Vibra Energia SA
BOVESPA:VBBR3
If you don’t study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards.
Utilize notes to systematically review your investment decisions. By reflecting on past outcomes, you can discern effective strategies and identify those that underperformed. This continuous feedback loop enables you to adapt and refine your approach, optimizing for future success.
Each note serves as a learning point, offering insights into your decision-making processes. Over time, you'll accumulate a personalized database of knowledge, enhancing your ability to make informed decisions quickly and effectively.
With a comprehensive record of your investment history at your fingertips, you can compare current opportunities against past experiences. This not only bolsters your confidence but also ensures that each decision is grounded in a well-documented rationale.
Do you really want to delete this note?
This action cannot be undone.
| 52 Week Range |
19.95
26.6
|
| Price Target |
|
We'll email you a reminder when the closing price reaches BRL.
Choose the stock you wish to monitor with a price alert.
This alert will be permanently deleted.
Vibra Energia SA
You don't have any saved screeners yet
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Vibra's video conference to discuss the earnings result of the fourth quarter of 2021. This video conference is being recorded and the replay can be accessed on the company's website. The presentation is also available for download. [Operator Instructions]
Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Vibra's management and current information available to the company. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events and, therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors, analysts and journalists should note that events related to the macroeconomic environment, the industry and other factors may cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.
With us today are Mr. Wilson Ferreira Jr., CEO of Vibra; and Mr. Andre Natal, CFO and IRO. Now I would like to hand it over to the CEO, who will start the presentation. Mr. Wilson, you have the floor.
Well, good morning to everybody, investors, analysts that are with us today when we are announcing the earnings results of the fourth quarter of 2021. And 2021, once again, I am satisfied to share a brief introduction with a number of the highlights regarding our results starting by this page.
Here, you can see the results of the fourth quarter. We are talking about the highest -- a record EBITDA margin in our business that is BRL 160 per cubic meter. This margin increased vis-à-vis Q4 of 2020, that had already been exceptional, by 2%. Therefore, this is a record EBITDA margin for the company. And this, we are observing this in a consistent fashion, increasing our market share. We totaled 28.9% during Q4. This is an increase vis-à-vis Q4 last year. And we are differentiated regarding our peer, adding new stations. We had 180 throughout the year and 74 during Q4.
Q4 is a very important quarter. I would also like to draw your attention to our result. On our 2021 base -- I'm having technical problems here, I do apologize. I believe that all of you have the presentation in front of you. Therefore, on our next slide, here, you can see the data of 2021. And here, you can see -- and here, we have highlighted all our figures. Therefore, this is a year of 4.7% sales volume growth vis-à-vis 2020. Our yearly margin is BRL 129 per cubic meter. This is 25% above 2020. And the year market share, well, we totaled 28.4%. This is a consistent result.
And here, this shows the continuous growth of our network. It would be 179 new stations. And there are 2 important items. We reached a higher margin as we reached the lower (sic) [lowest] cost levels in our history. It is important when you see the restructuring of the company totaling BRL 54 per cubic meter, this is a drop of over 21% vis-à-vis 2020. And therefore, in terms of absolute figures, the company in 2021 totaled an EBITDA of BRL 5 billion. This is an increase of 31% vis-à-vis 2020. This is an important year. We celebrated our 50th anniversary 2 years after the privatization. We are now a corporation and we've attained this result.
And on Page 3 now, you can see the trajectory since 2017 when the privatization of the company started with its IPO. Here, you can see that this is an EBITDA that grows consistently throughout the time, year-on-year, quarter-on-quarter from 2020 and 2021. Here, you can see the different quarters until we total the EBITDA of BRL 160, that is an average growth of 24%.
Now in terms of expenses, from BRL 111, we have dropped 50% in terms of expenses since the beginning of the privatization process and a consistent growth as well in terms of market share. And here, you have all the figures totaling 28.9% on Q4 of last year.
Now we go to Page 4 and we can see the main businesses of the company, and you can see how sound our strategy is. Here, we show the importance of our business, its performance in B2C and B2B. This is the core of what we do. We have great potential of continue growing with this number in efficiency. And we also have a complementary strategy regarding energy, starting by our stations. We grew 0.7% when we compare '21 to '20, and all the figures are positive. Market share growth, 0.7%, reaching 23.8%. Stations, go to 8,201, plus 179. And sales has grown 7.1%.
All of this is due to the better -- to the best value propositions that we offer to the resellers and to our customer, the first Vibra ecosystems that engages loyalty program which constantly is evolving. In addition to the cashback on fuels, something that we did together with AME, now our convenience stores now have a better input with the creation of Vem, together with Lojas Americanas. It's already in operation. It is working and we will have assortment optimization, a robust supply chain offering, increased store profitabilization.
We have a number of examples, and we are highly optimistic regarding the growth of this business. And all of this provides better service at competitive prices which guarantees the effectiveness of this network and a better financial equation for the resellers, and we've observed this in all of our surveys.
On Page 5, we also have the X-ray of our B2B business. And this business, although it presents a drop of 5.2% in sales, this is because we no longer consolidate the Esgas and Stratura because we would have an increase of 0.5%. And this is explicit in our market share that grew 3.4 percentage points and we totaled 37.5%. These are highlights of this market.
And throughout the presentation and in our release, this is very clear. Aviation has progressed importantly but it's the only segment where we have, in total, volumes that are the same as the volumes before the pandemic. We have growing volume because we increased our market share. We totaled 68%. And obviously, throughout 2021, there was important growth of 46%. We have still not reached the sales levels in aviation, before the pandemic.
I would also like to highlight lubricants. This is part of the growth strategy of this business. Here, we presented a growth of 32% in the company's EBITDA. And all the efforts in the modernization in order to broaden our plan, we are broadening 60% and 90% are already completed. We have reformulated our sales channels and already through authorized distributors, and we are optimistic that we will reach BRL 400 million in EBITDA throughout 2022. That is this year.
In a nutshell, on Page 6, in addition to investments in logistics and supplies to strengthen our competitive advantage, we had investments in logistics. Therefore, we had the implementation of the Control Tower. And this last year generated a savings of over BRL 90 million. We have implementing of oil derivative trading. We started this operation in December of '21, and we will have our onshore and offshore derivatives trading that's mitigating exposure to fluctuation. And this is important during this moment of great volatility because of the war. This strengthens the leadership position in fuels.
And the ethanol trading, as you know, something together with Copersucar, that is 50%-50%, awaiting the approval by CADE. And we believe that due to the growth prospects of ethanol, in terms of mobility, we will have synergies with our current portfolio in biofuels, and we will become one of the greatest traders of ethanol in Brazil.
Now on Page 7, here, we have the X-ray of the fuel market. As I said, we already resumed pre-COVID level. And we see this in the gas station network, a growth of 5.1% totaling 95.2% within what we had in 2019, that are pre-COVID levels. In B2B, we have higher growth, 33% to 34.5%. This is 16.9%. Lubes also and in aviation, as I said, we had a significant growth in 2021 vis-à-vis 2020; 25% is lower than what we had in 2019, that was 7 million cubic meters.
Here, we are strengthening our strategy. The company is focused on its main business that, today, presents competitive advantages. Regarding the competitors, this is a company, a better price, lower cost and better value proposition in B2C and B2B. And we continue with an important investment capacity, 80% of Vibra capital is allocated in our core or in the direct investments or infrastructures. And we are still investing 20% in the expansion of other businesses. And here, we will guarantee that by the end of the decade, a growth of over 50% in the EBITDA that is generated by our operations.
We continue with our EBITDA. And due to this investment, we will have an important diversification, and we are aligning ourselves to our next page that shows our strategy. As I said, the strengthening of the core business. On the left side here, we had -- here, we have the distribution of fuel, lubricants, aviation, convenience, and now we're embarking in trading of ethanol and derivatives. These 2 initiatives are important to strengthen our core business and embarking in marketing and electric power trading that I will talk subsequently.
We have a number of initiatives regarding new vector growth, off-grid and on-grid offer, natural gas and biomethane, strengthening the position in electric energy, self-production and DG, through Comerc, also changing solutions of EVs for electric vehicles that have an important participation, our relationship program and extended convenience.
Some bets on innovation spaces, hydrogen, that is the fuel of the next decade and new types of biofuels and e-fuels, aviation fuels and new solutions for mobility. It is a pleasure and it is with great satisfaction that on behalf of all the employees and officers of Vibra, we are showing these results after 6 months.
And this is a slide with a summary of the company's strategy. In addition to strengthening of the core business, reaching differentiated margins vis-à-vis other industries with continuous growth but also the JV and (sic) [with] Copersucar initiative that is in the last stage, we're waiting for the evaluation of the CADE, and we believe that we will have an increase in number of stores. We will share the numbers, in brief, the implementation with Comerc, something that we recently announced. There is a specific slide focused on this.
The agreement signed with ZEG, that is already generating the main plants in order to trade biomethane. The implementation of EZVolt start-up. EZVolt, this is a startup that would be the largest electric charging station network with over 200 chargers. This is within the expansion program of the business with the expansion of the chargers that will be placed in the highways. And gradual bets, as I mentioned, here, we have our initiatives with Brasil BioFuels in order to generate 400 million cubic meters of exclusive supply of green diesel.
This is our last slide. Here, we have the joint venture with Comerc, boosts Vibra's position in energy and leverages commercial synergies between the parties. I know that this is a slide full of information. Here, you have the strategic rationale of the company, so strengthening and accelerate Vibra's position in the energy market in the for -- upcoming years, this will expand.
Today, practically 32% of energy sales are done through the free market. This goes to over 50%, and this is the potential that we visualize and this is [ impossible ] to address.
This is an acquisition of control and we can buy the control. So this is a partial acquisition of 50% of commercialization with option to acquire control. And while this is clear amongst partners, we're going to grow together, we create value for the company, and our partners may have liquidity. And here, we have this operation to materialize this.
Now the partnership between Comerc and Vibra, from Comerc, it brings the know-how of assets and broad pipeline portfolio of energy solutions and services. This is a pipeline to build solar platform and air wind platforms. And here, Vibra gives 18,000 B2B customers with over 8,000 stations with over 400 sales force, with a financial capacity that is sound, that was very important in the growth of Targus. This is a company that we bought with BRL 90 million, and we allocated this business together with Comerc with BRL 300 million in less than 1 year.
And these 2 companies represent the greatest electric trader in the free market in Brazil. And here, you can see this is -- this, we have a unique energy solution with great financial capacity with a great customer base. And here, we can see the different synergies. First cross sale and different offerings and services. We have over 18,000 customers that are serviced by Vibra in B2B, 80% still out of the free market. So this is an extraordinary opportunity.
Now energy strengthening, positioning supply of energy and services with capacity of adding 2 gigawatts by 2024. This is a significant growth, both, this will allow us with the GD and distributed generation and centralized distribution. And finally, innovation in energy products and services for customers. We're talking about more than 10 products that we didn't have and now are available for our customers.
Through this JV, this is a fortunate big operation. And here, I insisted in sharing the first information with you.
Now we thank all of you for your participation and we can initiate our Q&A session.
[Operator Instructions]
Our first question from Regis Cardoso.
Wilson, I have 2 things that I would like you to elaborate on. One would be the recent price dynamic this year, especially after the Ukraine event. How has the sector adapted to the price volatility? And number two, the level of premium volatility and discounts between the Petrobras domestic price and the cost of imports, knowing that distributors have to complement their supply through imported products and this cost? And also the delay is unproportional (sic) [disproportional] to the margin. This is like gifting sense. So perhaps this -- and in reality, this can represent BRL 1.50. How do you see the industry's adaptation to the current situation? And how can this affect Q1 of 2022? Can this affect hedge, gains of stock or replacement margins? I would like to know.
And the second point, when we explore Comerc, this has been a recurring theme that has been discussed. What is your strategy? What is the company's plan for Comerc throughout the time? And perhaps regarding the quantitative perspective, how much will this business represent for the EBITDA in the future?
Okay. Regis, thank you for your question. I will start by the last question. What we visualize, our entry in the electric energy segment follows a view of consumer potential that still are not in the market, that will then embark in this market. I would like to remind you that 95% of our customers are potentially free. It is right that when customers can migrate to the free market due to the flexibility of the traders, be it in terms of terms, currency and charge curve adjustment, this generates a customization process that is of the interest of the customer.
And what is interesting is that is renewable certified energy, as they -- as we have 8,000 stations with over 18,000 corporate customers, yes, there is a possibility of embarking in this market, with a successful prospect. Now the combination of energy sources and trade expertise and even trading is to sell to consumers that today have the possibility to migrate to this market quickly. That is 80%. So this will become the core business of the company.
Of course, there is a need to learn throughout this process. The company has to develop itself. So the way we've developed the businesses together with the JV, controlling the company with first-level governance together with our leaders and independent Board members, there is a prospect of growth for the company. And our pipeline shows that this will create great value to the company in the upcoming 4 years.
This is a core business, but you say, I'm going to base myself on the values of the IPO -- during the IPO. This is a company that in 4 years, totaled an EBITDA of BRL 1.4 billion. When we compare it to the BRL 5 billion of last year, there are some nonrecurring things. But if we were only to analyze our 50%, we would see 20% more EBITDA up till 2025. Here, we have the opportunity to control this company. So the size of the operation has already been contracted in this BRL 1.4 billion.
I would like to remind you that they have a pipeline that hasn't been -- that wasn't priced during the IPO and over 1,100 megawatts. This is a company that is going to create a lot of value in addition to the BRL 1.4 billion in EBITDA because there are incentives for this and there is a market in Brazil to develop this. So this is our target. It is the future core business. And therefore, we are interested in controlling this.
Before giving the floor to Natal to answer your first question, obviously, we're undergoing a moment of great volatility. And in our release, we show that -- what the effects are. I would just like to guarantee that the company has a number of contracts, is the biggest importer, and although we have international volatility, we're feeding our network with great capacity. We are not facing problems.
Obviously, we have to be disciplined. I always say this, we have met on a daily basis to assess the situation because, yes, this can present accounting impacts, and Natal will talk about this. I would just like to reassure you because the operations are flowing as always. The import market is stressed but we continue being a major importer especially from the Indian Gulf. Now I would like to give the floor to Natal.
This was an excellent question. If we analyze the past 2 years, everything that we didn't have were calm waters. We underwent a drastic pandemic. And now we have a third wave with Omicron in the beginning of the year and to complete this situation of high volatility. We have to navigate through these waters and these waters bring risks and as well as opportunities; like everything in life, there are 2 sides of things. I think that Q4 demonstrates the size of the opportunities that emerge when there is a high price as we saw during this moment.
This was a different situation that ended at $80. And generating a situation that you described that is more challenging, that presents more risks to when you import products at higher prices than what the domestic prices suggest. And this, in a certain way, scared the players. So their positive arbitrages, arbitrages to carry out this import and they exited these operations. And this creates space for players that have greater appetite and more safety to place the product in the domestic market that has a great network.
And with this, we guarantee our supply and our reseller sees the value of working with us. So we have -- we continued with these operations during Q4. We brought the products and within our pricing rationale well. This is a blend of products that have a differentiated price in Brazil. And this price transfer generated the results that you can see of higher reposition margin without doing anything to damage our market position. When you see our position in diesel and aviation fuel, we were stable in terms of share. So our trajectory throughout the quarter in the past 2 years has grown gradually with little volatility.
Although we faced rough waters, now this was more accentuated during Q3. Here, now we're at $120, it reached $130. And this creates a competitive environment and also scares other players to import products and this creates opportunities and market share. The data that we saw this week in terms of market share shows that we gained market share during this first Q.
Therefore, we are gaining more market. We have fully serviced our network, and this is when the reseller sees the value of this flag and they see that we guarantee supply. And as you said, the variations go up and down and this creates pricing challenges. So in certain cities, when you carry out readjustments, you have to be careful to guarantee that you don't detach yourself from the market.
We have a price view from outside to the inside. We see what the market is doing, how the transference of price is being done. And this has to be balanced so that we don't create asymmetries that may -- that makes us lose market. And this is more challenging, but this is what our pricing strategy sees (sic) [is].
Now when we see the effects of stock hedge, our hedge has no direct relation with the stock hedge, we hedge our imports. Our imports have an important share in our mix. Nonetheless, the hedge operations, by and large, they go the other way around than the stocks in a moment of high prices. We have gains of stock and loss and hedges.
And the other way around, it's the contrary. And these things, by and large, have offset themselves. So this mitigates and attenuates the effect of the other. What may happen and in a certain way, we've seen throughout Q1, is that if the oil movements are very high and they are not immediately followed up by the domestic market, this creates a gap between the magnitude of the loss that you have in the derivative vis-à-vis the gains in the physical market. We wanted both things to be compensated immediately.
Now if you have many gaps in the domestic price adjustments, you will create a temporary space. You may lose hedge that are not offset by gains of stock. Now there was a relevant increase of the domestic price in the middle of March, but the gain of stock will not be captured by Q1. This will be carried over to Q2. Therefore, these balances from the accounting point of view can create a mismatch between these movements from the margin. From the trade point of view, well, they continue to sound more or less aligned with what we had during the fourth quarter or very close at least.
And the other challenge to answer your question is the challenge of maintaining a higher level of liquidity for the company. So there is no guarantee if there is -- if the war in Ukraine intensifies, this can also affect the price of oil and working capital because stocks will increase in price. And we -- so we have more capital employed.
So this consumes working capital. So we have to be cautious and maintain in controlling our cash flow and go to the market to maintain liquidity, to maintain a higher cash flow and to deal with the fluctuations that we may see. Because we have our transactions, we have the Comerc as secondary. And of course, for this, we are going to work with more liquidity.
This is what the current situations demand. We are navigating within these waters. So we have a sound margin and the accounting results offset throughout. What is important is that the value of the flag is being recognized by everybody.
Mr. Vicente Falanga.
Wilson, Natal, thank you very much for your presentation. You described the potential of Comerc in the release and Wilson showing the value extraction of this acquisition. I know that this is an acquisition that presents a great potential. When do you believe that we will be able to quantify the synergy potential if you will dedicate a day to Comerc to discuss the projects and the efficiencies?
My second question, well, throughout the world and through trading, a number of difficulties to obtain diesel has been -- have been reported because of sanctions. And we have had no critical supply moment, but European countries say that if the situation of supply deteriorates, as one of the main importers of Brazil, how would you anticipate yourself to prevent a lack of fuel in the market? Can you talk to India in addition to the Gulf of Mexico in terms of stock? Could you elaborate on this?
I forgot to mention this. Yes, we are going to carry out road shows with Comerc together with their team to demonstrate the potential. We're totally convinced. I think that perhaps, I think the investors, the sell side, buy side need this. Therefore, in April, we are going to organize meetings in order to clarify the synergy potential, where we see there is a major sales force here. And we already have cross-selling for fuel. We have a long-term relationship with most of our customers. Therefore, we're absolutely sure.
And as I said, that Targus demonstrates all of this. It shows the potential synergy of accessing customers and offering the alternative of fuel GC -- GD, GC (sic) [ DG, CG ]. Comerc also trades electric and gas equipment so the ensemble of additional offerings that will increase our B2B customers' loyalty, not only B2B but B2C but our stations are also interested. Practically, 800 of the 8,000 [ synergies ] have to buy energy through the free market or through DG. Therefore, we have a number of possibilities.
Now regarding supply, and I'm going to ask Natal to complement, we -- the access that we have to import products are -- is through the Gulf and it's not limited to the Gulf. We've also gone to India with the international trading. This is part of the company's strategy in order to strengthen our -- because we do not have refining investments in Brazil and we have to strengthen the import capacity that we have. This is totally aligned to our operations.
And I would like to remind you that the import relationship that the company has establishes a number of relationships between suppliers and buyers, that would be us, in contracts, long-term contracts. So we have supply safety. Of course, we want to have greater advantages, but we already have a number of established operations.
Well, excellent question. What you said is true. This is a tight market but we are navigating our cargo. We've had no cargoes canceled, no default, everything that we have contracted is being honored and we're receiving this. So with this, one of the measures is to increase the level of imports. We've already increased this and we have access to the entire market. We already buy from the Gulf. We buy from India and we're going after all the markets.
And the level of offerings, today, we have less offerings than what we had in the past. This is natural, and there's nothing we can do about this. But we have a number of diversified sources. We are assessing the entire markets. Our contracts are being honored and we are receiving all of our cargo. We believe that the market will continue tight throughout April. This is a challenging situation, but we are gaining share with all of this.
And there are other purchases (sic) [purchasers], took their foot off the gas, and there's less appetite of looking for products abroad. Therefore, we can totally supply our networks and the customers outside the network have been talking to us because of the lack of supply.
There is another side here. That is to prioritize the channel. When you have a tighter market, you have to prioritize your network, the contracts, the customer that sees value in working with us. And they have a long-term contract because during these moments, they trust our ability to supply.
This is when this comes obvious to the customers. Therefore, we're navigating okay. But the context is that we will have a tight market with elevated premiums and more volatility to have access to this cargo. But I believe that, so far, so good. We're navigating in troubled waters in a very calm fashion.
Okay, so we're looking forward for your Comerc meetings.
As of next week, we are already scheduling this but we have to agree with you, but we will have a meeting with all the sell side. And afterwards, we will create an agenda of individual meetings where we will visit a number of investors together with Comerc's team in order to have a deep conversation and to embark deeply in all the synergies that we see here. This is something that we will be able to discuss in depth.
Our next question from [ Monique Greco ].
Number one, I would like to congratulate the Vibra team for your results that are very sound and relevant. I have 2 questions. One would be the flags. We see that the flag metrics of Vibra have been very important, higher than of your peers, and we want to know how you see your flag from here up on, if you will be able to increase this, and what does this mean in terms of share gains in the mid-run?
My second question is regarding the payout of dividends. In your release, you mentioned that the company is adopting a protective position regarding cash. Now that we're in the middle of high volatility and in a moment where you will not carry out an extraordinary pay, I know that it's difficult to see when the volatility will come to an end because of the conflict, but we don't know when it's going to end. I don't know if you have any triggers that will reassess your decision regarding extraordinary dividend payout. This would be it.
Thank you for your question. Okay, these are good questions. Now regarding the -- our flag. This became a reality in 2020. When we see our numbers, we opened more stations than other players and we see this now in 2021. And this is important because in a certain way, this makes a major difference and this factor was neglected by BR Distribuidora in the past because if you see that the market is going to grow, let's say, 2% and it will grow -- and half because of new -- same-store sales and the other half because of new stations in the total market network. It is important for distributors to broaden their networks that follow the expansion level of the market. It would be 1% of each one of these factors.
But in order to gain share because we have greater volumes than the market, it's important to accelerate more this process faster than the market average. Therefore, this is a factor that provides greater performance. We don't see this immediately because we're creating new flags, but in a certain way, we're contracting here some share percentage points for the future. Now this year will not move a little. But in the upcoming year, this will build up and this will generate a good delta share in the future. Now when we see the projection in our plan, what we did this year was 2%, 2% of the total network net. Now when we analyze our business plan, the growth level is more or less 2%.
Therefore, and I believe that this is growth above what you see in the market. I believe that the market will grow in terms of outlets less than this. And with this, we will have a better performance throughout time. We are doing other things because we want to increase the other side of the equation. It would be more volume in the same station. This comes from the value proposition from the image of the station's convenience, access to more competitive fuel and we can provide competitiveness to our reseller.
With all of this, we should gain more volume per station. But the more flags in the market will allow us to gain share. And something that I always say that is important to highlight, our intention to grow our share is to maintain the trajectory of the past 2 years. That is a gradual trajectory with no adventures. This is a trajectory where the value proposition increased throughout time. It is perceived that it brings more share, and this perception means more stations because it is easier and cheaper to have more stations when the value is perceived when you don't have to pay more because the resellers sees a risk in this relationship. We have a good relationship with our networks. They know that we supply and we are trustworthy regarding this.
Just something else. The quality of the product is also very important. We just launched the grid gasoline and podium gas together with BASF and we have improved our product in addition to increase the durability of the -- and it reduces consumption and emissions. As Natal just mentioned, the network grows with a better product with a better value proposition.
And currently, the -- sometimes, there is a limit and smaller companies cannot service their networks. We have a winning proposition but we work with the principle of graduality. We have been conservative in the way we grow because we are convinced that our proposal is much better than that of the competition, and it has been recognized by the entire market.
And just to answer your second question, there you went straight to an important point that -- well, before the current condition, the spike of oil price with more conception of working capital and the price of the oil can even go -- can increase even more, consuming more working capital. Well, unlike during the pandemic when all the sectors were affected by the pandemic and everybody needed more liquidity and everybody focused on the main 4, 5 banks and these banks couldn't offer this liquidity and these funds.
Currently, this is a pressure on working capital in a specific sector, that is the commodity sectors. For the time being, we haven't seen any impacts. But liquidity conditions, we still have broad access to credit at competitive prices. We've carried out successful operations from liability management and funding. Therefore, we can guarantee the liquidity to the company.
Now from a dividend payout point of view, it would be very imprudent if right now, with pressure on working capital, with high volatility of oil and nobody has crystal ball to say what the price of oil will be in 30 days, let alone 1 week or 1 day, it wouldn't make sense to pay out dividends beyond our policy because we can have a leverage stress or this could put in risk, the company's operation. We have the secondary tranche to pay for the Comerc.
So there are a number of things that we're concluding. This is a moment where we cannot waver actions to add value. Now this decision can be reanalyzed in the future if oil goes back to $80, $60, and then we will have additional working capital.
There is no reason of maintaining an excess of liquidity or retain funds and just to think what we're going to do about this. We already know what we have to do. We know the dimension, we know the demand of CapEx plans, new stations. Therefore, we don't believe that we will be -- we will maintain cash in the company in vain.
Now the trigger is every day. Every day, we're assessing the scenario, changes from today until tomorrow and the oil stress comes to an end. Well, yes, here, there will be appetite to -- for additional distributions or to resume the buyback problems where we had BRL 150 million. But we still have BRL 1.5 billion band.
Last year, we paid out BRL 3.8 billion to our shareholders. Most of this in dividends and JCP and one part via the buyback execution. This was an important distribution and I believe that the combination of our plan is to allocate part of the capital in today's business, to dedicate part to these avenues of growth that we've mentioned, but there is still space to see dividends and buybacks according to the moment and this reassessment doesn't have a specific trigger. Every day, we analyze the cash. We see the conditions. And here, we can reformulate what we're going to do according to the situation.
Our next question from Mr. Luiz Carvalho.
Perhaps I have one question for each one of you. Wilson, I will start with you. Well, I believe we will complete 1 -- you will complete 1 year leading the company. Since this was announced, the market knew Natal and knew all about his competency. There was a great expectation from the market and the investors of what you could provide to the company due to your past experience in the electric sector.
Perhaps I would like you to tell us which were the main challenges that you faced in the past year and to know from you, if we were to see 2, 3 years in the future, that would be an average horizon for an equity investor. What would be your main goals that would fulfill you personally if you -- regarding your avenues of growth?
Natal, you approached the global market, but with change and we've seen the changes that come from this new situation in the domestic markets and these requesting daily stocks. The states froze the ICMS and it is the same for all, the ethanol, we have import taxes. Now Petrobras is also changing the way they approach the distributors, could be in the contract differentiating a number of factors like credit risks, volumes. I would like to understand how you see the new regulatory context? And how could this give to Vibra a competitive or an uncompetitive advantage?
Well, thank you for your question. Yes, you are right. On the 16th, 5 days ago, well, I am in the company for 1 year and 1 week. The retrospective, I say -- I always say that I have 12 hours of sabbatical when I left Eletrobras because 12 hours later, I was here. That was my sabbatical and I came here wanting to contribute. I knew the team -- this is a very strong team and we had a successful restructuring. And of course, I didn't want to spoil the good things that they were doing. What I wanted to do was to add something to their view.
And this was a team that had a number of operations, and I wanted to conclude the restructuring and to contribute to the good job that they were doing regarding Control Tower. Here, we had pension fund, the health insurance, new plants. In retrospective, everything was concluded. And we are a company of a lower cost. This is different so this encourages the leaders and employees. And this is important throughout the competitive process.
This wasn't the only thing we had to do. We also had to focus on our follow-on. We had -- well, our share was suffering because of Petrobras, and once again, we carried out an excellent transaction, the second-best transaction in the history of the exchange and the Brazilian capital market.
I believe that the moment of the company and the perspective of the company attracted 160 offerings, over BRL 23 billion. This was a highly successful operation in a short period of time.
Thanks to the effort of the entire team. Here, you see only 2 people, but this is a big table with a number of leaders of the company that contribute to all of this. Number three, in hindsight, when we see challenges is that the company has a long-term perspective. This is a strategic perspective. And once again, together with our Board, with international consulting companies and the help of our team, and in a short period of time on September 1, we launched our strategic plan, and we are a pioneer regarding the view of the company.
Well, we are going to continue growing. We are an example in terms of gas emissions and the use of biofuel and emissions. Our core business had to be competitive and we believe that this business will grow a lot. Therefore, nonetheless, there are opportunities in the energetic transition. This is global awareness. You have enterprises complying with this process and enterprises will need other types of energies.
When we, from BR Distribuidora, we became Vibra and the fact that we're anchored on the strategy, this is something that consolidates the company as the biggest fuel distributor in Brazil. And with all of this, we can -- and our main assets are the 18,000 corporate companies and 30 million customers that trust our fuel. With this asset, our business that is already big will be able to grow in other businesses. Which ones? The obvious one would be electric energy because of the deregulation of the sector; two, that is our challenge, gas, because gas, 90% of corporate customers are not serviced by distribution network, by distribution companies.
No, they don't -- so this is -- so this has a perfect fit with Vibra's logistics to service its customers. This is something that we have to do. And the challenges that we have to be positioned ourselves. And other fuels, we're making progress in biomethane. We believe that it is important to grow our open platform with ethanol.
This is something that we see important for the future. We are investing in electric vehicles and there is an important [ disparate ] share of hybrid. And in Brazil it would be with ethanol, we will position ourselves, and in the fuels of the decade, that would be green diesel, it would be the sustainable aviation fuel, the hydrogen. And in each one of these aspects, I believe we are properly positioned. We can consolidate. We can make progress. But when I see the future, I can -- I will say that the company delivered its basic and we will have new results in businesses where they increased something that is core for us. That is the relationship with our customers.
We are embarking in businesses with multiples that are higher than that of the distribution channel. So we have the ability of being close to you. We have the ability of being able to demonstrate the strategy of value creation. And when you have the market recognizing this with differentiated practices, we have been recognized in our ESG. And of course, with the new encouraged team, I am very -- I feel very fortunate to be here.
Well, Luiz, your question is very encompassing or very broad. As everything in life, there are excellent ideas and opportunities that are brought by all the initiatives that you mentioned. And with opportunities, we always have risks and we also have to be careful when we -- in the limits of these proposals. These are legitimate and excellent for the sector. We made progress here in regarding the law that changes the ICMS tax. This is important for the sector.
There in our lull we didn't have a forecast to migrate to the different tariffs and you had a tariff ad valorem that would increase the prices. The oil price would increase, the price of the taxes would increase and there would be no cushion for the increases, and this would drive the volatilities upwards and downwards. So migrate to this tariff is positive because of the price volatility. But together with this, so this is important because it is significant and levels rates in the countries.
You can't imagine the level of complexity that you have behind our tax regime. And with this, we -- there is these differences of rates produced, taxes that should have been paid to others and should be paid to another state. This generates a flow between companies and taxpayers of the state. So we are focusing to recover everything that simplifies the tax regime, is better for us. We have no opinions regarding which would be the tax regime as long as it mitigates risks because we are going to pay taxes. And we always alert our regulators and our legislators regarding the risks of tax rates that create asymmetries. Because of the tax of the price, these asymmetries can create an unfavorable result for those that pay their taxes correctly.
I believe that this is positive. It does [ confides ] has to see which rates we're talking about. But this is what the sector wants. We want them to simplify the tax regime. Now the freezing of the PMPF, we also don't have major opinions. This was innocuous because with this high spike in prices, the ICMS of the producer became higher than the ICMS SD. So it was innocuous, there was no effect. And this is common when you see measures adopted throughout periods of volatility and periods of instability.
Now the stabilization fund, well, it went through the Senate but we need the approval of the Lower House. We don't have good prospects. You remember of 2018, this generated asymmetries and disabled imports in Brazil because there was no clear reference regarding PPI and the reference price. It is difficult to emulate a price -- a market price. So we don't have a strong opinion, but it is important to be very careful because we don't want this to become a control of margin because we need freedom of price.
Now the ethanol import price, we believe that is going in the right direction. This reduces tariff barriers. You increase the variety of sources that can serve. As Brazil, we believe that there will be no direct implications in the short term, although the price of import is not competitive vis-à-vis national ethanol and this excess pressure that is good for the consumer society and us.
In a nutshell, I believe that measures are very important. All of them are legitimate as long as they respect the freedom of price and the symmetries that are very important regarding these taxes and many of these measures are following this way.
And of course, this will be expanded to other products. I believe that currently, there is a good coverage. This is good for our sector and this will be good, positive. Thank you.
Our next question, Mr. Thiago Duarte, BTG Pactual.
I would like to touch 3 points. Number one would be draws -- in your release, what draws my attention is when you talk about the margins of the quarter and even when you exclude the BRL 25 of cubic meter of gain of margin associated to stock, you place -- it has a good margin and above a recurrent margin from the business. I would like to know why. I do understand that when you exclude the stock issues, the quarter is in a different position than what we imagine in the future, thinking about supply, domestic supply with a discount.
So I believe that margin opportunities for your business and when we consider the level of efficiency that you have achieved, I don't believe that they will be different from here on. I would like to know what is behind the decision of stating this in your release.
Now Vem, a question regarding Vem. I would like to know the impact of Vem on convenience and result. When we see the other operating revenues, I believe that last year was highly above BRL 380 million. I believe that this is associated to convenience store. Is this the value that we should purge from your results? And what will happen? Could you please elaborate on this?
And a last question for Wilson. It was positive to see the different pathways like biofuel, electric energy and gas. I would like to know about the Comerc deal. And here, you have generation and commercialization of energy. I would like to know what is the best way that Vibra will position in other energies, HVO, biodiesel and gas. You've always said how important it was to maintain an asset-light aspect. In the beginning, you never proposed buying a refinery or the deals that you carried out with Comerc in terms of ethanol.
So you believe that as you have the short of the chain in B2B and in your station network, you believe that this is enough to capture value from these new energies? Or like -- or will you have to expose yourself in production? It could be in gas, it could be in biofuel. These would be the points.
Thiago, thank you for your questions. Excellent points. Now regarding the recurrent margin. In our release, you can remember that we were -- throughout last year, during the first quarter, you have adjustments, you have gain on stocks and you have to analyze this. But we had around BRL 105. And since Q1 last year, we announced a number of measures that would add the EBITDA margin that was [ akin to reals ] in cubic meter. This would be added to our recurring result clean without stocks on the one-offs.
And the figures were controlled at that level. And as a matter of fact, we have been implementing measures, and I believe that we are on track to deliver what we promised. This would take us to around BRL 120. Now obviously, we do not have a joystick for this. This all depends on the sector, the market and other things. But we believe that BRL 120 would be a level close to what is recurring.
With all the challenges, Q1 presented challenges because of the matters that I've already mentioned. Well, we do not believe that BRL 140 is a recurring level, BRL 138, right? Because there is no structural reasons to increase this margin. There is a situation when I say recurrent. I don't -- I'm not giving you a specific time frame. I'm not talking 1, 3, 6 months. The situation can last more? Yes, it could. If the market continues tight, if the market continues with risks for importers, this is a market that is more geared toward distributors that have more appetite for risk.
If this market lasts, we will have commercialization, margins that will be sounder for a strong -- for a longer period of time. Now in our release, we said that it was nonrecurring because we understand that this is a situation that we don't know how long it's going to last. And there is an opportunity for a period of time, but we do not believe that this will take place for a long period of time. Therefore, we want a world where trade margin has hiccups, working capital hedge, stocks, well, and even regulatory changes. So we believe we want a control environment.
We don't believe that this is a good business. We're in the game -- we're in this game for a long run. We want better cost, better stores. This is the game. We don't want to capture more or less margins. So what we prefer is to navigate in calm waters, to work with compounds in and less in terms of opportunities. Now of course, if this situation lessen, if we have a competitive environment that favors, we will have market shift. But as I said, these counterparts regarding gains and losses of stock and hedges will produce accounting effects difficult to forecast.
We really don't know what the end of the quarter will be like because there is great volatility. Now regarding Vem, for the time being, there are no adjustments. So the results that we generally have of royalty revenue is in our ADO and there are no adjustments to make here. So this will be consolidated as Q1 of 2022, and there will be -- this will be equity where with Lojas Americanas and you will see the result. Here, you have 50% of profit and not EBITDA. And so I don't know if you would like to mention something.
In reality, Vem started in February. Now we have a Board, the management, we're working. And what we just mentioned, we do have a partner that will bring efficiency to the business that goes beyond our network. And here, we have a potential to grow in terms of number of stores. Brazil has 15% of their gas stations with convenience stores. And when you analyze Europe, Asia, it's around 60%, 70%, 80%. And so the potential growth here is significant.
And when we see after the pandemic and now we have -- we're in a world of proximity stores, this never affected the EBITDA in our results. And now it's made a difference and it will make a difference in the upcoming months and years. Now regarding the asset-light, of course, this is our preference. Sometimes it's not possible to do this. Sometimes you cannot originate. Electric energy, if you cannot create these complexes, some of our complex are distributed energy and centralized energy and the customer becomes a partner of this process.
Now what gives -- what differentiates our company would be, this is multiples that has renewable energy, that generate certificates and that is a scarce business. We go to the limit when we need the exposure. There is no doubt we do -- we can do it. You see that we haven't been able -- we didn't have to do it with green diesel. In the case of ZEG, we see a major potential because it can -- it creates a strong synergy with JV in Copersucar. Therefore, we're going to extract this from our suppliers or ethanol producers. So here, of course, we have a significant experience. You can only originate this gas if you'll support the entire growth process.
And in your last point, you talked about the refinery but we decided to exit natural gas distribution business. This has already been announced. We already made an agreement with the government of the state of Espírito Santo to sell it. We believe that a regulated business for us is not interesting. It's not only asset-light but regulated is not what we want to have because we want commercial flexibility.
So what makes sense to us is an operation that has a capacity not to produce gas but to originate the gas. We have financial capacity. Now obviously, in the GNL, there is a player that is similar to what we do. Perhaps there is an area to receive this volume of gas, to liquefy, to ship to service the customer. So this entire infrastructure, I'm not only talking about logistics to receive this gas.
With this, I believe we will invest in this area. We go up to where we can go because we want to have the molecule because we need it. And of course, very carefully and with prudence, we will fund because we need the molecule that is important to service our customers.
Well, now we are bringing our Q&A session. I would like to give the floor to Wilson Ferreira, Jr., our CEO, for the final remarks of the company. Mr. Wilson?
Well, once again, I would like to thank all of you for your questions, your comments. We learn a lot through these sessions and we are with our entire team. I think it's very important to be with you. I would like to congratulate our team, the record results of this company. I always say that excellency is a mobile target, and we learn a lot with what we do but we will continue being challenged.
The challenge is a constant challenge for efficiency, but we -- this is a challenge to approach the market. This is a challenge to change the culture of the company. I'm very optimistic regarding my team. I feel very fortunate to work here. And there's a lot to innovate here. There is a lot to do. There's a lot to do in terms of doing things differently because this is a traditional market. And I believe that Vibra's contributing to the change of this industry.
This is a special moment for the country, a special moment for the sector, an important evolution from the regulatory point of view. This is because the agents of the sector worked in unison to strengthen the situation against tampering products. And we are starting -- you will start seeing -- after our roadshows, you will see that we are in the forefront. And you will see this new team, renewed team, will be able to show better results for you.
I am very optimistic regarding the future, of course, cautious in the short term because there is a war that we really don't know when it will come to an end. But we're here prepared to overcome anything that comes ahead of us. So see you during our next conference call.
Vibra's conference call has come to an end. We thank all of you for your participation, and have an excellent afternoon.
[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]