Good morning, and welcome to EcoRodovias' second quarter of 2023 earnings conference call. With us here today are Mr. Marcello Guidotti, CEO, and Camilo Gomes, Finance and Investor Relations Manager. This presentation is being recorded and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the presentation. After that, we will begin the question and answer session for analysts and investors only, when further instructions will be provided. Should you need assistance during the call, please press star zero to reach the operator. The audio and the slides of this conference call are being broadcast simultaneously through the webcast platform at ri.ecorodovias.com.br. Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that the forward-looking statements that may be made during this conference call relating to EcoRodovias' business prospects, projections, and operational and financial targets, are based on the management's beliefs and assumptions, as well as on currently available information.
They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as they refer to future events, and hence depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors may affect the future performance of EcoRodovias and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I will now turn the floor to Mr. Camilo Gomes, who will discuss the second quarter of 2023's results. Camilo, you may proceed.
Good morning. Welcome to EcoRodovias' earnings conference call for the second quarter of 2023. We thank you for your interest and participation.
On slide three, we would like to highlight that in May 2023, we started the operation and toll collection at EcoNoroeste on the stretch previously operated by AB Triângulo do Sol, which toll revenue represents about 80% of the total toll revenue forecast for the concessionaire. In the months of May and June, EcoNoroeste contribute with a revenue of BRL 112 million, an amount higher than what was foreseen in the business plan. The start of operation and toll collection on the stretch currently operated by TEBE is scheduled for March 2025. It's important to highlight that the three new concessions, EcoRioMinas, Ecovias do Araguaia, and EcoNoroeste, together represented 28% of EcoRodovias' consolidated adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter, which reinforces the success of the growth strategy implemented by the company in the last five years.
In June 2023, the federal government published by decree, the framework of Eco101 for rebidding. According to the decree, Eco101 and the ANTT must sign an addendum to the concession agreement within 90 days of its publication. Also in June, the Ministry of Ports and Airports maintained the duration of the lease of Ecoporto for a period of 180 days, until a public policy for the destination of the area is defined. This decision is not related to the economic and financial imbalances existing in the Ecoporto lease agreement, and ensures the continuity of port and cargo storage operations carried out by the terminal.
We also highlight that in the quarter, we successfully raised funds at Ecopistas, EcoNoroeste, Ecosul, and EcoRodovias concessions in the total amount of BRL 3.4 billion, even in a scenario of scarce resources in the local credit market, thus reinforcing the investors' perception of the group's credit quality. It is worth mentioning that these funds have improved the capital structure and tax efficiency of Grupo EcoRodovias, lengthened the debt profile, and strengthened cash. On slide five, we see the operational performance. Consolidated traffic grew by 37.1% in the second quarter 2023, and 29.3% in the first half 2023, mainly due to the start of toll collection by EcoRioMinas, Ecovias do Araguaia, and EcoNoroeste.
Comparable traffic grew 4.6% in the quarter, and 4.3% in the half year, due to the performance of soybean and corn exports, an increase in service activity, and favorable weather conditions. Highlight for the growth of 7.6% of light vehicle traffic in the quarter. On slide six, we present the evolution of revenue. Adjusted gross revenue reached BRL 1.5 billion in the second quarter of 2023, a growth of 60.8%. Comparable gross revenue increased by 18.9%, due to the growth in vehicle traffic mentioned in the previous slide, and toll tariff adjustments of 14.4%. On slide seven, we highlight the 19.5% increase in comparable gross revenue in the first half of 2023.
On slide eight, adjusted net revenue was up 67.8% in the quarter, while cash costs grew by 17.9% in the quarter, considering the new concessions, Ecovias do Araguaia, EcoRio Minas, and EcoNoroeste. We note that comparable net revenue grew 22.1% in the quarter, and adjusted cash costs remained flat when compared to the same quarter in 2022. In the same period, inflation was 3.2%. It is worth mentioning that EcoRodovias has intensified its digital transformation program began in 2022, which is one of the levers of the EVA project, EcoRodovias Value Agenda, to maximize the company's value. Several initiatives on digitalization, innovation, operational and corporate efficiency are being implemented, such as automation of the processes of operation, collection, payments, sourcing, and human resources, with results to be captured throughout 2023 and 2024.
On slide nine, we demonstrate the digital transformation and innovation initiatives at our concessionaires. The company has implemented at Ecovias do Cerrado, a scale to test the weighting of trucks at high speed, the high-speed weigh-in-motion system. This initiative, a pioneer in the country, allows the increase of operational efficiency, facilitates inspection of excess cargo, ensures better flow and the safety of users. In addition, the company has installed 12 solar plants in the toll plazas of Eco050, Ecovias do Cerrado, and Ecovias do Araguaia. Currently, EcoRodovias has 24 plants installed in the toll plazas of its concessions. By 2030, the company will generate enough power to supply up to 100% of the low-voltage energy consumption of the concessionaire's toll plazas, an initiative that enables the reduction of electricity costs and is aligned with the company's ESG agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In the table on the right, we present the toll collection by electronic means, AVI, self-service and digital means, which totaled 77% of toll revenue in the second quarter of 2023, an increase of 4.6 percentage points compared to the second quarter of 2022. On slide 10, we present the evolution of EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 918.2 million in the second quarter of 2023, a growth of 98.3% and margin of 71.6. The contribution of EcoRioMinas, Ecovias do Araguaia, and EcoNoroeste was BRL 260.8 million, reaching a share of 28% in the quarter's adjusted EBITDA, reinforcing the success of the growth strategy implemented by the company in the last five years.
Comparable EBITDA increased 34.7% in the second quarter 2023, and margin of 70.9% due to the vehicle traffic growth, toll tariff adjustments, demonstrating the resilience and growth potential of our concessions. On slide 11, adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 1.7 billion in the first half of 2023, a growth of 83.5%, highlighting the increase of BRL 392.6 million in the new concessions. Comparable EBITDA reached BRL 1.3 billion in the first half of 2023, an increase of 35.5% compared to the same period in 2022. On slide 12, we highlight the increase in net income, mainly due to the increase in adjusted EBITDA and the result of new concessions.
We ended the quarter with net income of BRL 123.7 million, compared to the net loss of BRL 13.1 million in the second quarter of 2022. On slide 13, net income for the first half of 2023 totaled BRL 237 million. We highlight on slide 15, the investment of BRL 924 million made in the second quarter of 2023, and BRL 1.5 billion in the first half of 2023, 19% higher than the same period of 2022, demonstrating the ability to execute and deliver works of the company's growth cycle, as well as the commitment to the maintenance of our highways. In addition, in April 2023, the company deposited the granting and the concession fee of EcoNoroeste for the granting authority in the amount of BRL 1.3 billion.
On slide 16, we present the main deliveries made in the quarter, emphasizing the implementation of toll plazas, operational bases, and a special road conservation works at EcoRioMinas. Expansion works and a special road conservation at Ecovias do Araguaia, works of the second phase of the new entrance to Santos, Binário II, and a special road conservation at Ecovias dos Imigrantes, and intersection works, pedestrian overpasses, and special road conservation at Eco101. We also highlight that in the first half of 2023. Eco135 delivered 40 km of road duplication, expansion, and improvements on BR-135, and in June, Ecopistas completed the construction of 11 km of the third lane of the Ayrton Senna highway, including the widening of two overpasses. The new lane increases by up to 50% the capacity of traffic in the region, ensuring greater comfort and road safety to users.
The works of the second phase of the new entrance to Santos are in an advanced process of execution by Ecovias dos Imigrantes, and the completion is expected to take place in 2023. In the lower left corner, we show the execution status of one of the 10 toll plazas at EcoRio Minas, that will begin operation in the second half of 2023. On slide 17, we ended the quarter with consolidated leverage of 3.9x , stable compared to the first quarter of the year, even with the exit of BRL 1.3 billion from our cash availability to meet the deposit of the fixed concession fee of EcoNoroeste, and a reduction of 0.4x compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
This stability is mainly due to the increase in adjusted EBITDA, due to the start of operation of the three new concessions that in the last 12 months generated BRL 488 million of consolidated EBITDA. The leverage of EcoRodovias Concessões e Serviços ended the quarter at 3.7x . On slide 18, we ended the quarter with a cash balance of BRL 2.3 billion. The maturities of the second half totaled BRL 553 million. The maturities of BRL 3.3 billion in 2024 are concentrated in Ecovias dos Imigrantes, with BRL 1.4 billion, in the subholding, EcoRodovias Concessões e Serviços, with BRL 1.1 billion, we are already evaluating the structuring of the refinancings. On slide 20, we present the main highlights of our ESG agenda.
In May, we published the 2022 Integrated Report dedicated to disclosing the environmental, social, and governance indicators, as well as the main events and achievements of the year. We invite you to read the full report by clicking on the link provided on the slide. We highlight in the governance pillar, the election of Sonia Consiglio as an independent member of the company's board of directors. In relation to the social agenda, we highlight the extension of the 180- day parental leave for all of those employees declared as primary legal guardians of a child, and the elaboration of a strategic work safety plan for all of the group's units. In the environmental agenda, we have implemented another 12 solar power plants in our units, totaling 24 plants. Finally, we highlight the upgrade in MSCI's ESG rating from A to A A.
More details about our ESG agenda can be found in our earnings release and the integrated report. We close this conference call reinforcing that EcoRodovias is focusing its efforts on the execution of its investments, carrying out expansion works and important deliveries in its business units. The company continues to advance in its digital transformation and innovation program, with the implementation of several initiatives of digitalization, innovation, operational and corporate efficiency, which will bring results throughout the years 2023 and 2024. We invite you to see more details about this in our earnings release. We also emphasize that the company will remain attentive and evaluating the opportunities, albeit more selectively, for the new growth opportunities, since the agenda of new auctions is promising for the medium and long term in Brazil. We conclude our presentation.
We would now like to move on to the question and answer session. Operator, we are ready for the questions from our analysts and investors. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session for investors and analysts. If you have a question, please press star one on your telephone. If your question is answered during the session, you may remove it from the line by pressing the star two key. Questions will be answered in the order they are received. We ask that you use the headset, handset when asking a question in order to maintain excellent sound quality. Please stand by while we collect the questions. Our first question, Guilherme Mendes, JP Morgan.
Good morning, Guidotti, Camilo. Thank you. I have two points, two follow-ups about the comments. First, about CapEx.
If it's possible to expect any review on the balance that you have today, some savings or efficiency that reduce these targets? The second point, Camilo, what you mentioned about leverage in the end, to be more selective in terms of growth, how do you see this trade-off, if possible, bids that you participate in will be more mature grant auctions that , o r what would be the leverage, the level of leverage that would be comfortable to be considered in view of the projects that are on the pipeline?
Yeah, good morning. Thank you for your question. This is Marcello. About CapEx, today, as Camilo said, we are making progress in our deliveries. Deliveries that are being very well received by users who are supporting traffic growth. We are going through a movement of deflation.
Reducing [indexes], reducing 30%, EA and TC indexes are stable compared to inflation. That all allows us to maintain the CapEx within what was projected. We're always working in the definitive projects, and they're being implemented as they come in, and we sometimes experience reductions. It's premature to say that we're going to have any major savings. What makes us comfortable is that in the point of view of inflation, of prices and the execution in engineering, everything is within what was foreseen. There are important deliveries. We've delivered more than 40 km at 135, about 11 km of additional lanes at Ecopistas, a place that had a lot of congestion of traffics, in all of that, improves traffic, and traffic performance is also supported by CapEx deliveries.
About leverage and the trade-off of the new auctions, we will be very selective. There will be a lot of opportunities ahead, and I believe the market will adjust. There are probably other players that may come up. We will be selective, and we will certainly choose the project that, that are, that are supported according to our capacity. I'd say EcoRodovias' priority today exclusively, is to continue delivering the works that are planned, managing our concessions efficiently, generating EBITDA, of course, keeping track of the market. Again, about the auctions, there's an agenda that will, i t's a long-term agenda. It's not going to be concentrated only in 2023. It goes on 2024, 2025, and we will be very criterious in our analysis.
Excellent. Thank you.
Next question, Alberto Valerio, UBS.
Good morning, Camilo, Guidotti. Thank you for taking my question. Congratulations on the results. I have a doubt here that we were seeing some follow-ons coming back, a window of follow-ons opening in the market. I'd be interested on that follow-on, on this window. Does it make sense for the company? I'd like to hear from you, your opinion about the offer, and if you'd be interested in recycling assets, if it would be worth it, in your view, to sell a mature asset to improve the company's cash structure or maybe address new opportunities. Thank you.
Alberto, thank you. I think that both the follow-on and the recycling of assets is an equity strategy that must be continuously analyzed by the company, by its board and its control assets, so that we can support the growth, as long as the growth is something that indeed adds value, so growth in assets that have attractive return rates.
Certainly, windows, of course, the window will follow-ons, but beyond the windows, it needs to be connected to our strategy, so that an equity support by recycling assets and follow-ons and other partnerships and new bids may become necessary, but we will wait to see the new opportunities to analyze whether there are attractive assets, and we'll be prepared to also do a strategy for that. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next question, Gabriel Rezende, Itaú BBA.
Hello, Guidotti, Camilo. Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations on the results. I have two questions about your operation. Camilo mentioned in the presentation that the cash cost, adjusted cash cost was flat. Although we saw positive inflation rates, it was low, but we still had inflation in the period.
I'd like to understand what you're already seeing in terms of gains in your profitability, considering all of these initiatives of cost improvements that you are adopting, and to understand how much of that may appear in upcoming earnings. We should probably see an upside in the analysis that we're projecting for the company. The second point, also addressing margin, is the stage of the implementation process of the new collection system for the suspended axle for trucks. Part of it is already reflecting on your results, but I'd like to understand better when we'd have all of the company's portfolio assets running in this new system, and if that is going to offset the loss of the suspended axles?
Thank you, Gabriel. I'll start from your second question. Aside from the two concessions that are already collecting, that's Araguaia, Ecovias do Araguaia, and Ecovias do Cerrado, that already have expressive results. At Araguaia is 3.9% of gross revenue, toll revenue, 3% at Ecovias do Cerrado. We also have Eco135 expected for the 3rd quarter of 2023. EcoNoroeste, also in the 3rd quarter of 2023, EcoRioMinas in the 4th quarter of 2023. We have studies for Ecovias dos Imigrantes, Ecopistas, Ecosul, Eco101, Ecoponte, Eco050. At Eco101, Ecoponte, Eco050 will be balanced, but at Ecovias dos Imigrantes, Imigrantes, I don't think it is. Those are the two where we'll probably work on by 2024. The results we're seeing now at Cerrado and Araguaia are very encouraging.
About cash costs, the activities we're implementing, it's an in-depth process of digital transformation of all of our the company's main processes, and some of them will be the quick wins that are coming up already, and the others have an initial investment phase to then be able to achieve a result in operating costs. We have our program, and we understand that by 2024, the major processes will all be implemented. I'd say we could see these positive effects in cash costs throughout 2023 and 2024. Certainly maintaining and helping, contributing to margin expansion. There are many activities, especially what gives us a lot of support are the digitalization initiatives, transforming processes into automatic processes, control, and administrative, corporate, and operating processes as well.
I'd say that during 2023 and during the year of 2024, we will certainly experience this operational control of the company's costs. Thank you.
Excellent, Guidotti. Thank you. Have a great day.
Next question. Pedro Bruno, XP Investments.
Good morning. Morning, thank you for taking my question. I'd like to get an update from you, if possible. You were talking about the decree in June about Eco101, the process to renegotiate the contract. The government has a different initiative compared to the previous attempt. I'm talking about renegotiating the contract instead of that amicable return that was discussed before. I'd like to understand the current status of the process and in the company's perspective, what would be the resolution? Not only that, but in terms of a contract adjustment, what would be the counterparts for both sides?
Good morning, Pedro. Thank you for your question. I would say both processes are running in parallel. Of course, we have the publication of the decree. We need to sign that contract amendment, I believe, by the end of August, to then continue with the rebidding process, another two years, possibly being renewed with a transition contract and the company's plan A. At the same time, in a very strong way, we're also even encouraged by the government itself and the state of Espírito Santo, debating the possibility to an agreement of the contract that may enable this concession. Both things are running simultaneously. We estimate that during 2023, we will have a definition if it's going to be a rebidding process or an amendment to the contract. Both possibilities are positive for the company, for the concessionaire, and we're working simultaneously on both solutions. Thank you.
Excellent. Thank you.
Next question, Victor Mizusaki with Bradesco BBI.
Good morning. Congratulations on the results. Guidotti, looking at the results of the second quarter, we see EcoNoroeste starting with an EBITDA margin around 87%. My question here is related to the EVA project, if maybe that already explains a little bit of this margin at Noroeste being at this level, and if we can consider that this model that you're implementing is something that we can expect to be replicated in the new concessions? Thank you.
Victor, thank you for your question. Definitely, Noroeste has benefited from all initiatives that we already have in place. The unified operational control center, centralization of multiple services. It's the one that benefited the most, because it's the last one in this trend of digital transformation for the company.
A lot of new things, and that led to a very high EBITDA margin. What we're seeing now at this quarter, fortunately or unfortunately, it's not the definitive margin, because the first two months haven't normalized all of the flow. We estimate a normalized margin at 80%. Of course, the first two months, it's not calibrated, but we're still considering a very high margin. That is definitely a result of our business model. We have 11 concessions today, almost 5,000 km, and we have a shared service center that is very well prepared to run the concessions, and all of the platform allows us to extract great synergies. Operational synergies, Noroeste benefited from that. Rio Minas will also be the same, Araguaia as well. I believe, in general, this will be the standard of EcoRodovias' operation.
Great, thank you.
Next question. Regis Cardoso, Credit Suisse.
Thank you, Guidotti and Camilo. I have a few points here about the debt allocation on slide 17. We saw a lot of DDI debt and a lot of debt. There's already 60% of debt in the highway concessions, but on the other hand, there is debt that in the holding, either the main holding or intermediate holdings. Guidotti, if you could give us an assessment of whether you've been able to enjoy the or use the tax shield, or if it generates inefficiency and maybe could be a future upside, thinking about the better use of the company's capital structure now that you have a strong portfolio. That's one question. The next question is about the next auction, specifically the blocks of the Paraná highways.
If you see any complementarity of these highways with the portfolio of ECOR, it seems that there's an advantage that's a brownfield asset that comes in with an EBITDA and does not need an allocation of a relevant concession fee. Maybe that matches your cash flows. I don't know if that's how you see it. If it is an asset that you have an appetite for, I'd like to hear about that as well. Thank you.
Regis, good morning. Thank you for your question. About the debt allocation, we are already implementing a strategy to allocate, and we've been successful this quarter. We've increased the allocation of debt in the concessions, decreasing exposure at the holding. It's not an immediate work because there's a lot of different debts allocated with their own maturity times and rolling times.
We have been implementing this, and we reduced the exposure of 11% at EcoRodovias Concessões de Serviços, increased 74%, the debt allocated to the concession. There are another three operations being prepared for this second half in highway concessions, all of them with the same objective of leveraging the concessions more and reducing exposure of EcoRodovias in the coming years. Whenever possible, the longer concessions will rethink on the holding or debridging the concessions. We adopted CDI on this bridge loans, but that has been done without major issues.
For the coming year, we have some important maturities at the holdings. We're already, in addition to reducing the holdings exposures with these operations that have been done and will be done this year, we're probably also going to anticipate some operations at the holding to be able to bring some relief as well, and get out the way the rollout in 2024. There's different possibilities. We can't simply do a single operation and solve the whole problem, but we are managing this to improve debt allocation and the tax shield, obviously. This is work that if you look carefully at the numbers, you can see that the debt and the concession level is increasing more than the debt and the holding level. That's important because it reduces the holdings exposure and improves tax shield.
About the Paraná lots or blocks, the first blocks we're studying, we're studying both of them. These blocks have been discussed at length. There's a return rate that's even lower than the return rate that's being used for other projects. It is true that they are known projects with resilient traffic rates. We need to understand it well because these concessions, these highways are not being operated for two years almost. It's definitely not going to be an immediate collection. Although, of course, they're very attractive blocks in terms of traffic. We need to understand more about all of the allocated risks, CapEx complexity, and the fact that they are highways that have not been operated or recovered for two years, and that may bring an initial additional cost that affects the return rate.
We're finalizing our studies, looking at it carefully, but we don't If it's not a good deal, of course, we don't have any need to participate. We're concluding studies. We'll see.
Excellent, Guidotti. Thank you for the answers. Congratulations on the results.
Our next question, João Frizo, Goldman Sachs.
Good morning, Guidotti, Camilo. Thank you for taking my question. It's just a quick follow-up about CapEx. In your earnings release, you showed the commitment to invest BRL 18.8 billion that do not include EcoRioMinas and EcoNoroeste. If you could give us some color, what you expect for those two assets that are not included in that number, and what would be the full commitment?
Thank you. João, this is important information. It's part of the company's obligations to release and publish these commitments.
Throughout this year, we are making progress as much as possible in the definitive project of the stretches that we're going to tackle. To have a final visibility, we intend to publish this information by the end of the year in the final statement of 2023. Until then, we'll give you some indications during conversation, but we're waiting. There's no surprise, actually, quite the opposite. As I said in the beginning, we're getting positive surprises in the inflation curves. Noroeste and Rio Minas are certainly benefiting from it. We'll wait till the end of the year to provide this and publish this in our balance sheet.
That's clear. Thank you.
We now close the questions and answer session. I would like to turn the floor to Mr. Camilo Gomes for his final remarks.
If you have any doubts, please feel free to contact our investor relations department. Thank you very much, and have a great day.
EcoRodovias' conference call is now closed. Thank you for your participation. Have a good day.