Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Multiplan's Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today we have with us José Isaac Peres, CEO; Mr. Armando d'Almeida Neto , CFO and IRO; Mr. Marcello Barnes, vice president of development; Mr. Hans Melchers, planning and investor relations director; and Mr. Richard Svartman , digital strategy director. We would like to tell you that today's event is available for download at the website ir.multiplan.com.br. We would also like to let you know that the participants will only hear the earnings call during the presentation. Thereafter, we will start with a Q&A session when we will provide you with further instructions. Should you need any assistance during this earnings call, please press asterisk zero to reach the operator. Before proceeding, let us mention that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Multiplan management and on information currently available to the company.
Well, these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance, and they involve uncertainties and risks that are related to future events. Therefore, they depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that industry macroeconomic conditions may affect the results and may lead to results that are materially different from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. The earnings call should last about 60 minutes. Thereafter, the investor relations team will be available should you have any questions. Now, I'd like to give the floor to Mr. José Isaac Peres, CEO. He will start with the presentation. Mr. Peres, the floor is yours.
Hello. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to be here. A renewed pleasure, actually, to be here for our earnings call. I think that we have great things to talk about today. In the second quarter of 2022, Multiplan actually achieved new records, and we leveraged many of our results here from our management team. It's great to see that the sales are increasing with a growing number of people walking by our shopping malls. This is visible. Even more movement than we had before the pandemic, and it's great to see that the customers are in a family environment, a happy environment, an environment that sparks joy because the shopping malls in Brazil are that.
That combination of a growing quarter and the rate of occupancy that has grown a lot, many of the stores as well, with a low index of people that are having issues, economic issues. Now we have stability. We don't have that many defaults. Our tenants, as I told you, are growing at an accelerated pace.
We're talking about BRL 4.9 billion in this quarter, reaching a new record in sales for the second quarter. Always the end of the year is the strongest quarter, but we have a total revenue of sales that we should get to BRL 20 billion for this company. We never actually got to that number before, and that shows. That highlights, actually. This result is 64% higher to the same period in 2021, and if you compare to 2019, a year that we had a growth in the economy, we didn't have the pandemic, we had a growth of almost 29% in comparison to 2019. So we've had a growth in sales in our shopping malls above 25% in comparison to the first quarter of 2021, and 14 of them actually grew on double digits in regards to the same period of 2019.
I would like to actually mention a few exceptional cases. It is important to mention them. ParkShopping Canoas . It is a mall that is completing its five-year birthday, let us just say. Spectacular sales. We actually got a growth in sales to the same period of 2018, right? 2018? Yeah. Well, a growth of 86% since the second quarter of 2018. It is something fantastic. It is as if you are doubling the size of your shopping mall. You are doubling the sales. It is great. Also, we have to talk about Village Mall. We have to highlight that in the second quarter of 2022, we have sales that surpassed 59% in the same period of 2019. If you compare to 2021, even higher. Higher percentage of growth. The flow of vehicles has also grown, and we are basically at the same levels of 2019, which is great news.
We have the different transport systems with Uber or the regular privately owned cars that has grown and that is very good. We have to highlight that most of our tenants, they have e-commerce, and it does not hinder the services provided for the shopping mall by the tenants, it actually complements. But remember, nothing actually surpasses the on-site sales. I would like to comment a little bit more on that. Our net revenue got to. Our gross revenue actually got to BRL 473 million. That is a revenue by the company. Here, there is a relation, I should say, that I would like to highlight. I always noticed that usually the gross revenue of the shopping center, shopping mall, is always 10% of the actual value of the mall.
If the gross revenue is BRL 2 billion, it is because probably we before got to BRL 20 billion in the value of the mall, maybe more. But the beginning of the year is also a bit slower than the end of the year. This year we have the elections. I do not think that the behavior of our customers will actually change. The operational revenue was BRL 428 million, also a record for the second quarter. The highest in the history of Multiplan in that period. That result allowed us to get to BRL 300 million in EBITDA just on this quarter. I think that these numbers that we are presenting to you, they are amongst the best, the most important numbers of the listed companies in the stock exchange here in Brazil. Also, I would like to bring your attention to a point.
We have had a better result if we did not actually deny, let us just say, we did not get BRL 1.3 billion in revenue. This is important because we relinquished that BRL 1.3 billion so we could actually allow some breathing room for our tenants. That is the key issue here. They are our partners. We wanted to solve the issue of vacancy. We reallocated many of our tenants. Many of these spaces, we actually implemented new technologies. Today we are hearing a lot about what we said that the on-site commerce is over and everything was going to be remote. No. That is not the way. People are gregarious by nature. They want to be somewhere physically. They want to be on-site. Purchasing at a shopping mall is a party. People are simply. They do not want to just buy things.
They want to get the whole experience of getting to meet each other on site. We would like to always have a great experience, a fun experience, as we have in Jacarepaguá, for example, at the end of last year. The shopping mall is one of the most beautiful and intriguing shopping malls of the country. We always have to raise the bar. We have to have a reference. We are the reference. Our challenge is always to deliver more than the threshold, more than people actually expect. Jacarepaguá, if you can go there, you will see, I would say, the most unique shopping mall in the world. Not only internally, but externally. We have the park for children, for pets, for dogs, and for cats as well. I do not know if there is any other pets that you can actually bring to the shopping mall.
Cats and dogs. We actually pay a lot of attention to the human factor, the desire of people, the feeling of getting together. I always mention that at our company. We have desire because humans are a machine moved by desire and feelings as well. It is with that thing in mind, in Ribeirão Preto, we implemented last year the management center of emotions. Now we are servicing something that human beings actually are lacking sometimes. Something that humans need. We have an innovation, the first one in the world. When we had, for example, the medical centers in the shopping malls 30 years ago, we were the first ones, if you remember. People thought that that was not compatible, but now that is the norm, and we receive over 300,000 appointments monthly. 300 medical appointments per month. That is a lot.
The company will always go in the direction of what the client or the consumer needs. We are always putting ourselves in the shoes of our customers. What would be good for our customer? Whatever is good for us is better, is the best, actually, for our customers. We would always like to deliver more. In that way, you give a wholesomeness sense and feeling to our clients, to our customers. Maybe this is one of the best performances in shopping malls in the world that we had this year, not only in Brazil, in the world, because this year was exceptional growth in sales. That is exceptional growth in revenue, growth in everything. I am just going to stop with the philosophy, and I will continue. Otherwise, I am going to take too much of your time.
Well, I have said that people are now exercising their right to freedom that we could not exercise during the pandemic. The collective will to live, our leitmotif is what is behind the growth in the shopping malls. Remember, the human behavior is gregarious, and that is a key issue. A poet said once that a monkey can never be a monkey by himself or by herself. They work in groups. In the pandemic, we are advanced monkeys, and we like to live in our gregarious groups. Remember, and with that thing that people like to get together, we have had over 170 events, 35 more than the second quarter in 2019. Just the first quarter, right? Second. Okay. It was the second. We would like to highlight that one of the things that we did was the immersive show on Van Gogh, the Dutch painter.
We have started actually in MorumbiShopping, and it surpassed all expectations, and we had a global record of sales for the franchise of 370,000 tickets. I am talking about 370,000 tickets to see the show based on Van Gogh. Just on this, we are talking about 370,000 tickets. MorumbiShopping had a growth that was exceptional as well. In second quarter, we grew 40% and 28% in car traffic in comparison to the same period in 2019. We are surpassing all the numbers from 2019. That project that is also in Rio de Janeiro and Brasília, it just started in Brasília, and the company continues with promotion marketing that is ever stronger, adding news that is fun, that bring comfort, that bring culture.
Now we get to Rio de Janeiro with the 8K technology that just made its debut here in BarraShopping , and we saw it in São Paulo. Also, I mentioned that actually we have faced many adversities during the pandemic. ParkJacarepaguá. was one of the ones that we faced a lot of adversities as well. Now, we have went through many, many crises over these last 50 years since the inception of our company, and we have always learned, and this is not a Chinese invention, that crisis generate opportunities. This is something that is in the DNA of any entrepreneur. You have to take the crisis and make it into an opportunity. Lemons into lemonade. I remember that in 1963, when we had the political changes here in Brazil and my first big business here, and we continued with resilience ever since. Finally, Multiplan.
I started my life as an entrepreneur in 1963, and I believe that in the next year, I will have 60 years experience in the business. I am not, let us just say crazy, and we continue to create many things that many entrepreneurs cannot do because we are visionaries. For many of you that look at age as something bad, do not do that. Growing old is something that happens naturally, but you can choose to feel old. You can choose to feel old at 40 years old, but you can be young in your mind at whatever age you have. I am very happy to do what I love, which is to create, to innovate, to provide happiness to people. That has brought a lot of good results for the company, and that is a feeling. You reap what you sow.
We have to deliver more than what people expect. We have to turn dreams into reality, because when the reality is larger than the dream, it is always good. That is what we are pursuing, to surprise people, to awe our clients and provide more comfort, more joy, sparking that joy in our clients. Because when you can actually work with health, work with the soul, and work also with the desires, with what you covet, then you have an environment that you can create a micro city. It is not a Disney World, but we could say that it is an oasis in our cities. That is the DNA of our company, to invest in the joy of our clients, of our customers. I would like to highlight the real estate DNA. We started as a real estate company, and now we have more projects.
Remember, I would like to say that our project in Porto Alegre, Golden Lake, just by the side of BarraShoppingSul , right in front of Orla do Guaíba, it is still in expansion. We just launched in October of last year our first core, several condominiums. It is a big condominium that encompasses several condominiums. It is like a neighborhood. We actually sold already 50% of the VGV, which is estimated to be BRL 570 million. Regardless of the economic moment that is of uncertainty in regards to politics, the election, the economy, the pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2, we continue. We continue regardless, pushing forward regardless of the adversities. I would like to say that Multiplan has 825,000 square meters in private area that is potential for future developments in real estate, and this is already paid. We already acquired these.
Many of these real estate are around our malls, and they had an exceptional valuation. 200,000 square meters of these 825,000 are expansions of our malls itself, which are projected, and we are just waiting for the most opportune moment to actually start the works. Also, what I would like to highlight, and we have been working, it is the investments in technology. We continue to advance in digital innovation. Our app, named Multi, has over 2.5 million accumulated downloads and has been used in this quarter alone by 700,000 different customers, over double what we actually got last year. There is inside of the company a potential for digital content, a huge potential. There is almost one Brazil inside of all of our malls, and we are still developing this potential to offer to our clients more sales, making purchasing easier, more awards, more points, more advantages.
Therefore, inside of the company, we have this content. Those of you that go to our malls year-on-year, you can see that. Once again, we can use this app for several of our services that we already provide. I would like to highlight that we have been working for 15 years. Actually, it has been 15 years since we did our IPO. We take part on all the indexes of the stock exchange, IBrX 50, IBOV, and there are several others. The secret to success is to do things right. Just to give you a bit of context of what has happened over these 15 years. We actually multiplied the company since we did the IPO. This company already invested over, well, its pure value over, so more than BRL 20 billion, when we had the revenue that was half of that.
Today, we have double the revenue. The idea that the wholesale commerce, that the on-site commerce would be over with the remote commerce, that fallacy is over. With the post-pandemic, we can see that people go, and they want to go to our malls, and they want to be there. Our customers, they are not simply satisfied standing in front of a computer and purchasing something and pressing a button. No. That on-site thing, seeing each other, is something key of the human behavior. Maybe I got a bit over the time, and I apologize for that. I will finish saying that what has happened over these last 15 years since the IPO for our shareholders, we have a revenue of BRL 368 million in 2007, and now we catapulted that to BRL 1.7 billion over the last 12 months.
I believe that we're going to get close to BRL 2 billion or even surpass the BRL 2 billion mark. In that IPO, the revenue of the company is BRL 21 million in 2007, and now the revenue in the last 12 months, it is BRL 657 million. I hope that this number is much better towards the end of the year. That is all that I have to say to you. Thank you for your trust. I apologize for taking too long. I give the floor to our colleagues. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are now going to start with the question -and -answers for investors. Should you have any questions, please type asterisk one. If you need anything, type asterisk two. The questions will be serviced in the order they are received. We require that you use your phone when you ask the question. Then we will provide the best quality of sound. Please wait while we collect the questions. Our first question is from Pedro Lobato, Bradesco BBI. Hello.
Good morning. Thank you for that presentation and for the opportunity to ask a question. My first question has to do with capital allocation, specifically your own capital. We saw the taxes for this quarter. We saw an impact due to the CP. We wanted to understand a little bit more about those taxes for the second semester, since we know that historically, usually, we have more taxes in the second semester, which is actually the fourth quarter. So we wanted to know more about that. We have another question. We are trying to understand the failure-to-pay rate. We see that the provision in DRE has increased, so we wanted to understand a little bit more about that, too.
Hello, Pedro. This is Armando. Thank you for your question. About capital allocation, this is related to what we were saying in the previous quarter call. This year we've been very selective in terms of using resources, and you've seen that there was a purchase of stock that is similar to the line, the level of CapEx that we had this first semester. We're trying to make capital work for us since we have a higher interest rate right now as well. Thinking about the future, we have announced that there's going to be a JCP of BRL 150 million approximately. We're leveraging, we're generating income, we're generating cash. This allows us to understand the opportunities for growth a little bit better.
We also have good return for shareholders, and we can also purchase more shares. It's exactly what we have done in the past quarters. In terms of failure to pay, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague here.
When it comes to failure to pay, ever since 2019 and actually in the previous quarter, we have tried a few things. There are a few factors that are pretty obvious here. Of course, there was an increase in income, so of course, we're going to have that issue as well. It's a consequence. We know that we're more conservative now. We're looking at this average of five years approximately to understand accounts receivable. It is going to remain conservative. It is part of the audit analyses that we have right now. We are trying to be more conservative for the future, and we have to remember that this is still better than what we had historically.
For the first semester, I think we have to consider all these factors that lead to that. About the first quarter, I think this is not determinant for the increase of expenses at the shopping mall. In Jacarepaguá, for instance, we had great success in sales. We've seen a few other expenses that we have to consider as well, but that would be it.
Excellent. Thank you for the details.
Thank you, Pedro, for the question.
Our next question is one from XP Investimentos.
Hello, good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question here. My first question has to do with the expectations in terms of sales. We've seen good sales in July, good expectations. Do you think that's going to remain the same trend for the next quarters? Also, about the same-store rent. We've seen real growth, and we believe that this was something that was recurrent for you. We wanted to understand, how do you see those adjustments in terms of the inflation? Do you think that's going to continue to happen? What kind of trend should we anticipate in the short term, especially?
Hello, this is Armando. Thank you for that question. Of course, it's difficult to explain what we're expecting in terms of sales for retail. What I do believe is that we had a worse scenario for Brazil than we were expecting, but it turned out to be better than we expected. This has been confirmed with the results, with the numbers that we're looking at for this previous quarter. Now, thinking about the economy, we believe that we can be optimistic that there was a good review of the GDP, for instance.
We're looking at different analyses in Brazil that shows that the Brazilian economy is recovering. What's important here is not what I am saying about that macro data. I'm sure there are more experts who can tell you about that. What I can do is tell you what we're doing at our shopping malls to have a better market share. Peres was talking about events with almost 200 events happening at the malls, 170 approximately, and that increases the amount of people, the number of people coming to the malls and the number of cars as well, vehicles. We continue to have a very good program, a very good agenda for the next few quarters. We have a full program, a full list of activities programmed for our shopping malls in 2023. We understand that we're also working with the mix. We want to work with that.
Sometimes the market doesn't really notice how valuable it is to adjust the mix of stores to come with new operations, with new brands, and also that great list of activities and programs that we have, campaigns that we have. This is very positive for sales. As a consequence, we see good numbers and also good rent results. What I wanted to reinforce is that activity, that expectation actually, that we have. We are very positive that we're going to have an increase versus last year because we have changed the mix. There's this great strategy of promotions and campaigns that was reestablished because shopping malls. I'm just adjusting my mic—as I was saying, our malls are ready to continue to work like that and to have a better market share.
As for SSR, the same-store rent—as I was saying about the same-store rent, when I look at the growth that we had in 2019, I see this crooked picture, I would say, in a way. Because ever since. We have contracts that are long-term. There is this change in inflation, and then we have to see what happened. Of course, what happened in 2020, what happened in 2021 had a very important impact. We have to see those one-year periods of time. In 2020, we had a change of around 4%. In 2021, it was 7.9%. If we only look at 2019, we're going to have the wrong expectations. That's not really going to reflect reality. But despite all that, we've seen a real growth of over 2% ever since 2019, around 2.5%.
We have to remember that it was 87%. The SSR was 87% negative in 2020. But despite all that, we were able to deal with all the expenses and still have a real growth of 2.5%. What I usually like to look at is the comparison against 2021. Because comparing against 2019, versus the last normal year, so to speak. This was just to understand what kind of sales we were looking at. It's completely different now. 2021 was a good year already to compare against. It's already normal operations somehow. The third quarter, for instance, had great results. If we look at the real growth against 2021, we're looking at around 20%. It was 19 point something. These are very good numbers. It shows our ability to manage. We're managing shopping malls in a very good way.
When you think about sales and same store, this is great. What Peres is saying is also connected to all the shopping malls, and that's the consequence. I hope I've answered your question.
Excellent, thank you.
Our next question is from Fanny Oreng from Santander.
Hello, good morning. I have two questions thinking about the long term. I think one of you mentioned during the presentation that you like to create, right? We see scenarios where there's a strong reduction in ABL for the next few years, and we know that Multiplan is one of the companies that has developed the most in Brazil. How do you see that development for the future? I understand this is not the best scenario right now because of the interest rates and all that, but how do you see that opportunity for the development of more greenfield in the next three to five years, approximately?
Thinking about ABL, which is the leasable area. We were also thinking about the amount of shopping malls with photovoltaic energy. I mean, what kind of impact is that going to have in occupancy and in other elements, using that kind of energy, using that kind of source, and does it make sense to continue the rollout?
Well, this is José Peres. I'm going to answer. Brazil has around 5,700 cities approximately, and I think only 200 of them have a mall. There are places, cities with 100 or 120,000 inhabitants, but when you're talking about 100, this is nothing in Brazil.
If you go to Europe, of course, you see that cities are considered already a large city with 50,000 sometimes. Same thing in the U.S. The number of cities is the population is well-distributed, I would say. But in our case, we're mostly in large urban centers. That's what I'm trying to say. But these cities, they were embryos a few years ago, and they have grown so much. We know that in Brazil. Brazil still has a great potential for growth in every sense of the word. Now this is revealing, also in agriculture. We understand that this has leveraged our development. We have green currency nowadays. It's not US dollars, but it is green because of the agriculture.
I understand that in the future, malls are going to be developed with a lower cost, and they're going to be looking at very local needs in these places, in these cities. We understand that retail nowadays, stores that are in three or four or five thousand places, they don't really know where to go anymore. In the future, I think we're going to look at these medium-sized cities to receive these new places. We're going to have more adapted equipment. We're going to have this kind of analysis. We continue to follow what people want. We're trying to service people's needs. When we started with malls around 50 years ago, I remember in the U.S. at the time, we were looking at different cities in the U.S. and Europe to try and understand what would be interesting, because we didn't really have malls in Brazil.
The first one was Ibirapuera in São Paulo, which was back in 1973. It was built in 1973. I have to say that I was surprised with the idea of American people because the cinemas were not in the mall. They said, Well, that's because people who go to the movies, they don't really go to the mall. It's a different audience, they said. I said, Okay, okay, it's different audiences, but we are different here. I decided to put all of the movies, the cinema within the shopping mall. Here in Brazil, it's a real activity, going to the movies. The first multiplex in Brazil was in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. People said at the time, That's crazy to create a multiplex. I think around 30 years ago, people would say, Well, Peres, that's not going to work.
They're going to have to close after one year. The first year of operations, we had over a million people going to the movies in Brasília. The closest competitor, which is no longer here, he said, Okay, I bet you a box of Dom Pérignon champagne that you are going to close within one year. Of course, I won the bet, but I never got the champagne. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, we have this feeling here, we have this perception where we can interpret the wishes that people have. Our work here is really psychology in a way. That's why we have created the first collective psychoanalysis center. Psychoanalysis is usually a very expensive thing, but here, we are working to make sure that people, all people, are able to have that kind of service, and it's more affordable.
Instead of buying a shirt that is BRL 150, they can go to a therapist and get help for their mental health and spend the same amount, and they don't get divorced, let's just say, or something like that. We're helping people in terms of mental health. That's very important. We're trying to offer more comfort to people. It has to be not just a material thing but also psychological. We're trying to offer more joy to people. That's a very important thing. If you look at this, when people go to a mall and it's crowded, I think the atmosphere is very positive. People change their behavior. I usually say that the best urban antidepressant is a shopping mall. I usually say that because people feel better after they go to the mall.
Well, this is all very subjective, of course, but this is also what brings us closer to our objective. We're trying to transform these wishes or needs or sensations or feelings. We're trying to offer that joy. We're trying to bring more comfort. I still haven't put a hotel within a mall, but maybe someday. Well, I hope I have answered your question. Maybe it was a little bit abstract. I was a bit abstract in my answer, but, when you ask me about Brazil, I have to say, this is a place, a country where we really have most of the people centralized in these large urban areas. Now with COVID-19, there was kind of a change, of course. I think this happened in the U.S. as well.
I was recently in Miami, and I noticed that there is this migration from New York, from California, from L.A. After the pandemic and all that fear that was created with all the press, with all the news, et cetera, I think there was this kind of transition. Just to complement on that, Fanny , just about the photovoltaic sources of energy. At VillageMall, we have that. We have that service, and I think it leads to a much lower cost for tenants in that place. We are looking at Canoas, we are looking at ParkJacarepaguá, which are newer buildings, and they have this great structure for having their own source of energy. Of course, it is not enough to cover the entire consumption of the mall, but it is around 12% - 15% approximately of the consumption of the mall.
This generates already an interesting reduction for the condominium charges. That is a very good thing. We are going to have better CapEx. We are going to reuse water. We are going to have a better use of electric energy, et cetera. Actually, Marcello Barnes is going to tell us more about that.
It is not just the photovoltaic. It is air conditioning, it is synergies and the use of water, reuse of water, the intelligent staircases, elevators. We have technology being implemented. Lighting, for example. All the lighting is much more economic. There are several things that we do, that we invest in technology, that we implement in new technologies to be more streamlined. The example of Jacarepaguá is the one, the mall that has the lowest cost to run, let us just say, in the network. Everything that works there, we actually replicate to all the other malls. Another point, still about the first part of the question to Dr. Peres, to the new ABL. We have the greenfield. We have new ABL, so the areas around the malls, and we have expansions around those leasable areas.
We have the period of leveraging the high interest rates, but we have many malls that are asking for an expansion. This is a great moment. Not only that, we are considering new urban centers. We have to consider where the hotels are located, where the hospitals are located. It is a new world where you can move very easily, and you can solve many things on a trip. I remember that I used to go to BarraShopping every day, and then I saw a friend, and she told me, Why do you come here every day? I say, Well, I get everything done here at the shopping mall. That is it. You just have to have comfort to run your day-to-day errands, to solve your day-to-day business.
Wonderful. Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Pedro Hajnal , Credit Suisse.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for the time, for the presentation. I have two questions. First is in regards to the lease adjustment. We have been using the pandemic 2019, the comparison base from that year, and you said that we have the cumulative growth that surpasses those numbers. Is there any buffer for discount, something that happened, not necessarily in 2019? We had a few points for improvement, so how do you see that real gains in leases? The second question is, Jacarepaguá, the brands. As you have mentioned, the company invested in the shopping mall, and the expenses could actually hinder the marketing of the shopping malls. Are you going to implement that same plan in other malls in terms of marketing, and do you see that down the line, would this be positive promotion-wise?
Pedro, thank you for the questions. I am going to summarize my answer. Should I do it? No, you do it.
No, you can do it.
Pedro, here is the following. The point that you mentioned, which is the new shopping malls, that issue of marketing, before the shopping mall, after three Christmases, you are maturing. Now we need five to six Christmases. The takeoff. To get the plane in the sky, just at cruise level, it is not as quick as before. Before, we did not have that many malls. It is a supply and demand issue. Before, it was more exclusive. It was a privilege for the tenants to be in the shopping mall. Now Brazil has, I do not know the number, but 500, 600 malls, let us just say here in Brazil altogether. We have 20, and we have the 20 top malls, and then there is the whole rest. Anyway, that is how it is, the market.
You cannot just take back the numbers of 40, 50 years ago. I remember that 40, 50 years ago, we got 50% revenue, and we would be paying the installments just for the financing of the real estate. The interest rates were +12%, correcting by the economic indexes, which got you sometimes to 100%. Even though there was the revenue over 200, we managed to receive 50% that basically we had laying there in the cash flow of the company. We would pay for the mall in 10 years. Now it is different. My partner, so there was a partner, and then they stopped, and I came to Multiplan, and I was doing the malls for some time. Obviously, the development that we saw at that time, it was almost a privilege to actually have your store in the mall.
Now we are working with more simpler numbers. I can say the following. The real estate entrepreneur, I used to pray for the day that Brazil would have interest rates of 12% without correcting by any index. 12%. Because 300% correction, I remember the last month of Sarney's government, and we had 80% inflation. I mean, 80% inflation, come on. The supermarket would readjust the prices every day. Fortunately, we are not in that situation of the late 1980s anymore. The world has changed, and now we have a more civilized equation, more based on numbers. Today we see countries in Europe, for example, that are working with an interest rate of 12%, regardless of the inflation being much higher. Today, if you have a hike in interest rates, you have a lot of people filing for bankruptcy. You see the United States.
If you grow higher, you're going to get bankruptcy. I think that our central bank was very daring in having a strong hike and then a strong downturn in the interest rates. It was tough, but those of us that lived through the hyperinflation of the previous decades, we have records. We know how to deal with that. Those of us that took part of that, we know perfectly well how it is difficult to deal with 30 years of hyperinflation. Brazil, thanks to the economic institutions, has grown, and we've grown 10% per year even, regardless of inflation, regardless of the period. I would like to say that we are talking about— I think that I got a bit lost here with the question.
No, no, I can continue. Pedro, here is the thing. Obviously, a great deal of the discounts are going to be phased out since the fourth quarter of last year. Actually, third quarter of last year was something that we had the start of this, very specifically. Of course, we have discounts; we have specific situations. All the shopping mall today, the investors, the entrepreneurs—they're going to have to invest money. Those funds, they have to be enough to make the plane fly at cruise level. Getting to the takeoff, it takes a long time. It takes four or five years. In Jacarepaguá, for example, we are climbing up. We're still climbing. We're still reaching those cruising levels with the plane. There, we're servicing a demand that it's not easy.
It's not easy for you to imagine that you're going to make a mall, and it's a super mall, and that in three years, it's going to be flying by itself. No. It's something that we are creating out of zero. Pedro, discounts. If you get the situation of Shopping Vila Olímpia in São Paulo, there is still the higher influence of the offices than more than people living around. With people coming back to the office, there's a growth in terms of the second quarter of this year in over 100% in regards to the previous year, 112%. These are opportunities of you reducing the discounts, but they are much lower than what we did last year. The marketing expenses, which Dr. Peres has commented and perfectly well about Jacarepaguá, it's what he said.
The promotion fund is, let's just say, a saving accounts that we have been doing for some time, and we just started with a very small amount of money, if you say. Now this is a moment for investment to get this plane to take off. As we say here and everywhere else, there is no free lunch. You have to purchase your materials. We have several other opportunities. We have campaigns, one from Multi, another of influencers in the shopping malls. These are non-recurring, one-off investments, and these are incentives to increase the foot traffic. Then we have a consequence reflected in higher sales. Whenever we see a good opportunity, we will invest in marketing, sure. There's nothing that is extremely planned. There is always opportunities that pop up, and we plan that in the budget of the mall.
Thank you very much, Dr. Peres.
Thank you.
Next question, Elvis Credendio, BTG Pactual.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Dr. Peres, I have a few questions here. The first one about sales. Your shopping malls, they were very strong in the last quarter, and the perspective is good, as Armando has said. If we see month-on-month, there is an accelerated growth comparing to 2019. I just wanted to understand and know if you've done a few studies. Is it more connected to wholesale, schedule? What is the speed of acceleration? The second question is in regards to flow for traffic. I want to understand what do you see in your end to explain the standards comparing to 2019. Of course, we didn't have the pressures of last year. Maybe you have less foot traffic because we still don't have that many movies, or the customers—they're changing their habits to online. What can you tell us about that?
There's a saying that says, as long as we're paying for the—w ell, I am happy, and let's go back to March. Could you imagine that the sales would go 20%, 30%? 25%? No way. No. Let's look at this backward. We cannot look at backwards and saying that this is deceleration, that we grew first 30% and then 25%. No. In comparison, this is still great growth month-on-month. This is also vacation time. Remember post-pandemic, that people want to leave, travel. So it's evident that the cities. More than that, let's look at another aspect. Let me give you a comparison here.
I am looking at the occupancy cost, which is the question that you've been asking us day to day. I hope that today, many of these questions have been answered. But look at this inflation, IGP-M that just was published is below 11%. You're going to see effects on TGPI. The growths are growing 25%, inflation 10%, 11%. It's much more sustainable and differently from what we saw last year in the previous years. So I'm not saying growing at 20%, 30% a deceleration. No, we're growing at a lower level, but it's exceptional growth. We couldn't even foresee this. It's unimaginable. That number, 23%, we got scared when we saw those numbers. They were so good. It's a good, scary feeling of joy that we're seeing that our strategy is generating results, and that allow us to have a result as we presented.
Before we got the pandemic and the whole thing, we saw growth that was lower of the last vehicles first. First, we have to consider the Uber effect. Car sharing, that's a natural thing. Today, the malls are not isolated. They are part of a mini city. We have the multi-use integrated lifestyles. We're talking about three malls of ours that are by big buildings. There is a point that I would like to highlight. The main shopping malls that are elected as the best shopping malls in Brazil, they are with Multiplan. In São Paulo, it's Morumbi, was elected the best shopping mall in São Paulo. Barra Shopping always wins every year. Belo Horizonte, the same year. Ribeirão, there is no competition. Park Shopping as well. So if you take a look at everything that we have, our workhorses are always racing and getting there first.
Are you unhappy with the results that we are presenting today? Wait for the end of the year, then you can see what we are doing. But the first time that I went to ParkShopping, there was only ParkShopping. Today, we are surrounded. Canoas that we did five years ago, plus Jacarepaguá. All of that brings an impact that allows—w ell, Morumbi, it's an icon that has been developed. There is more and more to grow, to develop. The vehicle traffic, it doesn't necessarily indicate a precise indicator of sales. Even vacancy is higher. With higher vacancy, we are still getting great growth.
We can see that the foot traffic and the vehicle traffic, my expectation is not to see a growth in vehicle traffic. I don't see that happening because the malls are more central. We have public transport, and people even go there by walking. Sometimes you get your kids at school, and then you go have some lunch at the mall on foot. We have to be very objective. Unfortunately, inflation has the market for the salesman. The lack of products created a market. Buy now because I don't know when I'm going to receive this. Since the world stopped with production for three years, you don't have any stocks. You don't have televisions on stock. You don't have products on stock in the warehouse.
When you go to a store in the shopping mall, and the salesman say, Buy this watch because I don't know when I'm going to get another one. Then there is another factor. I don't know how much it will cost in the future. It's evident that this is not good. Inflation is not good. The lack of products is not good. But this is the reality of today's world. I traveled to Italy recently, and I saw that everything was lacking. The products were not on the shelves. The world stopped producing. Just China grew. Everybody else took a beating. There is another point that I would like to highlight. There are some activities that we are growing. Well, we have movies that are growing. We have new launches, but this is an upside.
I don't think that we are still looking at all the indicators. Again, inflation. Inflation is the reality of the moment. If you want to buy a car, we don't have the transistors. We don't have goods. You want to purchase a watch. You don't know when you're going to get the next one. Anything that is a bit more sophisticated, it's difficult to get your hands on it. Of course, the basic part of our lives, which is food. Of course, Brazil produces a lot of raw materials and crops, and we, of course, have stronger agricultural industry here. Brazil has everything in a sense to be a great world power. We just need more order and people understanding each other. Thank you.
Next question is from André Mazini, Citibank.
Hello, Dr. Peres, Armando, everyone. A question about the real estate. You already talked about the marketing. Well, I think that the last part was the vacancy expenses. Of course, ABL leasable area is key, the acquisitions and higher vacancy than the pre-COVID time, but not so much. If you can provide us with some color on how you account for the vacancy in some of these malls. When the vacancy is 90, 95, 100, can you dilute that expense in the condominium charges and then the tenant pays for it, so the portfolio above 95, but some malls, I would say that is less than 80. That's the math. Up until 95, the condominium rates is Multiplan, the one that pays. Can you tell us about that?
André , in our malls, the vacancy charges are covered by the entrepreneur. Your question is that specifically, right? Or is there any other point?
No, that's it.
Thank you. The shopping malls expenses reflect a higher vacancy when compared to 2019, which is the base that we use. This is not an obligation and commitment of ours to forego the rent, the lease during the pandemic and received half a condominium charge. We are now making the tenants pay in a few years, but actually, we simply forgone that payment because we are partners with our tenants, and that's how we can get a better recovery. The tenants that are with us—they are our partners. We are not the middleman. To have a good tenant is a blessing. Of course, we have concessions according to their own business capacities, but we need to understand that this is a human company. We understand what's going on in the market. We thought that we stopped working during the pandemic. No, we continued diligently working.
We have problems with, in Brazil, we have problems with unemployment, but we've grown with 8 million spots here of jobs, formalized jobs here in Brazil. Maybe this is one of the few countries that unemployment has decreased. We have to celebrate that even inflation will drop. When the fuel cost decreased, it was a party. I remember that I heard people say, Now it's BRL 8, and now BRL 6 per liter. This is a point. I always look at the fuel prices. A few mitigating proposals have been implemented. Some measures that also create jobs have been implemented. The infrastructure will generate a lot of business here and will generate a lot of employment. Investment in infrastructure has been key and paramount, and that will make Brazil move forward. Thank you, André .
Thank you.
Our next question is from Rafael from Safra.
Hello, good morning. Thank you for the presentation. I wanted to know more about the turnover. I understand there was a change in the last few quarters. If you could tell us more about the new tenants and how the negotiations were with the new contracts, and also the contracts that are due now, this month, this quarter. How are negotiations in that regard?
Hello, Rafael. Thank you for your question. For the turnover, you will find more on page 31 of the report. You can see the follow-up there, who is leaving, those who are starting now. Yes, we had different factors there. We had a loss of around 1,000 square meters, but I believe that we're expanding 752. For apparel, we've had a very good growth in sales progressively.
As for the turnover volume, in the past 12 months, we've looked at around 60,000 square meters, especially in two malls. We have to remember that Jacarepaguá is not going to be considered in this math, in this number, because it's new. This shows that retail has a lot of strength, and alongside with sales performance, it also reflects the great moment that it is right now for shopping malls with a better occupancy rate. I hope I've answered your question.
Yes, this is very clear. I also wanted to know more about the contracts.
Yes, that's true. I forgot, sorry. We are negotiating. I don't want to repeat myself, but I don't usually talk about spread because it's a very abstract concept. We are looking at an average of the five past years, the first rent, and the last rent. Here we have to think about the rights and all that, and I don't really like that concept. New stores are being now negotiated for rent with a value per square meter that is higher than what we had last year. The previous contracts. Again, this is a very positive moment for malls. You might ask, well, they're already renting everything with a higher value?
We're progressively improving in that regard. We have more operations. We're going to generate more value in malls in the long run and the medium run, and we're going to have higher margins, higher numbers than what we had in the past.
Okay. Thank you for the answer. Have a great day.
Our next question is from André Dibe from Itaú BBA.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for the presentation. I have two questions here about what Dr. Peres was saying in the beginning. He mentioned an expectation for sales of BRL 20 billion for 2022 with gross income. He mentioned the numbers for gross income. I wanted to know more about sales. The sales number that you mentioned, that's going to represent around 20%-23% growth in the second semester, which is aligned with what you had in June and July. I wanted to know, is that additional, does that make sense? How do you assess an upside risk for that number? The second question has to do with the gross income. Does that include just rent, or does that include other elements as well? Does that include, I don't know, any other linear elements?
Hello, André. It's a pleasure to answer that question, André. Well, the second semester is usually better than the first, traditionally. Historically, that is what we have noticed. If we do the math here, we are reaching BRL 5 billion approximately now for this quarter. The next few months are going to be better, for sure. It has always been like that. Unless there is a catastrophe, I do not know. That is not something that we are expecting, of course. What I wanted to say, actually, is that behavior of people is usually like that. Second semester, we are going to have Christmas. Usually, the last week before Christmas represents a whole month of sales and other months. That is what we notice. Usually, people's behavior, it is usually the same. Historically, that is what we have measured. I cannot bet on this, of course, but —we had a sound issue, and we are back.
It could be more or less than that. It all depends on the factors that we are going to see in the next few months, especially with the elections. That is going to bring some uncertainty as well. If everything happens according to plan, of course, in politics, we cannot really predict much. Anyway, I believe that Brazil is going to have good performance despite all the things that we are looking at right now, the issues, but I am positive. Thank you, André, for that question.
Thank you.
Our next question is from Marcelo Motta from JP Morgan.
Hello, good morning. Just a quick question. How do you see Golden Lake, the project? It is a very good location, we understand. When we think about the next stages of this project, what do you think? We are going to have, I do not know, 80%, 90% sales in the first stage of sales. Does it depend on the macro scenario? I wanted to know more about that. If you feel there is going to be some additional pressure factors or anything.
Hello, Marcelo. This is José Peres. Well, I have been in real estate for almost 60 years, so let me explain one important thing here. In real estate in the past, many years ago, there was no financing. You would have to sell around 80% before you started a project, but you had an interest rate of around 200% or 150% a year. It was very difficult to get credit. Nowadays, with a lower interest rate, of course, you can obtain credit. You can get credit and then turn it to the buyer.
When you see, I do not know, 50% nowadays, we understand the infrastructure is very advanced. We understand that the fixed investments are very advanced. I would say that 50% of revenue can already pay for the project. You do not even have to get a credit line or something like that to build. I would say that we could have even launched a second condominium, so to speak, and we have not. We have not done so far because, of course, we are thinking or focusing mostly on selling of the first building. What we are looking at here is very, very good apartments. Very good apartments. We are looking at 400 square meters, so it is not a common apartment, of course. It is a very good size. This makes us confident that we are going to sell 100% by the end of this project.
There is a demand now for apartments that have around 160, 180 square meters. This is something that we have in our project. A lot of people have been asking for that. There is a huge demand for that kind of size, and we will work on that, of course. I think this is one of the best projects that we have had so far in the country. It is really an icon. It is really a fantastic project. It is a region that we are rescuing, with BarraShoppingSul. There were around 600 houses that were not truly houses. They were very poor, very simple. We transferred 700 people that were there to a good neighborhood that we built to try and rescue, to try and recover really that region. Then we started with the building, with the project. That is going to be great for the region.
Same thing happens in the south of Brazil. Everyone is very happy with this fantastic project. I do not know if we are going to ever have anything like that again in Brazil, honestly. Anyway, it is Multiplan trying to do its best every time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Peres.
Our next question is from Nathália Pereira at Morgan Stanley.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for the presentation. I have a quick question focused on Vila Olímpia shopping mall. We know that the occupancy has been a bit lower than the usual portfolio, and we see that there was even a comment about that, if I am not wrong. Maybe people going back to the offices, that is going to be better in the future. But I wanted to know more about that mall. Do you plan to have a different impact and occupancy rate? Do you have any strategies for the future?
Thank you for the question, Nathália . Vila Olímpia had a very interesting growth in the semester. It was very good, and this is basically due to the return of offices, people working in the offices in that neighborhood, and we have more residential buildings around that mall as well. So I am sure it is going to be a region that it is going to continue to grow as usual. We do have a strategy, but of course, we cannot give you many details because of competitors. There are many competitors around that region and that specific shopping mall. Anyway, we do have a strategy. We understand that many people suffer with the first impact that were noticed, but I am sure that that is going to be solved right now.
It is true, I agree. I think that with more people going back to offices now, this is going to have some momentum. We have around 70% or 80% of that number of people going back already. Not everything can be done via video calls. Of course, if you are talking about digital banking or something like that, you can do a lot of things online. But not every meeting can be held online. There are many projects that have to be discussed around the table, looking at spreadsheets, looking at physical documents, et cetera. I think during the pandemic, there are many buildings that had around 10% or 15% of occupancy, and now it is back to 70% or 80%. And many of these people are actually the same that used those facilities before the pandemic.
Again, Vila Olímpia is a very good center. It is a very good neighborhood for that. It is true. It is very difficult to replicate that in São Paulo again, because there is no neighborhood like that, and there is no other lot where you can build another shopping center in Vila Olímpia.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Our next question is from Jorel Guilloty , Goldman Sachs.
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. I have maybe a theoretical question, thinking about the future, really. When we are looking at the mix and all that, we understand that it is back to the old levels. We are noticing that in rent, there is a reduction of 100 times in condominiums. I understand that there was an impact by Multi, by different factors, but my question is, structurally, is there going to be an increased reduction, maybe another 50 times or something like that, beyond the 100 times? That is basically what I wanted to understand: that dynamic between the cost of condominium, the condominium charges, and rent. What kind of trend do you see for the future?
Well, about that question, it is possible to reduce these charges even more. If the company invests in a different source of energy, such as photovoltaic, for instance, we can reduce that cost of electric energy in around 50%. We used to purchase electricity at a very good cost in the past, so it did not make sense to have that kind of investment in the past. But just like what we did in VillageMall, we might want to implement that kind of initiative in other places as well. It is a way to reduce costs.
When it comes to location, when it comes to operations, besides looking at rent, we are also trying to have more efficient buildings, just like Jacarepaguá, for instance, which is going to be a very efficient condominium. It is going to have the lowest charges. It is around 20% less than the average of the other buildings in Rio de Janeiro. Is not that right? Yes. I do not have the exact number here, but it is around 20% below the average that we see in other malls. So electricity is something that we have been discussing. Photovoltaic alternatives are going to be very important in the future and some other alternatives. I think that the cost of electricity nowadays is probably 15%-20% of the condominium charges. So that is something that we can reduce. Also other measures, safety measures. We understand that cities are usually safer around malls.
We have really an army, I would say, of people to make sure that we have good safety in the premises of the mall. So we can think about all that. It is true. Jorel, thank you. Thank you for that question. I hope we have answered your question.
I just wanted to complement on what André from Itaú was asking about sales, the BRL 20 million that Mr. Peres mentioned. If we do the math very quickly, if we think about the sales in the third quarter last year, it was around BRL 9.3 billion. The first semester now, BRL 8.9 million. So it was approximately BRL 18.2 million. If we get to 20, we are looking at around 9%. Of course, we are doing the math very quickly here. But mathematically, I just wanted to show you our status right now. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your questions. We have concluded our Q&A session right now. If you have any further questions, please talk to the investor relations department. I will turn it over to Mr. Peres now for the last message. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your attention, for your patience, and for all of the questions. It is very interesting for us to get your questions. We learn a lot as well, and you can remain sure that we are very satisfied; we are very positive. We have had good results this quarter, and hopefully we are going to have even better results until the end of the year. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Peres. Thank you, everyone. This is the end of our call for this quarter. You may disconnect now. Thank you very much.