WEG SA

BOVESPA:WEGE3

Earnings Call Analysis

WEG Reports Solid Q1 2023 Growth and EBITDA Margin Rise

WEG experienced a robust start to 2023 with net operational revenue up by 7.3% compared to the last quarter of 2022, driven by sustained demand for long-cycle equipment, especially in transmission and distribution as well as wind power. Strong delivery volumes in North America and rising demand in India and the U.S. bolstered the figures. EBITDA soared to BRL 1.8 billion, marking a 17.3% rise, with a 1.9 percentage point increase in EBITDA margin to 21.4%. The Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) rocketed to 39.2%, up by 9.8 points, attributed to enhanced operating performance and effective working capital control. However, adjusting for nonrecurring tax incentives, the ROIC would stand at 36%. Investment concentration remained high at BRL 439 million, focusing on expanding production capacities both domestically and abroad, with positive outlooks for order backlogs and operational margins continuing throughout the year.

Robust Revenue Growth Amid Strategic Expansions and Succession Planning

WEG's first quarter marked a continuation of strong performance, with net operational revenue growing by 7.3% compared to the previous quarter. This was propelled by solid demand for long-cycle business components, particularly in Brazil's transmission and distribution and wind power generation sectors, as well as globally in power generation, transmission, and distribution, where North America stood out. This healthy revenue stream sets the foundation for strategic expansions, where WEG invested BRL 439 million to enhance factories and production capabilities both domestically and overseas. Furthermore, the company is readying for a change in leadership with the executive presidency set to transition in April 2024, which aligns with their BRL 1.2 billion expansion plan for transformer production in the Latin American market. These moves not only show WEG's commitment to growth but also an emphasis on strategic, well-planned leadership transitions.

Impressive Margin and ROIC Indicators Signal Strong Operational Efficiency

The company's EBITDA surged by 17.3% to reach BRL 1.8 billion, boosted by higher margins and improved raw material cost stability. The EBITDA margin itself expanded by 1.9 percentage points to 21.4% from the same period last year. Even more remarkable was the Return On Invested Capital (ROIC) which hit 39.2%, although this figure included tax incentives which, when excluded, would place ROIC at a still-impressive 36%. These figures illustrate the company's adeptness at controlling working capital and enhancing margins, key indicators of operational efficiency and a well-oiled management machine.

Expanding Market Position with a Focus on Innovation and Sustainability

WEG's market focus remains varied with strong activities in both short and long-cycle equipment. In Brazil, the continuity of good performance was noted in long-cycle equipment sales with steady growth in serial automation and gearbox production. However, distributed solar generation revenues underperformed compared to the previous year. Internationally, the company succeeded in gaining local currency strength, particularly in sectors such as industrial electronic equipment for oil and gas. Moreover, WEG's commitment to sustainability bore fruit, with their decarbonization management efforts resulting in an improved grade to A-. This reflects WEG's capacity to intertwine growth with sustainable practices, positioning them favorably in an increasingly ESG-conscious investment climate.

Strategic Acquisitions and Global Expansion Poised to Fuel Future Growth

The company is in the process of acquiring Regal Rexnord's industrial engine and generator businesses, anticipating a smooth transition and consolidation into their own operations. WEG is simultaneously positioning itself to seize expansion opportunities, having purchased land in Mexico to bolster their capacity further. They are equipped to scale up production subject to market demands, which is especially pertinent given the positive long-term outlook for transmission and distribution equipment both in domestic and international markets. These developments underscore WEG's proactive approach to growth opportunities, equipping them to adapt and cater to increasing global needs.

Modest Expectations for Tax Benefit Impact Amid Positive Outlook

Executives discussed the potential impact of increased export tax benefits, which could potentially rise from 0.1% to 2-3%. However, they cautioned that it's too early to quantify the exact impact on the company's margins or businesses. Nevertheless, WEG's administrative machinery is advancing according to schedule, positioning itself to navigate and potentially leverage advantages from any forthcoming export tax incentives. The company's approach here is one of prudence and precision, indicating a management style that favors thorough impact assessment before strategic deployment.

Balance between Stability and Adaptation in an Uncertain Market

While WEG's backlog shows stability, management indicates some degree of volatility, with a particularly positive outlook on automation business expansion. Market share growth in Brazil suggests a promising future, though the global demand presents varying challenges, such as in Asia Pacific where demand is a bit lower. Furthermore, short-cycle businesses and appliances are showing signs of revival. The company is thus striking a balance between maximizing current capacities and keeping an eye on potential market fluctuations, ready to pivot as necessary.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q4

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Good morning, and welcome to WEG's teleconference for the fourth quarter of 2023. We would like to inform you that we are trying to broadcast this conference and then the audio will be available on our IR website. [Operator Instructions] During the company's presentation, all participants will have their microphones muted, and we will then begin the Q&A action. To ask questions, use the raise hand button to join the queue and then a request to activate your microphone will appear on the screen. If you have more than one question, we recommend that you ask them all at once. If we do not have enough time to answer all questions, feel free to submit your questions to our e-mail [e-mail], which we will answer to after the end of the conference call. We highlight that any forecasts in this document or any statements that may be made during the conference call about future events, the business perspective, operational and financial projections and goals and potential for future growth of WEG are mere beliefs and expectations of WEG's management based on the information currently available to us. These statements involve risks and uncertainties and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, market conditions and other operating factors may affect the future performance and lead to results that differ materially from those. With us today in Jaragua do Sul, we have Andre Luis Rodrigues, CFO; and then Andre Menegueti Salgueiro, Finance and Investor Relations Officer; Wilson Watzko, Controllership Officer; and Felipe Scopel Hoffmann, Investor Relations Manager. Please, Mr. Rodrigues, you may proceed.

[André Rodrigues, executive]

[Interpreted] Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be with you once again for WEG's teleconference results. And I start with a highlight for the first quarter where the net operational revenue had an increase of 7.3% when compared to the fourth quarter of '22. We have had good results this quarter, motivated by the continued good performance of the long-cycle business in addition to the good demand for our products and services. Here in Brazil, we continued with positive sales of long cycle equipment, especially in the businesses related to transmission and distribution and also wind power generation. In the foreign market, the area of power generation, transmission and distribution stands out with a good volume of deliveries in the transmission and distribution areas, especially in North America. In addition to the good demand of the generation business in India and the U.S., EBITDA reached BRL 1.8 billion, an increase of 17.3% compared to the fourth quarter of '22. The EBITDA margin ended the quarter at 21.4%, an increase of 1.9% points compared to the same period last year. Throughout the presentation, Andre Salgueiro will give more details about this performance. In Slide 4, we can see that ROIC reached 39.2%, an increase of 9.8 percentage points when compared to the fourth quarter of '22, a very positive result of the company's main financial indicator due to the good operating performance supported by the revenue growth, improved margins and better control of the need for working capital in the period. Also, ROIC was positively impacted by the recognition of tax incentives recognized in the quarter. Disregarding this nonrecurring effect, the ROIC would have been 36%. I now turn over to Andre Salgueiro.

[André Salgueiro, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Andre. Good morning, everyone. In Slide 5, I present the evolution of the revenue of the business areas in the market. It's where we operate. In Brazil, industrial activity remains positive for short-cycle equipment, especially in serial automation in gearbox products. We also observed the continuity of good performance in long-cycle equipment such as electrical panels for the mining and water and sanitation segment. In GDT, we observed another quarter of evolution in the GDT business driven by the deliveries of large transformers and substantials for projects related to transmission auctions and distribution networks. In addition to the good performance of the wind generation business with important deliveries in the quarter. On the other hand, distributed solar generation revenue despite an important evolution compared to the third quarter of '23, remained below the same period of the previous year. In commercial engines and appliances, the strong growth in sales in the quarter signals a resumption of activity in some segments such as air conditioning, motor pumps, machinery for the sector. In paints and furnishes, we observed a continuing in the resumption of demand spread between different segments with emphasis on the maintenance and civil construction markets. In the foreign market, we had a good performance in local currencies in most markets. For short-cycle industrial electronic equipment, good results in serial automation products with emphasis on the oil and gas segment. For a long-cycle segment, focus on automation system, especially in water and sanitation and mining segments. In GDT, we continue to take advantage of the positive momentum for T&D operations with a good performance in North America and emphasis on sales of transformers for renewable energy generation parts, wind and solar and power utilities. In commercial engines and appliance revenues grew compared to the same period of the previous year, despite the impact of exchange variation, highlights for commercial engine operation in the U.S. reflecting market share gains. And to wrap up, we had good results overseas and also good volume of exports from Brazil to Latin American countries. In Slide 6, we can see the evolution of EBITDA. It grew 17.3% and ended the quarter at 21.4%, 1.9% points higher than the same period of the previous year. This is mainly a reflection of the accommodation of the costs of raw material, combined with the change in the mix of products sold. Finally, in Slide 7, we show the evolution of our investments. We invested BRL 439 million this quarter, 36% in production units in Brazil and 64% abroad. In Brazil, we have advanced with investments in the expansion of factories for industrial motors, electric traction motors and battery parts. Abroad, we continue to increase the production capacity of motor and transformer factories in Mexico and the expansion of the low-voltage motor factory in China. I now turn over to Andre.

[André Rodrigues, executive]

[Interpreted] In Slide 8, before the Q&A, I would like to talk about some of our latest accomplishments and comment about our outlook for '24. Regarding the achievements, I highlight that in December, we announced the succession process of the executive presidency as of April '24, with the transition of Harry after 16 years leading the company, who will be appointed by the controlling shareholder to the Board of Directors and the appointment of Alberto Kuba as our new CEO. Also in December, we disclosed investments to expand transformer production capacity in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia in the amount of BRL 1.2 billion expected to be concluded by December 26. To increase our production capacity in Brazil, these investments will strengthen us in the international market, preparing us to meet the growing demand for L&D solutions abroad. This month, we were informed that we improved our grade to A- and advanced to the leadership category, the evolution of the carbon disclosure program, the main rating agency on company decarbonization management, demonstrating the consistency and evolution of WEG in its commitment to decarbonization. Finally, I would like to talk a little bit about the outlook for the rest of the year. We continue with a good order backlog for long-cycle equipment, both in Brazil and abroad, both for industrial equipment and GDT products. And even so, we remain attentive to the global macroeconomic scenario and possible risks and volatilities in our operations. We continue with a healthy operating dynamic, maintaining the operational efficiency of our units. And together with a good mix of products sold, should continue to support healthy operating margins and a positive return on invested capital for the rest of the year. We continue with actions related to the purchase of Regal Rexnord industrial engines and generator businesses, such as the approval of regulatory entities in the countries where the operations are located, and we maintain a positive expectation for the completion of the acquisition process and the beginning of the transition and consolidation process of the new business. I close here, and I now turn over to the operator so we can move to the Q&A session.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] We will now start the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] And now we move on to our first question, which is from Lucas Marquiori from BTG.

[Lucas Marquiori, analyst]

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. I actually have 2 specific questions here. The first one, could you explain a little bit about the tax incentive gain in Switzerland? Is this going to be acknowledged in Q4? Or is it a one as an isolated event? And I would also like to know if this will somehow compensate the changes in transfer price. So at the end of the day, I want to understand whether there is anything to decrease the impact in that line. And also you were talking about the integration of [indiscernible] I would like to ask you to comment about the integration of [indiscernible]. It was an operation that had a low margin, and I wanted to better understand what is their level of margin so that we can have an idea of how fast this integration was, and anything that you could tell us to help us understand how it took place. Thank you very much.

[André Rodrigues, executive]

[Interpreted] Hello, Lucas. This is Andre Rodrigues. Thank you very much for your question. I will talk a little bit about this new structure in Europe, involving Switzerland. Basically, this new structure was for us to optimize the operations of the trade in holding in Europe, and so we created a trading in Switzerland. We will have to constitute organizations responsible for all of the business activities in the region, stock management, logistics, market development, marketing in the region, among other responsibilities. And in addition to these optimations and regulatory issues, the tasking center received in Switzerland also contributed by our decision to create an organization there. The business structure is totally aligned to the Brazilian rules of prices and transfers and all of the guidelines of [indiscernible] siding and the expectation of the impact regarding the effective tax rates will not change and will be around 50% of the benefit we received in the last years. So this was the rationale behind it. Now regarding the question about Gefran, yes, we concluded the transaction, and it was a smaller when compared to the current scenario we have in the engines part. We have 4 operations, one in Italy, another in Germany, 2 smaller ones in China and India, which were just concluded. Also we have the administrative aspects in Portugal, Europe, and all of the synergisms regarding the purchase of raw materials and the volume of purchases carried out by WEG. So this topic has already been concluded. We do not disseminate our margins, but I would like to say that they are in line with what was expected.

[Lucas Marquiori, analyst]

[Interpreted] Well, thank you very much, Andre.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Lucas, for your question. Our next question is from Luis Otavio Itau [?].

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] Good morning, Andre. Congratulations for your results. I wanted to discuss the margins in the sector. The company itself already has an expectation of retraction. You have indicated that these margin levels are not what the company expects to have in the future, and we can already see a decrease when we look at different areas in the international market and more specifically about the business of electric and electronic parts. So when we compare it in Siemens and ABB, we can see that in the last 2 or 3 quarters, these margins have been decreasing. And as you know, there was an expectation for this to happen in the short term. But for the time being, we haven't seen this yet. It has surprised us, and there's something I wanted to talk to you about here, the T&D revenue and profitability. And so the question is in this regard. So are we talking about industrial engines, everything that is included in electric and electronics indeed pulling the margins down, but that's offset by improvements in the T&D operations. And here, we're talking about a positive surprise. I wanted to better understand this first aspect. Another direct question. Has this segment surprised you as well? Or is it in line with what you were expecting? Is it a surprise? Or is it according to your budget and your estimates?

[André Rodrigues, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you for your question, Luis. I wanted to make it clear that not necessarily short-cycle margins had a decrease in the last quarters. Sometimes, we have a stabilization. But in the current scenario, we can still see some accommodation when compared to '23, but the performance expectation is that it will be better than 2020-2022. The margins were good in line with the third quarter of '23. Oscillations can happen from one quarter to the other. We also have the contribution on the long-cycle businesses, which has helped us with that. And so we are very proud to be able to deliver another quarter with differentiated margins. And of course, our objective is to deliver margins that are above the market levels. We were not surprised by the results, as you asked. It will be an opportunity for the future. We, as companies continue developing a long-term strategy to capture good opportunities. When I say that in the past, we had some actions. And in the case of Brazil, we made an important purchase in 2020, the former Toshiba plant in Betim. It is a very modern unit from the point of view of construction, and it still had space for expansions. We are going to make new investments in that. Botao [?] also conclude this process. It has a very specific machines and devices. And also, we have the demand in distribution in North America with the purchase of 2 assets from [indiscernible] led us to increase our capacity. We have a third plant in the U.S. We increased our capacity in Mexico. And more recently, we have the businesses we want to develop in Colombia and Mexico to support this process. So it wasn't a surprise. The company was able to understand this movement. We are prepared for it, and we can understand that this market dynamics will remain positive for a very long time, and we will be able to explain it on WEG Day.

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] Thank you.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Luis, for your question. Our next question is from Lucas Laghi from XP.

[Lucas Laghi, analyst]

[Interpreted] Good morning, and congratulations for the results. I wanted to explore 2 things with you regarding the external GTD thinking about the T&D business in the U.S. and more specifically regarding transformers, which seems to be the main growth driver in the short run. Also that's something you shared with ours on Investor Day. But we have seen some comments by the industry due to problems in the chain with transformers for U.S. clients with prolonged lead time, which has generated some discomfort. I wanted to understand if this is a generalized problem in the supply chain prolonging or maybe dealing deliveries or if that is an opportunity. And if the problem is effectively related to the problem itself. And then we have a distributed capacity production so that we can capture this opportunity with a prolonged lead time. So this is the first thing I wanted to ask. And then the second thing in the T&D market in the U.S., we've seen an acceleration in investments with new production capacity in the U.S. We have a large competitor announcing their first U.S. plant. And so I wanted to understand if this is somehow concerning in terms of the competition market? Or is this something that we should be seeing in the future but should not worried about in the short term, especially in the transformer business, which seems to be very heated in the U.S. So these are the 2 things I wanted to ask you regarding the T&D market, especially in the U.S. Thank you very much.

[André Rodrigues, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, Lucas, good morning and thank you for your question. Actually, the first thing I wanted to say is that we see it more as an opportunity. The fact is that the T&D dynamic is very positive. In North America as a whole, especially in the U.S. because of the whole context that I shared with you, renewable investments, investments in electrification and electric mobility. And then on top of that, we have the incentives for investments in grid, renewables and so on and so forth. And with that, the demand for transformer has significantly decreased in the past few years, and it is only natural that you have a very robust demand and an offer. Going into the second part of your question, we have investments made in the region, and it's natural that part of this demand is supplied by equipment coming from outside the region and that affects the lead time for deliveries. But we do not see it as a risk in the supply chain. The problem is not a lack of components or freight as we saw during the pandemic. I would say that it's more a lack of local capacity. It's important to keep in mind that WEG is established in the region as Andre mentioned before with plants in Mexico and 3 plants in the U.S. We have a verticalized or productive process, which brings some operational advantages, and we've announced relevant investments with a new plant in a new area for us to increase our productive capacity and continue growing to meet this demand. It is not a trend that will last a long time. It will be maintained robust and constant for a longer period of time. So this is more or less the rationale. And going into the second question with clients competing in the region, it's only natural for us to see this happen. But because the demand is very high, we don't see it as a risk. We have an opportunity to continue investing, working and growing our business in the future.

[Lucas Laghi, analyst]

[Interpreted] Well, thank you, Andre, very much for your time. Wish you have a good day.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Lucas, for your question. Our next question is from Andre Mazini, analyst from Citi.

[André Mazini, analyst]

[Interpreted] Hello, Rodrigues. Thank you for the call, and congratulation for your results. The question on margins, would it be fair to say that the margins are higher than in the past because of the mix, which is a little bit higher? Our impression is that the long cycle was perhaps 30% and is now 40%. And so is this long cycle mix continue in the future? And another quick question on the new taxes on the imports of assembled solar panels. Does that change your strategy or perhaps we can localize production more? Actually, I wanted to know if it's worthwhile to bring it from China because it is still less expensive to import from China.

[André Rodrigues, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, Andre, thank you for your question. Let's talk about the margins first. So I would say that the main factors that justify the behavior of this margin and this level is that, first of all, we can say that the stability of the cost of our raw materials, as we've seen that there has been an accommodation in the past quarters. The changes in the product mix with different profiles, we mentioned solar energy, whose margin is lower, but it's still a good return on invested capital. We also have a better representativeness of the long cycles and improved margins in the past markets. This is a very positive T&D moment, and we're working for a while with improved margins and operations abroad, which have contributed with this positive impact. It's very important to highlight that we continue with cost reduction investments, and all of this has just applied this excellent behavior of this margin. Regarding the second question on the import of solar panels. This brings in new dynamics from the market. From a practical point of view, the industry as a whole has a local production of panels, but the volume is relatively low in terms of solar panels here in Brazil. And even if it were more competitive today, we do not have a capacity to meet the demand of the internal capital. And because of the costs in China, we do not see any significant changes in the market. Prices went down significantly, but a good part of the industry uses imported materials. This is a market condition. And therefore, we do not see a significant interference in the short term. But we have to think about the capacity of production of panels here in Brazil. We know that China is very competitive in this regard. And so we think that imported panels is something that will remain significant in Brazil in the upcoming years.

[André Mazini, analyst]

[Interpreted] Well, thank you very much, and have a good day.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Andre, for your question. Our next question is from Rogério Araújo from Bank of America.

[Rogério Araújo, analyst]

[Interpreted] Hello. Good morning, Andre Salgueiro. Thank you for the opportunity. I have 2 questions. First, a T&D follow-up. Could you share with us a little bit about this relevant gain in revenue and whether there is a high component aspect. Can you give us any guidelines in looking ahead with all of the expansion in capacity, especially on WEG Day? I want what you shared on WEG Day, I would like to know what is your expectation on volume for the upcoming years and the potential. Let's suppose the demand is very strong and you can reach your maximum capacity. What is the volume expansion you expect per year?

[André Rodrigues, executive]

[Interpreted] Thank you for your question, Rogério. This is Andre Rodrigues. We may have the 2 components, volume and price. Whenever we have an opportunity, we always share the dynamics in the long cycle. When the demand is high, the cost goes up. This has happened in the recent past. We have WEG's expansion in terms of revenue. We have the price component and the volume component, and this is why we are trying to reach our maximum capacity. Regarding the future, the answer is very simple. If we have a demand, WEG is ready to increase its capacity. We announced some investments on WEG Day, but we still have an opportunity or we still have enough space to increase our capacity in Brazil. After we purchased a plot of 648,000 square meters in Mexico, we have a huge availability of area to continue expanding. The modular model allows us to adjust our capacity according to the demand. So if the demand is there, we will be ready for expansion in the next few years.

[Rogério Araújo, analyst]

[Interpreted] Thank you much, Andre. The second question is regarding the short cycle. Do you see a decrease in your backlog in terms of volume, price, or both? And how relevant is it? Also, in this segment, you talked about expanding your revenue in automation in Brazil and abroad. Could you give us more details having had an expansion of market share and the potential looking ahead? Thank you very much.

[André Salgueiro, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, Rogério, this is Salgueiro. The short cycle, actually, this is a comment that we've been making. We have a scenario of stability and volatility. We need to qualify them a little bit better. So in our release, we included more positive signs for automation businesses and also the gearboxes, which have been more efficient here and in the external market. We've seen a good evolution also because of our market share evolution here in Brazil. So according to the motion drive strategy, that gives us some opportunities. And when we look according to the different geographies, the demand is a bit different. The demand is robust in Europe. There is some volatility. We go to Asia, the demand is a little bit lower. I think that this is a general thing. In terms of motors and short cycle, we have a scenario of stability. Outside Brazil, I would say that the dynamics is very similar to automation and gearboxes. In the U.S. and Europe, we still see some volatility. In Asia Pacific, it's a little bit lower. As we all know, we usually have 2 or 3 months of visibility whose evolution will have to monitor good news for the quarter is that when we look at short-cycle businesses and appliances, we can see that it has restarted and eventually, things can improve on looking ahead, but we will have to look at it for the next quarters.

[Rogério Araújo, analyst]

[Interpreted] Perfect. It's very clear. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Well, thank you for your question, Rogério. Our next question is from Gabriel from Bradesco DDI. We will move on to the next question and then return to Gabriel. The next question is from Marcelo Motta from JPMorgan.

[Marcelo Motta, analyst]

[Interpreted] Good morning, everyone. I have 2 questions. Could you comment a little bit about tax benefits? We're talking about 7.4%. And we would like to know what you consider to be the impact in terms of margins and to what extent that would help expand your business. And what happens with the interest? And if you start with the integration, I would like to hear your feedback about it.

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] Well, this is very recent in news and it has, in fact, been in the media, but it's too early to issue our opinion, and we will have to see what will happen. The fact is that it can be positive for us. It has to do with exports. We used this benefit in the past, which has decreased and it's now a 0.1%, but it tends to increase to 2% and 3%. This is a benefit that will be seen for exports here in Brazil. But it's too early for me to give you exact figures. When we have a better position, I think that we can go back to you with better estimates. Regarding the purchase process, the approval process, it's taking place as expected. We are working hard with that. And we are prepared with all of the teams. We are ready to go to start the integration. We're moving according to our schedule. So we think that it's going to be something between 3 and 6 months. We do not foresee that it will take a long time. And then we will start our integration process

[Marcelo Motta, analyst]

[Interpreted] Perfect. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Thank you, Marcelo, for your question. Our next question is from Victor, Bradesco BBI.

[Victor Mizusaki, analyst]

[Interpreted] Hello, good morning. I have 2 questions. The first one, regarding CapEx for '24. We can see an approval for this year. And my first question is what changes can be expected with regular approval in the second quarter or in the first half? Will we have any significant changes? And the second question has to do with the operation in Switzerland. You are transferring the trading operation from Austria to Switzerland, right?

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] Well, hello, Victor. Thank you for your question. Regarding CapEx, we have an approval in our capital. The amount is significantly higher than it was in recent years. Everything we do, looking at the long term is meant to support the company, and we will have over half of the investments made in Brazil and the rest overseas. We have to take into account electric mobility. We have increased production capacity, automation. We had already announced the increase of capacity of commercial engines and appliances on our WEG Day. We talked about the T&D expansion. Botao today focuses more on the domestic market. We basically double our capacity. We start looking for some countries in the region, and we know that there is a lot of opportunity. Overseas always looking at increased capacity, low voltage engines, and the need of expansion of the plants in Mexico, for example, that can generate an opportunity. In India, we also announced an expansion of our unit of generators. And in the U.S., we also have expansion opportunities in T&D. In the short term, since today, we have a capacity, which is not totally optimized in the engines. So we will not have to make relevant investments. But of course, there's always something in terms of modernization and capacity components to bring in a WEG's model in the countries where we are purchasing these assets, but we do not see any significant investments for '24. What you said is right. Over time, the idea is to migrate our trading activities from Austria to the new operations in Switzerland.

[Victor Mizusaki, analyst]

[Interpreted] Thank you very much.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Thank you for your question, Victor. Our next question is from Alberto Valerio from UBS.

[Alberto Valerio, analyst]

[Interpreted] Thank you for taking my question and congratulations for the strong results when compared to your peers. Could you give us some details on what improved in the North America operations because there was a gain when we compare quarter-over-quarter? So is this something that will remain in the future?

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] Hello, Alberto. Actually, when we look at the North America performance and in one of the previous answers and within or when we take into account the different locations, we will see it for all businesses, especially in the long cycle. In general, we see good perspectives in geography. In T&D, we also have some important results in Mexico and U.S., which have been doing well in the past few years. And in the fourth quarter, we have had a positive response. We have generation high and medium voltage. We also have the commercial engines and appliance segment, which had robust results in the past quarters and was even stronger in the fourth quarter. In general, this area has been responding well. And there are some segments that are pulling this.

[Alberto Valerio, analyst]

[Interpreted] Perfect. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Well, thank you, Alberto, for your question. Our next question is from Lucas Barbosa from Santander.

[Lucas Barbosa, analyst]

[Interpreted] Good morning, Andre and Felipe. And thank you for the opportunity. I would like to talk about maritime freight. We've seen prices triple or even more than that in some specific areas. And so my question is, could you tell us what is this -- or how important it is and whether you are feeling the impact? Also, does it affect your logistics or outsourcing or where you're going to manufacture?

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] Well, hello, Lucas, good morning. Thank you for your question. Actually, in fact, freight is something that has changed in the past few months. And I would say that it has to do with the conflict in the Middle East. And we can see the impact in operations, but I would say that today, it is more concentrated in freights from Asia to Europe, and it's not generalized as we saw during the pandemic. And so we have to monitor the evolution, but I would say that today, it is more localized for part of the operation, and we do not have an expectation of having a very high impact.

[Lucas Barbosa, analyst]

[Interpreted] Perfect. Thank you very much, and good morning.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Good morning, Lucas, for your question. Our next question is from Ygor Araujo.

[Ygor Araujo, analyst]

[Interpreted] Andre, congratulations for the results. So we had 2 questions. One of them was asked us now about investments in production. And now talking a little bit about what is ongoing regarding the accelerated depreciation. Have you analyzed the impact in terms of tax yield? And how would that offset other effects in terms of transfer and all of the things that have to be approved by the Congress? I just wanted to understand the big picture. Thank you very much.

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] Hello, Ygor, good morning. Well, in terms of accelerated depreciation, there is a lot being discussed, but we have to wait for the final results. And that could, in fact, be very positive. We have to wait for the results and eventually later on with more information in hand, we will have better accessibility. And in case this happens, this will be very positive for the industrial segment as a whole and not only for the company.

[Ygor Araujo, analyst]

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, everyone.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Thank you for your question, Ygor. Our next question is from Luan from the Brazil Bank. [Audio Gap]We think that Mr. Luan is having problems with the microphone. And since we no longer have questions in line, we are going to close our Q&A session. And now I turn over to Andre Rodrigues for his final considerations. Please, Mr. Andre, proceed.

[André Rodrigues, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, I would like to thank everyone for their participation, and wish you all a good day. WEG's teleconference is now over, and we thank you all for your participation. Have a good day.[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]