Good morning one and all, and welcome to EZTEC Results Presentation for the Fourth Quarter of 2021. Please note that this call is being recorded and all the participants are in listening only mode. By the end of the presentation, we will begin a Q&A session when further instruction will be given. In case any of you may need any assistance over the call, please let us know through the chat box. In case you have any connection issue, you may reuse the same web link or ID to return to the presentation. You may find that link and ID as well as the slides for this presentation at our website ir.eztec.com.br.
Before we start, we'd like to mention that any statements during this call pertaining to EZTEC business projections, operational and financial targets are based on management beliefs and premises, as well as only currently available information. Further consideration do not constitute an assurance of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and premises. Investors may take into account that general economic conditions, industry or operational circumstances may ultimately affect EZTEC future performance.
They may cause the company results to differ materially from those expressed in those forward statements. Now, I would like to present myself. I am Pedro Lourenço, IR coordinator, and here with me in the room there is Mr. Emilio Fugazza, our CFO and Investor Relations Officer, who will further talk about the financial figures in this presentation. Now, moving forward, I would like to start in the third slide, where we're gonna start talking about the launches of 2021. Here we will be able to see that we launched something close to BRL 1.9 billion in PSV.
Talking about the more recent launches, the main spotlight is on Unique Guarulhos, our phase I that we launched in the last quarter. A project that is something close to BRL 367 million, 100% EZTEC, in which you'll be able to see that is already 52% sold. Along with, we launched another project that is split in several phases. That is in Osasco, a project that is only BRL 41 million EZTEC, 60% EZTEC, and it is 18% sold.
At the bottom of the chart of the slide, you'll be able to see all the other launches that we made across the previous year. Moving forward to the slide number four, to our operational performance. I'd like to highlight the chart that is in our left, that is showing you the launches and the sales in terms of PSV. You'll be able to see that the majority of our sales, the majority of our launches that we made, that BRL 1.9 billion that I just talked about, we only sold BRL 400 million of them. This is the main challenge that we are carrying with this new year of 2022.
To be able to to address all of this inventory under construction that has been made in the last year. Now, going to the right part of the slide, I would like to emphasize about our cancellations. In 2021, we had BRL 127 million in terms of cancellation, an average something close to BRL 30 million and BRL 40 million per quarter. This volume of cancellation is very close, very near to BRL 126 million in cancellation that we saw in 2020. The company was able to maintain the same amount of cancellation despite all the challenges and errors that occurred in the last year.
Even when we talk about the net sales, you will be able to see that we kind of maintained the same amount that we have done in 2021. Now in 2021, making something close to BRL 1.2 billion in net sales. Moving to the slide number five, let's start talking about the land bank. Here we'll be able to see how our land banks changed across the last quarter. You'll see that it kinda maintained the same amount that we had in the third quarter.
Despite almost BRL 500 million that we had in launches, we had some changes in property here, specifically the indexation by INCC that is correct in our lands, in our land bank, as of the fourth quarter of 2021 at BRL 11 billion in our land bank. Alongside it, we have options with cancellation costs that is in something close to BRL 2.6 billion. Our land bank for the future is something close to BRL 14 billion. In the bottom part of the slide, you will see that the majority of this land is well located in the south zone of São Paulo, so close to BRL 7 billion of these BRL 11 billion in the bank is located here in this noble part of the city where we focus the majority of our recent launches.
In the chart at your left, you'll be able to see that something close to BRL 5 billion is middle and high-end project with the brand EZTEC, BRL 2.6 billion inside of our low-end project, our economic projects that is attached to our brand Fit Casa, and BRL 3.8 billion, something close to BRL 4 billion inside our EZ vehicle , our vehicle for commercial for the commercial segment.
Now, talking about the inventory, you can see in the chart at your left, the dispersion, the original dispersion of our inventory. Then you see that the majority of it is concentrated in the south zone of São Paulo, 72% of it, and in Guarulhos, in the São Paulo metropolitan region, 11% of it. Talk about the segment and dispersion by it, we can see that there is this red part in the chart that correspond to the commercial inventory that the company is currently carrying. It's important to point that the majority of this commercial inventory is already rented. So it's giving some renting revenue for the company.
In the chart in the middle below is where we will be able to see more clear our inventory under construction and how we made this challenge to go across this 2022 year. The majority of our inventory is not ready, so only 12% of it is ready units under our inventory. Something close to 60% of it is inventory that correspond to project that were launched or are under construction inside the city of São Paulo. Those are operational figures. I would like to pass now to Mr. Emilio Fugazza, who will start to talk about the financial performance of the company. Mr. Emilio.
Pedro, thank you so much. Let's go to page seven, Financial Performance Net Revenue. On top left of this slide, we're starting with BRL 958 million in 2021, was a little increment compared to 2020. Although within the quarters, in the first, second and third quarter was a growth compared to the same quarter 2020. 2021 fourth quarter was not good enough to improve or to keep the idea of net revenues growing this quarter. Specifically because we have been suffering a lot of increasing costs.
Only to bear in mind, when we talk about costs, it's important to understand that, for five quarters in a row, we have been adjusting our costs in our accountancy over 50% above the INCC index here in Brazil. Which means that the costs the company have been facing, specifically in the city of São Paulo, the projects with these shapes, with these designs we have been developing here in the city of São Paulo, it's a little bit different than the average projects from the INCC.
Which means that the gross margin of our company is specifically impacted from these increasing costs above INCC and plus the volume of sales from units not performing so far. Which means that when you think about the first three quarters of 2020, we saw coming from revenues a lot of units performed with gross margins above 50%. Specifically because they are from projects we delivered within 2019, 2020 or earlier than that.
Apart from that, it's important to mention that we have been facing a kind of thing in terms of construction costs that is completely different than we saw in 2010, a kind of year that we saw a spike in construction costs lasting almost one year that time. Nowadays it's a little bit different. The first impact from this cost was the mismatch we have been watching in the supply chain here in Brazil specifically. Apart from that, the commodity costs, steel, mainly steel.
The spike of steel cost was something around 200% in the last two years. Apart from that, nowadays, bad news coming from Europe, the war between Russia and Ukraine means that the supply chain is disorganized again. We don't know for sure what kind of impact can provide. The way we have been dealing with in our accountancy in terms of booking costs is something like that. We have been watching the exposure we can see and we have got from some kind of suppliers, some kind of materials.
As we got something around 30 sites under construction in the city of São Paulo, we can understand what is happening in one of them and trying to understand what that kind of specific impact can be seen in the others' sites of construction. Then we can book an adjustment over those costs. That's why, although we have been watching an increment in gross margin from 43% in 2020 to 46% in 2021, the specific margin of the fourth quarter 2021 is below what we saw in the third quarter of 2021.
Saying that, talking about selling expenses, selling expenses is pretty much in line with what we saw in the past four years. The ratio between publicity and spends or the markup we have been doing over gross sales is pretty much 4%, which means in line with our main target for those expenses. In terms of G&A expenses, 2021 was BRL 113 million compared to BRL 105 million one year earlier, which means something around 7% increment, which is less than IPCA. IPCA last year was about 10%. We could manage those expenses in order to keep those in line.
Moving on to slide on page eight. Page eight can provide a quick glance about the financial results. Financial result was BRL 168 million, which means almost 40% of the total amount of net profit gained by this company in 2021, which was pretty much the same result of 2020. The composition, the breakdown of those are completely different. 2021, obviously, the key factor for this amount of positive financial result is our results coming from the portfolio of performance receivables.
Now, specifically in the second half of 2021, we saw great increments in terms of compensations over the cash this company has, as the basic interest rate in Brazil is coming from 2% at the beginning of this year to almost something around 11%. Nowadays, it's about 11.75%, which means that almost BRL 1 billion is impacted by this amount of interest rates gaining ground here in Brazil.
Another key factor for good results in 2021 was the equity income projects, which means that our projects we have been doing in partnerships both in the middle income segments and low income segments and the high income segment. 2021 was something around BRL 77 million. I would say that the highlight from this is the projects coming from the branch Minha Casa, Minha Vida, Fit Casa, the low-end program of our programs with the branch in EZTEC is Fit Casa. We have already delivered two projects from this branch.
In both the two projects we see a lot of our budgets incrementing the margins, the gross margins of the projects coming in from the equity income bracket. Let me highlight that the gross margin on the projects in the fourth quarter 2021 was about 44% above the general and the average gross margin of our company. Net profit came at BRL 430 million, an increment of BRL 25 million compared to 2020. Net margin of 45%, an increment of 2 percentage points, which is good enough given this scenario we have been passing through.
In terms of backlog results in the bottom, right side of this chart, you can see BRL 324 million of results to be recognized at a backlog margin of 42%. It's important to highlight here that this decrement of 3 percentage points in margin means that some projects are for very good margins above 45% were delivered up to the full quarter 2021, which means that all the revenues were recognized so far. Obviously, the average weight of those projects is partially responsible for this decrement in margins.
Apart from that, the projects recognized from launches in 2021 are projects that we can see margins coming, I would say below the average 45% we saw in 2020. Projects like Arkadio, for instance, they are projects in the middle high income segment in the south zone of São Paulo. You are gonna see coming in line with the average margin of gross margin of EZTEC at 45%. On the other hand, you can see Green Life Vila Prudente . Green Life Vila Prudente , as Pedro mentioned before, is a project on the east zone of São Paulo. Very good project, but so far the recognition of revenues are coming at a 38% gross margin.
On average is something to expect 42% gross margin. Apart from this fact, I would like to highlight another key factor in terms of gross margin and backlog margin, which means it's a proxy of gross margin in the next coming quarters.
We have payments in advance for the supply chain here in EZTEC, coming from BRL 20 million in 2020 to BRL 100 million in 2021, which means that the company has been doing a very good management in terms of trying to deal with these incremental costs by buying in advance a lot of materials, especially some kind of commodity materials in order to, I would say, avoid incremental costs. All those materials are stored within four, five pieces of land. We have been spread all over the city of São Paulo.
As we are a very great player here, big player here and holding more than 40 pieces of land, we have plenty of spaces to do something like that. Which means that BRL 100 million means something around one or two months of percentage of completion not recognized so far. Because when we pay materials in advance means that we have this disbursement of cash, and I am recognizing in my accountancy as payment in advance to the supply chain. But we are not recognizing as recognition of actual costs under construction to fulfill the percentage of completion in terms of recognizing revenues.
I think our mindset is to deal with these costs in order to keep the margins at historical levels for EZTEC, which means above 40%. Coming to slide number nine, the portfolio performance receivables. I would like to highlight here, we ended up that year at BRL 384 million. In terms of total amount of clients declined from 1,600 clients in 2020 to almost 1,000 clients in 2021. Meaning that BRL 622 million were payments in advance for them.
Clients specifically trying to migrate from EZTEC's financing project to the banks to take in commercial borrowing mortgages from the commercial banks specifically because we had on average 10.3% plus IGP, which was almost 33% at the full year of 2021 to the clients. The majority of the commercial banks on average provided something around 7%-8% all in interest rate to these clients. The clients with enough capability they could bring that contracts to the bank in order to save these increments of interest rates. That's not the kind of thing that we have been facing in the first two months of 2022.
On the other hand, we have been facing some incremental contracts coming to our portfolio specifically because the conditions, the commercial conditions to those clients are, I would say, getting a little bit worse for them. So it's highly expected to see the portfolio of performing receivables increasing by the end of this year, 2022. On page 10, the highlight is the financial performance of Fit Casa. Fit Casa, our, as I said before, is our branch for Casa Verde e Amarela, low-end product coming from the government, highly managed by Caixa Econômica Federal here in Brazil.
Fit Casa was responsible for 56.3% of gross margin at the full quarter 2021. On average, the whole year 2021 was 51.7% gross margin and net profit of BRL 68 million, which means that almost 15% of the whole amount of net profit coming from EZTEC, 15%, belongs to this branch. We have nowadays five projects under construction on this branch. Three of them in partnership, one in the city of São Paulo, one in the city of Osasco, the other one in the city of Guarulhos, in partnership with Cyrela and BP8. And two projects completely managed by EZTEC.
One is called Fit Casa Alto do Ipiranga, to be delivered by the end of this year, providing savings in our budget. The second one, we are beginning the construction of this project, which means Fit Casa José Bonifácio in the East Zone of the city of São Paulo. The big highlight of this slide obviously is the return on equity of Fit Casa's branch, which means 21.2% return on equity. The shareholders equity of this branch is about BRL 400 million. Moving on to page 11, talking about assets and liabilities coming from EZTEC.
Let me highlight the assets first. Firstly, the cash and equivalents coming to almost BRL 900 million, 23% of the total amount of equity in this company. The performance receivables from finished units, BRL 579 million. Let me remind you that I told you before, 380 are completely managed in our portfolio of performing receivables, which means that another BRL 200 million are receivables coming from projects that we have almost delivered.
Delivered in the fourth quarter or in the third quarter of 2021 are in the timeline for being sent to the banks to bring the contracts to the banks to transform these BRL 200 million of receivables into cash for our company in the next 2-3 months so far. Another kind I'd like to highlight is the cost of the ready inventory. As Mr. Pedro mentioned before, the total amount of the portfolio of units performed about BRL 500 million.
So far the cost of this inventory is about BRL 242 million, which means that the forecast for gross margin in this inventory is about 50%. Land bank, it's BRL 1.3 billion. One point three billion is compared to the BRL 11 billion Mr. Pedro Lourenço told you before at the slide of land bank. Which means that the ratio between cost and potential sales value can be something around 12%. Let me add that this 12% includes grants and CAPEX we have been booking in our land in order to increase the potential of the land.
All in all, the finished cost for this land bank at the end of 2021 was BRL 1.3 billion. In terms of liabilities, I would like to highlight BRL 102 million of dividends to be paid. The payable lands we got so far coming from this BRL 11 billion of potential sales value is about BRL 200 million. Comparing to the assets, BRL 1.3 billion in land bank, 200 means something around 15% of the total amount of the land bank to be paid in the next coming quarters. Let me say again, only BRL 23 million of debt.
Meaning that the total amount of debt that this company has been carrying the whole year of 2021 is about BRL 23 million for a total amount of shareholders equity of 4.2 billion reais. That's possible specifically because we saw in the last two years a lot of payments in advance coming from our clients. From this cash and equivalents you can see on the assets on the asset chart of BRL 900 million, something of around 40% belongs to the projects. Meaning that they are we have deposits specifically from each project under construction right now.
I have to use this amount of money before to take any kind to borrow any kind any single penny from our Finance project. That's why so far was not necessary to borrow money from the banks for project finance. Moving on to the slide on page 12, the subsequent events. Here I would like to highlight that on this slide is mentioned BRL 405 million of PSV already launched, but it's a little bit more than that because we have acquired a project at the very end of the fourth quarter 2021. The numbers of this project, potential sales value and units sold, we are gonna release within the earliest results of the first quarter 2022.
Which means that so far we have already launched something close to BRL 500 million. From those projects right here, the good news is the speed of sales of those projects. We opened to the clients a little bit earlier than the carnival here in São Paulo, which means one month ago for those projects in February. We saw Expression in Vila Prudente being sold 42% of a potential sales value of almost BRL 180 million. Exalt in Vila Prudente, small apartment, something around 40 sq m - 50 sq m, BRL 228 million potential sales value.
We saw 27% being sold at the beginning of this launch. Exactly as we saw in the fourth quarter 2021, the speed of sales of projects being launched is so good. Which means that we have in some kind of neighborhoods, in some kind of zones here, specifically in the city of São Paulo, no matter what kind of apartment it is, we have been watching the end users very interested about buying something because they know for sure that with this amount of inflation we have been facing, the amount of problems and severities that the world is facing right now, a good place to be is real estate.
This is the kind of a Brazilian mindset and we saw, and we have been seeing very good pace of sales at the launches of EZTEC. Finally, I would like to mention two kind of subsequent events very important to our shareholders. First of all, the partnership between EZTEC and Construtora Adolpho Lindenberg. Construtora Adolpho Lindenberg is a very old friend of EZTEC, specifically because since we have been public, 2007, together we launched something around BRL 4 billion in projects, on average 44% gross margin. We got so far something around BRL 1.3 billion in net profit coming from this project.
Which means in EZTEC's stake was something close to BRL 1 billion in net profit coming from the partnership in the specific projects we have been doing so far. Meaning that, from the total amount of net profit EZTEC provided in the last 15 years, Construtora Adolpho Lindenberg was responsible in partnership to provide something around 20% of this. Which means that, they are old friends and here the management and the controlling shareholder group of EZTEC pay high respect to the management of Construtora Adolpho Lindenberg.
Apart from that, Construtora Adolpho Lindenberg has been public since the 1970s, is one of the oldest names of the city of São Paulo. They were truly responsible and fully responsible for development of a lot of very good projects, very high-end projects in the South Zone and in the West Zone of the city of São Paulo, specifically Jardins neighborhood. Jardins is the kind of neighborhood very close to Paulista Avenue.
A lot of the high-end developments coming from that area are coming with the brand Adolpho Lindenberg. In the last 5-6 years, they were truly responsible for very high-end projects nearby, specifically in Itaim, very close to the Bank headquarters, projects that have been sold for BRL 30,000-BRL 40,000 per sq m in a very good growth margins, in growth margins in line with the growth margins developed by EZTEC through these years. This partnership, there is a kind of approvals that we have been passed through, but there will be two kinds of important steps.
First of all is only a JV. Six years of this whole JV and part of partnership to develop BRL 1.75 billion in launches, which requires something around BRL 130 million of investments within the first three years. Apart from that, they will Construtora Adolpho Lindenberg will propose to in a shareholders agreement that EZTEC has the rights to a subscription option within four years, within two years after the first minimum period of four years.
Within two years, in the fifth and sixth year of this partnership, we can exercise this right and to share the controlling shareholders group within the current shareholders controlling group of the Construtora Adolpho Lindenberg. All the money we're gonna provide is a primary offer. We are not gonna pay any single penny to the current controlling shareholders group in order to buy this amount of stake. All we are going to provide is the financial support to this development.
The financial, I would say, skills of managing in hard scenarios like this one we have been passing through, and they are going to provide their expertise to develop high-end projects with very, I would say, cutting-edge technology of construction for this specific kind of public—this low-end public with high or higher quality of construction. That's the kind of thing that we've we put a lot of efforts was more than one year to discussions with them, and it's a kind of partnership that we are very proud to announce. It's a very big name to be in partnership with EZTEC.
Apart from that, the last kind of subject here is the distribution. Given the cash position we have so far, the board of directors has approved BRL 102 million of minimum legal distribution of dividends, which means BRL 0.46 per share. We are going to pay as soon as possible, that's why we are disclosing that the ex-dividend negotiation date is, it will be March 23rd of 2022.
Which means that three days from now, it's gonna be the ex-dividend negotiation date to pay within 10, 12 days the dividends to our shareholders. Saying that, I would like to thank you so far for the audience, and we are completely able to answer any further questions. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Mr. Emilio. We will now open the call for the Q&A session. In case there are any, we will get the question from those who will use the function Raise Hands available at Zoom's tool. We will go, we're going to proceed to pick up those questions that are in the chat box. For those who would like to make your questions, please let us know. Since none of you raised your hands, we understand that there is no questions. We are going to proceed to the end of our conference call.
I would like to thank you all for your time listening to us, understanding the company results. Our conference call for the results presentation now is over. We thank you all for the attention and have a nice day and have a nice weekend. Thank you all.