Hello, good morning. We're now starting ENGIE Brasil Energia's Fourth Quarter of 2024 Earnings Result Video Conference. I'm Adriana Wagner, Investor Relations Analyst, and would like to make a few announcements before we start the video conference. At this moment, people are connected using the listener mode, and later, when we open the Q&A session, participants will be able to send them through the Zoom Q&A option. I would like to remind you that this video conference is being recorded. It is available at our website, www.engie.com.br/investidores, and the earnings release, in addition to the complete financial statements and other documents filed at CVM, where analysis of financial statements, operational results, ESG indicators, and progress and implementation of new projects are disclosed in detail, among other highlights of the period.
Before moving on, I would like to clarify that all statements that may be made during this video conference regarding the business outlook of the company should be treated as forecasts depending on the country's macroeconomic conditions and the performance of the regulation of the electric sector, in addition to other variables. Therefore, they may change. Also, we would like to remind journalists who wish to ask questions that they can do so by email, sending them to the company's press office. To present ENGIE's performance in the fourth quarter in the year of 2024, we have Mr. Eduardo Takamori, Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer, and Rafael Bósio, Investors' Relations Manager.
Good morning, everyone. I would like to start with the highlights, and before talking about that, I would like to remind you that we had excellent results in ENGIE Brasil Energia, demonstrating that our strategy has worked really well. We're all familiar with the very challenging context we're going through. In the first slide, we talk about the operations, and here, in the highlights, we can see an early entry into operational projects under construction. In a Assú Sol photovoltaic complex, we reached 25% of the installed capacity under business operation. In 2024, we were able to have 1.2 GW of installed capacity, 9.6 of investment, demonstrating our capacity to have operational projects, implementations with excellence. In a Assú Sol, we had significant anticipation. Of course, everything is within our budget, and these are long-term operators.
The second highlight I would like to make here on the upper right side is regarding the gross energy production, which increased 24% when compared to 2023. We've reviewed it. As we all know, curtailment reached approximately 9% of wind and solar generation in 2024, but this is extremely diluted and neutralized by the generation of our total portfolio. It affects only 1% of our total portfolio. On the lower left side, we highlight that Fitch Ratings reaffirmed the company's long-term national rating at a triple-A for Brazil. This is very important because the company is pursuing new projects quite frequently, and therefore, this rating makes a difference for us. Finally, on the right side, on the bottom, for the first time, ENGIE Brasil Energia has become a component of the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index.
This is a new name, but it's better known as the Global 100 ranking. I will explain about this later on. In the next slide, we have our main figures adjusted EBITDA. For the fourth quarter of 2024, we had significant increases of a little over 18%. The highlight here is the accumulated results for 12 years, where it was basically 20%. It is significant, and naturally, an important part of it results from TAG's incorporation in early 2024, and therefore, this was associated to this operation. What are the main drivers of the very interesting result? We had a higher contribution of the generation segment in transmission. Well, there was an additional increment of BRL 221 million , and the result for equity income TAG was BRL 279 million . The adjusted EBITDA was approximately 100 million BRL on the right side of the slide here.
Then, the format is more or less the same, and the results were higher than BRL 1 trillion . When we look at the accumulated results for 12 months, we've reached 3.4. We add to these effects, and that generates more or less a net profit, which is very close to the cycle. But of course, when we take into account TAG's result, we had an increase of BRL 4.3 billion . So EBITDA has contributed, but we had a series of other investments as well, and they're part of our portfolio. And naturally, we have a higher asset base. We have an effect, including EBITDA and profit, and the financial result is basically the same we had in the previous period. We had an increase in the cost of debt, CDI. It was capitalized because we have some assets that are under construction.
Now we will move on to the next slide, where we will talk a little bit more in detail of our inclusion in the Dow Jones Index. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it is very important. It's a global ranking, and basically, they analyzed 7,690 companies, and 800 were eligible for the DJSI Emerging Markets. We did an amazing job both at home and we were also able to communicate it very effectively. It led to better performances in Brazil in the energy sector, but we're also considered among the best companies in the world. On the bottom, we see the indicators, the emerging markets, and in the other highlight, we went back to the Corporate Knights ranking, and we are one of the three Brazilian companies in this ranking. And also, we are the only one which is not headquartered in Europe.
In the next slide, we talk about quantitative indicators. We had a decrease in our emissions if we compare it year over year regarding healthcare and safety, despite everything that we're doing here in Brazil, with a very high number of employees and the number of accidents decreased significantly when compared to our results in 2023. It makes me really proud. One of the pillars at our company is not having our employees at risk situations, which may cause serious accidents. We also have information on the percentage of women in the workforce, so we have increased this share in a gradual and sustainable manner. Out of the total of women in the workforce, you can see the results, which are quite expressive. We had basically a 4% increase when compared to last year in the percentage of women in leadership positions.
Also, we had more resources available, and they were associated to tax profit. And so not only did we increase this amount, but in fact, we used 100% of the amounts available to us for social responsibility investments. And then finally, on the right side, on the bottom, the number of employees and the number of engaged people increased around us, between us and the community. In the next slide, we have the operating highlights. You can see the gross power generation. And here, I'm going to focus on the left side bars, total energy generation and the results accumulated for 12 months. On the bottom, in dark blue, we have the hydropower plants, where we had a significant increase. And note that last year, we had a mean GSF of 39, almost 38, almost 39.
So in the south, where we had a lot of assets, generation was higher, and in combination, we had a higher generation by hydropower plants. Now, generation by complementary source. In this slide here, you can see that the accrued results for 12 months on the bottom part have the operational wind plants. There was a significant performance increase thanks to internal improvement and availability. We had over 10% increase in the generation. We also had an increase in the generation. And of course, we had a series of investments which started operating. We called this additional scope with the new wind. So even though we had the curtailment, there was a significant increase of wind power generation. Biomass was a little lower than last year, and that's because of our current model.
For solar energy, there was a higher penalty, and we went down to 48 MW, a significant decrease, but we also had new assets in our portfolio, both resulting from acquisitions, but also because of our Assú Sol greenfield. So we had an upgrade. We had significant growth, complementary generation increasing almost 10% when compared to the previous year. A little bit more of highlights in the next slide. I will talk a little bit about curtailment and perhaps this is something that deserves our attention. The curtailment effect, the constrained-off, also known as curtailment, refers to the request for restriction of generation in wind and photovoltaic plants by the National Electric System Operator, the so-called ONS. And you can see the results compared to the Brazilian average, showing that our curtailment is very similar to the Brazilian range.
We have assets with curtailment that are much above this amount, but we also have others which are below, leading our level of curtailment to the national average. When you have the combination of wind and solar energy, the combined effect is 9% for the year of total curtailment compared to the national results of 5%. Our portfolio ends up being extremely diluted, and this is very important because it shows that we pay our debt, we can absorb these cuts, and of course, we are working to deal with this at the origin, with increases in new lines, a more efficient management of assets, but at the end of the day, the impact is very limited in our total generation.
Good morning. I am going to cover two sessions, our commercial strategy, and an update on the projects that are being implemented and how we are progressing in terms of installed capacity. So starting with our commercial strategy, slide 13, we have an update of our energy balance. And if compared to what we disseminated in the third quarter, it's possible to disseminate our performance in the business area.
As the market already knows, the strategy, whose pillar is to try to have contracts for the short term so that we are not exposed to the PLD, because it may be high or low, and our objective here is to somehow shield the company's revenue so that we can face different situations such as economic deceleration, ideological controversies, which are factors that we've gone through in the past years, including the pandemic, and therefore the company's revenue is protected because we are always working for the short term. In 2025, 2026, we have a marginal volume of energy to sell 27% in 2026, 4% in 2025. Then as of 2027, these amounts increase. In the free market, consumers do not buy energy way ahead of time. They buy it a year, year and a half before they need the resources.
So, on the left side, we have the energy balance, and compared to the previous year, you can see that we sold 110 MW per hour, this increase. But if we have actually been able to sign a contract, which will not lead to a significant dilution in our average price. And then, on the right side, you can see exactly our sales and the benefits of not having to sell energy. You can see that some of the bars from one period to the other, you accelerate sales, reduce losses, and you can choose the best moment to contract energy and not being forced to sell our product in moments that are not appropriate or most appropriate. And then, in the next slide, the energy commercial strategy, we have introduced it in such a way as to open it to the free market.
You can see that we had an increase in the number of consumers in our portfolio with over 28% average, so we went from 870 to over 1,800 clients or customers contracted in our portfolio. This was a choice we made. We had a very difficult year in 2021 with a more conservative approach in our portfolio. We made less energy available. We were protecting more against GSF, and now, with the operation of new projects, as mentioned here before, we have a higher volume of resources, and we can see an inflection point here, and this volume stabilizes and goes up with the new projects. Even though there was a decrease in our market share when compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, we were able to keep stable, demonstrating that the new resources are now part of our portfolio.
In the next slide, slide 16, we update our status in comparison to 31 de dezembro. On December 31, we have 97%, and the construction is basically concluded. You can see the results for the fourth quarter, and now we have an update. At the end of last year, we started our commercial operation with 30 generators. 21 were generators whose construction was concluded. They are now up. We have three generators under construction right now, demonstrating that the total operation in the near future, within the next few weeks or a month and a half, more or less, we will have a full operation of Serra do Assuruá. Projeto bastante grande com quase 900 MW de capacidade instalada e que também é a very large project with almost 800 MW of installed capacity. It has moved on with implementation activities.
The concession is totally concluded, and we started operating at the end of 2024, and now, in the beginning of 2025, we already have four of the five plants which we're operating and testing. They are already in the operating phase. They are either being tested or in commercial operation by the end of the year. We will update the market as we move on. [Foreign language] The transmission, and the first one, which is in a more advanced stage, is the Asa Branca project. The licensing has been issued a few years ago. [Foreign language] at least 24 months, which is ANEEL's deadline for 2029.
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At least we expect. And with this, I conclude my slides, and I return the floor to you, Takamori.
Well, thank you very much. [crosstalk] Evolução tanto do nosso ROIC. We review both our ROIC, ROIC, and this is all explained by the results, which were not converted into what we put into business operation. And I would like to remind you that, as Rafa mentioned, our portfolio is being constructed. It was in construction last year and hasn't led to results yet. And so it's only natural that these amounts are reduced here.
And we had 23%, but I would like to remind you that 27% is a very expressive amount. The same is true for ROIC. You can see the results decrease in 2024, but we are still at a very comfortable level. And then on the right side of the slide, we usually show the evolution of our adjusted EBITDA, and with a little lower than 10 years for the generation. And over time, we have some diversification mix. We've reduced thermal participation, as you can see in this reduction of the adjusted EBITDA. But on the other hand, we have gradually increased the share of transmission in our total amounts. And in the next slide, we open our details a little bit more. You can see the net operating, and then the results of equity income. But there are some nuances that we would like to highlight now.
This is basically because of delays we had. This was offset in our contract with providers, and therefore this led to positive outcomes, and for the same volume of sales, you can see the performance, sales volume, but then on the other hand, we no longer have the contribution of Pampa Sul, and then when you compare 2023 to 2024, we can still see the effect of the Pampa Sul construction in 2023, and then we no longer have this revenue in our portfolio, and then we also have CCEE, the results of short-term operations, and the results of our hydro power plants. Naturally, we have had increased revenue because of our financial assets, and in the next blocks, we can see a reduction in trading of, in the order of BRL 160 million .
But we also had less expenses with trading, and therefore this is offset and does not impact our EBITDA. And then finally, we have the transmission segment with a very important positive assessment when we compare it to the previous year, especially regarding the constructions. This is a non-cash event. It suffers the impact of accounting and transmission here in Brazil, which generating EBITDA contribution even before the operations. But this is well known to everybody. And naturally, the highlight here is that we've had an increase of 4.4% in our net operating revenue. In the next slide, we make a bridge showing tax contribution. It was BRL 9 billion for 24 after payment of taxes. The net profit was in the order of BRL 4 billion. And the contribution to EBITDA is 714. And now the next slide.
Here is perhaps our most complex slide, but it's also one that everybody is looking forward to. You can see different concepts. I will start from outside with the accounting EBITDA with non-recurring effects. So we go from BRL 7.3 billion and go up to BRL 8 billion, a significant increase, greater than 10%. Now you can see the non-recurring effects of the partial sale of TAG in the beginning of last year. And therefore, we remove this effect in the order of BRL 1.4 billion, and this leads to an increase of BRL 100 million. This is fantastic, taking into account the local and global context, which has really complicated our lives. Note that contribution of EBITDA for 2024 on the bottom, you can have BRL 5.7 billion resulting from trading and things that we already explained in the prior slide, considering the IFRS effect. And here you can look at the results.
We go from 5.4- 7, an increase, and then TAG had a lower contribution in transmission, went up to almost 1 billion. And then when you look at the internal brackets, we can see that we went from 7 billion to almost 9 billion. And the main elements that were added in this period were operational performance, basically a combination of price and volume. You can see the results on the slide. And later on, we will give other highlights. But in the remaining portfolio, we had a significant contribution as well, but we also had a reduction leading to the figures that you can see here. And then we had another element with a comparative basis of the benefits of Santo Agostinho in 2024.
The net profit was BRL 175 million , and then short-term operations and royalties leading to approximately BRL 160 million with a higher generation that was already deducted of what we paid, leading to a higher contribution of water resources. As mentioned in the beginning, our contribution suffers a little bit with the exit from our Pampa Sul base, and it was part of our portfolio in 2023. Comparatively speaking, we have this reduction. In the case of insurances, we pay more charges, and this is automated. Also, services, they add proportionally to our portfolio. Regarding costs, basically, we have a more significant increase in materials and services and third parties, including consultancy. And mechanical aspects. But we can explore this in detail later on. Finally, when you remove the effects of accounting, you generate an RAP increase.
Finally, with a reduction of contribution of, we went from basically BRL 1 billion in 2023, and in light blue in brackets, you can see these amounts displayed. The highlight here is that the EBITDA increased significantly throughout the year. Even without the tax effect, we were able to keep the previous levels, which are reasons to celebrate. Now the net income change. You can see the comparison for 2023 and 2024. We went from 3- 4, and we had basically an increase of 26%. Even if these are not core, they generate value when we make these investments. When you remove this non-recurring effect with tax, and this element of BRL 931 million, we had net profits, which are basically the same we had in 2023 for the EBITDA with an added value of approximately BRL 100 billion greater than in 2023.
This is neutralized and reverted, and externally, they generated this additional value of BRL 147 billion. The social contribution was about the same as in the previous year, generating the same level of net profit as last year. Now, the net debt, we've been discussing this in the last calls. And of course, the company is leveraged in an efficient and competitive manner, both in terms of the players in our segment and other segments here in Brazil. We increased our leverage from 2023- 2024 in 0.6 times, which is significant, but it's also compatible with our growth and ambition. We went from 2.7 of net debt over the adjusted EBITDA, and we went from 2.9- 3.2 of our adjusted EBITDA.
Our gross debt is about one billion higher than in the fourth quarter we had last year because we also had more cash and equivalents, which was maintained at approximately the same level as last year, 357 million in CDI deposits leading to a net debt of BRL 20 million. We expect this to keep on increasing next year, and we will talk about this next. It's all according to our expectations with some flexibility so that we can maintain our AAA with excellent capacity to pay for our financial debts and also to be competitive. Now, the debt profile and composition, we have approximately BRL 2.7 billion or BRL 2.6 billion with maturities in 2025, a little bit less than this for 2026. Then you can see also the figures for 2027 and 2028.
In the upcoming months and years, this will evolve with a new debt and repayment of our debts. In this slide, I would like to highlight our profile is compatible with our cash. We also pay special attention to the composition of our debt. It was stronger in IPCA in the order of about 80%, but we rebalanced this position to CDI so that we diversify and also so that we have a lower impact in case of inflation. In the next slide, we can see our expansion plan. 2024 was a more challenging year in terms of our financial structure because we had to make an investment of BRL 9.7 billion, which is quite significant. Our management of cash had to be very careful this year, and in the upcoming years, we will gradually go back to normality.
Basically, half of this is explained by Asa Branca with the transmission. We've already signed our contracts and now start the implementation cycle. In 2026 and 2027, we will go back to BRL 2.1-2.2 billion for the next three years, including this year. Regarding our dividend policy, whenever possible, we aim to have a payout of 55%. Can we close this part?
Yes. And now we have our Q&A. Yeah, this is the fun part. Inserimos agora a sessão de perguntas e respostas, e para fazer uma pergunta, basta enviar. We're now going to start the Q&A session. Ask a question, write them in the Q&A. On the Zoom bar. Our first question is from Rafael Oliveira, our investor, and he wants to know about dividends that are open, and also he wants to know about the payout for 2025, if there are any guidances.
As soon as possible, we're going to inform you of the dates. We don't have the dates yet. Regarding the payout for 2025, of course, we depend on the evolution of the market. We know that this year there is a lot going on. We still have a lot of commitments. Also, we always see market opportunities that make sense to us. It's a bit too early to give any guidance on payment dates. Anything else?
I would like to highlight that we have this minimum payment policy of 55%. It's long-standing. It's been around for over a decade. [Foreign langauge] And it's always been respected. So we considered that even at the lowest level, the dividends are considerable. If you look at other companies that are listed in the stock market.
We distribute over half of the amount generated to shareholders. It's a partnership. Our second question. I would also like to close this question. This is a good question. Keep in mind that whenever possible, we pay out as much as we can. This is what we do. We try not to grow strategically only or in a random way, without any purpose or without any guidance. Our mission here is, in fact, to grow by adding value.
Our second question is from Santander's analyst, João Pedro Ferreira, and he would like to have some more details on costs with materials from third parties, which could better explain the moments we're going through. We had important variations, but of course, there are some effects there, natural effects. We also have the scope of variation, which is probably the main element here.
We have a lot of new assets, and we have included new assets in our M&A portfolio so that it represents a significant part. It was caused by this change in our scope. Also, we have some maintenance actions in hydropower plants. They're not recurring, and they're only true for this year. They also generate some variation here. Então, de BRL 70 million-BRL 80 million [Foreign langauge ] BRL 30 million [Foreign language] as I mentioned before. Okay, thank you, Taka.
The next question is by Rodrigo Gressler, Investor. He asks, in face of the modest increase of the adjusted EBITDA and margin compression, what are the strategies to renegotiate contracts to improve profitability?
Eu só comentar pouquinho sobre. I would like to comment a little bit about the decrease in the average sale price. Actually, there was a recent change. I will restart. The expectation is extremely positive. Hydrology was confirmed for this period, but there was a significant reversal. From now on, we will have less rain where it's needed. [Foreign language] , and this will lead to a lot less water. In combination to our price model, which doesn't like risks as much, we tend to have very interesting prices. The expectation until last year was of lower prices, as you mentioned, but the market has reacted. Prices are going up, and they are going up significantly, and there is a trend for contracts to be expanded.
But note that, in addition to the main price, there is a lot more volatility as a result of the aversion to risk model and the higher impact of our energy matrix, which now strongly depends on wind and solar energy, and therefore it's more difficult to anticipate prices. On average, the price is higher. And this has become the market dynamics now in terms of strategy and renegotiating energy contracts. We try to improve profitability. We hedge well when we understand that prices are favorable to the generators, but we honor our contracts. And I don't know whether this could be applied to the question you asked, but we always try to keep our client base and renew our contracts or expand them. I would like to highlight here that we have a lot of short-term contracts, as I commented during my presentation.
This is our strategy, and this volatility with lower prices for this year and then higher prices, it has an impact on our portfolio. But what is really important is what is the impact here in the short and long term. And this is what we try to capture so that we can make the decision to sell less or more. And this should be highlighted. Yes, and of course, prices for next year have gone from 170- 200 or even over 200 this week. Naturally, there is a strong impact on the short term, but as Rafa mentioned, and because we're well protected, we capture these amounts now. And of course, the prices for 27 and 28 will also increase. We do this so that we can maximize.
Thank you, Taka. Now we have a question by Daniel Travassos, Safra analyst. He has two questions. How are you navigating the scenario of high volatility of energy prices? And what is the market liquidity? Also, second question, what is your vision on the expansion of investments in renewable energy projects right now, taking into account the context of the segment which is impacted by curtailment?
The first part of your question was already answered when we talked about our strategy. We can really see this increase in the short term, but naturally, when we say energy in the short term, we take into account that we have a hydropower plant reserve. And so we are relatively protected. We're monitoring the market to find good moments for re-entry, and liquidity seems to be active. We did have some loss of liquidity in the beginning of the year, but the market seems to have re-established. And of course, with more criteria when we decide our contracts.
Regarding our second question on the expansion of investments in renewable projects, we continue analyzing the market, but of course, we're careful when investing in new greenfield projects, because right now it's very difficult to define the prices for the mid and long term. Our portfolio is well designed. We already have all of the contracts in place for the short and mid term, and this enables us to manage our portfolio really well, enabling us to sell energy only when really needed or when we are interested, when we have new renewable energy contracts on the cost of energy. We end up being fearful of new projects right now, because they are not really predictable, and so we monitor the market. We analyze projects that are well established and are easy to internalize here. But as a summary, we analyze the market. We have a pipeline.
We monitor the market. We have them well constructed so that we maintain our value.
Thank you, Taka. Now, with the next question from Ruan Aquino. He asks, what is the expectation of the company as to the efficiency of CapEx and the anticipated anticipation of the lot for transmission, which was overdue in 2024?
Well, Graúna is considered as an expressive anticipation, and we hope to be able to deliver it in our next reports. Rafa can complement this answer, but we do not usually give accurate anticipation dates. This is a bit strategic. Regarding CapEx efficiency, in general, it's not an element that we can change a lot, as regulated by ANEEL. Our strategy is to have simple use. We do it with some partners so that we do not have higher costs during construction, or we have top-tier partners so that the execution is smooth.
We want to be competitive. It's important to highlight, Taka, that we also have a lot of synergies in this project. We have Gralha Azul, and we are considering that this is going to generate a relevant amount for the development of new projects.
Our next question is by Joon Young , and he would like to ask us to comment on the curtailment expectation for the year, with discussions on the report for RAP and what are ENGIE's contributions on this topic.
Structurally and physically, we have modest new transmission additions. There is nothing relevant here, but on the other hand, we have more offers, but we will continue selling 10% on average per year. Nothing really different from that. But of course, the stratification is significant depending on the portfolio that you're analyzing.
We also take into account wind and solar energy generation, and we imagine something very similar for 2024 and 2025, and eventually, things worsen a little with the main transmissions for this energy block and in the area of generation for the northeast and center and south. There was another part of the question. I hope I have answered it. I don't really remember what it was. Well, I'm going to go back to the question quickly about repayment. We understand that there are different elements here. The first one, and perhaps the main one, is the aversion to risk. Without getting into the merits of the reasons, the fact is that curtailment goes up significantly because of the higher aversion of the operator to risk. Also, the planning of transmission and the end consumer, because these are elements that we cannot anticipate.
This is the main factor, I would say. Ok, [Foreign language]
Our next question is by two investors on TAG. I will combine the two questions because they are very similar ones by Herbert, and the first one is, and the other one by Valdir. Do you consider the sales of part of TAG positive since it has been having good profits, even with a lower participation? And now, what are the new investments that you are making with the resources from TAG?
Well, we had close to EUR 10 billion, and naturally, when at the end of 2023, we realized that partial divestment seemed feasible for our CapEx in 2024. So when we made the decision to sell part of it, of course, the resources were allocated for other projects under construction, like Assú Sol.
These investments naturally already had their decision cycle made in previous years, so it wasn't like we used TAG's proceeds in any new project. This is part of a strategy of our funding for the CapEx in 2024. We went to the market to access infrastructure development banks to be part of this strategy. This is connected to the next question by Valdir. Why will the TAG's sale gain not be distributed? The effect of TAG would be diluted, and we, in fact, used this money, all of the money obtained from the sales to be part of our strategy for the CapEx last year.
Also, to address the end of Herbert's question, how are the new investments going, the ones that are funded using TAG proceeds? We presented this during the presentation, and Takamori commented about it.
We can see the results with the earlier operation of Assú, Assú Sol, anticipated operations, and so we did not have to buy energy from third parties, and therefore we are generating values with that. We know that the implementation of a new project takes two to three years, and initially, we carry the weight of the debt to have the funding, and then when the projects start operating, you start deleveraging and waiting for new assets. I think we can move on to the next question.
So we have a question by Wiln ey Silva. He would like to know what the company anticipates for the leveraging and if it will be equal or higher than three times the net debt or add to that with an increase of interest rates. Would that have an impact on the company?
Of course, we analyze leveraging, and the maximum leveraging is 3.5x EBITDA, which is very expensive for us. We could reach this level. Right now, we don't think that we will reach 3.5 times, but of course, this is our leverage roof. Throughout this cycle, we will have other debts, and so our initial index is likely to surpass three times in the half of the year or more towards the end of the year. That's part of our strategy already, and it's a way for us to balance out so that we can continue paying 55%. To do this, we will not reach more than 3.5x our EBITDA. We do not see it as a problem. Of course, we will suffer with interest rates a little bit and CDI and Selic, but it's all as expected, and it's part of the game.
Thank you, Takamori. We've reached the end of our call. We have received other questions, which will be addressed directly with the participants, and I now turn back to Takamori and Rafa for their final considerations.
It was a pleasure to have you all here at our call. We will wrap up. It's been very gratifying with the start of new projects, and we have a lot ahead of us. Thank you very much.
And as Adriana said, we are available to support you. Please count on our IR team. Just contact us if you need any further information, and thank you very much, and we'll see you next time.
ENGIE Brasil Energia video conference is now over. We thank you all for your participation and wish you a good.