Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Ambipar Results Call from the second quarter of 2024. Here with us today, we have Mr. João Arruda, CFO, Thiago Silva, Director of Integrations and Finance, Pedro Petersen and Renato Santos from our Investor Relations team, and also Rafael Espírito Santo, CEO, and Fábio Castro, CFO from Ambipar Response. We would like to inform that this event will be recorded, and you can access it in the website from Investor Relations, ri.ambipar.com. We'd like to inform you that all participants will be just watching the video conference during the presentation, and after that, we will have a Q&A session, where further instructions will be provided. Before we continue, I would like to reinforce that some information from this conference call could include forecasts or affirmations on future expectations.
Such information are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that might make certain expectations not to become a reality or become substantially different from expected. Now, I'll hand the floor to Mr. Arruda, who will start the presentation. Mr. Arruda, the floor is yours.
Dear investors, welcome to the Ambipar Results Call from the second quarter of 2024. We are very pleased to see the evolution in our company's performance throughout the quarter. In line with everything we have announced on Ambipar Day, on this quarter, we focus on extracting more from our operations on the integration of the teams from the acquired companies, cash generation, and delivering. For those of you who don't know me, my name is João Arruda, and I joined the company as CFO formally this week.
I would like to say thank you to the board for giving me the opportunity, and thank you to the management for welcoming me this week at Ambipar. My professional history outside Ambipar was affected by Ambipar. For almost 10 years, I was a banker for the company, having participated actively in all relevant operations performed by the group. I had the opportunity of leading the IPO operation in 2020, the New York Response IPO, issuing of debts, bonds, and among other relevant movements from the past. In this journey together, I was able to get to know the people, Ambipar's purpose, the opportunities, and the great potential for value generation that the company has.
After many conversations with the board, the size of the opportunity that Ambipar has became clearer, and especially that the changes in the internal focus became a priority, together with the search of efficiencies. I'll be dedicating a relevant portion of my efforts in this internal journey with the board. Without further ado, let's look at the results. The second quarter of 2024 presented results that reflect the change of focus and strategy. A record result to deliver our revenue guidance at more EBITDA margin and speed of deleveraging. We are very happy with what we have to present to you today. Now, I'll go over some highlights from the quarter. The quarterly net revenue reached a record level of BRL 1.4 billion. This growth number represents a 17.5% growth versus the second quarter of 2023.
When we compared the net revenue in the first six months of 2024 versus the six months of 2023, we had a 14.4% growth on the way to deliver our revenue guidance. The quarterly EBITDA also reached a record level, BRL 436 million, with a growth in this quarter versus 2023 of 18% and 22.6% growth in the year. EBITDA margin was a record of 30.5% and 30.95% in the quarter, one of the largest margins in the history of the company. Result of operational deleveraging that's just starting. A recurring net profit, especially when we exclude expenses from the management liability, was BRL 45.5 million, 90.4% above the profit from the same quarter in 2023.
When we look at the results from the year, the results are even bigger, with more than 105% growth. We are doing much more with our assets, and this is the new reality. For that reason, our CapEx, in comparison to net revenue, was 9.3% for this quarter, the lowest level in history. If we adjusted by the remaining GIRI CapEx, this number would have been even lower, 8.2%. As a result of this performance, our consolidated leverage went from 3.1x to 2.82x. Again, we are in line in order to reach our guidance of 2.5x and the commitment we've made in the company. In summary, this was an excellent quarter, showing that we are on the right track, in line with our commitments to the market.
Now, talking about net revenue. Like I mentioned before, we had a record level this quarter, reaching BRL 1.4 billion in the second quarter of 2024. We were very successful in many changes and gains of new contracts and renewals. We increased our share of wallet in important clients, also improving the share of recurring services, which makes us very happy to see that this result is a consequence of the quality of the service we provide, the complementary of our offer, and the fact that we have a bigger integration in our commercial team. Now we look at Response. The net revenue for Response also reached record highs in this quarter, reaching BRL 741 million, with a 21% growth year-over-year, and 17.5% in the first six months of the year of 2024.
This performance was mainly driven by the Brazilian operations at Response that became more representative of the whole, and also by the U.S., where we still have a big market to be explored. We started in the end of this quarter to have an operation of our unified command center in Houston, Texas, an important pillar in our business model that will allow us to gain even more opportunities in this promising market for the company. Now, on environment, we also had a record net revenue in the quarter, reaching BRL 682 million, with a 13.7% growth in this quarter and 10.9% in the year. We had a great performance in waste value, with renewal of capital goods, industries, food, beverage, paper and pulp.
I would also like to highlight the Circular Economy, where we had higher prices and volumes, which reflects the improvement in the market on the price of the input we buy, but also by capturing the synergies in the operation that is consolidating. In logistics, we grew in sustainable transportation services, developing sustainable freights with GNV-based fleet. Now we can capture more attractive freights. On the next page, on our EBITDA, we continue our top-line trend, delivering a record result for the quarter, reaching a consolidated amount of BRL 436 million, with an 18% growth and 22.6% in the first half of 2024. We also delivered, in the second quarter, one of the largest margins in our historical series, reaching 30.9%.
On the next page, we see that when we look at the evolution of the realized EBITDA over the 12 months, we were able to deliver the best historical margin in the company, reaching 30.5%. We were very happy, not only with this result, but also because we know that this is just the beginning, the beginning of a cycle of gain capture of values that we have on our business units. We still have a lot of work to do, a lot of room to grow, but we have gained momentum and have shown the power of working with focus, clear targets, and organization. The efficiency initiatives we have been developing are only starting and will be accelerated as the work that we do and the work of hired consultants progress over the quarters. Now, we look at the EBITDA from Response.
We grew 27.7% in the quarter, once again, delivering a record EBITDA for the quarter, growing 26.5% in the semester year- over- year, with a significant gain in margins of 1.9 percentage points versus the previous year. This margin is higher because of a better mix per geography, as well as from the improvements that we have done in overall operations. We are still implementing technology for fleet monitoring and an ERP that allows us to centralize costs, gaining scale in this business unit. On the next slide, we talk about environment. The EBITDA grew 11.3% this quarter and 18.9% in the first half of the year, also reaching a record high of BRL 243 million.
This growth is even more important for Ambipar if we consider our comparison base, because in the second quarter of 2023, we sold reforestation credits to AstraZeneca that had a major positive impact in the 37% margin from the second quarter of last year. This quarter results was the result of price readjustments in contracts that were very attractive, improvements in margins from circular economy, and a work to cut redundancies. Next slide, please. Considering continuing with our EBITDA growth, in the second quarter of 2024, we had a recurrent net profit of BRL 45.5 million, with a 90.4% growth. Year-over-year, this growth is 152.6%. And to improve this result, furthermore, we will work on fiscal efficiency and on our societary restructuring.
The focus of the company is to generate cash, deleverage, and naturally, throughout the process, we will going to have a positive recurrent profit. It's important to highlight that in this calculation, we excluded the one-off effects. In this quarter, we still paid the amortization costs, prepayment fees that were part of the debt elongation process, and we'll be discussing exactly that on the next slide. As announced on Ambipar Day, we have finished our reprofiling of the debt. We prepaid BRL 2.2 billion in debt this quarter, but we also issued BRL 2.7 billion. Now, we have a debt that's 93% in the long term, with an average duration of 5.7 years, and a cash liquidity that can accommodate our amortizations by 2028.
We also adjusted all the covenants from the company, improving our safety margin, but keeping our commitment to reach 2.5x of leverage. In total, 48% of the company's debt is dollarized because of. But we also have a hedge of the main principal and the interest. So we have elongated our amortization schedule. We reduced the cost of debt and improved our capital structure. Now, on the next slide, we're gonna talk about our leverage. As a result of our performance, we have reached a leverage measured by the net revenue over EBITDA of 2.82x , with a significant reduction that positions us on the right path to reach 2.5x , as per our guidance.
As announced, we are also advancing in the analysis to make this company more asset light, and projects involving the demobilization and renewal of assets. These projects are still being negotiated. This movement is going to help us to reach 2.5x net revenue over EBITDA faster. And besides that, this movement is supposed to bring us benefit with a CapEx reduction and a reduction in maintenance costs, fleet management, uptime, and a reduction of expansion CapEx. On the next slide, we have an analysis of our CapEx. In this quarter, we grew our revenue with an investment discipline, and we delivered the lowest CapEx net revenue ratio from the history of the company. We executed a total of BRL 182 million of CapEx in the second quarter of 2024, which represents a CapEx net revenue ratio of 9.3%.
If we exclude the investments done in GIRI, this number is even lower, 8.2%. Growing with a lower level of investment is the new reality at Ambipar. We will try to rotate our assets and deliver better returns. This quarter takes us one step further in that direction, considering that the first quarter of 2024, we were also below the 10% level when we look at CapEx over net revenue. By using fewer CapEx without giving up on results and growth, we have a bigger cash generation, and this is the guidance we presented for the quarter. On our next slide, here we see our cash flow of the company. Our goal is to make the last line of this flow positive. For that, we need to generate recurring operational cash that can accommodate all financial obligations and our growth.
This quarter, we had a great indication that we are on the right track. On the last line, if we exclude one-offs that are mainly composed by the reprofiling of our debt, the company showed a significant improvement in comparison to the first quarter of 2024. As positive highlights for this quarter, we had the largest EBITDA, improvements on days of cash flow that went from 88 to 70 days, and our expansion CapEx discipline and maintenance. Each portion was important in order to deliver an improvement in this indicator, and again, we are focusing on all of them. To conclude, on the next page, I would like to conclude with some key messages. In this quarter, we grew sustainably and organically. We deleveraged the company and focused on cash-generating fronts and value generation to all shareholders.
We have a big opportunity to change ahead of us, and to have the whole management team aligned, we started the implementation of the long-term incentives plan using the shares that we rebought in the market. This plan will help us to have the whole management team coordinated for the future deliveries of the company. As the CFO at Ambipar, together with my brilliant team, I will also contribute with the communication with the capital market, and I will be working to strengthen all the fundamentals of our business. That will be the foundation for the value generation in the long term. Last but not least, I would like to thank all Ambipar employees who worked really hard to deliver this excellent result, and for building a better Ambipar for another quarter. Thank you very much, and now we are open for questions.
We are going to start our Q&A session for investors and analysts. In order to ask a question, all you have to do is send it through the Q&A icon. Make sure you tell your name and company. Please wait while we collect all questions. Once again, in order to ask a question, all you have to do is use the Q&A icon. Make sure to say your name and company. Please wait while we are collecting all questions. Our first question comes from Victor Mizusaki.
When do you expect to close the contract for leasing assets?
Hi, Victor. Good afternoon, João speaking. Thank you for your question. Thank you for being with us. Like we mentioned in the call, Victor, the company is at the final stages of negotiating the contracts for selling current assets and also for the leasing of new assets.
In the short term, we are expecting good news in that sense, considering we have been working since the formal announcement a couple of months ago. This is the guidance. We are going to sell assets, and we'll posterior lease assets. And just to give you a little bit more context, we're gonna start initially in Brazil. Today, we have between trucks and yellow-l ine devices, 2,000 units, a little bit over 2,000 units that are our initial focus. So it's quite a relevant contract with a lot of potential for further contracts in the future. In Brazil alone, we have that something around 400 light equipment between cars and ambulances that could be included in the scope, but were not included in the first negotiation round. Besides that, Latin America, Peru, and Chile as our main focuses, and North America.
Even though in North America, the leasing contract is a little bit more, it considers more of the whole equipment. So we're talking about 2,000 equipments that at market value today would represent BRL 1.5 billion in new equipment.
Please wait while we are collecting more questions. Our next question comes from Humberto Aillón.
Congratulations on the results. Can we expect a continuous reduction of CapEx and increase in cash generation for the following quarters?
Humberto, thank you for your question. Thank you for being with us. João speaking again. Yes, this is the new normal for our company. As you were able to see in our second quarter results, we were already able to deliver a CapEx over net revenue level that was much more attractive than the past. This ratio was close to 20%, much because of the results that were made in equipment and acquired companies to bring them to the Ambipar level. From now on, we expect to see a company that uses more its current assets, extracting more with a better fleet management, and as a consequence, a better return on the assets that are part of our contract. So our guidance is to work with a lower CapEx level and focus on a sustainable organic growth from now on.
Please wait while we are still collecting all the questions. Our next question comes from Marcelo [Eisen].
How does the company see the growth dynamic for Ambipar Response in North America? Does Response plan to enter in new regions?
Hi, Marcelo, thank you for your question. Rafael from Response speaking. Just to give you some context, we entered in North America in 2020, and we grew our share through a number of acquisitions. We were sort of testing the waters, testing the market, and gaining more confidence that this is a very promising market for us. So we learned, we increased our geographic footprint, and since then, I think that today we already have a very well-established foundation, both in the U.S. as well as in Canada, and we see this region as a priority. Obviously, just like we recently announced, from now on, our priority is our organic growth, so we have been opening new bases. And again, our priority for growing in the region this year is to increase our bases.
We are opening bases in surrounding regions where we are already present, so states that are close to the states where we are already operating today. Looking ahead, I think we still have a lot of potential in the region. I'm sure you imagine it's the largest market in the world, and anything that is done in the U.S. can reach a different level of scale. For other regions, even though we are a global company, we have a presence in 40 countries, our main focus continues to be here, Brazil, Latin America, Europe, where we also have a footprint in surrounding markets, and especially, again, North America.
Please wait while we're still collecting the questions. Once again, please wait while we are still collecting all questions. Our next question comes from Gisele Gushiken.
The quarter had a growth in both segments and margins recovery. Was the result impacted by a non-recurrent revenue? How do you see the margin evolution for both segments in the coming quarters? And the second question is: Could you update us on the fiscal optimization process?
Hi, Gisele. Good afternoon. João speaking again. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for your question. First, answering your question about non-recurrent revenue, we had nothing of that in this quarter, so the results that we shared were record results from recurrent revenue sources. And regarding your second question... Where's the question? I'm sorry, your question disappeared, Gisele. Just a second.
So regarding how we see the evolution of our margin for both segments in the coming quarters.
Well, Gisele, since we have already, once, like we already told the market, we are going to reach our expansion guidance of 300 basis points. For that, we are making a huge effort on operational deleveraging. So the ESG margin was positively impacted by the Circular Economy, and also by the better use and reduction of some costs and overlaps in important positions inside the company. And at Response, we saw this 120 basis points growth in our margin year-over-year, which show the guidance of the company.
For the future, what we are doing is to focus more on the optimization. We have a really well-designed plan of the incorporation of companies. We have a schedule and a timeline, a program that's really well-structured. We have external advisors working with us in this challenge. And considering the number of past acquisitions that the company has done, this is a plan that will gain more maturity in the next quarters. We will be able to share more details with you once we get more visibility on the beginning, the middle, and the end.
Please wait while we are still collecting more questions. Once again, please wait while we're still collecting the questions. Our next question comes from Victor Mizusaki.
What are the priority from the integration directory? Would we consider that the first step is going to focus on system integration? Is there a target of expected synergies?
Good afternoon, Victor. Thiago speaking. In reality, the priority is integration, integration as a whole. We are very much focused on systems, but not only on systems. We have a focus on the commercial area, we have a lot of projects in which there's synergies, especially for share of wallet, and we talked a lot about that during the call. So the target is growing, so we can achieve the guidance that we have announced to the market. So it's not only about systems. Within North America, we have a very strong focus on that, but inside Brazil, we are doing a lot with SAP and Protheus. So the expected synergies are the ones we have announced to the market.
Please wait while we're still collecting more questions. Once again, please wait while we're collecting questions. In order to ask a question, all you have to do is click on the Q&A icon. Please wait while we are collecting all questions. Our next question comes from Scott [Butcher].
Well, could you provide us more details on the share rebuying program? How much is still allocated, and what was the average price for the rebuying of shares in the quarter?
Hi, Scott. Good afternoon. Thank you for being with us, and thank you for your questions. João speaking again. This plan was established and executed with a focus on the Long-Term Incentives Plan, like I mentioned before. The company entered the market with a moment with very attractive prices. We repurchased the shares, and starting in this quarter, we start to design the Long-Term Incentives Plan. Like I mentioned, we have big ambitions. It's a big integration plan. We have a big focus on deleveraging and cash generation, and for that, we would like to have all management team alignment. So this is the goal of the rebuying plan.
Please wait, we are collecting questions. And remember, to send your question, just click on the Q&A icon. Our next question comes from Juliana [Moresito].
Regarding consolidated financial expenses, there's a significant amount of BRL 211,222 classified as others. Could you disclose what these other financial expenses would be?
Hi, Juliana. Good afternoon. João speaking again. When we look at expenses from the second quarter of 2024, this number you mentioned was mostly impacted for debt refinancing payments. Like we mentioned in the first quarter, we executed the liability management through the bonds and prepayments of some debentures, and in the second quarter, we continued with the program that was really connected to the extended of the term and the duration of the debt to 5.7 years of average term, with more than 90% of our debt now in the long term. This process was concluded, and from now on, we don't expect any further impact.
Once again, please wait while we are collecting all questions. The Q&A session is over. Now, I'll hand the floor to Mr. João Arruda for his final remarks.
Once again, I would like to thank you all for being with us on this results call, and thank you for your interest in the company. Good afternoon.
The Ambipar conference call is over. Thank you again for joining us, and have a great day.