Kepler Weber SA

BOVESPA:KEPL3

Earnings Call Transcript 2020-Q3

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the Kepler Weber presents. We have here, Mr. Piero Abbondi, CEO and Investor Relations Director; and Mr. André Acosta, CFO. This event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

This event is also being broadcast via webcast and can be accessed at www.kepler.com.br/ri. The presentation is available for download. This slide presentation will be controlled by you. The replay of this event will be available on the company's website shortly after the ending of the conference call.

We'd like to remind that the forward-looking statements made during this call were based on Kepler Weber business assumptions. Future considerations should not be taken as guarantee of performance. These considerations involve market conditions, the performance of the Brazilian economy industry and international markets and, therefore, are subject to change because they relate to future events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future of Kepler Weber and may cause results that materially differ from those expressed.

Now I give the floor to Mr. Piero Abbondi, President, who will conduct the first part of the presentation. Mr. Abbondi, you have the floor.

[Piero Abbondi, executive]

Thank you. Good morning, everybody. It's a great pleasure to have you here to share with you what we did in this quarter.

I will start talking the main subject, which is the pandemic. On Slide 3, we have some actions we took for the pandemic. And the 2020 year has been very complex.

We started in the second quarter with very difficult perspectives. We have the beginning of the pandemic, the beginning of the remote work and collective vacations and the perspective was very difficult.

In the second quarter, we had better perspectives that end up with a good quarter. In addition to the market that we are going to see later on, what happened because of the market was very positive, it was a very good management of the pandemic by our team. The adequation of the plant according to the protocols, working internally and with the communities close to our plant and this was a great effort for our collaborators to feel safe. We received certificate from SESI in Campo Grande as a safe company. So this phase created trust and commitment in the part of our collaborators so we could continue.

First, the pandemic always brings some complexity. And secondly, we've seen that the economy is returning. We had some stop for some month, but now what we see is a difficulty to manage the productive chain because we always have the pressure on the entire chain. But we have had no impact in our revenue. It was a very complex year of change and much more.

It was a personal challenge to our collaborators, especially because many stayed at home and they couldn't come to work and they have their children at home. And more important, it didn't finish. We are focusing to continue this process so everything becomes normal again. Our company and -- managing properly as we've seen and very complex.

Now we go to Slide 4 and talk about to the market. First, during the pandemic, the agri chain worked normally. Maybe we had some changes because the restaurants were closed, people consuming at home using the delivery. And 50% of the Brazilian exports in the production of grains and soybean, especially linked to agro, and the program to build new storage and warehouse.

With this, we have a very robust, especially after July, we have accumulated sales in 57% compared to last year. So it was quite positive. And it took to...

I apologize, but we are having an inference in the sound of the speaker.

And express of BRL 171 million that we will detail later on.

Now, we see the storage market. In spite of everything, we have a positive result in the market in sales of our storage sector. It was not enough of what the sector is requiring in the south of the country and in the [indiscernible], a new frontier with a significative deficit in storage. With this, the producer does not take all the benefits he could, we see in other countries. The storage is remaining in the form, and Brazil is lagging behind this.

I really apologize, but the sound is not coming through my ear phones.

But we see the places, the great international demand for exports. We had a point -- and now we are reaching a situation that we are having the recovery of exports of grains. This shows the importance of the local production chain. They need to be concerned during the harvest. There is a lack of a product and show the importance of having this in the productive chains.

In next slide. I'm sorry. I really apologize for the quality of the sound that cannot come to my -- to me.

So here, I think it's important that the entire chain gets this and to plan and act so we will be in a more comfortable situation with less pressure over the chain.

In the next slide, we have a projection of the total production of grains. In the next 5 years, you see the projection. This is very positive. We expect to have a recovery of the mid-class for the consumption. The trend we see for the next few years is to continue to have this development.

And now about the urgency of transport, 207 million of tons, of which most of them are to export. So the flow to the ports of 130 million tons, very significant. We see some improvement. The 163 that connects the north of Mato Grosso to the Amazon.

We see also a reduction in freight rates and a movement to improve. And also the south part -- the southern part of the North-South road -- highway. We have more parts to being construct to this region that has a big movement. And also projects like the integration highway and movements for grain.

I'll now talk about the benefits of storage. We are very optimistic with the future perspectives in addition to the demand, and we delivered several benefits to the entire logistic chain. We have -- we deliver efficiency to the producer that is able to deliver producers with better prices and with the storage and the property the producer can manage better -- can have a better management of the harvest and benefiting from moment so that when he didn't have the storage, he couldn't have this reaction. And with the logistic costs, he can store in the property and then contract freights at better prices and also the producer is able to choose the better -- the best moment to sell their harvest.

And in parallel to all of this, we are investing in our automation platform, automation control, the digitalization of the entire plant operation that in -- not only will improve the operation, but opens a wide array of additional services to the producer. So these are some of the benefits that the producer has when he invests in storage and post-harvest points.

With this, Kepler has a good positioning in the market. We will celebrate our 25 years. We are leaders -- market leaders. We have a solid position and financial position, as you see, the trust of the clients. With the high-quality products, we are concerned with the delivery of the product that we want to see the unity running, up and running. And we have the qualification of the builders, guaranteeing the delivery of the plant to the produce.

And also, we're investing in innovation. As I mentioned, our automation platform is a great innovation, is a step forward, putting the plant in the world of digitalization, and we should not forget the development of innovative products. We have a new drier that we will launch in the beginning of the year that will bring innovative possibilities to the operation. And also our burn chips. It is a technological innovation and that we are meeting demand from the market.

So this positions us as an innovative company and concerned with the service, not only products but services, financing to follow the client and help him in the entire process. To keep the products working with technical assistance and spare parts, we opened our 5 -- fifth DC in the city of Cuiabá to be closer for our -- to our producers.

Now I'd like to share with you our works in the field. In August, we delivered the Rondonópolis plant. It is a storage terminal and receiving its large work. This was delivered in August. And another work, a smaller work in Minas Gerais and another one in Uberlândia. These are example -- examples of works. We want to see the product that they work, up and running.

And due to the exchange rate in some countries reacting slightly better, like in Latin America, we were able to accelerate our exports. We had in Colombia a plant of 23 tons. Then, in the region of Chaco, Argentina, in the beginning of the year, we delivered a product for rice. In Paraguay, a plant of 16,000 tons for soy and corn. These are the projects that we delivered.

Okay. Concerning business, we came to the end, and I will give the floor to André to share with you our financial results.

[André Luís Acosta, executive]

Thank you. Good morning. The main highlights in the third quarter of '20 was the net revenue of BRL 201 million. The gross profit of BRL 57 million. EBITDA BRL 37.4 million and with the dollar adjusted because we have nonrecurrent events, representing 18.6% of the net revenue. And the net income, BRL 23 million.

Now the accumulate of the year in 9 months, the net revenues, BRL 423 million, gross profit of BRL 107 million, 25% of the net revenue. EBITDA BRL 78 million and adjusted in recurrence, BRL 62 million. And accumulated net income is BRL 46.9 million, excellent margin of 11.1% of the net revenue.

In Slide 17, concerning net revenues, we see an increase of 35% corresponding -- in comparison to last year. We see all segments representing a growth. In the grain segment and the annual accumulated is slightly below, but we can recover this during the year. So 4.7% of accumulated growth compared to last year in all segments. And the storage segment had a drop of 12% due to the month of April that we had to stop because of the pandemic.

In Slide 18, we see the net revenues, 32.7% increase because the volume was higher, but a better margin of 58.8%. And the accumulated of the year, you see that is 2% above last year, especially due to the project of cost results represented by a margin of 74.7% versus 76.4% of last year.

On Slide 19, we see a profit of BRL 57 million, and the accumulated of the year, BRL 107 million, a margin of 25.3% and a 2 point -- percentage points of growth in margin. This relates to the favorable price conditions that we had.

In Slide 20, now talking about our expenses, sales expenses was 30% in this quarter and 21% in the accumulated of the year. This refers to the growth in the commissions to pay to representatives. And administrative expenses had a 14% decrease and in the accumulated, 6.7% lower. Last year was different and margin -- net margin of 7.9% this year. This reduction is due to the reduction in costs and measure for reduction -- reducing expenses we have during the pandemic.

The financial revenues, we see the financial revenues increasing in the quarter, and the accumulated, we see 9% of the net income. And the expense is also increasing representing BRL 29.2 million in the accumulated compared to BRL 12 million of last year. In the net financial result, we see as BRL 68.8 million, and they were negative last year of 3.5%. This is an effect of the exchange rate variation and recovery of the credit we recognized in the second quarter of '20.

In Slide 22, EBITDA, 37.4% in the quarter. A margin of 18.6%, a good margin for the segment. And the annual, the margin was 18.5% and you see 49.5% better. This is a reflect of our price strategy and product mix and also the actions taken to reduce costs and expenses and recognition of nonrecurring tax credits.

We have the adjusted EBITDA. We have recurrent of BRL 7.3 million, taking the EBITDA to BRL 59.7 million, 14% of the net revenues. And this year, BRL 16.2 million that took the EBITDA to BRL 62.1 million, 14.7% of the net revenues. It's still a very important EBITDA when you take the -- excluding the nonrecurring items.

Net income, we -- Slide 24, we see an increase of 156%. And in net income and net margin, we see in the quarter BRL 23 million with an increase of 44%. And in the annual, we see 11% of the net income of BRL 46.9 million. We had good results in this period. And also due to the cost reduction and expenses, with the volume -- sales volumes being reached which improved our results.

In Slide 24 (sic) [Slide 25], the net indebtedness in cash, we have a very robust position, BRL 222 million. Last year, we had a 55% increase. And this year, an expressive increase of 161%. Indebtedness is negative and the net cash is positive of BRL 161 million, giving us a very robust financial position.

In Slide 26, talking about the Capital Market, we see 35% increase reaching BRL 4 per share. And we saw a drop in the IBOVESPA of 18% and small caps of 18%. We had, in September, an average of BRL 7.9 million of financial volume. In this line, we highlight the payment of our own capital on November 20, representing BRL 0.30 per share to anticipate part of these results to the shareholders of our company.

So these are the financial results. Thank you.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the webcasting from Daniel Lena. He asks the international projects will be a constant in the company. The level of delivery was a record in this area.

[Piero Abbondi, executive]

I will answer the question. It's a very interesting question. First, Kepler always had this willingness to international markets because of Latin America. All countries close to us, like Argentina, they suffered a little over the last few years. But we had always the objectives of having part of our production directed to the foreign market.

And with this exchange rate situation this year, our complexity increased. What we are planning is to increase our exposure to foreign countries through projects in the Latin America, and also in other regions where we are -- we have already a presence. And with this, we will have a part of our sales to the foreign market. This will give us a good exposure to the global market because I think it's important for the company to have a view of the international competitiveness. This prepares the company for the future.

So we want to have to participate in the foreign market and have our products in the international market, but focusing on Latin America that we have already a very robust position. But of course, in other countries where we have already a footprint.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Since we have no further questions, we close the Q&A session. We go back to Mr. Abbondi, the CEO, for his final considerations.

[Piero Abbondi, executive]

Thank you. As you saw, it was a very robust quarter. Kepler was able to see positive results. The -- every business had a good performance. And with no doubt, this was a very complex period because it demanded a lot from our team to provide the right response with this economy and managing the supply chain and with very abrupt changes. But we are very confident, and we believe we will reach the end of the year with very robust results.

As it was published yesterday, we regret the leaving of André. He is starting a new cycle in his life, and I'd like to thank him very much for everything he did for the company, and I wish him good luck with this new movement. And yesterday, it was disclosed to the market this news. I'd like to say that as of next week, we will have a new director that will take over on Monday in our office in São Paulo, and we will continue with our business. So I thank him very much for his performance and effort and commitment.

And I thank you for your interest in participating of this call. Thank you very much. Have a nice day.

[Operator]

With this, we conclude the Kepler Weber conference call. We thank you for your participation, and have a nice day. You can disconnect now.

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