Valid Solucoes SA

BOVESPA:VLID3

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Good morning. Welcome to our earnings release conference call, the fourth quarter '22. I'm Olavo Vaz, Head of Corporate Finance, and I'll be the moderator of the session. .

Before we start the presentation, I would like to make some important announcements. This event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]. We have simultaneous translation into English and the material is available in our IR material, and the playback will be available immediately after. Once we finish the presentation, we're going to start our Q&A and questions can be asked at any time during the event submitted through the chat.

I would like to make it clear that any statements made during this conference call related with business prospects, forecast, operational and financial goals of the company are based on beliefs and assumptions of the Executive Board as well as on currently available information. Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of performance as they involve risks and uncertainties as they relate to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances, which may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, the market and other operational factors may also affect the future performance of the company and lead to results, which may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements.

We have Ivan Murias, CEO; and Renato Tyszler, CFO and IRO. And before I hand it over to Ivan, I would like to recall you that as we have concluded our disinvestments of assets, ID cards and data from the U.S., the numbers you see do not include these assets. So that we can really reflect the numbers of the company after transaction and so on. And for 2021, on the results of the assets in the U.S. were also excluded, so that we could favor a comparison year-over-year. The results release in our Investor Relations website has also a data table with the U.S. assets in case you are interested.

Let me now hand it over to Ivan, our CEO.

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

Thank you, Olavo. Good morning, everyone. We are very proud to be here to present the earnings release of the last quarter and the year of '22 of Valid. It's the second year that we have made very important financial and business achievements and adjusting our corporate structure. So now we have a more solid and well delimited company in all 3 verticals of actions, ID, pay and mobile.

Starting from revenues. We closed the year of '22 with BRL 1.879 million, which means 16% year-over-year. In the last quarter of the year, the growth compared to the same period last year was 9.5%. Throughout the year, the 3 verticals presented an increase in revenues. And it's important to emphasize that for 1 more year, 1/3 of sales came from each of the business units, which show a very important indicator showing a share of business from each of them with a very healthy dilution of risks, portfolio of clients and very healthy allocation in different currencies in different geographies.

In terms of EBITDA, our normalized EBITDA was BRL 463 million. It's a historic record, representing nearly 50% increase year-over-year. In 2021, we've had also a record. And this number does not include receivables of some old invoice of about BRL 50 million with the Valid ID unit, which happens throughout the year of 2022, guarding to the cash, but were accounted below the EBITDA as they were not recurring income. The continuous focus on our teams on operational improvement has being translated in the last quarter of an EBITDA margin of 26.9% and 24.6% of EBITDA margin in 2022.

As we've mentioned in previous calls, consolidated numbers would be increased as we no longer would have the impact of smaller margin units, such as the U.S. operations. In 2022, we had a second consecutive year in which we presented net income, normalized numbers of BRL 9 million and accounting of [ BRL 16 million ]. And as mentioned in EBITDA, our net income is affected by old receivables, which were excluded when the analysis was performed.

The results of 2022 in our last line was impacted by 2 factors. First, it's negative effect of the disinvestment of the assets in the U.S. and the negative effect of the exchange rate of the mutuals between Valid Spain and Valid Brazil. Adding up, we've got to BRL 120 million in 2022. These negative variations are not expected in 2023 as they are nonrecurring. At the same time, they help us give you the right dimension of how we have everything put in place since the beginning of the new management to translate into net profit and EPS, all the games that we can have so that we can have the right strategic focus as we've been doing for the past 2 years.

Even considering the accounting result in 2022 impacted by the write-off of less strategic assets and also because of the structure of our capital system, the positive result has meant that on January 31, we paid IOE, maintaining the results and the return on investments of our shareholders. In addition to interest on equity and payout, we've had BRL 20 million in repurchase of shares, and we canceled 2 million shares that represented 2.5% of our corporate stock throughout 2023. And as we resume our accounting reserves with results on a quarterly basis and understanding that the pricing of assets is not necessarily showing the moment of leverage and operating working capital will keep on rebuying our shares according to what the legislation allows.

Speaking of leverage, after 2 consecutive years with records in results Valid closed the year of 2022 with the lowest level ever since the moment the company started contracting some debt. So here, we have net debt EBITDA at 0.7x. If we contributed the assets of the U.S., the leverage would be even lower, 0.6x. The adjustment in our capital structure that was made throughout the past 2 years have made the company come into 2023, less impacted by the high interest rate as we've been observing in other business segments. As I said before, having lower financial expenses, we expect to resume and offer more net income to our shareholders.

Now let me give you the highlights of each business line, Valid ID. In 2022, we had a record year of issuance of documents for Valid ID over BRL 26 million with a 33% growth year-over-year. Some highlights of the year, which will keep on helping us. First, implementation of new contracts for ID Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo and Piauí, with expansion of services. A new law of the national ID card according to Law 10,977 and the rollout of pilot issuance under the new standards, we've already implemented in 4 states, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Piauí. And now we are going to implement in other states, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, and the Federal District Brazilian. We've also had the minority shareholding acquisition of VSoft, which is going to focus on the DETRANs, driving authorities and identification institutes.

So we've increased the number of issuance and also increased our operational efficiency, leading to expansion of margins, which were even more impressive. Renato is going to go into further details in upcoming slides.

In 2022, Valid Pay also presented a significant improvement in its results, especially concerning margins. In a year that had fewer cards issued, one of the main acquisitions and achievements in this year were chip availability throughout the whole year of 2022, proactivity in using different supplies, so fully meeting the needs of our customers even when the market still had a shortage of availability.

Secondly, a full control of the commercial process and SOP, the domain of gross profit unit and adjustment of volumes in different geographies and clients.

Thirdly, the incorporation of all efficiencies and consolidations that we have developed throughout the past 2 years.

Fourth, the development as a pioneer action of the dual interface card of ELO for a very important bank player in Sao Paulo. So Valid is the only player in the market that has a recycled card manufactured by 100% natural raw material.

And finally, in digital billing, we are still offering digital solutions for private and public players and nonbanking customers amount to 60% of our sales.

In our Valid mobile unit, we've been strengthening our partnership with suppliers in distribution channels to meet the needs of clients still during product shortage. We focus on product mix, high-end products and 5G products. Similar to bank cards, our mobile team has been showing a maturity in our different commercial projects, and we have different solutions for different territories, customers and continents. Therefore, we've been presenting operating margins within a 20% to 30% range for 10 consecutive quarters.

It's also important to emphasize some major advances in the mobile solutions and OEM, attracting new clients and signing new commercial agreements. So Valid is now ready for the changes that have been happening and will keep on happen in the telecom industry.

Let me now hand it over to Renato, our CFO, who is going to go into details of further data for 2022. Then I'll come back for my closing remarks and also for the Q&A session. Renato, please.

[Renato Tyszler, executive]

Well, good morning, everyone. I would like to say that we are very glad to show you on Slide 4, the results of months of work and of the disinvestment of our U.S. asset operations. There was a decrease in leverage to the lowest level ever, 0.6x EBITDA. We have a very comfortable cash position when the year closed especially if we compare it with our short-term debts. This new capital structure and low leverage has been the main focus of management throughout the past 2 years and we are very glad to have achieved what we had initially planned. There was a decrease of 30% of gross debt, especially when the interest rates were high, and we had net debt of BRL 327 million last year. It takes us to a very comfortable position of decreasing our debt service and leverage with a better earning per share for 2023.

Slide 5 now shows our operating results. The quarter and the year showing record EBITDA levels and all business units contributing positively. The revenues had a 10% increase in the quarter and 16% year-over-year. EBITDA had a 29% increase in the quarter and 47% year-over-year, going from [ BRL 350 million ] to BRL 463 million with a 5 percentage points increase in margin going from 19.5% in '21 to 24.6% in '22, both situations without including the U.S. assets. And this growth has resulted from more issuance of documents, 33% year-over-year. Also a positive result from the operation in Argentina compared to 2021 because in 2021, it was close to 0. And a 50% increase of revenues and EBITDA from mobile, because we had a focus on markets with better mix and margins. And we've also had other operating effects of all the units, all of them positive. This is something that has happened as get to very positive results at the end of the year.

Now going to Slide 6. Let's go into each business unit, starting from Valid ID. Net revenues had a 25% increase in the quarter and year-over-year. EBITDA has a 58% increase in the quarter and 57% year-over-year getting to a total of BRL 204 million. Revenues and EBITDA were strongly impacted by record issuance volume after years of the pandemic and also by adding new contracts. For 2023, we also have a positive perspective of the implementation of the new national ID card.

Now speaking of Valid Pay, Slide 7, there is an increase in revenues of 13% in the quarter and 15% year-over-year. EBITDA had a 46% increase in the quarter and 91% year-over-year with a margin of 7 percentage points increase. Both were levered by significant results of the operation in Argentina over 2021, where the operation was close to 0. In 2023, Argentina promises to keep on delivering these results. In Brazil, there was a reduction of volumes, but with better mix for products and customers improving the margins, which helped us get our 7% point increase compared to 2021.

Now on Slide 8, we can see the Valid Mobile unit. There was a reduction of 10% of revenues in the quarter, but a 9% increase year-over-year. Beginning of the year was very strong, because of the chip shortage and the concern of our clients of a potential shortage throughout the year. So it has impacted our availability of products in the end of the year. And this is why there was this mismatch in the year. But what really matters is that there was a 9% increase in the whole year. EBITDA had a 20% decrease in the quarter, but 15% increase in the year once again showing that mismatch of the chip shortage throughout '22 and quarter seasonality resulted from it. But what matters is we've served our customers and managed the volume, so that we obtain better prices and margins, maintaining 1 more quarter with margins between 20% and 30%.

Now going from the business units and migrating to Slide 9, we can speak about our net income in 2022. EBITDA was BRL 463 million, but at the same time, there were 2 accounting impacts that impacted negatively our net income. First, the accounting exchange rate of the company [indiscernible] of BRL 145. And also the decrease of the assets, which meant BRL 79 million loss. But on the upside, in 2022, there was the cash incoming from the sales from the U.S., which meant we could pay the eighth emission of issuance of debenture, which was our most expensive debt.

So it meant a significant reduction of our gross debt with the perspective of reducing our financial expenses between '22 and '23, improving our cash generation and perspective of net income for 2023. Considering that the operational profit, excluding those 2 impact, there was a positive result of BRL 132 million in the year. And this is the number that matters because now thinking about 2023, we do not expect to have any relevant accounting adjustments as we had in 2022.

Going now to Slide 10 and speaking about cash in the year. Our result was 270% higher than in 2021 because of improvement in EBITDA and managing working capital. Investments of BRL 100 million in CapEx, and we paid BRL 176 million of net financial results getting to operating cash generation of BRL 148 million. We've used this number to have an amortization of our debt and paying interest on rates. So getting to the end with BRL 513 million.

But what matters is positive cash generation. And by having it, we can reduce our debt once again, especially when the interest rates are going up. And of course, the debt cost has been increasing. So looking ahead for 2023, once again, we have a positive perspective considering the actions that we have put in place.

Finally, on Slide 11, there are 2 upcoming events. One is the payment of interest on equity, which was made in January, BRL 21 million and also the data of our next General Meeting, which will be on April 20.

With that, I close my presentation, and I hand it back to Ivan.

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

Well, before we go into the Q&A session, this is the time that I think it's worth celebrating the achievements of the previous quarter and previous year. But today, I would like to go over a slide that we presented to you on Valid Day in 2021 and 2022. This same slide emphasized 5 clear objectives that we have. Since then, I would like to share with you the significant achievements that we've had in each of them and the consistency of the management, not only in addressing the objectives, but also how we have been focusing on making achievements.

So we are constantly focused on our ability to win where we can really deliver record results from all our business units. Secondly, we've incorporated digital solutions not everyday activities, but also in products and services offered to our customers. By doing that, we can have long-term success in a world that is constantly changing.

Here, there are also new opportunities from our [ CVC ]. V Mobile is working at the same time with migration of chips from 4G to 5G, and we are active leaders of the transformation of the telecom industry, involving the consumers' journey in it. In platforms, subscription management and OEM, the manufacturers of devices, we've achieved significant improvements. This subscription management platforms are fully sold in over 40 telecom companies, including Tier 1 customers. And finally, in option 4, we've been trying to get a simpler agile company that can be easily understood by employees, but also by all our stakeholders.

So it means reducing the areas, changing the organizational culture, launch brands, but also show our internal team and our team of investors a result basis, which is more solid and consistent. Correlated with the financial results and aligned with what we had promised to deliver, we have been following this agenda with discipline. So offering better return on capital to our shareholders for the first time, we have the analysis of ROIC, or ROIC for the past 4 years. In 2022, we closed the year with a ROIC much higher than before the pandemic, which shows a clear sign of the execution that had been planned and delivered by our team.

Throughout past calls, we have shown some advances. But in a nutshell, we can list 2 main actions. First, discontinuity or disinvestment of assets of low margin, low cash generation or not very strategic to our future and at the same time, the optimization and efficient operation in all our business units, focusing on having greater margins. The upside of it is that we can still see opportunities to further improve our management in areas that we haven't focused so much in the past 24 months, which still represent important drivers for our shareholders.

For example, working capital focusing on V Pay, V Mobile, receivables, ID, but also the pursue of better margins, especially CMV in units, product lines, logistics, tax optimization and detailed control of expenses with CapEx and future business lines. By analyzing these KPIs, which will be shared with you, we expect to retain even better results.

Said that, we are now going to the Q&A session. So Olavo, please, you can carry on now.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Let's start with Q&A session. The first question we have is by Fabio, and I'm going to read it to you. Once again, it's a pleasure to be part of this earnings release call. So congrats for restructuring the company. It's been reflected on the year results quarter-over-quarter. So Fabio has 3 questions. Renato, I'm going to ask you to answer. So one at a time so that it's easier. Without giving any guidance, could you please tell us about your expectations for 2023?

[Renato Tyszler, executive]

Well, Fabio, our expectations for 2023, when we consider our 3 business units, is to maintain a continuity based on what we have achieved in the third and fourth quarter of 2022. We don't expect anything differently from that. So the volumes of ID at the same levels as we've had on the third and fourth quarter. In terms of Mobile solutions, we've also have maintained volumes that, yes, they can be impacted by chip shortage, which is a topic which is currently updated on a monthly basis. But it's maintained still at reasonable levels and reasonable prices. And also Valid Pay, which is the volume -- expected volume is close to the fourth quarter last year. So I would say we -- as the word would be continuity, but always with operating improvements as we've been doing and delivering on each quarter.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Now moving on with Fabio's question. In 2023, will there be any new sales of assets, which are not core of the company that may impact the results? Has the restructuring being concluded?

[Renato Tyszler, executive]

Well, there is no more relevant asset that is expected to be sold this year. Everything that was relevant had already been done. And the most important one was the disinvestment of the U.S. operation, which was accounted for in the results here. So no expectations along these lines. If anything happens, it will be minor really, and still accounted for throughout the year of 2022, because we had already forecast. But just minor things that would not impact the results, but could have a positive result of added cash to the company.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

And finally, the last question by Fabio, with the interest rates maintained at higher levels in Brazil and in the world, will it impact the debt of the company?

[Renato Tyszler, executive]

You see Fabio, we already have been working with that throughout the year of 2022 to reduce our gross debt. Our leverage is much lower than 1 the end of the year, and this has been part of our strategy. anticipating a situation of high interest rates. So we did that as part of our plan, so that we really could come in the year of 2023, with lower gross debt, lower net debt and having that cost which would be lower, impacting less our results. And now in 2023, we can once again present results of net income, which are strong and impactful. This has been considered, but it was part of our planning in 2022. And fortunately, we could execute it even better than initially forecasted. So we are going into 2023 with a very favorable debt status.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Great. Now going into the next question by [ Yuri ] [indiscernible], which is, why is the contribution in the volume of ID issuance for the new contracts in 2022? And what would that be in '23? Was the estimate of volumes without the backlog from COVID already considering new contracts. Renato?

[Renato Tyszler, executive]

Well, [ Yuri ], it's difficult to give you the exact numbers, of course. But just giving you an overview, what happened in 2022? The first quarter had an impact in terms of volume, because of the COVID wave January, February last year, there was an increase in number of COVID cases in Brazil. Therefore, the volume of the first quarter next year had a negative impact in terms of new issuance. As of the second quarter, the volume of issuance was no longer impacted by COVID effect. As of the third quarter, the effect was very positive as a result of new contracts. There was a great new contract, which started in May. But until the full ramp up, it was, let's say, August or September. So the third quarter experienced this impact in the fourth quarter just run at full speed.

Just to let you know that looking the year of 2022, the impact were limited to the first half of the year. So COVID wave and the ramp-up of new contracts. Therefore, looking ahead to 2023, if you have the third and fourth quarters, this is what we expect in terms of continuity of volumes for 2023. Now the backlog from COVID periods still exist. Even the government still has that, because people especially those that had a delayed or expired drivers license can still have it renewed. But the impact is going down and the volumes seem to be normal in terms of business, both for existing contracts and new contracts in 2022. And this is why we expect in 2023 to have a very favorable expectation of results.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

One more question by [ Yuri ] related to the sales of the unit of the U.S. How much was it sold for? How much came into the cash? And are there still some payments to be accounted for?

[Renato Tyszler, executive]

In the previous earnings release, we told you that we cannot say exactly for how much we sold the U.S. asset. But based on the unleveraging between the third and fourth quarter, part of that reduction in leverage resulted from the cash and the sales of the U.S. So through that, you can have a good proxy. If there are future payments to be made, yes, not from the sale of the asset. Everything was paid in 2022, but the closing adjustments, especially concerning variation of working capital is something still being discussed and throughout March that still is going to be received in cash in March and April.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Thank you, Renato. Now going to the next question by Thales Souza. So there are 3 questions. I'm going to ask you to answer the first one and then the other 2, I'll hand it over to Ivan. The first question is, what explains the ID margins much above those of the third quarter 2022?

[Renato Tyszler, executive]

Well, Thales, maybe I should change somewhat the order of your question, making a statement here. The margin of the fourth quarter was not higher, but the margins of the third quarter had the impact of some one-off items especially consulting services and bonus provisions. So had it been for it, the margins of the third quarter would have been similar to that of the fourth quarter. So we haven't had a lead in the fourth quarter, but rather the third quarter was impacted by a number of things, especially concerning SG&A. But in terms of volume, it was somewhat lower in terms of portfolio and pricing somewhat higher. So the bottom line and the gross margin were very similar between the third and fourth quarter, and the difference are SG&A items. But the fourth quarter was just a quarter that had no impact of that nature.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Now questions by Thales that I would like to hand over to Ivan. Simplifying the future of ID is digital identification. And in mobile, is it eSIM and what about cards and why lower volume of Pay over 2021?

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

In a very simplified section, you are right, but I think we can give you some more information here. ID, it's not only digital ID, but the transformation of journeys between citizens and all the different levels of the government still see many opportunities. And Valid is getting positioned to capture that.

In terms of Mobile, it's not only eSIM. This is the physical transformation of chip allocation in the device. But until it happens, it's more accelerated in the U.S. market because of Apple's position to favor eSIM as the main technology of Apple's devices. But until it happens all over the world, we still have 5G technology. Last week, we won the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and telecoms are speaking about 6G. Regardless of being through eSIM or traditional SIM it means a churn of technology, which is very important to us.

Now for Pay, similarly to documents and together with banks, with Visa, MasterCard, which are part of this ecosystem, we have to start designing the future. Similarly to documents they still need issuing agent. There is no physical issuance, no hard copy, but it still have a party issuing that. So the physical part is just one idea of that, but having biometrics, technology integration, validation, the whole journey, it will still continue. Eventually, it will go away, but we don't think it's in the short term. Banking customers have been our clients for a long time, and they believe and trust us.

So throughout the years, we've got into other business lines that maintain our work and can guarantee our future. So billing -- physical billing or some digital billing, some white labels of income, income taxes or shareholders' meetings up to some new journeys, and we've been emphasizing that about [indiscernible] and the way we orchestrate the real estate sales with the guarantees using the knowledge of products we have. So still, there is a lot to do using the assets we have at Valid further developing this vertical.

Now finally, concerning volume, it's related with the macro perspective and the interest rate at about 14% in Brazil. If we consider the balance sheet of incumbent banks, they were extremely concerned about deterioration of credit and high indebtedness of families and banks just perform accordingly, especially incumbent banks use the strategy that we called Stop & Go. So they simply stop credit concessions for a while. We need to reduce the volume of cards.

And for fintechs or new banks, the adjustment of growth and profitability always strikes the balance between lifetime value and CAC. So these organizations are also making some adjustments in terms of growth and profitability and probably giving less stress to growth. As a [ balanced deal ] with that, but debt provisions are improved and [ credit less ] are improved as well, the years will keep on serving this wave throughout the upcoming months.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Thank you, Ivan and Renato. Now the next question by Leonard [indiscernible] . For 2023, is there still any accounting effect referring to the discontinued operations?

[Renato Tyszler, executive]

No, Leonardo, as I said in my previous answer, there is nothing significant expected to be accounted for in 2023. The only thing that we are discussing is already part of the accounting effect in 2022. If anything happens in 2023, it would be just cash in flow, but no accounting effect. This is important, because it leads us to expect net income free from anything. The net income in 2022 was impacted by the disinvestment of assets and also by the interest rate -- the foreign exchange rather, foreign exchange variation with Spain. This has all been dealt with last year in all accounting effects as well. So in 2023, our expectation is to have net income free from any nonrecurring impacts.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Thank you, Renato. Now we have one more question by [ Alessandro ]. Kudos to you by the best results. In addition to Argentina, do you think about expanding your businesses to new markets in Latin America? Ivan?

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

Well, [ Alessandro ], it's difficult to get the right side of your question, because we have a good share of Latin America, especially with V Mobile, we work with all telco, North America, U.S., Mexico and Central America and South America. So it's already an ongoing business of us. And it really emphasizes the idea of serving global telecom.

In terms of ID, it's very difficult to replicate the ability to win that we have in Brazil in other regions. But as we have very advanced technology, being more opportunistic, we tend to take part in some IT projects in Peru and Colombia, but they tend to be in the individual initiatives.

And also cards, we have a full position in Brazil and Argentina, but we may also participate in some other bidding processes in Latin American countries. But there are just so many opportunities and Valid has such an important share of the Brazilian market that we prefer to have as our core focus to serve the Brazilian market in the 3 verticals and in Mobile Brazil and abroad, and just take the opportunities that come to us whenever there is a good match and a good capacity of execution with compatible and attractive margins.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

So speaking of international market, there is a question by [indiscernible] Is there any expectation to get closer to the Chinese international market? And what would be the immediate impact of that to Brazilian businesses?

[Unknown Executive]

It's difficult know exactly why you were asking that, of course, if you want to elaborate further, please let us know. But we have a footprint in the Chinese market. Part of our V-Mobile business also provides chips for Chinese telcos, especially low-end chips. It's an Android base much more than Apple-based there in China. And many of the projects and the evolution of this industry. For example, eSIMs, many of the OEM -- manufacturer OEMs are [indiscernible]. They are all Chinese manufacturers. Many of the projects that involve machine to machine or automotive industry, they are strongly based in China. And by leveraging the expertise of V-Mobile business, which is global, we will certainly also do businesses -- an important business in China.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

The next question is by [ David Katter ]. So I'm going to ask Ivan and Renato to answer. So Ivan, congrats to your team for your deliveries in the past 2 years. Looking ahead to the future, how can we think about capital allocation from now on, considering strong cash generation, once you have that reduction of leverage of balance, so dividends, repurchase, CapEx, M&A, et cetera?

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

Thank you for being here with us. I think in your question, there is a little bit of what we've been doing. So CapEx, it already reflects the ongoing maintenance and some projects and a part of our future. I don't expect any major changes for this year, but there is also an incremental CapEx that a part of some projects, such as the ID project we had in Minas Gerais last year. So having this surplus of balance, we can bring new in-house contracts obtaining good return on investments concerning the incremental CapEx, but also M&A, CapEx has 2 potential opportunities always. The other 3 business lines were absolutely right. So that we are paying close attention to anticipated payments as opposed to renewing credit lines in which conditions with our balance sheet, we can just renew at better interest rates or making prepayments more robust than in the past.

As I've said, in the pricing levels of the company as we have that, as we have legal reserves to do, we are going to rebuy our shares, and this is a plan of ours. And as the company brings the perspective of net income, all the effective action that was translated into EBITDA, but they had not made the last line yet. Now we are going to generate higher volume of net income and all the analysis of interest on equity and dividends is going to reach yields above the 3% yield that was the number for '21, '22. So these are the 5 things: net, dividend, repurchase, M&A and new projects to keep on really impacting the top line of our company.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Thank you, Ivan. Now a question by David, Renato. With the market of local debt frozen because of Americanas, what is the plan for dealing with debts in 2023? And how it has impacted your funding strategies?

[Renato Tyszler, executive]

Well, so let's speak about Americanas event. Well, so far, no effects. All our current debt has already been contracted and negotiated. When you go to the market to talk about new fundings and credit lines, we've been receiving interest rates below those that are currently paid by us. At first, the effect has been 0. Maybe you could say it could be even better than that. I don't know, but the offerings we are getting are very good and below the interest rates that we are currently paying as contract. So this is what we've been renegotiating with our partner in banks.

The payment due this year is the payment of the seventh issuance of debentures, BRL 90 million and BRL 100 million approximately. We're already talking to the banks of the seventh issuance and also other partnering banks. If we understand that the interest rate we are going to reach is interesting, we are naturally going to renegotiate that. If not, we are going to study with our own Board of Directors the possibility of paying the seventh issuance with the cash that we have and the cash we are going to generate in the first half of the year. And this will lead to a reduction of gross debt, maintaining the other debt. So this is what we are working on right now, and we have plenty of time to do it, because we are speaking about the end of the second quarter to finally come to a decision.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Thank you, Renato. There are 3 more questions of very similar topics, and I'm just going to gather them. It's a question by Patrick [indiscernible], Fabio [indiscernible] and [ Dennis Lori ]. So just combining them. A better cash situation for 2023, do you want to increase the share repurchase? Do you intend to have more dividend sharing or payout? And do you consider changing your policy or change the payout?

[Renato Tyszler, executive]

So let me give you 1 answer. And as Ivan had said in the previous question, considering 2023, where we are going to have net income, which is clear from any recurring effect. And this is going to provide conditions to going to have a better reserve. So we consider the possibility of rebuying our shares. And once we have that reserve back in place, which should be by the end of the first quarter, we are going to once again discuss it internally and take it to our Board of Directors. Still not have been bought to the agenda -- brought to the agenda. And we are going to discuss with them as well, potential payout of dividends.

There might be something in the second half of 2023, but it is a topic that is going to be discussed only when we have resumed our level of reserves, because if we are going to do anything in the second half of the year, it has to be relevant, right? Otherwise, we just maintain our process of just informing the end of the year, paying the upcoming year.

Now changing our payout policy, there is no clear policy yet. We just follow the regulation. You can rely on reserves or just follow the minimum 25% of your net income to the levels of interest on rate, laws and all that. So once we have resumed our reserves, we are going to discuss with the Board of Directors. But yes, there is an intention of -- we have a better return on investment to our shareholders as evolving just rebuying shares or distributing further dividends. But this is going to be discussed in upcoming quarters, and then you are also going to be informed about that eventually.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Thank you, Renato. Now a question by [indiscernible] Concerning unification of ID documents in Brazil, what's the impact it hence for your revenues and contracts of Valid ID? Ivan, would you like to answer that?

[Ivan Luiz dos Santos, executive]

[indiscernible] With -- there had been a postponement of that implementation. It was postponed from March to November. But still, all our clients had a new ID fully implemented or very advanced pilots. As these pilots become effective, there are 2 effects and both of them positive. First, the change in paper substract, because as there are more safety issues, the margin is higher, but it also increases cost. So the margin is maintained within an absolute value, which is somewhat higher.

Now if we look closely, we are implementing the new security elements, and there is also polycarbonate, which is much more long lasting, which also represents an advance of the ID documents, and it increased significantly to 2.5x the ESP of this product. But it really depends on compliance of citizens. As we know more about the space where we are implementing that and when we start implementing, what's the compliance of systems, because systems will have to pay for it, then we'll be able to let you know what will be the impact from the use of polycarbonate.

[Olavo Vaz, executive]

Well, said that, it closes our Q&A session. Renato, Ivan, myself and all our Investor Relations team is here at your availability. And we'll see you again in our general meeting in April and in the earnings release of the first quarter in May. Thank you all very much. Have a great day.

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