Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Blau Farmacêutica's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. We are live with Marcelo Hahn, the founder and CEO, Douglas Rodrigues, our CFO, and with me, Bruna Gamboa, IR. Our call is taking place in Portuguese with simultaneous translation into English, and the webcast is being recorded and will be available on the company's website. Now, I'll pass the floor on to Marcelo to begin the presentation.
Thank you, Bruna. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our earnings call. On Slide 2, I want to highlight that in 2023, we recorded a relevant investment that exceeded BRL 670 million. We worked to accelerate the company's strategic growth pillars, guided by our vision of consolidating ourselves as a leading company in the institutional market in Latin America.
Through the expansion of our production capacity, the verticalization of the production chain, our R&D partnerships, and our geographic expansion in Latin America, we are firm in the execution of our strategic plan, despite an atypical and challenging year with a scenario of a new government, high interest rates, credit restrictions, pressure on the health sector, especially on paying sources and payers, and a deregulated market in the post-pandemic world, and the persistence of the Ministry of Health to force the Ministry of Health to acquiring medicine without sanitary registrations with via supply source.
From a results perspective, we were able to offset these challenges with an increase in production capacity to launch new medicine, medications, the acquisition of the Bergamo Lab, and the expansion of Blau's international business, resulting in net revenue of BRL 1.4 billion, a net income of BRL 247 million, and a net margin of 18%, even in a very troubled year. This was only possible because of our solid financial position with low debt and a cash-generating business, supported by the solid fundamentals of the pharmaceutical sector in Brazil and worldwide. A robust, resilient, and that is essential in people's lives. These initiatives led to an evolution of the results in 2023, and we also had an important agenda focused on improvements and integration of policies and processes with Bergamo.
We had the expansion of Hemarus and, Latin America. We also had an intense agenda to renegotiate with our suppliers, and we were able to have significant reductions in unit costs. To provide more details about these investments that we mentioned, with the expansion capacity, we want to highlight the opening of our specialties plant, P210, which contributed to the earnings in the company from April 2023 onwards. It has been maturing quickly. We started occupying all the production lines at Blau Goiás, which also began to contribute to the results in 2023, more than doubling the capacity of this factory, and productivity improvements in Blau São Paulo's lines, and the inclusion of our manufacturing plant in the Bergamo Lab.
About acquisitions and expansions, I want to highlight the acquisition of the Bergamo Lab in June, which along with Blau creates one of the biggest production centers and one of the biggest onco hemato portfolios in Brazil. From an internationalization perspective, we're really excited with Prothya's evolution. Since we announced this investment, Prothya information has been still in this process of being audited, but we can already let you know that in 2023, the company had an all-time high revenue of over EUR 300 million, a growth of over 30% compared to 2022. This operation is also really important because it's gonna open up the European market to certain Blau products. There's a lot of synergy with our plasma collection centers in the United States, and we'll bring important hard currency revenue sources to the company.
We also continued the expansion of our Hemarus in the United States, and Hemarus began our plasma collection center in the north of Miami, and we began to export to our affiliates in Latin America. We acquired a share of 20% in the collection center, Hemarus in Jacksonville, and the revenues coming from Hemarus grew over 70% compared to 2022. The international expansion in Latin America and our subsidiaries, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Uruguay. The objective is to really structure the operation, and we had BRL 91 million of revenue. For R&D, we had an investment that had never seen before of BRL 148 million, about 11% of our net revenue, and it's gonna be one of the main levers for our growth cycle in 2023, from 2023 onwards.
In 2023, we began the production, commercialization of five new products with an addressable market of BRL 220 million, which is a fraction of the BRL 7 billion in opportunities in our pipeline. We also consider that the four monoclonal antibodies, considering an addressable market of over $42 billion around the world, and this should be captured from 2028 onwards. We also continue to advance with our projects, our APIs, and we are working with this strategic verticalization of our production. About ESG, I want to say that I'm really proud of the projects we had throughout the year. We released our second annual sustainability report, and following the IR indicators, we also began preparing the third report. We set the pillars for ESG in the company, which are access, innovation, and education.
We also supported sports in different institutions that are aligned with our purpose, and we also performed the first diversity center with workshops for all leadership. Today, 57% of the Blauers are women, and when we look at the leadership positions, the rate is 45% women. So we want to pass the floor on to Bruna. She continues with the presentation.
Okay, thank you, Marcelo. Now, we want to mention Slide 3.
... considering our pipeline of products. It's important to mention that we presented some preliminary information. The dates presented are estimates of the company, since the records of registrations of these drugs depend on regulators that could lead to modifications that accelerate or delay the launch of these products. As mentioned by Marcelo, in 2023, we launched five new products in Brazil with an addressable market of about BRL 200 million, and from these, two were launched in the fourth quarter. In 2023, we also performed thirteen ANVISA medication registrations, and we also achieved the approval of fifteen new drugs with ANVISA and seventeen in Latin America.
So as you can see on the right side of our graph, every quarter, Blau can increase its share of new products and its results, which represent about 10% of the net revenue in 2023. We're also super happy to report that at the end of 2023, the products we launched in 2021 had already reached an average market share of 35%, and the medication launched by Blau in 2022 reached an average market share of 12% on average, and the products we launched in 2023 had already reached a market share of 4%. We are gonna start talking about the financial results. We also reached an all-time high net revenue in our quarter, with a growth of 7% compared to the third quarter of 2023.
The other indicators, like the gross profit, EBITDA, and net income, also advanced with a growth of 8, 16, and 24%, respectively. So when we look at the performance, we had important investments of BRL 670 billion, despite the challenging year, which also impacted the margins in this period. It's also important to mention that these investments were only possible because of our financial solidity, strong balance sheet, and low leverage. Moving on to Slide 5. When we talk about the net revenue, we reached an all-time high of BRL 387 million in our quarterly revenue, with an increase of 7% quarter-over-quarter, which indicates stabilization in the prices, with an increase in revenue coming from Bergamo and driven by the specialties.
In 2023, we were also able to offset the challenges that have been mentioned with new sources of revenue, such as the launch of new products, acquisition of the Bergamo Lab, and expansion of Blau's international business, resulting in a net revenue at the same level as in 2022 that we reported. Now I want to pass the phone to Douglas, our CFO, and he's gonna continue with the presentation. Thank you, Bruna. Good morning, everyone. Well, guys, moving on here, we want to show a little more details on our financial performance in the last quarter and closing of the year. Bruna's already mentioned the main highlights of our performance, especially the factors mentioned in the third quarter that were present in the fourth quarter of the company as well.
But it's important to consider the evolution of these indicators in the last quarter compared to the previous quarter, demonstrating the advances of our plan. So here, with the gross profit, we had an increment, an improvement of the indicator by 8% compared to the previous quarter, reaching a margin about 31%, and we'll close the year with 36%. So when we look at this full year, we basically have a first half that had a margin of about 42% and a second semester of 31%, which is why we had this result of 36%. When we compare with the other years, it's natural that we'll have a setback in the gross margin. But when you look at 2023, it's really important to highlight that the year started off with a credit scenario that was very complicated.
So the health sector was more pressured, and in this more competitive scenario, from the internal aspect, the company incorporated Bergamo Lab, which is still in operation, that's still in an optimization phase with a huge potential for contribution, and also margins. And everyone knows also that we still have operations with our revenue sources, and new initiatives don't have the same level of contribution to the gross margin and the rest of the business, and the rest of the more consolidated business. So that's why it's natural that we'd see a margin of about 36 for the year of 2023. Considering this entire context, the level of margin, that's relatively satisfactory if we consider that this is a starting point for this new cycle in the company.
So I think this is what's most important to highlight with the gross margin here, and then we'll move on with the optimization of the Bergamo operation, having our stock turnover, because the cost of replacement is smaller than the inventory cost, and other initiatives as well to gain this kind of efficiency in our gross margin. Moving on to the next slide, we are talking about our expenses. So the expenses in the quarter are at the same level of the previous quarter, and I want to highlight the growth of the revenue. So you can see that this effect of the greater level of revenue in this quarter already contributes to the dilution of over 1 percentage points in our operational expenses. So this is a path, and this is the message, really. The company continues on this path.
It's natural the company prepared with a new internal structure and many different initiatives to be able to consider the strategic plan, and as we have the revenue incorporated in these new sources, operational leverage will appear. So 2023 is a year where we're still starting off. We have this new structure, but we're still ramping up with the new operations and the revenue. So that's when we should highlight that in this level here, revenue in 2023, we have another 3% of this revenue, sorry, this expense that is related to R&D, and we had a negative, negative impact last year of bad debt due to the credit scenario that was quite complex that year, and it was a bit more stressed. So moving on to the next slide, we're gonna talk about our EBITDA.
Bruno has already mentioned this quickly, but the EBITDA in the last quarter versus the third quarter had an evolution of about 16% in the growth. This is the recurring EBITDA in the company, so basically, you only have the effects of the gross margin and the operational leverage, the expenses already mentioned previously. And when we look at the EBITDA, considering the effect of the purchase we consider advantageous purchase. We reach this rate of about 27% margin. So I think that we need to look at 2023 as a starting point of this new cycle in the company. Next slide. Now we're gonna get into our net income.
So besides all of the effects we already highlighted before, basically, we have this financial result, which is related to the cash variation in the company in 2023, and the effect of the income tax. So 2023, basically, all of our income tax is deferred, so we don't have this current effect, and most of this amount that's deferred is related to the purchase of Bergamo. So that's why it's important to highlight that the strategic plan of the company does not consider the incorporation of Bergamo in the short term. So this effect will not be materialized, even though it was deferred, considering the acquisition.
So once again, 24% evolution in the last quarter, and we closed the year considering the effect of this acquisition with a net margin, a net income of 18%, which is once again to highlight this, which took place in the year of 2028, which was very solid. Moving on to the next slide, when we get into the balance sheet of the company, when we look at the working capital and the CapEx, you have the same level. We're operating at about compared to the net revenue, about 59%. When we look at the average deadline for the payment and receipt, basically stabilized.
The company continues to search for opportunities for negotiation to improve this a bit, but in the market reality, these are the indicators currently, and any kind of improvement in this would involve a release in the cash position, and the company continues to keep up with this objective. So when we look at the stocks, this was a big, important point. We hadn't had this level ever since the first quarter of 2022, but then you'll be able to see that when you look at the financial statements in the company, the effect of the controlling company and the consolidated effect as well. We still have a lot of operations, and we have opportunities to optimize a lot, but of course, naturally, we will continue to release working capital, which is super important.
But there's already a positive effect of this acceleration in our stock turnover rates. So when we look at the CapEx, basically from intangibles, we consider an investment of about BRL 104 million per year, 7.5% of the revenue, and a level that's very much in line with what the company should follow. So when we look at results and 2-3 for revenue and the balance sheet of about 6%-7% of the revenue, which had an investment of 7.5% last year, and the CapEx of fixed assets, which would be about BRL 120 million, which basically considered P210 and an important advance in the expansion of our capacity in all of our operations in Brazil, and especially our operations internationally.
So this, once again, is a level that we expect for the next years for our cash protection effects. So moving on here, on the next and the last slide before we move on to our Q&A. I think this is a super important slide when it comes to our results and financial performance. So considering the context in 2023 and the results that are possibly a little more pressured in a more challenging scenario, and the level of investments that is very relevant, the company is once again demonstrating its robustness financially, and we're basically closing the year without a leverage position. So now we used to be net cash, but now it's 0.4, and basically a long-term debt and a financial cost that is extremely attractive.
So I think this demonstrates that the company is very responsible when it comes to performing its strategic plan. There's still room, of course, to keep up with this, and we're very well prepared and positioned to maintain this investment plan, which is super important for this next cycle. But this also demonstrates that basically the company is basically like a single case. And so both of... Then we'll start this with the considerations, and then Marcelo will come back with his final comments. So our first question. So the first question is from Felipe Amancio and Itaú BBA.
Well, great. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. So first of all, here in Bergamo, could you give us an update on the ramp-up and the integration of the company?
We noticed that even with Bergamo increasing its share at a sequential level, the gross margin was pretty much flat, and I wanna know if you guys already start noticing some kind of synergy capturing, please. And the second question is about the working capital. We noticed that there's been a slight worsening in the days of receivables and an improvement in the stock days. So from the receivables, I wanted to know if you guys already see some relief coming from your customers, and also from the stock side, what do you guys think is still the possible room for improvement in this line?
Thanks for the question. We'll start off here with the first answer. On the days of our receivables, the market is competitive, so the competition is providing better terms, and the company has to adjust to this.
So the payers have a lot of pressure in hospitals, and then, of course, they pressure the distributors, and consequently, we have to support our distributors and partners. And we have to continue this journey at expanding our presence with our customers. And with this, another important factor is that we also have been increasing our values of receivables among our customers, because since our portfolio is growing, we have stronger presence of these customers. So the amount of customers doesn't really grow at the same rate as our portfolio, right? So we've adding, we've been adding a lot of products in the market. These are products that have added value that's pretty high, and we've had higher share.
So with this, we're also forced to provide better payment terms within a market reality, currently, because eventually with this, term, concerning the credit crisis last year, so it's natural that you'd work within this level currently. Another question also about the Bergamo synergies. While we considered a company that had recurring losses, so that's why we had a specific type of acquisition. But because of this, we suffered in the first semester where we took over the company, which is the third and fourth quarter. Last year, we were able to really capture this kind of situation of the losses suffered by the company, and besides this, the company didn't prepare because the former shareholder of the company didn't really create like a spin-off process in the company.
So we had all this, shared self-service and expenses, with the former shareholder when it comes to IT, administrative aspects, logistics. So we had, this high cost of expenses. So it's important to highlight that despite these results in the company, you, taking place, and being kind of hindered by this acquisition, but in the same way as the results in the company were also, hindered, right? So with this, these investments that the company's been working on with the organic growth in Latin America and Americas, which also still bring negative, results to the company. So it's really important that investors, sell-side analysts, et cetera, can understand that the company can deliver results that are really unique cases.
So our results could be a lot higher, of course, if we considered all of these non-recurring expenses in the future in our business. Well, I think that when it comes to Bergamo's specific case, and we bring this into our base from the first of June. In the first semester, we were still operating with a structure that was very shared within the environment. So now, in the first of January, we already started including this into our base, and we've been operating this within our systems, all of the processes we already had. And now is when we actually start capturing the synergies and really leverage the operation, and we stop having negative margins and start having positive margins. Yeah. So we still have a Bergamo maturity stage, really. Exactly.
Okay, perfect, guys. Thanks for the answers.
Thank you, Felipe. Now we're gonna move on to the question from Leandro Bastos at Citi.
Hi, guys. Good morning. Well, we have two points here on our side. First, could you talk about the overall public bids for the acquisition of Alpha and the share of these products without the records and the registration? So, could you explain a little bit of an update on this and what your perspectives are towards this matter with these non-licensed products participating in the public bids? That's the first. But the second point is more like on the specialty side. We see that you mentioned prices that are a little more stable. So if you could, just give us an update on the competitive scenario, how you've been looking at this in the beginning of 2024.
Thanks for the question. So let's start off with the answers.
When it comes to pressure and the prices, as you mentioned, we went through the year of 2023 with pressures and prices that were quite significant, and we had an atypical classification. We had really high stocks. So we noticed that this situation was most impacted in the company's results due to this situation. As we started distributing these stocks at prices that were cheaper, which is what we mentioned in my part of the presentation, we start seeing results of this inversion. So we start having a ramp up of an improved result. So last year, we had this price pressure, but this pressure is already stabilized, and we can see that there are improvements with these new stocks and new acquisitions that the company's been working on.
We had important free negotiations with our suppliers, so we've been able to achieve better results. This is a situation from now on. Now the company doesn't really need to keep such high stocks. So what was a prior policy to keep high stocks, to not have a lack in the market due to the pandemic, with logistical challenges and the lockdowns, then we eliminated the situation now. The company has a lot more comfort and more access to inputs from suppliers. The procurement costs are a lot lower now, and you can maybe assess a different level of stock, of stocks. But I think 2023 was a year where you're really, like, putting on the brakes, right? Because you're coming from a scenario with supply and demand.
In 2023, you went through this correction, right? So it's natural that now we'd see a more normalized market when it comes to prices. Of course, with all the competitive advantage that the market has, but, the, supply and demand is at a level that's a lot more normalized. Well, besides all of this, the company also had important operational leverage, which was very significant. Last year, we increased our capacity, we launched new products, and so all of this contributed to an improvement in our margins. Now, moving on to the first question about the, Alpha, public bid and immunoglobulin and other bids. Also, with the recommendation from the Court of Auditors to use RDC, which is an exceptional case, for the acquisition of, drugs during the pandemic without the registrations from ANVISA.
Now, the recommendation from the Federal Court of Accounts changed, and now they're really going back to the situation where you have to consider the best economic conditions, right? In the state. So, the entire market has been debating this understanding from the Federal Court of Accounts, because today there's, like, a bit of a convergence also among all the stakeholders in the system. So we can see that our competitors hadn't really manifested themselves yet. So even FIESP, CNI and ANVISA, the Ministry of Health, et cetera, were kind of debating all of the situation. So they're all converging now to the same understanding that this is an absurd. So it doesn't really make sense to have a regulated company that's present in the company...
In the country, sorry, investing millions of BRL in R&D, and then to really follow these assumptions, and you see this unloyal competition scenario and unfair competition scenario. And when it-- without the actual studies, without a practice, the best practices in the production plan, according to the overall assumptions by ANVISA. So it's a total absurd. We've implemented all of the possible initiatives to-- alongside the judicial power. We have another situation, which is the public bid for Alpha is suspended, actually, and the immunoglobulin is also headed towards the same direction. So they're all waiting around, and so everyone's waiting for the Supreme Court to manifest themselves about this understanding.
So there's even a question about who they should follow, if they should follow the law or if they should follow the understanding from the Supreme Court. So just to give you an idea of where we're headed, right? So it's a very atypical situation, and we hope that this can guide not only the investments with Blau in the future in Brazil, but also for our competitors. So, to invest in this regulated market and, this is, sometimes completely unproductive, right? To consider a national industry that's strengthened, that can meet the needs, the sanitary and health, needs, right? So it's a situation we are convinced it will be solved as soon as possible, because if not, we're going to have a lack of supply in certain, drugs.
Thank you, Marcelo. So thanks, Leandro. Now we'll head to Guilherme Vilela's question from JP Morgan. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to get your guys' feeling with a bit of a follow-up on the previous question about competition in the, oncology specialties when it comes to pricing and contract negotiations, right? So what's your mindset on this with the normalization in the segment? And secondly, it would be great if you guys could give us an update on what-- when it comes to the P1000, with the timeline and the new openings, et cetera. Thank you, guys.
Okay, thanks for the question. When it comes to specialties in oncology, I think we're really, well-positioned, and we have an oncology manufacturing plant with high production capacity. We have a very robust portfolio.
We're well-positioned, and we've been able to really handle competition and be competitive still. So one point to demonstrate Blau's positioning here on this aspect, and getting back to the topic of the competitor for Alpha, because I forgot to mention this, is that we won the bid. Even we were disputing against a Chinese company that did not meet the sanitary or health requirements in Brazil, with all of the assumptions considered, we still won with the best price. So it demonstrates our positioning and our stance as a local producer, you know, that's competitive and can really dispute markets with companies like companies in India or China, right? So the local production is still a important strength in a competitive scenario.
So I see that the investments we have in the production plan, the capacity of our production. I always see... I look at this as positive, right? So about your question. Yeah, P1000 . Exactly. Okay. So about P1000 , we continue to have the intention to set up a factory. We will actually held on to these investments a bit. So 2023 was not the year where we had so much cash generation as we had imagined. So we continue to keep our project and our commitment with the state of Pernambuco, and we plan to be a little slower now, but we should start construction during 2024 already. This is our objective.
We see the centralization of all of our operation in a single spot as something very positive, and we also see the tax benefit, potential that that state will provide, as well as the Sudene, agreement with the, income tax benefit. So I think that this... So the investment thesis did not change. What we did was just readjust the timeline and the schedules, because in 2023, with Bergamo, we already added a lot of productive capacity, especially for oncology products, which the company has been launching gradually. So all of this is kind of in line with the strategic plan, but the investment thesis did not change. Besides all of this, the company expects to have cash generation this year, next year, and the next years, and this investment will be, phased out, right?
So it's not going to be like a single investment, which is why we believe that with our own cash generation, we'll be able to handle this, and we won't have to mess with the leverage. Okay, exactly. Great, guys, thank, thank you. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Guilherme. Well, now, the questions that have been sent by text, the investor relations team will answer by email later on, and I'll pass the floor on to Marcelo for his final remarks. Well, I want to highlight that the investments in 2023 are fundamental to deliver our results in the next years. It's really gratifying to see Blau's continued evolution over the past years, but the transformation that's coming in the future is even more impressive.
In 2024, we're going to start a new cycle of growth, and we'll start reaping the last year's investments, driven by the company's new sources of revenue. And in addition, synergies with Bergamo and the optimization of, working capital, operational improvements, and launches, we're going to help with the evolution of our results. In 2025, we should already see even more transformational things like Prothya, which should be an important highlight, and the acceleration of our internationalization process. Prothya gives us great exposure to revenue and hard currency and enables us to enter new markets with a better positioning, which is an important step to verticalize our production. In 2023, Prothya exceeded EUR 315 million in revenue, with a higher turnover than, Blau. You can see how potential this operation really is.
In the next coming years, we have important milestones with the verticalization of strategic products, expansion of our capacity, and tax optimization, as well as the launch of the four monoclonal antibodies that are under development. We're convinced that the current investments are going to change the level at Blau. This new growth cycle, as well as in the previous cycles, will present the expected returns for all company stakeholders, shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and the entire community that we impact with our medication and our ESG actions. So Blau is just getting started. Join us. Thank you so much, and I hope 2024 can be a great year for all of us. Thank you all so much, Blauers. Thank you.