Good morning. Welcome to one more video conference of our results. Now, the 3Q 2022. Together with me are Ricardo Ribeiro, our CEO, Henrique Paim, our CFO, and Andr é from the IR team. My name is Paula, and I am Director of IR here at Direcional. This event is for analysts and investors, and we will begin with a presentation. Afterwards, we will have Q&A. We would like everybody to use their Raise Your Hand icon, and we will give you the floor according to the order of questions. Now I will give the floor to Ricardo for the presentation.
Good morning. It is a huge pleasure to be with you once again, going through the main results of our numbers relative to the 3Q 2022. In our vision, we are delivering very consistent results, continuing with what we have been doing in the last quarters.
We delivered this third quarter 2022, very solid margins, growth and net margins. It is important to analyze the REF margin with strong consistency. In this quarter, it is important to stress we have overcome the annualized ROE of 18%, and we will talk about this further on in the presentation. We continue growing our operations in terms of launches, sales, net growth, and we have given a return of capital to shareholders through the payment of dividends and very good leverage levels. In this last quarter, we had one more payment of BRL 70 million dividends. This continuity of the increment in the net profit with the return of capital to shareholders has allowed us to deliver a growth of the asset and has been the main leverage for growth in the company. In the next months, we intend to continue following this path.
This is a way of extracting great part of the value that we still believe can be created for the shareholders of the company. The main highlights now, where we address net sales in the last 12 months, which reached in the third quarter almost BRL 3 billion. It was a 30% growth when compared to the last 12 months of net sales, which was concluded last quarter, last year. Also net sales, we overcame BRL 2.1 billion in the last months. It was a growth of 23% compared to the same indicated last year. I would like to stress that we have had an important difference between sales volume and revenue volume, indicating a trend of continuation of growth of revenue when we look from here on, which is very important for us to have a gain in operational leverage in our business. Page four.
Because of us having sales that were superior to revenue, this is very clear when we see the growth of our results in future revenues. The backlog revenues. This happens with the advancements of our growth. In our REF, we had a growth of 38% in the last 12 months, which reached at the end of the last quarter, more than BRL 1.1 billion. I would like to stress that our REF margin had an increment getting to 39.6%. This REF margin is not in this page, but we will see this in our presentation, is an important indicator of the resilience expected for growth margins in our company. This gives us strong comfort that our operations is on track for us to continue delivering growth increments for our shareholders. Page five, where we address our gross margin and gross profit.
The third quarter, the gross margin was very solid, at 35%, in keeping with what we've always talked about in our earnings release. Also here, I'd like to stress, and a very important aspect, we, at this moment, are trying to get the most financing of production for our projects. From here on, it is always very important. In order to compare the level of operational F&C with previous quarters, we look at our gross margin so that we have a greater difference between the adjusted gross margin and the one that is reported, because we should have an increment with regards to the volume of rates paid in our projects because of this greatest representativeness of financings. Company financings.
On the other hand, one should expect a reduction of the level of financial expenses in this company, and this reduction will be superior to the difference that we should have between the reported gross margin and the adjusted gross margin. We can have generate significant values because we are increasing the volumes of financing our productions in our projects. You should see a reduction of the financial expenses. This change from one line to the other is very relevant for this system and where you always analyze the adjusted gross margin here from here on. Page six. The other very important aspect of our operation is the increment of operational leverage that I addressed just a few minutes ago.
When we analyze the nine first months of 2022, compare this with the first nine months of 2021, it is very clear to see the value we have generated with the growth of our operations and maintenance of our expenses at very controlled levels. In this chart here to the right, the two bars, the first nine months comparing 2022 to 2021 in terms of G&A and commercial expenses, we had an expressive gain. 1.3 percentage points of the revenue in terms of gains and 0.6% in terms of gains in general and administrative expenses as a proportion of the revenue. This has allowed us to have an important increment of our EBITDA margin, even in a scenario where we have experienced an important increment of the inputs. A slight compression of the gross margin in the company in the last months.
All of this has been more than compensated by the operational leverage gain and dilution of expense lines of the companies. In this quarter specifically, you have seen an increment in the absolute value of our general and administrative expenses, which became from a salary— wage bargaining that occurred in São Paulo in May. The increase of wages impact the three months of the third quarter. Page seven. Just to show you what I spoke to you about with regards to our operational leverage gains. We consolidated in our revenue several projects where we have partners. For this analysis of the increment and the gain this operational leverage has given us, it is important to compare the net profit before minority interest because we consolidated in our revenue the total amount of the SPE and here we don't have the participation of these partners in the project.
When we analyze the gross margin before minority interest, you can see in the last seven quarters, the first quarter 2021 to third quarter 2022, we had an increment in this margin of 2.4 percentage points. This is very important specifically when we consider what I just said, a scenario in the last 2.5 years that has been very challenging in terms of input costs that we use in our work sites. In the last 15 years, I never saw this happen in Brazil. It is very clear that even with this challenge increase of input prices, we have been able to compensate for this because of the growth of our operations. Lastly, page eight, we saw an important growth of the net profit of the company and the last line of the balance here.
When we compare net profit that we delivered this 3 Q 2022 with the same quarter 2021, we had a growth of 31% in our net profit in a scenario that was not simple nor obvious for the sector. This net profit increment that is so important, together with the return of capital to our shareholders. We had an important payment of dividend payments in the last quarter. We can continue growing our operations and our net profit and everything being very stable. There's no doubt is what has led us to be able to increase return over equity in a very high speed. We were able to go over 18% in the last quarter when we analyze the profit we deliver. This increment in our return will continue being our priority from here on.
Through these two aims, a search to grow our operations, which should be concentrated in the growth of revenue because of what I said to you, we are selling an amount that is much greater than what we have in revenue. The trend of the revenue is growth because of the advance of our works. We will continue working to return to our shareholder the capital that we don't use in our operations. This is what we have tried to do in the last years. Now I would like to give the floor to Paulo Sousa and I will be at your disposal for questions and answers.
Good morning everybody. Very quickly with regards to operational highlights. We begin with launches this quarter, the third quarter we launched BRL 1.2 billion in terms of projects launched.
A growth of 50% quarter-after-quarter and 10% relative to last year. This was our historical record in launches specifically based on sales growth and activities of our products. To the right, you can see the evolution of sales. The quarter was also a record in sales, BRL 847 million in terms of sales. Highlight to Riva segment, where there was a growth of BRL 236 million to BRL 326 million quarter-after-quarter. The accumulated up to date, 30%, BRL 2.3 billion. Our best nine months in the history. Once again, stressing the assertiveness of our product, our capability of selling what we launch. When we go to the next slide, which is the VSO, the net sales speed, the level is very healthy, very solid. We reached 19% in the consolidated Riva and Direcional segment.
This is the level we always say to the market, we've always said to you, we try to operate between 18% and 22%. This quarter, we just launched some products at the end of last quarter, which impacted our sales speed. But still, it's in the volume we expect, and we will work to go over these numbers. Now I'll give the floor to Paim, who will tell us about the financial highlights.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for your participation in our 3 Q 2022 earnings release. Very quickly, we're going to go through the results so that we can go to questions and answers, which is the most interesting part of our call. Here to the left, we have the net revenue. We can see an evolution track record of 26% in the first nine months of 2022, getting to BRL 1.630 billion.
And significant increase of the revenue. We have been saying in the last calls that the sales that we did and the advance of works we have noted, clearly reflects on the increase of revenue. Our expectation in the pipeline is that this revenue growth will continue occurring and causing a very positive effect with regards to our operational leverage mentioned by Ricardo. We are very excited with the next quarters when we look at the revenue line. When we look to the right of the chart, the partnerships that we did not consolidate, we can see here the result through equity income. We do all the works, we do the back-offs, relationships with customer relations.
And here we have a significantly important revenue in terms of results, which goes into the balance because we don't consolidate these companies where we have partners to be able to co-share the control of this business with our partners. Next slide. To the left here, we have the behavior of the EBITDA. Here, this drop in the EBITDA margin is justified because of the marginal drop in revenue that we had in the quarter and the G&A which was more challenging. It was because of the wage bargainings that was mentioned. And in the accumulated, we continued with very healthy EBITDA levels around 20%, very solid.
And the expectation from here on is to remain with very solid EBITDA margins and leverage versus EBITDA under control, reinforcing our thesis that this is the first metric that we look at afterwards to be able to take decisions with regards to growth.
We had a technical problem. We will be back in a few minutes.
Okay, everybody. Good morning, everybody. I'm sorry for electrical problem. We had an energy peak and the internet froze, our network froze. We would like to apologize and we will continue. We were talking about the equity equivalence results, compared to the equivalence in the last quarter. Here we can see the next slide, which is 15. Slide number 15. Well, we've seen 14, slide 15.
Once again, we have the capital structure. We reached BRL 1.180 billion in cash in the third quarter, BRL 1.471 billion gross debt, generating a net debt of BRL 298 billion. We do not have to be a genius to administer the net debt of this size. A very well-behaved leverage, 19% of adjusted net debt over equity, reinforcing our conservatism here, our long-term conservative position, considering our finances and capital structure. An amortization schedule, which is long, one of the longest in the sector, a duration of almost 50 months, enough cash to pay four years of debt. We concluded with success the issue of a CRI, Nile, in the 3 Q, which was a success. We captured BRL 300 million. Financial settlement occurred in July at a very competitive rate, 1.22% a year, a 10-year operation.
And of course, the term deadlines and the capital volume here to the right, paying for the company capital, a sovereign capital market, several credit lines, several investors, a very pulverized profile of our creditor, showing the quality and confirmation of this credit quality by the capital market. A very open market when we need to access this because of the recurrence and the growth. The acknowledgment that investors have on us, of our part. I would like to go to questions and answers, and I would like to thank you for your participation.
Okay, so now we have the connection again. We have gone back to the video, so let's go back to our Q&A. Our first question comes from Bruno Mendonça. Bruno, you have the floor.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for your presentation. Two questions.
First, with regards to cost environment, we saw the pressure, the concrete being a villain in the last indicators. We saw the competitors talking about this pressure. Specifically, this affects companies like Direcional now. So how do you see this, and what can you tell us about this from here on? Have you been able to hold on, have been able to deal with this in the last two years, specifically with regards to concrete now? Okay. And second one is for you, Ricardo. With regards to change in potential programs with the new government, we have seen the people talking about Minha Casa, Minha Vida program coming back and going back to the old group one. I do not know if you have any details here, the details on the new program, but this is a question for you.
Do you believe there is a scenario where Direcional now can go back working on segments that depend on government subsidies and that have a fiscal impact, like assets in the past in level one, right? So in your discussions, do you see a scenario of this being possible? Thank you.
Okay, Bruno. Good morning. Thank you for your question. First one, with regards to costs. What we have seen is a very benign and a very behaved scenario in terms of costs of our products that we use in our work sites. It is not something that is concerning us. We do not see any signs of price cost increases that might impact us or concern us. Concrete, perhaps after this period where there was the beginning of the war, perhaps this was the input that in fact had the greatest price increase, which represented for us the greatest challenge.
When we look at this third quarter, in spite of an increase here, we had cost reductions in several other inputs that were more than enough for us to be able to have a zero increase, when you join everything in our inputs. So when we compare this in our case, we did not have such a great impact, and the reflex of the slight margin reduction had nothing to do with cost. It was product mix that was being delivered, where the works were done with costs in the past before the increase of concrete, because the concrete comes in the beginning of the works, right? With the new works beginning, are beginning in a scenario of this greater impact because of concrete. So this loss of 35.0% was because of mix, not launches. So it is important to clarify this.
With regards to level one, all of the news that we see all the time, for us, it is important to understand the policies, and it is still early to take any kind of decision. There isn't a way of having an idea as to how the program is going to work, because the country's situation is still very delicate. A huge expenditure during the pandemic, and the country is at a difficult level here, more difficult than in the past. So it is difficult to make a decision without knowing what's going to happen. An important thing is a program that was presented in 2015, a series of challenges, specifically with regards to delay, payment of the works, and all the rest.
This is a program that doesn't have any kind of delay. Can't have, because a delay in payments means that we'll be financing works through debt, and level one was not a program where the price established for units would be able to deal with any kind of financial costs. So payments occurred according to our works, the advance of our works. So we had to very clearly monitor how these things will work with regards to guarantee and payments being done in the scheduled dates, because this really did hurt the companies that worked in the program. So today, we are more careful here, more cautious here when we eventually analyze the opportunities that we will have in the different segments we work in. Right? There is much that we have to be very careful with here in terms of analysis.
It's important to say that level one is not something that, in our vision, will be relevant for our operations. We are at the launch and revenue level in the segments. For example, the segments that are possible to work in, which is level one, two, and three. Right? The old two and three, where we have operations level that allows us to deliver very satisfactory results. Although it's early to say this, we are very cautious today because of past experience, before deciding on operating on new segments that can be created in this program.
Thank you. Perfect.
Thank you, Bruno, for your question. Gustavo Cambauva, BTG. You have the floor, Gustavo.
Hello. Good morning. I would like to ask two questions. The first one has to do with sales prices. Everybody-
I think you froze. Your audio has frozen. Your internet has frozen, Cambauva.
So next question.
I will go to the next question. Cambauva internet also froze. Fanny, next question from Santander. Fanny.
Hello, Ricardo, Paulo and Paim. I have two questions. Ricardo, you said they are going to get more loans for the plant, more financing. Do you have better conditions for funding the funding in the project? What generated this change? The interest rate scenario, for example, I would like to hear from you. I spoke with Paulo, but with regards to default, you increased provisionings here, and in line with what you said, there was a report in Valor that talked about this. The low income rates are very compromised. What are you doing in terms of Pró-soluto? How do you raise the bar here, strict the bar here a little bit?
Fanny, thank you for your question.
With regards to the strategy of incrementing the volume here, we have a gain of 3% or 4% when we compared the cost from companies and what we have in terms of corporate debt. This strategy in mix change is to capture the possibility of having a gain of 3 to 4 percentage points to reduce the costs of the debt that we had in the company. This is a very relevant value generation. Once again, stressing in some reports where people have analyzed reported gross margin in Direcional's balance sheet. In the last years, the corporate debt capture costs were low, so gross margin and reported margin were very close. Now you will see the reported margin and adjusted margin with a slight difference, which will be more than compensated because of the reduction of financial lines, the net financial lines.
It makes sense to increment the volume here. With regards to we have tried to be conservative. In this quarter specifically, our Pró-soluto portfolio, we try to monetize these assets with very high frequency. The short intervals where we are always monetizing these assets. Our portfolio is slightly over BRL 200 million, and this semester we had an increase compared to the last quarter of BRL 5.7 million, almost BRL 6 million provisions for this portfolio. Once again, it is not what we believe to be completely. It is the correct because of the inflation that occurred in the past, which is going down but still affects our customer.
We had this increment in provisions, which in our point of view, will not repeat in the same way from here on, but we have to monitor this and the profile of our customer, their income possibility, so that they can pay for the installments that they have to pay with the things with us. I think things will improve and we will root for this scenario, because of wage increases, that should occur because of the past inflation. We should have an increase of wages, and this will lead to more income in the future, and we will be able to reduce this default that we have had. This is normal, it is under control, but we did have this increment of BRL 6 million in the provisions for payment of these installments.
Thank you. A question. Going back to funding, are you being able to capture SBPE for Riva?
Yes, SBPE in the Riva segment and financing to protection in the Casa Verde e Amarela, where the funding comes from FGTS. Here, where it makes sense, we are having greater amounts of this financing than we did in the past.
Fanny, if I can add to this, we have been able to do associative credits here with Riva transfers. Aligned to our business model where we have less capital exposure, for us, this is important, this associative credit. Here, this has led us to have good alternatives that are important in the financial market. Other banks are looking at this theme of associative credit, structuring themselves to see to us here with regards to this credit.
Perfect, Fanny. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Fanny. Now I will go back to Cambauva. He is back in the video. Cambauva.
Good morning. I am sorry I had problems with my connection. I would like to ask two questions. The first, with regards to average price of sales, you had a strong increment in the price of sales. I would like to understand up to what point you have been able to increment everything in terms of prices. The recent changes in Casa Verde e Amarela somehow are reflected in this new price, or do you see room for more increase? Also with regards to Direto, the expectation that you have here, when you look at all the points. The interest of other developers to offer you a portfolio, the sale of portfolio here, what you have seen here in retail in terms of rate, and what we can expect for Direto next year. Might the results be more relevant with regards to Direto? Thank you.
Good morning, Cambauva. The first question, the pricing of our products. In our vision, we still have room for adjustments. Of course, I believe that the increase occurred at a higher proportion in the last months than will probably happen from here on. But in several products and certain states, we still see room for adjustments. You saw our gross margin having a reduction this quarter. This reduction pace, it is important to stress that it dropped compared to last quarters, but still, we have been able to recompose what we had in terms of loss and gross margins. In certain products and certain states, we will continue working with this price increment to remain with the net sales speeds close to levels that we have been able to deliver in the last quarters. It is always a balance between net sales speed and just adjustments, right?
We see perspectives of things happening. Increments should be lower than what we implemented during this year. With regards to Direto, it is important to stress on your side, for example, sell side and buy side, we prefer at this moment, let us talk about operations, but it is still early to talk about values. However, Direto's operation has surprised us a lot. It has been doing very well. We exceeded BRL 200 million in credits that was originated, and we look further on the perspective of capturing gain and financial value in Direto. This will happen when this portfolio that was originated is sold in the secondary market with a rate compression when relative to the origination rate of these credits. Direto does not consume rates anymore. In the last months, Direto is doing very healthily, is being healthy.
Now we have revenue that pays all the expenses, specifically G&A. From here on, we are going to try to grow without capital consumption. I believe that the market, as it is today, it is very net for things with regards to what we saw, comparing the first to second quarter. We see a more kind of liquid market. When we see these assets, we can capture here results. When this is going to happen, we do not know. It is difficult to foresee, but we see a very liquid market, and we believe that Direto does not consume cash anymore. The initial focus, the company has to be alone, independent. Right? Because of the opportunities. But in Direto, our main target was to revert and not consume cash, and we have been able to do this.
Because of the business lines we have in Direto, we do not see the need to increment G&A or cost of customer acquisition. It is to have a strong cash consumption. The scenario is to be in the break even. When we have the monetization of these assets, we are going to have this. We are going to work for this, but it is early to say when this will happen. When this happens, we will give notice to the market, and you will be able to see what Direto can generate in terms of value for our business.
Thank you, Ricardo. Good morning.
Thank you, Cambauva. Next question, Pedro CS. You have the floor.
Hello. Good morning, everybody. I have two questions.
Going back to Pró-s oluto, but in the company's optic in terms of the EBIT that you have here in Pró-s oluto, if it changed from this new default scenario compared to what you had been granting until then. Second question, the launches for 2023. I know it is too early to speculate what will happen in terms of changes for Casa Verde e Amarela or Minha Vida. But in your pipeline, is there a visibility in terms of product and region considering the potential changes?
Pedro. Pró-s oluto, I would say specifically in the first semester this year, we had a greater detachment between real estate sale prices and evaluation value by banks. When a bank appraises a guarantee, a credit that it is granting, it will look at the history of price and assets in the market.
When prices will increase because of cost decreases or a detachment here, this detachment was significantly reduced from the middle of the year to now, and appraisers are more in line with sales prices. We did not have a change in our policies when we do an estimate or provision the possibilities or when we approve a launch or a project. What we have noticed because of the improvement of assessment, a natural reduction of the Pró-s oluto granted, and this is very positive. This amount as a proportion of the total amount sold by the company has been good. The provisioning we do here for all the feasibilities has been superior to what we have had in terms of default. These provisions are enough, or perhaps have increased and are enough to deal with the default levels we have seen in our daily work.
With regards to launches next year, we have the projects being approved now. They're all in the pipeline, products, several of them approval and environmental licensing. I would say in the first quarter, it is very difficult to have a change in the project that is being approved. So perhaps, we'll have a project. It is difficult to change products here in terms of construction. We have a long cycle, so changes do not occur in one or two quarters. But when we look at the semester next year, if there is a change, I would say we have flexibility to change certain products that are under approval. In spite of this flexibility not being so big, right? Pedro, I don't believe that this will be necessary, really.
We have been working with a premise, there might be improvements or changes in the Casa Verde e Amarela conditions, even with the change of name of the program. But in case there are improvements, I don't see a need to change the product. Also we have to see the SBPE, the perspective with regards to inflation and rates in the future. At the moment, because of the variables we have, we are optimistic with this segment, although interest rates has risen in the last months and stabilized in last coupon meetings. But when we look in the pipeline, the curve does not show much change. What we have been trying to do is to avoid capital exposure in the purchase of acquisition of land, right? We've been very conservative here. We've been doing only via swaps, avoiding capture of financing here.
So that in case there is a demand for a change of product, we are not very hurt here. Because generally to change a project, it takes a year to be approved. It's not difficult, but we try to mitigate things, minimizing our capital exposure in our projects. And I think we've been very successful here.
Pedro, just to add to what Ricardo is saying with regards to Pró-soluto, I think Direcional has been very conservative because of Pró-soluto, and this has led to a success in the monetization of our portfolios. And the market is looking at this. So still we talk about Pró-soluto. The market can see the quality of this asset.
Nobody better than the market to confirm, to acknowledge the conservative position that we've had with regards to the leveraging of our customers, a solid portfolio, which begins to demonstrate important recurrence with the same investors from the past, buying new portfolios, right? This is an important point that acknowledges this thesis.
Perfect, Ricardo. Just a follow-up with regards to the launches question. Now, not looking in the short term next year, but the recomposition of land bank. Do you have a change or a preference per region?
Well, we have noticed a very satisfactory performance with Riva products and Direcional's product in all regions we work in. I would say that, and I've stressed this, the region we have been very careful with, looking very carefully, not only because of supply, but São Paulo.
This is the state that has the greatest amount of works that are in progress, and the demand for labor and equipment is greater here, not only in terms of supply, but execution. This is a region, a state that demands more cautiousness, right? More care, and we have tried to concentrate our operations in areas where we see regions, where we see operations with less surprises, right? And better balance between supply and demand. But I would say that it is not too much of a concern. I am just saying what we have had in terms of cautiousness, and I would say that this is the area we have been more careful with.
Thank you very much.
Pedro, thank you. Next question, Rafael. Banco Safra. So you have the floor, Rafael.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for the question. I think you have mentioned this. I would like to ask if you can show us, give us a bit of light on the sales in October, the impact of elections, because of elections, you had less two weeks of sales.
The end of September and beginning of October was a period where we noticed clearly the greatest challenge in terms of sales, customers waiting to take decisions here. In the beginning of October was even more difficult. At the end of October, we already noticed an expressive increment in the volume of daily sales. Before the first elections round until 15, 20 October was a very challenging period. At the end of October, we noticed an important improvement in terms of daily sales volume. From here on, I would say we have the World Cup now, which is an event we have to monitor very closely the behavior of the customer.
In spite of the fact that we have an expressive amount of projects in terms of launches for the fourth quarter, we will do these launches according to how we perceive the market. But October was okay, November began well, and now we will see the end of November and December, where we have World Cup. Another aspect that I believe is important to share with you, even at the end of September and October, where we noticed a smaller sales volume, the volume of visits did not change. Much to the contrary, we had more visits than we had in previous periods. What changed was the visit and the decision-making to buy the real estate. There was still a demand, but the conversion here decreased.
The visits are in our base, and we have worked at these events that are trying to convert visits into sales. It is early to have a conclusion here, but this was the scenario we noticed during the elections period. Okay, everything was very clear.
Thank you very much, everybody. Have a very good day.
Thank you, Rafael. Next question, Hugo, Citibank. You have the floor, Hugo.
Good morning, Ricardo, Paim, Paulo. Thank you for your questions. Congratulations for results. We saw the ABRAINC, they exposed the data showing the evolution, the track record of originations. You can see here the behavior of each income segment from BRL 1,000 to BRL 1,000 income level, BRL 1,000. In the case of Direcional, this draws the attention. The income rates from BRL 5,000 up had more substance greater than the upper part of group two, the superior part.
I would like to ask if you've felt something in this sense, if you have a price point where you have a performance that is better, and if you can tell us the exposure that you have in each income level, for each income level. Also a third question, thinking of income levels that overflow, that go over the Casa Verde e Amarela program, when we think the Pró-Cotista financing. So imagining a rise in financing rates and if the SBPE financing, if this is a line that you can count on for absorption in 2023.
In my view, this increment in the volume of sales for over BRL 5,000 income levels is the result of products that have been offered in the market.
In this period where there was an increase of costs of materials, where they migrated to superior products, where the impact of price increase was absorbed by families with higher income levels, we saw this in the group three. This greater sales volume of group three is the result of this, right? We don't believe there's going to be the same amount of demand for lower incomes. It's an issue of supply, and it is because of this, we continue seeing a huge opportunity to work with group two, families with income of up to BRL 4,000 and products of up to BRL 200,000. It hasn't been so easy as was in the past to render these products feasible because of the cost increase of materials, right?
But we try to maximize as much as possible as much as we can have our exposure to this segment, specifically when you look at consolidated numbers where the greater possibilities are families with over BRL 5,000 income level. So we've been looking at this segment and we want to work with the group two segment, although this is more challenging in certain regions, where we can have sales prices where we can see to families that have lower than BRL 4,000 income levels. We are one of the few companies that are offering this kind of product, and we believe here we will generate value. From here on, with regards to the Pró-Cotista, we haven't noticed a large representativeness here when we deal with customers that are buying products that are not in the Casa Verde e Amarela program.
We believe there would be a greater representativeness because interest rates are lower than the SBPE segment. But curiously, in spite of the fact that it grew, it grew less than what we believe it would. So if there is this difference in rates between Pró-Cotista and SBPE, the Pró-Cotista should have greater representativeness because of operations. It is still inferior what we expected, and it should gain more representativeness in the future, in spite of the fact that the Pró-Cotista has some parameters and other customers cannot quite fit into this in terms of what Casa Verde e Amarela represents. I think that little by little, it will gain more representativeness, and this might be a way out in case we have an increment in the SBPE interest rates. This is not a scenario we're working with.
We have to look at when we look at the other banks, we have to see the profile and behavior of these other banks like Caixa. When we look at the average, this is a scenario we are working with, but it is still early. If the interest grows, this program certainly will grow more.
Okay, very clear.
Juan from XP, you have the floor, Juan.
Good morning. I have two questions. The first to understand in your minds, with regards to the FGTS, if it is clear how this FGTS measure will work and your position here all the way to 2,400 BRL, if you see an increase of this measure for higher levels. Second, just to understand the competitive parameter here, I would like to see this competitive scenario. I want to hear from you. Did you see an increase in competition here?
With regard to the consigned credit at the FGTS consigned credit, it is not in effect yet. It is what we have heard of and should be a priority for lower income families. My vision is that the impact of this measure for customers that fit in an income level is very relevant. We have certain products where the target public is this customer. The lower income, 2,400 BRL below. We have several things above this, but this one where pricing allows us to see to these customers. We have 50%, 60% conditioning customers where the maximum income commitment is not approved. We have products to see to this company, although things are not in effect yet.
If this will see to these income rates or will go to families with higher income levels, it is difficult to see because we have to see the impact of the capacity of these families being seen to, and also the impact in the consumption of funding that is burdensome here of the FGTS. This has been considered and also a way of using this for the ones that need them more. So as to have the least impact in the FGTS funding program. We have to be able to try to do the best way to do this, to see the greatest amount of families here. The use of resources, if it is not very strong, they should perhaps expand. It is difficult to say what is going to happen.
I think that the way things are being thought of is still very intelligent and very fair, because these are the families that have the greatest need. Based on the previous question, these are families that vis-a-vis this cost increase scenario, have gone through greater scenarios and have had greater challenges of being able to buy their own home. I think the way that this is being done is very healthy. With Riva, we have a scenario. Because of the construction process we use, the efficiency we have in terms of competitiveness and production costs, my vision, Riva offers a cost benefit to the client, which is very, very interesting and competitive. This is why we have noticed a very healthy demand for the products that Riva have launched in the market. The cost benefit is certainly unique.
It's very differentiated, and we believe that we have positions here. Obviously, there are other companies working here, but we are very well-positioned in a level, in a niche where we have been able to offer relevant differential for our clients. We are very optimistic here in this segment, and I believe that the performance is greater than what we imagined in the beginning of 2022, where we had interest rate increase scenario, and we see an even better performance than what we believed that we were going to have this year. In my view, this is because of this cost benefit that Riva offers in the market and to our clients.
Perfect. Thank you.
Next question. Perhaps it's the last question. If anybody has any other question, please raise your hand. But now this is Steven from Goldman. Steven, you have the floor.
Hello, good morning. I would like to ask two questions. One easier one, simpler one, similar to what Pedro said, but long term here. How do you see the breakdown between low-income products and mid-income products in the long term? You launched 40% this quarter. So what about the long term here? This is my first question. The second question has to do with measures that have already been implemented. You talked about the FGTS consigned credit, but we also imagine that you would have something, we would have margin to increase prices, but this public ends up being more sensitive to price, right? From what you see here and since the implementation, right, could you assess these changes and just how much you benefited from these changes?
Steven, I would say when we look the long term, it is difficult to see the breakdown between Riva and Direcional. Direcional is easier to foresee things, right? Because the costs are not linked to market interest rates. Direcional, the demand is well over what the program can produce. So there is a strong resilience in terms of demand and forecastability, which is big. So if I analyze the program of 2010 and 2020, pre-pandemic, right, everything was very stable.
Every year, with or without crisis, a large amount of units were sold every year, right? So it was very easy to forecast. With regards to Riva, we have a strong impact of interest rates in the country. Although in savings account with a cap of 6.16, + 6.16, we know that the funding of banks is not savings account. They're issuing other instruments connected to the CDI. So the average weighted cost, right, between caps is not the difference between cap.
So the SBPE interest rates, where part of the funding is connected to Selic. When we look at the Selic, the banks analyze the behavior of the pre-rate. I think we have more activities in the Riva segment. But the important thing is the flexibility we have to implement a segment, introduce others, because of what we notice is an opportunity, gives us a very strong competitive advantage, where we will continue operating without having to have a strong reduction of the size of our operations. In a way that can impact our capacity of giving a return to shareholders, and also gives us a possibility to grow according to a scenario.
This is very important as long as we have the pillars of our business, which is a transfer in the plant, which gives us forecastability here to operate with ROE levels that are very healthy, very low leverage needs to use leverages. We reduce default here. The construction process allows us to minimize risks with off-plant transfers. So we can minimize the inflation impact here.
The sales force is another variable, giving us comfort, and as well as own sales force, we minimize the capital exposure of our business, which we have done in a very efficient way. And if so, swapping lands, trying to minimize cash exposure, and this has allowed us to transform our business and the delivery to have greater returns to shareholders. With regards to your second question, the impact of measures implemented in Casa Verde e Amarela, our capacity of repricing the demand of our products.
We are in a very competitive sector. There are a series of companies here, so it is not such an easy calculation. It is not easy to say how prices can be transferred here when you work on an operation. So this is a very important message to give to you who are here doing analysis all the time. The market is very competitive. These adjustments did not occur the next day. We have to be very careful here, because our market is very close to theories here. When we see the impact between supply and demand, and the capacity of translating this into price, this is not so obvious. What we have, it is important to stress, we are working with margins of 35% gross margin. We have always shown the market that they should expect between 33% and 34%.
We are already delivering margins that are above what we believe are recurring margins in our business. I do not think a change in the program, in terms of your analysis with regard to Direcional, I do not think there should be really big changes from what you should consider for the company. It is not a change in the program that should increase things. Obviously, we are going to extract the greatest value volume possible for our business, generating value for the customer. But also we need to have a return for our shareholders. In our vision, variables in our operations are very healthy because we have been able to deliver results. I do not believe this change in program should impact Direcional too much. Thank you.
Thank you, Steven. One more question now. André Itaú, you have the floor.
Good morning, Ricardo, Paulo, Paim. A question, this theme has been addressed here with regards to possible changes in the program next year, stimulating other low income levels here. Considering a scenario, for example, favorable here. How do you see the engineering capacity execution today? Do you think you can accelerate what you have in terms of production, or are you closer to limit? Could you tell us a little bit about this?
André, in the first slides here in our presentation, we showed our sales volume in the last 12 months, launches, sales, and revenue here. In the first slide, we have sales and revenue the last 12 months and showing how these indicators have grown. Our sales level is close to BRL 3 billion. Net revenue, slightly over BRL 2.1 billion. Since with net revenue, you do not have income, perhaps one is slightly over the net sales here.
But we have clearly a revenue increment perspective that is expressive because we are selling more than what we have as revenue. So this revenue growth is connected to advances of our work, because at the POC, the percentage of completion we adopt in our calculations. So naturally, there is an important growth of the volume of works ongoing. In our view, the focus and value generation leverage that we have, the growth of this revenue with the maintenance of our efficiency without growth meaning loss of efficiency. We know there are challenges to grow in our sector. So we believe that greater value will be generated today coming from the growth of revenue, maintaining the efficiency that we have been able to deliver and using our operational leverage quality.
I believe that most definitely you will have a launch volume closer to stability and our focus will be the continuity of growth of our works, our engineering, maintaining variables under control so that this revenue growth translates itself into the capture of the greatest volume. Revenue growth is given here because of our business and the growth of launches is not something that can be a priority for the company because we are already in very healthy levels here. Is it clear to you?
Perfect. Yeah. Clear.
Perfect. Thank you, Andr é . Questions and answers. I do not think we have no more questions and answer here. So now I would like to give the floor back to Ricardo for his final considerations.
So once again, I would like to thank you for your participation and say that the challenges always exist, so we will always try to overcome them.
But we believe in the last years we have been creating a very consistent journey, delivering results and increasing results and value not only to shareholders but our clients, which is a priority here in our company. Their satisfaction is our success perspective in the future. So we are still working to generate the greatest value possible for everybody here. We see the possibility of continuity in this journey, right? Continuous improvement with regards to whatever we can do, right? We are going to try to do the very best possible in terms of assets monetization, a return of capital for our shareholders. We are very focused here so that we can have a continuity of growth without impacting the booking of the book of the company. So this comes from, we have been able to generate value with low risk in our business.
We do not want to work with excessive leverage. So working capital margins, we will continue here. We are doing very good work, obsessive for improvement, and we want to deliver increasingly better and more promising results when we look at the future. Thank you very much once again. We are always at your disposal to clarify any questions that might have remained, and we will see each other in the next few months. Thank you. Have a very good day, everybody.