Good morning. Thank you for waiting. Welcome to Direcional's earnings release for the discussion of the results of the third quarter. I am Paulo Sousa, I work with Investor Relations in Direcional. With me is Ricardo Gontijo, our CEO, Henrique Paim, CFO, and Andre. This event is exclusive for analysts and investors. It is being recorded. All the participants will be in listen-only mode during the presentation. At the end, we are going to open to the Q and A. As always, in the Zoom, you click your Raise Your Hand features, and we will manage the queue of questions. This event is also being simultaneously transmitted via YouTube. You can access our IR site via our link there.
Lastly, before we continue, it is important to remember that the statements contained in this conference relative to business perspectives, operational, financial projection results, are beliefs and premises of the administration as well as the information currently available. Future considerations are not guarantee of performance. Investors should understand that the general economic conditions of the industry and other operational factors can affect Direcional's performance and lead to different results than those expressed here. Now, I would like to give the floor to Ricardo, who will begin the presentation. You have the floor, Ricardo.
Good morning, everybody. It is a huge pleasure to be with you once again in order to share with you our results with regards to the 3Q 2021. This was one more quarter where we showed the consistence of our operations.
We have been here in the company, are very satisfied with the results delivered at a moment where we had several challenges imposed upon us. We were able to navigate in a very solid, very resilient way, and thus, we are certainly very satisfied with the results we delivered. Within the scenario that is not so simple, not so obvious, such as our economy, our country, the world has gone through in this period, specifically with COVID and post-COVID cases. I would like to begin with page three of our presentation. The main highlights of our operations. We will show you some highlights here in our page, but it is also very important to stress some aspects of our operations, our attitudes, changes that we implemented in the company's management that has led to very clear results now in our income statement.
The first highlight, which I think is fundamental to show you, we have been questioned and one of the main topics that has been in the market at the moment is the cost increase that happened specifically in the last months. More recently, we haven't seen this as much as before, but it certainly did affect our economy and our sector in a very substantial way. I would like to say that we are maintaining a very solid gross margin in line with what we had in the past, with what we have transmitted to you in our earnings release calls. In this scenario, even with this very resilient gross margin, it is fundamental to tell everybody the relevance that the gain in operating leverage we've had in our company.
The dilution of a series of expenses because of the increase of our revenue has allowed us to deliver growing net margins. As an example here, net revenue of Direcional grew 21% when we compare the 3Q 2021 to the 3Q 2020. Gross profit grew 65%. Our net revenue grew 7% relative to last quarter. The net profit grew 16%. When we look at all the lines of the company's balance sheet, not only gross margin, it is very relevant at the moment because it is an important part of this cost increase has been offset here in Direcional by the operating leverage that we have had, and we believe will continue from here on. This is very clear with regards to our deferred revenues.
We ended the third quarter with more than BRL 800 million in revenue, and this will be acknowledged once our works continue with a deferred revenues on our REF margin of 39%, backlog margin. Here we close the third quarter with the greatest record of launches, and also the greatest volume of sales, the greatest ROE in the last eight years. The greatest gross profit in the last seven years. Very solid gross margin, 33%. Backlog margin, 39%. When we talk about gross margin and backlog margin, it is important to stress the work that has been done here, which is the balance between VSO and margin. We have always said that we would aim here at Direcional to have VSOs of 18%, 18%-20%. We have operated in Riva with 21%, Direcional slightly below.
The average VSO in this third quarter was 17%, but this has allowed us to operate with extremely adequate pricing of our product, which has led us to go through these last 12 months without any change in the gross margin of the company. As I have always said, the way we operate, anticipating repricing movement of our product, anticipating the purchase of input. We changed the mix of Direcional products, and you will see the relevance that Riva gained in the last quarters. No doubt, this makes the whole difference so that we could deliver gross margins, which are a benchmark in the market with strong, solid VSO and low volume of inventory.
In our point of view, this strategy was very important and has proved to be very assertive in this period, where the challenges that have been imposed upon us has not been small, but we in fact have been able to deliver very solid results for our shareholders. Another highlight that I would like to say, and I believe will be very important from here on, is the geographical dispersion of Direcional. We do not have a concentration over 15% in many of the cities we work in, and this, in our point of view, will be very relevant for the next quarters, and specifically for the maintenance of a very solid operation here in our company, Direcional and Riva. Now, after having gone through these highlights, which I believe are very relevant, I would like to show you the material beginning with page four, where we address our launches.
As I said before, the third quarter, we had a record volume of launches in the history of Direcional when we consider the real estate development segment and also not considering level one, which had a very expressive volume in Direcional. BRL 1.1 billion in the third quarter, a growth of 88% relative to the same period last year. In the nine months closed now in September, we had growth in launches of 129% compared to last year, BRL 2.4 billion. Now to the right here, we have our track record, and when we analyze the launches in the last 12 months, we exceeded BRL 3 billion, 78% growth when we compare to 2020. Our part relative to launches, we have to stress the relevance that Riva has gained here. Riva, in this last quarter, launched BRL 621 million over Direcional in launches.
In the last nine months closed in September 2021, Riva launched 20 times more than nine months closed September 2020, the same period last year. This operation has allowed us to adjust the company's mix, allying growth to the maintenance of margin. Riva today has a very relevant role in the strategy of the group as a whole. Once again, all the design of the company has proved once again to be very assertive. Products with extremely solid demand by the market and efficiency in the production and the building of the Riva project. Coming from the know-how that Direcional acquired in the last years, where we were leaders in the launch of new construction methods in the Brazilian construction market. Now going to page four, relative to our net sales.
In this last quarter, we have BRL 643 million in net sales, 40% growth relative to the quarter of 2020. In the nine first months, we exceeded BRL 1.8 billion. We grew 53% relative to the same period last year. When we analyze the last 12 months, more than BRL 2.3 billion in net sales. Once again, I would like to stress here the growth of Riva. Its representativeness too, and I am going to address this matter more specifically in two slides where we will zoom into Riva's operations. The following page number six. In spite of a huge volume of launches in this third quarter, our VSO remained solid, 17%. Once again, demonstrating the strong demand for our product. This demand, we continue to notice even after the closing of the third Q this year.
In October, we had very strong sales levels with significant growth compared to October last year. Also October was the best first month of a quarter here in Direcional for 2021. We always like to analyze the quarter, the first, second to the third, always comparing the months. We believe that this is very relevant in these analysis, and October was the best first month of a quarter in this year of 2021. So we still see strong resilience for the demand of our products, Direcional and Riva. The DSO of the company, as you can analyze, has remained stable in these last quarters. We have not had variations of DSO and we have tried to adapt DSO pricing of product, margin maintenance, and I believe that this adjustment, this fine-tuning, has been very adequate and once again, it is clearly proving itself in what we are delivering.
Another important point to stress here is the fact that we, in our vision, we anticipated the repricing movement of our products starting from the end of last year, when we noticed that we would have a scenario of cost increases, high cost increases, and this has allowed us to go through this period with very small variations in the gross margin. Page seven, it is fundamental to highlight Riva's operations. The growth is very strong. 37% of the consolidated volume of sales for the growth. Riva's strategy is very assertive. The demand has proved to be solid. Even with this scenario where there was an increase in interest rates, we believe that the products are differentiated and has been object of desire of our customers in the population of the cities we work in.
Riva had a growth in sales in this quarter of 281% when compared to the third Q last year. In the first nine months, the growth was 192% compared to the first nine months 2020. We also grew quarter-after-quarter, third Q base compared to the second Q of 33%. Even with a launch over BRL 600 million, DSO remained very solid, 21%. Now I would like to give the floor to Paim, so he can show you the main financial highlights. I will be available for questions and answers at the end of the presentation. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ricardo. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for your participation in our earnings release relative to the third Q 2021. Before I begin to show you the financial highlights, I would like to highlight two points with you.
The first one, we have been mapping all the social impacts that our business has vis-à-vis society. We are amazed with the social impact. We see this in the regions we work in. When we begin to talk about ESG matters, we notice that the S in our operations is very highlighted. We are very proud to work in the scenario, changing the realities of low-income families, mid-to-low-income families in the Brazilian market. These are 12,000, 13,000 families that can change their reality every year when we mobilize this real estate. The family can change their perspective of growing, raising their kids, leaving to very low income places without drinking water. They can move to other types of buildings with playgrounds and all the rest. We show you the importance of operations to have a better Brazil in the future.
Secondly, increasingly, we have been using technology as a competence here in Direcional. We are changing this in a very fast way. It is almost like a technological revolution. It is a digital revolution. We now reached in this quarter 80 RPAs. These are the repetitive task robots. They have replicated themselves. We have learned to reprogram these robots in-house. When all the repetitive movements have been done through these robots, this meant doubling the size of the company in 2021 without any change in the amount of headcount that we have in our back office areas. So this shows how the company has been becoming more and more automated, digitalized. This is in our DNA. We will focus on this concept because we believe this is the present and future path for this. We want to improve operational efficiency.
We had to have technology as an ally and also as a cultural point for our business here for operations. Next slide, please. Here already with the financial highlights. First point I would like to say to you is the net revenue. In the left of the slide, we can see that we went from BRL 376 million, the 3Q 2020, to BRL 453 million, 21% growth. Nine months of 2020 compared to 2021, 20% growth. This growth is considerable, but it seems to be low when you compare it with launches and sales. This is very simple to explain. Our business cycle, first, we do prospect of land and then we do launches.
Then we do launches, sales, we begin the construction works, and then we begin to measure the construction works, and then we have percentage of completion, and we begin to receive revenue for the operations. The first cycle of launches is very successful. The assertiveness of products is translated into a VSO at a very solid level. Now we continue with the cycles. The works are going at a faster pace and revenues will come here very strongly. All the revenue to the right side, which is not in our balance sheet, which is the deferred revenues revenue, it is accumulating. We are going to begin measuring this. Once this deferred revenues begin to come, it will become net revenue. We see gross margin over our deferred revenues, which is very healthy.
This means the continuity of our trend for growth margins well over what we have seen in the market. Which is the result of very active business management, which will solve all the problems and the construction method, specialization in this construction method that very few companies can deliver. For example, can build a square meter for less than $ 400. If we were anywhere in the world, we would be very competitive because our construction capacity at low prices is certainly a differential. Page 10, please. Here we have the adjusted gross profit. Here we can see in the upper line to the left, we see the behavior of our gross margin. A long time adjusted gross margin. We had here a peak of 38% in the 2Q. This quarter we are 36%. We say to the market that we end up proving always gross margins of 34%.
It is not a surprise to have gross margins closer to 34% than 36%. This means we might suffer a little more with gross margin because of the impacts that happened, but we begin to see the steel industry now having normalities in lead times, and we can have a possibility of having just in time with steel. In the worst time of the crisis, the worst case scenario, it took 90 days to deliver. Now we see differences here because it is important to have working capital allocated in steel rather than interrupt the construction cycle. We anticipated procurement, but now we see things are going back to normal, and this inventory will be reduced in time, and very soon we will convert this into money, into cash. In the nine first months of 2021, we see an important growth, 26% of adjusted gross profit, BRL 472 million.
And in the nine months accumulated here, almost 37%. To the right, we see the evolution we had, how it was very resilient. If you see BRL 342 million adjusted gross profit in 2018, here we have an increase of almost more than 70% in the 3Q21, the last 12 months. Almost reaching BRL 630 million. The vital signs, when you see the graphs, except for the ones related to leverage and debt, all of them demonstrate that we are a vibrant company. We are growing, we are bringing results. We continue with discipline, focused on our business with very consolidated business models. A lot of discipline here, and this has reflected in all the data that we have demonstrated to you. We have been demonstrating to you. The journey continues to be very positive. We are very excited by 2022, in spite of the risks we see.
We have to be very careful with interest rates, inflation, and the political scenario. These are assets that might have some impact on our margins for 2022 because of affordability or income company of our customers. But we are very focused here and we are very excited with 2022 because everything we need is ready in-house. We have opportunities for great gains in market shares because many smaller sized companies are not being able to survive such a difficult crisis such as this one. Now we have a very balanced capital structure, very conservative, and perhaps this will allow us to be in this blue scenario. And here we will be able to go deeper into Casa Verde e Amarela and SBPE. Next slide, 11. Here, we would like to show you two points that we really do focus on track, which is SG&A. The G&A to the left here.
Here, in the third quarter, we reached 7% of the gross margin. We are turning the slide here, but we have operating leverage, the capacity of escalating the operations and ratifying this cost. We believe that this G&A certainly over the gross margin, and I believe that the next cycle will be revenue, because launches are definite, and revenues will occur. We are going to have dilution here. And technology certainly will help us also in order for us to be the best operator here, reflecting all our need for operational efficiency and really so that we can be a benchmark in terms of operational efficiency. We are working with technology and this dilution effect will come. And sales expenses, we have marketing expenses that go together with launches. Here we end up having a greater upfront in marketing, and then the sales expenses happen.
But when you see just how we accelerated sales, when you compare sales expenses over net sales, we see this dilution effect here. And here, these two numbers you see here, sales continue growing. We are going to have greater dilution effect and growth revenues will attain levels of excellency here and one of the best in the market. We are sure, we are certain that we will attain this. Here, I would like to share with you the issue. We have operations that we do not consolidate the revenue in our balance sheets. We have partners in this business, but this is a work that Direcional has been doing. In general, it has been administering, doing backup, it is executing the works. All the operational work is in the hands of Direcional, but this does not appear in our revenue.
We wanted to give you a disclosure here, a disclaimer to show you just how important these SPEs that are not consolidated but are important for us. We show you how this has been growing. In the nine months in 2021, was 29% growth, and this is directly reflected to our equity pickup. You can see we grew 108% when comparing the third quarter 2020 to 2021. The nine months, we grew 336% comparing nine months 2021 to nine months 2020. We have had success in this kind of operation. Since it does not appear in revenue, we want to show you that we have this, but this appears only in our equity pickup in the balance sheet. The second to last slide, net income before minority interest. Here, we have our revenue if we had 100% of our operations with us.
Before minority interest, the net margin is 13%. Of the third quarter, for example, was 10%. 12.6%, we pay to minority interest, and we tend to reduce this percentage of minority interest. We have been talking about this for some time. This rollout is not fast, but we will continue with the same trend, reducing the participation or the share of minority interest so they do not have this net profit. This net profit should tend to be then the net profit of Direcional, 100%. It takes some time, but this is a strategy that certainly will bring much value to our shareholders. In the last nine months of 2021, 100% Direcional, we have grown. Compared to the nine months in 2020, we grew 59% of our gross profit, demonstrating a growth of company. Sometimes small sized companies and startups are cases high basis, right?
We have been growing with these multiples. Very aggressive multiples in a very conservative way without risking the operations, without being borderline in terms of credit risks. We are conservative. In the last slide, I will show you this. This is the second to last slide, right? This is the second to the last slide. We have the capital structure of Direcional. Every decision we have parts from the premise that we will remain conservative in time. We have been in Brazil for 40 years. We want to remain another 40, 80 years, even more in Brazil, and we will only do this if we remain very balanced in our capital structure. Brazil is very cyclical, right? We have elections next year. We still have this leverage that would give us comfort between 15% and 20%. Now we are almost at the top of this range.
Although it is 20%, it is still a lot of leverage. We have 50%, so we are less than half what would allow us for our debt. But we want to continue having this safety buffer because we believe it is very healthy for our strategic reactions, use cash, buy stock, to be able to buy some land that emerges an operation from a competitor. This whole thing is very important for us. We have been doing this. To the left, the EBITDA. This is an indicator that we do not look too much in the corporate world, or rather, the development world, but we want to show you the behavior of EBITDA, just to show you how our operational efficiency goes well. We reached 22.2% in the quarter, which was the best EBITDA margin in 40 years of Direcional.
This is a reflex of the work of this whole team that has been arduously working so that we can demonstrate such positive vital signs for our business. Now the last slide I would like to share with you the debt. 87% of the total debt is long-term. Only 13% is short-term. We have cash today to pay four years, a little more than four years of our indebtedness. We are very comfortable here relative to liability management. We concluded an issue for BRL 100 million on the 21st of October. Disbursement occurred the same days that Paulo Guedes lost the four secretariats. The stock exchange dropped 4% that day. We did market dime, and we had no problems. We have another BRL 100 million in cash. Capital market is very open for us.
The debt basically is paid by debentures, CRI, and every issue we do with greater demand, greater price compression, greater speed of sales, and we have had this recurring. This has given us a lot of comfort to be able to operate in the future and use opportunities that certainly will appear in 2022. We will have everything ready to make good use of these opportunities. Now we are here to answer any questions you might have.
Thank you very much for waiting. Now we will begin here with questions and answers. We have the Raise Your Hand feature, and we have a queue now. The first question comes from Thais Alonso, Citibank. Thais, you can pose your question.
Good morning, Henrique, Ricardo, Paulo. Congratulations for the results. The first question has to do with margin. You have been able to maintain margin.
What should we see from here on price gains? Do you still have productivity to gain with works? The second question has to do that Caixa has said at the end of the year, it will remain with the rates for the program, but next year is uncertain. What do you expect in terms of impact here for your works, your construction works?
Good morning, Thais. Thank you for your question. Relative to margins, you might have noticed that we have a very solid backlog margin. We have always said, just as Paim said in his presentation, we have a gross margin of 34% for launches. We have operated above this level for some time. In the second quarter earnings release, we said that 38% reported shouldn't be recurring.
In the next quarters, it will be possible to see this gross margin converging to this hurdle we have when we improve the launch of a product. Although we are working to operate with a more solid gross margin, always considering that analysis, VSO versus pricing, any important adjustment in the mix of our product where Riva has an important role. We haven't seen today in our ongoing projects, our projects in progress, no problem in review of budget. We are very comfortable with our budget here. We have greater visibility, more comfort when we consider the potential increase in costs. We experienced last year many things changing in very short time. But in the last months, we feel more comfortable with regards to the maintenance of cost maintenance in a more benign scenario from the point of view of price increase of products.
We see a very solid gross margin, and specifically with information from suppliers and everything, we have a very diluted exposure, and specifically a small exposure in the market of São Paulo, and we believe that everything is okay. We see no great surprises relative to gross margin. Unless, of course, we have a change in the mix of the projects being delivered, of which costs have been incurred in periods where products were cheaper, and now these products are repriced. Since we work with VSOs, very solid VSOs at the level of 20%, we always have products available for sales with 50% POC. We reprice this inventory. We work with larger gross margins. New projects launched go into the gross margin here, and once the new projects begin to have greater representativeness in our revenue, we have a convergence of this gross margin.
But nothing so recurrent, nothing that will cause us any kind of discomfort relative to the gross margin of the company or eventual volatilities. Greater volatilities of gross margin acknowledged in a certain quarter. This is not our scenario. We have done a very good work to pricing, mix, and engineering in the execution of works and supplies. This was a work, and we are very satisfied, and no greater problem here. With regards to 2022 SBPE, it is difficult to say because interest rates do not go through our management. It is natural when we see the curves going around 12% Selic perspective of growth, of increase. We have seen this in the last couple meetings, and this might reflect in the pricing of real estate credit given by private banks and Caixa.
Relative to Caixa, which is the main partner of Riva and Direcional's operations, I have always said it works with a relationship rate, and then you have another rate that is used for the analysis of the buyer's capacity of buying. This will have no impact here. Any impact in the Riva product affordability comes from an increment of this rate. We have to see where this adjustment comes from, right? Also we see impact. However, the point here that is difficult to measure at this moment, and it is clear when interest rates grow, the addressable market of potential customers drops because the necessary income to buy the product grows. We have to see the size of the supply for this product. The fact that we are operating in less obvious markets, this ends up being very positive in Riva's operations.
At this moment, we have a strong comfort for the operations. We have projects in our pipeline next year maintained. We have seen a very strong VSO in the Riva market, and we will adapt the volume of Riva launches to what we will see in terms of demand. Our objective is not to have inventory, but not work with very high, nor very low VSO. 20% is healthy. We have seen a strong demand credit, and this has not interfered in the speed of sales of Riva products that have had a new pricing for the new reality of the sector. Impact has been small in terms of demand. This is positive, and we have worked without any adjustment in Riva operations for 2022.
We'll update you on eventual changes, but the supply of this product in the areas we work in is restrictive. Eventual increase in the interest rate will lead customers that are buying products for BRL 500,000, BRL 600,000, they will become Riva customers. I don't think that the Riva market tends to suffer so much with increase in interest rates. If there are specific increases, we are very optimistic with Riva operations. Would you like to add to this?
No, thank you very much. I'm satisfied.
Next question. Bruno Mendonça, Bradesco BBI. You have the floor.
Hello. Thank you for this earnings release. Ricardo, you've told us a few times about the geographic diversification as a leverage. Can you tell us a little bit more about this? Sales and price transfer per geography. Specifically, I want to hear about the performance in São Paulo versus other states.
São Paulo has always had this greater competitiveness, more market, yet had this trade-off. What is the role of São Paulo in this more difficult market, if it continues difficult? What areas have been highlighted here? This is my first question. Now, if I could ask the second question. In an eventual scenario of an increase in Caixa's rates, what do you see as alternative here? Do you see room to increase the pro soluto to accelerate securitization, to maintain attractiveness here? Or perhaps revert part of the projects back to the program? Tell us a little bit about this land bank and if the scenario goes to a worst case scenario.
Bruno, thank you very much for your question. Beginning with geographic diversification. Our market, it is very difficult to generalize a scenario for a country the size of Brazil.
We can't say that the market is good or bad because it behaves in very different ways in the different cities we work in. It's curious, but sometimes in the same city, you have regions that are very solid and others no. This is a very local characteristics of our market, so any generalization here can mean a very strong analysis mistake. When we talk of Brazil, we talk about a very pulverized, diluted work in more than 40%, so we have a strong conflict here. We've been very careful here, as you mentioned. We've been looking at the behavior of the São Paulo market, which is very resilient with a formal income that is extremely high. It's a very formalized market. This is fundamental in the obtainment of credit by banks.
However, there is a strong number of players and also you have the developers, you have many real estate funds that have very strong roles that end up having the capacity of elevating the volume of supply in a very significant way. This is an area where we've seen the balance, the demand and supply. We've been very focused on this. Also the behavior of the labor, right, because of the greater number of work sites that we have in the pipeline. We've noticed in the last months, behavior where returns over invested capital in projects away of São Paulo have been superior to the return on invested capital in São Paulo. Also, we've noticed VSOs that are higher in areas where we have a smaller number of supplies, a smaller number of players.
Also in a scenario, when we were talking about the potential IPO of Riva, one of the items raised by investors was the Rio de Janeiro market where Riva has important operations. This is the market that Riva represents the greatest VSO. Direcional has very solid VSOs too. This has been proved in practice, and we are very optimistic with our capacity of working in this market. The launch potential we have here in this area, where the behavior of the demand has been greater than in more obvious areas like São Paulo. When we talk about alternative potentials, specifically in the Riva segment, seeing that Direcional does not seem to be a reality. Recently, we had a reduction of interest rates in the level three of Casa Verde e Amarela.
No doubt, with the reduction of interest rates and the increment of the capital growth program to BRL 264,000, we have potential and flexibility to make adjustments in Riva lands. Make adjustments so that they fall into the program. However, the calculation is simpler. We have lands where we can have greater and smaller units. If we choose smaller units, we will build more units. This adjustment in the product mix to adapt the Riva mix between group three versus SBPE's segment is feasible. At this moment, it is not what we have done. We've noticed a strong demand, a little bit over Minha Casa, Minha Vida, and these clients that were out of the market between 2015 and 2019 when the SBPE interest rates were very high, they have been our main buyers at the moment.
But in case we need to adjust products so that in the Riva mix, we have a more relevant part of project in group three with greater volumes of units, two rooms and a bathroom. This is perfectly feasible, and I don't see in the Riva scenario, because of this flexibility in the change of products, the risk of having equity invested in lands where we cannot monetize. At this moment, I think the important message to convey here, we're very careful here in Direcional with the return over the equity of the company, and this is one of the main metrics that we analyze here. When we invest in a capital in a certain project, we need to be flexible in a more adverse scenario to return the capital of the shareholders, giving returns that exceeds the capital of the company.
This is something we're very careful about because capital paralyzed in lands will not exist because we might have flexibility here. We will be flexible here if necessary. But this is not the scenario we see. All of this is under our control. It is a priority we have. This is something we've seen in the last quarters for Direcional. We have delivered huge capital dividends to the shareholders. This is a priority here. If necessary, to return the capital, we will. This is not the scenario we're working in, because this scenario is being allocated with very satisfactory returns. You've seen our ROE growing quarter after quarter. These are possibilities that we have to generate value to our shareholders. Another point that you mentioned relative to pro soluto.
At the moment, we haven't changed anything in our pro soluto policies in the last years. We don't have this as a possibility at this moment, even because we don't have problems in terms of evaluation of our real estate by financing banks or creditor banks. It's in line with sales. We haven't needed to increase pro soluto to have lower income clients. We have a concern with credit. Our pro soluto portfolio has a default rate that is very significant. It is a benchmark in the sector, right? The quality of our portfolio. In November last year, we were the first company that made a true sale of part of this portfolio, and we are always analyzing these possibilities. Our portfolio is around BRL 300 million. A true sale of this portfolio, depending on the discount rate, is a huge generator of value for our shareholders.
We're always analyzing these possibilities to use these opportunities when they emerge. These alternatives, we always consider innovative operations that bring value to our shareholders. In case we see these opportunities, certainly we will do this. Maximize return to our shareholders. We've always used the opportunities here. Monetization of these assets is one of the opportunities we always analyze.
Just because you said something that drew my attention here. Although the increase in the cap of Minha Casa, Minha Vida is recent, don't you think it makes sense to discuss this again, with cost increases the way they are? We've seen smaller players in the group too, suffering with margins. The government discourse saying that the program needs the level three cap or roof to be able to pay for the subsidies of the lower levels.
Isn't it time, do you see room for this discussion to come back in the short term or in a faster period? Because it's so recent.
Here, Bruno, I think it's important to have in mind that the resources, FGTS, in spite of the fact that it has a very large financial solidity, it is limited. These resources available for Casa Verde e Amarela is not enough to meet the demand of families that have income of less than BRL 7,000, which is the limit to fall under this program. I think that at this moment, even considering the best solution for the country, not necessarily for companies, given that the budget of the program has been executed, it is preferable not to have an increase of this cap price, because this would mean the construction of a smaller number of units because of this.
I think it's not very probable to have any increase of cap prices because this 10% increase has been less than we have of INCC margin of 17% until now, November, where the new cap prices came into force. This shows the efficiency of companies, and also because companies that have been operating below the inflation. I think it's not very probable to have this price increase. But the challenge we have today when we talk of the segment those families seem to in the program, is that the income of families have not gone up in the same proportion that construction works have grown. I believe that an increment in sales prices has been, for example. The expenses of the acquisition of real estate is being used by paying for gas, everything else that has price increases that grew a lot.
We are going through a scenario of deterioration of capacity. This is a situation we are going through, and we would not like to do this because it is difficult to change the reality. In my point of view, the focus for level two, those families that are losing capacity of buying a real estate, should not occur because of the increase of the price, but because of gaining affordability that could come through increase in subsidy and also adjustments of those income ranges that have access to lower interest rates within the Casa Verde e Amarela program. These are triggers that allow the interest rate to change. If you adjust this range, you allow families that had greater interest rates, the ones that make BRL 3,000 . These families where interest rates have increased, go up to BRL 3,300 , BRL 3,400, you would give a gain in capacity for families to this.
I think solutions here like this would be more intelligent here. This is my point of view. Whether this is going to be possible or not, it is difficult to say. We have to see how this is going to go in the program. Many people are migrating to higher income ranges. We have to see the behavior and the decision of the ministry, which is responsible for these policies. In my point of view, a change here would be more relevant for the program than increase in price. It is a long discussion here.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Bruno.
Our next question, Gustavo Cambauva, BTG . Cambauva, you have the floor.
Hi, everybody. Good morning. I would like to ask you a question. A comment that Paim made with regards to capital structure in the presentation.
I would like to understand, you have been in a very large growth pace, and even cash generation is not so strong as it was in the previous years. Once you are getting to what you want in terms of leverage, 20% seems to be the roof. I would like to understand how you see this growth from here on and the ways of financing this growth. The idea is to reduce the launches or payment of dividends or sell more receivables portfolio. The question, since this cash generation is weaker and you continue growing, how do you adjust this in the capital structure? Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Cambauva, for your question. First, I mentioned with you, the capital structure for us is a priority number one. Specifically when we have capital structure, that is when we do anything.
That is where we grow, we pay dividends, and we do anything. Here we have two points that are very relevant. The first one, we had to have an inventory, right? The steel industry delivered six days, and in the worst moment of the crisis, when prices were increasing exponentially, the steel industry would spend 90 days to deliver product. Apart from the moment this 90-day lead time began to happen, we began to feel insecure to know whether we would have products to continue with our constructions. We did not want to have paralyzation of the works. If I had to stop the works because I do not have steel, because without steel, I do not do anything, right? I have to stop the work. The loss here is very damaging. We opted to spending more here.
If we hadn't done this sprint of steel procurement, specifically steel, there were other materials too. We wouldn't be burning the cash. We have the effect where we accelerated procurement. We have a steel inventory much beyond what is necessary. But this cash burn allocated in inventory will end up performing, and the money will come back in the next quarters. That's mitigating the cash burn. Another thing we've worked on are assets. We don't have love for assets here. As Ricardo said, if we have an opportunity and if we have demand, a real estate fund to buy a new pro soluto portfolio, we will analyze this. The first operation last year was very successful. We had contact with the funds, the funds bought it, and at the end we doubled the value. So it is important in our pro soluto portfolio.
We've always said, when we look at our pro soluto portfolio, we say, "Oh, this is a necessary evil." But if I can monetize this, strengthening cash generation, it's a true sale. I'm selling assets to a third party. If I'm successful here in this recurrence, then we can allow leverage. We can go back to a leverage of closer to 15%. And depending on the side of operations, if the price makes sense, we can continue with our growth in Riva. Our operations per se. Once again, strategic drivers, buying of land via swap without dispersing cash. Everybody's happy here with resolution clauses. This is not working capital. If you want to be free of the contract, you can. We have off-plan transfer, 100% Direcional, 70% Riva. We're transferring really well. Riva, that was a paradigm.
They would say, "Ah, this low income customer will have difficult." No, everything is doing very well, off-plan transfers. Everything is great. The customer has benefits, is not so adjusted by the INCC, and we've been doing this for gross margin not to slip. The third thing is industrialized vertical construction. Concrete walls, aluminum, fast construction cycles. With a lot of launches, selling fast, industrialized works with shorter cycles, all of this in the basket, our operation traditionally generates cash. All of this together, our capacity to monetize assets that for us are not yielding so well in our balance. But when we consider this, we tend to continue, not very leverage, and continue our growth trend without too much change in our dividend payment structure. We will continue paying good dividend. However, if we continue maintaining our capacity to monetize assets, everything will continue as has been.
We will go down a bit with leverage. Or if there is enough money, we will. If there's money, we will continue with stronger dividend payments as we have been doing.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question. Alex Ferraz, Itaú. Alex, you have the floor.
Good morning, Ricardo, Paim, Paulo, and team. Thank you for the presentation. I have a question, and I think that this issue of Casa Verde e Amarela, level three has been debated. There was an increase in ceiling prices, but also we had other changes relative to regionalization with greater subsidies, mainly in the Northeast regions, where the company has a strong footprint. It's not very much the average price you like to work with. But with this revision of greater subsidies, the company could go back and consider these lower income groups of Casa Verde e Amarela.
Or does not fall into the land bank, the margin you're looking to work with.
Alex, just to add to Paim's last comment in Cambauva . When we get the volume of materials we have purchased today, comparing October to December was BRL 84 million growth in this number. This meant cash consumption very well invested, reflecting in the gross margins we are delivering today. It is natural that with the normalization of cycles of supply of these products, we will go back working with lower inventories. This purchase volume that we anticipated means future cash generation. We have the product, we will build, and we will receive payment for the construction work. This was a strong shift in time. We shortened the payment term of some of our suppliers. Before we used to have longer terms. We reduced the payment term to have a discount.
This discount anticipation remained BRL 23 million between the terms we had before and the terms we paid for in the pandemic to have better negotiations. This is more than BRL 100 million. The result is clear in the margins we are delivering. This shift in time, this will go back when things begin to normalize. We have drastically changed the way we work in the company in several areas, supplies is one of them, and it is natural that this greater number of our capital will transform into cash once the works are done. Alex. Revision of subsidies in certain segments we work in, and change of interest rate. We have North, Northeast, with 20%, 25% less interest rate for certain income segments. Here, talking of our point of view, we are optimistic with all the income ranges in Casa Verde e Amarela.
Although we have adjusted the mix of our products because of growth of Riva and also greater exposure of Direcional to the group three of Casa Verde e Amarela, we have not reduced the launches in the group two, but the growth occurred in other groups. We had a smaller exposure, and we saw place to occupy. We continue working with group two, level two. We are implementing several adjustments in our product to continue being very competitive with level group two, and it is not part of our strategy to abandon this group, no matter how challenging this is in this segment, because of the limitation of the affordability of these families that did not benefit here. I think the group two was the one that did not have any gain. Group one had adjustments, but two, certainly there was no change.
I would say that it is suffering more in the program, but we see we can work here because of the reduction of supply we have in this segment. It is still very attractive. It makes no sense that we abandon group two. It will continue having strong representativeness in the company. We see this an opportunity from here on.
Thank you very much, Ricardo.
Thank you Alex.
Next question, Fanny, Santander. Fanny.
Thank you, Paulo. Hi, Paim, Ricardo. Thank you. Congratulations for the results. We talk about interest rate increases, SBPE. What I want to understand, the Riva customer can also access the FGTS, and in moments where we see interest rates going to 12%, here for the quota holders is 8%.
I want to understand the percentage of this customer that use the FGTS as a financing source, and if this funding line can be a mitigating factor to compensate this increase. I think this will happen because of the increase of the SBPE interest rate. That is my question.
The quota holder is 8.66%. It is a nominal interest rate. Today, representativeness here within Riva customers that have very low banking budgets. Because the OTC is inferior here, it is natural for those customers that fall into this demand to get this credit do not opt for this option because they have better rates with the SBPE. But if there is an increment over these levels, the Pró-Cotista can be an option, can have a certain representativeness.
The Pró-Cotista's budget is not so expressive, but also I believe that there are very few real estates that fall into this Pró-Cotista line. I think the Riva certainly falls into this program. If the customer certainly can fall into these demands that they can be accepted, they can enter here. At the moment, it is close to zero, but it can be a way out in case there is an increase here. We will have to see what Caixa is going to do. It is difficult to say if the increase is going to be OTC rates or relationship rates. We have to wait to see. But Pró-Cotista is a good solution.
Thank you. Just one more question. The profile of Riva customer, do you see a change here of this customer, potentially higher income than you saw before because of this loss of purchasing power?
We have in average, seeing the income of our customer increase in average. In my point of view, not because his income is compromised with other debts, but the average price of sales increased specifically because of the change in our mix. But when we consider the same product, I would say that the income has increased only in those cases where sales prices increased. For the same sales price, I have not noticed customers with a larger income buying. To try to translate this into numbers, this would be realized if we noticed, for example, the buyers below 30%, those customers that have high income, part of his income is committed to other obligations, so he only has 20% of income committed to the payment of installments. We noticed the customers continue buying, entering with a greater income commitment listed by the bank.
We do not see an income raise here and greater commitment of the income. The client opts to buy a place that is better, at a higher floor, and he commits his income. This is still not a scenario where we can say that it is a greater commitment of income. Customers buying the same product than a customer with lower income would buy before. Have I answered your question?
No, it was very clear. I just wanted to understand here, because this can be an opportunity for you.
Up to the moment, with Casa Verde e Amarela and the SBPE segment, the main player with which we operate in Riva is Caxia. There was not a change in OTC rates, nor the interest rates of Casa Verde e Amarela.
The change of income of the customer has become because of a change in mix and not loss of affordability because of an increase in interest rate, which would demand greater income by our buyer. This might happen in the pipeline, but this is not what we see now.
Thank you very much, Ricardo.
Fanny, just to add to this, something we've noticed too, which I think is a change in behavior, are the Riva products that do not have social interest involved. We are selling with the payment of the apartment all the way to delivery. The customer has money in his pocket, he wants to invest in an apartment, and he will divide this in 10, 15, 18 installments together with the permission to occupy the apartment. He fully pays the apartment before delivery of keys in our portfolio.
This is a portfolio that does very well and the customer wants to be interested in always keeping up with this installment.
What is the percentage of customers that are doing this?
We can raise this with details. Today, we believe 20% of Riva customers. Here, we're not talking about products that have HIS or some kind of social interest. These are SBPE products that we can sell to any kind of public. It was close to zero in the recent past, and now it's almost 20%.
Very interesting. Thank you.
Here, Fanny, we're talking a lot, but this is a very important information. Another thing we have noticed, because of the expectation of continuity of increase in Selic with consequent increase of SBPE interest rate, we've noticed anticipation of purchase decision by customers. Because with Riva Incorporadora's products, we always offer the possibility of off-bank transfer.
This is a parenthesis. We contract production financing with banks, so clients can already sort of fix interest rates during the purchase. This is advantage we offer our clients. This is the certainty that he can have credit and a possibility of paralyzing interest rates here. This is a very interest point that we've offered our customer, and this is why I believe we see strong resiliency here in our demand. As I said, October, a strong demand, very solid demand, a month where we've had a low income. This was the very first month of a quarter that we had this year. November is also performing very well. These differentials seems to be unique aspects that we offer our customers. Very few companies offer this. If you have an increase in interest rates, the possibility of not paying the real estate is bad.
When he has the certainty that he will be able to do this because interest rates will be fixed, this has been a huge, a huge, something very good that we've done.
Thank you, Fanny. Next question, Renan by XP. Renan, you have the floor.
Thank you for your question. This is related to components. You've had a lot of market share in the last quarters. Much of this market share we see you making, one of the most important companies in the segment. People end up shelving product. They cannot make feasible projects. With these revisions of the program, do you see the opportunity of these smaller developers go back to the market? Or do you believe that this consolidation came to stay, and it won't gain strength and come back in a more relevant with more relevant volumes.
Renan, this is a question that is this is in the works we see every day in the areas we work in, and also the volume of units, the contracting of units. This is public data, and we see the share of the companies that disclose this data. So here, we've had market share gains, and I believe during the pandemic, where the sale was a challenge, and I believe that more structured company ended up doing better, offering the possibility of online sales, for example, a sales team here. So the pandemic had a smaller impact with these companies. Because of cost increases of products, I believe what I said before, we allocated a significant amount of capital to mitigate the impact of cost increases of products that of sales that had already been done.
We had possibilities and flexibilities that help us to better deal with this adverse scenario, first pandemic and also the challenge of the supply chain. From my point of view, the sector is becoming more professional. I do not think it is a larger or smaller company. These are companies that work with conservative, with more solid capital structure, anticipating movements and future situation in a more assertive way that goes better through this period. I believe that this gain in market share was natural. My expectation, I believe that this will remain, people that are working in a more professional way have differentiated themselves, and buyers end up opting because they buy on the plant. You have, they work in this more uncertain scenario. For years, we have noticed a gain in market share and the group here. This, I think, is a trend and should continue.
I believe that this is something that shall remain in the pipeline.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you, Renan. Next question, Marcelo Motta, JP Morgan. Marcelo, you have the floor.
Thank you, Paulo. Thank you. Two questions. First, with regards to, you mentioned in the release, the second and third quarter, you are selling a lot of units close to the launch, very little POC. This ends up impacting full knowledge of revenue net. Do you see this growing in the fourth quarter, or do you believe it is that the first half of next year? With regards to October, you said was very good. It was the very best first month in the fourth quarter, right? I do not know, year after year, do you have another metric so that we can understand just how important October is?
Well, with regards to revenue here, Ricardo showed you the SPE that we do not consolidate in our balance because of governance reflect and how this is reflected in our accounting. These SPE, you have seen that they have grown very expressively. When we only look at the growth of our gross revenue, this does not reflect the whole growth of our operation. When we add this issue of the SPE that come via this equity pickup, we see that the growth of our operation is superior to what is noticed when one only analyzes the gross revenue. We should continue perceiving growth of the level because of the volume of the backlog margin of the deferred revenues. We are selling more than what we are receiving. The works begin six months after beginning of sales. We have a delay between sale and revenue.
Quarter after quarter, we should have this growth in revenue. When we analyze the month of October, I've noticed, and now in the beginning of November, a demand for Direcional products, which are close to the conclusion of the works. This has been very clear October and November. I believe that because the POC of these sales are more elevated, there can be a reflex in our level where sales have occurred close to the conclusion. This is an effect that we saw in the beginning of pandemic. Clients bought closer to the conclusion of the works. We've seen this very clearly in one of the areas we work in October, November. What I can say here, it is complicated to say this, to generalize eventual comparisons between quarters, right? In spite of the fourth quarter seasonally being stronger, December is a short month.
It only goes to the 20th. We need to become the month very strongly because the last 10 days are very slow in terms of demand. Still, I don't want to generalize this. October could be how it's going to be as a fourth quarter. But we had 20% superior. Our October was 20% greater than third quarter. We shouldn't generalize this because this fourth quarter is shorter than the third one. One thing doesn't have anything to the other. I think it's natural for us to have a first stronger month. We work for this. I don't want to try to imagine how the fourth quarter is going to be because it's always very challenging for us.
Thank you.
An additional point here, Motta. November is the Black Friday month, and we have several important campaigns in the pipeline and in the loop.
Our expectation. In general, the last years, November has been a very strong month, and we believe and we expect we will continue with very important month right in the 12 months here of our operations with regards to sales. A lot of things are happening, a lot of marketing campaigns, special campaigns for Black Friday that are already occurring, and this is good for the whole month. November seems to be that it will be very, very strong.
Thank you, Paim.
Our last question, we received a question by Alcides Camargo asking if there is any forecast of additional payment for 2021. Ricardo.
These are decisions that are made by our Board, where several factors are analyzed in terms of leverage of the company, the perspective of use, and application of this cash in new project investment.
We don't know what the option of the Board is going to be in the pipeline because of the scenario we're going through. I cannot give you any kind of forecast with regards to payment of proceeds or how we're going to deal with this cash generation. We don't have this information at the moment.
We have come to the end of our call. I would like to thank you for your participation and inform you that this transmission, this video conference, is available in our site in the YouTube. Now I would like to go back to Ricardo for our final considerations.
Thank you very much for your participation. It is always very wealthy to have this discussion, our Q and A. Our team is always available in case there are any questions in the next few days
We are here very optimistic with our operations and the results we have been able to deliver. They are in line, in keeping with everything we have applied, said, and implemented in our operations. It is very gratifying to see the results, the reflex of all the effort the company has done in the company. This certainly is very compensating for us. I would like to thank the whole team, the Riva and Direcional team for their work, the discipline, the results they have delivered. So one more quarter where we are very happy to show you these numbers. We are working here strongly to maintain this journey and generate the greatest value possible to our shareholders. Thank you very much, and have a very good day, everybody.