Good morning, everybody. Welcome today for the presentation of our earnings results for the third quarter, 2025. We have Marcelo here, our Head of Technology, M&A, and much more. And I am Maria Bernhoeft, the CFO, Governance and Relations with the company. We consolidated revenues of BRL 4,462 million in the quarter, 8% growth above the third quarter, 2024, and 10% organic growth, quite positive compared to the same period last year. We're going to speak in more detail about our organic growth further ahead. Adjusted EBITDA of BRL 435 million, 3% higher than the same period last year, with a 9.8% margin, somewhat below the two digits that we have as a target. As part of all of this, you will see the effects of the organic growth and the capture of synergy of GRCA.
Adjusted net profit, $188 million in the quarter, 6% above the third quarter, with a net margin of 4.2%. Net revenue continues to be diversified. The largest customer has 6%, somewhat above the 4%, but with a great diversification between the 4,774 customers. Now, scores that we're careful with and diversification has a good fragmentation among the different lines of solutions. We offer facilities with 24%, but we have a good distribution with maintenance, catering, security that has had a drop for some time, temporary labor services and field marketing, and indoor logistic of 6%. On our NPS, around 75%, which is very normal, and this will be updated at the end of the year. As I mentioned, net revenue of 8%, and the highlight is that organic growth of 10%. We had already been remarking with you that positive delta between contracts acquired, contracts lost.
As part of this movement in the third quarter, we were able to have several important achievements with a growth of two digits in the third quarter. This growth continues to have a positive effect, a higher delta between achievements and losses in the third quarter. This is due to the fact that we carried out implementations, and we have already measured the results for this. We know that 10% is a rather positive figure. Nowadays, it represents a high level, and our vision is that what we have linked to one digit, but because the quarter was more impacted by that capacity of implementation that we had in the achievements, we already had organic net revenue, the accumulation of five companies in 2024. The highlight is GRCA and an additional two companies.
Now, when we look at the nine months of the year, there's a growth of 20% in revenue because of the companies acquired with a highlight for GRCA and a 7% increase in organic net revenue vis-à-vis the same period last year. In inorganic net revenue, we had five companies in 2024 and two companies in 2025. GRCA only came in June of last year, and that is why we have that leap in 2025 vis-à-vis 2024. I'll now give the floor to Marcelo to speak about our M&A program for the 2024-2025 harvest.
Here you have a summary of what we have achieved in the last two years. Last year, we acquired BRL 4.2 billion in gross revenue. We worked very intensely in M&A activities, especially because of the acquisition of GRCA, our greatest acquisition so far. As a consequence, we had a relevant increase in our leverage.
We were aware that for some time we would be without acquisitions, waiting for leverage to return to a level of normalcy. Now, this year, we have more security. Leverage is converging with those levels of 1.6-1.7 times. We did not have comfort to begin again with M&A, but we have done this this year. We have integrated a company in our system, RH Med. The second acquisition was NutriCard, which is still undergoing integration. It will become part of the system in January. Recently, we acquired TAG, a field marketing company, which is undergoing approval through the CADE, the Antitrust Agency of Brazil. If we could go on to the next slide to speak about our acquisitions. Here you have that summary that we always present of what we have done in terms of acquisitions since the IPO.
We have acquired 26 companies with a gross revenue of BRL 8.6 billion. Now, we are focusing on acquiring medium-sized companies. The exception was GRCA, especially because of the environment we are in Brazil with very high interest rates. These are companies that offer the highest return potential, immediate returns for us, and consequently, they are companies that enable us to grow inorganically, of course, making relevant investments, but not impacting our leverage through time. They have a high synergy potential and a payback that is quite fast as well. We have used that M&A tool broadly to expand our actions into new segments where we had a very timid action last year. We carried out five acquisitions in temporary labor, field marketing, eight acquisitions in facilities and security. Now, I'm sorry, in maintenance and industrial services.
Now, these acquisitions, especially the ones from maintenance and industrial services, have added a level of complexity for our organizational structure. They have added new services. We have regional teams. The Executive Board and the Administration Board had to adapt to learn how to work with these new systems. The last three years have been years of intense learning. I'm now satisfied that this is over and this activity is well accommodated in our management system and as part of our operational logic. I now feel sufficient comfort to resume M&As in the maintenance sector as well. The two segments that continue in a test phase to which we're adapting are maintenance of telephony and maintenance of electric networks that have a higher concentration and complexity because of the type of client.
We're still in the learning phase with these, and in fact, we do not intend to carry out new acquisitions. All the other segments of maintenance and field marketing are fully adapted to the GPS management system, and we're comfortable resuming M&As in coming months. Now, regarding the future, you will see our leverage indicator that has converged to 1.5, which was our expectation. When we acquired GRCA, I think it reached 2.2 times. We've already captured synergies and we're therefore going to resume the M&A program. Now, our pipeline is quite busy. We have a qualified pipeline of companies in the more advanced levels. We have BRL 2 billion in revenues there, and the coming year, we will begin disclosing relevant news, companies with a rapid payback and within our zone of comfort. Now, the market is very competitive, and the synergy practically reduces the cost and can increase EBITDA.
We're quite enthusiastic with the outlook going forward for M&A. That's my part. Let's speak a bit about EBITDA. As you saw, we reached a margin of 9.8%. Basically, we have three effects that I would like to underscore. First, the organic growth. When we increased the pace, it was necessary to spend more to hire the team for training, for equipment, and other utensils. This expense that takes place when implementing the contract stabilizes only after a few months when we are able to fully recognize the revenues and have stabilization of the expenses, which at the beginning of the contract is always higher. This quarter, we had a greater accumulation of expenses referring to the implementation. Another effect that you see is that of the GRCA.
Although it has an additional margin, we have captured most of the synergies and continue with some measures to be captured until the end of the year. They are still at a margin level, which is below what we work with at GPS, and consequently, it has an impact on the nine months as well. We continue to have a target with GRCA to stabilize that margin at two digits in the fourth quarter and the beginning of next year. Following that logic of capturing synergy and making adjustments and profitability of contracts, opting for those that are more profitable, this will happen in 2026. The third effect is because of those companies, the new businesses, as Marcelo mentioned, that we are still stabilizing at GPS and we are also stabilizing them in the management system.
The margin has been impacted by these three factors, and the nine-month margin once again includes those three factors. Basically, in this quarter, what was stronger was organic growth. Now, regarding our net profit, once again, we have the same factors I pointed out in EBITDA, but we still have the impact of the financial expenses. They were higher vis-à-vis last year because of two reasons, basically. First, because of an increase in the debt because of SELIC. Last year, as you were able to observe, we increased our debt. We reached a leverage of 2.2 times. In that same period, there was an increase in the SELIC rate. Another effect was a non-cash effect of the monetary restatement of our contingencies that represent BRL 90 million in the nine months of our net profit. These contingencies are for the S system and profit.
They need to be updated or restated every month. Of course, this impacts net profit because SELIC is the base of that monetary stabilization, and SELIC had a considerable growth. Now, regarding our cash generation, traditionally, the third quarter has a positive cash generation. In the first quarter, we are impacted by the payment of PLR, in the second quarter, impacted by the payment of dividends and the payment of the 13th salary. The third quarter tends to be more positive. We created operational cash flow of BRL 1,300 million, representing 106% of adjusted EBITDA for the period. We have the effect of the debt amortization and the payment of interest rates, which totaled BRL 256 million. You will observe that income tax had a very small readjustment year to year, and we have been very efficient in using the compensation of our credits.
In terms of financing activities, we had the payment of dividends of BRL 228 million, the purchase option of the acquired companies that still had BRL 197 million, amortization of loans and debentures BRL 256 million, and financial instrument payments BRL 46 million, the payment of taxes and share subscription when we carried out the share option program in April of this year. As far as the payment of investments, she corrected some of the results of our investment. We highlight the impact of the change of the accounting policy. In the last quarter, we already carried out that adjustment. Now, financial applications are recognized in the cash line item, and you will see BRL 1,300 million, the net redemption of the BRL 1.6 billion that is possible, the acquisition of immovables, tangibles, BRL 79 million, and receivables of BRL 6 million, loans linked to the share option program with cash and equivalent of almost BRL 2.8 billion in September.
It was a positive quarter when it comes to cash generation and consistent with what we have been saying here. In debt, we have reached 1.5 times. This allows us to feel comfortable and proceed full speed with our M&A program. We have a leverage of 1.5 net debt over adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter with 32 months' duration for the loan portfolio. We still do not have the two debenture issues that we carried out in October that will be reflected only in the fourth quarter, but will bring a positive impact as they will be lengthening our debt. This is a negotiation that will reduce the spread in our financial expenses, consequently. With this, we would like to end the presentation, and we will go on for questions and answers.
Before we go on to the questions, we would like to inform you that we have a new GPS Talks with Vinicius de Luca. This will be available at our site for those who did not see the first one. It was with Marcos Pedreira. Now, with Vinicius, we will continue on with this initiative, sharing with you our history, offering you more information about our executive directors and our leadership. For those who still do not have that habit, we also have a historic Excel spreadsheet in our site, both in Portuguese and English. Formerly, it was only in Portuguese. We have the English translation as well now.
Very well, we will go on to the questions and answers. The first question on our list is André Ribeira from Bradesco. You may proceed with the question.
Good morning. Congratulations for your strong results and for taking my questions.
I would like to refer to the organic growth. Now, Maria, you commented in the call, and I did come in somewhat late. If you could speak about the impact of the changes in consolidated EBITDA margin and the second topic, what has led to a doubt, organic growth was very strong, but you have a contract with Japan, and the organic growth should be much higher. Still speaking about this, the difference quarter-on-quarter was BRL 172 million. I understand it's difficult to explain how much of this refers to the six new contracts that you implemented, the churn, but if we should think that it could be BRL 100 million from these contracts, and which is a total potential of revenues from these contracts per quarter or per year, which is perhaps easier with mature companies.
Very well, to speak about the margin, we're estimating that this implementation has caused an impact of BRL 30 billion on our margin. We had a significant concentration in this quarter. We don't expect that same pace of organic growth will extend to the fourth quarter. The achievements we had were because we were able to implement all of this in the third quarter. Now, if you think about this in terms of achievements, you can think that we had a concentration of implementation of achievements in the third quarter. The fourth quarter will slow down somewhat. It will go back to normalcy, and we don't have new contracts being implemented with the same speed that they had in the third quarter.
Now, the contracts in the third quarter will appear again in the fourth quarter, and their match will be within what we're saying about our losses, which always take place. We're expecting a fourth quarter that will not necessarily reach the two digits. We're aware of the losses we will have in the fourth quarter. Consequently, it will return to a one-digit level. The coming year, 2026, of course, there will be a positive effect from these contracts achieved this year. We also know that we will have losses eventually, and these losses can be associated to the work that we customarily carry out with our acquired companies, reviewing the contracts in deficit. This will be applied to GRCA the coming year. This organic growth has a structural level of a digit, a high digit.
This is a level that we deem to be structural within our business. Once we have attained a relevant volume of revenue and that will bring us a two-digit growth consistently through the quarters and the years, it's not that feasible. I always say this, at some point, you will see a two-digit organic growth, but the rules of the game will tend to be more of one digit, a high single digit, or something of that sort. It's important to mention what we believe is sustainable in the long term. What is sustainable is what Maria Bernhoeft said. We have grown organically, a qualified growth with a high single digit. GPS is very large. We have almost BRL 20 billion in net profit and a growth of 10%, net growth 10%, with gains and losses represents BRL 2 billion per year.
It is not feasible to grow in a qualified way above that single digit. Our challenge is around 10%, but it is a qualified growth. If we grow above that, we will impact the company. Growth always fluctuates. It is never a linear thing through the quarters. What we foresee as being sustainable in the coming two or three years is around 9-10%, or even 8%, something along those lines.
Now, I would like to comment on what Marcelo said. In the institutional presentation, we have a 10-year vision. Our priority, of course, is revenues. We look at the organic growth at the level of 10%. We are obviously satisfied and confident in that, but we cannot bring in revenues. If the revenues are not qualified through time, those margins will fall below two digits. This is not how we work.
We bring in stability, and we will have more volatility in organic growth going forward.
Allow me a follow-up simply for modeling purposes. If it is fair to have as a proxy that the organic growth is strong quarter-on-quarter, it went to 10%. Now, can the proxy assume that it will impact the margins in the quarter? Can we work that way?
Yes, certainly can.
We will give the floor to Lucas Marchioni from BTG Pactual, please.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my question. We have two topics, perhaps the inorganic growth besides the topic of implementation. I will go back to what we saw in the second quarter and what we saw in the release. That impression that we are improving the environment, we are in the phase-out of the impact of the per se for several sectors because of its inappropriate use.
Now, thinking about the contracts that are being implemented at present and thinking about the negotiation environment and its dynamic, what has changed? Has it improved quarter-on-quarter? Do you have that help of the inappropriate use of the per se? This is the first question. The second question, simply to gain better understanding, that note in the release on your expectation of performance of GRCA at an ideal level in 2026. It allows us to understand that at the end of the year, you expect to get to a margin of almost 10% at the end of the year with GRCA. Is this delayed or not? Is the schedule maintained? And at what phase of integration is GRCA as a whole? Thank you.
I'll speak about negotiation. Lucas, it's very difficult to speak about the impact of the discontinuity of per se.
I will mention some factors so you can better understand the organic growth. It's very probable that the contracts that were sold with a benefit from per se are no longer sustainable, and our competitors that were using per se had to go back to their clients with a letter of stabilization, and it makes sense to work with some bidding. Now, this may have contributed, but it's very difficult to say if this had a positive impact on organic growth. Now, yes, it could have, of course, as far as we know, and this is public information. One of our large competitors was using per se until the beginning of 2024.
If they sold a contract in 2023 with a reduced price because of the per se application in 2024, this client would have had to get reorganized and had to go back to the client for a new negotiation. Another effect that we see, something that is more cyclical, is a more structural effect, the effect where the client at some point will choose a price reduction, will bring in a lower-cost supplier, and will look at that price and say, "This is not sustainable. This cannot be put into practice. It's not sustainable." They will begin to operate with this new supplier. The supplier will face difficulties because the pricing is at a level that cannot be sustained. Once again, they have to go back to the client for a new negotiation or drop the contract, perhaps.
These are the moments that we have already seen in the past. For some reason, the client, because of cost pressure, decides to change suppliers and price. It becomes the most relevant criteria. There is always an incident, a problem with that supplier, and the supplier himself or herself may come back for a new balance. Of course, the vision will change. It will not only be the price. Now, when we look at the behavior of organic growth, you see that it follows cycles. These are the two effects. To complement, per se will also help in organic growth. At the last call, I mentioned that we made very few acquisitions in the last two years in our sectors of security and others because of the per se.
The per se was that elephant in the room, temporary, non-recurrent, exceptional margins with which most of the companies were performing. The buyer did not want to use this price because it was temporary and debatable, and the seller did not want to sell the company without that benefit, of course. Now, that changed our M&A program in that sector, especially in the field of security. Now, once this issue has been addressed, we go back to the pipeline of those companies. It will aid in a bit in organic growth as well. Many companies, perhaps most of them, have priced the per se and transferred benefits to the client, making our life more difficult because the difference in competitiveness was enormous. Peace Coffee is 3.5. It could have gotten to a difference of 7% vis-à-vis competitors. We're highly satisfied with GRCA.
Please remember that we priced it with an EBITDA margin of 4%. I think it was 4%. It was BRL 170 million hires of EBITDA that was part of the pricing, approximately a 4% margin. In the last quarter, we performed with approximately 9%. With GRCA, we are very close to the margin that we expected to attain of above 10% or 10%. We are highly satisfied with GRCA. We have been able to capture synergies in the volume and at the speed that was expected. This will tend to be a business with a rapid payback. We paid seven times. EBITDA has doubled that multiple, and it is now below three times. Very much in line with what we are saying, Lucas Marchioni. We will get to the end of the year with almost two digits and enter 2026 with a stable situation.
Thank you, thank you.
It was my reading of the release. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Lucas.
Let's go on and offer the floor now to Lucas and Steve. I'm sorry, André Mazini.
Thank you, Marcelo Marita. Thank you for the call. We have two questions as well. A follow-up on organic growth. Still, if you could speak about the segments that are doing better. You did remark on this, but which are the segments with a better performance? We're under the impression that catering is doing very well, but GRCA is not in the organic growth. It's inorganic. Now, the new contracts in catering, Alto Master and others, if this were inorganic, how many basis points would this represent? This is the first question. The second question, your labor expenses that was flat in revenue, if that level should stabilize at 2%. Now, do you have visibility about this going forward?
Those offshore contracts, offshore catering contracts are not included in inorganic growth. We always mark the contracts we have acquired and everything that is managed and commercially originated by GPS is deemed to be organic. Most of the organic growth has a positive effect. Now, sea or maritime hotels, which was a highlight in the period with a very large and relevant contract, is of BRL 35 million a month. To add to this, we achieved these contracts through a company that was already ours called LC. This was our first acquisition in 2017, I believe, for catering companies. It was a large business, and they were working with Marine Catering for Petrobras. The concentration is on private clients. They do not have Petrobras. LC was for our contracts with Petrobras. LC had a relevant stake in Petrobras in a bid where we lost most of our contracts.
What Maria mentioned, those companies that won the bid did not perform. They did not deliver and we are now recovering most of the companies we lost and something additional. It was already one of our companies. This is in inorganic growth. Now, the achievements are quite fragmented. We have that important achievement in marine hotels. It is technically quite complex. It is not any company that can operate that because Petrobras is quite stringent. This is for offshore companies, but we gain contracts in all of our businesses, and the achievements are very well distributed throughout our business. We remind you that the offshore business, we are in it since 2017 when we brought in LC and Mafut. We are expanding our position in that segment. As Marcelo commented, GR, of course, does not act in that field.
Now, growth is quite diversified, and from among those businesses, what you will see, and that is more stable, is security. It's a typical system. You take away a guard, you will put in a porter, but with the rest, we have very good organic growth. Now, regarding the labor expenses, last year we performed at 1.1% of net revenue. In the last few years, this percentage increased to 2%, and I think it reached 2.2% or 2.1% in the first half of the year. Now, what have we thought about its structural due to the country because of the dilution of benefits? There's a structurally worse impact. There's the impact of our growth that, well, it's interesting, this labor issue. You have regions that are much better, the North and Northeast, Rio de Janeiro.
The expenses on revenue are quite low, and there are regions that are very poor, especially São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, and the hinterlands. Our labor expenses are threefold higher than Rio de Janeiro and the Northeast or North. It's very dependent on the region where you are operating. What happened in the last two or three years is that we had significant growth through acquisitions in São Paulo and in the South in highly complex businesses when it comes to labor maintenance, the maintenance of electric networks and telephony. You have very complex labor pieces in those companies. It's that structural element that increased our percentage. On the other hand, since last year up to present, we began a strategy to reduce our inventory of suits underway.
Now, these are the ones that can cost six or seven times more on average than the agreement you will make at the initial stage. To give you an idea, since January of last year up to present, we have reduced our stock without including GRCA that came in in the middle of the road. Without including the suits from GRCA, we have reduced our stock in the phase of execution from 2,300 to 1,300, a reduction of 1,000 of these suits. Until we get to a level of zero, which is ideal, we will maintain this strategy. There are three phases that are difficult: the execution, extraordinary review, and the strategy. Now, to settle at those phases also increased our expenses. This increase is not structural. It is simply temporary.
When we go back to a lower level of suits and phases, we will reduce our recurrent labor costs. I don't know at which level this will stabilize. My feeling today is that it will be around 1.3% or 1.4%. We need to resume that level once we are able to have a suit inventory reviews and execution that is reduced significantly. If you allow me a very quick follow-up in terms of your labor contingencies. Now, you seem to have had high costs in the cleaning market. Is this due to the market development where the salaries are very high, or are we far from working with robots and cleaning in Brazil, as happens internationally? We have a great deal of productivity gains with automation. You can reduce headcount and number of people by using equipment, of course.
We already have tractors cleaning highways or cleaning pastures or areas. At GPS, we are creating a follow-up simply to look at the use of machinery in our services. It is a trend now when it comes to the full automation of this service. I'm somewhat skeptical. I don't know if this will be economically feasible in the coming 30 or 40 years to have a robot cleaning your office. I don't think this will be feasible. What will happen, and we have to be attentive to this, is that combination of labor and the intensive use of equipment that will increase the productivity of people. This is included in our contracts, not only in cleaning. We have it in security, monitoring, access control in logistics, and all of our activities. We make broad use of equipment. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Marcelo.
We'll activate the floor for Lucas Nagano.
Thank you, Maria, Marcelo. Thank you for taking my question. I have a question that involves some components on the GRCA contract. You said that next year you could have a renegotiation organic, and I'd like to explore some points. First of all, with the systems already integrated, can you give us more color on the magnitude of this negotiation? Secondly, the timing to begin the process. In the third place, can we expect upside? Initially, you've already attained a 10% margin that has been consolidated. When renegotiating the contracts, can you still expect that level?
Now, regarding that adjustment that we carry out, first of all, we have to go through an entire planning cycle to have a clear vision of which are the elements that are impacting profitability. It could be something internal, something that we can control.
By adjusting this internally, we can resolve the problem. If we do not reach an ideal level, we will have to sit with a client. This process will extend throughout the coming year. We cannot say it will extend for a quarter. It has already begun and will extend through 2026. There is no critical situation among the contracts of GRCA, nothing that will lead to an expectation that is very different from what we had in the past. I am thinking of what happened in the past with companies where we have the experience of making these adjustments. We will receive 8%-10% of the revenue in exchange for margins that will be above two digits. We hope that this will happen with GRCA throughout 2026. It is a process that we go through with all of the companies.
Of course, at GRCA, we're being very cautious to do this in a consistent fashion because of the higher volumes, a larger number of contracts, and we know some clients that we service within GPS. We used to service them before the acquisition of GRCA. There could be an upside in margin. We have that base of contracts that will extend throughout next year. The benefit of the acquisition has already been captured this year, as Marcelo said. We're reaching two digits at the end of the year based on what we paid. This is our significant payback from the acquisition of GRCA. We hope that all of this will take place throughout the year 2026, with 10% that we have had historically in revenue and an upside in margin somewhat beyond the 10%. Thank you.
That was very clear. Thank you very much.
Let's now give the floor to Daniel Gasparetti.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my question. I have two of them. First, explore inorganic growth. If I could get an update from Marcelo about the pipe. You spoke about the evolution, your engagement, and how this is working. If we could go on with this. We had one or two announcements since last year. How will this unfold at the end of the year and in 2026? I know M&As are difficult. Marieta, still regarding margins, a more accounting issue that drew our attention. The right for lease was somewhat higher than in previous quarters. In the third quarter, it has been almost equivalent to the first quarter. Is this something recurrent, or will it normalize?
I'll answer first and then give the floor to Marcelo. It's very simple.
We had a loss in the close of a contract that was leasing a warehouse and equipment. That effect happened this quarter when we had to demobilize that contract. It is a one-off effect. It is not recurrent and will not be repeated in the fourth quarter. When you demobilize what was leased, the warehouse and the equipment, upon returning this, you have to carry out a recognition. It is a non-cash and non-recurrent effect.
Daniel, thank you for the question. Now, regarding inorganic growth, I do not have full precision in terms of the figures. We are in diligence negotiation of contract, and at the end, we should have about 10 companies with combined revenue, companies that we are going to close contracts with next year. Next year, we will be announcing several deals. We have new security companies among these. I would say that they predominate in this new pipeline.
We have cleaning, security, and catering, new sectors that we have entered. I always remark with you about acquisitions. You cannot have very much stability in the frequency in which you disclose a transaction. It depends on the negotiation with a seller. You have to have several options on the table to expect the best from each seller, the time at which a seller is willing to make a deal that we are interested in. We know that the acquisition of companies is a highly risky action. There are several movable parts. There is that probability that it will go wrong. You have to have that extra spat in acquisitions to get what you expect. You have to have several options on the table to have that ability to wait for the ideal time of each seller. This matures at different speeds throughout the years.
Our global pipe includes several companies. There are companies that appear, they disappear. We have companies we audit today. And for some reason, we get to a price disalignment. The same client will come back in two years. That is the principle that we work with to have several companies interacting with us in the pipeline so that we can be very selective and work with the deals that offer the highest return potential. Now we have 10 companies with those BRL 2 billion in revenue. I think that what predominates here are companies in security and cleaning.
Thank you. If you allow me a follow-up with Maria Bernhoeft, if we add the effect of implementation of new contracts and that right of use, would the effect be 30-50 basis points in margin, basis points in margin?
Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much.
We're going to offer the floor to Leandro.