EZTEC Empreendimentos e Participacoes SA

BOVESPA:EZTC3

Earnings Call Transcript 2020-Q3

[Hugo Benevides Soares, executive]

Good morning, one and all, and welcome to EZTEC's Results Presentation for the Third Quarter of 2020. I do apologize for the minor delay as we've had some technical difficulties, but please let us know if you can listen to us well. Please note that this call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] By the end of the presentation, we will begin a Q&A session, and further instructions will be given. In case any of you may need any assistance over the call, please let us know through the chat box. In case you have any connectivity issues, you may reuse the same weblink or ID to return to the presentation. you find that ID as well as the slides for this presentation at our website at the address ir.eztec.com.br (sic) [ ri.eztec.com.br ].

Before we start, we'd like to mention that any statements during this call pertaining to EZTEC's business projections, operational and financial targets are based on management's beliefs and premises as well as on currently available information. Future considerations do not constitute an assurance of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and premises. Investors may take into account the general economic conditions, industry or operational circumstances may ultimately affect EZTEC's future performance. They may cause the company's results to differ materially from those expressed in those forward statements.

Now I, Hugo, will keep on with the words along with Emilio Fugazza, our Chief Financial Officer, to introduce the results for the third quarter. So if you could just quickly move to Slide #3, where we address the overall landscape for our operational and financial performance for the third quarter.

As far as the operations, what we see on the aggregate figures of the 9 months of 2020 is net sales of BRL 916 million as well as launches of BRL 770 million. Naturally, you know that there was a gap on the operational performance associated with the -- especially the initial stages of the pandemic, where uncertainties were at its peak. But now as we speak, in the third quarter, we are currently at the late stage of pandemic, where, quite frankly, we witnessed a V-shaped return in the operation -- in our operation, marked by net sales in the third quarter specifically of BRL 335 million, even in a context where we did -- we only launched BRL 206 million. So as far as the sales, we are -- like we mentioned further, we're back on track.

As far as the land bank, we have BRL 9.4 billion by the end of the third quarter, but with a caveat that on the fourth quarter we've made additional acquisitions, along with a few option acquisitions, leaving us at BRL 12.8 billion in overall land bank by the time in which we speak.

As far as the financial performance, looking at the third quarter, we've had a gross profit of BRL 119 million with a gross margin of 44%, a gross margin of 44%. As far as the net income, we reached BRL 120 million, which is, in effect, the highest net income performance for any given quarter ever since 2015, a very clear mark of the V-shaped return I mentioned. Naturally here, I expect -- I'm making the exception for the quarter in which we sold Tower B from the EZ Towers. And also with that a net margin of 44%.

As far as our net cash, we have BRL 1.291 billion by the end of the quarter on top of BRL 583 million in performed receivables with very strong liquidity. Direct receivables portfolio of BRL 489 million have -- already have a registered statutory lien agreement and yielding IGP-DI plus 10% to 12% annually. On average, that lands at about 10.4% plus inflation.

Now we take the opportunity to mention the subsequent events that we get to talk about now after the third quarter, which is the -- to begin, the fact that we admitted a official guidance in launch -- a projection for launches for the 2-year term of 2020 and 2021, where we announced our expectation of launching exclusively for residential projects BRL 4 billion to BRL 4.5 billion for these 2 years. We also get to announce the dividends that we have already paid by the 2nd of October of BRL 66.7 million. That still refers back to the fiscal year of 2019. Also as a subsequent event, we get to mention the fact that EZ Inc, which had a nonbinding offer over the course of the past months, has recently announced a suspension of the offer as well as the suspension of the listing of EZ Inc onto the Novo Mercado -- onto B3's Novo Mercado while, on the same time, keeping on continuing with the registration of the company as a public company by CVM.

Now if we get to dive deeper into the land bank landscape on the fourth slide. I think that the punchline we get to see from all this information that we're handing out is that the acquisitions had been key in the past quarters. Even prior to the second quarter, we've been making about BRL 1.5 billion in PSV added to our land bank. But looking at -- specifically on the past -- on the second quarter -- sorry, in the third quarter to the fourth quarter, we've had BRL 630 million of acquisitions that were carried out and already booked on the third quarter. But it is worth highlighting that we also have BRL 1.5 billion of PSV already acquired that is not booked in the third quarter because that -- the definitive acquisition happened by October as a subsequent event. But it is, in effect, already a reality. And on top of that, we have an additional BRL 1.8 billion of acquisitions that are already lined up, very much matured but still being held as options, which would bring the overall land bank all the way up to that BRL 12.8 billion in PSV available for the company.

Looking on the chart on the bottom left, it becomes very noticeable, very clear that, that land bank is very roundly distributed in all different segments of operations. So you get a substantial chunk on the commercial portion, which is basically -- which is literally the EZ Inc device. We -- and other than that, you have more or less an even distribution between high-, middle- and low-income segments that -- which leaves us very much room and possibility to act and to operate in all different strategies at a time in which all segments have been very much inviting for new launches.

Now as far as the cash outflows for -- relating to those acquisitions I just mentioned, you can see that on the graph on the bottom right. And if you look at the aggregate figures, what you see is that by now, we have already basically fulfilled the promises that we had made by the time of our follow-on offer in September of 2019, where we raised about BRL 950 million in cash with the mandate of making acquisitions. And that is what we just did. So if you look at the overall money committed to acquisitions in between -- after the follow-on and counting the money that we still have to pay but that's already committed -- contractually committed to these acquisitions, that tops BRL 1.1 billion in committed outflows.

In the third quarter, we had about BRL 75 million in cash dedicated to those acquisitions. But there's a heads-up for the next few quarters, especially in the fourth quarter, where we should -- for the fourth quarter of 2020 and first quarter of 2021, we should basically have to commit -- to spend some 3 to 4x that BRL 75 million mark.

Now if we can move to the operational performance, where we get to discuss our launches and sales. Now first of all, when you look at the evolution of launches coming ever since 2016, you'll notice that naturally 2020 fell short as of now to what we originally intended. But the guidance we made reinstates -- the expectation reinstates the conviction in delivering launches for 2020 and 2021 in far -- or actually greater than that -- than what we were doing in 2019. So basically, implicitly in that projection, in that guidance, if you read implicitly, you'll notice that we're basically saying that for the next 5 quarters, so from the fourth quarter of 2020 through 2021, we'll be launching -- we expect to launch BRL 3.3 billion to BRL 3.7 billion on the top border of the guidance. That effectively means that over the next 5 quarters, we'll launch between 21% to 40% more than we had launched in EZTEC's all-time record-high quarters. So that's as far as the volume.

Now the underlying -- beneath the volume of launches, there is a volume of sales that justifies and that backs further launches. When you look at the third quarter gross sales hitting up to BRL 377 million, that's basically a week average -- the average weekly figure of BRL 25.6 million of inventory sold, that's already 15% above what we had been delivering in the first quarter of 2020 prior to the pandemic. So that signals that V-shaped return. I want to emphasize the performance for ready sales, ready inventory units, most of those mid-income projects that really took a turn there, thanks to the increases in affordability that really make it easy for the mid-income segment to buy into ready units.

So on that note, we have Itaú and Bradesco delivering mortgage rates of 6.9% plus TR from Itaú and 6.7% plus TR by Bradesco. And also innovating with a new modality, a new form of mortgage concessions, a new mortgage line pegged the savings remuneration. So that's basically 3.99% plus savings remuneration for both Itaú and Bradesco. That hasn't really reflected on to 3-quarter figures. It should be a good sign looking ahead as prospects for the fourth quarter on. In October, as we speak, we already had 25% of financing concessions made by Itaú being made under the new savings plus remuneration line.

As far as cancellations, very quickly, you'd notice that the third quarter had a slightly more cancellation than what we had averaged consistently ever since the cancellations law was enacted. That was -- those cancellations were concentrated specifically on July and have already normalized on the subsequent months. And it's -- I might also mention that half of those cancellations are not -- technically are actually cancellations compounded with new sales. They're basically downgrades, unit transfers or upgrades. With that, we reached a net sales figure of BRL 337 million for the third quarter of 2020.

And move please to Slide #6, where we're talking about our inventory. So first of all, when you look at the 1.6 -- BRL 1.7 billion in inventory available, it is fundamentally very much contained inventory for how much we have been launching over the past years. And it gives us very much confidence. It safeguards the fact that we can push on with new loans through the capacity to digest it as we go.

When you take a deeper look into the inventory, you notice that it is very fresh inventory. You have a very substantial portion of it -- on the lower graph, you notice the very substantial portion of the land bank relates to works in construction or that have recently been launched, which basically means that the inventory that's already fresh for consumption that we -- that there's still very much liquidity in that. And as far as the ready inventory, which is slightly older inventory, that is still responding very strongly to the fact that affordability has recovered so substantially with these new mortgage lines.

So when you look at the ready inventory in Guarulhos, that's still our highest concentration, that's basically the project Cidade Maia. It has sold in the third quarter BRL 32 million, which signals to how strong performance is. But it's also -- it's worth highlighting the fact that it's also delivering gross margin of 52% on the third quarter in Cidade Maia. So that's not at all a problem for EZTEC, and it's something that will help us generate cash over the next quarters.

Now changing gears to future launches, if you could please go to Slide #7. What you see is projects that ideally we would have wanted to have launched already ever since the past months. I think ever since June, it has been very clear it was that it is a prime time for new launches. We did have a bottleneck as far as our ability to emit new licenses for those projects to be launched with the city hall of the municipality.

But as we stand right now, we have these 3 projects mentioned on the slide already with their sales stands open, fully constructed and open to visit. So basically, you have Signature By Ott, a project of BRL 113 million in the neighborhood of Aclimação. You have Fit Casa Estação José Bonifácio and Meu Mundo Estação Mooca. These 2 are both low-end projects that go along with the Minha Casa Minha Vida program, similarly to a cycle where Minha Casa Minha Vida should have quite an expression. You can imagine something like 1/3 of the residential operation pertains to the Minha Casa Minha Vida program.

So we have -- if you take all of these 3 projects combined and when you look at the temperature in the sales stand, it's something that really motivates to push forward those launches as soon as we get the licenses to move ahead. Those 3 projects all combined generate BRL 319 million in PSV that we hope to launch in the next months.

Now moving to Slide #8. There are these additional 2 projects, Hereditá Parque da Mooca and Alta Vista Residence Resort. They also -- they combined contribute to an additional BRL 224 million. These 2 are projects that also have their sales stands ongoing. They're currently at the late stage of construction, something that we should have ready to go still within the fourth quarter. And here, we also depend on the municipality, the effective date of those launches, but those are launches that we want to make as soon as possible.

With all that said, I'd like to move ahead to the financial performance, where Emilio will take over, Emilio, our Chief Financial Officer and Investor Relations Officer. Please, Emilio.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

Hugo, many thanks. Thank you so much. Hello, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here.

Let's talk about financial performance on Slide #9. Let's start with net revenue. Third Q was net revenue of BRL 272 million, almost 2x we accomplished in second Q 2020 mainly because of the volume of the performed units sold in third Q, as mentioned before, and also because of the volume of construction ongoing at all sites, something around 20 sites under construction right now, from project launches in 2019, beginning of 2020.

As we have recognized more net revenues, obviously, we can accomplish more gross profit, BRL 119 million, 44% of gross margin. It's important to say that the gross margin remain there since 2019, 2018, at above 40%. That's very important to say.

And when we talk about performed units, performed units like those units, BRL 300 million we got in the city of Guarulhos, we can accomplish something around -- you can get from those units something around 52%, 53% of gross margin.

Even when we talk about the projects under construction right now, it's a moment that we can get more units sold from units a little bit -- a little more expensive than the units we saw selling beginning of the launch specifically because, nowadays, the majority of the buyers are users instead of the investors, buying more units on top of the building instead of the units less expensive within those. And that's why we can see quarter-by-quarter an increment in gross margin in projects under construction.

Talking about selling expenses and G&A expenses, starting with the selling expenses. In the third Q, it was something around BRL 21 million. You can see how ratio, how assertive we can deliver the units sold in the last quarters, even taking in mind that the majority of the sales stand for the projects we are going to launch by the end of the fourth quarter and the beginning of the first quarter 2021 we also start the construction. And obviously, we have already recognized those expenses to build those sales stand and inside of this BRL 15.8 million of publicity and stand sales expenses.

In terms of G&A expenses, you can see something very close to those we achieved in the fourth quarter 2019 and first quarter 2020 specifically because it's the same level before the pandemic outbreak in the first Q 2020. So saying that we are recovering the same operational standards that we got before specifically because the volume of launches we have had is much higher than I thought in the past. And that's why we are trying to be complete, trying to be fully prepared in terms of people, in terms of skills, in terms of IT tools to deliver as much as we thought in our previous guidance -- launching guidance.

Talking -- let's move to Slide -- on Page #10, talking about financial results. Financial result is highly impacted -- I'm sorry, on the top left of this slide, it's highly impacted by the increment of IGP. It is an inflation index in Brazil. And this inflation index was something around 22% in the last 12 months. Specifically, in the third Q, the impact in our receivables was about 5%. And the volume of financial results, you can see on this chart, about BRL 34 million, is not the whole assets or all the assets we got in our receivables because the controlling partnerships is recognized in the equity income results.

So you can see, talking about equity income, a huge recovery of those figures by BRL 21 million mostly because, first of all, the recognizing of one project in the city of Guarulhos, Minha Casa Minha Vida, a low-end project. We launched this project in November 2019. And we are going to talk a little bit more of this project ahead when we are talking about Fit Casa projects.

Apart from PIN Internacional, we can talk about Reserva JB. Reserva JB is the sixth part of one huge project in the city of Guarulhos called the Jardins do Brasil. It's the last phase of Jardins do Brasil. It's a very middle-income class project that's more than 700 units. And we got an amazing performance of sales right in the moment of the pandemic outbreak. So that's important to mention was the project of middle-income segment, where we got the majority of the middle-income segment sales in the whole company. And obviously, it's a project under construction and recognizing that the revenues, it's coming from the equity income because the stake of this project by EZTEC is about 76%.

On the bottom right, you can see results to be recognized. It's 45% gross margin -- or gross backlog margin. So that's important to mention that it's remaining flat since the third Q 2019. And it's a very good forecast that what are we going to see in terms of gross margin in the next couple of quarters. That's important.

And finally, on the left, you can see net income in this company. Given the fact that the net revenues was something around twice as much we saw in the second quarter 2020, the same outcome we can see in the third quarter of net income, so almost twice as much the net income of the second quarter 2020. So net margin, almost close to the gross margin of the company, staying 44%, an amazing performance since 2015.

So moving on to the slide on Page #11, you can see the receivables we got in this company. It's part of our business providing financing to our clients of performed units. So by the end of 9 months 2020, the volume of receivables is about BRL 489 million for 1,700 units funded by EZTEC. So the highlight here is about the volume of payments, down payments and anticipations we got from those receivables, apart from the fact that the origination was BRL 31 million. And the yields that we could agree or put at in this -- in those assets was something around BRL 91 million. So all in all, we are talking about BRL 122 million. The payments provided by our clients was something around BRL 143 million. Given the fact that interest rates provided by the commercial bank nowadays is below 7% and also the latest interest rate in Brazil is around 2%, so everyone who are -- who is saving money on bank accounts are trying to anticipate source of payment from those mortgages.

Let me remind you, obviously, that the foreclosures so far is too low. So foreclosure in 9 months 2020 is about BRL 8 million given the fact that the IGP was a little bit higher than in the past. In terms of units, no more than 17 units was the foreclosure out of 1,700 units funded by EZTEC.

On Page #12. Now you can understand a little bit the performance of Fit Casa. Fit Casa is EZTEC's brand to the low-income segment from this company. Nowadays, we have 4 projects under construction, as you can see at the bottom of the slide. The first one is Fit Casa Brás. Fit Casa Brás is around 46 -- a remarkable 46% of gross margin, approximately 76% of units sold. Nowadays, we have something around 60% of completion in this project.

The second one there is Fit Casa Rio Bonito. Fit Casa Rio Bonito is part of low end, part of middle low end. It has gotten 97% sold and something around 46 -- 45% gross margin. That's important to bear in mind, approximate also 50% of completion.

The highlight of this quarter is PIN Internacional. PIN Internacional is about 60% stake by EZTEC. It's a project that's 39% sold. The majority of those units sold was in the -- exactly in the moment of the pandemic outbreaks and was, of course, recognized on the revenues and on net income. And nowadays, the gross margin is about 41.1%.

Finally, a remarkable project of Minha Casa Minha Vida, Fit Casa Alto do Ipiranga. We launched this project in the first Q 2020. It's a low end, it's a project below -- units below BRL 240,000 per unit. But it's a low end with a swimming pool on the rooftop, a gym on the rooftop. So it's a very interesting project to be bought here in the city of São Paulo. Nowadays, it's a project with gross margin 43.5%, 35% sold so far.

So the main idea of this slide is to represent what you can see in those charts on the top. The first one on the top left, you can see from the whole net profit of EZTEC something around BRL 260 million, BRL 270 million. The contribution from Fit Casa was BRL 34 million, 9 months 2020.

But what is more important than that is the gross margin. So the gross margin is practically the same of EZTEC without counting on Fit Casa's results, so something around 44%.

So the final message here on this chart is making a contribution of something around 15% of the whole net profit of EZTEC, we get this in the low-end segment, in a gross margin of almost 45%. And this amount of net profit will provide 2020 return on equity of 16%, taking in mind the equity of this company is about BRL 316 million. Let me mention that inside this equity, there are something around 10 projects more to be launched in the next couple of quarters at the low-end segment, segment belongs to Fit Casa, the brand-new brand from EZTEC.

Let's move to slide on Page #13, talking about EZ Inc financial performance. First of all, talking about the assets evolution, you can understand that by the end of the third quarter 2020, we have a segment here in our company, that you can see BRL 242 million of cash, BRL 359 million of land and, finally, BRL 80 million of inventory. All in all, including the liability, the equity of this company, the shareholder equity of this company belonging to 98% to EZTEC is about BRL 716 million. So that's very important to mention. So from BRL 4 billion nowadays that we have in shareholders' equity, the debt is something around plus BRL 1 billion. So BRL 700 million is about EZ Inc. It's our vehicle to support growth in the commercial projects. And as I mentioned before, BRL 300 million, something around that, of Fit Casa, our vehicle of low-end segment, so all in all, taking something around 25% of the equity of this company.

In terms of events, it's important to mention, as Hugo said before, in the fourth Q 2020, we have the offer interruption, but we are -- we keep going with the register as an open company to take negotiation of whatever we have to do in terms of getting money from accomplished projects we got in this company in the next 60 or 90 days. In the fourth quarter 2020 also, we had the conclusion of 2 very important plots in the city of São Paulo, as I'm going to mention in the next slide.

On Page #14, you can see the whole portfolio you can get, you can understand from EZ Inc. The last 2 ones, the plot #9 and plot #10, were acquired in the third quarter 2020 but also paid -- and we have paid for those sites at the beginning of the fourth quarter 2020. Both piece of land located in South town of São Paulo in a very well-known neighborhood, very close to EZ Towers, very close to all the other developments of our company. And both acquisitions are in a very good shape, in a very good gross margin, as usual for EZTEC.

Let me talk about the #1, 2 and 3 from this page. The highlight here is #3. It's a piece of land that we also have already rented to a big market that we can get a contract, an agreement up to 2037. To EZTEC, we can get from this contract something around BRL 5 million of leasing revenues per year. That's very important to mention.

And also in terms of #1 and 2, 2 commercial towers that we have already developed, that we have already delivered, and we cast those towers some stores, some piece -- some stores to be rented. And one of those are rented nowadays to Itaú Bank, yielding something around BRL 5 million per year.

Number 4 is Esther Towers. Esther Towers is the flagship of EZ Inc. It's a project of something around 80,000 square meters of leasable area. We have already construction -- we have already started the construction. It's a project of more than BRL 1.6 billion of potential sales value.

And #5, 6, 7 and 8 are also projects -- commercial projects

[Audio Gap]

but also very well located, on the process of taking the license to be starting the construction by the first half of 2021.

All in all, this company, we've got something around 180,000 square meters of gross leasable area. That's important to bear in mind that all these figures are going to be ready as they're providing revenues from them, providing revenues from being rented between 2023 to 2025.

So finally, on the slide on Page #15, you can see shareholders -- EZTEC shareholders' equity of above BRL 4 billion, something around BRL 4.1 billion. Mainly when you see gray of the assets in the -- on the right side of this slide, you can see the majority of the assets, something around 34% of the whole asset cash and equivalents to support the growth of our land bank. And Hugo mentioned before, we have something around BRL 908 million -- BRL 900 million to be paid in new acquisitions.

Another figure to be highlighted is the ready inventory, the cost of the ready inventory, about BRL 300 million. That I can assure you something around 40% to 50% gross margin.

Land bank, the cost of the land bank acquired so far. So when you think about the BRL 9.4 billion that Hugo mentioned before, the whole cost of the land bank, including the CEPACs, including the grants we have already paid, is something around BRL 990 million. It's 26% of equity.

And always, as you can see in liabilities, you can see 100% to be paid on those lands that we have already recognized in our balance sheet.

And finally, the finished units receivables, BRL 583 million. With agreements signed so far, it's something around BRL 480 million. So the difference between the signed and this BRL 583 million is something around BRL 100 million, are units ongoing the process of bringing the projects to the bank to turn those receivables into cash.

So, so far, that's the presentation. I would like to thank you so much for your audience today. We are completely open to your questions. Thank you very much.

[Hugo Benevides Soares, executive]

Thank you, Emilio. We will now open the call for a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]

[Hugo Benevides Soares, executive]

We see here that Nicole Inui from Bank of America has a question.

[Nicole Inui, analyst]

Can you hear me? I just have a couple of questions. I think what's really impressive is your -- the margins that you're getting on your finished inventory. And I was just curious, are you increasing prices on your finished inventory? And especially because this is, I imagine, the product that's most being benefited by the lower rates, so you're talking about margins above 50%. Could we see that going even higher if you have space to increase prices there?

And then on the land bank, you talked about a lot of land bank that you're able to acquire recently. So I was curious, is this land bank that you had been negotiating or at least had mapped out pre-crisis, pre the pandemic, that came back and that you weren't able to close at the beginning of the year and you closed now? Or is this new land that came available, that maybe, I don't know, the land owner was having more difficulties or was negotiating with another homebuilder that couldn't pay in cash? So just curious about where the increase in land bank has come from. So that's it.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

Nicole, can hear me?

[Nicole Inui, analyst]

Yes. I can hear you, yes.

[Antônio Clemente Fugazza, executive]

Okay. Many thanks for the questions. So let me start talking about the margins of the finished inventory. That's very important and interesting question. So what is interesting here is, obviously, when you think about the interest rates provided by the commercial banks, especially when you have -- when you've got Itaú in the middle of the third quarter 2020 changing the way to charge the interest rates was very profitable for companies like EZTEC itself. So this new way called Poupança Mais or savings account plus means that the final interest rate for the clients -- to the clients, taking in mind the base interest rates in Brazil nowadays of 2%, it's going to be something around 5.4% plus TR. TR nowadays is about 0. It's going to be 0 up to 8% of SELIC, of basic interest rate in Brazil. So 5.4% is at least 1.5% to 2% less at that time of the interest rates that the majority of banks were practicing here in Brazil.

And what is interesting is after the movement of Itaú, so Bradesco now in the fourth quarter, it started to do the same movement and to do the same interest rate, the same accomplishment of Itaú. And obviously, so in the fourth quarter, the majority of the contracts I have provided to my clients I'm using this new method.

And they have been -- the banks, the private -- the commercial banks, they have been analyzing, making the feasibility analysis of those clients, taking in mind the interest rate, the base interest rate of nowadays. So they are not taking in mind there could be or likely an incrementing of interest rates in the next 2 years. So that's very important because we can sell bigger apartment or expensive apartments for an interest rate practiced by those commercial private banks that are less than the interest rates practiced by Caixa Econômica Federal in the low-end segment. So it's absolutely insane.

And that's why we have been selling so much more units in the middle and in the middle-high end, especially in cities like Guarulhos. So we can improve the affordability by 30% at least. And that's why we are getting gross margin of -- at least over there, wherein the majority of our performed inventory is something around BRL 300 million. The gross margin is about 53%. So that is priceless. That is amazing and priceless.

Obviously, the forecast for units being sold in inventory, performed units are the same in the quarter -- fourth quarter and the first quarter 2021. We have been selling much better than in the past and much better with a little bit higher prices. And that's in a forecast of impacting positively the gross margin for the next couple of quarters.

In terms of land bank, this is quite interesting. The real truth is we are permanently negotiating land bank possibly. So some piece of land that we bought this year, obviously, we started with the negotiations in 2018, 2019. And obviously, the prices were not getting in a very good space and a very good point. But the moment of the outbreak obviously changes or could get -- the landlords were a little bit more afraid to keep those huge piece of land without very good negotiations with the developer because they couldn't understand what could be the outcome from this crisis. And that's why we were -- we are trying to negotiate those lands or we were trying to negotiate that -- those piece of land exactly in the middle of the pandemic moment.

But it's interesting because the majority of them obviously had better proposals or offers with swap agreements, for instance, with swap agreement. But when you get to this moment, this outbreak, you start thinking about receiving all of the price of the land in money, in cash. And just a few companies obviously can support a piece of land of more than BRL 100 million in cash at once, and EZTEC is one of them. That's the first part of the explanation.

The second part is about this segment. Obviously, when you think about the South Zone of São Paulo, the very expensive neighborhoods of São Paulo, everyone is looking deeply at those piece of land. They try to buy the small houses, trying to make a very good piece of land, but they are no more than 2,000 square meters, 3,000 square meters in a very fancy neighborhood. And you have to invest a lot of money because the land there is very expensive on this area.

And that's why EZTEC took the advantage of his own engineering team to seek piece of land in the outskirts or very close to the borders of the city or in a kind of neighborhood that we can say that is a very middle-income neighborhoods -- or middle-income neighborhood indeed. And that's why we started buying very good piece of land, for instance, in the city of Osasco. In the city of Osasco are the gates of Bradesco and the gates of Cidade de Deus. So it's a very important place because it is very downtown Osasco, a place that we are selling a lot of units coming from the Reserva JB, selling [indiscernible], Osasco selling by BRL 6,000 to BRL 7,000 per square meter. So why not buy more piece of land in places like this one.

Apart from that area, so East Zone of São Paulo. East Zone of São Paulo is a kind of area that people think that there is only Tatuapé or only Brás. There are neighborhoods that are very close to downtown São Paulo, neighborhoods that the income of those neighborhoods are very high. So there are much more neighborhoods than that -- than those.

One very good example is a project we are launching -- we are about to launch, Fit Casa -- Hugo mentioned before, Fit Casa Estação José Bonifácio. Fit Casa Estação José Bonifácio is something around 40 kilometers so -- from our headquarter. So it's very close to the edge of the city. It's a project very close to one subway light train line. And it's a low-end project of Fit Casa. We are going to get something around

[Audio Gap]

We have paid for this piece of land less than BRL 10 million for a potential sales value of about BRL 130 million.

So we are looking deeply in regions that the majority of the developers are not. And that's important to keep the margin so high, so we're developing our company in all segments that a city like São Paulo can provide. That's the explanation, Nicole.

[Nicole Inui, analyst]

Yes. That's very helpful. Very helpful, Emilio.

[Hugo Benevides Soares, executive]

Okay. In the absence of any further questions, our conference call for the results presentation is now over. We thank you all for your attention, and hope you have a nice day.