Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the earnings call for Ambipar to discuss the results in the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. Today we have Mr. João Arruda, the Financial Director, and Pedro Petersen , the Investor Relations Director at Ambipar. We'd like to let you know that this event will be recorded. The replay will be accessed on the Investor Relations website, ir.ambipar.com. We'd like to let you know that all participants will be watching with their mics off during the presentation. Soon after, we'll begin the Q&A session where more information will be provided. Before we proceed, I would like to reinforce that certain information in this conference call may include statements about future expectations. This information is subject to risks that are known and unknown and uncertainties that could make certain expectations not become concrete or be substantially different than what was expected.
Now, we want to pass on the word to Mr. Arruda as he begins the presentation. Please, Mr. Arruda, you may proceed.
Dear investors, welcome to the earnings call at Ambipar for the fourth quarter of 2024. We're happy with the evolution of the company over this year, exceeding expectations operationally and financial expectations had at the beginning of this period. The second semester really reflected the strategy of looking inwards and optimizing operations. Once again, our platform had an all-time high EBITDA, cash flow that was at an all-time high, and also a reduction of leverage, as announced back then in the Ambipar Day. We had important financial advances with our strategic plan. During the presentation, you'll see some numbers of the revenue and EBITDA that are adjusted for the year and quarter. Both exclude the effect of the sale of these fleets.
Starting off the presentation, I would like to cover the main highlights in this quarter. In this period, we want to highlight the following results: net revenue, adjusted net revenue quarterly, it's an all-time high of BRL 1.6 billion, which represents a growth of 19.7% versus the fourth quarter of 2023, and a growth of 18.5% in the year of 2024 vs 2023. This number is way above the guidance of 10% that we had considered for the year of 2024. The Adjusted EBITDA is also an all-time high of BRL 468.8 million, which represents a growth of 17.1% versus the fourth quarter last year and a growth of 19.1% year- over- year. Our Adjusted EBITDA margin in 2024 was 29.7%, which represents an expansion of 20 basis points in regard to the year of 2023.
Our operational cash flow was also BRL 1.2 billion, and the operating cash flow was, after including CapEx investments, also BRL 573.1 million, so an all-time high. As you can see, the recurring net income in the quarter was BRL 70 million and BRL 93.5 million in 2024. We had the lowest annual CapEx in our history as a percentage of the adjusted net revenue, adding up to 10.3%. As a consequence of this EBITDA growth and a reduction in the CapEx and a greater focus on efficiency, we had the reduction in our leverage in the group at the end of 2024, reaching the milestone of 2.47 times. To sum it up, we have strong year-end closing, exceeding the budget in all of the main projected metrics, with an emphasis on long-term partnerships established with large customers throughout the year.
Now, moving on to the adjusted net revenue at Ambipar in the fourth quarter, we reached BRL 1.6 billion, a growth of 8.6% versus the third quarter. For the year of 2024, we reached the milestone of BRL 5.7 billion, a growth of 18.5% in the year. The Environment Division grew 23.4% versus the fourth quarter of 2023, with substantial growth in revenues that came from the recovery of organic waste, repurposing recyclables, and water and effluent treatments. The Response Division grew 16.4% versus the fourth quarter of 2023 as a result of the growth in all regions we operated, with excellent performance in Europe, which provided important industrial and modern services throughout the year. In other words, each unit contributed with an excellent result to exceed the growth guidance announced in the beginning of 2024.
The consolidated EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2024 reached the milestone of BRL 468.8 million, an absolute all-time high in the historical record in the group, which represents a growth of 8.2% versus the third quarter of 2024. When we look at the EBITDA consolidated for 2024 at Ambipar, we reached a milestone of BRL 1.7 billion, a growth of 19.1% versus the previous year. The EBITDA margin in 2024 expanded 20 basis points, reflecting our business mix and geography mix, and also the beginning of improvements that we're still capturing in cost and discipline for capital allocation and contract selection and efficiency. Environment's EBITDA grew 20.8% in 2024, mainly due to the growth in our turnover and repurposed waste, especially water and effluents or wastewater.
Now, the EBITDA for Response grew 16.6% in the year, reflecting our growth in Brazil and Europe and the strong margins, especially in Europe, due to the capacity to provide highly complex services. Next slide. Here we are going to talk about our net income, and we had a significant improvement in our recurring net income for the group, reaching BRL 70 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, sorry, of 2024. This bottom-line result is an important metric for Ambipar as it reflects the efforts on different funds and initiatives that took place in 2024, especially the improvement of asset management, focusing on financial management and operational improvements. On our next slide, we talk about our CapEx. The internal mantra we have in the company is to deliver more with less.
We've increased our turnover, the turnover of our assets in 2024, and that's why we were able to deliver the lowest CapEx in comparison with the revenue in the history of the company, reaching 10.3% of the net revenue and adjusted net revenue. The CapEx composition had a balance between response and environment in 2024. Each represented approximately 50% CapEx from the BRL 594.6 million we delivered. The highlights also included industrial projects and engagement of excellent contracts, as well as new contracts for treating water and effluents. At response, we considered specialized vehicles and new technologies for industrial inspection and immediate services in Brazil and abroad. One very important point we've been considering is the integration of our teams and financial processes, engineering, and also the purchase of equipment.
This coordinated work has made us more competitive and improved our capital allocation, allowing for better planning, fleet management, and better negotiation with our suppliers and a better and careful risk-return analysis. On our next slide, we're going to talk about cash flow. The combination of the effects we talked about with the revenue, more efficiency in capital allocation, and also capital allocation led us to a cash flow record in 2024. Our operating cash flow in 2024 reached BRL 1.2 billion in 2024, and our operating cash flow after CapEx and the M&A payments rose BRL 571 million. They were both all-time highs for this period. It's a milestone in the company's history to reach this magnitude of cash generation, demonstrating that the strategy of growing rapidly and looking in-house to maximize market positioning and synergies has excellent capacity to deliver results.
Now we're going to go on to the next slide to take a deeper look at the evolution of our capital structure. Starting off with our M&A obligations, we reduced our acquisition obligations by 68% in 2024 through the use of treasury shares to perform the anticipated payments of these obligations. Today, we only have BRL 126 million payable, where BRL 113 million will be paid in 2025, as you can see on the right side of our schedule with obligations remaining. Continuing on the next slide, we're going to talk about the financial leverage, please. The biggest operating cash generation and the search for efficiencies enabled us to drastically reduce our financial leverage in the group in the third quarter of 2024. As you can see, we reached 2.47 times leverage measured by the net debt to EBITDA ratio in the fourth quarter of 2024.
With the use of this correct strategy with an internal focus, searching for reduction in our leverage and extending the debt profile led us to have a positive rating on Fitch and S&P, which is something that makes the group very satisfied. Our debt profile got substantially better during 2024. As a highlight, we had an operation of our first bond in the first quarter of the year. This issuance allowed us to not only extend the average term of our debt to five years, but also substantially reduce the amortization in the short term in the company. Let's move on to our next and final slide. Our action plan continues to be focused on five pillars, but especially guided by people and efficiency.
We have a team that's high performance, but we've also brought in new executives in key roles and positions such as technology, communication, FP&A, accounts payable and receivable, people and management, supplies, water and wastewater, environmental consulting, etc. This was a huge initiative during the year as we search for new talents. In our operation, we developed technical leadership to operate globally along with our local leadership and really have them integrated at Ambipar to work and grow. Besides this, we want to export technology and know-how and sustainability.
Governance as an important highlight for 2024, we had advances in internal controls, improving our committees and monitoring the results and capital allocation as well, as well as the integration where we continue to advance with the Connecta project that already reaps important gains in Brazil and starts off with the rollout in 2024 and this rollout in Latin America and North America. In financial discipline, we also had an upgrade by the rating agencies, which also helps reduce the company's long-term cost of capital. Finally, in communication, we consolidated the quarter with clarity in communication, visual language, and transparency to all stakeholders. We aim to be a global leader in environmental services, and this is the objective we build daily, focusing on the operation, customer, and the safety of our workers, as well as the genuine long-term concern for the environment.
There's still a lot to do, but we're excited about what lies ahead. We would like to thank the Ambipar employees because without them, none of this would be possible. Now we're going to open up for questions- and- answers.
Now we'll begin our Q&A session for investors and analysts. To submit a question by text, please select the Q&A icon and let us know your name and company.
Our first question comes from Mr. Andre Ferreira from Bradesco BBI.
Guys, good morning, and thank you for this opportunity for questioning, and congratulations on the results. When we look at the EBITDA margins for Ambipar Response in North America, we see a drop year- over- year and quarter- over- quarter. Could you please talk about the expectation for the timing of the normalization of these margins in North America, and what would be the strategies implemented for this, please?
Thank you very much.
Good morning, André, and thank you for the question. This is Pedro here. For North America, it is a region that still excites us a lot. We have many, many opportunities there, and we have been growing our commercial pipeline there as we have announced. Things sometimes take a little longer when we have structured the leadership to capture the opportunities. We structured our commercial team with a national American leader focused on bigger customers and companies. We also brought in a new regional leader. It is going to be very relevant with the expertise in refineries, industries, and oil and gas to sell our services and improve our technical capacity. Globally, we have been exporting more know-how through the knowledge of our technical leaders with industrial services, management of waste, and so on. In North America, we hope to continue strong commercial development integration.
We talked about the Connecta project with important margin gain opportunities as you integrate different services in the back office and find synergies related to this. In the short term, we still notice margins being lower than what we would like them to be, but we have major opportunities to improve margins there a lot, and that is what we are going to search for during 2025 and 2026.
Thank you.
If you have a question, please send it through the Q&A icon telling us your name and company. Please wait while we collect our next questions. Our next question comes from Mr. Vladimir Pinto from XP.
Good morning. At the release, we heard that there is an extraordinary additional value for CapEx in the fourth quarter related to the Heineken machine.
How much was this and what should we expect in 2025 when it comes to the CapEx upon the revenue?
Hi, Vladimir. This is Pedro once again. We have mentioned on our release that we have been searching for customers that are long-term with a genuine concern with sustainability and environment, and that also see the opportunities to help them in the environmental practices and also see a partner to help them achieve their environmental sustainable targets. The engine for the glass project we have been working on with Heineken is something that we are really proud of because we are changing the reality of recycling and volumes of glass recycled in Brazil and changing the social reality also in the country. The hub for glass recycling costs about BRL 15 million. For 2025, we are not going to provide a CapEx guidance.
As we've already mentioned, the objective is to generate operational cash flow deducted from the investments to be able to handle all of the financial obligations, even in an environment with high interest rates. That's what we're searching for.
We would like to remind you that if you have a question by writing, please send it through the Q&A icon telling us what your name and company is. Please wait as we collect the next questions. The Q&A session is officially ended. We'd like to pass on the word to Mr. João Arruda for his final comments.