Transmissora Alianca de Energia Eletrica SA

BOVESPA:TAEE3

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Taesa's Q1 2024 earnings release video conference. We have simultaneous translation available for those who may need it. Just click on the interpretation button which is the Globe icon at the bottom of the screen and she's either Portuguese or English. For those listening in English, there is an option to move to the regional audio in Portuguese by clicking on mute original audio. We would like to inform that this video conference is being recorded and will be made available on the company's IR website, where you will also find the earnings release. [Operator Instructions]Please note that questions can be submitted during the presentation and we will be read out live by our IR Officer, Cristiano Grangeiro and the IR specialist, Juliana Castelli, and then answered by the Board during our Q&A session. We emphasize that information in this presentation and any statements that may be made during the conference regarding Taesa's business prospects, projections and operational and financial targets are the beliefs and assumptions of the company's management and on the information currently available. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance since they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions as they refer to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, market conditions and other operating factors may affect the future performance of Taesa and lead to results that materially differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now I'll turn over to Christian Grangeiro to start the presentation

[Cristiano Prado Grangeiro, executive]

[Interpreted] Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Taesa's Q1 2024 Earnings Release. We hope you find it enlightening. We would like to remind you that you may ask questions throughout the presentation using the Q&A button. At the end of the presentation, we will open up the Q&A session where your questions will be answered by our officers. We hope you enjoy this video conference. We are starting on Slide 3, where we highlight our mission, vision and values. Our mission is to connect Brazil with safe and reliable energy. Our vision is to be the electricity transmitter of greatest value to society. And our key values are we generally care for people. We act with integrity, building relationships of trust. We strive for excellence in everything we do, and we are TAESA. On Slide 4, we see the 2023 sustainability report that was released last week. This report highlights Taesa's key social and environmental responsibility initiatives plus information and relevant corporate governance and economic and financial developments. In details what the company has been working on having always addressed key health and safety issues, such as a welcoming work environment, the environment and climate relationship with communities, and the sustainability of our assets. This slide shows some examples detailed in the report among many others. I will quickly show you now how to access this report on our Investor Relations website. When you enter our website, in our homepage, you can see the banner just as the 2023 sustainability report here, the icon, when you click on it, you're going to access the document the report, which is a very comprehensive report with an overview of our activities and initiatives in 5 key pillars: general, corporate governance, economic, financial, social and Sectorial and environmental. We go through safety, our 4 ISO standard certifications, adoption of some diverse and inclusion movements. We detailed the greenhouse gas inventory, the history of impact among different social environmental responsibilities that we find interesting. In addition, it presents key indicators showing the impact of these initiatives where we operate. Prepared using the Global Initiative Report GRI, this report reflects the company's commitment to the best sustainability practice in line with the UN Global Compact and the SDGs Now moving on to our Q1 2024 earnings release. On Slide 5, we have the key highlights. We will go into more detail about each one over the next slides. So the first is that the net regulatory income totaled BRL 584 million, down to 2.4% versus last year, reflecting a drop in IGP-M, the 2023-2024 RAP and a variable portion that we will highlight. The EBITDA was impacted by nonrecurring expenses totaling BRL 10.1 million at APV event in General totaling BRL 13.4 million. If we exclude these effects, the EBITDA would total BRL 504 million and its margin at 85.1%. It's worth mentioning that the PV of the quarter was BRL 6.5 million, which is equivalent to 2.97% of the RAP for the period. We also would like to highlight the optimization of the corporate structure of a merger of 3 companies that produced a positive impact of BRL 16.3 million due to income tax social contribution expenses. We have completed the 15th issuance of debentures totaling BRL 1.3 billion with competitive costs and a green series with cost efficiency and a different deadline. Our CapEx in the period totaled BRL 77 million, affected by the stoppage of an environmental body of the many project AnanaÃ. And lastly, we'd like to announce the dividend distribution totaling about BRL 144 million regarding Q1 2024 earnings release. On Slide 6, we have the regulatory results, the earnings Regulatory net income is down 10.3%, totaling BRL 193.2 million in the quarter. As the chart shows, this was mainly due to the drop in EBITDA of BRL 36.9 million, which will further detail. But first, it's worth mentioning the other effects that impact regulatory income. We produced a positive result of BRL 16.9 million using the equity method due to different factors, such as the adjustment of the RAP by the IPCA, the use of SUDENE benefit in Aimorés and Paraguaçu and the write-off of deferred taxes due to the change in the tax regime of ETAU. Net financial expenses were up BRL 22.3 million, mainly due to the increase in debt over the last 12 months with the issuance of 2 debentures, 13th and 14th, partly offset by the drop in CDI and IPCA year-over-year. Depreciation and amortization increased by 14.7%, mainly due to the entry of Saira at the end of the Q1 of 2023. And we had an important drop in income and tax social contribution influenced by the mergers with ATE III, Saira and Sant'Ana concluded at the end of last year. We had a tax efficiency of over BRL 16 million this quarter due to our continued focus on initiatives at Taesa that create value for our shareholders.Our EBITDA dropped 7.1% versus Q1 2023, totaling BRL 485 million this quarter. The margin was 87.2% last year and now is 83%. On Slide 7, we see some atypical and nonrecurring event, which must be segregated for a better quarter versus quarter analysis. Deep diving into our regulatory EBITDA on Slide 7, we can see that RAP continues to grow even in the face of the negative effect of the IGP-M in the 2023, 2024 cycle of minus 4.5%, which adjusted 2/3 of our operating reps in the consolidated view. This growth is a direct reflection of the start of operations of Saira in the first phase under Taesa's management at the end of March 2023 of over BRL 13 million per quarter. The chart operation of the new phases of Sant'Ana, the IPCA inflationary adjustment in the 2023-24 web cycle for the category 3 concessions, which offset this negative IGP-M adjustment and the remaining 50% drop in the RAP of ATE III concessions. The variable portion of Q1 2024 was affected by an event at Janaúba concession, totaling BRL 13.4 million, which is equivalent to 2% of the RAP for the quarter. There was an untimely shutdown in January of the 500 kV Bom Jesus da Lapa 2 / Janaúba 3 transmission line, which remain unavailable for 27 hours. The outage was caused by the failure of one of the cable support components on one of the towers of the transmission, which was difficult to identify and repair. But all the structures were inspected or potentially fall to components were identified and replace guaranteeing the safety of the line. We are taking all measures to compensate this amount either through the regulatory system or through negotiations with the supplier of the components. This arrangement for the Janaúba line is new to the system, and it's our only concession with this construction need.It's worth remembering that this year-on-year variation is greater since in Q1 2023, we have a PV reversal event at Novatrans in the case of Sabotage, which was widely publicized at the time. The impact of BRL 22.7 million on OpEx in addition to the effects of inflation in the company's growth is also due to some nonrecurring events in Q1 2024 that totaled over BRL 10 million, considering the lines of personnel, third-party services and other operating expenses. If we exclude these events, both the Janaúba PV and the nonrecurring expenses in OpEx, our adjusted EBITDA in Q1 2024 totals BRL 507.4 million, which is much more in line with the adjusted EBITDA of Q1 2023 of BRL 508 million. Our EBITDA margin adjusted was 85.1% versus 86.6% last year. This drop is mainly due to the negative IGP-M and a 50% drop in the RAP of 83 millionOn Slide 8, we present the corporate or IFRS net income. It's worth remembering that this income is from an accounting standpoint, and therefore, there's not direct to the Taesa's cash generation. The concept behind it is the concession contract asset, which whose accounting practices come from the CPC 47. To provide information on a request made at the last results, the earnings results conference from our clarification of corporate accounting, we want to give you further guidance and more detail on IFRS. If you want to further understand this accounting concept, I'm going to show you on our IR website, where you can find more information. Under financial information, accounting in the transmission sector, we have a presentation available detailing the accounting method of CPC 47. And if you could even download here the presentation. This presentation conceptually shows step by step, the movement of contract assets and how the impact to income statement, the IFRS income. Generally speaking, as the concession contract already forecast revenues over the entire term of the concession, IFRS understands that we need to account for this future result today. So corporate profit -- corporate income accounts brings to present value of expected future results of the concessions. IFRS net income was down 3.3%, total in this quarter, BRL 374 million. Some of the effects explained in the regulatory results on Slide 7 also affected IFRS income, such as the Janaúba event, which impacted Taesa's PV by BRL 13.4 million and nonrecurring expenses, which amounted to BRL 10.1 million. In addition, there was a BRL 30.2 million drop using the equity method due to the reduction in IvaÃ's construction margin since it began commercial operations at the beginning of this year. We see higher net financial expenses of BRL 22 million, which we also explained in the regulatory result. This effect, these negative effects were partly offset by higher asset remuneration and O&M revenues from the startup of the Saira and Sant' Ana projects. It's worth noting that this project also had a positive effect on monetary restatement revenue, which was offset by the lower inflation rates in the period, both IGP-M and IPCA, negatively impacting the monetary statement restatement of other operating concessions. Higher investments in new projects also had a positive impact, a total variation in the construction margin of BRL 25.8 million with the greatest effect caused by AnanaÃ. And as we explained earlier, the mergers with ATE III Sant' Ana and Saira at the end of last year resulted in tax efficiency of over BRL 16 million in Q1. Moving on to Slide 9. We present the progress of our projects under construction. We have recently received 2 more authorizations for reinforcements, one at ATE III and the other at São Pedro, which total an ANEEL CapEx of BRL 76 million, an estimated RAP of over BRL 11 million to be delivered in 2026. Adding this to the new reinforcement to the 5 already disclosed in our material, we are talking about BRL 530 million in CapEx around BRL 84 million in RAP. The Pitiguari and Tangará project and the new Novatrans reinforcements are underway and progressing well. Pitiguari is a mobilization with the start of activities both in the substations and the sections of the lines, and we have begun to receive supplies in the field. Tangará is also mobilizing and work has begun on the 2 substations that have already received environmental permits. The construction of the Novatrans capacitor bank is underway, especially of the Colina substation where the construction of the advanced Relay house structure has begun.SaÃra and Ananaà have made physical progress with their respective regulatory deadlines. Our CapEx for the quarter of this year of BRL 77 million is lower than expected due to IBAMA stoppage, we directly affected obtaining the environmental license for the NNI project. We have been working on several fronts to advance the project and reduce potential risks to the project schedule as a result of this delay in licensing. On Slide 10, we see the company's indebtedness. On the left, we present the recent history of net debt and the level of leverage, which is calculated as net debt over regulatory EBITDA in a proportion of consolidated view. At the end of Q1 2024, Taesa's total net debt was BRL 10.8 billion, considering all of our holdings. Our leverage stood at 3.8x, slightly higher than it was in the previous quarter but slightly lower than that of 3.9x recorded a year ago. The debt amortization profile remains quite appropriate, with an average real cost of debt of 4.95% and an average term of 4.4 years. It's worth highlighting that the recently concluded 15th issuance of debentures, which improves our profile is not yet in our results in terms -- and it will be in terms of term and results. Our cash position in Q1 was BRL 1.6 billion. 68% of our debts are linked to the IPCA and 32% to the CDI. The company's corporate rating on a national scale, which is monitored by Moody's and Fitch as AAA, which is the highest level recognized by the agencies. Fitch reconfirmed this at the end of last year. On Slide 11, we highlight the most recent issuance of debentures. On April 21, we concluded Taesa's 15th debenture issuance for BRL 1.3 billion. This issuance was divided into 2 series, the first totaling BRL 1 billion is used to the prepaid of the 13th debenture issuance, which was a more expensive that CDI plus 1.4% and had a shorter term of only 2 years, which would mature at the beginning of 2025. With this being the case, we are able to issue a much more efficient debt, a cost of CDI plus 0.63%, 10 bps below the initial remuneration and a term of 5 years. The second series amounted to BRL 300 million to be invested in new projects. What's interesting is that another grinded and connected to IGP-M since most of our revenues are also indexed to this inflation index, and therefore, it makes sense to seek this type of funding. In this second series, we raised the initial remunerations by 15 basis points, IGP-M was 5.84% -- compared to the IGP-M Treasure, the benchmark and TC this year is closed with a premium of just 20 bps. It's worth noting that the first series was the second most successful issuance this year in terms of premium versus CDI. And the second series was an IGP-M issuance, something that is less common in the market, but with 100% market distribution. Focusing on our strategic plan and on making it more predictable to the market, the company announced its proposal for distributing dividends, which we see on Slide 12. As of this year, the calculation basis for the distribution of dividends and interest on equity will be the regulatory net income. Exceptionally for the 2024 fiscal year, the proposed distribution will be at least 75% of regulatory net income. From the 2025 fiscal year onwards, our intention is to pay out between 90% and 100% of the regulatory -- the company's regulatory net income. It should be clear that this proposal does not alter our obligation to pay at least 50% of our corporate net income or IFRS, according to the articles of incorporation, which means that the annual distribution amount must be greater than or equal to 50% of the adjusted IFRS net income for each year. This proposal does not guarantee any future dividend distribution as they are conditional to the company's cash generation and financial situation, the need to allocate resources to meet investment plans and the appropriate corporate approvals. This is another key step towards efficiency and capital discipline and reinforces the company's strategy based on sustainable growth and financial strength, allowing for greater predictability in the distribution of dividends and interest on act based on Taesa's cash generation. On that slide, we see that the Board of Directors approved the distribution of dividends regarding the Q1 2024 earnings totaling BRL 145 million, which accounts for 75% of the regulatory net income, which is to be paid as interest on equity on June 27 with a day stage of to [Break] $0.42 per unit, which added to the other dividend distributed in 2024, we have so far announced at BRL 22 per unit or EUR 773 million distributed so far. It's worth remembering that the amount of BRL 390 million was approved last week by the shareholders' meeting, and the payment is due to be placed on May 16. Well, this was what we had to present. And now we will move on to the Q&A session. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Cristiano. Now we will start our Q&A session. This is going to be a live session, and we will have our officers available to answer your questions. To ask a question, click on the Q&A at the bottom of your screen and type in your question, which will enter the queue.

[Juliana Castelli, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, everyone, for participating and joining our Taesa's 2024 Q1 earnings release. We have over 400 people joining our video conference, which shows how transparent we try to be and how important it is for all our shareholders and stakeholders. We have Rinaldo Pecchio, Luis Alves also our officer. We have Fabio Fernandes the participation Officer; Marco Faria, our Chief Technical Officer; and Juliana, our IR specialist. And we are going to start this Q&A session right now. But before we actually start, I'm going to turn over to Pecchi for his initial remarks.

[Rinaldo Pecchio Junio, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Cristiano. Thank you, everyone, for joining our media conference. It's always very important for us to be here with everyone who invests and tracks the results of the companies to report some of the earnings. But before, I would like to say a few words for the people in the state of Rio Grande do Sul who are going through a really severe humanitarian crisis. So we would like to say that we know what's going on. We are aware of that. We have heard of everything that is going on, and we will use our social media to disclose some of the progresses that we have there. We have many families that contribute to the results of our company. Marco Faria will give us further details of our actions there in some initiatives, but we have some good news. We -- our assets are okay. We had no impact in spite of all these environmental treasuries. We only had 2 towers that were just somewhat damaged but that was not serious. We had just some problems moving people around. But if we consider what's going on, I think the situation and the outlook is really positive for us. We're really happy that our employees were not negatively affected. But of course, that we want to have the population and the community if we can. We are in constant conversations with the government and other partners to allow for the situation to get better and also keep our interconnected system working. We know how important our role is here. So this is the first thing that I had to say. In addition, I would also -- I'd like to reflect on climate change and some of the climate issues and the impact that we see in the world and how that could eventually affect the operations of companies just like ours. So this is really something we should focus on. Regarding our earnings release, Christiano presented with great detail the results that we have produced in this first quarter of 2024, if you compare to some recurring events, we had some nonrecurring events, but these were not surprises except for the PV, the PV something that we cannot really forecast. But a company like ours, of course, is really at risk for these things to happen. This was also a very, very specific event, and we don't expect it to be a recurring event. So if we see the results that we produced, we have produced consistent results versus Q1 2023. And in our quarter versus quarter analysis, we can see that we had the impact of macroeconomic indexes. We had an impact of the drop in the 2023, 2024 cycle wrap. So now we'll start a different cycle with better macroeconomic indicators that are more positive. And if we see the mix to adjust our revenues, we see that we have a very positive and promising outlook toward growth in our revenue. Just a caveat part of revenue is connected to the IGP-M. -- just we did that for us to have some hedge. Cristiano mentioned that, and it's really worth pointing out to that. This was just a hedge for us. In addition, and we can give you further details, if needed, regarding our net earnings per se. But one thing that is worth mentioning in our earnings release, is regarding our dividend distribution that we are announcing. What about that? I think that our dividend distribution shows grade maturity considering the situation of the company is and what our positioning is. We have still over BRL 3 billion in investments to be done that will contribute to producing great revenue over next cycles. So in addition to these reinforcements that we are proactively looking to see what we can do to increase our revenue. One of the things that we need to look at is the leverage of the company. And our leverage today is at 3.8. We forecast that the peak of our leverage should be this year. It should be a bit higher than what we've seen this quarter. And as of next year, we should see a drop in this leverage. With regards to the dividend distribution totaling 75% of the regulatory net income is important because it shows that the company is concerned about its leverage, always looking to a cycle of growth. So we are considering competitive funding and raising capital. And we understand that we need to balance competitive fund raising to be part of auctions and bidding processes and allow for the company to grow, but also to continue being a company that distributed dividends that are compatible to its cash generation. So what have we done? We changed the dividend distributions to be about 75% of the net regulatory income. And according to our articles of incorporation, we have to pay at least 50% of the IFRS income -- and for 2025, we are considering a 90% to 100% range for us to have some flexibility. We are always going to prioritize payment and return to shareholders, but of course, that we need to consider our leverage and some of the options and opportunities to grow. But of course, that if we look into 90% to 100%, this is a very good and positive sign that yes, the company is concerned with its financial situation, but we are always going to prioritize return to shareholders. With regard to our leverage, not participating in some auctions is also one of the strategies that we have. This has to do with that. We did not enter the last one, considering our management. We do understand that it was better for the company to continue retain dividends like we are doing and not to participate at that moment, but of course, that was temporary, and we will be back in the auctions. And -- for example, the concern that we have for our capital in the next cycles is something that shows that we will tap into the opportunities in the future, either auctions or others. With regards to the 75% of our net income, regulatory net income payment is also aligned to some other players in our industry and also aligned to the company's strategic planning that is highly discussed with our Board and our shareholders, and it does foster this balance between a growth outlook and also a company being a good payer of dividends and providing return freight with providing its shareholders with return. But this is what I had to say about the net earnings of the company in Q1 2024, but we are really positive -- we have a promising outlook for the future. And all these announcements are really in line with what we expect for the future in terms of growth. Now I'm going to turn over to Marco -- I'm sorry, Cristiano, if you allow me for him to touch base on what's going on in the state of real granted issue, and then we start our Q&A session.

[Marco Faria, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, good morning, everyone. I would like to make your words mine and show our solidarity with everyone in the southern region of Brazil and real say that our substations and stations that were not affected. They are working and our logistics infrastructure is what has been mostly affected because we had a problem with the dams, and we have some regions that are still flooded. Our teams we're talking about 100 families that live in the South and under engaged into our operations and all our assets, structure, equipment and vehicles. They are made available to the communities to help the neighboring communities of our assets where we can actually help. We can provide some of the resources and we can raise funds and running campaigns to gather water and food and just help to distribute to this population. So just reinforcing our lines of transmission positively contribute to distributing energy in the southern ridge of Brazil. And Saira is also in the interconnection with Argentina and has not been affected, neither its operation nor the construction works that are underway. On a daily basis, we are having meetings with different players and agents, in the energy generation, transmission and distribution so that we can understand how to properly cover the distribution throughout this region. Of course, many of these initiatives depend on the level of the water, the region we needed to drop so that we can come up with a full and solid diagnosis on how to properly start recovering these installations. In the sense, we, together with the other players, we are ready to act and just start recovering the operations in the south as soon as possible.

[Juliana Castelli, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you so much for your opening remarks. We'd like to start with our questions. I think we have answered some of our questions by Pecchi. But Pecchi, this is a question for you about the policy. Actually, the proposal on dividend distribution that, of course, that it has to be approved by the corporate instances, [Indiscernible]. It's really clear the announcement of the dividend distribution, but is there any change regarding the frequency of this dividend distribution?

[Rinaldo Pecchio Junio, executive]

[Interpreted] Now this is a great question. Thank you, Bruno, for your question. Well, everything that we have been doing is to try to make it more predictable to the market what we are doing and how prudent we are with any resources in the company. We need to consider the cash generation of the company. So that's one of the reasons why we changed the net regulatory income. What we will try to do now is every quarter, try to show what the expected dividend distribution is, of course, like Cristiano said, this is upon approval of the corporate instances according to the articles of incorporation regarding the distribution we will not follow always the same deadline. Why? Because we need to consider some funding and cash generation flows. So we need to really focus on also the company situation. So we will try to always make our announcements on a quarterly basis, but the term of payment will not always be the same. It will be adjusted accordingly regarding also the need to check our cash flow and all the other commitments the company has. We do understand that making it more predictable is progress. But regarding recurrency and frequency, we will have to do the announcements quarterly. We will not announce when the payments will happen, but of course, that we will announce it every quarter. And from time to time, we will reassess that. And maybe in the future, we will have some vertical predictability over also the frequency

[Juliana Castelli, executive]

[Interpreted] The next question is from Paulo Bezanalso regarding dividend distribution. So I'm going to ask you Pecchi. What is the source of new investments if the allocations of income will be between 90% to 100% to dividend distribution.

[Rinaldo Pecchio Junio, executive]

[Interpreted] Again, how we manage cash generation and our cash flow, it takes into account what we generate and the opportunities and the need to raise funds from the market. So today, we have committed to making these payments because we can from a financial standpoint. So moving forward, we will make new investments, but also always considering our commitment to provide our shareholders with returns. So we'll keep distributing dividends, but we will be adjusting the payment dates according to our possibilities with our cash flows, not letting it negatively affect our cash flow. But my point is that we will always balance these things, prioritizing the payment of dividends. I know that there are different things to be considered. But my point is that we will consider all these variables. And if it's needed, like I said, if we have some increase in leverage, we have the possibility to do so.

[Juliana Castelli, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Pecchi. So we have Fernando that is an individual that is an investor, for Fabio. What about the next auction? Do you intend to participate? What is your expectation?

[Fabio Fernandes, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Fernando. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for the question. But just like Pecchi said in his opening remarks, the company goes through cycles. So we've been through a cycle of huge and important investments. If we look into the investment, it totaled BRL 3.7 billion over this last year. And this shows 1.4 billion in Rappi, and we have a reasonable amount that will be made available as of 2025. So considering all this growth and this additional RAP, today, the company, just like Pecchi mentioned, is about responsible and efficient management considering its cash allocation and it's cash structure and capital structure. So some of the considerations that we did in the past was regarding dividend payment, our withdrawal of the last auction, but the need for growth and for wrap is in our DNA. So today, what's going on is a temporary withdrawal for us to improve our capital structure so that we can actively take part over the next auctions. In September, we will have an auction with a few opportunities. We are actively looking into the lots and the opportunities so that we decide if we're going to tap into this opportunity or not, to know or no go in the future. But the key takeaway here is that Taesa is a solid company in the transmission industry and is highly relevant. So we will always consider and looking into opportunities either through auctions or through M&A opportunities in the secondary market. If we see that it can actually create value for our shareholders, yes, we will take part of either of these opportunities. So if Fernando, you have any other questions, just please let us know.

[Juliana Castelli, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Fabio. So we have many questions about some of the projects and undertaken. So I am going to ask Luis those questions. So if you can give us your view on the projects under construction and Sara –

[Luis Alves, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Juliana. Well, good morning, everyone. Just like Marco mentioned, we do not have any projects in the southern region of Brazil that have been adversely impacted by the strategy. Our project in the Southern region is SaÃra. So we have suffered an impact and the closest to that would be Pitiguari or Santa Catarina, but we have not detected any negative impact in our assets. Just to give you an overview, when we talk about transmission projects, we're talking about a 5 4-year plan, and the construction period is quite small versus the rest. It's about 40%. You have planning and licensing that is an initial planning. And then some projects are undergoing this first phase and the others are making progress. When you talk about Pitiguari and Tangará, we are after this initial phase of planning and the stage is about under construction of the assets, the foundations and everything that we need. Saira is a very specific project that aims at readjusting the continuous current for Saira. So it requires a specific study in research. And when we talk about works, we need to replace equipment. We're not talking about civil works. Whereas on AnanaÃ, there is a point of attention that is regarding the environmental licensing from IBAMA we see since the beginning of the year in the environmental licensing movement, we see Saira suffering an impact in spite of all the efforts we have been gearing aimed to reorganizing the project so that we can meet these needs, especially regarding the terms of the projects. But yes, this project has been affected by environmental licensing. So just to give you an outlook, all the projects are -- have their licensing and they have made projects. When we talk about reinforcement, it's a simpler project. We have the reinforcement at Novatrans under construction. It's a key line of the interconnected system, and it is under construction right now. So to summarize, all these projects are aligned to our business plan. And the only point of attention is an due to environmental licensing, but we are taking any and all actions to make that happen and to mitigate their risk

[Juliana Castelli, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Luis. Now the next question, I'm going to ask Pecchi -- so we have Pablo, an individual investor. Congratulations on the earnings release and the results. So what about the impact of the concessions as of 2030 -- do we have plans to compensate part of the RAP that will be lost? And if so, which are the plans?

[Rinaldo Pecchio Junio, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, thank you, Christian and Pablo for your questions. When we talk about this impact, it does exist, the company has been prepared to face these types of events. Even our participation in the past and some of the auctions was a way to mitigate this potential drop in the company's red. So how can we have increased compensation offsetting in the future? Well, by actually participating in future auctions. So we are adjusting dividend distribution right now so that we can have the financial strength in the future to, again, take part in this auction. I don't know if it's going to be a full compensation. It would even maybe exceed what we lose in the wrap in some of these concessions. But at first, I would say new will participation in new auctions and when we understand that there is a great potential of return for our shareholders or even other M&A operation -- transactions that we can look at. We are definitely focused on that. And some of the measures that we have taken is to really preserve the company's financial strength. But of course, we're going to consider possibilities in the future -- so thank you.

[Juliana Castelli, executive]

[Interpreted] Okay, Pecchi. I have one more question from Rose Libano. She's asking about the CapEx of BRL 3 billion, if it will imply new funding in 2024? Or did 3B investments will not be in 2024

[Rinaldo Pecchio Junio, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, this 3B investment is not regarding 2024. It's not going to be made this year. We have at least a 2-year cycle in mind. When it comes to funding, if we look to our cash flow and cash generation and opportunities in the market, I think that we were really successful in the last issuances that we had. If we look through our history, it's a history of success. We are always considering opportunities with banks so that we can raise funds according to our capital structure and the level of return that we expect from projects. So I can't really forecast what's going to happen. Maybe yes, we will raise funds depending on the need, and it will really depend on the rate of expenses or investments. We had some stoppage on some environmental agencies, and it will depend on the impact with the resuffer. But if we look into the future without really saying when we consider future possibilities to raise funds.

[Juliana Castelli, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Pecchi. We are coming to an end here, but I have a question here about reinforcements. What do you expect in terms of reinforcement in the future? So this is for you, Luis.

[Luis Alves, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, this is a key question just like Pecchi said, reinforcements are a source of revenue because it can increase RAP -- now at Taesa, we consider 7 reinforcements right now, and we manage that as a lot in an auction. So we're talking about BRL 530 million and a RAP of 84 million in Rapid. We have a team here that analyzes the conditions of our assets and looking into the regulatory framework that allow for reliability in our system and to meeting the demands in the market, we identified possible reinforcements that would be interesting for the company. So for Taesa, this is seen as a possible source of revenue of rapid that will positively contribute to the growth of the company. So we have analysis going on of transmission lines, substations, evaluating equipment, always looking into increasing reliability of the system or just availability of the system

[Juliana Castelli, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Luis. So we don't have any further questions. I would like to thank about everyone that was here. So we have about almost 500 people that joined our video conference. And now I'm going to turn it over to Pecchi for his final remarks so that we can finish our video conference.

[Rinaldo Pecchio Junio, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, I'd like to thank any and no employees for the great results we produce. We're preparing this presentation for all the stakeholders in our company and our partners. But I would like just to leave you a really positive takeaway. My final message is that this adjustment that we make is just because we have this forward-looking mindset. We are considering these possibilities of growth and of increasing our return. So yes, this is an adjustment. We had already showed that this is 75% of the regulatory net income would be for 2024. But for next year, we have this range between 90% to 100% of regulatory net income for dividend distribution. But of course, we're always going to be really prudent and consider the needs of the company and the cash generation. We have considered also for mergers, and we have undertook this project to improve the company's entire structure and capital structure. In addition to starting some projects to revisit some of the locations we are at. So what do you expect from that? We expect in the near future to show you that we have some interesting plans to allow for greater return for shareholders through gains of efficiency in our operations -- so before we come to an end, I'd just like to say that we support everyone in Rio Grande do Sul. We would like to show our solidarity. And we would like really to show our positive outlook for you, and we are available in all our channels, if you want. And if you have any questions, you can just reach out.[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]