Going to quarter-on-quarter. This is a groundwork that we understand the company can work on. As for the margins, we see a minor decrease quarter-on-quarter and a minor increase year-on-year. Again, this has to do with the conditions we had already seen in the second quarter with the pricing of inventory items and also the changes we have seen in the quality of revenue and the EBITDA margin is at 14.5%, a minor dip quarter-on-quarter. But again, in line with the conditions that we had been seeing in the first quarter. The net margin is a highlight here. It has all of the operational progress, and it is at 15% with a substantial increase in comparison to our historical figures and in comparison to the first half of the year.
As for the net revenue, we see that the growth of the quarter has been the same growth as the year. It is in line with what we had expected for the year. We had expected a year with a minor or a smaller revenue growth, but we would see the quality of the revenue improving and the quality of the results then improving. As I just said, the EBITDA for the quarter is 18% higher. The year to date, or the first nine months of the year, show a 30% increase in EBITDA. This is also very important in the first nine months of the year.
The EBITDA is composed for the progress we expect in the gross profit, the gross income, and also this context where we can pass on the prices and the higher inventory costs that we see in 2026, and also in an expenses control that has been in line with what we wanted as well. With these two factors, we can get to BRL 170 million EBITDA in the third quarter 2026. From a gross income perspective, or rather a gross profit perspective, revenue has been growing about 4% and the gross profit 10% year-on-year. This is very important. In the decisions that were made last year, we prioritized quality revenue. Revenue that would allow for the business to be sustainable and that would really show where Intelbras adds value. This is clear to be seen here when we talk about the gross profit.
Quarter-on-quarter, pardon me. In the third quarter, year-on-year, we have a 4.4% increase, but the gross profit grows 10.7% year-on-year. When we look at the year to date in the first nine months, we grow even more than 10%. This is really important because it shows that the decisions we made and the strategies we have been implemented since last year and have been sharing with the market have been working well. The second point that is also important that we should bear in mind is that price readjustments and the changes in costs reinforce the company's ability to pass on the prices. From a PVA perspective, and we have been monitoring that because this had been impacting our operating results. If we look at the historical data in this past quarter, we see there are minor changes.
The impacts we saw in the third quarter are not different from what we saw last year. PVA is not positive or negative in terms of the impacts we see. It is stable. When you look at the business highlights of the segments, we have Security as our main segment. It accounts for 63% of our revenue. We are reorganizing our channels, and we see that selling and sellout are in line. Some customers are deciding to postpone their decisions for looking for more economical solutions that would be, or rather more cheaper solutions that would meet their needs at this point. We see an acceleration in digital locks. We have a new portfolio that was launched. We are on a good path there.
The gross profit and the margins that we report in Security in this third quarter are well in line with the forecast that we had for the quarter and the year. It really shows that our ability to pass the cost on to the customers needs to be considered, and we see this here. When we look at ICT, this segment accounts for 22% of our revenue now. Before we make any comments, we need to look at this table here. There was an increase year-on-year, but a 9% decrease quarter-on-quarter. This decrease is already a result of the decisions we made to discontinue the GPON line. GPON is much less relevant in this period now, and this is why we see this decrease quarter. Structured cabling delivered consistent revenue and results above the plan.
From a cost management perspective as well as from a plant operational efficiency, we are quite competitive there, and we have been having good results in this business segment in this year as a whole. Gross margins have been improving based on the structured cabling revenue and the mix that now has a smaller share of GPON that had been impacting our ICT margin negatively. The third segment, Energy, accounts for 15% of revenue, and we start growing revenue again. For four or five quarters, we had been showing a decrease in revenue in year-on-year indicator. Now we have less solar energy and other businesses gaining more space. UPSs and chargers, we had a 2.4% and a 1.5% increase. There is some volatility in the solar energy business, but that is not a problem considering the context that we have planned for the year for this business line.
When we look at the cash performance, cash has been quite good. We understand that it is important that we have to be conservative in cash management, and we see a new cycle in cash generation that is very important in the third quarter. We reduced our inventory. We start improving our turnover. This relationship or this ratio between the inventory and payables showed an improvement this year. We see also a cash generation that is above BRL 250 million this quarter. We are paying dividends, we are amortizing the debt, but the cash generation continues to be very good. The net cash is BRL 680 million, with the gross cash at BRL 1.5 billion. The Manaus construction works are progressing according to plan. CapEx at BRL 81 million in the year to date indicator, the first nine months of the year.
And the continued investment in maintenance and infrastructure, they still remain there. The fourth quarter is also expected to be similar to the third quarter. Our expectation is that the construction work should be carried out in 18 months. We have nine months behind us and nine months ahead of us in the course of 2027. On different perspectives, we see a challenge in demand in the short term with customers reassessing their decisions. This has not changed. This is still present in our everyday reality. It has been there since 2025. CapEx is as expected, especially in Manaus regarding the Manaus construction works. We are getting to the fourth quarter 2026. We are getting close to 2027. So we have to be cautious about the coming year. There are uncertainties on a global and on a country level. We are structuring our budget.
We continue to hope to have real revenue growth next year. But again, we have to be cautious when we look at 2027. I would like to give the floor to Henrique. Henrique, please, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Bruno. Good morning, everyone. This quarter shows that the route we planned is correct, and the indicators bear witness to that quarter-over-quarter. I want to show you three things: what this quarter is confirming, what is behind that, and where we are headed. Let us start off with what is essential. We increased our revenue in our three segments. Our EBITDA grew almost 20% in the year, and we delivered a good gross margin. What we are proudest of is that the return on invested capital is at 20%. As Bruno said, we could look at the macro scenario and be cautious because the current scenario is challenging.
There is pressure on consumption. Customers have been more reluctant to make investments. They have been postponing their investments as well, and we see that, we feel that. This is why the results have an excellent result for our company. But the results are excellent for our company. We are growing in a macroeconomic scenario that has not been helping. This is thanks to the whole of the Intelbras teams, with our distributors, installers, integrators, our retail customers. At the start of the year, I said the quality of our results were going to be our focus, not the size of our revenue. This is what we delivered. Profit grew more than the revenue. The gross profit is almost 100% higher. But net profit was almost 20% higher. This is due to the decisions we made to focus on the return on capital and not only the volume.
We want to sell better, not more. The point that Bruno mentioned around margin, I just want to underscore that so that no one is surprised. The gross margin decreased a bit quarter-over-quarter. We had already mentioned that in the past earnings result. The inventory costs have been higher, so we are normalizing that. Nothing more than that. Still, the margin is still substantially higher year-over-year. The net margin was at 15%. So let us look at the ROIC. 20% in the last 12 months, and it was 14% in the comparison. Because if you are consuming a lot of capital and not delivering returns, then you are destroying the value, even if you deliver revenue. Let us speak about the segments. Security grew consistently, really. Also, as we have seen the sellout of our channels. So you buy, you sell it, and you buy it again.
The gross profit grew almost 10% this year. As Bruno said, twice, the ability to pass on costs to the customers is there, even in a challenging market. This growth comes from where we won. Access control, safety, digital locks is gaining traction, and this is more technological and it's a market where we're better positioned versus the competition. Hardware plus hardware added to software. Hardware to hardware plus software. Software also having its weight in this whole package. We are looking at the pain points the customers have, adapting features or creating new features to address these pain points. This really allows us to stand out from the competition. In ICT, we're very focused on the discipline of the portfolio. We are discontinuing GPON, and this is why we had a decrease in the revenue quarter-on-quarter. This was expected.
This was planned. Nonetheless, the gross profit increased almost 14% year-on-year. We are leaving a line that did not contribute to our ROIC, and we now have lines that do. Structured cabling is benefited by the anti-dumping measures that are favoring the national industry. The Tubarão plant has been growing its production. It has been getting more productivity. I like to be transparent here. We see projects in the market that are very cheap, and they are not coming from China, and these go around the anti-dumping measures. Let's see if other measures will get to these other countries that are supplying these low-cost products. Now, let's talk about energy. I think it's a good representation of everything I've said. It's gone back to growing. These accommodations that were taking place were actual surprises. Now that's settled.
We decided not to be part of the micro generators, the power plants in 2025 to prioritize where we know how to play the game, which is the home market and the medium and small businesses. We did that for four quarters, and now the more profitable base can be seen. We have a strong position in UPS and vehicle chargers. Vehicle chargers are still young. It's a new avenue, but we're strong in the UPS front. We've gone back to generating free cash, as we are progressing in the Manaus investment. We're generating cash and we're investing. A substantial part of the cash generation came from normalizing the inventory. We started financing a substantial part of that or a bigger part of that. This was a strong driver. At one point, the driver dries out.
We have captured most of what it had to offer already. The gains from now on are going to be smaller. Our whole team has been working hard and working well in this company's new phase. Thanks to all of that, our free cash position continues to be strong, and that makes the company flexible, and we feel confident. The Manaus construction works continue to progress. It's going to give us more capacity, more efficiency, and allow the company to continue to keep up with the portfolio we produce and manufacture in Manaus. Of course, we continue to follow all of the criteria we've always had for all of our construction works, the timeline, capital discipline, flexibility to make any adjustments that are called for as we feel they are needed. Everything has been on the right path. Now about the fourth quarter.
We continue to be cautious because the demand has not rebounded in the short term. Our execution has shown that we can grow with profitability nonetheless, regardless of the economic and political scenarios. But again, we should remain cautious, and that is what we are going to continue to do. We are going to continue to have profitability and return on invested capital and continue to leverage our growth. The message I want to leave you with is that this quarter really shows that Intelbras is on the right track, increasing revenue, increasing profit even more and substantially more than the revenue. With ROIC at 20%, this is the commitment we take on, and we are generating more value to our shareholders, to our staff, and to our customers. Thank you very much to the whole Intelbras team, and thank you. Let us start the Q&A, shall we, Bruno?
Thank you, Henrique, for your words. Let us find the Q&A. We have Gustavo from UBS. Can we allow him to unmute himself, please?
Hello, everyone. Can you hear me?
We can hear you, Gustavo.
First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the results for the quarter, in spite of this challenging economic scenario. Can you give us some color on how you have been planning internally, especially concerning this macro scenario that is expected for the coming years? There are two points I would like to address. First, the growth perspective, that it should be higher than inflation in 2027. What expected inflation do you have for 2027? The second point is, do you expect the EBITDA margin, and this margin has continued at a higher level than historical figures. Should it continue on this higher level, or should it be normalized in the future? Thank you very much for taking my question.
I will start answering your question, and Bruno is going to complement my answer. Thank you for your question, Gustavo.
We have never really taken into account the political scenario, be it good or bad, and the economic situation in Brazil, so to speak. We are just more or less cautious, and we always want to grow and have real growth above inflation. We have to focus on what we can control because we have no guarantees concerning the revenue. We can read the market really well. We have a lot of discipline in our activities to make revenue be as good as it can be. What we can control, however, is expenses and costs as well, acquisition costs and so on. Our scenario and planning for 2027, well, we expect to have real growth above inflation. That is what we expect. If inflation is at 300%, well, this is a different scenario, is it not?
Day after day, we will continue to work on what we can control and these expenses. You can use the Focus report reference when it comes to the assumptions. This is what we do here. We do not have to be very accurate. If it is 1 point higher, give or take, inflation, well. As for the margin, I will just restate what I have been saying in the past earnings calls. We see the costs changing slowly but surely and the replenishment costs also the same. The market has been following the same patterns, and this should accommodate for historical levels. The time that will take for the margins to go back to historical levels, well, that is something we need to be watching. Henrique mentioned that we need to be competitive in the market, and we need to adjust prices.
When I was talking about security, I spoke about access control, and this is a line where we have the ambition to be better positioned to become a stronger leader than we already are. All of that could impact prices. This is why we maybe should say that the margins should go back to what we are used to seeing. This year, it is going to be higher than historical levels, but when we forecast the future, we should not expect it to be higher than 14% as we see in 2026, but should be closer to what we have in historical figures. Is it clear?
Yes, very clear.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Gustavo. Let us allow Luis to ask his question now. Good morning, Luis. Welcome. Luis, can you hear me? Yes. I can now. We can hear you now, Luis.
Hi, everyone. Good morning, Henrique. Good morning, Bruno.
Congratulations on your results. Well, your improvement quarter after quarter. I have a question around the budget for 2027. You said you are going to be cautious. I do not want to go into any guidance, but what are the two to three variables that will take a bigger role in this? Is it the foreign exchange, the components? My second question has to do with net cash. It is almost BRL 700 million now. Considering this indicator, what are you considering in terms of allocating capital next year, considering dividends, new shares, the investments in Manaus?
I will start off with our plan. Good morning, Luis. The key points for our caution next year will change depending on the business. Intelbras has three major businesses: security, ICT, and energy. But within them, we have 27 businesses. If you zoom in even further, it is 60 different categories.
Not to mention the other companies in the group. Each of them has a different context. There are businesses that are in markets that will not grow anymore. There are other businesses that are only taking their first baby steps. So vehicle chargers, this is a new point. It is a baby that is just starting to be present. Should we say that everything has had the price going up in Brazil? That is not true because vehicles, cars, have had a decrease in prices. So we always look at our businesses in a very granular way, category by category, businesses separately. We are always very cautious, especially in businesses where we can have an impact to the component costs. Some items have had price increases. That is true. Then you have an increase in price and a decrease in demand.
But this price increase will offset the decrease in demand. So the situations that will reduce the factory production and will have an impact on the factory cost. But it is a minor impact. So again, it is very granular. In short, this is what it is. But we have more mature businesses, less mature businesses, other businesses that have only begun the input costs and our market share, which is always where we want to be bigger. We want to have a bigger and bigger market share, and we want to play well. There is a demand variable that continues to be there, as we have been seeing in the past two years. This is a variable that we do not see changing positively, and we expect it to continue to behave like that. The impact on cost is also very important.
When it comes to capital allocation, the cash position is quite robust. We have a volatile scenario, and having cash, that is security. It translates into security for the business. We can use opportunities. We have one investment that is already taking place and will continue to be, which is the new plant in Manaus. Other investments are in the same size. We have been talking about financing channels differently. We have been talking about developing new lines, new products, the changes in the portfolio. What can contribute to return on invested capital. But nothing different than what we have been telling the market. From a repurchase or a dividend perspective, we continue with the 35% dividend payout, which is agreed with the board. This is a point that is always discussed in the board meetings.
The changes would be decided on by the board if they have an impact on our articles of incorporation. If there is anything different in the 35%, there would be an upside, but this is not the decision that we have at that point. We should stick to 35%. The repurchase plan that we had created in the past has been completed. The focus is on ILP. We are not allocating capital for repurchases. This is not a point to be thought of in the short term, at least not for now. Extraordinary dividend payouts may take place, but this is a decision that the board would make.
Thank you, Bruno. Thank you, Henrique, and congratulations on your results, and have a good day.
Leandro Bastos from Citibank.
Thank you, Bruno. Thank you, Henrique. I have two points. The first has to do with security. You mentioned caution in demand.
Can you give us some more color around the competitive environment? What do you expect there? And what do you expect in terms of strategy? Because the margin is doing really well, so could you be more aggressive in pricing, or do you expect any different approach, especially in security? I think this is the first point. The second point, that has to do with the six-day working week. How are you thinking about adapting to the new laws and the impact in costs as well? Thank you.
I cannot really speak about the competitors. I can speak about us. Considering the current economic scenario, what really makes a difference is being close to the customer. Working with the customers that really buy our products and that will take ours to the end customer. So we have been focusing there, really.
Whenever there is unstable economic situation where the population feels that they are less safe, security sells well. So this is an important point to bear in mind. Considering the new technologies that we have in our portfolio, Wi-Fi, cameras. People can now have cameras in apartments. That was not possible in the past because we needed to break the walls. So this is a demand that is there, and there is room for growth there, and we continue to capture that. We have been having more and more solutions, not only cameras, but everything that is behind it, software and recording images to the cloud and AI and so on. So this is what we have been doing to weaken the competition. As for pricing, that is something we look at every day.
Everything that we can do considering our main feedstock or raw material vendors and suppliers, then we will pass it on to our customers, and then we can be more productive in our factories and our plants. When we think about the end of the six days on, one day off work week changing to a five day on, two days off working week. This has no impact. When you look at the roster in a plant, if you have all of the shifts covered, you cannot have the 42-hour week. You have people standing idle. So we already have a different type of rostering in our plants. So that is why the impact of these changes in the six-day working week into a five-day working week, it is irrelevant to us.
Thank you, Henrique. Have a good day.
Maria Clara from Itaú BBA, please.
Good morning, Henrique, Bruno. Thank you for taking my question. I've got two points I'd like to ask you about. The first has to do with the gross margin growth in this quarter. What has been the impact of the changes in the mix there, and do you think you can continue to streamline the mix in each business unit? My second question has to do with energy. You say that the segment is going back to growing, and I'd like to try and understand what would be the sustainable growth that can be expected for this business.
Good morning, Maria Clara. Every business has room for improvement. We're a large company. We have many businesses. The portfolio optimization, it's like clipping your nails. It's something you have to do every week. It will continue to be optimized and new avenues are going to be built and tested out, and we'll see if they pay off or not, and we'll have a change in the cycle in this portfolio. The numbers, maybe Bruno has more clarity on them. I don't. It's an important variable in the energy mix. There's a strong base of solar energy. This is a market that we don't understand will be growing. In the future, it should be stable in the next two years at least. We have no ambition of growing in this market. This revenue accounts for less than 50% of the energy revenue.
It shouldn't continue to grow. The rest of the energy businesses should continue to grow. Vehicle chargers, UPSs, they should continue to grow. But the whole segment will continue to carry on this business that should be stable with more profitability, with more efficiency, but that shouldn't be having any real growth. As you see the vehicle fleet becoming more hybrid or more electric, even if you increase and you have the sales of UPSs with more efficient ones, then we see that we're going to have the solar business there. That is not going to be growing much. I think we can take it all into account.
Going back to the first question, can you quantify the margin gains expected from the mix effect?
Henrique, please complement my answer if necessary. You mentioned the year-on-year growth, right? If we look at it quarter-on-quarter, there is a minor drop comparing to the previous quarter, especially due to these cost accommodations and price accommodations as well. The normal margin. We have been at about 31%, 30% last year, and now it is almost 33%. It should be between the two. We need to see the effects of the cost being passed on to have more clarity. There is an important gain coming from the changes in the mix in the ICT segment. We see that even with new costs at the base, the fact that the GPON became less relevant led to an increase in the quarter-on-quarter margins. An increase in margins quarter-on-quarter, by the way.
We cannot forget that we have this temporary effect from costs that are still being shown, and we have the prices for the end customers that are already showing this difference.
That is clear. Thank you very much.
Marcelo from JPMorgan.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. ROIC was 20% this quarter. How do you see that? Is this a level that can be sustained? Can it continue to grow? What are your ambitions regarding this indicator? I understand it is the most important one at this point. You mentioned that some customers have been buying cheaper products and more affordable products. Do you see that this is a cyclical aspect, or is there a change in profiles of the consumers there?
We would like to have higher ROIC results, higher than 20%. This is our ambition. We have had that in the past, and we want to go back to levels that we had before. Considering the changes by end customers, and if it is going to be a structural change, I do not think it is.
It's an impact due to companies that used to buy, I don't know, 100 cameras that would be used in their companies. Now they're buying 50, 70 cameras, so they reduce their investment. At Intelbras, we were looking at a project, and we decided not to do it at this point. As Intelbras ourselves are thinking about these changes, we see that other customers are doing the same, and we feel it. It's not a structural change. Once the current situation has changed in Brazil and we see better, stronger economy, I am positive that this is going to start changing as well.
Thank you very much for your answers.
Just to compliment on that.
As Henrique said, we could be installing 100 IP cameras that will have some higher level characteristics. Not to reduce the number of cameras, they will change the specs and get a simpler camera to an area that could have a better camera installed. Just to add to what he had said.
Thank you, Marcelo. Thank you to the sell-side analysts. We have a question from an investor, and we have some minutes before the closing remarks. The question has to do with Khomp and Renovigi, if they have been generating value.
Let's start with Renovigi. We already declared that, we stated it was a wrong decision. It hasn't added value, and we will not shirk from admitting the mistake. Learnings are part of the solar energy business, but this is an acquisition that wasn't adequate, wasn't the right one. It was a mistake. As for Khomp, I give you the floor, Henrique.
Khomp is a company that develops technology. It's present in the main call centers in Brazil and abroad with their solutions, with remote recordings, transferring calls, and with several types of analyses they can carry out in the calls. This is a company that really adds value in ICT. There are some embryos that started being developed some years ago. One of them is IoT, focusing on B2B. So a temperature sensor for a cold room and a freezer.
Because, say, they run out of gasoline or fuel in the generator, someone has to go there and do something. 5G antennas for smart farm programs, soil humidity levels. This is a company that is in a market that has a lot of potential, but that is creating this market and developing it. This is a company that is going to add value to the company in the future.
[Non-English content]
We've got a few minutes still. There's another question around the dividend payout. If we should expect to have a higher dividend payout because the revenue growth has been low and the ROIC is at 20%. This is a buy-side analyst A shareholder here in the company. I think this is possible, But again, as I said earlier on the call.
This is a decision to be made by the board of directors. We'll continue to follow the 35% expectation until there's a decision by the board that is different. A stronger cash position. It's true. It's close to the year's EBITDA.
We feel very comfortable from a financial perspective. Some analysts may consider that a financial inefficiency, but we are more conservative.
This is what we have agreed on with the board. Anything to add, Henrique? No. Okay.
There is one last question.
Do we expect any growth concerning the services related to our products we sell?
A question from João, from Ori Capital.
This is a question coming from João from Ori Capital.
You had mentioned the software aspect, right?
João. Yes. We understand that services, that is an important part of our business. An important part of the future of our business. Of course, not doing the installation service, not that. But if we can deliver services, especially recurring services. Services that require technology and that can have a higher value solution for the end customers.
[Non-English content]
Well, there are softwares that-
[Non-English content]
This is definitely something we are studying and analyzing. We understand it is a very important possibility for the company.
[Non-English content]
Henrique, I would like to give you the floor for the final remarks, and I would also like to thank everyone for joining our call. Henrique, please.
[Non-English content] thank you all for being here on the call. I see that Intelbras has really shown this year that we have a strong capacity to reinvent ourselves. The whole of the team has worked exceptionally. We came from a year that had been decreases. We reformatted the company concerning our structure, our approach to businesses. We extended that to a discipline in execution with the channel.
[Non-English content]
We are really working close to the resellers and with the retail customers. We are renewing our portfolio, making changes where we saw stumbling blocks or hindrances and really investing where we see better market potential. We continue to see our eagerness to grow. I am in China. I am visiting a number of companies, not only the partners we have already, and we see the humanoid robots intelligence that has really improved incredibly. Some that are not used in practice yet. Maybe with a 5x2, the five working days by two days off, could accelerate the use of other services, not humanoids, but other types of services that could reduce the cost of a condominium or a block of flats, a block of houses that would need to increase the cost for more people to be working there. Thank you very much for being here.
Stay with us. We will continue to show good results in the future. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Henrique.
Thank you, Bruno.
This is the end of our earnings call 2026, for the third quarter 2026. Thank you very much. Have a good one.