Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the spreading of the results. If you don't know me, I'm Juliana Matthes. I'm part of the communication team, and it's a pleasure to be with you. This transmission is being recorded and will be available on our Investor Relation website and our YouTube channel, youtube.ourofino/saudeanimal. Afterwards, we're going to have a Q&A, and if you want to participate, please write your question in your Q&A. We have a legal advisor, a legal disclaimer that I will read to you. This presentation has declaration about future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These declarations have beliefs and assumptions from our administration, information which the company has access. Declaration of future events include our intentions, beliefs, our expectations, such as the ones from the board members and directors of the company.
The highlights about this information regarding the future also include information about operational results that are possible or assumed, as well as declarations that will include the words believe, can, will, continues, waits, foresees, intends, plans, or estimates, or similar expressions. The declarations about the future are not guaranteed. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions because they are regarding future events involving circumstances that might or might not happen. The results for shareholders might be different from the ones expressed or suggested by the declarations regarding the future. A lot of the factors that will determine those results are beyond our capacity of control. To start the presentations, we count on the CEO, Kleber Gomes, and on Marcelo Silva, Financial and IR Director. To finish the presentation rounds, I pass the floor to Kleber Gomes.
Good morning. Good morning, Ju. Good morning, everyone.
It is a pleasure to be here in this event that will mark the end of our year of 2022. When writing our annual report and our message in the sustainability which is released, I was reflecting about those past three years, which is the time I've been on the presidency with the new board. I started in 2020. We have done three exercises with this new board, and I was very satisfied to see we had relevant growth. We have grown 68% on the last three years. We are growing double digits, high numbers, and more than that, with profitability, with good indicators. Marcelo will show more details. We had a record of cash flow. We have low debt with good quality.
From the financial point of view, we are very excited with the results presented, knowing we still have a lot to do and a lot of room for growth. The good part of the reflection is on the how we achieved those results. When we started the management, the main aims would be the company that grows the most, the most admired in Latin America, with the best organizational environment, the one that launches more products. So we have been going for this objective, and looking back, it's been three years of awards and acknowledgement. On a daily basis, I see people happy to work here. It's been a year that people got bonuses. The employees that were most dedicated. We have a strong culture. We've been acknowledged by organs. We were the best company on the Great Place to Work award.
We are on the best 150 companies to work. People are how we achieve our results. That is why I have this position with our employees, our partners in the communities. We have done a lot of things on those years. In 2022, we are launching products at a strong level. We have many things yet to come. Our teams are working with research and development and new businesses and all the support teams. I will mention about those launches. We have been evolving on the ESG strategic theme, which is very relevant. It is not something new for Ouro Fino. We have always dedicated for ESG. In 2022, we had strong revolutions. This is the third year we have done an integrated sustainability report. With the financial demonstrations, this is a big differentiator in the market. We are taking our information of sustainability to the market.
I will detail this more. Talking more about the acknowledgments on the how of the good deliveries. We are the best company of agribusiness in Brazil. We are the best pharmaceutical to work by FIA, including the human pharmaceutical companies. We got the Troféu Agroleite award, which is for milk agribusiness. We got as best company, the Boi de Ouro. Best company from the farm. Second place on the 100 Open Corps, a rank for the companies that work with startups. We are doing this work with startups supporting our technological improvement, supporting our business of products. We have been recertified by the Selo Mais Integridade board. We are the only veterinary and pharmaceutical company with that seal. This is regarding integrity, ethics, and compliance. Lastly, we have looked a lot into our customer service. We are the best company for Reclame Aqui complaint websites.
We do not want to be there, but we have had some situations. We have a great level of service. We have been awarded in a company as the best customer service in the market. I could even say more. I always go to Glassdoor. We have an acceptance rate, an indication level of 4.75% of acknowledgement of the company. The how is always important. Awards are not the ends, but they know we are at the right path. I am very excited about it. Talking a bit more about product launches, we have had in 2022 launches that were very important for production animals. Some of them more towards the end of the year, so we will harvest that now. We launched Tibloc, an antimicrobial. It is a product that has entered our market. We are sure that will contribute for the future results.
We are always following trends regarding our strategic planning from 2019. We are complying with it. We have the natural additives for birds and swines. We have a rationalization of the uses of antimicrobials. We are bringing productivity to the chain, following the trends of the One Health that we always mention. Those were the launches. I will mention a bit about our launches for companion animals. For companion animals, we have launched BENIF, an innovative product. It is the first time we are working with this molecule in the veterinary market. This was in the regulatory fast track that was launched in the end of the year. It is being introduced and will help a lot about the practice of animal treatment. We have mentioned with you about our intentions to explore more markets, growing our line, using our channels. We have used a lot of supplements.
Those supplements have some support for therapeutic training with the lines of products that we have. Sometimes they are recurrent use products. They are adding value for our customer and our company. We have launched that line, and we have more launches to come, and we have many products that were launched, totaling 18 launches in the year of 2022. That objective that we had of growing for product launches, we are complying very well. We know as a growth road, improving international relationships in Latin America, we have constituted in the past in our subsidiary areas in Mexico and Colombia. Mexico is the second-biggest market of animal health. Colombia is the third. We are going well, but we had very few registered products in Mexico, Colombia, and the other countries in Latin America that we work with distribution.
We are doing a big effort of registering products. We had 68 approvals of registrations. Some products are repeat. More than that, we work with about 200 new protocols registered for 2022 that will keep contributing for our expansion in Latin America. We are excited about our regulatory work for strategic partnerships. Going into ESG, 2022 was the year that we have revisited our materiality, where we involved all of our interest chain, so we can issue an opinion and invite our efforts. We work with six material teams, which are wellbeing, innovation and research, management of the supply chain, wellbeing of people, and food safety. This is all aligned into our strategic planning that was commented last year, is all aligned to our commitment with ODSs. It is aligned also with our path of development.
When we talk about caring for people, for example, item five, wellbeing and valuing people. When we talk about common wellbeing, we are talking about innovation. When we are talking about supply chain management, we are always looking at all angles. I want to highlight the publishing of our integrated report. It has all our financial, it is not just sustainability. I want to thank our team for the effort, for the work. This is a well-done report. I want to thank our team because we could deliver that report in March.
It is 130 pages of information. This is done. It is a lot of information. A lot of quality information, considering the year of 2020. This was included as the best in the category for the word of ABRASCA, of companies that have revenue over BRL 3 million. We have it there with a QR code in our page.
We can use all the information for the publics of interest. This is a conquer of the company. Reflecting, we have a change in the societary position. Our investors, the analysts of the market, they use it to follow up with the participation that BNDESPar has since 2007. There was the possibility of leaving the partnership, and we had the good information. A surprise was not that much of a surprise, of Mitsui joining us, the fourth biggest conglomerate in Japan. Investments of over $110 billion, more than 130 invested companies. We have a business of agricultural benefit. They are showing the trust in our board and our business plan. We want to welcome Mitsui. We are sure that with the influence and the relevance of Mitsui in the Asian market, we can open a new way.
We can exploit that Asian market, looking for technology from there. This is a new, recent entrance, but we believe this can be even better when we work with Mitsui. We are going to have some councilors, one Director that will report to me, appointed by Mitsui, that will be working towards this expansion to Asian countries. We have people from the structure of Mitsui looking into our potentialities there. I went to Asia with Mitsui, getting in touch with people, getting to know the structure. I was very impressed. I had that view, but I was very impressed. I was very impressed after this visit through Asia. We have a lot of work in front of us. It is a competitive market. We have very capable competitors. We are doing quality work, we are finishing three solid years. More important than the why is the how.
Now going back into the Q&A. I will be back for Q&A, but going back to Jules so she can conduct our conference.
Thank you, Kleber. If we can close Kleber's mic. I also made available in our chat the direct link to our report. We have the QR code. We have the direct link in the chat. We are going to have a round of Q&A, and you can write your questions on the Q&A on the bottom of your screen. Now continuing the presentations, I want to pass the floor to our Finance Director, Marcelo Silva. Please welcome.
I want to share the information about the fourth trimester of 2022, and the financial highlights reflect the work that Kleber has said on the last three years about the company. The efforts have kept growing in a consistent way.
We were able to improve cash flow when we could reach BRL 1 billion revenue on those three years. This is a relevant number. The numbers of growth and the economical foundations allowed us to grow, improve EBITDA, and have the biggest conversion. This is a bit bigger than last year. This is a combination of work in strategic planning that was aligned. We are looking into growth, but sustainable growth, making the company generate value for shareholders, even in an uncertainty scenario, more unfavorable scenario. Going to financial results and units of business, bringing some numbers. We have closed 2022 in 15% of liquid revenue, and we have grown in the last trimester, 19.3% on the fourth trimester of 2021. We could improve growth and improve the margin of the company. On the first meeting of the market, we had some challenges to accommodate the cost of supplies.
The reflect of COVID that we were doing. The challenges that we had, we had to preserve the margin without losing competitiveness, working internally to be efficient on the reduction of costs for operation. Being efficient in the administration operations to have better cash flow and keep the strategic agenda for P&D to launch products. Kleber had many launches that were done in 2022 that were regarding that job. That reflects the investments of previous years, given the time that is necessary to develop products. We had the price in a correct way, and we looked to show that in our numbers. Production animals, 68% of the results of the company, not just looking to Brazil, but international. We had a growth of 14.7%, and we have grown 19% on the fourth trimester. We were showing also our access of the market.
We've reached almost 4,000 customers per month, generating demand, being in the field, training people, bringing knowledge, looking into productivity. We have important, relevant competitors, but we do our work. We have a positive impact of new products that can have a bigger impact in 2023. With that, we could increase gross margin of our production animals and close in 46% against 44.4% of gross margin. Companion animals, this is a segment that we have invested a lot. We really think that our thesis is correct of humanization of pets. There's no turning back from that. We have that in 2022. We saw it growing a bit less than previous years, but pandemic had a boom of growth. People were at home. People were working from home.
In 2022, these numbers starting to be more stable and more normal regarding the pre-pandemic period, but had relevant growth of 14.1% in 2022. That will reflect a diverse portfolio. We were doing strong work with Mexico that attests to the quality of our products. We have grown in a relevant way. We have grown. It was slight below the gross margin of 69.7% in 2021 because of the investments of introduction of new products in the market. This is an important pillar of growth. It's a possibility of revenue. It's part of our acquired solution. It's not from abroad. Our focus is Latin America. We have local and Latin America. We're looking to keep growing in local currency, expanding commercial operations, looking into our products. We had a negative effect on when converting. In Colombia, there was a devaluation of currency, Mexico as well.
The operations in local currency started growing less, but we are still growing in local currency in those two countries. Regarding profit and gross margin, we had a loss of 63% to 52.8%, reflecting the variation of currency. The loss in currency is reflecting less in reals. We also are having more relevant presence. We are increasing market coverage, launching new products. This is the commitment of the company to keep growing. Changes in policies. This won't change the dynamics and the potentials of the market that are attractive to our business.
Regarding the expenses, the total expenses, commercial and administrative expenses, we had expenses of 13% and a revenue of 15%, but at the end of last year, we had a mandatory adjustment of salaries that was high. After the board approval, we had the approval of incentives in the long run for administration that increased costs. This regarding the effect of that, we could increase the paychecks. We had an improvement in growth. We could dilute the SG&A of 25% for a small step to 27.3% in 2021. The agenda of P&D was heated in 2022. We invested BRL 79.6 million. I don't want to repeat what Kleber has said. Besides launching new products, we launched our relevant agenda of biologicals, producing pilots to do official tests to register at MAPA. We're going to keep the same agenda for strategic growth of the company.
The EBITDA has been adjusted. It was an important growth. This reflects the growth of the company, issuance of SG&A. To help with the expenses and development, we want to grow, generating margin and having better margins and speeding up with research and development. An important point in being a company that generates a cash flow, we have a robust cash flow. We had BRL 160 million. We have converted a lot, 73%, 41% more than last year. We had an acquisition of BRL 14.5 million. We kept our liquidity and our operational cash flow generation was very robust and relevant. Not just because of the growth of the company, but because we could keep the cash flow, payment deadlines. This was a strategy of the company, and very favorable. We could have an important generation of cash in 2022.
Another important point of our strategy is to have conditions that will allow the company to keep investing that in a scenario that is not favorable. We have spent 2022 leveraging company. We closed de-leveraging. We had new finance operations. We are looking to cash flow in a context of interest rates that were more elevated, in a Selic rate of 13.75%. This is adequate for our development. It has better maturation. Products will take longer from the conception until financing, and we will have conditional financing cash flow for our organic growth. That fell from 47%, and we could improve 15% even from 2022. More information for our capital structure. This is in the long run. We are still comfortable. We are still launching. We are doing solid work in a three-year work. Very robust numbers.
We started 2023 in an excited way, but the first semester of 2023 is very challenging. Regarding 2022, it is not really favorable. Regarding credit costs, our customers are in the majority from retail. Climate changes that will affect our business, high production costs, and some uncertainties in the political parts, monetary parts. We have a scenario in 2023 for the beginning of the year that is more challenging than we would thought for 2022. On the other hand, we have positive points. We have a diverse portfolio in geography and business lines. We are certain to be growing in any part of the country. We have a good credit line, good liquidity, robust generation of cash flow, and robust capital organization.
We are prepared to grow knowing the first trimester will be harder, but thinking the second quarter will be better and believing in the strength of our business and our management. We are strong in the execution of our strategy. I am here for Q&A.
Thank you, Marcelo. We are going to open the space for Q&A. We do not have any Q&A. I will give you one minute to reflect. If you have any curiosity, we are available. This transmission is being recorded and will be available in our investor website and our YouTube channel, youtube.com/ourofinosaudeanimal. I will pass the floor to Kleber to conduct that moment.
I want to thank the Ouro Fino team. They always have been with us with the challenges. I have a question from Alexandre Assali . Thank you so much for your question. M&A is an issue in our radar.
You have commented with the acquisition of Regenera with a biotechnology startup, with stem cells. It is the same product that we are developing in a new technology. We have to present it to veterinarians. We are trying to harvest good results. Although selective, we know the economy that has a high capital cost, and we have to be very assertive. We are a company with big access. We have a complete portfolio. We have the best installations in Latin America, so we have to be very selective.
That does not mean we are not looking, and we are not going to follow good opportunities. At that moment, we are going to be very centered into doing our stem cell business, being leverage from 2023. I will move on with the questions. We have many. I will go to Marcelo while I read that. I will see with Marcelo about this question.
Regarding M&A, I just want to add to your question. You talked about high interest rates. The assets are still appealing, though. Regarding the tax reform, it depends on how it will be. It started last year in a way, and now we have new elements, ICMS, ISS. It would be difficult to have expectations. We are hoping there will not be any setbacks for the sector because that is very important for our exportation agenda. This is not specific. It is just a one-time spot.
We have Carlos Ferraz. He is asking, what is the country in Latin America which is better for expansion? We are investing in Mexico and we are investing in Colombia. Latin America produces 16% of protein in the world. Brazil represents 8% of that. When we sum Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, we have 75% of the protein production. We are very positioned in these potential countries.
We have to look into the whole picture. Those were countries that we did not have a strong presence, and we are going to start to have, like Chile. Chile has an economy for agriculture. But where we act, we have market, and we are registering products in these countries. So we are focusing on all the potential countries. Another question. The company has been quoted for multiple times the EBITDA. Why do you think it is not acknowledged in the market? Our reason is because we have a low free float, and the shares are very low. The 57% is in the hand of controllers, 20% in Mitsui, and we have a free float that is very low. I do not have any questions regarding the company. We had a very relevant partner that has entered with a good condition of renegotiation. The company has a strong strategic value.
We have an anonymous question. With Mitsui, is there any strategy to close it, given the low free float vis-a-vis and the cost of being an open company? What I can say today is that we do not have any indication at that moment for closing capital. Mitsui entered as an open company without any agreement of additional shareholder. Besides having a director, we have the possibility of having a person in this structure. This is public, it is in our reference form. There is no indication at that moment.
There is another question. That gossip about using the spaces for vaccination is not going on anymore. Shouldn't we get closer to the government? We have commented that in Brazil, we have the best installations to product vaccinations. We have our installations for aftosa with inactivated vaccinations, and we have the plant that is correct for the pipeline, especially for swine and cattle.
We did not develop. It was not possible to establish partnerships, and it's very limited. We could not signal any commitment regarding that. We could foresee the national plan of vaccination, and we don't know where vaccinations are going to come. We have installations. We are always open for partnerships, strategic alliances, but currently, we don't have this way established.
We have another question. I think it's from Caio Leal. Congratulations for 2022 results. We have R&D research for about 2022. Thank you for your question, Caio. We understand that a technology-based company as for animal health must keep having innovation in the pipeline. We are developing relevant vaccines. We had important advancements with several pilot projects. ADAP, we are in the lab phase now, and we understand that we have space to fill up this room and have more solutions. The investment must keep up at the same pace between 7% and 7.5% of our revenue. There is another anonymous question here about Mitsui acquisition. By Mitsui, the transaction price wasn't released, and they are asking if we are going to do so at any moment soon. The price is restricted to the stakeholders involved in the transaction.
It's not public, so it won't be released at any moment, I'm afraid. I think there is another question here that I skipped. Let me try to find it. Yes, by Alexandre Assali as well. Considering that the pet margins are higher than the other ones, can we focus on it? Yes, we have this focus. We understand not only the margin part. When we look at our growth drivers, we understand that the pet area is increasing, people getting married later on, adopting pets. We have less families and making that the longevity of pets increases and the market is increasing, is expanding. This is a huge opportunity. We have a total focus on that. We have several launches for pets, and we are developing a vaccine pipeline that represents a substantial part of this market share. We have a patent product in that market.
It's for cats and dogs, and we are developing it. We are waiting for the patent of that. It's focused on ticks and fleas prevention, and maybe that's the pathway to explore the synergies by that Mitsui brings. Mind you, we are not going to lose our vocation in Latin America for production of proteins, and we will keep up strong. We are strong in animal production as well, and we see faster growth for pets in the future. I think that the questions are over, aren't they? I'll go back to Juliana so that we can go to the wrap-up part.
[Non-English content ] Kleber . [Non-English content ] Thank you very much for your participation throughout this morning, your kindness to follow our gathering, our meeting, and understand our results. This recording will be available at our IR website and also in our YouTube channel, youtube.com/ourofino.com.br.
We have our 2022 reports, okay? Feel free to access and get to know all this work that we have developed. I'd like to invite you to follow our LinkedIn page, Ouro Fino Saúde Animal. That's an environment that you can get to know our daily activities internally, and we share our management practices as well. Thank you very much for being with us. Once again, Kleber, your final remarks, please.
Well, as Marcelo said, we've weathered hard years, first year of COVID, second year of COVID, high inflations, supply chain increase, logistic price increase. We've been delivering good results so far, and the first quarter is a little bit tighter, and we are looking at a very good growth for 2023, as the other years have been. I'm sure that we have the best team in the market, the best utilities, portfolio.
We are in a growing market with positive drivers. We wrap up 2022 regarding the results and earnings revenues. We are very confident to have a very good year ahead. We have a very good planning. We have a good basis in proposals, values. Thank you very much, everyone, all the teams, investors, our investment bodies who support us all the time. Thank you very much, our funders, customers, partners, stakeholders, and we keep on fighting here, trying to add as much value as possible to all investors. Thank you very much, everyone.