LPS Brasil Consultoria de Imoveis SA

BOVESPA:LPSB3

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q2

[Unknown Executive]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome come to the webinar of LPS Brasil to announce the results for the second quarter of 2022.

Today, we have present with us Mr. Marcos Lopes, CEO; Francisco Lopes Neto, Vice President; Robson Paim, CFO; Matheus Fabricio, CFO of investor -- or rather CRO and Lopes Director; Cyro Naufel Filho, which is an institutional director. [Operator Instructions] For those of you who want to listen to us in English, it's possible to hear the simultaneous interpretation through the button, which is also identified on the screen. The link for the presentation in that language is available at the chat.

Before continuing, we would like to clarify that statements made during this conference call relative to LPS business prospects, operational and financial projections and goals are beliefs and assumptions of the company's management. Forward-looking statements are not guarantee of performance because they involve risks and uncertainties and assumptions because they refer to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts should understand that overall economic conditions, industry-specific conditions and other operational factors may affect the future performance of the company and may lead to results that will be materially different from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.

First of all, Mr. Marcos Lopes is going to make his introductory remarks, an overall presentation, followed by the operational scenario. And then followed by Francisco Lopes and then Mr. -- who's going to present the results of CrediPronto, and then Matheus Fabricio will talk about the financial results, and then we are going to open for questions and answers.

In this manner, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Marcos Lopes. Please, Mr. Lopes, you may start.

[Marcos Lopes, executive]

Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to thank you for the presence on another conference call for LPS Brasil, where we are going to present the results of the second quarter of 2022. Today with us in this conference call, we are going to have our Vice President, Francisco Lopes Neto; our Investor Relations Officer, Matheus Fabricio; our CFO, Robson Paim; and our Institutional Director, Cyro Naufel Filho.

In our last conference call to talk about the first quarter of this year, we emphasized that the company was planning for 2022 a challenging real estate market, both with higher levels of interest rates and also due to higher inflationary pressure, the uncertainties of the electoral scenario and a more difficult calendar because of the upcoming elections and World Cup demanded caution. Once we have closed another quarter, our projections for the real estate market in 2022 are still the same. However, we are absolutely certain that Lopes is prepared in a well-defined strategy to deal with the future.

In the second quarter this year, the market presented a drop in the volume of launches as compared to the same period last year. Our own operations, as we are going to see further ahead, had a similar behavior, taking part in fewer launches in the period with a reduction in the volumes as compared by our velocity over launches.

Our franchise expansion strategy, however, was fundamental for our total PSV to be stable, 1% higher than the same period last year. This quarter, Lopes franchises intermediated 12% more than the second quarter of 2021 in addition to starting the company's presence in the state of Pará and Rio Grande do Norte. The growth in number of store of Lopes network is 43% in the last 12 months, and will continue as a core strategy of the company for its group.

The scenario with higher interest rates has impacted funding or loans in the real estate market. So we have had a drop of 43% in originations from private banks. CrediPronto, in turn, continues to have a performance that is superior to the market despite the drop in originated volume, which was 33% lower than the same period last year.

After these initial considerations, I would like to move on to the presentation, starting on Slide #5 with the highlights of the second quarter of 2022. The company's total PSV reached BRL 2.6 million (sic) billion in the quarter, practically stable as compared to the second quarter of 2021. Franchises intermediated BRL 1.4 billion, a growth of 12% as compared to the same period in the year before.

Our own operations intermediated BRL 1.2 billion, a drop of 9% as compared to the same period in 2021. We have kept our focus on the expansion of our chain of the franchise with a growth of 10% in the number of stores active as compared to the last quarter that we announced. We ended the period, 147 stores, starting our presence in the state of Pará and Rio Grande do Norte.

CrediPronto originated BRL 1.1 billion in second quarter, a drop of 33% as compared to the same period last year in a scenario that is extremely challenging as a result of the current level of interest rates. It's important to emphasize that the drop in CrediPronto's origination was smaller than that of other players in the private market, so keeping our gain of market share in the segment.

As mentioned in the introduction, whereas ABECIP data indicate a drop of 43%, the origination of funding from private banks. CrediPronto originated 33% less. Our market share in the segment reached 7.1% in Q2 '22.

Lastly, the net income -- the consolidated net income of the company before IFRS reaching BRL 7.3 million, 62% lower than the same period in 2021.

Now moving to Slide #7, we will talk about launches of our private label operations in the second quarter of 2022. In the chart to the left, we can see that the total volume of our private label operations in Q2 '21 -- '22, sorry, was BRL 3.2 million, a drop of 42% as compared to Q2 '21. The total launched PSV, 58% was concentrated in the state of São Paulo, 38% in the Northeast and more specifically, in Fortaleza. On the right-hand side, you can see that Lopes' shares in the launched projects reached BRL 1.2 billion, 59% lower than in the same period last year.

Continuing in the presentation, we move on to Slide #8, and you can see the result of intermediations. On the left-hand side, you can see the consolidated results of the company, meaning the PSV of our private label operations added to the PSV from franchise. As compared to the same period in '21, we had a growth of 1%, totaling BRL 2.6 billion. Our operational franchise contributed with most of our intermediate PSV totaling BRL 1.4 billion, a 12% growth as compared to the second quarter of '21.

Now our private label operations have presented a 9% drop in intermediate volumes, totaling BRL 1.2 billion. In the left lower hand -- the left lower side, you can see that the company's VSO has had a slight drop both in São Paulo from 13.0% to 8.32% as well as in the rest of Brazil from 10.7% to 8.11%, which confirms the more challenging time in the market.

The company's velocity over the launches has improved in both views as an evidence that the gains of our own operations in the launches of the quarter. In the city of São Paulo, VSL has gone up from 18.1% to 19.7%; and in the rest of Brazil, from 13.2% to 21.9% as compared to the VSL for the same period in the year before.

Now moving to Slide #9, where you can see our total accumulated PSV for the last 12 months since 2017, including our own operations and franchises, trying to show a consistent growth of the company that we deliver in our intermediation. As you can see, the PSV intermediated by the company exceeds BRL 10 billion, and BRL 5.4 billion is related to franchise and BRL 4.8 billion is related to our own operations.

Now on the following slide, #10, you can see the results of intermediations broken down by region as well as our geographical footprint. We closed the quarter present in 19 states of Brazil and in the federal district with 165 stores. Overall, 18 of those are owned stores and 147 are franchises, which confirms the strengthening of our chain of stores and high efficiency and aggressiveness in our expansion process.

As you can see in the chart, in the lower part of the slide, you can see the consistency of our store expansion plan that accumulate the growth of 43% in our annual base and 10% as compared to the last quarter that we published. On the upper part of the slide, you can see that the state of São Paulo accounted for 56% of our PSV intermediated for our own operations in the quarter. The South accounted for 25% of our intermediated PSV with a highlight for Londrina. While Fortaleza and Espírito Santo contributed with 19%.

Our franchise for the first time the state of Rio de Janeiro was the leader intermediation, totaling 46% of our quarter's PSV, thereby improving our assertiveness in our expansion strategy in the market of Rio de Janeiro, both in the primary and secondary markets with the brand's Lopes and Patrimóvel. The market in São Paulo accounted for 35% of our intermediated PSV, and other regions totaled 19%.

Now continuing, moving to Slide 11, you can see the evolution of the company and indicators related to Lopes Labs along the quarter. On the left-hand side, you can see that the visiting of the Lopes portal and blog has presented a 6% drop as compared to Q2 2021 with 2.8 million visitors, once again impacted by the more challenging time that we have in the real estate market.

On the other hand, it's important to note in the chart immediately below, an improvement of 11% in conversion of those visitors into leads as compared to the same period of 2021, reaching a level of 1.83% of conversion. As a consequence, even with fewer visitors, we could see a growth of 13% in the volume of leads originated by Lopes portal as compared to the same period in the year before. As compared to the last quarter announced, however, there has been a drop of 23% in the volume of leads generated.

Lastly, on the lower right-hand side, you can see a consistent increase in the number of new real estate that have been captured for the quarter in Lopes platform. Just in a period for April, May and June this year, almost 28,000 new properties were put for sale or lease on the platform against 18% superior to Q2 2021.

So these were my considerations about our operational results for the second quarter of 2022. And now I would like to give the floor to Francisco, who is going to talk about CrediPronto, and then Matheus will present the company's financial results. Thank you very much.

[Francisco Neto, executive]

Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here once again talking to you about CrediPronto's performance in the second quarter of 2022.

As said in the beginning, we have been seeing a recomposition of rates with the average rate this quarter was 9.4% and a growth of 2 percentage points approximately, which was higher than the previous quarter. And this is a trend that we had already seen of stability of the rates that we are practicing, and this confirms what we have been doing.

In terms of origination, we should highlight that we had a volume of BRL 1.072 billion, even though this has been a drop as compared to the second quarter in the year before -- as compared to the industry that we gained market share in this industry as compared to other private agents or banks, they dropped by 43% in the same period, and our drop was only 33%. So our market share was 6% and went to 7.1%.

On the other side, an important rate that we monitor, which are new contracts originated by each settled contract. And in the second quarter, we had 12 new originated contracts for every terminated contract during the Q2. So there has been a growth in our portfolio. And looking at the year of 2022, you can see the origination, which was at BRL 11.6 billion at the end of December '21. And if we compare to June '22, we had an evolution of 10.5 percentage points of growth in the active portfolio. And in the quarter, we had a growth of 4.25%. So this demonstrates how healthy our portfolio is and our continuing expansion and also in the maintenance of a very healthy portfolio.

As to our results on Slide #14, you can see the last 12 months in terms of origination. And on Slide 15, you can see the results of the quarter that we are reporting. And as a reminder, we'll receive in 45 days after the day of closing. So we ended the quarter with BRL 8 million, but we are already announcing the results of June, which were BRL 3.4 billion in a month. And we are still reducing our expenses as compared to Q2 '22 to the second quarter of 2021, which is very healthy because the origination volume has dropped in CrediPronto continues its work system to generate value in our chain, providing credit, and so that we are increasingly more competitive in the scenario.

Thank you very much. And now I would like to give the floor to Matheus Fabricio to talk about the financial results of the company.

[Matheus de Souza Fabricio, executive]

Thank you, Francisco.

So starting the analysis of the financial results on Slide 17, we present the gross revenue of the company in Q2 '22. The -- so as of our own operations was BRL 1.2 billion net intermediation rate of 2.12%, in line with the last quarter. So -- and then when we multiply by the build a PSV, we have a gross revenue of intermediation of BRL 25.7 million. This revenue must be added to revenues from other segments, the royalty revenue from our franchise, CrediPronto, specifically the profit sharing commissions, and all of them booked in the line of other revenues, totaling BRL 24.8 million. We total gross revenue in the quarter, BRL 54.1 million, and we need to add the value of the deferral of revenue from CrediPronto.

On Slide #18, we have the net revenue and expenses. The company's net revenue reached BRL 49.3 million in Q2 '22, equivalent to a reduction of 17% when we compare to the same period last year, which is explained basically by the reduction in CrediPronto's revenues. The bar chart also shows the contribution of each segment towards the net revenue. Intermediations accounted for 53% of the company's revenue in the period; CrediPronto, 33%; and franchise, 14% in absolute numbers. As compared to the same period last year, intermediations remained stable. CrediPronto had a drop of 41%, as we mentioned before, and franchises had a significant high of 51%.

On the chart on the side, you can see the company's operational expenses before IFRS that remained stable at BRL 36 million as compared to the same period last year.

Moving to Slide #19, you can see the comparison between EBITDA and net income of the controllers without the IFRS. On the left, you can see EBITDA of the company's totaled BRL 13.4 million in the quarter with a margin of 27% higher than the last quarter. However, the drop of 42% as compared to Q2 '21. On the right-hand side, you can see net income of controllers before IFRS totaling BRL 2.4 million with a net margin of 5%.

On Slide #20, you can see the evolution of net income before IFRS in the last 12 months' vision since the Q1 2018, totaling BRL 32 million in the second quarter of 2022.

On Slide #21, we move on to the analysis by segment, looking at quarters without IFRS effect. The segment of intermediations had a loss of BRL 2 million before IFRS, franchise had a net income before IFRS of BRL 3.2 million with a margin of 47% and CrediPronto had a net income of BRL 6 million with a margin of 36.8%. And consolidated net income reached BRL 7.3 million in the quarter, a margin of 14.8%. And after distribution or payout to minority shareholders, we got the result of BRL 2.5 million for controlling shareholders with a 5% margin.

On Slide #22, the impact of IFRS in our numbers. Once again, the main impact of IFRS are related to depreciation and amortization of intangibles and noncash impacts and deferred income tax. And so we had an impact of BRL 10.9 million in the quarter, and we recommend analyzing our numbers without those impacts to understand better our company.

Lastly, on Slide #23, you can see the cash variation in the period and total availability of the company in the quarter. On the left, you can see the cash from operational activities with a drop of BRL 4.8 million, impacted by the lower cash generation of CrediPronto and the payment of profit sharing program. The cash by financing activities was BRL 21 million, especially due to the payout of dividends and the buyback program of the company. The balance of availabilities at the end of the period was the BRL 31.1 million.

And these were my considerations about the financial results. Once again, we thank you very much for your participation, and now we are moving to the questions-and-answer session.

[Unknown Executive]

[Operator Instructions] The first question come from Elvis Credendio from BTG.

[Elvis Credendio, analyst]

I have 2 questions to ask. First one regarding the franchise sector you're expanding. I want to understand how you see the pace of growth -- and whether is the pipeline good? And a specific point regarding franchises about the PSV in Rio, it has grown a lot quarter-on-quarter, but adding only 2 franchises. Could you give us a little bit more detail what explains that, whether it's a one-off effect or not?

And the question number 2 is about CrediPronto. I'd like to understand the reduction that you have had in your expenses in Itaú and Olímpia. So is it a fixed or variable factor in terms of -- as we have lower originations, does it have any reflects on expenses? And how much should we expect? And is there any legacy looking forward?

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Elvis, for the questions. I would like to start answering about franchises. So we have been very successful in terms of keeping the base for the expansion of stores. It's about 8% to 10% per quarter, which we find very healthy. At the same time, as we consider aggressive.

We learned over the past few years, that it is important for you not just to increase the number of stores, but with good stores with a lower risk of mortality that might produce royalties in the short term in attracting managers and brokers or realtors that are in the market. So we are not focusing just on the number of stores, but also on the quality of those stores, thinking into the future, we want to keep at the same pace and even at a faster pace.

We have a good pipeline of applicants that have joined the positive market, and this is better for expansion, a slightly more challenging market. Negotiations are slightly more difficult but we are -- we remain optimistic with that regard so that in the short term, we can be present in every state in Brazil. There are still 6 or 7 states for us to go, and we want to reach our goals very soon, and we want to increase this.

As to Rio de Janeiro, you are right. In fact, PSV was very significant. Even though we don't have so many more stores, this is explained by the franchise of Patrimóvel, which is a franchise that is really being with a high volume of real estate agents, very strong pipeline. In this segment, we had a very significant result ending to other expansions, Lopes and others that have contributed and this is a little bit of both things and this is recurring. So this is a strong launch operation as the second largest operation in the market just behind our other operations. So Lopes franchises rank #2 in market share in the primary market in Rio de Janeiro.

So CrediPronto, would you like to repeat your question, please?

[Elvis Credendio, analyst]

Yes, of course. It's about expenses, Itaú and Olímpia. How much of it is related to a fixed effect and how much of it is related to a variable effect with the reduction of originations? Whether it is fixed or variable? And how much reduction you can imagine?

[Francisco Neto, executive]

Elvis, this is Francisco. Thank you for your question. A major component of that is in the line of variables because commissions vary according to origination, and we are also working to reduce expenses. So the 2 components can be added to each other. And then you see even a higher part coming from the variable component and a smaller share comes from others. We are going to monitor that expense line in this manner, and we wanted to behave in the levels that we have reached. We imagine that we are going to keep this level of BRL 1 billion that we have had in this period that we are going to keep expenses at that level with it going down a little bit, but just a little bit if we compare the second quarter of '22 with the first quarter of '21.

[Unknown Executive]

There are 2 other questions here, and I'll answer 2 of them at once about franchise. One regards same-store sales of our franchises because we present a 12% increase in the franchise PSV in a market that is more challenging. So basically, same-store sales is divided between secondary operations and those that they dropped very similar to origination of real estate credit depending on the market.

So in São Paulo, for example, the largest secondary market of franchise same-store sales dropped 20% to 30%, in line with the market dynamics. Now when we get same-store sales of launches, so this is related to each market. Rio de Janeiro is better. Goiânia is better, too. So no point of attention or concern regarding same-store sales because the primary market, they have been improved or gone up and the secondary market, they have gone down.

And the other question is -- while the other question is about the competition for the expansion of new franchises. And I think that I answered in Elvis question. So the company's objective is to increase this target is to keep it at the same levels.

There's another question from Bruno from Itau BBA about franchise too, asking about the maintenance of profitability looking at same stores since the market is more challenging.

Excellent question. I think that we can divide it in terms of expansion of new stores and keeping existing ones as to expansion to new stores as we -- as I said in my answer to Elvis, we are being very careful in choosing our targets. When there is a real estate agency that can produce the PSV volumes that we consider for the short term, we can be slightly more flexible. And looking into the long term and its performance within the whole network. This is a case-by-case analysis, looking at gaining profitability for new stores.

As to our current stores, we also need to analyze the individual possibility each one of them in the vision of market and segment of operation. And we haven't noted or seen any loss or penalty in terms of store profitability, but we are paying closer attention to possible plans of flexibilization and royalty fees or minimal payments. But right now, we are not worried about anything in terms of profitability also because the royalties are paid after the commission of the franchise for real estate intermediation. So there is not a mismatch. We can follow that up in a very healthy way.

[Unknown Executive]

We are now closing questions-and-answer session. I would like to give the floor back to the company's CEO, Mr. Marcos Lopes, for his closing remarks.

[Marcos Lopes, executive]

Well, thank you very much for your participation in presenting our results for the second quarter of 2022. I would like to thank you all for your attendance, but also to reaffirm our confidence in dealing with the times we are going through the company's strategy, the execution of our work towards the second quarter, in terms of our own units, launches franchises as well as loans and real estate financing and all initiatives that we are implementing towards the company's growth and increasing our market share and increasing our geographical footprint and continue to implement so that we can become leaders in the Brazilian market. Thank you all very much, and have a good afternoon.

[Unknown Executive]

LPS Brasil conference call has now ended. We thank you all very much for your participation, and we wish you all a good afternoon.

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