Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the Kepler Weber conference call to discuss the results for the fourth quarter of 2020. We have here Mr. Piero Abbondi, CEO and President, and Paulo Polezi, CFO, IR, and investor relations. This event is being recorded. Participants will only hear the company's presentation, after which this session will be open for Q&A sessions. If you need any assistance during the conference, please ask for help of an operator by pressing star one . This event is also being broadcast simultaneously via webcast at www.kepler.com.br/ri and the slides are available for download. The transition will be controlled by you. The replay of this event will be available on the company's website shortly after the ending of this conference call.
Before proceeding, the statements made during this conference call that refer to the business prospects of Kepler Weber operation and financial projections and targets are based exclusively on the expectations of the company regarding the future of its business. Forward-looking statements should not be taken as guarantee of performance. These considerations involve market conditions, the performance of the Brazilian economy, and the international market. Therefore, are subject to change because they relate to future events that depend on circumstances and may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, the industry, and other operating factors could also affect the future of Kepler Weber and may cause results that differ materially from those expressed. I now would like to pass the floor to Mr. Piero Abbondi, president, who will conduct the first part of the presentation.
Good morning, everybody. It's a great pleasure to be with you here today to show the results for the fourth quarter. In slide 3, I present the highlights of the quarter. The net revenues increased 38% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, and with the accumulated revenues increased to 15%, very consistent with this pandemic scenario. This performance is a result of several factors, among them the solid and healthy attitudes we had in 2020 due to the development of the agribusiness and the plan for PCA for harvest in 2021, the exports and international prices of the commodities, agri commodities that reacted very well. This improvement was uniform in all segments. I will detail for the one each of them. In terms of profitability, the EBITDA of the fourth quarter reached a margin of 12.3%, a very good margin according to the contingencies we had.
In the year accumulation, we had 1.9 percentage point increase, reaching 16.2%, one of the best in the last years. Paulo Polezi, our new financial director and with IR, will provide you more details on this variation. I'd like also to highlight that we had a very positive cash generation. We had BRL 100 million cash, the result of the increase in the demand. On slide 4, we present the evolution of the net revenue of our business area. Starting with the Storage segment, we see a 39% increase and in the accumulating of 2020. This movement can be associated to the global demand for agri commodities, the excellent performance of the agribusiness, the devaluation of the currency real, and the expansion of credit lines for the agribusiness. In Exports, we had a modest increase of 3%. However, they increased 30% in the annual outlook.
The agribusiness was important to this growth. Even with the exchange rate, we have a 30% increase, which is satisfactory. This was the result of orders from Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, and Uruguay. In bulk, our business for the ports and terminals, we have an increase of 59% in this quarter, resulting for the deliveries of the road rail terminal for Rio Verde in the state of Goiás. The year accumulation is of 16%. This is due to the revenue volatility, because we have periods of concentration in our billings. Ports and Services segment had a consistent growth in the last quarters and years. Specifically, the five DCs strategically distributed in Brazil, where the fifth in Cuiabá was opened in 2020. In this segment, we had an increase of 58% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, and the revenue accumulation was 39% higher.
Slide 5 shows some highlights of the projects delivered in the fourth quarter of 2020 in the Storage segment. On the left, the project Pires do Rio in Goiás. It's of a large client, and Kepler expanded their unity, allowing a better grain flow and the expansion of their shipping process. In the Santa Duva project, the client improved its efficiency and storage. It's a strategic unit for the client in the north region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, improving its static capacity. Last, the project Santa Izabel do Oeste in the state of Paraná, delivered in 2020. It was one of the first Industry 4.0 works of Kepler, a landmark in industrial works. It is 100% automated with our Sync platform.
Slide 6 shows the works in Peru, Salaverry, relevant in the external market because its support works, which is a benchmark in the north of Peru. It was done with 100% of Kepler equipment and the Sync platform. It will be a benchmark for further projects in Latin America. Finally, the project of General Delgado in Paraguay, a presence of clients that are opinion makers. Now, I give the floor to the director, Paulo Polezi, to talk about the results of the fourth quarter of 2020.
Thank you, Piero. First, I'd like to wish you a nice day and how proud I am to be in this first presentation as the director of such an important company. The EBITDA in the fourth Q, the company generated BRL 35.5 million as compared to the BRL 30.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. The quarter was closed in 12.3% lower than the previous quarter. This was due to extemporaneous, the legal contingency in previous years. The accumulate of 2020 EBITDA was BRL 108.7 million, an increase margin of 16.2%. The positive performance reflects the improvement in the activity, reduction of costs, and recognition of tax credited, non-recurrent tax credited.
In slide 8, we see the CapEx investments reached BRL 5 million, 74% for the increase of our manufacturing capacity, 40% for new products, and for 80% for legislation compliancy, and 11% for IT projects. The year accumulation investments reached BRL 11.9 million, 10 percentage points less than 2019. This fall was due to the partial stop of some projects because of the COVID pandemic, but all the projects have been resumed and will be concluded in 2021. In slide 9, we see the cash generation that had a positive impact in 2020. December closed with a gross balance of BRL 281.5 million, and the net cash BRL 270.5 million, contributing to the financial robustness. We have also the highest level of client satisfaction, which is a reflection of the quality of our portfolio.
Slide 10 shows the improvement and the liquidity of our shares, KEPL3, with increase of 5.9%, BRL 1 million trading per day. In slide 11, I highlight at the left the shareholder in December 2020, and on the right, in February 2021, when we have the action of the shareholding. After this, our free float went from 29%- 44%. With this, I close my presentation. I give the floor back to Piero.
Thank you, Paulo. Before going to the Q&A session, I would like to stress some recent updates and our outlook for 2021. Concerning recent updates is the acquisition of the Seletron brand. This will leverage the presence of Kepler in the post-harvest market through a technology that is in strong synergy with the current portfolio of the company. It is also important to highlight our effective manage to minimize the increase in inputs, especially steel, which is our major raw material. In the same line, we had an effective manage to keep the stability of the supplier chain, what allowed us to benefit from the good demand moment and guaranteeing, ensuring on-time delivery.
I would also like to highlight the SESI certification as a safe company in the unit of Campo Grande. It is a reflection of our care to our collaborators facing the COVID. 2020 was complex and challenging. The entire Kepler team managed it very well, delivering excellent results. So congratulations to all. As our outlook for 2021, we will continue to work hard to keep the stability of the supply chain, that despite the difficulties and uncertainties imposed by the pandemic, we expect 2021 to be a positive year to Kepler. The portfolio of orders developed in the second half of 2020 continues to provide the stability to our operations.
Finally, I would like to highlight our perspective of having healthy margins in 2021. We know that we may face volatility due to the pressure on the supply chain because of the price in inputs, especially steel. So a rigorous management is very important to face this challenge. I close this presentation for the fourth quarter of 2020. So please, operator, we can continue with the Q&A session. Thank you.
Good morning. We now will start the Q&A session. If you have any question, please press star one. If your question has been already answered, you can leave the Q&A session pressing star two. Katherine Kelemana from Banco do Brasil asks the first question.
Good morning, everybody. I would like to thank for this opportunity. I would like to ask two questions. We see higher costs because of the raw material. So can you comment the dynamics, especially in the fourth quarter, and what can we expect for 2021, and what Kepler is doing in practice to face this challenge? Then I will ask my second question. Thank you.
Katherine, good morning. This is Paulo Polezi. Thank you for your question. It is quite proper. To answer, I will start explaining that in general, material inputs accounts for 61% of our CPV. Steel, which is the major raw material, 50%. Steel had successive increases over 2020. It really puts a pressure in the cost of raw material, and we will be seeing this as of the second half of last year. Kepler works with productive process for regulatory inventory. We have also a contract mechanism for long-term partnerships with the major steel providers or suppliers. When you put the two things together, the average stock and what gives us some time to react, we can understand what is happening to the market and to get prepared for prices. The price increases over the third and fourth quarter, they will start to have an impact in the first quarter of 2021.
However, the company has this delay, and we have been increasing our prices for new contracts, trying to have a financial balance. When the moment comes, we will have the pricing of new products updated. It is a very difficult process because the price increases were really hard. On the other hand, we have a good demand. It is a favorable demand. The environment is favor, which gives us a more natural situation to repass the prices. To close this answer, even with this pressure, the company has been successful in managing the orders portfolio and minimizing the effects of this volatility in the costs. We believe this will remain for some period and will be much more successful.
Thank you for your answer. My second question is about the Seletron. This increased the focus on the digital in the post-harvest process. How much have you included in the portfolio of the company, and what can we expect, not only from this digital move?
Thank you for this interesting question about Seletron. Seletron, for those who are in this call to understand, we acquired the brand and the technology. These are equipment that selected the grains through optical selection, a very advanced technology and digital technology, so it is an equipment with a higher added value. This makes sense for us because we are in the post-harvest sector, and these machines and equipment follow this chain. We have technology for market, the clients, equipment, and production. When we closed the deal last October, as of November, we have been working first to structure the entire sales team to offer this equipment. We are starting the production process for this equipment to keep the synergies. The production technology of this equipment is very comparable with our machine for pre-cleaning. We have the synergy between production and engineering.
Up to now, we are preparing our base, and we believe that this new path will be very important, this path of value-added equipment. We will keep you updated in this evolution. It is not yet significant. We are still incorporate this to our revenue, but it is not only the value issue, but the issue of opening a new avenue to Kepler in market segments with higher added value. It allows the connection of digitalization and to integrate with our Sync platform. We have all this integration that we can, in the future, provide services or offer services for managed services.
Perfect. I think that is it. Thank you. Thank you, Piero. Thank you for the answers. If you allow me one more question. What about the return to the investments that were delayed during the pandemic? What can we expect now?
Well, with no doubt, if you look at the results over the last years, we have a very modest CapEx in the previous years because of the market difficulty. Last year, we were very conservative, especially because of the pandemic, especially in the second quarter, because we had many uncertainties about the market behavior. Today is clear. Last year's harvest was very good. Agribusiness was very positive, and with this, our results were very good. We envision for the new harvest at 2021, 2022, a very good harvest with good structure for the agribusiness. We are expecting a more robust CapEx. First, we want to finalize what we started last year, routine CapEx, maintenance, capacity, and improvement. This year, to return to the issues of capacity. The plant has a very good capacity. It requires some marginal investments in some points, especially where we have bottlenecks.
We will return to resume these investments very carefully, of course, measuring capacity and market, and also routine investments to improve productivity and investments to improve our process and make them more environmental friendly. We have several fronts in our investments for 2021.
Excellent. Thank you for answering my questions. Have a nice day.
Just remind you, to ask questions, please press star one. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now check the questions through the internet.
Well, folks, we have some questions coming through the internet. I will read some questions and try to address them the best way possible. The first question from Mr. Guilherme Fonseca, and he says, "Good morning. Congratulations for the results. The level of clients that are in the higher levels in history, how can we draw a parallel for 2021?"
Guilherme, thank you for your question. It's important to explain that Kepler traditionally works with a positive cash flow in its orders, which allow us a very comfortable cash position. This is the first point to understand. In 2020, as we presented, we had net cash of BRL 270 million, and we started last year with BRL 44 million. We have expressive growth increase in this year. What made it possible? First, the operational management of the company. You find this detail in the financial statements. In this operational management, BRL 160 million came from positive variation of the working capital, and the clients part was even higher of BRL 185 million. So clients kind of funding the company's operation. We have some amortizations only in the order of BRL 44 million, and the net results deduced from CapEx more than BRL 17 million.
In general, the operational generation allowed for this increase in cash. Now, with the advancements, the answer is over the second semester, the company expanded its sales, and more than that, acquired or was able to get a very healthy portfolio for 2021. This increased the level of the clients' order. They extended BRL 200 million versus BRL 150 million in last year. But again, it has a proportion, it has a directed link with the portfolio. I think I have answered your question. Piero, if you want to complement.
I'd like to add that it's important in our company that these advancements allows us, without a significant increase in the working capital. We can follow the market through this advance payment by the clients.
Thank you, Piero. Very important comment. The next question, [Igor Pavan]. What are your plans to use this cash? Will it be for new products, new projects, investments, or acquisitions? Well, Piero, please.
Well, first, it is important to have this cash to support the investment plans. We just mentioned the CapEx. We have many things to do, and the support to the working capital for possible ups and downs in the market. The management is constantly evaluating any possibilities that can add value to our portfolio, as it was for Seletron. It was important, this acquisition, to grow in this segment. We are advancing with them, and we have other internal investments. The digital platform is one of them. We have our digital platform well-positioned, and now we want to increase the services offered through this platform to our clients.
Also the dividends issue, which is an important point. Last year, we approved the 25% that is compulsory and more 25%, but due to the pandemic, we decided to be more conservative and we distributed only 25%, which is compulsory. This year, our proposal is to distribute 50%. It is in our management proposal that should be approved in our assembly in one month from now. These are the major uses of our capital. It is nice to have this position. It is good for the company. But we are carefully looking the best destination for these resources.
We have another question from Igor Pavan. Thank you, Igor, for your question. Is there a correlation in the storage deficit in Brazil with the PCA credit line? What are the possible ways of reducing this deficit without depending on the government?
Well, it is a nice question. The point here in Brazil is that we have a huge potential market. We have a 107 million grains production, and the storage capacity, we have a potential market of 90 million. So the question every day is how to make this market grow, how to bring these 90 million to be sales in the segment and Kepler. No doubt, the financing is an important point. Credit is important. Brazil suffered, and it still suffers from a chronic deficit of longer-term financing for capital goods. BNDES is always playing through different lines. Our is PCA. It is important to have it. This year were BRL 2.2 million for the harvest year 2021.
In December, these resources, and it is a good leverage, but what we see that with lower interest rates, we see the interest of the private sector to provide this credit, this financing. So we have some lines offered by different banks with terms of seven, eight years with interest rates of about 8%. If you compare with SELIC, it is high, but if you compare to longer term and the possibility of a return of investment that is six years, it is very feasible. We are seeing a more proper risk evaluation. We have the possibility of decreasing these interest rates closer to SELIC, and this will attract more resources to finance these needs. We have other tools like real estate funds directed to this segment that can also help us. We are working with these funds to make it feasible.
Lastly, storage is not only a question of financing. It is also our effort to take these benefits and explain and educate the rural producer about the benefits and improve in the efficiency he will have when we have a processing plant and a storage plant close to his farm or in his farm. We are working to convince this potential market and turn this into sales for our company.
One more question from Tathiana [inaudible]. She asks, "The sales increase in 2020 versus 2019 was more organic, or did it have the impact of inflation and prices?"
Tathiana, 2020, this simplifies all the quarters. In terms of net revenue, the company had BRL 671 million, BRL 88 million increase in net revenue. If we divide this in volume and price, we have approximately BRL 110 million in volume growth. What made the increase in revenue was volume, and this volume you can find on slide number 4 of our presentation. You can see what were the areas that have the highest growth. First, in Imports, 70% of growth, then Ports and Services, increase in revenue, but also volume. Ports and Services accounts for our presence. It is a great differential. Bulk was 16% because of important projects. Storage had a slight increase, but due to the pandemic. In summary, the major reason for this growth was volume, and then the mix effect and an effect of inflation and price. I hope I have answered your question.
We have another question from [Enzo Braga]. I am sorry if I did not pronounce correctly. The question is, what about the capacity of the plants? Can you deliver faster because of these bottlenecks you mentioned?
Kepler has two excellent plants, one in Panambi and other in Campo Grande. The installed capacity is very good, and we can meet the demand for the next years. When I talk about bottlenecks, it is too ad hoc. But with these investments, we will be in a level to meet the demand in the next two, three years. We have an industrial master plan for the plant, and we plan the investments for the next five years, always looking two variables: market and capacity. When we say that we expect an increase in capacity, it is because we are expecting an increase in the market. We try always to be one step ahead. It does not mean that investment will allow acceleration.
We did not sell because we did not have capacity. No, no. We are just expecting more sales. Good management also say that we do not want to have super investments leaving CapEx idle. It is a balance that we need to discuss in terms of CapEx and sometimes outsourcing. Basically, this is our point. Ad hoc investments that will make available the improvement in the process to meet the demand for the next years. We are always analyzing the market not to be caught, but we have a very good capacity in our plant, and the infrastructure of the company is very good. I do not see any problems in Kepler not being able to meet the demand we expect for the three, four years. But we are always one step ahead to react promptly in case of any increase in demand.
We answered all the questions. There were some questions similar that we did not answer because were answered. If you do not have any other questions, we are here just waiting for you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to ask a question, please press star one. We are now closing the Q&A session. We give the floor back to Mr. Piero Abbondi for his final considerations.
I'd like to thank you all for your interest in the company to understand it better. We are very proud to talk about Kepler. As final considerations, I'd like to stress again that last year was challenging and Kepler delivered excellent results. This year is still complex and challenging because of the pandemic. We see the worsening of the situation in several states. My message is that Kepler has had excellent management over this period. We have the tools to properly answer any needs of our clients. We are prepared. We don't see any big issue. We are well-prepared, and we will continue to use all the health protocols and keep our collaborators safe and motivated to meet all these demands that we have over the next month. We are quite optimistic with this year, and we believe that we will do a good job.
Concerning the results, I think we covered all the points. We say goodbye, keep safe, and I hope to see you again for the first quarter of 2021 in April. Thank you very much, and have a nice day.
The Kepler Weber conference call is now closed. Thank you for your participation, and have a nice day.