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To ask a question, click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and type your question to join the queue. Once your name is announced, a prompt to activate your microphone will appear on your screen. Then you should unmute your microphone to pose your question. We recommend that you ask all your questions at once. We highlight that the information within this presentation and statements that may be made during the video conference regarding GPA's business outlook, operational and financial projections and goals, and our beliefs and assumptions, the company's management, as well as information currently available. Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as they refer to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.
Investors should understand that general economic conditions, market conditions, and other operating factors may affect GPA's future performance and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Joining us today are GPA CEO Marcelo Pimentel and CFO and Investor Relations Officer Rafael Russowsky. Now, Marcelo Pimentel will begin the presentation.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here and for your interest in joining our presentation of the results of Q2 of 2025. I'd like to start by noting that this period was marked by a more constrained consumer environment due to the high interest rate and the impact of food inflation, especially in May and June, reflecting the market slowdown. Even so, I highlight that our ability to respond swiftly and accurately, implementing operational adjustments, and acting strongly in cost control. The results that we are presenting here reflect the efficiency gaze and the resilience of our value proposition, with significant progress in a number of KPIs that underpin our growth. On the first line, I highlight our sales performance in Q2 of 2025. GPA posted total sales of BRL 5.1 billion, with a growth of 5.8% vis-à-vis Q2 of 2024.
This result was partially impacted by calendar seasonal effects, especially the shift of the Easter holiday to the second quarter. Even excluding the seasonal effect, our same-store sales grew 5.1%, reflecting the resilience and consistency of the premium business model. The Pão de Açúcar banner, which accounts for 50.2% of total sales, continues on a solid growth path in same-store sales, up 6.5%, underscoring customer loyalty and the effectiveness of the business's value proposition. During this quarter, we also consolidated the premium circuit project with the renovation of 11 stores, offering a more exclusive experience with improved services, assortment, and infrastructure. Extra Mercado also grew 4.8%, mainly reflecting an increase in average price and stable volumes.
The result already includes the positive effects of the assortment review and category management project launch last year, as well as the success of promotional actions, which are key to maintain brand appeal in this competitive environment. Since Q4 of 2024, we have revamped 83 Extra stores, focusing on strategic categories such as butchery and bakery. The proximity format maintained a positive trajectory with a 16.8% growth in total sales and market share gains, with stability in same-store sales. This result was driven by the opening of 59 new stores in the past 12 months, 8 of them in this quarter alone. These results are directly linked to the progress in our customer pillar, which also deserves mentioning.
We achieved significant market share gains, both in the premium segment, up 1.1% points, and proximity format up 0.8% points vis-à-vis last year, reflecting the strengthening of the value proposition of our main banners, Pão de Açúcar and Minuto Pão de Açúcar. These results are the outcome of ongoing actions such as reinforcing team training, store refurbishments, and assortment improvements, which raise our NPS from 52 points in Q2 of 2022 to 82 points in Q2 of 2025, with progress across all banners and real gains in price perception, checkout waiting time, and product availability. Customer loyalty has also made progress. The share of wallet of premium customers grew 1.8% points vis-à-vis the same period last year, driven by the Pão de Açúcar Mais Loyalty Program, which posted a 10% increase in the number of Black Tier customers, the program's highest category.
Private label products also play a strategic role within this context as a competitive differentiation for loyalty. With a market share of 25.3% in total sales in this segment in Brazil, these products are present in 8 out of every 10 shopping baskets. Private label customers shop 2.4 times more often than those who do not purchase them. In Q2 of 2025, private label penetration in GPA sales reached 22.6%, a growth of 0.2% points. From Q2 of 2024, we remain committed to our digital strategic pillar. During Q2 of 2025, the channel continued on a strong growth trajectory, reaching total sales of BRL 609.5 million, up 16.3% year over year, and accounting for 13% of total sales. This is a 1.1% point gain compared to the previous year.
This performance came with a high pre-IFRS 16 EBITDA margin of 9.9%, reflecting efficiency gains initiated in Q4 of 2022 and reinforcing the channel's profitability and scale potential. I highlight the significant progress of the proximity format in digital, with a 1.5% points increase in penetration, underscoring its growth potential in this model. Multi-channel customers have three times the shopping frequency and four times the average ticket compared to single-channel customers, demonstrating the strategic value of channel integration. Even with the fast expansion pace, we maintained operational excellence in delivering perishables, a competitive differentiator, and an important foundation for loyalty, which accounts for 37.7% of the channel's own sales in the quarter. We're going to talk about expansion, our fourth strategic pillar. Between 2022 and the first half of 2025, we focused our expansion efforts on the premium proximity format under the Minuto Pão de Açúcar banner.
During this period, we opened 213 new stores out of the 300 planned, including 177 proximity units, 13 supermarkets, and 23 conversions from hypermarkets to supermarkets. Following a strategy focused on more affluent neighborhoods in the city of São Paulo, we have made progress in this channel. Now, stores opened since 2022 not only exceed the margins of the previous unit but also present average profitability higher than the company's consolidated results, reinforcing the soundness of our growth plan and the consistency of the business model. From the second half of 2025, store openings will slow down, considering the significant progress already achieved in the first phase of expansion and a more challenging macroeconomic scenario marked by recent interest rate hikes. Still, in profitability, we highlight consistent quarterly progress reflected in the solid gross margin level of 27.4%.
This result of continuous efficiency gains across all banners and significant SG&A efficiency gains with a 1.0% point dilution year over year, contributing to the growth of the adjusted EBITDA margin reaching 9% in the quarter. This is a growth of 0.2% points from Q2 of 2024. Next, Rafael will go into more detail and will talk about profitability. In this final slide, I present the highlights of our ESG agenda. On the environmental front, through preventive and corrective maintenance actions, we reduce Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2.3%, equivalent to over 3,000 tons of CO2 avoided, strengthening our commitment to the target to reduce by 60% by 2030. In diversity and inclusion, we were recognized for the third year as one of the best companies in diversity actions, highlighting the first place in engagement with the value chain awarded by the Business Initiative for Racial Equality.
We've hired over 400 refugees and immigrants. We advanced programs for Black employees with more than 100 participants and awarded 600 English course scholarships. We also released our annual sustainability report, consolidating our initiatives on the topic. Finally, we celebrated the recognition from Merkle ESG Responsibility, which ranked us among the 100 most responsible companies in Brazil. This concludes my remarks, and now I turn it to Rafael for financial comments.
Good morning. Thank you very much and welcome, everyone. Slide eight, we highlight the progression of our profitability through the growth of gross profit and adjusted EBITDA. We've been working consistently on projects to increase the company's efficiency, optimizing costs and expenses, always focused on getting adapted to market changes without losing focus on the progress of margins. The results of the second quarter of 2025 show that we are on the right track. Even with a market that showed some signs of cooling down in the months of May and June, we were able to be competitive and, at the same time, maintain the positive trajectory of obtaining operating gains in EBITDA margin.
As shown on the chart above, gross profit reached BRL 1.3 billion in the second quarter of 2025, with a margin of 27.4%, keeping the high level obtained after several initiatives which were implemented in recent quarters. Compared to the second quarter of 2024, there was a reduction of 0.8 percentage points, reflecting a higher comparative base. I would like to emphasize that we are convinced that our gross margin is fully aligned with our plan, confirming the fact that we are on the right track. We still have a robust pipeline of strategic initiatives, including reducing breakdowns, improving commercial margin, expanding retail media, and optimizing the store network, which reinforce our commitment to the continuous evolution of profitability, focused on sustainable and long-term results.
The chart below shows that adjusted EBITDA totaled BRL 420 million in the second quarter of 2025, which means a growth of 6.1% over the previous year, a margin of 9%, and a gain of 0.2 percentage points compared to the second quarter of 2024. This performance was only possible thanks to the strong work we have done in managing the company's expenses. Since the second half of 2022, we have focused our efforts on several initiatives to gain efficiency in SG&A, such as zero-based budgeting cycles, renegotiation of contracts with suppliers, and leases, in addition to the most recent redesigning of our administrative structure. All these measures focused on adapting the company to its new size, have more agile decisions, and simplify the process, such as intensive use of technology.
In the context of stores, we continue to have sales expenses under strict control, but always maintaining our value proposition of our brands. As a result, we present a dilution of 1% point in SG&A compared to net revenues over the second quarter of 2024. Most of efficiencies were captured from administrative expenses. Now, moving on to slide nine, we can see the financial performance of net income. As shown on the chart, in the second quarter of 2025, we recorded net loss from continuing operations of BRL 176 million, a significant reduction of 35.5% over the loss of BRL 272 million reported in the same period of 2024. This improvement shows the positive evolution of operating results, as highlighted in the previous slide, and at the same time, a reduction of the impacts of other operating expenses, which resulted from the lower impact of tax provisions.
Finally, in the second quarter of 2025, net loss from discontinued activities was BRL 41 million, showing a significant reduction of 32.2% compared to the second quarter of 2024. This performance reinforces the consistent progress in the process of reducing negative impacts related primarily to discontinued operations of hypermarkets. Now, moving on to slide ten, we present to you the managerial cash flow for the past 12 months, a period in which we generated operating cash flow of BRL 1.1 billion. This result was driven by a significant improvement in pre-IFRS 16 adjusted EBITDA, which reached BRL 856 million, meaning or translated in significant growth of BRL 232 million or 37.3% over 2024.
In addition, we had efficient cash working capital for goods contributed to the generation of BRL 235 million in the period, supported by a six-day improvement in the working capital cycle compared to the second quarter of 2024. Now, moving on, CapEx totaled BRL 711 million, a slight increase of 1.9% over the same period. Despite this growth, we already see a reduction in investments in expansions, renovations, and IT, which is a result of the maturation of our strategy. This is a trend that should be intensified in upcoming quarters. As Marcelo highlighted, we will have fewer new stores being opened in 2025 and 2026. This decision shows our careful position in view of recent interest rate variations and the advances already achieved with the openings held between 2022 and the first half of 2025.
Now, moving on to other operating expenses, we totaled BRL 687 million, maintaining the downward trend that I've been referring to in recent quarters. This result has been impacted by non-recurring effects observed in the last 12 months. Compared to the previous period, there was a drop of BRL 201 million. It's worth mentioning that these last 12 months still reflect extraordinary facts, which totaled BRL 512 million, mainly related to tax agreements and tax lawsuits of Extra Hyper. Finally, net financial cost totaled BRL 701 million in the last 12 months, an increase of 8.5% over the same period. This growth reflects the increase in interest rates due to the current selling rate over our debts. On slide 11, we present in detail the evolution of our financial leverage.
As shown on the chart, net debt increased by BRL 835 million in the last 12 months, impacted mainly by extraordinary effects already mentioned in other operating expenses. It's important to highlight that a relevant part of these effects is associated with tax agreements. Even though they represent one-off disbursements, they have brought a significant reduction in the company's contingencies, thanks to the discounts obtained in interest and fines. To close, pre-IFRS 16 financial leverage reached three times in the quarter compared to 2.7 times in the same period last year. We have been working not only operationally but also on additional initiatives to accelerate the leveraging. As I mentioned, we are confident in the reduction of extraordinary expenses that affect our cash, especially those related to discontinued activities. In addition, we continue to monitor and evaluate opportunities with non-strategic assets that may contribute to this deleveraging process.
With that, we wrap up our presentation of results, and I would like to open for the Q&A session.
We are now going to start our question and answer session. Let me remind you that to ask a question, click on the Q&A icon on the lower portion of the screen and write down your question to join the list. When your name is called, you will be requested to unmute your mic. Click on it and ask your question. I would like to remind you to ask all your questions at once. Our first question comes from Larissa with XP. We are going to get a request to unmute your microphone. Larissa, please go on.
Good morning, Marcelo, Rafael. Thank you for taking our questions. We have two questions on our side. Number one, in the demand slowdown during the quarter, what drew our attention and what have you seen from this trend onward if it will continue throughout July and the beginning of August, or if you see some type of normalization? Now, gross margins, we do believe that when we compare to Q2 of 2024, it was strong that although growing in price and mixed with the gross margin leverages, the gross margin still has been affected. If you could give us color regarding what you've seen in the quarter's trend and what can we expect from here on. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Larissa. Now, regarding the trend, what we've observed throughout Q2 was a strong April. We had a very successful Easter with market share gains.
In May and June, there was a certain slowdown in purchase, mainly as you saw in figures in the most popular banners that would be Extra and Aliados Minimercado. A positive signal is that we've seen an improvement as of July and the beginning of August. It's too early to say anything. We are observing this very closely, but on the other side, and this is the full glass of the equation, our strategy is focusing on premium because the resiliency of this consumption remained aligned. Therefore, Pão de Açúcar and Minuto Pão de Açúcar banners, mainly due to the expansion since 2022, have a performance aligned with the past, showing the resiliency of this channel. Now, regarding the gross margin, two points that I would like to highlight that impacted this comparison. Number one would be the migration of Easter toward April this year.
As a consequence, we've seen a promotional action bigger than the average because Easter seasonality is one of the main points of our calendar. It brings a cash margin, but the margin competitiveness is higher. With the migration of the calendar, we saw an impact in the margin percentage. Number two, precisely the slowdown in consumption in the most popular banners. Therefore, we had to be more competitive. For us, it's extremely important to offer to this customer base a good cost-benefit that maintains us in a share gain and a customer gain scenario. There was a very slight reduction, but it was extremely strategic to continue doing what we're doing. Just another comment regarding the last point. We are always submitted to trade dynamics, as Marcelo explained, but with the drop mainly in SG&A, with this, we have flexibility and mobility to be more reactive in more challenging moments.
I would like to highlight the fact that although we saw a drop in gross margin during this quarter because of what Marcelo mentioned, as a benefit, there was a significant improvement mainly from SG&A, and therefore, we were able to deliver an operational and EBITDA margin growing and robust for the sector.
Very clear. Thank you very much for taking our question.
Our next question is from Vinicius de Strand from UBS. We are opening your mic so you can pose your question. Vinicius, you may go on.
Good morning, Marcelo, Rafael. Thank you for taking my question. Now, the inflation effect, if you could comment on how you see a slowdown in food inflation when we see sales, if you can give us color regarding categories, where would you see more sensitive points? If you could talk, you talked about investing in competitiveness in the most popular banners. Could you talk about price elasticity in this current scenario? How do you see this investment in price and volume? What do you see from here on? A more specific question, when we see the gross revenue that was close to 6% and net revenue 4%, I would like to know if there is something that explains this effect. How do you see the situation from here on?
Now, regarding inflation, a reality of the sector is that this is a sector or an industry that has a macro assortment that you see inflation and deinflation in the middle of the way. We've seen how coffee and other categories are communicated, beef or meats that are important for us, and we're suffering. Now we've seen, we are seeing a slowdown, a slowdown on the inflationary impact on these categories. On the other side, we've seen the deflation.
This has helped us in terms of volumes, and there is a challenge regarding cash. The balance that we see for this second semester, and now especially Q3, we see price stability with no major ups and downs. We also have a greater beef supply in the market that for us is extremely important because this is an extremely relevant category in our mix, and this has an important share of wallet in our customers' basket. Price stability, especially in premium cuts in our premium banners, is good news when we analyze the situation from here on. When we see competitiveness, I believe that our current macroeconomic scenario where we have constant news, customers are sensitive regarding investments, especially when we see the mainstream customer base.
When we talk about Mercado Extra and Minimercado Extra, within this context, we have focused on the strength of these channels, and we want to continue this way, be it with the butchery, bakery, and FLB, that these are appealing categories in the store, and you complete the rest of the basket with good value propositions. Here we have basic groceries, hygiene, cleaning, everything that the public needs. The advantage here is that Mercado Extra, it has to be competitive selling by per units. The customer that is sensitive to expenses and budget, what we have seen in terms of behavior is a greater frequency in the stores with the average ticket in volume, which is lower. They come more to the store, and they buy gradually. It is different than the past where they would buy in bulk and great quantities. Mercado Extra offers this opportunity.
Rafael, do you want to talk about the sales delta?
This is simple. We had higher credits in the net revenue last year, and this proportionately dropped the revenue of this year. This is the difference that you observed, and this is what explains the figure that you identified.
Thank you very much.
Now, Bob Ford from Bank of America, we will open your microphone so you can pose your question. Bob, you can pose your question.
Good morning, Pimentel, Rafael. Congratulations for your results, and thank you for taking my question. Pimentel, what is your importance regarding changes in the auditing committee? What is your opinion and the opinion of the board?
Bob, what a pleasure to talk to you. It's always good speaking to you. Now, regarding a poison pill, what I can say are facts. The facts are that this matter has not been part of the agenda in the board meeting. Okay? This was not part of the board meeting's agenda. This emerged through the media. Currently, the board has not discussed this matter. I do not want to convey my personal opinion because this is something that pertains to the board and the shareholders, and they will approach it as soon as it's necessary. Regarding yesterday's events, I would like to outline a number of important points for everyone.
Number one is that the exit of the two board members from the auditing committee does not impact what the committee is doing. Number two, there is no need to replace them. There is no need to replace them. We are above the legal request. This is what our SEC requires regarding what is legal and regarding the minimum amount of people that you need for a board. You need minimum three members. A majority should be independent and one accounting expert. In our case, we've maintained four members. Three are independent, and most of the independent members have accounting expertise. I would like to highlight to the group the quality of our board members and our auditing board members. We have Mr. [Liba Domingo], over 35 years of experience in the financial market. He graduated in the UFMG in Economics. He's an executive in finances.
By IBM, he has a master's degree, MBA through MABEC. Now, this is now also he has a diploma, FGV Gisele Silva, that is a member of our auditing board. She's a lawyer. She's specialized in capital markets. She graduated in PUC, MBI in Marketing, Shareholders Right, and also she also has a diploma in Board Members. She worked 18 years in the CTFL group. She is also an instructor for future boards, and she's a coordinator. She was a coordinator of the Governance Office for two years. At last was Mr. Bruno Salotti, that is head of the Accounting Department of the University of São Paulo. He has a master's degree. He's a PhD, and he is a faculty staff in FEA. He also has a diploma in Actuary Science.
He's a member professor and the Head of the Accounting and Accounting Department from FEA USP, and he's also part of the committee from the CPC in Accounting, member of the working group made out by the CPC for the IFRS 18. Serena Energia, he's also a member of the Fiscal Board. To everyone that is here, I would like to highlight the commitment of the company with transparency and how diligent we are regarding all of our processes. All our figures are audited by independent Big Fours, and we will continue doing this. I do understand, and it is a personal decision of certain members, but the company will continue working with high corporate governance standards and committed to the accounting rules.
Thank you very much. Very clear.
Thank you. The next question comes from Victor with Itaú. We are going to please unmute your mic.
Good morning, Marcelo and Rafael. We just have a follow-up about food inflation. Have you seen any differences in terms of the industry at large?
Yes, indeed, especially in some specific categories. Now we have observed an increased flow of availability in the Brazilian market. This is going to be translated into lower prices for the end consumer. Competitiveness always benefits end consumers. What is happening as a macro perspective of the economy can end up leading to an overflow of products to Brazil and oversupply, which means better prices to our consumers. I don't want to go specifically into any categories because this is a sensitive topic of internal competitiveness, but we've already started observing some of our suppliers adjusting what they have according to what the inflation has been pointing to.
Thank you, Marcelo.
The next question comes from Ruben with Santander. Please unmute your audio.
Good morning, Marcelo, Rafael. I'd like to know more about SG&A management, and there were some comments in the release, but I'd like to understand more. Do you think there's still room to show more gain or you still have lots of projects for restructuring, internal restructuring, base zero budget, a number of factors that you've been alluding to for a while? In this quarter, this is something that struck me. I would like to know what to expect for the... I would like to ask for an update on the line of other expenses, contingency, agreements. What is the volume or what's the number we would expect?
Thank you, Ruben. Dilution of SG&A. We have had some impact over G&A. As we showed during the previous quarter, we have restructured internally with significant reduction of headcount. That was done at the end of last year. This was done to reach efficiencies throughout the year of 2025. This is something which is becoming clearer, as you could see. We have also had significant reduction of expenses related with IT, which was also very significant when compared over the second half last year. This quarter, you can see the results of the reduction in headcount, something that we started at the end of last year, and now we are obtaining the gains from it. We've had a reduction in our IT accounts.
Concerning other initiatives or other activities that we have focused on improvement, you've mentioned some of them. We've been very strict on our zero-based budgeting. This is the third wave of zero-based budgeting. It has brought extraordinary gains to us, and it has been so since 2022. We've come across a number of additional possibilities and potential efficiencies. The more we analyze, the more we find, especially in the administrative area. Another important point is the fact that we've made a change administratively. I cannot give you many details here, but we've changed the procurement tool. It was implemented in the beginning of this year. It has provided initial tasks with opening auctions and specific bidding processes for supplies we use in our stores and also services for facilities. We've had a very positive result. It reached gains over 50% in some of those procurement auctions.
Of course, it makes us very happy and also seems like good prospects for the future because we have BRL 4 billion of indirect purchases every year. Any reductions can really impact significantly over this large amount of indirect procurement. We are paying close attention to that, and we are doing our best and using different initiatives to get more and more efficiency. Concerning the line of others, I think you are making reference to the line of other operating expenses of our P&L. Let me show you what happened in this quarter. There was the activation of some indemnity concerning the amortization of overprice. We had some issues concerning that in the past. All these actions are covered by the previous controllers of the company, Peninsula and Casino.
We had settled BRL 100 million last half, paid with tax credits, with one of the specific suits, and we have the right to be compensated because of these actions by Peninsula and Casino when Casino had the initial investments in Pão de Açúcar. BRL 100 million of these indemnification. Concerning all the topics that were used for the BRL 100 million, we are talking about closing down stores, especially write-offs. BRL 14 million related with that. BRL 13 million related with regulatory and tax contingency, which includes lawyers' fees for some of these contingencies, and also miscellaneous cost of restructuring, including the one that I've mentioned of reduction of headcount.
Looking ahead, we expect at least in upcoming quarters to have something like BRL 40 million to BRL 60 million negative because of all the restructurings that have to be made, closing down stores, for example, and some additional contingencies that we have had regularly, which impact this line you made reference to.
That's clear. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Alexandre with Morgan Stanley. Please unmute your mic.
Hello. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Most of my concerns have been answered, but I would like to emphasize something that Rafael pointed out in his presentation about some of the initiatives to reduce the leveraging of the company, and you've talked about the selling of non-core assets. If you could tell us a little bit more about how much you have in terms of amounts and other initiatives that you might have in mind to reduce leveraging.
Thank you, Alexandre. Good morning. Yes. Our main goal in the period that we currently are in is to reduce leverage. You know the work that we've been doing so far, but we are also focusing on other opportunities, other things that seem to be solid and would help us go into the deleveraging process or speeding it up even at the same time that we have improvement in our operating activities. Unfortunately, I cannot go into specific details, but there are two to three significant transactions ongoing, and if we succeed, they would bring some hundreds of millions to the company.
If so, our commitment, the commitment of the board is that 100% of any revenues generated from non-core asset sales would be focused on debt reduction. We wouldn't use for anything but reducing leverage of the company. In addition, Alexandre, I would like to emphasize that when you look at our managerial cash flow, which we presented in our release, there are two important lines there which still need cash. One, CapEx, of course, and we've been making investments primarily to take our stores at a good level, which is compatible with our value proposition. At the same time, we have the other expenses and revenues. Concerning CapEx, it's important to point out that most of the minimum investments required to improve our stores to be compatible with our value proposition, most of them have already been completed.
Another important point concerning CapEx is the fact that, as Marcelo Pimentel pointed out, we have had over 200 new stores in the past three years. Most of them are Minuto Pão de Açúcar. Proximity stores are our main driver of organic growth. I believe that we've come to a time that, concerning the macroeconomic landscape, interest rate, and high capital cost, we've decided to slow down our plan of expansion. You have seen a material fact that was published yesterday. We expect to have a significant reduction of our CapEx use throughout the second half of 2025, and also a significant reduction in upcoming years. Concerning the line of others, as I pointed out, it's still very significant.
We've presented cash consumption of BRL 600 million in the past 12 months, but you can see that there is a clear drop in this number year over year, over BRL 200 million drop if we consider the 12 months, second half of 2024, over the second half of 2025. It means that we will keep on reducing it. There are a number of expenses or cash use that we have had in the past 12 months, which are extraordinary. Most of them are related with tax agreements, which were very important. In addition, we have had some stores closing down, and it has required BRL 70 million. As you are used to getting from us, we still have labor contingencies, which are related with the close down of our hypermarket stores. They reached a peak in 2023, BRL 550 million.
At that time, in 2024, it was BRL 300 million. In the past 12 months, BRL 300 million approximately. We are looking forward to having a reduction of these numbers. Most of the period for filing a lawsuit related to the closure of a close down of hypermarket, it's coming to an end. Probably there's going to be a backlog reduced throughout time. As such, the numbers of other expenses from now on will be significantly reduced. I expect that this year and certainly next year as well.
Thank you very much. Thank you for the answer. Very clear.
Our next question from Gabriela from Goldman Sachs. We will open your microphone so you can pose your question. Gabriela, you may go on.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. I would like you to elaborate the growth dynamics, especially in proximity. You said that there was a flow impact. Could you give us more color regarding the calendar effect and the performance, or there was something else that affected the performance during the quarter?
No, it was this. Unfortunately, or fortunately for us, the strategy is focused on the city of São Paulo in the most affluent neighborhoods where people can walk to the stores. This is the base of Minuto Pão de Açúcar's strategy. When you have an extended holiday, as we've seen during the first semester, and especially during Easter, proximity is directly impacted because these customers leave the city. It's important to say that we've been very assertive regarding proximity. As it was mentioned, we opened over 170 stores, and the level of assertiveness in these stores has grown a lot. When we compare all of this, it has been growing 9% by 9%, 16% of growth.
This is growth above the combined enterprise. On the other side, we can see a second semester with less extended holidays. Therefore, we will see the benefit because these customers will remain within their households. We are extremely reassured. Another point that I would like to highlight regarding proximity is the introduction of the digital channel for proximity. We started this project when we went ship from store in digital. We started with Pão de Açúcar banner. We continued with Mercado Extra, and now we are embarking in proximity. It's important to mention the growth of digital within proximity was 61%. You can see the incremental delta that we will see.
As a consequence, we still had a market share gain of 0.8% when we compare ourselves to the market. Although the comparison of a flow against ourselves, we continue gaining market share in the market. Once again, we're not only highly optimistic regarding this channel, but mainly now we're investing in bringing additional sales to the channel, implementing the digital channel in our proximity stores.
Thank you very much.
Our next question from Felipe from Citi. We will open your microphone so you can pose your question. Felipe, you may proceed.
Good morning. Thank you very much. I have just one question. I was analyzing the EBITDA margin IFRS improving, but when we see financial expenses and the EBITDA, are you making organic efforts? This is a question for Rafael. How do you see the coverage, the index via organic efforts? What about your expectation and divestment? How much can you improve this equation? It would be important to see this.
You're muted. Thank you, João. We focus a lot on this matter, by the way. There are a number of initiatives underway, and we have mentioned a couple of them. Deleveraging will be observed by the cash improvement. The operational part of the company's EBITDA, as you pointed out, has shown to be extremely resilient. We do have clients that support our operation.
Nonetheless, it's important to mention that we will continue making an additional effort to reduce our CapEx, as I mentioned. We had significant investments to bring our stores that were equal to our value proposition. Our investments are basically all done. I believe that from here on, we will see a reduction, a significant reduction in our CapEx. I just also mentioned an important point that is not connected to the EBITDA, but will affect the cash flow that also affects our debt, precisely the cash consumption from other expenses. Here I refer to matters that are connected to labor contingencies, connected to extras and hypers. Just to remind you all, during this occasion, when we closed the transaction in 2022, we had to lay off 16,000 employees, and 12,000 employees sued the company. Now, we have reduced these labor contingencies. We must continue facing these different lawsuits.
As I mentioned, the good news, as the prescription period has ended, this transaction took place in the beginning of 2022. Now, the period of new lawsuit was the beginning of 2022. We have no new lawsuits. We had BRL 600 million that were dedicated to these contingencies. This was in 2023, and in 2024, this figure dropped half, and we believe that during now we will have half of the half. Starting from 2023, it would be BRL 150 million to BRL 180 million for this year. Now, regarding these labor contingencies, these elements will improve our cash generation, and we are convinced that with this, we will be able to reduce our leverage. Marcelo also stated that the fact that there are a number of initiatives connected to the sales of assets. They are operational assets. Nonetheless, they are not core assets for the company.
These are agreements that may, and from them, a significant cash for the company may stem from this. If these negotiations are successful, we're talking about hundreds of millions of BRL here. To end, João, the fact that we believe, and this is a consensus in the market, and this was confirmed, that we have reached a tipping point in interest rates and SELIC in Brazil. We believe that from here on, we will see a drop in the interest rate, and as a consequence, this will impact the negative impact in the cost of our debt in the company. All of this together with the company's operational improvement, I believe that we will see an improvement in these indexes from here on.
Okay. There's a follow-up question to this. If we were to clusterize these stores, when we think about the pre-IFRS margin that is 4 and something, do you, in level of grandeur, how many stores are operating at this level? How many stores are operating below? Do you have a breakdown?
João, we do have the breakdown. I cannot disclose this information in detail. Sales. I can say that this has been our strategy since 2022. All the investment and growth concentration has taken place in São Paulo, where the brand undoubtedly has the best points. It's strongly established, and we are within the most affluent neighborhoods, which gives us better results in sales and in profit. The business prioritization is concentrated in São Paulo within the premium banners. We're talking about over 70% of sales, over 80% of results of the company coming from the state of São Paulo. We are a regional company and national brand, and we will continue investing in the state of São Paulo. We have not forgotten the other states, but in terms of history, the share in sales and profit comes from the state of São Paulo.
Thank you.
The next question from Nicolas, from Genial Investimentos. Nicolas, we will open your microphone so you can pose your question.
Good morning, Marcelo, Rafael. Thank you for taking my question. Most of my questions have been answered, but could you break down what is your CapEx expectation for this year and next year with a lower interest rate and lower SELIC rate?
Excellent question. Unfortunately, we cannot disclose you this guidance. What I can say is that when we see the past 12 months, the expectation of ending the year of 2025 is an improvement when we compare it to 2024. We are already focusing for the strategic planning for 2026, and undoubtedly, there will be a significant drop in the CapEx investment of the company. Just something that Marcelo also mentioned, this is not a guidance, okay? This is data that is objective and known by everyone. We're talking about an expansion drop.
You must remember that we have expanded around 50, 60 stores a year. We have expanded mainly, I would say, significantly in proximity stores, and these proximity stores cost around BRL 2.5 million to BRL 3 million for each store opening. If we see the figures in expansion for the recent years, here we have something around BRL 140 million, BRL 150 million without transforming this in guidance because we are not talking about future expansions, just for you to see what the total amount is. Of course, we are working with other points, pursuing more efficiency, pursuing improvement in our capital allocation, but this accounts for BRL 140 million, BRL 150 million. I know that you're aware of these figures, but I wanted to underscore it because it's extremely important and timely.
Thank you. Very clear.
The next question comes from Iago Souza, Genial Investimentos. Please unmute your microphone.
Good morning. Thank you, Marcelo, Rafael, for the opportunity to ask questions. I have two questions concerning CapEx. What adjustments have you made in the distribution center, and when do you expect the payback of the investments? Concerning close down of Mini Extra, one unit under conversion, I understand it's expected to have closed down, and the amount is not significant. It's only 4%. Is it a correction of the expansion that you've been doing for the past two years, and if yes, what didn't work out fine? About the conversion of this unit, I would like to understand why would you go from Mini Extra to Minuto Pão de Açúcar? Is there a difference in terms of profitability between the two formats? What could you tell us?
CapEx of the distribution center. Two investments were made. One, expected normal turnover of the distribution center.
We had to replace it in our distribution center one in Anhanguera Highway. We had to change the pallet holders, which are part of the structure. It is something that happens every five to seven years, and this was the year that we expected it to be done. We've done that from our distribution center one and in some of the other distribution centers. One-off investment, even though it's long-term, the payback of the investment is kind of quick. Much more than thinking about the payback, this is a required procedure for maintaining good operations of our distribution center. Concerning the close down of Mini Extra, there is nothing new. It's a natural process, something that we are used to doing. We review opening of stores, and we also review the performance of some of our current stores, and some of them have to be closed down.
We closed down six proximity stores in the last quarter. The reason for it is location, change of competitiveness, landscape around the store. We always try to recover a store before we close it, of course. When we realize that we've done whatever it took and still the store is not reacting as expected, we don't keep them open. I would say that these close downs result from expansions that we did in the past. Before 2022, we had 200 stores in this format. With the change in our strategy, we've been closing down those old proximity stores. We use the same rationale for transformation or conversion, especially what we've been observing in the city of São Paulo. Since the construction master plan was approved in the city of São Paulo, the city is getting transformed.
We have high-income buildings being developed in regions which didn't use to be focused on this kind of high-income population. Now we've realized the importance of bringing a Minuto Pão de Açúcar to these customers. We are talking about 5% better than the mini market because we offer different assortment, a presence of perishables, which has expanded, and service offer, which is better. Something that's going to happen this year is the introduction of digital in these stores as well. I would say nothing is different. Nothing is attracting our attention or causing alarm. It is a normal review of our stores, and we are very diligent in analyzing that. If we realize that a store is not performing, and it has been so for a while, and we've tried our best efforts, we have no problems but to close the store and improve the profitability of the channel.
The conversion that you alluded to, you probably know this store. It was a store of Mini Extra in Rua dos Pinheiros, a region that has gone through major transformation. It was an older store of Mini Extra. It's close to Pedrosa de Morais. It is a store that, since its conversion, has performed much better than the previous store because of the new model, the new model of Minuto Pão de Açúcar, especially in this region that has transformed so much in the recent period.
Great results. Thank you very much for your answers.
Our Q&A session is finished now. I'd like now to hand it over to Mr. Marcelo Pimentel for his closing remarks. Thank you all very much for your participation.
Considering our macroeconomic scenario, it's still very challenging. We've been working with focus and discipline, and with that, we've had major achievements. We produced our margins, reduced expenses, and gained more participation in the premium segment, which seems to be more resilient during diverse conditions. We end this cycle absolutely sure that we will remain firm on the right path, and we remain paying attention and committed to our goals. I would like to give my special thanks to our team, people who are dedicated, and which is essential for us to move on in this journey. Thank you all very much. Have a great day.
With that, we close our earnings release call. The Investor Relations Department is available for any further questions. Thank you all very much for your participation. Have a great day.