Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Light's fourth quarter of 2025 earnings call. Today's event will be held in Portuguese and will be simultaneously translated into English. If you'd like to change the language you're hearing, you can click on the interpretation button on the lower bar. We'd like to inform you that this event is being recorded, and a recording will be available on the company's investor relations website, along with the materials used on this presentation, which are already available there. All participants are now connected in listen-only mode, and after the company's presentation, we will begin the questions and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please send us the question by clicking on the Q&A button on the lower part of the screen.
Before we continue, I'd like to underscore that any statements made during the company's call about the company's future business perspectives, projections, and operational and financial goals are simply the directors' beliefs and assumptions, and this is based on the information that is currently available for the company. Remarks about the future are not a guarantee of performance as they involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions which refer to future events that therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that the general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operational factors may affect the company's future results and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. We will now begin the company's presentation with Mr. Alexandre Nogueira, CEO, who will give his opening remarks and talk about the company's results. We will hand it over to him.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our earnings call. Light ended 2025 with consistently stronger operational fundamentals compared to recent years, with a debt structure appropriate for the electricity sector's business model and the highest quality of services in our recent history. These results stem from an action plan structured three years ago that accelerated throughout 2025 and from an organization that has internalized operational excellence as a non-negotiable condition for its operations. At the distribution company, this year was marked by improvements in the fundamentals that matter the most for business sustainability, customer service, and service quality. Even in the face of difficulties, we exceeded our targets with improvements in the indicators that most impact supply. In generation and wholesale, 2025 was marked by hydrological asymmetry between its two halves.
We ended December 2025 with a solid contractual position for 2026, but it will still give us the flexibility to capture short-term price upsides throughout the current year. On the financial front, 2025 was the year in which Light's new capital structure began to take effect. Debt ended the fiscal year with a predominantly long-term profile and average cost consistent with the regulated nature of the distributor's revenues. I will now detail the year's results, and at the end, I will be available for a Q&A session. Moving on to slide 4. Here, I will discuss the highlights of the period. On a consolidated basis, adjusted EBITDA totaled BRL 418 million in the fourth quarter, 7.2% higher year-over-year.
On the distribution side, investments reached BRL 489 million in the quarter, a 38% year-over-year increase, reflecting the acceleration of the investment plan focused on higher service quality and reliability. Of particular note are legal contingencies, which in 2025 reached the lowest level of backlog in the last 7 years, and the lowest volume of new cases in the last 9 years. This is the result of improved operations and a strategy to mitigate litigation. In quality, we recorded the best average emergency response time in the last 10 years, an indicator that shows we're on the right track. For DEC and FEC, we remain within regulatory limits and show improvement year-over-year. Finally, the net debt to EBITDA ratio ended the year at 3.13 times.
As provided for in our judicial reorganization plan, as soon as the new concession contract is signed, Light will carry out a private capital increase and the mandatory conversion of convertible debt. These upcoming and imminent steps will allow the company to begin the new concession cycle with an even healthier capital structure, ready to face the challenges ahead. On slide 5, we present the evolution of the company's cash position. On a consolidated basis, the company ended 2025 with liquidity of BRL 1.7 billion. This decrease compared to previous periods mainly reflects the operating profile of the distributor, whose cash position was impacted by the higher volume of investments required for the concession and by the cash mismatch related to the establishment of the CVA, primarily in the third and fourth quarters.
Regarding the application of our cash, we remain steadfast in our allocation policy, concentrating the majority of cash in instruments with higher liquidity and lower risk, in this case, higher ratings. Moving on to slide 6, I will now discuss the operational highlights of the distribution business. As we have emphasized in recent quarters, operations are one of the pillars of the transformation process, and the 2025 results prove that we're on the right track. DEC and FEC ended the year within regulatory limits and showed year-over-year improvement. This quarter, we achieved the best result in the company's history for average emergency response time, with a 60% reduction compared to 2022, where we started the transformation plan, and a 42% reduction compared to the previous year. Incidents lasting over 24 hours also declined significantly, reaching 4.2%.
A better result that shows we are improving supply to our consumers. These figures are the result of a consistent action plan and an operations team that has been doing an exceptional job and deserves to be recognized. In addition to the strategy, we prioritize discipline and implementation, which shows that the plan outlined three years ago is also delivering consistent improvements. Moving on to slide 7, I'll discuss the dynamics of the distribution market. Both for the quarter and the year, the energy market showed a year-over-year decline, primarily driven by the lowest average temperatures in the last 20 years. This is the main factor behind the market's contraction. Despite this, the commercial segment showed greater resilience, supported by Rio de Janeiro's services and tourism sectors during the end of the year.
Finally, as we have noted in previous years, distributed generation continues to be a key factor contributing to the market's stagnation. Continuing with slide 8, I will discuss the evolution of losses in our concession area. The volume of non-technical losses remained virtually stable year-over-year, even with a broader market decline. As is customary, the highest incidence of non-technical losses occurs in areas of severe operational restriction, where Light faces challenges in combating them and where the new contract already provides for a differentiated treatment. Regarding our strategy to combat losses, we continue to move toward effective and sustainable action with increased network metering, as well as greater assertiveness in inspections and the regularization of fraudulent customers. Moving on to slide 9, we present the progress in the distribution division's investments.
Both in the quarter and for the year 2025, we are reporting higher investments than in previous years. I would highlight that most of the investments were in network renewal and modernization aimed at improving energy supply. As mentioned, Light will focus on modernizing and renewing its network in the coming years. In the loss prevention plan, we carried out approximately 150,000 meter replacements and outsourced meter readings, focusing primarily on areas where the company has guaranteed operational management conditions. Moving on to slide 10, we will discuss the distributor's EBITDA. The distributor's adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 323 million in the quarter and BRL 1.4 billion for the year. I would like to highlight two key drivers for this, improvements in delinquency rates and contingencies, which, as mentioned before, are the result of an operational improvement strategy.
During the period, PECLD grew due to the insourcing and restructuring of our team, particularly through the expansion of our field teams, a trend that is directly reflected in quality and service indicators we've just presented. Starting in 2026, with the insourcing of teams and improved productivity, we expect to have the structure in place for better management and stability of operating expenses. Moving on to generation and sales. It's worth noting that the decline in EBITDA was due to adverse hydrological conditions that intensified in the second half of the year. To give you some context, throughout the fourth quarter of 2025, our GSF operated approximately 13 percentage points below the previous year. Another important factor in the margin decline was the expiration in 2024 of older contracts, which had very significant margins.
In 2026, we started the year well-positioned with a solid contract base and flexibility to take advantage of the higher price environment of the short term. With that, I conclude my presentation on this quarter. Before we move on to the Q&A, I'd like to make a few brief remarks about our next steps. The results we presented today reflect a company that is delivering on its commitments. Each quarter, we make progress in the operational recovery of the distribution company, in cost discipline, in improving quality indicators, and these advances are no coincidence. They are the result of choices and a strategy that we remain confident in executing. This confidence is grounded in a concrete milestone, the upcoming renewal of the distribution company's concession contract.
Upon signing this new contract, we will be in a position to launch the capital increase and debt conversion processes as provided for in the judicial reorganization plan. At the end of the process, Light will emerge with a profoundly transformed capital structure, reduced leverage, an expanded shareholder base, and restored investment capacity. We are entering the final stretch of a cycle that has demanded a great deal from the company, our employees, and our investors. We have reached this point with the conviction that the foundations have been laid for a new cycle, one that is more solid, more competitive, and better equipped to deliver value. We reaffirm our commitment to modernizing the power grid and continuously improving service quality for approximately 12 million people in 31 municipalities across the state of Rio de Janeiro. Thank you very much.
With that, I conclude my remarks and turn the floor over to the moderator so we can begin the Q&A session. Go ahead, moderator.
Thank you. We will now begin the questions and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please click on the Q&A button on the lower part of the screen. Please hold while we take questions. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please click on the Q&A button. It's located at the lower part of the screen, and you will be able to send your questions there. Please hold. Once again, if you'd like to ask questions, click on the Q&A button at the lower part of the screen. Once again, if you'd like to ask a question, please click on the Q&A button at the lower part of the screen.
Please hold while we take questions. This concludes the questions and answers session. On behalf of Light, we would like to thank you for participating and underscoring that the investor relations team is always available to answer your questions. Thank you, and have a good day.