Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the Kepler Weber conference call to discuss the results of the first quarter of 2022. With us today, Mr. Piero Abbondi, director, and Paulo Polezi, CFO and Investor Relations Director. This event is being recorded and participants will only listen to the company's presentation, and then we will open for the Q&A session to all participants. Then further instructions will be provided. If you need any assistance during the call, please ask the help of the operator pressing star one. Star zero, sorry. This event is also being broadcast via webcast and can be accessed at www.kepler.com.br/ri, where the presentation is available for download. The slides presentation will be controlled by you, and the replay of this event will be on the company's website shortly after the ending of the conference.
Before proceeding, we would like to remind you that the forward-looking statements made during this call, projections, and target regarding future assumptions are based on the company's expectations. Further considerations should not be interpreted as a guarantee of the performance because they involve market behavior, the economy, industry, international markets, and therefore are subject to change because they relate to future events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, the industry conditions, and other operating factors can also affect the future of Kepler Weber and may cause results that materially differ from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Abbondi, CEO, who will conduct the first part of the presentation.
Good morning, everybody. It is a great pleasure to be here with you for Kepler conference call showing the results of the first quarter 2022. This quarter expanded the trends of 2021 with excellent results in spite of the challenges imposed by the pandemic and the supply chain. As our operations, the great news is the repositioning of the business areas of the company. This movement aims to expanding and provide greater focus and capture greater value on the business. With this, we went from four to five segments: Post-Harvest, International Business, Ports and Terminals, Agribusiness, and Services. We will focus on agribusiness with the growth of ethanol, animal food, and crushing industries increase. Now, going to slide 4, I highlight our net revenue that increased by 83% compared to the first quarter of 2021.
The positive performance reflects the excellent market position of the company, who made assertive movements to capture a rentable business, results of the quality and relevance of the Kepler brand in the segments we operate. The adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 148 million, 33.8% of adjusted margin, 318% expansion related to the first quarter of 2021. Once again, I highlight the increase of our operational leverage that contribute to decrease and absorption of costs in an excellent logistic and commercial management. Likewise, the adjusted profit summed BRL 84.5 million, 21% of adjusted margin and growth of 500% compared to the first quarter of 2021. Now Paulo will talk about the business segments.
Thank you, Piero. Good morning, everybody. Slide 5 shows the performance of our business segment now after the repositioning. The net revenue of Post-Harvest reached BRL 266 million, 54% compared to the same period of 2021. The demand for post-harvest equipment is still robust because the clients want to guarantee the quality of the grains based on the harvest volume. The portfolio is healthy with more intensity of business in the Centro-Oeste and Nordeste. We increased 63% International Business, reaching BRL 37.8 million of revenue. The good performance results from the increment of revenue in the African market and relevant business in South America. Imports and Terminals, this was closer to zero due to the characteristic of this segment, where the projects have a high ticket and may generate great variations in invoicing.
In this quarter, we have a postponing of one client due to internal operational reasons. This will be included in future quarters. In this quarter, the company had new sales that we will talk about on slide 8. In the Agribusiness, we reached BRL 93.9 million, the result of the ethanol and corn segment that allowed us to get new clients, and this summed to the large size industrial projects linked to the cooperative in Paraná, reflected this increase in the quarter. In Services, we reached BRL 42.7 million. This, a result of the focus of the company adding more revenue in our portfolio, modernizing the existing units and services, such as training, inspections, upgrade, retrofit, adequations to the regulations, always looking for the revitalization of the unit. In slide 6, I share some important projects delivered in the first quarter of 2022.
In the Novo Mutum, Mato Grosso, the client is far from large warehouses, having very few options. The cost with freight was also high. Now, the client has a unit with an expressive reduction of costs and the power to negotiate. In Uruçuí in Piauí, delivered in February, is an expansion of the existing unit. The highlight here is the strength of our brand, showing the trust of the client to continue this partnership. Everything was met, like quality, robustness, and delivery time. In Xinguara, Rondônia, we highlight the recovery of the local market. This will be a reference of the market to new clients. International business, we have the San Hilario project in Peru. We are present there with constant sales. We delivered on time, even facing a very challenging scenario.
The works of José Pedro Varela, Uruguay, reflects the client satisfaction that has a unit that meets fully the local regulations with a strong post-sale service. In slide 8, as a way to show the renewal of our order portfolio, we have four different supply that together sum BRL 129 million. In the post-harvest, we have the sales of two major clients accounting for BRL 54 million to deliver in 2023, strengthening the company's presence in the North and Northeast. In the Agribusiness segment, we sold a big size unit for Paraná in the value of BRL 45 million. Ports and Terminals, I highlight the BRL 38 million sales to be delivered in 2023.
In slide 9, we show the EBITDA of the first quarter. As Piero mentioned, we reached BRL 148 million in the adjusted EBITDA, a new historical margin adjusted in 33.8% and a growth of 338%. This is our commitment to preserving the operating margins. The expansion of EBITDA shows the increase in the productive activity and expansion of business margins. We have a good management of prices and cost control. In slide 10, we show the CapEx evolution. In the first quarter, investments reached BRL 7.1 million, and the highest part, 57%, driven to the manufacturing capacity expansion in Panambi and Campo Grande. We have an automated line for silos and adequations of machinery within the focus to increase the safety to our collaborators.
In slide 11, we show the cash availability. We had a BRL 29 million increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, with 22% increase. Not considering the BRL 57 million in debtiness, our cash position went to BRL 123 million, facing the BRL 75 million of 2021. In slide 12, we will show the evolution of the dividends paid to the shareholders. In the competence regime, we reflect the BRL 70 million, an important mark of 246% of payout in 2021. Adding the BRL 76 million in dividends, we reached the equivalent to BRL 2.53 per share.
In slide 3, we show the improvement in liquidity of our share with 72% leap in relation to March 2021, and now trading about BRL 17.5 million a day. In slide 14, we show the ROI for the first quarter of 2022 with an evolution of 62.2 basis points compared to the first quarter of 2021 w ith a 99% mark. This ROI expansion shows one of the strengths of the Kepler's operational model because we delivered growth with modular investments distributed over time. With this, I give the floor back to Piero.
Thank you, Paulo. In slide 15, before we go to the Q&A session, I would like to highlight recent achievements and perspectives to 2022. The achievements, we have four important aspects. We advanced one more quarter with a consistency in revenue and expansion, even in the stability of the supply chain, especially of items bought from third parties. We also repositioning the business areas, aiming at expanding the Kepler brand and capture more volume. We also started the opening of two new distribution centers, one in Balsas and the other in Paragominas, reinforcing the focus of the company in new agricultural frontiers at the north of the country. And we paid the shareholders BRL 75 million in compulsory and additional dividends.
As perspectives, I highlight first, the growth prediction was renewed because our order portfolio is also increasing. In spite of the drought in the south of the country, the perspective is for the current and next harvests are very good, both in volume and profitability to the producer. Second, in spite of the recent movements in the steel price increase, we keep the expectations of the margins in healthy levels due to the operational leverage and the solid management.
Third, our efforts continue to keep Kepler well-positioned to capture the best market projects, accelerating growth and bringing stability to the results. Four, cash generation will continue strong, allowing the capital allocation to open new fronts of business as new distribution centers, launching new products, and KW robust and investments in CapEx for maintenance, improvement, and expansion. With this, I close our presentation. Please, operator, we can continue with the Q&A session. Thank you.
We now open the Q&A session. We kindly ask participants to ask questions pressing star one. Our first question is from André Mazini, Citibank.
Thank you for the call. My question is about imaging very high, like the history of the company. Do you expect to keep this level of very high margin? You have the demand for the product, but on the other hand, you have the cost increase that will continue in 2022. The price of steel will be very important. How we should think about this ahead? The second question is about backlog. Is it possible to see in your release what has been bought? The client's sales profile and the VRA. The demand is very strong. What is the lag if the client close a business with you and you deliver? Is there any metric that we can follow to track this backlog? Thank you.
André, good morning. Thank you for the question. Bernardo Nogueira has just entered the call. He joined Kepler Weber in December. Welcome, Bernardo. Okay, it's a pleasure. You'll help us answering the questions. André, about margin profitability. I start answering the first question because the second part is related to the portfolio, and Bernardo can help us. But concerning the EBITDA margin, it was really very strong.
Much as a result of what the company did in 2021. What we invoiced, it was a sales we did six months ago with the concept. We have the raw material in-house. We had a scenario of successive increases in steel price. We adjusted the profitability of the company during the year. But we reached a moment in the second semester that the steel price was stabilized, and we established this ratio. What we deliver today as a result is a consequence of this price strategy that was assertive. The mix of favorable products and due to the stabilization of the steel prices. When we work with high volumes, in spite of the drawbacks and some periods of shutdown because of the COVID. Anyway, this helped us to dilute the price, the costs, and the margin of the company had this important expansion.
Again, this is a continuity of our strategy. The perspectives for the year, repeating, we do not work with guidance, but in this quarter, we had a very good comparable in the first quarter of last year. We have a 13%. In the second three, we had a one-digit margin. We expect to have a first quarter comparable with the history of the company, but it is hard to predict that this margin will be so high. I repeat, the first quarter is favorable. The second quarter, last year, we had a leap in this margin, but we work looking for the margin of the year, not only of the quarter. This year we have everything to have something very similar to what we delivered in 2021, and we will work to expand this. But the first quarter is very favorable.
Maybe, Paulo, what I could add is remind you that what we built in this first quarter was sold last year, in the third quarter of last year. The delivery dates were very expanded or dilated. Those who want to receive a project earlier had an additional premium price. Concluding, we are in a new level. This is a result of the work over the last years in productivity, management, and margins pricing. In the next quarter, the margins will be healthy. As for the price of steel, yes, of course, we had an increase. Everybody felt this, and we repositioned ourselves. We have announced to the market, and we have a new price list with healthy margins again. We felt a very strong demand. The harvest is being good. We expect the next one also to be good.
All the signs are positive for the agribusiness and specifically for corn and soybean crops that are the key crops for us. I will give the floor to Bernardo to talk about the portfolio and sales situations of the last month and the perspectives for the future.
Thank you. André, it's a pleasure. Our portfolio is one of the indicators we monitor weekly. The new orders that come in, the projects pipeline, and all these indicators reflect what we have in our portfolio. It's evolution month after month. If we compare to three years ago, we have the healthiest portfolio. This year it is 20% higher. We are very happy with the demand for our products and services, and we are quite confident with 2022.
Bernardo, maybe second, and Monday and Tuesday, we were in an exhibition in Ribeirão Preto, and we saw a strong movement with good energy. I believe that after two years, people came back with a very high energy, and I saw a great interest in investing from the farmers. Everybody who is in the call is invited to go to our show. All the tables are occupied. We have five or six clients simultaneously visiting us, discussing projects, a very good energy, so you are invited to go there.
Thank you, folks.
Thank you.
Just remind you to ask questions, please press star one. Our next question is from Renata Cabral from Eleven.
Good morning. I am Renata from Citi. Thank you for allowing another question from us. I have two questions. One concerns Replacement & Services that had a good growth last year, but a slight drop in the quarter. What are your perspectives for the year in terms of storage? The other question is about the financing conditions for the year. Last year, we have the Plano Safra and the PCA that gave a good year to finance storage, and now we are getting to the middle of the year, and we will have another line. Also the alternative lines. We recently heard from Banco do Brasil that they would provide a storage line of BRL 1 billion. What do you think about this? Thank you.
Thank you, Renata, for the question. Of course, it's important to talk about financing. I will start answering you from the last question. Capital goods depend on financing, and this is important. We have some levers and, of course, Plano Safra and PCA is very important for our sector, and we are very optimistic. These are now the month that we will define the PCA values and also for Plano Safra that will be announced during June to start in July 1st. We are very optimistic. We believe that the credit lines will be robust, keeping the incentive for the Brazilian production. In parallel, we are launching our own fund to help the financing. We have a fund and financing mechanisms that are private, complementary, and in the future, who knows, maybe replace the BNDES lines.
I will give the floor to Paulo, who will talk about the fund we are launching in this exhibition in Ribeirão Preto.
Well, good morning, Renata. We strongly worked over the last year with the BTG Pactual bank to develop this new financing format to the client, and we were able to align the exhibition with the launching of this credit line. In summary, it is a market fund that Kepler is a co-trust, and in its design, we try to be the closest as possible to the PCA conditions with a long term, which is a 10-year period, which is more than enough to amortize the investments in storage. In terms of speed and simplification, it follows the same guarantees, specifications. We have the commitment of 30, 40 days to release this financing. And obviously the costs, they are market costs. The PCA line is subsidized by the government to encourage investments.
We have no intention in competing with these rates, but they are compatible with the CDI variation. But I repeat, a line that is very attractive to the rural producer, is agile, and in addition to the quality of the Kepler product, we also have an exclusive financing. And another point, this is a fund that is a replicable model. The first series has a volume allocated, but as we have demand, we can issue new series. The idea is to launch a new series every year and becoming a perennial product to the company. Now, in terms of services and replenish, we had a movement compared to the fourth quarter, close to 90%. But this reduction was due to the seasonality. We have an effect that follows the harvest.
If you see the first same period of 2021, we grew 34%. So nothing wrong, it is seasonality. And also because the producer now are concerned with the harvesting and planting, and they will be back to the plants' maintenance when the harvest is closed in June, July, when they go back strongly to the maintenance side.
Thank you. Very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question is from Werner Roger, Trígono Capital.
Good morning, and congratulations for the results. Two questions. First, concerning the global grain offers, that the company is seeing an additional demand, especially the feed market because of Russia with the grains, right? And the second question, we saw in the Agrishow, congratulations for the company's presence there. It is a solution for the biomethane associated with the straw generation and waste use in the protein sector. Now, this new modality of energy, how is it going to affect the drying sector and also carbon reduction, most of the energy used, this can be an opportunity for Kepler to associate their equipment with this new energy technology. Thank you.
Good morning, Werner. Thank you for the question. Well, let's start with the agribusiness demand for Brazilian grains. We have seen a higher demand. Well, what we see is the strong interest, as Bernardo mentioned. We saw a great interest from the rural producer. If you go to our stand, you see producers assessing and talking. So the Brazilian producer is looking for this opportunity, looking for a greater efficiency of its business and being prepared to meet this demand.
We see this on the side of the producer and in the Trading and Logistics segment, we also see a strong movement along terminals and ports with the important investments and the agri industry, they are getting ready for this demand. We believe this will be a trend in the Brazilian market. We felt this in the last 10 years, and this just reinforces the good Brazilian position. This is good news for us, this demand and food security. Now, going to biomass and energy efficiency, we launched our new dryer, KW MAX. This dryer has a 20% better energy efficiency than the previous ones. This shows the concern of efficiency and cost for the owner of the dryer, and also the environmental concern demanding less energy. Here in Brazil, the dryers use chips and timber. We have our form [inaudible].
We have equipment that use chips to drive the furnace. The chips are almost liquid. It emulates the gas because it burns better, allowing a better regular feed, unlike the firewood. Some alternatives are ad hoc and people look at rice, peel, and in our furnace we are prepared to have different type of use of feed or using other biomass. Answering your question, yes, we are strongly concerned, we are present, and we can meet very well this issue of alternative fuel.
Piero, just adding to the question, specifically about silos. There is a demand in Argentina, Paraguay, here in the South America for grains that affect Kepler Weber. Kepler Weber equipment, we export for those markets who will export more due to the global demand.
Werner, w ith no doubt, export is important for us. It is important. Our natural market is Latin America here, South America, and Argentina is half of Brazil in relation to us. In Argentina, we have the structure conditions and we don't see great investments in Argentina except for some terminals, but not from the rural producer. What is a pity because it would be an exceptional market for us, and we are ready to meet their demands because we are located in Rio Grande do Sul and it's a car distance. We can deliver the product by truck. Another important country is Paraguay. It's an important producer in Latin America. We are also present. We have a good coverage and certainly we will capture good business good deals as we have in Brazil. The two other big countries in our radar is Colombia, an important country that is doing well.
In spite of all concerns with the exchange, Venezuela is returning some investments. Venezuela as a oil supplier due to the present moment, we see some business in Venezuela. We need to be very careful, of course. The other countries, they have very ad hoc needs, not only for traditional grains and other types of grains. We do serve them and we are looking to other markets. We did projects in Africa, Asia as well. Unfortunately, Ukraine was a great importer of our dryers. It is on hold now, but we believe and we hope that we will return to Ukraine. Rice is very important in Asia, and we can also meet their needs.
This is our scenario for foreign market, and the objective is to continue in these markets to balance our portfolio, to have a balance with international markets and Brazilian markets with the concentration in the national producer.
Okay, thank you.
Just remind you to ask a question, please press star one. We will now go to the questions from the internet and the webcast. Well, we have several questions here I will read to you, and we answer in the sequence. Mr. Carlos Herrera from Insider, "How do you see the market for the rest of the year? The strong numbers of the first quarter will be repeated?" Well, we will comment this in the other answers, but there is one part that we can talk now. Can you comment more on the digital part of the company? What percentage of the silos have this technology? Do the margins differ? Well, Piero, would you like to comment on our update journey?
Yes, excellent question, because digital is the great potential we see, not only for growth opportunities, but also to generate more value to the client. I will talk about our current situation. We launched our platform in the Agrishow, and since then, we started this journey to grow the digital platform. We believe that we are building very robust bases and then to leverage this digital platform, all our dryers and silos, they are delivered with this platform and the connection. In Panambi, we created operational center and we track the operation of these equipment, giving support to the client, both in the grain conservation as in the dryer operation. This brought a great value to us. We have Executive Director, Diego, to help us to advance in this area. We are creating body and advancing.
The focus at this first moment is our territory, the grain conservation, and the operation and maintenance of our equipment. Then when we are strong on this, we can go to other territories, other services with digital connections. But we see an opportunity, a very big opportunity to generate value within our grains and equipment. Now, Bernardo, looking to the commercial area, the client, how do you see this? I think it is nice to have your point of view on what this digital journey will bring to our clients.
Well, digital is at the top of all industries. It is not different in our segment. With this Kepler journey of having a solid base, I would like to tell you that we will accelerate the digital in the existing plants to expand our presence in this segment. But I see two interesting things in IoT, which is digital for us.
The first is to help the client, the producer, or the industry, to better management the storage unit. We mentioned the reduction in energy expenses, so how this technology can be more efficiency than the manual operator. This is one point. The second point in relation to digital for Kepler is to be closer to provide services and replenishment. Just like your car, you have the lights of a brake, oil on the dashboard of your car, so you have the attention of the owner for maintenance, and we will do this. Maybe in the short term, we will present a screen when we track all the silos in Brazil, 17,000 units, and track them and to see the need of maintenance to provide the service. I think this is a very cool journey. It is not digital for the sake of digital, but digital leveraging the existing business.
Yes. Now, we have a question from Murilo Marchioni from AZ Quest. He asked us about the portfolio we covered already. But the second part, he asks, what is the result of the R&S results and if you have any intentions of opening more DCs?
R&S, replacement or refurbishing and services, is very important for us. We are strong in this. The market is good. We want to do this in the second semester because of the harvest. R&S has two strategic aspects. First is the proximity with the client. Logistics in Brazil is difficult. If you are in Sinop or Sorriso, you need a port. It takes two , three days to get there. So we now can do this service in a matter of hours. So proximity is a strategic point. The second strategic point, we announced two new DCs, but we will advance this as the premium.
Since we have a DC close to his or her property, the Kepler's product values more. This is a differentiation. This proximity represents the valuation in the purchase of a new unit. The farmer in Pará chooses the truck according to the dealer that is closer to him, and that is what we want to Kepler. And how the digital will accelerate and evolve with this R&S support, reposition, replacement, and services. Again, I am enthusiastic with this R&S strategy. We will continue to expand. Yes, we announced the two and possibly two more this year.
Now another question from Fabiano from Nord Research. I think this is for you, Piero. In spite of the high prices of the commodities, we saw a scale in prices. Have you observed any impact in the acquisition of Kepler's product?
Good question, Fabiano. This is a question in everybody's mind. We have some questions, but this issue is becoming clear. We are not seeing any reduction in the intention of a product's acquisition. We have a robust support portfolio. We see the interest from the producers above last year. The three exhibitions that I participated directly, but we had others, and we had a very good dynamics. We see no intentions of reducing it. We believe that the rural producer is looking more in the long term, and we mentioned that this structure issue, the demand for food from worldwide is important, is when we will reach the 500,000 tons in Brazil. Specifically concerning prices, commodities, and fertilizers. Fertilizers, they have their impact, of course, and commodities also had an increase. But what we see is the producer profitability this year is very good.
If you get the last 10 or three years that were excellent, and this year is among the three best years of the last 10 years. So these are the three best years in the last 10 years. So it is not a point that the producer will look to the future having many questions. No. This is just a temporary transition. In a moment, this issue of energy and fertilizers will be normalized, and we do not see great impact on demand.
Thank you, Piero. Fabiano asks another question, and he says, "What about the costs? Can you give more details? How was this work to control costs? What is the perspective for the next quarters, specifically about the steel price?"
Fabiano, we said already that we are a capital goods industry. We produce equipment. We are an industry in essence, and the industry must have this concept of efficiency, scale, production, very advanced to be able to get all opportunities. The company, since 2015, invested in the lean manufacturing. As Piero mentioned, in the last three years, in this strong moment of the agribusiness, it was right now that the company tested this lean concept because when everything is calm, you don't see the benefits, but when you have a high demand from the market, you see this production efficiency coming from lean manufacturing. The company who can go to our plants can see how this methodology works, and this enable us to deliver a great number of equipments within the lean manufacturing. This justifies the part of the costs.
The second part, if there is any room to increase prices. Sorry, the steel price that you were asking. Well, Piero mentioned we had a request for increasing the pricing 20%, and we are putting this in our price list, but we don't have any visibility of new price increase. The indicator we look is the parity of steel import, and it's indicating that it should not have any increase. We had a request because of the current conditions of the war in Ukraine that allowed for this increase. But due to this parity, we don't see any need. But the market is volatile, and we are living a very volatile moment. But this is not the base scenario we work with.
Okay. Just one second for the next question. Now, changing gears, Mr. John, congratulations for the results. Do you see any problem of advance referring to the fiscal year of 2022?
We are a company that we work in the concept of free cash. We generate results. We are obliged to have a reserve and any addition, we have a forecast for CapEx and debt amortization. This flow can be designated to the new payments of dividends. We just paid in April BRL 75 million, more than BRL 2 per share within our cash allowed. We are in a very positive moment in the company. If we have conditions, the company can make a new dividends proposal in the second semester. But we have to follow to track what we have to announce right now was this payment of almost BRL 76 million in April.
One more question about the fund.
To Murilo, this fund, we participate. We have a small participation, so the credit risk is up to 20%. So it's a structure. It's a risk that we are familiar with, and it's a very low default in our sector, historically, less than 0.5% or even half of it. For series, yes, Kepler participates. We understand that as the fund is being replicated in the future series, maybe we won't have any need for the participation of the company because the product can be independently operated.
One more question from Iman. In the last call, you mentioned the studies for a new business, B2C silos for location, for rental.
Well, good question. Paulo mentioned our funding fund that is open. We believe in the existence of silos to rental, but it's not a purely financial business. We need to know the business, the knowledge of the location, where is the demand, the liquidity, because it's not a commodity like an industrial warehouse. It must be adequately to liquidity maintenance. If this plant belongs to a third party, if you do not have the good maintenance to keep the asset. Kepler is an important part to give life to this model. We believe in this because this facilitates the entry investments of the rural producer.
You can say, "Oh, you can enter here, pay BRL 800 per year and earn BRL 1 million." This decision is easier, but it has its complexity. To put it in a robust way, we are working on a pilot and then we can advance in larger scale. This is a subject that is advancing, and we will properly deal with that to have this alternative.
Thank you, Piero. We have more than 1 hour of call, so this is the last question now, okay? And Piero will give his last comments. The question. "I am William Gomes, analyst of TC Matrix. Congratulations for the results. What is the expectations of dividends distribution for 2022?"
I mentioned already, we have this free cash flow. We can distribute more over the year, but we have no values foreseen in addition to what we had already.
Now, the second part: "Do you see an expansion of the PCA program due to the lack of grains and the threat of food unsafety?"
PCA is an important lever of our segment. We will have a good Plano Safra and PCA program for our segment. Concerning grains imports and food safety, I will ask Bernardo.
Thank you, William, for the question. When we have a very specific situation as we have in Ukraine, you see two things: volatility and change in the logistical routes of commodities. Many commodities are used as animal feed. These are two things that unfortunately, due to the Ukraine situation, we have this volatility affecting those who process the grains. This person needs storage to avoid volatility. So a positive impact. And the second point is the change in the logistical route. If Ukraine provided 20% or 30% of the world grains of wheat, we do not have any wheat seeds available in the world. We will have this abrupt logistic change, and now this will demand wheat storage.
With this, we close the Q&A session. Piero, please, now your final comments.
Thank you, Paulo. I think we covered the major points of this quarter. Maybe what I would like to highlight is that we have an exceptional quarter. A great growth above BRL 400 million of revenue. The challenges were important, but the team is prepared to capture the opportunities, but also to face these challenges.
Omicron in January and February put some pressure. We have almost 150 people away. They were not infected, but we decided to test and to give license to our collaborators. This, of course, placed a challenge. And also the supply chain we have, and we continue to have some points in supply, especially from China that is not normalized with these several ports as Shanghai. They are very slow in the ship movement. So we are looking very carefully to this to ensure the continuity of our operation. We are overcoming this, and we are ready for any situation. Profitability was also exceptional, close to BRL 150 million of EBITDA in the quarter. It accounts for 60% of the EBITDA of last year. We discussed this during the call. It is an important sign. And we also mentioned during the call the perspectives for the year being optimistic.
The agribusiness will continue to be strong. The next harvest will be very strong. The investor motivation is also strong, so it is a positive scenario, Paulo. The company is working on costs, lean manufacturing, margin prices, and capturing the opportunities we have in the different sectors to create client satisfaction and profitability to the shareholders. The company is prepared. The challenge as well, I believe that we are able to overcome any challenges. So that is it. We are closing our conference. I thank you for your attention, your presence here with us, and I wish you a nice day. Until the next call within three months. So with this, we conclude the Kepler Weber conference call. We thank you all for your participation, and have a nice day.