Hello, welcome. Welcome to Panorama Itaúsa 2026. I am Juliana Rosa, and I will conduct this event on another year for the main audience of Itaúsa and the companies of its portfolio. We are going to have the leadership of the holding, the CEOs of companies of the portfolio for a discussion that you know. An open discussion on strategy, governance, performance, and the perspectives of the business. Before we start, we have simultaneous translation into English and sign language. You should take place of our event via the chat of the platform or via the social networks. Use the hashtag, # PanoramaItaúsa2026. I would like to start inviting you who are here right now with us. After the success of the commemoration of the 50 years of Itaúsa that we have done at the headquarters, Itaúsa decided to open the space to increase the visitation to the shareholders.
If you want to see and visit, it is very nice. Just scan the QR code on the screen and state your interest. We are waiting for you. Let us start with Panorama Itaúsa 2026. To open our event, I receive now Alfredo Setubal, CEO and Investor Relations Director. Great to be back here, Alfredo. It has been seven years that we have been doing this together, and every time that Panorama arrives, I am always happy.
Thank you for the invitation. Thank you, Juliana. Good morning. It is a pleasure to have you here once again this year. You are part of our story. Seven years looking at all the changes and bringing the pride, the joy that you take on being a part of Panorama.
So it is great to have this opportunity to have an open and transparent discussion. We have a very nice agenda to explore today. To start, we are going to do a recap of APIMEC, the association of the shareholders.
Hello, analysts, CNPI, investors, and all the audience of Panorama Itaúsa 2026. I am Mara Limonge, VP of APIMEC Brasil. I am here to deliver the Assiduidade Esmeralda Seal for the commitment of transparency and the frequent contact with the shareholders. Alfredo Setubal, thank you for supporting the processes. People like you allow for building a more transparent, strong, and committed with quality market. Have a nice event.
Very nice to talk about transparency, Alfredo, and everyone that is part of the trajectory of Itaúsa. How is that translated into practice and the shareholders with, in the relationship with the shareholders?
Well, 26 years that we have done annually an event for our shareholders and for our stakeholders. It is to show our investments, accounts receivable for a society. Well, transparency and ethics solidity is a value of Itaúsa, and we built that through the years with our shareholders. We have over 970,000 shareholders, individuals that spontaneously went to the stock exchange and bought our shares, trusting our capacity for investment, our ethics, our governance. Big responsibility that we bear with these shareholders. This is about a third of our capital base. It is extremely relevant, and we are very happy with this. And of course, we have all the responsibility.
Yes, we feel that you have that responsibility that is strong, as well as the commitment. It is important to see that energy that Itaúsa invests for Brazilians. When we talk about the relationship of the long term, that data that shows the dimension of all this, that Itaúsa gathers 970,000 individuals. It is an important number. It shows that we are present in 90% of the cities. One in every six shareholders have Itaúsa in their portfolio. Behind these numbers, there are people. People with different stories and connections with Itaúsa. Now, with this edition, we are going to hear a few of these shareholders that were here. I know it is a big responsibility.
So we went to these people and asked, what makes Itaúsa remain in their stories, and what sustains this trust through time?
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Very nice. We see that we become emotional. These are common people that came here and they feel part, they belong to the story. Belonging and profitability is important. Trust is important. You see that everyone reinforces the relevant pillars for the company.
This is a group of people and we are open to everyone that wants to see our exposé. It's very nice to receive the shareholders. We've done many things to be close to them through the social networks, events such as this live, events that repeat on YouTube. Today we have this event, and I am certain that over the next weeks, we're gonna have 300,000, 400,000 people that are gonna watch this live here with us or recorded. So it's important to be close on site and a presence through the social networks that we cultivate a lot. We provide a lot of information, podcasts, events, small ideas that are shared. This proximity is very important.
And you see that the shareholders of Itaúsa, they discussed governance. Governance is the base of the holding's decision-making process of the business and creating value on the long term as well. Those of us that know this very deeply, the board, the President of the Board, Raul Calfat, please take the stage.
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Raul, welcome.
Welcome, Juliana. Thank you for the invitation. Very good to be with you and be with all of our shareholders and everyone that is watching. It is very nice to be close to talk, to bring your questions. Please take part.
I am going to start by asking Raul, from that standpoint of those that are in the board as an independent member, in which way Itaúsa's strategy has been transformed over the years? If you can tell us about that, and why governance is decisive here.
Over these last years, Itaúsa evolved from a traditional holding to a portfolio management company. We are present in several sectors. Sectors that have a growth and value generation for the shareholders. It is a portfolio that is based on infrastructure and goods-producing companies. You are going to realize that the infrastructure sector is very resilient, so it tends to provide more stability, but it requires more investment through the concession period, and many times with a firm demand, which is very important.
On the other hand, we also have companies that produce goods. Goods are a bit more volatile and are subject to the oscillations of the economy. They tend to not do well when the economy is not doing well and benefit when the economy is doing well. It is a mix that is very successful. Governance at Itaúsa has a core role. It allows for long-term vision, discipline in the capital allocation, and continuous follow-up of the thesis of investment. We do that through the governance bodies of the companies. We have 50% of the members of the board that are independent. It is a board of eight members. Four are shareholders that are controllers, and four are independent. All the independent members coordinate the committees that help the board.
It is important that you share as well with us, how is this strong governance? How does it work at the level of the board?
Reflecting on how Itaúsa works with the invested companies. Itaúsa is a minority investor. We have a shareholding agreement, and through the shareholding agreement, they take part of the board and also committees. What is important is that the objective of all this is to share experience, values, and best practices. Experience has shown that many times we end up going over this influence in regards to the original shareholding agreement. That happens because Itaúsa adds value. It is good to realize this, and we do this with a lot of discipline, with rituals of management and monitoring the invested companies.
We also advance in sustainability, and now this agenda is part of the analysis of new investments and the dialogue with the invested companies. Usually, our company, our team takes part in the companies, and we do meetings that are monthly and theme-based with the invested companies. Whenever there is a relevant theme, whether if it is legislation, whether if it is environment, the super linear, for example, whatever, we do a meeting. We call our invested companies, and we discuss and add synergies and best practices. We have seen that this type of meeting is much valued because you share experience. I imagine that the theme is full of interesting subjects. If you can tell us about what are the main advances recently in this management of portfolio model. At a board of directorship, we always stimulate a lot of initiatives. Let me mention one.
It is a mature idea, and it is well utilized, and it has to do with the analysis of risk and return of our portfolio. We analyze the impacts of every one of the invested companies on the ROI, and we analyze their impact in the risk of the portfolio. We plot that in a graph. In one axis, we have profitability. In the other, we have the risk, the impact of the risk. We get every company, and then we calculate Itaúsa as having a central role and being the pondered resultant of all these risks and returns. This allows us to look with a lot of simplicity and quickness if eventually a certain invested company is bringing more risk or if it is compromising the returns. At the same time, we also analyze our new investments, and we plot them on a graph.
Before investing, we make a decision if we should move forward or not, contemplating risk. Usually what companies do is an analysis of a present value, but they do not contemplate the risks. So we do so with a lot of details. Many times we get to the conclusion that the most important than doing a new investment in a company is to increase our capital in a company that we already take place, because this increases the return and reduces the risk. It is a deep analysis, and it has been very useful. Besides, in the board meetings, we dedicate at least 50% of the time for the strategy. At each meeting, the CEO of the invested companies is invited. This occurs through the year. Before the meetings of the board, at least a week, we have the committees meetings, the strategic committees.
These committees, we approach the company with which we are going to welcome the CEO, and therefore we prepare the board members so they can have a quality discussion. So they get into the meeting not only to watch a presentation, but they are ready to focus on the issues that are important to Itaúsa. This has improved the quality of the discussions. Besides, we structure indicators that analyze the maturity of the invested companies' governance, compliance, cybersecurity. So all of this brings better quality for the decisions that are done, always respecting the autonomy and helping to build more solid and competitive companies.
So it is important that also you add something about governance.
I think it is important the aspects that Raul brought because it is an analysis risk-return. Of course, Itaúsa has a big concentration in Itaú Unibanco, and this is a big return for the bank. So what Raul shows is that our complementary investments are to decrease the risk of the concentration, and at the same time, bring an adequate return for the shareholders and do that balance.
We saw in that video the shareholders highlighting the trust in management of Itaúsa. Can you tell us what guides the company in the selection of new investments and how the portfolio has evolved?
This is very relevant. We have this risk-return balance. We take into consideration several aspects of the companies that we want to invest. Who are the partners? What is their capacity to manage, capacity of the company to grow? How can the invested company see sustainability? For us, it is very important, and governance. At governance, we help a lot of the companies because there are investments in companies that are not listed, so they are delayed in regards to the open companies to do the management of the governance, the committees, and the transparency of the investments. This is very relevant, and we take into consideration when we think about the investment.
Another issue, talking about invested values. Can you tell us what motivated the new investments done in this year at Aegea and Alpargatas.
Well, taking what Raul just commented, in this turbulent scenario that Brazil lives, with more or less, there is always an economic, political, external influence. Over this year, we have done an option to increase the investment in the companies that we take place, that we know, that we trust. So we increased the participation at Aegea, and we purchased the shares of Alpargatas. We understood that it was underevaluated with the potential for the growth of revenue in Brazil, and we seized the window of opportunities because legislation changed, and we have an additional space of participation, and we occupied that space, and we bought shares. So we are trusting in this confusing environment here and abroad by investing in the companies that we know.
Submit your questions. It is always good. Here we have the interest of many shareholders. The question of [Almir], [Rogério]. What are the criteria that are going to guide the new movements of capital allocation?
As Raul Calfat said, we are multidisciplinary in the capital allocation. We are not a private equity fund that has the mandatory, they have to do investments in a few companies. We have the flexibility of investing or not investing or disinvesting. This brings a lot of tranquility to do the investments that make sense. Since 2017, when we started the process of the active management of the portfolio, we constituted a portfolio that is very good in regards to the risk and return in solid companies, leading companies that have a manager specialized, and they have knowledge of that sector.
So we look for this package. It is not easy to find in regards to the return because of the risk of Brazil is high. But in this period, we have done choices that were very good. I believe that in the next cycle, we can have opportunities to do new investments that add value and do not increase the risk of return of the companies.
Raul, we are going to close our block. We are going to continue with the event. If you can add a final message.
I wanted to reinforce this point brought by Alfredo. We have gone through moments in the economy with a growth that is low, with a high interest rate that limits the possibilities of investments with the appropriate return. Even so, we are prepared. The scenario changes. So we have a mapping of different sectors that we are interested in, and we have had advanced conversations, several players of the market. Should the scenario change, the interest rates change substantially, Itaúsa will be ready to act. Meanwhile, let us reinforce the positions in the companies that we are working with.
Raul and Alfredo will come back. Now, let us continue with other guests. And they are going to help me in a short while. Let me continue. Amongst the impressions that the shareholders shared with us at the beginning of the company, the beginning of the program, one of the main attributes is solidity. Solidity appears in the transparency of the decisions, discipline to invest, follow-up of the portfolio, and the capacity to generate value. It is about how the solidity is translated in the investment management that we are going to discuss.
We are going to have a conversation with Frederico Pascowitch, Director of Investments and Portfolio Management, and Priscila Grecco, CFO of Itaúsa. Welcome. Good morning. Welcome once again. I have been working with us for many years. Great to be with you. Let us talk about active management. Let us start with Frederico and how we do the active management of the portfolio over the years.
Excellent point. Over the years, as Alfredo said, the role of the holding in our working model has evolved. We had a reformulation and expansion of the portfolio phase. We focused in the best way to support the creation of value within the business model of Itaúsa and the investment model of Itaúsa. As you know, it is based in investments that are minority participations with governance and a strong working with boards and committees. In that sense, it is important that we have representatives that are well-prepared. We focus the energies of Itaúsa to support the representatives.
We have here an analysis of the company, of the industry, the competition, and we want to transform that into applied intelligence that can be used by the board members. We consolidate that intelligence within a portal that is available 24/7. This levers our work, and it is a feedback loop of interaction between the representatives of Itaúsa.
This model has improved the way that we work at Itaúsa, and we ended up transforming every employee into a vector of value creation of the portfolio. In a more objective way, besides the holding, now we all have our responsibilities and to our expertise area to support the portfolio. This model has a few internal rituals that are important to support. A periodical meeting of portfolio with the leadership of Itaúsa, quarterly reports that have the function of aligning the board and the subsidiaries, and we have a guide for value creation that is validated by the board, that is a guide for our representatives. In the end, this is a way that we can connect the financial, operational, strategy, sustainability into a model of value creation for our representatives.
Priscila, from the financial standpoint, what are the results that already reflect this cycle of active management and discipline capital allocation?
Welcome, everyone. Complementing. The models of active management, Fred, it is a unique model. We have done a lot of benchmarking to create this model, and it ended up being a big reference for the market. It is very interesting for the follow-up of portfolio. Let us talk about results. We went through a cycle that was very intense, big investments. A lot of investments over the decade. We got into five different assets. We ended up leaving of two that we have had, and that brought a complexity, very big, for the company, and this demanded all of these changes, the way that we work, the management rituals, and follow-up. The results of this has been ever more evident.
We've reported results that are very solid, consistent, in a double-digit growth year-on-year. Profitability and return of our net assets in the 19%, very attractive. It reflects the quality of our portfolio, the consistency, how we manage the company. We also, with all of this growth and this quality, is translated into good dividends. Itaúsa is a big payer of dividends. We closed with a dividend yield at around 15%. It was the third best dividend yield amongst all the companies listed at B3. In the first semester, a yield of 10%. We've managed a robust growth of our results, delivering dividends in a consistent, attractive way, and all of that has been translated into a valuation of our share above the market benchmarks. We've been very consistent through the periods. If we analyze the different periods, we've shown that to the market.
Itaúsa is differentiating itself and always delivering returns much above the benchmarks of the market. We compare to CDI, it's very difficult to beat it. Itaúsa has been doing that consistently. [inaudible] valuation of dollar at the FX. All the benchmarks, Itaúsa performing much higher. This new portfolio that we built over the decade also brings results, growing results. When we compare the growth of result, how much that growth has impacted in the results of Itaúsa, we realize that the growth is more accelerated, even more than the growth that we have from Itaú Unibanco, which is a more mature asset. This new portfolio contributing with dividends. Last year, we had a flow of BRL 1 billion, very important year-on-year. Another important point that reflects the trust, we talked about trust of our shareholders with Alfredo, with Raul.
We saw our share valuating in an extraordinary way, and a discount of our share, the fair value of our portfolio reducing from 26%, it was the threshold that we opened a year to 17%, 18%. I remember you discussing this. This indicator, we follow it, and it reflects a lot of the trust of the shareholders at Itaúsa, our capacity, our quality of our portfolio. It's an indicator that we follow dearly, and it makes sense. It's a response of the market and all of that effort of how we follow the portfolio. How do we create more value? Another point is that we follow Fred and the entirety of the team. You do the value creation effectively of all the returns of these investments. This return of the investments is around 16% on year.
The internal rate of return, which is relevant in showing the assertiveness of our capital allocation process. Very few companies that can do a capital allocation to get expressive returns. So above the main market benchmarks. I think the results are very good, they're evident. We have improved our capacity to extract value of our new portfolio, and in this environment that is ever more challenging.
It's also interesting for us to understand in which way Itaúsa integrates the dimensions of risk and return to the decisions of capital allocation. Fred, can you tell us a little bit more?
Along the lines of evolution and the working model of Itaúsa and how we support our representatives, we've evolved in the analysis of the risk and return in a quantitative analysis. We have the return of the portfolio, very healthy threshold, where we are analyzing the risk of the portfolio as a whole, of each company and the portfolio in general. To do so, we created a series of tools. We do simulations of impacts of the macroeconomical variables, specific of every invested company, and how they are evolving in a retrospective risk.
We see risk as volatility of the companies, and if they are not listed, we do the comparable companies. We saw what was the volatility in the business plans that generate our analysis of return. We can do a vision of prospective vision of return with risk, helping our capacity for the rebalancing and investment. This tool has a simulation of Monte Carlo to see the scenarios of combinations of macro specific, evaluating that at the individual level and consolidated.
This tool allows us for a better decision making and even with new allocations. If there is a new opportunity of investment, we see the impact in the combined risk for the portfolio. The objective is building the portfolio, not only in companies that can go through different economic cycles, generating consistent results, but also bringing a risk vision that is adequate to the risk that is being generated. We have had great results.
It is important to hear from Priscila how Itaúsa utilizes governance to highlight the creation of value in the companies of the portfolio.
Governance is the base of all. We have discussed how governance has evolved. To help us to highlight the value creation of all of these investments that we have done, we have a strategy committee of new business. We gather monthly. Today, we have an independent member, Vicente Narcisse, that has, amongst his attributions, follow all of our portfolio, the thesis of investment. All the decisions for the capital allocation go through this committee. We do monitoring of our invested companies, and we define the strategic priority of Itaúsa.
It is a committee that is very hands-on and has been led by this independent member. There are other members that take place, and they brought new ideas so we can advance in the way that we generate the business. Another point that is important is that we have active listening in our invested companies. We commented that we have representatives in every one of our invested companies, working at the board, in the committees that service this.
This helps us to exercise influence in the correct direction, aligned with what we have for the business plan of the project, what is relevant for the creation of value for each of these investments. An evolution of this process over the last years was the indication of executives of Itaúsa, myself, Fred, Maria Fernanda, directors. They take part in a more active way, and this helps us to have a more, ever closer follow-up and exercising influence in the correct direction, and also bringing more depth to the discussions that we have in our invested companies.
Another important theme that helps in complement what Fred has worked is the theme forums with the specialists in our invested companies, bringing specialists of Itaúsa that we gather from time to time to discuss trends, innovations in the areas where we work, discussing regulatory changes, how they impact our invested companies, discussing the tax reform many times. It is a lot of issues. It is a way that we can influence our invested companies so they can take on better market practices, because we have different maturity levels at the invested companies. It is a way that we contributed a lot, and we have highlighted certainly our influence and our capacity to extract value from these investments.
Very nice to hear Fred and Priscila makes it very clear that active management of the portfolio goes beyond the choice of the investments. It is continuous follow-up of the thesis, integrated review of risk return, discipline at the capital allocation, and working at governance. Thank you. It is always wonderful to have your contributions.
At Itaúsa, investing means being closer to the companies of the portfolio to follow on the evolution and contributing for the value creation in the long term, always respecting the autonomy of every business. That is why we are here, and we are going to always hear those that are in front of these companies. The CEOs of the invested companies are part to talk about the business, the strategies, and the business perspective of each business. Let us start with Itaú Unibanco. Alfredo Setubal and myself will receive Milton Maluhy.
Great to have you here. Another Panorama. Welcome. It is a great opportunity. This event brings a general panorama, a lot of details, and the shareholders, they take part. Please continue to contribute and bring the interesting issues to you. Let me ask Milton another issue, that Itaú has delivered profitability, capital generation, and quality of credit, even in this environment of high interest rates and more volatility. Milton, what differentiates the bank in its capacity to go through challenging cycles, preserving this combination of results?
Thank you. It is always great to be here. First of all, there are a few pillars that are very important and are part of our culture. First, we have an enormous risk management discipline. We have a continuous outlook for the scenario, always looking on the long term, not guiding ourselves by the competition. We always have our own convictions, and we have to do a management of every risk. We do credit risk, we do market risk, operational risk. These are the risks that we do every day.
This long-term view, along with the discussion with Alfredo and Raul for the creation of value and capital allocation, is fundamental for a financial institution such as ours. We have to look at the long term at every decision that we make. That is the first aspect. Secondly, an institution that is focused on clients. Everything that we do, we do thinking of the client. Many times, not giving credit at a situation is the best that you can do, because you have to understand the level of indebtedness. How are they doing? How do we help them for credit lines that are more competitive so they can repay on the long term? Also be careful because a credit that is poorly given is not good for the client, the society, and the bank. This discipline is important for the cycles. Another aspect that is very important, diversification.
It's a very diverse portfolio. We work at the wholesale, big companies, and retail with the individuals, going through SMEs and all the segments of the economy. This gives you a portfolio because you can be balanced, and it allows you to do an active risk management at a moment that a sector is not doing well at a segment, it can be condensated by another segment. It's a portfolio overview, very relevant, and it's a management of portfolio through the cycles and the businesses. I think this discipline is key, aligned with technological transformation, risk management with data. We have to understand the individual client. All of that added to a cultural transformation, and we've had the consistency for the creation of value and creation of results, and having the clients with a high satisfaction level. This has worked well.
Itaú has had a performance better than the system as a whole. Do you believe that this is due to the models, the client?
Well, Alfredo, I see a few explanations. Six quarters, and I'm talking about the second quarter. [Non-English content] The not so good experiences is what makes you improve your model so you can have a highlighted performance. People are asking about delinquency. It's important at the moment.
So a question that was submitted to us of Antonio Gabriel, and they ask, "Well, how do you foresee the evolution of delinquency in this context?" Can you give us a context? The scenario of interest rates that are very high, higher compromising of income. As you said, Milton, we've managed to expand the portfolio and still with the best indicators for the quality of credit.
Well, this question is important because first of all, a disclaimer that I've done in all the opportunities I have, there is a mistake that the financial institutions like high interest rates. This is not a correct affirmation by something extremely simple. We pay the interest rates at deposits, and we charge a spread and a loan. So, the revenue is the difference of the rates of the loan and the capture. The higher the interest rates, the higher the rate for the company or the individual. The higher the interest rates, the higher the payment. The higher the payment, the higher difficulty, higher the level of delinquency. So the banks like to work with the interest rates below two digits, where that allows you to naturally push the economy productivity, generation of company, generation of jobs, and then have the capacity of paying more.
What we're living now is a moment of challenges. First, the high level compromise in the companies. We follow the indicators of the market, the delays above 90 days quarter after quarter, going to thresholds that are very high. Our portfolio has done very well. When you exclude with our proprietary data, we see that it's going higher than what is published. This level of interest rates is very restrictive, whether from the standpoint of financial expenses and all the uncertainties. They make the companies shorten their loans, and they don't do relevant investments on the long term. This is the scenario that we've lived. The work of the central bank is to keep the inflation at the adequate threshold because inflation for families is the worst rate that they have because they lose purchasing power. In this scenario, we have to follow up.
The market has reacted. The exchange rate is lower, the inflation is going downwards. This accelerates the cuts from the central bank, and then we have a benign scenario for credit. It is still early on to say. I remember that Alfredo told me many times, people think that the banks like high interest rates. Maybe in the past, when the credit portfolio was much smaller, but not today.
I wanted to ask Milton, you talk about AI. AI in the financial sector is important. How is the bank positioning? What are the perspectives of using more, using less?
Well, Alfredo, over the last year since we started, we always used artificial intelligence. In the past, it was machine learning. It took processes that had a lot of repetition. You train the machines. Generative AI changed the way that we work. We have had, over the last years, modernization of the platform of the bank, and this was a key decision for the institution. We are at the end of the cycle and for competitiveness, servicing the clients, we have done the modernization that is necessary. We also did the modernization and the centralization of data, information of our clients, and we made access democratic with the care and controls.
We invested two years in what we say, the foundation of AI. What is that? For me to get a model to interact with the client, I need to take care that this model respects the rules of the bank, the knowledge, the policies. So we spend two years building the guardrails to avoid that the model hallucinate so it does not generate a problem. We are the first bank to make this tool external. We started with the PIX transactional, very nice solution.
Then the investment specialist, we launched a digital bank, 100% based on AI for small companies. Last but not least, we could do all the construction of a model that you take to the client, and the name is the Artificial Intelligence Itaú. So what are the investments they recommend? All of that integrated. We are working with 3 million clients, and we are going to service 100% of the base of the clients. What is nice in this model? That you stop being a transactional bank and you start being a conversational bank. When you are a transactional bank, the client needs to understand how the processes work. They need to learn the route. When you go to a conversational bank, it is how the client wants to be serviced. The bank adapts. You give with text, voice, or touch. You interact with the bank in a different way.
We are the first bank to be disruptive because we have done the modernization, all the investment in data, and we link the foundation for the artificial intelligence and the long-term view. So 100% of the clients should be serviced. Other banks can do this, sure. What is our advantage? First, our history of the clients. You cannot replicate that. The behavior of Juliana in the bank, you cannot replicate. Second, we are a full bank, servicing the client in all the needs of the products, day-to-day credit, real estate financing.
This allows us to offer to the client what is the best for them. When you do not have all the products, you tend to offer what you have but not what is best. Since we have all the clients, we can offer the best. Several advantages that I see and the know-how that we acquired in credits, investments, activities, training our models so they have the culture of Itaú.
It would be interesting if you can detail the strategy of construction of the credit portfolios. Tell us more about how you build these portfolios.
Therefore face more volatility. For many years, we've decided the results of today are decisions of the past. So when they ask me on the long term, the long term of yesterday is short term today, and these are decisions that are made through the cycle. We decided after the crisis of 2015, 2016 in the segment of big companies to develop a technology for portfolio management in the bank. This doesn't mean not servicing the public A or B.
We work with a resilient client through the cycle. We imagine that client with that level of engagement with the bank, and how are they going to behave? We have a path of this is something dynamic that we do every day. We define how we build the portfolio, guaranteed, non-guarantee, how do we service with the We talk about the vision of clients in the system. Consignado CLT, that comparing to the personal credit, it's more competitive. We decided to substitute the offering to the employees to offer this before offering others. Now we are the leaders of this segment. Even with the segment and the market growing, we are still leaders. This is a product that has lower rates, but it has lower delinquency if done in the right way. We see our appetite. What are the volatility of the portfolio?
What is the concentration? This long-term vision has less changes in the balance, which is important because it brings predictability for the investors. Of course, the scenario, we have BRL 1.5 trillion of the credit portfolio that is very relevant with six quarters with a stable. We have the quality of our teams. They're doing the models, and they do the management. It's a concession of credit well done, doing monitoring of the client through the time, and the capacity of that is adequate, delivering the digital channels. This combination has let us have a portfolio with less volatility.
Milton, we're getting towards the end of the block with you. Thank you for the transparency and showing how the bank works. But looking ahead, Itaú is always working with a higher return level than the other banks in the system. How do you see the capacity of the bank of keeping this profitability high? How is this growth of revenues improving the efficiency, the technology? How do you see this package working so that Itaú continues to be—
Remember that he's a shareholder, and they're doing the projections. It's part. Look, I think that the discipline for the value creation is what will keep us with this level of profitability in regards to the cost of capital. I always do this comment. Cost of capital of any country is interest rates, institutional environment, and legal surety. These three components make the capital cost of a country to vary. Varying the cost of capital, in the limit, you can work with a different profitability than the current. But the delta is the creation of value that we mentioned.
It's the ROE versus the— we have a low bias, but we still deliver capacity of creating value for the shareholder, growing with a lot of discipline, and a lot of capacity for capital allocation and taking care with excess. If the market is making excess, then we see our convictions on the long term, and we are expanding the businesses, and we want to have a portfolio that is ever more profitable.
When we talk about quality of credit. We think about the— we wanted for you to discuss the choice of the clients. How is this way of relationship? What is behind the strategy?
It's a good strategy, well-defined. All the businesses have good strategies with a planning that is annual, always looking on the long term. We do the corrections that are necessary. It's very dynamic. Of course, we define the limits. We have governance. It's a good appetite for risk, and we work within these limits that are defined. We have to define well the strategy, how you're going to service the resilient clients, always with a long-term view. We need to be efficient. The more efficient that you are, the best the capacity of delivering competitive prices. You need to be simple. You need to have a good usability, a good experience, digital, and you need to be obsessed by data. These are the pillars that are for the long term, and then we train the models, the people, the capacity to hear with the data of the market.
If you can tell us about sustainability, which is important, how does it get into this strategy?
I've said that sustainability cannot be separated from the institution. This is an agenda that has to permeate the organization. Sustainability is business. How do we want to go with an economy with less carbon, clean energy? We approved up to BRL 1 trillion of lines for clients that are doing that. We've done 600 basis points with a capital credit. We want to deliver BRL 1 trillion up to 2030. Our foundations, Instituto Unibanco and others are important pillars. We have a governance that is separated, but it's something that we're very proud of.
Governance, we discuss very little, but governance is fundamental, so we can have the transparency with the investor. This is sustainability. We talk to the investors, we discuss with the client, we tell our story, we tell our trajectory. All of that is within the pillar of transparency and governance. It's sustainable from the standpoint of environment and being the bank of the transition, not the bank of decline.
We didn't let go of any of the objectives that we set, even though in the world, we've seen that this is a bit. We are very firm, and this is part of the organization of the company. We've been at the Dow Jones Sustainability since the end of the 1990s. So we're an institution that has sustainability as a part of our values. The board, our Committee of Sustainability, this remains in the agenda of the board with a lot of vigor. We're not moving backwards. We are firm with the agenda and the values of the bank. I knew you would like to complement that because it's something that is very important. Evermore companies that are not dedicated to this are going to pay a price in the future.
And in the end, in today's time, there is something that we discuss very little, and for us it's very important, which is trust. We want to create that relationship of trust, and if the people have that relationship, and they trust the organization, not only by solidity and the capacity of generating value on the long term, but by the safety and the ethics. This is an attribute that should be automatic for any organization. And more and more, we've highlighted this as a relevant pillar of our culture and our values. Ethics is non-negotiable. Everything that you mentioned, which is what people want.
I would like to thank Milton, always thank you for being with us. Alfredo, thank you for staying with us. I know that the clock is ticking. I'd like to thank Milton. He has been working with diligence in the bank. It's been six years. And the results are there. Congratulations. Yes. It's a result of everyone. Before we continue, I'd like to remind you, continue to submit the comments in the chat, in the platforms with the hashtag #PanoramaItaúsa2026 is very important so we can see the themes that are interesting to you, and we can seize the opportunities.
Now, we're going to receive companies of the portfolio of Itaúsa that work at the essential infrastructure sector. And we're going to have the conversation with Raul Calfat. He will receive here with us Miguel Setas, the CEO of Motiva, and Radamés Casseb, the CEO of Aegea. Welcome back, Radamés, Miguel, and Raul. Thank you for coming back. It's a fundamental sector for Itaúsa. Good morning. So let me start with Radamés, saying how you, Radamés, see the issue.
There is even a question that is arriving along those lines of the shareholders, that is the following. Recently, Aegea has gone through a few accounting adjustments that led to the delay of the publication of the financial demonstrations, and later they have an action plan that involves several initiatives. So I wanted you to start by telling us, what is the context of this plan? What are the advances that are expected.
Great to be with you once again. The company has been going through a process of growth, using the expansion of the infrastructure projects in a very accelerated way. What the company has found at the beginning of the year is an opportunity of taking all the control of processes and governance to the threshold of the growth.
The company has been investing in a set of programs so we can train all the support structure of governance, of controls, so we can ensure predictability. So we can guarantee that we can support the company to continue to generate value for the shareholders in this maturing journey. Important processes in this point have made us revisit the capital allocation in a more specific way so we can anticipate value, making the best choices, and anticipating the choice by maturing the operational cost, especially in the ramp-up, generating and strengthening that engine of the recovery of the company.
Raul, this theme, as a board member of Aegea, if you can comment in which way governance has worked out this theme.
Governance is following up very close, and we've had a lot of quickness with the measures, many times not questioning what was done by the auditor. Immediately we hired a series of consultancy companies, and we are implementing the measures with a lot of speed. I wanted to show the trust of Itaúsa in what has been done. At GIC, we've done recently two increases of capital, therefore establishing the indices that are more comfortable for indebtedness, because the company has a plan in the concessions that we've won.
We have investments that are done for a long term. We want to ensure the surety that we can capture all the value that was planned at the beginning. I would like to highlight these points that Radamés has said. The company has a management that is really a differentiation within the sector in general. We managed to implement and execute everything that is requested of the concessions, even beforehand.
Now there is the utilities landmark that establishes that until 2033, 90% of the waste has to be treated and 90% of the water has to be potable water. Of course, that generates obligations, but establishes a demand that is established. There is a demand. What the companies want is to have a demand. Regardless of the scenario, the demand exists. The perspectives are very good. Demand is key in its basic development. These are the levers. It's always nice to hear about this commitment.
Motiva also goes through a transformation that is important. Over the last years, there were changes in strategy and the way that we allocate capital as well. Can you bring us more on what were the pillars, more important pillars, the main pillars of this evolution? How can you balance the growth through new concessions with the generation of value in the current assets?
Thank you for the invitation, Raul , Radamés. It's an honor to be here. At the moment, it's very symbolic because we just communicated and closed the selling of our platform of airports. It was one of the strategic levers. That within a strategy of simplification. We had 40 assets. Now we have 18 assets concentrated in land transport. Roadways, these are the modals, true focus of transportation that we are concentrated, and that allowed us to do a simplification of the organization. Now we have a simple, condensated organization, more concentrated with our main competencies. As you said, focused in an agency, value creation agency. We have strategic portfolios and we also have opportunities for expansion. We've doubled what is our commitment of investment.
We have over BRL 60 billion of investment that we have to deliver, and this is double of what we had three years ago. Now we are in a phase of expansion, and now in a phase with the high-quality assets, an execution phase. In that way, we can focus the main levers of creation of value. You can see that they coexist, opportunities of investing within the current assets. We have a couple dozen, BRL 20 billion of potential investment in our assets, in our portfolio, and we have the opportunity even larger of assets that are outside. But now the focus is to execute the BRL 65 billion that we have in our commitment, consolidating the strategy for value creation. This is associated to a decrease in our organization. We had 18,000 employees, now we have 15,000.
We are now decreasing our infrastructure, more compact, more efficient, and a portfolio that does not have assets that destroy value. We had a few assets that we removed from the portfolio. So, the portfolio of premium AAA, so very quality assets. This is our strategy at the moment. We can discuss what we are doing in the technology with the efficiency, the quality of service, and the efficiency.
Let me give the floor to Radamés, and besides the governance agenda, another theme in the macro context is the current capital structure of Aegea. How are you doing in this journey of deleveraging and reworking the capital structure for the company? What can we expect in the next steps?
When governance works with administration and they discuss the priorities, and this big plan started to be implemented, a few elements are important in this trajectory. The closing of the first semester already gave a landmark of the result of that prioritization. So we closed the leverage in June at the end of the first semester with 3.87x of leveraging, below the 4x, which is our main covenant, in a gradual expansion of that security margin and increasing the productivity and the performance of the company. Big markers, the EBITDA of the first semester versus the previous one, have a highlight of 55%. The internal demand connected with the best capital allocation, with the search for the anticipation of the efficiency of the operational cost, makes the machine of the internal asset generate its results. So it will contribute for this increase of the security margin through the quarters.
The additional investment that Itaúsa and GIC did in this first semester of BRL 3.3 billion, with the confirmation of trust, as Raul said, supported the company in accelerating ever more this increase, not only by the signal of availability, but by the adjustment, the increase of the balance effectively. While the measures of choice and selection of capital allocation and selection of performance are guaranteeing that this engine of the cash generation is working, and the company is changing for the category A, and strengthening the governance, so we have an opening of capital. But the discussion is having the company prepared, having this level of maturity so we can support and unlock all the possible value within this portfolio.
Raul , whenever you want to talk, well, I am going to bring you something about the efficiency. Since we have discussed, well, Miguel and Radamés. Well, since Miguel talked about efficiency and innovation, including the use of artificial intelligence, that has had an important pillar in the long term with Motiva and Aegea. So if you can tell us how are the companies using these tools to transform the operations?
Well, I think that this is a reality, not only of the new technologies and artificial intelligence. We have exponential technologies. We are using robots to clean stations, to clean the roadways. We are using drones to do the monitoring and places where we do maintenance. We have AI, and they can detect accidents. Technology is present, and it is inserted in this operation, and this is part of our efficiency plan, and we have an objective. When we calculate the cost of our revenue, I was at 42%.
Now I'm at 34% because the cost is 34%, much less than what it was three years ago. Our objective is 28%, so a broad margin. A part of this trajectory is the result of the new technologies that bring the best efficiency to the operation. This is important. We have better quality of our operation. We are discussing the debate on the surety. Technology is important not only for the companies that are working within the company, but our clients. We have systems that we have the control and the monitoring of the rails, the speed with which we can service an emergency. We have a lot of technologies in this process, and for us, is fundamental because we have a company that services millions of companies. So technology has several reflections, not only safety, assertiveness of our processes.
This has been one of the practices that is more evolved, and we have a plan of BRL 1 billion. I'm not going to detail them all. We have artificial intelligence, robotization, automation, drones, big data. A lot of technologies. We have that investment, and we have a very structured work in the technological innovation that we all know that are here to change the world and for the better. One compliment that Radamés said when we discussed, now going back to the previous answer. We've had recently a news that is very important for us and for the people of Itaúsa, very relevant. There was an upgrade of the rating of credit. We had a single agency that hadn't give us AAA, Moody's. We were AAA in the other two. Now we have another one that is international.
Since the last two weeks, we are AAA in these agencies, and it shows that the operation is very healthy, very robust. This leverage that we have in the airports has helped with financial health that is much reinforced and very interesting. One of the invested companies here at Itaúsa had an upgrade that is significant in the quality of the credit. Well, let's talk about technology and innovation. You can imagine when we look at the 40 million clients spread through the 800 cities, the race is to get to know the client and service the client early on.
The process of identifying where is your resilience, the accessibility of the multi-channels to transform this client, especially in the assets that we are now in the ramp-up moment, converting them to a monetizing base and transforming this resilience incorporated in the day-to-day, and also making this legacy arrive earlier. So artificial intelligence makes us multiply the capacities of getting close to the client. The search is to transform this for the anticipation of revenue.
Mobilizations such as Piauí, Pará, this multiplicity makes this curve of maturing being shortened, reinforcing the leveraging process and the social license, which is very strategic. While in the performance, the search for the loss of the water is structural, so artificial intelligence, the satellites looking for leakages are the big emphasis that makes the biggest cost of the company, which is loss of water, BRL 2 billion per year in lost water in this process, prioritarily in Rio de Janeiro, and the new concessions, Piauí and Pará, makes the characteristics of this ramp-up where the efficiency and technology make all the difference in the transformation.
This is a subject matter that has to be followed up close, but also want to trust Miguel. On the sale of the airport platform, you commented about the investments on concessions, but there is always a prioritization for the utilization of these resources. Can you comment on how you intend?
We allocated Raul from now on, and just reinforcing these numbers of the transaction, BRL 5.3 billion in equity, in cash that got into the company, and BRL 7.1 billion that would be in debt. So it was BRL 12.2 billion of total value, enterprise value. So it is important, this helped us to reduce our level of indebtedness, of leverage, and a part of that BRL 5 billion was used to prepay the debt that was in the holding.
We have a part of the holding, much less part of the debt that is in the holding, and this debt from the standpoint is more penalizing for the company, and therefore, we started to using the amortization and also distribution of interest of our capital for our shareholders. So the main objective for the utilization of these resources is deleveraging the company, and therefore we can have a more robust and healthy, and we are ready for the growth in the future.
We are moving towards the end of this block. I am going to ask both about the perspectives for the future. What are the perspectives for the main opportunities? Looking to the future, priorities, medium to long term for Aegea, Motiva, and how do you prepare the companies so you can capture these opportunities?
I can start. We symbolically, after the sales of the airports, we got to Motiva 2.0. Motiva is starting a new era of their story, more simple, more focused, more concentrated into the agenda of value creation. This has brought us to a revisited 2.0, an organization that is revisited and a culture that is revisited. We have these three visions doing a relaunch of the company with a simpler platform. Obviously, in a scenario that Brazil has records for the infrastructure, BRL 300 billion, highest infrastructure investment in the history of the country, and the two segments that we work, we still have constructive opportunities up ahead. We evaluate BRL 180 billion, the opportunities that are interesting, BRL 120 billion in railways and BRL 160 billion in rails. Within this value, there is an important part that we mentioned in the first question, which are opportunities within our portfolio.
Railways as important as AutoBAn, that have the Bandeirantes-Anhanguera system. We want to do additional investments. Railways that are important, such as SPVs of the city of São Paulo. We can do additional investments here. That is part of the investment that we've hired, BRL 65 billion is our focus at the moment. We have a part that is formalized, and eventually we're going to have opportunities. The main ones, the most immediate, the more priority are the ones that are in our portfolio. This is clear. Besides this, we're going to continue the efficiency agenda, but our efforts to increase our margin and reducing the cost in the revenue relation, consolidating the portfolio, maybe some recycling can still be a lever of optimization of the portfolio. All of that sustained with a strategy that has two big ideas.
Quality of our talent, that Motiva wants to sustain its future, its success based on talent of quality, and preeminence and efficiency in the technological agenda. Everything that has to do with the technological basis of the company, technological resources, sustaining the strategy that now is going through the execution level. When you have BRL 65 billion, you want to execute well and within the budget, this investment. This unlock, as we mentioned, of the highlight of the company, of the efficiency between the reduction of leveraging, increasing the security margin, the reinforcement of the governance process without forgetting the capital allocation with more return. A great deal of that expansion and new projects generated within the company a lot of micro and macro projects of capital allocation.
The exercise between the intensive capital, the gradual space of surety, and the reinforcement of predictability is the big emphasis of the short and middle term. We're going to see that for every new connection, there is a broadening of the revenue by city, increasing the invoicing of the company through the next five years, going through universalization. As you take health and dignity, you strengthen the cash generation process, and you transform the company more healthily for the journey of value generation for the shareholders. The emphasis is anticipating the profitable projects. Being more than a reference, being an element of transformation, of performance and infrastructure. We are getting towards the end. If you want to add something else, but this is the block that we're very sad that we're going to have to close. It's a lot of interesting issues.
For Brazil, this is fundamental to reduce the cost of Brazil and have a broad development. I'm always impressed to see the capacity of investment and expansion that we have done by the shareholders that are dealing with the value issue that will be added and will be sustained through time. Brazil has low levels of investment, below 70%. Having an infrastructure with BRL 3 billion, we know that out of these BRL 300 billion, BRL 240 billion, just BRL 60 billion is from the public sector, and that happens by a series of actions. It's a sector that still requires a lot of investment, as it was mentioned. There is still a lot of opportunities in Brazil that we expect to be able, even through these two vehicles that are very important, their respective sectors should be able to contribute for the growth of the country.
Well, I am certain that the shareholders think a lot about that in generating the broad value. Thank you, Radamés and Miguel. Thank you for helping me in this block. See you soon. Now we are leaving infrastructure for the consumption with two companies that went through important transformations and have great stories for value generation to tell us. Now, to talk to us in this next block with me and Alfredo, I invite Liel Miranda, CEO of Alpargatas, and Raul Guaragna, CEO of Dexco. Welcome once again. Thank you for being here. Good morning. Always happy to be able to have this sector now leaving infrastructure for— well, both of you work in different sectors.
Dexco and Alpargatas both went through important processes of transformation to face the challenges of the market and recover the profitability and strengthen the business for a new cycle of value generation. So I wanted to start by this theme. I am going to start with Liel. What are the main structural changes promoted by Alpargatas, and how did they prepare the companies for the next cycle?
Well, I think that there were three things. I would like to highlight three. First, we started to have more focus and more simplification in the management of the company. Two good examples of that is that now we are present in 100 countries in the world, but there are 40 countries that represent 80% of the volume. So we focused on these 40 countries, Brazil included.
We focus in these countries so to guarantee that the execution is adequate and that we are building the brand for the relevant countries. Another example of focus is portfolio. We had a proliferation of items in our portfolio that generated a complexity for the industry and logistics and commercial. We cut almost half of our portfolio, which is a big movement of simplification. The big benefit is that the industry is more efficient, the logistics is more efficient, and even the execution is better as you had less items to be exposed. So its focus on simplification is the big thing. The second big thing is that we are closer to the market. So two good examples of that is management of inventory. There is a lot of inventory and inventory in the value chain.
Now we can have 85% of our volume with visibility to what they have and how much they are selling for their clients. So we have a readout of the sell in, and then we can manage the inventory, avoiding the excess of inventory, ours and the clients. The third is cost. The company was in a situation that profitability was not at the point that we believe that the company should deliver, and we worked with restructuring, renegotiation of contracts, productivity, and the impact of that was the EBITDA margin that was below 10% and now is above 23%. The ROE of the company that was below 10% and now is above 20%. So these three measures were the big levers so we can work with a company with a situation of profitability that is much better.
Out of curiosity, can you tell our shareholder how many pairs of Alpargatas and Havaianas do you sell per year?
This is a number that always brings your attention. We sell approximately 240 million pairs. In Brazil, we sell over 200 million pairs, which means one for each Brazilian on average per year. I know that many say that they buy four to six, but on average, every Brazilian, almost 1 million pairs, yes. It is an item that is part of the Brazilians and internationally as well. We sell 25 million pairs outside of Brazil.
It is part of the culture. Do you have how many?
I do not even have space for it.
I imagine. I would probably have more, a pair a month. Now getting into the reality of Dexco. Since you took on the presidency, 2024, 2025. The focus has been reducing the indebtedness and increasing the cash generation. Can you bring us what are the main fronts that should consider the reduction of the debt, and how do you work that you guarantee this execution?
Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here in this first Panorama. To talk about Dexco is always a pleasure and a responsibility. Deleveraging and reduction of debt is fundamental, cash generation. We mobilize the organization and the team, and we have communicated for some time that we need to close at 2.5 and 7. Now we have 2.7. We are moving down the right path. But I wanted to offer also a perspective that is more broad about this. It is no use just lowering the multiple. We have to reduce the total value of the debt.
As several colleagues have said, the cost of capital is something important, and it weighs down on the ballast. The good news is that we have to reduce the value of the debt. Another important thing is that we have a situation of liquidity that is very comfortable. We do not have a big ending of the debt until 2030. So we want to make the balance healthier and reducing the weight of that debt. There is not a single lever. We have to work with a big amount of things. We had some success. The first one is improving the results of the business. More EBITDA, more cash generation, more opportunity of reducing the debt. That has happened. Wood has been very resilient. Deca is occupying its space in ceramic, leading this transformation movement. Responsibility for capital allocation as well, mentioned by several of the colleagues, is fundamental.
We went through a big cycle of investment, and now we have today very well-prepared assets that can face the growth of the market for many years. It is a privilege. This cycle allows us to compete in a very relevant way. With smaller investments, we end up getting more, we invest much less, which is our cycle of CapEx that is reduced. Then we go through a third element, which is working capital. We have inventory.
We also went through a process of reducing the inventories mainly at Deca as well, that releases working capital, which is very relevant. Last but not least, working with the base of assets that we have. We have operational assets, non-operational assets. We have done a few operations with forests, assets very valuable. With that, we see a 2026 that is moving along the way, but certainly the reduction of the debt is a priority of the company.
We are going to bring the questions for the shareholders. Remember then, Dexco and Alpargatas are getting into a new stage. They need to balance growth. So we are going to seize a question where they mention the strategies of Dexco and Alpargatas to improve results. What needs to happen so that every company advances for a new cycle of growth without compromising the results and the financial health that are achieved? So who would like to start?
Well, actually, we need to grow, and we need to keep the financial discipline. This is fundamental. The growth cannot come with a decrease in profitability, and we cannot deliver profitability without a long-term view. At Alpargatas, we have the benefit that our market, and we have 200 million pairs in Brazil and 25 million pairs outside of Brazil. It's a good visibility of Havaianas. Havaianas, there is a lot of knowledge of brand, but there is a lot of potential for growth. We have avenues of growth, and at the same time, we have a management of inventory.
We have a cost that is aligned with the profile of the company. So our strategy is that the growth has been mapped and it's going to come by being built with the structure that was built. We have a program of management. It's not an intervention. It's not a responsibility of the financial area. We bring all the items, and if they don't make sense, we can reallocate.
The management of CapEx, where every investment of CapEx goes through a governance to ensure that this has a return. It's an easy question, but we have to manage that ambiguity. We have the privilege of being a part of this group with a long-term view. This is very characteristic of Itaúsa. Dexco was 75 years this year. Itaú is 100 years. You do not survive and don't continue to grow without a long-term view. So anything that we have to do on the short term, and it's very important that we are aligning this quickly, getting to the return of the investment for the shareholder, we have to keep the engine of growth of the company. We generate the results of the short term, and we cannot compromise the future.
The timing of the question is good. We talked about our strategic plan, the next five years. Well, I'm going to mention the 75. Dexco is 75 years old, and Dexco is going to be 80 in the horizon of the plan. In this plan, we divided in two very well stated moment where the objective of the ROI, returning the investment of our capital. 2026, we are working, and we are accelerating this movement. We have three, four businesses that are very different at different moment. Wood, which is our biggest business, has been for many years being very resilient, delivering good results. So the focus is to continue with incremental improvement. Reduction of cost and efficiency, finding the mix, improving the mix and increasing profitability. But we continue to find very efficient, very effective discipline. When we talk about Deca, it's a brand that everybody knows.
It's a leader brand, 40% in metals, and it's a brand that needs to occupy space, growing the market share, occupying the space in the key segments and the high added value segments. We went through a process of reduction of assets, which is significant. We are investing in automation. It's a process that is very robust in Jundiaí, where we could make the shop floor as automatic as possible. From then on, we gain these efficiency levels. Here is a lot of consistency. 2026 shows the results in 2024/2025. We have our eye on the ball, and this is fundamental. But without forgoing the second marking of the cycle, which is 2029, 2030, 2031, which is getting the right to growth. To be able to grow, of course, we have to preserve the fundamentals.
Besides preserving the fundamentals, we have to also have the balance sheet with the capacity of growth, with the business of the core that is well-dimensioned. To mention two big verticals, Dexco is a company in the world that best develops the eucalyptus fiber measured by the average increment. Here, Brazil needs fiber for biomass. We start to develop new frontiers for the supply of wood, not only for panel. We talk about Duratex to use an essential competency that we have. This is the long-term game, and we kept this capability with one of the best genetic banks in Brazil. We continue to operate very well, and we continue to use that. The second one, Dexco is a platform of solutions, which is our purpose. We're in every environment of the house, ceramics, metals, planned carpentry. We have beautiful images.
I want to have my whole house like that. I think that this materializes the purpose of Dexco in this platform, the sector that can work with this function. Here, that investment is materializing and maximizing the opportunity to grow in these domains, which is a home. Dexco is open the retail as Alpargatas has franchises for selling Havaianas. Can you tell us about this new avenue of Dexco?
Maybe the biggest materiality of this platform, we found a model that offers an alternative. There is a traditional model of buying and selling, but it offers an alternative for those that want to invest very little capital. Dexco does all the management of logistics, stock, accounts receivable, pays. The operator has a showroom that can show our products.
They're going to focus on the specifications, finding works in the region, doing events and selling products. We have 17 stores open. We're going to get to 20. That's something new, something we need to grow. Our board has brought this to do this growing, and it's an initiative that is very interesting. We can get this portfolio when people are buying and selling those other products. We can give this identity, we can materialize this purpose, and we offer this for an opportunity of operating, but it's good for those that want to work with the working capital. We're going to grow slowly and occupying the spaces where we have the conversion of stores, and our brands are not very well represented. It's a new avenue within our platform.
I like that you mentioned the phrase that is focusing on paying attention so you can, I think about that, so I don't buy everything. The full package, yes. One-stop shop. Can you tell us for the next years, what are the main elements for growth of Alpargatas in Brazil and abroad, and what is the role of diversification in revenue and the generation of value for the long term?
The first avenue of growth is, I mentioned we have a brand that is very well known of the 40 countries. When we measure the knowledge of the brand, it's well known or it's the best well-known, is always with a leadership. But when you calculate the volume, is very little. We have the distribution that is not there. We didn't focus in these countries in the past, and now the strategy is focus in the 40 countries where the brand is known, where we have a presence, so we can increase our distribution so that the consumer knows the brand, but they find the brand.
If they need to make a trip, Havaianas is going to be present. We are working with these four countries, and we have a potential that is very big for the growth because of the size of the population and the purchasing power, because the margin of the international market is much higher than the margins here, because the average price that is charged is much higher. So the first avenue of growth, international markets with a focus in the 40 and not every country. Havaianas historically had a participation in the— there is several reasons for that.
The consumers are occupying this. When we do the research with the parents, they would prefer Havaianas. So we have a program that is very strong for the development of portfolio, focusing in the public that is. The third in Brazil, where we are leader in the food supermarket market, where we have 80% of the market, but we are not leaders in the specialized department. We have less than 50% of participation in the market, and it's a big potential for growth. So the three big avenues of growth, the international market and a specialized channel in Brazil.
Raul, another thing that besides the leveraging, there is an important agenda, which is to improve the assets that Dexco has. This is a thing that interests the shareholders. So how do you see the opportunities so we can increase the profitability and unlocking the portfolio of the company?
I think it's a great question. The first shoe that we talked, I see a lot of value that needs to be unlocked in all the portfolio that we have at Dexco. The name of the first cycle is unlocking the value. Once again, it's important that we start with assets that are very competitive. The part of brands that are very well known in their segments. Duratex, which is very well known in panels, Deca, Portinari, Ceusa, it's a house of market. So prioritizing and extracting value from this value proposition of the product is fundamental. It's inevitable to look at both things, efficiency, capture of efficiency, of results, of competitiveness. Controlling what we control is fundamental. In high competitiveness, we here are with a reasonable success rate and a lot of plans so we can continue. A great deal of the results of 2027 come from there.
Levers of cost reduction, and it was a game that was started in the past. It's not something for now. This investment plan gave us a muscle to be able to compete at a level that is very competitive, and we have a smaller number of shop floors. We reduced seven shop floors, always with the automation and the transformation of assets, the logistical excellence with a lot of levers. The benefit of that is that you bear the fruit of all the works of fundamentals that we've done. Dexco also, within its sector, is one of the most sophisticated companies in supply management. We managed to navigate in this moment of volatility better than our competitors. We are integrated. We purchase our own paper. We purchase copper directly.
We have a management of commodities that is very competent, and that helps us in an important way. Another theme is that through the years, we built the self-sufficiency in forests. We have discussed wood has tripled in price, and we have 150,000 hectares, 200,000 hectares of planted forest that ensures, and we have a good operation. Besides operating good, we have a hedge of cost, and we have the opportunity of selling wood with a result.
If you can discuss this, how it gets into the strategy of business.
We have a neutral carbon balance, and Dexco is one of the companies, maybe one of the single ones with. We are one of the first companies in Brazil that is certified in FSC in our forests. It's the side of cost. Has to do with what we control. The other side is revenue. There is a lot of space for us to grow. We cannot get you all the wholesales. Here, pulverize is much more than we are via distributor, and we are increasing. We service 3,000 - 4,000. Via distributor, we can increase. Deca is a brand that goes with the first price, but competitive until the high luxury.
We can pulverize and sell. We have a strong work of revenue selling and commercial using artificial intelligence. We come from this journey of excellence for some time. Last but not least, preserving the two that I mentioned, the two avenues of growth, the platform of solutions with wholesale, but also proximity with these additional products. Here, the development of the eucalyptus fiber for the utilization in biomass, that is an enormous source of need.
Can you talk about the sustainability for the strategy of business?
We are signatories of the UN commitments, and we have a big program for the reduction of the reductions of carbon that our factories have. We have objectives to reach until 2030, and we are working, and we are trusting that all of these objectives will be achieved. The transformation of the energy matrix, the model of the waste management, all of these programs for the profitability of the company, they are going. Besides that, we have a recycling because we have to be responsible for the entirety of the cycle and the program. We have 1,300 Havaianas stores in the world, but in Brazil, over 600. In every store of Havaianas, you're going to find an urn where the product has been used.
You can take to the store and waste it, and it will be recycled, and that material will be reused for other products and other applications. That guarantees that the product is not going to be affecting the environment. Maybe the third part of our sustainability program is that we've had a partnership with the IPÊ Institute for the participation of the Brazilian biomes. Through the selling of the product with the partnership with IPÊ, we do the donation. We have an integration of the interests of sustainability of the business. To give a spoiler, we're going to launch an investment using the recycled Havaianas. Everything is interconnected. We tried, and we have a big space for integration, exchange of experience. I think we've evolved.
Our time here is over. I would like to thank everyone. Raul, thank you. Alfredo, it was very nice. Excellent, consisting discussion, and certainly very exciting. Alfredo, it's almost over. We still have that vignette. It went very quickly. A lot of good information that we shared, so we can close, myself and Alfredo. Now to the end of Panorama Itaúsa 2026. We've heard a lot of things of Itaúsa, the companies of the portfolio, and the shareholders. Alfredo, if you can tell us at this end, if you can tell the audience, for those of you that are here until the end, I wanted to ask Alfredo to share a final message. What would be the main message for Itaúsa and for those that invest in Itaúsa?
I know that you submitted a lot of things. We're going to ask amongst the networks the question of [Mateus Martins], and many people that are taking part that trust. Mateus asks along those lines, "Well, I am a small shareholder, and I trust in the company." He asks, "Why is it worth trusting the investments in Itaúsa?"
Thank you, [Mateus]. This is a question that we ask ourselves every day. In the discussion of the portfolio, the allocation of the capital in companies that will bring return to the shareholders. I think that Itaúsa takes part in the lives of the shareholders. We've done a campaign highlighting this. The bank is very big. Deca is a brand that is well known. We are in the utility sectors. Many cities, many states benefit with the investments of Aegea. The trains and the metros that Motiva manages. There is Copa Energia that we mentioned very little, but is a leader in the distribution of gas.
I think that it's a solid portfolio that gives surety to the investors, investing in the shares of Itaúsa that has relevant participations in the big companies, and that has a side that is also very important, and the individual, which is the distribution of proceeds. Itaúsa is always paying the highest dividend yields of B3, of the companies that receive and distribute a lot of these dividends. This is something that gives a lot of surety. We've never stopped paying the interest of our capital. We have a portfolio of governance, of financial solidity, and we distribute these results for our investors.
Very good. It's always good to take part here in the Panorama. This is my seventh year, and I think that we are now reviewing the moment that we need to believe in Brazil and see. I really like to talk to you guys online and offline and see that you believe in Brazil. You have a commitment to Brazil. More and more we have to have people that believe in the country, that invest, and that contribute for the country.
We deserve it, and Itaúsa is very big in Brazil. We take part of big companies, so we have our responsibility with Brazil. We do not do investments abroad. We concentrated all of our efforts here. Brazil is a country that has highs and lows, economic, legal risks, some high, some low, but we know how to navigate in these waters. We are at Itaúsa for 50 years, in the bank for 50 years. Dexco, 75 years. Alpargatas, 100 years. For us, it is very comfortable. Regardless of all these risks, Brazil gives a lot of opportunities.
Knowing how to choose the investments, and we have done that well over the last 10 years. There is a lot of opportunities for growth, for the return for the investors. So we are very trusting with Brazil and also the difficulties of the country with inequality, with crisis, susceptible to international crisis. But we believe, and we invest. You saw the level of investment that the infrastructure sector has, that Radamés discussed at each of the companies, BRL 1 billion of investments in infrastructure.
So I believe that we are going to have a better Brazil up ahead. There are good things happening and Itaúsa contributing, and it is an honor and I am very happy. Thank you for the trust, and we will see you next year. In one year, we will have another Panorama, and it is always nice to have this contact with the investors live and then through the social networks.
Many are going to see the recording. Thank you. We move forward. There is much to do. Thank you everyone for being with us. Now we want to hear you. Please scan the QR code. Tell us what you thought about this edition so we can improve. It was a pleasure to be with all of you. I would like to thank you that followed us until now. Today we have heard different perspectives about Itaúsa and how we started this meeting, giving voice to our shareholders, so we should finish in the same way. The final word is theirs. Thank you.