Morning everyone, welcome for the disclosure of results of the fourth quarter 2025 Cogna Educação. If you need translation, you have interpretation here on the bottom bar of Zoom. Just click the globe button and choose your language, English or Portuguese. For those hearing the conference in English, you can choose to mute the original out by clicking the button there. This teleconference is being recorded and will be available at the RI website of the company, www.ri.cogna.com.br, where we can see available the complete material of the result disclosure. It is possible to download the presentation also in the chat icon, even in English. During the presentation of the company, all participants will have their mics enabled, then we'll have the Q&A session.
To ask a question, click the Q&A icon in the bottom part of your screen, write your question to be in line for that. When called, there will be a request for you to activate your mic on screen, and then you activate your mic to ask your questions. We suggest questions are made all at once. Before going on, we would like to tell you that any statements made in the teleconference regarding the business prospects of Cogna, projections, operations and financial targets are the beliefs and premises of the company administration, as well as the information available now for Cogna. Future considerations are not a guarantee for performance, and there are uncertainties and premises because it's referring to future events, therefore, depending on circumstances that may or may not happen.
Investors and analysts should understand that general conditions, the conditions of the sector and other operational conditions may affect the future results of Cogna, therefore leading to results that will differ and be different from the ones expressed. Now I pass on the floor to Mr. Roberto Valério, Cogna CEO, who will start his presentation. Please, Mr. Roberto, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for participating in this teleconference to discuss Cogna results in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the complete year of 2025. In this call, we have Frederico Villa, our financial president, and Guilherme Mélega, vice president of Vasta. The call will take about one hour, as we generally do, with 40 minutes of presentation and 20 minutes for the Q&A.
Well, I'd like to start emphasizing that 2025 was one more excellent year of results for Cogna. We've had wonderful results, not only in financial terms, as we'll mention in this call, but other results that are wonderful from the point of view of growth of the client base and students base, satisfaction of clients and students with the NPS targets, and engagement of workers. We could reach the eNPS, that is our workers with more than 80 besides being among the best companies. We are the twelfth company to work. We evolved a lot in many items related to our reputation that we follow with the annual research and other awards from the ESG point of view.
I would like to start this conference by emphasizing that not only the financial results were wonderful, but also the company in their many dimensions with a very good year. Specifically speaking about the financial results, I would like to emphasize in this first slide the operational cash generation after that in the GCO that in 2025 reached BRL 1.274 million with a growth that more than BRL 230 million comparing both years. 22% of this comparison from comparing 2025 and 2026. Obviously, we keep following the GCO, but more recently, especially after 2024, that was also a very good year. Our main indicator of cash flow is the free cash flow that we reach at BRL 716 million in the generation of free cash flow with a growth of 81% compared to 2024.
That year we reached 395 million in cash generation, and this year, as I said, 760 million with 81% growth. To us, this is an indicator, and we obviously have many ones, but this is the most relevant to our operations. The net debt comparing the fourth quarter 2025 and the fourth quarter 2024 reduced about BRL 45 million, even with more than BRL 650 million of capital allocation, where they're giving back to the shareholders BRL 181 million that were given by tech problems and distributing the dividends and we have a strategic purchase of a college and the capital that we allocated with more than BRL 420 million.
Therefore, we could reduce the net debt in that even with the relocation of these millions of BRL, mainly in these 3, 4 items that I mentioned. The leverage reached 1.21x EBITDA. That is lower than the same indicator in 2024, 1.35. Comparing to the third quarter, there was a little increase, which is quite natural comparing the CapEx of Vasta, the company is generating a lot of cash. We know that over the next quarters in 2026, this leverage will keep decreasing, and we are pretty sure about it analyzing the results of January and February. When we see 2026, that's what we see.
Going on to the next slide, I would like to emphasize and make some comments, 'cause I know that at first, both, revenue, EBITDA, and the net income may be a surprise considering that we were growing in the first, second, and third quarter in double digits in revenue, EBITDA, and net profit. When we analyze the fourth quarter, it might be a surprise. We have a simple explanation for that is quite easy to understand with the three items here that I can easily explain. Obviously, we've had the opportunity. If you had the opportunity of reading the document, you understood.
The first point, it is related to the PNLD, that we have a relevant fact to emphasize this point as it was disclosed on the media in the end of last year with the high school purchase program that was postponed in the fourth quarter to the first one. Obviously, we didn't have a revenue in the fourth quarter because it was there in the first quarter. We've had January and February with the same revenue, even in March, BRL 167 million in revenue, which would be about BRL 52 million in EBITDA. It's not that the program is not there. It happened, but with a specific displacement that is real and will be seen in the first quarter of 2026.
We need to consider this factor that for years and years, this purchases has been in the fourth quarter. I'll explain what we call the pro forma figures and taking that into consideration. This is the first point to know. The second one has to be with BRL 35 million in reversals. We have more than 100 company and corporate numbers here in the team in terms of the taxes, and we are trying to find optimizations in such a way we can reduce our expenses and our payment of taxes. This reorganization obviously generate opportunities as this one to reverse the contingency in BRL 365 million in 2024. That is not a recurring one comparing to 2025, and I emphasize it as a pro forma item.
The same way in this context of opportunities of reverting the tax contingency in the fourth quarter of 2024, we've had BRL 552 million in tax contingency in Cogna, which fostered the net revenue in 2024. It has to do with the tax reversion in this analysis. In this sense, it's quite simple. Basically, we have three items, the incoming PNLD, and three items related to the reversion of tax contingency. The pro forma, as we see on screen, we see different results. Instead of the net revenue growing 1.9% in the quarter, it's now growing 12.1%. Instead of EBITDA decrease of 5.3%, it grows 5.7%. The same way we have the net profit that is 84%, it grows BRL 552 million instead of decreasing the 76% that was there.
I emphasize this point here, that from the operational point of view, the company, not only Saber but also Kroton, they are all performing quite well in good paces, quite close to the first and second quarters, taking into account these three factors that I explained, which make it clear that the figures are quite aligned to the previous quarters. Well, going on to the next slide now, a little bit of capital allocation. That is a recurring question. Our strategy is still the same given the high interest rates. Our main goal here is to reduce the debt in such a way that we can reduce the financial debt. This is our priority, and we keep this way in 2026. Since 2024, we restarted generating net profit. Not only with the buyback programs, but specifically with the payment of dividends.
The third item is specifically and strategically in a very intelligent way and with the positive multiples to make one or other M&A to complement our portfolio. I can mention two here that I emphasize in the presentation, but I can even mention one small another one. We have the medical school in Dourados that strategically is a state that we want to grow in the medical courses. Our strategy is not to operate with medicine nationally. It's to focus in Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Bahia and Maranhão, so only some states.
Here in this case, Dourados in Mato Grosso do Sul, we've had already two medicine schools, so it's quite strong there with a brand, and we have the content in SOMOS that obviously is strategic to us with a small purchase of an edtech, of OPM, that allows us to grow our part of services and other institutions. Currently, we work with Mackenzie, ESPM, and Mauá Institute, other premium brands, specifically in the segment of post-graduation and extension courses. This is an example just for you to understand what is a strategic M&A that is to reinforce our business portfolios in this strategy of the two or 100 years. That is our current strategy. Now, going on to Kroton in slide seven. I emphasize the first graph with the intake.
We kept growing the second quarter in the intake, which grew 3.7% when we consider the students who are paying for that. That is what I emphasize, although we have the complete information there. We grew 2.7% in distance education and on-site also with a strong growth, and I mentioned that, and later on I'll talk about it. I'm pretty sure you'll ask about the intake process in 2026, but our intake for the on-site is growing for the last three cycles, and in the second semester it was not different. It grew 16% and distance, it grew a lot as well. The churn, despite the growth rates being consistent and growing, we have a dropout rate that is stable, so no point of attention here.
Both the academic and the financial engagement kept quite positive in the second semester. The final student base grew 3.7%, overcoming and almost reaching 1.1 million students according to the third graph. Now, going to the next slide, that is the revenue slide. I tend to say that when the base grows and it grew 3.7% and the average ticket as well, that in our case grew 7% in the semester, there's no way the revenue not grow. This is the result of the revenue in the pro forma view, in the quarter growing 7.9% and in the year, 12.1%. You may ask, "So in the quarter is smaller than the year, so you are reducing the pace?" No.
It's because we have the first and the second quarters as being the strongest ones with a better growth in the revenue because the volume is greater, more concentrated. Specifically this year in 2026, we have the effects of Pague Fácil that we are debating in quite a strong way with you. The growth in all business segments, emphasizing online education, but also on-site and Kroton Med growing also strongly. Going to the next slide nine, talking about the gross profit. The gross profit reached almost BRL 900 million, growing 4.3%, in the year 11.3%. It's important to emphasize that we have this trend that probably you will ask in this call, that is regarding the pressure in the gross margin. It's natural for this pressure to happen.
It's not the case in the second semester of 2025, but we'll have a greater participation of on-site, which pressures the margin. It's important to say that in the net, the EBITDA is growing because the on-site tickets are much better. That's why we have the cash generation. That is our main indicator here. That will be positive, although we have a small pressure in the gross margin that we'll try to mitigate with a series of actions that we can discuss in this call, among which we have the process division and the use of AI and so on, and specifically in the gross margin of Kroton Med, that was a decrease of 12.5 percentage points. It's natural from the point of view of being expected due to the maturation.
We have nine medicine schools, four under development, and we purchased one that started operating this year, specifically in the fourth quarter. It pressures the margin a little more. It's natural for that to happen. Regarding on-site, as in DL, the reduction in the margin has to do with the healthcare courses that are maturing. Besides an increase in the professors personnel in the fourth quarter, because as we make new groups in the third and fourth quarter that you don't allocate the hours in July. I'm pretty sure that in September, October until December, we have the hours there because we have classes there. That's why we have this pressure in the fourth quarter. In the semester, it's important that it's stable.
Now talking about costs in the next slide 10, I'd like to emphasize that we have quite clear here not only the accountability of the fourth quarter, but also the pro forma and the analysis here are related to pro forma. The corporate expenses had an increase of 0.7 percentage points related directly to the social taxes regarding the shareholders. With increase with the actions, we need the provisions regarding the stocks that are distributed and compensation improved in the fourth quarter. We can see quite a positive net disposition reduction due to the processes that we are dealing and operating expenses are stable. As we mentioned in the previous quarter, it's more concentrated in the fourth quarter because we make an economy in the third one, so it's natural. In the semester, everything is stable.
The costs are related to the hours of work of the professors and the medicine courses, as I mentioned. This is the quarterly view. Annually, in slide 11, the explanations are basically the same. We have the corporate expenses related to the stocks more valuable. The PDA that has to do with more provisions, and Fred will then explain it better if you have doubts, but it was quite well discussed in the year with the provisions of Pague Fácil. The improvements in operational expenses that we grew almost 2 percentage points that are related to processes and development of systems and AI and marketing expenses with the efficiency and improvement that we are reducing the costs of having new students, therefore, we are gaining in efficiency.
Going to slide 12 now, we can see clearly the adjustments that were made in the fourth quarter 2024. In comparing with the fourth quarter 2025, have to be considered that are the adjustments and the movement of discounts of inactive students that until the third quarter would impact and reduce the revenue. In the fourth quarter, we started allocating as PDA. This table shows clearly this adjustment. I mean, this reduction in the revenue and the reduction of PDA, and it's important to say that in this movement, we see an EBITDA that is neutral. It's just an allocation that is quite well mentioned. In the second graph, we can emphasize, first of all, the reduction in the receivables, and we kept improving this indicator in the fourth quarter with three days less. It's quite positive in this 41 days.
In the other line, we can see the reduction of 18.4% in the fourth quarter, reflecting what I mentioned in engagement and financial engagement. I mean, academic and financial engagement. As a consequence of everything that I mentioned, I think the last slide of Kroton, that is slide thirteen, shows that in the quarter, we've had a reduction in the gross margin of 1.2% reaching 26%, but the EBITDA grew 3.2%. That is, namely, it keeps growing. When we see the accumulated view, the margin is basically stable, 0.2%, with a strong growth of EBITDA of 13%. That is a growth at the same level of the revenue. That is, we have the revenue and the EBITDA growing at double digits. With that, I finish the Kroton presentation, and I'd like to pass the floor to Guilherme Mélega to talk about Vasta.
Thank you, Roberto Valério. I'll now go to slide 15 to talk about the net revenue of Vasta. I'll start with the graph on the left in the quarter that we reached a revenue of BRL 707 million, with a 10.7 increment in the period. I emphasize our business segment in the subscription revenue. We reached BRL 646 million, 4.4% growth, and this is a partial growth. For us to have the overview of this growth, we need to consider the first quarter.
As we had a significant growth in our B2C channel, when the schools operated with our e-commerce and we sell directly to schools, we had a displacement in the revenue of ACV in the first quarter. The results would be even stronger in the fourth quarter. In the B2G, we had BRL 84.7 million revenue. That is a consistent growth compared to last year. We have more than 20 contracts in B2G. As we mentioned, it's quite a close and good segment, so we are growing a robust way here. In the fourth quarter, we reached BRL 34.7 million with a growth of 7.3%. When we consider the annual figures of the company, we reached BRL 1.811 billion.
I would like to emphasize here the non-subscription revenue that reached BRL 116.9 million, growing as a result of the improvement in the performance and the payments in our SAP courses and the schools that we operate in Flagship. Both the growth of Liceu Pasteur and pré-vestibular and everything resulted in this revenue of non-subscription. The B2G grew 10.4%, reaching BRL 115 million. Now in slide 16, I'll talk about our EBITDA. The EBITDA in the quarter that traditionally happens this way as being the greatest volume. We have a big supply for the return to school with the next cycle. We acknowledge here BRL 358 million in EBITDA with a growth of 19.5%.
This growth traditionally brings EBITDA margins that are greater than the average of the year as a result of the reduction in the fixed courses with this volume and gain on productivity that we have. Our EBITDA margin has a growth of 13.4 in this semester. When we analyze the yearly figures, we reached BRL 539 million with a growth of 7.7%. Here emphasize that we are keeping the level of growth. In here, we didn't have all the growth of ACV in the first quarter, and we have stable margins with a level of 29.8%. We are keeping our level of growth, investing in new business, and without losing the margin. We are keeping our margins, even investing in growth businesses as a standalone, for example.
Now talking about the costs in slide 17. Here we have the quarterly costs. We reached a total cost of BRL 488 million. It's a 2.9% growth. When we compare to the revenue, the result is an expansion in the margin, as I mentioned, of 3.4% in the margin. The gains in productivity and scale in our CPV in the total cost that reached 5.5 percentage points here. In slide 18, we have a better understanding of the costs and expenses of the company. Here we can see the year-over-year overview of cost and expenses with 8.3% growth. I emphasize that in terms of percentage, we were absolutely flat in costs.
Our investments in marketing and sales grew, and it's offset and absorbed with the better productivity that we have in our courses and expenses. Now looking ahead, I would like to emphasize that in the B2B, we have a first quarter with a growth to have the snapshot of the growth in the ACV. In B2G, a robust growth. We reached BRL 115 million in this business line, working in a little more than two cycles of intake in B2G. A very favorable perspective for the B2G in the year 2026. We have the first quarter quite strong, and we operate with the closing capital of Vasta in an integrated way with the Saber. We have the same team, same portfolio.
The B2G is still one of the biggest growth of the company, especially now that we can work in a synergistic and joint way with Saber. I finish by emphasizing that start in the year has three units working in 26, and we have a pipeline of more than 60 contract times. This business line will also represent significant results here to our business. I now pass on the floor to Fred.
Thank you, Mélega. Good morning, everyone. I'll start in slide 20, talking about Saber and remind you all that Saber comprises. The national program of didactic books and languages and VULPI that is our business platform. I emphasize that when we analyze the fourth quarter of 2024, we had a reduction in the net revenue in the total of Saber of about 11%. Roberto previously mentioned that we had a specific impact with the delay of the agenda of the national program of didactic books of the federal government with an impact of about BRL 166 million.
The good news here for the quarter and for the year is what we call nossos negócios, with a net revenue in languages comparing the years having a growth of about 14% and the other businesses that are VULPI, MED and our products of Acerta Brasil that we sell to smaller states and the cities, we had a growth of 21%, which reinforces our strategy and our growth in the businesses with the government. In the accumulated, we also reduced our revenue in about 10%. The impacts are quite similar. The main one being the effect and the displacement of the agenda of the national program of didactic books and the two lines of languages and VULPI and Acerta Brasil products keep growing 37%. In slide 21, we are now talking about the recurring EBITDA.
This impact here of this displacement, we had a significant impact in the recurring EBITDA of the company. In the fourth quarter, there was a reduction of 35%. In the accumulator of 12 months, we've had an impact in the EBITDA of 21%. Please remember that as we mentioned before, this displacement with the purchase of high school will be in the first quarter of 2026. In the EBITDA, we have about BRL 52 million. Finishing this brief presentation of Saber and going to the next slide, talking about Cogna to finish the presentation. I'll be very brief. In slide 23, we show that regardless of the displacement that happened in Saber, we've had here a revenue growing 9.3%, reaching BRL 7 billion and 17 million of reais, close to the best historical of the company.
In pro forma in slide 24, we can see a growth of revenue in the year of 11%. We reached BRL 7 billion 184 million. Now briefly talking in slide 25 about EBITDA, we reached in the year a growth of BRL 2 billion 300 million with a growth of 5.7% with a margin of about 33%. When we go to slide 26 regarding the pro forma, as we are demonstrating, we've had here a growth in the EBITDA accumulated by the end of the year, a margin of about 33% as well, reaching two billion 351 million reais with a growth of about 10%. An important point now in slide 27 is the net profit of the company.
We mentioned that in the past, our main indicators were the operational cash flow indicators and the recurring EBITDA, but now we look more the free cash generation and free profit. We show how strong is our business with this impact being of BRL 624 million of net profit for the dividend distribution. Remember that we had an anticipation in December 25 with the payment in February 13, 2026 of about BRL 120 million.
Now according to the disclosure, we will have a complimentary payment to reach 25% of BRL 28 million, BRL 28.5 million, which demonstrates here when we look in the next slide that if we adjust that, in the same period last year, we've had some recurring in our net profit, especially the reversion of a tax contingency with effects in the financial revenue and the taxes paid and in the contingency line. Note that in the accumulated analyzing the net profit and the contingencies that were specific for last year, we reached the same profit of BRL 625 million, growing more than 700%. This is important to us in the profit, net profit generation because we are strong and we migrated our discussions of cash.
We see here in the quarter that our operational cash generation was BRL 335 million with the free cash of BRL 333 million. When we analyzed this generation of free cash flow, we had a negative displacement. Remember that in the fourth quarter last year, we paid BRL 138 million of interest, and this fourth quarter of 2025, we paid BRL 213 million. It's just a displacement in the quarters regarding the liability management that we did during the year of 2025. In the accumulated, the positive news in the generation of operational cash and free cash is that we grew 24% in the operational one, reaching more than BRL 1.02 billion. Even with the displacement of the PNLD and our expectations would have.
Would be to have a revenue, EBITDA, and cash in 2025, and we didn't have, but we show here how strong we are in generating operational cash flow that we generate in our business units, Kroton and Vasta, that we emphasize in this generation comparing the years. The free cash flow, we had a growth of more than 80%, reaching BRL 760 million, which shows that looking ahead, it's not a guidance, but it shows that what we can foresee for 2026 and 2027 is a growing free cash generation that can be even stronger with the reduction in the interest rates. It doesn't depend on us, but it's the expectations in the central bank. To finish the cash generation, we now have the position and indebtedness of the company. We have a net debt of BRL 3.8 billion with a net debt of BRL 2.835 billion.
The company still has an availability of BRL 1.2 billion. The good news, the quite positive news is that after renegotiating over the last three years, that we renegotiated two times our debt, so we have the agenda of amortization. Note that in 2026 and 2027, we have in the accumulated only BRL 6 million of debt amortization, which is quite nice considering the operational cash flow generation for the company for the next year. The last slide here, we have the company with the reduction in the net debt in BRL 45 million. About our leverage that in the past was a problem, now is under control. When you observe the leverage of the company and we reach at 1.21 times, it's greater than the third quarter.
Remember that in the fourth quarter, we closed the capital of Vasta with an investment of about BRL 422 million. If we didn't do that, and we did because we understood it was the better capital allocation, otherwise our leverage would be for 1.3 months. Regarding the last liability management that we had, we reached an average capital cost in the fourth quarter of 2025 of CDI plus 1.32% with a duration of about 33 months. We see the best way of generating the operational cash and free cash and the reduction of debts and the better allocation of capital for the shareholders, and reduction of the average cost of debts and increasing the duration. With that, I finish the presentation, and I pass on the floor again to Roberto Valério.
Thank you, Fred. Now going to the last slide with the general messages. We have quite a positive view from the point of view of growth. Obviously, we have the World Cup, holidays and the elections here. Even though we are quite positive for three business, they all can grow. Remember that the long term view, we still have a growth rate that is sustainable in double digits in a constant way based on a simple strategy that makes the core businesses in higher education and basic education grow close to double digits, and complemented by new projects with new perspectives of growth. We are here during this year and in this call discussing them, like the selling to governments and having businesses in the market with the content creators, info producers, influencers and other technical and professional courses.
We have quite a positive overview to the sector as a whole. We have the advantage of being a company with quite a diverse portfolio, so we always have businesses and opportunities of growth with the strategy of using our competences for all businesses in such a way that we can grow without allocating a lot of capital and having M&As to operate and searching for new things. It's still valid for 2025 from the point of view of evolution. We are evolving in processes and systems. We are speeding up more and more the implementation of AI in many tiers.
Obviously, we cannot implement AI in all processes at once. We are trying to generate one or other initiatives of intake and creation of AI solutions that can be easily implemented by the managers without any specific support in the use of that. Over the years, we'll search for efficiency in this kind of initiative. From the point of view of experience, it's still our focus, not only in the NPS indicators, but all the engagement indicators and improvement of learning with a quite ambitious project that we know will benefit many different products for basic education, like Plurall and higher education, and the smaller projects like Red Balloon that can benefit also from this.
From the point of view of people and culture, we are working strongly in the entrepreneurship and a team culture focusing on the client with a culture that is to grow and search for opportunities. With this mindset, I say that we have a good work environment with high engagement. As I mentioned, with the participation in the Great Place to Work, not only with the CEO, but in the ranking being the 12th best one to work, which is not easy. It's very difficult to have that, and we are quite happy to be in this segment, being also acknowledged by other organizations like Exame, the City Hall of São Paulo, many awards and acknowledgments that are important to us. We also have good innovations, and we are speeding up businesses, and I can talk about the B2G.
That is one important point of Cogna and the ESG initiatives with the strong base in our agenda. We have a lot of acknowledgments here, but what I would like to emphasize is the distinction because we are in the top 1% global indicator in the global sustainability yearbook by S&P. That is very difficult, and we are the only Brazilian company in this group. We are very proud of that. Having that said, I open for questions, and we are available to answer any questions you might have.
We'll now start the Q&A session. Please remember that to ask your questions, you might click in the Q&A icon in the bottom part of your screen and write your company to be in line. When invited, a request to activate your mic will be on screen, and then you activate your mic to ask your questions. We kindly ask you to make all your questions at once. We'll now go to the first question from Luca Magazzini from IVBR. We'll open your mic so that you can ask your questions. Please, Luca, go on.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you. I have two questions. First, regarding personnel costs and thinking about presentiality regarding the implementation of the new regulatory framework. We would like to know if it will impact the cost in 2026. We had a competitor mentioning that they had a movement of adjusting their roster of professors. I would like to know if you are adjusting that and how you are preparing for this increasing on-site education. The second, regarding the competitive dynamics in medicine, because talking to other players in the industry, we can see a big concern in creating new groups in medicine. How is it translated in your units, not only in having the amount of students and also the average ticket? Thank you very much.
Luca, thank you for your question. I'll answer this, but Fred, if you have something to say regarding the personnel costs. Yeah, it's quite natural. If you have a greater mix and a greater participation in on-site, it's natural that the costs of the personnel is stronger. But I always reinforce that despite the cost is greater, the nominal contribution per student is much higher in the on-site courses, just to emphasize.
Luca, we have a series of initiatives here in the company, and I may emphasize especially the use of operational research to improve the groups and the classrooms. I don't know what was said by other companies. I have no information regarding that. On our side, I would say that we have nothing new. It is an allocation methodology that we've had for years. We do that for many years, and I cannot say anything specific regarding that. Regarding the competitive dynamics in medicine, there's no doubt that we have competitive markets. I don't know if I'm the best player to talk about it. Our discussions in medicine and our medicine schools are all in four states, but with strong brands working on the capitals, and they are traditional brands in the cities.
I would say we don't suffer so much impact on increase of competition in medicine. As far as I know in the sector, it's natural that we have an increase in competition. Please remember that not only me, but many people in the sector understand that we'll have two tiers in medicine. The good colleges and good locations in cities that somehow the students want to live and study, that are the ones that will be able to deal with prices and have a good amount of students. The new and distant ones without a good name that in fact need to have a greater effort. Our understanding is that our medicine schools are in this first condition and we work more and more so that they have a better infrastructure and what we can give better in terms of didactic material and professors.
Although we are in regions that we understand we are competitive, it doesn't mean that we won't reinforce our material and professors and the way students study. I'm pretty sure it is in our roadmap.
Okay, Roberto, thank you very much.
Next question is from Samuel Alves from BTG Pactual. Samuel, please, you may go on.
Good morning, Valério, Fred, Guilherme. I have two questions here. The first is about the summer intake. If you could give us more details. If you could tell us if it's growing on-site, and if hybrid is compensating the decrease of the DL, if you talk about the summer intake, it would help. The second question is about CapEx, 'cause we could see an important increase of 35% in the fourth quarter. By the end of the year, we had 7% of revenue. It was 6% in 2024. I'd like to talk about this line for 2026, what you are expecting, if you could tell something about the budget plans of investments. Thank you.
Samuel, thank you for your questions. I'll answer the first one, and Fred will talk about the CapEx for 2026 as well as 2025 to answer your questions. Regarding the summer intake, the on-site is growing in quite a positive way, in double digits, as well as the semi-presential, the hybrid, that is growing double digits. DL, due to the portfolio, it's decreasing, and it's natural. The net of this, that I believe is your next question is that the revenue in 2026 grows compared to 2025, and it grows in line with our growth over the last years, on the same average.
It's important to remember that despite the DL is decreasing and we have a big amount of students, the average ticket in the hybrid and especially on-site are higher, so as the nominal contribution per student. I think it's a piece of information that I can give you. We have a positive net with the growth of revenue, and that's why I mention in my presentation that we analyze 2026 in a positive way.
Okay, Samuel, now it's Fred. Considering your question on CapEx, regarding the figures, our CapEx for 2025 it was greater than for 2025, and even compared to the revenue, as you mentioned. It's only important to mention that it's an obligation to say that this year we've done, and every quarter we talk about the interest in the CapEx, so debts that we took related to investments.
This interest were in millions of BRL, and now we have only BRL 44 million. It's explained there. We have this displacement. However, in addition, we had greater investments in technology and infrastructure. When we look ahead, Samuel, look to the next years, it's not a guidance, but we would have an investment, a CapEx, in the revenue in 2026 and 2027, much closer to the percentage of 2025 than 2024 or 2023. It would be closer to 7%, not 6% or 5% as the CapEx of 2026 and 2024, 2025 and 2024.
Okay, thank you. It's quite clear.
Next question is from Marcelo Santos from JP Morgan. Marcelo, please go on.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the questions. The first one is if you can comment about the competition intensity that you see in on-site, hybrid or DL in the first half of the year. How is the ticket? What you can see in competition on the market? The second question is if you are having a strong cash flow. Could you talk about the M&A and what you imagine, what you could do if you have any inorganic movement, what focus you would have to assess these opportunities? Thank you very much.
Okay, Marcelo. Regarding price competition, I believe it's nothing different from the regular behavior. All big companies are quite sophisticated from the pricing point of view. Generally, when a player talks about an SKU on a unit or uphold, the others react. I would say that there is no highlight here on average. We can repass the tickets in one course or the other, but it's the same competition, okay? There's nothing different. I think it's even natural due to this accommodation, due to the new regulatory framework and how things are stabilizing from the point of view of integration of DL and presencial.
What we can see in terms of enrollment, in nursing courses that are growing strongly. We have units here that we have more than 100% growth, even with us increasing the price. Competition in general is the same. It varies depending on one side or the other. Of course, that is available for the competition or not. This is what I can tell you in terms of information. Regarding the M&As, our mindset is to use the capital a lot to reduce debt and pay less financial expenses.
Considering the shareholders that for many years received no dividends, we analyzed the M&As in a more strategic point of view as a complement to some portfolio or to speed up some competence or capacity that we don't have, but that can be distinctive for us to be in a new business to serve premium brands of post-graduation or extension courses, or to serve the info production market that is a growing market. As Fred says, it's dozens or hundreds of BRL millions. It's not that big in terms of consuming our cash generation in a relevant way. Fred, anything to say
Well, regarding strategy, Roberto defined quite well that our mindset is to capital allocation, to reduce financial expenses, which doesn't mean leverage. We are quite close to the leverage that is a good one. Looking ahead, this is the mindset. Operationally, we are growing with an increase in net revenue and with that generate more operational cash flow and free cash flow. We can say that we are starting the first quarter quite similarly to what we can see in the last year regarding the operational cash and the free cash generation.
Nothing different from what we are doing. What we can see is that analyzing the operational cash and the free cash generation, it's exactly what we are delivering in 2025. Now to complement, it's important to say that we have an internal M&A team that assesses that and some opportunities a month in many segments of higher education, basic education, digital products.
As it was the case of these purchases that we have recently, and as you know in our profile, we search for assets with the potential of bringing complements and opportunities of growth in honest figures. We have a lot of assets available with the disproportionate values compared to what we understand is good to generate to our shareholders. We have our assessment, but in fact, we have just a few going through this VPL filter. We are quite diligent in this sense, just to emphasize.
Just to summarize, you said that you want to have leverage and you are quite close to what you want to be. The M&A, if you have, are BRL 100 million, dozens or hundreds of millions. We can conclude that dividend seems to be the buyback. I don't know. The return to the sharehol ders is the destination of the cash. Is that so?
The delta after the reduction, please remember that we want to reduce the net debt, not for leverage, but we want to reduce to pay less financial expenses. As we have big debt, we have space for reduction, but not for the leverage in itself, but for the financial expenses. Obviously, the average of that can be dividends to the shareholders. That's why it's in our strategy.
Okay, thank you very much. Thank you for the answers.
I would just add one point of view here that is something that we've talked for years, that allocation the long-term capital, I mean, until 2030, gives us a, in the next years, a window of growing with rent contracts that we can reduce his expense. Just to move from one point to the other, we need to use CapEx for that. Obviously these are projects that add value, but it can also be part of the capital allocation in this period until 2030.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.
The next question is from Lucas Nagano, sell-side analyst from Morgan Stanley. Lucas, please go on.
Good morning, Valério, Fred, Mélega. Thank you for the opportunity. First, you said about the intake, and you still have the Pague Fácil campaign that you were using last year for new students of 60% discounts, and how you follow the levels of re-enrollment. The second question is about the B2G. As we've had some years offering the services, can you comment how it is compared to the expectations and the challenges and the intent, if they are the same? Looking ahead and looking to 2026 as a perspective, you mentioned more than 20 contracts, but do you have any big representation in the contract, and can you talk about it?
Hi, Lucas. Thank you for your questions. I would have Fred and Mélega answering. Regarding Pague Fácil, we are still applying that. It's part of our strategy today. The students enrolled, they come with the Pague Fácil and this first and second installments divided along the course. Fred can talk about the impact, and then Mélega will talk about B2G.
Well, I'll start talking about Pague Fácil, as he mentioned. Last year, we already offered Pague Fácil to our student base, and this summer cycle, we are offering to all the student base at Pague Fácil. If you observe regarding the figures, we are growing in a program that is an installment program for the first and second months. Note that we also have the growth in ACP, so we are growing the revenue. However, I grow in my ACP that we do initially in 63% over the value, and then I adjust according to the segment in such a way that its net is about 45%. It's not a problem.
The problem would be if I wouldn't adjust my ACP. With the Pague Fácil, analyzing that, what is important to us is dropouts, 'cause we monitor that a lot. When the student drops out, our provision is 100%. This is the secret here of having Pague Fácil and not having a problem in the receivables and in the provisions.
Just to complement, if you look, Lucas, at the graph that you have specifically about the dropout, you can see that it's controlled, it's stable. To answer your questions, no, Pague Fácil is not bringing difficulties to us, although the base is growing and we even have some segments in which the dropout is reducing comparing the years. Yeah, just to complement, it's easy to see. If you look year by year, you see it growing. If you compare the quarters, it decreases. Why? Because I'm receiving Pague Fácil. You can analyze and see the same effect in the net receivables. It's not a problem because we monitor it closely with the calculation of the provisions. I'll now pass on the floor to Guilherme Mélega to talk about the B2G.
Thank you, Lucas. Now, in terms of B2G, to answer your question, the B2G, yes, it is still a big way of growth for basic education. It's performing quite well in SOMOS and in Saber. For 2026, the opportunity here is to regroup in SOMOS and Saber to have a new market for B2G. We would have separated portfolios in both companies with different commercial teams and even separated platforms. As of 2026, we go to the market with a more integrated approach with the market segmentation and integration of portfolios. We did that in the states and capitals in big cities. Smaller ci ties will be working with the ACP tool, so we can work that in smaller cities with the smaller education secretaries with a good team of accounts for big contracts.
Our learning is that, in fact, there is a higher concentration of supply, therefore revenue, in the fourth quarter as well as in the first quarter. The second and third quarters in B2G, they tend to be weaker because the supply is in the fourth quarter. We have quite a strong pipeline, and the first quarter is also robust in B2G, and we have more and more diversification on the market to explore all the potential of the market.
Just to complement, Guilherme Mélega, it's important to say that we, when we started, we had one big client. Now we have dozens of them. We do not depend so much on one client anymore. Obviously, we have big and relevant accounts. This is the first point.
The second one, regarding your question of the performance of new businesses in line with the expectations, I can answer with the figures. In 2022, when we saw the opportunity, we had BRL 40 million in solutions excluding PNLD. We are now in almost BRL 63 million, so we multiplied by nine in three years. It's a strong result, and we can see a huge potential. Because the turn of this is very strong and it's we are motivated, and when we consider Saber and SOMOS and in the market, as Mélega mentioned, generates a lot of enthusiasm. To reinforce this point of why I mentioned that from the point of view, we look at 26 in a good way with in a positive way.
Thank you very much. It's quite clear.
Next question is from Eduardo Resende from UBS. Eduardo, please go on.
Good morning, Roberto, Fred, Mélega. I also have two questions. The first is about the PNLD, the Didactic Books program. You mentioned a guidance of revenue displacement for the first quarter that comes from the purchase program for high school. I'd like to know if there is another program to enter in this line in the first quarter, and what do you see in this dynamic for the year, mainly considering budget issues from the Ministry of Education, elections, and so on. Anything you can tell helps us a lot. The second question is more specific, 'cause we see the level of adjustments intercompany increasing a lot over the year. If you can share what those adjustments would be, if you have any dynamics on revenue and government investments, it would help me a lot.
Okay, Fred here will answer the first question, and Guilherme Mélega will then complement. We only had here the displacement of the program of high school. Our expectations was that it would happen in the fourth quarter, and it will happen in the first one with some displacement that may happen to the second quarter. We can still have displacements in this sense. What we've already disclosed in our expectations is of what is being displaced from the fourth quarter to the first one. What we have for 2026 is the purchase of Fundamental 1, this yearbook. This is what will happen in 2026. We don't have any other high school program. We only have these programs that will regularly happen in 2026.
Regarding your second question about the PNLD in the government due to the budget for 2026 with the elections and so on. Well, we need to see each quarter to understand. I cannot say that it will or won't happen. We don't know. We'll give visibility every quarter to you. The second question, Guilherme Mélega will talk, that is regarding what happened in this increase intercompany. Before Guilherme Mélega talk, we are talking about intercompany, so it's not, it's an operation that was not carried out. So from one company to the other, one company didn't sell to the other, so it's not in our results. So Guilherme Mélega, if you can say something. Okay, Fred, let's go on.
Saber has a complete portfolio, even with the Vasta products. When there is more than a signal, but when we have a formal contract of Saber to supply the public market, we supply it internally from Vasta to Saber. This movement, you can see the fourth quarter, is sales to the public market of Saber in the fourth quarter. Here we have the stock movement to supply the market. It's quite a positive sign in the first quarter of Saber. It's quite strong in solutions for the government.
Just to complement here, it's important to remember that in Strategia we are more focused in purchasing big networks, and Saber has quite a capillarized commercial team and many teams dealing with the PNLD. If we have an opportunity of the commercial team in Saber to sell SOMOS products like the Maxi educational system, they sell, therefore, we have this intercompany. That's the explanation for you to understand, and to have a concrete example.
Okay. Quite clear. Thank you very much.
Next question is from Flavio Yoshida, sell-side analyst from Bank of America. Flavio, you may go on.
Hello. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity of having questions. We have two questions here. The first one is regarding the personnel costing problem that impacted negatively the margin. We would like to understand what to expect looking ahead and understand how much of that is related to regulatory changes. The second question is regarding the Fast Track, if you have any updates, 'cause we are reaching the date. I'd like to understand a little of what you have in terms of updates. Thank you very much.
Hi, Flávio. I'll try to answer your question. When we look at, specifically at the fourth quarter with this pressure in the primary margin regarding the increases, it's related to the mix of products with a stronger intake, especially in the middle of the year in the medicine courses and the maturation of medicine and healthcare courses. It's not related directly to the framework, but the direction, the guidance is the same as expected from macro. With the regulatory framework, there is a mix in the on-site. Directionally that's it, which doesn't mean it's negative from the point of view of EBITDA, because as I said, the nominal contributions per student in the on-site is quite higher from the DL.
Regarding the Fast Track, the Fast Track, as you mentioned, we have this expectation of authorizing about 120 poles, nursing poles, and the Ministry of Education date is March 27. We are close to having what, according to this Fast Track, was called a pre-authorization to operate the courses and then with in loco inspections and deeper assessments of the Ministry of Education. Which means that obviously we didn't have in the fourth quarter 2024 the opportunity to enroll students in the nursing course, which reduces the pace of growth of the revenue. With the students enrolling from April 1, we restart this growth and especially for this 120 poles that we'll have. The level of competition will be very low.
We understand it will be quite a positive result and also, considering that the amount of competition will be limited, but this is just my point of view. As Fred says, we have to experience to live that to see.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Quite clear.
Next question is from Renan Prata from Citi. Renan, please.
Thank you very much. Good morning. I have two specific questions. One is about the PNLD. 'Cause you mentioned the results from the first quarter, but I would like to understand the cash flow dynamic. Generally, this result in the first quarter would be in the fourth quarter, or you generally consider the subsequent year, like in this case, 2026. I would like to understand this dynamic of the result, not the result, but of the cash. A basic follow-up that when you mentioned the on-site intake that apparently is okay in the first quarter. Well, we don't have in terms of nursing in the poles. I believe that, as Villa mentioned, it's 27. In a hypothetical situation that we could have the intake, it could be an upside, a common upside. Is that correct?
Renan, I will start talking about the nursing course, and you are correct. There is no benefit of on-site enrollment in any pole because it was not authorized, but our units already had the course, so they are strongly benefit from this increase in the volume of enrollment in this course specifically. 'Cause on average, it's growing more than 50% comparing the years with some units growing more than 100%, as I mentioned before.
Yeah, as we authorize these new poles, we should have an additional volume of enrollments in the on-site courses of nursing. Fred speaking here about the PNLD dynamics in previous years, the receivables were in the year, so as the income, so it happened in 2024. We worked in 2024 and we received in 2024. Our expectation was to have this revenue, this EBITDA, as well as the cash in the fourth quarter, which didn't happen. As everything displaced with the income, the receivables will happen in the first quarter or part of the second quarter. The amount here is the displaced amount. This is the guidance, what's displaced, and not the one that is on the P&L in the first quarter, but just the displacement that should be in the year of 2025 and was displaced to the first quarter of 2026.
Okay. Quite clear. Thank you very much.
The next question will be made in English by Andres Coello from Scotiabank. We'll open your audio so that you ask your question. Andres, please, you may go on. Andres Coello, you may ask your question now.
Olá, vocês conseguem me ouvir? Eu peço desculpa por fazer a pergunta em inglês, mas é bastante simples. Pro EBITDA recorrente, que vocês estão falando de 5.7% quando vocês mostraram os resultados, vocês chegaram nesse crescimento de 5.7 e tem ajustes pra Kroton e Saber. Eu fico pensando por que que não está incluindo nesse EBITDA recorrente, as contingências de Vasta, que pro último trimestre de 2024, comparado com o ano passado, e eu não vejo esse reverso nesse cálculo. Porque isso basicamente muda o EBITDA o crescimento do EBITDA pra esse último trimestre. Então por que não incluir o Vasta nesse cálculo?
Okay, Andres. Thank you. I'll answer in Portuguese according to the CVM rules. You will hear the translation. Okay, but according to the rules, I have to answer in Portuguese. We had an adjustment, and we are talking about the EBITDA, not the net revenue. We adjusted BRL 880 million for the year 2024. In this comparison, I'm talking about Cogna as a whole, and then talking about standalone per company. In the EBITDA, we had this adjustment of BRL 35 million as a non-recurring item, and BRL 35 million in Kroton. In Vasta, we had that. Due to simplicity, we made this adjustment just to know what is Cogna as a whole. Because we had this adjustment of BRL 35, that it was specific and non-recurring. The second amount in Vasta. I'm sorry. The Kroton. The Kroton one is recurring and Vasta is non-recurring. I'm sorry. That's it.
Ok. Voltando pro inglês, eu tô vendo que teve uma reversão de contingência no último trimestre, certo? De BRL 100 milhões. Então, quer dizer, no nível de Cogna, vocês também fizeram esse ajuste, não só no Kroton e Saber. Mas tudo bem, eu só tava pensando por que que especificamente isso não aconteceu, mas obrigada.
We are available and we will get in contact with you, Leticia and I. Okay. Thank you.
The Q&A session is now over. Now we would like to pass the floor for the final considerations of the company. With that, we finish the results call of 2025. I thank you all for your participation. Please remember that our team is at your disposal to clear any doubts that you might have. Thank you, and we go on. The teleconference of results regarding the fourth quarter of 2025 of Cogna Educação is over. The Investor Relations Department is available to clear any doubts and questions you might have. Thank you all for your presence and have a nice day.