Good morning. Welcome to the earnings release of Direcional Engenharia second Q 2023. My name is Paulo, I am IR Director here at Direcional, and with me is Ricardo Ribeiro, our CEO, and Henrique Paim, our CFO. As usual, we are using the Teams platform. Now we will begin with a presentation where we will talk about the results, and immediately we will open for Q&A. We will use the Raise Your Hands tool here below, and we will moderate the questions here. Okay. I would like to begin the presentation, giving the floor to Ricardo, who will begin the works.
Good morning, everybody. It is a huge satisfaction to be here in this earnings release regarding the second Q 2023. Now I'm going to begin by going through the main highlights of this quarter. I think there are many very relevant points to share with you.
Also, I'm going to show you how we see the market, the impact on our operations. Then immediately afterwards, I'll give the floor to Paulo Sousa, who will talk about operating data, and Paim will give us the financial data. At the end of the presentation, I'll be here at your disposal to answer any eventual questions you might have or questions. Now I would like to begin with page three, where we address our main highlights this quarter. I'd like to say it's an enormous satisfaction to deliver, for the first time in our history, a net profit of more than BRL 100 million.
We closed the quarter with BRL 104 million profit and a recurring image we already have too, and have executed in some previous quarters, which is the sale of SPE this quarter, where we invested cash in these lands and cash flow, which is the profit of that project at present value. This is a recurring event here in Direcional to maximize return delivered to the company. When we considered this, and the main one was the sale of these areas, we delivered a net profit of BRL 74 million. If we analyze this net, this ROE of 21%. So we exceeded 21% ROE annualized, and the second one, 21% return over equity. Now I would like to do a disclaimer with regards to the sale of these SPEs. There are different interpretations here with the people we talk to.
In practice, when we sell these SPEs to anticipate and bring back this cash allocated in lands, when we bring it back to our operations, we're not anticipating profit that would be recurring in case these assets were not realized. This is a result of the quarter, and this ends up being perceived as a non-recurring event. But in practice, it was a result that was anticipated from a recurring operation. So it's important to have this disclaimer. I think the most relevant point to share with you is the gross margin we delivered in the first quarter this year, 36.5%, adjusted according to the financial expenses and the interest rates effect. Our gross margin grew 1.1 percentage point compared to the second quarter last year.
This information also highlighting that our REF margin of future exercise grew in one quarter, the second quarter 2023, when compared to the first quarter this year, 0.4 percentage points. So our future exercise margin, our REF margin, grew 30.6% based on top of our BRL 1.1 billion revenue. So it is an increment of 0.4 percentage point when compared to the previous quarter. Clearly demonstrates a positive perspective for gross margin. Today, at the moment, we see very controlled costs. In a form, ability increment that comes from adjustments announced in June, Minha Casa, Minha Vida program. In spite of the fact that we have always signalized our recurring gross margin to generate 4% every quarter. All of this that I'm showing to you, it is probable that we will have very solid gross margins in a scenario that is very benign because of the costs of products.
These products, the costs are dropping, so the perspective here of gross margins will be very positive. It is very positive in this country, our sector, and our operations. This quarter also, it is a huge satisfaction. We had record launches, BRL 1.5 billion in launches. It's important to stress that the share of foundation here was BRL 1.1 billion here. When we look at the future perspectives, we've seen solid demand for our products. We believe that rates will drop, and this will impact the heavy segment that has performed very well, even with higher rate scenarios. To your now here, the very relevant changes in Minha Casa, Minha Vida, and thus the perspective of launches here is that our participation in new launches will have an increment relative to the share of the launches of the second quarter. Sales.
This was the first quarter in our history that we exceeded BRL 1 billion in terms of gross sales. Net sales, BRL 960 million. When we consider the total amount sold includes the share of partners in projects that we don't have 100% of share. Now I'd like to take some time for a very material fact, which is recognized net revenue. We had a relevant growth of revenue quarter- after- quarter. We reached a little more than BRL 600 million in terms of net revenue, and this meant a growth of 8.5% compared to the first quarter this year after the rainy period when we begin most of our works. So it's natural that there be a growth revenue from the moment the works begin.
I would like to highlight the fact that in some of our projects, of which works began recently, and thus have an increasing growth of recognition of revenue, the control of these SPEs are shared with companies that are partners in this project. So when we consider these SPEs that we do not consolidate for accounting reasons, the control is shared. So the result of our share in these SPEs enters in the equity equivalence line. If we consider the revenue of these SPEs plus the revenue consolidated in our demonstration realize we get to BRL 809 million, and the growth was 18% compared to the first quarter this year. 18% growth with a lag of one quarter.
This directly reflects the equity line, which grew 70% when we compared the second quarter this year to the first one this year, and the first half of 2023 to 2022, the growth was 123%. I would like to stress that oftentimes when we analyzed only the net revenue recognized in our DRE, you might not see the growth in our operations and the growth of our projects that comes from projects that are not consolidated because the control is shared. This obviously reflects in a very relevant growth of equity equivalents. It is important for you to track this because of the relevance it had in our numbers. First, that in the last 12 months just here had BRL 300 million in recognized revenue of BRL 2.8 billion when we consolidate SPEs, we have partners of which control is shared.
I want to show you that we are launching 54% of what we are recognizing in terms of revenue. When you notice and analyze our results, for example, comparing the second quarter to 1%, EBITDA 2%, net margin grew 2.6%. In the company, there is an operational leverage growth with SG&A expenses and financial expenses that is very relevant. The growth of the gross margin meant 2.5% of the increment in the net margin with the perspective of continuity of growth here, because we are launching 54% more than the last 12 months. Here there is a perspective that is very positive for the results that we will be delivering in the following quarters. I would like to give the floor to Paulo Sousa. Thank you for your participation, and at the end of the presentation, I will be here to answer any questions you might have.
Thank you, Ricardo. Good morning, everybody, once again. Very quickly, the operating results launches. In this quarter, we launched 15 projects totaling BRL 1.5 billion, which was the best quarter in this history. A growth of 84% compared to the second Q 2022. It is important to stress that 70% of launches was Direcional, 40% Riva, demonstrating our growth capacity in both segments. With this, we accumulated BRL 2.1 billion of launches in the first half, a growth of 49%, 4.3% in the last 12 months. Also it is important to stress here to the right in the slide, after delivering BRL 4.3 billion in terms of launches in 12 months, we delivered an average growth of 26% in these eight years, from 2016 to now.
This shows our growth capacity and the capacity we have to capture the opportunities the market offered us in this period. Next slide, sales. Here, the strong performance we had with launches. Gross sales reached BRL 1 billion. Afterwards, the cancellations net sales, we delivered BRL 962 million in the quarter, a 15% growth compared to the previous quarter, the second quarter 2022. In this quarter, 21% over the first half last year. Here to the right, it is important to stress the consistency of our growth. We delivered 31% accumulated growth in this year, eight years, and over what we delivered in terms of launches, which is very healthy. We grew more in sales than launches. This demonstrates the assertiveness of our products, launching and selling in the same speed.
Lastly, the next slide, where we see the net sales speed, consistent, very consistent, oscillating between 12%, 13% in the worst scenario of Riva, which was the first quarter last year. But now it goes back to 18%, which we believe is solid. Direcional, stable. A straight line here between 18% and 20%, and this is where we want an increment, 18% this quarter. Because of the relevant volume of launches and a concentration in the last quarters. In the next quarters, we can have an improvement. We expect to have an improvement of growth, improvement here. So these are the operating highlights. Now, I would like to give the floor to Paim, who will talk about the financial side.
Thank you, Paulo, Ricardo. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for your participation in our earnings release. With regards to the second quarter 2023 results that we consider memorable.
We're very proud and happy with the delivery of these results and to present these results to you in this second quarter. Now, to begin the first slide, with regards to financial data, I would like to highlight these numbers in net revenue that we have been consistently delivering with consistent growth. We always stress quarter-after-quarter that our business model first counts with launches and then with sales, and then we begin works. We recognize the revenue. We have been demonstrating via Ricardo and Paulo. We have been able to accelerate growth, sales almost matched with launches. So we have been very good with the assertiveness of launches. So it's not to create inventory and improved our engineering capacity with works volume in a very positive phase. And this clearly reflects in the recognition of the revenue where we observe a second quarter.
When we add the SPE revenues that is not consolidated in the DRE with the ones that are consolidated, we attain BRL 809 million, 17% growth relative to the second Q 2022, and the first half was at 23% when we add the SPEs that we do not consolidate with the ones that are consolidated. Almost BRL 1.5 billion total net revenue. To the right, you can see the resistance of our gross margin quarter-after-quarter with very consistent growth of gross margin. And here, this is our results of our discipline with regards to price transfer. We have a governance to transfer these prices with an important time here to look at the price of each unit, each project, and very assertive here. And obviously, our management here of the works with the eye of the owner focused on the owner.
We sell to low-income families, and we see this here, right? So we see 36.4% important growth compared to the second half 2022. And depending on the behavior of the cost of product, and it seems to us these costs seem to be good, and perhaps this gross margin certainly will be very positive in the next quarters. Next slide, please. Operating leverage has happened quarter-after-quarter. We have had success in being able to grow our operations, maintaining SG&A under control with lower growth than the growth of our revenue and sales. You can observe to the left here, when we compare the SG&A quarter-after-quarter, the second quarter nominally is very similar to the first quarter, around 5% of the gross margin G&A, 4.5% of net sales.
In the semester, we see a very stable behavior of G&A with a growth of revenue over the G&A. Here, commercial expenses. We have done an extensive work with regards to commercial expenses and marketing. We have been mentioning to you quarter-after-quarter about the work we have been doing, and the results begin to become very visible here with the reduction of expenses, a better management of our commercial expenses. In the first quarter of 2023, we reached BRL 97 million, less 1% compared to the first quarter 2022. But very representative in terms of growth revenue, 8.8%, a drop of 1 percentage point here. Next slide, please. EBITDA margin. We talk about this a lot quarter-after-quarter. With regards to the vital signs of the business, they have been very positive.
EBITDA margin between 20%-22% quarter-after-quarter, and we notice a stability, resilience of the business. We have been able to reach BRL 255 million, a little more than BRL 500 million EBITDA margin. So this is a growing business, very healthy, representing to all stakeholders stability here in terms of management. We always say that we have this camel type of characteristics where we drink very little water and go through the desert. We have gone through crisis, pandemic, and maintaining always the EBITDA margin under control. Here, this is walk the talk. We have been talking with you, and beginning here to the right side of the slide, how the share of the minority interest would reduce our results in the next quarters. In our ramp-up process of our operations in a long cycle operation, obviously, you will have minority interest.
When you enter new states, when you do new business, you enter into new municipalities, this is natural. We matured this partnership. We are in areas where we can have relevant growth. Now we are beginning to reduce this minority interest. The money ends up going to the Direcional shareholder because all the back office work is concentrated in our hands. So we have been very successful here showing what we have shown quarter-after-quarter. We are delivering what we promised. To the left, the equity equivalence result. We see the growth of the revenue when we do this composition. A revenue that is not consolidated, the results of these business like Lucio. It goes through the equity equivalence and we reach BRL 19 million, a three-digit increment related compared to the first quarter 2022.
Now the cherry of the cake, where we have reached a net margin in the quarter of 12.3%. In the semester, 12.4%, increasing SG&A under control, growing at a lower level than the top line and operating leverage increasing. We have reached BRL 144 million net profit in the first half 2023. 55% growth related to the first half 2022. These results are memorable and we are very happy to present these numbers to you.
To the right here, the evolution of the net profit. We have been able to deliver more and more quarter-after-quarter until the second quarter 2023. PL under control at the same level, representing an ROE of 21% annualized. When we compare the second Q 2023, BRL 74 million recurring profit. When comparing to the second half 2022, 30%. Capital structure. We always say we are a conservative group. Everything is conservative.
The management, the shareholder, and the board is conservative. We have a capital structure that is very adequate to our growth. Cash grew 4%, reaching 1.13% cash position. Debt amortization schedule, very liquid in time. You can see a net debt of BRL 268 million, 16% over the equity. We still are AA A by S&P. Only two real estate development companies have a AA A rating by S&P. We are one of them. For us, investments, to pay dividends, any kind of capital allocation movement, first we look at the capital structure because we want to be here in the next 42, 84 years. We are here for the long term. Thank you very much for your participation. Now we will go to questions and answers.
Thank you very much. Just to add to an information, subsequent event, we did the follow-on. We stressed our net debt of 2.1, and net profit BRL 100 million. Just to stress, the capital structure is even more solid than the slides. Now questions and answers. We have a queue here. We're going to the first question. Bruno Mendonça. Bruno, Bradesco.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for the question. We will begin with the competitive environment. We saw all the improvement in the conditions, the program. Here in São Paulo, we're seeing many development companies, mid and high-income companies, beginning to operate with Minha Casa, Minha Vida. Do you already feel this in the dispute for land lords in São Paulo? How does this movement compare to other states? Have you seen this kind of movement in other cities too? This is my first question. The second one is about H1, which will go into effect and the H1. How much your sale will be eligible here, and the potential impact this can have.
Bruno, with regards to the changes of the conditions of the program, the impact of changes in a competitive environment, I would say the following. In the city of São Paulo, we have several companies, and we end up in partnerships with companies, and we end up developing projects that they wouldn't do if they were alone. This makes the reaction in the city of São Paulo much quicker. In the rest of Brazil, definitely at this moment, we see no change in the competitive scenario. In the city of São Paulo, in spite of there being expectations, we have been monitoring. Up until now, we have been able to buy land lords via swaps.
Good business have occurred, and our performance somehow has facilitated us being able to close good businesses in São Paulo, which is a state, even after the pandemic, where several companies went through a very delicate moment with leverages above deal level. In the rest of Brazil, we have competition dropping here, right? But in São Paulo this didn't happen. The balance between supply and demand is balanced. São Paulo has had the opportunity to offer units that are, say, much greater than the rest of Brazil. Companies in São Paulo suffered less than other companies in the rest of the country. Things are still very healthy in São Paulo. What I can see is that we'll not invest equity for the purchase of here.
If the environment demand exceeds allocation of capital without reflecting in margin, other cities more recent to maturing along in order to accelerate growth, indeed, where we see share gain perspective, maturing of our operations with important reflects in the increment of gross margin and commercial expenses reduction here when we begin to mature this. If São Paulo remains as has remained in the last 12 months, it's great. We will continue with our policy, our practice. We have interest increasing share in São Paulo, which is a huge market. But if there is an imbalance, we will stop for a month, six months, one month. We have no pressure here in order to operate in case the return isn't very healthy for operation.
Follow on, which we have just done in July, is because of the opportunities we see in terms of affordability gains relative to the announcements of the program, inclusions of several families that before had no conditions of buying property, and now they have been included in this market. The competition, the supply is similar than what it is. If you have more clients with a balanced supply, then we're able to put capital to work, which is an opportunity. Obviously, we're always going to allocate the capital where we have always allocated. H1. In a recurrent way, our operations for low income families, I would say it's 10%, 15% of our operation. Of course, the reduction of taxes, which is 4% to 1%, makes our operations more attractive in order to offer products to this income level, right? It's at 2 percentage points of difference.
If we look back, it's around 10% of our operations. In the future, our appetite to operate in this segment has increased, and it's most probable that we will go for a more relevant action here once H1 is regulated. Then we begin to apply this new tax over our revenue. It's most probable that this will grow. I would say that the impact of H1 in our results is around BRL 10 million-BRL 50 million net profit. Then we will see how much of this we can hold in terms of margin or how this will fully reflect in our net profit. But the idea is to see to clients that wasn't seen to before an increased working capital versus what is transferred in terms of results. It's early to say anything, but our appetite has grown here with regards to change.
Thank you. Perfect.
Bruno, thank you very for your question. Next question, Fanny. You're on.
Thank you. Good morning, Ricardo. Congratulations for your results. I have a question with regards to funding. This year, things are solved, apparently, with all the increases done by the curating board of funding for housing. But next year, the curate, they said that there is funding for this, but not the size of the funding. I want to understand how you see funding for next year, and I even believe into the next years too. This would be my question. Thank you.
Fanny, we announced in July an increment of BRL 25 billion in the budget destined to social aspect in Brazil, social problem in Brazil. Also it's very challenging. The SBPE segment is very challenging, right? So it is natural that with this increment, part of the products that previously were sold by SBPE will now migrate to Minha Casa, Minha Vida as long as the income of the buyer is less BRL 8,000. So the need for funding will probably remain in 2024. 2023, now with this new bit, things are okay.
2024, I think it will be critical to see the performance of the second quarter 2023, second half 2023, because the increment to BRL 350 million has an act in the volumes that is eligible for Minha Casa, Minha Vida. The main trigger, and where we do not have good visibility, is income. The buyer of the product, does it make more than BRL 8,000? The ones that make less than BRL 8,000 will have a funding of Minha Casa, Minha Vida that came from the savings account.
But we do not know the percentage of these customers that will be eligible for Minha Casa, Minha Vida program. When I show you some data before these announcements, the Riva product, only 11% was eligible for the program because of the sale price. After these announcements went to 67% of the Riva product. From the land bank of Riva, more than 80% is eligible for the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program. So we have a program, special allocation, vertical building, leisure areas, garage. Before, this was only financed by SBPE. But now we also have a possibility of using the FGTS resources for the same product. The demand will increase, I believe. We have to be very careful here.
I think if conditions remain for 2024, the way they are today, then it is natural that we are going to need an increase of budget relative to what had been originally being seen for the FGTS' multi-annual budget. We see it is very healthy at the moment, right? In this period where the savings account is in a more delicate scenario. When we do our accounts here, our calculations here with the public information that we use, FGTS maintains the condition to absorb this greater value for next year. So I think, Fanny, we have a kind of tranquility for this year. We are kind of okay. We see here also a very important variable, drop level of Selic and its impact in relation to the savings account and of bank fundings because of the Selic having a reduction of funding costs for banks.
I think that once this Selic reduction occurs and bank costs drop for the loan, also the SP segment, I think we go back to benign, where in 2022, this occurred with level three. So there were resources being loaned here. At that moment, the savings account was taking customers. They used to use FGTS program. So we have to see. For 2024, I think the FGTS is solid. We do not have a yellow light here for this moment.
Perfect, Ricardo. Thank you very much.
Once again, thank you, Fanny. Next question. Mariangela, Itaú.
Good morning, everybody. Congratulations for your results. Thank you for my question. I would like to know if the revisions announced for Minha Casa, Minha Vida is already occurring. Is there something that is still missing? How did you see July here? Also with the change, all the changes, what are the differences that you notice here? Also a follow-up with regards to the sale of the minority interest in the SPEs. Would this happen after the follow-on, the discount levels here? Are we going to continue seeing these kind of actions in the next results?
Mariangela, with regards to the FGTS adjustments announced since last year and now until mid 2023, price, 420 is already on. There has been some adjustments, specifically after the change of the payment of the operating agent, and this occurred recently. This increases the appetite of the operating agent in order to work with this modality. Parting from beginning of August, also, we've seen an increment in the volume of units announced by price, 420 . This is a positive news.
However, the future FGTS, sorry if you don't. When we see the future FGTS, which in our perception is the measure that has the greatest impact in the gain that the capacity has of purchasing right here. I believe that the future FGTS impact in the inclusion of new families in market, addressable market by Direcional, the impact is certainly greater than price, 420 . Still, which is not operating with the necessary adjustment for this to happen. This happened with the bill that was approved by here, and we believe the future FGTS will be implemented and operating by Caixa Econômica Federal. We become very optimistic with regards to the inclusion of several families in our market, specifically the ones that are weak, the more fragile. From a social point of view, this measure is very positive with regards to future FGTS.
Subsidies, cap prices, they're already normal, operating, have been operating for some time, but the future FGTS, not yet. [inaudible], which is the affirm of its focus will be in informal income family or lower income families, is not in operation, but I think it can have an important impact in our operations. [inaudible] and FGTS are not in effect yet, but I believe that there will be a perspective that they go into effect in the second quarter. Maybe Paim can talk about the sales of the SPEs this second quarter happened before the follow-on.
The sale of SPE generates huge value for the companies and our shareholders. We have sold these SPEs with discount rates that are well below the capital cost of the company. I don't even want to sell at how much we're selling and the return we had, the discount rates implicit here, because some of them are sold and have a leverage. Discount rates for us is very competitive.
It made sense here, specifically in this period where access to capital was very limited to our sector. This allowed us to deliver a very healthy return increase in our operations. Look at our business from 2020 to 2023, our ROE grew, and this is a result of the sale of these SPEs with discount rates well below our capital cost, return rates well over the discount rates of which the SPEs were sold. When we look, in the pipeline, we have a cash position that is very robust. We're net here, and we see the short-term curve closing.
Spreads demanded for the sale of these assets tend to compress in the next quarters. Because of our current capital structure and the compression of these spreads in the pipeline, I believe that in this moment, perhaps we have less appetite to continue in the short term selling assets. Obviously, we always look for opportunities, but when we look at the current scenario, if things remain as was, certainly we will hold things back because it makes no sense selling an asset here under these conditions, right? But, once again, we generated much value here with these operations, from the sale of receivables and assets, where there was a huge amount of capital allocated here. If there is an opportunity, we will see it. But our appetite at this moment for selling is smaller, is less than last year, where our leverage was very healthy.
Just to add to this, Ricardo, in this current scenario, Mariangela, where there was a drop of the interest rates, we begin to notice a potential inflow of real estate funds, an important amount of resources available here that will certainly need to buy new assets. So this just confirms what Ricardo has just said. In the short term, it seems to me, it seems that we don't really need it because of the liquidity we have in balance, right? But when we look in the future, there will be opportunities.
We have been contacted by. We have been harassed in a very aggressive way by the fixed income market at rates that I had never seen before to buy our credit. Long-term operation for our cycles. So this only stresses the thesis that now is not the moment to sell assets. Perhaps in the future, yes, if we continue. In a recurring way, the company has always been a good allocator of capital. So we'll always do these calculations and take the best decision possible for the shareholder.
Thank you very much for your answer.
Thank you, Mariangela. Now, next question, Luma, EBS. You have the floor.
Good morning, Ricardo, Paim, Paulo. Thank you for the opportunity for the question. A follow-up. You just said that in the short term, perhaps it's not the best time to sell assets. We would like to know, in this case, when you begin to look at this again, right, how many SPEs do you still have available to sell, and how this can help cash? Because of the launches, is there a respective of cash burn here and cash generation? Also with regards to H1. I would like to understand how this is going to be, and how this is going to be for Direcional, and how we will tax 1% or 4% in the same project.
We have almost BRL 300 million equity allocated in land. Obviously, when we had this capital from the follow-on, we will always look at the possibility of sale of assets with discount rates that makes sense. This generates value and is a differential for us. This is obvious enough. We will try to sell assets. We don't have the objective carry amount receivable here, right? We are not here managing the company to carry a capital to generate value to our shareholders. So we want to create, make sense, now it's capital here. Because based on the capital structure, we're not pressured to sell. We would sell when it makes sense. Receivables.
We have BRL 350 million accounts receivable, pro-soluto, among other assets too, TDE, TDI rates. With regards to operations, we see a very adequate moment in the market. Demand is solid. We had a huge amount of project, specifically after Minha Casa, Minha Vida adjustments has made things much lower cost and an increase in the amount of buyers here. It is natural that in this business, when we grow, we consume capital and cash. This is why we did the follow-on. With the increment, a possible increase in case there is a continuous demand for operations, we have capital consumption. We have no objective to operate with net cash. We want to work with a leverage level close to 20% of the net equity, like we worked in the last years. We will put capital to work.
There will probably a cash consumption, and it is being allocated in projects, but at very positive return rates. There is no cash for new operations or land. It is the consolidation of the operations we have and the fastest maturity of these states where we have room to occupy. Relative to H1, Paim can add to this.
No problem with taxing here, with adding a tax here. H1, H 4, of which buyers have higher income rates. This happened in the past. With the same zero problems here in terms of systemic point of view, there is no problem here. We believe that those were going to infect as. We hope we go into effect as fast as possible because we want to increase working capital. Obviously, we will not gain any margin, but it was working capital where we brought the greatest value to our shareholders.
ROE has the greatest working capital component. Here we are launching more than 3 x the equity today. If we can see to the families with lower income, obviously this will mean greater speed of sales, greater working capital, and this will be very good for operations. If we can see to these families increasing working capital and not reducing the margin, I think that this H1 , can have a very relevant impact. We are very optimistic here. No problem from an operating point of view.
Thank you, Luma. Thank you, Luma, for your question. Next question, Ygor, XP Investments.
Hello. Good morning. Thank you for your presentation. Two questions here. First, if I can have details of the launch strategy, the PSV for the first quarter, the conclusion to follow on, and I want to understand the areas you are trying to accelerate the launches. The second, do you feel an improvement in terms of net sales of Riva, considering the cap increase and more attractive rates for Minha Casa, Minha Vida?
Ygor. Launches. We do not have a guidance, but if you look at the seasonality of our business, the first quarter is always a seasonally quarter with less launches because of holidays and carnival. Second quarter on, launch volumes is always higher. We believe this year, sales behave and demand is as is. We should repeat this level. We see a second quarter closer to our. The second half will be very similar to the second quarter. We have a lot of products to launch in case there is the demand, it remains as is. I believe that we should have a second half. We are very optimistic with the demand because of these adjustments. If there is an increase of demand, we can absorb launching more than foreseen for this year.
Ygor, also to add to what Ricardo said, we have BRL 35 billion land bank. We have noticed in states other than São Paulo, lands appearing for feasibility committees. The conditions are very aggressive. There is very little demand for these lands. We will continue maintaining this pace, this growth pace in the states we are in, specifically where land bank is very well-formed by a swap, purchased by a swap. Riva, we have been doing a fine combing here, right, to see what we can change in order to have the product within the BRL 350,000 level.
Because before there was a change, right, approved by the FGTS, we already noticed that Riva, because of the quality of the land bank, the product assertiveness, Riva has been a positive highlight. Even where we have been working with SBPE with TR plus 10%, TR plus 10 .5% rates with more scarce funding account. We continued with Riva in a very interesting pace. I think now there is a potential to review the project. Many things of Riva already incorporated this, and to have more things within this cap, I believe that this would accelerate Riva from here on. The immediate result, once again, we have not noticed an impact on our product because we were very careful for Riva launches in the last quarters.
Very clear. Thank you very much, Paim, Ricardo, Paulo.
Perfect. Ygor. Next question, Pedro. You have the floor.
Good morning. Thank you for your presentation and question. Just to follow up on the first question by Bruno and then Ygor. Could you give us the breakup of profitability per state you are in and how this is being considered in this new launch level that you are thinking of? Also from here on, with the increase of the company volumes, do you see the possibility of having operating leverage in these areas? Is it possible with a greater volume, will you gain even greater profitability in these states where you will increase volumes?
Well, I am going to try to answer your question. If we consider the more mature states of the company where we are very relevant, we operate with 4 percentage points of gross margin and less 7 percentage point of contributed margin in our SPEs to be captured with the maturing of our operations. Where we see the possibility to occupy space. I am not saying we are going to capture all of these benefits, right? Dematuring here takes a long time for operations in the state to mature.
This is an idea of the perspectives of what we are going for. Because we are using these resources in order to concentrate operations where we have all the structure, where we know the market. These are 7 percentage points difference between the benchmark operations, where we are operating states and the ones that are more recent. This is what we are going for in the next two years. I think we can capture value without pressuring our team, and important and expressive gains of G&A. This is a maturing of the state without demands of people, an increase in G&A, because we are starting operating in a new state. This is the value we generate. We capture gain in difference of margins between the more mature states we are in and the more recent states we are in.
Thank you very much, Ricardo. Good morning, everybody.
Next question. Jorel, Goldman Sachs. You have the floor.
Thank you. I would like to concentrate on the non-consolidated SPE. Is there a difference between total sales, revenue, I am sorry. I would like to understand how we should consider the non-consolidated SPEs from here on. Are we at the peak? Do we believe that this will continue increasing as a proportion of the total? Also, is it more focused on a product like Riva or Direcional? That would be my question.
Jorel. Riva and Direcional, practically nothing in our revenue in SPEs where we do not have the control and that we do not consolidate the total revenue of the project. The consolidated here and representative is big, is the partnership with Lucio, where we have a volume of projects launched that is relevant and works are ongoing. Here, with this joint venture, we are in the initial state of our work.
There is a growth increase of the company here, where our equity equivalence line should continue growing once the works are ongoing. However, on the other hand, we see projects where there is 11% participation representing growth from here on. If you look at launches and sales, I see the participation, the share of Direcional growing from here on. As a proportion of the sale, this is a wave. So works of which launches occurred in the last two months, they are the ones that are gaining relevance in the revenue recognition at this moment.
Here you will see equity equivalent with increasing value in terms of absolute value going for our statement of our DRE, right? This value, this amount should go down in the next two years based on nominal values. In terms of percentage of the revenue, I believe it should remain in levels that are very similar to the ones we have today, because the revenue of projects that 100% consolidated by Direcional is growing from here on. In absolute terms, the equivalence line will continue growing in an important way.
A follow-up. For example, cash. How do you see cash here? How do we see the cash receipt?
It depends on the sale price of the product. The higher the ticket of the unit, the greater is the liability of this customer wanting to work with a transfer at the end of the works. What is important, Riva, 70% of what has been sold, has been sold within the associative model, approximately 30% out. An important proportion of this 30% sold out of the associative model, the customer pays 100% of the price of the works during the works. So it is similar to the associative. Riva, the format where we have 40% capture during the works and 60% is financed by the customer at the end of the work, is around 15% or 20% of what Riva does.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jorel. Next question, Marcelo Motta. Marcelo, you have the floor. Motta, we cannot hear you.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Just two questions. First, the partnerships. Can we expect now that the company has done a follow-on, it has net cash. Is the idea of having more partnerships in the short term, is there no idea of do this? But land bank, also, what do you see as ideal land bank for you after years of launch? Is it years of launches, volume, or is it opportunistic? Do you do as much as possible? I'd like to understand these two points.
Motta, we've seen good business where return of our capital is positive. And here we analyze the capacity of our engineering carrying out these projects where we have partnerships in that area, that state. Our growth capacity varies from state we operate in to state. In terms of return on the capital and also our execution capacity in that place. So if we have good business with execution capacity, can be without partnership, no problem.
If we have execution capacity that is closer to what we have in terms of an optimal operational point, then it makes no sense to have a partnership here because it will limit the percentage of that result that goes to our shareholders. So if we have these two factors seem to, there is no reason not to have partnerships. What we provide are financing. We allocate capital and risk and everybody has. So we believe that we are operating in a very healthy way. And obviously good business, we're always looking at good business, right? There isn't really a rule here and wave, give up on, forgo a good opportunity. Here also, we had an acquisition of an area. We acquired an area, fantastic in Brasília. We are very relevant in Brasília within the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program. We are one of the greatest players in the program.
When we consider our market share within the Federal District and compare to the total amount financed by FGTS, this is very important. And this area swapped in the second quarter was a very relevant area, little more than BRL 2 billion potential sale. So this is a specific land which is very differentiated and puts us in a position, and we want to continue here. So when we consider this on-off acquisition, I would say we're buying. When we considered, we're just reallocating what we're doing, and we will continue in this same level.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Motta. Next question, Elvis, BTG. Elvis, you have the floor.
Good morning, Ricardo, Paim, Paulo. Two questions here. The first one, pro-soluto. We had improvements in the affordability of Minha Casa, Minha Vida. I want to see how you see the level of pro-soluto you have here from here on. Will you focus in gaining size in the company, accelerating things? Second, could you give us an update on construction costs? Perhaps it's too early, but we saw these rates slowing down. So I want to know how this talks to your budgeted cost. And will you recognize economy savings in works with regards to what everything that has been happening?
Elvis, when you look from here on, when we talk about pro-soluto, no doubt there was gain in affordability. When we look lower income levels with an increment in the value subsidy. LTV has not changed here, so banks continue financing 80% of the value of the asset. pro-soluto is the result of this 20% non-financed by banks.
The reduction of pro-soluto will occur with these lower income levels where there was an increase of the subsidy that comprise part of this 20% not financed by banks. But it is not going to be so expressive where you will see a significant change in percentage in terms of pro-soluto in the proportion of the volume. In the income families lower than BRL 3,000, then we will see an increase here. However, it will be 10%, 15% of our business and there shouldn't be a bigger difference here. But the reduction of pro-soluto will happen with weaker families where default is greater, and here it is very positive. Instead of looking at percentage, it is important to look at the quality where things drop in families that don't have much more conditions for it.
Another point that is very important here, that is important that you know, we have seen, just like the government of the state of São Paulo has passed, where the government gives a subsidy, as well as the one granted by the FGTS. The state government has an extra subsidy for lower income families. We have seen several municipalities going in the same direction. I believe that the entrance of governments and local governments with this extra subsidy to see to lower income families, then we will have an expected action of pro-soluto. Let's see how this is going to happen. This is happening in a very fast way, and I believe in the second half, we will have an idea of the speed of implementing of this surplus subsidy in those income levels where default is great.
We will have a better quality of our pro-soluto because of this participation of the local public branch. I forgot your second question. Labor rises once a year after the trade decisions. Obviously, labor always rises and well over the inflation, which I think is fair and healthy. It is important that if INCC rises less than labor rises, this is a new potential of a buyer for our product, who is gaining purchasing power and wants to buy. We want the country going in a healthy way, right?
We are happy with this. I would say that when we compare INCC with the cost of our product, a constructive process that is very industrialized, customized, and fast. There are labor the average, the more constructive process. Once we see we decreases half a year, we gain competitiveness here. Where and labor in those companies that have less productive labor. When you compare cost, [audio distortion] here we have labor rising more, the price of material costs will be below [audio distortion] , and we gain competitiveness here. These are the considerations to be.
Excellent. Thank you very much, Ricardo.
Thank you, Elvis. Next question. André Mazini .
Hello, Ricardo, Paim, Paulo, all. The first is the payment potential of FGTS. There was an impact of this change in the borrowers of the FGTS. Is there going to be a difference? There's the Supreme Court on this, because the balance are with wealthier workers. Maybe there will be a definition here by the end of the year. The second question, operator competition in São Paulo. We see very high income players, Visa, some others, but low income is very different from the very high income levels.
You have aluminum molds, you have upland transfers. What are the points that are entrance barriers the high income player can enter in? What is the competitive advantage of somebody that has been dealing with low income families as a core business versus the average to high income players that want to enter the program?
It is difficult for us to know this outcome of this definition that is being discussed here. Clearly, I think ABRAINC's role in this process is to try to show the impact of any decision, independent of the decision taken, and how it would be result on those weaker workers, right? Or the ones that need Minha Casa, Minha Vida program to buy their own house. For the analyst to increase FGTS, it benefits the worker.
A second analyst who pays for the lower income company, weaker workers that have a great churn in employer, and they lose the opportunity to buy their own house with the reduction of subsidies, and they will have to pay more. Those that need less, that have great subsidy, and because of their higher income, they do not fit into Minha Casa, Minha Vida. Socially, the decision in case is horrible in a social point of view. It benefits that do not need it, and the one that needs will pay for this bill, right? It is exactly this point that needs to become basically clear to society as a whole, because I am certain that most probably the votes did not have a clear vision of the impacts that have on those families that most need it. In social point of view, this is extremely important.
I think ABRAINC as well, they have this. This is what they need to be. The decision making, people have to know the consequences and decisions is. When impacts are clear, the vision can change. The future votes here are very strongly for the voted here. We do not know. We cannot perspective here, right? Things discussed today. With regards to competition in São Paulo, I think it is natural when we have SBPE that has funding to have an increment of prices in companies that have competitive program. They try to develop problems to put the program, have access to the funding that allows many to be included as a purchase of products. We have seen this in the past when this immediately announced Minha Casa, Minha Vida program. See what happened from here on.
I believe that with the drop in Selic and the perspective in an inflow of savings account reforests, or then we begin having a great amount because, savings is more than BRL 200 billion in 2021. It is BRL 150 billion. It is a BRL 50 billion drop, right? Obviously it is natural this market might reduce in size. An escape valve would be a [audio distortion] that had an increase over BRL 20 billion this year to try to minimize employment impacts for the economy growth. It is part, but if we end up having SBPE with more resources in the future, we will see the appetite work in the program. I think it is healthy when we do an analysis here. Very prepared companies working with the same bar in terms of performance standards, formalization of the labor. This is free competition.
The bar is the same for everybody, so I don't think it's a problem. But I think it's important to monitor the appetite and the impact, the appetite of those companies want in the programs, and certainly in São Paulo, where most are concentrated. But once again, we have a huge possibility of choosing where we will allocate capital and concentrate, increment our operations. The healthiest issue and the competitive advantage we have. I wouldn't say that we have spare. I would say we have competitive advantages because our opera is concentrated areas we work in. Several makes more sense to allocate resources to capital. This is what I would have to say with regards to this.
Thank you very much . Very clear.
One last question in the chat. Comment, the gross margin dive that is specifically in [audio distortion] no doubt have result of the gross because revenue will be recognized, right? First one perceives very clearly the same gross that have began, right? So you saw our REF margin very zero, about 4% growing quarter-over-quarter, 0.2.
And this shows where we are going to with our business and pricing of our product, specifically execution, the very competitive prices we differentiate. One of the answers given on whether we should be recognizing these labs here. I think these are works that are launched immediately after Russia and Ukraine increased product price. These projects that are at its peak recent projects. This is materialized. When we look at we can have some price with works lower than budgeted. It's still in the early inclusions here, but clearly the scenario today as a result is very positive.
I'm more optimistic with regards to the margins now than I was some time ago. We will see if this will balance because we will see what's happened here, but the perspectives are varied here. Perfect. Thank you very much for your question in the chat. Let me close questions- and- answer session. I will give the floor back to Ricardo for his final comments.
Thank you very much once again, everybody. Once again, we are in a quarter where we're very satisfied with results we are delivering. What is important to us is the consistency of our results, right? Very solid result with continuous improvement. We're very optimistic with the scenario we see today. Lower inflation, interest rates dropping, many families being included. Markets we can see to, the works we have today.
We believe and we're here to work to use these opportunities to see to those families that most need. I think this is a strong point. We have a team. We have the privilege to transform our society, produce real property or houses for people who want to improve their lives, basic sanitation. We offer something more here, and our business is very sustainable. As well as being very positive from a social point of view, it offers a return to a shareholder. So it retrofeeds itself, right? This cycle. And we generate returns to the shareholder. With those that are interested in investing capital to see the family that most need it. This is very positive for our country, our society. Everybody who works with us, all our shareholders.
We are very satisfied to deliver constant results that have been improving in a recurrent way and being able to see a very relevant demand with huge impact. Once again, thank you very much for your participation. We are always at your disposal to answer any questions you have. Our IR team is here, and we are going to continue working always to deliver the very best results. Thank you. Have a very good day, everybody.