Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Kepler Weber's Q3 2024 earnings conference. Joining us today are the company's CEO, Bernardo Nogueira, and the Comptroller, Ederlei Lorenz. We'd like to inform you that this presentation is being recorded and simultaneously translated. The option to listen to the translation is available under the interpretation button on Zoom. If you're listening to the conference in English, you can also mute the original Portuguese audio by clicking "Mute Original Audio." During the company's presentation, all participants will be connected in Attendee mode. At a later time, the floor will be open for questions. If you have a question, please click the "Raise Hand" button. Once your name is announced, a request to activate your microphone will pop up on your screen so you can ask your question live.
It's important to note that any statement made during this conference relative to Kepler Weber's business prospects, operational, and financial targets are based on the company's management's forecasts and may or may not materialize. Investors must understand that political factors, as well as macroeconomic and other operational factors, may affect the future of the company and lead to results which are materially different than those expressed in said forward-looking statements. We will now show you a video about the Portas Abertas event hosted by Kepler Weber in September 2024. In said event, both national and international events gather at the Panambi Unit in Rio Grande do Sul for a day of immersion in hot topics of agribusiness in addition to a visit to our plant. Next, we'll turn the conference over to Bernardo Nogueira, who will begin the presentation about the company's earnings results.
Good morning, everyone.
We're happy to join you to present our Q3 2024 earnings. This was a time of solid results where we sustained our positive trend seen since the beginning of the year. Our prospect for 2024 is that this will be one of the best in the company's history with sustained results. We had two-digit growth in the first half of the year, and in the second, we are in keeping with what we had in the first half of 2023, which was the highest in nine years. Our net revenue went up 8.2% versus Q3 2023, and in 2024 today, growth was by 13.6%. Our adjusted EBITDA came to BRL 97.6 million, with a 22.2% margin. This was the company's best on record. In the year, it came to BRL 252.5 million. Our adjusted net profit was BRL 61.2 million in the quarter.
In 2024 today, it came to BRL 148.8 million, with an adjusted net margin of 13.9% in Q3 2024. Now, let's address our businesses. As shown previously, despite the challenging scenario for agribusiness, we remain resilient, growing across all our businesses over the year. The farms and agribusiness units came to respectively BRL 141.8 million and BRL 156.6 million in the quarter. Our international business grew by 63.6%, rounding out at BRL 52 million a year. Ports and terminals, in turn, grew substantially by 442% to BRL 17.4 million in the quarter. Replacement and services grew 1.1% versus the same period last year. On slides five and six, we share some of the important projects we delivered in Q3 2024, among which we highlight the delivery of our team across regions in Brazil and strengthening our footprint in Latin America.
We'd also like to highlight our list of orders, with 15 new contracts coming in in this quarter, rounding out at over BRL 195 million in new sales. Now, I'd like to turn over to our Comptroller, Ederlei, who will talk about our EBITDA and other financial indicators.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much, Bernardo. I'm happy to join you today to talk about Kepler's financial performance in Q3 2024. Our EBITDA's performance in Q3 2024 was very significant, with BRL 97.6 million and a 21% increase over the same period one year earlier, and 2.3 percentage points growth in the adjusted EBITDA margin. In the year to date, our adjusted EBITDA came to BRL 252.5 million, with a 22% margin, both in the third quarter and the first nine months of the year, the same consistent growth.
This performance shows our effective operational strategy and robust business model, keeping indicators such as this healthy. Over the course of 2024, our CapEx investments came to BRL 26.1 million, 35% of which were allotted to increasing our plant capacity, 35% to developing new products, meaning R&D, 16% to maintenance, and 14% to IT projects. Now, I'd like to point out our cash availability, which remained robust ending September with a gross BRL 457.9 million and a net BRL 162.9 million reais. On slide 11, talking about our return on invested capital, that came to 42.1% in Q3 2024, showing that we've maintained the company's profitability level. Now, on investor remuneration, we talk about our dividend payments of BRL 45.4 million paid on July 10th and August 23rd, 2024, keeping an attractive 80% payout in the company's cash regime. On that, I'd like to turn the conference back to Bernardo.
Thank you, Ederlei.
Before we move on to our question-and-answer session, I'd like to stress our recent achievements and talk about our prospects for the remainder of 2024. First and foremost, I'd like to thank our orange-blood team, Kepler's team, for their consistent results delivery. Thanks to that, growth came to 8.2% in net revenue this quarter, moving our adjusted EBITDA margin to 22.2%. Kepler's diverse operation in different industry sectors once again stood out, especially in ports and terminals and international businesses. Lastly, I'd like to point out that we ended another quarter with solid net cash, even after paying BRL 45.9 million in dividends. Our net cash was BRL 162.9 million. Our positive demand for projects, especially in agribusiness, ports, and terminals and services. Our prospect for 2025 is this will be one of the best years in the company's history.
We've accelerated our growth in the first half of the year, and the second is still in keeping with the same period of 2023, which had been the best in nine years. Lastly, we continue to focus on operational improvements in the company for greater profitability throughout the year. On that, we conclude our Q3 2024 earnings presentation, and I'd like to invite everyone for Kepler Day 2024, which will take place on November 26th at the Teatro B32 in São Paulo. Registration is open for this special event, where we'll address Kepler's prospects for the future and introduce the vision of our executives and clients. If you have any questions, please reach out to our investor relations team, and you can find more information on our investor relations website.
Thank you. Before we begin our question-and-answer session, we'd like to introduce the new CFO and IRO with Kepler Weber.
We'll now turn over to Mr. Bernardo to move on with the presentation.
Good morning, everyone. It's a great pleasure to be joining all of you. And to start, I have something special to share with all of you. I am joined by Renato Arroyo, our new CFO and IRO with vast experience in the industry. He has a lot of affection for the agribusiness, and he starts officially with us tomorrow. So we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to all our analysts and investors joining us today. You have the floor, Renato.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Bernardo, and thanks to everyone joining us today. It's a pleasure to be joining Kepler in such a special day when we are presenting our earnings results. Just a little bit about me. I have a little over 23 years of experience in the financial market. I have worked in both national and international companies, both private companies and listed companies.
In the last few years, I have worked as CFO with other companies as well, and I'm now joining Kepler, which is such a passionate team and such a bright industry in the market, which is agribusiness. I am very passionate about agribusiness. This is a business my family is already in, and I have already worked in agribusiness-adjacent industries in the past as well, so I am joining the existing capabilities at Kepler and add a little bit of my expertise when it comes to optimize cash resources and try to raise more funds and increase the return for investors as well, to also provide a little more efficiency for this, which is an already very efficient company and has been so for the last few years. I'd like to thank everyone.
I would love to get to know a little bit more of you who have been following the company for so long. So thank you.
We will now begin our question-and-answer session. Quick reminder, if you have a question, please use the raise hand button. Once your name is up, a request to activate your microphone should pop up on your screen. If you want to ask your question in writing, please use the link submitted via chat. Because the number of questions usually received is so large, and because we want to answer all our participants, questions will be answered by topic according to the topic announced. If your question is submitted after the topic that's announced has been concluded, the investor relations team will submit the answer later via email. Our first question comes from Ms. Fernanda Urbano with XP. Please, Mrs., you may proceed.
Hello, everyone.
Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Great. Good morning. Congratulations on your results, and I'd also like to wish Renato the best of luck on his new job. I have a question about the ports and terminals business. You've talked a little bit about the projects in the Matopiba area and also talked about the trend of greater investments in infrastructure. I just wanted to understand a little bit better your expectations about the demand for these products and how we can think about 2025 versus 2024. And also, in the ports and terminals industry, thinking about the product mix on these areas and the level of complexity for your projects, I just wanted to understand how we can think about productivity versus the company's consolidated level so far. Thank you.
Hi, Fernanda. Thank you for your question.
Kepler has been structuring itself and growing in the ports and terminals business. This quarter, we actually had exceptional growth in this field. We know that our projects are large-scale projects with great impact. So sometimes we'll see that kind of result, 400% growth in a quarter. In the next few periods, we should have very significant growth, about 40%-45% in ports and terminals. We have a very robust pipeline with a huge volume of projects in that area which are being negotiated and underway with our clients. But I also believe that this is an evolution that we like to work on gradually. So, of course, there are deals in place, and we're just looking at the projects that better suit our plans and our executability. We are trying not to bite off more than we can chew.
So, in summary, the answer to your question is we have a robust pipeline across Brazil. We have port projects from north to south of Brazil, and we're just handpicking the ones that are best suited to our execution capacity.
Our next question comes from Kiepher Kennedy with Citibank. Please, sir, you may proceed.
Good morning, Bernardo. Renato, Ederlei. I have a question about the international business, where we also saw substantial growth. And I just wanted to understand a little bit about the company's strategy for this business and also how much of an impact the exchange rate could have been. We saw a wide range of shift in the exchange rate. So I wanted to understand what your strategy is and what you expect in terms of non-recurring effects. I also have a question about the company's COGS dynamics.
There was an impact of over six times on revenue, and you mentioned something similar to what you said in Q3 relative to the projects that you're working on. I just wanted to understand a little bit more about those projects, if you could maybe talk about their magnitude and their impact on the business, because in spite of that, you still delivered very satisfying gross margin results and COGS results, which were very much in line with what we expected, so I just wanted to get a little more color on that. Thank you.
Thank you for your question, Kiefer. Our international business really is doing really well in 2024.
Yes, there has been some impact from the exchange rate, but to us, the most important reason for that development in that business was the outstanding crops we had in 2023 and 2024, especially in Paraguay and Uruguay, and the high prices of rice, which generated higher income and led to a larger acquisition of the product by our neighboring countries. Most of our sales is here in Latin America. We have a great partnership, and we are in the lead here, which is something we're trying to maintain. And in three years, this was the first time we had some billing to Argentina. We already have a very interesting installed capacity for Kepler, and the units sort of aged a little bit over the last few decades. And this year, we had sales of about $1 million in the area.
We are working intensely on education and training of our clients and representatives there so that we're ready for whenever the market picks up, and we see huge opportunity in the area. Now, outside of Latin America, we also have projects in Pakistan. The first AV Max dryer we have in Pakistan, and other African countries also. So our business will be very competitive. That's important for us because of the exchange rate, so that we have some of our revenue coming in in US dollar. But we also want to be updated when it comes to the competitiveness of our product overseas. That also helps us in terms of protecting our operations in Brazil. Considering the next periods and next year, we want to maintain what we saw in Q3. We are working at over 90% capacity, which we understand is the optimal level.
We have the remainder for maintenance and strategic shutdowns. So we're working with a full plant capacity and in a very structured way.
Please wait as we call for questions. Our next question comes from Mr. Daniel Martins, an investor. Please wait as we call for questions. Our next question comes from Rafael with Evolve Capital.
Could you please talk about how you see the farms industry last year, even with narrower margins? 50% of the IPCA, the inflation index, was absorbed. How do you see this moving forward?
Thank you for your question, Rafael. If you'll allow me, I should start by saying that we had substantial growth in national and international business and ports, and we've increased our resilience. But I have to say that our entire farms business was perhaps the biggest surprise.
We expected a downturn for farmers, much because of the decline in commodity prices and reduced income in farming activity, but that's not what we're seeing. We actually saw an increase from our farmers, our farm clients, both for the quarter and for the year. And even considering the first quarter of next year, we're seeing a strong portfolio of farmers who are investing in storage. And speaking for myself, I'm also a farmer. I'd say the explanation is the pressure the storage deficit will create. We are moving to a 330-ton crop or season in 2024 to 2025, and that puts the pressure of a deficit of over 100 tons. And the more structured farmers are now getting ready to have a calmer season. So we see very clearly that storage has gone up in farmers' priority lists. We'll talk about that during our Kepler Day as well.
We have a few analyses comparing the last 20 years in terms of profitability, acreage, and investment in storage. And it's clear that storage priority has increased both in 2023 but also in 2024. Please wait as we group together questions within the same topic.
Our next question comes from Rafael Araújo with Evolve Capital.
Could you talk a little bit about your prospects for the agribusiness? During this quarter, there was a modest 1% increase. What's the backlog looking like for next year?
Hi, Rafael. Well, what we're seeing in agribusiness is, with the level of production Brazil has shown in the last few years, we're seeing an industrialization of Brazilian agribusiness. We're seeing corn-based ethanol and soybean processing projects adding value to the Brazilian value chain, which includes or involves the entire agribusiness.
What we see is these are obviously very large-scale projects, which often rely on funding and planning that shifts throughout time. Today, we actually expect some decrease. Over the last year, we had some very large projects being introduced last year. We expect a decrease in agribusiness projects, but we do expect an uptick in 2025. Our prospect for 2025 is to close substantial deals in the agribusiness, which will make up our portfolio for next year.
A quick reminder, if you have a question, please click the raise hand button. Once your name comes up, a request to activate your microphone will pop up on your screen, and you'll be able to ask your question live. If you'd like to ask your question in writing, please use the link submitted via chat.
Because of the large number of questions we usually get, and as we want to answer all our attendees' questions, questions will be grouped together according to their topic. If you submit your question after the topic at hand is concluded, our investor relations team will submit the answer later via email. Please wait as we pull for more questions. Our next question comes from investor Mr. Isaac.
Good morning. We're seeing a large number of agribusiness companies filing for bankruptcy protection. I'd like to understand if and how that's affected Kepler. Is the company exposed to any of those Chapter 11 filings? And how do you project the impact of the large interest rate, of the high interest rate, and how does that affect your operations moving forward?
Thank you for your questions, Isaac.
We are always closely monitoring these shifts within our industry, so what I can tell you right now is we are not exposed to any company that has filed for bankruptcy protection right now. Our exposure is below 0.5%, so our historical levels remain very low, but we're obviously always paying attention to that, and then you ask about this time in agribusiness and the interest rates, so I think part of the answer I gave about the priority in storage is what we're seeing. The revenue for ag machinery going down, which is what the Ag Machinery Union is showing, and our revenue from storage is going up, so it's very clear to us, Isaac, that despite the narrower margins with corn, soybean, and prices going back to where they were in 2019, our revenue remains strong.
And I understand that the same will happen with the shift in interest rates, probably going up again. And to us, obviously, the lower interest rates, the better. But because farmer revenue seems to not be preventing the investments in the value chain, we're not seeing that decrease in 2024, and we're not seeing the decrease in the portfolio that we are putting together for 2025 either.
Our next question comes from Kiefer Kennedy with Citibank. Please, sir, go ahead.
Hello. I have another question about the SG&A. You mentioned a few one-offs this year with one-off investments. I just wanted to understand the magnitude of that, and should we expect anything in the next quarters about that? And what would be a recurrent SG&A level for the next few quarters? Thank you.
Thank you, Kiefer. So a little bit about our SG&A then.
Non-recurring events, these one-off events, relate to the first half of 2024. And as you well mentioned, this has to do with our bonuses and strategic targets that we set back then. As to the level we consider to be the regular one for the continuity of our business, it is in keeping with what we had in 2023, meaning something between 11% and 12% of our net revenue.
Our next question comes from Mr. Fernando Barbero with GIC. Please, sir, you may proceed. Mr. Barbero, your mic is active. You may proceed. Please wait as we poll for more questions. Please wait as we group together questions under the same topic. Our next question comes from Mr. Guilherme Cruz with Varius Research.
He asks, could you please talk a little bit about the replacement and services industry, seeing as you see in the release that there was a 12% increase in orders versus Q3 2023, and Procer showed an increase by 25% in clients served versus the same quarter in 2023, despite an increase of only 1.1% in net revenue?
Hi, Guilherme. Thank you for your question. We usually joke that RS is our darling. This is the industry where we've grown the most in the last two years, so we devote a lot of our attention and our efforts to this industry. I think there are a few things we should put into perspective. First is this industry has grown by 27% since last year, so the bar has been set really high.
In Q3, this was a little bit closer to where it was last year, and that was much because of two large renovation deals with a trader in the market, which is something that has not taken place this year. So what we expect for Q4 is for growth to go back to the two-digit level. And there's also an important mission here for RS in 2025. And that would be continuing to move closer to our clients, which is part of our basic strategy. Obviously, there's a lot of cross-selling where we're seeing outstanding growth levels, and we expect that to continue next year. And we also have new products being launched to bring more automation, greater energy savings in the grain drying process, more safety and more security in our clients' procedures.
So we have a wider range of products and services, which make us a lot more optimistic about RS next year. So just hold tight for our Q4 earnings and also for what next year will bring.
Our next question comes from Mr. Tadeu, individual investor.
Good morning. Do you have any updates about the ReSilos Project? Thank you.
Hello, Tadeu. Thank you for your question. Well, the ReSilos Project comes from the bill of law from 2021 that expects the waiver of taxes in the sale of silos and businesses until 2024. This is a project that we see as very significant, seeing as it fosters the increase of the country's installed capacity. And as far as we have monitored it, this is a bill that is under review by a congressional committee, so we are really expecting great things to come out of that.
Just as a reminder, if you have a question, please click the raise hand button, or if you would like to ask your question in writing, please use the link submitted via chat. Please wait as we poll for questions. Please wait as we group together questions under the same topic. Again, if you have a question, please click the raise hand button. If you'd like to ask your question in writing, please use the link submitted via chat. Please, just a moment. We're still polling for more questions. Our next question comes from Mr. Daniel Hansen with Sutter Family Office.
Good morning, everyone. Congratulations on your results. About your international business, could you give a little more color about your strategy in both LATAM and other continents? Where can you work products plus deployment plus services, and where can you only touch with more products?
For example, can you work replacement services in Pakistan or Afghanistan? Also, Procer Services, how have Latin American clients accepted that type of service?
Hi, Daniel. Thank you for your question. Our national business is the apple of our eye in 2024, and we're working to raise the bar even higher for 2025, and just to add a little bit more color about our strategy in international businesses, we want to be relevant in the places where we operate, especially here in Latin America, where we have, as I said, a robust footprint in Uruguay and Paraguay. We have also important projects in Bolivia, and we also serve on a one-off basis Afghanistan and Uganda, places in other continents for a tradition with Kepler equipment, and one of the reasons why we are reporting good results is the continued communication with those older clients.
Kepler Weber has over 1,000 units and equipment operating outside of Brazil, so we stay in constant communication with these clients, sending them updates about our newest and most modern, most updated pieces of equipment, and as to your question about the digitalization and the acceptance of technology services in other places, what we see is Brazilian farmers are at the forefront when it comes to technology and grain preservation and the use of digital solutions to help them with that, but ranging from country to country, obviously, we also see good acceptance, especially Paraguay and Uruguay, where we have farmers who are very much up to date with the best that we have here in Brazil as well, and that's both for planting and storage post-harvest.
We also reached 2,000 connected units in Paraguay, so I can now, via my cell phone, have access to how much corn and how much soybean is being planted in Brazil and Latin America. So we have over 300 units outside of Brazil. So Kepler has, with greater precision than any institute, provided the magnitude of that production and the quality of that yield in the most important producing areas in Latin America. And we're also starting to talk about the entire production chain to understand, in an organized way, how we can use that data to generate value to the production chain itself.
Please wait as we poll for more questions. Our next question comes from Mr. Ronaldo Veríssimo, an individual investor.
Can you say how much of the last Safra plan was turned into revenue for Kepler?
How do you expect, in terms of storage, for the next '24-'25 season?
Thank you, Ronaldo. From the Safra Plan, the volume that was released until September 30th, I think we can say about 25% of that amount was captured by the company. And another thing that's very important in connection with what Bernardo mentioned earlier, with regard to the prioritization or higher priority level of our storage, is the funding portfolio. We're operating with over 70% of our projects coming from their own funds, which leads us to believe that storage has become really very much a priority amongst farmers.
Please, once again, wait as we group together questions under the same topic. If you have a question, please click the raise hand button. If you'd like to ask your question in writing, please use the link submitted via chat. Again, please wait.
Our next question comes from Mr. Ângelo Pienna, individual investor.
I'd like to understand whether the government's measures about importing steel will affect the company's business.
Thank you, Ângelo. Our supply chain strategy is very robust. When it comes to steel, we have drawback programs, which this year have been fostered by imports and should be leveraged, but we do not expect any significant impact from the new import rates. We cannot be specific about that specifically, so we plan to continue to capture results from our drawback program.
Please wait as we poll for more questions. Again, if you have a question, please click the raise hand button. If you'd like to ask your question in writing, please use the link submitted via chat.
Our next question comes from Mr. Gustavo Gushiken, individual investor. How's the use of public funding for silos being used within Kepler?
Hi, Gustavo.
Excellent question, and thank you for reminding us to talk about Fiagro. We recently received great news in Q3, which was the conclusion of an over 3 million BRL deal using funds from Fiagro. Even though interest rates are high right now, we found a client who actually needed to invest strategically, and their funding lines were taken, so they found a way out with Fiagro to be able to strengthen their business. Deals are being closed in that sense. You also mentioned the rental of units, so we are working hard. We have several projects under review across Brazil on that topic, and we expect to have good news for you very soon. News about this new business model, and we expect to do that later this year. I know this adds a little bit of pressure on ourselves, but that's our mission.
This concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn over to Mr. Nogueira for his final remarks.
Guys, thank you so much for your interest in Kepler. I think in summary, despite the more challenging scenario for agribusiness with high commodity prices and narrower margins across the value chain, we're seeing storage being prioritized very clearly in 2023 and especially in 2024, much because of a logistics deficit in Brazil. I think part of our success, which is the growth of our crops, has been this deficit and the prioritization of storage, and looking a little bit closer at what's happening, Brazil is now planting its 2024-'25 soybean crop, and it's wide consensus that this will be a large season. So the demand for storage, in our understanding, is something that will continue into 2025, which adds a positive or a brighter prospect for next year.
And also about this quarter, I'd like to welcome we had almost 2,000 new shareholders. I know that you did good business just as Ronaldo, who made a great decision joining Kepler. And I'd also like to thank our clients for their trust. We had 3,716 clients served this year, about 4% more than last year. And to say a huge special thank you to our Kepler team for their dedication and efforts. They work in a very resilient way to serve all of these clients and to generate outstanding results to all our shareholders. Thank you so much, everyone, and I see you on Kepler Day on November 26th.
Thank you. Kepler Weber's Q3 2024 earnings conference is now concluded. If you have a question, please submit it to the company's investor relations team to ri@keplerweber.com.br.
We'd like to thank everyone for joining us and wish you all a great day.