Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Helbor's fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. This webcast is being recorded and simultaneously translated. If you need translation, this tool is available clicking on the interpretation globe icon located at the bottom of your screen. There, you can choose the language you prefer. For those listening to the conference in English, there is an option to mute the original Portuguese audio, just clicking on Mute Original Audio. Participants will only watch and listen during the company's presentation, after which we will open the Q&A session. If you need help or want to ask a question, please use the Q&A icon on the bottom of your screen.
Before proceeding, we'd like to inform that any statement made during this webcast related to the company's business perspectives, projections, and operation and financial goals are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Helbor's management and on information currently available to the company. Forward-looking statements are not guarantee of the company's performance. They involve risk, uncertainties, and assumptions because they relate to the future events that depend on circumstances. General economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operational factors can lead to future results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, I will turn the floor to Mr. Henrique Borenstein, President of the company. Henry, you have the floor.
Good afternoon, all those who follow us. With our financial director, Leonardo Piloto, and Marcelo Bonanata, our sales director, we will present the company's results for the fourth quarter of 2023.
Over the past year, we have reinforced our strategy to reducing the inventory of complete and under-construction units. We reached a consolidated sales value of BRL 1 billion, of which 87% correspond to the sales of complete units and those under construction. We ended the year with 10 real estate launches, of which three are new projects totaling a total PSV of BRL 1.2 billion. It is worth highlighting that the company maintains a land bank Helbor share worth BRL 7.7 billion, reinforcing our position in strategic regions of São Paulo that can be used tactically to accelerate the company's de-leveraging. On the financial side, over the past year, we've been reducing our cash consumption quarter after quarter, achieving a net cash and generation of approximately BRL 24 million in this last quarter, marking the beginning of the company's de-leveraging trajectory.
As a result, we ended the year with a net debt to net equity indicator at 69.4%, a lower value than the one recorded last year. 2024 will continue to be a challenging year. We will continue to focus on selling the stock of completed units and those under construction, and we'll be committed to delivering the 18 projects planned for this year. This way, we will focus on deleveraging and generating cash for the company. Before closing, I would like to mention that we held another event only Helbor has in Mogi das Cruzes, Curitiba, and São Paulo on the last weekends of March. The event, once again, was successful, totaling BRL 170 million in total PSV. This result will be part of the sales recorded in the first quarter of 2024.
We remain confident in reducing our stock of complete and under-construction units, and remain focused on the continuous improvement of our operational and financial indicators and deleveraging. I would like to thank on behalf of Helbor for another year, the trust placed by investors over the years, and to reaffirm our commitment to maintain the business model, generating value to the shareholders and maintaining the company among the most prominent in the sector, focusing on responsible and transparent management. Leonardo Piloto and Marcelo Bonanata will present the main Helbor's operational and financial data.
Good afternoon. I will start with the highlights of 2023, starting with sales. In the fourth trimester, we reached BRL 404 million, 80% of the first quarter, and 8% above the next year. The year accumulated, we were 7% above.
The relevant part of our sales stock at the end of the year, 87% was related to stack. We had a good result of 5%. The net operational revenue we will discuss in the financial records. The net income was BRL 51 million, the controller report, in line with 2024. I give the floor to Marcelo to talk about the operational performance.
Thank you, Leonardo. Thank you very much. We will talk about our land bank. We have a potential land bank of BRL 11.2 billion. Helbor share BRL 7.5 billion. Most interesting is that 81% of this land bank is in the city of São Paulo and 16% in the metropolitan area. 36 projects in total. This is the land bank distributed in the city of São Paulo, where we have a potential of BRL 8.7 billion and Helbor share BRL 5.7 billion.
What we always highlight is that our land bank is our best asset. Helbor has a high quality land bank in places, in sites where we have the subway, easy access, places with potential valuation. We have land banks in Itaim, Moema, Chácara Santo Antônio, very well located in the east area as well. So our land bank is the most important point to start a new development.
The launches of the fourth quarter, we had two. One was Roya in Perdizes. We call Perdizes Nobre. It is on the Rua Homem de Melo Street, close to the university, 200 square meters, two per floor. We launched in the beginning of December. We had this forecast, because it is high standard, and at the end of the year, we know that the sales slow down. But today, we are already selling, and we will have tomorrow a meeting for this development.
Another launch we had was Trinity at Vila Mariana. It is a development with two and three rooms, a studio. We launched at the end of October. We have 20% sold, but today we are selling faster. So we have two developments very well located, Vila Mariana or Vila Clementino at Borges Lagoa Street. So these are two developments we have been projecting, and we were launched at the end of last year. In these slides, we tell you what we launched in 2023. I would like to highlight that we had 10 projects, but out of them, only three are new projects. Open Mind that we launched in the third quarter and two launches that we have just mentioned. The others were phased development. Reserva Caminhos da Lapa, third stage. Parque São Bernardo, the last one. Patteo São Paulo, My Place, the last staging.
What makes up these 10 launches in the year are seven phased and only three new developments. In this BRL 1 billion 115, only BRL 400 million worth of new developments, showing again that the company is concerned in selling the inventory. We launched at the right time this phase developments and now with the biggest one also staging at the right moment every phase. Once again, we have been very assertive in these developments. Now we talk about the contracted sales. We reached in the fourth quarter BRL 426 million, and it is nice to highlight that in comparison with the fourth quarter of 2022, we have an increase of 59%, and in relation to the third quarter of 2023, 8%. We closed the year 7% more in sales. Again, in 2022, we launched 38% more. If we take the phases, this percentage increases much more.
This is very important. We have an increase of almost 60% in sales launching less. The company focusing on the sales of stock. In SOS, this is work we are doing. We had a significant increase. From the fourth quarter of 2023, comparing with 2022, we had 7.6%. We went to 13.2%, in line with the third quarter of 2023, closing the year with 35.8%. Also a 3.5% increase in comparison to 2022.
Our inventory, this is very important to show where we had an expressive number of ready units, and only 12% today is of ready units. Most of our inventory is under construction. We can see the segments, which is very important. We are concentrated in what we really know to do, ultra-high, high standard. We have a potential of BRL 2.6 billion, but at Helbor shares is BRL 1.7 billion, 85% located in the Southeast region. Now I give the floor to Leonardo Piloto with the financial data.
We here have the net operating revenue with a strong increase year-over-year, basically reflecting the advanced stage that we have in our works. We have several developments that we will deliver in 2024. Every sales we do is very advanced in the development. This explains this 41% in the revenue increase. Here we show our gross profit and our gross margin and net margin. We closed the year with 29.7% gross margin, 13.5% net margin. This had an oscillation during the year, but we accelerated the works, so the margin increased in the consolidated. We can go to the next slide. This is the backlog and margin. We had a drop to 28.8%, reflecting several developments that we will deliver in 2024. Here we show general and administrative expense year by year.
We had an increase 8%. Inflation in the period was 24%. We were in line with other effects of expenses that explain this reaction, but we consider this controlled and in line. What is important to highlight is that the expenses increased in absolute numbers, but it was lower than 2023 when we compare to 2022. In 2022, it was 6.9%, so we had efficiency increase. Now in slide 17, results and quarter-by-quarter, year against year. We were in line and quarter-by-quarter, we had a substantial increase from the third to the fourth quarter of 2023. This is the most important part of the company. We enter the fourth quarter with a slight de-leveraging. We have the impact of the conclusion of works. We have two impacts.
The first one, we stop investing and expanding, this number of the fourth quarter starts to reflect this change in the operational level. Below, we are showing the long term of the third quarter to the fourth quarter, we had an increase in the total debt, basically because we see something due date in 2024. We are delivering projects and these numbers explain this increase in the short term. We will settle this with our financing and repasse. Here we show that we are able to reduce marginally the deleverage.
The company went from 66.9 to 69.4. We reduced, we got to the end of the fourth quarter with a lower number than the fourth quarter of 2022. This is again, quarter by quarter, the cash burn. We went to a cash generation of BRL 24 million in the full quarter of 2023. Conclusion of works and beginning of repasse. Now I close my presentation and we can open to Q&A.
[Non-English content] The first question is the analyst of Bradesco.
Good afternoon. I have two questions. First, can you explain the margin for the third quarter and the second, the repasse with the delays.
I will answer the first question. I mentioned the margin. It's basically the composition of the index and the revenue. We had increase, we also extended the works to deliver in the beginning of this year. We have another composition in this project accelerating it. Basically it's in line. The second, about the repasse. We haven't seen any obstacle or any difficulties in approving the credit of our clients. This concerns us, but we haven't seen any impact. What we are doing to minimize this risk is to accelerate the on-lending. We intend to do this, but it also depends on the agreement. Up to now, everything is okay, we will focus on this strategy of on-lending.
The next question from Francisco. Francisco Cortez.
Good afternoon. Following your strategy of selling ready units, we saw that some strategies harmed the results of the shareholders. How to expect this for the next year? Is it going to be better?
Thank you for the question, Francisco. This is Marcelo. In 2023, we had some projects, Open Mind. We launched 85% of share. This year, we will increase the share in new developments. I think it is important to show what we have at home, adding to what you said, the selling in the fraction, the on-lending. It serves when we have it in the inventory. We sell these units automatically with on-lending. This is important.
Francisco, keep cool, because last year we had some developments. We had a higher share. This year, we will have as well. This is important to have this on-lending in the fraction. For the client that is receiving the key now, the real estate has valued. So it's of great interest to have this on-lending the faster the possible.
Adding to what you were saying. In the beginning, Henrique mentioned the event [Non-English content] Helbor [Non-English content], it is latent when you have an inventory, no matter how much you do on-lending, even slightly above the inflation, the launches today are higher than any inventory we have today. This is important because those who bought a development two years ago, if you get what he paid, even corrected, he won't be able to buy anything.
The client wants to do this on-lending faster, because today the developments are much more expensive than before.
[Non-English content] The next question is from Gustavo Bialy, investor.
I'd like to know what is your forecast for cash generation for 2024?
I will answer this. This year, Gustavo, we will deliver many projects. We will deliver 14 projects, so it is a year that we will work a lot to bring money back to us, and this money will pay this debt, and then for the holding. This year, we estimate to have a deleveraging with what is really retained. We do not see a very expressive cash generation. This we expected to have in 2025. In 2024, deleverage of the company, but cash generation towards holding, not yet.
[Non-English content] The next question is from Enzo Mori.
On the comment made about the gross margin improvement, I'd like to understand why is it extraordinary. Normalizing these effects, what should be the gross margin?
Historically, the margin of the company has been 28%, and we imagine this will continue even after the deliveries and on-lending of all units. We do not estimate a substantial drop. Just adding, if we get the Klabin development that will be delivered part this year and part next year, it has a very good margin, as good as the W. The company has always worked with a gross margin around 28%, 30%. This is what we have delivered in the past, and I would say this: our margin and our objective is of about 30% again.
[Non-English content] The next question is from Pedro Lobato.
What is the percentage sold from W and what is the perspective of delivery?
75% sold on W. W Residence was delivered in March, around the 15 W Residence, and we expect the hotel to be ready in six months.
[Non-English content] We have no more questions, so I will give the floor back to Henrique to close.
I would like to thank you for participating in this conference call and reinforce the strategy of the company. Helbor's strategy is to sell what we have in inventory under construction and reduce deleverage. We know it is a long process, but I'm sure that we will harvest the fruits this year. As Leo mentioned, this is a transition year. We will deliver the developments.
We will have a reduction in the corporate plans at the end of the year. We project a reduction in our net debt, but next year will be different. I'd like to thank all of you, the IR and Helbor teams for one more year, and thank you very much.