To everyone, welcome to one more presentation of our results. We're gonna talk about the first quarter of 2022. I'm Carlos Cyrino, Director of Investor Relations with CPFL, and today I will be monitoring all the dynamics of our event. We have today Gustavo Estrella, our CEO, Mr. Pan, our CFO, and other executives of the company. The whole presentation will be carried out in Portuguese with interpretation for English. All you have to do is click on the interpretation button that shows up on the bottom part of the screen. Those who want to see the presentation in English, the same presentation is available on the site of the CPFL Investor Relations website. I'd like to inform everyone that after the presentation of the company, we will start our session of questions and answers. All the questions will be asked live.
To do this, all you have to do is click on the button R aise Hands. Raise your hand, and this you can find at the bottom part of the screen. Remember that this event is being recorded. I'm now gonna give the floor to Gustavo Estrella for us to start the presentation of the results.
Thank you very much. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for your participation here in our results for the first quarter of 2022. I'm going to move on to slide three with some highlights here. First of all, what we are delivering is a very robust result with a growth of 34.4% results reaching BRL 2.643 million and a net income of BRL 20.91 million, BRL 162. Our net debt is BRL 21.2 billion.
Its growth is especially because of the transmission, but we maintain the leverage, which is 2.3x the net debt, EBITDA. The CapEx, I think this is another highlight. It is a growth of 74.2% in relation to 2021. We reached BRL 1.212 billion of investment. We had a concern, especially in the beginning of this year due to the pandemic and the effects of Omicron, but we were able to deliver a robust CapEx of BRL 1.2 billion, an aggressive result. It is an important year for our distributors that are gonna have an exemption of tariff. This is an important delivery and already with a challenge of delivering and high CapEx until the end of the year. We also had excellent results with the conclusion of the M&A CPFL Transmissão.
We now control 99.26% of this company. It's an additional investment. With the investment that we did in privatization, we practically consolidate the company with impacts that were not forecast, but positive impacts in the consolidation now almost 100%. Last, we have the release of the sustainability annual report, reinforcing even more our ESG practices and the evolution of our commitments, everything that the company has taken over during the last years. Now let's move to the next slide four. We talk about sales of energy. As you can see here, it's practically stable compared to 2021, a drop in the load of 0.02% and a drop in the concession area. Perhaps the main highlights here are in the residential area.
We can see here in the bottom right part of the slide, the impact of 3% in residents. This was already expected that we would have a relevant impact of distributed generation in 2022, and this fact happened in the first quarter, and clearly the trend is that it will happen in the subsequent quarters. Another one is the industrial area. We can see that we have a drop of 1.8% in relation to 2021. When we see this in general, we have a positive growth, and this is the food area, which has a growth of over 5%. This is an important segment for our market with 20% of market share. When we go to other segments, rubber, vehicles, metallurgy, textiles, all of them with a drop in consumption of 5%-7%.
I think this is a point of attention, the performance of the industry, not only for the quarter, but for the whole year. We saw a recovery last year in the consumption of the energy. This year, the market has gone negative, very much linked to the expectation of economic growth, the GDP, and the expectation is a bit lower than 1%. A positive part comes from the commercial side with a growth of 4.5%, the commercial area directly linked to the improvement of the pandemic in 2022. In the comparison with 2021, coming from a low base in 2021, but important growth and also with the trend of the commercial side growing more up to the end of the year. Now let's move to slide five.
This is another concern during the last quarters is the topic of delinquency. As you can see, we have a growth of delinquency, not only the last quarter but also in relation to 2021, a growth of almost 67%. This has a lot to do with two factors. The first one is the macroeconomic scenario. So we have relevant impact in the revenue of our clients, and the impact is much higher in those clients in the lower classes. This affects our delinquency a lot and the debts of the families, the unemployment, all the indicators that reflect the macro economy afflict our delinquency. Added to this, in this quarter, we have the red flag of hydro scarcity with an impact in the tariffs and the bills of our clients.
All of this together brings us a scenario which is very challenging in relation to delinquency. What we have done, all the actions that the company can do, perhaps the most relevant are the billing. We have kept high cuts, more or less 200,000 cuts per month to try to control this delinquency. The scenario really is very challenging, and based on the past experience, we know that we have to be able to control this better. It depends on the economical scenario. This seems to be a trend that will go to the end of the year. Low growth of the economy, GDP 0.7%, we will continue having challenges. This is a reflection, perhaps, of the delinquency that we will have up to the end of the year. Now let's go to the next slide. It's slide six.
This is good news in relation to energy losses. What we can see here, it's stability with a trend to drop the level that we've closed at 8.79%. In the past, 9.11%, a more positive signal. Losses is not a huge challenge, I would say, compared to other areas of Brazil. It always is a challenge, but less than other regions, but it's a positive trend compared to 2021. Now let's talk about generation. It's slide seven. The first impact is the drop of PLD, and here clearly this is a reflection of the better hydrology that we have in 2022 compared to 2021. Positive also in the GSF, an improvement of 9%.
In the hydraulic, we can see in the UHEs a drop of 46%, and these are the ones that are located in the southern part of the country, the flow. The PCH is the inverse because they are in the southeast where we have much better hydrology than in 2021. Wind, we have a drop of 19% in generation. Here it's a result of the performance of the winds, less winds than in 2021. The availability, as we can see, is practically stable, 95.7%. It's a positive result in the availability of the wind farms. Now let's go to slide eight. I'm then gonna give the word to Mr. Pan.
Thank you, Gustavo. Good morning to everyone. Now we have slide eight.
In this quarter, we reached the highest EBITDA this year since our IPO in 2019, BRL 2.6 billion, an increase of 34.4%. The distribution accounted an EBITDA of BRL 1.8 billion, an increase of 45.7%. The highest gain once more comes from the market and the tariffs, BRL 553 million, especially due to the IGPM, the high IGPM. Financial assets of the concession had an increase of BRL 53 million. Another important effect demonstrated in this quarter is the value of other revenues that had a gain of BRL 26 million, once more, basically from the rental of posts and also updated contracts by the IGPM. As a negative effect, we had the PMSO with an increase of BRL 43 million.
The highest impact are the expenses linked to inflation, an increase of 7% below the IPCA, which was 11.3%. PDD was higher BRL 36 million, as Gustavo has already demonstrated in slide five. Other effects all add to BRL 23 million in generation of very good EBITDA of BRL 673 million, an increase of 5.6%. Without the consolidation of the five smaller transmission projects, the main positive effect was the updating of the prices of the contracts, BRL 147 million. The lower GSF combined to the PLD, the lower PLD during the period contributed with BRL 12 million. On the other hand, we had a negative impact of BRL 68 million, referring to lower wind generation in the quarter, according to what was explained by Gustavo in the previous slide, and a higher OpEx affecting negatively in BRL 23 million.
Other effects added to a loss of BRL 33 million. Now, let's move to the next slide. Let's talk about transmission. This was the highlight of the quarter with an EBITDA of...
He had a connection problem, but he's now back.
With an EBITDA of BRL 138 million according to expectations of the acquisition of the CEEE-T, and the effect was the consolidation of the CPFL Transmissão numbers with BRL 121 million. The other transmission projects had a positive impact of BRL 6 million. The trading services and other segments was impacted mainly by the margin with a negative variation of BRL 70 million. It's partially compensated by services, BRL 12 million. Let's move to the next slide.
We now show the performance of the net profit, which was BRL 1.162 million, increase of 20.9% in relation to last year. In the result, financial year, we had BRL 311 million. This was because of expenses with the net debt, with an increase of BRL 307 million. This has been explained by the increase of the CDI, which was 0.48% in the quarter of last year, and now 2.39%. Reduction in fines, BRL 26 million after the adoption of the IPCA, no longer the IGPM in the delayed bills. This has partially been compensated by a monetary update of the regulatory assets, BRL 117 million, due to the higher financial assets. We closed with BRL 3.2 billion. Other effects added to negative BRL 41 million.
The depreciation increased to BRL 47 million and taxes, BRL 119 million. The higher value of taxes is related to the better performance of the company. Let's now move to the next slide. Here we have the leverage and in the covenants criteria, the net debt is total BRL 21.2 billion, and the EBITDA in the last twelve months reached BRL 10.4 billion. The leverage measured by the net debt and EBITDA was 2.03 times. In relation to the dividends, we approved in a board meeting on the 29th of April, the payment of BRL 3.7 billion. This amount will be divided into three installments. The first one will be due on the 11th of May, 2022, and the value BRL 1.1 billion, BRL 0.94 per share.
The second installment up to the thirtieth of June 2022, the value BRL 0.8 billion, 0.67 per share. The last installment up to the 30th of December, the amount is BRL 1.9 billion, 1.62 per share. Here we have the profile of gross debt. Our higher exposure is in CDI with 69%, followed by IPCA 27%, prefix 2% TJLP in the chart. On the right side, we have the debt cost, which has increased, especially due to the variation of the CDI during the period that went from 8.76% at the end of last year and now 11.15% in the first quarter this year. Finalizing the end of the semester, the cash was BRL 4.1 billion with an index of coverage 0.89x the short-term amortizations.
The average time of amortization is three years. Now let's go to slide 13. The CapEx of the quarter was BRL 1.2 million, an increase of 74.2% in relation to last year. In division per segment, we have in distribution a total invested of BRL 975 million destined to the increase, the modernization, and the maintenance of the network and equipment. In the generation segment, we invested BRL 62 million in building Cherobim and in the maintenance of the projects that are in operation. We invested also BRL 170 million in the building of our transmission projects and reinforcements and improvements in CPFL Transmissão. Finally, the trading and services segment, we destined BRL 5 million. Thank you very much. Now I'll give the floor back to Mr. Gustavo Estrella. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Pan.
Well, ending our presentation, we're gonna end, sorry, with diversity and inclusion. Our agenda is very much consolidated with these topics of ESG social actions, CPFL, a lot of different actions that we have been carrying out in a very positive way, not only internally for our collaborators, but also with all our stakeholders, specifically in relation to diversity and inclusion. I think this journey might be longer, but we are all engaged. It has started. Today, we have a very robust plan with ambitious targets for the next few years. We have three pillars of commitment and governance, inclusive culture and representation, a series of actions, more than 100 actions that have been planned for this year. We have an area 100% dedicated to this area, so over 100 actions that will be planned in 2022.
I brought here an example that we're very proud of. It's initiative of our school for women. In 2020, we had five women, electricians in the company. Today, we already have 29, and the expectation is that in 2022, we train another 100 women, electricians. The idea is to continue growing and bringing the women, among our electricians. I think another piece of good news also linked to this topic yesterday in our meeting of the administration board, we approved the [audio distortion] It is a woman participating on our board, and I think this also, brings the topic forward of inclusion for our gender and our governance. I think these are important actions. We're advancing, we're evolving with a lot of clarity, and it's a challenge to advance with this topic.
It's a long-term journey, but we've started this journey. Once more, I thank you all for your participation. We are now going to end our presentation, and we're going to open the session for questions and answers.
Thank you, Gustavo. Thank you, Mr. Pan, for your presentation. Now we're going to start our session of questions and answers, and we remember that all the questions are live. Just reinforcing that to ask a question, you should use the button, Raise Hands. You can see the button on the menu at the bottom of the screen. The first question is coming from Rafael Nagano. Rafael, good morning. Rafael is from Credit Suisse. You can move forward with your question.
Well, good morning. Hello, everyone. I have two questions, in fact. One is about the transmission assets.
I'd like to know, in your vision, if you have any interest, any specific block, in the auction that's gonna happen in June, and what kind of returns, if these returns compare with assets in the M&A market. My second question is about dividends, if there's any conversation or any expectation of increasing the frequency of the payment of dividends, or will it continue annually?
Well, we are interested, we are evaluating this auction in June, and the same strategy that, if it works together with our niche strategy with the transmission assets. I think that the concern for this auction is very similar to the previous ones. What we've seen is a scenario with a lot of competition, and obviously the competition pressures the prices. We have a large change in the scenario.
If you look at the last 12 of 18 months, we have a scenario today of commodity prices that are higher, scarcity of equipment, pressure in relation to labor. The building costs of these projects, in our vision, they have a different level, not only the cost, but the execution complexity due to the moment that we're going through now. What we saw in the last auction of December, these two challenges were not contemplated, so practically the level of competition was the same as the previous years, and this makes the environment very complex when we talk about the competition. We are going to participate, but maintaining, as we've always have, our financial discipline, our return metrics unaltered. If we're not able to be competitive and if we lose, we understand it's part of the game.
We're not going to flexibilize considering the complexity of the execution of these projects today in the current context, which perhaps will be the scenario for the next months. We have a challenge, and the big question is our competitive ability in the future. Now, as for dividends, our strategy of balance between dividends and growth continues. We evaluate according to growth, and we balance this with the payment of dividends. I believe that after this evaluation, the effective payment of dividends has a lot to do with our availability of cash flow. Today, we have a cash flow which is relatively volatile due to the CVA variation that we have now, especially in our distributors. We have to match the availability of cash for the payment of dividends. We will continue doing this.
It's very difficult to forecast the exact dates of payments given that it depends on the availability of cash. The expectation is to maintain our strategy of balancing the dividends and the growth.
Thank you.
Thank you, Rafael, for your question. Now we're going to move to the second question. The second question comes from João from the Santander Bank. Good morning, João, thank you for your participation. Please ask your question.
Good morning, Estrella. Cyrino, congratulations for the result. Well, understanding all this about the tariffs, Enel, CEEE, if they've talked about this, question of PIS/COFINS to amortize, how do you see this with the regulators?
Well, I think in relation to tariffs, it's specifically related to this topic of PIS/COFINS. That is something that we have already been doing.
I believe that the interests of all the agents of the sector, all the regulatory, the government, clients and also companies, I think is to get this tariff amortization in a challenging time through. I showed you the level of delinquency. I think everyone has to try to amortize the tariffs. This is what we've done. With our readjustments, this impact is something that we're already doing, this compensation, and it makes sense that we incorporate this to the tariff readjustment. I would say that this is natural tendency. I think there's an expectation of the government and regulatory. I think this will take place. This discussion of tariffs, I think our expectation always goes through dialogue in the first place, the chamber, the government, the agency, the ministry, we hear the companies, the main pillar is regulatory.
I think we have a mature regulation. It's already 20 years, ever since 2004. I think it's already mature, understood by the market, and that has brought a lot of investment. All the expansion that the sector goes through private investment. Our idea is to preserve this as a center pillar to have alternatives, which is less structural, I think is, what we all have to do. I think the big example or a good example of these solutions is the sectorial loans. This is, this defers the readjustments to the consumer for over a year. I think this is an example.
It preserves all the contracts, it preserves the payment capacity of our clients, and I think these are the types of solutions that we have to work on with all the agents, with dialogue and reaching this solution convergence.
Thank you, João, for your question. We're now gonna move forward to the third question. The question comes from Itaú BBA. Good morning, Luiza. Thank you for your participation. You can ask the question. Luiza, I believe you're on mute.
Wait a second.
Can you hear me now?
Yes, we can hear you.
Thank you very much. I have a doubt here of delinquency. We see a pressure above historical levels. I understand that you have had the macro effect, but I'd like to know what you expect for the next months related to PMSO. Delinquency, have you seen any sort of normalization? And if you could also comment on the expectation of volumes, when we look forward. Thank you.
Thank you for the question. In relation to delinquency, we are monitoring this periodically, and the trend is for it to stabilize. We have a very specific plan for our distributors to have higher selective cuts and also with the room. This brings a relief in the tariff, and this will benefit.
We notice a small decline this month, and we hope that this will remain stable. With the recovery of these higher cut volumes, we hope to stabilize. That's the expectation, stabilization of the delinquency and then medium-term reduction. We also have plans for installment to make the life of [audio distortion]
Hi, Junqueira. How are you? Thank you for the question. Let's move on. I think it's an asset with some challenges, as you mentioned. At the time of the privatization, we were unable to format a proposal to put in the process. I think after five years, the challenges are similar, perhaps in a different position. I think what Enel did is what should have been done. When we look at the CapEx, it's in fact high, but the fact is that there are two challenges there, perhaps three challenges.
The first one is the discussion of FUNACEF, that fund for legal issues. This is a risk that already existed way back. I think now the risk is even higher related to privatization. The risk of the indicators, in spite of all the investments, the company still does not deliver some operational indicators, and these are a base for one to reach the concessional level. There is a negotiation that will have to be carried out so that the company has more time. The institutional relationship, as you said, are concessions, and we understand the importance of having alliance, a partnership with the governments of states. This has to be built. These are big challenges. We have a potential of growth.
We have all the rural areas, but some challenges are basically the same challenges of the privatization way back in 2008, 2017, 2018.
Wonderful. Thank you, Estrella. Thank you, Junqueira. Well, folks, I think we have ended the questions. We don't see any other questions, I'm now going to end the questions and answers. If there's any question or if anyone needs any clarification, if you need anything to do with investor relations, we are available to talk to you. I'm gonna give the floor back to Gustavo Estrella to for the final considerations and for the closure. Thank you.
Well, once more, I thank you all for your participation in the webcast of results of the first quarter. I think I would like to highlight two or three points. The first thing is one more quarter.
We have a challenging scenario, delinquencies, recovery, et cetera, but I think we've closed with good results. I think the first quarter we have the impact of CPFL Transmissão with the consolidation of a quarter. I think it's just the beginning. We have a series of improvements in the process of integration that we've been doing, and I think it is a contribution with relevant results in the next quarters. Now with the OPA effect and the company 100% controlled by CPFL Energia, we trust a lot the agenda. I think it's very important with all the changes and transformation of the electrical sector, not only in Brazil but the whole world, for us to trust this modernization agenda and also, very important, the maturity and the stability of the regulation, as I said, that we've built during the next years, 20 years.
It's a central pillar so that we can continue advancing in the sector with new investments, bringing new technologies, and a service with more and more quality. Once more, I thank you all for your participation, and I wish you all a good afternoon. Thank you very much.