MRV Engenharia e Participacoes SA

BOVESPA:MRVE3

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q1

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Thank you for holding, and welcome to MRV's First Quarter of 2022 Results Conference Call. Today with us, we have the CEOs of the company, Mr. Rafael Menin; and Mr. Eduardo Fischer; and the Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer, Mr. Ricardo Paixao. [Operator Instructions]

Now, I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Rafael Menin, MRV's CEO. Mr. Menin, you may proceed.

[Rafael Nazareth Menin Teixeira de Souza, executive]

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for attending this -- one more call to listen about the results of MRV. Well, we have good things to tell you in this conference, especially resulting from our subsidiaries and AHS certainly is the subsidiary that has been posting stronger results. We have disclosed recently a plan to reach 12,000 units per year. In order to attain that figure, we'll need to address the capital structure of the company, given that it will be a growth in a very short period of time, and we need a lot of capital to go from a company of 2,000 apartments per year to 12,000. On the positive side is that the capital markets in the United States is very mature. This class of assets, there is a high demand for it.

And in our transactions, we've been maintaining very good results, much higher than what we had planned in the budget of the company 2 years ago. Rental and housing, it is the highest -- strongest pain in the U.S., although it may seem strange in the large cities. This has been a large problem despite the very low unemployment rates in the United States currently. There is a mismatch between the value of houses and the value of rental when compared to the income of middle-class in the U.S., and that has created an amazing opportunity for AHS to operate in this market of the Sunbelt, Florida, Georgia and Texas.

And we are also looking at some other states, but mainly the consolidation of the market, the large market presence in these 3 states. The combined GDP of these 3 states is $3.5 trillion or twice the GDP of Brazil. That shows the strength of these markets and the potential of them. I would also like to highlight the performance of Urba, a subsidiary that we tried to go public 2 months ago and to launch the market. And what was promised 2 years ago, we delivered strictly the same figures, very good margins, growth of land bank, growth of launches and sales.

So it is a company that has had a very good path, and today, we are convinced that it can grow much more than its current size. It's a very good product with very little competition. There is no good operator with a national scale doing that. So in the growth avenues that we have created by MRV in the companies or in the cities we're present for a long time, it will serve in this market with little competition where there are few companies with good quality. It delivers a very different product, and it's well-recognized in the markets it is operating. We had thought Urba would be 15 lots per year.

And today, we are convinced that we can reach a higher figure, much higher than 15,000 per year. So when we look at the development of low-income development operation doing 40,000 units per year that could be Urba that will be MRV. And if we add Luggo, that also has had a very good performance with more in the -- when signing the contract with Brookfield, we have additional funds. I am absolutely certain that MRV&Co. is positioned as a very different real estate company when compared to the competitors in the Brazilian market.

So this is the good side that gives us reason to be very optimistic for future years in the company. On the other hand, we must talk about the result that's been much lower than our historical performance in CVA program, the CVA housing program. It either accounts for 40% of our business, and we've had margins much lower than our historical margins in this segment. As you all know, the sales performance was very strong in 2020. We were quite aggressive commercially speaking, in 2020. In 2021, the performance was also good, and we were aggressive in sales. And when we sell, we transfer it -- the units almost simultaneously. And therefore, the prices are not updated. And we were surprised and the whole world was surprised by a very high inflation rate, not only in Brazil but worldwide.

And that has caused the economic developments from 2020 and 2021 mainly had a tragic performance in terms of margins. So we saw margins dropping quarter-on-quarter, and that has happened since 2020. And now we've reached the second quarter '22 with a gross margin below 20%, which is much lower than our historical pattern. It's worth highlighting that our background after IPO, we've been listed for 15 years now. And certainly, MRV has been the company that has delivered the best results, the most organized result with lower dispersion of values, more linearity.

We have a very low margin in stock and what we expect is for the company to capture future costs. But of course, some new things may happen. But if nothing else happens, we do expect to have a smaller gross margin in the next quarters, but then going up after that. For the -- we see a gross margin of new sales, which is nothing but the margin of that seasonal sales sold in the first quarter. This margin is growing, and we closed the first quarter with a margin of 23%. In April, it is now 25%. And in May, prices increased a bit more, and we intend to place this gross margin at the level of 30%. And for that to happen, prices have to be raised about BRL 10,000 when compared to what we have now.

And this will be possible due to 2 leverages. The first one is the lack of supply in the industry because most companies are no longer operating in this segment, which is very bad for the country because Casa Verde Amarela program, the low income housing program it used to be -- account for 30,000 units per month, and it's now 15,000 units per month, half the budget, it has half the budget. And in a program where there is no public funds it depends on adjustments of the rules so that it will go back to its performance that we projected according to the budget in the beginning of the year.

So we expect certain corrections in the rules of the programs in coming months. And when this happens, we can be quite confident that we'll be able to deliver a margin for new sales around 30%. And then obviously, sometime in the next year, we'll also report the gross margin of the CVA segment around 30%. And in this period, the subsidiaries will continue to grow at a strong pace. And if you make the calculations, you can think of AHS making 12,000 units per year at an average ticket of $350,000, Urba posting $2,000, Sensia and Luggo growing a lot and at some point in time, the subsidiary that I call this economic segment posting 40,000 units per year at a gross margin of 40%.

And when that happens, we'll certainly have figures that are much different from the current ones, a much higher and more significant than any other real estate company has ever reported in the Brazilian market. So of course, we have to look at the capital structure and the short term, the low return we are delivering in this economic segment. We have planted a lot of good projects, and we'll reap the fruit in coming years. We will have to work hard in 2022, but the seeds have been planted. And I'm sure that these trees will grow and flourish in coming years, and we'll be able to have a very good harvest as the projects mature.

And now, I'll turn the floor over to Kakao for him to talk about the financials of the company.

[Ricardo Paixão, executive]

Thank you, Rafael. Good morning, everyone. Now I would like to go over some details and results based on numbers. Some important events that we have observed in this first quarter of '22. First, I would like to highlight the largest sales of MRV&Co. in the first quarter. We had another sale of AHS product of BRL 240 million. There was some question about recurrence of results in the U.S. subsidiary. In the last 6 quarters, 5 of them, we had sales in the U.S. operations. So if you transport this space that we've seen in the U.S., we had Oak Enclave with a PSV of BRL 684 million. We sold another portfolio of MRV and the first operation of its kind, which is selling portfolio for Urba.

Urba is even more significant than MRV in this quarter, given the size of the operation. We're able to place more than BRL 100 million in the cash of Urba, our development company. And this is very important for Urba because we have an aggressive plan ahead. So this sale of platform of portfolio will be very important to consolidate the segment and to fund a large portion of the future growth of the company. On the page number 3 of the release, we have a chart that shows how Urba is becoming more relevant in our results. It had a CAGR of 78% in its sales volume in 2019 and towards 2022.

And in addition to its large potential growth, this operation has a high gross margin, close to 40% and an excellent demand for plots of land. Now talking about AHS, also on page 6 of release, we have a growth of the sales volume of AHS. We had a gross volume of 60% in the period. We have BRL 65 million in construction, which is a significant figure, but when compared to AHS, 12,000 units and almost $4 billion in VGV -- PSV.

Now we can consider the Q&A session open.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Mr. Gustavo Cambauva from BTG Pactual has a question.

[Gustavo Cambauva, analyst]

I have 2 questions. The first is whether you could comment a bit on the Brazil operation. What do you imagine to have in terms of launch volume for this year? Both in terms of volume, maybe this difficulty in operating in CVA program will reduce the volume of launches this year and also the mix of products because we've seen that the other lines of business, SBPE, Urba and Luggo are gaining more share when compared to CVA. Does this -- will this continue -- or this improvement -- this recent improvement in the program will make you look at CVA more carefully?

And my other question is about the sales of receivables portfolio. What are you envisaging in terms of recurrence of these sales because you have a high amount of large volume of portfolio that could be sold to help the company invest in other lines of business? So I would like to know whether it's possible to structure this type of sale to have it happen every quarter or is it something specific? How much more sales of receivables could we expect for the rest of the year?

[Eduardo de Souza, executive]

This is Gustavo Fischer speaking. Thank you for your question. The first question, I'll answer, and then Kakao will answer the second one about portfolio. Well, launches in CVA in the first quarter were lower, in fact, and that does not affect our strategy for the year 2022. We have been more selective in launches, aiming at better margins. And we also have a challenge of cash generation. So we are balancing the launches to the demand. That doesn't affect our figures for 2022.

Another aspect to be considered is that at many launches we made and sales we made are in cities where we are close to the limit of the program, and we migrated some of these sales to SBPE naturally as the prices increased. So the mix distribution may make you think that CVA is decreasing, but this is not the case. Our goal for the year has not changed. And you may remember that we have been making an effort recently to migrate the products to the essential line. It has increased the number of launches, and this line has -- will always be part of the program.

So our strategy doesn't change looking forward. What changes is the mix. What we used to call core business in the past is no longer the core. Core is now this platform that we have. So we'll see more growth in SBPE, in Urba and AHS as well as Luggo. But this does not affect the strategy of launches of CVA. Especially if, in fact, the plan is reviewed, the CVA program is reviewed, which is everyone's sentiment that it will happen because the program is performing lower than expected. So there is money in excess of FGTS program for subsidies. So our strategy towards the program doesn't change. Now Kakao will answer the other question.

[Rafael Nazareth Menin Teixeira de Souza, executive]

We had pro soluto to sales of BRL 40 million. Now BRL 66 million, our own portfolio was not pro soluto, was a flex portfolio. Of course, we fund the customer directly. In the first quarter '22 and for MRV, we have a recurrent plan to sell receivables. Right now, we're working on an operation of a transaction of a large amount of receivables to be sold. Maybe -- I don't know if it's going to be recurring like every quarter but our goal is for the trade receivables not to grow throughout the year. Since we're providing more credit facilities or credit lines to customers, we need to do this type of transaction to leverage the company, etcetera.

So in the second quarter, it will be around BRL 200 million, BRL 300 million in sales of pro-soluto portfolio again. As for Urba, it was the first time we're able to pack receivables of Urba to sell BRL 100 million. And for Urba, we could think of a recurring transaction every quarter. As we sell and have more receivables, we'll back them and sell them to the market and tell the market about it. So that's the reality of the company from now on. This type of transaction will be more often recurrent transaction. In the second quarter, we'll have something for MRV and then to the end of the year, another transaction.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Bruno Mendonca from Bradesco BBI.

[Bruno Mendonca, analyst]

I have 2 questions. I'd like to start talking about land. The fitting of lands to new projects to projects in terms of -- with this volume of launches you plan to have from now on. To what extent can you guarantee that these new launches are not deriving from the desired margin with the land bank you have in-house or will it depend on higher prices. For the second quarter, do you have something significant in order to have a margin that's so different from what's been reported, maybe some different types and processes that are different or different material to deliver such better margins?

And the second question is about cash burn. For Brazil, we've had 2 less quarters with a strong cash burn and advancing the purchase of materials. But probably, you have delayed receivables from cash. The truth is we don't have visibility for normalization of the supply chain and materials, etcetera. So this question will be limited to Brazil. We can talk about AHS later, but I'll first like to hear about Brazil.

[Eduardo de Souza, executive]

Bruno, this is Fischer speaking. I'll answer the first question and have Kakao answer the cash management question. Land bank, the way we build the land bank tends to protect us in terms of margin. First, we work with a swap. So the cost is linked to the price of the apartment. So you are somehow protected. Another part of the land is paid at cash. So if there is a condition in which the price is not adjusted, we're naturally protected. In some situations that are paid cash where it is adjusted for inflection we're going back for inflation. We're going back and negotiating the terms again. So on the land bank side, I don't see any problems.

The main point when you -- in terms of margin formation is the price. So we're making an effort to review prices and raise prices. We've been able to do this quite well when the market has responded in an interesting way. As Rafael mentioned in the beginning, competition is decreasing. So except for Sao Paulo, what we have seen Brazil worldwide is that the market is decreasing in the program, which helps us in terms of pricing because the supplies are clearly smaller.

So being able to raise prices without affecting the liquidity -- this causes current launches to happen at a margin that are considerably high. That explains your question. That's an answer to your questions. We have a margin that captures all that supply of -- the amount of sales made in 2020 and 2021 at a condition that's different, costs that are different. Now pricing is much higher, and we're able to launch at much better margins than we are reporting now. So overall, this is what's happening. Kakao will answer the second question.

[Rafael Nazareth Menin Teixeira de Souza, executive]

Well, in terms of cash burn, we have 30%, 35% generates a certain cash and a margin of 19%, 20% generates a different cash. So the first relevant point is to say that while our margins are tighter, cash generation will be naturally smaller. But even so, it should converge to net income. So why is it not converging to net income today? We've had an increase in accounts receivable that we're trying to remedy by selling the portfolio and selling future sales of portfolio will provide better cash balance. Another point is this inventory of raw materials.

We've seen a lack of supply recently, but that has been solved, but we continue to see pressure for increase in the price of raw materials. So this strategy of keeping high inventory levels is making sense so far. And the other important point is, for example, Luggo, Luggo burned cash in the first quarter. So it's natural because at a high growth rate to cash -- to burn cash until the developments are ready. But we do have a good expectation of sales of 2 developments with receipts from Luggo in the second quarter. So it will go from a cash burner to a cash -- source of cash in the second quarter. So as we are able to recover margins, that will help to generate cash as well.

[Bruno Mendonca, analyst]

If I could make a follow-up in terms of land bank that Fischer mentioned in the beginning, there are 2 topics that caught my attention. There are some indexation to IPCA and the contracts of land. This being negotiated, how much could that affect the margin from now on? And Fischer, if you could provide more color in the swaps? And if you are working with the percentage of PSV, it will be locked, right? So if I'm not -- if I'm understanding it correctly, the material remains more expensive. So you're renegotiating that or on average, the land enters a percentage of final result after materials. So I'm talking about the lands that are already in-house in the land bank?

[Eduardo de Souza, executive]

Okay, Bruno let's start from the beginning. Some indicators -- we do have some inflation indicators in land bank. This has been reviewed when IPCA started to go up and inflation, we started reviewing the new contracts. The new contracts are very well-protected against that. And we do -- we did go back to negotiations in reviewing 4 old contracts. So this is not a problem, and we've been able to renegotiate them. The feasibility clause in the contract protects us from launching projects in a situation that's unfavorable for the company.

So that's not an issue. In terms of the exchanges or swaps, we make most of them on a financial basis. In that case, the owner of the land receives a percentage of the PSV. That's the standard approach. So this loss of margin could happen in terms of cost and maturity dates. But that's not a problem because we -- it's an operational issue that we work with prices. And since prices have been raised more than costs have increased, margin is growing. So that's not a problem. I hope I have answered your question.

[Operator]

The next question is from Andre Mazini from Citibank.

[André Mazini, analyst]

The first question is about AHS in the U.S. market. It's really a hot market. In Florida, we hear anecdotes of growth of 40% year-on-year, a lot of migration to the Sunbelt area. But maybe in the financial market, things are not so warm. [indiscernible] other peers have had a sell-off of 30%, 40% this year sell-off. So of course, you want to capitalize. But in terms of valuation you post almost $700 million for AHS. And these companies that I mentioned and the market average has reached 1.6x the book 6 months ago, now it's much lower. So what do you imagine?

Of course, [indiscernible] growing a lot, so capitalization would come at a very good multiple, 1.5 or 2. On the other hand, as we mentioned, the sell-off is going on at 600 bps -- [ bip ]. So in Brazil, it has fallen by half in terms of units produced and a number of players. Since you are in many cities, 160, that changed the dynamics when the -- in Sao Paulo with a lot of competition and demand, an average town has half the players that we had at the peak of the program of -- My House My Life program. So you are in around 60 or 70 towns in this new scenario of the program.

[Eduardo de Souza, executive]

First, regarding just when we disclosed the transaction in the beginning of '20, our business plan assumed a gross margin of 28%, making 5,000 units per year. What has happened since then, you are right. The real estate pressure, especially in the Florida market has caused rentals to raise -- to increase 30%. Will that happen again in the future? No. It's not very likely because there will be a balance. So supply will go up more than the demand, and then rental prices may go back to historical levels or grow less.

But the fact is that the gross margin of the company today has been above 45%. In a country the cost of capital that is very low and reminding that the sales expenses are very low because transaction is a B2B transaction. So the sales fee is much lower. Then this causes the final return of AHS to be exclusive at higher -- very high levels. So we don't have in the business plan a gross margin of 45%, but it could be 38% or 30%, yes. So we'll certainly have a gross margin than -- next 2 to 3 years, much higher than was presented in the business plan of the company.

And today, when we buy a new plot of land, we don't make the pro forma imagining a new increase in rental prices above inflation. Especially in Florida, Andre, we stressed the pro forma to have a more conservative scenario. And we have seen that even with the stress test, profitability has been above the one we had forecasted in our business plan. As for the capitalization, we've seen a good demand. The operation is very -- has been very good assessed and very well assessed and we, in the next 90 to 120 days, we'll have a very good multiple in terms of NAV.

I cannot speak a valuation because the competition -- the competitive process is taking place right now. So above -- a little bit above $1 billion, that there is no business on our side. So the basic figure or the lower figure will be close to BRL 2 billion. This is -- I cannot say that this is what we seek, but above BRL 1 billion, we don't make business. There's no deal. So we do have a very good expectation and have [ post-money ] of 20%. We can bring very good capital to AHS and mark in assets that today is worth zero, when it's mark-to-market, that asset will have an overall value that's more than the whole value of MRV today.

So this lack of visibility is damaging the value of MRVE3. And there will be a price adjustment when -- even in the -- although in the Brazilian market, the margins are tighter. So in terms of AHS, this is what I had to say. Now for Brazil, what you said is true. The program has lost speed, lost very quickly. In most of the towns we're present, competition is much lower when compared to, let's say, 1 year ago. Competition has decreased very quickly. Of course, there are differences from town to town. And that's the beauty of being present in 100 -- more than 100 towns in Brazil.

We can be more aggressive in some markets in terms of launches and sales prices. And in other prices that are -- or markets that are more competitive, but certainly less than they were last year or one year ago, we can be more selective. So with the capillarity we have with our land bank of almost 300,000 units for the CVA program, we can accelerate more in some regions of Brazil and be more conservative in other towns. Looking always at the margin scenario, we want to correct this level of gross margin of the company as soon as possible. And we'll launch -- will not launch a product with a low gross margin from the future on.

[Operator]

The next question is from [ Igor Acero ] from [ XP ].

[Unknown Analyst]

I have 2 questions. The first is about the program. You've seen adjustments in the subsidy account. I would like to understand what will be the necessary adjustment for you to have a healthier gross margin? That's the first question. And the second is how do you see delinquency especially in the pro-soluto portfolio with a more challenging scenario?

[Eduardo de Souza, executive]

Let me answer about the program. We've mentioned sometimes now -- when you look at the figures since the second half of last year, the decrease in the program was much higher. There are some markets and for several reasons. There are fewer markets. The affordability has decreased. Many markets raised prices due to the same strategy that we have. So the low-income population cannot afford anymore. So that's the consequence. For the first time, there is excess of funds in FGTS for subsidies. Of course, the government looks at that, understand the dynamics and react to that. We've seen some transactions, some conversations of our associates with the government are taking place, and there is a sign that something will be done about it.

We do not know exactly what will happen, but probably some more of the same, changing the curve of subsidies, increasing subsidies and the interest rates brackets of the program would also be changed to help the population that earns 2 to 5 minimum wages. And this is what the conversation has been about. In my point of view, it won't -- it shouldn't take very long because month after month, competition is decreasing and new contracts also decreasing. It's hard to provide a figure, but I strongly believe that this should happen in relatively short period of time. So in the next months, it's likely that we'll have a new curve based on what I have seen in terms of discussions in the government. Now Kakao will answer the other question.

[Rafael Nazareth Menin Teixeira de Souza, executive]

What we have noticed in terms of delinquency is that it has worsened a bit in the last -- end of last year, beginning of this year, the number of payments on time has decreased. It's a marginal decrease, nothing significant. I think this is only natural given the high inflation rates that we've seen. And it's important to point out that we made the adjustments of the provisions based on this new reality. It was a small adjustment. Maybe it was not enough to call your attention. But yes, throughout this year, when you have higher adjustments to the salaries of the population, the income may increase a bit, and that could help us go back to a more normal situation. But MRV remains at a very healthy level and according to our provisions in accordance with our provisions.

[Operator]

The next question is from Marcelo Motta from JPMorgan.

[Marcelo Motta, analyst]

I have 2 questions. First, I would like to know if you could comment on transfers. We've seen that some companies have tried to decelerate the number of transfers either to get more inflation or maybe catch the change of subsidies. In your case, has this been a factor that impacted the cash burn in this quarter? And the second question is about sales over supply. You've mentioned that the growth of margin, you've been able to transfer some low-income units. Has this impacted the sales over supply this below 15% in the first quarter? Can this go back to the 30% margin?

[Rafael Nazareth Menin Teixeira de Souza, executive]

In terms of sales over supply, we continue to pull prices in April to increase prices by 2%, and the result is very similar to the months of the first quarter. So we did not observe any reduction of sales over supply. Of course, we would like to have a higher speed, faster speed, but it is known that the low-income population cannot afford purchases. Inflation has corroded the purchasing power of low-income population.

So it's important to make adjustments to the program. Eduardo answered in a previous question that the program in these last 8 months has been delivering half of what it used to deliver. That is related to this new level of prices of the industry when compared to the purchasing power of the low-income population of Brazil. So our strategy will be to gradually increase prices. The SOS average is not bad, but it's not very good either. So today, margin is a priority in terms when compared to SOS. And I now will leave the second question for Ricardo to answer.

[Ricardo Paixão, executive]

Okay. In terms of transfers, what we actually see is that we've had a good pace of transfers. We were able to transfer units 15 days after sales. And that's a natural transfer. A good portion of sales were closed at the end of March, and we're not able to transfer them within the quarter, but it's a continuous cycle. So the transfers in March we're doing -- are being done in April as usual. And the contracts with some companies, oh, I remember what I was going to say. We have the issue of companies. Today, we only have the money -- received the money after the companies are registered. So there is a cycle issue. It has had some impact on transactions from the previous quarter. Now the rule is effective.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Next question is from Fanny Oreng from Santander.

[Fanny Oreng Avino, analyst]

You mentioned that the margin of products being sold, CVA is around 23%. I'd like to understand what's the margin of launches? First, to have an idea of future margins, I understand where you have [ it used ]. But just for us to know the launch -- the current launches, what are the margins? And about Urba is the second question. You've reminded us about Urba's outlooks. Could you give us an update of how the operation is evolving? What are margins like? What are the expectations and other update of these operations? That's it.

[Eduardo de Souza, executive]

Well, more important than speaking of the margin of launches is to speak about margins of sales that happened in January, February, March and April. We sell launches, product that has been launched 1 year ago so sales prices of new launches and sales prices of products launched one year ago have increased. We've been trying to increase prices above current inflation rates to recover the margin. And this is why we disclosed for this -- for the first time, these previous indicator. So our expectation of future inflation is something that is already in our balance sheet. Since the quarterly statements is a mix of several seasons of sales in the last 2 or 3 years. Of course, the impact of sales of the quarter is small.

But as time goes by, we expect that is piling up of these seasons with better margins will provide a better margin for the future. I said that I believe in the beginning, the margin of April is close to 25%. And our target is to reach a margin for new sales so the margin of the month, close to 30%. When we reach that level, we'll have a return on ROI, that's very interesting, given that the cost of operation is around 18%. SG&A and some other expenses plus financial expenses, income tax, that is about 2%. All that will amount to 18%, 19%. So we have to have a gross margin above 30% to have an ROI that is a good compensation on remuneration on capital. This is what we're working for in terms of margin of new sales. As for your second question, could you repeat it, please?

[Fanny Oreng Avino, analyst]

The second question was about Urba. If you could give us some more color on the development of the operation, you expect a very good high growth for this year. Just some colors and Urba's update.

[Eduardo de Souza, executive]

We tried to take the company to the market or in August 2020. Urba, we had a business plan back then. Urba sold 1,000 lots in 2019. We had a business plan to have the company selling 15,000 lots per year. But since then, the company has doubled in size. It has doubled its size from 2020 when compared to 2019 and again in 2021. So it's very likely that it will also double its size in 2022. So this growth -- exponential growth curve is happening. 2023, we have raw material to make many more launches than we'll probably do in 2022 or 2020, and it's delivering very good profitability, close to 40% in a very low competition scenario.

It's still an industry that is not as mature as the development industry of apartments. And we are operating in towns and markets that we know very well with a strong brand, with developments with an average ticket that's very interesting when compared to the quality of the product delivered. So more and more, the brand Urba has been recognized in the market as a differentiated product with a very good value for money with a very high urban development quality. So we are sure that urban will play a very important role at MRV&Co.

And we have high technology, high capacity to grant credit and differently from the industry, we're able to study the receivables of this portfolio, and it's very healthy. So Urba is a company that makes developments and allotments that are very different from other companies in the market. And I'm sure that we'll be able to grow with capital without the need for MRV&Co. to fund the company for its growth. So I personally see a bright future for Urba in coming years.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] This ends the Q&A session. I would like to call the CEO of the company Eduardo Fischer for his final remarks.

[Eduardo de Souza, executive]

Well, thank you all for attending this call once again. I would like to have a final remarks that are important. What has changed for us in this last quarter is the fact that we now report this previous indicator, which is the margin of new sales on a monthly basis. This is an important figure for us. As a spirit of the -- in the company, we try to look at future scenarios and bring it to the present always. This margin has an interesting feature because we consider future cost, but not future prices. So as our growth strategy continues, margins can be improved. So this is what we're working for. So I'm very confident that the initiatives taken within the business unit of Brazil are very important.

And we are at a turning point now and we'll be able to see these figures improvement in the future given everything we've been doing, especially in terms of pricing. Another important point, we talked a lot about AHS, Urba and Luggo. MRV today does not have the core business. Our core business is a platform is what we do in the different initiatives that are -- we have initiatives that not compete with each other. AHS has high-level executives working there. Urba also has high-level executives as well as Luggo. So we have separate business units managed in an integrated way with MRV, but with their own management.

So this allows us to grow and to capture this huge housing potential in Brazil and not only in Brazil, but as well as in the United States as well. And we are very confident that our strategy to create a housing platform has been paid off very much. And as the CVA program improves in Brazil, the results of this company created by MRV&Co. will grow more and more. And this is a company that has conditions to deliver growth and profitability in the future. This is what we have designed and we are very confident that we're taking the steps in the right direction. So thank you all for attending, and we will see you again. Hope to see you again in the next call. Thank you.

[Operator]

The conference call of MRV has now ended. We thank you all for attending, and have a good day.

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