Good morning, everyone, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to CVC's video conference to discuss the results for the second quarter of 2024. Those who need simultaneous interpretation, we have this tool available on the platform. To access it, you have to click on Interpretation through the globe at the lower part of the screen, at the bottom part of the screen, and choose Portuguese or English. For those who are listening to the video conference in English, you have the option of muting original audio in Portuguese. Click and mute original audio. This conference is being recorded and will be made available on the company's website, www.cvccorp.com.br/ir, where the presentation will be available. During the presentation, all the companies will be in listen-only mode, and then we'll open for Q&A.
To ask questions, click on Q&A icon at the bottom of the screen and write your question to queue it. When you are announced, we're going to ask you to open your microphone. Then you should activate your microphone to ask questions. The questions should be done, all of them at the same time. The information here contained and declarations that might be done during the video conference relative to the business perspectives, projections, and operational goals and financial goals of CVC Corp, are premises of the company's administration, as well as information based on information that are currently available. Future considerations are not guarantee of performance. They include risks, uncertainties, and premises because they concern to future events, therefore, they depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.
Investors should understand that economic conditions, market conditions, and other operational factors may affect the future performance of CVC Corp and lead to results that differ materially to those that were here expressed. Here, we count with Mr. Fabio Godinho, CEO, and Felipe Gomes, CFO, and [IR]. I'll give the floor now to Mr. Godinho. Please proceed.
Good morning, everyone. This is Fabio Godinho, CEO of CVC Corp, and I would like to thank you for your time and presence here. Another presentation of our results, this time for the second quarter of 2024. This quarter is very important for us since we have completed one year of the new management in early June, so in the middle of the second quarter.
This year is when things start to mature, when we start to see in our figures the most important, most notable reflections of all the strategies we have been implementing since the beginning of this last twelve months, since the beginning of June 2023, when we returned to the company. We made all the changes within those four pillars that we always talk about: Governance, Culture, Executive Team, and Strategy. In terms of Governance, as we well know, we now have a leaner board than we used to have before. We have in-depth knowledge of the tourist market as well as of the financial market, therefore, giving much more assertiveness and agility in the company's decisions together with management. Also important is the alignment of interests among all minority shareholders, since today we have the company's largest shareholders on the board.
This is therefore a very important alignment, something we value very much. Without proper governance, no other aspect could have a positive impact. Governance is key, and we have always had this vision. The first thing we organize in the company. The second point is the return of the appropriate corporate culture. CVC Corp's culture has always had a strong sales culture, a very strong culture focused on execution, closeness to the tourist market, to our franchisees, master franchisees, travel agents, and suppliers. Mainly, our team, with a sense of pride in belonging by all our employees. So the resumption of this pride in wearing the CVC Corp group brand shirt, whether in Brazil or in Argentina. Governance, therefore, has been adjusted, corporate culture adjusted. Obviously, CVC's executive team... CVC is an asset-light company. The management team is thus crucial to the company's results.
It has been crucial so far for this turnaround in the company's results over the last 12 months, and it will certainly make a big difference within the strategy that we are implementing for the coming years. Therefore, all these changes that we made in the executive team had a huge impact, but not only in the first line of reporting to the CEO, which currently has 12 reports directly to me, but also in all 170 leadership roles... for second, third reporting lines. Today, we not only have a very strong executive committee with the best professionals in the market within each vertical line that they manage, but also at the lower levels. Thus, a very strong hierarchical structure for the succession of these other positions is ready for the coming years.
Lastly, strategy, as we always say, executive product, alternative form of financing, sales model, and stores in the countryside, phygital, exclusive products. Little by little, we have been improving, and you'll see also, again, in this quarter, another significant improvement due to this and other actions in the generation of the company's operating cash. There has already been an improvement in the dynamics of the working capital that is important. Now, in the second quarter, we always say that there are three gears for the company's cash generation: take rate, expense/CapEx, CapEx and OpEx, and the working capital for the company's operating cash generation. Take rate, CapEx, and OpEx had already been adjusted, and the working capital, like the math, takes longer to be adjusted.
Although the working capital, this dynamic, has already been much better in recent quarters, it had not as yet been positive, as positive as it was now in the second quarter, so largely due to the strategy of exclusive products, which not only improves the company's financials, generation of our operating cash, as it is a proprietary strategic point of the company. Very favorable that these are products that are only available at the CVC stores, exclusive negotiations for both air and land services, both domestic and international, within the company's main destinations. Second key point of our strategy, which has also had some positive effect, will have more in the coming quarters, but has already started to have some positive effect, not only on working capital, but also on top-line stimulus, mainly in B2C.
Alternative forms of financing, not only CVC Desk, penetration that we will not expand much in the future. We have a very low delinquency rate in our portfolio today, and we do not see an increase in risk, a very representative increase from what we already have today. But there are many banks entering on our marketplace, many additional forms of financing. Felipe Gomes will talk a little more about this later. So this is also stimulated by the dynamics of the working capital, which tend to reduce the exposure of the CVC Desk and also stimulate sales, since there are more people wanting to finance our clients, the packages for our clients, which is very important. So within the purpose of CVC, as we always say, we are a tourist company, and our objective is to provide assistance to our passengers.
So within assisting them, they will have greater flexibility when paying for the package for a family, which today is a relevant average ticket for any Brazilian family. It is difficult for people to travel alone, so this bill comes from one, two, three, four passengers. It is thus really an important ticket, and as a service to our passengers, it is also important for us to take this family off the credit card limit and not consume this limit that families currently use for their daily expenses and not for their annual vacation trips. That is what we want from these differentiated forms of financing, and it's already happening. Third point, phygital sales. We have been improving nonstop. We have been gaining relevance in stores.
Conversion has been increasing, the cost of lead acquisition has been decreasing, so we have been on a very important learning curve, positive in sales. It is also an important factor in this very good growth that we had in the second quarter, mainly in B2C, a lot due to the improvement of phygital. And lastly, stores in the countryside. We'll talk a little bit about this later. This implementation of the strategy is already growing rapidly because phygital, together with new store models, enables CVC to move away from its previous strategy, the one we had before the pandemic, before COVID, of being only in cities with 100,000 inhabitants, because it depended 100% on customers physically entering the store to buy their travel package. Today, we can open stores in cities with up to 15,000 inhabitants.
We already have several examples of stores that we opened at the end of last year and this year, successful stores in cities between 15,000 and 25,000 inhabitants, which was a new market for CVC, opening up a giant addressable market for CVC. We'll be able to open stores in almost half of the cities of Brazil, whereas before, in the previous model, that was 100% physical, not phygital, we could open stores in a maximum of 10% of the cities in Brazil. We multiplied this addressable market by five. So this was the second quarter, and we will start talking about the main highlights now. Moving on to the highlights of the second quarter results, broken down into growth, profitability, and governance.
In this quarter, we opened 60 stores, including Brazil and Argentina, in the second quarter, surpassing the historic record for stores opening at CVC Corp. Never, since the beginning of the company's history, all the companies together, had we opened 60 stores in one quarter. Also in a semester, CVC Corp has 90 new stores, adding the first and second quarters, which is also a record for the company. Closures, there was a normal closure pace. 12 stores were closed, six in each quarter. Therefore, the pace of stores opening accelerated significantly. We have already broken a quarterly record in CVC's history. We have broken half-year record in CVC's history, within the normal level of stores closures. Another important figure: we opened five stores in Argentina in the first quarter and 6 stores in Argentina in the second quarter.
It is very important to see this commitment from our franchisees in Argentina. Even in light of all the monetary tightening of the local government, we opened 10% of new stores. Today, we have 125 stores in Argentina, where we opened 11 stores in the first half of the year, a semester of very turbulent economy, showing the resilience of our business. The highlight we had in terms of growth this quarter, was 16% growth in confirmed B2C bookings. We were coming off a flatter quarter due to the difficult comps we had in relation to the first quarter of last year, which saw very high growth, but with a negative margin. As we always say, we prioritize margin due to the growth we had in the first quarter of this year.
Now we are back with profitability to imprint significant growth, 16% in B2C. We're talking about same-store sales in the range of 10%. That's considering all the figures, including all the problems that, the catastrophe we had, that Brazil had in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which hit the months of May and June. It got two of the three months. Within B2C, the stores in Rio Grande do Sul represented 7% of our revenue. If we exclude the effect of Rio Grande do Sul, only sales, not excluding boarding, the loss of sales due to boarding to Gramado, this is not excluded, but only sales in stores in Rio Grande do Sul, the rest of the stores in Brazil grew 21% against the second quarter of last year.
Also excluding the effect of Rio Grande do Sul, we went from a same-store sales of 10%-12%. In other words, it was a month of very solid growth. It is important to remember that according to ANAC data, capacity within the domestic market grew by around 3%, and the yield of airlines in a domestic market in the second quarter fell by around 9%-9.5%. Domestic market is experiencing a decline in overall revenue from aviation in the second quarter against the second quarter of last year. CVC is gaining 16%, which is already signaling an acceleration of gain in market share. The international market also saw a drop in fares of around 14%-15% overall in the second quarter.
So the market has been falling in price throughout the first half of the year, and then stabilizing at lower or flat numbers against last year. CVC is starting to show signs of gaining share, but with profitability that is adequate to the return on invested capital. This is something we respect and that we have always confirmed, not trying to grow at any cost. We prepared ourselves with an adequate take rate, with exclusive products, within an adequate team, and now we are starting to deliver better growth dynamics with adequate profitability and with better working capital dynamics. We'll mention that later. Another important point to mention is the growth in net revenue, which is the revenue that comes from the company's take rate, which grew 21% in 2Q23 against 2Q24.
This shows a gain in market share again, with a recovery in the take rate. So increasing sales, increasing take rate. B2B is a clear example of this recovery. We are closing a gap due to that comparison with mileage users in the organization we did at the beginning of last year, of the client's portfolio, delinquent clients that we removed, clients with very low or negative profitability that we also removed. At first, this resulted in a very significant drop in gross books, but that was not reflected in a drop in profitability, quite the opposite. So since we had the strategy of separating the brands again, we gradually reduced the growth gap significantly. However, with profitability much higher than in the previous year. A good example here is obviously RA. In the first half of 2023, RA presented a negative EBITDA of BRL 2.2 million.
In the first half of 2024, RA is presenting a positive EBITDA of BRL 58 million. This is just the difference from the first six months, even with a 10% drop in gross bookings. But with a 10% drop in gross bookings and a 40% increase in net revenue, and also a reduction in expenses. So it goes from a negative EBITDA of BRL 2 million to a positive EBITDA of BRL 58 million in the first six months of this year. And now we no longer have this effect of the comparison with the frequent flyers, and also returning to gain momentum with the consolidation market. We should already start to present positive numbers month after month within the B2B segment in the third quarter and also in the fourth quarter onwards.
In other words, as of the second quarter, we should already have positive top line gross bookings. Well, on profitability, the first point is the maintenance of the take rate at historical levels since we took in the range of 9%, so growing 1.6 percentage points against the second quarter of 2023. And we have been positioning the company in this range since the third quarter of last year. A very important turnaround in Adjusted EBITDA. But even so, with the adjustments being much less representative, we had many adjustments to the balance sheet, cleaning house, tidying up the balance sheet last year. And this year, as well as the store closures, the adjustments in the P&L for the Adjusted EBITDA, non-recurring ones are much smaller.
So for example, we presented here BRL 70 million in EBITDA within all the companies of CVC Corp, an improvement of BRL 87 million against last quarter, last year. To give you an idea, in Brazil alone, the companies in Brazil, B2B plus B2C, went from, again, negative EBITDA of BRL 30 million in the second quarter of 2023, to a positive EBITDA of BRL 60 million in the second quarter of 2024, a turnaround of BRL 90 million just in the figures for Brazil. In Argentina, it was a quarter that was the worst quarter of the year. A quarter in which consumption, due to all the restrictive consumption measures to reduce inflation, which have been successful, but logically, with a profound impact on the consumption of the Argentinian people. And obviously, within the travel segment, which is a discretionary purchase, it is impacted.
Even though it was the worst quarter of the year, Argentina had a net profit of BRL 25 million in the second quarter of 2024 alone, and positive cash generation. That shows the resilience of our business model in Argentina as well. A solid model that even in the worst quarter of the year, produced a very substantial figure of net profits, generating important cash for the companies as well. In Argentina, we also had a drop in gross bookings in the second quarter, also in the first quarter. But because of two factors, let's say more or less half of this drop was due to the drop in the effective sales volume, in quantity, value, and tickets. And the other half was due to the reduction in travel taxes. So taxes, this does not impact the profitability and net revenue, which is just a pass-through in our P&L.
But the other half, this one does have an impact due to the reduction in sales volume. Even though we have already seen in the last few months, in the last few weeks, some improvement. So we believe that the worst is over in terms of travel demand in the Argentinian market. And this year, we are not only seeing a recovery in volumes in the last few weeks, in the last few months, and this first half of the year, we had a significant gain in market share, according to IATA data. So when we recover, which is what we are feeling now, we will have a positioning in terms of market share in the Argentinian market that's much more important than what we had in the same period last year, 12 months ago. So this, in relation to our operation in Argentina.
Cash generation of BRL 35 million, including cash generation from EBITDA, deducting CapEx expenses, and also working capital variation. This is the highest number, the highest cash generation value for CVC Corp in the last 18 quarters. At the end of it all, which is a very important agenda for the company's executives, the adjustment of the company's capital structure, de-leveraging the company. In the second quarter of 2024, we also had a reduction of BRL 345 million in the company's net indebtedness against 2Q23. In terms of governance, we elected Mateus Bandeira, who was already our board member, very active, has been getting to know the market and CVC's business model better and better every day. He's very present, he has participation in all the main discussions together with other board members, obviously, Gustavo Paulus, but very present together with management.
We elected Mateus as the new Chairman of the board of directors, and once again, CVC was ranked as having the best score of all tourist companies by RA1000 seal. That is the reference of CSAT, which is Reclame Aqui. So CVC, within its main purpose, which is to provide assistance to our passengers, this is an item that we value a lot, being a leader in quality and customer satisfaction in CSAT for our customers. So we have now had the RA1000 seal from Reclame Aqui for the third quarter in a row. It's also worth mentioning our solidarity campaign we ran for the victims of the tragedy that struck the state of Rio Grande do Sul. As soon as we had the news that Salgado Filho Airport was closing, it closed in the first few days of May.
We only had one month left in the second quarter. We spoke to the CEO of GOL, of Azul, of LATAM, and also in partnership with Jamef, one of the largest land transport companies in the country. We ran a campaign where all CVC stores function as collection points for donations for families in the state that were affected by the catastrophe in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. CVC organized itself as the largest private company point in Brazil for donations for the state of Rio Grande do Sul, launching the largest campaign in tours- tourism, I'm sorry, tourism segment. By far, one of the largest campaigns in Brazil retail. We raised more than 236 tons for families in Rio Grande do Sul. We had net growth of 41 stores in the second quarter of Brazil and 69 in the first half of 2024.
Breaking the record of opening and within the normal level aligned with the company's normalized history of closing, which is around six stores per quarter. So we can already see that the store openings of these new generations or new batches are already exactly in line with our strategies. So the stores opening in 2024 was practically 70% in the countryside, which is where the population grows the most, where the GDP grows the most, where there is much more adherence to CVC brand, also assistance, also an interest and demand for alternative forms of financing, combining physical sales with digital, the phygital. So these stores have already been quite successful, especially our modular store, which is 150%-100% above the sales curve that we expected.
The very good news is that over 50% of these new stores are owned by CVC franchisees, demonstrating the strength and credibility of our brand and our management with current franchisees. In this quarter, we'll bear much more yield in terms of the rollout of stores opening. Several contracts that we are signing with hypermarket chains, wholesale plus retail chains, drug stores, and other retailers to open stores in stores, and also stores in parking lots or next to wholesale retail markets and hypermarkets as well. Several large chains in Brazil have been contacting us, and we have signed several partnerships that are already yielding results and will bear much more stronger fruits in the coming quarters.
Those were the general highlights of the second quarter of 2024, an important quarter in terms of top line growth, profitability growth, positive operating cash generations, store openings, continued cost reduction for the company. So there's a lot of good news in the second quarter of 2024. As a result of all the back to the basics we've done in implementing the strategies over the last 12 months.... that are yielding more pronounced results, starting this quarter as well. Now I'll hand over to Felipe Gomes, who will go into more detail about the operational and financial results of each business unit of CVC Corp in the second quarter of 2024. Best regards to all of you.
Thank you, Godinho, for the floor. Good morning, all. Moving on to slide seven, we highlight the company's confirmed reservations, net revenue, and take rate.
So looking at the top left, where we talk about confirmed reservations in the second quarter of 2024 against Q2 23, there was a 16% increment going from BRL 1.273 billion - BRL 1.477 billion. Without the impact of Rio Grande do Sul, this growth would have been even higher, 21%. When we go to the top right, we also see a very significant growth in net revenue, going from BRL 126 million - BRL 149.5 million, an increase of 18.6% in the quarter. When we compare half against half, there was also significant increase, 16.6%. In the bottom, we have the highlights for 2024. Those highlights have already been well explored by Godinho previously. Now moving on to slide eight, which is the B2B slide.
We bring here quarter-over-quarter and half-over-quarter comparisons, both of confirmed reservations and of net revenue integrate. In the second quarter 2023, the confirmed B2B reservations were BRL 1.466 billion. In the second quarter of 2024, BRL 1.395 billion. Godinho has mentioned we have the issue of frequent flyers, which the company decided to stop selling. The sales were being made until May of last year, so the comparison here is a bit murky, and also the focus on profitability, where we resigned several contracts in B2B with agencies, which also brings a bit of distorted comparison quarter-over-quarter. But now, mainly from June 2024 into the third quarter onwards, this comparison starts to be more accurate.
In the confirmed reservation, the quarter, a drop of 4.8%, also with the effects from Rio Grande do Sul. If we excluded that, it would be around 3.2%. In half-over-half, a slightly larger drop, 12.3, and this has to do with, as we said, that this comparison starts to become clearer in the second quarter, clearer than in the first quarter. That's why in this semester, the impact is still a bit greater, a bit higher. When we look at the net revenue take rate, which is very much in line with what was said, the focus of profitability in the B2B segment, we see the significant increase in net revenue going from BRL 74.5 million in the second quarter of 2023 to BRL 93.1 million in the second quarter of 2024.
In half-year over half-year, there was also very significant growth of 22.4%, going from approximately BRL 145 million to BRL 177 million. A very significant increase in take rate, going from 4.9% in the first half of 2023. Again, where we had the managed sales, there were some contracts that were not advantageous for the company, going to 6.5% take rate, which has a very high impact on the bottom line, the highlights of B2B, which were mentioned by Godinho. Now let's move to slide nine, which is the slide for Argentina. As has been mentioned, we have been noticing an improvement in the business environment in the country, but there is still a reduction in the population's purchasing power, which also directly impacts sales.
Although in recent weeks, we have been noticing an improvement in this regard as well. When we look at confirmed reservations, we see a drop of almost 38% from the second quarter 2023 to the second quarter of 2024. When we look at the semester, this drop is greater, which in a way already begins to show an improvement, 1 Q over the previous Q, in terms of confirmed reservations. When we look at net revenue and take rate, in net revenue, this drop is even smaller because there's also the aspect of sales with taxes, and this tax has been reduced. As Godinho said, this is just a revenue pass-through, so this is also why the drop in net revenue ends up being smaller than confirmed reservation.
The good news might be that the take rate is still rising, going from 6.4% - 7.6%, Q-over-Q. When we look at the entire semester, we have a drop in revenue of about 22%, going from BRL 153 million - BRL 111 million. However, with increase in take rate of 6.5% to 8.1%. The big highlight here for Argentina is that despite this large drop in sales and the effect on EBITDA, the net income, the net profit has been strong in this quarter and the year, which in a way, also shows the resilience of the business in Argentina. Now moving on to slide 10, consolidation of CVC Corp's results, with a lot of emphasis here on the increase mainly in EBITDA quarter-over-quarter.
Continuing here on the top left, we show net revenue and take rate. 2Q 20 23, net revenue was BRL 269 million. Now 2Q 20 24, BRL 294 million, 9.2% increase. In the first half of this year, reaching BRL 611 million, 8.2% growth compared to last year. Take rate went from 7.4% in the first half of 2023 to 9.3% in the first half of 2024, which reflects the company's strategy of focusing on business profitability. On the top right, we also have fixed expenses and an indicator related to net revenue in Brazil. Here, we're talking about business in Brazil.
Expenses fell from BRL 156.6 million in the second quarter 2023 to BRL 142.4 million in BRL in the second quarter 2024, which causes a drop of fixed expense to net revenue rate from 71.1% - 58.7%. When we analyze semester over semester, there was also a drop from BRL 329.3 million - BRL 283.4 million in fixed expenses, with a drop in the indicator from 78.1% - 57.7%. On the bottom, we provide an analysis of Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, highlighted here. So the company at large, CVC Corp, goes from BRL -16.2 million in Adjusted EBITDA in 2Q 2023, to BRL 70.3 million in Adjusted EBITDA in 2Q 2024.
An increase of BRL 86.6 million in EBITDA, going from a margin of -6% to a margin of almost 24%. When we break it down between Brazil and Argentina, in Brazil, we go from an EBITDA of BRL -31.3 million in 2Q 2023, to an EBITDA of BRL 60.8 million in the second quarter 2024, an increase of BRL 92.1 million. In Argentina, we have a drop of BRL 14.9 million in EBITDA from the second quarter of 2023 to BRL 9.5 million in the second quarter 2024, reflecting drops in sales that we saw in the previous slides. The accumulated adjusted EBITDA for the semester, we have an increase in relation to last year of BRL 149.5 million.
We go from BRL 11 million in the first half of 2023 to BRL 156.5 million in the first half of 2024, increasing the margin from 2% -2 5.6%. Now, slide 11, which is the last slide of the presentation, where we present the company's cash flow and overall indebtedness. On the left side of the cash flow, the big highlight for us here is operating cash generation. That is, in the second quarter of 2024, we had an operating cash generation of BRL 34.7 million, which is the best cash generation for the company in the last 18 quarters since the third quarter of 2019.
We closed cash in the second quarter 2024 with BRL 244.2 million, a drop compared to the second quarter of 2023, explained by all the debt service that the company made in this period, and with a policy of lower anticipation of receivables, which is clear in the table on the slide, which is the general indebtedness table. So in this table, if we go line by line, in the first line of gross debt, a drop of practically BRL 93 million quarter-over-quarter, going from BRL 891.9 million - BRL 799.2 million.
The cash that we just mentioned, going from BRL 646 million - BRL 244 million, and when we look at this metric of net debt, an increase of BRL 309 million, however, explained by the advances on receivables, which are the next two lines. So when we look at the non-advanced receivables, that is the balance of receivables that a company has to use to advance an increase of BRL 380.9 million, going from BRL 116.4 million of balance of non-advanced receivables in the second quarter of 2023, to BRL 497.3 million in the second quarter of 2024.
When we look at the balance of prepayment of receivables, that is the amount of credit card receivables advanced, we also notice a significant drop going from BRL 1.51 billion in the second quarter 2023 to BRL 778 million in the second quarter of 2024. In other words, a balance of prepayment of credit card receivables lower by BRL 273.2 million , which is reflected in this last line, the sum of the company's net debt, plus the receivables balances, where there is a significant drop from BRL 1.181 billion in the second quarter of 2023 to BRL 836 million in the second quarter of 2024. In other words, a reduction in general debt of BRL 344.8 million . This concludes the presentation.
We'll now be available for questions, both Godinho and myself. Thank you.
[Foreign language] . We now open for Q&A. To ask questions, you should click the Q&A icon at the bottom of the screen, and write your question down to queue it. When we announce your names, we're going to have a request to open your microphone. Then you open it and ask your question. Now we go to the first question, which is by Bob Ford, by Bank of America. We're gonna open your audio so that you can ask your question. Please proceed.
Good day, Fabio. Good morning, Fabio and Felipe. What are you thinking about demand for trips, domestic trips, bookings, take rate for next half of 2024, and also continuous activity? How should we think about this deleveraging? Thank you. [Foreign language] .
Hi, Bob, this is Godinho. Good morning. Thank you for your question, for being here with us in our calls. I'm going to answer this first half that has to do with the capacity dynamics for second half, and Felipe will come in to talk about indebtedness.
Excellent question. Thank you. What have we seen in this first half of the year? It was the ASK of the domestic trips that was flat, and that was 1% growth of ASK, not ASM, not miles, as in the U.S. However, not miles, but kilometers in Brazil, and 15% growth of international. So it was important capacity of growth for international flights and flat in Brazil, where the industry expected that the market would drop a little bit because we expected that GOL would lose more aircraft than it did.
GOL had excellent renegotiation, and the capacity was not very affected. So redimensioning, their, manage did not get any worse, and they have new deliveries of Boeing that were delayed. So in this expectation by GOL, we expected it would lose more aircraft, but that was not confirmed, so the other companies accelerated the inclusion of capacity. So what should have been negative in terms of capacity in the first half, grew 1%. And since the economy in Brazil and interest inflation, as everybody knows, was not as strong as the industry imagined, it did not have that much impact. What happened was that the yield, when you pay per each, 100 kilometers flown in Brazil, in Brazil, it dropped 5%, in international, 15%. So this is a dynamics for leisure trips that is positive.
You have growing capacity in the market, be it domestic, marginal in domestic and important international. However, this drop in the mean rates will stimulate our clients to decide to buy, and we believe these dynamics will go on for the second quarter, second half, I'm sorry. We see international sales growing 15% and domestic ones positive. Low, if low single digit within the second half, with flat rate fares or maybe slightly negative. What is very positive for our dynamics of sales, we had this first year of management. We got very close to the air companies, the most important partners of CVC, the national ones and also international ones. We really got close, and today we have conditions that are entirely different from what we had last year.
Competitiveness of prices of CVC today for domestic, as well as the most important international destinations, is entirely different from what we had last year. Then, we have the results we saw in the second quarter. Growth of bookings in B2C, 16% growth, with important growth of 1.6% take rate, so growing and gaining share, increasing margin. We believe that this dynamics may go on throughout the second quarter. This dynamics of the market will go on.
Hi, Bob. This is Felipe. How are you? Thank you for the question. I'll mention the debt here. It is really a relevant item on our daily basis, and the idea is that throughout time, with cash generation that we are already seeing, that's getting stronger and reducing more and more the leverage of the company.
We have reduced the debt, we want to reduce the debt, and there was a change of the profile when possible. We have talked a lot with, we're going to migrate from the profile of debt we have, which is mainly debentures, and that goes more into the dynamics of the company, better rates for CVC. This is our idea throughout the coming quarters. Reducing leverage and improving format. And also about bookings and boardings for July, please, could you? It was a positive month, very important. A third quarter, it's a very relevant EBITDA, and aligned with the growth that we expected for national as well as for international. Even with the problem in Rio Grande do Sul.
To give you an idea, our stores in Rio Grande do Sul, the recovery has been so strong, that even during July, even without a date for the opening of the airport, now, today, we know that half the flights will operate from October on, and the other half in the middle of December. Even before knowing that, we sold with Sul 90% against July last year, without having the date of the airport, only selling flights from January on. So we had a positive dynamics in July, considering what we imagined.
Congratulations, Gordinho.
Thank you.
Thank you, Bob.
Thank you, Bob, for your question.
Our next question comes from Victor Rogatis, from Itaú. We're gonna open your audio so that you can ask your question. Please proceed.
Hi, thank you for opening this space. I have two questions.
The first one was partially answered, dynamics of bookings for the second semesters. Could you comment about Brazil? If you could share the expectations you have for Argentina, that will improve, and also about financial result. That was a very big surprise when I looked at it. If possible, could you comment about sustainability of this line for the coming quarters?
Hi, Victor. Godinho here. Thank you for the question. You get Brazil and Argentina. The bookings dynamics, what we see in this first half, is what we knew was going to happen. From the first quarter, we're going to focus on profitability. B2C grew flat. We had comps for the first Q of 2023 against 2022, 50% with negative margin. What happened? We grew nothing in B2C, however, with very good margin.
So we said it's possible to have this level of sales with a higher take rate, generating EBITDA results that are much more representative. That's what happened in the second quarter. What happened? It grew again, a lot. We really had growth of 16% in B2C, maintaining the strong growth of take rate. So we sold more, we gained share, we increased take rate. Three at the same time, on the second quarter. And that's what we imagine, to maintain this line of take rate throughout, around 9%. Also growing in the B2C dynamics. Remember that B2C, we finished last year with about, a thousand hundred stores, 1,100 stores in Brazil at the end of the quarter, with a thousand hundred and eighty-five stores.
If you repeat the same performance in the third quarter, considering what we opened in the first half, this is 15% more stores. So if we have same-store sales 0, we would grow 15% only in Brazil, without growing the same-store sales. And we deliver the same-store sales of 10% a month, even considering flat in Rio Grande do Sul. So we have a good perspective for B2C in Brazil. Within B2B, it's nothing more than what we have mentioned. We stopped frequent flyers and delinquent clients from profitability standpoint and credit standpoint. So in the first quarter, last year, it was 15% drop in bookings. However, a huge increase in profitability and net revenue. What happened in the second quarter?
Decrease the gap of drop from -15 to -5, with 25% increase in net revenue. As I said, our RA, in the first quarter of 2023 against the first half of 2024, bookings dropped 10% and increased 40% net revenue. This a company that has BRL 4 billion per year. So we went from an adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter of last year of BRL -2 million to BRL 64 million positive, of positive EBITDA in the first half of this year. And what we imagine now, for the second half, we want to compare with frequent flyers, then we will see a growth within B2B likewise. So growth in B2C, growth in B2B. Argentina, we are much more focused in maintaining positive cash generation, in maintaining positive net profit in this recessive moment.
In the second quarter, we have BRL 25 million of net profit in Argentina. Positive cash generation, BRL 25 million, even with 37% of drop in bookings and the flow-through in the result that reduced taxes over sales, so it was 25% less. What we expect is a recovery step-by-step. They think the recovery will be like a Nike swoosh , it drops, then it recovers towards growth. That's what we have seen. In this market drop, we gained a lot of market share in Argentina. We were very swift, tactically-wise, in this difficult moment, in these first two quarters. We gained relevant share. Maintaining this throughout the second quarter, in recovering market, we believe that we will only go back to the level of 2023 in 2024. Most likely, we're gonna have negative figures in the second half of this year.
However, not as impacted as the drops we had in the second quarter. That was most likely the worst quarter of the year. Even so, generating positive EBITDA and cash, BRL 35 million of net profit. So this is what we see as trend for the second half of this year.
This is, Felipe Gomes here. About your question on financial result. Sustainability throughout time, we see that it's sustainable the way it is, so it is a trend of improvement. If you talk about expenses, the idea is to keep reducing and reducing taxes over receivables also. We have good negotiation with different players, and we have a mix of debt that is changing, bringing gain. Maybe where we have the most uncertainty is the other financial revenues because of dollar aspect in Argentina.
The expectation is that it goes as it is, no reason to have a change in those figures for the coming months. And also, RA contracts varies a bit, depending on exchange rate, and it's a sustainable, continuous change.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Victor, for your question. Next question comes from Rodrigo, from HIX Capital. We're gonna open your microphone for you to ask the question. Please proceed.
Thank you for the space. Two questions. If you could comment on the expectations for revenue drivers for 3Q, considering trajectory of sales in 2Q, and also July, how do you expect the oscillations of take rate to understand how the most important drivers is to progress? And if you could comment on your expectation of revenue growth, if it enables you to maintain your trajectory of expense drops.
And also about operational leverage in EBITDA margin per quarter.
Hi, Rodrigo, this is Godinho. Thank you for your question. The drivers for 3 Q, as we mentioned, within B2C, we go on, on a very positive trajectory of opening stores, where we opened in this first quarter, 85 stores. Net. I believe that we will repeat this second quarter, second half in the third quarter of this year, so very positive dynamics of opening points of sales, not only Brazil, but also in Argentina. Argentina, we opened, even with all the recession and monetary situation, we opened 11 points of sales in the first half, and we should open at least the same in the third quarter. So that's an important driver, growth in the number of stores. And we should go on increasing same-store sales, even considering the drop in Rio Grande do Sul.
We had 10% of same-store sales in B2C. So 16% growth that we had in the confirmed reservations, that naturally will become consumed bookings throughout the third, fourth quarter. So third quarter, we already have almost 70% of it has been sold, so we can have good visibility. That we, we could foresee that's going to be a quarter that's according to our expectation. Fourth quarter, we still have to sell a lot, and there has been the air companies have given stimulus. They are having sales and so on. So the curve of demand on aerial, aerial versus forecast is going down. So they make the sales for this curve to go up. It stimulates the market, CVC benefits from these movements.
So you have this drive, and you also have additional capacity coming from the domestic market, considering the restructure of GOL that was more positive, much more than we imagined. So you then have, with a weaker economy, inflation, et cetera, you tend to foster through the price, what's always possible for leisure market and also possible for CVC. B2B, we end up growing, as we said, because we cannot compare the base with Meliá, and we are gaining share, that's clear. When we stopped frequent flyer sales, we had to compare to IATA's rankings. In Brazil and Argentina, one year ago, when we started this work, we were the second in ranking, and now we are by far the first in the ranking of issuing tickets in the international market in Argentina. That's 85% of trips in Argentina for leisure.
That's very important. Different from Brazil, where most are in Brazil, in Argentina, most travel abroad. And the leaders in Argentina took over this year. In Brazil, in B2B, as we written down the delinquent customers step by step, with the correct take rate and reducing expenses, step by step, we're recovering our place. And we are now, every month, especially along with most of our companies, we are again the first company regarding issuing in consolidation markets. So we have this positive drive that should endure. In Argentina, we opened many stores in the first half, and we should repeat this in the third quarter, just like in Brazil. The market is recovering in Brazil, and it will only go to the same level of last year, next year.
So we should reduce the negative gap, however, not grow throughout the second half of this year. And July comes along with our expectation. Regarding expenses, Felipe Gomes could comment, but there should be a drop regarding the percentage over net revenue, not so much nominal. Rodrigo, just like Godinho said, we have been commenting, the company went through two major changes until the beginning of this year, cutting expenses. And now what we are doing is doing everything to maintain those figures in absolute numbers, stable, maintain them stable. When you drop expenses and you have to pay those, those that were laid off, et cetera, what does this bring in the end? The percentage, those rates of expenses over revenue should drop.
When you ask about operational leverage, what we have, again, those large movements that we have done, it's a work that's much more of fine, fine-tuning, renegotiating the providers, projects of technology that will help us in the company, but there is a lot to be done. The good news is that we have a lot to do, so maintaining these expenses in absolute numbers, growing the revenue for the third quarter. So this indicator of expenses over revenue dropping for the coming quarters.
Thank you.
Thank you, Rodrigo, for your question. Next question. Ruben Couto. Ruben Couto, we're gonna open your microphone so that you can ask your question. Ruben Couto is no longer connected, you see? So we go for the next question by Guilherme Lahan, JP Morgan. Mr. Lahan, we're gonna open your microphone so you can ask your question. Please proceed.
Good morning, everybody.
Thank you for the call, and for my question. Most of my questions have been answered. However, I have a general one. I would like to understand how you see the financial health of the clients, because when we look at companies listed in Brazil, nobody sees significant improvement in consumption. How do you see financial health of your clients, and how do you believe that could change in the second half of the year? Thank you. Hi, Guilherme. Good morning, thank you for the question. This is Godinho, and Gomes may also say words if he wants to. Within this expansion we did in our credit desk, we are seeing, delinquency that's quite controlled. Of course, will not accelerate much more from the working capital that we have. We have another movement, which is more and more replace our credit line with other banks, Santander, Bradesco, and others.
Alternative forms of financing continue with the finances that we have, and using FGTS, consignated credit, et cetera, et cetera. Credits in Mercado Livre, financed by Mercado Livre. So you have many avenues. This is our priority, no longer that the clients do not remain using the most of their credit cards, so that they can finance their trips in an easy way without interfering in their credit card use. Everybody's running after the limit. We want to serve on this blue ocean and have an alternative form of financing. In quarter-over-quarter, we decrease the share that we have of credit card in our sales. However, you asked about the financial health of the clients. We increased the credit desk in the last quarters. However, we see a delinquency that's under control, about 2% and dropping.
We, we're really careful about how much give of credit after boarding, because that's the risk. If you give credit before boarding, you just cancel the trip. And we're being restrictive, but in the meantime, yes, no negative surprise. And as the air companies and the hotels have a capacity, additional capacity, and the economy does not respond in the same speed that the players that have the assets expected, which is the demand, what happens? What happened in the first quarter? In the first half, the prices go down. Domestic, national yield have gone down because they have more capacity available, more than demand. And this is an environment where CVC has a favorable demand. So we stimulate leisure, and within leisure, 52% of Brazilian people think about CVC.
And then we capture strongly this demand within the stores that we have, and also the new stores that we are opening in the countryside with much success. Yeah, it's exactly that. Good morning, this is Felipe here. This is something, thinking, answering generically wise, we feel, we follow the rates of the consumers. And in CVC, in our world, which is tourism, that is trips, we feel resilient demand. That reflects in, confirmed bookings, July... As of today, the figures we have is a very strong month. We are in a structural change, wanting consumption per experience versus consumptions, against material assets. So, on our end, in spite of some drops of, trust in consumption, we don't, we didn't feel anything. More specifically, financial health, Godinho has explained well.
We go on with our rates of delinquency that are well controlled, and even with some drop in it. So that's what CVC thinks. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Guilherme, for your question. Now, I would like to inform that Q&A session is now closed, and I would like to give the floor for the company for their final considerations. Mr. Godinho, please proceed.
Thank you. We thank you all for being here, and we had a very positive result for the first time, although in the next quarters, we reduced a lot negative cash generation. But finally, in this second quarter, we have cash generation, discounting working capital, discounting CapEx, EBITDA. We deliver cash generation that is positive, BRL 35 million, important growth of B2C, growth in same-store sales and take rate, a growth in net revenue and positive profitability.
Quite important in B2B, with, -5% , but that will most likely be transformed in growth, as, we said in the previous quarters. Now, in the coming quarters, it's going to be positive dynamics of B2B. In Argentina, quite focused in profitability, numbers of generation of net profit positive, gain in share, that was quite important. And as the market recovers throughout the second half, we will close this growth gap, always looking at cash generation and profitability as priority in the Argentina market. And we also see the growth and the commitment with our franchisees in Brazil, following our aggressive plan of expansion that we had for this year, being confirmed in Brazil and also in Argentina. So thank you so much, and see you next quarter. Thank you.
This conference call regarding second quarter of 2024 CVC Corp is closed.
The International Relations Department is available to answer other questions. Thank you, all the participants, and sure you have an excellent day.