Multiplan Empreendimentos Imobiliarios SA

BOVESPA:MULT3

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q1

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the First Quarter 2020 Earnings Results Call for Multiplan. Today with us, we have Mr. José Isaac Peres, CEO; Mr. Armando d'Almeida Neto, CFO and IRO; Mr. Marcello Barnes, VP for Development; Mr. Hans Melchers, Executive Officer for the Planning and Investor Relations. This presentation is going to be made available for download at ir.multiplan.com.br. We would also like to inform you that this event is recorded [Operator Instructions]

Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Multiplan management and on information currently available to the company. And they involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events, and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur; as I said, based on future events, which may or may not occur. You have to understand that conditions related to the macroeconomic scenario, industry and other factors could also cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.

This teleconference will last 60 minutes, and after this period, the Investor Relations team will be available if any questions have not been answered. Now I will turn the floor over to Mr. José Isaac Peres, the CEO, who will begin the presentation. Mr. Peres, good morning. Thank you for being here today, and you may begin, sir.

[Jose Peres, executive]

Good morning. Thank you all for joining the call, ladies and gentlemen. So again, we're here to talk to you about how the quarter was, to make a few comments that I believe are important. So 1 year after the onset of the pandemic, it's important that we analyze some aspects in the company's journey. We know that this is one of the greatest crises that we've ever faced. Commerce and shopping is exhausted and it needs to go back to operating in full.

Just so you'd have an idea, in a normal quarter, we used to work 1,028 hours. And in this quarter, we're reporting about -- we had 647 hours, so 63% of what we normally do. If we deduct the activities that were not able to be carried out because of restrictions such as cinema, theater and entertainment activities in general, then we would have approximately 50% of the regular hours. So we had half of normal work, and this, in a context in which people are still staying at home.

Allow me to say that the company has weathered many crises in the past. And it's always important to look back on what has happened to prepare for the future. I have 58 years experience in my career and this company has been operating for 50 years. I'd like to tell you a little bit about the crisis we experienced in the '80s. We faced a severe recession in Brazil due to the oil crisis and the lack of resources to pay the foreign debt. Money was really expensive, and we had a high level of debt. We had 15% capital and 85% debt, and the cost of the debt back in the day was about 150% a year. And in our 5 first shopping malls, Morumbi, BarraShopping, the mall in Brasilia and in Ribeirão Preto and in Belo Horizonte, these were malls that were just at the beginning of their operations. I mentioned that -- and in the last months of Sarney's administration in 1984, inflation was at 80%, just to give you an idea of how difficult it was to live and to carry out businesses back then.

So we devised a tool, which was to sell shares and interests from the malls. These were people that had a long-term view, and they accepted the idea, bought interest and shares. And this is mainly sold through pension funds. And later, we bought these interests back, and out of our 20 malls, the average ownership interest is 81%. Our debt-to-asset ratio is currently 10% approximately. And our financial cost of the debt is low at 3.86%, so 3.86% a year. So you can see that we really are prepared to deal with these new challenges.

This crisis was also engendered due to the fact that the public health care in Brazil had already collapsed long ago and also due to the lack of hospital beds and due to another point that I thought was just tragic, which is that field hospitals were taken down last year. The government then simply shut down commerce as if commerce was the culprit of the whole situation, but it is not the culprit. Our malls are generally the cleanest of locations with the best and highest control. And this is something that has been stated by infectologists last year.

We carry out tests regularly. We hired an international company, [ AOS ] is the name of the company. And this company is the one conducting the tests, surface tests. They've been with us for 6 months now. And in these 6 months, we've carried out 700 tests, and we have found no trace of the coronavirus, not in air conditioning, not on the floor tiles, not in the toilet. Lots of people were talking about how long the virus would survive on a desk surface or on shoes, and all of that was just rhetoric and that created panic in the population. People are still very scared.

We have been promoting information on the radio and on digital media, showing people how we work so that they can feel safe and comfortable to go to the mall because it is a highly controlled environment. We are sure that the shopping mall segment will bounce back vigorously. And that is due to the fact that it is just human nature. Human nature has been the same for over 50,000 years. Humans are driven by desires and feelings and impulses that are primary, and they haven't changed. Aristotle, who lived in the 4th century AC, cites that human behavior is basically that of a gregarious animal, that is people yearn for other people, they want to be together with other people. So there is a suppressed demand for consumption. And there is suppressed demand and need for people. Isolation is an inhumane way to address epidemic.

This is the third wave we're going through now, and we're going to surf it and improve when it's over. Shopping malls are the best anti-depressants that exists in the urban environment. Shopping malls are areas where people gather, meet friends and very important for citizens. It is just an illusion to believe that e-commerce is going to have a significant impact on our malls because malls are no mere warehouses where they are displayed. Our modern experience, they offer services to society with medical centers, gyms, banks, entertainment and a lot more. Shopping malls are currently very different to what they were when they were first conceived of in the past, and the Brazilian shopping mall model is copied all over the world. And the international association of malls has made recommendations, which we did years ago, which is that malls should have medical centers. And it's an important point.

Another important point I'd like to mention, and this was a point that was in The Wall Street Journal, is that with vaccines and relief packages from the government, we can see that the suppressed demand in concession is recovering. Some segments grew 45% a year. And now you have $60 per share last year, and it were $130 today. So this is certainly going to have impact on Brazil as well because shopping malls are still growing very much in Brazil. And Multiplan is possibly the only company in Brazil that is building malls which is going to be opened this year, Jacarepaguá shopping mall. It will be launched and open in October or November. It's a very modern mall, and it's certainly going to attract attention.

A shopping mall is a product of care. Six years ago, when I built my first mall, the urban context was chaotic. There was not enough parking place for vehicles and traffic was on the verge of collapse. So we gave retail an opportunity to develop, we give them a new impulse. And we took away from the streets hundreds of millions of vehicles that are now parked in shopping malls. Can you imagine what lines would be like in great cities if you had all of the vehicles that are parked in malls parked in the street, where they would be exposed to the weather and to the lack of safety that we sadly see everywhere? So shopping malls are a solution, not a problem, be it during the pandemic or not.

I'd like to say that people live in the real-world and not in the digital world. Technology is a fantastic tool that will allow our consumers to consume better. We have our app called Multi, and it's an additional resource that will make it easier for you to buy in our malls. And we also have our Delivery Center, which is a logistics company. And the increase in use by tenants of our -- the Delivery Service, our logistics company, shows that this was the right choice, that we're on the right path for more integration between brick-and-mortar shops and digital shops. So we can see that e-commerce is very important, but the physical experience, the real-world experience is very important.

Our company was originally created as a real estate and construction company, and we're now focusing on major projects as well, generally in areas in the vicinities of our shopping malls. For example, the project we have in Porto Alegre, called Golden Lake. This is similar to what we had in Rio de Janeiro with Golden Green on Lúcio Costa Avenue, with a private area for leisure and a lot of vegetation. So Golden Lake is the largest project in the South of the country with 160,000 square meters in area, and it's connected to our BarraShoppingSul mall. This is an unprecedented project in Brazil that will meet the needs of society. People want to have an area where we can have sports and leisure and safety and also have services for their families. The occupancy rate of that land plot is 10% only, and 90% is open areas. It's going to be launched in August this year, and it was a BRL 470 million project. This is a project that took 10 years to be approved, and it was only approved due to the good relationship we have with local authorities.

This is a major project, and it's going to be realized in the coming 3 to 4 years. The first projects are high quality, and there's a great demand for them. People want to have freedom. They want to have space. We can give you further information on this project, if you want to, and you can really understand what Multiplan is all about.

Our land bank is relatively low. They were acquired generally a long time ago, in the outskirts but close to shopping malls, and these locations rose in value. So they were purchased at a low cost from an accounting perspective, and they're going to lead to a higher accounting -- to high-accounting earnings, really. And every crisis will breed opportunities. And everything comes to an end, and the crisis will come to an end, too. And the crisis gives us the opportunity to compete in the market with less competition.

So last year to reinforce our commercial position, we sold a tower we had in São Paulo. And that put us in a comfortable position to go through this period. But again, a crisis breeds opportunities. We were able to sell the tower at a very good price that led to high income to the company, high profit. And we feel relatively comfortable. We only sell an asset if it's at a very convenient price. And we are builders, right? So we develop and build and manage our assets. And I believe the real estate market will bounce back powerfully. So we're giving a lot of focus to our real estate projects that are in very good locations. They are always vying for. And well, I just wanted to say that we are comfortable here at Multiplan from a financial perspective. And I'd like to thank you all who are here with us.

And humans are the same all over the world. So I speak about humankind, and I don't mean only men, I mean men and women, of course. And I'm certain that if we had a woman in -- if we had women in power today, the country would be better managed. So I never differentiate between men and women. But we are comfortable. The crisis will come to an end. It already is coming to an end. The government must stop smothering commerce. We can't wait any longer. We're already short of breath, so we need to grow and expand.

So thank you very much. Thank you for your time.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question is by Nicole Inui from Bank of America.

[Nicole Inui, analyst]

So we are resuming operations at this point, we could see, right, with the shopping malls. There was a lockdown in March. So I know it's a bit too early. But I'd like to hear what you have to say about this second moment in going back to business. Are people going back to the malls faster than they did last year? Many people have been vaccinated after all, right? So what is your take on this whole situation going back to business? And is there any major difference from a region to another?

[Jose Peres, executive]

Nicole, this is José Isaac Peres, I'll take your questions. So there is a very strong suppressed demand. The volume of money in savings accounts and banks this year is 4x as large as we had last year. So when they had the chance and having the money to invest, people are going to -- people are eager to go back to their normal lives. We'll see what happens in Miami probably where we also have malls. According to my executives, about a week ago, we had so many people in the mall that they were already not taking more people in, so people couldn't go in, there were queues and all. So this is a sign that life is going back to normal. Many people are still scared of the virus, but I believe this is all going to end.

Humans adapt. And now with the vaccines, we're going to have the virus spreading less, and people are learning how to treat the disease as well. What we can see infection rates are going down. So we probably have good time to work. We may have some restrictions, of course, because this is how it stands, but we need restrictions to be lifted at some point. And activities should resume, and we should have more jobs coming up as well because many people have lost their jobs in this last period. And so I believe we're going to bounce back and bounce back in full swing.

[Operator]

The next question is from Alex Ferraz from Itau BBA.

[Alex Ferraz, analyst]

I have 2 questions. The first is about the turnover. Turnover's very strong. We could see that in the first -- rather in the fourth quarter and again in the first quarter. What is negotiation like at this point? Can we expect positive spread at this point even in more adverse conditions? And the second question is about your land bank, are you selling land lots? What could be expected from the sales of items in the land bank like in Maceió, for example, what could you expect?

[Jose Peres, executive]

This is José Isaac Peres. When we did the project in Maceió, we looked at a region that was quite deserted. And this is a project that we have that is a bit outside of our scope. We're not going to develop a real estate project there. We're going to sell the land lot, but we're selling it at 3x the price that we bought when we built the mall. We have a mall in that region, and we have many activities in the surrounding areas. And a land lot that cost BRL 20 million can now be sold at BRL 70 million. So it was a substantial profit in a relatively short period. And this has to do with our strategy to always create synergy between shopping malls and the prices of apartments and houses and hospitals and so on. Alex, would you like to complement that?

[Alex Ferraz, analyst]

I actually wanted to go back to Nicole's question as well.

[Armando Neto, executive]

You had this last session, network, and that was approximately 2.6% of our GLA. Almost 12,500 square meters that will allow us to improve our mix even further. And we have 2 areas being negotiated. We have located an essential part of another area, and we can see an increase in the square meter price, which is really generating value, diversifying experience and the sales mix in the mall.

I just wanted to take advantage of another point, to comment on Nicole's answer. Well, you were mentioning about April and the numbers from the quarter. And well, we only got 26%. And the average of April is -- well, if you take a look at the last week of April, it's 77%. And if you look at the month of April and you compare it year-on-year, the percentage of the working hours, also we can extrapolate the performance of sales. We can see there since the pandemic started, well, 14 months ago, we can see that the sales will -- has gone over the working hours.

And another indicator that it's very strong is that we had in the same quarter, a record of the turnover that was negotiated. We had 15,594 square meters and 99 operations, so the biggest number of the largest land bank negotiated over the last quarter. Then out of the 99 stores, 86 are our own tenants, so it shows the trustworthiness in our strategy. And the -- our entrepreneur -- it shows our will to grow and the trust in our enterprise so we can really face the challenges of the future. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

The next question will be from André Mazini from Citibank.

[André Mazini, analyst]

The first question is about your campaign. Well, the ESG, I wanted to know, well, more about that. And I wanted to understand -- well, you're talking about data. I would like to know your opinion on how -- what was the outcome of that campaign. And from now on, the first question actually, within Rio de Janeiro, you have a few of the -- well, national campaigns that are -- well, it's outperforming really here in Rio, for example, in VillageMall. Now people are not traveling anymore. And part of -- people would shop abroad and now they're shopping obviously locally, for example, BarraShopping is an option. So I believe that some of your malls are doing better than others. What do you think?

[Jose Peres, executive]

André, well it's a little bit of everything that you told us because really is an, for example, got a mall, some modern shopping mall. It's unique. For example, when we launched this mall, we have 500 stores. And we launched this, and it seems -- I have people telling me this was the most beautiful mall that they have ever seen, very beautiful, comfortable with pleasant parking lots. Everything seems to be good. And we launched this mall at the time of the Olympics, if you remember that. And the New York Times gave the status because we also had other malls to compare but this was one -- one of the best ones. And this is a small, actually, service to the public that is more selected.

Maybe they have -- they come from -- they have a little bit more money to spend but during the pandemic, we are occupying spaces that, of course, for example, we are an alternative to foreign purchasing and people also, when they come to our mall, they feel very safe. I believe that -- I mean it's evident that we -- that people got to know us better. And once again, we have international tenants, and so as said, if you shop abroad, also you're obviously using the local alternatives with a selection of product that is very wide. And we have the big international names of fashion and that attracts clientele. Certainly, we head to that.

The turnover that you've mentioned is very positive because you have a tenant that might leave, but we will have a tenant that comes into the place of the tenant that left, and they probably have better products that will service the clients better at the moment that we're living right now. But you can be certain that management will continue to look at turnover.

[André Mazini, analyst]

Your -- well, why you were commenting that?

[Jose Peres, executive]

Yes, okay. I'm pleased to comment a little bit more. There was a campaign that was launched on TV, and it shows the hygiene, the care that we -- the lengths that we go in our malls to make sure that they are clean and hygienic and safe, free of contamination. We didn't detect the presence of the virus in the mall, any of our malls for that matter. So we did the testing on a regular basis. And this really helps. People that are looking from the outside, the malls are, in my opinion, the safest place to be. On the other hand, we also support our tenants.

We have to forego a lot of our revenue, but we did that in a conscientious way, so we can make sure that our partners, our tenants, they -- we know that they're going through a very difficult time. And we are still paying taxes, very heavy-duty taxes. And basically, our -- well, for us to keep our operations going, we have to keep on paying those taxes. But it's not just the government that might be an issue. We reduced to basically 0 our income accounts, for example, rent and other charges for our tenants. And basically, we almost foregone the entire revenue.

Just so you know, since the beginning of the pandemic, we are -- we have not received 1 -- close to BRL 1 billion in revenue. So -- but the company is still going strong. And we're -- I just want to know -- I just want you to know that we are suffering a lot, the tenants are suffering a lot, but we are partners. And we are working with our associations, our associates, and we're providing services. And we are looking forward for the reopening, for getting back to work because we cannot continue. We have a lot of unemployment.

And the government, the local government needs to understand that we need to treat the disease but also the financial health of the country. The country you have -- will have more people dying of hunger than the pandemic itself, if you think about this. The [indiscernible], the WHO recently mentioned that we had 6x more people dying of hunger than the pandemic and those included in those numbers. We need to be sensitive enough to realize that and the federal government will do whatever they can, actually, there. And we hope that they help us because we've been, in my point of view, unfairly affected also by the economic downturn.

And to continue with the question, with BarraShopping, for example, and you have -- also have your views, and any of our malls, they are not working still at 100% occupancy. Like you said, we're not working at 100% power. And once we go back to our full capacity, 100%, if we had, for example, movies and other activities, we have a higher vacancy, of course. But limitations of cars in the parking lot, we have a lot of limitations nowadays, restrictions. Nonetheless, we move on and the malls have presented growth. So these are some of the answers that are already provided, the potential, therefore, of our operation and a very solid operation, as we can see at the numbers.

[Operator]

Now we will read a question via webcast. The question is from [indiscernible]. Now if you can please talk about the functionalities of Multi, specifically the direct contact in the program. And also how about the potential of a -- I want to know more about that since those were not fully implemented for all the tenants. And 60% retention still and all of the malls that are in that loyalty or rewards program.

[Jose Peres, executive]

Let me talk about Multi as a whole. Well, and specifically, the interactions of the tenants and clients and our loyalty program. Well, we have the interrelations between the clients and the tenants, we and our customer support, and we try to match that. And there is a correlations that might be inversely proportionate. Of course, if they're not open, if the malls open, we understand that the success of this program is in the best interest of our tenants. We are convinced of the potential of working to improve on the flow of customers with Multi.

On the other hand, our loyalty program also grows. MultiVocê, which is the program, and we had other malls that has our -- and did have the rewards program. First, we wanted to develop the loyalty program that -- we are going to develop those loyalty programs in the mall that already had. And now we are going to start to extend those loyalty programs to the malls that didn't have it. And we're going to reward the users through a platform that will use gamification. So we will transform the experience of our users in our malls as if it was a real game. You will walk 3 kilometers in the mall. You will receive a reward. You will do 3 purchases, you will get some number of points. Maybe you're going to buy something online, you're going to receive some other rewards. So we will strengthen our online footing and work with the online/off-line in a virtuous cycle.

[Operator]

We're just organizing the questions. We have many. The next questions will be from Jorel from Morgan Stanley.

[Wilfredo Guilloty, analyst]

Can you hear me? I have 2 questions. Well, first of all, I wanted to know if you can talk a little bit more about the other programs and how can we -- what's the delinquency rate quarter-by-quarter. And well, I wanted to understand how you're dealing with it during the crisis with the growth and occupancy rate by the fact that we see that the account is what we haven't saw in the books. So we have that trend maybe in the near future so with an increase of the growth liability. So if you can talk a little bit more about the offices, the market. I know you sold some of your acquisitions there, but I wanted to know if you can talk about the trends that might be more interesting. Are we going back to the market? Or will you just focus more on the mall?

[Armando Neto, executive]

Thank you, this is Armando. Jorel, first of all, the accounts receivable is always depend on the comparison that you're doing. So you're saying that there is a drop, there is an increase in liabilities and you are comparing to December of 2020. And we have a drop that is very simple because we have a double rent. The rent that is higher and in the first quarter, you don't have it. And this is the reason why we have the delinquency rate.

It might be higher in the first quarter and seasonal in its nature, because you invoice the rent in the fourth quarter and then you receive it on the 5th or the 10th of January, therefore, it's logged into the book later and then you might have an increase in invoicing in the fourth quarter and that's reflected in the first quarter after. Well, that first quarter, specifically, there is another issue, the operations. So March, the operations that we need to account for and in January, São Paulo, the malls and Belo Horizonte, they're still not working full time.

Now I'd also like to remind you what José Peres has just mentioned, we are manufacturers. We have -- we're what -- we build a lot of real estate, commercial real estate and some of them are adjacent to the shopping malls and we are always taking a look at that opportunity. For example, for offices using our land bank. Now we have to evaluate the possibility of actually ranking a few of our assets. And we've done that in São Paulo and many other cities of our portfolio.

The actual sales of last year, we actually had that real estate still to actually be sold. We, of course, rented the -- in the real estate, anybody should wait for a price position that would make sense, of course, and that would be attractive enough. And fortunately that happened last year. And that's what generated the restructuring of our capital and therefore, the sale. So once again, we are a real estate company, and we will continue working with offices. But once again, the core business is wholesale, is shopping malls. Yes, but we will look at opportunities -- future opportunities for the company.

[Wilfredo Guilloty, analyst]

Wonderful. So let me go back to the -- well, the liabilities, the -- you have seasonality, the eventual closing of the mall, but you're expecting that with the reopening, are you going to review the numbers?

[Armando Neto, executive]

Looking at the second quarter of last year of 16%, and there were restrictions in the operations. And nowadays, we can see that we have these -- that liability dropping to less than 5%. And once again, you might have an issue, and we are living the same issue, we're reliving the last quarter, and we have the same expectations. Now we will continue to manage our models, improving the mix to service our clients, our customers, and this is a very effective -- positive effect to recover the activities on the short term. This is our general overview.

[Operator]

The next question, Elvis from BTG Pactual.

[Elvis Credendio, analyst]

First of all, logistics of the malls. You commented that, well, considering the negotiations that you have with the tenants, do you think that the malls will continue to -- what do you think will be the future of the tenants in the shopping malls? Second question is also, we see consolidation in the retail and tenants. Do you think that there are -- how are you going to renegotiate the contracts with some of these tenants? In the future, will you do adjustments? Of course, looking at the portfolio, will -- do you see any pressures from any side of the retail?

[Jose Peres, executive]

Well, we have focused in regards to your first question, in terms of mix of products, the segmentation, we are very dedicated to looking at the future and servicing the demands of our customers. We are always trying to predict the next wave of events. And looking at the presentation, the distributions here, you have to realize, as you can see, the change in the percentage, where there is an increase or a decrease from 2011, 2021. We have a 10-year comparison.

So of course, we had a change that was very abrupt, very expressive in the short-term returning. What we are doing is working in an event-based manner. And the malls before were a paradise for purchasing. But now it's -- the shopping mall serves as more as a social hub. People are there to have fun, to meet each other, to feel safe. And not so long ago, when we -- well, when we had the food courts, for example, you had restaurants that were fantastic spread through the shopping malls. So we also have a food culture. And we had this becoming ever more relevant.

Also medical centers. We had medical centers created in the '90s that are close to the mall. And for example, Curitiba, when we had the expansion, the medical center -- was allocated for the medical center, of course, before the pandemic. So that demand for services is a natural demand of people. And the malls fulfill that function. Once we kind of -- we have the shopping mall as the solution for the urban chaos. And we have an effort to improve not only safety, security but also hygiene. And this is what we try to solve with all of our ESG campaigns. But this is a continuity of what we've done in the service sector. And we have the foodservice sector. On the other hand, you also see the selling of electronics and other activities from 2015 onwards. That is going to -- we're going to see a revamp of the appliances and electronics and see that people want better electronics.

In regard to your second question, we have itself the condition of our tenants. This is very relevant, of course. Your question is very appropriate. First, we need to think about the first quarter of 2021. 25 biggest groups, and I'm talking about rents, and all the, for example, the tenants from same group or the same brand, we have the accounts -- the 25 biggest client -- of our clients corresponds to 1/4 of our revenue. So this shows, for example, in the case of André about the international client leasing our malls, we saw that in a different way. We see this as an opportunity to improve our mix of product and improve our efficiency.

However, one of the points that I want to highlight is the second step, the tenant is looking for a good spot to actually sell their products. So good localization malls that are well-managed with campaigns that attract the -- well, the audience, the customers that have a relationship for the brands. That has an added value and will continue to have value regardless of whether we have an increase in retail or the opposite movement. The tenants will, in fact, be influential, that will allow the tenant to have access to the customers. And therefore, we will -- they can have better sales and better productivity. Here, the most expensive store is not the one that pays the most rent. It is actually the store that doesn't sell anything. So you have to keep in mind. And the management of our mix of our portfolio, the way that we manage our malls on the way we think about the general overall productivity of our tenants.

And I would like to complement your question with something that happened 15 years ago, when our brand was 25 years old. We did a campaign for BarraShopping and they thought -- they said that BarraShopping was the face of Rio de Janeiro. Now I was talking to the mayor back then, and he just said it, "You know that BarraShopping is the third tourist attraction here in Rio." So I said, "No, I didn't know." Seriously, I asked, "Which are the first 2?" First, Corcovado and Pão de Açúcar. And I was joking around with him, "Well, the first 2, God actually made those here, but the third one, we actually did it."

So today, 15 years later, we are maybe the biggest tourist attraction in terms of the number of tourists because BarraShopping receives about 25 million people per year. So Rio de Janeiro today, Barra da Tijuca, with the hotels and everything, the tourism, a lot of tourists go to Barra da Tijuca. And there are campaigns in Ipanema, of course, eternal places in Rio de Janeiro. I love the Southern region of Rio. But we -- the development of the Western region is inexorable, which is a region that has a space to grow. And therefore, I can only tell you the following.

Our malls, for a year, we see visitations in the order of 190 million Brazilians. It's basically one Brazil, almost a full Brazil, full percent of the population. And that's the expression of our operation. And if you multiply this by the number of malls in Brazil, you can see the disaster that has happened by having the malls closed, in the economy, for the citizens and for everyone. The mall is a facilitator and will continue to be adaptive. The technology will be used, and it will be a business tool. And I want to deliver to the tenant a virtual and on-site store. And it's very easy to say that it's about the survival of the fittest, right? So either you adapt or you don't survive. We'll continue to adapt, and we'll continue to survive. And the last -- or the latest, rather, mall we build is always the best of all, right, because we continue to build and improve. And we're making malls more and more efficient. That's it. Thank you.

[Operator]

Next question from Daniel Gasparete from Credit Suisse.

[Daniel Gasparete, analyst]

What are your views on the discount levels that have been given in 2020, how they're going to continue in 2021? So are you expecting changes? And when it comes to the rents, how have you been adjusting or readjusting prices with tenants? And what impacts has it been having?

[Jose Peres, executive]

I'll talk about contract renewals. Maybe from here on, everything that is modified in the Congress may lead to new indexes that not the IGP index. But the contracts, they are valid regardless of the situation. When I think about the IGP, that was dormant for a few years because the FX rate plays a role. I don't think actually it will continue to grow like this. The FX improved a bit recently. And we had negative IGP for a while. So this is the role of the contract. This is a crucial point in the law, right? You can't have laws that are retroactive, but we're always adapting. If we need to readapt contracts and use new indicators, then we will. And this is a point that has always exist and that will always exist. People will always try to defend their own interests. But IGP was the same for a long time. It was an index that didn't grow, wasn't adjusted. And now it has increased. And I don't think it needs to grow like this.

From a contract perspective, we can always adapt. And part of the revenue from countries has to do with a percentage of sales by tenants. So when sales rise, then we charge more. We expect all of these -- the money that is in savings accounts in banks right now that it should be invested, should be spent soon. We continue to invest in this sector. We believe in it. We'll continue to expand. And there is always one crisis or another in Brazil. If you're waiting for no crisis to do anything, you'll never do anything, really. Because every 5 years, we're hit by a crisis of some sort.

So this is certainly a global crisis that we are facing now, but it's just another one. This is also a crisis that affected people psychologically on another level. But it will come to an end. That's where the discounts tail off. There is a contract readjustment, and there is an activity that was interrupted for a long period of time in the first quarter. So it's natural that you'll give a discount. This is part of the support we offer our tenants. We want to be there for them so that they can survive this crisis.

We have reduced the marketing fund, and we have reduced the event so that they don't suffer too much from the decrease in sales. But when we start to rebound and sales start to grow again, then we'll readjust pricing. But we're more optimistic now. We expect to have better sales because we look at the world, and we see that, that's what's happening around the world. Have I answered your question?

[Daniel Gasparete, analyst]

Yes, you have. Just on what Peres said, do you see any risk of retroactivity in the change of rules?

[Armando Neto, executive]

No, not really. As José Peres said, we don't think that it makes any sense for the new laws to have a retroactive effect. What's been agreed on has been agreed on. Well, the readjustment of the IGP can be seen, and we're going through a crisis in this country. And we'll see these impacts withering now. We're at the point we have activities we want to grow and we want to sell. And it becomes a more mature and an easier discussion that we can have.

[Operator]

Next question is from Fanny from Santander.

[Fanny Oreng Avino, analyst]

Most of my questions have already been answered, but I would like to ask you to talk a little bit about the VilaOlímpia shopping mall and how long you would expect that could take for the VilaOlímpia shopping mall to go back to its regular occupancy rate. We can see there are not many people there at the moment.

[Jose Peres, executive]

Let me take your question, Fanny. So Olímpia is in a central region of the city with many offices around and is a good neighborhood but is, of course, suffering because of the many restrictions that have been imposed for a long time now in the city of São Paulo. São Paulo is possibly the city with the most restrictions in Brazil. And the infection rates have gone down in São Paulo, possibly because of that. And isolation is worse than allowing people to move around. Many scientific authorities have said that. But the result is that -- I mean, the fact is that we never expected an atomic bomb to be dropped in São Paulo and everything to shut down. That's the way it happened.

How could VilaOlímpia survive if it's basically a region where you only have offices, all of which are closed at this moment but it will go back to operating? Also because of this remote work, right, and videoconferencing is tiring. You have a meeting with 30 people and they speak independently, but there's no real interaction. A company that works with marketing and construction work and the development of real estate, I guess, having a meeting with people onscreen doesn't really work. But on-site activities will come back, people are going to go back to their offices. My son-in-law works in a financial company, and he says he can't stand being home anymore, working from home.

People need to have people around them. And you can see children, for example. They used to hate school. But the thing they long for the mothers now is for going back to school. Every upside has a downside. Everything has a flip side. So it's -- I think children are going to be fonder of school now. And I think that adults are going to be fonder of their workmates and workstations too. And -- but when we're all together, we are, of course, following hygiene and safety procedures with masks. There have been COVID cases in the company, but none of which were severe cases, and we have been doing well. So things are going to bounce back and bounce back in full swing, as I said.

But São Paulo is like a desert right now. I look out of my window and you see no one in the streets. No one will isolate at home forever. If a judge finds someone guilty, and that person is to have home arrest instead of being in a prison, that person is going to be very happy because they're not going to be in the prison, they're going to be at home. But we are giving ourselves half the rest. This is the worst mental prison because it is fear, and fear is crippling.

You have the media reporting news in a criminal way, and it sounds like people only die of COVID nowadays. So we are trying to fight back and show people that shopping malls are a safe location, that there can be social distancing within the shopping mall, they can wear their masks and that they can use hand sanitizer. So we're making additional investments to address issues in this critical moment. Think of Israel, for example, nobody's wearing a mask in Israel anywhere, and people are going to the beach. Of course, they're a small country, and they have had vaccines, and they have had the discipline to realize everything. And Brazil is as large as a continent. It's 120 million people to be vaccinated. I think people need to tone down when they talk about COVID, not portraying it as a monster so that people can live a normal life within reality. People need to be vaccinated with the efficacious vaccines.

[Operator]

The next question came from the webcast. From Paulo Campos from Inter Asset. What are the main challenges in integrating e-commerce to shopping malls? Do you believe that this type of integration could be important to tenants in and out of the food court in the future? And what do you expect -- sorry, the format of shopping malls are concerned in the future. Should we continue to focus on retail or should shopping malls really become experience centers? That's the question -- these are questions from Paulo Campos.

[Jose Peres, executive]

Thank you, Paulo. Let me take the first part of your question around the integration between e-commerce and shopping malls. Simply put, we need to factor in 3 points for tenants to be digital in our malls. First is that they need to have an online channel. They need to, the second point, make their inventory and catalog digital, so their product has to be available online. And the third is the logistics, right? Looking at the 3 points, they are really facilitated when you have economies of scale, and that's why we invested in a Delivery Center.

This is an integration hub that will bring together online channels, major online channels with tenant channels, integrating the inventories and catalogs that tenants have. And with that, we elevate that to economics of scale that goes beyond our own shopping malls and goes to other malls, too. And we'd like to see the difference between online shopping and on-site shopping is getting smaller and smaller. Retailers retail wherever it be. So our digitalization goes to every tenant that will allow for better experience for all of them. Now Armando?

[Armando Neto, executive]

Well, I think that shopping centers, shopping malls have already become a social hub. It is not a place where you go buy something and then leave. This is something we used to see in other countries like the United States. So in Brazil, when you think about what we went through the '80s and '90s, shopping malls were already changed. This is why our model is so successful, that was then copied by the rest of the world. So you have a lot of entertainment in shopping malls as well. And this is what allows them to fare so well.

So there must be full integration when it comes to online and on-site sales, right? So you have retail full stop, be it on the Internet or on-site and this is why it is so important that we can associate both worlds. You can't invest only in the physical world. You have to invest in the virtual world, too. We want to make malls as convenient as possible to consumers. So we want to combine virtual and physical as much as possible to add value to tenants. And we, as most owners and managers, always bear that in mind.

[Jose Peres, executive]

There's one point I'd like to complement talking about experience centers. And well, I think that shopping malls have always been experience centers. Multiplan has always seen shopping malls not only as shopping centers but as experience centers. So you have a gastronomic boulevard, you have entertainment, culture, nature and a number of other things. This is something that we're already doing. And it's not only about technology, right? When you think about innovation, it's not only about technology. There are things that we have transformed.

So shopping malls have leafier areas now, there are areas that still have ample open spaces. And a change in mix is another process. The way you access malls is another innovation. There are many innovations involved. And there is the innovation that focus on technologies, but there are a number of things that need to be innovated separately and differently. There are investments in the environment as well. We have some malls with power plants that will generate energy. And these are also examples of innovation.

Well, the mall of the future is something we will see in Jacarepaguá mall. It's going to be open in October, November. Every mall is updated as far as technologies are concerned. We have many thousand square meters of green areas and then a restaurant, you have a skating area, you have a gym, you have a supermarket. So leisure has really increased in shopping malls and our malls are within cities. And if you are within the city, they want to go to the mall and use more services. Belo Horizonte mall used to be further away from the town, and now it isn't that far. The habit has changed. So Jacarepaguá is nearly ready. So you should go see it because you really see a new concept of shopping malls that we at Multiplan Brazil are working on.

[Operator]

[ Jerome ] from JPMorgan has a question.

[Unknown Analyst]

Can you talk a little bit about the vision of the quarter and what you have in other operating lines?

[Armando Neto, executive]

[ Jerome ], this is Armando. We didn't understand your question. Can you please ask it again?

[Unknown Analyst]

Can you talk a little bit more about allowances you have made, provisions you have made or have increased?

[Armando Neto, executive]

So BRL 18 million more in allowances. They're due to the increase in receivables, and we have been holding these around since last year. And as time goes by, you increase the percentage of allowances. So rent that were due 60 days ago, and we have allowances for 90 days, so really being cautious so that we can deal with the reality that we're going through. And vacancy was higher in this period and more vacant shops. We had a campaign that was mentioned already and on that line, we have an expense there, right, as someone said something here. And we have the campaign around the shopping mall being the place where people look after themselves. So we really wanted to make the shopping mall a safe place and a place where people feel comfortable as consumers. So BRL 12,500,000, that was the number.

[Unknown Analyst]

And just a follow-up. Well, do you think that really -- the delinquency will continue to go up? How do you see that up ahead?

[Armando Neto, executive]

Well, let me find the numbers here, not as what I was estimating. I think that the recovery will be very positive. We are talking about the risk reduction. However, we need on -- to work with the sales and we need to have the necessary cash so they can pay -- so we can pay for their own accounts. We need to see how economically, things are going to unfold. We look and the quality of the property. We look at the demand for space. We look at the interest of the tenant of working with more malls of our network.

And these are positive numbers, and we can see what happens in many countries like -- we've had, for example, textiles, we have a lot of the brands and this was clothing in the United States that we had a rebound and it was very positive. Talking about going back to normality is an -- it doesn't have to be exceptional normality, but dealing with the recovery and once again, the -- and I believe we are going to work with this rebound in a very positive way.

[Operator]

Okay. Now thank you for all the questions. We will close the Q&A session. And now we invite participants to get in contact with the IR department of Multiplan. They will answer your questions. Now I would like to give the floor to the Mr. Armando d'Almeida.

[Armando Neto, executive]

Thank you very much. I would like to thank you all that are viewing us for your trust, for your interest, for the amount of questions. It's a pleasure to be here with you even in a quarter that was very challenging but is a part of the process -- the pandemic that we're living. If you can look at the managerial reports, we will have more details than what we are discussing here, and we have a new format. And we have the environmental, social -- well, you can look at the reports on investment and many more details, operational details and financial details. Once again, thank you very much, and we continue to be at your disposal to answer any questions. Thank you.

[Operator]

Well, now the earnings call of the first quarter of 2021 of Multiplan is closed. Thank you very much for your participation. Everyone, have a good afternoon.

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