EZTEC Empreendimentos e Participacoes SA

BOVESPA:EZTC3

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Pedro Tadeu Teixeira Lourenço, executive]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Q1 2024 EZTEC Earnings Call. I'm Pedro Lourenco, responsible for investor management. I also have with me Mr. Silvio Ernesto, President of Incorporation; Mr. Natela Ernesto, Vice President of the company; Emilio Fugazza, Financial and IR Director. We would like to notify you that this event is being recorded [Operator Instructions] On our website, you will also find the slides for this presentation available for download. The available information is in real and they pertain to property business in Brazil.

Before I begin, I'd like to mention that any potential comments during this teleconference pertaining to EZTEC business, including projections, targets and beliefs are assumptions of the company. They also depend on the information currently available. Future considerations are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and they refer to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors must understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating conditions can expect EZTEC's future performance and may lead to results that differ materially from those that we present here.

Now I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Emilio Fugazza, IR Director, who will begin his presentation. Please, Mr. Emilio.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

Thank you, Pedro. Good morning, everyone. It's an honor to be here with you hosting the Q1 2024 earnings results for EZTEC. I'd like to thank the Vice President of the Council and our President of Incorporation, Silvio Ernesto and every other member who is here with us to participate in this conference. We will talk about launches that we began with the value of BRL 458 million in Q1 '24, but we also have launched for Q2, which we will talk about soon.

The launch for Q1 were the first 2 phases of 2 different ventures in Mooca Città in the Mooca District of São Paulo. Very traditional neighborhood, sales value of BRL 475 million. We've already sold 25%. We also launched Lindenberg Vista Brooklin, an amazing land. It is in the absolute most high-income region in this district and a very high income district of São Paulo. We are working with the Lindenberg Group construction company. BRL 453 million were launched.

Approximately 20% of this venture has been sold. In Q2, we have already launched Villares Parada Inglesa. We've got 75% EZTEC participation. This is in the northern region of São Paulo, very, very, very close to the Parada Inglesa subway station which has given us absolutely spectacular success. We have sold so far 68% of that venture. This is a very appropriate level for us.

Our next sales opening will be Brooklin Studios by Lindenberg. This is near Lindenberg Vista Brooklin. EZTEC has estimated sales volume of BRL 50 million. This is in the smart living standard, in other words, the studios that we will be selling here in this venture.

Our operating performance in terms of sales is very relevant over time. Our net sales have yielded more sales in this quarter than in the third or fourth quarter of last year with approximately BRL 333 million with gross sales at BRL 333 million. This is also a very significant result. We've also got the lowest volume of divestment in the -- in our recent history. I'd also like to remind you all that when we look back over the past few years, and the company's launches, our percentage sold per year already outpasses 70% of all the other launches in the company.

Now talking about some deliveries. Here, we have a picture of one of the ventures that is being delivered in 2 phases. The first phase in Q1 '24, the authorization from the government has already been emitted. This is in the Fit Casa. In other words, the MyHome MyLife program and 80% has been sold and delivered by the company.

We have a lower volume of deliveries compared to '23. This is a year where approximately 74% of our sales volume. We have outdone everything that we expected to deliver. And we will finish delivering with great numbers for our company.

On this slide, we see that we closed out Q1 '24 with launches and sales at approximately BRL 3 billion in stock. And out of that, something in the order of BRL 700 million were performed with finished properties. So the company's total stock is approximately BRL 800 million. So we're talking about approximately 25% of total stock. These are properties that are not only very well located in cities such as Guarulhos, which have been meeting a very important population now. This is very close to 50%. And in the Southern District of São Paulo, now in Q1 or Q2, this launch is cleared for business and incorporation to start working. Many ventures there, such as Brooklin and other regions that have recently been delivered.

Now talking about our landbank, in terms of the volume of property, which effectively purchased sales volume, we have a very, very resolved situation at approximately BRL 4.7 billion to be ratified by the company over the next semester, which can add up to almost BRL 13.8 billion for EZTEC.

Now I will move on to financial indicators. Let's start first with net revenue. We can see BRL 239 million in revenue. I'd like to remind you that of course, part of our expected revenue comes from our consolidated numbers, but increasingly important portion comes from our property balance. We did not have any nonrecurring events in the company in Q1. We did not have the recognition of any new ventures. We will have one in the next quarter. And so our result is based only on sales and construction management over the semester. So no real surprises, no differences that can be characterized as nonrecurring.

On the top right, we see our gross profit and gross margin. We have good news. We are gradually step-by-step recovering our margins. We had once again more growth of almost 1 percentage point in our margin, bringing us up to 34% of gross margin and that result in gross profit of the order of BRL 82 million. And in the bottom left, we see our property participation. We finished some constructions in Q4, and we didn't have anything new for Q1. Of course, there are still more properties to be recognized over the beginning of the year. So it's natural for the company to have a gradual increment in results for the property equivalent.

In terms of business and administrative expenses, we had a significant new development, something to bring to you. Our expenses dropped compared to the previous quarters. We had BRL 56 million in these expenses. This is approximately BRL 10 million savings compared to Q4 '23. And this will again increment our net profit for Q1.

In the results to be recognized, we do have a few differences from what we are accustomed to demonstrating. This graph demonstrates 2 important things. First, looking at the bottom graph, on bottom left, we have the result to be recognized as consolidated. The good news here is that the increment in our margin has gone up. See that since Q1 '23, we have constant growth in our margin to be recognized from 36% in Q1 '23 to 39% in Q1 '24. So this is good news.

On the graph on the bottom right, we have the statement of 2 important values. First, our ventures in equivalents, I should make it clear, first of all, that a significant part thereof is cost to the company itself. So that means partnership where we have shared control of other ventures, other investment, but it is often managed by EZTEC itself. And in some cases, we also have construction or administration that is done by, for instance, the Lindenberg construction company, one of our partners, as we saw above.

So two important things. The growth in margin to be recognized at -- from 37% to 44% now in Q1 '24. So we continue significant development there. We also had a growth in volume of results to be recognized BRL 154 million in Q1, '24. Now this adds up to the graph on the top, which is the combined result of the consolidated and the equivalent. Overall, we did post growth compared to Q1 '23, from BRL 528 million to BRL 549 million, and we also get the equivalent and consolidated, and our margin to be recognized also grew from 36% to 40%. So these are some very specific indicators of EZTEC, and they've been growing quarter-over-quarter. They represent a very good news for us.

Now in financial results, some financial indicators. On the top left, we see the company's financial results. We have a significant improvement compared to Q4. that's not just because the IGP or IPCA indicator here in Brazil that do have an impact on our fiduciary alienation, but on the right, we also see the specific fiduciary alienation graph. Here in this quarter, we have BRL 410 million in our portfolio.

This doesn't tell the full story that we are currently living in with regard to fiduciary alienation. These are significant numbers, slightly over -- almost 30% of our portfolio is still indicated as fiduciary alienation, for procedural reasons. They are currently in notary offices waiting to be registered. But our clients are already paying their bills with interest when applicable. So this led us to have an effect here in this first quarter where we had interest and monetary corrections that was very positive for '24.

Lastly, we have our indicators, and we concluded the quarter with BRL 57 million in net profit and margin. The margin was 24%. And this means that our net margin is very positive compared to Q1 '23.

Now as for the makeup of our cash, our cash did not grow over the past quarter. We had just a very minor dilation. This dilation was used to pay some dividend as we do every quarter. And our net debt remained very similar to previous results, no more than BRL 20 million in variation in Q4 '23.

Now as for our capital structure. It's important to mention the value of our shares, BRL 21.56, and this is slightly compared to our other values.

We have -- when we compare to Q1 last year, what we see in these graphs on the right is that the construction completion is bringing more results for our portfolio, really recognizing the growth of our portfolio. Our landbank has also improved and grown. These are linked to some minor effects that add up over time.

Our finished inventory is also positive. We delivered a significant number of ventures throughout the year 2023, BRL 1.8 billion, and our finished inventory for these units is now approximately BRL 416 million. So that adds up to the numbers mentioned in previous slides, approximately BRL 800 million in difference.

And now to conclude this section before I pass the floor on to our President and a reminder that our administrative Council also approved the payment of dividends first quarter this year will be BRL 13.5 million. This will be paid on May 31, 2024. Now we will distribute 25% of the results of Q1 '24.

Now all that being said, I will pass the floor on to our President and Director of Incorporation to give his remarks.

[Silvio Zarzur, executive]

I would like to welcome everyone, say, good morning. Thank you for being here. I would like to mention that EZTEC truly grieves for the loss of one of our presidents -- one of our directors, sorry. He was a dear friend of ours, a partner, an important member of our company. We have a great deal of esteem for him. So we do grieve for his loss.

That being said, I think we can start with questions, Emilio, and then we will come back and give an overview of the company.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

All right. So let's open up for questions.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Mr. Pedro Lobato from Bradesco.

[Pedro Lobato Garcia Fernandes, analyst]

My first question is really based on understanding the sales strategy, specifically looking at finished inventory, as you mentioned, in the end of the quarter, you started giving some discounts. And so I'd like to understand more about the discount level that you're applying and how that interacts with the margin looking forward? Is that a risk? Or is it something that can be adapted? And what is the outlook for keeping the margin in past few.

And my second question is you mentioned there is a medium income launch for Q2, but what about for the second semester? How are you thinking between the balancing of low, medium and high income ventures?

[Silvio Zarzur, executive]

Well, we are applying a discount in the order of a few percent -- very low percent for properties that are under construction. We have made credit more flexible, slightly more flexible. Our default rate is very low. The law of incorporations here, the way that divestments and cancellations are dealt with by our law gives us the confidence to do that. We launched a very strong venture recently. It was a very important sale for us, I'll put it that way.

Usually, when you have a launch of this magnitude, it slows down the sales of other products, which did not really happen this time. In the month of April, I'm talking about management still that you can't really take that number to the bank. It's not a precise number, but BRL 170 million, BRL 124 million for launches, BRL 41 million for remaining still to perform and BRL 28 million in finished properties.

Usually, when we have a launch of this size, sales of other products really tend to suffer. So we understand that the policy that we adopted, the credit policy we adopted, and with this small discount, they really worked well, and we got good results. So if we look at BRL 190 million for this month, this is practically the sum of the first 2 months of the year, January and February, added up to BRL 190 million.

So of course, the launch had an important impact, but I think it really improved our expectations for our sales. That being said, we have a little bit of many different components still to come for the remainder of the year. We have some high income ventures. We are relaunching Lindenberg Ibirapuera. We have the Carrefour launch also with Lindenberg, we believe. We've also begun selling NR with living. This is something we had incorporated within Pillar, but we opened it up for sale this last Wednesday Villa and Lindenberg, NR for both of them.

So our forecast is that we will perform even better, more aggressively in terms of sales and credit. Pedro, did we answer your question?

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

Now moving on, our next question comes from Ron from XP Bank.

[Unknown Analyst]

I have two points I want to ask you. First is about the financial results dynamic. I think you really explained significantly the gap in deliveries and the transfers, we had an important volume of sales in the last quarter. I'd like to know how these transfers have been moving along for the past two deliveries? Should we expect a positive impact for portfolio payments, even with the IGP metrics still being pressured?

And the second question I want to ask is about cash generation and what you think? This quarter had a positive impact on the deliveries in Q4. But I'd like to understand how your outlook is for the remaining of the year, those two questions.

[Silvio Zarzur, executive]

Thanks for your questions. I'll start with the first one. With regard to the portfolio and the transfer. Firstly, it's important to mention that the retail banks, the larger retail banks here, Itau, Santander and Bradesco, and maybe Caixa Econômica Federal, these are the banks that have the greatest volume with us, they did not apply any substantial changes in their rates over the past 3 to 6 months.

So that means the vast majority are working at 2-digit rates. These are in the order of 10% to 11%. This means that clients end up taking a little bit more time to make their decisions. This means that clients often take 2 to 3 months. The banks have not had any difficulty in transferring fund or in the fund transfer process.

I often talk to the Itau staff, and there's no issue there. They assure me this process today takes less than 30 days. But the clients do take more time to make their decision because with the 2-digit rate, they need more income in order to obtain their profit, and that's where our fiduciary alienation portfolio becomes a very important option for these clients. And so that's why in these deliveries, there is an increase in the numbers.

So I think it's 10% to 12% variation in the base that we can be -- that we can expect in terms of the fiduciary alienation. So for the time being, there are some deliveries that have been made, the ones that generate fiduciary alienation have already been made and the next will occur only in the second semester of this quarter. So up until the second semester, we will see growth of the numbers that we are already seeing, slightly bigger numbers than what we think so far.

With regard to cash generation, it's important to mention that when we have fiduciary alienation, it demands the financing by the bank to be done for the client by that -- for that specific unit, which means that I as a client pay a portion of the financing pertaining to that unit. So at that point in time, I don't exactly have a fiduciary alienation per se. But we do not have any additional values compared to what we are seeing right now. We do have some consumption and many hours being consumed.

These constructions, these ventures consume a lot of time. So the year '24 is not a year where we see -- we expect to see net cash and more so we will see gross cash because the net cash is really often tied up by financial expenses and purposes. This is linked to the likely purchase of the extra land, the land called Extra. And this will have an impact in our results for second semester. It's an important investment, but it is an exceptional part of land. It is a very, very profitable business that we really intend to invest in.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

Our next question comes from Ms. Roma from IBS Bank.

[Unknown Analyst]

My question is about reduction of the payroll. It's an important topic being discussed by the government here. So I'd like to know if you have any opinion on that. The next question is about the tax reform. There are many pending items to be resolved, but could you give us your current opinion on what the potential impact could be some kind of order of magnitude would also help. And also, how might this be transferred throughout the chain? Those are our two questions.

[Silvio Zarzur, executive]

Thanks for your question. Honestly, those are very sensitive questions, truly. I will start with the payroll exemption issue. Now of course, EZTEC with our current structure, we do not benefit from the payroll exemption or the payroll increase being discussed by the government today. But obviously, our outsourced employees and our employees they do feel impact from many businesses that are partners of the company because they do benefit from this payroll tax relief. This is an important measure being made to offset the cost of construction that occurred throughout the pandemic. That's why the government is discussing this now. This is an immediate topic as well, but it is not a subject that currently has an answer throughout the Brazil.

What we do have that we can answer today is that it will take some time for these funds to be transferred. So one thing -- one issue is not only the payment, but the second issue is also the time to capture these funds, which actually is harmful for all of us not just EZTEC, but our whole sector.

Now for your second question, I'd like to explain as follows. The entity in Brazil has been obtaining some very surprising win especially when raising awareness about the political discussion that deal with what is going to happen with the tax reform. The tax reform is very complex and will only fully be implemented in 2033. We've seen some of these discussions and we're quite concerned with what is being discussed in Congress. It is not what we expected would happen, but it means that we are currently fighting to raise awareness among the politicians and also the whole of the Brazilian economy about the size, the scope of the impact that this will have on our whole production chain, especially considering the number of jobs we generate and how important it would be for creating direct and indirect jobs. So for the time being, this is not a topic we really can discuss. What I can tell you is that it does concern us. It makes us very worried.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

Our next question comes from Mr. Gustavo Cambauva from BTG Pactual.

[Gustavo Cambauva, analyst]

I have two questions. The first is I'd like to confirm something Silvio mentioned with regard to the property called Extra. Could you confirm the decision to purchase the property has already been made? Is that the case? I think you had a deadline of up to next month to make a decision. But just to confirm, have you already, in fact, decided to make this purchase? Have you actually signed the contract already? What is that like?

And the next question I have is back to the topic of the launches. First, could you say a few words about the profiles of the launches that you expect for this year. You have the Mooca project and the Parada Inglesa project. Those are medium-income projects. So do you think this audience in medium income already can support more launches? I think last year, you had more high income launches. So I'd like to understand a little bit about the balance between segments for this year. And could you also give us an idea of expected volume for this year.

[Silvio Zarzur, executive]

The Extra property, actually, we had a deadline up until next month to make a purchase, but we did sign an addition to the contract and amendment extending that deadline. So we have more deadline now. We are very eager to make this purchase, and we are moving in that direction. But we do still have to September to overcome this decision-making process. We do really believe that we're going to make that happen within the deadline and that we are going to make that purchase.

Now let me take a look at the launches that we have coming up. It's not really what we desire. It's what we have before. We have an investment product in Alto de Pinheiros next to Sky Pinheiros also. I really believe in this venture. This is where the Dongoro restaurant used to be located. I think it's going to be a great one. We have another one Avenida, very upscale building, one block away from Republica do Libano. I think that's going to sell very well.

We have Carrefour in Alto das Nações spectacular building. It is truly unique, a very outstanding venture that we are -- we really believe in it. We've got another launch with the [indiscernible], which is a medium to low level in the city of Osasco a large venture that we believe will sell very well, very quickly. And there's something else we are signing with [indiscernible] We're going to have a combined launch with the MyHome MyLife program. And we should have 1 or 2 more ventures that we will bring throughout the year to compose our launch mix.

I think I'm very excited, but I can't really tell you about the volume. It's very, very significant. It's much bigger but I should mention that it is very well evaluated. We have 25,000 per square meter, all the way to the MyHome MyLife properties.

I'd also like to mention something I'm really going to focus very strongly on the ready stock. Ready stock has the highest credit flexibility we can use our fiduciary alienation, and I'm very focused on making the sale. And we reduce our ready inventory. It's very, very powerfully. We're going to work on a lot of these launches with ready inventory.

This is where we have the greatest margin, the greatest value reserves. We have the fiduciary alienation tool. We have a lot of easy credit per unit. When you buy a land product, you just pay a little bit. But when you buy a property under construction, you pay more, when you buy a property that is ready, you will pay off that property through financing almost immediately. So we are investing heavily on ready inventory. And I think we will have a good volume of sales of ready this year.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

Our next question from Antonio Castrucci from Santander.

[Antonio Castrucci, analyst]

Actually, I have two questions. The first is about the reported margins in the equivalency. I think there is a seasonal effect. But could you please explain a little bit more about the main reasons for why the margin dropped this quarter? It did drop last year also. And when can we see the margins for the equivalency projects? And when can that be incorporated into the numbers?

My next question is about the '24 projects. You had a margin recognized at 38% for the project delivered this year. I'd like to see if we can expect this level of margin for the other ventures this year? Or is it also going to be a mix of more varied margins?

[Silvio Zarzur, executive]

Yes, Antonio, thank you for your question. With regards to the property equivalency margin, you did see that this equivalency margin is a good margin in terms of comparison with the consolidated margin. But in this quarter, it did drop. That's what you mentioned. What happens is, did the margin drop? Yes. But actually, it's the net profit margin that dropped. We have a lower net profit for bioequivalence. So what happens is when we look at equivalency, first, I've already had deliveries in Q3 and Q4. They do have a significant impact on this equivalency. We start seeing fewer projects being recognized and any kind of a move in these projects will give me a more aggressive effect.

This also comes from the fact that we currently have under construction to MyHome MyLife project. These projects have lower margins. they are made as such, intentionally through government projects and by ourselves. And there's also a lower cost. So that's why this margin is a little bit more queued up in these segments.

Conversely what you're going to start seeing in the next queue is that we have a few ventures starting construction and evolving in their construction. For instance, the Lindenberg Alto de Pinheiros, it is a very well sold venture with a better margin. Delta, our other venture with Lindenberg is also taking place. And we have one important recognition, which is the Lindenberg Vista Brooklin. So we should note that over time, our numbers do move toward the margins you've seen 40% in our property equivalency because these ventures effectively the upscale ventures keep our margin very stable and very high. The next question. Antonio, could you please ask your second question again?

[Antonio Castrucci, analyst]

Sorry, yes. Sure. Did you acknowledge -- actually, this year, you acknowledged 38% gross margin for this Q. Is that similar to what we can expect for the other ventures launched this year? Or are the margins going to be more varied over this year? Because you mentioned you have everything from low income to high income project.

[Silvio Zarzur, executive]

Yes. Well, look, it is varied, but I think overall, the market is not going to change very much. At the end of the day, that's pretty much what we're looking at. And we're also going to acknowledge Milano Excellence. This is coming in Q2. There is a slightly lower margin. But there is a good mix of availability and margin. So in some quarters, it's going to be a little bit lower and other is a little bit higher. But this is standard. It's far for the cores here at the company. We often take a margin out of our business.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

Our next question comes from Mr. Andre Deb from Itaú bank.

[Unknown Analyst]

I have two questions. First, I'd like to follow up on your first answer. Just to understand a bit more details about when you mentioned the flexibility in credit, is that only for sales that occurred directly? Or have you also managed this in your negotiations with the banks as well? And I'd like to understand what these flexibilities mean exactly? And the second question is about the Star Towers venture. Could you give us a little bit about what the dynamics are in the region? In your opinion, have you seen improved demand? We see that some locations are coming out in that region in this quarter. So have you also seen improvement there? And do you have any news in your negotiations as well?

[Silvio Zarzur, executive]

Of course, we can't make the banks become more flexible. What we do is we sell our financing using fiduciary alienation. So when the client is signing the contract with us, they have a lower financing they need to obtain from the bank. Now they will take financing from the bank. You know that Brazil has informal income and extra income. So the people we work with, they do get some money from their parents. They do something to get some extra cash. So this is the type of -- this is the reality here in Brazil. And I think that we should mention that adding a little bit risk into our business is positive.

Let me give you an example. If we increase our cancellations by 20%, 30%, and we increase our sales at the same level, we are going to have a significant advantage if we do that. So bringing people in home, they start paying, they fix their credit and then they move to the bank or if they can't, they will fall out and they use the fiduciary alienation and then they go to the bank. We've been doing this for many years. And this really drives sales. This is one point.

The next thing is, we've been tracking the commercial real estate market, and it has improved, albeit slowly. So today, I can say that we are on track to finding a good purpose for this building. But I would say that this path is in the medium term. We've run some exercises, some strategic exercises that can result in a better exit, a better solution for our buildings, but I don't want to mention what exactly yet. So please wait a little bit. If you're thinking about the outlook, it's squarely in the medium term.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

I think we can now pass the floor to Silvio for his final remarks.

[Silvio Zarzur, executive]

Well, let me tell you, we are not satisfied with the results of the company. The company has not been performing on return on equity at the level we wished. We are working hard to change this. So we're making a number of strategic changes. We are modernizing our company considerably. The company's board, our management, our superintendence, we're going through a highly demanded, highly necessary renovation. And this is a shift that we're going to start seeing from now on many strategic partnerships.

For instance, we have other partnerships coming up. We've been making a lot of effort into increasing our sales volume. Our main goal here is to increase sales volume and improve turnaround in what we already have. We are confident we will do this. I also should mention that our cash management is, I should say, very conservative. We are very, very careful with our cash. We are working with extending the new debentures.

We are very confident that in the medium term, we are going to improve our results in that return on capital margin to the level we like. We don't look at EBITDA margin, gross margin alone, we also want to improve return on capital.

[Unknown Executive]

Marcelo, I'd just like to add to what Silvio said. You said we are not pleased with the results. And to that end, it's been over a year since we've been working with everyone on the team, in our staff, in our Board to correct things and come back to our regular course.

A lot of that work has already been done, and we're now reaching a point where with just a few more adjustments we will be on point, and we're going to start reaping the fruits very, very shortly, very soon now, and I'm confident that we will very quickly come back to normal. This is not immediate, but in the medium term, we will come back to the prior results.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

All right. I'd like to thank all of you for being here. Thank you, members of the Board. Thanks to all of you who watch our conference. The EZTEC results call is concluded. Please see the additional material on our IR website, it's ri.eztec.com.br. I wish everyone a great day and a great weekend. Thank you.