Good morning everyone, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the teleconference to disclose the results of the Q1 2028 of Cogna Educação . I emphasize that if you need instant translation, we have this tool available in the platform. To access it, just click the interpretation button in the globe icon at the bottom part of your screen and choose the language you prefer, Portuguese or English. For those hearing this teleconference in English, there is the option to mute the original audio in Portuguese by clicking in Mute Original Audio.
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I'd like to pass on the floor to Mr. Roberto Valério, the CEO of Cogna, to start his presentation. Please, Mr. Roberto, you may go on. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being in this teleconference to discuss the results of the Q1 of 2028. We have here in this call Guilherme, our Financial Vice President, Guilherme Mélega, our Vice President. This call should last one hour, comprising 40 minutes of presentation and then 20 minutes of the Q&A.
I'd like to start and I agree. Something very important to us that this April we celebrated 60 years of wonderful story that started with us 65 teachers and 35 students at the Pitágoras course in Belo Horizonte. The most important part is that 33 out of the 35 students were approved in our SAT.
Our history of approval has always been very high considering the early beginning of our history at Pitágoras. Now we have more than 25 million students in our educational institutions. As you know, they have both education systems, technical courses, graduation, post-graduation courses, technology platforms, franchising. We are very proud of our history.
That is a great motivation for the next 60 years with this view that we understand that Cogna is the only company able to deal with that and foster people from 2- 100 years old as we have credits for all ages. One fact that was very important and that is very happy for us to celebrate these 60 years. My second comment is regarding the capital of Saber as we integrate in the operations of Saber and Cogna.
We have both operations working together, reflecting in the development of the vertical that we present to you as the basic education. Basic education is today Saber and Cogna together, and higher education is the old problem. Today we have the two verticals of basic education and higher education. Regarding integration of Saber, I'd like to say that Saber and Cogna teams are already integrated with a single leadership.
Therefore, Guilherme Mélega is the leader joining systems and processes, and part of it is already integrated. Other part is being integrated so that you have a reference, the ERP of Somos. He is now SAP, that is the ERP of Cogna. In the middle of this year, in the second semester, we'll be integrated even from the point of view of systems and ERP and considering the B2G that is important.
A question that is usual to ask about the opportunities with the two teams considering that the overlap that we had between Somos and Saber would be the sales for government, and both teams are already integrated and restructured. Much less in the synergy of cost, but much more in the restructure, seeing the opportunity for growth as we see many opportunities for this segment.
The last comment before the financial highlights that we presented in this result, our new division of graduation courses following the regulation, therefore now presenting the on-site hybrid and distance learning modalities, and we'll talk more about it later in our presentation. Now, going to the results in stage 4, we understand that this is 1+ quarter with all business growing double digits in the revenue, in the EBITDA as well, and cash integration.
The net revenue this quarter, it grew 32%, obviously it was pushed by the PNLD revenue that is located. Now, even if we gather the revenue of our businesses and the consolidate of Cogna and PNLD, we would have a double-digit growth, a very high of about 14%, 15% of growth. Therefore, with all the business units growing strongly and obviously, with the PNLD growing well.
In the Q4 , we mentioned that there was a delay in the invoices of the government, this revenue would be for the Q1 , we now have a guidance that would be BRL 160 million. In the end, we could have BRL 300 million in the Q1 . This increase is much more than our initial guidance.
Due to the increase, we improved a lot the market share of the program. Remember that more participation and more share in the program as we purchase material all purchased in the six subsequent years. An important highlight here of overcoming PNLD, not only for displacements, but because we performed better from the point of view of choosing that from part of the teachers and professors.
Talking about the EBITDA, it grew 32%, BRL 120 million more than last year. We had a loss in cash flow of 2.5 percentage points. We'll go through this explanation with manager Jeferson talking about it. I think we have two big items that make the margin to decrease.
The first one, greater participation of PNLD that is proportional with the contribution of basic education and PNLD from the point of view of EBITDA to the total EBITDA of Cogna. With the participation in basic education in the same quarter of last year, that was 33% of EBITDA. In this Q1 , it is more than 40%. To be more precise, 41%. The PNLD is a line of products with a percentage margin that is lower.
As it participates more in the mix of EBITDA of Cogna, it pressures the margin of Cogna, and it is the second in the part of Kroton in higher education. In this Q1 , we have the pressure to reduce the margin, especially by the displacement of the expenses in technology, but with more investment in marketing. Jefferson will always also discuss that.
Basically, we have this pressure in the margin of higher education, making the margin this quarter to decrease 2.5%. One of the big highlights, and Fred likes that a lot, is that we are looking less to the EBITDA and more to the free cash flow. Our focus is more in the free cash flow than the profits. We grew 49% comparing the years. It's more than BRL 95 million compared to 2025. Compared to that was BRL 25 million.
The cash generation after CapEx grew in 27%, BRL 68 million more than the Q1 of 2025. Finally, the free cash flow with a 69% of growth, that is BRL 103 million more than the Q1 2025.
Remember that in this quarter, we also had the distribution of dividends of 19.5 million BRL paid in February. Even though we reduced the net debt in 35 million BRL because the cash generation was quite strong from the point of view of leverage, it had grown the Q4 due to the closing of capital Vasta, but now it decreased again 1.13x of the EBITDA.
It is not critical to us, and it's been like this for a while, but this is an indicator that the market follows. These are the initial highlights. Just to finish my part, we've had quite a positive quarter. Jeferson will talk a little bit about income and due to the change in the regulation.
I emphasize that the revenue grew almost 4% despite a different mix, more concentrated on-site and hybrid than DL. As we've been saying for the last 5 years, the volume is important, okay. The most important to us is that the intake compared to the previous year grows, and it grows 4%. When we talk about the base of re-enrollment, we see a strong base with an increase in the average ticket, showing that we can repass even above inflation.
I think it is a little of the doubt of the market when the government, more than 1 year ago had the new regulation. We were in doubt if we could repass the cost increase in the prices to the prices to the clients. The ticket shows that yes, we can do that.
Jefferson will talk more about that. Having that said, I'll pass on the call to Guilherme Mélega so that he discusses the basic education. Thank you, Roberto. I'll start on slide 6, talking about the new results that we consolidated, Saber. We now open our revenue in the segment of subscription. That is the B2B, the B2G, that is the sales of solutions for states and municipalities and PNLD, and the disclosure of the business of languages that is Red Balloon.
Going to the left is the total net revenue of the quarter, reached BRL 950 million, of which BRL 462 million of subscriptions. We grew 15.5% in the quarter, followed by the B2G. Again, the B2G is the sales of systems of teaching and recovery of learning.
No PNLD reaching 22% growth year versus years. I emphasize the PNLD that decreased in the Q4 compared to the first one, and we performed at BRL 307.7 million. The growth is very big compared to the Q1 of 2025 with only BRL 6 million. Now we'll show the impact of this displacement as well. I also emphasize the growth of our language of franchising that is growing 14.6%. We reached this growth in the quarter.
Now disconsidering the effect of PNLD and looking only at the other business, we would grow 17%. We analyze the ACV, the graph on the right, we reach BRL 1.8 billion, 8.8%. As we've been seeing the last cycles, the core growth is a little below the complementary.
The complementary increases its contributions in this total, and this 8.8% has a displacement to the third and Q4 , and we expect to reach two digits as we've been doing the last five commercial cycles. Going to slide number 7. I'll talk a little bit about our expenses, and I emphasize the total cost that obviously is impacted by the NBTP.
As we grew more in the revenue, we have more due to this NBTP, which makes the total costs with the percentage of revenue grow 11%. This is the effect of the NBTP. When we look at the other costs of marketing operational expenses, corporate expenses, we see a dilution of this revenue with less costs in all of them. I emphasize here as well.
Oh, by the way, I mentioned that marketing and sales, when we talk about B2B, the % of revenue is absolutely flat. We keep the same expense of CAC per revenue. In the B2B, when we look at operational revenues, even in absolute values, we have a reduction from BRL 67 million to BRL 62 million. Besides the benefit of the dilution with more revenue in the NBTP, we have effective gains in the reduction of operational expenses.
Now, going to the EBITDA. We reached BRL 276 million of EBITDA in the Q1 in basic education, with a growth of 66.4%. To pay attention, the margin goes from 30% to 29%, which is the impact of the NBTP with a higher consideration in the Q1 and a lower margin.
The impact, even though was not that big, considering the evolution of all the businesses and the growth of subscriptions and B2G. We are quite optimistic for this year, not only in the delivery of the rest of the ACV, but we finished the first measure of the commercial cycle of 27, and we are in the front line compared to the previous years.
We are in the middle of the pack. That is quite an important conference to our business, and we are quite optimistic with the interactions we are having. In the B2G, it reflects the benefits of working all together with the Saber, with a single team and the same objective are quite clear to everyone, and the joint marketing reflecting in the growth of 22% of this business in the Q1 .
I pass on the floor to my colleague and friend, Jefferson Ortiz, to talk about higher education. Thank you, Mélega. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Roberto Valério, for the opportunity of making the presentation of the results of Kroton. I'll start in slide 10 with the operational performance of Kroton. I would like to emphasize the impact of the recurring changes with the new regulatory framework.
This new regulation established offers and online and on-site. It changes the basis of intake. Courses of pedagogy, nursing, and so on are in different categories compared to the previous year. In the case of nursing, the discontinuation of the offer on-site was 420 points.
We are thrilled with the offers and the possibilities in 53 polls offered for on-site courses of nursing, representing about 44% of the amount of the 120 polls for cred-accreditation now. With this observation of the regulation, we see the first graph with the intake, with a reduction of 14.2, a reflex of this reduction of 32% in DL. The provincial growing 14% and 4.6 in the hybrid. Despite the challenges, we are growing the revenue of this intake period, as Roberto mentioned in the beginning, growing 3.5%. A great indication to us we could keep the operational structure of the period.
The second graph shows that the student base had a reduction of 4.6% result of a decrease of 18.2 in DL and growing 8.9 in on-site and 12.6 in hybrid. Going to the left graph. On the right, the average ticket grows 19.4%, emphasizing here the growth in all modalities, a reflex of this change of this mix in our bases. On-site and hybrid, we have a mix of courses of high LTV and DL. We changed the mix of courses in the bases, considering the migration classification.
For example, pedagogy. The course is going to the hybrid. In slide 11, we have a double-digit growth in the net revenue, 10.9%. Here we see that the revenue is not reducing speed, it's growing all business modalities.
I emphasize particularly the positive growth of the on-site of 15.2%. That is quite important to this regulatory change that we can see. The gross profit reaches BRL 907 million, with a 10.4% growth compared to the Q1 2025. Also highlighting 17% growth on the on-site, followed by 8.5% in DL.
It is important to say that we expect more pressure in the margin of costs due to this pressure in the sector, especially in the hybrid courses that are also courses under maturation. It's important to say that in the net EBITDA and cash generation, we are positive with the highest ticket. Now going to slide 12. We see the analysis of costs and expenses with a growth of 2.1 percentage points.
That is the result of the time of some actions, as Roberto mentioned, mainly in technology, displaced from the Q1 to the Q2 2025, impacting negatively the comparison. Additionally, the Q1 2026, we have expenses with marketing and sales with an increase that is due to being more careful regarding the potential impact of the number of enrollments.
Therefore, we invested more in marketing, being aware that we'll have benefits not only the Q1 , but reinforcing the strength of our brand. Regarding the ANR, we had a growth due to the program Pague Fácil, that instead of reducing the average ticket, we offered installments. Therefore, we have this effect of more provisioning in the installments for the students who pay. Now the last slide, 13.
We have a recurring EBITDA growing for almost 4% with a pressure of 2.5%, as explained before. I thank you all for your attention. Now I pass on the floor to Fred to go on with his presentation. Thank you, Jeferson. I'll start my presentation talking about Cogna. Please remember that I talk about Cogna. That is the two big businesses that we have, the ones presented by Mélega and Jeferson. I start the presentation in slide 15 with the financial performance.
On the left, we have the net revenue. Please note that we grew in the revenue in our two businesses. We reached a net revenue in Cogna of BRL 2,146 million, a 32% growth compared to the Q1 of 2025.
As explained before by the growth in the NDCP, in the basic education. Going to the graph on the right, we have the recurring EBITDA with a strong growth of about 22%, reaching almost BRL 680 million as compared to the Q1 last year that we reached BRL 556 million. In slide 17, next page. We mentioned before that one of our main indicators and how we measure the company is with the free cash flow and the net profit. We analyze the revenue index. We now focus on the free cash flow in the EBITDA without the other indicators, showing that we grew in the operational cash flow.
Please remember that the generation of this operational cash is after CapEx, and we grew 27%, reaching BRL 380 million, with a growth of about BRL 68 million. As I mentioned before, going from the operational cash to the free cash generation, that is the operational minus CapEx and minus the interest to corporate, we had a growth of about almost 69%,
reaching the Q1 , a free cash of BRL 252 million with a growth of about BRL 102 million, showing here the resilience of our business growing in revenue, in EBITDA and in the free cash generation that get to the reduction of the net debt of the company. In slide 17, as I mentioned, free cash flow, we have the next indicator of net income.
We had 49% of growth. Remember that the net income last year was BRL 95 million. This net income comes and is the result of the growth of the operational results, that was about 25%. In the Q1 , this net income had an impact in the expenses of tax paid, the current one and deferred one, with an impact of about 45% in our net income.
It was expense and a liability. I'd like to remember you that we cannot assess our tax payments in only Q1 . We need to analyze the whole year. We had a greater impact in education and in basic education because the revenue, the EBITDA of that basic education reached BRL 255 million.
This growth generated 35.4% of payment and 34% of impact. Looking ahead, and this is not a guidance, we have to use to look at the year of 2026, and our current tax shouldn't be different from the net from second day tax payment to the current tax payment as it was presented in 2025 and 2024.
In slide 18, the debts of the company and Q1 comparing the Q1 of 2026 and 2025, we reduced our net debt in BRL 52 million, considering that we started with BRL 2.8 million, reaching BRL 2.7 million. The main impact were in the generation of free cash and the return to the shareholder with the dividend that we paid in February 13th.
We paid BRL 119 million of shareholders' returns and the other movements that reached BRL 8 million. In slide 19, indebtedness. We have 1 more quarter with a reduction in the leverage. As I mentioned many times, the leverage is not a problem to us. Our covenants of debts are net debt divided by the EBITDA of the 12 months is in 3.5x , and the leverage reached at the Q1 2026, 1.13x comparing to the Q4 .
In the previous slide, we had a reduction that was 1.20x . Comparing with the Q1 2025, we reduced it, that it was 1.28, and we reached 1.13. That's completely normal. This is what we presented over the last 4 years, this reduction of leverage.
The average cost of debt in line with the Q1 , Q4 2025. The average cost is CDI + 1.33. We now don't have for the next quarter big liability management, will happen in the Q1 of 2026 as our debt are located and we cannot negotiate. Looking at the amortization schedule for the next years, you can see that in 2026 we have no big amortization as in 2027, only in 2028.
From now until the beginning of 2028, we have a lot of time to renegotiate liabilities, and we can deal with the banks. We still have a good cash. It's not a problem to us. Finish this presentation of Cogna with a summary of the big businesses. Back on the floor to Roberto Valério. Thank you, Fred.
Going to slide 20, talking about capital allocation and the priorities for the capital allocation. I reinforce that they are still the same priorities. The first focus, the main focus keeps being the reduction in financial expenses considering the high interest rate. Everything we can do to pay debts in advance, we are doing. We are doing that in 25 and 26, as seen in the slide.
Many liability management actions. If we consider all the actions, we have BRL 1.7 billion in negotiations. Obviously, with the reduction of the debt stock and elongating the profile of amortization, we are doing that quite efficiently. This is the primary focus when we talk about financial expenses. We have the return to the shareholders.
In 26, we've had about BRL 300 million return, and in buyback with BRL 120 million in April 25, and in February 26, almost BRL 120 million in dividends, BRL +60 million in repurchase of shares. BRL 300 million in dividends and buyback. Also, with a sign on the payment of new dividends with the approvals, and I even reinforce the information that on May 30, we'll pay BRL 28.5 million based on the AGM of April.
This is our second priority. We don't have an M&A strategy to consume a lot of our cash. We are still focused on generating that with the assets we have. We understand we have a broad portfolio, very rich, with strong brands and the potential to grow.
Look, for example, that we are having sales for government and what we have with the StartSe, leveraging the brands and the assets and the editorial capacity of management that we have. Our M&A view is very strategic. I can mention two cases considering the context with the closing of our capital. That was an opportunity of a tender offer. I'm sorry. It was very important to use capital for that.
We had an asset, the acquisition last year, with a good price and a strategically important location to us. We also had an acquisition of an OPM that was very small last year. We understand that it is opening opportunities for us to operate with the premium brands after graduation, like Mackenzie, Instituto Mauá, IESEM.
We understand that despite not having a proper asset for the brands, we can generate value working in the segment with partnerships with third parties. Just to mention the priorities of capital allocation. Now, going to the last slide with the final remarks, the closing remarks. In 21, when we started the turnaround, we talked a lot about Ambev's heritage to evolve not only in the core, in the teaching system, but in graduation,
which shows that we are doing that consistently with the consistent growth over the 5 years, growing more than double digits, as well as operating with the new business opportunities. I mention here B2G, StartSe, and the platform of info producers that is growing. It's not a thesis to us.
It's a proof of the capacity of the company and our teams and how we can use assets, brand systems, processes, competencies to create new businesses. We understand that it opens many opportunities for the future, which makes us very thrilled regardless of what happens here, what they are in one or other segment.
The strategy is of a diversified portfolio, this quarter has shown that even with the regulatory changes in one business, the others are performing well. A business like the PN, I'm sorry, like the NBTP is a success. I'm not sure, we gained market share with 85% more revenue than we imagined. This, the dexterity is proven with the concrete execution.
A second important point is that we are still focused a lot in the student, the client, no matter if it's a secretary of education, a school or a B2C student in English school or graduation school. We are focusing a lot in improving the NPS and satisfaction and making the processes simpler and easier. It is generating more value to us.
We're focused about that. I'm talking a lot about culture. This work is very nice here with the main chief. I reinforce we have 60 partners that are people with shares of the company that gather every month to talk about results and culture and how we can do better and carry out better our strategies for when the medium and long term will bring more capacity of delivery to be used and to change our assets.
That is our thesis, to change assets in a platform, more assets of educational services. We don't see ourselves as a graduation company as we were in the past, in 2017, 2018. More like a publishing house. We are a service company. We provide B2B, B2C, B2G services in many different segments. It is this, the strategy that we want to keep up having, because it opens opportunities to many growth path forward.
It's always focusing on the value generation. Little by little, patiently, and with a lot of focus and ability to deliver and carry out, we are improving all indicators. The example is this quarter that from one side to the other of revenue, EBITDA, cash generation, free cash flow, leverage, and free debt and net debt.
Everything has positive results, reinforcing that we are not focusing on one or the other thing. We have a broader view of our business. We know how to operate so that with the net process and the free cash flow, we can show our capacity of delivery with our team and assets to generate value to the shareholders.
Remember that we are all shareholders of the company. Having that said, I finish the presentation. We now open the floor for the Q&A session. Thank you very much. We will now start the Q&A session. Please remember that to ask your question, you must click the Q&A question in the bottom part of your screen and write your question to enter the line. When announced, you may unmute your mic. After unmuting it, you ask your question.
We ask you please to ask all questions at once. Going on with the first question, we have Lucca Marquezini from Itaú. Lucca, please, the floor is yours. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the questions. We have two here. The first one regarding nursing, because we had this relevant impact in intake. How do you see that, the approval of five units of fast-track of nursing? Because our idea is to understand how the roadmap and operational of these units will begin, and how it should eventually compensate or offset this impact in 2026.
I'd like to understand how do you imagine to have the intake in these units and how it could help the results. The second point regarding cross-magnet, you can comment on the dynamics of the competition that you see for the intake in the Q1 .
There was some worsening in the competition, needs to reduce some. If you can comment on that, it will help a lot. Thank you. Hi, Lucca. Thank you for your question. Let me answer the first one. If they want to complement, they can. Regarding nursing, we asked 122 poles to be pre-approved for the on-site nursing courses. Today we have 53 out of the 122 approved. The 53 can intake students although the semester, the cycle for the semester hasn't started yet.
Our expectation and what we have discussed with the Ministry of Education is that over the next weeks, all poles will have these authorizations. In other words, we expect to have the 120 poles operational in the second semester. Remember that they are already prepared. We've already had classrooms and labs.
We would intake a lot of students. They had a big student base, we didn't have so much to do. It means that as soon as we have the authorization, it's much more of having the courses offered at the website and starting the communication, generating leads and conversion. You made the question regarding the roadmap of implementation. It's immediate, we don't have any time that is relevant for that. Regarding the impact in 26, we understand that each one of these poles will have 100 spots authorized.
They are big poles with a lot of enrollments. We understand that it's not in 26, but we understand that once stabilized, we can enroll 100 students during the year, which means that these 120 poles can generate an influx of students that is something like half of what we would have in nursing intake in the whole.
The question you may ask is, "Well, Lucca, how it will lose revenue?" We understand that maybe a little, but we have the possibility of comparing this revenue to the previous ones, because the presential, the on-site tickets are higher than the DL. Our nursing ticket on-site would be BRL 399 average. I'm sorry, these were the DL and on-site. It goes about BRL 1,800, it's more than double.
Having half of the students in the on-site modality, but paying more than twice the average ticket, we have the possibility of recovering the revenue over time. To answer your question directly, impact in 2026, that we will be able to collect and have a good recovery in the second semester. In the first semester, we don't have good revenue. When we look at the intake revenue and we say that it grew 4% a year, it is considering that we lost almost 28,000 students of nursing and DL.
If we would have students and revenue, the collection time would have grown more. In other words, we are quite optimistic and positive. We see that quite positively. I mean, the fact of operating this 120 codes in the second cycle.
Regarding cross margin, we've seen in this 1st cycle of 28 more pressure, more competition, and in practice what we see is a number of candidates response that is lower. I reinforce what I've mentioned before that our more traditional brands like Unime, Unopar, Anhanguera, that are traditional and quite interesting brands in the market don't suffer this pressure.
On the contrary side, we see more difficulties in enrollment, so much so that our business making a business there is different from other players. Well, I think that is. Okay, Roberto. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Lucas Nagano, Morgan Stanley. Lucas, please go on. Hello, everyone. We also have two questions. The 1st is about the intaking volume, because this is what we have information.
If you could give a number on how DL was taken into consideration at the end of pedagogy, that decreased 33%, and this trade-off for hybrid in pedagogy helped the intake. We knew there was this loss in nursing as well. Just for me to understand the trend of demand in comparable basis. The second question is about cross margin and the component to the future.
It seems that the cost in BCP are stronger, but I think the technology and market seems to be something more specific in seasonality in the Q1 , which would suggest a lower decrease in the margin for the next quarter. I'd like to know if it makes sense. Well, Lucas, the first one regarding the graduation, it's difficult to open the numbers.
We don't generally do that. Directionally speaking, the reduction in the intake in DL is basically focused in pedagogy and nursing. If you consider the present show and DL compared to what we have today, the impact comes basically from pedagogy and nursing. Obviously, pedagogy and licenciatura that now are on site courses, they depend the formation of a group of students which generate a conversion rate that is smaller.
Directionally, we don't open. Yes, we've recovered. We have a lot of enrollments with a lot of students in pedagogy, but not the same ratio of DL. We had lost in pedagogy students in this transition from DL to on site. Regarding the margin, Fred, you can answer. Yeah. Hi, Lucas.
Talking about the margin cross and considering the Q1 of 2028 and in the comparison looking to the future, our Q1 2028 had an impact of expenses of marketing and marketing costs and sales as well. This is being fact that we analyzed, and we have a new dynamic after the regulatory milestone. We had a great investment in the Q1 . For the next quarters, we might have not a guidance, but naturally will change.
We'll have a reduction in this sense. Our strategy to have cost in marketing is to bring the students from courses with a higher added value. In fact, looking at our strategy, the strategy worked because we are growing revenue of intake, and we are mainly growing the courses with more value that are in the presential one.
To the future, we should have a slight reduction of marketing expenses. In technology, as you question, we've had an impact in the Q1 that should be muted over the year, and there shouldn't be a greater difference than the inflation or something different like it happened in 25. Just to emphasize a little more your the answer, because I mentioned about DL, and I can talk about the hybrid. The DL base, we lost a lot because of pedagogy that migrated, yes, and helped the growth of the hybrid one.
You might ask, well, but the hybrid didn't grow. You cannot forget that in our hybrid, we already had nursing. We grew, I guess, 4.5% in on-site considering that you have 0 of nursing and we are the biggest nursing player in DL.
We lost 27,000 students in nursing into the hybrid. I guess it can explain better. In other words, we could help in the hybrid, but they have the pressure of not having nursing. If we would have, as we will have in the second semester, the intake for hybrid will be greater in the second semester because of the new nursing course, courses that we are offering. Just to explain a little bit more, the migration of pedagogy that happened, we do not offer that anymore. We don't have that in DL anymore. There was this migration, but the liquid was negative for us. It's not a positive liquid. We lost much more than we gained.
As Roberto Valério mentioned, from 27,000 to 28,000 nursing students that didn't have the courses, now you can infer the number, and it's not for us to do that, but you can if you want to infer the number and see that our hybrid, instead of growing 4.6, would grow much more and then more than 2 digits. Okay. Perfect. Quite clear. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Marcelo Santos, JP Morgan. Marcelo, please, the floor is yours. Good morning, everyone. The 1st question would be regarding Kroton. If you could comment on the adoption of Pague Fácil comparing the Q1 2026 to 2025. It was a component to help grow ticket or not.
The second would be in the case file, if you can mention the elements we should consider to think about the year margin of 26 compared to 25 and what are the detractors and the pushers. Thank you very much. Okay, Fred here. The first question about higher education and Pague Fácil. Just remember that Pague Fácil, we already offered that for the basis. In the summer and winter cycles in 25, we offered that. It's the same product.
We didn't change, and we offered for the whole base. In intake, right? Yes. Yeah, you cannot compare to student base. Yes, the intake base. There was no change of the product. There is no difference of product. It was available when we offered to the whole base. To answer your question, yes, it was important. We kept it here.
In the middle of this war of prices in some centers, we kept that in our strategy not to reduce the intake price. Pague Fácil is an installment. It's not a fund, it's just installment. You can see that how we could increase that. We had the growth in the revenue. As I always mention, the strategy is correct. We just need to analyze Pague Fácil in the next PDD, because looking at the PDD, I'm growing in Pague Fácil, but also the PDD of Pague Fácil because it's a percentage of what I'm offering.
We do the PDD taking into consideration that Pague Fácil's PDD has drop out as the main factor. When the student drop out, that provision 100% of it. It put us in the correct position in the commercial intake strategy, and the effect is already the EBITDA.
This is how we show back, and we understand that it is correct. Anything else? Just to add something to this point of PDD and PDP comparing Q1 and the other. With the hybrid and more on-site, it's natural that we have more Pague Fácil because the delta ticket of 2 or 3 months, that is what we were getting installment. When it's on-site, it's higher. To reinforce Fred's point, it's nothing different from what I'm doing or explaining to you over the time.
Marcelo, let me just explain a little of the margins of basic education, because Vasta traditionally operated with 30% of EBITDA, a little higher, a little lower. We understand this is the level of margin we want to operate in this business, in this new configuration with Saber.
I look back, if we consolidated the results of Saber since almost the level of margin and EBITDA would be a little below 30. Due to the PNLD, we are looking about a year.
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Okay, Eduardo, thank you. I would get the receivables of Saber. In your question, you gave the correct answer, 'cause it is the NBPP. We acknowledge BRL 300 million this quarter, but it's absolutely in the normal flow of business. In this receivables, it becomes cash in the Q2 , so the regular business flow. That's it.
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Okay, good, Eduardo. I will get the gross margin of Kroton. The first comment is that the gross margin is better understood in the semester, much more than in the quarter, because comparing quarters, remember that it's students can enroll when, as we allocate the hours for the professors and have the physical space rented. We do that for the year, not the semester.
Sometimes we have some displacement here and there. We hire a little bit sooner or after. We want more professor or not. This is the first information you might consider. The second, more directional, considering that we cannot give a guidance, is that yes, it's natural that we see some pressure in the gross margins, considering the mix of presential and hybrid, on-site and hybrid. They have a different gross margin than DL.
The margin of Kroton will face pressure over time, which doesn't mean that we won't work for new alternatives to mitigate that. The natural flow of the process with this mix could have a reduction on the margin. You can see that so clear from Q1 to the other.
It's also important say that despite this pressure of % margins, the on-site courses have a greater nominal contribution when we talk about the ticket of the students that we are enrolling now, it's much higher than what we did with DL. It's a dynamic with different margins, but important nominal growth.
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Okay, quite clear. Just regarding the adaptation to the regulatory framework, the current cycle of intake is already in line with the new rules, or they will be gradually implemented during this transition period until May next year?
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Well, I can talk about it. Particularly in 26, we are having this adaptation of the framework until we get to 27. We have a period of adaptation, despite the offer is already established, the way it is classified. Both in DL, that you cannot have some courses like pedagogy and licensing or even engineering being established, this offer for the hybrid. During the year, you have all the need to incorporate all the required premises. In 27, we'll have all the regulations completely implemented. In the second semester, in nursing, we will have this offer classified as an on-site course, with all the legislation being strictly.
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The next question comes from Mirela, Bank of America.
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The second question is.
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To the changes of products due to new regulation. Those were the questions. Thank you. Hi, Mirela. Fred. I'll answer the first question.
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Much disciplined and granulated in looking at price readjustment and dropout. Trying to bring the simple explanation here. Many times we can repass the prices at a ratio above inflation. Obviously when we repass above the inflation, we pressure the dropout. We are always doing the math to see if we gain on the readjustment.
We do not put it on the table regarding the amount of re-enrollment. We historically, we've seen that it's better to speed up the price readjustment, therefore improving the ticket compared to the losses in the re-enrollment. Just for you to know that we also do this math, and we have quite evolved predictive models considering we've been doing that for almost 5 years.
In other words, the dropout rate is not a problem to us in the Q1 because it's not the last one, the final one. We need to consider the semester, and we look that with a lot of granularity, and we are always doing a trade-off between the ticket and the dropout, aiming to have the best revenue and profitability. Okay, quite clear. Thank you very much.
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The Q&A session is over. We pass on the floor to the considerations of the company.
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Well, with that, we finish the presentation. I thank you once again for your dedication and the performance of all teams. More than 26,000 workers working nonstop. I reinforce that we are quite optimistic regarding the year with a lot of opportunities and challenges, yes, but many opportunities as well. We are available to clear any doubts you might have. Thank you very much, and I see you in the next conference.
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The results conference of the Q1 2026 of Cogna Education is over. The Department of Relations with Investors is available to clear any other doubts you might have. Thank you to all the participants.