Fras Le SA

BOVESPA:FRAS3

Earnings Call Analysis

Strong Growth Despite Argentine Setback

In 2023, the company reached revenues of BRL 3.4 billion, marking a robust year with the potential to sustain growth above 10% across domestic and international markets. Despite the Argentine peso's devaluation affecting revenues by BRL 15 million, the company sees significant opportunities and leadership in Argentina. Market share grew, aided by investments such as a new plant in Extrema. Domestically, the replacement market's growth and the broadened product portfolio contributed to positive results. Adjusted EBITDA rose to BRL 665 million, with a margin of 19.6%, up by 4.1% from 2022. Free cash flow was a healthy BRL 61.4 million, and working capital improved to 55 days, reflecting the successful integration of recent acquisitions.

Revenue Growth and Market Confidence Despite Argentine Setback

The company achieved BRL 3.4 billion in revenue for 2023, highlighting a robust Q4, despite a BRL 15 million negative impact from the Argentine peso devaluation. Although the Argentine market posed challenges, the company remains optimistic about the opportunities for growth and profitability in Argentina, projecting the ability to sustain growth above 10% in both domestic and international markets.

Product Diversification and Global Expansion

Friction products remain the sales cornerstone, yet the company has diversified significantly. Fras-le's sale structure evolved from 90% friction materials to a diversified portfolio, where over half of its business is now not linked to friction materials. This change signals strategic growth and resilience in both domestic and international markets, including successful projects in the U.S. and India.

Domestic Market Growth and Portfolio Expansion

The domestic market saw significant progress thanks to the replacement market growth and a conducive economic environment with lower interest rates. Investments in production facilities like Fremax and Controil aim to enhance service quality, increase market share, and secure leadership positions. Notably, the Alabama plant's investments will boost heavy brake pad production for new business opportunities in the U.S..

Strong Financial Health and Investments

2022's financial closure displayed a sturdy EBITDA of BRL 667 million and a positive free cash flow of BRL 61.4 million. A notable improvement in working capital from the previous year to 55 days was achieved despite significant M&A activities and investments in capacity and eco-friendly technology.

Profitability and Optimistic Outlook for 2024

Noteworthy growth was evident with a 91.2% increase in net profit, closing 2023 with BRL 383.7 million. This efficiency and profitability improvement translates into robust investor returns, with ROE reaching 21.4% and ROIC at 19.3%. Coupled with a vibrant market entry in 2024, the company shows confidence in continuing to grow and defend its leadership positions across numerous geographies.

Investment in Future Capacity and Technology

Fremax is targeting an output increase from 4.8 million to 6 million parts by end of 2024 or early 2025, with plans for a potential second plant to meet global demand. Embracing the electric vehicle (EV) transition, Fras-le has fortified its portfolio with products like robust suspension components and advanced, eco-friendly brakes suitable for heavier EVs, ensuring long-term strategic protection amidst changing automotive technologies.

Guidance Reflecting Strong Market Position and Growth Expectations

The company's guidance for 2024 is infused with optimism based on a successful Q1 and expectations of a booming repair market. With the transition to an advanced enterprise resource planning system completed, Fras-le is poised to return to regular operations, banking on lower interest rates in Brazil to drive domestic and international market demand. The guidance reflects confidence in achieving another record for market demand in 2024.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q4

[Jessica Cristina Cantele, executive]

[Presentation]

[Jessica Cristina Cantele, executive]

Welcome to the conference call of Fras-le Mobility for the earnings of Q4 and year-to-date 2023. Before we begin, we'd like to make some important announcements. This conference call is being recorded, and after the conclusion will be made available on our website, ri.fraslemobility.com.

We have simultaneous translation and progress into English. Please access the button interpretation at the bottom of the screen. At the end of the presentation, there will be a Q&A session, when questions may be asked in 2 ways, by audio, through the icon raise hand or in writing through the Q&A button. Apart from this, we reinforce that the information given in this conference call are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks and uncertainties and they refer to future events and therefore, demand on circumstances that may or may not occur.

We thank you for participating in this earnings conference call, and we have today with us the Chairman and CEO, Sergio de Carvalho; the COO, Anderson Pontalti; and the Director for Business and M&A Hemerson de Souza; as against the Coordinator of Investor Relations, David Coin.

Now I pass the floor to Sergio for his message on 2023.

[Sergio Lisbão de Carvalho, executive]

Thank you, Jessica. Once again, thank you very much for participating during this opportunity. We'd like to talk about Fras-le. Fras-le is turning 70 years. And during these decades, we have built a solid reputation that is recognized in the domestic and international markets with innovation, sustainability, efficiency and also new product services and companies guaranteeing growth in a safe and sustainable way.

And now in 2023, 2023 was a very special year. It showed our capacity to manage in a consistent way and adequate way with the costs. Together with our sales force, we grew our leadership in our sectors.

We have the aftermarket great capillarity and we continue with this positive performance aiming at expanding our businesses in replacement markets abroad. In 2023, we purchased the DuraTech in the U.K. This allowed us to diversify products and expand our presence and place our company in mature markets. In the domestic market, there is a booming market for replacement part. We are leaders in the market, and this gave us excellent results.

We maintained the determination to reach our objectives in ESG investing in technologies to evolve in the circular economy, reverse logistics and to implement solutions with clean energy in our work. For example, we have the Madera Verdi projects to substitute the boilers in Caxias do Sul, where we are using biomass instead of natural gas.

The investment, BRL 17 million in this initiative should be implemented during 2024 and we were reduced by 60% the greenhouse effect gases in the photovoltaic installation in China, it is allowing 20% of our energy needs in China with photovoltaic energy. These are important steps for us to reach our goal to reduce by 40% the greenhouse effect gases by 2030.

Every quarter, we celebrate consistent numbers showing that we are on the right track at Fras-le Mobility. Also in 2023, we launched our corporate brand Fras-le Mobility to represent the greatness with very strong and respected brands and also leading brands in their markets. The results that will be presented here are due to the great work done by our team.

I pass the floor to Anderson, who will continue with our presentation.

[Anderson Pontalti, executive]

Thank you, Sergio, Jessica. It's a great pleasure to be with you. Thank you for being with us. Apart from all the points mentioned by Sergio, the great highlight of our company is -- this is where everything began. Fras-le Mobility, Fras-le during these 70 years, reported always positive results, allowed the company to drain with more work, and then we began this combination of brands and businesses, transforming the company in a powerhouse where it is present.

Congratulations to Fras-le and those who were part and are part of this history and will continue in the future. 2023 and also the end of 2023, we're very optimistic in relation to the aftermarket, the replacement market, which is booming. Since the pandemic began, we have seen more vehicles going to garages and repair shops in Brazil, Latin America and also other countries. This is very relevant and positive for our business, and they show the resilience of the revenue that we have seen with this combination of business in the last few years. Hemerson will explore with greater clarity and details.

Argentina. Due to the political economic changes in Argentina, we had a hyper devaluation of the exchange rate in Argentina, together with inflation, which had many effects. We made adjustments, all of them in December and this helped us to have a drop in Q4 2023. But we already see positive effects for the next few months. Another important point, we celebrated what we call third powerhouse. We have Brazil and Argentina too, but now we have more products in the U.S.A. becoming a more complete solution for the under car as we call it.

In the same way, in the U.S., we began, although less than pan American other elements. For example, we are sending average and heavy rotors in the U.S. also with Nione paints with niobium. And we have a great reputation there. We met this for disc brakes. We also had an important event, a well-planned event, which was the conversion of SAP to SAP Cloud version, HANA with program stops at the end of December, beginning of January. Then we came back after this event in a very satisfactory way without any rupture with clients, and we're very happy with the delivery of this project that did not distract us -- did not impact our business.

So a project that was very successful. Next slide. Yesterday, we published the guidance for 2024, a material fact in 2023 in terms of net revenue, where we then be between 3.4, a little below the average, but we had an impact due to the points that Hemerson will comment the inflation in Argentina. Revenue from other markets within our plans and EBITDA too very close to the guidance and also investments a little higher and replicating growth of 10%. We will have growth of 10% next year from other markets, here, we see -- we already see DuraTech and representing other points. We added 2023 with an EBITDA margin within 17% and 21% next year and investments between BRL 130 million, BRL 170 million. This is the guidance that we gave yesterday.

Next slide. Three important landmarks, important facts in Q4, many of you were present on December 7 enjoying [indiscernible] Investor Day with Fras-le universe. We showed operations, and we talked about our strategy, our thoughts for the future and what we're doing for the future of the organization, maintaining governance and focus in the short term in England for the first time, DuraTech for the first time within Fras-le Mobility, won an award as a highly recommended company for the under car sector in a mature market for premium products.

We're very happy with this recognition, and we have promoted our culture of an excellent place to work, and our team from Colombia made a valuation, a great place to work and received the certificate as one of the best companies to work in, in that geography.

Here, we have spoken constantly of our transformation or digital connection with all the stakeholders and all to experts as the brand has been our service platform for relationship, training, information and also search and we see -- we always begin an initiative, then it grows and it began soon to show its potential and then exponential growth.

We had a very robust growth in 2022, 2023 and all the lines, the number of access also people click on our website, our apps, the SKUs more than doubled the access. This is the relationship plan for [indiscernible] that helps us to have all the points of contact of our parts to be here and people can get information in an optimized way. And this helps the company to evolve in its services and Information.

So this has been very strong in our universe. And the numbers here show this. Okay, Jessica. Finally, we closed 2023. This is a -- with a small difference, a difference. So Fras-le has 64% of its business for light vehicles, 36% for commercial vehicles. Our business is replacement aftermarket. So this is due to the -- our nature. So we want items that have recurrent purchase. For example, brake pads. I sell 1 to the OEM and 7 or 8 during the life cycle of the vehicle.

This represents a great part of our revenue. Fras-le was 100% friction in the past to date, no more, 52% of our revenue comes from non-friction products and 64% is domestic market and we want to have more exposure abroad. And we imagine that these numbers will be inverted with the position of a [indiscernible] companies, the domestic market became more relevant, but all of our efforts are in geographies outside the domestic market.

Now going to Hemerson, who will talk about our numbers.

[Hemerson de Souza, executive]

Good morning. Welcome to our conference call.

It's a great pleasure to talk about our results and some highlights that were mentioned by Sergio and Anderson in more detail. Here, we see revenue, net revenue, and we reached BRL 3.4 billion during 2023 and BRL 741 million in Q4 and with the closing of the previous year. An explanation of our revenue indicator has to do with things that we did during the year.

The inclusion of DuraTech in March last year brought benefits to us. We rule in the export market, the domestic market also had recurring demand as mentioned. Also, we talked about record work in garages and repair operations. And we see here the effects in earnings, although it's not a formal guidance, we see that our company has a lot of space to sustain growth above 10% when we look at the gains, whether it be in the domestic market or abroad.

The problem or what decrease our revenue was Argentina. We already mentioned in our reports, Argentina had an impact due to the devaluation of the exchange rate in the last month of the year. And this represented a drop in our revenues equivalent to BRL 15 million. If we didn't have this drop, we would have a different effect in the quarter.

We'd like to say that although we had this effect only in Q4, it is relative to the whole year. And we cannot segregate and say which impact we would have if we had done this before. It's not correct to do this analysis. We would not know how to affect the other quarters, but we had this effect in Q4. Even with this impact, we continue trusting that the Argentina market has great opportunities. We can have great margins and profitability, and we have a leadership position there.

We have a few assets related to a few fixed assets, our business is distribution in Argentina and access to market inventory. And what we have to do is to preserve our space and grow in Argentina, avoiding our resources in the country from devaluating. Going on to the next chart, we will show how we materialize this revenue. If we look at products, friction products are still those with high sales due to being popular.

So first product, 25% of our sales. In the domestic market, we have brake linings for commercial vehicles, followed by brake pads both light and heavy, we have grown a lot in heavy brake pads, not only in Brazil, but with important business coming from Europe and the U.S. for this line of products and this has been a reason for celebration because we invested a lot of time to have relevant businesses.

And I can say that we won projects in the U.S., in India, showing our success in the heavy line, but we're still leaders in light vehicles in Brazil and a good participation in Latin America. Then apart from we have shock absorbers, third most popular product in the company with the acquisition of Nakata and also brake discs with the acquisition of Fremax and other items that result from acquisitions.

We mentioned a short time ago in 2017. Fras-le was predominantly a friction materials with 90% of its sale coming from friction. And now 6 years later, more than half of our business are not linked anymore to friction and which was the beginning of our company 70 years ago. And this can be seen not only in Brazil but in other markets, too.

If we evaluate segments today, we supply more for light vehicles if we compare this to the commercial vehicles. This is good because the fleet is much greater in terms of light vehicles, and there is more space for us to be productive and efficient in this area.

In the commercial line, we have a strong reputation in many products that we offer because this market is more disciplined buying efficient products, durable products and this is what we make. We'd like to highlight that in shock absorbers, we had an important announcement. In 2023, we grew our market share. We made investments for -- in the new plant in Extrema, Minas Gerais. And -- this places Nakata in a position to grow even more. Mentioned by Sergio and Anderson, we began to offer Fremax brake discs with paintings with nanoparticle protection in our paints with niobium. And this has been a success in sales in the markets where this product is sold, especially in markets with snow in North America.

We had to open a second shift in this paint line with niobium. We inaugurated this process a year ago. The next chart, let's talk about revenue, net revenue per market. We made good progress in the domestic market due to the growth of the replacement market and the flow of vehicles that are being repaired constantly in garages. Here, yes, the economic growth helped us, the lower interest rates helped us also in Brazil and the balance and the price of fuel, helping people to maintain their vehicles. But as I mentioned, we're expanding our portfolio of products to grow our market share, and this can be seen in 2023.

I want to repeat, we have a lot of space to grow in many of our lines to grow our market share. This year, we are expanding the capacity at Fremax building a substation that will be ready this year. We have made investments in Controil to offer better services to our clients with more adequate products. I mentioned Nakata shock absorbers in the light line in Caxias do Sul in the south of the country.

And in Sorocaba in Sao Paulo, we have made investments to sustain and grow our position. The heavy line due to the leadership that Fras-le has received investments to maintain. But in 2023, we also added heavy brake pads in our plant in Alabama in the U.S. And we have had many opportunities to get new business in that geography.

In the export market, although our growth had problems due to Argentina we still made progress. And this is due especially to repositioning and creation of value in our portfolio and offering products to our clients in markets where we are present. For example, Colombia, we have made progress with shock absorbers. We introduced also shock absorbers for motorcycles and the acquisition of DuraTech in the U.K., allowing us to offer our products in England, in the U.K.

Next chart, we will show the effects on EBITDA margin. We concluded the year with adjusted EBITDA, BRL 665 million and an EBITDA margin of 19.6% adjusted. This represents expressive growth when we look at 2022, 4.1% growth. Also, we exclude nonrecurring effects. But to remind you, we had in Q2 2023, the exclusion of ICMS tax of BRL 37.1 million due to a lawsuit based on the agreements for periods before 2017.

And additionally, we added BRL 24.5 million, which was a balance of guarantees during the acquisition of Nakata where we have an escrow and -- where we had an escrow and other events that we mentioned here have been -- we have some impairments of assets in Panacifa and Fras-le Europe, BRL 13 million. And we have a reversal. We have a reversal of tax incentives, which were part of the price since there was a change in legislation for this calculation related to tax incentives that we have in the state of Minas Gerais that now we gain to have income tax on these incentives. We calculated these reversals in the past BRL 28.5 million.

Therefore, we adjusted this since we do this when these events are negative, still a vibrant year, a special year, and I repeat Argentina thesis also was responsible for a drop in revenue. We estimate this at BRL 63 million, the impact of Argentina due to the exchange rate devaluation, which shows that apart from this, it was one of the best years we had. Even with these effects -- nonrecurring effects.

Going on to the next chart, we're going to talk about financial performance. Here, you can see that our free cash flow in 2022 closed at BRL 737. If we put all the accounts from this pros, we had an EBITDA of BRL 667 million. We made investments. Financial results with the reversals in Argentina was negative by 15.9%. We paid taxes, BRL 138 million. We had also a favorable impact of NCG. We paid dividends, BRL 111 million and also capital in DuraTech with the acquisition of DuraTech and other accounts, we had a free cash flow of BRL 61.4 million, very positive in the year of 2023.

We also look at the impacts, and we can see that this was a very good year. I remind you that in previous years, the effects that seem negative are connected also due to the M&A and acquisitions we made that used up the company's cash. In the next chart, we talk about working capital. Here, we have had a relevant journey by -- according to our size and what we can do best with our resources, our capital investment. And this gives us better rates at return on capital, we ended the year with 55 days of working capital, 7 days better than 2022. And notably, an important result with the consolidation of the acquisitions we made.

During the -- when we make the acquisition, we have more working capital but then it comes back. Also BRL 133 million in investments. I mentioned what we did, important investments in capacity in the U.S. beginning of production with green boilers using biomass, a new paint line in Nakata to improve shock absorbers, we expanded the capacity on this slide.

Finally, you need and control other units also needed investments to continue expanding and have better products.

In the next chart, we talk a little about net profit, net income, which was spectacular during 2023. We closed the year with BRL 383.7 million in profit, a growth of 91.2% when we compare the last 5 years -- last quarter, sorry. We have 166% variation between Q4 2022 and Q4 2023. If we look at the last 5 years, this indicator shows that we were very efficient and this is good for our investors and shareholders and the creation of value for employees, payments of taxes and also the company's capacity to continue investing. We're also a company without debt to -- we made -- we took out loans in 2022, and we're evaluating how to use these resources, especially in M&A.

Last year, we bought DuraTech, but even with this growth in cash generation, we closed the year with almost BRL 60 million in cash, a net debt that is 0 net debt. Last year, we paid BRL 161 million in amortizations. We took out a loan of BRL 95 billion. And as a subsequent event, with a material fact, we took a loan from International Finance Corporation, BRL 250 million, which has a green stamp and this places us in a very good position and accelerates our initiatives to create value and also looking at sustainability.

Almost closing, going to the last charts. You can see that the results of last year show an important improvement in return on equity and also ROIC, return on invested capital reaching very good levels. And I repeat levels that we have been building in the last 5 years in a consistent way. The 19.3% of ROIC in 2023 would not be possible if the 13.8% in 2022 hadn't been a reality. So this is an important guidance that we have as executives showing that we're on the right track in a responsible way using the resources in a responsible way in capital allocation.

In the same way, profits helped us to have an important return, 21.4%. So it's very complex. These levels of return places on a comfortable level in relation to our peers. The next chart, capital markets, our share was worth BRL 17, which gave us a market value of BRL 4.6 billion. It's not a historical peak. We had other moments, and we're working for this to rise.

Our business has global references that are better in terms of EBITDA and P&L, we can create much more value as our company becomes better known. And we are working on this and I can say that last year, we reached BRL 7.4 million of assets per day. Shares being sold, there is space to grow. And in this chart, we see how the progress we made.

In 2019, our daily liquidity was BRL 540,000 now BRL 7 million, the daily purchase and sale of shares. The controlling party Randon has 52.4% of the shares, Randon family has a position of 13%. So we have other institutional investors, 24% and other shareholders, individuals and foreigners here.

Before concluding, I would like to request we have done strong work in creating value. With strong discipline in business, and we have worked in an insistent way, showing our progress in -- with our Investor Relations team. So we had institutional investor. We have the QR code that shows this. And you can vote in companies, it's a survey. This instrument helps us with our Investor Relations department, and we would like your recognition.

Now I'd like to pass the floor to Sergio for the final comments and then the Q&A session.

[Sergio Lisbão de Carvalho, executive]

Thank you, Hemerson. Well, So we had a spectacular year in 2023 and our vision for 2024 is very positive. Profit is positive as you observed through our guidance, which shows a significant growth in revenue, growth and also we showed EBITDA results that are very healthy. So that's our vision, which is very positive for 2024. We're always cautious concerning Argentina, knowing that the government can still devaluate even more the exchange rate like we saw in 2023 and especially in the last quarter. So we trust that we're working in Argentina in the best possible way, protecting our cash.

The conflicts will always be a concern. So we continue alert to this topic, conflicts. Our main market replacement, we trust that it will be a positive year with growth due to lower interest rates in Brazil. This should help the economy and help consumption. Although we have manufacturing items, our items are for end users, our clients and the mechanics, your mechanics -- when you need maintenance, your mechanics choose us, Fras-le.

So we're strongly linked to the consumption chain. In the international markets, we are growing our participation, expanding our powerhouse with the acquisition of DuraTech in the U.K. last year. We are exploring synergies and building the future of the company with robust plans. And now we are expecting growth, maintaining our leadership position with looking for new geographies.

Therefore, once again, we have a positive outlook for 2024. I'd like to pass the floor and we'd like to begin our Q&A session.

[Jessica Cristina Cantele, executive]

Thank you, Sergio, Anderson, Hemerson. Now we'd like to begin our Q&A session.

And the first question is from Rebel Tini, analyst from Santander Bank. Gabriel, you can ask your question.

[Unknown Analyst]

My first question focused on Argentina. I'd like to understand better the strategy for the future. How -- if you can share with us medium-term vision. And the second point linked to the guidance, we'd like to understand better.

How you see the scenarios and what reinforces these scenarios and also talk about competition.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Gabriel. Pontalti, I believe you can answer about Argentina business issues, and I can supplement evaluating the risks we have.

[Anderson Pontalti, executive]

Thank you, Gabriel, for the question. Argentina, we are evaluating constantly. The market is now -- the market has new rules in Argentina, great changes, but we trust strongly that we will have good results in Argentina, like we did in 2023, although it could have been higher. We have a team with a lot of experience in Argentina. They are being able to increase prices due to inflation, but we know that due to the currency, we can have problems because of inflation. The country has a strong dependence on agriculture. We have a promising harvest ahead of us. Consequently new reserves in that country. And we also see on a day-to-day basis.

Also that the country, the population is trusting the government, although they have a growing inflation. So we see that the negative side after elections and the transition, drastic, also drastic measures is behind us. The market is open. This is an opportunity. In the last 4, 5 years, we were limited in expanding business in dollar due to import restrictions, certification of products.

Now this is over -- and now we can use better our production units in other countries and leaving part of the margin in Argentina and gaining market share in Argentina. So there is the cash control that our team takes care of -- our money is invested in U.S. currency, in dollars. We can expand also the number of products we sell there, and a market that can improve as the harvest is positive.

Everything shows that it will be positive. So -- if you ask me about the medium term, I have -- I'm very optimistic for Argentina, but always being alert because we have to protect our cash. Today, Argentina represents less than 6% of our business. In the past, it represented more. When we do another geographies, with good profitability in Argentina, Argentina lost relevance.

It is responsible for 6% of our business. Argentina represented 20% of our business, now it's 6%, 7%. It wasn't a decision, but there was an evolution in inflation -- so also restrictions. And we have to protect our cash. We have very few assets in Argentina. We protect our cash soon.

The flow of money from clients, receivables, accounts payable and inventory.

Inventories in U.S. dollars or variations in currency, the safest way to protect money in Argentina is to have inventory. We do this in a good way. I will also answer your question. I will join your question with Arut.

He's asking if we're expecting another impact. I believe that there is a small probability to have a devaluation like we had in December. But yes, this may happen. There may be new adjustments that the government can do. The government has had a lot of discipline in finding the right exchange rate. But as we said, our business -- Argentina has smaller and smaller impact.

Now going on to your second question, Gabriel. I hope I answered about Argentina concerning our guidance and our environment, our feeling in terms of where we are and what we are showing, I can tell you that we closed 2023. And here, I have to be fair, we concluded a marvelous year in 2023. I saw the reports.

The reason for the drop in Q4 was Argentina, but this doesn't hurt everything else that we did in other markets. in 2023. And we began 2024 with this vibrant way. The market continues very well. We continue making progress. We continue defending our leadership positions. We have many good perspectives in many geographies where we are present, apart from Argentina, we sell to 125 countries in the world, and we have leadership positions in many countries. And yes, we want to make progress in nonorganic projects and initiatives.

So our trust level for 2024 is very optimistic. As Pontalti said, we are very disciplined in not exaggerating our optimism. We're cautious during our execution, our plans, our relationship with clients. Our products but there are many good things coming, many positive things in 2024. So we're moderately optimistic. That's why we are -- we have optimism as you saw in our guidance. If Sergio or Anderson wants to supplement this.

[Sergio Lisbão de Carvalho, executive]

The only comment is we are serene, we are -- we have trust in what we are doing. We are working consistently. And we are showing this guidance and we trust a lot in this guidance.

[Jessica Cristina Cantele, executive]

Thank you, Gabriel. Our next question is from Luiz Capistrano, sell-side analyst from Itau.

Andre Ferreira, analyst from Bradesco BBI.

[Andre Ferreira, analyst]

Two topics; electrical vehicles, we see that they use less brake material, brake pads last twice as long in electric vehicles. Do you believe volumes may drop because electric -- is it true that electric vehicles use less brake pads?

How can you protect yourself from this? And the second topic, the expansion at Fremax with the new substation. What is the increase in capacity and in volume had lower dependence on the generator? How can this help you with a lower cost?

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Andre. I will begin with the second part, which is easier on Fremax. At the end of this year or January 2025, we will be able to use the new substation. This will help us to increase capacity by 25%. Now 4.8 million parts, we will be able to produce 6 million parts. With expansion in [indiscernible] we're thinking of having a second plant as we make progress in other markets, a second plant for Fremax. We have important demand, we supply with co-manufacturing and other regions. Fremax is a very competitive company.

We're very happy to make this expansion. It was not due to lack of resources, but we are in a region that is more delicate in terms of approving expansions by the government. We did everything that was necessary to have this expansion and invest in the substation and expand capacity next year. Investment of BRL 30 million, it's not only the substation, also machining equipment to get 25% more capacity. This is very relevant for that unit.

Now going back to your point, I will share this question with Anderson. He can talk about new technologies. But I'd like to begin saying that, in fact, brake pads in electric vehicles last longer. Sometimes it's even more than twice but it has other characteristics. First, we have to evaluate that the electrical fleet of vehicles in the world even where you sell a lot of electric vehicles like California is very, very small, much smaller than regular cars.

So we have -- if we stopped selling gasoline cars today, we would -- it would take 30 years to selling brake pads without great impact. So we don't see a significant change with electric cars in relation to the demand for our products. And we have also had other actions. But in fact, what concerns us is not electric vehicles. We have products without copper with larger parts that help us in this area. In replacement, we have a line called Fras-le Energy using better materials that don't rust with greater durability than electric cars have.

Anderson, can you talk about new technologies?

[Anderson Pontalti, executive]

Thank you for the question. In fact, Fras-le is ready for this transition. Since 2015, 2017, when we went to the market for capital, we were aware that we have to create value in the future. And at that time, we said we have to diversify the friction line it was 100% friction, today 50%. So we saw this coming and we introduced new products.

Why did we go after suspension through Nakata because electric vehicles, if we have a reduction in friction in the very long term, we will need more robust suspensions. Electric vehicles are predominantly heavier. So the interface requires better suspension parts, more robust parts, higher ticket therefore. So we already protect our business when we have under car solutions.

I'd like to add to what Hemerson said about logistics. The technologies in electric vehicles will require more expensive brake pads because in emergency braking, we will need more torque to stop the vehicle. The vehicle is heavier and there's not -- I need to have friction in electric cars. And this brake pad has to be anti-corrosive.

Second, I will need much less noise because the noise is no longer coming from the engine. This requires better components, and I need to think of particulate emissions. In Europe, this is being debated with few responses and many questions, but I will have to work with better materials to have a particulate emission that is lower since engines don't emit, now breaks emit. So we will go from -- we will go to higher value-added parts in the very long term. So we are well protected both in terms of technology, technology transition and also strategies and positioning in other products.

[Jessica Cristina Cantele, executive]

Thank you, Andre. I have questions from Luiz. I will read Luiz's question related to the guidance. He says that questions on our quarterly evolution in margins. In Q1, do you believe we should have a normal margin or only in the second quarter. What do you expect in terms of margin evolution in 2024. And the second question, 2023 was record in terms of repair shops and 2024, this should improve due to lower interest rates. Can we say that in 2024, we will have a new record in demand in the domestic market.

[Hemerson de Souza, executive]

After 4 years with conference calls, sometimes we forget to turn on the mic. Thank you, Luiz. Yes, we are optimistic concerning 2024. The first quarter was good, was favorable. I remember 1 event. During the presentation, we said that we changed our SAP, our ERP. And this was a success. We have been very disciplined and recurring success when we implement softwares, which is the heart of the company.

We operate SAP, HANA which allows us to think of the expansion of the future. But we had to stop 1 week in 2023 for this, and we stopped and we came back on January 8. Therefore, 1 week in January. So we published the revenue of January, and it suffers due to a lower -- due to a shorter month for billing.

So we should understand this to avoid distortions. But we already have an idea of the market in February and March, and we're optimistic. It's going to be a good quarter within what is recurring, we can demonstrate that our results are going back to normal results.

Now the other issue, yes, Luiz, it's fair to have more a booming market and repair shops and garages. Things -- also with lower interest rates in Brazil, we see that things will improve with growth because after some years, they will -- so we have sometimes a drop. And we believe that things will be well. So this is in our guidance -- this is reflected in our guidance. We expect good sales in the domestic market and also abroad.

Thank you. Hope we answered your question.

[Jessica Cristina Cantele, executive]

Thank you, Hemerson. Our last question, Marcelo [indiscernible], sell-side analyst from BTG.

[Unknown Analyst]

I'd like to comment the -- your comment about M&As. Is there a preference for a certain region for M&As? Also new initiatives, talk about new initiatives, composites and Niobium.

[Hemerson de Souza, executive]

I will share the answer with Anderson. I believe we can begin with M&As. We have been very diligent. We can show our model Fras-le. We know how we can make progress and where we need to accelerate. M&As they give us -- they put us on the fast track. M&As help us to go to the fast track with brands that will make our demand grow. We have done this and we have our targets.

We have looked with a lot of attention to Europe. We purchased DuraTech. With DuraTech there are other geographies in Europe where we want to be. We know that the fleet in Italy is very good, in Holland it's good, in France. In Germany, we have the largest fleet -- but we know where it's easier also. We want to have positions like DuraTech in other countries of Europe. We have had conversations in South America, in Latin America. We said that Mexico is a good market for us. With the size of the fleet in Mexico, we don't have expressive sales there. So we want to accelerate and go to fast track.

So we have been diligent in this. And with Sergio and Anderson, we're looking for these opportunities. This also allows us to look for M&As in Brazil to -- also to expand products in Controil and Nakata.

Obviously, there is a strategy. Anderson will talk about our strategy in M&A and also new technologies, Nione and composites.

[Anderson Pontalti, executive]

Okay. Hemerson covered well the stopping. We have target geographies, which have similar products, supplementary products, brands and all opportunities. Like in the case of DuraTech, we bought a brand -- we are now launching Fras-le in the U.K. And soon, we want to launch Nakata in the U.K. So the model, this is the model, combination of sourcing. We want to do this -- there are other areas that we're looking at. We're not looking only at suspension. We're looking and steering. We're looking like metal, rubber, power train, everything that makes sense to us in terms of increasing our powerhouse.

We see where we look where we have more synergy and where it's easier. But M&A is M&A. It can be hot today and cold tomorrow. So these are long processes. We're looking at many geographies, North America and Europe are mature markets that make us invest more time there because we want to work in strong currency countries. But this is a process M&A. Track record shows this.

Concerning technologies. I'll talk about composite materials. Nione, which is, I believe we have a marvelous example, Max coating. Our brake discs painted with niobium pentoxide. This is giving a lot of resistance to corrosion where we have snow and salt on the highways. Cold countries, the market has seen the value. Demand is growing strongly. And what we're being able to do is deliver a product with high performance that is very competitive in these geographies and the production is here in Brazil.

Composites, we're very happy with the projects in progress. In the previous Fenatran show, we launched a vehicle with this technology at [indiscernible] that also was seen as with greater usability economics, but also the design -- so we've seen a lot of interest on the part of OEMs. All the OEMs of heavy vehicles are interested, and we began to offer this as a brand.

Europe attaches a lot of value to weight reduction and U.S. in some geographies. We understand that -- this will bring this results in many countries. We are very happy apart from [indiscernible] working on 4, 5 new technologies to explore other items -- there's -- we have advanced technology in Randoncorp, working, looking for synergies and alternatives to parts that are made in aluminum, forged parts, welded parts with technologies that are better with ESG and use of less carbon-intensive materials.

Sergio would you like to speak about Nione?

[Sergio Lisbão de Carvalho, executive]

We continue with a positive attitude towards this. Nione is an example. We mentioned this in previous events, the speed with which this technology is being transformed into business.

And it's a product our scientists have to work with scientists and other markets and they have their routine, their protocols to analyze this technology. These are new technologies. We have 70 work initiatives. We already added new clients this year, and we will add even more clients during the year.

Our team was in an important fare in Paris show. Our team showed the nanoparticles with Niobium and there was a lot of interest. We received new work proposals so that we continue with a very positive attitude, but the timing is now different than what we had imagined in the past.

We have products, Anderson mentioned using nanoparticles in the paint, in our disc brakes in markets where corrosion is stronger due to snow and salt, but we have other products getting the benefit of nanoparticles. We are developing new products, thinking of market [indiscernible]. On March 18, we will send a great lot of products to labs with the application of our product and they are doing very well.

So we have -- there is a positive outlook for these products.

[Jessica Cristina Cantele, executive]

Thank you for the questions. So we would like to conclude the Q&A session, and I pass the floor for his last comments.

[Sergio Lisbão de Carvalho, executive]

Jessica, thank you. We'd like to thank all the participants for your continuous support as usual. This material is available on our website, and we are available for additional clarifications. If you have more questions, please call us. Once again, thank you. We wish you a good day.

[Jessica Cristina Cantele, executive]

Thank you.

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