Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the video conference of Cury Construtora to discuss the Results for the Fourth Quarter of 2023. This video conference is being recorded, and the replay will be available on the company's website, www.ri-cury.net. The presentation is also available for download. Please note that all participants will only be watching the video conference during the presentation, and then we will open the Q&A session, where further instructions will be provided. Before we proceed, I would like to reinforce that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Cury's management and the current information available to the company. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties as they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.
Investors, analysts, and journalists should consider that events related to the macroeconomic environment, the segment, and other factors may materially differ from those expressed in the respective forward-looking statements. We have here in this video conference Mr. Fábio Cury, CEO; Mr. João Carlos Mazzuco, CFO; and Mr. Ronaldo Cury, Investor Relations Director. I would like now to pass the floor to Mr. Fábio Cury, who will be giving the presentation. Please, Mr. Fábio Cury, you may proceed.
Good morning, everybody, and thank you for following our conference results for 4Q23. Representing Cury, we have, besides me, Ronaldo Cury, who is our DRI; João Mazzuco, our CFO; and we'll present throughout the conference the most important highlights of our operational and financial results, and then we'll open for Q&A.
2023 will be marked in our history because it's the 60th anniversary of the company and also the best results in our history. This was a period with robust operational indicators whose numbers were unprecedented for the company in terms of launches, sales, transfers, and land bank. I highlight the record cash generation, which proves discipline in business and focus on operations. The good operational performance in 2023 reflected in the financial results. The period brought margin improvement, confirming experience and skill in land negotiation, good execution by the sales team, and firm cost control at construction sites. We continue with our geographical focus, where we had 66% of launches in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region and 34% in Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region.
We started the year 2024 accelerating the pace in the very first days, launching important ventures in São Paulo, the Place Barra Funda, that has been sold 59%, and Mérito Santo Amaro, 63% of the 666 units being sold. In Rio, Mirante da Guanabara has 78% of its 274 units already sold. Such sales speed confirms the strong market demand and customer interest in our projects. We have already accumulated in the first Q the mark of 10 projects representing a VGV of over BRL 1.8 billion PSV. We will maintain in 2024 the strategy of concentrating the highest volume of launches in the first half. The budget approved in 2024 for Minha Casa Minha Vida program is the largest in the history of the fund. We await developments such as FGTS Futuro RET1 and the extension of income brackets, which will bring even more affordability to our customers.
In parallel, changes in the master plans of the cities of São Paulo and Rio are expected to expand opportunities for land purchase in our focus area. Now I give the floor to Ronaldo, who will bring the results of the operational and financial results. Good morning, everybody. On slide six, I want to highlight our performance in 4Q23. We launched 868 in the fourth quarter and BRL 4.4 billion in 2023. The net sales reached in this quarter BRL 904 million and BRL 4.1 billion in the year, and reached 38.9% and 74.5% in the annual, and cash generation in the 4Q23 was BRL 176.1 million and BRL 824 million in the total of 2023. The net revenue was BRL 811 million in 4Q23 and 12.8% in the year of 2023.
The adjusted gross margin in 4Q23 was 38.9% and 38.2% in the year of 2023, net revenue BRL 164.6 million and BRL 459 million in the year, besides net margin of 20.3% in the quarter and 17.2% in 2023. In this quarter, we launched three new developments with PSV of BRL 237 million. The important ones were Cidade Mooca in the eastern part of São Paulo and Nações Unidas, a PSV of BRL 237 million, quite a lot, so 100% sold, Ninguém do Parque Nações Unidas, with a PSV of BRL 107 million in the southern part of São Paulo, 66% already sold. Residencial Quinta do Bispo launched in October, a PSV of BRL 118 million in the northern part of Rio, 68% of the units having sold. Slide eight, we're going to explore the sales performance.
In 4Q23, we reached BRL 904.7 million and a net PSV sold, an amount that represents a growth of 20.1% against 4Q22 and a decrease of 7% against 3Q23. In the year of 2023, we reached BRL 4.1 million, 26% above the BRL 3.2 billion that were reported in 2022. Our SOS in 4Q23 was 38.9%, presented a decrease of 2.1% against the 4Q22 and 1.1% minus compared to the previous quarter. The SOS of the last 12 months reached 71.5%. We closed 4Q with an inventory of BRL 1.0 million PSV, 98% represented by launched units of projects that have not been started yet or are under construction, and only 1.9% have been concluded. Slide 9, we can see the graph on the left that in the fourth Q23, our mix of sales was focused in the highest brackets.
It's important to emphasize that in 2023, these sales for families with up to BRL 2,600 represented 6% of our sales. On the graph on your right side, we show the advancement of the medium price per unit in the 4Q23. The mean price was BRL 282.6, 1.5% higher than the previous one in 3Q23. In the year of 2023, we reached the average price of BRL 286,000, representing a 14.1% increase over the mean price of BRL 242,000 in 2022. Now, slide 10, we present our land bank. In 4Q23, we reached a historical record, closing with a total of BRL 14.5 million in potential PSV, what corresponds to a total of more than 50,700 units. In slide 10, also, I bring the operational cash generation, reaching BRL 176 million in the quarter and BRL 424 million in 2023.
With that, I give the floor to our CFO, João, who will give you more details on our financial results. João, please proceed.
Good morning, everybody. Good afternoon. Now, Slide 12, 4Q23. We reached net revenue of BRL 811.6 million, a 39.8% increase when compared to 4Q22. In 2023, our net revenue was of BRL 2,886 million, a growth of 27.9% against the BRL 2,257 million presented in the same period of the previous year. Now, our gross profit in Slide 13, in 4Q23, an increase of 41.5% against the same period of 2022, and an increase of 50 points in the gross margin that reached 38.7% in this period. Slide 14, we'll emphasize the net profit. The mother company reached BRL 650.3 million, a 74.6% increase as compared to the same period of 2022.
In 2023, we had a profit of BRL 481.8 million, so 46% higher than BRL 330 million that were communicated in 2022. Slide 15, we had net profit of the whole operation, BRL 164.6 million in this 4Q23, what represents an increase of 69.2% against BRL 97.3 million in 4Q22. In 2023, in the 12 years, 12 months, I'm sorry, the net profit was BRL 495.6 million, a 42.3% increase as compared to the BRL 348 million communicated at the end of 2022. Slide 16, we emphasize the profile of our debt. We closed the year with a total gross debt of an increase of 26.7% as compared to December 2022. And our debt amortization will go until 2028, and only 20% will be due on this year. We closed the fourth quarter with a net cash position of BRL 278.9 million, a 23% increase as compared to BRL 308.4 million from 2022.
Our net cash over P/L closed in 38% against 35% when compared to last year. Next slide. Our ROI, with a very good ROI, closed in 2023 in 59.6%. In spite of our growth, our operations basis are the same, so we maintain the same structure of capital. In 2023, we paid BRL 328 million in dividends, a result of good cash generation that translates in effective return for the shareholders. Thank you, and I give the floor back to Fábio Cury. Our sustainability tripod has advanced a lot in 2023 when we disseminated the first sustainability report. We'll keep on improving in 2024. We have advanced in regard to formalization and consolidation of principles that have been approved by our administration council, the policies of suppliers, of interested parts, shareholders, share stakeholders, I mean, besides investors. During 2024, that has been quite promising.
Our intention is to keep growing, maintaining excellence in our operational indicators and financial ones. I close thanking everybody who believed in us and who keeps walking with us towards success. Thank you so much for your participation and your interest in Cury. Sure, you have any demand. Our team is at your disposal for the investors at large. With that, we close our presentation, and I would like to ask the operator to open the Q&A session. We will now begin the Q&A session for investors and analysts. If you wish to ask a question, please click on "Raise Hand." If your question is answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by clicking on "Lower Hand." Our first question comes from Mr. Matheus Meloni from Santander. Your microphone may be opened.
Hi, everybody. Thank you and congrats for your results.
Here, we would like to understand a little bit more what were the drivers for this profit on margin of the last Q and whether you're expecting for the 2024 for us to understand if you think that the changes in São Paulo and Rio, the changes in the master plan, can increase the margin. And we'd like to understand a bit if you intend to increase when RET1 is approved. And do you have plots for that? And I would like to understand what you were thinking about that.
Good afternoon, Matheus. Thank you for the question. Fábio Cury is answering here. I will start answering and then about margin. I'll give it to Mazzuco, and he will finish my answer. About the master plan, what I think is master plans add a lot for us, especially regarding buying plots in São Paulo.
We have quite a good buffer to buy plots in Rio likewise, not only in the port, also in the northern zone of Rio, in São Paulo, and transportation lanes that have been broadened. So that's very good news. That broadens our range of action. About the bracket one, throughout last year, we had 6% of our customers were within this bracket, this stretch. I think it's about this in 2024. And it's that. Now, I'm going to give it to João to talk about gross margin. Good afternoon, Matheus. Good afternoon, everybody. About gross margin, the developments that were affected by inflation, they are being delivered now. The ones launched in 2021, 2020, they're not as important anymore. So we now have more weight on the new developments that we have, that we have strong margins.
We always say that we know which ones are going to provide a good margin. Our developments now are really on a very high-speed pace, and they come with very good margin. It's that mix, this change of mix that is contributing to this margin improvement. Looking forward, I think we should go on reporting the same level between 38%-39%. That's what we expect to report, to keep reporting. If we look at the RET margin, I have 42%, remove 2% for Internal Revenue Service, 40%. Well, the trend would be, should we go to RET margin? Well, then I would have to launch new, projects at 40%. We'll go for that. It's not easy. We cannot say that I'm going to have 40% in everything. So we expect a margin gain throughout the year, more towards the end of the year.
Maybe we have to think about future things also. At the end of the year, maybe we'll be able to have some budget review when we feel safer that our buffer on inflation will be able to bring that back. But this is really, when I have advanced a lot, this construction jobs since 2022.
Okay, thank you. That was quite clear.
Next question, Mrs. Mariangela de Castro from Itaú BBA.
Good afternoon. Congrats for your results. Thank you for answering my questions. I have two, actually. You have a strong sales volume for this quarter, and I would like to know a little bit about this year. If we should expect that the volume of sales in January will be sustained in the coming quarters, or do you think this is going to decelerate through the next quarters? Also, about the Council of FGTS in the meeting, do you think there's going to be a review in the income brackets, or what? How do you see that?
Good afternoon, Mariangela. This is Fábio again. I'm going to share, I'm going to split my answer. I'll talk about sales first. Sales, as of today, after January, February, we have an excellent result. We'll be talking about launches also. We should close this quarter BRL 1.8 billion in launches. And sales are very strong. January and February, they were above what we expected. And I believe personally that this should go on. The demand is very good, and we have very good products. And to answer your question, yes, the expectation is that we go on with a high number of launches and a high number of sales for the coming quarters. Now, Ronaldo, could you answer about FGTS?
Good afternoon, everybody, Mariangela. On the 19th, about the meeting, we expect that during that meeting, we will finally resolve the problems of the FGTS in the future. About the adjustments in the revenue brackets, or better, income brackets, there was an expectation that this would be voted in the first meeting. It wasn't, but it should be voted in April or May. This is what I know: income brackets.
Okay, thank you. And one quick follow-up on launching. When you say you should go on with the same volume, can we expect BRL 1.8 billion for the whole of 2024? Does it make sense to think that this is a strong volume for the first quarter, and then the next quarters will be a little bit lower? No, Mariangela. We always have, it's typical, acceleration in the first half, first and second quarter is stronger: BRL 1.8 billion, BRL 1.5 billion. In the second half, we decelerate. This is what has happened in the last three years, and we intend to do it again this year.
Okay, thank you. Next question, Gustavo Cambauva, BTG Pactual. Please, you may proceed.
Good afternoon, everybody. I would like to ask a bit about the land bank because you incremented it a lot, the number of plots in the company. I would like to understand a little bit more the conditions of purchasing of these plots. Was there any relevant change? Bid, the percentage of swap, or the way you pay, even when it's cash, if you paid in parcels? Or is it over the PSV? Has anything relevant changed? And also about plots, something I would like to have clarified. The company has been growing a lot in the last few years. It's always a concern to maintain profitability with larger volumes.
Have you been able to do this in the last few years? When you look at your current land bank, do you still feel comfort considering the current rules of the program, dynamic of current cost? Do you believe that you can maintain profitability similar to what happened so far, even with this volume of BRL 5 billion, more than BRL 5 billion of PSV a year?
Good afternoon, Cambauva. Thank you for your question. About a plot, acquiring plots, we accelerated last year, and I was mentioning last year that I understood, as was said, about less half. I was concerned we should accelerate. We were able to increase our land bank. We finished the year with almost BRL 15 billion. The way of buying did not change. It was always the same way. It's been quite a few years.
Around 20% of our land bank is through swap, and 80% were in cash, let's say. It's always the same way, just a little bit after the first agreements. That varies between four to six months. Then the rest is paid after the approval, the launching of the plot, no matter how long it's going to take. Usually, it's 36 months. These plots, so the payment may be in 60 parcels. And it's a standard, the way we buy. It's the way we almost always buy. The quality of the plots, this is what makes us different in answering your second question. I think that's what makes me feel comfortable to deliver the same results that we have been delivering. The master plan helps on that. It gives us more plots on the regions where we like to be next to transportation lanes.
In Rio, it broadens our range, not only the port, but São Cristóvão, the northern zone. We have more areas where we can be the players there to have our vertical products. We understand that, yes, we will be able to keep on growing with this land bank, with quality, maintaining the same figures that we have been delivering to the market.
All right, thank you.
Good afternoon. Next question, Mr. Ygor Altero from XP. Please proceed.
Hi, everybody. Two questions. First, I want to understand a little bit the dynamics of FGTS. How do you see the increase in the brackets? What would be a potential increase on your side? Does it make sense to increase the brackets that are similar to the increase we had in the minimum wages? So, some granularity of what's yet to come in the potential increase in the income brackets. That would be the first question.
Okay, Igor, thank you for your question. This is Ronaldo here. The expectation is that we will follow the increase in the minimum wages, at least for bracket number one. For the other ones, maybe more, maybe less. What the law says is that every year we discuss at least if there's going to be an adjustment or not. Maybe they will decide not to give an adjustment. However, what we understand is that there will be an adjustment, most likely in April or May. Okay, Ronaldo. And about, do you think there is room to improve even more funding? How do you see the availability of FGTS? What do you think we could have as measurements to improve funding dynamics? And maybe, do you think there is room on funding to improve, to accelerate more the program?
The program begins the year with a record funding. We have a record budget for FGTS, BRL 106 billion, which is quite good. Yes, January, February was quite strong: 20% funding. Something that kind of frightens us is the financing of used units. The sector has been talking a lot and showing the government that, and the government has understood that they should restrict, loaning for used apartments and houses. There should be more restriction for that. And regarding the birthday, money drawing, yes, there is some work that has been done by, along with the ministers to see if we add that. This is what is in the horizon. This is what may happen regarding FGTS and funding.
Next question, Mr. Rafael Rehder from Safra Bank. Go ahead.
I also have two questions. The first one, I just wanted to understand a little bit more the income dynamic. Do you see any push towards the price about any raw material? Because I think the sector is quite concerned about that. In May, there should be this change. Also about the master plan, you mentioned increasing the range to buy new plots. But I would like to understand from the current land bank if you see any gain in potential of construction to generate a margin increase.
Thank you for your question. About the inputs, well, we don't think there is any evident pressure. In cement, there is a little bit, but it's compensated by things that are calm. The manpower is really what is the concern for everybody. But we are comfortable about our workforce, engineering, and everything that we have at construction sites. And also the builders that have been working with us for a long time.
Yes, it's the task force that has been a deep pressure. About the master plan, yes, the plots that we have now brought novelties. We have the benefits of AGS that we didn't have before. So there are some where we have additional margin as compared to when we bought them. Of course, it's not in all of them, especially in some, in some ones where we are reviewing our costs. We are reapproving some. Some were already almost approved, so it's not worth it to a step back. And some, the last ones that have been bought before the zoning areas have been changed, we have reviewed. And there is some gain. It's going to be much more in the new purchases. But in some, yes, because of the change in the zoning law, it's very clear.
Thank you. Good afternoon.
Next question, Mr.
Good afternoon, everybody. I would like to further elaborate, or better, to talk about competition vis-à-vis the capacity. When we look at your results, it's, it's amazing, the operational performance. And I think we are in a moment of the program where all the players are really praising this moment, saying that it's a beautiful moment. And for you, it's not different. So I'd like to understand a little bit more how you are seeing the scenario of competition and understand why you would not have, would not grow or announce a growth that is so important next year in terms of launching, especially sales, as it was in 2023 as compared to 2022, since we have all that scenario. Is it for a marketing or competition matter, or is it more because of your operational capacity or something that I do not see? This is what I would like to understand.
Thank you, Victor. Competition, about the demand of buying apartments, we are in a very privileged position. We have a team of sales that is quite good. We launch, we don't have any problem in approving our projects. We have a sales team that is giant, very well trained. They are making one sale after the other one. We have the largest and the best team in the market. Competition always exists when you buy the plot. We have to have good and large developments to have cash. Operationally wise, this growth depends on around operations so that we have the results that we are presenting today. Could you or not grow, like Pedro has said, that since 2007, when we were with Cyrela, we always grew maintaining this operation in a very healthy way.
So step by step, we grow without running. And for that, we cannot take giant leaps. Although in the last few years, we're growing 30% a year, what is extremely interesting. So I cannot say how much it's going to be from 2024 to 2025. However, the idea is to grow. We are preparing ourselves with a land bank, with a sales team, internal restructuring in all the departments to grow. What I cannot say is how much, if you look back at our growth in the last few years, it's around 20%-30% a year. What I think that is extraordinary since we have been delivering results that are better and better every year, generating cash, increasing our margin, our profit. So I think that's the idea.
We don't want to say that we're going to increase our sales or our budget without having less profitability, less ROI, having worse figures. So this is the message we want to convey.
Okay, thank you.
Next question, Mr. Pedro Lobato, Bradesco BBI. Mr. Lobato, please.
Good afternoon. Thank you for your presentation. Question. How do you see the dynamic of transference in Minha Casa Minha Vida and all in other products that are 25%-26% of your sales mix? Do you see any difference considering this more challenging scenario? How is the dynamic of transferences?
Thank you, Pedro, for the question. However, the flow is quite normal. We are in a moment of Caixa Econômica, not that it's excellent, but it's one of the best moments of Caixa Econômica. Our agents are the ones that take care of the transferences because their commission depends on that.
So we have a team before that. The agent is the one that is keeping an eye on that. And we are really updated with the sales regarding transference, be it with FGTS or CTS. And so we are transferring to physical individuals in a good pace.
Next one, Mr. Hugo Grassi from Citibank.
Good afternoon. Congrats for your result. I would like to ask a question. Along the lines of the master plan, you mentioned that this different master plan enables some gain in the land bank, increase in PSV, and that could be a reason to reapprove some projects. And I imagine that this may be a reality for many other players because of this solidarity quote, for instance, that's not specific to one single geography. It's good for the whole city.
What concerns me a bit is if we should not foresee that it's going to take longer, the process of project approving in the governmental organs, since we're going to have an overload of new launches and other builders that will be, again, trying to reapprove some projects. I'm talking about a year with new norms and technical things. How do you see the approval of projects? Is this a concern? How is your approval pipeline? Are you concerned with having a hiatus, having like a gap there impacting on your capacity of offer?
Good afternoon. Thank you for your question. As I said in the previous question, some few cases we will go for reapproval. We understand that it would not be worth it.
We would have other cases that were in the pipeline, but so that we avoid happening what your concern is, we decided not to miss the timeline and maintain the projects as they were. Some that we understood that we would not lose much. They would be approved by the end of the year, so to say. Then we could obtain reapproval. We would have enough time to reapprove them without losing the timeline. So we were quite careful to reapprove only those, the ones in HES, only for the end of the year. Your question is very good because we studied that the day the law was launched, so we wouldn't lose anything. SMO is an organ that has really respected its timeframes. And we don't want to waste time. So we only did that in the cases that we wanted more time. And then we did that.
Cury is like a clock. We have launches almost every year. So everything that was about to be approved and we would not have time to reapprove, for instance, for April or May, we did not change anything. We left the original ones. However, those that are foreseen for November, December, we understood that they could go back and there would be enough time. We did it and did for once from next year. We understand that Cury is not going to suffer for that. Our pipeline is doing well. And we're going to focus the year with this magnitude that we commented in the beginning of the conference with a high sales range or figure.
Thank you. It's good to hear that about your pipeline. However, if I can insist on this question, looking at your peers, because you have a pipeline that's quite feasible for 2024, even with the previous rules, we see your profitability. So it was justified the launching. But I ask about peers that maybe were not so comfortable as you are, that would be thinking about reexamining the launching. On one hand, that can overload the technical people from SMO, but it could open, open a gap, commercial gap, if you have less launches from your competitors. Do you know what I mean? Do you see anything like that?
Yeah, I understand your question. I do not understand that the technicians from the municipality would be overloaded because when you do it again, the process goes all the way to the end of the line. So it goes back. It goes back to the line.
There is a number of processes that will be approved or analyzed every week. And who is going to be delayed is the one that decided to reenter the line. So it's nothing more than a delay if somebody decides to do that. This is why I said that the projects that we decided to reapprove are the ones that would be launched by the end of the year or next year. But you are right. There are some companies that had low margins, etc., and decided to reapprove almost everything. And maybe there is a gap of launching in the first movement, and they will wait for their projects to be reapproved. And there's going to be a hiatus there. But I don't see that there's going to be a jam there because the line is the line, you know.
They will go back to the line, and that's how it works, the system of approval in São Paulo.
Yes, thank you. Quite clear. Thank you. Congratulations again.
Now, Mrs. Aline Caldeira from Bank of America.
Hi everybody. Good afternoon. Congratulations for your results. Thank you for getting my questions. Many interesting topics have been discussed. I would like to touch two aspects we discussed well during this call, the growth by Cury, and it has been growing a lot, and it's still growing. I would like to understand how comfortable you are regarding your engineering capacity to absorb that. And do you think you have any additional effort, challenge to face in that sense? And also about RET 1 from last week, new. I would like to understand how you see when we can see that really impacting P&L. I mean EPS. Good afternoon, Aline.
Thank you for your question. Just like any developer, first there comes sales, and then engineering comes back with the production. Last year, we produced almost 12,000 units, and this year the intention is 16,000. It's a challenge. Before 12,000, we produced 9,000 in 2021, then from nine to 12, 12 to 16. Significant growth impacting on the engineers, the engineers, and this is quite a challenge and huge steps, and that demands much labor work, much work from our contractors, suppliers, and much development work. We have to develop a lot so that we follow this increase in construction sites. Yes, it is the challenge of the company besides development, administration, etc. The greatest challenge is that this growth in engineering from nine to 12 to 16. It's not just construction, but also delivery. We have to deliver these apartments to our clients.
We are looking at this very closely, and it's very important. The whole company is looking at that. Our deliveries were much lower. We are delivering many, many more every year. We understand that this is a key point. We have to finish the project and deliver well. Faixa 1, I also commented, we do not have today a large percentage of clients that fit in Faixa 1. We are talking about 6% of our customers. If they fit here, they would fit in 2023. They fit in 2024. And I understand that they will remain like that this year. We have some plots that are more pointed at that income. And so we, we now think about developing them. And that, added to FGTS in the future, as Ronaldo mentioned, then we feel like increasing that, throughout the year.
Next question, Mr. Jonathan Koutras, JP Morgan. Good afternoon, everybody.
I have, you may have, I would like to know if there is anything new and if you're just thinking about new deposits as was discussed from third to fourth Q of last year. Thank you. Thank you, Jonathan. This is Ronaldo about STF, the sector through the class organizations. We follow this very close. In November, we are waiting for the deliberation. We don't have much to say about that. And the other question was related to, if you could ask it again. No, it was about that. If it will, if the changes in sales will be applied to new deposits. So there's nothing new.
Okay. If this scenario is passed, there is a consensus in the market that that will delay the moment at which this is going to be bad for real estate funding. It will delay in 10 years. We believe that there will be time even for the government to find a different solution to try to work over these losses.
Thank you and congratulations for your results.
If there are no further questions, the Q&A session is closed. The Cury Construtora video conference has concluded. We thank everyone for their participation and wish you all a good afternoon.