Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to JSL's conference call to discuss the results of the first quarter 2026. This conference call is being recorded and the relay will be available at the company's website, ir.jsl.com.br, together with the presentation. Please note that all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. We'll then start 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's current beliefs and assumptions, as well information available to the company. Statements may involve risks 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 actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Joining us today are Guilherme Sampaio, CEO, and Eduardo Cordeiro Nauck, Director of Investor Relations. I will now turn the call to Guilherme Sampaio to begin the presentation. Please, Mr. Sampaio, you can go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to open JSL's earnings call for the first quarter 2026. Welcome, everyone. Let's move to the highlights. We started the year with a return to growth, with Intralog up 11% year-over-year and JSL Digital growing 30% versus the first quarter of 2025 and 14% compared to the fourth quarter last year. We generated BRL 258 million in cash in the quarter after growth.
Within this amount, BRL 74 million came from net CapEx contribution, which was negative in the quarter, reflecting our strategy of leasing assets whenever possible. We also posted a slight EBITDA margin expansion compared to the first quarter of last year, despite the impact from fuel price increases at the end of the quarter. As a reminder, our contracts allow a pass-through of these increases, but we are not always able to fully implement them within the same quarter. Leverage is to the 2.88 x, reinforcing and confirming our deleveraging strategy. Last but not least, I would like to officially welcome Brunno Matta, who joins the team to lead Intralog. Brunno, welcome. We wish you every success ahead at this company, which is already one of the largest warehouse management and intra-logistic players in Brazil. Moving to the next slide.
Net revenue of BRL 2.8 billion in the quarter, as mentioned, already reflecting the return to growth with the ramp-up of new contract signing recent months and EBITDA of BRL 471 million. A slight margin expansion versus the first quarter 2025 and adjusted net profit at BRL 6.5 million. ROIC running rate to 14.6%, also showing slight expansion compared to last year. Main figures across businesses, JSL Dedicated Services, as I've reminded, the company that operated dedicated contracts for cargo and passenger transportation. Since we operate under different models with our own fleet and through subcontracting, we disclose results separately. In our own fleet-based operations, we saw revenue slightly down, reflecting the impact of decommissioning carried out last year and also EBITDA margin pressure.
In the subcontracted model with independent drivers, revenue was in line with the first quarter of last year. Here, we highlight the effect of exiting the grain transportation operation and the clear margin benefit from that decision, even with the impact of diesel price increases on freight rates at the end of the quarter. Intralog, our warehouse management and intralogistics business, grew 11% year-over-year and closed the quarter with BRL 133 million EBITDA, representing a 5 percentage point margin expansion versus the first quarter 2025. JSL Digital, which we created to serve the general cargo spot market in Brazil, posted net revenue of BRL 151 million, up 30% year-over-year, and EBITDA of BRL 15 million. Here as well, results were impacted by freight price dynamics driven by fuel price movements at the end of the quarter.
Over the next four slides, I'll highlight some details for each one of these businesses. Page three, JSL Dedicated Services recovers specialized transport services such as OEM, milk runs, forest operations, mining, and passenger charter services. This is a business with high barriers to entry, which has grown at an average rate of 11%. In this quarter, we secured nearly BRL 600 million in new contracts, which will support the return to growth in this segment. More importantly, we onboarded new clients in e-commerce and automotive, including another Chinese OEM in our portfolio. Clients with strong growth appetite and increasing demand for services in recent months. On slide four, we break down services between own fleet and subcontracted models. The key difference is the operating model: flow, frequency, and regulatory requirements, which requires JSL to tailor each solution.
Regardless of the model, these are dedicated contracts with strict SLAs and high level of embedded technology. Intralog, on slide five, signed seven new contracts, adding BRL 120 million to backlog, including one particularly relevant contract with strong regional expansion potential in the consumer goods industry. We now manage over 2.3 million sq m of warehouse space. In Intralog. Remember that here, the unit concentrates all our warehousing management, intralogistics and urban distribution operations from our distribution centers. JSL Digital operates under different contracting profile, focused on meeting spot demand in Brazil's general cargo market. Here, we have been making significant investments in new tools to automate and scale freight contracting and management. A key delivery this quarter was the launch of our loyalty program, Estrada de Prêmios, designed specifically for truck drivers.
We already have more than 1,000 drivers enrolled, and expect continued expansion to strengthen and engage our driver ecosystem. Slide seven, we bring our management structure, including the update with Brunno now leading Intralog. I also would like to highlight our training programs for various operational roles. As I emphasized in the previous call, these programs allow us to expand hiring base while engaging new team members in a differentiated way. I would also like to thank our more than 34,000 people who represent JSL in serving each of our clients. The next slide, we have new contracts. We signed BRL 706 million in new contracts, bringing new clients to both Intralog and JSL Dedicated Services, as mentioned before.
As I shared with you, we recognized and strengthened our commercial structure, increased sector specialization to truly deliver on the idea of a different JSL for each client. Before my closing remarks and to provide more detail on results, I'll turn to Eduardo.
Thanks, Guilherme. Good morning, everyone. As we saw at the beginning of the presentation, in the first quarter of 2026, we reversed the year-over-year revenue decline that we had seen at the end of 2025, posting growth of just over 2%. I will go into more detail shortly, this growth reflects a combination of strong performance in Intralog and Digital, is still partially offset by a slight decline in Dedicated Services.
It's important to highlight that this performance was in line with what we had projected for the period, and our expectation is for acceleration in the coming quarters, especially in the second half of the year. I'd like to emphasize the diversification we have across services and sectors. That gives us resilience and agility to adjust course when necessary. Regarding EBITDA margin remains balanced at around 20%, in line with 1Q 2025. The 0.7 percentage point decline versus the fourth quarter is basically due to seasonality, as the second half tends to be stronger in demand across the sectors we serve. The decline in EBIT margin is mainly due to the decommissioning processes carried out through the second half of last year.
Several assets that are currently being prepared for sale still impacted our results without generating the level of revenue required to remunerate the capital investment. This should reverse over the course of the year as both the volume impact of decommissioning decline. Net income is still very pressured for interest rates, will remain at elevated level at BRL 7 million in the quarter. ROIC 14.6%, the same level as last year. This is a metric that we expect to improve over the medium term, driven by the combination of initiatives we have been implementing, such as lower CapEx, driven by our asset-light strategy, a more efficient capital structure with continued deleveraging, and the removal from the calculation base of low return contracts associated with assets that have been decommissioned. To conclude, I would like to explain the provision that impacted our accounts during this quarter.
Due to a change in interpretation by the Superior Court of Justice regarding contributions to the Sistema S, as disclosed in the subsequent events notes in our 2025 financial statements, we recorded a reprovision of BRL 203 million. This provision had been reversed in the second quarter 2025. As was the case that time, accounting impacts are being treated as non-recurring and adjusted to reflect the company normalized results. At this point, we still do not have a definite timeline for the cash outflow related to this amount. On the next page, I'll talk on the performance of three business units. Dedicated Services, about 75% of our revenue, recorded a decline of nearly 2% in net revenue compared to the first quarter 2025.
In the comparison base, this unit continues to be impacted by the intentional reduction of our grain transportation operations, as well as full or partial decommissioning of certain low-margin contracts. Looking ahead, slightly more than 80% of the contracts we signed at the beginning of the year are within this segment, with emphasis on mining, chemicals, and retail. As a result, we believe the segment will return to growth within the year. EBITDA margin at 8.5% a quarter still reflects decommissioning costs and the final stages of operations that are still being phased out. Finally, ROIC for Dedicated Services was 13%. Our more asset structure and the removal of low return operations from the calculation base should contribute to improved profitability in the future. Intralog, which represents over 20% of revenue, grew 11% year-over-year with EBITDA margin of nearly 27%.
ROIC for the business was 24%. The results of this unit demonstrates the very high potential we see in this market. It's a highly essential service within clients' logistics and production chains, with an estimated addressable market of over BRL 4 billion. As Guilherme mentioned, Brunno as the CEO of the business will allow for even greater focus in accelerating this high profitability growth cycle. JSL Digital, representing just over 6% of our revenue, closed the quarter with growth of nearly 30%, EBITDA margin of 10%. The strong growth reinforce our confidence in the scalability of the business. With a primary digital platform enabling agile and flexible freight operations, we believe we can increase our relevancy in markets that prioritize speed and pricing in decision-making.
As we have mentioned before, this operation has a low margin profile compared to the other two, as it is basically based on subcontracting independent truck drivers, meaning that asset remuneration is already embedded in freight payments. In addition, most of the growth is supported by third-party operations, where the driver owns the full equipment set, both tractor and trailer. Finally, the high volatility in fuel prices at the end of the quarter indirectly impacted freight rates, and we expect margin normalization over the coming months. ROIC above 20% demonstrates strong profitability despite lower operating margins, driven by the low capital intensity of this business. On the next page, we bring some key metrics for capital structure. A key highlight here is the continued reduction in both gross and net debt compared to the first and fourth quarters of 2025.
This results in a more efficient capital structure that will contribute going forward to lower debt service and consequently higher conversion of operating results into net profit. Regarding covenants leverage measured as net debt over adjusted EBITDA was 2.47 x compared to an upper limit of 3.5 x. Interest coverage measured as adjusted EBITDA over financial results was 2.44 x compared to a lower limit of 2x . We also included in the chart on the lower left side of the page an analysis of leverage trends using traditional EBITDA metrics, adjusted to exclude the effects of the Sistema S provision, as well as the reversal of the same provision in the last 12 months EBITDA used for the leverage calculation in 1Q 2025.
We observe a consistent reduction in the metric over the past year, reaching 2.8x in the first quarter, 26.5x lower than the first quarter 2025. Total leverage, including these liabilities, the trend is exactly the same, also showing a 0.5x reduction versus the same period last year. Cash position at the end of the quarter was BRL 1.4 billion, which combined with committed credit lines of nearly BRL 300 million, gives us total liquidity of BRL 1.7 billion, sufficient to cover our debt through mid-2027. Average debt maturity stands at four years. Worth noting that we are in the final stages of negotiations to refinance part of this debt, as well as pursuing additional issuance way to extend maturities in 2026 and 2027. As early as next quarter, we expect to present a smoother amortization profile.
On the next page, we present an analysis of our cash flow for the first quarter. Once again, highlighting our strong operating cash generation capacity sufficient to fund investments and service debt. Our cash flow after investments, interest payments and leases exceeded more than BRL 250 million in just the first three months of the year. Considering the last 12 months in more than BRL 607 million in cash generation, free cash flow yield stands at nearly 35% based on the company's market value at the close of trading last month. Although the stock has appreciated 15% year to date in 2026, cash generation has grown at an even faster pace, further increasing the perception of a valuation discount. For this reason, on the next page, we once again present a comparison with listed peers outside Brazil.
Again, I would like to reiterate that all information on this page was obtained from public sources. None of it was produced by the company and it is presented solely for illustrative purposes. It does not represent an endorsement of any of these figures. We present five-year CAGR, growth over the last 12 months through March 26, EBITDA margin, and ROIC for JSL compared to the same four logistics players we referenced in the previous disclosure, all listed in the United States. We observe that JSL outperforms these players across virtually all metrics. Yet, when we look at valuation multiples, EV/EBITDA and price to earnings, we see a significant discount. The average EV/EBIT discount, for example, exceeds 75%. With that, I'll turn it back to Guilherme for his closing remarks. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Edu. Before we open for Q&A, let me share a few closing remarks. JSL has truly built a replicable business model as logistic operator in Brazil, and we have been working to make our market leadership increasingly advanced, not only in numbers, but also in the perception of quality, innovation, and operational safety. We have been advancing several initiatives focused on operational productivity, digitalization, and automation of process enable us to deliver more, lowering our cost to service. We remain fully focused on cash generation from operational performance to increasingly efficient working capital management. We are also managing the business country by country, preserving operating margin and activating contractual mechanisms whenever necessary to pass through input cost increases. Keeping the client at the center of our strategy remains a priority, and we continue to challenge ourselves to deliver more and better.
At the same time, we are committed to maintaining a robust capital structure that will support the multiple growth avenues across JSL in its business. To conclude. This was a quarter with challenges, but I'm very confident that what brought us here is solid and will be paramount to support our clients in the coming months. I thank you all for attending. Eduardo and I are now available to take your questions. Thank you very much.
We'll now begin the Q&A session for investors and analysts. If you want to ask a question, please click on raise your hand, and if your question is answered, you can leave the queue by lowering hand. If you prefer to submit your question in writing, please type it into the Q&A box, including name and company. Our first company question comes from André Ferreira from Bradesco BBI. Mr. Ferreira, you may go on.
Good morning, Guilherme, Edu. Congratulations on your results. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. First, about the pass-through of fuel prices. You did mention in the release that some of it is for the second quarter. Could you give us a percentage of what you had in the first quarter, what is coming for the second quarter? Also, if you could give us some clearance about the approval of customers from JSL Digital and why it is taking a bit longer. Second question about non-profitable contracts. If you could give us a ballpark where are you at leaving those contracts that have been already mapped, and when do you expect to close this process? Thank you very much.
Hi, André. Good morning. Guilherme speaking. Thanks for your questions. Okay. Pass-through of fuel prices.
Let's divide that into two major blocks, and then I'll answer that to you trying to quantify future numbers. First, I'd like to reinforce that the 95% of revenue is based on contracts, both within JSL Dedicated Services as Intralog and JSL Digital playing the part of freight spot prices. When we talk about long-term contracts, we already provide foreign contracts, a pass-through mechanism of diesel assets. The percentage will vary, but it will range ±5%. Of course, the pass-through mechanism has to have official information. What happens is that fuel prices go up at the gas station. That reflects two official numbers. We get those index and take to the customer. Each customer has an approval process, so that we can close that and add that to our prices.
Of course, we want to balance our rates based on the reference date when increases actually happened at the pump. We use the information within the timeline going back to the date when the price increase started. Now, when you go to JSL Digital, the main impact here is indirect impact, because I have to pay the freight price to the truckers rather than the fuel price itself. Again, we are talking about spot market prices and hiring truck drivers. This is a more of a traded dynamic. That is, spot prices for each trip. Of course, we do have the reference of fuel prices to shippers. We price that. Shippers themselves, when they are offering the freight, they do offer freight considering fuel prices and what happens to that.
First, there is a need for truck drivers to use the fuel at higher prices, and then that is corrected. JSL serves almost as a cushion of this process until the level of prices that are being offered and traded gets to an ideal level. There is a negotiation where we have to try to balance prices retroactively. We tell the customers we are going to be the cushion until they have their internal prices and adjust their numbers, and then we try to recover this amount so that we can keep our margins, especially when we're talking about spot prices. Again, separating by long-term contracts and spot prices. One is more establishing contract, the other is more of a negotiation, but both exist.
When you're talking about numbers, for fuels, you're talking about 20%-25% of the volume already settled within the month, and 80%, we are starting to address those balance as of April, when we had the official indexes for the month. We expect bringing this all in sight. We have not completed all the work. I would like it to be, but it's not. It takes some time. Some customers have a longer approval process, but I do expect that within the second quarter, we have already adjusted 100% of our prices. Non-profitable contracts. I think there is a very important thing to mention here. In the major non-profitable contracts, especially in some industries, we already decommissioned everything. There was a last contract that was decommissioned.
Obviously, we have to remember, we have long-term contracts. Our role, and I have said that before, is to try and have profitability on track whenever there is something that happens because of an operational assumption or whatever. Remember, a five, eight-year contract, generally, you know, suffer changes in even clients' operations over the time of contract. Our role is to always bring contracts to track. What happened, and I did mention that last quarter, but I would like to reinforce that, is that some specific industries at the time of contract renewal, we had price increases, adjustments because of the price of assets, interest rates, and et cetera. They are asset-intensive.
With the new prices, we did not come to an agreement with customers, we have to keep our discipline in pricing, we did not renew prices, and therefore we moved on to decommissioning. We don't know if the contracts will come back to us or not. Time will tell. Our history tells us that sometimes in some industries, we've been that before, especially in the post-pandemic, I experienced that, we had to decommission a contract, at some point, the contract came back to JSL. The point I would like to reinforce is that the major contracts that we already decommissioned last year, there was one that we did the first quarter. We will continue to monitor any contract that is off track.
For the ones that we terminated, we are going to be very close to customers because whenever they need, we can resume operations. Again, also thinking of good pricing discipline. I hope I have answered your question.
You did. Very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Pedro Tíneo from Itaú BBA. Mr. Tíneo.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking our questions. I'd like to explore a bit about gross CapEx. We saw in this quarter BRL 30 million investments. We had an expectation of higher number, a ramp-up of deployments along the next quarters. With the scenario we have increase of costs, does it change the visibility that you had in the beginning of the year for the deployment of new contracts? That's my first question. Second question, you did talk about pass-throughs.
How much do we see in terms of pass-through deltas? What do you see in the logistics area in the market? If you can break down through different sectors, grains and others, for us to have an idea of what rates are going to be like in the coming months. Thank you very much.
Hi, Pedro. This is Guilherme again. Thanks for your question. The answer in terms of CapEx is much more connected to our decision of leasing than growth. When you look at company growth, when I don't renew a contract, of course, my CapEx decreases because I'm not going through the renewal process. Again, considering the question I gave to André , we do have this factor. When you talk about growth, this is exactly what we expected for the year.
We do not have a change in prospects. The idea is to accelerate growth quarter-over-quarter, the total CapEx amount is much more connected to the decision of leasing other than buying. This quarter, we were able to increase the share of leased assets within our customers for the deployment of new contracts. No changes in terms of growth expectations. We are going to see an acceleration of growth for JSL quarter-over-quarter. This is our expectation, and it is maintained. Pass-through fuels. It is hard to give you a hard number because that also would mean a bit of a guidance, but you're talking about 60% of pass-through numbers. If you think of Brazil, you're talking about a fuel increase of 20%. This is the reference date pre-war.
That would be the impact that we would have to have on my fuel base and the share of this fuel in total freight prices. 20% of this process has already shown in the results of the first quarter, and the 80% will show as of the coming quarter. Sectors. You did talk about grains and other businesses. Freight costs are always a proxy of fuel prices. Fuel prices account for about 30%-40% of freight costs, depending if it's a long haul or a short haul. We do depend on the behavior of this variable to have a prospect of what freight amounts are going to be like in the future. It depends on the effect of war on oil barriers, the impact on distributors, and so on.
We'll obviously try to monitor that from close and do our pass-through negotiations that are needed. For grains specifically, we did not have many operations. When you see the reduction of the company's revenue, a large part of this volume comes from the reduction of our exposure to grain transportation that came with the acquisition of IC. It is a small operation, very much niched, connected to fertilizers. I cannot give you an overview of the sector in Brazil, again, because my exposure is niche exposure, very much focused on very specific routes.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Filipe Nielsen from Citi. Mr. Nielsen.
Hello, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. The first is about cash generation. With a very strong cash generation, you did talk about the CapEx dynamics.
I would like to understand how you see cash generation for the year as a whole. If we can expect this level being kept along the year, or if you consider some adjustments, give operational adjustments. How does that relate to leverage that you see up to the end of the year? Do you have any expectations about that? Second question, just to try and understand the dynamics on diesel costs and the commissioning of margins. We saw margin of Dedicated Services slightly below. Do you think that as of the second quarter, we can see it closer to the 19%-20%? That's my question. Thank you very much.
Hi, Filipe. Good morning. This is Eduardo speaking. First question about cash generation and what we see in terms of potential.
Indeed, you're right, it was very strong cash generation. Even if you exclude the dynamics of a lower CapEx, we still see very strong operational generation enough to pay the lease of assets. Operationally speaking, we see that this has already existed and will continue from now on. About the specific CapEx dynamics that was inverted because we sold more assets than we bought, this is a dynamics that when you take a look at our total asset base of almost BRL 5 billion, and we see the migration to a model that leases more than buying, this will enable us to unlock cash for the coming quarters and years, and that is quite relevant.
This dynamic of strong cash generation, together with the unlocking of cash by leasing rather than buying assets, will certainly contribute to deleverage the company and therefore will lead to all positive consequences that we see. Better profitability and more conversion into results on net profit. This is our expectation from now on, to keep this level of cash generation. I think I answered your question on leverage. The diesel margins, Guilherme, would you like to say that?
Yes. I think just to add to what Eduardo mentioned, it is funny that things connect one to the other. When we make a decision of leasing rather than buying an asset, we do take into consideration the time for deployment and decommissioning.
When you get the margin of JSL Dedicated Services, particularly this quarter, and you take a look at the breakdown of costs, you see a higher weight on depreciation. This has an important component because these are projects that we decommissioned last year and this quarter that are no longer generating income, but we keep the depreciation until we have the total demobilization of the asset. When we make a decision to lease some asset, that reinforces the weight that decommissioning has on our balance sheet because we have to carry this asset until final decommissioning and the asset being ready for sale. What I mean, when you look at the margin of Dedicated Services, it was slightly affected by fuel prices and a bit more weight on the decommissioning expenses.
On the expense line, you see almost BRL 10 million for the decommissioning of these projects and also the impact of the depreciation of these assets that are still carried in my balance sheet vis-a-vis the cash it will bring when it is sold. That reinforces the company's decision to be more asset-light and lease whenever possible, whenever it makes sense economically. Okay.
Yes. Very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Ruan Argenton from XP. Mr. Argenton.
Hello, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. The first is about Intralog. We see a recurring growth in the segment, and you did mention in the release that you are starting some contracting in specific sectors, including automotive, which probably has something to do with the coming of Chinese brands to Brazil.
I would like you to talk a bit about Intralog demand and if the automotive industry can be a driver. Thinking about the level of growth that we should expect for Intralog in the future. The second question is more in a demand scenario with Dedicated Services. If I'm not mistaken, you did talk in a release about a restructuring of your commercial team. How do you see the effect of that? Is it happening, helping in the demand for new contracts and in the recovery of growth for Dedicated Services?
Hi, Ruan, how are you? This is Guilherme speaking. Okay. Automotive sector. Also, I'm going to talk about Intralog. Automotive sector, an amazing resilience. You see at interest rates at high levels, OEMs producing, launching new products, opening new shifts at manufacturing plants and the coming of the Chinese players with different models.
Some with direct imports, other with low corporations, but a volume that we have not seen for a long time. When you take a look at new JSL contracts, we are talking about some of these Chinese brands, both for the transportation of vehicles in imports, that is imported vehicles that are being distributed in Brazil. Lots of containers, transportation parts for local assembly. A large operation in Northeast with the new plant of Camacari. You see a whole movement that is being perceived in recent months. Very important because of the very dynamics of the automotive market today. All clients have expected volumes that are high, increasing shifts, very positive movement. When we put together automotive and Intralog, we see this giant opportunity.
We have several services in OEMs, both light and heavy asset productions. We do believe we have a giant opportunity in the segment. It's a huge segment. We have a lot of expertise. When we talk about Brunno leading Intralog, Brunno has high experience in the automotive industry. Perhaps this is a double opportunity to bring all Brunno's expertise to accelerate growth in this industry. When we take a look at demand in general, I would talk a bit about the market, this is a time where interest rates are high, credit is a bit tighter. There is a volatility of costs, capital goods are at a high price. JSL is 70 years old. We've seen that happen before in several cycles in Brazil, even in the post-pandemic.
We see that there is a client seeking for companies that can give them more safety. That's what they want. They want safer operations. Connected to that, as you very well said it, we reorganized our commercial structure. Today, it is very robust. It works with different sectors, which enables us to give the level of attention and depth that our clients require. Large contracts in which services are essential to customers do have a longer commercial cycle. We expect pipelines and signing of contracts will start to happen at higher volumes now that we have a more robust structure, probably as of the second half of the year.
The market is positive for JSL now in terms of operational capacity, and certainly the new commercial structure will bring us benefits because of its strengths as of the second half of the year.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
As a reminder, if you want to ask a question, just raise your hand. Please wait while we collect your questions. We'll now start the questions that came in writing. I'm going to turn the call to the company so that they can read the questions.
Okay, we did get some questions in writing, and we'll try to answer most of them. If we cannot answer them all, we can answer them later on by email. First, we have two questions from [Bruno Heber]. Good morning. Congratulations on the results.
I'd like you to have some additional color on the significant increase in depreciation in Dedicated Services in Intralog. If we can see depreciation normalizing for the coming quarters as decommissioning is completed?
Hi, Bruno. This is Guilherme. Thanks for your questions. About depreciation of Dedicated Services, I did talk about that. It has to do with decommissioning and the correlation of revenues and the weight of depreciation. In Intralog, basically, this is the impact of IFRS 16, the leases and the expansion of the geographic area that we have for that. Basically, what we see is a better correlation between margins, gross margin, EBIT margin vis-a-vis revenue, because we are going to have revenue in already leased areas based on contracts.
We have three questions from [Dante Neto]. Congratulations on your results.
First, 1Q 2026 showed free cash flow generation after growth of BRL 258 million. You highlighted BRL 674 million over the last 12 months. How much of this is structural, considering the quarter benefited from positive working capital and asset sales above CapEx? I'm going to answer this because it has to do to my answer to Filipe. The BRL 674 million are the last 12 months. The working capital effects that were positive in this first quarter because of the seasonality dynamics between the fourth and first quarter does not impact the BRL 674 million. The BRL 674 million is already normalized for one year. As for asset sales, indeed you do have a higher cash generation because of the decommissioning of assets that are being replaced by leased assets.
That will continue for some time. Remember, as we mentioned, we have almost BRL 5 billion in the inventory of operational assets. As we migrate to leasing along the next periods and years, we'll have an important cash preservation, which will contribute to our deleveraging, better profitability, and conversion of operational results and net profit. The second question is that you still have some fuel pass-throughs to be completed at the beginning of the 2Q. How we should think about margin trends going forward, especially in Dedicated Services and Digital. Does 1Q 2026 already represent good normalized level, or is there still room for recovery?
Guilherme speaking here. There is room to recover. We believe that margin levels are going to be slightly higher than what we showed in the first quarter for some reasons.
Because seasonality, the size of revenues, historically, you can see the first quarter is lower. We see results growing along the year, and certainly because of the pass-through of prices because of fuel increases. Margins of JSL +1 , +1 , but nothing out of the ordinary. Looking forward and considering the company history, we do expect to see a trend of margin improvement quarter on quarter until the end of the year. Dante's last question, new contracts in the quarter total 706 million, with an average term of 35 months, below what we saw in previous quarters. Does this simply reflect contract mix and a greater share of asset-light operations, or does it change growth visibility and profitability for the coming quarters? Excellent question, Dante. Okay.
When we talk about new contracts overall, the volume is very much in line. Sometimes we have a bit more in one quarter or the other, depending on customers, but the total volume is in line. What was different this quarter was the time. Again, I go back to the question about the automotive market when I was answering Ruan. OEMs, especially Chinese OEMs, come to Brazil, have not established completely their operating profile. Plans have not been implemented 100%, warehouses are not 100% built. The operating flow is not completely defined structurally for some of this branch. A large contract that we close, and it is within this number, has a shorter period. We are already working with the client.
We closed it fast because they need it. Now we are structuring the best logistics network, considering what's going to be produced locally vis-à-vis what's going to be imported. A very nice observation that shows JSL's capacity to provide services fast, even if it's not temporary, but in a shorter contract when necessary. This is a contract that had to be shorter because we are working with the client in this process.
Finally, we have a question from Mauricio. I have two questions. Did JSL enter legal procedures prior to 2023 regarding to Sistema S? How do you view the future outlook? I'm going to answer the first question, and the second I'll give to Guilherme. Sistema S, we reprovisioned, and you see the cost in our results.
We had reversed that in 2024 because of a decision of the Superior Court. Now there is a decision in another topic that is being analyzed by the Superior Court with an opposite direction. We talked to our advisors. We now consider that there is a probable loss, and that's why we had the reprovision. Basically, the final sentence is probably going to be issued this week. We depend on the decision. Again, we reprovision that in our result because there is a probable loss. All that said, we still do not have a definition of when the actual cash disbursement would be. Just for you to know, we had reversed the provision because we did have a favorable decision for JSL, a decision of 2024, and that enabled us to reverse the liability.
As of 2024, we started to pay the current contribution. That's why we address that as non-recurring, because it doesn't change the results of JSL for the future, because we are already paying the contributions. This is liability before 2024. Second question.
This is for Guilherme. How were the first 30 days of Brunno, the new CEO at Intralog? Well, I'm going to answer that on Brunno's behalf, but he's coming back to Brazil after a period outside the country. He has been working in the industry for a long time. He's coming back. His first 30 days were fully dedicated to get to know our operation, people, each detail of the operation for him to be able to put together his working plan based on what we are designing for Intralog in the future.
I have been following that from close, very intense, day to day. Again, we have to give him the time to understand our operations, its particularities, the different industries, the different clients. We have to give time for him to absorb everything so that he can establish his plan and priorities within what we received in terms of guideline by the board of directors. As soon as we have news and more concrete actions after Brunno's integration, we are going to be sharing with you.
JSL's Q&A session is now closed. We are going to turn the call over to Guilherme Sampaio for his final remarks.
I would just like to reinforce some points for us to close the call. First, and we did talk about that, there is a lot of work developed by us and the team. I thank the commercial teams because of the renegotiation of passthroughs, very transparent manner for us to be effective in the process. Another thing is that now we see the strengths of the reorganization we had. JSL Digital already had its operations director in charge. We do see the benefits of that, a business unit that we launched by the end of 2024 and third, and now we see good deliveries, growing 30% year-over-year, 14% quarter-over-quarter. We see the strengths of the reorganization made. Brunno now to take over Intralog. Undoubtedly, we expect a completely new pace of growth, new proposals to customers. We see that we are really benefiting from that.
In JSL Dedicated Services, just for you to have an idea, we already have a company that is the same size of other companies that are listed in the sector. It is 100% asset-light. That is working on the subcontracting of independent drivers. Even within JSL Dedicated Services, we already have a business model with several opportunities that can be addressed independently, even within what we call Dedicated Services, that is long-term contracts, et cetera. We already see a new option, a new possibility of having focus, independence, value creation to clients, to the company, to people that work here. The other point I'd like to reinforce and that we talked about is the focus on cash generation.
As Eduardo mentioned, with the benefit of having the possibility of a smoother CapEx that is burning less cash, having a more robust cash generation, helping on our deleveraging, which is a commitment that we have internally, and I already mentioned that several times to you. Finally, the most important point is JSL's leadership in the logistics market and the role we have to bring operational safety at a time that clients mostly need that because high interest rates, tighter credit, cost volatility, makes the market of small and medium businesses to go through more turmoil. Clients need volume to continue their operations: inbound, outbound, input, sales and et cetera. That's it. We are very excited about this quarter. It was a quarter that came up with a topic that brought lots of volatility mid-March.
Again, the company has a very prepared mindset to work with this kind of volatility. Now we believe that we are just going to grow in the coming quarters. Thank you very much. If there is any question that we could not answer, our IR team is here for you and whenever you need. Thank you very much and have a good day.
JSL conference call is now closed. We thank you very much for attending and have a good day.