Welcome everyone to the 3Q 2021 earnings results conference call. I am Bruno Teixeira, the Investor Relations Head of the company, and t oday, with us, we have Mr. Silvestri, our CEO, and Mr. Boeing, our CFO. With that, we can start our results call. This conference is going to be recorded, and it will be available on the company's investor relations website. You can download the presentation on the website as well, and you can also find the replay on the website.
For the Q&A session, p lease send out your question by clicking on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen. Please type in your name, your organization, and the language in which you wish to ask your question, and we are going to answer them in the order that they are posed. When we call your name, you are going to see a pop-up window on your screen so that you can unmute your microphone and speak. Also, the information contained in the presentation and any statements that may be made during the conference call about the business perspectives, projections, as well as operating and financial targets for Intelbras are based on the beliefs and assumptions of the company's management and on currently available information.
Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as they refer to future events, and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic and market conditions, as well as other operating factors, may affect the future performance of Intelbras and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, I am going to start the presentation itself. Thank you all very much for your participation.
Now, let's start with the main highlights for 3Q 2021. I am absolutely certain that one of the highlights is the strong growth in the net revenue line, a growth of 24.1% year-on-year with a net revenue of almost BRL 759 million. The first quarter comparison is always weaker. Now, the third quarter already has stable prices. You can see here that we are delivering a great revenue growth level with expressive volumes and also a great result for the third quarter. When it comes to EBITDA, we had a drop year-on-year. We reached BRL 89 million , which is excellent. We should bear in mind that the 2020 EBITDA was impacted by the inflation rates related to the gross margins that we had at that time, related also to the inventory costs. We already had adjusted our prices.
It is also related to the reduction in expenses. Throughout the year 2020, we tried to reduce costs, especially selling expenses. Our net profit came to BRL 88 million, 6.5% lower year-on-year and 3.6% higher quarter-on-quarter. Our net profit is in line with our historical levels. Now, o ur ROIC came to 31.6%, 10 percentage points lower year-on-year, but also in line with our investments and also the way we have been conducting our business. We have been showing this chart showing the historical levels to show you that we have been delivering robust growth levels. You can see here the data since 2017, and you can also see the consolidated results for the nine first months of 2021 with a revenue of BRL 2.1 billion in net revenue.
In the first nine months of the year, we have already exceeded the entire revenues for the year 2020. You can see that we have been growing, we have been gaining space, and you can see that our results are extremely significant now in 2021. As for EBITDA, you can see a very significant growth over the years, and we had a 41.8% growth in the first nine months of 2021 year-on-year. You can see that we also had a drop in the third quarter year-on-year, but the year has been very good, and we are very happy about these results. As I said in our first slide, I would like to highlight the EBITDA margin of 18.1% in the third quarter 2020.
That margin was much higher than our historical normal levels in terms of investing to grow and continue to grow, gaining market share, gaining more space in the market. Today, an EBITDA margin of about 13%-14% would be in line with our projections. The margin for the last nine months was 13.2%, which is in line with that level. Last year was great in terms of EBITDA margins, and this year, we can already see a level that is closer to the historical levels. Now, I would like to talk about the different business lines, starting with security. It accounted for 54% of our net revenues. I would like to highlight the two security business units that we have here, because they are very strong. These are the most mature business lines, and they still deliver growth and market share gain.
The sell-out is still accelerated in our distribution market. We always monitor what's going on in the distributors' inventories, and we always report sell-in, but we always like to keep an eye out for sell-out. We can see that our sell-out levels are still accelerated for the two lines. The growth has been superior to the average in this segment, and we believe that we have many opportunities to grow in access control. The 1 percentage point difference that you can see here, they are related to the market dynamic, and I believe that we can talk about this in greater detail in the Q&A session. We adjust our prices. We pass on costs to customers.
Some, we don't. Some, we avoid doing that because they are associated with freight for us to bring materials to Brazil, and w e consider the types of costs that we want to pass on to customers to avoid variations and to keep our operations strong. Now, when it comes to communication, it accounted for 28% of our revenues in 3Q 2021. You can see here that we had a decrease. Security kept the level of 54%, but communication dropped a little bit. We saw a drop in our results year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter in the net operating revenue. Communication is still a very hot market, but there are many restrictions in relation to the components. As we said in previous conference calls, the supply chain is very difficult at this moment. We are bringing the components to our country. We have been able to keep our inventories.
Here, in the third quarter, we were able to receive the raw materials and manufacture our products. In the last days of September, we were able to get revenues, but we were not able to recognize some of those revenues, so t hey will be seen in the next quarter's results. It is important to highlight, though, that we have been receiving raw materials, we have been manufacturing our products, and we are going to talk about our inventories later. But in this quarter, due to those restrictions, our revenues were limited. When it comes to the gross margins, I would like to highlight exactly what I said about security. We had an increase of 1.6 percentage points, which is related to the passing on of costs to consumers, but it is in line with our business dynamics in general.
Our third segment here is energy, which accounted for 18% of our revenues in 3Q 2021. Indeed, this market has been bringing great opportunities for growth, not only in solar energy, but mainly in solar energy. We can see a market that is very hot right now. We have been bringing raw materials, and we have been delivering more than we have been planning. If we had more materials, we would be making more money for sure. In solar energy, we have been growing over 100% year-on-year. We truly believe in the two business units that we have here, and we see plenty of opportunities for us to continue to grow. The margins here reflect the market in solar energy.
The margins are a little bit tighter, so we can see the decrease of 3 percentage points quarter-on-quarter, but the strong growth is represented here by the margins that we have here, by the growth of units, which shows our focus on distributor generation for residential customers and small and medium-sized business. We have been very successful in this strategy. Now, the fourth point I would like to highlight still about the operational matters is related to inventories. I believe this is a concern for many of you who are here with us today and for those who have been monitoring what is going on in the market. This situation is very complex right now. The availability of raw materials is lower, is tighter.
If you look at a company that has been growing and delivering good results, you might be concerned about inventories, which is very natural. That is why we decided to bring you this chart here to show you that since the first quarter 2020, we have been growing significantly in our revenues. The second line shows our inventories. We have been able to fulfill our inventory demands. We have been bringing raw materials. As I said in previous conference calls, we have to keep a good inventory level. For example, for semiconductors, when they get here in the country, we need to have the entire materials list for the plants to start production. Although we had a slight unbalancing here, I believe that the inventories of BRL 958 million show that we do have the raw materials here to deliver a good fourth quarter.
We already have materials in transit, and we believe that we are going to start a strong production cycle in 2022. Of course, logistics demand planning, and this is how we have been working. The fourth quarter is very strong in terms of raw materials availability, and we firmly believe that we are going to have a great closing of the year 2021. Now, i nventories over COGS, we would have to multiply this by three, and 1.79 times three equals about five months.
Here, we are considering the raw materials that we have received and the finished goods, and a lthough we have to consider that slight unbalancing that I mentioned, this inventory level allows us to have the appropriate conditions to weather this difficult situation that we are having now in the supply chain and to believe that we are going to have a very strong fourth quarter and a great 2022. Now, this is a very important point, our cash evolution. Although we invested in inventories, we have a very robust inventory, even above our plans. We usually work with 120 days of inventories, and now, we have over five months, but our operations do generate cash, and we said that in the previous quarters. You can see that in the third quarter, we still have a robust cash generation, making investments and paying debts, and we still generate cash.
So, everything is going according to plan. And c ash management, of course, is extremely significant and critical to our businesses. You can see here the numbers for the third quarter. Now, w hen it comes to CapEx, the third quarter shows the expansion investments that we have been talking about over the past quarters. We have been investing in the plants in Minas Gerais and Manaus, and also here in the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil, which will be an energy plant. You can see here that our maintenance CapEx came to 2.5% of our net revenues, which is in line with the historical levels. For those of you who like to model out our CapEx, this is a reference number for you. We came to 2.5% in maintenance CapEx.
In order for us to have time for the Q&A session, which is always very rich, in my opinion, I would like to wrap up the presentation by saying that we are going to finish 2021 with a growth level that is above our historical levels. 2021 was a very productive and a very good year for us. Of course, we still have some supply chain difficulties. It applies to the entire market, not only Intelbras. It applies to everybody who is working in the electronics business. But w e want to continue to grow. We want to continue to gain market share. And of course, if things are tough for us, they are also tough for the competitors, the smaller competitors. So, we have to keep the same attention level that we have always had.
We have an entire supply chain team dedicated to bringing the raw materials that we need, and we are very close to the big players. We buy a large volume here in Brazil to serve the country and Latin America, and that is the reason why we are a priority for the providers, the suppliers. We did not start working with those partners in 2020 or 2021. No, we have been working with them for a long time, and that's why we are a priority for them, which helps us in the supply chain, and w e are going to continue working like that in the fourth quarter. We have been taking appropriate measures since last year in relation to supply chain, and we actually developed products that would allow us to have more access to semiconductors.
That's why we believe that we are going to have a very strong fourth quarter as well to close the year on a high note. Now, when it comes to expenses and investments in internal projects, we highlighted some of those projects during the IPO process. We have been investing and working with our sales team. And just to give you an example, we are building a sales team in each vertical to serve the major accounts, the major projects, a nd those teams are now working in a dedicated way, and we are also expanding the solar energy team so that we can capture the opportunities in this market in 2022. This is really part of what we have to do so that we can reap the benefits and grow in the future.
The projects are ongoing, and they are going to be a tool for us to continue to grow even more in the future and delivering the great results that you can see that we already have, including in terms of market share. Now, over the next years, we also believe that we are going to have great opportunities in relation to the 5G network here in Brazil. In November, we are going to have an auction, in early November, and we have to start now the development. In the third quarter, we started that, and we are going to continue development in an accelerated way during the fourth quarter for us to have the approval processes in place together with our clients and so that we have the materials finished to be sold as soon as we have 5G infrastructure in place in the entire country.
So, we believe that the 5G business is going to be a great opportunity for the communication business line. I would like you all to understand our strategy in terms of helping the broadband subscribers so that they are able to have access to the 5G network. We will be able to tap into those opportunities as soon as we have competitive prices. This is how we have been putting together our line. We are putting together the 5G modules here in our manufacturing plants. I believe that this business line is going to be very competitive. It is going to have a very good market share as the 5G network develops here in Brazil. So, with that, I finish the presentation for today. Thank you all for your attention. Now, we can start the Q&A session.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen. Please type in your name, your organization, and the language in which you wish to ask your question. When we call your name, you are going to see a pop-up window asking you to unmute your microphone so that you can ask your question out loud. Okay, so I'm going to stop sharing my screen now. We have a question here from [Non-English content]. Would you like to u nmute your microphone? Carlos Sequeira from BTG Pactual.
Okay. Can you hear me, Bruno?
We can hear you, Carlos.
Rafael, good morning.
Yes, we can hear you.
Well, thank you very much for taking my question. I have a question. [Non-English content]
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Well, we now have materials that came in towards the end of the quarter, so everything that we did not manufacture and did not deliver to the end customer is not recognized in our revenues, and in that period in particular, that volume was a little bit higher than the usual and in consolidated numbers, we are going to have a roll-out of about BRL 64 million in revenues of products that were manufactured, build but not yet delivered to customers, and that includes [audio distortion] segments.
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Yes. That's the revenue and that's the difference between what we brought from the previous quarter.
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[Non-English content] César, would you like to unmute your mic?
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Good morning, César.
[Non-English content] Are we going to see some impact on security as well?
Well, just to have an idea, in the 54 categories, product categories that we have here, out of the 54 product categories that we have, only two have available inventory to serve the demand immediately. The other 52 product categories are being delivered as we receive the components. And of course, we always operate with security. We have our relationships with [inaudible] suppliers, and therefore, we have confidence that we are going to be able to serve the demand in the various areas. As I said, in communication, the problem was [inaudible], and this should last until the end of the year, so we are going to see shortage in [inaudible] until the end of the year in a higher level than the other business units. But for the other business units, we are very confident and we don't foresee any difficulties.
Okay, thank you very much.
[Non-English content] Now, I would like to turn you over to Gabriela from Itaú BBA.
Hello, good morning. We have two questions.
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The first one is related to the [Non-English content] prices that we're having now?
We believe that it was very important to see changes in the regulatory framework, and now, we have a very well-established scenario of what the regulations would look like. And now, we can see that in two years' time, we are going to see a strong growth in that sector. And we believe that the growth that we had in the business came really strong [inaudible] need. People are feeling that the need for clean energy [Non-English content].
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So, all of the helped, but even before all of the happened, we already have great expectations for the solar business.
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[Non-English content] I believe that she asked a question that we have not answered, about the selling expenses and investments. Well, the structure we have for all of our verticals, for all of the projects that are already delivering good results, and we are working in larger projects, and also considering the structure of the energy unit, in 2022, we are going to see a significant [inaudible] and we are going to see the return on investments that we are making now.
2022 is going to be very strong.
Absolutely.
[Non-English content] from Julia from XP. Julia, would you like to unmute your microphone to ask for a question?
[Non-English content], Bruno, [Non-English content]?
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Thank you very much for taking my question. It would be interesting for me to understand your perspectives about margins. I understand that [inaudible] costs are temporary and [inaudible] distribution channels. [Non-English content]
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[Non-English content] So, we are investing in growth.
Thank you very much, that was very clear.
[Non-English content] Julia. [Non-English content] about the impact on our results from the 5G network and our partnership with [inaudible]?
Well, when it comes to the solar business, [Non-English content]
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[Non-English content] but we are going to see some improvement in the next quarter.
Yes, the situation is still difficult but we [Non-English content] in the logistics of the components in communications.
We know that this market is very stable. And in relation to telephones which are still very much used in the corporate business, and we own over 70% of the market, we really struggled [Non-English content]
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Perfect. Thank you very much.
[Non-English content] Ali. [Non-English content]
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[Non-English content] follow-on, we are not going to count on that because the market [Non-English content]
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[Non-English content] turn it over to Mr. Altair for his final comments.
[Non-English content] Thank you all very much.
[Non-English content] Thank you, bye-bye, have a nice day.