that questions should be sent in writing through the Zoom platform. First question, is UTE Jaguatirica II, can you better elaborate the pipeline of normalization? And what are your negotiations with suppliers and settlements because of lack of availability?

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you very much for your question regarding the normalization schedule of Jaguatirica and Azulão. We've received all of the additional equipment that we bought to increase the capacity of Azulão plant. They are in our sight already and we only need to rebalance the load for the equipment to become operational during Q2 of 2023, as I mentioned, we will see better results during Q1 of 2023, where we already expect to achieve something close to 80% of the availability of the plant.

Now Azulão, the turbine problems have been overcome and we concluded the recall of the transmission box of the 2 gas turbines. Now regarding settlements, together with our supplier, the contracts of equipment supply generally do not include clauses of consequential damages. We are working together with the supply of the equipment of Jaguatirica. We're seeing discounts in other contracts that we may have together with the supplier as a condition for them to continue being an Eneva supplier and [ Azulão in ] the acquisition of additional equipment. Well, we negotiated differentiated conditions with lower prices than the prices that were in practice when we bought these boxes in 2018.

[Unknown Executive]

We have our second question about our business scale, 600 cubic meters [indiscernible] was planned for independent GNL plants and smaller plants?

[Unknown Executive]

Felippe, thank you for your question. Yes. The answer is yes. When we decided to invest in 2 plants of 300 cubic meters based on our anchor customers, we [ come with ] new contracts in order to complete and to improve the using factor. There are a number of discussions underway, and we believe that before the beginning of the operations, we will give you good news because we will have new customers that will be able to use all the capacity of the small-scale plants.

[Unknown Executive]

Now our third question. Now regarding your potential, we've seen news about a working group to see natural gas and gas pipelines. How would this impact the company and the price of the molecule if the project is approved? Do you believe that there will be an expansion of the thermals? Do you believe that the UTEs can be hired?

[Lino Cancado, executive]

Thank you for your question. It is too early to analyze what will happen due to the provisional measure that is being discussed because not a lot has been disclosed about this. What we can tell you in advance is that our operations in Maranhão and in the [indiscernible] will not be affected because they are not close to the gas pipeline. We do not see any impact in these operations regarding the rest of your question, which is long.

I will ask Marcelo to give us his commercial view.

[Marcelo Habibe, executive]

Thank you, Lino. I think you said the main thing, everything. It's too early to assess potential impacts. I believe that what is important to say is that Eneva's position with the different assets with our Parnaiba Complex, the Amazonas Basin, Sergipe connected to the network as of April next year. Well, our project portfolio under development puts Eneva in a differentiated position to leverage the opportunities that may emerge based on a program institutionalized by the government to increase the gas supply in the country. How is this going to happen? And what kind of impact will we see in enabling new UTEs through [ Eletrobras ] law through the impact on the market price? It is really too early to assess anything this morning.

I believe we should see what is happening first. And we are sound, and we are positively positioned to leverage the opportunities that may emerge here.

[Unknown Executive]

We have a question about Futura 1. What -- have you overcome the delays on this project? Could you help us with this question, Lino?

[Lino Cancado, executive]

Thank you once again for your question. Now the construction of the plant ended last year, and we are ready to initiate the energization of the substation and we face document problems. Therefore, we had to suspend this during the first quarter of 2023. As we mentioned during the presentation, we've overcome this problem. The substation has already been energized, and now we're energizing the first stretch in order to initiate the connection with the photovoltaic units one by one. And by the end of April, we expect to have our plant in operation.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Lino. Our next question is on the capacity auction. Which is the capacity demand that you expect for the auction that will be held in December? Will this be sufficient for Parnaiba I and III?

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you for the question. We showed you the in-house analysis that we had in the last Eneva Day. Now if the same criteria adopted at the auctions of December of 2021 holds true in the auction this year, which is what we are assuming, this demand will be of approximately [indiscernible] giga. It contemplates the end of the contract of thermal plants during this period, that is to say the increase of load projected for the system. The expected demand once again will be of approximately [indiscernible] giga.

And we're highly confident that Parnaiba I and Parnaiba III will be the plants that will participate and become more competitive. Even though the demand does not represent that volume, we believe that Parnaiba I and III that jointly amount to 1 giga would enable us to contract that capacity -- that precise capacity.

[Unknown Executive]

And which are the -- [Operator Instructions] We have a question on the process of [indiscernible], if you could speak about this process more at length?

[Unknown Executive]

Well, thank you for the question. We have not received any formal notification from Petrobras regarding the postponement or any decision. We have followed up on this and have received the information that everybody sees on media, the Ministry of Energy, Petrobras requesting postponement of 90 days, while they assess what to do.

But once again, we have not received any formal information. We have held 2 conversations with the technical team and the technical team has very clear guidance in terms of what they have to do. So for the time being, we will await the 90 days until the ministry gives us a response.

[Unknown Executive]

Well, thank you Habibe. Well, with this, we would like to conclude the call. Thank you all very much for your attendance, and we do hope to see you at our next call for the release of results for the first quarter.

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