Good morning, and welcome to the 2nd quarter of 2023 results conference call of Banco BTG Pactual. With us today, we have Roberto Sallouti, Renato Cohn, Julia Rocha. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded, and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the bank's presentation. After Banco BTG Pactual's remarks, there will be a question and answer session for investors and analysts, when further instructions will be given. Should any participant need assistance during this call, please press star zero to reach the operator. Today, we have a simultaneous webcast that may be accessed through the website www.btgpactual.com/ir and the platform. There will be a replay facility for this call from today.
Before proceeding, let me mention that this call may contain forward-looking statements relating to the prospects of the business, estimate, estimates for operating and financial results, and those related to the growth prospects of Banco BTG Pactual. These are merely projections, and as such, are based exclusively on the expectations of Banco BTG Pactual's management concerning the future of the business. Such forward-looking statements depend substantially on changes in market conditions, government regulations, competitive pressures, and performance of the Brazilian economy and the industry, among other factors and risks disclosed in Banco BTG Pactual's filed disclosure documents, and are therefore subject to change without prior notice. Now, I'll turn the floor to Mr. Roberto Sallouti, who will begin the presentation. Mr. Sallouti, you may please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good morning to all of you. If we could please start with page three of the presentation, where we have the highlights of the second quarter. Starting with bullet point number one, this was an all-time high net income for BTG, with another quarter of record revenues and increasing operational leverage. We expect this operational leverage to continue over the next few years as we, we mature the new business lines and new segments which we entered over the last few years. We had a very strong net new money of BRL 61 billion in the quarter, leading us to a total of assets under management of BRL 1.4 trillion.
We had outstanding results in our sales and trading units, due to the expanding client activity efforts that we've been building over the last few years, efficient risk allocation in the quarter. Finally, we had an adjusted return on equity in the quarter of 22.7%. If you, if you don't consider the accounting treatment given to the purchase of the portfolios of credit that we bought from Banco Pan, but you take into account what was reported by Banco Pan as the income there, we would have had an return on equity of 25.2% in the quarter. If you turn to page 4, we talk a bit more about a bit more in detail about these highlights.
We had total revenues of BRL 5.4 billion in the quarter, 21% growth year-over-year. Net income of BRL 2.6 billion, 18% growth year-over-year, and as previously stated, 22.7% ROE. If you turn to page 5, we give a bit more detail, the very strong impulse we have leading to BRL 1.4 trillion assets under management. Net new money was roughly BRL 35.5 billion from wealth management, and BRL 25.5 billion from asset management, totaling BRL 61 billion. We finished with assets in our wealth management unit of BRL 633 billion, a growth of 36% year-over-year, and of BRL 768 billion in asset management, at 27% growth year-over-year.
Turning to page six, we talk a bit about our expanding funding base, our robust capitalization, and the continued growth of our credit portfolio. Our funding base grew 10% year-over-year to BRL 182 billion. We finished the quarter with a Basel ratio of 15.4%. However, it's important to notice that the regulatory changes to the RWA calculations as of July 1st, would have made us have an 80 basis points increase in this ratio. In last quarter, we had a market risk of RWA, higher than our historical pattern, and we expect over the next few quarters to return to this historical pattern.
Finally, our corporate and SME credit portfolio grew 31% year-over-year to BRL 154 billion, which puts us back on track to reach the guidance of the mid-teens growth we had for our credit portfolio for the year. Turning to page seven, we have the traditional way in which we show revenues and results. Revenues, BRL 5.4 billion, net income of BRL 2.6 billion, ROE 22.7%, a net income per unit of BRL 0.68. We had a cost-to-income in line with the last quarter, but below our historical average of 39.3%. A comp ratio of 22.4%. Total assets of BRL 475 billion, shareholders' equity of BRL 46.7 billion, and in the quarter, we had a VaR of 46 basis points.
If you turn to page eight, we talk about the numbers for the first half of the year, where we had a return on equity of 21.7%. We had total revenues of BRL 10.2 billion, net income of BRL 4.8 billion, net income per unit of BRL 1.27. Cost-to-income in line with the second quarter and below our historical average of 39.3%. Equity, equity increasing 13% year-over-year to BRL 46.7 billion. VaR, if you consider the first half, closer to the recent past at 37 Bs, but still a bit above what we've been conducting business. If you turn to page nine, you have the distribution of the last 12 months versus the previous 12 months.
As expected, you see a fall in investment banking within the guidance of 20%. Corporate and SME lending is greatly affected by the one-off we had in the fourth quarter. Once this rolls off by Q4 this year, we will be seeing a strong growth in the credit business. Sales and trading growing a robust 18%, as it is benefiting from the expansion into new products, new market segments, better fiduciary perception, maturing of these investments. A very continued strong growth in asset and wealth management between 25% and 35%, and we expect these two business lines to continue to outgrow the other ones. In the end, this gives a very balanced and healthy division among, let's say, corporate and investment banking, markets, and investment management.
Exactly what, what we expect and what we want with our business. Finally, on page 10, we talk a bit about our ESG and impact investing, highlights for the quarter. We were recognized by Global Finance for the first blue bond transaction in Brazil in the Innovators Award. We received various, leadership awards in the Sustainable Finance Awards. By Institutional Investor, we were elected the best ESG research team in Latin America and Brazil, and were elected by World Finance, the most sustainable bank in Brazil. In our business activity, we also acquired a minority stake in Systemica, which structures, develops, and commercializes carbon projects and other environmental assets. The idea with this investment is to continue to contribute to the transition economy and promote carbon markets.
finally, this quarter, we issued another $1.1 billion of green and sustainable bonds for our clients. With this, I pass the floor to Renato Cohn, which will talk about each of the business lines in more detail. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Roberto, good afternoon, everyone. Going to our specifics business lines, we start with our investment banking on page 2, sorry, page 12, where we see that we had better performance during this quarter when we compare to previous quarter, recording BRL 306 million in revenues, which is an 18% increase when we compare to the first quarter of 2023. Market activity improved during the quarter, with a higher number of transactions in both DCM and in ECM markets. As we mentioned, during our last quarterly call, we already anticipated a better market activity, especially for DCM, although not yet the same levels of what we experienced throughout 2022.
The good news here is that we had our best quarter in DCM since fourth quarter 2021, with many follow-ons and also block trades, representing a total volume of close to BRL 10 billion in executed transactions. We are seeing a similar pattern during the third quarter of 2023. As we start a new easing cycle in our domestic interest rates, we expect market activity to continue to improve during the second half. Going now to our corporate lending business on page 13, we would like to highlight here that differently from the previous quarter, when we took a more conservative approach as a consequence of the macroeconomic scenario and some specific events that impacted the credit markets, we resumed the process of credit portfolio expansion.
Total portfolio grew by 7% during the quarter, which is a similar pace we have been experiencing in previous quarters throughout 2022. Most of the expansion occurred in our large corporate portfolio, as we focus new disbursements to more premium counterparties at attractive spreads. We also continued to acquire payroll loan portfolios from Banco Pan at similar spreads of transactions that we did in previous quarters. Our revenues also grew by 7% when you compare to the first quarter of 2023, and 46% when you compare to the second quarter of last year. In July, we announced a joint venture with Senior Sistemas, creating a platform that will offer and connect BTG Pactual financial products and services to Senior's exclusive client base. Going now to our sales and trading on page 14.
We had once again record revenues in a single quarter, reaching BRL 1.887 billion, which is a 27% increase when we compare to the first quarter of 2023, as we continue to expand our client base and also the wide range of products available to them, at the same time, benefiting from our efficient market risk allocation process. On this process, our average VaR, as Roberto mentioned, increased 46 basis points, which is still below our historical levels. For the third consecutive year, we were voted Best Research, Sales, Trading, and Corporate Access Teams in both Latin America and Brazil by Institutional Investor. It obviously makes us very proud that our research team was ranked first in 18 out of 25 categories in II.
Going now to our asset management business on page 15, we see that we produced revenues of BRL 431 million, which is a marginal reduction when we compare to previous quarter, but it's a 7% increase when we compare to the second quarter of 2022. The main reason here was somewhat lower performance fees, which are usually recognized during the second and the fourth quarters, while we recognize dividends from third-party independent asset management firms that we partner with, we recognize them during the first and the third quarters. Assets under management and administrations reached BRL 768 billion, which is a 7% increase during the quarter, and a 27% increase when we compare to last year.
We recorded strong net inflows of more than BRL 25 billion, despite general industry outflows of BRL 131 billion during the quarter, which proves the robustness of our business. If you look at the consolidated numbers during the first half, we had BRL 38 billion of net new money inflows, while the industry suffered more than BRL 200 billion of outflows. Again, as we enter in this new easing cycle in our domestic interest rates, we foresee a better environment for the asset management industry. Going now to our wealth management business, we see that we had another quarter of record revenues, and actually this is the 18th consecutive quarter of revenues growth. During this period, we multiplied our revenues by 5.5 x.
Revenues reached BRL 727 million, which is a 4.8 increase when we compare to the first quarter of 2023, a 17% increase when we compare to the previous year. The highlight here during this quarter, I think, was the strong net new money of more than BRL 35 billion. This is, this was our best quarter since 2021, and it proves the quality of our network and our distribution capabilities. Even in this macroeconomic challenging scenario, our client base continues to grow consistently. Wealth under management increased 11% during the quarter. This was supported by the combination of the strong net new money inflows that I just mentioned, and also positive market performance.
When we compare this number to this, the last year, the second quarter of last year, our wealth under management increased by 36%. Going now to page 17, our participation in principal investments. We start with participations, where we recorded a loss of BRL 54 million, which can be better understood looking at the top at the right side, top part of the page. There we see, and similar to previous quarters, we are showing in detail the impacts of our decision to continue to acquire payroll loan portfolios from Banco Pan. During this quarter, we see that the elimination effect related to those acquisitions was BRL 285 million.
participation's result is the sum of a BRL 47 million profit coming from Too Seguros, a BRL 126 million profit from our stake at Banco Pan, a BRL 58 million reais accrual from the portfolios that we acquired during the fourth quarter of 2022 and first quarter of 2023, and the elimination effect of BRL 285 million reais related to the acquisition of portfolios during this second quarter. Important to note that during the third quarter, we expect this accrual to increase by approximately BRL 25 million reais, as a consequence of the portfolios that we acquired now during the second quarter.
In principal investments, we posted BRL 72 million in revenues, which is a 34% increase when we compare to the previous quarter, and this came as a result of better contributions from our seed investments. Going now to our expenses on page 19, we see that total operating expenses increased by 12.4% during the quarter, and this came mostly as a consequence of higher bonus, which is obviously derived from higher revenues. Salaries and benefits slightly increased by 1% during the quarter, as we keep stable levels of headcount, and administrative and others increased by 4.1%. Our effective tax rate remained stable at 20.1%, and was mostly impacted by our interest on equity provision and a favorable revenue mix.
Going now to our balance sheet on page 21, we see that total assets reach BRL 475 billion, which is a slight increase of less than 1%. Our total assets now represents 9.6x our equity, which is a reduction when we compare to the 10.1x it was during the last quarter. We increased our liquidity levels to BRL 66 billion, which means that our cash and cash equivalents now represents 1.4x our net equity. Our LCR rating stayed at 157% during the quarter.
Now, our corporate and SME lending portfolio represents 3.3x our net equity, which is a slight increase from the previous quarter when it was at 3.2x our equity, despite the strong portfolio growth of 7%. This is still a very conservative level, especially when we compare to our peers. Going now to our unsecured funding base. We continue to expand our funding base, reaching now BRL 182 billion, and at the same time, we continue to increase the market share of the retail funding, which now represents 32.1% of our total funding. Important to note that the total funding base increased by 1.8% during the quarter, despite the US dollar depreciation against the Brazilian real of around 5%.
In June, we successfully issued a 10-year subordinated CRA, totaling BRL 3.5 billion at very favorable conditions. Finally, going to our Basel ratio, we see, as Roberto mentioned, that we finished the quarter with a Basel ratio of 15.4%, with a Core Equity Tier 1 at 12.2%. Also, as he mentioned, this came before the changes in risk-weighted assets calculation determined by the Brazilian Central Bank, that as of July 1st, changed and increased our Basel ratio by 79 basis points. Finally, as we mentioned before, our VaR increased 46 basis points, which is still below historical levels.
With that, we conclude our presentation, highlighting again, the very strong net new money flows in both our wealth and our asset management, increasing revenues in almost all our business lines, and record consolidated revenues for the bank and overall profits. Again, thank you very much, and we can open for questions.
Thank you. The floor is now open for questions from investors and analysts. If you have a question, please press star one on your touchtone phone at this time. If at any point your question is answered, you can remove yourself from the queue by pressing star then two. Questions will be taken in the order they are received. We would ask you to please pick up your handset when you ask your question in order to ensure optimum sound quality. Please hold while we pull for questions. Our first question comes from Tito Labarta with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for the call and taking my question. Congratulations on the, on the strong results. A couple questions, I guess, first, yeah, how do you think about the sustainable ROE of the bank? I mean, you're doing, you know, much better than expected, you know, on 23%, and if you, if you strip out the Banco Pan impacts, as you mentioned, 25%. You know, and particularly, you know, as rates come down, you know, there should be some tailwinds for, for the business. How, how do you think about the long-term sustainability of the ROE? And just to clarify, w-when should the negative impact from the Banco Pan portfolio acquisitions go away so that you get to, I guess, a more normalized level?
The second question, you mentioned, as you know, the market risk went up in the quarter, which impacted your capital a bit despite the strong level of profitability. You said that should normalize, I think, would it normalize already next quarter? You know, given the strength in sales and trading, I mean, do you expect any other headwinds to your capital base or any adjustments from that perspective? Thank you.
Thanks, Tito. On your first point of ROE, just remember, we've always said that our goal is to have an above 20% ROE. This year, we came with a guidance of above 20.9, which was the return on equity that we had last year.
As you said, this quarter, we, we, we had strong results, so 22.7%. I, I think we're not ready to give any sustainable guidance, but I would say that for the next two quarters, we expect, there's a big chance that we have something along the lines, plus minus, let's say, a 0.5% of where we were this quarter, we think is, is reasonable for the short term. As you said, the CD rates will come down. We expect, as you know, our capital is basically cash, so we benefit from that, and we expect to hopefully more than compensate that as our business lines pick up with increased market activity. On your second point on Banco Pan, basically, always part of its business is selling portfolio it originates. It has been...
We have been competing with the markets. We think that at the current spreads we've been buying, it's a good allocation of capital. It really depends on what the competition is going to be. If the market base, it's important that Banco Pan sells some to the markets. We, we agree on that, especially to make sure that everybody sees that these transactions happen at arm's length and at market prices. Assuming Banco Pan goes to selling 100% of its portfolio to the market, then we get rid of this neutralization that we're happening, and we go back to historical, let's say, standards. At the same time, we're quite comfortable and quite happy to buy these portfolios.
I think it's gonna be it's, it's hard to anticipate what will happen, but the truth is, in both scenarios, we are creating value. One is recognized, let's say, in one quarter, while in the other, this is spread out over 10 quarters. When we look at the, at the economic value being created, we're talking more or less about the same thing. Finally, on RWA, it's too early to say if we anticipate that it will be in this quarter, next quarter or the following, but clearly, we... I mean, it's pretty clear, we, we, we thought there was a good opportunity to allocate risks to interest rates in Brazil, as we thought they would reprice. This repricing is happening, as we always told you, we're very transparent on this.
Different to what happened with the regional banks in the U.S., where you had a lot of market risk on the balance sheet, which was not reported and not transparent and not marked to market. When we decide to run market risk, it is very transparent. It's reported in our VaR, in our RWA, and it's marked to market. That leaves all of you very comfortable that we have no structural market risk in our balance sheet. Everything is liquid, marked to market, and reported. As I said, it's probably in the next two, three quarters, we return back to normality, we don't expect any, any headwinds for capital usage and sales entry.
Okay, great. Thanks, Sallouti. That's very helpful. Maybe a couple of follow-ups, if I can. Just to clarify on the ROE, the plus or minus 50 bits that you mentioned, that, that assumes that the Banco Pan continues to negatively impact. Just wanna clarify that, because I think for that to go away, it seems it, it'll take longer. And then just one other follow-up on the RWA, more just from a, a capital perspective, I mean, just given the strong growth that you're seeing, you know, and we've gotten some questions, you know, under what scenario, if any, would you consider raising capital? Is that something...
I, I know you're gonna get a boost from the RWA adjustment that you mentioned in July, but just curious if there's any scenario where you see you, you could need capital at some point.
On the ROE, sincerely, I'm not ready to give any guidance there, because we end up, we end up, let's say, putting ourselves to commitments that not ready to give at this point. It's hard to say what will happen with Banco Pan. That's why I don't want to commit, and I want to stick to the original guidance of above 20.9. Just I try to give you a feeling of where we see the business now. On capital raise, I think we would have to see a scenario of opportunities to allocate capital similar to what we saw in the previous three capital raises, where we were gaining market share and opportunities were very robust for both organic and inorganic growth, that we thought it would be willing.
At the current scenario, we're not seeing that. Again, markets are dynamic, and that can change. It would have to be a very compelling opportunity to allocate capital organically and inorganically at a faster pace of which we are accruing profits, which, as you stated previously, are quite robust at the moment.
Okay. No, that's very clear now. Thank you, Sallouti, and, and congrats again on the good, on the strong results.
Thanks, Tico.
Our next question comes from Nicolas Riva with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the chance to ask questions. I have three questions. The first one on the local debt market in Brazil, following the Americanas default earlier this year, I understand there hadn't been much issuance, debt issuance domestically. If you can share some insight, given your DCM business, if you can share some insights into the current state of the local debt market in Brazil? second question, we saw that the Tier 2 capital increased by about BRL 3.5 billion in the quarter. You mentioned in the earnings release, a local subordinated.
issuance, I wanted to ask you if we should read this issuance, this BRL 3.5 billion raised, domestically raised by Nadal, as a way of refunding the call of the 2029 Tier twos next year, which you can call in next February? The third and last question on Americanas. Given that you have built substantial amount of loan loss reserves in the fourth quarter last year, if you can, to an extent possible, provide an update regarding the discussions with the company, the likelihood of getting some kind of debt repayment, and also if you would consider reversing some of those loan loss reserves. Thanks very much.
Thank you, Nicolas, for, for the question. I think for, for the first one, related to the credit and DCM markets, I think, obviously during the first quarter, as DCM transactions mostly dried up, there was a higher search for credit transactions directly by the banks. What we are seeing now, especially in the last part of the second quarter, was, as I mentioned, a number, a higher number of transactions of DCM coming to market, which obviously alleviates also the pressure in the balance sheet of the banks. We are seeing some very strong pipeline also to be executed during the third quarter, with some transactions already being executed.
Still, we also see that with the easing cycle of interest rates, we'll see companies also looking to refinance their liabilities, not just through the DCM markets, but also looking into the balance sheet of the banks, and that's why we saw an increase in our credit exposure. Specifically, on your second question, on the CRA, the subordinated CRA, yes, obviously it will help in case of the perpetual in case we execute the call. Obviously, we haven't taken the decision. We have our subordinated loan maturing in 2029, with a call in February 2024. We'll take the decision at the appropriate time.
Obviously, this, this issuance helps a lot, in, in this aspect. Finally, related to, to Americanas, event, obviously, negotiations, continue to happen with the companies and within the banks. At the, the present time, we think we are properly, provided, for that. We don't see any, reason to either reverse or increase, our provisions. We think the provisions are, are well established there.
Thanks very much.
Our next question, Pedro Leduc with Itaú BBA. Please go ahead.
Thank you, guys, so much for the, the call and taking the question. It will be on, on corporate and SME lending, okay? It's, it's great to see the portfolio growing again, 7% Q and Q. The first part of the question here, revenues grew on a similar pace, right? 7%. If you can elaborate a little bit on, on the drivers for it to have not grown maybe faster, so just a, a visual effect or mix, had something to do with it? Second part, more importantly, how should we think about this portfolio in the second half and, and, and also into 2024?
Seems like you are more comfortable with credit risk and the cycle, so trying to gauge here if you're, if you're ready to, to accelerate growth here, if we can see SMEs contributing again, essentially if you're more comfortable in leveraging up now from the 3.2x or 3 x that you mentioned there in the call. Thank you.
Thank you, Leduc. On the spreads, as we stated, we think we took a good advantage of the dislocation in Q4 and Q1 and Q2, to actually to, to be able to have credit transactions with attractive spreads for very solid names. That's in part what you are seeing in the results, which is a similar growth in, in both portfolio and the, the revenues. For 2023, our, our guidance still is valid, growing the portfolio in the mid-teens. We're not ready yet to give any guidance for 2024, but I think it, it should be something, another, another growth similar to 2023, maybe a bit more, a bit less, but we're, we're still operating to give that guidance. Definitely, we're more comfortable to, to continue to grow our portfolio, and especially to...
Not especially, but also including growing the SME side.
Again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your touchtone phone. Please hold again while we pull for questions. Our next question is a follow-up from Tito Labarta. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks, taking a follow-up question here. Maybe just one follow-up on, on the sales and trading. You know, very strong results there, you know, well above, you know, what you've done in the past. Just, you know, given the increased client flows that you've been getting, how, how do you think about the sustainability of that sales and trading number? Should we expect the normalization back to what we've seen in prior quarters? You know, just given the difficulty in forecasting that, any color you can give would, would be helpful. Thank you.
Look, the structural trend is very strong of being, let's say more predictable, more robust, more replicable, so we're comfortable with that. We're still comfortable with the guidance of the moving average of the last four quarters is a very good predictor, ± some volatility of what that business plan looks like.
Okay, that's clear. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Our next question is a follow-up from Pedro Leduc with Itaú BBA. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the follow-up. A little bit now on the asset and wealth management returns or ROAS, no? There's a small decline on the yields Q on Q as expected, no, and you mentioned there's some effects about it. Also the net new money pace very solid on the wealth on both fronts. Can you elaborate a little bit on the underlying drivers for them, especially on the net new money front, and if we could see it keeping up or maybe even growing more in the second half as the markets improve? A little bit more on wealth and asset take rates, pace of growth, what we should we see going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Leduc. Clearly, I think we're able to continue to deliver strong net new money in both businesses on a very challenging environment, which is of high interest rates and of the, let's say, the big retail banks being quite aggressive at the rates they were paying for deposits with overnight liquidity. Of course, when interest rates go back to, let's say, normalized levels or neutral rates in Brazil, we expect that to benefit both the pace of net new money and the pace of our AuA expansion in both of these businesses. We're still in the early stages of this interest rate cycle. The market is pricing in, let's say, terminal rates closer to neutral. It can be a bit lower, or most likely.
With that, we're quite confident that, we have probably seen the most difficult, let's say, macro environment for these two businesses, and hopefully we can benefit in both flows and in revenues as interest rates decrease.
That's great. Thank you. Now, taking advantage that, that we have some time here on the, on the line, I want to change subjects a bit on the SME banking front. Now, you just signed an agreement with Senior Sistemas as a local software provider there. If you can maybe touch a little bit on, on what the plans are and type of, you know, what, what kind of size and KPIs guys are gonna be looking for on, on this front. Thank you.
Here, well, what we're planning as a product offering is we're still in the early stages of our banking offerings for SMEs. Every, every week, every month, we are rolling out new features. Also every week, every week, every month, competition is also rolling out new features, which makes our task a never-ending moving target. Our, our idea is hopefully by year end, we'll have a very complete product offering there. We're not really planning to come out with any KPIs here, but we expect for you to see this in the revenues of, of the, the different business units as we continue to grow this business line.
Super. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. That brings us to the end of the question and answer session. I will now return the floor to Mr. Roberto Sallouti for his closing remarks.
Once again, thank you very much for participating in the call, especially for your partnership and trust. We look forward to seeing you in our next quarterly call. Thank you very much. Have a great week.
Thank you. This concludes today's presentation. You may now disconnect your line at this time. Have a nice day.