Valid Solucoes SA

BOVESPA:VLID3

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Operator]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the results presentation of the second quarter of Valid. My name is [indiscernible] coordinator of IR and Corporate Finance. [Operator Instructions] For those who are interested, this presentation has translation into English as well. The slides will be available in our IR website. And after that, the broadcast will be also available. [Operator Instructions]

It's important to say that some statements made here regarding beliefs and expectations and operation and financial goals are beliefs and expectations of our Board as well as information that are available to our company. Future beliefs, our future expectations, they involve risks and uncertainties and they refer to the future events depend on events that may or may not occur.

Analysts and investors are advised not to place undue reliance on these beliefs because the results may materially differ from our expectations. Today, we have Ilson Bressan and Olavo Vaz. Ilson is our CFO; and Mr. Vaz is our RI Director. So I would like to call Mr. Bressan.

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

Hello, alia and everyone who is participant here on this results presentation. On behalf of everyone at Valid, I would like to thank you for your interest in counting now in our Q&A session. Let me start this call talking about the highlights, and then I will talk about some figures. Let me tell you about the wonderful performance of our core businesses in this quarter.

In our products, portfolios that represent more physical activities. It's going very well, consolidating a results plateau that is pretty consistent so we want to complement our digital portfolio and new revenues in a much more -- in a much safer and planned way. We reached BRL 518 million in net revenue in the second quarter.

The pay DID grew, the pay also was -- remained stable and the Valid mobile is starting its recovery. In the ID, we see a mixed volume between our G and SIM. And [indiscernible] grew 22% in volume year-over-year, while Valid ID grew 19.4% SIM has shown lower growth in Sao Paolo. The mission or the issuance of the new document started after the original schedule. So we expect this number to grow in the second semester. Talking briefly about the card market, we had some changes but a few changes in the Brazilian market with that show no growth and no drop in Argentina.

On the other hand, in the first 6 months, volumetry was in line in the with 2023, but increase of sales in real in 34% above our expectations, considering the context. A second point to highlight was the performance of net revenue growing for 40% compared to the previous year. BRL 80 million in revenue in the quarter and [indiscernible] semester and BRL 324 million in the last 12 months record.

We have the effect of sales of assets at Cubic. And even without it, we reached BRL 212 million of net revenue in the LTM. It also helped us to have less financial expenses. In the quarter, we had no negative effects of exchange effects in Nigeria in Argentina. Our third point is the growth of new revenues coming from products and solutions portfolio that are connected to the core but didn't exist before.

Due to organic or inorganic growth, these revenues represent 8.5% of sales and 12% of the global EBITDA. Only in the second quarter, we reached BRL 54 million over 10% of the total sales valid. In the next slide, I'll talk more about these details. The consistency in terms of dividend distributions to our shareholders. Our net cash flow reached BRL 136 million. The generation of operational flow in the first quarter was BRL 161 million, representing 2/3 of EBITDA conversion inflow in the period in cash flow in the period, showing an important recovery in gains in the accounts that are part of the working capital.

In terms of ROIC, we achieved 22% and 0.5% in the past 12 months. Regarding remuneration to our shareholders, this is the consecutive eighth quarter that the company pays dividends to our shareholders. And only in '24, we have already paid BRL 51 million in dividends and we have already announced BRL 35 million that will be paid next week.

In our previous call, we talked about the goals to advance our revenue in businesses. And we started opening these figures. I remind you that new business are those that didn't make part of the Valid solutions before 2022. Our goal is that these solutions we present by the end nearly 8% of the company's turnover.

After the first quarter, we have the following: digital government representing BRL 41 million digital onboarding solutions, reaching BRL 25 million and mobile solutions accounting for BRL 20 million. So this business have added together, BRL 86 million to Valid turnover. Or 85% of the total turnover of this year. Considering the ramp-up and project maturation in those projects, we have already get involved in the new opportunities, we must reach our goal in budget.

Another highlight, the focus not to lose profitability in this new business portfolio. This happened because such initiatives accounted for 12% of the company's EBITDA in this period. Today, we have digital government services such as digital ID, interoperability platform, biometric engine, digital and class monitoring in several states.

Regarding the onboarding solution, we are advancing services in more sectors other than the financial. And in mobile, we have delivered some projects for the six semester. We have been very -- we are very excited about these results. Regarding our guidelines for '24, what moves us in this stage of the company are 2 main goals.

The first is to continue demonstrating our capacity to extract value from our core activities, generating earnings to remunerate our shareholders and invest in the company. And the second main goal is to accelerate the generation of new revenues, creating a scalable and permanent growth structure of ALD. How are you doing that? Or which are the strategic pillars of this strategy. First, investment in innovation and technology for portfolio expansion. This represents to complement our product portfolio to maintain relevance in the ecosystems we work, ID, digital government, banks and payments and safe connectivity.

And this process is taking place through the reorganization and retain of talent we already have by attracting new talent in every business and value generation of valid, especially product and technology teams. Our second pillar is a strong culture of value generation including innovation, customer focus with our people and talent.

People who think Valid is the best place in the world to evolve along with the company. We try to give value to internal talent, attract new ones and deliver great value to our customers. Our third pillar is attention to operational excellence and competitiveness to keep on extracting value from the core products portfolio in every ecosystem focusing the consistent execution, generating permanent value throughout the ecosystem we work with.

The fourth pillar is to maintain a solid financial management that allow us to have judicious consistent investments that accelerate Valid's continuous and sustainable growth. This is a very important pillar. Even now with record cash flow and other highlights. I would like to reinforce the message I gave you in the previous call. We want to use in 2024, the maximum limit for JCP that could lead to the payment of BRL 110 million payments in '24.

Besides with our VC and M&A team, we are trying to look for already tested solution opportunities that can add to our portfolio and valid gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to accelerate their business. Now I'd like to call Olavo, he will go deeper into figures, and then I'll be back for final comments and the Q&A session.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Thank you, Bressan. Good morning, everyone. We have closed the second quarter with BRL 518 million, less 3%, considering the first -- the previous year but 7% more compared to the previous quarter. We had 6% less in the first quarter of '23. By looking at sales per unit, we have the following in ID and digital government, there was an increase both in the quarter against quarter and year-over-year.

In banking and payments, there is a certain stability in sales in both periods. And finally, in mobile, being the vertical that show the biggest advance regarding the previous quarter. Even if the volume of sales are below the second 3 of '23, based on the pipeline of products and service, we believe mobile will have stronger results in the second semester being the first quarter, the lowest part of the year.

In terms of EBITDA, in this quarter, there were 129 a drop of 4% regarding the 135 in the second quarter of last year, but an increase of 11% or BRL 13 million compared to the first quarter of '24. So there was a margin of 25%. 1 point more than the previous quarter. Valid there was a drop of 12% in EBITDA compared to the previous period. The mobile was responsible for BRL 46 million payments, [indiscernible] and IT and digital government aggregated BRL 12 million in the semester.

We have a margin of 24.5%, 1.6% below the same period of '23. Later, I'll bring you more details about each of the businesses. Now let's talk about net income. In the quarter, there was a profit of BRL 8 million, a margin of 15% results reached in the quarter shows that after having equated its capital structure valid has a full capacity to compensate operational margin drops with advances in financial results.

When we analyze the EBITDA to profit behavior. We moved from EBITDA of BRL 129 million. Over that, we have BRL 23 million of depreciation and amortization in line with value presented in previous quarters. The financial results in the period was negative in terms of BRL 16 million. This shows an important reduction regarding BRL 33 million reduction and BRL 30 million in the first quarter of '24.

In those quarters, we have been impacted by exchange devaluation in Argentina and Nigeria, events that didn't take place in the previous month. Completing the bridge, we had BRL 9 million with expenses of IR and CSS and BRL 2 million in other expenses. In this quarter, we didn't sell assets with a profit of BRL 8 million with a margin of 15%, which represents BRL 0.97 million per share.

In terms of semesters, we moved from a EBITDA -- I mean, a profit of BRL 328 million BRL 46 million of depreciation and the same BRL 46 million of negative financial results being explained by the losses as we found in Argentina in Nigeria in the first quarter. The expenses with taxes were BRL 33 million in the semester and the others account for BRL 6 million, including several expenses in the company.

Then we had a positive effect of BRL 112 million in the first quarter, which accounts for the accounting liquid result of selling Cubic of BRL 137 million. Added VCMC negative result in BRL 25 million. With all of these movementation we had accumulated net profit of BRL 222 million. And now let's talk about the evolution of some financial results. If you consider the previous BRL 12 million valid has an EBITDA of BRL 534 million and net profit of BRL 323 million. This is the highest profit of the company ever.

As Bressan said a while ago in the highlights, even if we remove the nonrecurring effect of the sales of assets of BRL 112 million in the first quarter, we would have in June 2024 an accumulated profit of BRL 212 million, a value in line with what we have presented by the end of last year. Looking at our ROIC, we keep on advancing with this indicator, reaching 22.5% And also ROI had 19.3%.

Let's talk about the semester and quarter cash flow. We generated operating cash flow of BRL 133 million, 134% of the EBITDA in the period with important advances in the working capital line, especially in receivable accounts, inventories and taxes. We had our CapEx controlled expense of BRL 19 million and financial expenses of BRL 16 million. Overall operational flow of BRL 893 million, we performed an important reduction of indebtedness.

Here, I would like to highlight the prepayments of operations Valid had in Spain, which had a cost above what we were working with. In this quarter, we had the exchange offer already mentioned in the previous call, which we will account for an important cost reduction for valid throughout the next few years. In this quarter, we had BRL 52 million of payments of dividends, BRL 27 million of JCP in 2024 and BRL 25 million of extraordinary dividends in '23 according to general assembly.

In this quarter, we had no asset sale and exchange effects contributed positively in BRL 7 million. Closing our application and cash flow in BRL 721 million. Now let's talk about the semester. The operational generation in the second quarter made us revert the negative effect. And now we reached 66% of EBITDA conversion in cash flow in the first 6 months.

For CapEx and financial expenses in the semester, we have an expense in BRL 32 million and BRL 28 million, respectively. As I said in the previous slide, we had an important reduction of the gross debt in the second quarter of '24 and the payment of BRL 52 million in the first quarter, we sold Cubic, [indiscernible] important assets. And together, they added BRL 178 million to the company's cash flow. So we reached by the end of this quarter with BRL 721 million of cash flow and availability.

Now let's talk about the main changes in working capital with important advancements in this quarter, receivables, accounts receivables and inventory, there was gains more striking even when we compare them with the fourth quarter of '23. In the year-over-year comparison. We have 11 days of BRL 35 million in accounts receivable and 12 days in inventories are BRL 48 million.

In the suppliers' accounts we had $50 million reduction, but advances in accounts receivable and inventory compensated for this loss. In this slide, we have the main accounts for Valid. It's important to highlight in the second quarter, we were successful in reversing a lawsuit involved the tax collection. In this case, INSS over third parties are outsourced parties.

So we had a provision for this in the month of April. We still focus on improving working capital indicators. And in the current levels, main gains were already absorbed. Let's talk about liquidity. The work we have done in liquidity in the past few quarters in the liability management service to elongate duration and reduce costs.

We have availability over obligations in BRL 137 million. Today, we have only 16% of valid debt in the short term with maturity in the short term. We have constantly received proposals from partner banks to try and improve the conditions of current debt. An example was the operation with ABC. We managed to maintain for another year in operation with CDI plus 1 invalid behavior in the capital markets in 12 months, we have a performance above the main indicators, be Ibovespa or the Small Cap Index, even considering the recent loss or the recent drop of paper in the past 6 months.

I would like to talk about what we have already paid in 2024, BRL 52 million in the new round of JCP, which we pay next week with over with BRL 35 million more. We have opened rebuy program with 150,000 in buys, 80% of the total of our plan. In terms of liquidity, the paper evolved 13% compared to the same period of '23 BRL 6 million per day. Now let's talk about the business verticals in valid ID.

We achieved BRL 7.3 million volumes in this quantity apart from a small seasonability is the number we have seen since the third quarter of '22. We had previewed a small reduction in volume3 in CNH, but year-over-year, we've had a positive result, and we can increase with the state issuing SIM with a higher number. We had a recent success in Bayer. ID issuance were a primary one, and we will start issuing it gradually from August on.

We have advanced in the traditional fronts of our business, but we still have digital government and onboarding solutions that together accounted for 70% of the ID vertical revenue in the year. Another unit in this vertical, which is not so much talked about is the water seal. More states have adopted water bottles tracking in this -- we have an increase of 58% in turnover if compared to BRL 21 million.

So we have ID and digital government. Revenue were BRL 202 million with an increase of 19% as compared to the second quarter of three, and year-over-year, BRL 390 million, an increase of 16%. Sales advances also occurred in profitability with BRL 70 million, 27% above the second quarter of '23, leading to accumulated in the year of BRL 130 million, a 16% increase.

The margin in the second quarter was 34.3% above the previous quarter. In the accumulated of the first 6 months, we have 32.7% the same level we've had last year. Now let's talk about the payments verticals. The dynamics in the second semester were similar to the first one with a small drop in margins. The total volumes of issuance in Brazil plus Argentina reached BRL 17.5 million in the in this area.

And in EBITDA, we had BRL 39 million against BRL 41 million in the first quarter and BRL 42 million in the second quarter of '23 by analyzing the dynamic by geography. In the second quarter in Brazil, we had a volume at 34% higher than the one observed in the second quarter of '23, with the sales volume maintaining itself, which led to a small drop in margins.

In the year-over-year, volumetry grows 8%, increasing sales of 2% when compared to the first quarter of '23. The dynamics of volume between the local scenario must be pressured still by the interest rate reduction. So with our teams of innovation, we try to offer solutions with higher added value and higher technology to our customers, such as the card with biometry focused on fraud reduction in Argentina, the quantity of cards issued in the second quarter of '24 was in line with the second quarter of '23, but with an increase in turnover 28% in the first 6 months, accumulated, we maintained volume associated to sales increase of 34%, which led to higher margins.

As I said, in the net profit slide, as Argentina advances in terms of its fiscal and economic situation, we may have less volatility in terms of results in Argentina, increasing then local competitiveness. Now let me talk about the mobile slide. We closed this period with BRL 111 million sales and BRL 21 million EBITDA, a margin of 18.5%. Mobile has been decreasing in sales and EBITDA year-over-year.

But in this quarter, EBITDA had an important advance of 43% if compared to the first quarter of this year with an increase of 4.4% in margin. The result is beyond what we saw in the first -- in the same period of '23. But after 3 quarters with margins in 14% or 15%, we had an improvement in results even with the low volume, which seems to be a good indicator that the worst moment of the second period remain in the first quarter.

The mobile segment has the second quarter better our second semester that is better than the first. So in SIM cards and solution, we have good perspective. In SIM cards, we have programmed in portfolios, more sales with better prices. In any platforms, we have the program delivery for some operators and some carriers in different continents. I'd like to highlight that mobile solutions account for 9% of this vertical revenue. In the first quarter of '24. This division had a growth of around 70% compared to the first 6 months of '23 showing the potential we have ahead.

Before moving on to the final session, let me talk about 2 events that occurred after the first semester. The first is the renewal of the working capital with ABC Bank. This is a BRL 30 million operation that would have its maturity date in July, but we maintain CD1 plus one, and we have another year.

In the previous RCA, we had a new round of JCP of BRL 0.44 per share, BRL 35 million, which will be paid on August 16 next week. Now let me invite Bressan to briefly talk about the perspectives for 2024. The floor is yours.

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

Thank you, all, Olavo. I would like to highlight some points here. regarding our short- and long-term challenges. In the short term, we have -- we want to resumption the mobile in the first semester. EBITA in the first quarter, was not so good, but we have better expectations for quarter 3 and quarter 4. We also want to accelerate the conversion of the pipeline into new revenues in the 3 verticals. Let me talk about some achievements.

In ID, as Olavo said, we had a new contract in Bahia to issue the new SIM and CNH, the license. And also have contracts with the Institute of [indiscernible] in a new bid that was done. In Valid Pay, we recently launched [indiscernible] our biometric card an innovative and pioneer product in Brazil, and we already have 3 banks in PLC with this project. This is a clear example of our Board in terms of taking advantage of our core competencies, making the company being present in the customers through the identity-proof in credit cards in the future, it may be applied in other services.

In Valid Mobile, we have converted a very important global Tier 1 player, and we have the first PO to be delivered in the first quarter. A 1/3 short-term item is to accelerate our products portfolio and technology platform. This is why we announced last week, Rudy, that is our Technology Executive Director in another new talent in this area to accelerate the portfolio that is underlying to our core business and which will help us just like the biometric cards, present in people's transactions, such as trust provider to consume or to use public or private services.

We want also to tackle some long-term challenges. We want to have -- we need to work in IT, digital government, banks and payments and safe connectivity. The evolution of portfolio is a permanent challenge, both in the chart in the long run. And with a liquid cash flow level, we will always have a thoughtful working capital development. It's important to highlight that looking at the next years where we need to be more aggressive regarding the growth in revenues, which has to do with looking for more restructuring market opportunities.

We'll always look for this balance between remunerating our shareholders and checking inorganic opportunities for the companies. Now let me ask you for 2 minutes as we get organized for our Q&A sessions will be back in less than one.

[Operator]

First question comes from Paolo from [indiscernible] Congratulations for the results. I would like to know how the beginning of the new national ID card has been going. Do you have any idea on migrating for polycarbonate. Paolo, the government has recently announced through the Ministry of innovation that over 10 million have been issued in Brazil so far. We have a lot that says that within 10 years, the whole Brazilian population needs to reuse a new identity card according to the new SIM standards.

From January on, which was the most recent formalization date, they have already issued 10 million documents. Valid issued around 5.5 million of these. And that states with a larger number which is Sao Paolo, hasn't ramped up in desired fashion. We still need to take some initiatives to make this number to ramp up.

So we'll see this number of SIM to grow in this next semester in the next few years as the states get onboard. Polycarbonate has an ramped up.

We have a document such as this, which is a polycarbonate card, it can be issued in the Federal District. Some other states are beginning to provide polycarbonate documents. First of all, the contracts, the agreements are old, so they didn't account for that, and polycarbonate will not be given for free for the population, only the first copy. And we need to create a rate or a fee that has to do with the annual fee.

I can only create a fee for '24 in the previous year. So they are -- the government, the state governments are still working on it. So we expect this to ramp up in 2025. But the general volume is being reflected in our volume numbers. And when we incorporate other contracts, such as the agreement, the contract we have with the government of Bahia, this will add to million documents a year in addition to what we have, according to the new standard.

Second question comes from Carlos. Also to Bressan, you mentioned the new contracts that have a maturity date in Bahia [indiscernible] and the Federal District, which would be the scope, the traditional one or digital government.

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

Thank you, Carlos. In fact, these 3 contracts were Bahia Federal District in [indiscernible], the state of [indiscernible] it's a renewal, a new bid for identity. This agreement is 40% bigger than the previous one. And now of this 40% increase, a good part of the increase has to do with digital government products in terms of digital ID and interoperability. In the Federal District, it's CNA drivers license mission that will practically double. Besides the driver's license, the CNH issuance, we have a platform built with class audit and proctorship along with the digital government platform.

Over -- around 35% of this new contract has to do with digital government. So in Bahia, we have the largest or the highest improvement. We had the [indiscernible] contract to issue the CNH, the driver's license. But now we will also start issuing the national ID card. So the scope will be naturally bigger, but we'll also have digital government journeys and interability by the end of -- so considering all of this, this new Bayer contract will be 3x bigger.

Good part of the revenues will help us to compose new products revenue in our new portfolio.

[Operator]

Next question comes from Fabio.

[Unknown Analyst]

How valid visualizes operations in Argentina. Fabio, well, if you consider Argentina, we've been talking about it in the past few years. In 2021, we try to sell the local operations. The results were low. But we didn't -- many things have changed in the fiscal exchange political scenario there.

And it has been an excellent contribution to our result in the pay segment in the pay vertical. We're still serving this wave there, let's say, the scenario we see in terms of economy, politics is increasing, but it's to -- it's far from being the best. So when you have a more favorable scenario, it tends to have more competition.

You tend to facilitate the resources in the country, but we are very careful in terms of long term or even the medium term results, but we will keep There, we have a solid presence in the market there. We are very concerned with what the new changes can reflect on the competitive scenario, but with no major changes.

I think this is the take-home message, I'd say.

[Operator]

Next question comes from Filipe [indiscernible]

[Unknown Analyst]

How are you dealing with a valid onboarding or the digital onboarding strategy?

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

I'm sorry for your question. Since we announced the flag stock purchase last year, we have been studying more and digital onboarding market. We are a little lagging in this journey. But now our recovery goes through the revaluation of portfolio.

A first aspect to say is that FlexTalk partners are wonderful have an excellent work with the agreements, the contracts we have today, especially with [ Caixa Federal Cash Economic Federal ] and you have a good pipeline to make onboard and grow in terms of providing onboarding services to government, not only its financial institutions, but also other companies or entities that may need this technology.

On the other hand, we also see the digital onboarding platform as an important mechanism for us to have presence in the world of transactions from one INI document or onboarding. Last week, we announced Rudy Technology Director of technology. New talent. He will help us in our capacity and ability to make this portfolio better. He is part of this team who will look for cross solutions and several of the features that are already good at [indiscernible]

We will continue to invest on that. [ Documentosopy ] is super accurate already but we will add artificial intelligence to it. Another example is that with the DPO platform, we can accelerate the evolution of the product using artificial intelligence. So we have hyper automation processes that will help us in digital government journey. Several of the processes we need to implement, be them in digital government or companies go through these hyper automation process with the use of AI.

Another complement we'll plan to do is to include AML features or LifeProof features. So this phase of being in the cycle of use of people's transactions, make us more and more relevant. And we need to explore this in other fronts, not only financial industry. And the last element in this platform is that we can start identify similarities and synergies between several of the companies we have invested on in the previous years.

So we have core ID that we already have and functionalities and important features we have in the digital certifying with cryptography in cryptography and digital signature, and this is another market of qualified signatures that has a lot of value to. We have other capacities and abilities with the Metro teams in municipalities are Soft or that has biometry functionality. So our effort with this specialization of product team and reinforcing the IT team, our technology team is to have a big growth in the next few years by continuously exploring this in the public journeys and also the private journeys from now on.

[Operator]

Next question comes from Fabio to Bressan.

[Unknown Analyst]

First of all, I would like to congratulate all employees and collaborators for the strong results in the second quarter. without giving guidance, how does Valid see the second semester of '24?

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

Thank you, Fabio. Well, the first thing for the second semester, if you look at the mobile vertical, we want to have a recovery in mobile for the second semester. This is the main gap we had in this first quarter. It has recovered in the second quarter, but still need to have some developments in the third and the fourth quarters.

This is the first element, better mobile. When we look at ID. There are 2 factors. One is the regular organic growth connected to SIM emissions or SIM issuance that have to do with the new contracts in Bali.

Bali is a new contract we had drivers license that, but now we will have the identity card too. So the numbers will keep on being good and maybe increase in terms of volume. Now talking about digital government, some contracts started being implemented [indiscernible] may be the most representative one, and then the ramp-up of solutions in the second semester when it comes to implement interability in several instances in the government of Sierra.

This will lead to a better growth and [indiscernible] In terms of paid, there is a stability as we have seen in this first semester, there was a good surprise with Argentina, we cannot tell what will happen with Argentina in the second semester, but we know that pay is doing very well and the pace of volume reduction, it didn't occur.

There was no volume reduction in the first semester. So we hope to have stability in the next few years. So I have a pretty optimistic view. Our core is doing very well in new products, new portfolios, they will have a better growth, better ramp-up in the next semester in the next few years too.

[Operator]

Next question from Fabio to [indiscernible]

[Unknown Analyst]

With CIA having net what will be the analysis for future M&A and growth for the second semester of '24 and 2025, what will be the earnings distribution for the second semester of '24 and '25.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Thank you, Fabio. Well, when it comes to talking about the management of our cash flow and the position we have achieved being a net cash flow company. People have been asking us about that in the call. So the situation we are in today shows how strong we are in generating results in the businesses we have and that we are working with a lot of controls in resource allocation and working capital.

One thing that is very important for us, I think it's in the consecutive eighth quarter is to remunerate our shareholders. We tend to do the main remuneration through GCP within legal limits. And in 2024, we will use this again up to the limit of the legislation, we will do that. If we make a simple calculation here of our net income versus to LP. This would account for BRL 120 million of dividends coming from JCP. This is what we'll do.

And then from then on, maybe a second part of this answer would be there is room for further distributions or further remuneration valid executive team and the Board, we are all very cautious on how to allocate these resources to reinforce the teams, to enforce the products we have within the company or looking for new M&As. So this is a strategy of looking for M&As.

The first time we announced that was in 2022, if I'm not mistaken, with the VC team we put together, looking for several opportunities actively or reactively flex appeared, VSO, appeared, they came along, and we are still on the lookout. We're still looking for new opportunities. Maybe deals even bigger than we have seen in the past.

According to what Bressan said, let me tell you that when we look at valid in a broader universe of services and functionalities maybe the names that will appear here or names that are bigger than what we have seen so far. So in a nutshell, we will keep on remunerating our shareholders at least within the legal limits and maybe more, this is to be analyzed, further analyzed from time to time, and we will keep strongly looking for opportunities.

Internal opportunities or external opportunities and be very careful in terms of allocation, resource allocation. Bressan, what do you think?

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

Well, a, I would say that -- we have talked about having a focus on integrating the investments we've had so far. Looking for a perfect balance between what we do well within our company. This is why we have been reinforcing our teams, our technology and back office and commercial teams and in parallel, having a more ambitious scenario in terms of M&A with higher tickets because our structure is better, and we try -- we will try to reinforce this in the future.

But it's about that balance between present and future. We want to be a company that will consolidate as a good payer of dividends to all of our shareholders for people who see this big future for Valid. And also, we need to invest in this future. We need to invest to keep on growing with optimism, ambition and strength for perennial growth of Valid in this area.

[Operator]

Next question comes from Gena.

[Unknown Analyst]

Does Valid intend to enter new business area in the short term. Could you further expand on the company's main initiatives to reduce the risk of sense of existing businesses in the medium and long term?

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

Let me start by saying that what is valid core business? What do we want to be in this environment. Initially in the Brazilian society. We want to have the right portfolio so Valid is the safe identity, Brazilian people trust and using their daily transactions in their transactions as a whole. This is what we want to do. We moving from being the issuers of same cards or documents and create a portfolio that will integrate this core business but also a company that is present in people's transactions.

Maybe this is the main movement in terms of portfolio that we've been doing. How do we mention the future in terms of more traditional activities of this issuance. We have shown in numbers that our core is doing very well in our future is not a future in which credit cards will disappear. On the contrary, when you see the level of banking services for the Brazilian people and for Latin Americans as a whole, credit cards are still needed.

They are easy to use. They have a large share in terms of household consumption. So there is no catastrophe catastrophes in the medium or long -- even long term. So the idea is to keep on extracting profitability, generating adequate profitability so we can modernize this portfolio to keep on delivering the good products, the core products that we do. So this is what we want to do.

Keep on enlarging expanding our capabilities in digital government, of course, we will expand that in new contracts pipelines in the robustness of the new products. And based on that, we keep on investing in the digital onboarding platform for all the products of safe identities. So we become the third -- I mean the main outsource or the third partner that Brazilians, I believe in.

Maybe we can go into cloud services. Our customers need cloud services. We are starting this business to and also cybersecurity as a way of protecting the excess credential to environments that need to be safe through the identity. Spaces are environments of public entities that need to track access credential, for example, or even to access environments of private companies.

This is why we've been investing in the technology team and new business team and also look at M&A who will eliminate the gap or complement the gap of what we do not have inside the company. With these new capabilities, in the market. And the idea is to integrate this with our portfolio and deliver a more and more digital portfolio. But in terms of our traditional physical products, they have a turnover plateau that is spectacular.

So in the next few years, this transition can be done in a safe planned way.

[Operator]

Next question from Bruno.

[Unknown Analyst]

Which is the share of Valid Argentina participation in the pay businesses?

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

Thank you, Bruno. Well, in terms of revenue, Argentina accounts for 40% as we've had in the next few years, the local environment has favored in terms of price so it represents a little more than that when you look at EBITDA.

[Operator]

Another question from Bruno. In pay numbers. Don't you have businesses in other continents such as Africa and Europe.

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

No, no. Bruno. In other continents, moving out of the Americas. What Valid has in terms of turnover has to do with the telecom mobile vertical. So in pay numbers, we are talk exclusively about Brazil in Argentina, okay?

[Operator]

Next question comes from Rafael [indiscernible]

[Unknown Analyst]

Regarding M&As, what is the focus in terms of size and markets? And how does the company sold itself or tries to show itself from a history that was not favorable in organic capital allocation.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Well I believe we have talked about M&A in a previous question. And Bressan talked about focus in markets we've looked for. I don't believe we tend to restrict M&A for us. Of course, that Valid is a company that will go through transition through its history. And it has gone through other M&As, good M&As and bad Ms. People who work with M&As know that's how it goes. And I believe the process to look for safe initiatives that fit our portfolio.

This is the key. We have been very careful regarding that. In previous calls, when we announced our participation in soft of flex, we joked saying that when we announced these deals, oftentimes, the market doesn't know about them, and it's very good for us, in fact, because this is a player that we have identified that makes sense to our portfolio, the current portfolio or the future portfolio, and we managed to go there be the first to go there and integrate them.

Of course, when you start looking at bigger cases, these M&A, these integrations will take longer, more will take more we'll need to be more careful. So this has been a constant evolution in our company. We are not restricted to any tickets. I believe our balance today considering what we have inside the company and why we could look in terms of funding with partners allow us to think about bigger M&As, but there is no restriction.

[Unknown Analyst]

Can I complement a [indiscernible]

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

Yes, of course, there is. Maybe there is some fear in your question, implicit fear of having a bad allocation bad M&A and M&A that can fail. There are 2 mortar things reinforcing what Olavo said. Two things first, we know where we want to go. We want to be Brazilian safe ID. So help us understand better our focus and how this portfolio needs to evolve and by clearly identifying what we need -- what we need to buy outside.

Knowing what we want reduces our risk car having a bad M&A. The second point is that we have a very good governance already mature valid. Considering the Board. The Board supports all of our discussions in terms of growth or the new business committee, this convenance help us not to scrub not to do bad things with our net revenue. So the this balance between aggressiveness and trying to grow in having a super specialized management on being efficient and being competitive makes this blend between being careful and being ambitious.

And we believe we will do the right bets as we have done and more in the future of valid.

[Operator]

Next question comes from Rafael to Bressan.

[Unknown Analyst]

Trying to look at a longer-term horizon, what do you imagine the composition of digital revenue will be like with the new revenue front? Onboard in bio, the expected drop in revenue from CNH from the licenses can be more than offset by the same emissions and new revenues. Could you talk about the future behavior, our margins and understand what to expect from the future of Valid?

[Ilson Bressan, executive]

Rafael I have said in individual stocks within Valid or with the market as a whole, that the fear had 3 years ago when I joined Valid to look at a horizon that CNH, the driver's license would have a big drop. I mean this fear has evaporated now because there are new elements. The first element is because SIM is a reality in Brazil now. We have issued documents according to this new standard.

And by looking into a future with SIM, SIM with the expiry date, so we will double we will lose the volume of reissuance, but the increase of SIM will offset this change in volume. So we will be happy with this offset with increase of SIM and reduction of CNH licenses. But in fact, I would say that our new products, digital onboarding, digital governance platforms and mobile verticals, they are even better in terms of the revenue total share.

So I feel safe. I feel free to say that we have already offset this future considering CNH, considering the driver's license, it will be great if you maintain the previous levels because it would mean growth. But we have new initiatives to offset that and which will allow us to grow with new revenues maintaining a stable growth.

So this mix of things make us be optimistic towards our future.

[Operator]

Well, this was our final question. With that, we end our Q&A session. Thank you, Olavo. Thank you, Bressan. I'd like to thank all the participants who are with us here in the results. presentation. Our Investor Relations channels are available to answer any of your questions. Thank you.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]