Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the earnings call of the fourth quarter of 2022 of Multiplan. We have here with us today Mr. José Isaac Peres, Mr. Eduardo Kaminitz Peres, Mr. Armando d'Almeida Neto, Mr. Marcello Barnes, Mr. Vander Giordano, and Mr. Hans Melchers. We inform you that the presentation of the results is available for download at the website ri.multiplan.com.br. Should you need any help, please request the help of an operator typing asterisk zero. Before we continue, we would like to clarify that anything that might be stated during this earnings call regarding the perspectives for the business of the company, provisions, projections, and financial goals are based on beliefs of Board of Directors of Multiplan, as well as information available for the company, based on information available for the company.
Therefore, these are not guarantees of performance, and they are involved in risk and changes in premises. These are future-forward events and things might happen or not. Investors should invest that economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operational factors might affect the future results of the company and might lead to results that differ materially from those stated in the forward-looking statements. I'd like to give the floor to Mr. José Isaac Peres. He will start the presentation. Please, Dr. Peres, the floor is yours.
Good morning. For those of you, ladies and gentlemen, that are hearing us, investors, shareholders, analysts, everyone, we are here presenting the main indicators for the results of 2022, where we obtained a growth of 37% in regards to 2021 last year. The total revenue of the company in 2022 reached BRL 1.9 billion, a growth of 40% in comparison to 2021. Our net revenue is BRL 769 million, a record increase of 70% in regards to the previous year. This year we have an expectation of having a better result, but I cannot confirm yet. I've told you my goals, but we will see these great numbers. This year, regardless of comparing January with January, the previous one of 2022, there is 2023 with 2022.
We've had a growth that was very expressive in terms of sales, and I will report that for you. I believe that our strategy is correct, and we will continue with this strategy, trying to improve more and more. Our leverage is very important. Last year we had a leverage of 1.63x . Today our leverage is 1.62x, so we decreased. Our financial expenses in the year of 2021 was BRL 241 million. This year, in 2022, we got to BRL 241 million and BRL 114 million- BRL 241 million just by the increase in the interest rates. We had an additional cost of almost BRL 130 million. Nonetheless, our leverage decreased. Today we have BRL 1.63 million when we had BRL 3.06 million. So we distributed BRL 420 million of dividends to our shareholders, with an increase of approximately 43% in regards to 2021.
Also, with the shares, we did the repurchase of our shares. About 7.1 million shares were repurchased. When we look at the fourth quarter of the year, the sales of the tenants got to BRL 6.3 billion, surpassing in 13% the fourth quarter of 2021. I would like to highlight that it would've been much better if we hadn't had the World Cup. That really impacted. A lot of the days were negative. Also we had the elections in Brazil. Those election days and the World Cup, we had low movement. If we had regular days, certainly our results would've been much better. There is an interesting data that I would like to highlight. We today, well, I imagine that shopping mall, we have over 700 malls in Brazil.
Multiplan has only 20. Therefore, in theory, we have 3% of the total malls. An important data is that the sales, our total sales, represent 10% of the total sales of shopping malls in Brazil, of the total market. It is as if theoretically we should have had, by arithmetic, 70 malls, but we actually have 20. That shows our quality and efficiency, and our malls will continue to improve. We've had this work of bringing new attractions, always improving quality and expanding. A piece of data that is relevant.
If we compare the IGTP with IGP-DI of January 23 of January 22, we've seen the IGP-DI grew only 3%, but our sales have grown 22.6%. That means that all the tenants had a gain last year. We started the works of expansion of Parque Shopping Barigüi. It represents 100% occupancy. The expansion is 14,000 sq m, so there is an increase in 30% in total area. We already started the works, and we should conclude this in two years' time. Also, very important that last year.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's come back. Also, we had a drop in connection. Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. We just need one minute to reconnect with our speakers. Hello, we're testing and reconnecting. Excuse me. We have reconnected. Please continue. Thank you very much.
We were talking about Parque Shopping Barigüi, that we are compensating the situation with 30%. Now we are talking about Diamond Mall. The important thing is that this is a long-term project, as we've done with Golden Lake. It is an estimated sales of BRL 5 billion. We are going to do this in stages, seven condominiums that will respond for. There will be approximately 20 buildings. Last year, we have the largest lake, maybe 5,000 cu ft or cu m of crystalline waters. You can do stand-up paddle. You have private beaches. So we have a project and a quality that we hadn't used before, and it hasn't been seen before. That shows the concern of the company to always overcome and always innovate and always meeting the requirements of our customers and the people that will live in this condominium.
Another important point is that last year we finished the memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, which was an initiative from Multiplan that we've had with the former mayor, and we concluded with the current mayor, Eduardo Peres, and we've had this enterprise. It is an area for us to think about the terrible crime that happened in the Second World War, and it also keeps the history alive. For our great satisfaction, it's been the works, a project that has been wonderful, and we've had people all throughout Brazil taking part. This is another contribution that we're doing on the human standpoint and also in the standpoint of Rio de Janeiro, which is a tourist center.
Also in the social area, I would like to highlight that we did the works to revamp two schools, two family clinics around ParkJacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro. Therefore, it was difficult to build this shopping mall during the pandemic, but maybe it was the only one that was delivered during the pandemic. Also, something very important, the app Multi has 3.6 million downloads so far, and the number of access is almost 13 million, double of 2021. Shopping malls receive almost 200 million people all throughout the year. This integration of technology with the onsite is necessary. We feel that today one doesn't exclude the other. But the curious thing is that the onsite commerce has returned with a lot of strength, almost as much as the virtual.
I remember that it was 47 million cars before the pandemic, and now last year it was 44 million cars, so it's back. But another additional, the technology is integrated to the shopping malls. The great advantage is we are located in areas which are hubs for commerce. It's very easy to identify a product in the shopping mall. In 15, 20 minutes, you can identify on-site the quality. That has helped us a lot to talk to the tenants, and it's been very positive. We have around our shopping malls 790,000 sq m. I imagine that the 790,000 sq m has a potential of. We still have a potential for building almost 1.5 million sq m.
That multi-use is something that we frequently have done, and this is the moment that we acquire maturity. But a lot of these properties have had projects, and they're going to generate revenue that is very good. The value that we acquired 15, 30 years back is a value of the land bank that is much lower than what we have today. Potentially, it's still to be seen the enterprises that we will launch in the future. We're very excited about that. Now talking about the future, I'm sitting here with my son, Eduardo Peres. He is here with us. He has been following me for 30 years. 34 years, actually. 34. It's my boy.
Well, it was 30. My son and I have complete trust and absolute surety that he will conduct this company in the same way, if not better, than I have done so over the years. I would like to say to you, even though I am still at the Board of Directors, I continue to be present in the company. My hobby is to work, to create projects. The company, well, the Chairman of the Board doesn't get paid, so I will be here continuing to contribute to the company, and I hope to have now more time to create and think from the strategic standpoint on how to make the company to grow more.
Regardless of all the circumstances and consequences in a very tough moment for the economy of Brazil and the world, the company has always grew and will continue to grow. Therefore, I would like to thank you all. I know that we will continue to create, and I thank you for your trust and your support from the shareholders and investors. Thank you all to 32,000 all of you. All of our workers all throughout Brazil, once again, thank you. Thank you to my family, which is the basis of my life.
I am very proud of what we built together. I am an entrepreneur for 60 years so far, and I would like to say my hobby is to be an entrepreneur, to create. In the same way that this company has worked out, now I will have more time, certainly. My contribution in this area of innovation will be larger. Thank you very much. I would like to say that even though we have had a revenue of BRL 770 million, it didn't get to my goal. My goal was larger, but we are getting close. What we paid in interest rate in 2022 was BRL 140 million. If you add the interest rate, well, the leverage dropped from 3% to 1.6%, right? So see, we decreased the indebtedness, but the interest rates are high.
It is a consequence that we had to carry over with a higher financial cost, and it will get close to BRL 800 million, BRL 900 million, but the interest rates really ran over us. This year, we have had really good goals comparing January of 2022 with January 2021, which are overcoming, and everything is pointing that we are going to have a wonderful year. I would like to say that in a certain way, the pandemic has isolated people. The great attraction that I see, and I cannot substitute, is people like to gather, like to join and meet up at a shopping mall.
That is the greatest attraction of the shopping mall. It is people intermingling. It is socializing. So thank you to everyone, and I hope that we have a wonderful carnival. It creates a positive energy. Many times I say in my speeches that the shopping mall is the biggest antidepressant that exists. Thank you very much to all, and we will continue to innovate all throughout the years. Thank you very much.
We will now begin with our Q&A session for investors and analysts. If you have any questions, please press star one. If your question is answered, you may leave the queue by pressing star two. We will answer these questions in the order they are received. For our first question, we have Aline Caldeira, Bank of America.
Hello, good morning. Thank you for answering my question. Congrats on the results. I have a quick question here on the sales for January. I think the fourth quarter movement was announced and expected, but January was a positive surprise to me. So have you seen any highlights that would explain that? Maybe one region that did better or a category that did better? We have seen that happening. We wanted to see if that has continued, and also that growth level that we've seen in January, do you think it's something that is sustainable for the rest of the semester?
Hello, Aline. This is Armando. Good morning. Well, Aline, the sales in January were truly strong, especially when we consider the inflation rate at a completely different level. An IPCA that was higher. We're talking about the wholesale levels that were around 3%, 4%, but what we've seen in January was a great growth that was very uniform. We still do not know which segment played a major role in that, but we expect a back to normal trend, let's just say, similar to what we had last year. But still, we have this interesting movement that is happening right now. It's a very positive thing for retail in this moment.
We are working strongly now to have more innovation in our malls. We're investing in our buildings, in different attractions for the shopping malls. Last year, we had 700 events approximately, and we intend to continue to do that this year, so that it is really a place for people to socialize, to be together, to go shopping, so that we have positive results as well.
Just one thing, Armando, just to complement on that, if you allow me. The fourth quarter was good, but it would've been better if we hadn't had elections and the World Cup, right? I believe it would've been exceptional. It was good, but it would've been extraordinary. In January, as was expected, this trend for malls to grow after the pandemic, we expected that to happen because actually, street market is no longer the same. Malls are still. They have survived.
Basically, it is a service that is offered to the community. It is not just about selling and buying. We have all kinds of services. We have medical centers, we have labs, etc . Our goal right now is you can go to a mall and do everything that you need to do in just one place. It's a one-stop shop. By the way, Aline, during these presentations, whenever people ask me about the GDP, if it's going up or down or how the agenda is going to be, I usually have this very old joke that when the shark is close to you want to swim faster. But actually, you need to swim faster than all the competitors around you in real life. We are prepared. Malls are prepared. We show this in the presentation.
Our market share in the industry of shopping malls is the following. In 2019, we had 8.5% of the total sales of malls. Somebody said that a while ago. In 2021, it was 9.15%, and in 2022, we're looking at what was now announced. We're looking at 10.4% of the agenda of the shopping malls. A GLA that remains the same, the gross leasable area. We're looking at that in Jacarepaguá, going up in 2022. It's growing a lot. That's what we want to see. We want to see a positive trend in that regard, whether it's in the same area, in the GLA actually, or in total revenue.
Thank you for that question, Aline. Have a great day.
Thank you, Armando. That was clear.
Our next question is from Ygor Altero, from XP.
H ello, good morning. Thank you for that presentation. I just have two quick questions here. The first one has to do with the leave of Dr. Peres and Eduardo Peres coming as our CEO. We wanted to understand more about that. What is going to change for the company? The second is about the Golden Lake. We see that the rhythm of sales went down a little bit. Do you think that is mostly because of the elections and the World Cup or any other factors? How much can that impact on the timing for the mall, for the growth? Are you going to change the mix, maybe? Thank you.
Should I start? Well, hello. Thank you for your question. About the succession plan, the company went on a very clear path, that is continuity. We have been working together for a long time. We will continue to develop things together and to improve the assets continuously. I think this is a great team, a great family, and this will continue on the same path. That was the option. That is why I decided to do this, and I think my father also thought about that. We are going to continue to evolve as in the past 50 years. The second question was about the Golden Lake, is not it?
Exactly.
Well, what we saw in the fourth quarter, especially with that expectation of interest rates going up or more financing or that expectation in changes in politics. We see this change in speed and rhythm. We continuously invest in our buildings and our projects, of course, but we are looking at people making decisions in a different rhythm, a different speed. We expected that to happen, of course, given everything that was happening and the price of our units and what we are doing.
Also, there is usually a higher number when things are launched for sales, and then it changes during construction. We are now advancing with the construction, and I think now that the Flores Labs are almost done, that is going to stimulate sales a little bit better. People see that we are about to finish that construction. Well, just one more thing, Ygor. I think last year we had, what? 520 things that were concluded, stores that had agreed to be there, but we are looking at 400 in total. I am sure this is going to be extremely successful. Thank you for the question, Ygor.
Thank you, Eduardo. Thank you, Armando.
Thank you, Ygor. Now we have Gustavo Cambauva from BTG Pactual.
Hello. Good morning. I just wanted to go back to what you were saying about 2023, your perspective for this year. Last year was indeed very good for Multiplan. I wanted to know a little bit more from you. How do you see this macro scenario with higher interest rates, with this perspective of growth that is a little bit lower in terms of economy? Also, we are looking at this rent effect that is lower after such a good year that Multiplan had last year.
My question is: do you think we should be concerned that we might have a more difficult year with a rent level that is much higher or d o you think the fact that tenants are selling well and they have good store productivity, do you think that factor makes you not be concerned about inflation, about vacancy? I just wanted to understand what your perspective is for the portfolio this year. Thank you.
Hello, Gustavo. You've probably seen this author, Domenico Viganola. He was talking about creative destruction. I read that, and I found that interesting. Any crisis will imply that you need to make changes. I mean, the crisis per se is not bad. What is good or bad is they're not completely separated. They're intertwined. When you see something happening that is bad or looks bad, it is actually an opportunity for change, to see that you're on the wrong path. That applies to relationships, to society, to people, to anything. We sometimes think, well, everything has to be perfect. Everything. This romance is amazing. But then you find something out, and then you start to suffer, and suffering is necessary for you to grow and move on and learn to identify that bad per se is not bad. It made you change. I mean, we've seen so many crises.
Me, personally, ever since 1963, when I started working on this, ever since the first project in 1963, I remember a lot of people saying, "Well, you're crazy. Nobody's going to purchase anything." Well, it's true. At the time, it was a very complicated moment, and people were worried about buying food and water, and I was launching this project in Rio de Janeiro. But I only had this option, this one option. If I didn't sell that project, then I would be bound for failure. I saw that in 1963, 100 and something units in 19 days. But yes, we were looking at a crisis, but the product that we had at the time didn't exist. It was small apartments in Lapa, a certain neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, with good price, and it was good investment. At the time, nobody was investing in bonds.
They would simply buy a house, an apartment, real estate. That has always been a good option for investment. We've seen so many crises ever since. So many in these, what, 60-some years. That's true. I remember I launched my first building in 1966. We had that change to Cruzeiro Novo, a new currency, then yet a different currency a few years after that. We have survived because we have this philosophy. I think the secret for us to be successful is to insist and continue and deliver more than what people are expecting. We always want to transform reality into something bigger than a dream.
Whenever somebody goes to a real estate event, or there is a launch, or now with digital, it seems like everything is built, everything is done, but in the end, people buying that, they have the feeling that it is going to be worse than what it is. But they still buy because it's interesting. What we can do is we can try to make reality better than their dreams. We are able to deliver more than what they're expecting. Basically, that's the idea. We created the gourmet shopping mall. We have created medical centers within malls. 30 years ago in BarraShopping, that was brand new. Now we have 300,000 appointments per month in that place, in that medical center.
Nowadays, the International Association for Shopping Malls , they recommend that every mall should have a medical center. Now we have in Ribeirão Preto, we have the management center for emotions. It looks weird, that name. You're saying, "What? Management, emotions, what is that?" We created a center for people who need, I don't know, a psychoanalyst or self-help or psychologists. We even have Augusto Cury taking care of that. So that was an idea that we've had for a long time. I kept thinking, people go to the mall to do many things, but we also have to make sure that we're taking care of their soul. So I had this desire. I was talking to Augusto Cury last year, and I simply had to implement that. It's in Ribeirão Preto. It is a very interesting contribution. It is a service we're offering. We're not intending to earn money.
We're looking at appointments that cost around BRL 140, and you know that any psychoanalyst that you go to see is going to charge you more than that. So it's really a service we're offering. We want to help improve people's lives so they're happier. That's our business. We want to please people. And that's why we'll continue to do everything that is good. And we have some areas, actually, around the malls that we can expand. We can build a hotel, a hospital, another building, etc . So that's our philosophy. And I think that the company will continue to follow that path, and will continue to surprise people and deliver more than they expect.
By the way, Gustavo, let me just compliment on that, on what Dr. Peres was saying. The company has just completed the 15 years of being listed, so it is interesting to see all the data, all the numbers. The only year in which we didn't have good growth was 2020 in sales because we couldn't operate because of the pandemic. Other than that, all the other years we had good growth in our base and sales, whichever way we look at it. So last year was a very good, very strong year. It was historical, especially considering what happened, considering the restrictions we had in place, and we were able to deliver.
So Dr. Peres, our answer when we're facing any adversity is to do more, is to do better. And that's why we are able to deliver a market share improvement and expansion because we are able to manage shopping malls the best way. The company has shown for a long time now its ability to adapt. And Dr. Peres mentioned it and showed us a few examples. There is a huge, very interesting philosophy behind this. Right, Gustavo?
Perfect. Thank you so much for answering my question, Armando, Dr. Peres, and I don't know if you'll continue to be in the calls, but thank you so much for all these years.
Yes, for sure.
Our next question is from Tainan Costa, UBS.
Hello. Good morning. First of all, thank you for the opportunity to ask you a question. I have two questions. The first one has to do with the store mix and turnover. You've changed that a little bit. Do you think there is still space for more changes? What is the potential improvement in that regard? And also about the levels of occupancy. We've seen a historical number of around 200%, but the consolidated number is 95%, so I wanted to know what you're thinking about this year. Do you think it's going to continue with the same historical rhythm or is it going to change? Thank you.
Hello, Tainan. This is Armando. You were talking about occupancy, right? I think your line cut a little bit.
Yes, that's it. Occupancy.
Okay, Tainan. This is Eduardo Peres. I will talk about the store mix, your first question. I think it's interesting to think about that from an operations standpoint. I have to say that the mall platform is a very flexible one, so it adapts to the wishes of those who go there. Sometimes people think that the owner of the shopping mall is going to choose who stays or who leaves, but actually it's the people who go to a mall.
It's not the owner of a shopping mall, it's consumers. So I've seen people confusing that in the past. If you think about the past few years, people were more interested in clothing, and nowadays they're more interested in restaurants s o it really changes. It varies. But the thing is, we depend on what consumers want. As for the occupancy rate or cost, that was the second question, wasn't it?
Yeah, he was asking about the 97%.
Oh, I'm sorry. Well, I think there's still space. I think it's a constant quest of the company to improve occupancy and to have more services and more products at a mall. It is like a huge department store, and stores are the products. I mean, the mall will concentrate certain stores, but if they have just a few stores, it's just a few products, just low variety. BarraShopping, for instance, is a complete mall. They have all kinds of products and services for everyone. It is difficult to have vacancy very low. It is a challenge because nowadays we're looking at a moment where we have this scenario, but there is space for us to look at 97%, 98%, maybe 100%. That was the second question, right?
Yes, that was the second question. I think it's important to say that we have the best commercial centers in large cities. If we think about Rio de Janeiro, it's BarraShopping. What about São Paulo? MorumbiShopping.
If we were able to extend, if we were able to double that, if the sky was the limit, but we don't have wings. We cannot really fly. So I agree with what you were saying. I think considering our limitations and our ability, we are doing what we can. When we came here to Barra, everyone said, "You're crazy. There's nothing in there. There's two, three condominium buildings and that's it." But you see, we started with 20 stores and now we have what, 60? It's true. It's a lot of resiliency. A lot of resilience. We spent one year without really operating the adequate way.
If it weren't for the courage of the company to continue to invest, to continue to help tenants so they wouldn't give up, if the company wasn't brave, we wouldn't be here. By now, we have a few malls where the occupancy is 100%. Morumbi is 99%, 98% sometimes. It is very good. Just one more thing. One thing is the total. The other thing is having the right mix. It's useless to just have that completely occupied but without quality. We need to think about the right mix, the right amount of sales so that we're going to have also a good effect in the future, right?
Thank you. Our next question is from André Mazini, Citi.
Everyone, congratulations on the succession on the Board. I would like to ask the question, I think that we've already discussed this a bit. For 2023, I wanted to understand if now do you think that we will have an accumulation of CEO and Director of Operations, Eduardo, and what is the idea for the career of the director of operations? The idea is to bring somebody from the market. Are you thinking about someone in-house? Can you announce anything? That's the first question. The second question, the greenfields. I think that you can say that you're one of the most excited companies about greenfield. Interesting cases to give support to this. You're maybe separating three regions, the Southeast, Southern and the South and Brasília, the capital. Which one are you more excited for the potential for greenfield in these three regions?
André, this is Eduardo. Thank you for the question. I believe, yes. We have, and I will get someone in my place, in my former position, which is the VP of Operations. It will be certainly somebody from. It will be time we have to define. Multiplan is a company that has philosophy and a pool of talent of promoting people that are inside. So probably will be somebody from in-house. We haven't defined who that person's going to be, but it should happen briefly. Greenfield, I can say the following. We're extremely focused on expansion. I believe that sometimes it is better for you to expand and complement the real estate enterprise, and starting to have. It's better to improve than starting from scratch.
We look at today the number of malls that were done years ago with a possibility and actually a need of growth. So when I said to define the shopping mall that I've been recently, for example, in Maceió and I've been recently in Jundiaí, both of these malls, for example, they need an expansion to increase their capacity of attracting new customers.
That's it. And if you consider these two, this is Armando speaking. Just Barigüi and the other one is a shopping mall of 6,000 sq m. So the challenge is that there's a lot to be done. And with economy that we know as it is. So we're going to have to choose our investments. Nonetheless, there are many things, many possibilities to grow. And a story about that. When I did BarraShopping, it only had one floor. But we had built the foundations to get a second floor. The first year was incredible. A lot of people came to Barra da Tijuca. Barra da Tijuca, the access was difficult. We did not have the yellow line. The access was via Rua Marquês de São Vicente. It was a lot of confusion traffic-wise.
Second year of the mall, all the news had blown away. It was news, but now it was not new news. There was no turnover. We started to discuss with our partners. It was an international company. Shell was our partner because they had the tennis field and they did not do anything. They said, "Well, let us use the tennis courts to build a nice mall." They were up for it. When the problem came up, that with the partners, they said, "Well, this shopping mall does not attract a lot of people, a lot of customers." Why? Because we have the strength of gravity, the law of Newton, matter attracts matter, F equals ma square, the sense is, the more peripheral, the larger the mass of the object has to be to attract.
There is another detail that I told them, that we have made the decision of expanding actually to attract more people. Some people like to joke with me, and they like to, for example, take those sugar cubes, and they like to see how we worked. Of course, if you get a sugar cube near the ant mound, it is going to disappear very fast, b ut if you put it 3 m away from the nest, the ants are not going to see the sugar cube. Can you imagine what happens if you put the sugar cube at 10 m of distance? But if you get a lot of sugar 10 m away, a bag, then the ants are going to form a line. Anyway, it is an analogy with ants.
But the point is, BarraShopping, peripheral that did not have any attraction, any gravity, it was not attracting people from the southern zone to go to the Barra da Tijuca because it did not have the size. We double the size of the mall. People were saying, "You are completely gone mad." Off the rails. BarraShopping grew when we expanded, and it helped to create the Barra da Tijuca, which is the greatest center for development in terms of taxes, land tax here in Rio de Janeiro. That is some crazy idea that we have had 40 years ago, and it has been working since.
Rio de Janeiro changed, and Barra da Tijuca is a vector for growth. Here in the Western Zone, we have done several other malls where we dominated. These are the regions that grow the most in Rio de Janeiro. In the middle of the pandemic, you can see ParkJacarepaguá. It is doing very well. It is growing January on January a lot, two digits. But they said, "Dr. Peres, come on, you are going to spend so much money in Jacarepaguá?" Okay, it is a simpler neighborhood, but we do not discriminate people nor places. Our philosophy here at our company is that we have to overcome the obstacles. We cannot look at the competition because they are not going to do what we are going to do. The company, every mall that we do, it has to be better than the previous one. We have to innovate.
We identify the demands, unmet needs, and we meet those demands. That is the idea. You can see that everything is possible with an enterprise. Even selling apartment buildings in the middle of the Amazon, anything is possible. You just need to have a philosophy, a perspective of being an entrepreneur. Demand. Nobody will buy anything if there is not an offer. What creates the demand is the offer. It is not the offer that creates the demand. The demand does not exist. It is abstract, but the offer of something creates that. When I study economy, if I remember correctly from university, that is it. What creates the demand is the offer. So if I have a golden pen, if it is worth 10 BRL or more, it depends on the demand.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Jorel Guilloty, Goldman Sachs.
"Hi, everyone. Congratulations, Dr. Peres and Eduardo for this session. I have two questions. First, I would like to talk about, well, where do you see the lower leverage? EBITDA and net revenue, it is 1.6x. There is still a lot of room for you in capital allocation. I wanted to ask, what do you think about the capital allocation today, thinking about that favorable leverage? Of course, there is a high interest rate, there is GDP that is weaker, but I wanted to know how you see. How you think about the triggers for capital allocation for brownfield, greenfield, M&As in the context of that being your strength. Also the occupancy rate cost. You mentioned that you were waiting for the occupancy cost to improve, to increase because you have pricing power.
But I wanted to know if really the occupancy cost would be moved by the larger, more established shopping malls, such as BarraShopping, or that occupancy cost would be more driven by the small malls, less consolidated, Canoas, ParkJacarepaguá, so on and so forth. That would be it. Thank you."
Jorel, everybody wants to answer the question. Anyway, leverage. We are not asset managers. Our access of cash is in net operations to see the investments and opportunities that we had. We deleveraged the company strategically. We talked about that in the fourth quarter of 2021 to have less leverage. Well, everything that happened in the pandemic, all the discounts in rent were given in the context of the pandemic. Now, what we have seen, what we have done with capital allocation is to give back some more money to the investors since there were less investments.
Nonetheless, we invested about BRL 70 million in that order of magnitude, and we repurchased these shares in the order of BRL 55 million. So we are now going to deleverage. If there is less investment, we will give more money to the shareholders. However, looking at 2023, we have two expansions. As I have mentioned, it is almost 21,000 sq m. Eduardo talked about several opportunities for expansion. That should continue to follow up on the growth of the company, improving our shopping malls. Therefore, as we have said, taking your second part in the question, we are growing the occupancy cost is one of the priorities of the company. So I am going to let Eduardo and Dr. Peres comment.
Here is Eduardo. Sorry. You were commenting about the occupancy cost, and I believe that the search for keeping the threshold of occupancy cost for our tenants is eternal. We know that that's important because the profitability of the tenant is at stake, and therefore our. Along that path, we try to negotiate everything. This year, just to give you an example, we have big contracts with the energy utilities companies. We have a contract of BRL 200 of PLD. Since there is an excess of water and the price of energy has come to BRL 50, our contract predicts that we can opt at the beginning of the year for subcontracting 100% or part, in this case, half.
We've done so, and we reverted that discount, which is BRL 15 million- BRL 20 million discount for the economies for our tenants, so they can have a low working cost. The search for efficiency, condominium efficiency, is eternal. Just to take another example, a shopping mall that was five, six malls. We have malls that were five, six years without increasing condominium costs. This is our total attention to this detail. It's not the small ones or the big ones, it's every mall. Would you like to say anything else?
I would like to say that this opportunity is as we've said, this issue is connected to the interest rates, because obviously, if we had an interest rate that was low, we would have had a larger revenue. However, on the other hand, even with the high interest rates, because we build a lot of shopping malls with interest rates at 100%. I'd like to say, if you have the opportunity of something that is complementary to the company in terms of growth and productivity, therefore gains in scalability and economic gains.
If that happens, the company will examine this, because regardless of the issue of the economic, macroeconomic, the politics, it doesn't matter. We will always have to go over and revisit the new opportunities. Well, you're doing this and that, people might say. It's a question of opportunity. Once we want to do something, it has to be compatible with our assets. We don't want to buy shopping malls of poor quality also. The capital allocation is to have a good return. We have to see the green fields. There has to be a higher return.
Okay, Jorel, answered?
Yes. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jorel. Next question comes from Marcelo Motta, JP Morgan.
Good morning, everyone. Question is about the Diamond Mall, the M&A acquisition. Can you give us a bit of an idea of how that is unfolding? Also, the idea of doing all this expansion at Diamond, how much does it depend on the acquisition? If there is no acquisition, there is no expansion, you're going to be taking a look at a different project. A few comments on Diamond. Thank you.
Hi, Armando. The expansions are regardless of any acquisition. We've been working for some time, and we've been working with a reallocation of areas, bringing a nice product for the shopping mall. Regarding the BRL 24.95 million acquisition, we hope that there is the liquidation soon. It's under the approval of the CADE, the council, and we hope that that happens soon. It is important to highlight that we are going BRL 75.05 million of the mall, which gives us a lot of comfort.
Okay? Perfect. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Fanny Oreng, Santander.
Good afternoon, everyone. Dr. Peres, Eduardo, Armando, Marcelo. I would like to leave my compliments for Dr. Peres for the trajectory and congratulations to Eduardo for the new position. My question is simple. Most has been answered, but we know that we've had two to three specific assets that should go through a process of revitalization, revamping. Sorry, can I continue? Armando? Can you hear me?
Excuse me. One minute for the reconnection of the speakers. I think we can try having our next question.
Yes, sure. It's Fanny Oreng. We can continue? Okay, can you hear me now?
Our next question is from Daniel Gasparete, from Itaú BBA.
Hello. Good morning. Just wanted to thank Peres for all these years in the conference calls. Hopefully, we'll have him with us for more time. We've learned a lot, and I wanted to ask you a question. Eduardo, I want to ask you a question. If we were to list the, I don't know, expansion, M&A, payment of dividends, how do you see these levers and what would you say is the best way to unlock more potential for the company?
Mr. Daniel, I think the speakers did not get your question. Could you repeat it?
Sure, of course. I was saying that, first of all, I wanted to congratulate Peres for all these years in the conference calls. Hopefully, he will continue with us in the next calls because we learned a lot with him. I also wanted to congratulate Eduardo for the new position, and I wanted to ask him a question. My question would be about the following. How do you see the main levers to unlock more potential for the company? If you were to list that refilled expansion, M&A, dividend payments, etc . How do you see that? What do you think would be the main way for the company to have better value?
Hello, Daniel. This is Eduardo Peres. Thank you for your question. It's very interesting to think about the opportunities that we have in terms of return for investment. I believe that it is fundamental that we invest in the assets that we have, because that represents great value for the company. The rest is going to come from the quality of the services that we offer. When we have an expansion, for instance, we want to continue to make this work. We want to have more people working with us. We want to have the right consequences for them. We want to distribute dividends. We want to maybe purchase another mall or another company. In my mind, it is very clear that the better our assets, more distribution of dividends we'll have.
Excellent. Thank you, Eduardo.
Congratulations. I think there's another part of your question that we wanted to address.
No, that was basically it.
That was it. About priorities under your direction. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question is from Fanny Oreng from Santander. Hello, good afternoon. I think you can hear me now.
Hello, Fanny. Good afternoon, Armando, Marcelo, Teresa, everyone, really. I wanted to thank and congratulate Dr. Peres for everything that we've learned in these past few years. Thank you also, Eduardo. Congratulations on the new position. The question here for Eduardo is the following. We understand that there are two or three assets that still have to be reviewed, such as Shopping Vila Olímpia, Shopping Santa Úrsula, New York City Center. I think it would be interesting if you could share a bit of what you intend to do. Of course, you cannot tell us everything, but just so we have a quick idea on how that's going to be reviewed or repositioned. Thank you.
Thank you, Fanny, for that question. I think it is relevant. As for the New York unit, it is undergoing an interesting transformation right now. We're looking at investments that are around BRL 50 million for the next two years on that unit to reposition the asset. That is a constant project for us. The pandemic did affect us, especially in terms of our ability to reinvest. There's this expression that says, "If you need to survive, you cannot really dream. There is no space for dreaming." But now we have survived, and we have now space to dream again.
We want to improve all of our buildings, all of our units and projects. It is an important portfolio. We cannot do everything that we want. We have limited resources, but we for sure are trying to do our best. All of the assets that you have mentioned, they're not forgotten. We have been trying to improve all of them.
By the way, Eduardo. Shopping Vila Olímpia, we had the best performance in the fourth quarter. That's an important recovery that we have to consider. It's true.
Thank you so much, Fanny, for your question.
Thank you all.
I would like to thank everyone for your patience. We have now ended the Q&A session. Let's see. If you have any further questions, please contact the investor relations department. I will now turn it over to Mr. Peres for some final messages. Mr. Peres, you have the floor.
Thank you. I would like to thank you all once again for your patience, for being connected. Unfortunately, we had a big issue here with our internet connection, but it was resolved. I believe that our team was still able to answer your questions, and I just wanted to say the following. Despite the fact that I'm going to be in the Board of Directors, I intend to continue here working with everyone, with my ideas, with new projects.
This is my hobby as well. This is something that is fun for me. It is something that I've been doing for a long time, many years, and with great pleasure. This company has this motto, which is that, "The secret of success is to do things the right way." And we'll only do things the right way if we like what we're doing. That's why I think this is partly the reason for the success of the company. People love what they're doing here. Thank you so much.
This is the end of our conference call for Multiplan for this quarter. We would like to thank you all for your participation. Have a great day.