Good morning, ladies, and gentlemen, and welcome to the Audio Conference Call for Embraer's Financial Results for the Third Quarter of 2023. Thank you for standing by. The numbers of this presentation contain non-GAAP financial information to facilitate investors to reconcile Eve's financial information in GAAP standard to Embraer's IFRS. We remind that Eve's results will be discussed on Eve's conference. It is important to mention that all numbers are presented in U.S. dollar, as it is our functional currency. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions to participate will be given at the time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. This conference call includes forward-looking statements or statements about events or circumstances which have not occurred.
Embraer has based these forward-looking statements largely on its current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends affecting the business and its future financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including, among other things, general economic, political, and business conditions in Brazil and in other markets where the Company is present. The words "believes," "may," "will," "estimates," "continues," "anticipates," "intends," "expects," and similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Embraer undertakes no obligations to update, publicly revise any forward-looking statements because of new information, future events, and other factors. In light of these risks and uncertainties, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed on this conference call might not occur. The Company's actual results could differ substantially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements.
Participants on today's conference call are Francisco Gomes Neto, President and CEO, Antonio Carlos Garcia, Chief Financial Officer, and Leonardo Shinohara, Director of Investor Relations. I would like now to turn the conference over to Francisco, who will proceed with the first remarks. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you all for joining our Third Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call today. Firm order backlog ended at $17.8 billion, a $500 million increase versus the second quarter, with 42 commercial aircraft sold by September. This quarter was marked by an excellent sales momentum and double-digit revenue growth in all business units. EBIT and free cash flow are in line with our expectations. We concluded our reliability management process, placing Embraer in an excellent cash position with the extension of our debt maturity, with no relevant disbursement until mid-2027. On the other hand, we are still facing some challenges in our supply chain, and Embraer has been diligently working with its suppliers to mitigate these issues. Our operational and financial guidance for the year remain unchanged. On the next slides, we present the highlights of our business units.
Commercial Aviation delivered a total of 39 aircraft during 2023, of which 21 are E2, 3 x more than the same period in 2022. Commercial Aviation backlog rose to $8.6 billion compared to the second quarter 2023, with a Book-to-Bill of 1:1, highlighting sales stability in deliveries this year. It is also important to mention that there are many ongoing sales campaigns. In the U.S. market, we had several firm orders coming from main customers of E175-E1 jets. This is an important highlight because it shows that the pilot shortage situation is improving in the U.S. Another important deal was with Luxembourg-based airline, Luxair. The E195-E2 aircraft will complement Luxair's narrow-body fleet. In Executive Aviation, revenue increased 25% year-over-year, and EBIT margin improved 2.1%.
The business unit delivered 28 jets, representing an increase of five aircraft compared to Q3 2022. The business continues its outstanding performance with sustained demand across its entire product portfolio and a strong customer acceptance in both retail and fleet markets. Backlog grew 10% year-over-year, reaching $4.3 billion in a Book-to-Bill of 1.5:1. In Defense, Austria and Czech Republic announced the selection of the C-390 Millennium as their tactical military transport aircraft. Last year, Netherlands had also announced the selection of the C-390, which consolidates the multi-mission platform as a preferred solution in NATO countries. These potential contracts represent a new phase for defense and a significant growth potential for our backlog. In October, the first Portuguese Air Force KC-390 has entered into service. This is the first KC-390 to enter into service outside Brazil.
Also in October, we celebrated with the Brazilian Air Force, the KC-390 milestone of 10,000 flight hours, attesting the aircraft's remarkable performance and its versatility and capacity in different areas of operation. Finally, the year-to-date EBIT margin defense is 7.2%, and the quarter margin improvement occurred with the contract adjustments for the KC-390 and the physical progress of the program. We emphasize that these adjustments were punctual, and for the next quarter, we expect business margin to normalize. In Service and Support, our revenue has increased by 24% year-over-year to $366 million. We recorded a consistent double-digit EBIT margin year-to-date. Another highlight was the backlog increase of $2.8 billion in the quarter, the highest value ever recorded in this business unit.
Embraer Service and Support has reinforced its role as one of the main drivers of growth for the next years. I will now hand it over to Antonio to give you further details on the financial results, and we'll be back with closing remarks.
Thank you, Francisco, and good morning, everyone. Indeed, we have an excellent quarter with financial and operational indicators aligned with our projections for 2023. Moving to slide seven, we have good news about deliveries. In the third quarter, Embraer delivered 43 jets, 15 commercial, and 28 executive, representing an increase of 30% compared to the same period last year, and 33% higher year- to- date. The highlight is commercial aviation, representing a robust growth, with deliveries rising from 10 to 15, an increase of 50% on year-over-year basis. In executive aviation, deliveries also increased in the quarter, 19 light and nine mid-size jets, 22% higher than third quarter 2022. We have a challenge ahead of us in Q4 deliveries, but as we already demonstrated last year, we are prepared for this.
As a result, we are confirming the delivery outlook in our commercial and executive business for 2023. In slide eight, backlog. Our firm order backlog ended the quarter at $17.8 billion, the highest backlog in one year. The quality of orders in our backlog is accretive with Embraer's profitability expectation. In commercial aviation, total backlog increased from 271 aircraft to 291 aircraft, quarter-over-quarter. In executive aviation, we see a resilient backlog with annual Book-to-Bill of 1.5:1, one of the highest in the industry currently. The business continues to experience a strong growth with a solid demand for the entire portfolio. Service and support backlog reached its record, reflecting the extension and increase in the pool parts contracts.
As a result of our excellent performance, we ended the quarter with approximately $1.3 billion of net revenue, 38% higher year-over-year. Revenue year- to- date exceeded $3 billion, which represents a figure of 29% higher year-over-year. We had an increase in revenue in all of our business units, which shows Embraer potential for a sustainable growth. In slide nine. In the third quarter, we had an excellent performance in terms of Adjusted EBIT and EBITDA, with $100 million and $149 million, respectively. Adjusted EBIT and EBITDA margins of 7.8% and 11.6%, respectively, also shows a strong growth, mainly due to the higher revenue in all business unit and stable cost base. We are reaffirming our Adjusted EBIT and EBITDA margin projections for 2023.
In slide 10, we had the free cash flow generation, excluding Eve of $44 million in the third quarter, significantly higher year-over-year, with a stable working capital. This upward trend indicate a substantial positive cash generation for the next quarter, in line with higher deliveries, so we are very confident that we will reach the free cash flow guidance of $150 million or more.... Moving to investments. $45 million were allocated to R&D and $30 million to CapEx, resulting in $75 million invested in the third quarter. Capital allocation is focused on the segments with higher returns, with priority such as expansion of our production capacity in executive aviation and service and support. Some words about Eve. The program has reached the necessary milestones to begin capitalizing its product development costs on IFRS rules.
Adjusted net results were $33 million, an increase of 34% compared to third quarter 2022. Reported net income was positively impacted by non-cash mark-to-market of Eve warrants of $24 million, on an adjusted net margin of 2.6%, remaining stable compared to the third quarter 2022. In slide 11. In this slide, we are pleased to show the result of our liability management plan. We reduced our debts in $632 million compared to the second quarter 2023. We increased the average debt maturity to 4.8 years, leaving Embraer in a comfortable position, where liquidity of $2.4 billion with Eve allow us to cover all obligation until 2030. In the quarter, our net debt, excluding Eve, is $1.357 billion, as shown in the top center of the slide.
This is slightly lower than last quarter due to the better cash generation. Our leverage ratio shown in the top right corner is 2.5 x, a significant improvement compared to 4.8 x in the same period of last year. It's important to highlight that the positive results of our business unit allowed us to successfully execute our liability management plan. We are taking all necessary steps to recover the investment grade status. With that, I conclude my presentation and hand it back to Francisco for his final remarks. Thanks for your attention.
Thanks, Antonio. The Q3 results were very satisfactory and met our expectations. Our products are experiencing a very favorable moment in the market, with several important campaigns ongoing and aircraft slots on the production lines practically filled until 2025. We know we have a challenge ahead in terms of deliveries. Therefore, we can expect an intense Q4, mainly due to supply chain constraints. In line with our guidance, we expect 20% revenue growth this year compared to last year. We are confident that this is the harvesting time for everything we have done in recent years, and that we are on the right path to a sustainable growth with even more robust financial results in this and future years. Thanks again for your interest and confidence in our company.
We will now start the question- and- answer session. We ask who is interested in asking questions. At anytime, press star one. Wait to be called, and when your name is announced, make sure your microphone is on and start your question. To remove your question from the queue, press star two. Participants connected through the webcast platform may post their questions via chat in the question bar. If you wish to make your questions by voice, you have the option to connect by phone or open your audio, pressing the button below the video and slide screen. Our first question comes from Noah Poponak, Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.
Hey, good morning, everyone.
Morning, Noah.
Just on demand and commercial, it's been a few quarters now that you've been discussing pretty heavy campaigning activity, but it's also been a few quarters in a row where the actual signed orders have been relatively tepid. Is there something holding those discussions back or making them take longer than expected? Or is it really sort of more normal course of order? And you know, I guess, what do you think can happen before year end versus maybe what orders look like in 2024?
Hi, Noah. Francisco speaking. Thanks for the question. Well, actually, yes, it's take a little longer than we expected, but we were working in many sales campaigns, so we expect to close some deals still in Q4 this year and see a Book-to-Bill above 1:1. So it's 1:1 in the Q3, but we expect to be above 1:1 until the end of the year.
Okay. And just as a follow-up, the margin in the segment has been, you know, somewhat volatile, I guess, quarter- to- quarter and below where you want it to be longer term. How should we think about how that margin progresses into next year? Does pricing in the backlog improve enough, quickly enough for that margin to have a decent amount of expansion next year? Or is the margin you've talked about that segment getting to longer term further out than next year?
Hello, Antonio speaking here. Thanks for the question. In regards to the EBIT margin for the segment, we do see this year a lower single digit. Moving to the next year, a little bit better, I would say. It's still lower single digit, but something like 3%-4%. And what you see in long term, what we are promising to the market without services, a mid-single digit margin for the long term. That's more or less what we are seeing right now, highly driven by the direction of fixed costs. And I would say the price point is not moving up as we would expect, because we are very active in the two campaigns, I would say, which has much more pressure on the price point. But I would say normalized mid-single digit for the long term.
Okay. Thanks so much. I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Cai von Rumohr, TD Cowen. Please proceed.
Thank you very much, and good results. So maybe talk a little bit about the order mix. It looks like you, you know, you did particularly well on the E175. The margins were pretty good, even though there were fewer E175s. I know the mix has favored the E175 as much more profitable. Can you discuss first, what the outlook is for E175 orders as a % of the total going forward? What the mix is likely to be next year, E175 versus E2, and how the E2 is doing in terms of profitability?
Hello, Cai. Well, I mean, the participation of E2 is growing as we expected. So, for the following years, we expect, you know, to be 60/40. 60% E2s and still 40% E1s, which we believe is a, it's a healthy mix for the commercial aviation, considering the margins as, as you mentioned before.
Okay. And then, you know, you've done well in terms of KC-390 selections. When should we expect the orders? How big would you expect the orders to be, and what should we look for in terms of delivery prognosis going forward?
Oh, well, I mean, we saw the announcement of Netherlands in 2022 for five KCs, and more recently from Austria and Czech Republic. So as Austria, I mean, also announced that they want to join Netherlands in this in the same contract. We expect to close, you know, those contracts by, you know, beginning of 2024. And they are... They'll be very important. It's a very important moment for our defense business. With those contracts, we'll be able to more than double the backlog of defense, which will be very important for the performance of the business unit. And we are still working in other campaigns.
You know, we are expecting a decision from South Korea, now still for this year, in a bid we are participating, so, and many other campaigns as well. So we believe it is a good moment for defense.
When you said you have five for the Netherlands, how many would that total be when Austria joins and when Czech joins? Any sense in terms of the size of the South Korean order and, you know, what's the expected build in terms of deliveries?
Well, if you combine Netherlands, Austria, and Czech Republic, we are talking about at least 11 aircraft and three from South Korea.
Okay. How does that delivery build?
Well, the deliveries will start, you know, in 24-30 months from the signing of the contract, more or less. That means 2025 onwards.
Okay. Excellent. Thank you very much.
No, thank you for the questions.
Thanks, Cai.
Our next question comes from Myles Walton, Wolfe Research.
Thanks. Good morning. Maybe to just follow up on Cai's last question, Francisco, when you're at, you know, a cadence of, I guess, three, three per year, four per year on the KC-390, what's the anticipated margin profile of defense?
Well, I mean, the defense will be a higher single digits, closer to two digits with those contracts.
... Okay. Okay, good. I was hoping you could maybe dig a little bit deeper on the supply chain into Q4. Are you seeing the same challenges on the commercial side as you are on the executive side, or are they different in nature? Are some of them large structures, or some of them engines, or some of them small piece parts? I'm just trying to understand if you're facing the exact same problem on both sides or if they're pretty unique.
So, first of all, I think it's important to mention that, we have seen improvements in the supply chain from 2022 to 2023 in many, with many suppliers. But we still have challenges, as you mentioned. So they are... They're not necessarily the same. When we talk about the engines, yes, we have challenges in both sides, but other components are not the same. But, I mean, we believe that, even with the challenges, I mean, we'll be at the lower end of our guidance in terms of deliveries in this year, Myles.
Okay. Okay, and then one last one. The GTF issue and the accelerated inspection and replacement on their powdered metal. Can you comment as it relates to effects you're seeing on your E2 fleet or you expect on your E2 fleet? And then also with respect to OGMA, what's the kind of revenue opportunity from the OGMA MRO opportunity for the GTF?
Oh, absolutely. Well, first, I mean, there's no inspection planned for GTF E2 in E2 this year, 2023. Pratt & Whitney announced recently that the E2s will be less impacted because, you know, the aircraft arrived later in the market with a more mature configuration of the engines, and also the aircraft is lighter than the other models. So this puts the E2 in a E2 is they are not immune of the issues, but it puts the E2s in a, in a, I'd say, in a better situation in terms of performance for our customers. And the Pratt & Whitney is still working in this inspection inspection schedule for the E2s, you know, related to the powder metal issue. The other question was?
OGMA and your opportunity-
Yes, okay.
Revenue.
OGMA is moving very fast. I mean, in preparation for the SOP of the GTF engines that is planned for April 2024, and that is, it's a very important contract for OGMA that will help OGMA to triple its revenues in the, you know, in the next two or three years.
Very good. Thanks, Francisco. Thanks-
You're welcome.
Myles.
Our next question comes from Filipe Nielsen, Citi. Please proceed.
Hi, guys. Good morning, thanks for taking my question, and congrats on the results. I have two on my side. The first one, if you're seeing any relief or possible relief in terms of scope clauses in the U.S. As you mentioned, several campaigns going forward. And the second one is, how do you expect to close the free cash flow gap to reach the 2023 guidance that you gave? Like, I saw that you still have cash burn for nine months, and you maintain your guidance of free cash flow, a generation of $150 million. So just wanted to hear your thoughts, how do you expect to get there? Thanks.
Filipe, thanks for the question. First, related to the scope clause, we don't see any movements to change the scope clause. But, to be honest, we don't see really an impact for Embraer. So I mean, our E175 E1 is the, you know, is the workhorse of regional aviation in the U.S., and now with improvements, we are seeing the pilot situation. This will open the door for more sales of the E175/E1s in the U.S.
In parallel, we are working with the main allies in the U.S., you know, to convince them to introduce the E2s, the E195-E2s, to complement the big narrow bodies, you know, in order to offer, you know, higher frequency of flights to passengers, in order to explore new routes in a very attractive cost benefit with the E-1s, E195-E2s. So related to the margin, now I ask Antonio to help here.
Cash flow.
Cash flow, yes.
Filipe, good morning. Filipe, the cash flow, to be honest, is the... I would say, where we do see much more potential to be, to have some upside than downside. For sure, if you ask me today, we are negative, but assuming that the 40% of the whole business is going to be done in Q4, we are going to deliver more than $2 billion in revenue, and get the cash inflow and some of those parts you are even not able to pay in advance. That's why we do see more concentration on cash inflow in Q4 and less cash outflows, combined with the reduction of the inventories. That's more or less where we do see the cash flow going, and we also have M&A that we just closed.
It was announced last Friday, with also a cash inflow of $45 million, which helps the equation to be, I would say, highly positive for the year.
Thanks very much, guys.
Our next question comes from Kristine Liwag, Morgan Stanley.
Hey, good morning, Antonio. Good morning, Francisco.
Morning.
Morning, Kris.
You know, 4Q 2023, you know, 4Q is historically seasonally strong for deliveries. So first, how is the supply chain executing for you to feel confident that you could deliver on your expected, customer deliveries in 4Q? And also, on looking at the midpoint of your 2023 EBIT, margin guide for the year, 4Q would have to be around 9.6% in EBIT. So based on execution of what you've seen so far and availability of parts, how confident are you at meeting this?
Okay, Kristine, I'll start with the deliveries in Q4, then Antonio will complement with the EBIT. I mean, we have been working very closely with our suppliers in order, you know, to mitigate the issues. We are getting the parts, but we are getting some parts late. So this puts a pressure on our production process, you know, not only production process, but the delivery process as well, right? As we move to the right, more to December, and that's a more difficult month. But we are still confident that we will be at the lower end of our guidance in terms of delivery, and even more confident that we will deliver the financial results in the guides for the year. So Antonio?
So Kristine, good morning. Antonio speaking here. Thanks for the question. In regards to the EBIT side, we do math every single day, but one important point here, we are going to deliver, if you reach the low end of the guidance for the executive aviation, we are going to deliver more than 50 aircraft. And it's there where we do see the highest EBIT come in together with the services side, and I would say, that's more or less what the margin should bring us. We are seeing today the EBIT and EBITDA margin, the mid-range of the guidance, to be more precise.
Thank you. And then also taking a step back, you know, Francisco and Antonio, the destabilization of the business after COVID-19 and, you know, after the breakup with Boeing too, I mean, it's very clear that the company is now in a harvest period. So with the balance sheet in a pretty strong place, there's no significant maturities in the next few years, how do we think about capital deployment priorities for 2024 and beyond? So are you thinking of potentially another new airplane launch, or is this a period where shareholders could get incremental return, either through dividends or buybacks? How do you think about those priorities? And maybe that's a more appropriate question for your investor day, but I thought, you know, I'll just start off with that.
Thanks, Kristine. Good, good, good question. So, that allows me to bring you even more information about that. Well, after everything we have done in the past years in terms of, you know, restructuring the company, putting in place, initiatives to, you know, to foster sales, also to improve efficiency and foster innovation in the organization, we believe now we are in our, harvest season, right? As the market is growing, and then we enjoy this growth and improve our operational and financial performance. So combined with that, we have a very modern and competitive portfolio of products in all the business units we act on. So the E2 family, you know, the Phenoms, the Praetors, the C-390.
So that we are enjoying a very good momentum in terms of sales for all those, all those segments. So what we want to do is, you know, in the-- is to focus, especially in 2024 and 2025, to focus on improving further our financial performance. We expect to start to pay dividends in 2025 onwards. So and then, now, in parallel, we are investing on developing new technologies to be prepared, you know, by 2025, to decide what, what we are going to do going forward. So but remember that we are investing on the eVTOL, to develop the eVTOL together with Eve. We are also investing, as I said, in new technologies, you know, to prepare the-...
They studied of our future airplanes and also in the Energia family, you know, to explore disruptive propulsion systems, as you know, electric hybrid, electric, and hydrogen hybrid. This is more or less the our strategy going forward. Again, focus on further improving the financial performance in 2024, 2025. I mean, continuing I mean, selling the current portfolio of products and continuing investing on new technologies and innovation to prepare, you know, new new projects in the future.
Great. Thank you for the color, and looking forward to seeing you guys in New York in two weeks.
Yeah, same from our side. See you there!
Our next question comes from Ron Epstein, Bank of America.
Hey, good morning, guys. We've covered a lot on the call so far, but maybe if we just kind of go back, I think it was Noah who asked a question about campaigns. If we can dig down a little bit deeper on that, is there any more color you can give us on that? And how you're thinking, you know, campaigns could go through the end of this year, maybe into next year, and what that translates into, into a like a... What's like a normalized delivery rate for the E-Jets? You know, when we think about, you know, building our models, when we go out a couple of years, what should we think that the company can get to on E-Jets from here?
Hi, Ron. Again, thanks again for your question. I mean, in terms of campaigns for commercial aviation, we, as I said before, we are working in many different campaigns, you know, big names in different regions, I mean, Europe, Asia-Pacific. Also, we are starting to offer the E2s in the U.S. as well. I think it's becoming more and more clear that the E195-E2 is not only a regional jet as the E190s, E175-E1s, right? I mean, it's a bigger airplane that can help a lot the airlines, you know, to operate very profitably in routes with less passengers.
As, for example, Azul is doing in Brazil, as KLM is doing in Europe, and, you know, and Scoot and SKS, they have the same plans for Asia. So... And we believe that more and more the airlines are understanding this, and we see a lot of good opportunities for the E2s, I mean, going forward in the market. So in terms of deliveries, Ron, you know, we still have a limitation with the engines, but we are confident that we combine E2s and the E1s. We will be, you know, at above 8 units in 2024 and reaching 100 units in 2025 and years ahead.
So again, if you go, you know, above 100 units, 110 units, we'll be basically back to the levels, pre-pandemic levels, but with a different mix. Now, we have much more E2s that, you know, is more expensive. So in terms of revenues, we will see a revenue—we see a much higher revenue than in the past with the same quantity of delivered aircraft. So this is more or less the situation. To answer your question, I mean, we are optimistic with the campaigns we are working on. We are optimistic with the opportunity to introduce the E2s in the U.S. as well. By the way, I mean, very soon, the...
We will see the E195-E2s from Porter flying to big cities in the U.S., you know, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Orlando, Miami, and this will be a great showcase of our aircraft. We believe people will love to fly in a very efficient aircraft without middle seats, and this will open up opportunities for that aircraft in North America. To finalize my comments, you know, with the improvement in the pilot shortage, this also open opportunities for renewing, for the company to renew the fleet of the E1s, which now has more better margins. It can help us with the performance of our commercial aviation.
And then going forward, are there opportunities to upgrade the E2 platform itself without having to do a new aircraft? I mean, it's a relatively new airplane anyway. Are there ways to upgrade it, that you could play with the engine or do other aerodynamic tweaks to the airplane to get more out of the platform?
Well, we are continuing to invest in and improve the competitiveness of the E2s. I mean, with improvements in the aircraft, we are also converting the E190-E1s into freighters, so the first one has already the door installed, and it looks very nice. So we believe it's a good opportunity for us to introduce this cargo to help the commercial aviation as well. So again, these are things we are doing, and we believe, you know, that going above 80 units next year and above 100 units from 2025 onwards, this will help a lot to improve the financial performance of commercial aviation as well. And the service will come, it will grow because of that as well, right?
More aircraft, more service as well.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Ron.
Thank you, Ron.
Our next question comes from Marcelo Motta, JP Morgan.
Hi, everyone, good morning. It's a question regarding next year. You know, the supply chain remain challenging, but you mentioned that you can increase the level of deliveries on the commercial. So just wondering, what will you see in terms of the executive, the defense? I mean, do you think it could be growing again, double-digit rate on top line? You know, what will be the outlook for the different lines of business of the company? Thank you.
Marcelo, thank you. I mean, yes, I mean, next year will still be challenged in the supply chain and with specific parts, but again, improving from 2023, situation. So we, we, we are growing. I mean, we are planning to grow double digits in, in all business units we have. So we are growing this year, 2023, compared to 2022. We are growing, you know, more than 20%, and we expect to keep the same path, I mean, going to 2024, and, also keeping important growth in, in the years ahead. So... And, and again, we are working very closely with our supply, our supply chain, with our suppliers, and to make sure that, we will have the parts we need, you know, for, you know, to support this growth.
Also, what we want to do in 2024 is to improve the distribution of the production deliveries throughout the year. We have initiative we call production leveling that we want to avoid this concentration of production in the second half of the year and see a better distribution throughout the year. It's still a challenging in the Q1 next year, but we are working very hard since now in order to improve our production deliveries in 2024.
Perfect. Super clear. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Andre Ferreira, Bradesco BBI.
Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I have two questions. The first, I was wondering if you could give us an update on how the partnership with L3Harris for the Agile Tanker is developing. And, the second question, you mentioned in a previous question about the countries that are selecting the C-390. But if you could comment a bit on the potential talks with the Indian government a few months back, if you could give us a bit more detail on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Andre. Well, I mean, partnership with L3Harris is moving. We, you know, we see the C-390 a great solution for the U.S. Air Force. And the first opportunity we found was the tanker we call Agile Tanker. And this is what this partnership with L3Harris is for, right? To work with the U.S. Air Force, you know, to offer the C-390 as an Agile Tanker. But we want also to offer the C-390 for other missions, right? I mean, so we are reinforcing our team in the U.S. as well. We recently announced a new vice president of sales for the U.S. to support L3 and support the potential future sales of C-390 in that country. That is the biggest defense market in the world.
So, the C-390, again, other countries, I mean, we are very happy with the announcement of Netherlands 2022, and now more recently, Austria and Czech Republic. I mean, that makes the C-390 the preferred solution for this multi-mission platform for the NATO countries. So we expect to close those contracts, you know, during the first half of 2024. In India, you know, we are working in India now to select a partner, that will be our partner to localize the production, the assembling of the C-390, to be compliant with the specification of this Indian Air Force. They want to buy, you know, between 40-80 multi-mission aircraft, and we do believe that the C-390 is the best solution for them. We want to be prepared to compete-...
For that, we need to select a partner. This is where we are in terms of India, specifically for the C-390.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Noah Poponak, Goldman Sachs.
Hey, guys. The GTF services business that you're going to layer in, remind me how large that gets on an annual run rate basis once it's at its run rate level, and then also, what does the margin look like on that work?
Hi, Noah, it's Antonio speaking. I would say when the project is mature, we are foreseeing a revenue size of $500 million for our company in Portugal. If that was the right question to answer you, we need to see in terms of size something like $500 million. Not next year, next year will be around $50 million, something like that, but in the longer run, $500 million.
Total company.
Total company.
Yeah. That starts-
2025 .
When will that first start to hit your financials? Late next year?
We started to already the repairs in April next year.
Yeah, we, we have a ramp-up curve, but we'll see some growth in OGMA's revenue already in 2024, as Antonio said. But in 2025, we, we believe OGMA will be closer to $500 million in terms of revenue. And growing-
Okay
In the years ahead as well.
Okay.
That's a bit of positive collateral effect for the GTF issues.
Okay.
Trust.
How does the margin on that revenue compare to the existing services segment margin?
It's higher single digits, Noah.
High single digits?
Yes. Yeah, the same we have with other OEMs, like Rolls-Royce, for example.
Okay. Antonio, I think last quarter you had guided to the defense segment having $600 million of revenue this year. Is that large of a fourth quarter still the plan?
That's more or less what we are expecting for sure. We need one campaign to be able to fulfill. I would say maybe we are going to lose $100 million, maybe, but it does not jeopardize our EBIT margin. But we are just hanging one sales campaign that we hope to be closed to end of this year because we do have some aircraft in inventory, especially for the Super Tucanos. That's more or less what I'm referring to.
Okay. And then I guess does the defense segment now just have, is it likely to have a pretty significant ramp up through the year in each year going forward? Or should I be thinking about the back half of this year being kind of the run rate moving forward? Or, and then I guess you have maybe some airplanes slipping into next year, I guess. How do you think next year compares to this year in defense revenue?
Next year, around $750, then moving onwards to $1 billion on the long range.
Okay.
With all of these new orders, for sure. Noah, we do have—I would say—a potential backlog of more than $2 billion with this contract that has been already announced. We needed to conclude them in order to put in the backlog, then we could have a much more visibility in regards to the split between 2024, 2025, and 2026. But I would say in the longer run, we do see defense around $1 billion revenue and higher single-digit EBIT margin.
Okay. All right, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Thanks, Noah.
Thank you. We have a new question, comes from Cai von Rumohr, TD Cowen. Please proceed.
Thanks so much. This will be quick. So this is the first quarter in the last couple I haven't heard any talk about selling E2s to China. How do things look there?
Okay, thanks for the question. Well, by the way, our commercial team is in China now. We will have tomorrow a special event to talk about regional aviation in China, you know, to explore the connectivity and so on. So this is another movement of Embraer in China, you know, to show how effective could be the introduction of E2s for the regional aviation, complementing, you know, the local aircraft. We are still working with local airlines for the introduction of E2s and also for potential partnerships. So this is what I can tell you at this point of time.
Thank you.
Thanks, Cai.
Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes today's question and answer session. That does conclude Embraer's audio conference for today. Thank you very much for your participation. Have a good day.