Good morning, ladies, and gentlemen. Welcome to JSL's conference call to discuss the results for the first quarter of 2025. This call is being recorded, and a replay will be available on the company's website, ri.jsl.com.br. The presentation is also available for download. Please note that all participants will be in listen-only mode during the presentation. Afterwards, we'll begin the Q&A session when further instructions will be provided. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that any forward-looking statements made during this call are based on JSL's management current beliefs and assumptions, as well as information available to the company at this time. These statements may involve risk and uncertainties as they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.
Investors, Analysts, and Journalists should be aware that events related to macroeconomic conditions and developments in our industry may cause our actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Joining us on today's call are Mr. Ramon Alcaraz, CEO of JSL, and Guilherme Sampaio, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. I'd like now to turn the call to Mr. Alcaraz to begin the presentation. You may go ahead.
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are pleased to be here today to present JSL's results for the first quarter of 2025. Let me start with a few highlights. Gross revenue reached BRL 2.7 billion, up 12% year over year. This reflects the consistency of our organic growth space. Growth was slightly higher in asset-light projects, which grew 12%, while asset-heavy grew 11%, but both expanding. Adjusted EBITDA came to BRL 458 million, with a margin of 20.6%, up 2.6 percentage points from the last quarter of 2024, driven by a significant improvement in operating margins. We closed BRL 1.8 billion in new contracts just in this first quarter, including our entry into a new sector, the airport segment, ensuring future revenue growth not only in the sectors and industries where we already operate, but also new markets. Free cash flow after growth came to BRL 241.2 million this quarter.
This cash generation will contribute to our deleveraging process. Later on, Guilherme will go over the financial data in more detail. It's worth noting that we moved up 12 positions in the B3 sustainability ranking, in which we have been included for the second year in a row. This demonstrates our solid commitment to sustainability as a whole. Next slide, slide three, we bring our figures in the standard format. I've already mentioned revenue and EBITDA, and now net profit, which reached BRL 45 million in the quarter. Although slightly lower than first quarter 2024, it represents a 26.3% increase versus 4Q 2024.
Return on invested capital is today at 14.3%, with a seen solid expansion in our operating margins, mainly due to the benefits of scale and strict cost management, contract repricing, and price adjustments to offset cost inflation, as well as the rollout of new projects aligned with the new cost of capital. The next slide, slide four, we bring how our revenue is diversified across sectors and segments along the entire logistics chain. 27% of our revenue does not involve trucks. It includes people and technology. These are warehouse operations and interlogistics across several industries, such as automotive, consumer goods, pulp and paper, ports, terminal, intermodal logistics, and now airports.
66% of revenue comes from truck-related operations, both asset-heavy and asset-light, such as international transportation of refrigerated and frozen food, urban distribution of food, beverages, and consumer goods, and dedicated transportation for several industries, including forestry, automotive, chemical, and others. The remaining 6% comes from general cargo operations that are 100% asset-light, offering flexibility and agility to handle demand fluctuations. See that 94% of our revenue is concentrated in highly specialized mission-critical services in our client's supply and sales chains. Slide five, illustrates how our management model works. Our strategy is based on client needs. The well-known JSL moto, "Understand to Serve," is a cornerstone of our management culture. It is not marketing. We manage each contract individually. Projects are customized and developed alongside the client. Proper pricing, cost control, and efficiency are what ensure contract sustainability, driving productivity gains for both sides.
Our team is organized by business unit, with directors, contract managers, and business managers who have autonomy to make decisions. The team's experience enables fast and efficient rollout of our projects. The result is excellent service delivery, driving customer loyalty, and with that, cross-sell opportunities. This leads to sustainable growth with resilient margins and performance. Slide six, shows the scale of transformation and organic growth at JSL. You can see the organic CAGR of each company starting from the quarter of their acquisition. We've delivered organic CAGR of 16% since our IPO in 3Q 2020. On a consolidated basis, CAGR stands at 31%, representing growth of 233% since then. We highlight in this page an example of cross-selling between companies. This is a key client in our portfolio who wasn't even a client until the end of 2023 when we acquired FSJ.
FSJ grew 15% with this client since the M&A, leveraging its know-how and JSL's new investment capacity. This opened the doors to contracts with JSL and Fidel in different segments with the same client, resulting in nearly 30% growth. On slide 7, we highlight the new contracts closed in 1Q 2025 and compare them with contracts signed in previous quarters already disclosed. In this first quarter 2025, we had some notable differences compared to past periods' contracts that were already released. BRL 1.8 billion in new contracts, with 33% coming from cross-sell. In prior quarters, this ratio was typically around 80%. 57% of these new contracts were in new sectors, such as the airport segment, and 22% were in the automotive segment. Another important point: 88% of these new contracts were asset-light. That is, they require less CapEx.
Another thing that I'd like to highlight when we look at the last four quarters, that is, in the last 12 months, is the diversity of sectors in which we are closing new contracts. In the 2 Q 2024, we had concentration in food and beverages, 3Q 2024 in chemicals and retail, 4Q again chemicals and pulp and paper, and now 57% in new segments. That shows our ability to sign new contracts and continue to diversify across sectors, which is a strong hedge against broad market fluctuations. Now, to give you more detail on the financials, I will turn it over to Guilherme Sampaio, JSL CFO. Thanks, Ramon. Good morning, everyone. Just to give you the numbers in the quarter, I think Ramon already gave an overview, but I would like to reinforce the work with them around pricing adjustment only possible by our contract-by-contract management model.
We started noticing cost inflation in 4Q 2024 and immediately worked up with clients to redesign projects and mitigate the impact. When not possible, realign tariffs. JSL has a culture of strict cost control, but we rolled out even stronger initiatives to better leverage our internal scale and benchmarking. Another important point is that recently launched projects are already aligned with current capital costs and are beginning to contribute to results. Now, onto the numbers. Net revenue grew 12% to BRL 2.3 billion in the quarter, even though the first quarter is seasonably lower than the fourth quarters. Of this revenue, 47% came from cargo transportation, 34% from dedicated operations, 12% from warehousing, and 7% from urban distribution. By sector, 26% food and beverage, 16% pulp and paper, 13% automotive, 12% mining and steel, and 8% from chemicals and e-commerce.
What's important is that on the one hand, we continue to diversify, and on the other side, some sectors likely decrease in our revenue mix, although we grew normally in all industries. Food and beverage is stayed at 26%, pulp and paper 15%, but sectors like chemicals and e-commerce started to gain ground now at 8%, 8% each. Our operating margins returned to prior levels. EBIT reached BRL 300 million with a 13.4% margin, up 1.5 percentage points from the fourth quarter 2024. EBITDA BRL 458 million with a margin of 20.6%, up 2.6 basis points versus the fourth quarter 2024. It's important to say that we are still renegotiating some major contracts, and also it's always important to remind you that we are still deploying the contract signed this quarter, which temporarily increases our cost base.
We also posted this quarter a loss on asset sales, specifically related to pickups, which recently saw a steep market devaluation, which coincided with the end of a contract and the retirement of this week. Without this loss, the margin would have been 30 basis points higher at 20.9%. Net profit, two points. CGI average rose 1.8 percentage points, which increased our financial expense by 14% versus 4Q 2024, hurting obviously our bottom line. On the other hand, we recorded a tax benefit related to the exclusion of assumed ICMS credits, a topic under discussion since the law changed in December 2023. This issue has now been settled. This benefit lowers our effective tax rate and will recur in future quarters. The retroactive gain was BRL 14 million from 2024 and BRL 4 million for the first quarter 2025.
Adjusted net profit, following our usual adjustments, was BRL 45 million in the quarter, and you can find the reconciliation in the earnings release. Our running rate return on invested capital was 14.3%. While still impacted by growth, we believe there's room for expansion with initiatives focused on reducing working capital and our base of operating assets, especially unsold inventory. The next slide, we break down results between asset-light and asset-heavy. Asset-light generated BRL 1.2 billion in revenue, 52% of total, with EBITDA margin of 19.4%, BRL 223.7 million. Despite seasonality, we are seeing maturation of some projects launched last year. Asset-heavy closed at BRL 1.1 billion in revenue, 48% of total, EBITDA of BRL 230 million, a margin of 21.5%. Margins improved versus 4Q 2024, but we are still realigning several major contracts, as I mentioned in the consolidated results. On the following slide, our capital structure.
We closed the quarter at BRL 7.4 billion gross debt, BRL 5.7 billion net debt. We had basically the interest on equity and dividend payments which brought to that act, even with positive cash flow after growth. Cash generation and gross debt reduction will support our deleveraging process in the coming quarters. Cash and equivalents total BRL 2.3 billion, 1.5 times short-term obligations. Remember, CRA payments scheduled for May will improve our spread by 0.2 percentage points given the current cost of this debt. Our ratings remain unchanged. AA plus on the local scale by Moody's, Fitch, and S&P. Finally, leverage could remain flat versus 4Q 2024, 3.04 net debt EBITDA ratio and 2.39 times net debt adjusted EBITDA, our covenant benchmark. On slide 11, we bring to the score the official launch of JSL Digital.
We actually launched it last week at the Intermodal Trade Show, and some of you have probably seen it in the media. Let me share a few highlights, but we discuss more about the project in the Q&A. First, this is a new business unit at JSL aimed at increasing volume with current and new clients. Second, it's a platform that integrates the tool we acquired with TruckPad, along with the TMS of Fidel and several other systems needed for transportation services, risk management, tracking, proof of delivery, monitoring, and others. A key differentiator is that it's already multi-sector because customization happens at the TMS, where JSL has been investing for several years with each new client in industry. Third, this platform will be the foundation for JSL Digital, which will operate 100% asset-light, using dependent drivers, low physical infrastructure, and leveraging JSL's existing bases.
It also will improve our own processes, helping JSL stay competitive in the general cargo transportation in Brazil. To sum up and turn it back to Ramon, it is a platform that digitalizes cargo transportation with the experience of a company that has mastered the complexity of Brazil's logistics for nearly 70 years. Back to you, Ramon, and then we will talk more in the Q&A. Thanks, Guilherme. Ladies and gentlemen, just to wrap up, I would like to emphasize a few key points. We have a resilient business model based on a multi-sector and multi-segment strategy. We have been working to optimize capital allocation with a focus on improving our leverage profile. We maintain a constant focus on cost reduction and operational efficiency. With the launch of JSL Digital, we are initiating a new phase of scale through technology.
We are more than 35,000 people who share the same culture and ensure high-quality, efficient services. Our track record proves that in market environments like the current one, we are well-positioned to seize organic growth opportunities thanks to our strong reputation, investment capacity, and ability to implement complex projects with an unwavering commitment to quality, safety, and reliability. Thank you very much for your attention. Now, Guilherme and myself are available for your questions. We will now start the Q&A session for investors and analysts. If you want to ask a question, please click the raise your hand button. If your question is answered, you can lower your hand. If you prefer to submit your question in writing, please type it in the Q&A box, including name and company. Our first question comes from André Ferreira from Bradesco BBI. Mr. Ferreira, good morning. Ramon, Guilherme, congratulations on your results.
I have two questions. First, on margin. We can see a good improvement quarter on quarter, but I would like to know if there is a complete effect of negotiations or we should expect further improvement in the second quarter. You briefly talked about the new contract in the airport sector, if I'm not mistaken, the first one in the sector. If you could talk about the size of the contract, what the operation itself is like, and how much you see in terms of opportunity of cross-sell. Hi, André. Good morning. Thanks for your questions. First, we are going to talk about operating margin. Indeed, they are better, partially from what you talked about renegotiation with clients. There is something that is important in this quarter in terms of numbers, but there is some for the second quarter.
That is the final negotiations this quarter, perhaps 70-30%. Not only because of that. It is very important to highlight that margins also improved because we are working with efficiency, reducing costs. We never bet on price adjustments only. Quite the opposite. We invest a lot more on our cost reduction plans, operational efficiency, etc., because these are much more constant. As for your second question, the contract with the airport sector, I have some things to highlight. First, it was a contract that was deployed relatively fast because of the need of the customers, more than 700 people, a very complex project that shows our capacity to deploy fast. We already had some spot services for this client, which brought reliability to change suppliers. This is a contract to manage the cargo warehouse of the airport.
This is something new for us because it's in the airport segment, but it's not a new business to us. We manage warehouses even more complex and larger than this one in other segments, consumer goods, automotive, and so on. Another thing that I'd like to highlight is that we also manage intermodal terminals, roads, highways, railways, ports. Now we are going to airports, which enables us to establish partnerships with the ports of SIMPAR itself. You know that SIMPAR was awarded the concession of 30 years in Bahia. When these ports start operating, we can offer logistics services. André, I hope I have answered your questions. If not, I'm here for you. Just a comment based on what Ramon mentioned. This last point, expanding services based on this airport contract, is the same thing he mentioned about ports.
Today, the contract is inbound operations of the cargo warehouse. Consequently, we have the opportunity of also taking these goods to end consumers. When we deliver something in the warehouse, we can also have the road transportation beyond inbound operations inside the warehouse. Obviously, contracts are directly signed with end clients. Very, very clear. Thank you very much. Thank you for the question. The next question comes from Felipe Nilson from City. You may go ahead. [Foreign language] Hello everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two questions more related to the turnover of assets. The first question refers to the impact of the pickups on asset sales. You did mention what margin would be like without the pickup effect, 30 basis points higher. I would like to explore for how long we should feel this impact.
That is, what is the inventory of pickups that you still have to sell, and what kind of sales terms you're having with other assets? I understand that you are working together with Vamos to sell these assets in their operations. I would like to know how this is moving on. The second question is about your CapEx, that you are very much focusing on asset-light operations, but we did see lower CapEx because of a preference for leasing trucks instead of buying your own trucks. I would like to understand how much we could see in terms of benefits in CapEx for the initiative of leasing trucks, and also what kind of impact we should see in margins. I do not know exactly how you account for that. I do not know if it's cost, but I would like to understand these two points a bit better. Thank you very much.
Hi, Felipe. Good morning, and thanks for your questions. I'll answer the first, and I'll leave the second to Guilherme. Asset sales, we have recurring asset sales of very different assets, trucks, cars, machinery, and pickups. The pickups are very specific, the pickup trucks, because that was a batch that we leased for a mining customer. It was a large batch of pickup trucks, very specific models. When you are retiring these assets, you bring to the market a specific item, large volumes, and again, they were used in mining operations, etc. We were a bit unlucky because we bought them right after the pandemic, and at sale, we know that the market's not so open. That generates negative margins because it's a big batch.
We should be affected for another one or two quarters to be able to sell the whole batch, but it is a one-off operation. We can't get everything right, and in the other assets, we continue to be profitable. That's what it is. That's part of the process. As for CapEx, Guilherme, hi, Felipe. Just to give you a bit of context, I don't know who was in the last call, so let's try to have a sequence of information. We have been announcing that we are open for the possibility of evaluating contract by contract. Remember, very specific, the possibility of leasing some assets. This quarter, we were able to lease, and it made sense financially speaking. Whatever we couldn't get to the right price, then we decided to buy.
This is, I cannot give you a specific number for the year because, again, this is going to be a contract by contract assessment. I do not know when it is going to financially make sense. The thing is, we continue due diligence. The price of lease has to be beneficial for the company or for this specific project in which it is applied. In this quarter, we closed with BRL 650 million gross CapEx, but we will continue to assess numbers quarter on quarter. In terms of margin, it depends on the contract profile. If it is long-term, which is most of our leases, then you have FRS 16, and then you have, so to speak, a maintenance of margin profile. You are not going to see a shift on the margin profile of the company. That is it. If you have any special questions, I can give you more color later on.
No, very clear. Thank you very much. Thank you, Felipe. Our next question comes from Pedro Tineo from Itaú BBA. Mr. Tineo? Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. I'd like to start exploring JSL Digital just to try and understand what you're expecting and what is your plan for ramp-up both in terms of revenues and expenses. How can we think about it a long time contributing to your final results? Second point, I'd like to hear more about capital allocation. What's your mindset in terms of CapEx for the remainder of the year? Also the sectors in which you are operating, which one do you believe is going to have the higher positive contributions for 2025? Thank you. Hi, Pedro. Good morning. Thanks for your questions. Let's talk about JSL Digital first. This is a child that was born.
We have been working on it for two years now. We have mentioned that in previous calls, and it worked out now. We have been working with a beta version since last year, more than 1,000 test trips. Now, in the beginning of the quarter, we officially launched at the Intermodal Trade Show, the largest trade show in logistics. Our expectation is to grow in a very competitive market, which is general cargo. It is competitive because when you're talking about commodities, cargo, you do not need complexity in terms of loading, risk standards, or anything. Therefore, you have a very low bar, and therefore, lots of carriers competing for the same business. That made JSL decrease its volumes in its business. JSL, 70 years ago, started in this segment.
If you compare, in the last years, we reduced the volume of business by half because of price wars. JSL Digital is an attempt to compete in the market, much lower cost because it is digital. We want not to have any human operation from the posting of the freight by the client to loading, unloading, final delivery, and et cetera. Of course, it is a ramp-up. Not even the market is prepared 100% for that, but we are starting the initiative. We have reasonable revenues already. We expect this to ramp up gradually. The greatest advantage of the business is that it is highly scalable. Perhaps out of our business, the one that is most scalable at a very marginal fixed cost. That is our expectation because the market is huge. This is what we are betting on. It is not a silver bullet. We are betting on several businesses.
This is one more to explore the market with its specific characteristics. As for lease and CapEx, I'm going to turn to Guilherme. In the last part of your question, when you asked about the markets that we most believe in, see, we are in several segments. Curiously, in this quarter, differently from expectations in economy last year, some segments are doing very well. In fact, we do not have any segment that is really doing poorly. We really believe in warehousing, inbound operations, and this has to do with the airport services that we are providing, but in several other segments. Why do we like it? Because you have fewer players in the segment. We have more and more technology. It is asset light. It depends on technology and a few machines.
We grew a lot last year, and we believe we will do so this year as well. We also like dedicated operations. We grew a lot in chemicals last year. We believe that this year, we also have good opportunities. This is where we are going. Guilherme? Pedro, can you repeat your question about CapEx allocation? I'm sorry. I missed a bit of it. No, it's very clear. I just wanted to know your mindset in terms of magnitude and also asset-light, asset-heavy ratio, even for this year and also compared to last year. Okay. We'll try to assess or we will consider lease in all cases. This is important. I'd like to lease as much as possible to deleverage the company. This is a priority. We talked a lot about that at the end of last year. This is a year to deleverage JSL.
We want to do that. Even growth would show deleveraging year over year, but we want to accelerate the process with things that are under our control. Be more intentional in working capital, in asset sales, and also in the possibility of leasing vis-à-vis buying. Again, I did mention that in the question to Felipe. We will analyze contract by contract because it has to make sense in terms of returns and the contract financially itself. I do not have a number. I just have a range because this is something that we have to analyze when we close the contract. You have several possibilities, and then you decide for one or the other. We will try and consider it whenever possible. Very clear. Very clear. Thank you so much. Our next question comes from Pedro Bruno from XP. Mr. Bruno? Good morning.
Thanks for taking my question. I have two. The first is a follow-up about margins. I think it's clear that you still have something to add because of contract renegotiations and also the continuity of your efficiency process. I think I've only made it very clear. In addition to that, we saw a large number of new contracts, BRL 1.8 billion, close this quarter. I'd like to understand, and if I'm correct, to understand that these new contracts should bring better margins or contribute to the margin evolution that we have been following in terms of growth. This is the first point, if I'm understanding it correctly, and if there's anything in addition to what I mentioned. The second question is new segments. You did mention some in your speech, but airports, for instance.
You talked it's a new segment, but it's not a new service because it's something that you already provide to other clients and other segments. Anything else, any new segment that you would consider because it's a truly new segment or a truly new service? When we think about sourcing, more broadly speaking, it could be a relevant avenue for a potential new market for JSL, given the possibility of cross-sell that you have with all the operations you already have. Is it part of your strategic dynamics, and would it bring you a shift in focus? Just trying to understand those two points. Thank you. Hi, Pedro. Thanks for your question. Good morning. Yes, you're right. Whenever we close new contracts, we learn where we made mistakes in previous contracts, and we improve operational assumptions. That's number one.
Number two, you have the opportunity of pricing at the current interest rate, and this is a reality result. We always have expectations that new contracts will yield better margins. Of course, sometimes things do not happen as planned. A slight margin oscillation up or down is kind of natural in our business. Yes, the expectation is always, whenever you are renewing a new contract or signing a new contract, to have better margins. As for your question about new segments, JSL is in the entire logistics chain. I do not recall a logistics service that we do not provide in some way or another. The difference is that some services, we are not very relevant. E-commerce, for instance, we just started with Fidel, but we are still small. It is a huge business, and it is growing.
We have a giant opportunity to grow in the segment. Even in intra-logistics, internal logistics, inbound operations, and warehousing, we believe we have giant opportunities. We did focus on that last year. We had relevant growth, and we continue to grow. We are betting a lot on that. We did mention in previous calls that we were not present in the pharmaceutical market, which is huge in Brazil. We just closed a contract in the segment, not so big, but it is an entry. I could remember so many other sectors in the economy, but we are still not present. Another important thing, going to the opposite side of the chain, mining. We have been present for a long time, but we believe we still explore a little most of the industries. We hired recently a commercial director just to operate in this area.
We believe that we are just starting. We say that all the time, but it is true. Although we are big, although we are very happy of tripling revenue in the last four and some years since the IPO, we have so many opportunities that we could be here for hours just talking about them, which is very good. Very good, Ramon. Thank you so much. Our next question comes from Guilherme Mendes from JPMorgan. Mr. Mendes? Hello. Good morning, Ramon. Guilherme, thanks for taking my question. I have two follow-ups. First, capital allocation. We saw growing cash generation very strong in the quarter, although partially offset by the increasing financial expenses. Thinking of capital allocation, Guilherme, you did talk about your focus on deleveraging. Just to check that, any eventual cash generation will work to accelerate deleveraging, or should we consider alternative allocations?
You probably have your buyback program last year. I do not know if you did that, perhaps a new M&A. Ramon, you did talk about technology when competition is not so aggressive. Could you talk about the competitive environment as a whole in other segments? That would be really helpful. Thank you very much. Hi, Guilherme. Good morning. I will start with the first question, capital allocation, and then Ramon is going to talk about the competitive environment and technology. Yes, we did have free cash flow after growth that was positive and contributes to the deleveraging process. However, we see that working capital specifically could be better. We believe there is room for us to work, especially in client receivables. This quarter, despite all the negotiations that we had to do, billing and receiving with customers was a bit longer than we expected. It is one-off.
It happened because we were in the renegotiation process that should go back to normal in the coming quarters. Undoubtedly, growth of our free cash flow, I mean, free cash flow after growth should help us deleverage for the coming quarters. Talking about M&A and buyback, buyback, we obviously believe that the price of our stock is at the lowest multiple in history. There is a market scenario, but we believe there is room to grow. It is not our priority. We know liquidity is an important issue in our stock. It is not priority, but we have an open program even due to internal governance. We always keep those programs open. M&A is not a strategy in itself. That is, we are very careful and very judicious in analyzing each deal, given the economic scenario, the performance of companies we are looking into.
It may happen, specifically for some companies, that we believe will contribute to our portfolio or the start of operations in a new segment. Again, the financials of the negotiation, madam, we have much tighter multiples in the market as a whole. Of course, we have to be very diligent for the acquisition to be positive for the company's return as a whole. It may happen, but our focus today, myself and Ramon, is organic growth and execution of what we propose to deliver and our commitment before you. It is something that may happen, but in parallel. Ramon and competitive environment, that is a good question. Our sector, we say logistics, but logistics is a broad sector. It starts with simpler or more immediate things, which is transportation. Why more immediate? Because you see it on the streets. Our trucks are running.
JSL is very much on highways, and people think that this is logistics. It is not. Transportation has a large volume, but it is the simplest part of logistics. Whenever it is simpler, you have more competition. When you have more competition, you have tighter margins and more of a price war. When you go to logistics sectors in which you bring more complexity and also that are more essential, that is, if you stop, your client stops, you start to add value to the business. It is not only price, but the capacity of the supplier providing good services because there is no higher cost of that plant stopping and airport stopping because of poor services. You saw what happened to the airport because of a logistic problem a few months ago. Technology is a major ally.
Brazil is still a country that is not very technological in logistics. Why? It's not that we do not have the technology, but we still have poor labor compared to Europe and the U.S. When you do the math, technology versus labor, labor sometimes makes sense. That's why environments are less technological. Technology is more expensive to us than in first-world countries, but that's changing and fast. Technology can make a difference. We have been testing things. For example, we have software in a large warehouse in Extremo, and we can reduce 200-300 people. Simple things. We have an autonomous washer for a warehouse. In addition to fewer people working, we are also reducing costs with detergents, and we are reducing the number of accidents.
These are the things in which we want to grow, where we can make a difference and add value to our business. Always considering this equation, more complex businesses that are essential to our clients and which technology can make a difference. Very clear. Thank you. Thank you, Ramon, Guilherme. [Foreign language] If you have a question, just raise your hand or click on the Q&A. We are starting the written questions now. Mr. Guilherme, thank you. We have some questions. I'm going to apologize. We are not going to be able to answer them all, but we will answer each of them individually. I'm going to get to the first ones, and then we'll try and understand all the others individually. Two questions from Lorenzo Lima from Evolve Capital.
The first, how the recent drop in diesel prices impact contract adjustments ongoing? The second, how to expect the evolution of working capital that has pressured cash generation in recent quarters? I'll answer the second one, Lorenzo. I did mention that when I talked to Guilherme, but again, we are expecting better working capital. We believe that working capital this quarter was not optimal, and we are going to work to go back to previous years, previous quarters, I'm sorry, or even improve what we did have in recent quarters. That will certainly contribute to deleveraging of the company. I'm going to let Ramon answer about diesel prices. Diesel, when it goes down, it has the same effect as when it goes up. It generates negotiation and increases the difference of balance. When it goes up, it is us, it's stronger than the customer.
When it goes down, it's the client against us. Now, the drop has been very low. And whenever it's a low drop, 2-4%, what we see in the headlines is not what really gets to gas stations. This is reflected in the National Oil Company Agency, I'm sorry, and that can activate a trigger in our contracts or not. But because this happens systematically, perhaps this is the easiest input in the relationship between us and our clients because it's standardized, it is in the contract, so it really causes very little noise. Thanks, Ramon. Second question comes from Atlas, from Rodrigo Ribeiro. Could you give us details of what caused an increase in expenses with independent and third-party drivers in assets heavy operations in the first quarter of 2025? Okay. I did mention that during the call when I was bringing you the numbers.
When you have an increase of inputs, we do sit down with clients to try to redesign contract assumptions or model. What happened is that in contracts in the forestry segment or chemicals, when we are able to change part of the operation, part of the fleet, or a model of the transaction by third parties or independent drivers, we go so because we change fixed costs into variable costs, and that changes the profitability of the process. What do we want here? We try and remove inefficiencies that we have in a contract that was signed two, three years ago. What happened is that in the contracts that are asset-heavy and continue to be asset-heavy because we have a large fleet, we have been using independent and third-party drivers. That is, we pay freight for some of the operations.
When you go into the entry, you have an increase which was not traditional. We redesigned our assumptions together with the client, and we are working with a more flexible model when we understand that it is possible. That is it. Just to add, we did not decrease margins when you compare what we get for the freight and what we pay for the freight. Quite the opposite. We are improving margins, but remember, it is not our own driver. They are independent drivers, and therefore this entry for independent drivers and third parties goes up. I am going to read the last question. I think we already answered that, but I will try to bring you a bit more color. Alexandre Mendes said that the CapEx this quarter was lower, but we did not decrease our leverage. We have been talking about leveraging.
Interest rates have been hurting us, but what do we expect from now on if it would not be better to have a follow-on to accelerate the leveraging? I will start with the follow-on, and then I will go backwards. I think I did mention in the answer that we are the lowest multiple, even considering the IPO itself in 2020. So follow-ons, because the company generates cash and can keep this vibration continuing growing without need for capital, would not make sense. It would not even make sense for the current shareholder base or for the company. I think that follow-on, no, it is not the time because of pressured multiples. What do we consider for the future? The financial results, of course, impact cash generation. One thing I did not mention, this quarter, in addition to working capital, we did have the payout of dividends.
With the payout of dividends, we had a compression of net debt, and therefore we did not deliver the leveraging. It was flat compared to the fourth quarter. I'm not expecting to pay dividends in the coming quarters. The dividends for the year were paid in the first quarter. As of now, we are talking about better working capital and then continue with our deleveraging process quarter- on-q uarter. That's it, people. JSL's Q&A session is now closed. We are going to turn back to Mr. Alcaraz for his final remarks. Ladies and gentlemen, again, thanks for the questions. The questions were very diverse, so you did solve much of what I had to say in the end. I'd just like to raise a few points we didn't mention in the Q&A. One thing is the risk and an opportunity.
There was this article on the Stardome paper today talking about that we do not have enough drivers. Children of drivers do not want to be drivers. Why do I say it's a problem and an opportunity? Because that's a fact. According to the survey we had with Detran, in the last 10 years, we lost 20% of drivers. If you get the age range, 25 to 30 years, we had a drop of 40%. This is a fact. What are we doing to solve that? We created the JSL University to train professionals. More than 300,000 hours of training last year, and we continue this year. It is a risk for the competition, but it is an opportunity for JSL. This is proving our capacity to deploy operations that require labor fast. The operation of Suzano in Cerrado was an example.
We did not have drivers there. We had to train them. That is our capacity because of our size, our history, because we have coverage in all states of Brazil. This is an opportunity to us. Another point that I would like to highlight is our capacity to renegotiate with clients whenever necessary. We did talk about that when we were talking about margin. Another point that is very important, and we did not mention much in the call, is our organic growth. We continue to grow at double digits, even without M&As. I did mention that before. M&A is not a strategy in itself. Our strategy is to grow. When there is an M&A, it is a way to accelerate the process, but it is not a strategy in itself.
The strategy is to use our capacity to be in several segments and grow organically by gaining share in the markets where we are or by going to markets that we are still not present, as we just mentioned, airports, pharmaceuticals, etc. Not only our capacity to grow, but the capacity to deploy and become an important player in the business, which is not easy. You need people, technology, and need equipment. How can we do that without getting lost? Because of the way we manage our business, the way we manage the business, contract by contract, independent companies, independent management makes us not get lost. Remember, we started with BRL 3 billion revenue in the IPO, and now we are close to BRL 12 billion.
We went from 15,000 employees to 35,000 employees, and we continue operating well, growing with existing customers, with cross-sell, which shows our capacity to keep providing good services, which is our core business. This is what I had to say. I thank you so much for your questions. Thank you for attending. Let's move on because the second quarter is already on. Thank you very much.
JSL's conference call is now closed. We thank you very much for attending and wish you a very good day.