Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you once again in this Earnings call to discuss Kepler's results. Here with us are Piero Abbondi, CEO, Paulo Polezi, CFO and Investor Relations Head, and Bernardo Nogueira, Sales Director, who will take part in the Q&A session. We'd like to inform you that this presentation is being recorded and is being simultaneously translated. You can use the interpretation button. For those who are listening to the presentation in English, you can silence the original audio. During the company's presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. We'll start the Q&A session. To ask a question, click on Q&A and type in your name and the name of your company. The request to activate your mic will appear on screen. You can activate your mic to ask questions.
We'd like to inform you that any forward-looking statement that may be made during this conference call related to the business prospects of Kepler Weber, operational financial targets are estimates of the company's management that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that political, microeconomic, and other operating factors may affect the future of the company and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. To open the earnings conference call of 2022, 2023, I would like to pass the floor to Piero Abbondi.
Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you once again in this earnings call to discuss Kepler's results.
We will start with the highlights for the quarter and for the year, where net revenue grew 20.4% compared to the fourth quarter 2021, and 48% when compared to the full year of 2021. This is a result of excellence in project management and the organization's commitment to seeking for advances in operational and commercial efficiency that together allowed us to capture market opportunities and take advantage of the excellent moment of the agri-industry. We closed the year of 2022 with excellent results. We had record sales with robust numbers in all five operating segments. It was a year of consistent performance and with operating margins at exuberant margins. Paulo will provide detail about the performance of each segment later on.
The second highlight was the adjusted EBITDA, which grew 32.2%, reaching BRL 156 million in the fourth quarter, 2022, being another exemplary quarter in terms of cash generation. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 31% in line with the third quarter of 2022 and higher than the fourth quarter of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 was BRL 568 million, a historic record with growth of 135% when compared to the year 2021, reflecting our progress in increasing the level of productive activity and expanding margins in the business segment. I cannot fail to mention that the stabilization of the cost of our main raw material, steel, also made an important contribution to our results. Likewise, adjusted net income grew by 27%, reaching BRL 107 million in the quarter.
Year to date, net profit increased 141%, reaching BRL 386 million and 21% in terms of net margin. I now turn the floor over to Paulo so that he can present the performance of the business segment in the fourth quarter.
Thank you, Piero. Good morning, everyone. Going to Slide Four, I present the evolution of the five operating segments. Starting at post-harvest, we maintained the performance level of the fourth quarter, 2021, growing 4.4% and 32.1% year to date of 2022. This performance is the result of the robust portfolio built throughout the year through assertive market access movements, combined with the success in capturing new businesses with rural producers. International businesses also had excellent performance, growing 12.7% in the quarter and 34.8% for the full year.
In addition to the robust backlog from 2021 to 2022, some sales in new regions contributed to the positive results, such as sales to the Southeast Asia and Indonesia. In port and terminals, we sold BRL 30 million in the quarter and BRL 49.6 million for the year, with a growth of 183%.
The highest volume of revenue in this segment was concentrated in the fourth quarter, 2022, in view of the large projects that were delivered in the Port of Santos, São Paulo State, and other large terminals also delivered in the period. Agri-industry revenue was BRL 26.5 million in the quarter and BRL 178.5 million in the year, due to the delivery of six works to expand the dry flow with the respective peripherals for loading and unloading equipment, all with Kepler's assembly, which will be used in the next soybean crop in Mato Grosso, Rondônia, and Roraima. In replacement and services, we presented an increase of 25.5% in the quarter and 24.7% as, like, accumulated results of efforts to capture opportunities for renovations and modernization in existing plants.
It's important to remember that we opened two new distribution centers in 2022 in Pouso das Maranhão, in Paragominas, Pará, adding greater proximity to customers. On Slides Five and Six, we show relevant projects we delivered in the quarter, showing the breadth of Kepler's operations in Brazil and abroad. Maripá project in Paraná is a work for a group of 11 producers, who as of 2019 formed an agricultural condominium and entrusted the project to Kepler due to the brand's tradition and the superior quality of the equipment. The project of Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, is a large-scale work in the agri-industry segment, which receives large volumes of grain and therefore needs a high receiving capacity. It had the challenge of being carried out, for most part, during the pandemic period, with a record execution time of 12 months.
In the Comodoro, Mato Grosso, the client needed additional storage capacity expansion, having chosen Kepler due to the excellent experience obtained in the previous work years before. On Slide Six, we have the work in Villanueva, Colombia, where the client is modernizing its entire drying line, replacing its old dryers with more modern and efficient dryers, in which Kepler team's experience in rice fields contributed to the final choice. We quote Campo 9 project in Paraguay, which is a work needed to increase the storage capacity in a dusty region for its members, where the customized service, technical knowledge, and the years of relationship were the differentials for choosing Kepler. On slide seven, as a way of demonstrating the renewal of orders in the portfolio, we present different suppliers higher in the quarter, which together add up to approximately BRL 127 million in new sales.
On the table, it's possible to observe that in addition to the traditional post-harvest customers for orders, BRL 59.5 million originating from industrial customers in the agricultural chain. This demonstrates Kepler's ability to pursue new projects in all segments in which it operates, while at the same time indicating a positive trend in agro-industry and port terminals customer segments. On Slide Six, we show the evolution of adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter 2022, with a generation of BRL 156 million, 31.2% margin, an increase of 32% when compared to the EBITDA of BRL 118.5 million in the fourth quarter 2021, when we had a margin of 28.4%.
For the full year of 2022, we ended with expressive generation of BRL 568 million in a margin of 31.3%, marks of an extraordinary performance. The reasons that explain yet another robust EBITDA are similar to those that guided the performance throughout the year. Increase in the level of productive activity, expansion of margins in the business segments, efficient operational management, and balanced management of prices at the end. On Slide Nine, we show the allocation of CapEx, where in the fourth quarter of 2022, investments reached their highest quarterly value, BRL 24.9 million, most of which, 78%, was allocated to the modernization and expansion of the production capacity of our operations in Panambi and Campo Grande.
It's important to highlight that BRL 19.4 million correspond to significant advances in the installations of the powder painting project in Panambi, with BRL 10 million being invested in the period, together with the acquisition of new machines for the modernization and expansion of manufacturing capacity in the total amount of BRL 8.2 million. On Slide 10, we show our cash availability that maintained a robust level. In December, with a gross balance of BRL 337.9 million. It's important to highlight that despite having accelerated investments in CapEx and expanding the distribution of dividends and interest on equity in 2022, net cash jumped from BRL 74 million to BRL 171 million in December 2022.
On Slide 11, I highlighted the evolution of the liquidity of our shares, whose average monthly financial volume was BRL 14 million in December, having reached in 2022, BRL 16.7 million per day. The best historical average of trading the shares. On Slide 12, we show the ROIC of the fourth quarter 2022, which increased by 24.4 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, reaching the level of 103.8%. I always remind you that the high ROIC is one of the differentials of our business model, which allows us to add manufacturing capacity without large investments. On Slide 13, we show the payment of BRL 17 million in dividends paid on December, increasing the annual payout to 47% from 30% in 2021. Below are 3 important highlights of the quarter.
On Slide 14, as communicated to the market on December 26, we celebrated the entry of the BNDES as the senior shareholder in our FIDC Fiagro, which together with the contributions of BTG Pactual and Kepler Weber, allowed for an expansion of the original BRL 120 million line to BRL 300 million. I take this opportunity to invite customers who are attending our call to get in touch with our team and find out about the advantages of our exclusive line of project financing. Finally, on Slide 15, I highlight the renewal for 2023 of our shares in the following B3 indices: IAGRO, IGPTW, IBRA, IMDX, ITAG, and SMLL. With this, I finish my part and return to Piero.
Thank you, Paulo. Before addressing the achievement and perspectives on Slide 16, I would like to share with you a great achievement in the storage sector, which was the publication of the standard ABNT NBR 17066, which establishes for the first time in Brazil the basic requirements for sizing vertical metal silos with corrugated sheets. I would like to remind everyone that Kepler performs all its projects with the best technical references of international standards. As a result, the big beneficiary is the storage customer, who will have projects that are safer and more economically viable for the business. Before the Q&A session, I would like to highlight recent achievements, and then I will make some comments on the perspectives for the coming quarters.
In relation to the accomplishments, we have the best year in the company's history with expressive revenues and profitability, confirming our ability to capture good businesses in light of the excellent agribusiness environment. I am very proud of Kepler's team, that in the factories, in the field works, in the DCs and offices, spared no effort to continue delivering the best projects to our customers. Congratulations to the team. Paulo has already presented the differentials of our exclusive funds. I need to reinforce that expanding storage capacity is urgent. Considering that Brazil is on its way to another record crop. This agricultural event in the country also increases storage deficits. Our Fiagro arrives in good time, at a time when our customers need more storage space. Prospects for 2023, I like to mention the following.
We will continue focusing on businesses that are profitable at healthy levels, that prepares us for possible uncertainties in the future. Experts project a record of 320 million tons of grain production in the 2022, 2023 crop, which brings good prospects for projects in all our segments. Finally, in the following weeks, we are to complete the due diligence for the acquisition of Procer and another leap in the company's governance with a migration to the Novo Mercado, subject to approval at the next regular shareholders meeting. With that, I conclude the presentation of the results for the fourth quarter of 2022. Before moving on to the Q&A session, I would like to share with you some more information about the company's management.
As you all know, yesterday we have the Board of Directors meeting, and the board approved the meeting for March 21st, that in addition to the regular agenda, we will elect the members of the administration for the following years. We have the support of a specialized consulting firm that work with the main shareholders for the evaluation the necessary competences and recommendation of names. We also have a successor plan, and my name was recommended as one of the director members, and I'm going to continue as the CEO of the company for the next 12 months. Bernardo, our current Sales Director, that you all know and has been with us since 2021, was my recommendation and by the board to start his journey of succession.
I wish all the luck to Bernardo in this journey. I reinforce that it's a process that we started in 2019, where we reviewed the business model, the management model. We designed the structure of the organization. We formed our executive committee with six members, seven members, six reporting directly to me. In this process, we had internal movements that also had Paulo Polezi joining the company and Bernardo in 2022. I would like to remind you that this is a professional process, sustainable, that would ensure the sustainability of the management of the company. We are going to continue together on the way to our 100 anniversary. Please, Operator, we can proceed to the question and answer session. Thank you. We are now going to start the Q&A session.
We'd like to remind you that if you wish to ask a question, click on Q&A icon and type in your name and company. When announced, a request to activate your mic will appear on screen, and then you must activate your mic to ask questions. Our first question comes from Lucas Barros with XP. Lucas, your audio is open.
Good morning, everyone. Congratulations on the results. There is a point that I would like to have more detail about in relation to the dynamics of profitability. Thinking about the difference of unit cost and the unit revenue, considering this context of drop in the price of commodities, steel more specifically, that we saw in along 2022. How can we look at this difference between those unit costs for the year of 2023?
Can we think about a lower price for the unit prices, considering that there's a cost stabilization process and margin is converging to something similar to what we saw in 2022? Or is it possible to expect those margins to maintain at a strong pace, such as we saw with the margin EBITDA about 31% that we saw in the fourth quarter? This is my first question. If I could also ask about the material fact that you have just published. I was wondering if you could provide some additional detail about the members to be elected. If you could give the next steps in relation to this composition of the board after the change you mentioned. These are the points. Thank you and congratulations again on the results.
Thank you very much for the question. I'm going to start answering your last question. The proposal was approved yesterday. It will become public tomorrow morning. There will be a material fact published to the market. We will publish all the curriculum of the recommended candidates. To start the first question, I'm going to pass the floor to Paulo so that he can discuss the margins and prices. Okay.
Hi, Lucas. Thank you so much for attending our call. The first part of the question is more related to the dynamics of co-cost and prices. We always like to go back to the concept of the company. We are a company of projects, right, Lucas? We acquire material at the zero moment. We deliver the work in the future, four, six months later. There is that dynamics, there's a strategy that I could say that has a margin hedge.
We always try to work, defining prices according to price of the raw materials, steel being the most important one. Nothing changes for this year. Those dynamics that we've seen in the past two years was a very expansionist dynamic. We had a growing demand. We were ran over by the prices of the commodities that went up, as you mentioned in your question, and we controlled this quite well. At the same time, we were able to address this and pass through during this process of four and six months. In 2023, the dynamics is very similar, but there are two different points. The steel cost is slightly below of what we saw in 2022, and also the delivery dates, which are shorter now. One must offset the other one.
We are likely to have a more normal year with less stress, with the supply chain more stable, and that would allow us to continue working with good margins for 2023. We can see the producer's interest and also our clients. We imagine that the market will be robust, keeping healthy margins. Lucas, I don't know if we answered all your questions because your question was a bit long.
No. It's, it was very clear. The answers are very satisfactory. Thank you very much for the clarifications, and have a good day, everyone. Thank you.
Our next question comes from André Mazzini with Citi. Your line is open, sir.
Hello, everyone. Good morning. Thank you very much for the event. I would like to congratulate for the position that is going to be taken.
I would like him to mention about the challenges for the future. Also, I would like to talk about Bernardo's position. We have been very impressed by what he has been doing in the function of sales director. We would like to understand the plans for the person who's going to replace him. It seems that, in terms of PCA, that the disbursements were a bit longer. In the PCA and also in the beginning of the year. It seems that in the beginning of the year, we see some interest from the BNDES and other players, so that the pace of reimbursement can be normalized after some delays that we saw in the end of the year. I would also like you to talk a little bit about backlog.
I know you cannot break down all the details, but I would like to know if it's moving up or down and what's the trend for 2023.
Hello, Andr é . Piero, thank you very much for the question. In terms of the succession plan, I'm going to start answering and then Bernardo will add to what I said. We are beginning the succession plan, in fact, after the election of the board members. That will be after March 23. After the board meeting, we'll start our plan. Of course, we are thinking about the succession in the sales area, of course. Remember when Bernardo joined in, we had a general restructuring in the commercial area, and that's why Bernardo came on board, and we are working on that. We still do not have any definition on how the sales area will be.
Of course, we like to look at the internal personnel, people who are already familiar with the business and are more prepared to assume the function. This is something that will have happened in the next 3 months. I turn the floor to Bernardo so that he can talk about his vision for the next year when he is 100% operational. Okay.
Thank you, Piero. Thank you, Andr é . Hi, Rita. Before saying anything, it has been an honor and a joy to be in this situation, to be part of this succession plan. I'm very optimistic about Kepler's future. We see a lot of evolution in the company. It's an incredible company with very good basics, and these are not easily found in the market. 70% of repurchase, market share 3x bigger than the player coming second.
Again, it's a great joy and I'm proud, and I'm very motivated. I think the key word when we talk about what to expect is continuity, stability. It's been a very interesting process. It's a very well-built process. We'll have 12 months to be working with Piero, we understand that this will bring a lot of consistency in the long term, considering the direction we are taking. Talking about continuity and strategy, we have just presented it on Kepler Day. That happened two months ago. We talked about the strategy and direction, our mandate is to execute this strategy, strengthening our position in this market and using what Brazil has to offer at its best, which is agribusiness.
I'll talk about BCA. Andr é , let's go to the other part of your question.
You made some comments about BCA, we keep the evolution on a weekly basis. For all those who are also with us, this is the main line for our sectors. 10 years with the interests, with our subsidized by the government. This year had a record in July. Last year, we announced more than BRL 5 million. In practice, this fund did not materialize the way we expected. It reached our account at a lower level than the previous years. Is this a problem? Not necessarily. Why do I say that? Because our clients, especially rural producers, continue to be well-capitalized. They still have access to credit. There are other lines available in the market. Of course, not at this interest level, but with long terms and competitive terms.
When we look at the history track of the, this Plano Safra, we have seen this before. The government would announce an amount, it would hold, it would release. I say that because there has been an announcement by the BNDES, and they reached the account, but they were quickly consumed. We have this fund to be consumed up to July. We expect that this fund will come to this strategic sector. Of course, we did not stop and wait. We went after our fund. We have BRL 300 million available. This is something we did with BNDES and BTG. We are confident that the money will reach the producer. Maybe the only point that I would add is that the PCA will always be insufficient, even if it's at high level. That's why we are looking at other levers.
We are always working on this. We received some questions about Silos brand, and we made some progress in those lines of investments. We have launched the project, and then we looked at the finance part. The pressure that comes from demand is really huge. What we see is that the producer uses their own resources if the crop is 300 million. If we look at the history track, and we've considered the last 10 years, we see that the crop level has been growing quite a lot at the level of 4% a year. We are talking about an average growth, and the storage capacity required by the industry is estimated at 6 million.
What I mean to say is that if we keep this pace, every year, there will be an increase in the deficit, which is already BRL 100 million, and the deficit will be BRL 9 million a year. We are part of the solution of this equation, and we are going after more levers so that we can grow and also maintain this. Reduce the deficit so that we can have a competitive position, not only domestically, but also when we talk about exports. This year in March, from March and April crop, I would like to remind you that the harvest will be the larger than the capacity of storage. There will be a lot of pressure on the producers. Also, in terms of freight, we see that the freight costs are increasing now, which is not normal.
We can see this challenge in the management of the production flow.
Thank you, Piero.
There's the other part you asked about the backlog. Our backlog is normal, Andre. What I mean to say, when we compare the backlog of one year ago in the turn of the year, we see that the backlog is proportional to the delivery period. It was a bit dilated. If you remember, we had the supply chain and all the delays and everything else. The terms were too long, and this backlog would reflect this longer term. How do we stand today? Our deadlines are becoming shorter, the backlog is lower than that of last year. This is also according to the delivery date, we even prefer to operate at shorter terms with a more adjusted backlog. I would say that our backlog is normal, Andre.
Our backlog is very healthy. In one of the slides that we show, is Slide Seven, shows some examples of important deliveries. We always try to bring in information showing that we're being healthy in terms of backlog levels. Better than having a good backlog is to have post-harvest projects, international business for diagnostics and agri-industry. The healthy, the backlog is very important, André.
Okay, excellent. Good answer. Thank you, Piero, Bernardo.
We'd like to remind you that if you wish to ask a question, you can click on Raise Hand. Our next question comes from Renata Cabral with Citibank. Your line is open now. Hello everyone.
Good morning. Thank you very much for the opportunity of asking questions. I would like to congratulate Piero on his excellent work heading the company, taking the company to the next level. Congratulations to Bernardo.
I'm sure that your new management will be also very successful. My question is a follow-up of André's question. It's more in the line of how to understand the business environment now. When we talk to market agents, I'm talking about the agribusiness segment, we understand there was a lower investment. We are in February and Piero mentioned in the previous answer when he talked about the deficit in storage capacity. I would like to know if the investment levels increased, if you are receiving more quotes requests, and if you could provide a breakdown, what's the sentiment of farmers, agri-industry. I think they have different feelings. If you could provide this color to us, it would be very helpful. Thank you.
Very good question, Renata. Thank you very much for your interest in the company.
I'm going to start answering then Bernardo will continue. Without a doubt, as you mentioned, any changes would lead to uncertainty. We felt this uncertainty last year. As I told you, that in fact we are going to have a record crop and we feel that the demand is very robust. We had a trade fair in Cascavel called the Show Rural, and the sentiment of the environment was very positive. We saw the demand, the request for proposals, they are all very heated. For sure what you said is very important. Maybe in a moment of the time, we might have to look to one segment to the detriment of the other. We are also going to normalcy levels in the first three or four years of the year.
The rural producer is very focused on the crop that he is harvesting. After the harvest, he will start to make plans for the following crop year. We have this positive demand from the market. We are very optimistic and we see that some segments are different and it's up to us as a company to focus and take advantages of the opportunity so that we can capture the best results. Bernardo may give more detail about the market.
Thank you, Piero. Thank you, Renata. Now talking about data that would help us reflect on the market scenario. It's no secret that the producer was very focused on the politics, we were facing a moment of reflection and plans. We see this when we look at the businesses that are materializing, and this is part of the history.
In addition to that, we also have high interest for long-term investments. There is also something else that perhaps consider without any idea is the record crop and the heat of the market. To quantify this, it's 2x the production of wheat of Ukraine. This is a delta. This production needs to be stored. What our strategy in the short term, while the producer regains the confidence. We see that there's a large demand by the cooperatives, by the industry, by the logistics terminals, and this has been our focus in the past two months. We are having a greater focus to corporations instead of individuals. Our portfolio reached historical levels. 2022 was an outlier. It was an exceptional year. We can see the results here. 2023 will be a good year.
We believe that we have a portfolio operating at historical levels. We are going to have a portfolio with a higher mix, but it's going to be a good year considering the successful production in Brazil that would impact the cooperatives, the producer, the port and terminals. All those players need to get structured so that we can face up this production.
Perfect. Very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Vitor Polli with Levante. Your line is open.
Good morning, congratulations on the results. My question is in line with Andre's question. In relation to the layout of BCA, this is what we saw in the last quarter, especially related to the working capital. What can we expect for this year and in the future considering the BCA delay?
Is the terms being extended to the clients as mentioned before, that they are not as capitalized as before considering the margin and also the percentage of own capital and third-party capital. You said that it might reach 50/50. If you could disclose this, what was you invested as own capital and what was alone.
Vitor, thank you very much for the question. We'll start with working capital. We watch closely our working capital. As you also do, our working capital is very balanced considering the size of our business. We have a financial flow and we finance our process, our receivables. We have a balance with the stock and payables. In the past few years, we had a working capital that was extremely favorable to the business because of the advances.
As I was answering the previous question, we had some delays related to raw materials. The rural producer anticipated some amounts in order to ensure its priority, its space. For two years, the working capital was very exuberant. In the second quarter, 2022, we're going also to see this in 2022, we're going to the working capital levels going back to normal levels with those advances not being so relevant or relevant for our working capital. It's still very favorable to business with very balanced terms. You also asked about accounts receivable. In fact, there was an increase in comparison to the previous year. When you make the relationship to the sales, it decreased. It followed the volume of sales. It grew. Proportionately it was lower. This is something that we look at.
We look at this line. We have no concern about the default rates and this kind of thing. The last part that you mentioned was the capital structure. It's also a competitive edge differential for Kepler. We have cash which is higher than the debt. This structure has an improvement along the year. We were improving this structure. It's a bit difficult to give you a figure if whether or not we are going to reach the 50/50 ratio. Vitor, as the company grows, we are going to be addressing the opportunities as Bernardo said. We're also going to consider the M&A organic opportunities. We are going to see this ratio improving along the time. It's important to know that we have a discipline when we allocate capital. Today it has this flexibility.
We have to acquire a company, we will have enough cash to do that, and then we will consider how to finance it. It's a variable that we watch closely.
Okay, thank you. I just want follow up, if I may. I think I was not very clear. I would like to know how, in terms of net revenue, what was your own resources and what was provided by third parties. In the past you were very capitalized, and I would like to know what's the expectation down the road, if you're going to reach the 50/50%. If you also have the figures for 2022, it would be nice to hear them.
Yes. This year we ended, t his is something we have been informing the market.
30% was by means of finance lines and 70% by means or for own funds. The 70% mentioned does not mean that producer will not finance. They will, but later. It will ensure the priority for the production in the plant and the delivery date. This is a good indicator. 70/30, this is the ratio you asked about.
Okay, great. Thank you so much, and congratulations again, and have a good day.
Our next question comes from Felipe Simões with Wizard Research . Your line is open, sir.
Good morning, everyone. I would like to ask a question related to the Kepler Day. Is that you want to reach revenue of 55% in the post-harvest. I would like to know when this is supposed to be reached in terms of evolution.
I have another question related to the international business. It seems that you defined a line for expansion. Now I would like to understand what are the markets the company is after at the international level. Can we think of a similar level to different markets? How does the company want to execute those plans? Will it be through an M&A or are you expecting an organic growth? Thank you.
Filipe, thank you for the question. Let me tell you a little bit about this strategy. We know that in spite of the heat of the agribusiness, there are cycles when the producer will be more capitalized, more optimistic, and there are cycles when the producer is less enthusiastic. We are never going to change the focus from the producer because they represent about 35% of our sales.
We're going to continue focusing on the producer, but we are also going to continue looking at other segments of the company so that we can put our eggs in different baskets. What we mentioned in the Kepler Day is, when we talk about services. We move from CapEx to OpEx. We have more than 18,000 units for storage purposes, and they require maintenance. In 2022, we had an investment in the creation of more than two new distribution centers. In 2023, we see that this expansion is gonna continue. We have two major strategic movements into one. We are going to increase recurring revenues with the services, and we're also going to place a flag in Pará, in Maranhão, which are expanding in the agricultural field.
Usually also because of the quality of the product, but also because of the proximity, so that they can have maintenance services and they can also have training sessions. It's like placing a flag in those places. This will all be taken into consideration. We are going to provide efficient maintenance services with parts being delivered quickly. Our strategic objective, to answer your question, is to continue being in our segment with the delivery of bulk services storage, and we're going to increase our resilience. We are going to have this stability so that we can continue growing.
To complete the answer and also going to your second question, I can say that we have different avenues of growth that in addition to growing, will allow us, as Bernardo mentioned, to have greater instability in different segments and in different economic cycles. First is the organic growth. We are going to consider different fronts, financing loans, considering the geography, the segments where we already operate. I would like to say that we have two robust plans, and we have been working on Panambi factory, and we are very well prepared to capture market organic growth that requires specific investments in bottlenecks. We are prepared to capture those organic growths. In terms of inorganic growth, yes, Prosper is a clear example of this. It's gonna grow our revenue.
It will add good results to our EBITDA. It will generate recurring revenues in a digital avenue that will open up new opportunities for the years to come. Going back to indebtedness level, the company has a capital structure which is very robust. We have to take advantage of this competitive advantage. We are looking at opportunities of acquisitions for an inorganic growth in segments which are related to ours. We think about post-harvest, which is everything that happens after this moment. We are looking at potentials. We are looking at these growth opportunities in different economic cycle that would also increase the sustainability of the results along the years.
Thank you, congratulations on the results.
Our next question comes from Antônio Carvalho, Gap Asset Management.
What would be the biggest challenge for the organic growth of the company in the long term?
Would it be the credit availability? Would high interest rates impact the operation? Thank you.
Antônio, thank you for the question. Kepler's challenges for the future are not different from those of the past. We talked about the structure of Brazil, the demand for storage capacity. We have had record crops and the infrastructure. Let's talk in general terms of Brazil cannot follow this growth. This is where we are in this process. Our question already mentions one of the challenges. Yes, we believe that credit availability is fully related to this. The more credit you have and the more competitiveness you have, this process accelerates. There's nothing new considering what we had in the past. Kepler takes a very important step when it organizes in an independent manner, when it uses its own resources for the availability of credit.
If I may, I would like to complete and add to that which is related to the growth of our business. As you saw on Kepler Day, we look at different business areas. Our challenge is to materialize all those plans. We have a prepared team. An important example would be the digital aspect, which is an important challenge, but it is right in our faces. When we finish Procer's acquisition, we are going to get more organized in order to take up all those opportunities. It's a combination of different factors. Credit, I understand it's a very important challenge not only for us but for all the companies operating in our sector.
Our next written question comes from João Piccioni, shareholder.
Congratulations on your excellent results.
The investments that have been made generate ROIC at the same level of the general ROIC of the company. Is there room for increase in investment and increase the capacity?
John, thank you very much for the question. Yes, we always work doing investment analysis, looking at ROIC. We understand that the company has a very favorable model that would allow the growth. When I say that, I mean to add a new revenue with the moderate level of CapEx. We have a production process which is very lean, very organized, and you can add capacity together with the growth rate of the market. We make investments and the investments help the ROIC because we don't need massive investments. The investments are diluted along the time, this is very beneficial. We have the good ROIC because of the new investments.
There's another variable, which is the results of the businesses that were exceptional in the past few years. We had this additional boost in the results. For the future we are going to make investments looking at increasing and having a healthy ROIC. Piero, would you like to say anything about the investments?
Yes. I had already approached this topic in the previous question when I talked about investments and organic growth of the company. Without any doubts, we have room. We have two robust facilities, well organized, lean production. We are constantly making investments in order to bring in continuous and gradual improvements in productivity. We also look at the market. We are constantly looking at demand. We are always looking at the future. We consider 2024, what will the capacity be like?
Those two facilities require specific investments and bottlenecks. If we consider what we did in the previous year, you will see that this is what we have done. We have invested in the bottlenecks that I mentioned, and we have monitored the growth of demand. We are completing some of the investments we started last year. We are prepared to any drop in demand, and the company is totally prepared to make investments and increase capacity. For sure, this is a growth vector for the organization, namely the organic growth, as I mentioned before.
Our next question comes from Louise Mattos with 13 autonomous.
Could you talk about the installed capacity at present at the company?
Louise, thank you very much for the question. Our installed capacity, I think before answering, we should qualify it in terms of utilization that we've been having.
That we can maintain the same profile adopted in the previous call. We ended 2022 with a high level of capacity, about 90%, and we reached this level of sales. Obviously this capacity was occupied or used by the longer time of delivery terms.
As I said before, we had extended terms for the project. In 2023 we're going to work with the shorter deadlines. This is going to bring in some relief because we can work better, we can work at a calmer pace along the months. There's a second benefit, and I'll go back to what Bernardo mentioned when he discussed the perspectives. This is a year that we have to consider sectors that demand more capacity. These are tailor-made projects different from the post-harvest and the rural producers, which are more standardized.
This year we started with this buffer in terms of capacity, but it would be good to include these new items in the mix, okay?
We are running out of time, and the IR team is going to answer the questions that were not answered. With this, we end the Q&A session. I would like to ask Piero if he would like to give his final remarks.
As my final remarks, I would like to remind you that 2022 was a historical year for the company. Agri business obviously was very successful and will continue like that. Of course, it was a very good macro scenario, and the company was prepared to capture all those opportunities. We had challenges across the year, the pandemic, the supply chain, but the results we delivered were very positive.
I would like to thank our team, all our 1,700 employees. For 2023, we see that it started at a very favorable pace with a focus on the segment. For the second half of the year we will look at different segments. This has always been the regular cycle, you know, the normal seasonality of the company. I'd like to mention again the management, the construction, the board executive group. We have been doing everything at a very careful manner with no turbulence. My management always focus on people at Klabin, so we'll continue working on that. We still have another busy year ahead of us.
Intense work with stability in the management of the activities and seeking higher sustainability in the business when we talk about people management and operation and market, and also how we work at the plants using lean manufacturing and cost management. We have challenges. Brazil always poses a lot of challenges to us, but we are very optimistic for 2023. I would like to thank everyone's interest for your company. We remain available should you have any requirement, our IR team is available to you should you have any questions. Thank you very much, and see you in two or three months, in April. Thank you very much.