Iguatemi SA

BOVESPA:IGTI3

Earnings Call Analysis

Revenue and EBITDA Growth with Positive Outlook

The company showed strong performance in the last quarter, with EBITDA up by 30% and net revenue increasing 47.3%. Retail, after repositioning, hit breakeven with margins improving to 13.4%. In malls, EBITDA margins reached a high of 84%. Cost reduction initiatives have led to lower expenses, contributing to overall positive results. Net debt to EBITDA ratio improved from 2.3x to 1.91x. For the coming year, guidance is set for net revenue growth of 4-8% in the mall segment, with total EBITDA margins between 75-79%, and planned investments between BRL 190-230 million.

Growth and Financial Performance

The company demonstrated strong financial performance with EBITDA growing by 30% compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year, reaching BRL 236 million, and totaling BRL 960 million for the year. Net revenue experienced a significant rise to BRL 135 million in the fourth quarter, accumulating BRL 300 million over 12 months, a robust growth of 47.3%. The funds from operations (FFO) achieved a margin of 53.8%, amounting to BRL 177 million for the quarter and surpassing BRL 560 million for the year with a 43% margin.

Strategic Repositioning and Operational Efficiency

A key to the company's recent success has been the repositioning of their retail operations, particularly the 365 brand, which has now reached breakeven with a positive EBITDA of BRL 4.7 million and a margin of 13.4%. This turnaround is attributed to a refocus on core brands and efficiency in retail operations that led to strong sales, especially in December.

Improved Profitability and Cost Reductions

The company is also experiencing improved profitability in their mall segment with an EBITDA margin of 84% for the 12-month period. This has been partly due to a concerted effort to reduce costs and expenses, with notable progress made over the previous year. Although there was an increase of BRL 3 million in provisions for the fourth quarter, the overall trend indicates a positive direction in terms of cost management.

Guidance and Future Expectations

Looking forward, the company anticipates net revenue growth in the mall segment to range between 4% and 8%, with EBITDA margins for malls between 82% and 85%, and overall EBITDA margins from 75% to 79%. Investment is projected to be between BRL 190 million and BRL 230 million. The company expects the positive momentum established in recent quarters to continue through 2024, driven by steady operations in retail and efforts to boost sales and brand introductions further.

Exploration of Mergers and Acquisitions

In terms of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), the company is actively exploring investment opportunities and considering its existing portfolio for potential enhancement. Prior activities have included sales of significant assets like Iguatemi real. Additionally, revenue growth for 2024 is expected to stem not only from leases but also from a reduction in discounts, an improvement in occupancy rates from 95% to 97%, and an enhancement across various line items such as parking, which are projected to contribute to overall growth.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q4

[Operator]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for holding. Welcome to the Iguatemi S.A. conference call to discuss the results for the fourth quarter 2023. Present with us today are Ms. Cristina Betts, the Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Guido de Oliveira, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations Officer. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] This event is also being broadcast simultaneously via webcast and can be accessed at Iguatemi's IR site at www.iguatemi.com.br/ri where the presentation is also available for download. You can flip through the slides at your own convenience.

Please be advised that any forward-looking statements that may be made during this conference call regarding Iguatemi's business prospects, projections and operational and financial targets are the beliefs and assumptions of the company management and are based on information currently available. Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions as they refer to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that overall economic conditions, industry conditions and others may impact the future results of Iguatemi and these results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.

We would now like to hand over the presentation to Ms. Betts, who will begin the presentation. You may proceed, Ms. Betts.

[Cristina Betts, executive]

Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be with you again to speak about the fourth quarter, which was a fantastic quarter for us with growth on all fronts with consistent results and inaugurate a very positive 2024.

Now to speak about our highlights, we had a very positive performance in 2023. We reached BRL 19 billion in total sales, an increase of 11% vis-a-vis fourth quarter '22. We had BRL 6 million sales for the quarter, an increase of almost 12%, 7 points above inflation, a positive for the year and the quarter. Guido will later speak about lease and occupancy rate when we speak about P&L. But we would like to underscore what we have said in other quarters, our performance in occupation, a strong increase in commercialization during the year, and we ended the year with an occupancy rate above 95%. This is on average, once again, 1 percentage point above the third quarter of '23 and 1.6% above the fourth quarter 2022. This is the best performance since 2018. And we have referred to the increase in the occupancy rate, and we will dwell on this further ahead.

Now the increase was positive, and we, of course, are complying with our soft guidance with the market. What I would also like to highlight in a more generic way is that we reached the fourth quarter as we had committed to do with a slightly positive result in the 365 retail operations as part of the results of the fourth quarter, which are positive. We have the retail part -- stores operated by retail and 365 were positive above 0. So this is something that we had promised to do, and we're able to deliver at the end of the year. As part of the work with 365, we worked with a reduction as you were able to follow up on, on the staff of the company, and we outsourced several roles for intra-commerce. And in the second half of the year, we had the migration of the platform to VTech, helping us to -- through these 2 joint actions and weighing the SKUs that we have in the portfolio enabled us to reach the breakeven in the operation, and this is what you can expect going forward.

Now to speak about the year. It is important, and we will show you a more detailed graph that we are delivering our guidance, the growth of shopping, EBITDA and, of course, total revenue, and we're going to speak further ahead on the guidance we're offering for 2024, allowing us room to have significant growth in the coming year above and beyond the positive results of 2023. We also had the approval of the Board of an advance of BRL 50 million in dividends. And we are now going to present this, submit this to the assembly for approval for the year of 2024 for dividends of BRL 200 million, which is a significant increase in dividend. In 2023, we paid BRL 110 million in dividends.

Now to move away from the P&L, we concluded in this quarter the sale of a fraction of the Iguatemi Campinas, which bolstered our results with BRL 25 million to quarterly results. And we're going to build another tower of somewhat more than 6,000 square meters and we should have 1,700 people passing through this complex. It is part of our strategy of densification of the environment and better qualifying the flow of our enterprises. In 2023, we had 2 additions of the Iguatemi collections as part of the Iguatemi One program. The second campaign was held between August and November of '23. We had an increase of 83% in sales and a growth of 18% in average expenditure of clients when we compare this to the collections of 2022, we had 70-some clients participating in this action.

Of course, this is of the utmost importance because it allows us to understand the final customer. We can understand the operations of stores as well as that of clients. In terms of events, we had several actual events. I would like to highlight only a few. It's impossible to speak about all of them in the call introduction, but as a sequence of the Barbie Dreamhouse that we had midyear in the JK Mall, we had the first official store of Stranger Things that was a success. In J&K (sic) [ JK ], we had the 7th edition of Iguatemi Talks Fashion.

It's important we connect to fashion, trends, consumption. This is a truly fantastic event that operates in a hybrid way. Obviously, allowing ever more people to participate in the event and become updated in the basis of our business. We always had the participation as in all events of the Sao Paulo Fashion Week. Iguatemi Sao Paulo became the stage of some of the fashion shows. We had Paradise Apartamento 03 and others participating. So this reinforces our participation in curatorship of fashion, something that is very important for our business.

In the quarter, we're quite proud and content with the fact that for the first time, Iguatemi is part of the ISE of B3, a national benchmark in sustainability. We have worked hard to attain that inclusion in the ISE. This, thanks to our project, and of course, this is very important for us to speak about what you are following up on the beginning of the works of the neighborhood that we will begin to build in '24 Casa Figueira around the Iguatemi Campinas and the ESG part received the AQUA Sustainability Certification because of our commitment to certify our enterprises. What we also did as part of this agenda, which for Praia de Belas is important is to connect the Praia de Belas Mall to the Guaiba waterfront. This is an unprecedented project making the passage between the shopping and the waterfront to become truly dazzling. It is a postcard of the city, the reuse of the space and the beautiful scenery that you have in the Guaiba River, and we have stops for dogs and other stops along this waterfront crossing.

Now I would like to end here by saying that the year 2023 was a very busy year. We did a multiplicity of things. We had several action plans, of course, to attain the results that we are delivering today. And this shows the resiliency, the consistency of our company, our positioning in the industry and we begin 2024, very well positioned to have an incredible year. I will give the floor to Guido to refer to financial results, and then we will return with questions and answers.

[Guido de Oliveira, executive]

Good morning, everybody, and I begin on Page 6 to speak about the company's financial results. Cris has already spoken about the strong sales in 2023, 11.7%. Same area stores, 11.4%, which shows you how the work of our team is focused on enhancing occupation, bringing about stronger sales. And of course, this will bring us better consequences in terms of range because we will have an increase in leases, same store area with a slight drop going to 6.6%. The real rates on same-store rates is very aligned. We were at 6.3% and we go down to 5.4%. And this shows you the strength of the company and the positive spreads and in the reduction of discount presently is at much lower levels vis-a-vis the years before the recession. So we're granting discounts much less at present.

What is also important is to show you the occupancy rate. We have a soft guidance of 95%. We did reach 95.1% at the close of the year. And we spoke a great deal about our activities in the retail market. And we were able to attain our guidance in terms of occupancy, and this shows the strength of the tenants regarding our portfolio. And finally, default levels are at a very healthy level, ending at 1.2%, and accounts receivable dropping during the last 6 months to receive leases and overage with a reduction every quarter, showing us the recovery of the leases through which we were able to collect throughout the pandemic.

So we have recovered all of our loss as we go on to Page #8, showing you the results without the straight line effect and the share swap result, it shows you a considerable growth of EBITDA of 30% vis-a-vis the fourth quarter of '22. We reached an EBITDA of BRL 236 million, and for the year BRL 960 million. Net revenue growing to BRL 135 million, and in the 12 months, BRL 300-and-some million, a growth of 47.3%. FFO with a margin of 53.8% in the fourth quarter, BRL 137 million (sic) [ BRL 177 million ]. And for the 12 months, going beyond BRL 560 million with a margin of 43% for the year, very strong recovery, therefore.

Now if we look at the retail part, as Cris mentioned, quarter-on-quarter, we have been working very efficiently to reposition 365. We now have a breakeven in the operation in the last quarter of '23, the third quarter. We had a negative EBITDA of [ BRL 3.1 million ], a negative margin. We are now at BRL 4.700 million with a margin of 13.4%. Both operations were positive 365 once it was repositioned with a focus on 100, 150 brands and the retail part that was a true success in December. One of the brands that we would like to highlight is the brick-and-mortar store that operated throughout December with long lines at the store because of the strong sales. We also had strong sales at Polo and other stores with a strong recovery in November and December. And going forward, there will be positive quarterly results.

We go on to the following slide, Slide #10. If we look at the mall result, a very strong result with a margin of 18%. And for the 12 months, a margin of 84%. Another thing we promised that we have discussed quarter-on-quarter is a reduction of costs and expenses in the 12 months of '23 vis-a-vis 2022, we had a drop. We didn't have a more significant drop because in the fourth quarter, we had an increase of BRL 3 million because of the increase of provisions per P&L as we had obtained the KPIs internally in the company. Nevertheless, you do see the reduction in cost and expenses, which was something decisive for our results.

We go on to growth revenue, a growth of 9.8% of our revenues. The fourth quarter of '23 with a significant growth in terms of parking, a growth of 20% and for the year, a similar growth. It shows you a greater flow of '23 vis-a-vis 2022, the flow of January of 2024 is higher than what we saw in 2023. And of course, a repositioning of what is charged. When we look at leases, we had a growth of 2% of IGPM, a transfer of 0%, but because of the lease spread and the closing of the vacant area, this was important for us, but it is also important to mention that the overage, which is the percentage of lease growth 23% during the quarter and 30% during the year. It's more tenants paying overage. And this shows the strength of the sales vis-a-vis other quarters.

Our portfolio doing very well but still paying overage and temporary rentals, a stellar growth throughout the year, making the most of the kiosk areas, areas for events, the area separated or allocated to media with a growth of 28% for the year and 34% for the quarter. We go on to cost and expenses. It is important to show you that when we compare costs and expenses with the fourth quarter of '22 and the full year 2022, it goes from 28.7 to 38.2, and we go from 28 to 32.2, an important work in terms of efficiency work that we carried out during the entire year. We did state that in the fourth quarter, we would begin to stabilize the effects and that the recessions that had appeared in the third quarter would not appear in following quarters.

We look at our balance. We had a deleveraging of 0.26 and the ratio of 2.3x to 1.91x for net debt EBITDA, increase of net debt increasing to 105% because of the reduction of CDI and the CDI of some of our debt. So the proportion will not be similar. Now if you calculate the cost of CDI, the debt will have remained at the same level with a cash of BRL 1.6 billion, which means that we're very comfortable when we look at our amortization curve going forward. The cost of that dropping CDI in the fourth quarter was 11.75%, and our debt is approximately 12.35%. Of course, a drop in proportion to CDI.

Now to speak about guidance, we obtained the guidance that we had set forth net revenue very close to 16.1%; retail, close to the bottom, but we have attained breakeven and we have maintained the operation of 365 relevant, the retail operation doing very well, and we reached an EBITDA margin of 84% and total EBITDA margin of 75% and the investment very close to the ceiling reaching BRL 199 million.

We now go on to the last slide where we set forth our annual guidance, growth of net revenue, when we look at the mall segment should be between 4% and 8%. EBITDA margin malls 82% to 85%, total EBITDA margin of 75% to 79% and investments between BRL 190 million and BRL 230 million. Even with the retail operation that has lower margins, we once again give guidance with margins at the same level as we had before, before the retail operation and we're around 75% and 79% in terms of our historical EBITDA margin. With this, we would like to open the floor for questions and answers. Thank you.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from XP Investments.

[Unknown Analyst]

I have two questions at our end. The first, your mindset when it comes to capital allocation. You had good deleveraging during the year. And of course, this allows for more room for greater capital allocation. Besides Casa Figueira and the retrofit of the marketplace that was announced, what else do you have in mind in terms of growth, acquisitions, perhaps the increase of shares? This is the first question. The second question refers to occupancy. In this quarter, we see a leasing spread that is somewhat larger, 7% on the average throughout the year. And despite this, there was a significant reduction. And it seems to be the beginning of the growth of this leasing spread. Which is your expectation when you renew leases? And if you could speak about assets that are very close to this renewal of contracts, which are your expectations?

[Cristina Betts, executive]

Thank you for the questions. I'm going to begin with the capital allocation question. We do have some projects. We announced the marketplace retrofit, as you mentioned, and Casa Figueira that is part of our radar. We began breaking ground for infrastructure work. But we have also submitted the approval for the expansion of Iguatemi Brasilia. This is very important for us because Iguatemi Brasilia no longer has room to accommodate the demand that we have in that state Brasilia. As you know, and we mentioned in previous calls, in the second half of last year, we took some international luxury brands to Brazil and they were all very successful.

The good news when there is success is that people want stores. They want a store next to X and Y. So this is the right time to truly begin with this expansion. You will recall that there was a work to readjust the construction indices in Brasilia. We have the lowest index in terms of making the best use of the land. And what we want to do is reach the position that other malls have. And this will allow us to launch this expansion. Well, Brasilia is part of the radar, and you will hear more news during the year. In our explanation note of the potential of construction, we will begin to work in Sao Paulo, nothing to launch this year, but we're going to begin work to adjust the use of space in Iguatemi Sao Paulo. There already does exist an approval for this.

We have begun to clean up the area to work with the expansion that we intend to have. And when it comes to M&A, as I normally say, we need to wait a bit and reach an agreement with people that are willing to sell. All of this will depend on the right time. We're always on the lookout. As you know, we're quite disciplined in this type of activity. And our acquisition now of the Novo Hamburgo outlet is a small stake acquisition. We gained control of the property. And of course, we're looking for other opportunities to continue to increase our stake in our developments, perhaps new things, who knows, but this will be more in the future. We're now focusing more on what we already have in-house in terms of CapEx and the new approvals that we have just mentioned.

[Guido de Oliveira, executive]

And to continue on with your question in terms of cost of occupancy. It dropped from 12.1% to 11.7%. We had better sales based on our range and our range grew 10%, and even if we consider the negative IGPM, what we can say is that if we look at the commercial part, we had 445 contracts signed, a true record. In January and February, we have signed more contracts than in January and February of '23. Therefore, the curve is in line with what we have set forth as the call. And the discussion is always on the leasing spread of the leases and the renewal of contracts. Of course, our quest is to enhance take rate over sales.

Now the level of discount at present is much lower than the levels that we were practicing last year. And what we had in the year 2023, we began '24 at the same level of the fourth quarter of '23, which is the most busy schedule in the year '23. Now what we're doing now is to increase these spreads. If you ask me about assets that have significant renewals in '24, '25, we don't have any. We have the expansion of Campinas, what we're doing in Porto Alegre they were significant in 2015, 2016, but the renewal will only be beginning in 2026, 20% of the total number of tenants throughout the year. And of course, our work is to seek a positive spread. It was 7% last quarter. So we should see enhancements in occupancy throughout the year. This is very important for the company.

[Operator]

Our next question come from Bruno Mendonca from Bradesco BBI.

[Bruno Mendonca, analyst]

My first question follows the context of the question we heard before, the trends in leases. If you could give us more color on the quality of the turnover of tenants. And the background of my question is the difference between a trend of growth for leases and sales.

Same area, same-store, the same area of rent [indiscernible] growing less, and it suggests that the turnover means we will have lower leases, but we -- in same area, SSS, we see that the sales are better than same-store held. Now what is it that you can add in terms of color over this? Is this a temporary effect of discounts of grace periods given to tenants? And how do you look upon this? My second question about your pipeline for 2024 in terms of land, you have been very active in this and what can we expect for 2024.

[Cristina Betts, executive]

Only to speak about the quality of our turnover. When we increase occupancy, it becomes easier to qualify what we have. We have very strong sales in all of our assets. And therefore, everybody migrates. It's that black hole when sales are performing well, so we have demand in all of our assets. They differentiated demand. When we think about the end of pandemic up to present, that increase in the contract signed is not by chance. It means that we're performing very well on the assets. This is very visible and everybody is chasing after this. We're closing contracts with a positive leasing spread and with the qualification. As you know, and this is part of our DNA, we're resistant to bringing anything in-house. It's very important for us to have tenants in the vacant GLA, tenants that will add to our mix.

We always have a discussion on these 3 points of doing away with vacant areas, doing this with the right price, but with the right mix as well. And when we look at the discrepancy of same area, same store, it's because we brought in a great deal of things in-house, and there is that grace period still. So there are always investments of the tenants before they can open their doors. But what we have brought in-house, the performance is incredible, and we will have very interesting things happening this year. We have been scheduled, not only in Sao Paulo, but there are important things happening outside of Sao Paulo. Opening in Porto Alegre and the hinterlands of Sao Paulo.

The example that comes to mind is the opening of [indiscernible] will be something colossal when the first [indiscernible] opened in JK, we had lines outside of the mall before the mall opened. So this is one of the stores that was extremely successful. They had incredible results at the end of the year. And when we think about this qualification, this is what we do. Once again, it is a difference, a onetime difference. Once we stabilize the turnover of tenants with new leases coming in and offsetting those that are leaving, we will have that same area and same-store results reaching the same level. Now simply to answer your second question referring to the pipeline. As we tend to say, that is recurrent revenues in Iguatemi, [indiscernible] has always been based on mixed use.

We have residential, commercial and hotel enterprises and several are under construction. If we look at 2024 and going forward, we should underscore Figueira, Campinas with the infrastructure work. We're beginning to sell off the lot. We will begin now in the first quarter to work with road shows and work with operators for real estate movements. Everything has been organized. We already have pricing, and this will become recurrent for the coming 20 years. These are lots that we will be negotiating for the coming 20 years. What we have also negotiated is multifamily in marketplace, a retrofit project that we have for marketplace. This tower is already under negotiation, reaching conclusive results. We haven't announced this who -- well, we still are not able to do it, but we will announce it in the coming months, pipeline for this year. Now to underscore what Guido has said in the former Casa Figueira, we continue to do everything we're doing. Well, Casa Figueira is a top off and this is positive news because it leverages everything that we're mentioning here.

[Bruno Mendonca, analyst]

Well, to speak about marketplace. When you say you have a multifamily asset, are you going to sell units at a normal price? Or is this a project to bring in revenue? It's for revenue of the multi-family structure that you are aware of, and you will have a stake of this, of course, in Iguatemi or will this be geared only for sales?

[Cristina Betts, executive]

We will only announce this once we close the business.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from [ Andre Tibi ] from BBA.

[Unknown Analyst]

We have two questions. The first about occupancy. We'd like to understand the dynamic between assets that have contributed the most. And if you get to that 95% until the end of the year, which are the following steps that we can expect through your negotiation. Second question refers to the retail, speak about occupancy. Now the release has also given us details on your initiative. We see that you have a significant effort because of the changes. Now going forward, which additional efficiency can you gain and which is the level of profitability that you're imagining for the longer term, something more recurrent for this segment? These are my two questions.

[Cristina Betts, executive]

Very well, Andre, to speak about occupancy. 95% is a very good figure for us. If you look at our track record, we entered a recession with figures that were not these. I'm not referring to the pandemic. I'm referring to the recession. So we carried out significant work to recover the occupancy of the mall and the malls that are flagships that are at the top of the pyramid for us always have very high occupancy levels in the middle of the road in the recession before the pandemic. We implemented significant changes at JK Mall. We had those apocalyptic people that said that we would never be able to do this, that we had too much vacancy at JK. And we now show them the qualified work we have carried out at JK and in the hinterlands that we affectionately call babies and who have become deep majors now are showing signs of maturing.

So the occupation of the malls and the hinterlands has been relevant to attain this figure. And of course, we have room to grow this. And this is part of our plan for 2024 to slightly enhance the occupancy rate. To give you a soft guidance, it would be around 97% at the end of the year. But once again, we have already worked very strongly on this, and about 97% rounded figure, we'll have a great job to do with what happens in the hinterlands around the region of Sao Paulo as Brasilia, JK and Sao Paulo have already reached a very high level. So in terms of occupancy, this is what you can expect, a minor improvement that will, of course, be important. Now for the retail part, we have carried out significant work in 365 throughout 2023. And we can expect a steady state of the positive value we reached throughout 2024 and maintenance of what we have done in terms of sales and much more.

When it comes to retail, we saw a significant enhancement in the brands that we're operating with. We delivered Balenciaga in midyear. This is a brand that has the perfect fit. It had an impact on profitability of the unit of the stores. It contributed positively and very strongly. But we will have the entrance of Loewe. It is a very desirable fashion brand worldwide. It will be the first store in Brazil. We're betting our chips on this, and it will be truly fantastic. Everybody will love that store. So we replace stores because this is the idea of working in the retail sector of making feasible the entry of brands, something that would probably take longer if they would do this on their own.

This would have applied to Balenciaga and this is what we will do with Loewe. It is a desirable brand. It has a great deal to do with our audience, and we will accelerate their coming into Brazil. And throughout the year, we will maintain what we're doing. We have some stores in our portfolio where we are enhancing the results. We're learning how to buy products, and this is very important. But we're also going to qualify it with brands like Loewe, that is very important for us. In terms of margin, this will represent an improvement during the year.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from [indiscernible] from Bank of America.

[Unknown Analyst]

Can you hear me?

[Operator]

Yes. Yes, we can hear you very well.

[Unknown Analyst]

I want to speak about a topic that relates to M&A. The possibility of disinvesting, we see fees, there are many transactions in the market. If you could explore which is your vision here? And if you see opportunities in the Iguatemi portfolio. And if this would make sense for the company? My second question refers to the guidance for 2024. The growth of mall revenues, you're implying that the growth will be very reasonable, very palpable. Now in that growth that you expect this is due to the leases -- or will there be opportunities in the other line items to also grow?

[Cristina Betts, executive]

When it comes to M&A and the opportunities for investment, of course, we're looking at this, and we're very diligent in terms of this. We look at our own portfolio as well. We are looking at the sector. And as we have done in the past, we have enhanced our portfolio with the sale of Iguatemi real and other assets. Of course, we do have our eye out for opportunities. When we find one, you will hear about it. If we look at the 2024 guidance, when you speak about the growth of revenue, we're thinking not only of leases, leases will have a reduction of discounts and in the spread of renewals, as Cris said, we're going to go from 95% to 97% occupancy rate this year.

But there's also work in all of the other line items. You will recall that last year, when we did have that impact of the IGPM in 2022, nobody thought the IGPM would become negative in November of '22 and January of 2023, we had a negative IGPM that extended throughout the year. We see the price of commodities that have not increased. Once again, the prices continue to be low. The market was expecting an IGPM of 4. In FOX, the IGPM has been priced at 3 therefore. So our search is also for a real game based on this correction and the savings that were important. Last year, the parking and other parts were very important, and they will continue to be. In parking, we looked at flow. The flow in January is better than the flow in January '23. The rates as well. We have looked out at the market and we can reposition ourselves here, and there will be a significant increase in these line items that will help us to attain the guidance that we have just offered.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from [ Dima Costa ] from UBS.

[Unknown Analyst]

My question is very similar to that Bruno, refers to discounts. It is 3 or 4 percentage points below the third quarter, which is the present day level of discounts, and we see that you have an improvement. So are you going to withdraw the discounts? Is the scenario that we see now the base scenario? Or is there further room to remove discounts?

Now your growth has been above that of industry and the retail markets. Will it be single digit or high-single digit or more? These are my 2 questions.

[Cristina Betts, executive]

To speak about the discounts, without mentioning figures, but we are at a level of discounts at present that is better than what we had before we entered the recession in 2015. In fact, our figure is quite low at present. As I mentioned, it's not the lowest figure ever that we reached in the company. As we were mentioning previously, the maturity of our assets and the demand that we see for places, the vacant GLA seems to be shrinking. And it means that we can continue to decrease the discounts because of the increase in demand. And as part of that figure, as we said to Bruno same-store rent, same area rent. This refers to the grace period where we still have a churn in the mix. And as this becomes stable, it will be taken away from the P&L.

So these 2 factors, the maturity qualification of assets and the churn that is becoming ever more stable means that we will reduce the level of discount. We're better today as vis-a-vis 2015, which is incredible for us, but I think we can do even better. That is the first part. When it comes to sales, yes, we do believe in figures that can be a high-single digit or low-double digit. We see a very strong performance in terms of fashion. We also see luxury perhaps not growing a norm of double digits as we saw in the past, but with significant growth still, the expansion of luxury to other areas such as Campinas and Porto Alegre will also help us to propel this figure.

Once again, we remind you that fashion is our main core and increases here, of course, have a greater impact on us. And that qualification, that change in the consumption profile of the Brazilian that has begun to buy more locally. We have increased the share of wallet for those consumers that are spending on this type of product. This means we are capturing more when we speak about collections, that increase in the average ticket. Of course, there is a driver, which is the collection, but it's also due to the consumer that is buying more locally. We have always spoken about the resiliency of our portfolio, which is a mid-upper level portfolio, and we're now seeing the results of this in our sales.

When we outperformed the retail industry as a whole, it has to do with our positioning, our qualification, the curatorship that we're working with where we're making efforts to bring down Loewe. These are unheard of brands here, desirable brands. When we help brands to do better work, perform better, we're helping our partners, the tenants. And of course, this has a return for us and very powerful business. We're working jointly in this, and it doesn't necessarily show immediate results. What you see here is a result of years and years of continuous work that will never stop. It's part of the qualification process.

Now this year, at the end of the year, we opened up the Tiffany flagship. And I have no doubt that this will truly shine. It is an incredible project. And all the national and international brands are thinking about how to better engage the end user, how to increase their loyalty levels. And what we have to do is help them fully in this. When we speak about the event phase, we have JK, [indiscernible] Iguatemi. When we do things in Brasilia, all of this is very important. It allows us to make the sales much more substantial, a long answer for a very short question, but all of this is of the utmost importance for us, and that is why we're betting on the result of sales. Sales outperforming what the market will present.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Elvis Credendio from BTG.

[Elvis Credendio, analyst]

We have two questions that are minimum leasing seems to have slowed down, and I know this is not ideal to look at lease because there is a drop in nominal terms. What justifies this if you could give us more details on this? And another question once again about guidance. With a focus on EBITDA, you mentioned that there is a health guidance, 97% occupancy during the year that your cash cost will drop, but which will be the volume of sales of your land bank? You have quite a bit of projects in your pipeline. And how can you reach that midpoint of EBITDA and the reduction of SG&A? What you expect there?

[Cristina Betts, executive]

To answer your question in the fourth quarter, you will see that the transfer of inflation, as I mentioned in the speech, dropped from 6% to 5.5%. The gain on inflation, we had the loss of only 1 point. When we look at the composition of the fourth quarter of '23 and that of '22. These are the strongest quarters. And when we look at the impact of IGPM in the quarter, in the previous quarter, it was 3%. It dropped below 2%. So we have less impact of IGPM in the quarter. In this first quarter, the impact will be 0. In our contracts, we don't transfer the negative IGPM to leases. So the effect will be somewhat lower, yes. Now despite all of this, we offset this with the increase in occupancy. We went from 93% to 94.5%, 93.5% to 94.5%. Now when you compare this to '22, we had a gain of 2 percentage points and this offset the fact that we didn't transfer the drop in IGPM.

This was the impact on the business and the gains are through the lease spread and the reduction of discounts, as we have been mentioning is lower 1.4% on average for the previous 12 months. Why, we're withdrawing discounts in 2023. And of course, this will continue to decrease. We are bringing the discount to a very low average, as Chris mentioned in the previous question. We have a very low level of discount we're beginning January and February. In January with the double of leases, and we're below what we had set forth as our goal. This is the explanation when it comes to the sales of our land bank. If we see what we did in 2023, we should have very similar figures for 2024.

Well, this is part of our guidance to have similar figures of what we had in 2023 and occupation will help us in this figure. We will go from 95% to 97%. We will have more leases and the less cost of vacant GLA. When occupancy increases, we decreased the cost of our vacant GLA. And this will help us in our SG&A and all of the work that we did in terms of efficiency during the year. In the fourth quarter, everything is very clean. We only have to withdraw the increase of provision for the bonus and P&L. It was approximately BRL 3 million. As you could see in the release, we're going to annualize this, so the cost of expenses in '24 will tend to be lower. When you look at 2023, if you annualize the G&A, it will be low. And we're going to annualize everything we did during 2023. The [indiscernible] only happened in the last quarter of 2023.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Matheus Meloni from Santander.

[Matheus Meloni, analyst]

My first question, when you signed the projects for revitalization or expansion, you said that you're looking for these projects. And if you could share with us your CapEx for marketplace? Now the second question, what is it that you expect for this quarter?

[Cristina Betts, executive]

I'm sorry, there is a great deal of noise in the background. I have not been able to hear the question. Hello, we still have not disclosed the expected CapEx for all of the movements we will be doing. We should be doing this throughout the year when we are able to finalize our projects. We do have a design, but we don't have all of the parameters so far. So we're going to focus on the figures before we disclose them. But it is important to say that in terms of CapEx disbursement for marketplace and Brasilia that we mentioned here, we don't have anything. We have the approvals, the projects so far, but when it comes to the works, I think they will only begin in 2025, except from what we said for Iguatemi Sao Paulo, which will be a light engineering work.

You'll probably kill me for saying this because it's still the preparation of what we need. It's not truly the construction that we will begin. We have a guidance for CapEx and the increase of the bracket of the guidance also refers to Casa Figueira mainly. The things that we're doing, maintenance of the malls, we're going to begin the infrastructure work. We're going to work on the center of the neighborhood. We have the project of a house which will be called Casa Figueira, and we're going to follow up on the work of the commercialization of the neighborhood. And all of this will be connected to a prototype that can already be visited. Now this increase in the bracket of the guidance refers more to that part and not the other activities we remarked on. And during the year, as we have more clarity on the projects, we will speak about capital and deadlines.

Now in terms of your default levels, Matheus, our default levels are extremely low. At the end of 2022, it was negative. In '23, we were slightly positive. This due to the, well, leases that we had in '20, '21 and the discussion that was held in terms of IGPM, our growth default at present for the month is already the lowest since 2015. We have come back to our default levels in this situation of normalcy. We forget that we had 2 years of recession 2015, 2016, there was a drop in the GDP of Brazil. It had an increase in our default levels. This added to the increase in interest rates in the last years. Because of the drop in interest rates, the recovery of the economy, and increase in sales, our default levels are back to historical levels. The level will be low in January, growth default, although in January, the rent is double. Tenants have to pay for the lease of December and the 13th lease. And the default level is the same as that of December, which is a month where we have the highest sales. This shows you we have a very healthy portfolio. Our default level, therefore, will be at a very healthy level throughout the year.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Jorel Guilloty from Goldman Sachs.

[Wilfredo Jorel Guilloty, analyst]

We have two questions. I would like to speak about the dividend. For the year, it was BRL 200 million, as you stated. If I compare this with your net profit, it represents 66% for the profit for the year, 35% of adjusted FFO. So how are you thinking about dividend payout going forward? Do you think that the payout will remain at that level vis-a-vis your net revenue? Will we see a higher payout compared to your historical levels going forward? The next question is the margin of EBITDA. If I could better understand the levers for the 2 parts of the range, the lower part and the higher part. Is this due to drop in cost, increases in lease so that we can better understand your mindset of how you reached that range of EBITDA margin for the malls.

[Guido de Oliveira, executive]

If we look at the dividend, we had a payout of 66% of net revenues, as you mentioned. Now before the pandemic, we did have a similar payout of 50% to 60% of the profit of the previous year. We had paid BRL 60 million into '18 to '19. In 2020, '21, because of the pandemic, there was a reduction in dividend payout. And in '23, we paid out BRL 110 million. And now in 2024, we're increasing this to BRL 200 million. So the payout is above 60%, and this is the level we should continue in coming years. Of course, we're going to look at cash generation in the company, but the intention is to maintain significant dividend. Now if we take into account BRL 200 million, we're thinking of 3, 3.5, when we add this to our repurchase BRL 150 million, our payout is 5.5%, which is a significant payout of dividends if we compare with the market.

In terms of EBITDA margin and malls. In malls, we have significant EBITDA margin because of the work of efficiency that we have carried out and the improvement of results, the growth in the malls throughout the years. So we're going to stabilize at a margin of 85%. As part of the guidance that we have offered you, it is an aggressive margin 82% to 85%. But of course, based on the work that we have been doing with SG&A. As I said in the last question, G&A will analyze at lower levels compared to 2023. We will have lower costs and expenses during the year. And of course, we should consider the growth of our net revenue and the PSV that I also mentioned which will be at the same level that we had in 2023. All of this will enable us to have high margin. What we did mention was the resale of sales point. Last year, we had a significant sale which brought about important results. The sale of the flagship to Tiffany, adding BRL 20 million to our results, along with the retail of sales points that we carried out throughout 2023. In other revenues, this reached BRL 70 million of revenue.

So these figures of other revenue, PSV will continue strong during 2024. We have several projects that will be announced throughout the year. And that is why we're quite calm about our EBITDA margin. In terms of total margin, we're speaking of the breakeven of the retail area, it would burn cash. Now it generates cash, and it will no longer hamper our results as it was doing in the past. We're back to working at margins that are 75% to 85% as part of the consolidated results of the company.

[Wilfredo Jorel Guilloty, analyst]

A quick follow-up, if you allow me the range of 82% to 85%, and the EBITDA margin of the malls is this your target? Is this structural for the long term? Or could it be even higher?

[Cristina Betts, executive]

We're seeking more efficiency. We shouldn't speak about target. We reached the bar. The bar is raised as part of the game. When we obtained the goal, we doubled our goals and we do some work. We see what we can do, and it has a great deal to do with that idea of always raising the bar. If we had measured this 2 years ago when we were leaving the recession that we would reach 84%, I would not have been very sure. But looking at this now, we can say that this is structural and that it will remain at this level forever. This is what I'm trying to underscore. This year, in that range, this is what we're going to attain. In the coming year, we'll try to do better, a margin of 82% to 85%. Almost no cost there, very few things that are left a bit of payroll when we do away with vacant GLA recoverable areas. These are important levels in the cost that is part of the margin of mall. It's implicit in that value, but we won't have the full year value of this and beginning with 97%, we will have the full year value from the elimination of GLA vacancy. So it will continue to improve. Now this year, this is what we can say.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Andre Mazini from Citi.

[André Mazini, analyst]

Most of my questions have already been answered. There's a question about 365. You mentioned the reduction of assortment, and the goal for 2023 and 2024 is go back to a breakeven position and you discontinued products that have lower contribution margins or negative contribution margins. If you could dwell on this further.

Now this is the marketplace. You work with several brands. You have Lola from Spain, other brands. But -- the contribution margin is very important for 365. And what makes these contribution margins higher or lower, the power of bargaining, the brand, the product, if you could explore this further, I would be very grateful.

[Cristina Betts, executive]

As part of what we have reformulated in 365, this reduction in SKUs, we focused on 1P. We have many products that are from retail, from stores that are operated by retail. But we also carry out selective purchases of international products. 1P that we deem to be desirable brands with a future potential of eventually opening up a store. A brand that is doing very well in 365 is [indiscernible] for example. They already have stores in Brazil. They left. They're back to 365, and they're doing very well. It's a conversation that we had that refers to brick-and-mortar stores. So applies to digital stores. So we have to seek out the products that complement what we do not have still in the mall that don't have the size, they don't have the desire to have an individual store, but that are adherent to our audience. And when we do this, we are able to get the right fit because we're choosing products that have the right demand.

Of course, we're not always 100% correct, but we have to be good at what we do to reach that breakeven point. We are in this journey that is to create a digital ecosystem. We have Iguatemi Day with all of the part of content in the digital media where we carry out a coverage of what is important and that happens in our business, in our mid-tier, lifestyle, fashion week and much more. We speak about trends, people giving out hands on fashion, restaurants. This part of daily is very important. We're referring to 240 million views. Highly important because we create awareness of what is important to the core of our business. We have day 1 of collections which gives color in terms of who are the end users, amount of purchases and 365 that also contributes to this journey of understanding who is our end user, which are the products that are being purchased. And all of this has to be connected to the brick-and-mortar store. And this is done by Iguatemi 1 when you exchange your invoices for point. Now to look at 365 in isolation. Of course, in the P&L, we separated with the retail market, but this is a mistake because it is part of the strategy for this ecosystem that is not fully drafted, but we are on the path to do that. To go back to your question about profitability, yes, we took away the brand that were draining cash, as always seeking an alternative solution so that we can scale up other things in a very healthy, sound fashion, we do want to have this operation as breakeven, and it will improve as it is more integrated.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Marcelo Motta from JPMorgan.

[Marcelo Motta, analyst]

Simply a follow-up in terms of your investments. We were under the impression that at the end of the year, you were going to work with 2 disinvestments, I'm sorry. What happened? Was this a problem of price or something else that ended up not having this acquisition happen? Can we expect this to happen during the year? And the second question is about your debt profile. You have several amortizations this year. What are you going to do this, refinance it through CDI? I would like to understand your mindset in terms of your liability management.

[Cristina Betts, executive]

Motta, you're right when it comes to the disinvestments, it's due to the negotiation due diligence. Of course, they're still part of our pipeline. We're looking at this. And as I said in my previous speech in one of the previous questions, when we're close to the closing, of course, it will be communicated. We have been working on this and why we didn't announce this in December. It's part of the game. We weren't able to close the deal. It wasn't due to price, it was due to the negotiations per se. Regarding our amortization stream, we're quite calm. We always have the best average cost in the industry when it comes to CDI percentage and the best average term. The market is much better.

The Central Bank has regularized the market. It was somewhat chaotic, now everything is coming back in a more competitive way. And of course, we are looking at this. We're looking at some debt. We have debentures that we issued in 2021 that still have a very high spread of about 2%, and the market is below that. So we could have to work with liability management. Of course, we're focusing on this, and we will work with issuances to enhance our midterm cost.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Rafael Rehder from Safra Bank.

[Rafael Rehder, analyst]

I simply want a last follow-up in terms of your capital allocation. The deleveraging is at a very low level, as you mentioned. And even if we think of the top of guidance of investments for this year, I think that your leverage will drop until the end of 2024. I would like to understand your mindset, which would be a sustainable and desirable level of deleveraging? And if it would help the company to work with a new greenfield because, of course, the interest rate is becoming more stable?

[Cristina Betts, executive]

To speak about the deleveraging, that question is always somewhat strange because, well, we have to see good deals. When I reached Iguatemi in 2008, they would say that the ideal leverage of the company is x times, you have to allocate your capital. And I would say that's fine, but you have to have good places to allocate your capital. It's not [indiscernible] and the opportunities have to come before the leveraging. We don't want to do anything mad. You know Iguatemi, we don't want to be overleveraged. We're always concerned in maintaining that pace. When we had a higher leverage, we focused our work towards reducing that leverage. We are below 2x now, thanks to a great deal of work, not only last year but in previous year. Once again, this does not mean that if 20 fantastic projects appear before us, we will take them all simultaneously. No, we cannot increase our leverage. Our limit of leverage 4x.

But in a country like Brazil to have a leverage of 4x, I think this is somewhat daring at least in our industry. Of course, others will work with different levels. But for our company, it would be extremely extreme. We don't want to even come close to 4x. And it depends on the timing of the opportunities that arise. When we work with brownfield, when we carry out works in-house to expand GLA, this dilutes the leverage through time, allows us to scale through this in a more continuous way, in an easier way with M&A. There's an impact on leverage. If you do a good acquisition, which is the case of JK, you can dilute this very speedily. We had a truckload of money to acquire JK. We were questioned regarding the cap. Now where we began at 8, we're now above 10. And this amortizes the leverage. It reduces faster. This is what we like to have a good acquisition and deleverage with the asset itself in a more speedy way. And of course, acquiring something that makes sense. Long answer for a short question. There is no x leverage, I believe, but we are conservative, and we're only going to make acquisitions. If we truly believe the asset is worthwhile, that the project is worthwhile without stressing the company when it comes to debt.

[Rafael Rehder, analyst]

And the last point, your view on future greenfield.

[Cristina Betts, executive]

Yes, future greenfield I forgot. I believe it's still too early on to speak about greenfields, although we have good demand, good sales in our assets, we see a greater opportunity of working with brownfields, which we are doing now. Now greenfield. Let's imagine a mall of 40,000, 50,000 square meters. You have to put everything in there, movies, stores for children shoes, you have to paint everything. In a mall of 40,000 to 50,000 square meters, you have to have at least 400, 500 tenants. As we mentioned here, we're performing very well with our portfolio, perhaps not as well in the retail part. You have to have 400, 500 tenants willing to bet on a new project, have a CapEx for a new project. And I don't think we've reached that point yet as an industry. We have other opportunities before us. We're happy to continue on with them, and greenfields will remain on hold for the time being.

[Operator]

Well, thank you, ladies and gentlemen, as we do not have any additional questions, we will return the floor to Ms. Cristina Betts for the closing remarks.

[Cristina Betts, executive]

Thank you very much for your attendance at our calls. We're extremely satisfied with the results of 2023, and I would like to record here a congratulations to our entire team. The result is thanks to the joint work of all of our employees at Iguatemi. Those that are on the floor of the mall, those that are in the holding, truly fantastic work. And I would like to offer condolences to the family to Fernando Pastor, who was our economist for many years. I have been in the company for 16 years. And during all of that time, I drank in his wisdom. He gave us important guidance during difficult and good times. We will miss him a great deal at Iguatemi. And on a happier note, let's continue on throughout 2024. We have a great deal to deliver, and we're very enthusiastic about this year. Thank you once again.

[Operator]

The Iguatemi conference call ends here. We thank you for your attention. You can now disconnect.