Hello, good morning. Welcome to this teleconference of the first quarter of 2026 of Ourof ino Saúde Animal. My name is Marcelo Silva, I am the CFO, and together with Kleber Gomes, our CEO, we are going to bring you the highlights of the company in the quarter, our forecast for the year. I will hand the floor to Kleber Gomes, that is going to do the official opening.
Good afternoon, good morning. It is a pleasure to get started with our call of the first quarter of 2026. Marcelo commented we had a very good growth, a very strong growth in this quarter, and we are very happy because this growth represents the continuity of our work, a very good job that we are doing for some time already. It is the reflection of our effort in innovation, research, and development.
At the end of 2024, we had a lot of launchings of new products. Also in 2025, we had very relevant products been launched, this is why we are now reaping the fruits of those launchings, and from now on. In general, I'd like to highlight that this first quarter opened a new cycle for the strategic planning of our company. We closed a cycle in 2025. We open a new one from 2026 to 2030. As mentioned in December, we are going to work on the continuous innovation with the renovation of our portfolio, working on our future pipeline, looking to the operations of the company, capital allocation, and looking also for the international expansion of the company, mainly to the Southern Cone. Also looking to other markets, to the side of Asia, with the products that we understand have a global potential.
Everything is going well. The strategic planning is in the minds of our leadership. Now we are executing with a control that is very close to what we've expected. We are really sure that we are in the right way. Of course, we know we need some adjustments a long time, but it's everything very well. In the net revenue in the quarter, we grew more than 30%. It's a very important factor, but we expect to grow even more in profitability, in rentability, always with cash management that is sustainable, so that we are able to pay dividends as we did again in the last 15, 16 months. We have paid very relevant amount of dividends with a balance in our cash and good profitability. We understand that Ourof ino's growth allows for the dilution of expenses, and with that, we increase our profitability.
We grew 32%, more than 40% in cattle, in livestock. We have Boostin a very important product for milk today. We grew with it and the distribution of Boostin began in April, May last year. This first quarter of last year, we didn't have the product for the comparison. It's not only Boostin, we have Nexlaner and other products that we've launched, FosBion B12. A lot of products that help us to capture gains. Recently, we also had a strong growth in pet, 20% in companion pets. It's the fruit of our policy of being close to the veterinarian, to the owners of pets. We have launches of pet, a very relevant product based on Fluralaner, the first in Brazil, patented as Nexlaner. We have the idea of a very positive year in front of us. We increased the gross margin.
We improved cash, very positive points. I would like to highlight as well that we began on a new campaign for our brand. We understand that we are going to strengthen even more our brand to reach all new audiences. We did a very good job refreshing our brand. It is using material that transmits what we mean to our customer. With that, we have our newest logo. Our new slogan is "Tá bem cuidado", well cared for. It's very simple. It's like the essence of Ourofi no. We are proud that we are a company that is always close to our customers, and this proximity is a reflection of our care. We are careful about our products, about our quality, the quality of our launchings. We have the best plants in Brazil, one of the best in Latin America.
Also, we are careful about our relationship with our customers, with our buyers. You are hearing this from now on, that Ourofino Animal Health is well taken care for. We also take care of our results. We are very happy for this delivery, a very strong delivery in this quarter. The sector, if you look at it, well, we have positive results with the prices and the cattle are positive. Milk also had a recovery, a rebound now. Pets, well, it's a segment that has been rejecting a little bit more. The numbers disclosed by Sindan show that pet was flat last year, but we grew 10%. This shows our strength. Well, swine, poultry are doing well. This is a positive moment of the market, very good moment for us.
Now I will hand the floor over to Marcelo, and later I will be back for the Q&A. Well, I would like to thank Ourof ino team. We have around 1,200 employees in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, other countries where we have distribution. People that take care of our business. Thank you, team. Marcelo, over to you.
Thank you, Kleber. I would like to continue now with some color about the financial highlights of our company compared to the first quarter of 2025. We begin by a consolidated view. Kleber gave the main highlights already. Our consolidated result was 32% with highlights for the improvement in the gross margin that grew to 5.4 bps. It's the result of a very efficient internal operational work, but also of the launching of nice products. Now we have a mix that is good. We have a good management without increasing the expenses.
We have diluted the SG&A. We grew EBITDA more than the gross profit. We grow always with a consistent margin. Net profit had a growth that was very expressive and showed the trends to extension, keeping the margin. Next slide, we see the consolidated view comparing with the first quarter of last year. We grew 40%, 32% between the halves, and we reached 53.9% in the margin in 2025. With this growth, when we see the segments, we have production animals that grew 40.6 bps. We have two important effects here. The growth of cattle, that is a relevant unit that grows consistently is really the main driver, but also the growth of swine and poultry with the launchings of our products and our vaccines. We are growing in two important pillars for this year.
This brings us a competitive edge in production animals. Also, we are growing with the extension of margin that is around 46.9% combining both businesses. It is important to show the positive impact of our swine line in 2026. Companion animals, although it is more challenging, this market, we understand that it's a conjunction of factors that hinder the consumption, the inflation. On the other hand, this market has this humanization of the way of managing companion animals. The company grew importantly 23.4%. This was due to the relevance of our launchings, the ectoparasiticides, and also the extension of the portfolio. This job was done very strongly by our field team. We have a growth margin that reaches 70.9% compared to last year. Good growth. We grow with that extension of our margin.
In the international operation, we had an important growth, especially on Mexico and Colombia. Looking at the year as a whole, this unit has become each time more relevant. It's on a strategy for our growth. We want to be relevant in Latin America. Because of the similarities of the sanitary challenges, we have good expectations of continuing growing and expanding our margin in the next quarters. Our company is disciplined in the management of expenses. We dilute them, we have 32.7% in the first quarter, even absorbing the costs with the payroll. We have been investing in the commercial structures and marketing structures because we understand that they are important pillars for the growth of the company. Also, the company invests as well in research, development, and innovation. We are very happy and proud because we won the FINEP prize of innovation in the agro-sustainable chain.
We are very happy for this prize. This award shows that the company is able to develop solutions for complex problems, and it is a Brazilian company that can offer good technological products for the market. We bring to our country products that were manufactured only abroad, and now we are producing them here with national technology. We are very proud of it. EBITDA was BRL 44 million in the first quarter, with an important increase in the margin as well. The first quarter is never the most relevant in the year. This number is going to expand along the next quarters; it shows that the company has begun the year with an important result compared to the other previous years due to the margin expansion. The combination of this all brings a generation of net cash without taxes and interest.
Well, the first quarter is important for the cash generation because we are receiving the sales of the fourth quarter, and also, we had cash generation. We grew in the last two years very significantly without expanding the need for working capital. With this, we arrive at the end of March with BRL 400 million in cash against BRL 200 million at the end of last year. Well, cash generation with a margin expansion brings this positive effect. Leverage increased. The number improved after the dividend payment. We paid BRL 62 million on April 30. Our payout levels increased very carefully without any damage to the investment agenda of the company. We understood that it was a very good moment for the remuneration of our investors. The cost of debt was 8.4%. In March, it was 14.75%. It's really great.
I finish by now with the financial presentation, I hand over to Kleber. Thank you.
Thank you, Marcelo. I would like to highlight that as the first quarter in our sector is historically weaker, we are very happy because ours shows that the year was very positive. We have the first question here is by someone that is anonymous, he's asking about the margin along the years. Good question. As Marcelo said, we always search for the rationalization of our capital allocation. We have grown in sales without increasing costs and expenses. We have done a very good management.
We have big plans, teams that are prepared. We have been managing super inputs. We have a good management of our cash. We avoid losses. In general, this is the fruit, the result of an expansion in sales with the controlling of the resources that we already have inside the company. Some products that were launched bring important margins for us and others. For instance, Boostin and the distribution has a big volume with a lower margin, for instance. When we talk about the portfolio increase, we look to those important markets, important products, and always, when possible, with good margins. This is the summary of the reasons for our improvement in the gross profit. That also was relevant, it's a mixture. This was the only question that we had. Another one now.
The impact of the war for the rest of the year regarding export and purchase of products. The war, I would say that has a small impact in our sector so far. We have been feeling a trend in the logistic cost increase. International prices have increased a little bit. A reflection of the oil increase, this affects our internal logistics as well. We have been trying to balance this. It is not a big part of our cost composition. We are also paying attention to this, forecasting purchases, trying to avoid escalating the prices. I don't see a rupture here, disruption. There is a pressure on the costs from now on. Maybe with a trend that the dollar, the real valuing may offset this. Another question. Could you talk about the international expansion strategy?
This international expansion, specifically about the Southern Cone, we want to do it fast, our sector is never fast. We need to register products. It depends on the regulatory bodies. We are on a very strong agenda on the countries in the Southern Cone. We have already hired advisory teams. We are building plans for the entrance in these countries. Talking about the products that have a global capacity, we are talking to some companies. We understand that for now, the best model would be a partnership. Doing a partnership with companies that already are present in the market as distributors, maybe in the Middle East, in Asia. We are already negotiating with some companies; we hope to capture this by the end of this cycle or at the beginning of next cycle.
Our cycles, well, they are long. We have to plant now to harvest later, okay? You see that we really reap the fruits. Good question. Well, this was the last question. I would like to thank our shareholders, our management bodies that are always together with us, motivating us, and also the leadership team, the directors, the managers. I would like to say that we are very motivated, and we are working for having a very strong year, such as 2025 was. We want to be really aligned with our strategic planning. Good morning again. Have a nice day, and hope to see you again in the next call.