Good day, everyone. Thank you for waiting. Welcome to BR Partners' video conference call to discuss full year 2023 results. We inform you that this video conference call is being recorded, can be accessed in the company's IR website, where you'll find the full package of our financial disclosure. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Later, we will have a question-and-answer session. To ask questions, click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and type in your question. If you prefer to use the microphone to ask questions, just let us know by message, and we will send you a request to enable your microphone. Please ask your questions all at once.
We emphasize that the information contained in this presentation and forward-looking statements that might be made during this conference call relative to BR Partners' business prospects, projections, and operating and financial targets are based on the beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as on information currently available. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as they refer to future events, and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, market conditions, and other operating factors may affect the company's future performance and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Today, we have the following officers present: Ricardo Lacerda, CEO; Marcelo Costa, CFO; José Flávio Ramos, CEO of Banco BR Partners; Danilo Catarucci, Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets; and Vinicius Carmona, IRO.
Now, I will turn the floor to Mr. Carmona, who will start the presentation. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in our video conference call to discuss full year 2023 earnings results. Before starting the presentation, I would like to thank all the investors who supported us during the difficult year of 2023, in which we went through different market moments, but were able to navigate well both the difficult and the more encouraging times. We thank you for your confidence in our work, and we are here pleased with our achievements in 2023, but very focused on building for 2024. Let's start with the financial highlights on slide 2. We ended the year with total revenue of BRL 436 million, up 5.4% compared to 2022.
In Q4, we posted a record revenue of BRL 124 million, up 16% quarter-on-quarter and 27% year-on-year. Client revenues, which take into account revenue from our front office lines, totaled BRL 312 million in 2023, stable compared to 2022. In Q4, revenue totaled BRL 100 million, growing 25% quarter-on-quarter and 27% compared to last year. Net income totaled BRL 155 million in 2023, up 5.4% compared to 2022. In Q4, net income totaled BRL 43 million, growing 7% quarter-on-quarter and 28% year-on-year. ROE reached 19% in 2023 and 22% in the fourth quarter. Net margin was 36% in 2023 and 35% in the fourth quarter.
Regarding our operational highlights in investment banking, we announced 25 deals in 2023, 12 of which being restructuring deals. It is also important to comment on another year in which our franchise was recognized by the market. We came second in the Bloomberg ranking, considering the number of deals announced in Brazil. We were also recognized by Euromoney for our excellence in advisory execution of our investment banking unit, as well as for our excellence in the ESG and diversity pillars. In capital markets, our debt issuances reached BRL 3.3 billion in 2023, related to 35 issuances. In wealth management, despite opening the division only a few months ago, we've already reached BRL 2.3 billion in assets under advisory, or as we call it, wealth under advisory.
On the next slide, slide 3, we'll talk about our investment in people, which was essential to achieving the results of 2023 and to starting 2024 well-structured. We've always said that our biggest differentiator is our people. Since the IPO, we have seen rapid growth in our activities, which is a reflection of the consolidation of our different business lines. Thanks to the competence of our employees, as well as the trust of our investors who supported us in the IPO, we have become an investment bank known throughout the country and have seen the number of new clients, new projects, and new activities increase considerably. Although we are still small, we play a leading role in the Brazilian capital market, and our goal is to continue to win new spaces without giving up our reputation and our quality of execution.
To this end, we are preparing for this new cycle of growth and investing in new people. As part of the business diversification and expansion pillar, we announced our debut in wealth management in 2023. We ended 2023 with an operational division and more than BRL 2 billion in Wealth Under Advisory. We ended December 2023 with 8 people on the team... with a top and senior team, and today we already have a team of 14 people. On the restructuring side, we experienced significant business growth and decided to create a division dedicated to this activity. We announced 12 deals in 2023, which was only possible because of the investment we made in the team. In treasury, sales, and structuring, we also set up the commodities trading desk, a key area for expanding the range of products that we offer.
Now, under the full spectrum of BR Partners, we are investing in seniorizing the teams. We ended the year with 158 employees, an increase of 16 people over the year, but with an important dynamic. We hired 41 people, 22 of whom for front office areas. We also saw a 31% increase in senior front office positions compared to 2022. In investment banking, we have made adjustments to our sector coverage, working with 16 internal sector divisions, which has been crucial to executing our current pipeline. In 2023 alone, there was a 39% increase in the number of deals announced compared to 2022. Finally, retaining the company's talent is key to the sustainability of our partnership model and to being ready to capture a possible new growth cycle.
37% of the headcount was promoted or hired in 2023, and with the better performance achieved by our divisions, mainly in the second half of the year, we increased the bonus provision in the fourth quarter of 2023. To continue on the next slide, we have a glimpse of the performance we have already achieved in 2023. The year 2023 was one of the company's most controversial years and one of the most difficult for us to achieve the results we have recorded. Despite a very unfavorable start to the year for capital markets and IB activities, when we saw widespread risk-off in the market and contamination of the corporate environment, we managed to gradually resume our growth. We started the year with an ROE of 17% and ended the year with an ROE of 22%, despite investing in the new wealth management platform.
We felt an improvement in the market from the second half of the year with macroeconomic data that once again stimulated the market, especially the new cycle of falling interest rates and inflation under control, as well as the start of better credit indicators on companies' balance sheets. Here at BR Partners, we ended the year with a very positive Q4. We achieved an all-time record in quarterly client revenues and in investment banking and capital markets revenue, observing a recovery in the business environment and a resumption of the pipeline of our divisions. In the graph on the left, we can see that we managed to improve BR Partners' profitability with growth in client revenues. Over the year, we saw an increase of 5 percentage points in ROE.
As we illustrated on the previous slide, our result is a reflection of the expansion of the company's activities and business areas. In 2023, we advised to 59 new clients across the different divisions of the company. Another important statistic is the recurrence of clients or what we call repeat business, which we often mention and discuss with our investors. We achieved a rate of 56% repeat clients in 2023, considering clients that we have advised more than once in different years since the IPO. In other words, from 2021 to date. This is an important metric for the markets we operate in, which are more cyclical. In addition, repeat business is a recognition of our quality of service and our clients' satisfaction.
Lastly, one of the pillars of our partnership is cross-selling, which is important if we want to expand our work with our clients in different areas and advisories. We have been monitoring and evaluating the contribution of partners in front areas in cross-selling, and we believe that we can extract more synergy from this. We have achieved 14% cross-selling, considering clients that we advised more than once and for different areas since the IPO. Now, on slide 5, we see the quarterly client revenues. Total revenue reached BRL 124 million, of which BRL 99 million, or 80%, was made up of revenue generated directly from advisory services to clients. This was the third consecutive quarter of revenue growth, which returned to 2022 levels and clearly show resumption to BR Partners' level of activity in its business lines.
On the other hand, only 20% of the quarter's revenues were made up of capital revenues, which shows the preponderance of the advisory and client business for the company's results, and a more strategic use of capital, precisely to support some fronts with our clients. Now, on the next slide, we'll talk about the performance of our business lines, starting with investment banking and capital markets. The division's revenue reached BRL 76 million in the fourth quarter, an increase of 19% quarter-on-quarter and of 34% year-on-year. We saw a resumption of M&A activities, both buy side and sell side, as well as a continuation of restructuring activities. On the capital market side, with the exception of the first quarter, when we experienced an almost collapsed market, we managed to find good opportunities for debt issuances and achieve healthy revenues.
In Q4 specifically, we had the best quarter in the division's history. For the full year, IB and Capital Markets revenues fell by 2%, mainly due to the impact of the results of Q1 of this year, which was very difficult. In the charts below, we show the breakdown of the 25 deals announced by type of advisory and by economic sector in 2023. In investment banking, the deals announced were 48% related to the restructuring business and 40% to M&A. In terms of sector breakdown, retail, financial services, and energy were the most representative sectors in our activities. On the next slide, we continue to explain the performance of the investment banking and capital markets business units. In investment banking, the company announced 25 deals since the beginning of the year, with a significant share in complex and iconic deals on the restructuring and M&A side.
In the quarter, we highlight our advisory services to the Americanas board. In M&A, we advised José Seripieri on the purchase of Amil. In the restructuring business, we advised on the restructuring of BBM Logística's liabilities and on the structuring of the court-supervised reorganization of Nexpe. At the bottom of the slide, the capital markets division issued BRL 1.1 billion in Q4 in 11 debt operations. Year to date, the volume reached BRL 3.3 billion in a total of 35 operations.
In 2023, with the well-known credit episodes that occurred in the first quarter of the year, as well as the cost of corporate debt that was still high, and a more diligent and more restricted investor market on the buying side, we faced a different dynamic in the division with smaller tickets, but with a solid pipeline and good opportunities in real estate development projects. We hope that demand for growth and CapEx can return throughout 2024, counting on the continued decline of the Selic interest rate, which is gradually reducing the cost of debt for issuers and, consequently, deleveraging of companies. I now hand over to Marcelo Costa, who will continue the presentation.
Hello, good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here again. On the next slide, we will show you the results of treasury, sales, and restructuring. The area achieved revenues of BRL 65 million for the year, up 4% over 2022. In addition to this growth in revenue compared to 2022, we believe that 2023 was a very important year to strengthen our franchise. We had significant growth in the number of clients, which quarter after quarter have allowed us to grow our recurring revenues in FX and commodities operations, which compensated for a more difficult year in the structuring of swaps linked to the client's primary issuance in the capital markets.
As a result, we ended the fourth quarter with revenues of BRL 22 million, a substantial improvement of 51% vis-a-vis the third quarter of 2023, which is explained by the resumption of the primary capital market, which generated good opportunities for structuring swaps. We were pleased with the division's result, which once again showed strong resilience in terms of revenue generation. On slide 9, we can see the result of the asset management line, which contemplates revenues from the investments and wealth management areas. Revenue totaled BRL 6 million in 2023, up by 8% compared to 2022. The unit's revenue reflects management fees from FIPs and management fees from the wealth management business, which, although it began operations in the fourth quarter, already has BRL 2.3 billion of wealth under advisory.
We are very optimistic with the development of the wealth platform, and we were able to attract major clients at the end of last year. The platform is now 100% operational, and we will continue to invest in improving some services, mainly on the digital platform, in order to enhance the customer experience. At the bottom of the slide, we see the results of capital revenues, which stood at BRL 124 million in 2023, which is a 24% increase, explained by the higher average CDI in 2023 vis-à-vis 2022, and also by the expansion of the private securities portfolio. On slide 10, we have our performance indicators.... Here we show the evolution of profits, which totaled BRL 155.1 million in 2023, up 5.4% year-on-year.
But also with a substantial improvement after a sensitive first quarter due to credit events and also the deterioration of the corporate environment. In the quarter, the company posted profits of BRL 43.1 million, up 7.4% over the previous quarter. The net margin remained at a healthy level of 36%. In the top right-hand chart, our efficiency ratio reached 45.5%, and although it is a healthy index, the increase compared to the same period of 2022 is due to the structuring of the wealth management platform and investments in people, as explained by Vinicius on slide three.
There was also an increase in admin expenses due to the increase in the company's operating activities and also in commercial expenses with commissions, which are incentives paid to commercial partners for participating in some transactions among the different lines of business, which is what we call referral fees. The compensation ratio stood at 28.1%. Now, as for the profitability shown at the bottom of the slide, as already mentioned, we achieved an ROE of 22% in the fourth quarter, showing a significant improvement in relation to the start of the year. On slide 11, we show the growth of our private securities and bridge loans portfolio, which stood at 2.1 billion BRL at the end of December 2023, remaining flat when compared to September, but growing by 41.5% year-on-year.
This quarter, we took out some bridge loan operations that were structured in the first half of the year and that were removed from the bank's balance sheet, which explains the stability of the portfolio. For the year, the growth is explained by the activity of the capital markets division, in line with our strategy of using capital intelligently and more actively in the debt issuances we structure and co-invested with our investors. It is worth noting that 100% of this portfolio is made up of debt securities that we originate, structure, and distribute from companies that go through a full due diligence by our credit and risk areas. We would point out that 98% of our portfolio is rated between double A and B, and has no delinquent loans in accordance with the criteria of Resolution 2682 from the Central Bank of Brazil.
Also, in the first chart, we present the bank's leverage, which stood at 3.1 times at the end of December, a moderate increase over the year, but which still leaves plenty of room for the continuation of our asset growth strategy while respecting our strict credit quality criteria. With regards to the Basel ratio, we ended the quarter with a healthy ratio of 18.2%. It is important to mention that we issue a subordinated MBS eligible for capital in the amount of BRL 73 million, which is now included in Basel Tier 2. We are comfortable, and we have room to continue allocating capital strategically and helping to grow our derivatives, derivative activities and private securities portfolio over the coming quarters.
On slide 12, we show the evolution of the company's shareholders' equity, which stood at BRL 821 million in December 2023. The reduction in the bank's equity, you know, quarter-on-quarter, was due to the distribution of intragroup interest on capital in the amount of BRL 43 million. At the bottom of the slide, we present the evolution of the company's funding. We reached funding of approximately BRL 2.7 billion in December 2023. The growth in funding is purely tactical, since we found a good funding window at the end of 2023 and took the opportunity to renew our pipeline, observing some future maturities, raising at competitive rates, and also to extend our funding. With this, I would like to reinstate that we continue to maintain very comfortable levels of liquidity.
And finally, on slide 13, we are proposing the payment of dividends for the fourth quarter of 2023, but this is still subject to approval at, by the ordinary extraordinary general meeting to be held on March 19, 2024. If approved, BRL 0.12 per unit will be paid, totaling BRL 1.14 per unit in dividends paid related to the year of 2023, which is the equivalent to a dividend yield of 10% and a payout of 77%. Finally, I would like to emphasize that we are pleased with the results we have achieved, despite all the challenges already mentioned here, and that we have a very prepared and motivated team with partners very much aligned and confident in the company's long-term growth capacity.
Now, we conclude our presentation and open the floor for questions from our investors. Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you want to ask a question, click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and type your question to get in line. When you are announced, a prompt to enable your microphone will appear on the screen, and you must open your mic to ask questions. We recommend that you ask your questions all at once. To start, our first question comes from Mateus Raffaell i with Itaú BBA.
Because considering our products, MBS and ABS, the style of product that we are working with, well, these are products that were, in a way, already included in what they wanted to restrict in terms of scope. To give you an idea, from 2020, only 2% of the MBS and ABS that we issued would be impacted. In our current pipeline, none would be impacted. Of course, we cannot look at this in an isolated fashion. For the capital markets, there's also one side that can be positive. No one actually really knows what the dynamics will be like. But in this restriction, they mention instruments of financial institutions, LCI, LCA, and even MBS and ABS from financial institutions. Well, this will release resources for other market instruments: infrastructure debentures, as you mentioned, agribusiness investment funds, rates.
Of course, individuals who were investing in LCI, LCA, MBS, ABS from the mainstream banks will migrate to funds, open funds, closed funds, and other incentivized products. So the effect... the effect of this second effect cannot be quantified yet, but I guess that overall, when we have this kind of restriction, we reduce our flexibility to originate new deals. Super clear. Thank you. If I may ask a second question, please. We saw a good evolution of revenues with all business divisions performing really well. The top line came with a more loaded OpEx in the quarter. I know there was the bonus, the wealth management expenses, optimization of the team, but what can you expect in terms of personnel and administrative expenses along 2024?
Can we expect a normalization of the efficiency ratio in the coming quarters, or are you expecting more pressure of this, given the investments made, in people? Perfect. As you mentioned, and you put it really well, there was a bonus effect, which is something that we normally calibrate in the last quarter of the year, because that's when we have visibility of the result for the full year. There is also an effect of market movement when we left a, a 2022 market. Entering 2023, we had a market in frank deceleration, with less pressure for human resources. Now, we see a generalized market improvement. So you're stepping on the gas in 2024. So we made a management decision to invest in our people, to reward and retain the most sensitive talents for us.
In addition, we had a headcount increase in 2024 of about 11%, which helps explain this increase in the personnel expense line, because these are new business areas, such as the debt restructuring division, which is now quite profitable in our wealth management division, which is already bearing fruits much earlier than we expected. So this is investment that makes us very pleased. There is also the point about seniorization, to seniorize the teams. So this increase in personnel cost refers to, mostly to variable compensation. So in 2022, this accounted for 57%. In 2023, it increased to 60%. So it's nothing that will increase our fixed costs or that will be irreversible. It's basically a management decision, and it is something that was applied very broadly by the firm.
To give you an idea, our compensation cost with the management committee dropped 2 percentage points from 2022 to 2023, from 14% to 12%. So it was basically a combination of all of these elements, but in a clear management logic to manage our human resources. Given the characteristic of our business, human resources are very important. Very clear. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next question from Ricardo Buchpiguel , sell-side BTG Pactual. Ricardo, we will enable your microphone so you can ask a question. Go ahead. Good afternoon. I have two questions. First, since we are kind of halfway in Q1, could you comment on the pipeline of deals for M&A and DCM in Q4, considering what we saw in Q1, actually, considering what we saw in Q4?
Could you comment on the increment in sales and trading, if it's really linked to this increment in the franchise that was mentioned in the presentation? And to what extent we had more specific and market factors influencing an increase to BRL 22 million? And then I'll ask my second question. Well, Ricardo, as I have been mentioning in prior calls, and we also talked about this in the earnings release, the year of 2023 started very difficult, with first quarter, in addition to deceleration in several segments, in Q1, we faced those credit events, which were very traumatic in the beginning of 2023. There was some recovery in Q2, Q3 of 2023, but these recoveries were... I should not be humble. I should say they're more linked to our own merit and not really to market improvement. I mean, we made some adjustments.
We were, in a way, lucky, and we were able to post improvement in Q2 and Q3 in a year that was extremely volatile. Starting in Q4, we saw generalized improvement in the market in all our, our business lines, which is what we are presenting today in today's call. We had a record top line, record bottom line, and significant growth in all business lines. And we see this being confirmed in the start of 2024 when we look at our pipeline. And more than that, when we look at the conversion of pipeline into deals, we are at the same level, if not better, than what we had in Q4, and with a very positive outlook. It is also important to say that, the major transactions or deals that we announced in Q4 have not yet had revenues accounted for.
These revenues will be accounted for in the next two quarters. So the environment is a lot more positive, a lot more benign. We are rather optimistic. I believe that the only element that puts us in doubt regarding the extension of market improvement is the capital market, the return of IPOs and follow-ons, which are important drivers in our segment. That part is still a little more uncertain at this point, given market volatility, impact of foreign interest rates, the pace of deceleration in Brazil, and also the health of the asset management and when they'll be having appetite to invest. But other than that, I would say that the environment is quite benign of generalized improvement. In terms of the capital markets, I think that we see something very similar to what Ricardo Lacerda mentioned.
Regarding our pipeline, we are optimistic, and of course, we are waiting for what's coming in terms of stability and reduced volatility that we had in the last 3-4 months. If I may say a few words about treasury, we had a strong quarter compared to the others, and I believe that this is the result of the growth of our portfolio. This has led us to have recurring revenues. So I should say that about two-thirds of this result came from recurring revenues. One-third came from revenues more linked to operations in the capital markets. So our strategy in this quarter was proven right. In other words, growing our portfolio of clients, generate more recurring revenues, and being prepared to capture alpha in those moments when the capital market is more active. It's super clear.
The second question is: What can we expect in terms of tax rate for this year? Should the level be similar to what we had last year, or the benefit of IOC at the level of the bank should be more concentrated on Q4? Can we expect that as something more recurrent? I should say that actually the increased contribution of some business lines which have a more favorable taxation and the distribution of IOC interest and capital, that's why we saw an improvement in our effective tax rate in 2023. These effects, I believe, should remain along 2024. But we expect a level closer to 25% effective tax rate in 2024. And undoubtedly, the effect of IOC is concentrated on the last quarter, because that's when we account and re-account for and record IOC.
That's why we have the kind of quarterly distortion. But I would say that for the year as a whole, our expectation is a tax rate of around 25%, slightly in 2024, slightly higher than what we saw in 2023. Super clear. Thank you very much.
Moving on, our next question comes from Rafael Frade, sell-side analyst from Citi. Rafael, we will enable your audio so you can proceed. Go ahead. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for your time. I have two questions. My first question is about capital. There was a capital reduction, that is very clear because it involves IOC, therefore, this recovery should be more evident in the fourth quarter. So what would be the minimum capital requirement that you would think would be good for you to work on? And I think the second question has been previously answered. It has to do with deposits. I think there was a substantial increase in deposits. I think this was a more one-off opportunity in that quarter. So my question is whether we should think that this would resume previous levels in the coming quarters, and whether...
I mean, you see further opportunities to have a little bit more, I mean, given what you have in the pipeline. Okay, thank you. Perfect, thank you for your question. In regards to capital, our funding is relatively small, as we said, BRL 73 million. But by the same token, this brought about 2% benefit in terms of Basel. So at the end of the year, we had 18.2% of BIS. So if you look at the way we used this capital, especially in 2023, we are only consuming about 2% of Basel quarter-on-quarter. So I think this is quite good moving forward, going towards 2024. And for us, Basel should be always above 15%, because this is the healthy level for our business.
Another point that you mention on funding, in fact, in this last quarter, or maybe even due to the fact that there was a reduction in interest rate, as it trying to make a further allocation on banking products or banking facilities, that's why we decided to do a little bit more funding, starting the year with higher liquidity. Because this would allow us to have the necessary liquidity to grasp further opportunities to make deals or to issue things that, at the end, we would allow to make a better distribution for our clients in the secondary market. That was also important because we were able to extend the duration of the transactions, going from nine months on average to something slightly above one year.
So we were able to do some funding with longer duration at the end of the year, and that was quite good for our, you know, ALM. Great, thank you. Now, continuing on, our next question is from Matheus Guimarães, sell-side analyst, XP. Your audio is now available and enabled. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, and congratulations on your results, and thank you for taking my question. Now, following on Fred's question, you issued Tier 2. When you look at that going forward, Marcelo just said, you know, Basel of 15 seems to be a comfortable level. But can you break down a bit or maybe what would be correct Tier 1 or Tier 2? Should we expect more issuances of Tier 2? How can we anticipate that going forward?
Well, we are very comfortable with the capital we have, the capital position we have right now. But certainly, we will always look at other possibilities, and so if we feel the need to raise more capital, we may do that, that may be through a subordinated facility or maybe a follow-on itself. I mean, there are many options on the table, but that's something... I mean, we're, we still stand very comfortable for this year. Okay, that's very clear. Thank you, Marcelo. Thank you. I would like to remind you that for questions, just click on the Q&A icon in the bottom of the platform and sign up to get in line. Once your name is called up, you will see a pop-up to enable your microphone. We urge you to ask all of your questions at once.... Our next question now comes from Anderson Bezerra, an investor.
His question came in writing: Do you expect a normalization of the efficiency ratio and compensation ratio with the maturity of the new business issues and the maturation of the core business as well, the maturity of our core business? Thank you, Anderson, for your question. Well, here we are working with the same limits of our compensation policies that were laid out during our IPO. The total compensation limit was at the most 30% in relation to our revenues. There was a percentage of, I think, 28 and something throughout the year, mostly concentrated in the fourth quarter, due to all of the reasons I listed before. I mean, visibility of results, assessment in terms of market conditions. So we make, you know, fine-tuning adjustments in that, in this area.
But we, throughout the year of 2024, will work with some slack in terms of that ceiling of 30%, even though we are investing heavily in a new area, which is wealth management, and this area has some different compensation features when compared to our other business areas or business units. Therefore, I think this is quite positive. We are, in fact, noticing an increase in personnel costs last year as being an investment, investment in areas that are bringing good results and allowing us to grow significantly. But we expect to see something like 26%, 27%, 28% throughout the year. Okay?
We have another question that we received in writing. What were the factors that brought the need of greater seniorization of the teams? Well, it was exactly the opportunity that we see in some market opportunities in the different areas. We have grown our revenues in the business lines, the business units, expanding our product offering to clients, expanding our client coverage, and that requires more senior people, so that we can have this capability of having greater coverage of clients and products. This is very positive. It is actually a differentiator that we have in the market vis-a-vis other institutions. We are able to serve our clients with senior people who are focused on our business lines, rather than having to juggle many, many fronts, different portfolios of products.
Because other institutions follow that they have a juniorization of the people who are serving, who are in the frontline serving the clients. And obviously, we wanna have some robustness in our administrative structure. Given that we are growing in number of deals, number of clients, number of products, we need to have the controls and the structure in place that will allow us to have operating leverage. These were basically the factors that led to this increase, to this seniorization. Perfect. Thank you. As a reminder, if you want to ask a question, please click on the Q&A icon on the bottom of your screen and type in your question to get in line. We have another question. We may proceed. Perfect, from Lucas Alfieri, investor. Good afternoon. The wealth management sector is historically very much, fought for by national and international banks.
What is the differential of BR Partners in this sector? Lucas, thank you for the question. Good afternoon to all. I believe that in all sectors where BR Partners share the same characteristics, they're very competitive. What is our differential in wealth management? It is the same differential we have in all other divisions. It's what Ricardo said, we have a senior team, renowned team with a good reputation. We're a bank of products. We are a bank of products and a bank of advisory. So what we are bringing to our clients, our wealth management clients, is exactly this ability to take good solutions for them with an open international platform. The names that we announced in the market, that's public information, these are renowned names. These are people who have been in this market for a long time.
Just to give you an idea, in our planning, we were supposed to end 2023 with practically no assets under advisory, but we ended up ending with more than BRL 2 billion, and this is our differential. We have intelligence. We want to take this intelligence to the clients. We are client-centered. We provide them what they need. Thank you.... Once again, as a reminder, if you want to ask questions, click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen, type in your question to get in line. As there are no more questions, the Q&A session is ended. Now, I would like to turn the floor to the company for their final statements. Before my final statements, I think that there are some questions here about dividends and frequency of dividend payout in terms of, percentage, target, and frequency.
I'd just like to say that we have a minimum dividend payout of 25%. We have a target of 65%. We surpassed this target in 2023, and this was very much related to tax uncertainties, which ended up not materializing. So now, starting in 2024, we go back to our target of distributing about 65% of our results as dividends. In terms of frequency, we have been doing this with interim dividend payouts every quarter. We don't have any expectations of changing this system. We expect to continue to do this, to have payments every quarter. And as for my final statement, once again, I would like to thank everyone. This is an important event because it is the earnings of a full year, and of a full year that was difficult, that started with a lot of volatility.
We are very pleased to see that we posted record revenues, a record net income, in a year that looked extremely challenging. In the end, the year ended well. We should not forget the difficulties and the challenges that we and the whole market faced throughout 2023. Of course, we have to say thank you, first to our team, that proved to be very agile to deliver the results. We would like to thank the market that and our investor base that has been supporting us, both institutional and individual investors. Our investor base has been growing consistently, and these investors have kept our stock for longer and longer, and that makes us very proud. Now, in 2024, we will continue to work hard, and we remain available for any further questions you might have. Thank you very much.
The conference call referring to 2023 earnings results of BR Partners is ended. The investor relations department is available to answer any further questions you might have. Thank you very much to all participants, and have a great day.