Good afternoon. Welcome to the earnings call for ALLOS for the fourth quarter 2023. We have Rafael Sales, President, Leandro Lopes, VP, Business VP, and Daniella Guanabara, Financial Director, and also Investor Relations Director. We inform you that we're recording this call, and everyone will be able to listen to the conference throughout the presentation. Afterwards, we're going to have a Q&A session just for analysts and investors, and we will give you further instructions. This event is also simultaneously transmitted through a webcast, so you can go to ri.allos.co and find the presentation over there. This is going to also be available right after for one week. We inform you that you may send questions through the Zoom app. So if you're connected on the webcast, your question has to be sent to the RI team, ri@allos.co.
Before we begin, we just wanted to make it clear that any declarations, anything that is said through, during this conference about projections, results, and any other metrics and objectives are premises of the directors of the company and any other information that is also available nowadays, currently. Any guarantees are not a guarantee for performance. There are other risks because we're talking about future events, so it depends on circumstances that may or may not happen. Investors must understand that any economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operational factors might affect the development or the performance of the company, and the results may differ from this, from these considerations. We will turn it over to Mr. Rafael Sales now. Mr. Sales, you have the floor.
Hello, good afternoon. Thank you all so much for being here today. Well, last quarter was the creation of ALLOS. 2023 was the creation of ALLOS, and we have over 50 years of experience in the shopping mall industry. Even though we had so many challenges with the integration, we got to the end of 2023, and we're very satisfied with the results that were reached. With all the planning and all the clear vision that we had, after 100 days, we were able to talk about the results. We were able to promote the integration. We were able to have practices and processes focused on operations and continuity of the business. We are just beginning our journey to create more value on this platform, which one year ago did not exist in Brazil, in the Brazilian market. So in this journey, we started to disseminate our culture and our values, and we've had very positive values for the team and for the market.
We have also thought about our strategic pillars. They have to do with our main goals, and this is how we're going to continue to work with the company. I am very satisfied with the work of the team at ALLOS. They have been working nonstop. We didn't have any disruptions in our business, as you can see in the results. Now, let's see slide number 2. Here, I just wanted to tell you more about the synergies that we were able to capture at ALLOS this year. As was shown in our guidance, our expectation is to combine different businesses and to have BRL 210 million in synergies in M&As as well. We've had BRL 80 million already, and 53 out of those are in revenue and 27 in costs and expenses.
It is worth saying that we've had more productivity with the reduction of costs and expenses over the revenue of the company. Now, on slide number 3, before we talk about the operational indicators, I just wanted to highlight capital allocation last year. In just 4 months, we were able to have 18 transactions, and that corresponds to 4 partial investments, and all the other were complete. So we've had different buyers, BRL 1.8 billion, with 8.2% approximately in Cap. Parallel to all the things that we have disseminated, we were able to reallocate our capital to have a better return for shareholders. Ever since we started with the program, we've invested over BRL 520 million in stocks of the company, which is equivalent to 4%, approximately, of the capital of our company.
These actions are going to be the object of our attention after we also finish all the financial processes related to that. We've also paid BRL 293 million in dividends in 2023, and we announced in the guidance that we're going to have 50% of the FFO paid in dividends this year, in 2024. Now, on slide 4, just a few of the main indicators that we have. In 2023, I think we had a very challenging year in the industry. We know many companies had issues in our sector, and we know that the general results of retail were very different really from the past. But we were able to have different results because we were able to explore all the opportunities that we noticed. I mean, we went from a more traditional view into a better innovative vision.
We redesigned the spaces of our shopping malls, and we increased the experience level of our consumers. We had a better mix as well with stores that are more attractive for consumers. We also had more productivity, as said before, and this shows an SSR that grew, as you can see here, in the fourth quarter of 2023. Besides that, on the fourth quarter, the total sales also continued to grow. They got to BRL 12 billion, which is an increase of 7% against the fourth quarter of the previous year. So ALLOS got to BRL 40 billion in total sales, a growth of 8% against 2022. And if we consider all of the malls that we manage, it is over BRL 44 billion in sales in our ecosystem.
It is worth saying that 13 malls in our portfolio sold over BRL 1 billion, and Shopping Recife and Parque Dom Pedro had BRL 2 billion a year. So that shows the potential of our main malls to continue to have these results. Now, Dani is also going to show you some of the operational performance indicators, but let's continue to talk about our results. We had a very good performance this year, and in the fourth quarter, we had a net revenue of over BRL 18 billion, so more than 5% increase. And this is also thanks to the shopping parking fees as well, that were readjusted. It is worth saying that in the fourth quarter, we had very important growth in rent.
The NOI of ALLOS got to BRL 58 million, and the EBITDA, BRL 620 million, with an 8% increase versus the fourth quarter of 2022. The EBITDA margin is 76%, so 217 basis points increase. So with a consistently better result and more fiscal efficiency, the FFO got to BRL 433 million. So we're talking about 15% growth, and the results in 2023 were BRL 1.2 billion FFO for the new company. Last but not least, I just wanted to say that we're implementing a program for the alignment and retention for the long run for some of the executives. This program started in December 2023, and this is for the global capital of the company. So we're going to work with that in different phases. The first one started in December.
The next ones are going to be annually. Except for the first one, every phase is going to have a cap and some other factors. This is not consuming any cash flow of the company. This is going to be 100% on stocks in the treasury and also the share buyback program that we had before. So this is not going to affect the current buyback program, which is going to be really canceling the shares that were acquired last year and this year. Now, let me turn it over to Dani now, and I will be here at your disposal should you have any questions in the Q&A session.
Thank you, Rafael. Let's continue with slide 6 now. We can see that our commercial rhythm is very good. In the fourth quarter, we had over 200 new contracts, which is a very expressive number, considering the seasonality of the end of the year. We end up the year with 96%, over 96% occupancy rate. In 2023, we also signed over 1,000 new contracts, so over 159 sq m of GLA. We're talking about four new contracts per business day, basically. So we are recovering these strategic pillars, really, in different malls of the company. We've—we're talking about Sephora, for instance, in Boulevard Shopping Belém, Catuaí Shopping Londrina, and other malls. We have Adidas, Adidas, and also some others, like Coco Bambu, and Carioca Shopping, Passeio das Águas Shopping, and some other malls. Now on slide 7, we have the cost of occupancy, which is a bit lower than the fourth quarter of 2022.
We see that this is sustainable for our tenants, and we're considering the, a better volume in sales. This is also good for failure to pay or delinquency, which was negative in the fourth quarter. It's -1.7%, so it is a reduction of over 6% against the same period in the previous year. So we're talking about very good basis points reduction. An important reduction in delinquency. On Slide 8, we can see that we had a reduction of the indebtedness as well. We see here all that against the CDI rate. So this reflects the assets and liabilities management last year. We had a growth of 15 and 16 compared to 2022.
As we can see here, this is according to the guidance, and this has to do with the investments that we had in the fourth quarter of 2023. Now, we wanted to talk a little bit about our media. Helloo is also working with ALLOS, and they started working with the digital inventory of 17 malls. They started working with all of the media, digital media, static media, and experience in these assets. And this also increases the relevance of helloo at these malls. They ended 2023 with 98 malls in the portfolio. They're present in 49 places, cities in Brazil, and they are the main platform of out-of-home in the malls in Brazil. This was also important for the inventory of screens, for instance, in elevators. 12,000 digital screens that were placed in the main cities in Brazil.
In this quarter, we're also looking at the Mooca Plaza Shopping case. In 2023, we've had thousands of people who went to the mall and looked at these helloo digital screens. In Mooca, for instance, 59% of the people living in Mooca, in the neighborhood, went to a mall, and they stayed for over two hours each. So these are very expressive numbers that will potentialize also the use of these media in the malls. Now, on slide number 10, we have an update on the applications used at the malls. At the end of 2023, we had 2 million individual users that took advantage of some benefits at the malls and ALLOS. We had over BRL 25 million in offers and benefits related to this.
On loyalty, in December 2023, we had GMV as well in the 8 malls that are connected to the program. Throughout the year, we had BRL 2.4 billion in GMV that were captured. Now, still on this presentation, we have a couple important things on sustainability. Our commitment has to do with many social programs and local development as well. It is a pleasure for us to say that in 2024, ALLOS will continue to be part of the ICO2 B3, and we'll continue to work with sustainability, of course, to continue to improve these programs. We also wanted to talk about the great party that we had in Rocinha with many students that were supported by these financial aids.
So this project is for a social inclusion of these students through sports and education, and this is one of the initiatives that we're very proud to support. We also wanted to talk about the Solidarity Contract program. In 2023, we decided to donate a basic food basket for each commercial contract that was signed. The aim of the project is to celebrate the success of the leasing team and contribute to a social cause that benefits the communities where the company's malls are located. Now, let me tell you more about the guidance on the potential of the company after the disinvestments. Now, the total that we had was 6.8 million square meters. The guidance was reviewed for VGV and for the multi-use programs up to December of 2023.
It is BRL 6.3 billion, and we're looking at BRL 430 cash generation until 2023. These projects are 49 towers and 9 malls in six different states. The idea is for these projects to have a higher number of people in the main spaces of these malls, over 24,000 people. Now, let's see the guidance, new guidances for 2024. We're looking at ending the year with an EBITDA up to BRL 2.05 billion, considering the disinvestments that impacted a reduction of 160, approximately BRL 160 million. So the guidance of EBITDA is a little bit different from the range. As for leverage of the company, we hope to go to 1.9 or 2.3 times the net EBITDA.
For CapEx, we're looking at BRL 450 million-BRL 550 million, considering a carryover of investments that were projected for 2023 before, but were delayed. Now, for the AGO, after April 30, when we have to discuss these results for approval, then we will let you know what the new guidance for payout is based on the FFO of 2024. The guidances for EBITDA, for leveraging, and for CapEx are considering the current scenario of M&A transactions that have already been announced, and there might be some changes in this scenario. Thank you all so much for your attention. I think we can start with the Q&A session.
Thank you very much. We will start with our Q&A session for investors and analysts. Should you have any questions, please raise your hand on Zoom, on the Zoom app. We will let you know what the order is for the questions. Well, our first question is from Pedro Lobato from Bradesco BBI. You have the floor.
Hello, good afternoon, Dani, Rafa. Thank you for the earnings call. My first question has to do with the following: What's the dynamics for same-store sales for 2024, you think? Because in 2023, we noticed that the same-store rent was higher than the same-store sales. It was 2 points higher. So I wanted to understand if that is going to also be a pattern this year. What do you think these indicators are going to be for 2024? Also, I wanted to know the following: looking at delinquency, looking at failure to pay. I'm looking at the results that you had. I think throughout the year, I mean, if we're looking at quarter-over-quarter, it was a positive result. But what do you think might happen this year as well in terms of non-payment?
Thank you for your question, Pedro. Your first question on expansion of same-store rent, same-store sales, I am going to tell you something that I explained during the ALLOS Day. Maybe it wasn't that clear. When we have an occupied space, when it is occupied by, I don't know, a store that sells electronics, where the margin is even less than 5%, the rent is going to be completely different with a good average ticket. We are replacing areas with that kind of margin with operators that are growing with a different average, 26%-27% higher sales than those other stores, you know, that have a very low margin, which I just mentioned.
So you're looking at sales that have more profitability and a better use for, for tenants, for customers, and for us. So that will allow us to continue to grow our rent, and that is not going to depend on the same-store sales, basically. So that's what we're doing right now. Of course, that happens gradually. It doesn't happen all at once, but these sales, they have a very good financial health. It is much more robust.
Pedro, this is Dani Guanabara. I think we also have some other revenue lines that are contributing for that result. We have the parking fees being readjusted. We have a better flow of people in the malls. We have the media as well. As we mentioned, we have a very good media strategy with helloo right now, with the company. So I think that also grows revenue. And when we combine rent and these other factors, when we factor all these in, we're going to have a more robust result. We looked at EBITDA of 10%, increasing 10%, and we were able to have a result that is better than the guidance. So, you know, just a final comment, really. When we're talking about this negative failure to pay, I think this was a clear improvement throughout the year.
We started with more of a crisis in retail, I would say, especially after what happened with Americanas. And as time went by, we gradually started to notice an improvement. Now, when we're talking about the fourth quarter, the volume of businesses that we had in that quarter, and also the volume of businesses that we had throughout the year was quite good. We are talking about four contracts per business day, as I mentioned before. But of course, some of these contracts were signed in December, when we're also looking at Christmas. But I think the feeling for tenants is quite positive. It's more positive than before, and we see the consequence in this indicator as well, improving in the fourth quarter and throughout the year.
Excellent. Thank you, Rafa. Thank you, Dani. Have a great afternoon.
Our next question comes from Tainan Costa from UBS. You have the floor.
Hello, good afternoon. Hi, Rafa, Dani, Leandro. I don't want to focus on the quarter, on the fourth quarter. I want to talk about the future. After the integration, after these first investments, I think you're more focused on shareholders. I wanted to understand, how do you see the portfolio of the company in five to 10 years? Are you satisfied with the size, the quality of the malls, or do you think there's a target that you're that you want in terms of sales or growth of the regions, et cetera, something that the mall needs to have to, you know, have a better portfolio? Also, are you going to change the geography to have, you know, them better placed? I wanted to know more about the portfolio for the future.
Hello, Tainan. I think it is clear when you look at the sum, you know, Sonae, brMalls, Aliansce. I think in 2015, when we were looking at all of them, it would be 80, 80 shopping malls almost. So in a way, we've been working on that exercise, you know, changing that exposure.
especially when it's not a very important place, we try to focus on other places, other geographies. And of course, we're reconsidering what is a, what a premium mall is. Of course, you have to think about the social class of the buyers. You have to think about a premium mall as being also a main destination for entertainment, for leisure, et cetera. So in our portfolio, nowadays, we have 14 malls with BRL 1 billion. One of them is not our own, it is managed by us. We don't have any portfolio in Brazil that really comes close to that, and the number of malls, you know, that sell BRL 1 billion, I mean. And out of those 14, there are two, Parque Dom Pedro and Shopping Recife, with over BRL 2 billion per year. So these are clearly very important destinations in their markets.
So if you look at what we have the most, what we sold as well, some of the malls that were sold, they were not good in terms of geography or relevance from a competitive standpoint. They were not going to be the main destination for sales, for leisure in those markets. So that was the main criteria, criterion. We wanted to have an important market. We have certain margins, certain criteria for sales, you know, to, to see if they're okay in, in that regard. And besides that, we want to be the best product in that specific region. This year, we had a growth that was very strong in Parque Dom Pedro, which is a mall that basically is for classes A and B, and we also had a very strong growth in Campo Limpo, for instance, for classes B and C.
So it's important to be dominant, to have a very good mix, a complete mix for services, entertainment, leisure, shopping. And we wanna be a place where people want to be in that specific market. All of the main luxury brands in, in Brazil, you know, we are the main partners for all of them. It is really twice as much agreements or contracts that we have with them, more than our competitors. So that shows that our malls have these characteristics, and we'll continue to invest in this kind of assets. So for both expansions or redesigns that we've had, that we have announced for this year, and also for new acquisitions, for new assets or the development of new assets, we want to expand this kind of asset. But anyway, we will continue with this kind of dynamics, very active dynamics for our portfolio.
So we want to reduce the exposure in some malls, and we want to increase participation or share in some others, or even purchase malls that have these characteristics. They are the main destination, they are dominant, and they are relevant for our portfolio in terms of good services for our tenants and for our customers as well. We wanna be the best option in all of the specific markets in which we work.
Very clear. Thank you. Thank you, Rafael.
Our next question is from Andre Mazini from Citi. You have the floor.
Hello, Rafa. Hello, Dani. Thank you for the earnings call. About the leveraging guidance, you were talking about a twofold change, right? In EBITDA or the net indebtedness and all that. Considering that, considering the CapEx that is around BRL 500 million, we would imagine that there would be a lack of leverage for the end of 2024. So my question is: Are you going to have any acquisitions or a payout that is over 50% of the FFO? Basically, I, I need to understand, you know, cash generation, which is expected to be very strong, and also that guidance for financial leveraging, that is maybe a bit higher than I expected. So is there anything, an inorganic thing or more payouts? Is there anything, you know, that makes sense in that math, let's just say?
Hi, this is Dani. When we think about what we have here. How can I put this? When we think about ALLOS, I think our balance is one of the levers that we have for the strategy of the company. So we like to have some flexibility in that, to be able to have a good opportunity for occasional investments, to try also some opportunities in M&A. Of course, we always respect our capital discipline, and at the same time, we want to have a more predictable return for shareholders. So we had a guidance of 50% of the FFO, BRL 682 million being paid this year. And obviously, we're sending that for approval by everyone. And then we also have the buyback program. We had BRL 520 million already, and we still lack a couple.
So we have certain flexibility to maybe think about a second program for buyback. I think it's a good practice to have these open buyback programs so that you can, you know, have a better return for investors as well.
Thank you, Dani.
Our next question comes from Elvis Credendio, BTG Pactual. Please continue.
Good afternoon, Rafa, Dani. 2 questions on our side. First, synergies. You communicated on the synergies, the 600 million or so of synergies, and, well, that you linked back then. So I wanted to understand, what is your expectation in synergies in 2024 that is implicit in the guidance, and what do you see in risks to collect these synergies? And the second question is more on the side of the receivables that a company has in regards to the selling of the assets. I wanted to understand these receivables, and if you can help us with that, that would be great.
Hi, Elvis, this is Daniella. Well, talking about synergies, when we discussed the year 2023, we reported almost BRL 81 million reais already in synergies captured, out of which BRL 53.3 million in revenue and BRL 27.3 million in cost and expenses. It's important that we see this cost and expenses here, so that as a percentage of the gross revenue, they dropped 120 basis points, so we have the 19.1% to 17%. When we think about synergies and revenue and the way that we work these synergies, we look at the growth that these companies had in the pre-pandemic era, period. We add the inflation and whatever overcomes that value, we consider synergy. So when we talk about the guidance, the expectation is that we get to 80% of that value at the end of the third year. And why?
Because we have the renewals of contract all throughout time. We will have the coverage of vacancy, and that is done in a gradual way, and you will capture those synergies for revenue. Synergies of expenses, we already commented. There is a lot of in the first year, but we still have the expectations of having synergies of expenses over the last two years, mainly after we conclude the implementation of the ERP in the company. We're gonna keep the legacy that already existed at Aliansce, the old, which is the SAP, and then we're gonna migrate the shopping malls of the previous brMalls to this one. So after we have the system implemented, then we hope to capture synergies in that sense. But this is aligned for the plan for this year.
In regards to the receivables, we received BRL 750 million. We have to conclude some investments within the month of March. Once we conclude these investments, then we're gonna have a schedule that is more detailed up ahead.
Thank you.
Next question is from Jorel Guilloty, Goldman Sachs. Please continue.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. Two questions. First, about sell, selling. As you highlighted, you were very active in the selling of the shopping malls of 2023, so 1.8 billion reais in shopping malls. I wanted to understand, how do you see the potential for more sales in 2024? So whether if it's participation, if it's the formal, how do you see the environment? The second question is, in regards to CapEx, the provision of CapEx, you have BRL 450 million-BRL 550 million. I wanted to know, how do you divide this between CapEx, so, a nd CapEx for the expansion. We see CapEx for current assets and CapEx for new assets. But what are you looking for the CapEx of this new space? Thank you.
Jorel, thank you for the question. The investments, I think that we are in a market that is ever more good to do businesses with the real estate funds, and we are analyzing some transactions. With the drop in the interest rate, of course, that facilitates the transactions, and we cannot wait for such a relevant number as the selling that we did last year, because we had a window that was very positive of opportunities with that in shopping malls that we didn't want to get for the reasons that we already discussed.
Well, that was our objective for the long term, for the portfolio. As you said, there are alternatives for participations in minority participations that are on the table, that make it viable for us to do to direct these investments. For the shopping malls that have to answer better, more relevant for these assets. And remember that within these malls, we have over 40 malls that are within this characteristics, within the relevance, within the importance of the market. So we continue to be optimistic in regards to the operational side and also the business environment that is positive to do transactions. We also do not, this what we are going to do, investments. Or the shopping mall that makes sense for the profile of our portfolio, but in numbers of transactions, it's more transactions of selling than than acquisitions all throughout this year.
If we can summarize in this way. In terms of CapEx, I think that. Well, we don't get into the details, case by case, what we're gonna do, but we talk about the projects that are ongoing. And we have several projects ongoing for refurbishing, expansion. The main expansion of this year is Parque Shopping Maceió, which we're doing along with Multiplan. Multiplan is the leader of this process. We have 50% of the shopping mall, and we continue the project that we are implementing there. We continue to do the projects of transformation of assets in the Shopping Recife, and these are very dominant shopping malls, and it's good that we invest in them. There is the revitalization of the external parts. And externally, we have to do improvements for access, update the outside.
The use of the external area of the shopping mall. And in Parque Dom Pedro, Shopping da Bahia, these are several shopping malls that are very dominant, that we're gonna get resources so that they continue to grow. And remember that this year, the highlights of selling are coming from Tamboré, Shopping da Bahia and Parque Dom Pedro. Shopping malls that had projects for revitalization, and shopping malls that have the market that is very different from one another. One is much more dominant, some are urban, some are more dominant in a regional standpoint, so the revitalization and modernization of these assets makes sense. Anyway, I think that the results prove that the capacity for the creation of values is correct, which allowed us to disinvest in the assets that were not so relevant from the competitive standpoint.
We reinforce the assets of the two companies with the investments that we've done since last year. And just, we could only get these 14 malls with this junction. There is no other combination that could have generated this size of a portfolio with this dominance or this relevance in sales in the market.
Thank you.
Our next question is from Rafael Rehder, Safra. Please continue.
I have two questions on my side. Well, first of all, I just wanted to understand a bit more, how is your decision-making process when you're gonna do an expansion? If it's gonna be more in shopping malls with a high occupancy rate, do you look for the minimum business? Just so you—if you can understand us and give us more details so we can understand it better. You were talking about the improvement in the mix. I just wanted to understand the discussion between the same store rents and area rent. Can we see a semi-same area rent that is above the same store rent for the mix? When do you think that we should get this catch up? Thank you.
Rafael, thank you for the question. Decision-making process for the expansion is basically, we have a planning of each shopping mall that is done and details, and knowing the market, updating the market analysis with monitoring instruments, with flow of areas of retail, with the technology invested, that indicates where we have a price that is relatively adjusted, that makes it worth for us to get a new retail area available.
For example, I am more optimistic in redeveloping areas of Crown Jewels that are reducing the size of stores or closing stores, so we can use those areas as areas for the expansion of news. Of bringing alternatives for the shopping mall that didn't exist before, and that not necessarily we are gonna- we're not gonna need the expansion because of a redevelopment that is much more profitable than the expansions. Today, the expansions that are on the table, they have a return expected of 12% on average, which is the number that we've seen and we've recently seen with the conditions of the shopping mall that were launched. In regards to the mix with the same-store rent, I think that this is already happening.
I think that slowly we've seen the occupancy costs being affected upwards, but with a performance of sales that also supports this increase in rent and this increase in the value of the rent. So the fact that the NOI grew 8% in the quarter with selling growing less shows this capture of more capture of NOI within the shopping malls, and we are satisfied with the pace of this capture. This year tends to accelerate. Remember that this platform, ALLOS, of being the biggest player in retail, entertainment, and leisure of Brazil, started just in January of last year. And we, in the last six months, we were integrating two big companies, and we didn't want to make mistakes, which we know that they can happen.
It's very common for them to, you know, integrate two cultures, two companies, there is accounting issues, there is cultural issues. So we understand that this process of value capturing will happen mainly from now on. In the case of helloo, we are very optimistic with them, and we just finished with the conversion to the helloo platform, just in this, at the end of last year. There are many things operationally that we are doing to generate results. If we just think about loyalty, with the two companies added, in one cycle, we're gonna get to 2 million of loyalty members using the programs in a way, day-to-day. Over 2,000 openings per day. So imagine this, selling media on top of the platform, selling information for our tenants on the type of promotions that they can direct for our clients.
So the gain of market share that we have is our driver, main driver, to increase the rent as a consequence of that. So whether if it's increasing rent or increasing adjacent revenues, such as is the media revenue, and that's why it's important that we have an updated mall and a good-looking mall. So the decision-making process for expansion is under that criteria.
Thank you.
Next question is from Fanny Oreng, Santander. Please continue.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Two questions. First, in regards to the provision of the malls. I've seen that there was a drop in the provisioning of this quarter, of course, with a drop in the delinquency levels, but I wanted you to, I wanted to understand what is the trend for 2024. The second question is a question also simple, is in regards to the other provision, which is the provision for contingencies, that grew a lot in this quarter, and so I wanted to understand what was that line. Those would be the questions. Thank you.
Hi, Fanny. Thank you. Good afternoon. Well, let's start with the second question. That contingency line, it was updated from one year to another, but it also has a change in the prognosis of one specific action that affected almost the entirety of this sector. So from probable to possible, and that's why it's appearing in this contingency line. When we talk about PDD and the bad debt and the provision of the malls, we have to go back to another point, which is when we started in 2023. I think that there was still a lot of doubt on how the retail would evolve. We have the case of Americanas, but well, there is another of the wholesale, and we increased the provision in the second quarter. And as that scenario was improving and it was stronger, we reduced the provisioning level, and we could recover some late rents.
So if you think about the commercial standpoint, the success that we had in attracting tenants in the fourth quarter, even with a strong activity in December, it means that the wholesale is more optimistic looking up ahead. So I think that things are improving. We have the EBITDA for 2024 in the middle of the range that grows. I think that this is important because this is a year that we know that there is a compression of GP, so the revenue of rent. The trend is that we have a more modest growth. But as we commented, other service lines, other business lines, whether if it's parking, mall, the media and services as a whole, they are growing, and they help us to compose our NOI, EBITDA and the FFO.
Thank you. Can you just go back to the provision of the contingency? What would be it? Can you talk about it? You said that it affects the whole industry.
It's a discussion of taxes, which we provisioned. There is an issue of PIS and COFINS tax, but it's a one-off. It was already proven.
Thank you.
Nothing too different from what other companies, not only our sector, they had to make that decision from the Superior Court.
Well, thank you.
Our next question is from Jonathan Koutras, JP Morgan. Please continue.
Good afternoon, Danny. Well, thank you for the answer. I had two questions, as you've seen. Well, in the sector, you have healthier selling. The second question is, what you discussed in the presentation, a VGV potential that is higher. I just wanted to understand the timing of that. Thank you.
Jonathan, could you repeat the first question? Because the sound wasn't good.
Can you hear me now?
Okay.
The first one, I just wanted to get your opinion on the quarter thus far.
It's about the inflation. The selling in the quarters at the beginning of the year continue positive. We see numbers that are good for the growth of sales, and specifically with this trend of operators that have higher profitability. We have the possibility of increasing the rent, not only the rent with the IGP-M, but also the ramp-up of the new contracts that were signed over the last three years, specifically last year. That allows us to have more revenues of rent. I think that's it. I'm gonna let Danny explain the other one.
Well, Jonathan, our building potential is 6.8 million square meters. It's important that we should highlight that when we had some of these investments, we had the expectation of BRL 3.4 billion of VGV, BRL 400 million of cash flow, and that's until 2033. What is the point here? We own the land, and sometimes and we ask the question to the real estate developers. We don't run the risk, but we have a percentage of on the selling. The important part of here is that when we think about the multi-use, I'm thinking about the potential that I can improve on that mall. So when we think about every shopping mall in each portfolio, we build the master plan. That master plan is to think about the lifespan of the shopping mall in the next 20, 30 years. And first, I look, is there any possibility for expansion?
What is the expectation of the economic growth of the region, the project? What would be the expansion, the expansions in the future? And if there is, a terrain still left, how can we populate it, commercial, or residential development? In Maceió, we have a hospital. We are building residential towers as well. So there is a series of projects, and it's 49 contracts signed and 9 shopping malls in 6 states. This is a line that is growing. What is the idea? To increase the number of people that go to the mall. If you buy an apartment close to the mall and you went to the mall twice a month, you're gonna start to go there twice a week. More frequency generates more selling, so that helps to make the territory more dense and reinforce the leadership potential that our leaders have.
Thank you. Since we don't have any more questions, I'd like to give the floor to Mr. Rafael Sales for the final to finalize this event.
Well, I think that this is a very interesting moment for us to comment the results once we could deliver what was proposed. As a conclusion between the fusion of brMalls and Aliansce Sonae, in March of 2022, we were promising the numbers of 2023. The company is very satisfied in that sense, because besides having delivered the numbers that we expected, of course, besides a lot of people being skeptical, and the analysts and the investors, and from the standpoint of financial results, we could deleverage the company much quicker than what we predicted, and reducing the cost of debt much quicker than what was thought out. And remember that 2017, Aliansce was a fifth then of brMalls, and when we did that proposal, there was that doubt about the capacity to make this integration in a successful way.
And I think that this year proves that a great deal of these premises were correct, and we have the big talents of the two companies together, which is a potential for synergy. The synergy of people will generate things that we haven't measured yet. But I would like to highlight the case of helloo from the standpoint of targeted media, and we hope that next year it will be something in 2025, close to BRL 300 million of revenue for the company. This is something that clearly there is a lot of synergy of these two businesses operating together, differently, obviously, than what the two companies did. We are culminating this in a way that we are going to use our information and what we're bringing to consumer to help them to sell media and direct events and selling.
All of that is just possible with a platform of our size, and we are gonna gain in commercial capacity for our tenants. I think that this is a way of finishing the wrapping up the year, the first year of integration, in a way that we are very satisfied, and we are just starting. The company has a lot to do to provide value for the shareholders and the consumers and the tenants, and we are just starting. Be ready, we're gonna get a lot of good stuff in the next years. Thank you very much, and see you in the next call.
The earnings call of the fourth quarter of 2023 of ALLOS is finished. Thank you for your participation. Have a nice day. Thank you.