Valid Solucoes SA

BOVESPA:VLID3

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q2

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Valid's Q2 2023 Earnings Release Call. I am [ Joyce Menezes ], I'm coordinator of our team. Before we start to the presentation, I would like to make a few important announcements. Please be advised that this event is being recorded. And that all participants will only be watching the conference call during the broadcast. The presentation has been made available with simultaneous translation into English and the presentation is available on Valid's IR website. The replay of this event will be available shortly after it ends.

At the end of the presentation, we will start the Q&A session. Questions can be asked at any time during the event and should be sent through the platform's chat.

We also clarified that any statements that may be made during this video conference regarding the company's business prospects, projections and operational and financial targets constitute beliefs and assumptions of our Board of Directors as well as information that is available to the company today. Future considerations are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they refer to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.

Investors should understand that general economic conditions in the industry and other operating factors may also affect the company's future and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in future statements.

I now hand over to Ivan Murias, CEO, to begin his presentation. Ivan, good morning.

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

[Interpreted] Good morning. Thank you, Joyce. Good morning to all of you. I would like to start this call addressing all the dedication and effort of each of Valid's more than 3,000 employees on behalf of the entire Executive Board and myself. Thank you very much.

Let's move on to the highlights of the second quarter of 2023. We ended the quarter with revenues of BRL 534 million, a 17% increase compared to the same period in second quarter '22 and first compared to the first Q '23. All our business lines showed growth of more than 10% compared to the second Q '22, with special emphasis on the valid pay segment, which showed the 25% increase. In terms of EBITDA, we reached BRL 135 million, up 13% year-on-year. The ID and Pay verticals had EBITDA growth of 16% and 38% respectively. And in the Mobile vertical, we had a 10% drop versus 2Q '22.

In the year-to-date, EBITDA is higher by 30%. And it is worth highlighting the margin of 25.2% achieved in the quarter and 26.7% in the first half of '23, in line with what we mentioned in previous calls, Valid's management is focused not only on generating results, but also on effectively converting EBITDA into cash. This quarter, the operating cash generation EBITDA indicated reached 72.5%.

Moving on to the last line of the income statement. We achieved a net income of BRL 58 million in the quarter, a margin of 9.3% bringing the year-to-date to BRL 123 million. At the end of the first half of '22, Valid had a loss of BRL 22 million. The significant increase in the results was due to the nonexistence of nonrecurrent items, but also to a significant increase in operating income. Accumulated net income for the last 12 months is at the highest level ever achieved by Valid.

Looking at the results per share, we had EPS of BRL 0.72 in the quarter, slightly below the BRL 0.75 presented in first Q '23. In view of the results, we obtained the Board of Directors decided to distribute the JCP of BRL 0.20 per share, which represents approximately BRL 60 million. The payment of these proceeds occurred on July 31. In terms of capital structure, June marked the date of the final amortization of Valid's 7th debenture issue and event that was responsible for the significant reduction in gross debt in the quarter.

In Q2 alone, we reduced the company's debt by more than BRL 130 million. We continue to have a comfortable cash position and leverage flow to historic lows. Valid's management continue to have discussion in financial partners.

We now turn to the highlights within each of our verticals. Starting with ID, we had a quarter with a volume of 7 million documents issued. It is worth noting that the second quarter was a period with fewer working days than Q1, which directly impacts the issue of documents, even so the level reached is closed with historical record. Throughout the quarter, we participated in important events, both in Brazil and abroad seeking to strengthen the digital government agenda and position Valid is an important player in this segment. Through these events, we are able to understand benchmarks around the world and how to bring new solutions to the municipal state and federal environment.

I will end the Valid ID highlights by taking a little more about the acquisition of 100% of the Flexdoc company, which we announced shortly after the first Q '23 results were released. This is a company that is very close to our Digital ID strategy. This is a company that operates closer to our paid business unit, but we will add an important capability to our business unit, accelerating our progress in the digital transformation of government society and citizens. The company has a team with decades of experience in the technology development sector, offering low-cost and highly scalable solutions.

In parallel, Valid can leverage access to new customers and segments, both in existing products and in the development of new ones. We are very excited about the arrival of Flexdoc.

At Valid pay, we had the second quarter similar to the first quarter. As in the last quarter, part of this result came due to a troubled economic scenario in Argentina, which continues to generate short-term opportunities for players with local and international opportunities. Again, we reinforce that this is not a scenario that can be maintained in the mid and long term, and we continue to periodically analyze the country scenario with our local team and with commercial and financial partners operating in the country.

Finally, at Valid Mobile in terms of revenue, we achieved growth both in relation to 2Q '22 -- second Q '22 and first Q '23. Chip volumes were in line with second Q '22 and slightly above first Q '22, which led to lower leverage prices in this quarter compared to the previous one. As mentioned in first Q '23, closing call, Valid's management and in particular, the Mobile team remains attentive to development in the global connectivity markets, especially on the usual of volume and pickups, which may lead to price and margin pressure.

I will now hand over to Olavo.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

[Interpreted] Good morning, everyone. I'll start the quarterly breakdown with the liquidity information. At the end of the second quarter, we had a cash position of BRL 440 million enough to pay off all principal installments for 2023 and '24. In terms of leverage, we maintained the indicator closer to 0.5x, the historical minimum level for Valid with EBITDA of BRL 575 million. At the end of the quarter, we had BRL 741 million in debt of which about 2/3 in Brazil and 1/3 abroad outside as well as 1/3 maturing the short term and the rest in the long term.

In this quarter, we made a significant reduction in our debt with the final payment of the 7th issue of debentures. In this quarter alone, we paid off BRL 130 million in debt. Over the last few weeks, we have seen the credit market showing signs of improvement. And we have been looking for specific opportunities to improve our liability in terms of average term and costs. I will talk about a July operation soon.

Moving on to the results. We had revenues of BRL 534 million in the quarter, an increase of 17% compared to the same period of '22. In terms of EBITDA, we presented a growth of 13%, with the indicator reaching BRL 135 million, which represents a margin of 25.2%. In the year-to-date results, we have an increase in revenue of 18% [indiscernible] highlight for a 30% increase in EBITDA in the accumulated 6 months. And for the year-to-date margin of 26.7%, an increase of 2.5 percentage points in relation to '22. As mentioned by Ivan, all our business verticals contributed to the revenue growth. And in the next slides, we will give more details of the behavior in each of the verticals.

In the first Q '23 earnings call, we presented another indicator that we have been following on a daily basis, which is ROIC. We closed the year '22 with 17.7% and managed to revolve the indicator in the 2 quarters of '23, leaving 19.3% in first quarter '23 and reached 19.7% in the second quarter '23, an increase of 2 percentage points compared to the year-end indicator.

Before I move to the details to each business unit, I will show once again the evolution of our net profits and EBITDA. We had presented the evolution of our EBITDA and net income over the last years. The EBITDA level reached of BRL 135 million in the second quarter '23 is in line with the results obtained in the last quarters and demonstrates Valid's ability to generate strong recurrent results in terms of net income after the years of adjustments in the company structure, we have the accumulated indicator over the last 12 months, exceeding BRL 150 million, which is the highest level ever achieved by the company in its history.

Let's now go to the details of the results in each of the business verticals. We start with Valid ID. In the quarter, we issued 7 million documents a volume about 10% higher than observed in second quarter '22 and very close to the highest levels delivered by the company. It's worth noting that due to the calendar effect, the second quarter had about 3 fewer working days than the first quarter, which directly impacts the issue of documents, although the daily average observed remains a similar trial to the month of '23.

In the quarter, the ID vertical presented 15% growth in revenue and 16% in EBITDA with an operating margin of 32.1%. In the year-to-date, the verticals revenue reached BRL 343 million, a 23% growth compared to 6 months '22. And highlighted EBITDA that grew by 39% in the half year view, reaching BRL 180 million year-to-date. The ID vertical accounted for [ 30% ] of Valid's revenue and 40% of EBITDA. The recovery of volume, which helps dilute fixed costs and the operational adjustments we have implemented have contributed to better margins in this segment.

Moving on to the vertical pay. We had strong growth in both revenue and EBITDA in the quarter, though with a similar turnover to the one realized in '22. Sales in the quarter were BRL 200 million, 25% growth and EBITDA reached BRL 42 million, 38% increase. In the 6 months, sales are up 25% and EBITDA is up 60%. It is worth of mentioning the margins achieved both in the quarter and in the semester of 21.2% in the first quarter and 21.4% respectively.

In 2023, the vertical pay accounted for 37% of Valid's revenue and 30% of the group's EBITDA. Much of the results we have achieved are the result of a higher volume of cards being produced in Argentina and due to the better prices being practiced in the segment in both the geographies. We continue to observe with caution, the unfolding of the situation in Argentina.

Moving now to our last vertical, Valid Mobile. In the quarter, we had 11% growth in terms of sales and 10% reduction in terms of EBITDA with the margin that of 23%. In the half year view, we have an increase of 5% in sales, reaching BRL 321 million and stability in terms of EBITDA with indicator at BRL 81 million, an accumulated margin of 25.2%. In this quarter, we observed an increase in the volume of SIM cards when compared to the first quarter '23 and its ability in relation to second quarter '22. There was a reduction in the average level of prices, which led to lower margins in the quarter. Even so, the Mobile segment presented another quarter with margins within 20% to 30% range. The potential increase in volume over the second half of the year may bring further pricing pressure with this segment.

In this slide, we presented the path from EBITDA to net income in second quarter '23. Starting from BRL 135 million, we had BRL 8 million in nonoperating expenses, BRL 60 million in tax expense, BRL 24 million in D&A and BRL 33 million in financial results. With this, we reached BRL 58 million of net income in the period, which represents an EPS of BRL 0.72 a little bit lower of our BRL 0.75 that we reached in the first half. It is interesting to understand the drastic change that has occurred in Valid's results when we compared with 2023. On this slide and the next, I will show you the bridge of both second quarter '23 versus second quarter '22 and the view between semesters.

Starting with the quarterly, we see that from a loss of BRL 4 million second quarter '22, we reached a profit of BRL 52 million in this quarter. The major contribution in quarterly view is due to the result of discontinued operations that had affected the results last year. However, we also had an increase in the operational side with the increase of EBITDA and positive contributions both in taxes and other releases.

In the quarterly view, the financial result had a negative impact, but there was a big change in the debt profile from one year to the next. So it's better to take a long-term view. I move now to the next slide for a half year analysis.

We went from a net loss in the first 6 months of BRL 22 million of BRL 22 million to a net profit in BRL 1 million of BRL 23 million. We -- as mentioned before, we had a significant year-over-year increase in EBITDA as well as a positive impact on discontinued operations line and the financial results, which in '23 no longer suffer too much from the exchange rate fluctuation that affected the loan that Valid had. In terms of negative contribution, we are paying more taxes in 2023 than in 2022 due to better results for D&A and other entries, the contribution is negative, but they are low amounts. Growth in the analysis of the flow of cash represented the variations that occurred throughout the quarter.

We started the period with a cash of BRL 555 million over this amount, we had an addition of BRL 98 million in operational cash generation. This amount represents 72.5% of the EBITDA generated in the quarter. And it is an important increase compared to what we had in the first quarter of this year, which had been BRL 58 million, which represented 39% of EBITDA of that part. From there, we had CapEx expenditures of BRL 34 million and the greatest share BRL 20 million being the amount paid to Flexdoc, a negative financial balance of BRL 45 million, reaching a total cash after operation of BRL 575 million. The net between fundraising and amortization in the quarter was a negative BRL 109 million, which as I mentioned earlier, led to an important reduction of the company's indebtedness.

We also paid around BRL 50 million in JCP in the month of May and our cash had a negative FX impact of BRL 11 million. We closed the quarter with cash at BRL 440 million, which represents about 70 days of the company's revenue and a comfortable level for us to touch our operation. I bring here again, the performance of Valid 3 in the last 18 months, when comparing to Ibovespa and SmallCap indexes. In the period and especially after the delivery of the first Q '23 results, there is an important detachment of the shares with an increase of 82% versus 13% of Ibovespa and less 4% of the SmallCaps index.

In the same period, we also paid the 3 JCP totaling BRL 0.73 per share. With the recent rise of the paper, the company's market cap has again surpassed the BRL 1 billion mark and the stock's liquidity has increased significantly. In the quarter, the average daily trade development was BRL 5.5 million, an increase of 111% over the first quarter '23 and 62% over 2Q '22. After this moment, we had another JCP payment and our paper was advancing. Another positive news based on the first formation of small 11 index, the Valid paper is again part of that liquidity. I will end my part of the presentation by presenting some upcoming events.

In July, we raised BRL 3 million through the FINAME materials line with the National Development Bank, BNDES and mediated by Banco ABC Brazil. This is a short-term line, but with a CDI plus 1% rate that was proven to be attractive. With these funds in cash, we prepaid the working capital line, we held with BTG with a cost of CDI +2 90%. On July 31, as announced to the market, we received the final installment of the working capital segment settlement due to the sale of Valid U.S.A. ID and payment assets. With this, we concluded all the stages of this deal.

Finally, as previously mentioned by Ivan, in the July RCA, the JCP payments of BRL 0.20 per share was approved. This payment was set on July 31. With that, I give the floor again to Ivan to follow up on the presentation. I'll be back soon for the Q&A session. Ivan, you can continue.

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Olavo. As we did last quarter, before moving on to the final recap and Q&A session. I'll share some recent facts with Valid. On July 20 , the Executive power of Rio de Janeiro authorized a celebration between DETRAN and Valid. For those of you that are followers for a long time, you know the importance of that.

Second, it has to do with our digital government strategy. On June 29, we had one that price strategy that [indiscernible] has to do the scope of services to be conducted and consider the issue of documents of polycarbonate for this entity. And last but not least, I would like to highlight the presence of Valid for our market presence, Febraban Tech in Sao Paulo as well. Our presence of E-Gov with the presence in Estonia with several Brazilian entities, where we were able to show part of our eGovernance -- digital governance.

Our last slide. We had another semester with 2 digits revenue in terms of EBITDA. We also had an important conversion of EBITDA with an indicator going over 70%. A great result generator, which allowed our Board -- Executive Board of Directors to release that in our last July 31.

Finally, as previously mentioned by running the July IRC, the JCP payment of stocks and receivables that could take to a moment of EBITDA to cash to the next quarters. We do believe that the credit scenario should show improvements in the next semesters that may help us to leverage our process and eventually to reach a net cash flow by the end of '23 and beginning of '24.

And now I would like to invite you to participate at our -- and we'd like to invite you to our Valid Investor Day, which is expected to take place on September 20. Over the next week, we will provide more detailed information about the event, and we are hoping to count on your participation.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Then we start our Q&A session and questions should be submitted throughout the platform set. Our first question is from [indiscernible].

[Unknown Analyst]

And the question is for Ivan. After you had tied up the house, what are the main opportunities for Valid in the coming years.

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you [indiscernible] for your question. We see great opportunities at the 3 verticals, starting from Pay, we see not just the process that is ongoing with digital billings and assembly portals, but we are also very excited with the possibility to link our ID business to pay business throughout the Flexdoc. This is a tool that does that documentation process to cash economic federal. And we are willing to expand this engineering to other banks and to other industries, such as retail, security, hotel, coal and hospitality.

From an ID perspective, we believe that from a margin perspective, there are other states that may issue that primarily and may take that to a private entity. And we have been addressing digital government, we believe that we'll be able to give a different meaning to documentation and to improve the quality of service addressed by the public government.

As to Mobile vertical, the eSIM, which we have been going through and also the subscription management platforms, which represent a great progress in the evolution of our products. So we see lots of opportunities over the 3 verticals.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] We have 3 questions from [ Fabio ].

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] What are the expectations for the third quarter and for the second quarter of 2023.

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

[Interpreted] Hello [ Fabio ] . As we said, we don't give any guidance for results. But what we have seen lately once that we tied up the companies house. This is a company that is generating operational results strongly until the last line of business and throughout the slides, we have shown that to those ID verticals, we have a very high volume of business throughout the next semesters pay. Argentina is always a big doubt to what may happen, some economic or political changes. And the Telco scenario. This is a scenario that we are very keen on in terms of volume metric and prices as that may represent a margin pressure for the next years, but we see very positive expectations for the third quarter for the second half.

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] The second question is to allow expecting profits by the end of '23. Do you see any opportunity for any province profit distributions.

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

[Interpreted] As to profits, we have been following a dynamic together with our members that is aligned to our results vis-a-vis to what we have in terms of cash usage, our company with a balanced capital with a little capital to pay debt. Our members, they are getting together to see opportunities for JCP. We had prepayments this year or maybe some dividends, but we are still defining for pensions and we are doing that period by period.

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] I had question to Ivan. As Mr. Tyszler has left and he has done a great financial work, how about hiring the new CFO?

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

[Interpreted] In fact, Renato did a great work with our team and we are very thankful to him. He helped to lead all the turnaround strategy and also our capital profile. This is a process that is aligned to our people's committee. This is a process that we are gently [indiscernible] they are reporting to myself, and they are doing a great work. But once we have some novelties, we are going to throw that to you.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] A question from Ben is to Ivan.

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] Does the company believe that as of '23, the revenue -- the net revenue will be able to grow 2 digits annually.

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, we are growing with our top line with 2 digits already. We believe that around the verticals, we see opportunities to keep on growing, especially for digital government ID and platforms, subscription management and also mobile vertical, but there are some other aspects to check. Price and volume for semiconductors and also the Argentina volume, which is in an all-time high time, but we do believe that it's possible to keep on growing the top line with 2 digits.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] We have 3 questions from [indiscernible]. First to Ivan.

[Unknown Analyst]

Expecting the normalization in Argentina Pay and the chips mobile volumetric and the ends of ID demand re-constraints, can we expect a second semester that is going to be worsened than the first semester?

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

[Interpreted] I wouldn't say so, as we see ID volumetric and SIM cards volumetric in Brazil and Argentina and semiconductors in the mobile verticals. It is possible yet to expect the second half as strong as the first half. However, I would pay attention to 2 dynamics, which we will follow together with the market. First, the high volumetric in Argentina, which is recurrent, but we cannot precise at what extent will that be present within that level. And second, the volume of semiconductors, which clearly affects the mobile vertical with SIM cards with chips.

Conversely, although there is a backwards in the Argentina volume, the pace volume may increase because Selic will follow a downsized trajectory and then this unbalance pay. Trajectory may be offsetted in the mobile vertical, although there is a pricing dynamic that may be different that may be offsetted by volume once the market gets to normal levels with its supply. So there are some important effects to be attracted, but we cannot say that the second half will be lower than the first.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] A question to Olavo.

[Unknown Analyst]

Can you value the final share for the process of sales to the U.S.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Well, let's try to clarify this recurrent question. Within the asset sales, U.S. asset sales as it is natural in any M&A process, we have some working capital shares adjustments and they take place after the initial stage. Therefore, there were some talks about how much we still had to get. And once we decided with buyers, we finally got the payment, which was around USD 8 million.

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] How would you explain ID EBITDA to be lower than the past 2 quarters? Do believe that we will stay in such level?

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, the way as we see that, this is a stead state level for speaking. In the last quarter of 2022, this number has been influenced by the [indiscernible] EBITDA. We always undergo that in the last quarter, which increases the value, the amount of that quarter. In the first quarter of this year, our volume was a bit higher around the 300,000 documents more working days, more business days, which makes a difference in the production. And we had some readjustments. We have contract adjustments and then you talk to our clients. Once you apply the contract adjustment, maybe it goes backwards 2 or 3 months, and that explains why we had a higher volume in the first quarter. But we do believe that the stead state ID level for EBITDA is the one that we showed for the second quarter '23.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] A question from Mr. [ Rasafi ] to Olavo.

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] Congratulations for the great results and for your hard work. Can you elaborate a little bit more about the gross margin. Can we go back to the 39% margin, the one we call the first half -- the first quarter of '23.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, Alexander, we have a very similar answer to the one Ivan has just given. We are working hard to keep a high margin growth or EBITDA. First quarter, the numbers were above due to some factors, Ivan mentioned the ID where we had more business days and with more business days that improves and helps the pay sector as we have more cards some specific events have helped that the first quarter margins were a little bit higher. So we are going to do our best to go after high margins, but the fact that we had a little lower margin in the second quarter. That does not mean that we are going to get worried about that, not at all. So we're going to go after that. We are going to work hard to keep those levels.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Rafael for [indiscernible].

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] Can you elaborate a little bit more about the scenario of the company in Argentina. Do you still have a strong advantage. Do you see -- do you foresee any changes?

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, the advantage does not rely on prices, but rather on the market dynamics. Right now, our competitors, the competitors that were operating in Argentina, they are finding really hard to import and finished products due to payments. As we have a plant in Argentina, results that we are showing there. They are due to a great effort of our commercial team, they are doing a great work there. And also because we have a local plant, we are concentrate most of our local IPOs at our local plant. And that is a structural advantage, nonrecurrent that is going to be kept, but we cannot precise until when. But the advantage of having that plant that's present in that market.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] So we are closing now our Q&A session and also our earnings release call for the second quarter '23. Thank you so much for your participation, and we are waiting for you at our value Investors Day. Hope to see you there. Goodbye.

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