Financial planning and IR management. With me today are Peter Furukawa, the CEO, and Jean Pablo De Mello, the CFO and IRO. We're going to begin with a presentation on slide number three. As part of today, first of all, we're going to speak about our pillars, followed by the topics of expansion and, projects. In doing this, we will present the quarter results and then go on to the Q&A session. For the Q&A session, you can use the Q&A icon at the bottom of the screen. We will now go on to slide number four, and I'll give the floor to Peter.
Bom dia a todos.
Good morning everybody. It is a pleasure to be with you today and share the results of the the Q-3 2025 in a business environment that unfortunately continues to be challenging, but we continue to act with discipline and our model. First, we'll speak about our pillars. First, market gains. We had a difficult semester with very high interest rates compressing revenues and restrictions in credit. We had a drop of 2% in same-store sales with an 11.6% decrease in the nine months of the year. We had a growth in the Q-3 of 10%. We opened five new stores in the quarter, and this reinforces the confidence in the regions where we have been confident in our business for the long term. Secondly, we have credit and collection excellence. We're working with controlled delinquency ending with 11.7% in our overdue credit card portfolio.
These are sold particularly in the south of Brazil. Now, the high interest rate and the macroeconomic scenario have impacted this category. The percentage of the income of the consumer is now taken out by the cost of interest rates vis-à-vis the past. Our credit portfolio grew by 14%, but we continue with a default under control of 11.7% for the period. Our profit totaled 226 million BRL, reflecting a drop in sales, and because of the increase in funding costs, we were able to control selling expenses, which increased by 5%, and administrative expenses increased by 4% below inflation in the Q-3 . We're still working with operational adjustments to align our costs to the new market reality. Now, regarding the pillar of digital retail and innovations, this represented 25% of our sales in line with the plan.
We concluded the creation of the new stores with a new environment. Now, this is a commitment that we have of offering a new experience in our digital store. If you visit our site, you will be able to see the changes and how interesting it is in high performance. We trained 16 store managers. 23 store managers are undergoing training, and we have 339 employees that are part of our manager development program. We always believe in hiring good people and training them so that they can grow in our company. This shows our continuous commitment and the meritocracy that we prize in the company. In the next graph, you can see the evolution of the number of stores. We are at 584. We had 19 new stores opened. The new stores were in Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná, and mainly in the smaller cities.
We also refurbished 22 stores, six in the last quarter. We continue to focus on the expansion of smaller stores and municipalities with 100,000 inhabitants or in 56% in cities with lesser inhabitants. I will now give the floor to Jean Pablo De Mello, who will speak about our financial results. Jean,
Thank you, Peter. Good morning, everybody. I'm going to go into detail on the results of the Q-3 and go on to the next slide to speak about revenues. As was mentioned, it's important to keep in mind our background. Last year, we had a sales growth after two very difficult years, 2022, 2023. In the second and third quarters last year, we had steep growth because of additional demand that arose from the flooding in Rio Grande do Sul, especially in electronics and furniture. We began the year with two-digit same-store sales growth.
In the second semester, we have a high base of comparison. We had a drop in same-store sales, and now in the third quarter, we see two factors that have impacted this drop in sales. First of all, as mentioned by Peter, the high base of growth, 11.6% growth last year, and a highly challenging macroeconomic environment. In this third quarter, we begin to see the impact of the increase in interest rates, and as our products have a higher average ticket and depend on credit and depend on the macro situation. We observe these two impacts leading to a negative same-store sales, so we had a drop in sales, but revenues from financial services and credit cards continued to grow in levels similar to previous quarters. I will speak about the default level subsequently, but we have had growth in these two business activities.
We have a drop of revenue of 4% in the retail in the first half, but accrued up to present, we have grown 4%. In the next slide, we will see an effect that was already taking place in previous quarters, a compression of our margins because of the situation for two reasons. In the retail environment, the drop in income leading our margin to 22.2%. We had a 22.5% margin over net revenues. Of course, this is below previous periods once again because of the highly competitive macro scenario. In financial services, we have an increase in the cost of capital exerting pressure in financial services. We also see that the margin has become stabilized, seems to be recovering, and going forward when we have a drop in interest rates and the cost of capital. Here we have 28.6% of gross margin over revenues.
With a stable situation vis-à-vis the previous year. In the following slide, it's important to highlight the work that has been carried out in the last few years, a work focused on pillars to maintain our expenses under control. Here you see the total growth of expenses was up 2% for the quarter. We have expenses with sales growing 4.6%. Now, despite the expansion with the 19 stores we have inaugurated, expenses with sales have grown 4.6% in this quarter, below the accrued inflation of the period, and SG&A growing 4.3%. Now, as Peter mentioned, we're working towards controlling our expenses. This is a continuous process, and we will continue with this going forward to maintain a well-balanced company structure. In the following slide, now, once we have controlled expenses, the drop of sales leads to a drop of EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA.
Accounting EBITDA ends with BRL 35.4 million, a drop vis-à-vis the BRL 58 million of the previous year. And this drop is due to the drop of sales in the retail sector and in adjusted EBITDA, BRL 151 million, a drop vis-à-vis the same quarter and a slight improvement compared to the Q-2 of this year. To go on to the next slide, we see that this drop of EBITDA, along with the present scenario and the level of interest rates increases pressure in our financial results. We have an adjusted net income, a loss of BRL 26 million. And in terms of accounting, until the new month, in the nine months of 2025, we have BRL 43.4 million assets over the CSLL that we have not acknowledged in accounting terms. As soon as there is an improvement in the scenario, we will recognize this asset.
So we have a scenario with a loss in net income, but within the levels we observed in previous quarters. Let's go on to the next slide. Although this drop in the retail market and this challenging macro environment are there, one of the company pillars is to maintain default under control. We have a growth in our portfolio, but we have maintained default under control, the portfolio growing 11%, interest increasing 4%, and the 90-day default is 11.7%. So the same delay that we saw in the Q-2 and highly aligned with what happened in the second half of the year. The portfolio continues to grow. We see a growth of revenue, as I mentioned previously. But what is important is that all of this is happening with a default under control.
Macro situation is difficult, but the default is under control, especially in the retail segment and the stores that maintain this portfolio very robust. Now, this growth of portfolio has had a continued use in the credit cards. They're being used in the store on -us and out of the store off =us. It's become the main means of payment in the company, and it maintains a very good relationship with our customers. So we observe this growth in the Q-3 . The volume was 70% and 22% for the nine months of the year up to present. We have more than 4.2 million credit cards issued, and part of these continue to be active because our product has a lower periodicity of use through time. We go on to the next slide.
We carried out investments totaling BRL 12.9 million in the third quarter and BRL 38.9 million for the year so far. This includes the opening of 19 stores and the refurbishment of additionally 22 stores. Now, the store opening has decreased. We normally open 20 to 30 stores. We have already opened 19. We are going to comply with our guidance for the year. We focus on the use of our cash flow, highly aligned with the macro environment. As demand continues to be weak in a challenging macroeconomic environment, we tend to decrease the store opening quarter on quarter. Here you see our cash management. We end the third quarter with BRL 531 million of gross debt and adjusted net debt.
Now, we normally consume cash in the first half of the year and consumption of cash in the second half of the year because of the natural sales process in the retail segment. We carried out two debenture issuance of BRL 396 million with five and six-year terms. Now, we are maintaining our present-day spread, and this will lengthen our corporate liabilities. We ended the third quarter with BRL 145 million debt in the long term. We will now go on to the next slide. I would like to return the floor to Igor, who will moderate the question and answer session.
Thank you, Jean. We will now go on to the question and answer session. We remind you that for your questions, you can use the Q&A icon in Zoom. The first question is from Vinicius Preto from Itaú BBA and will be answered by Peter.
Which has been the sales performance among different states and categories? Is there a change of trend at this beginning of the Q-4 ?
Good morning. It's good to be conversing with you again. I have not observed significant differences in October vis-à-vis previous quarters. Now, between the states, of course, the greatest drop in figures is in the state of Rio Grande do Sul because of the flooding last year. It seems that the drop in that state is greater, but in truth, it has grown most. Santa Catarina and Paraná grew more, and there are some stores that are maturing in Rio Grande do Sul that impact is less. I think it is worthwhile speaking about an initiative that we put in place at the beginning of the year. We carried out seven tests going in different directions: price, product, plans, and much more.
Two of these tests basically gave us good results. We were able to increase the sales considerably with our Elo card through the card activation. This is very important for us as it brings customers to the store. The second test, I'm not going to go into details, but the tests have shown some leverage. I don't know if this will apply to all of our stores to leverage them, of course, but this does represent a positive piece of news at the end of the year, dependent on the macroeconomic scenario. That is what I can tell you about that question. Thank you, Peter. The next question is from Vinicius Preto from Itaú BBA and will be responded by Jean.
If you could speak about the main drivers for cash consumption in the third quarter and how are you thinking about expansion going forward with a weaker consumption and high interest rates?
Good morning, Preto. I hope you're well. Now, for the short term and focusing on the third quarter, we have a very strong impact in the short term and in the very short term when there is a drop in sales, of course. We presented a lower sales volume in same-store sales because of the macro environment and because of a more difficult comparison basis with third quarter 2024, which means we're consuming more working capital. Once we have an improvement, we should have a better cycle in working capital, and we will generate more cash. Of course, this is what we tend to see because of the seasonality of quarters.
It is somewhat different because of the drop in sales in the Q-3 , but all of this is under control, and we will maintain a debt lower than the one we're operating with at the end of the year. Now, this is what we historically see in terms of cash consumption. Alongside with this, when we speak about cash and expansion, this year we had a specific guidance, and as I mentioned, the pace of opening of stores per quarter has decreased. If the scenario continues to be difficult with high interest rates, as we have done historically, it's very possible that we will make adjustments in our pace of expansion, waiting for better moments to make investments in store opening. We don't have guidance or a projection for 2026. Everything will depend on the macro environment.
Should there be an improvement, we will be interested in open stores. If it continues to be difficult, the store opening will decrease.
Well, thank you, Jean. The next question is from Vinicius Preto from Itaú BBA and will be answered by Peter.
Which is your initial expectation regarding the program Reforma Casa Brasil, Reform Your House Brazil? And we have another similar question. Which is the stance of the company because of this new government program for the refurbishment of houses?
Well, we're taking a stance with all of our strengths brought together for this new project. Now, I think it's worthwhile underscoring, Preto, that in the past, we were one of the most important representatives of the construction card from Caixa Econômica Federal in the south of Brazil.
We asked all of our managers to visit the banks in their cities and to bring the managers from the bank to our store to explain how that loan would operate. We had a very positive response to this. We held several events at our stores because of this. We're getting ready with a more aggressive basket of products to gain market through this government program. We still don't know how much money, which is the amount that will be released, but we want to make the most of this opportunity. We might have a positive response. The programs from the government in the past were not very successful, but we can't speak about the results. Perhaps going forward, we can comment somewhat more about what is happening in this segment.
However, we're quite enthusiastic about this, working arduously to implement a large number of initiatives to achieve a large amount of these loans offered by the government. That is our stance.
Thank you, Peter. The next question from an investor will be answered by Jean.
You reported in the Q-3 2025 with a delinquency index very similar to the second quarter. Now, what explains that in this very challenging macroeconomic scenario?
Now, regarding default, and I am going to reiterate what was said in other meetings. Well, we use a greater cash flow to maintain the default levels under control. Well, yes, the scenario is very challenging. This was mentioned at the introduction. We see data from the market of indebtedness, levels of default that are increasing.
Despite this, we have made adjustments in our credit policy, strong adjustments in operation involving all of our teams and the stores as well. We have kept this under control. We believe that this is a scenario that will continue with difficulties in the next quarters or semesters. We have to be attentive to this to maintain default under control. This is our focus. Of course, in a more positive environment, we could offer more credit to leverage sales and have a better scenario. As the scenario continues to be challenging, we need to keep default under control as we have done in previous years.
Thank you, Jean. The next question is a private investor and will be answered by Peter.
Which is the evaluation of management of the possible impacts of the income tax reform on the store, on the company as a whole?
I believe, Igor, that this question is about the fiscal reform. Yes, for individual persons, exemption for those who make up to 5,000 BRL. Excellent question. Evidently, this will be positive for us because that segment below 5,000 BRL is the one that impacts us more, and it also impacts those that make more than 7,000 BRL, depending on the early quote. I have carried out some calculations of those who come out of the exemption and fit into that category of 5,000 BRL. On average, they make, well, people can buy 3,000 BRL during the year with this payment. I believe it is a political initiative, but it will benefit us during that period. It means more people will have income available that could be used for the purchase of products with us as well as to pay off their debts in the past.
Now, both situations will be of benefit, and I think that we are one of the potential retail industries that could benefit from this gain that will come through the income tax.
Well, thank you, Peter. The next question is from Leonardo from SLC Participações, and will be answered by Peter.
The advance of online bets between the C and D bracket seems to compete with the budget of the families. It's a phenomenon that is difficult to quantify, but have you observed any impact on consumption or on the purchases of your customers? Thank you.
I don't doubt that the retail segment is being hampered by the consumption of consumers on bets, on online bets. Now, this is an issue that has been questioned, that has been fought against, but it's very difficult to go back on this new system.
The data from surveys shows us that in the first years, we had a considerable increase of people coming into trade, but they see that the gains are limited, that the losses are great. I saw a survey from a bank that stated that in construction material, the drop in sales could be five%-seven% of sales, once again, because of bets. This is not something that has happened to us, but it is money that disappears from the market in general, and we have to see what happens going forward. We hope the impacts will be lower than they were in previous years, that this enthusiasm will cool down. Unfortunately, it will be part of our economy.
Thank you, Peter. The next question is from a minority investor who says, Good day.
In the last years, you have paid out dividends along with an issuance of new shares. Is the environment favorable for this to still happen within the year 2025?
Good morning. Yes, yes, we have carried out these payments, but our assessment will depend on the environment until the end of the year. We can't carry out a forecast or give you guidance at this point. We're going to see the best possibilities for the company results. But in a more unfavorable environment, the probability decreases, of course.
Thank you, Jean. Now, with that question, we would like to end the question and answer session. I will return the floor to Peter and then Jean for their closing remarks.
I'm thankful for this new opportunity to speak with you, and in other conference calls, we can clarify any doubts that you may have.
We continue to have that challenge of high interest rates in the macro scenario. This impacts people who want to invest in construction, improve their houses instead of putting everything in a savings account. And the funding of this is more difficult because of the interest rates that make the products more expensive. Now, we have three pieces of news that may materialize and that will benefit us. First of all, the issue of loans for the reform of houses offered by the government. We're going to see if this can help us. Secondly, part of that amount of income tax that will be left over for those that are between incomes between BRL 2,000 and 7,000 reais, perhaps this will have an impact on our market. We're going to seek to receive part of that amount.
Among the initiatives that we spoke about, these might also benefit the company. This is what I can say to you at present. We continue to be optimistic. We have made cost adjustments. We're going to continue to invest our time to reduce the cost further to maintain a very strong company. Of course, focusing on our cash flow and attentive to what happens month after month, it's very difficult to come up with a budget for 2026 in the segment in which we are active and because of volatility. I would like to congratulate all the associates in the company for their arduous work and for continuing to believe in the construction sector. My greetings to all of you. I turn the floor over to Jean.
I would simply like to thank all of you for your attendance. We are at your entire disposal.
And of course, we can clarify and present the results of the company whenever necessary. And after these remarks, we would like to end the.