Good afternoon, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the earnings call at Unifique Telecomunicações for discussions of our results in regards to the second quarter of 2023. Today we have Mr. José Wilson, Jr. He is the financial director in investor relations, and Guilherme Galvão Villani. He is our manager for investor relations. We would like to let you know that this event is being recorded, and all participants will be listening to the earnings call during the presentation. Soon after, we are going to begin the Q&A session where more information will be provided. If any of you need any support during this earnings call, please do request support from an operator by selecting star zero. This event is being broadcasted simultaneously online through the webcast and can be accessed on unifique.com.br/ri where you will find the presentation. The slides will be controlled by you.
The replay of this event will be available soon after its closure, and we would like to let you know that the webcast participants can sign up online for their questions to Unifique, which will be answered at the end of the call by the investor relations department. Before we proceed, we would like to clarify that any possible statements that could be made during this earnings call related to business perspectives at Unifique, forecasts, operational targets, and financial targets represent beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as information that is currently available to Unifique. Future statements do not represent performance as they involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. They relate to future events and thus rely on circumstances that could or not occur.
Investors and analysts must understand that general conditions, sector conditions, and other operational factors can affect the future results at Unifique, and they can lead to results that differ materially from those that had been considered in the future statements. Now we want to pass the floor on to Mr. José Wilson, Jr. He will begin his presentation. Please, Mr. José Wilson, you may proceed.
Good afternoon, everyone. In our meeting today, we are going to be presenting the company's earnings for the second quarter of 2023. Moving on here on slide two, we started off here with the evolution of the company after the IPO, which occurred in July 2021. During the IPO, we had a primary offering of approximately BRL 860 million with 40% for organic growth and 40% for inorganic growth and 20% for R&D.
As you can see, the company basically doubled in size when it comes to cities serviced, clients, and EBITDA, with an important highlight for growth in the region in Rio Grande do Sul. Another important event after the IPO on the company, which was in November 2021, was the acquisition with 5G IPO frequency, which made Unifique operate in the mobile phone market. In this moment, the company is in an operational test phase in mobile phone. They will be tested by your employees. In this 5G scenario, we have the expectation to launch this in the next few months. Another point that calls our attention is that when we look at the evolution after the IPO, is the situation with the IPO, with the company's leverage compared to the second quarter of 2021, where we had the balance sheet.
We had a leverage that was 0.65x . After this growth that we had, we are at a leverage rate of 0.07x , and this is of course considering the last quarter annualized. Generally, this demonstrates the diligence that the company has in the company, and the capacity for cash generation of the business, which allowed us to double in size, invest in new technologies, and still keep up with a position that is extremely comfortable in the balance sheet, which allows us to have room for more acquisitions, investments in expansion in the network, and mobile infrastructure. On the next slide, which is slide three, we continue our journey of growth quarterly. This is growth in all of the lines for the results with a slight improvement in the recurring EBITDA margin if compared to the previous quarter.
In the third quarter of 2023, we had an EBITDA margin of 48% versus 47.9% in the second quarter of 2023. In this quarter, especially in the month of June, we started consolidating our results. In the month of June, we had an EBITDA of approximately BRL 900,000 and the EBITDA margin of 47.2%. This is a recent acquisition that already has significant profitability margins where we have a lot of opportunities and synergies to be captured. Another important highlight on this slide is the acquisition of Amax in the end of June. Thus the obligations, these are already registered in the consolidated balance sheet at Unifique, and we do not need the exchange of the registration or record of the results of this company that was acquired in the third quarter of 2023.
We will already have consolidated the results for both companies, Concórdia ClientCO and Anax, these companies acquired, and this should bring some increases in the results of the third quarter of 2023. Moving on to the next slide four. Here you can see that we demonstrate our position of leadership in the state of Santa Catarina, and we continue to advance in the homes passed and homes connected. It is important to highlight that most of this growth in the homes passed is due to a mapping out of the acquired networks and not necessarily the construction of new ports. As demonstrated on our release, we had a reduction of 43% in the construction of ports versus the first quarter of the year.
We should reduce even more with the construction of the networks, and focus on cities that we operate in with the integration of the networks to reduce costs operationally. We have, within our plans, a reduction of the construction of these ports from now on. Moving on to slide five. We have the evolution in all of the lines in our result, with the exception of the comparison of the net income in the second quarter of 2023 versus 2022. We can see that in the second quarter of 2022, we had a cash position that allowed the company to have operational and financial results that were positive and that significantly contributed to the net income of the company.
When we look at debt for management purposes, we have the lease liabilities as a debt. These come from the acquisitions of the ISPs that we performed during 2023. We performed the purchase of customer portfolios. Then we allocated the infrastructure with the purchase or option of these assets after five years at a value that was previously defined. In this quarter, we performed the acquisition of three ISPs using a portfolio purchase model and rental of the infrastructure. I want to highlight that this rent of the infrastructure here is what we consider to be the network leases that is demonstrated here on the slide. Among these three ISPs that were acquired in this model, we have Abaki with about 7,300 accesses, Clientco with approximately 23,000 accesses, and Amax, which is the last one, with approximately 17,000 accesses.
Here you can see Unifique has a cash position and leverage position that is extremely comfortable. We have our hedge as well in the company, which is our rating, which allows us to have fundraising with lower costs as well as commitment to accounts payable indexed according to IPCA. With these acquisitions, although we have this infrastructure that we consider ideal to acquire the companies, we also have considered in this scenario the indexation according to IPCA. This is helping a lot with the performance of our financial results in the company. Our duration is short, but we are in a situation that is extremely comfortable. As I mentioned, we have excellent results for fundraising due to the financial position we occupy at Unifique. When the credit market is having lower spreads, then we'll be able to issue our new debt.
This is something that is on our radar. We've been very diligent with this process, and we will continue to do so. To complete this, I'll pass the floor now to Guilherme Villani so that he can also talk about our acquisitions that were performed during the last few months.
Good afternoon, everyone. I want to quickly cover the two acquisitions that are most relevant. These were done recently. Clientco, which is the company that comes from Superline, they were right at the border of our network. We didn't have such a relevant market share in the city of Concórdia. With this acquisition in the city of Concórdia, specifically, we were able to reach a market share that was really high.
This is very important for us to be able to capture synergies and calculate an EBITDA margin that's even higher than the average in the company. Also supply to other cities where there's already a network. Then we'll be able to expand the network as well to new cities in the Santa Catarina western area. We should be investing in the backhaul, so to integrate the city of Concórdia with Erechim in the north of Rio Grande do Sul. Our network will, in some way, gain greater penetration in this western part of the state. With this, we'll be able to reach new cities with a level of confidence that's really high in regards to the availability of the services in the company. Now about Naxi.
Naxi, they are based here in Jaraguá do Sul, and Jaraguá do Sul is a city that is very close to Timbó, where we have our headquarters at Unifique, and it is considered to be the north of Santa Catarina already. Naxi is a company that had a network that was very similar to ours. It already operated with GPON, and they also had an average ticket that was higher, actually, than Unifique, about BRL 160. It is a network that gave us some leadership position in the market now in this region and will allow us to also have synergies and be able to have an EBITDA margin also that is better than the rest of the company on average.
It is an acquisition that will add a lot to us, add a lot of value to us here in our region where we are for longer and where we are very strong. Probably Itajaí in the north of Santa Catarina, which are our main regions. Now I will pass the floor to the Q&A. Feel free to submit any questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to begin the Q&A session. To submit a question, you can select star one. To remove the question from the list, select star two. Our first question is from Marco Nardini from XP. You may proceed.
Fabiano and team from Unifique. We have two on my side on the EBITDA margin dynamic for the second semester. I want to understand a bit more about what we can expect for this year and also about the competitive environment. If you could talk about the organic growth perspectives and also M&A in the future.
Let us talk about the margin dynamic now for the second semester. Internally here in the company, we had a correction in our route that was very important, especially because we are suffering a lot with the organic growth, and this was important to perform an adjustment in our budget for the second semester. This was something that we analyzed in depth in the company's budget, and we saw that there were synergies and certain adjustments that can be done. We did these, and the company has a structure that is very well organized. This allowed us to perform the adjustments in the system to make the budget really be fulfilled.
Yes, this was the first initiative we had, and in the second semester, we will get back to having better margins. This is in our expectations. We are suffering a little bit more on the first line. We are going to adjust this with costs and expenses. Another factor that is also very important is that, and this of course, can contribute to our margins, is the non-payments or default rates. In 2022, we suffered a lot with default rates in the company. Then we implemented some initiatives that were related to the deployment of the score. Of course, this created some challenges for customers with bad profiles to enter our base. Besides all of this, we were able to add mechanisms to have some incentives, also to remove incentives actually from bad sales related to commissions to sales reps.
We cleaned this out, and now we are a lot more controlled when it comes to this. We have rules that are a lot more strict when it comes to commissions. This, of course, eliminates incentives from bad sales. With this, and when we look at our non-payment or default rates, this has improved significantly, and this will reflect on our results and on our PCLD line. When we have revenue and we look at this, considering the expectations for this revenue and how someone's behaving, then we follow this focus on adjusting costs and expenses and also default. We are being very successful with these initiatives, and the expectations are that these margins will be better now when it comes to profitability for the second semester.
Another important factor, not only, of course, considering the results, but also the company's cash position, is a slowdown in the construction of ports. This is why we also understand that we must preserve Smore. In the last few months, when we look at this from a monthly format, if we eliminate the effects of the M&As and acquisitions that we have been performing, especially in the last few months, we would have been generating cash in the company. It is quite positive. The due diligence process when it comes to a company's cash position is still strong and very diligent. This is one of the main points.
When we talk about the second point, with the productivity and the growth, we have an aspect here that we considered in the board, and we were able to segregate the board with a commercial team and the marketing board as well, and director. Now we have different initiatives that are being deployed. Although we are being conservative when we look at now onwards and we see the organic growth, if we have good results in this change in the operational structure in the company, this is going to be very useful. Now, as I mentioned, we are going to be more diligent when cost and expenses, and we are going to be a lot more diligent with adding customers. This is going to help us a lot. When we talk such as these last three acquisitions that we performed that were really good.
Actually going back to what we mentioned in margins, these companies are recent and they have been delivering excellent margins, with many synergies. This is, of course, considering a margin that is after leasing, right? Of course, considering the depreciation of the use of this asset. A margin like this, starting off from scratch, already demonstrates that we can operate very well and bring in good results from now onwards. Perfect.
Thank you. Very clear. Our next question is from Lucca Brendim from Bank of America. Please, Lucca, you may proceed.
Hi, good morning everyone, and thank you for taking my question. Two questions here on my side. The first one is if you could talk about how you have been planning the CapEx for the installation of mobile for this year and also the next years, and how you have been planning this.
But also, if you can give us a breakdown on what you are looking at when it comes to redesigning this as well, and the requirements at Anatel. In second place, about the ticket. I think it is a little difficult to analyze this because there are many acquisitions coming in. If you could just talk about the organic aspects, if you have been able to transfer prices in organic or not?
Hi, Lucca. Good afternoon. Thank you for this question. Lucca, resuming a bit of the history of our investments in mobile phone services, we chose to, first of all, buy the core. We bought the core with ZTE, and this is a long-term partner at Unifique. We set this up. Core would be like the hardware.
It is a series of hardware that are here in our data center, and they interconnect with the other phone companies. During this year or so, we set up all of our core, along with other operators as well, and we performed investments that were important for the development of systems. We have our own team working on this, and these are full-time employees. We have about BRL 350,000 on payroll for this team per month, and they developed all of the OSS and BSS platforms that are the interfaces between the customers and the metric systems. Our investment was basically core and system development so far, and we still have parts of our core that we need to pay, which are about $5 million now that we have been able to invest in our core. We just paid a first installment.
In the next quarters, we also have a sequence of payments to be done. We also had some orders for antennas with more than one manufacturer. Once these antennas reach here in Brazil, we are going to start testing them. That is, of course, already starting off with the assembly and deployment of our own infrastructure, and we are also going to work with some cities and with some of our own infrastructure and test. Unifique does not need to have our own infrastructure in the first stage because we will be able to use the infrastructure from the big telcos. This was an important remedy for us so that Oi could be split among the three big telcos. The requirements would be the entrance of the regionals in a market that is competitive. This should be valid till the end of 2026.
We imagine that it still will be postponed for a few years, and our commitments effectively at Anatel start off in 2026. What we have been doing now is a lot of tests. We have our chips fully operational. We have 500 people using our chips already, and we are operating with different tests so that we can start the commercial phase probably by November or December this year. The CapEx is still very small. It is just to make it operational, and eventually in the commercial level, we would have the use of the infrastructure at the big telcos initially. In some cities, we will have the antennas that are Unifique's antennas, and that is where we hope to test these cities and see if, first of all, we can have adherence and functioning to the public when it comes to 5G.
We think we're going to be the first guys to come into these cities with the 5G technology. Depending on the temperature we feel in the market, eventually we could anticipate investments and start with a deployment in our own infrastructure that's more aggressive from next year onwards. This is all very uncertain because as I mentioned, it really depends on what we collect as information from these tests that we will be working on. Now I'll pass the floor to Jailson so he can answer the second part of your question.
Now about our organic ticket a bit. How has the company been looking at this issue at the moment? Today, we don't have any reduction in our prices. If we look at a plan for 400 mega plus TV, it's about BRL 149.90 monthly as a plan. That's the cost.
With the entrance of a new marketing director in the company today, due to the amount of ports actually that we have at the moment, we are already considering the possibility of working with different tickets in certain markets. This is a topic that is being analyzed internally, but we have big chances of following this. We also, as we talk about tickets, we start to consider other services in the company. We already have telemedicine servicing our customers and initial cost of BRL 29.90. We also have camera services with a monthly cost of BRL 44.90. Besides keeping our price, we've been about organic things in our entry-level ticket. We also have new services, and we're analyzing the possibility to have new tickets in specific markets. As we have this, we'll definitely mention this to you guys.
Okay, perfect. Thank you.
Sorry? All right. Is that clear?
Yes, that's perfect. Thank you.
Great, guys. Now we're going to move on to some other questions that are being submitted by the webcast. Eduardo Lazzarotti is asking about the treasury shares and if we're going to cancel these or if we're going to use them as a swap operation in a future acquisition. To answer this issue and this question, these shares are already directed to the payments of the obligations regarding the CV acquisition. In some way, there's already some kind of a commitment for these shares. We still have Eduardo also asking about dividends, and with the lower CapEx and the construction of the fiber network in the next quarters, does the company see room to increase the payouts, or will you be more focused on activities related to M&A?
It really depends on our plan for cash flow in the company. At the moment, we allow the payment of dividends because we have a very comfortable cash position. Up ahead now, we're going to look at our investments, such as mobile phone investments. Of course, if we consider there's some financing facilities that we can have for mobile. We have great opportunities in the market at the moment that are being offered to the company. Generally speaking, if we can fit this into our cash flow with the payment of dividends, of course, we will try to do this in the same way as we have every year paid. The expectation at the end of it is that we're going to pay and have room for the payment of dividends.
Now, one more question here from Authur Lima from Max.
How do the fiber rental contracts work, and where are they being used?
Authur, we started off with this kind of contract this year only. The first contract was with the acquisition of Brick Telecom with Gaspar, and now with the acquisition of Concórdia ClientCO and Naxi. We also use this instrument. These are contracts that follow a rule. All of the characteristics for the leasing, and you have the installments, you have the 12-month period, and then you have the applicable index, which would be IPCA or IPCA 2+ . There is a validity for five years, and it is a five-year term. At the end, you have the buying option, the purchase option, considering a residual value. We have been choosing to have this kind of operation along with the sellers because this facilitates things for us and for them.
When we bring the CNPJ, the legal entity, and acquire these companies, we are basically buying a company with a customer portfolio and all of the assets that are interesting for us. Our speed administratively becomes a lot easier. From the seller side also, because they can kill this company that they have by just providing services, honoring their debt commitments, et cetera. At the end, I can have the option of acquiring these companies or not.
Now we have another question from Andrea on the expectation for adding 5,000 organic clients per month.
Andrea, it is difficult for us to commit to this number because over this year, we had months where we were able to have even higher than this amount or months where we were below this amount. There has not been constant results.
Of course, we expect that with all these efforts that have been made and new oxygen in the marketing area in the company, that we will be able to reach levels that really give us the necessary confidence to commit to a number. But for now, we really prefer to not commit to this. Now, about the allocation of these networks. Sorry. I think we missed part of that question. Oh, the rental of fiber, is it exclusive to Unifique or open to other players? No, it is a rental that is exclusive to Unifique. When we perform the rental contracts, we define that it is an exclusive agreement. Actually, on the next day after the acquisition, the responsibility for the maintenance of this network belongs to Unifique. That is when we work on this to be able to guarantee the quality of the service network for our customers.
To answer your point, it is exclusive to Unifique.
We officially have ended our Q&A session. At this moment, we will pass the floor to Mr. José Wilson for his final remarks. Please, Mr. José Wilson, you may proceed.
Thanks, everyone, for having participated in our earnings call. Here, just to reach the end here, we want to mention that we have been working, and our expectations for the next quarter are already better. As I had mentioned, we performed an adjustment in our path and plan generally. When it comes to margins, the expectations are very positive that they will be able to meet these expectations and get back to the levels that companies used to working with, which are EBITDA margins above 50%. Of course, keeping up the due diligence process we have when it comes to cash and investments and really being strict with this.
As I mentioned, we have investments for mobile phone. In regards to this, we have lines that are starting to appear in the market with costs that are excellent. One of them is through, it's a credit facility through BNDES, which is called FUNTTEL, which considers TR plus 2% per year approximately. This is a topic that we've been monitoring very closely. We have already been doing our homework on this, and we verified some opportunities that are very good for fundraising. We have continued to work on this, and we've searched for results in the margins that we had in the past. Generally, I just want to thank you all for your presence, and we are available to clarify any future questions.
The earnings call for Unifique in the second quarter is closed. We want to thank you all for your participation. Have an excellent afternoon, and thank you for using Chorus Call.