Good morning, and thank you for holding. Welcome to Melnick's earnings call concerning the results of the fourth quarter of 2023. I would like to point out that for those who need simultaneous translation, the tool is available on the platform. To use it, you have to click on the button Interpretation, the globe icon at the bottom of the screen, and choose your preferred language, Portuguese or English. For those who will listen to this teleconference in English, there is an option available to mute the original audio in Portuguese. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded, will be made available on the company's website at ri.melnick.com.br, where the complete material concerning this earnings call will be available. It is also possible to download this presentation by way of the chat icon in both Portuguese and in English.
During the company's presentation, all participants will have their microphones on mute. Following that, we will begin the questions and answer session. To ask questions, click on the icon Raise Hand or Q&A at the bottom of your screen and type in your question to join the queue. When you are called, a request to activate your microphone will show on the screen, and then you must activate your microphone to ask your question. We would like to clarify that any statements that might be made during this teleconference regarding Melnick's business prospects, as well as its operating and financial projections and goals, are based on the beliefs and assumptions held by the company's management and information currently available. Forward-looking considerations are not a guarantee of performance and involve risk, uncertainties, and assumptions since they refer to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not happen.
Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors may affect Melnick's future outcomes and may lead to results that materially differ from those expressed in these future considerations. Here with us today are the Chief Executives of the company, Mr. Leandro Melnick, CEO, Mr. Juliano Melnick, CFO and Investor Relations Director, and Mr. Joelson Boeira, Administrative Director and Investor Relations. I will now give the floor to Mr. Juliano Melnick.
Good morning. I would like to thank you all for attending Melnick's earnings call concerning the fourth quarter of 2023. Let's begin with the highlights of 2023 in slide three of this presentation. On the left-hand side of this slide, you can see some data regarding the company's growth in the period.
We made BRL 890 million in net sales, Melnick share, a 25% increase when compared with the previous year, and we reduced our inventory by 12%. We launched BRL 732 million, also Melnick share, an increase of 20% when compared with last year. Net income amounted to BRL 104 million, a 23% growth compared with 2022. In the column in the middle, you can see some numbers that reflect the company's solidity. We have a solid cash position of BRL 400 million, zero corporate debt, and generation of BRL 52 million in operating cash. On the right-hand side, we see the dividends paid out by the company last year amounting to BRL 125 million and a dividend yield of 15.7%. Moving on to slide 4, where we break down the launches of the quarter and the whole of last year.
At the top of this slide, we see in detail all the launches of the year. I would like to comment on the graph on the bottom left-hand side of this slide. BRL 179 million of gross PSV launched in the quarter, and net BRL 57 million in two launches by Urbanizadora, both with great sales performance, which we will see later in the presentation. The launches accumulated in the year amounted to BRL 1.191 billion of growth PSV, a 6% decrease when compared with the previous year. The net PSV launched in the year totaled BRL 732 million, a 20% increase when compared with 2022. It is worth noting we went from 48% to 61% our participation in the gross launched PSV. In the graph on the right-hand side, it can compare the company's launching performance in three-year cycles.
We can observe that in this last cycle, the launches that happened in 2021, 2022, and 2023, saw an 83% increase in growth's launches for a total of BRL 1.190 billion per year on average. A 42% increase in the net PSV to BRL 717 million per year on average. Given the uncertainties in the spirit, including the COVID pandemic, the war on the Ukraine, elections, and high interest rates, we opted for the growth of the operation with sharing with investors, whether through land swaps or participations in SPEs, the risk of this growth. Considering the good absorption of the projects launched in this cycle, be it in terms of SOS or margins, we are ready for the next cycle to pursue a greater participation of net PSV in our business by increasing the purchase of land or decreasing the participation of investors or partners in future launches.
This effect, as we could see in the graph on the side, started in the year 2023, when we increased from 48% to 61% our participation in the launches. In slide five, we can see a few pictures of the launches in the year, which are on average 59% sold, and is evidence of the good acceptance of our products in the most varied market segments. Let's now move on to slide six, where we discuss the company's net sales. In the graph on the left, we see that SOS of launches in the quarter was 84%, whereas inventory SOS was 15%, translated into an average SOS of 19% in the quarter. We had BRL 250 million in net sales, of which BRL 167 million in inventory sales. Sales in the year reached BRL 809 million compared with the BRL 647 million in the previous year, a 25% increase.
Inventory sales went from BRL 431 million to BRL 544 million, a 26% increase when compared with 2022. In the pie chart on the right-hand side of the line in the upper side, we have sales broken down by business unit. Approximately 88% of sales happened in the developer unit, and the remaining 12% in Urbanizadora and in Open, the affordable segment unit. The bar chart on the bottom right-hand side of the slide, we see the projects that will be delivered this year. 87% of the units are already sold, leaving us the rest of the year to reduce the remaining 13%. In slide seven, we break down the seven deliveries of 2023, which are on average 96% sold, virtually not adding any finished inventory to the company. In the last quarter of the year, we had only one delivery, Supremo Altos, the central part.
In the next slide, number eight, in the graph on the left-hand side, we see the company's deliveries, where in 2023, it amounted to BRL 544 million of delivered PSV. I want to highlight our forecast for deliveries in 2024, when we expect to almost double our volume of deliveries to over BRL 1 billion of PSV. On the right-hand side of this slide, we show you some information about our operating capacity.
Currently, we have 17 active construction sites producing roughly 4,000 units in 655,000 sq m under construction. In slide nine, we break down the company's inventories by year of conclusion. The graph on the left-hand side shows that we currently have BRL 953 million in inventory, a 12% decrease when compared with the previous year. In the graph on the upper right-hand side of the slide, we break down the composition of our finished inventory worth BRL 300 million.
BRL 25 million of that amount is in Urbanizadora, BRL 88 million is in residential units, of which BRL 48 million is leased. And of our least liquid inventory, the commercial units amounting to BRL 187 million, BRL 112 million of it is leased or corresponds to hotel units. It's important to highlight our reversible lease policy, where we give our tenants the opportunity to purchase their units using the rent already paid totally or partially as down payment. We have been able to convert one-third of these leases into sales. Finally, the graph at the bottom of the screen, we show you the duration of our inventory currently at 14 months. In the next slide, number 10, we discuss the company's extensive land bank. As of today, we own BRL 5.2 billion of total PSV, of which BRL 3.6 billion is Melnick share.
It comprises 35 lots or phases, and around 38% of these have already been approved, enabling us to launch the best project for the market at the right moment instead of just the next one to be approved. In slide 11, we present the company's financial indicators. We see in the graph on the upper left-hand side that the net revenue in the quarter was BRL 384 million, 82% higher than the one in 4Q 2022. In the year, net revenue reached BRL 1.184 billion, 15% increase when compared with the previous year. The graph on the right shows the gross profit in the quarter, BRL 104 million, with a gross margin ex-financing to production of 28.7%, 162% higher than the 4Q of 2022. The annualized gross profit was BRL 244 million, around 4% higher than in the previous year with a gross margin of 22.8%.
At the bottom of this slide, we show our net income of BRL 47 million in the quarter, an increase of almost 400% when compared to 4Q 2022. And the net margin before minorities interest was 20%. In the year, net income was BRL 104 million, 23% higher than the net income of 2022, and a net margin of 12.8%. In slide 12, we present our capital structure. In the chart on the left of the slide, we ended the quarter with a net cash position of BRL 115 million, translating into a gross debt of BRL 285 million, virtually all of it concentrated in financing of the projects under construction. The total cash position is BRL 400 million. Currently, shareholders' equity is approximately BRL 1.2 billion, and our capital structure represents a net cash to shareholders' equity ratio of 9.5%.
I would like to point out, we are a company with no corporate debt. In the quarter, we generated BRL 6.5 million in operating cash, and approximately BRL 52 million in the year. Paid out BRL 57.3 million in dividends in the quarter, BRL 124.6 million in the year, which means a 15.7% of dividend yield in the year. I would like to highlight Melnick's track record, which in the last 15 years paid out around 90% of its profits in dividends. Thank you for your attention. I would like to give the floor to Leandro, the company CEO, for his final remarks. After that, we will open for Q&A.
Good morning. We ended, together with the year 2023, a tri-annual period of a very cautious operation due to the scenario of instability, political and of health. Our company's capitalized, our inventory has very low levels, and the projects under construction are very well sold. Which adding to our cost of land bank and good prospects, brings us good prospects for future years.
I would like to highlight our strategy to grow after our IPO when we first grew our gross PSV from 83%, from BRL 649 million of average PSV a year, from 2018 to 2020, to BRL 1.19 billion of PSV average per year in 2023. However, this gross PSV, the participation of the company was 60% due to our cautiousness and being conservative that we mentioned before. The BRL 3.57 billion of PSV launched in the period in 2021 to 2023, is today more than 80% sold with a good margin. And this great performance allows us to grow the net PSV in the company within our own operation in a very safe manner, where we can certify, we can guarantee the absorption of the projects, products we launch and our capacity to produce this to another level.
Our point I highlight is Melnick's capital structure, which added to its strategy of purchasing land, means a low burning of cash to support our operation, allowing our consistent policy of dividend payout. So in 2023, we paid out BRL 125 million in dividends, representing a dividend yield of 15.7%. If we broaden our look at this stock, I highlight that Melnick was able to keep a level of 90% of dividend payout in the last 15 years. This is very significant, and this shows our strategy and its proven capacity to grow simultaneously with its growth in cash and dividend payout. These factors that I have just mentioned, and with the prospect of the decrease in the interest rates, again, makes me very comfortable to see our great prospects for future years. Thank you.
We will now begin our Q&A. Remember that to ask questions, you must click on the Raise Your Hand or Q&A at the bottom of your screen and type in your question to join the queue. When you are called, a request to activate your microphone will show on the screen, then you must activate your microphone to ask your question. Let us now begin. Our first questions come from Juan, from XP. We will now enable your audio so you may ask your question. Hello, everyone. Good morning. Thank you for the presentation. I have two topics I would like to discuss. The first one is the pipeline of launches.
I would like to see the prospects of launches for 2024 from the point of view of volume and also of segmentation, what you are thinking about that. If you want to increase volume or increase participation. I would also like to understand how comfortable you are with your levels of inventory and the duration. I would like to understand if your level of comfort is increasing the prospect for launches. The second point is regarding margins. I would like to discuss what happened in this last quarter. There was a good positive effect from Nilo Square, which the POC evolved. I would like to understand if you expect this process of the gross margin growth to continue moving forward.
Well, thank you for your questions. Let's talk about launches. Our projects, as we showed in the presentation, our SOS is performing well. Our deliveries are almost all sold, which keeps us very excited about possibility of new launches. Our main idea is that there is a good possibility as the interest rates decrease, we can see important changes that will allow us to grow our net volume. Not a great expansion that what will be put in the market in terms of growth, but take on a more importance in the projects we already launched.
I would like to share these SPEs with partners. This may happen. Also by increasing our participation in the purchase of land, especially those short-term lands that we can buy and the process is more simple, and then we can launch within 12 months of purchasing. With this, we can see a prospect of growing the net volume of launches for 2024. About margins, because it is connected, depending on the size of our operation, there are some events, for example, Melnick Day, that I always like to talk about the normalized numbers, which is easier to understand. We expect a growth of margins, an increase of margins. The first factor is we see new projects with land that have been recently bought with naturally higher margins.
As time goes by, these projects that Leandro Melnick mentioned in these last three years, that these new projects will go through the balance sheet more permanently. These sales of the finished inventories will be lower. This will naturally move along, and we imagine that the margin, the analyzed margin for the company will go up. Depending on when the peak of launches and sales happen, it will be a little more or a little less, but we can adjust our REF margin higher, and we think this year we will see a better margin than last year. Now I will give the floor to Leandro Melnick.
Still talking about margins, which is related to inventory. The finished inventory for residential units are at a very low level. This helps us that by analyzing the dynamic, we can already see a growth, an increase in the sales price and an increase in margins. Comparing the markets in Porto Alegre and São Paulo, where we have more data, we have seen the last two years a significant consumption of inventory sales. When we go to Porto Alegre, we see a delay of one year.
Today, we see the residential inventory levels in the city at a low level. The older inventory will be less relevant. Melnick data shows that the projects delivered in 2023 are 96% sold. This reduction in residential inventory will consequently allow us to increase the sales price and margins. All these factors connect to each other. We see the possibility of a continual gain in price and margins along the year.
Thank you.
Thank you, and have a good day.
Moving on, the next question is from Elvis Credendio, BTG Pactual . Elvis, we will open your microphone. You may now proceed.
Good morning, Leandro, Juliano. I have two questions here. The first regarding cash flow and deliveries. The volume in 2024 will be twice the volume of 2023. I would like to understand how comfortable you are with these deliveries in your expectation regarding cash generation this year. The second point, which hooks to cash flow, is to understand how you see the balance sheet in terms of leverage. Do you have room for leverage? How you see this issue of dividend distribution with a high payout in these past few years. If we can expect the maintenance, the continuity of these high levels of payout, or this high level of deliveries.
Hello, Elvis. Good morning. Thank you for your questions. Yes, we will indeed have a year of very high level number of deliveries. This makes us very comfortable with these issues. In NPL, which is the number of default, is one of the lowest of previous years, gives us a good possibility of deliveries, and this will improve our cash position. Regarding leveraging, I will now ask Leandro to comment on that.
Elvis, hello. I see that adding these two issues, dividends and leverage, I see that the company is highly de-leveraged. It is a strategy the company has. Having a corporate debt to date that is zero, but with a capital, a cash structure that is very de-leveraged. The strategy the company has in these past few years, several years. The last 15 years, we have paid out on average 90% of profits in dividends. We will certainly continue with this strategy. It is a strategy of land purchase that allows us a very low cash burn.
In these years we have been able to structure a method of growing with low cash burn and allows us to pay high levels of dividend. If you analyze the track record of this last 15 years, dividend payout has been consistent and at a very high level in relation to our annual growth. This is a very consolidated strategy, and the company's capital structure is designed to support this growth with very low cash consumption. This is indeed possible. The continuity of this strategy is what we expect for this year.
Thank you. It is clear.
Thank you. Have a good day.
Thank you. Now, next question is from Mariangela Castro , Itaú BBA. We will now open your microphone, you may ask your question. You may proceed.
Thank you for taking my question. I would like to understand your perception regarding the market. If you see the necessity of giving discounts or not, what the demand has been like, and what the challenges are you see for 2024? Regarding labor here in São Paulo, we have seen a discount in labor, especially in equipment, elevators from the. Have you seen this change also in your city, in this discount in labor, or this is not a problem for the reach?
Hello. Thank you for your question. Yes, we can see an improvement in the market in several segments, especially upper income and upper middle income. In Porto Alegre, the market dynamic is different from São Paulo's, so it's difficult to compare with São Paulo. There is a delay, but not just in Porto Alegre, but other capitals, there is a delay in the recovery post-crisis.
The dynamic of the city means that it has a slower speed of consumption of inventory, which sometimes helps in moments of a bigger crisis that keeps the prices low. We see that the inventory for the middle income are very low in Porto Alegre. We have very few launches. We have had very few law launches in the low income. The city has concentrated more in the upper income. This dynamic of reduction of inventory has been present only this last quarter. We have seen this in the sales. There is a moment of recovery of margins and sales price. The inventories are very low.
If we really understand how this happens in. If the country really lowers its interest rates, we will see the pressure of this consumption increasing, of a group that had not been able to consume in this segment, and an opportunity to launch and sell with very positive margins. We see the market with good eyes for these prospects. Regarding labor, we have the same problems you have in São Paulo. The country has a very similar structure in methodology of civil construction in terms of using equipment and how to format the process of hiring labor. These companies of upper and middle upper income. The contractors are outsourcing their labor. This shortage of labor is a point of attention.
A positive point that I highlight, that we have been living through these last few years, some cycles that repeat, that makes those companies that have more experience learn how to face this dynamic of labor shortage that happens cyclically. We have seen this, and in the previous cycle when the economy recovered, we experienced this shortage. It is happening again now, but it is not new. We have already experienced this. We are able, through partnerships with financiers, to stabilize this topic, which is a reality, but we can mitigate it in Melnick's participation in the region because it is robust. It is also robust in this aspect of hiring labor, which gives us some competitive advantage also in this regard.
Thank you.
Continuing. Our next question is from Adriano Valente, Investor. It is a text question. "Good morning. The numbers in the balance are good. However, the price of share does not reflect this good moment of the company. How do you assess this? Do you think about a stock buyback or something like that?
Hello, Adriano. This is a good question from an individual, so we are going to answer that. Here internally, we see this, we understand this, that this is usual in the market dynamic for companies. The performance of the company does not necessarily reflect on the price of share. This is our macroeconomic situation. The high interest rates did not impact the results of the company, so the performance is still positive. This happens because the real interest rate in our industry, it does not fluctuate so much like the interest rate in the economy as a whole. Now with this trend of lower interest rates, what we expect, and this happens and it has happened in other cycles, it is an improvement, a recovery of margins. In Melnick's case, our possibility to operate with more relevance in other segments.
We concentrated very much in the high income, the upper income, because this allows us a good sales performance, but this affects the market dynamic. With interest rates, with a trend of decrease, this also brings into the capital markets, an atmosphere that is more attractive to investors. This dynamic will mean a change in this lower share price. It is the market that dictates these rules. Regarding the dividends or a buyback program, as I answered before, Melnick's capacity of continuing growing without burning too much cash, our financial robustness now allows us to analyze these possibilities of dividend payout or buybacks. This will be analyzed as the year progresses, but the company's dynamic is of cash generation and the use of the company's capital as our track record shows. Thank you for your question.
The Q&A session is now concluded. Melnick's earnings call concerning the results of the fourth quarter of 2023 is now concluded. The investor relations department is at your disposal to answer any further questions. Thank you all, the attendees, and we wish you a nice day.