Transmissora Alianca de Energia Eletrica SA
BOVESPA:TAEE3
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Transmissora Alianca de Energia Eletrica SA
Earnings Call Analysis
Q2-2024 Analysis
Transmissora Alianca de Energia Eletrica SA
Taesa has reported an impressive quarter, with a substantial increase in both IFRA net income and cash flow. For Q2 2024, the corporate IFRS net income surged by 81.9% year-over-year, reaching BRL 403 million. The six-month cumulative figure stood at BRL 777.8 million, equating to a 29% growth compared to the previous year. This performance was underpinned by a BRL 122 million increase in monetary restatement review, primarily driven by higher macroeconomic indicators such as the IGPM and improved operational cost management.
Despite the net income improvement, the company faced a decline in overall revenue, as Taesa's consolidated net revenue fell 7.2% quarter-over-quarter to BRL 579 million for Q2 2024. For the first half of the year, EBITDA was down 7.5%, totaling BRL 962 million, while the EBITDA margin squeezed from 85.6% to 83.3%. The decline reflects pressures from nonrecurring events and regulatory changes affecting the Transmission Connection Revenues (RAP).
The company announced a dividend distribution of BRL 223.3 million related to Q2 2024 earnings, translating to a payout ratio of nearly 76% of regulatory income. Following recent trends, Taesa aims to maintain a payout of at least 75% of regulatory net income for 2024, with aspirations of increasing this to 90% starting in 2025. This commitment to shareholder returns is significant, especially as total dividends paid year-to-date amount to BRL 986 million, providing a yield of approximately 8.1%.
Taesa demonstrated a focus on operational efficiency, achieving a net operating income improvement of 23% year-to-date, thanks mainly to better cost controls and financial results. The company reported an operating costs reduction of BRL 3.6 million, with personnel costs increasing less than the inflation rate. Notably, outlays for third-party services plummeted by 18% as administrative costs were streamlined.
While the company is making progress on key projects, delays in obtaining environmental licenses are impacting capital expenditures (CapEx). The CapEx for the first half of 2024 reached BRL 364 million, lower than anticipated due to these licensing challenges. Future projects like Ananai and Tangara have seen some critical licenses granted, allowing construction to proceed, though delays remain a point of focus.
Looking forward, Taesa plans to complete several projects that will enhance their RAP, including the Pitiguari and Novatrans reinforcements, projected to add BRL 65 million in RAP once finalized. The total RAP anticipated post-completion of ongoing projects is expected to reach BRL 4.1 billion, marking a 12.5% increase. Furthermore, the upcoming periodic tariff review established a net result of BRL 10.2 million increase in cycles, bolstering future revenue despite current declines due to regulatory adjustments.
Taesa’s total debt stood at BRL 11.1 billion as of June 2024. The company’s leverage was recorded at 4.0, aligning well with financial plans. A notable point here is the average cost of debt at 4.99% and a maturity term of 4.7 years, allowing for surrounding refinancing through recent debenture issuance. Such financial discipline has positioned Taesa strongly in the market.
Despite navigating challenges surrounding revenue and project delays, Taesa has shown strong operational performance with a clear strategy for future growth and profitability. The focus on maintaining a robust dividend policy enhances shareholder value while the ongoing projects promise increased revenue streams. It underscores Taesa's commitment to strategic growth through continuous improvement and efficient management, laying a positive outlook for the company going forward.
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Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Taesa's Q2 2024 Earnings Release Video Conference. [Operator Instructions] We would like to inform that this video conference is being recorded and will be made available on the company's RI website, where you will also find the earnings release. [Operator Instructions] Please note that questions can be submitted during the presentation and will be read out live by our IR Officer, Cristiano Grangeiro, and our IR Specialist, Juliana Castelli, and then answered by the Board of Directors during our Q&A session.
We would like to emphasize that the information contained in the presentation and any statements that may be made during the video 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 and market conditions in addition to other operating factors may affect the future performance of Taesa and lead to results that materially differ from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.
Now I am going to turn over to Cristiano Grangeiro to start the presentation.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Taesa's Q2 2024 earnings release video conference. We hope it proves to be quite informative. 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.
On Slide 3, we will go through our strategic drivers, which are key to Taesa's good performance. 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 core values are based on relevant and fundamental issues, which are, we generally care for people, we act with integrity, building relationships with trust, we strive for excellence in everything we do, and we are Taesa.
On Slide 4, we have an update on our external and internal commitments to the compliance and diversity agendas within our strategic pillar of sustainability. Our current public commitments are the 100% Transparency Movement and the race is priority movement, both part of the Global Compact of the UN and adopting the UN Women's Empowerment principles. The 100% Transparency Movement, which Taesa joined in 2022, was the first national effort to encourage companies to go beyond legal requirements, straightening integrity mechanisms to become more resilient and role models in the corporate world. Taesa has already achieved 3 of the 5 goals to be achieved by 2030, and we remain focused on achieving the others and ratifying our commitments to the sustainability agenda, which is key to our business.
With regard to the race is priority movement, 30% of our leaders must be black people or from vulnerable ethnic groups by 2025 and 50% by 2030. The company has currently about 29% of self-declared black leaders. With regard to the female empowerment principles, Taesa is committed to having 50% female leaders by 2030, and today, its female leaders account for about 26%. There is a long way to go, and the company's top management has been gearing efforts to address these issues.
In addition, some of our current diversity-driven initiatives are the training of female electricians, the qualification of people with disabilities and humanized retirement. Regarding the female electricians' training course, in 2024, we've held the fourth edition of the successful program. It is free of charge and designed exclusively for women, aiming at opening doors in a sector historically dominated by men, by breaking down barriers and stereotypes, and fostering gender equality.
The people with disabilities qualification project that has been running since 2021, we would like to emphasize that we've established a partnership with Centro de Integracao Empresa-Escola, which had 20 people, young people, trained in subjects related to digital inclusion, the labor market and the energy industry. In addition, the company has recently been awarded the Friends of Youth Seal award in recognition of the excellence performance of the people with disability qualification project. The humanized retirement project is the most recent project, which started last year and is about providing professional, personal, financial and well-being guidance for our employees over 60 years old.
Before moving on to the next slide, we'd like to highlight that the company has created a working group and initiated discussions on CVM Discussion Resolution 193, which provides for the preparation and disclosure of financial information related to sustainability based on the international standard issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board, ISSB. There is ongoing important discussion about the scope and formats of the reports within IFRS S1 and S2. Thus, we have sought information from experts to be as prepared as possible for the mandatory disclosure of the reports starting in the 2026 fiscal year.
As we do in every second quarter, we highlight the new RAP cycle that will be valid as of the next quarter, that is from July 2024 to June 2025. Looking at the operational cycle, the inflation adjustments were minus 0.34% for contracts indexed by the IGP-M and 3.93% for contracts indexed by the IPCA. In the sense, Taesa's operational RAP had a negative impact of BRL 7.5 million due to the IGP-M, which was more than offset by the positive impact of BRL 55.9 million due to the IPCA adjustment.
Earnings from the final phases of Sant'Ana and Ivai increased it by BRL 8.6 million when comparing the cycles, and we see a negative impact of BRL 46 million due to the periodic tariff review in transmission concessions, due to a regulatory process to reposition the RAP at a level compatible with investments made, operational costs, quality level, among other aspects. The main impacts of this tariff review are related to reinforcements authorized in the past, and whose RAPs were repositioned, some downwards and some upwards, starting in July 2024.
It is important to remember that RAPs established, when any reinforcement is authorized, is provisional until the first tariff review, when investments are evaluated by ANEEL and the final RAP is established. As you can see, the greatest impact was on the Novatrans concession of BRL 37 million in 2 large reinforcements authorized in 2017 and operational in 2019. All that caused our RAP to stabilize slightly, increasing to BRL 10.2 million when comparing the cycles.
We highlight that this total RAP amount does not include the adjustments comments related to the tariff reviews of the reinforcement that will be offset over the next 5 tariff cycles. It was worth pointing out that once new projects are completed, they will add about BRL 445 million in RAP to Taesa. We expect to complete Pitiguari and new Novatrans reinforcements in the '24-'25 cycle. These 2 projects add up an RAP of BRL 65 million. After all our projects are delivered, our RAP will total BRL 4.1 billion, up 12.5%.
Now moving onto the presentation of the highlights that we have on Slide 6. So the first thing we see is an improved operation course of financial results and income tax and social contribution positively affected regulatory net income, which is up 22.9% and total BRL 294 million in Q2. The periodic tariff review established by resolution 3,342 and 3,343, published on July 9, had an impact on the company, as shown in the previous slide. The key impacts were on the redefinition of the RAP of reinforcements, mainly Novatrans concession until December 2030, totaling about BRL 40 million a year. This amount is slightly different from the impact of BRL 46 million highlighted in the previous slide, since we are showing exclusively the impact of the reinforcements.
This review of reinforcements caused a redefinition of adjustment installments, which refer to the difference between the provisional RAP, defined back in 2019, and the definitive RAP, which will be offset in 5 annual installments until June 2029, totaling about BRL 35 million per year. The company then recognized this adjustment installments retrospectively, restating the past financial statement with the following impacts.
In the regulatory earnings, the impacts were minus BRL 7.3 million in the first 6 months of 2024, minus BRL 40.4 million in the first 6 months of 2023, and minus BRL 80.3 million before 2023, which was accounted directly to shareholders' equity. In the IFRS earnings, the impact were BRL 0.5 million in the first months of 2024, minus BRL 2.1 million in the first 6 months of 2023, and minus BRL 155.9 million before 2023, which were accounted for the corporate shareholders' equity.
I'd like to take this opportunity to emphasize that the figures presented in the following slides reflect this impact. Further details can be found in the quarterly financial information, Explanatory Note 4 and in the earnings release. We had strong cash generation in Q2 reflecting the impact of the mergers carried out. We have announced yesterday a BRL 223.3 million dividend distribution related to Q2 2024 earnings. This distribution of the 6-month period earnings was not affected by the adjustment -- of the adjustment portion. Obtaining licenses for Tangara and Ananai allowed for works to begin on their respective stretches. The lower CapEx was affected by the delay in obtaining environmental license, which had an impact on Ananai.
On Slide 7, we have highlighted our key regulatory results, which directly reflects the company's net generation, and we will give further detail over the next slides. The company's net revenue in Taesa consolidated view was down 7.2% quarter versus quarter, totaling BRL 579 million in Q2 2024. The 6-month cumulative EBITDA of net revenue was down 4.8%, totaling BRL 1.1 billion. EBITDA, quarter versus quarter, was down 7.8%, totaling BRL 485 million in Q2. EBITDA margin fell from 84.3% to 83.7%. Six-month cumulative EBITDA was down 7.5%, totaling BRL 962 million and a margin down from 85.6% to 83.3%. As you will see, these effects are related to nonrecurring events such as those associated to VP dating from 2023.
Our operating performance was stabilized with a 99.38% availability rate. Our VP-RAP ratio was 2.04% in the first half of the year versus minus 1.32% last year, which, like I said, was affected by the reversals that occurred in 2023. Specifically, the case of sabotage at Novatrans that happened in Q1 2023 and the suspension of VP collection at ATE by injunction, which I will give you further details later on.
Together, these 2 nonrecurring events related to reverse totaled BRL 28 million, and that are negative, which improved last year's results. Our net operating income was positive, up 23%, like I've said before, and in the 6-month cumulative view totaled 8.1%, totaling BRL 435 million. And like I said, mainly due to operational cost improvements, greater financial results and changes in return tax and social contribution as we will further detail.
On Slide 8, we separate the lines of the income statement that explain the regulatory net income. The regulatory net income was up by almost 23% year-on-year, totaling BRL 294 million in Q2. This positive result is mainly explained by the financial result per se. So we see BRL 43.2 million here, an increase, basically explained by the lower IPCA and CDI between periods compared. On top of the reconciliation of the IPCA and the realized IPCA accounted for monthly in the monetary variation line. In addition, we had an income tax and social distribution changes due to the reduction from the tax base of interest on equity that was announced last May, totaling BRL 145 million and tax efficiency due to the merger with 4 companies between the end of last year and April of this year. In addition, we also saw an improvement in operational costs, which minimize the reduction in EBITDA as we will see us follows.
While we are at it, on the next slide, we explain the main effects that led to the drop of BRL 41.2 million from a margin of 84.3% in Q2 2024 to a margin of 83.7% in Q2 2024. On Slide 9, like what happened last quarter, the RAP was affected by the negative impact of the IGP-M in the '23-'24 cycle of minus 4.5%, which readjusted towards our operating RAPs, which was partially offset by the IPCA readjustment in Category 3 contracts. The impact of BRL 19.2 million on a variable portion in this period is explained by the reversal in the ATE conjunction in Q2 2023 due to an injunction that it was suspended until the merits of the case are judged. We are still waiting for it to be judged since it was a case of an extreme weather event.
The VP for the Q2 2024 stood at 1% on the RAP, within Taesa's historical levels. On the other hand, operating costs showed an improvement of BRL 3.6 million in the comparison, mainly in our 2 largest OpEx items. Personnel costs were up by less than inflation growth in the period, driven by an increase in open positions, and third-party services are down 18% due to lower spending on administrative and technical consultancy services and on clearing of the write-off away.
Excluding nonrecurring events, mainly those associated with the reversals of VP that took place last year, the drop in Q2 is 5.1% and only 2.6% in the 6-month cumulative period, much lower than the 7.5% drop show on the Slide 7. The margins in both views are much more in line with previous periods.
On Slide 10, we present the corporate IFRS net income. Income was up 81.9%, quarter versus quarter, totaling BRL 403 million in Q2 2024. In the 6-month cumulative view, growth was about 29% versus the previous year, totaling BRL 777.8 million in the first half of 2024. The key drivers of this result in Q2 2024 versus Q2 2023 were a BRL 122 million increase in monetary restatement review, driven by higher macroeconomic indexes, especially the IGPM, an increase in the construction margin due to greater investment in new projects, but that was partly offset by the delay in the environmental license for Ananai, which negatively affected the calculation of the construction margin, an improvement in operation costs, PMSO, as mentioned before, growth of about BRL 40 million using the equity method, mainly due to higher IGP-M, which also affects the income from the monetary correction of our shareholdings, greater financial result, as we have already mentioned in the regulatory earnings slide. These positive effects were partially offset by the reversal of the VP in ATE by an injection last year, which negatively affected the comparison of this line, as I have already mentioned.
On Slide 11, we present the progress of some of the projects under construction. Even though obtaining environmental licenses from the competent bodies has been challenging, we have taken several actions to minimize this impact, and we have already produced some positive results. We have obtained the installation license for a section of the Ananai of Bateias–Curitiba Leste line, which allows works to begin on a critical part of the project. In addition, we have also obtained more installation license for the Tangara project, allowing for work to progress on other important sections of the project.
Due to the delay in Ananai's environmental license, CapEx to date remains naturally lower than expected, totaling BRL 364 million in the first half of 2024. However, the actions taken to mitigate the delay have allowed us to work without any significant impact on Ananai's business plan. We have brought forward actions and initiatives that do not depend on licenses. We have managed to segregate the licensing processes with the environmental agencies releasing work front. We have implemented parallel construction and assembly activities and renegotiated deadlines for carrying out activities in line with market averages, strengthening our relationship with some of our suppliers. We have also worked on financial fronts, such as using contractual clauses for storing materials and postponing manufacturing, thus reviewing disbursement curves and prospecting for tax benefits at the federal and state levels.
On the progress of other projects, the first hour of the Pitiguari project has been assembled and the equipment and material for laying the cables have already been made available in the field. In Tangara, we have segregated licenses and managed to release the sections necessary for the physical planning of the work so far, which allowed for timely addressing the licensing challenges with no impact on the project. Lastly, the Saira project is at the executive design stage on schedule.
Moving onto Slide 12, we present Taesa's debt profile. At the end of the first half of 2024, Taesa's total debt totaled BRL 11.1 billion, considering all our shareholdings. The company's leverage was at 4.0. The actual average cost of debt was 4.99% and an average term of 4.7 years, which was linked by the 15 issuance of debentures with the first series of 5 years that prepaid a more expensive debt that would mature next year. And with the second series of 10 years, our cash position totaled the first half -- in BRL 1.5 billion. Six percent of that was IPCA indexed debt, 31% CDI indexed and now 2% IGP-M indexed due to the second series of the 15th issuance concluded in April this year. The company's corporate rating on a national scale, which is monitored by Moody's and Fitch, is AAA, which is the highest recognized by the agencies.
On Slide 13, we see the distribution of dividends we announced yesterday based on this year's cumulative regulatory earnings. The Board of Directors approved a distribution of BRL 223.3 million between dividends and interest on equity and the base date of August 15, 2024. This distribution is equivalent to BRL 0.65 per unit of Taesa and the payment to be made on November 27, 2024. It is important to further explain this announcement. The regulatory net income for the first half of 2024 totaled BRL 483.5 million. Due to the adjustment of the RAP restated in this period of BRL 7.3 million, the adjusted income would be BRL 490.9 million.
Considering that our proposal for distribution of dividends announced last May as of a minimum 75% of regulatory income, we estimated BRL 368.2 million to be distributed related to cumulative earnings. Since we have already paid out BRL 144.9 million in the first quarter of this year, the distribution proposal approved by the Board was of BRL 223.3 million, which is equivalent to a payout of almost 76%, which is slightly higher than the limit of the proposal announced this year. With this announcement, the total amount distributed so far totals BRL 986 million, equivalent to BRL 2.86 per unit or considering TAE11's recent prices, a dividend yield of about 8.1%.
Well that's all we had to present today. Now we will start and move on to our Q&A session. Thank you, all.
[Operator Instructions]
Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for being here with us. We have almost 600 people here with us. I am here. We have Juliana, the IR Specialist here, and we have Rinaldo Pecchio, our CEO. We have Fabio Fernandes, our M&A Chief Officer. I have also Luis Alves, our Implementation Officer; and Marco Faria, our Technical Chief Officer. We have presented the tariff review. So we will have Gliender Mendonca that is our regulatory manager here, and we will answer any questions but before, we will have Pecch's initial remarks.
Thank you, Cristiano. Thank you, everyone. I think that now you are in a good moment here, and today is a very interesting session because we have our analysts here, we have our investors and the market to listen to us. So we are really happy to have the opportunity to express our intentions. We ended the first half of 2024. I think that we had some of the consistent results that we expected. We saw some improvements in terms of the mergers that allowed for producing good results. We see a cash flow that is very positive with strong cash generation, benefiting some of the companies in our mergers. We are reviewing some of the costs. And we are looking ahead, considering what we have going on in our company.
And we think that we need to plan increasingly better results internally to gain cost efficiency and produce even better results in the future. We have here some officers that will detail the projects under construction and what's in our pipeline. And just for you to understand the progress, it's important to detail what's going on. And with regards to dividends, I think that this great earnings allow for following the distribution of dividends of about 75% of the regulatory net income for 2024. So we will be able to comply with that. I'm sure that there may be some answers about the future.
And we have also had the result of the periodic tariff review, which is something that is applied to the companies in the industry. And I'd just like to point out that this impact will last 4 or 5 years because it considers the deadline of the concessions. So these effects are not long term, but that do affect the concessions that are ongoing until 2030. We have highlighted some really important figures in terms of dividends, of net income. So we are really happy to go through some of these figures and announce these figures, and we are really open to any questions you may have. So thank you, Cristiano.
Okay. Thank you, Pecch. I do have some questions here. I'll try to answer some of the questions that are similar -- so the first, for example, here, I think we talked about the payout, and they want to see, one question is if there is an inflection point of the company's debt or what could we expect of the leverage of the company in the following months?
Okay. So thank you for the answers. I would just like first to point out to the commitment we made on the first half of the year of having a dividend distribution of at least 75% of the regulatory net income. Whenever we are planning anything in our company, we really do have our top priorities to preserve the quality of our service. But we also understood that it's possible to comply with the 75% rule in 2024. With this in mind, our financial planning considers the amortizations that expanding and also the dividend distribution.
This year, we have announced, and we have been working for that, but we've been consistent with the distribution of at least 75% considering the first half of the year. And if you remember for 2025 and so on, if we have the same conditions, we have mentioned at least 90% of the regulatory net income, if we continue in that sense, right? So what we said last time is what we are repeating today. As of 2025, the idea is to have a minimum of 90%. And we are, of course, working on our budget and on our forecast to eventually update the information. But at this moment, we do not understand that we needed to say anything different regarding the 90% in the future.
With regards to leverage, as we said, it was 4x. Maybe it is a repeat, but also within our financial planning and what we expected for our company for us to have financial strength, continue paying dividend as expected and to go back to the bidding process in the future. So we had a very strong and consistent first half of the year, really in line with what we say that is our top priorities, our business priorities.
Well, thank you, Pecch. The next question is about the bidding process at the auction, and I will ask our Fabio for him to give us his take about the next bidding process or return tax or what we expect.
So thank you, Juliana. Thank you, everyone, for being here with us. But we will have a bidding process in September and the company has a really promising outlook. We're talking about a BRL 3.4 billion in 3 series. So the first is a bit larger. So the first total is about 3, and then the other 2 are a bit of lower value, lower amount, but like Cristiano said and Pecchio, growth is in our DNA. Taesa, if we look back over the last 5 years, we have invested over BRL 4.4 billion in [indiscernible], which generated additional RAP, and we even expected -- we have RAP expected to enter our -- as a source of revenue. So our debt profile is in line with this investment cycle. And now we do understand that new projects that may add value or create value for the company. We always look into all this bidding process and auctions if they allow for creating value.
So we see a promising outlook here in the second half of the year in September. We have over 43 concessions in 14 states and the Federal District, which allow for an interesting operation as a whole. Like Cristiano mentioned, we have been controlling our costs. We have a pre-tax of 4.99% with a 5-year term. So right now, we have the capabilities to continue with a competitive advantage and to create value. But like we have always done, we are going to consider all the auctions. And if it makes sense for us, we are going to bid. And I am sure that if we do that, we are going -- our shareholders can expect great returns.
Thank you, Fabio. So we have Rafael here with another question, and I am going to ask Pecchio. He's saying congratulations for this solid results. And what about the RAP drop as of 2030? What do you intend to do about it?
We, in our discussions and in our business planning, in everything we do, we try to address that. And I think that we have some things interesting already going on. Last year, we made sizable investments. So we peaked in investments to have a strong source of revenue. So we've taken action to be more disciplined financially to continue growing sustainably in the future, let's say, even in the short term.
So I would point out to 2 things regarding this drop in RAP. One is to be back in the auctions and to keep bidding and to win concessions, for example, and we are also looking internally to see if we can improve and gain efficiency within our operations. We do understand that it could improve our activity, and we could continue growing in the market. So right now, I don't have anything specific to say in the short term, but I do believe that these actions we've taken show the consistency that we aim at and that we have a good business plan that we are carrying out and making it happen.
And just one example is this dividend distribution that shows how consistent we have been, which also allowed for business growth. If we consider our debt, we are almost peaking what we expected, but now we will also have some money coming in, in the future, that will allow for new investments. So the company has been gearing efforts into that, and we have never gone a different route except that is not growth.
We have a question from the analyst from Safra with regards to the licensing and the environmental bodies that have been challenging. Can you comment on the impact on Ananai and on the CapEx projects that you have?
Yes, when we are talking about transmission projects, only after we get the licensing to install, we can start construction works. And for Ananai, we have Ibama for linha Ponta Grossa-Assis that connects to states, Parana and Sao Paulo. And we also have the substation Curitiba Leste to Bateias, whose licensing depends on IAT, the state agency. So the first Curitiba Leste to Bateias, we have obtained the license from IAT. Considering our planning, this was the first step. So we did it, and we are starting the construction works for this first line.
And with regards to the Ibama, there is, of course, an impact of the undertaking, especially from Ponta Grossa-Assis, but we think we can bring forward some things regarding the pipeline with ANEEL. When we consider the return and the investment, we have taken all measures considering cost analysis, or change in [indiscernible] or tax benefits that even if we have to change to that line, we can benefit from the project, like I said. So there is a possibility of meeting the demands and just continue complying with the returns expected of the project.
Well, the first -- the next question we have is from Andre Sampaio, Santander. And he asks, does Taesa still looks to merging with any other companies?
Well, Andre, we have started some mergers last year, and we have finalized this merger in April of this year, and we are always considering new opportunities. Right now, we don't have anything to announce in our pipeline. But from time to time to time, we will analyze the market to see if there's any opportunity we can tap into. And I'm sure that we are going to continue doing that if we find it interesting for shareholders. So straight to the point, we've been always mapping these opportunities, but right now, we don't have anything new to announce, but in the future, it can happen again.
Well, thank you, Pecch. We have had some questions here that were specific. I don't think we have any further questions. But if you have any questions, I am Juliana and the other teammates that we have are available to answer any questions you may have later on.
So I'll turn over back to Pecch to his final remarks.
I would just like to thank everyone for being here and for your interest in our company. And I would just like to emphasize that we are a company driven for growth, and we are trying to be increasingly disciplined to look into our costs and be consistent with our projects, with our dividend distribution and continue our solid management. But overall, I would just like to say that we did a great job, and thank you so much for your interest in our company. And if you have any questions, just reach out, we have our Investor Relations channels available for you. So thank you so much.
[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]