Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Alupar's conference call to discuss the results relative to Q3 2023. The audio stream and respective slides of this presentation are being broadcast simultaneously over the internet at the company's IR website, ir.alupar.com.br. The slide deck is also available for download. Please be advised that all participants will be listening in listen-only mode during the company's presentation, after which we'll begin the Q&A session, and then further instructions will be given. Should you require assistance during the conference, please request the help of an operator by pressing star zero.
These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause these forward statements not to be fulfilled or to differ materially from those reflected here.
These forward-looking statements express an opinion only as of the date they are made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update them. Joining us today are Mr. José Luiz de Godoy Pereira, CFO, and IRO, Mr. Luiz Coimbra, IR Superintendent of Alupar. Now I'd like to give the floor over to Mr. José Luiz de Godoy Pereira, who will begin the presentation. Please, Mr. Godoy, you may proceed.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for participating in our earnings call for Alupar Q3 2023. As we usually do, I'm going to start the presentation by highlighting the main accomplishments of the quarter, and then I'll turn it over to Luiz Coimbra, our IRO, who will then go over the numbers and figures, and then at the end, we'll be available for a few questions and answers that you may have.
So the first highlight for the quarter was on slide 3, the winning RAP auction in Peru, the first transmission project that we have in Peru. We already have a generation project in Peru, and now we are adding a transmission project to the mix. It's made up of 2 substations and 9 kilometers of transmission lines of 220 kV. This project will start next year. Of course, we need to obtain all the license and permits. With a 32-month construction period and another 30 years of operation and maintenance, it's a long-term project. A very important landmark for the company in the quarter. We also had a victory in Chile. As you will remember, the company already operated in Chile around transmission systems between 2005 and 2016. So we are now returning to the Chilean market.
We have won an auction to execute three substations, two of which of 110 kV, and one 220 kV, and 16 kilometers of transmission lines. This project is also expected to be explored next year. The construction term is 48 months, and the concession term is a rule, as you know, it's perpetual. Another important highlight of the quarter was the ramp-up of our solar energy unit called Santa Regia. It's located in Rio Grande do Norte, with a physical guarantee of 21.7 megawatt average. This unit is in partnership with WEG, which we have already announced the partnership, and we have 70% of assured energy, which is already sold for long-term or around long-term contracts. We also had the dividend payout relative to Q2.
The payout was $0.04 per share, adding up to $0.12 per unit, and shareholders were entitled. The entitled were the ones who were in the basis in August 2023. Now, speaking a bit of the projects, which are now ongoing, we are now in the construction phase. We have a project in Colombia, the TCE project in Colombia. It has a physical advance of 93%, as you can see on slide number 6. Environmental permits or licenses, as I've mentioned before, that license is granted on a tower-by-tower basis, and we're now working to obtain the permit for the last 17 towers as we reach the city of Bogotá. We had relevant progress; we experienced relevant progress just now.
What was holding us back a bit around those 17 towers was an authorization that we needed, because part of those towers are located in an environmental reserve area, so we needed an authorization to waive that demand. This was granted recently, so we now expect to conclude this project in the first half of 2024. We also have the ELTE product in the southern shore. That's an SP, that we have two projects, one in the southern shore of São Paulo and one in the northern shore of the city of São Paulo. Substation Manoel da Nóbrega, as you can see on the slide, again, slide number 6. Another line which is coupled to that substation, our physical advance is of 98%.
And also the UFV Piton Beta, which is a hybrid project, solar and electric projects linked to UFV. This project is 67 MW of installed capacity, with 15 MW of physical guarantee or assured energy. We are now at 77% in terms of construction. So those three projects on screen, we believe that by the end of the year, part of them will be operational, and early next year, the TCE project in particular, should be up and running. We also have a project for Manaus-Boa Vista. This project is a partnership we have with Eletrobras. It is an iconic project in the industry because of this long negotiation, which was undertaken, and different agreements, because as you know, it goes through an indigenous plot of land.
As I mentioned before, in September 2022, we had an agreement with government, the public prosecutor's office, the environmental agency at the federal level, and different indigenous associations to get that project going. We had a preliminary work done at the indigenous land, and now, last October, we finally started surveying the topography in the indigenous territory. That's an important landmark for this project, which will unlock this connection we all have been waiting for, for so many years, a bottleneck for the industry as a whole. For the Manaus-Boa Vista line, we have invested for indigenous communities BRL 43 million, and we have highlighted some of the initiatives that they have put in place, the most relevant.
We built radio infrastructure for them, with the communication program, which is dedicated, called Kinja, interconnecting all the Indian indigenous villages via radio. We built an environmental management center, which was built for the community, to be used for the construction site, but then it will remain as a legacy, community center for the local population. And we also built, a seedling nursery, a warehouse, or a wooden warehouse, for the community to use, actually, and to, of course, offset the deforestation approach. Very little deforestation, as you know, it's a transmission line. The towers are all very, very high. The lines are above the canopy of the trees, but, at the base of the towers, we have some level of deforestation, very low, low as I said, but we've built this seedling nursery to offset that deforestation, albeit small.
I'd like to turn over to Luiz Coimbra, and he'll start our Q&A session. Over to you. Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for participating in our earnings call for Q3 2023. I'll start on slide number 11. I'll go over the numbers in IFRS, and then I'll talk about the regulatory numbers. Starting on slide 11, financial highlights, we totals. The variations for these numbers of 2023 are driven by, first, a drop of BRL 41.8 million in transmission, which can be explained by the drop in revenue by monetary correction by the contractor, because of decrease in IGP-M. The IGP-M in this quarter saw a deflation of 2.77% when compared to an inflation rate of 1% in Q3 2022.
The second major impact was an increase of BRL 44.3 million in the revenue for generation, which was impacted mainly by an increase in the revenue from our Peruvian asset because of the high price of spot market energy, which averaged BRL 326 in this quarter, vis-à-vis BRL 218, which we had in this third quarter of last year. Moving on to EBITDA, a total of BRL 455.1 million in this quarter. The main drivers were, first, this reduction in revenue that I just explained in generation and transmission, and also an increase of BRL 25.7 million in the infrastructure costs, basically because of a larger investment outlay coming from the implementation phase of that asset.
Looking at income, in this case, we totaled BRL 100 million, and the main impacts were, number one, the drop of BRL 32.1 million in EBITDA, which I just mentioned, had an increase of BRL 31.5 million in the financial number. That number was negatively impacted by the growth in the financial expenses and debt, which were pegged to the IPCA, which are our main index. And IPCA saw an inflation in the spirit of 0.61%, versus a deflation of 1.32% in the same period of the last year. Also important to highlight, the reduction of BRL 67.4 million in the minority shareholder shares. This was basically because of a drop of BRL 70.3 million in the segment of transmission. Because of a reduction in transmission companies, which were impacted by an increase in financial expenses.
Moving on to the next slide, we see regulatory numbers, starting with the revenues in total in the quarter, BRL 797.3 million, a growth of 5.3% when compared to the same quarter of last year. The main driver here was the positive variation, BRL 44.3 million in the energy supply, and an increase of BRL 22 million in our Peru asset because of the high price energy in the spot market, as I mentioned before, when I talked about IFRS revenue. As for EBITDA, 404 million, as you can see on slide number 12, a growth of 5.3% when compared to the same period of 2022, and it was driven mainly by the growth of BRL 41.6 million in collections.
Moving on to net profit or net income, 663.4 million in the quarter, a growth of 11.6% when compared to Q3 2022. The main drivers were, number one, an increase of 33.6 million in EBITDA, which I just mentioned. We also had an increase of 31.6 million in the financial results, which was negatively impacted by a growth in financial expenses coming from IPCA indexed debt. Because in this quarter, we saw an inflation of 0.61%, as I mentioned, whereas in the second quarter of 2022, we saw a deflation of 1.32%.
Another important impact was that reduction of BRL 25.7 million relative to the minority interest, which was mainly driven by the drop of BRL 28.4 million in the segment of transmission, which was then impacted by the increase in financial expenses coming from IPCA-pegged debt. Moving on to the next slide, the holding debt level. The controlling company saw a net gross debt of BRL 693 million, a cash position of BRL 746.8 million. Totally, a net debt negative at BRL 56.2 million, as you can see on slide 13. The holding debt consists of one single debt, the 7 issuance of the debenture, 100% index in CDI, maturing in 2024 and 2025.
Moving on to the next slide, we see our consolidated indebtedness, so our gross debt total BRL 11,578 million. We closed the quarter with a cash position of BRL 2,716 million, a total net debt of BRL 8,862 million. That's slide 14. As for our consolidated debt breakdown, no major variations there. Most of our debt, 48%, is in IPCA index, followed by CDI, 32%. The currency basket relative to Colombia and Peru, they closed the quarter, accounting for about 15% of our total debt. And that's the breakdown. Moving on to the next slide, we see our profits allocation.
So as per our dividend policy approved late in 2022, the board of directors of the company recommended the payout of interim dividends to the tune of BRL 36.6 million, which corresponds to BRL 0.12 per unit. The pay will happen up until 60 days of the approval, which was yesterday, November ninth, and entitled to those dividends are the shareholders, which will form company's base at the end of November sixteenth. And the share will start being negotiated as of November seventeenth, ex-dividend. On the next slide, we have the total dividend distribution paid out this year. We have already paid out BRL 495 million throughout the year, considering the payout of results, results for 2022 and the two branches for the interim dividends.
That accounts for an increase of 37% when compared to BRL 360 million, which were paid out last year, and an increase of over 100% when compared to the dividends paid out in 2021. Moving on to the last slide, we saw the company's performance in the capital markets. Alupar saw an appreciation year to date of 15.11%. Electric energy interest in 8.30, and like this, but at 8.47%. Another important point we like to highlight, the increase in the financial volume. So when we look at the year to date, nine months last year, we saw a number of 27.3 million BRL per day. This year? The average went up 15.9%, totally 27.3 million BRL per day.
With that, I close my presentation, and we can now start our Q&A session. Thank you. Over back to the operator. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now start the Q&A session for investors and analysts. If you wish to make a question, please press star one. If your question has been answered, please remove your question by pressing star two. Please stand by as we pull for questions. Our first question comes from webcast from Itaú. The question is: Good afternoon. In this quarter, we saw a strong result coming from La Virgen in Peru, selling a relevant amount of energy at prices above 800 BRL per megawatt. An impact caused by the El Niño. Can we wait something similar for Q4 2023, given the likely deleveraging of the company with the ramp-up of some new assets? Can we expect payouts above 50% in 2024?
Thank you. For our Peru asset version, that's exactly it. We had an important impact coming from the El Niño in the quarter. Last year, the price was $218, and this year it was above $800, the average price for the quarter. Now, in the fourth quarter, that impact has decreased somewhat. It started raining again, and there was a certain reduction in the load because several mining plants took the opportunity to have some downtime, and this impact will reduce in the fourth quarter. The impact of El Niño will be slightly lower. That doesn't mean that it cannot come again later, right? As for the deleveraging, what defines us defines the dividend payout, is the attention to our covenant.
Of course, we monitor them very closely, and our dividend payout policy, and we continue to follow that. If we have, the covenants will increase the payout, and always within policy. That may happen, higher dividends, if we have room for that within our covenants as we move forward.
Next question from webcast from Itaú. What's the company's outlook in participating in the next transmission auctions in Brazil, both for 002/2023 and 001/2024? Thank you.
We are looking closely at those opportunities. As usual, we usually pay attention to the auction opportunities, but whatever is viable will attract our attention. So let's wait. I cannot say it now because our studies are not complete as it concerns those coming August, but we are keeping a close eye to both auctions.
Next question. Well, you may proceed, sir. Good afternoon.
I'd like to know if it makes some sense for us to expect higher dividend payouts in the next quarter, over 50%.
Well, we'll, as I said, we'll keep to the policy. We'll announce the regulatory numbers, of course, and we'll follow the policy. This year was a transition year. It was the first year where we implemented our policy, so we had some adjustments to make, starting the previous period. But the plan is for us to adjust and try to find room to, to, to have constant, different payouts going forward. Thank you.
Next question from webcast from Bruno. Are there studies for the company to go to the new market, Novo Mercado? Thank you.
Well, right now, that's not something that we are considering. No. We are at the level two of governance, known as boosted level two, as people call it, jokingly.
But, we do not see any major gains or relevant gains in terms of governance to move to the new market or Novo Mercado, right? No major change. If you look at our bylaws, you'll see that within our governance rules, there are very strict governance rules, in some cases, even more strict than in the Novo Mercado. So, not major gains, right, in moving to Novo Mercado. Speaking globally, of course, we need to assess all the advantages and all the bylaw, regulatory issues, and policies, and we fit a very good governance level as is. That's basically it. The idea is to stay where we are.
Next question from webcast, Leonardo, from Suno Research. What's the opportunity level map for auctions abroad in the coming years? Any estimate for RAP and other auction investments?
It's difficult to say. Each country has a different regulation.
But what I can tell you is that we have been looking for those opportunities, and we expect to have about 10% of our revenues coming from abroad. For us, that's quite relevant because the bulk of that, 90% of what comes from abroad, implies different currencies. They are pegged to the U.S. dollar. So of course, that brings about more consistency, if you will, to our figures and our cash flows. We always look closely at those opportunities, no doubt, and we'll go for them when we think it makes sense.
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, to ask a question, please press star one. Once again, to ask a question, please press star one. This concludes the Q&A session. I now turn the floor back over to Mr. Godoy for his final remarks. You may proceed, sir.
Well, I thank you all very much for your trust, your attention, and we remain available for any other comments or questions that you may will have. Our team is available to serve you. Investors, shareholders, if you are interested in going deeper, just let us know. Thank you. Have a nice day, everyone.
Our conference is now over. Thank you all for participating, and have a nice day, everyone.