Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the conference call for earnings for Q1 2021 for Plano & Plano. We inform that this event is being recorded, and all the participants will be in the listen mode only during the presentation of the company. Next, we will begin the Q&A session when further instructions will be supplied. If any participant needs any help during the presentation, please request the help of an operator. This event is also being transmitted simultaneously via webcast, and it may be accessed at ri.planoeplano.com.br and you have to click on the banner Webcast. The slides will be controlled by you. The information is available in reais and BR GAAP and IFRS applicable to the units in Brazil.
Before beginning, we would like to say that any declarations made during this conference call concerning the business perspectives of Plano & Plano projections and operational and financial goals are based on beliefs and assumptions of the board of the company, as well as on information currently available. Few forward-looking statements are not guarantee of performance. They involve risks and certainties. They refer to future events and therefore depending on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operational factors may affect the future performance of Plano & Plano and may lead to results that may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. Today, we have Mr. Rodrigo Luna and João Hopp, respectively, Vice Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer.
Now I'd like to pass the floor to Mr. Rodrigo Luna, Director Vice President, who will begin the presentation. Sir, you may proceed.
Thank you very much. Thank you for participating in our conference call and the interest in our company. Today, we will show the progress and results of Plano & Plano in Q1 2021. Certainly, the world is going through challenging times and transformations. In this scenario, we're all being forced to find new solutions and alternative ways in order to continue because of the greatest economic crisis in the world after the Second World War. Plano & Plano continues with its robust growth strategy and wants to really carry out its mission. Even with all this scenario and the pandemic, we see a strong market with excellent perspectives for 2021.
With historical records in almost all the numbers, we will see next the results obtained by the company in Q1. Slide four , please. January to March 2021 net sales, 1,916 units resulted in BRL 312 million in net revenue VGV, which represents a growth of 58.8% in relation to the same period last year. The net revenue grew 58.1%, reaching BRL 312 million in 2021 with a gross profit of BRL 107.5, an increase of 40.9%. The highlight is for the net income net profit, BRL 50 million with a growth of 145.62% in comparison with the same period in 2020 and with a net margin of 16%, which shows exceptional operational and financial performance. The ROI of the company is in the last 12 months, 57.8%, one of the best in the sector amongst our competitors.
Also a highlight for our progress, continuous development of digital platforms, a formation of team for launches, leadership that is differentiated. We are delivering results that represent the highest indices of profitability in the sector. With the increase in cost of the materials we began Q3 2020 and also during the first quarter 2021, we had increases in raw materials. We have made many adjustments searching for alternatives in construction in this challenging scenario. This is the company's obsession in looking for new. We anticipated contracts, we anticipated also purchases of raw materials, and new methodologies are some examples of things that we did to mitigate the effects of the price increases in raw materials. These actions had some impact in the cash generation of the period and represent approximately BRL 7 million. The decrease in the usage of steel and wood, which had the highest price increases.
For example, we substituted iron and wood for plastic which had smaller price increases. Plano & Plano still has all its projects in progress within the cost that we forecasted for the projects, thus preserving the original profitability. We can see this in our results. Also optimization of results. We have been able to pass on to clients part of the price increases. We know that our costs are one of the lowest in the sector. Our strategy continues firm to take advantage of the great demand in the metropolitan region of São Paulo for buildings and apartments, and we are present in all the regions of São Paulo, the most important city in Brazil. This strategy also allows us to make progress in other projects like Casa Verde e Amarela.
In higher income, there is a lot of demand, and there are few products from BRL 240,000 to BRL 300,000. In improving our governance, the company recently received recognition and was certified as a Great Place to Work, a standard of excellence for the best companies to work. The company was able to get this award the first time it was evaluated. We have an action plan to be even better, so this motivates us even more to continue with our objective to be the best company in our segment in which to work, and thus helping us to retain our talent. With this, reinforce that all the plans for 2021 continue absolutely in course. Launches, sales, in line with the objective of delivering in 2021, once again, with double-digit growth.
Now I'd like to pass the floor to João Hopp, who will talk about the operational results and financial results of the company. João Hopp, you have the floor.
Thank you, Luna. Good afternoon. It's a great pleasure to be with you again for our conference call for earnings. We'd like to begin on slide number six, operational results. Slide number six, please. The net sales, 100% Plano & Plano, reached BRL 335 million, 58.8% higher than the BRL 211 million in Q1 2020, and 17.9% higher than the BRL 284 million recorded in Q4 2020. This result represents a new record of sales in a quarter for Plano & Plano. The company has had constant growth in sales since the second quarter of 2020, when we had a drop caused by the adaptations to the pandemic.
The projects were maintained, and the sales area used new channels, digital channels, and digital tools in a more intense way to sell the apartments. Here, operational data on March 31st, 2021. Looking at VSO, 38.8%, 6.1 percentage points above December 31st, 2020. This increase is due to the strong sales increase in Q1 of 2021. In the last few months, Plano & Plano reinforced its sales team and has been working with its partner to accelerate the VSO during 2021. Next slide, please. The company launched two projects in Q1, totaling BRL 103 million, and made available 573 units for sale. Due to the restrictions of the pandemic, the launches foreseen for March were delayed and launched in April. The company, the management maintains its objective with all the launches programmed for 2021. The participation of the company in the launches of the Q1 was 100%.
Slide number nine. The company closed the quarter with 8,237 units and a VGV of BRL 1.7 billion in inventory. These numbers represent a drop of 14% in units and 11.6% of VGV in comparison with the previous quarter. One of the objectives of the company is to maintain a minimum inventory of ready units through a good speed of sales, allowing to sell all the units before we finish the construction. On March 31st, 2021, the company had 58 units ready in its inventory, representing 0.7 of its inventory in units. This result comes from the capacity to launch buildings that are adequate for the target public in the region and adjusting commercial parameters and the focus of the teams. Next slide.
At the end of Q1 2021, the inventory of plots of land, the land bank, represented 1.34 million square meters, with the potential to generate BRL 10.1 billion. Our land bank is sufficient for a few years of launches. We continue evaluating and buying new plots of land for the medium term. Since in the short- term, we have the land bank we need. During Q1 2021, the company acquired three new plots of land in São Paulo. The inventory of plots of land is concentrated in the metropolitan region of São Paulo. 95% of the plots of land and 87% of the VGV potential are in São Paulo. 3% of the cost of acquisition of the plots of land are paid in cash, 97% as we receive cash from sales made. Slide 11, please.
Of the BRL 8.7 billion in land bank within the city of São Paulo, the majority, representing 73% of the total, are in the east and south regions of the city. This distribution is in line with our studies looking at demand in São Paulo. Next slide. We delivered 1,187 units or apartments in Q1 this year, representing a drop of 36.2% in relation to the previous year. The drop in VGV of the deliveries was 35.2%. In the last 12 months, we delivered 5,828 units and BRL 1 billion in VGV. At the end of Q1 2021, the number of projects in progress totaled 33, in comparison with 35 in Q1 of last year and 29 in the Q4 of 2020. The growth of the number of project is due to the high volume of launches in the second semester of 2020. Okay, slide 14, please. Financial results.
In Q1 2021, we had another record in net revenue. The net revenue of the company reached BRL 312.3 million in Q1 2021, 58.1% higher than the BRL 197.5 million obtained in Q1, and 13.5% in relation to BRL 275.1 million in Q4 2020. This is due to the development of new sales techniques and the recognition of the revenue in execution for the units sold in accordance with the methodology we use, which is Percentage of Completion. The increase could have been even higher if we had not had the pandemic. The need to maintain social distancing made it difficult to sell. This challenge is being overcome by interactions with digital channels. The digital tools are present in almost all of the client's journey. As an example, almost all the contracts are digital. Next slide.
The gross profit of the quarter reached BRL 105.7 million, showing a growth of 40.9% in comparison with Q1 2020 due to the good performance of sales. With this gross margin, there was a drop of 42.2 percentage points in relation to Q1 2020 as a consequence of the higher cost of construction material and discounts given in the period. In comparison with Q4 2020, there was an increase of 4.8% in gross profit and a reduction of 2.9 percentage points in gross margin. We would like to highlight that the increase of the scale really was higher than the loss of gross margin, resulting in an increase of gross margin. We want to continue growing with gains through operational leverage. Slide 16, please. Our profit in the quarter was once again record, a little above that of Q4 2020.
The net profit reached BRL 50 million in Q1 2021, with an increase of 145.2%, considering the profit of BRL 20.4 million in Q1 2020. This increase was possible due to the good performance obtained by the sales in the quarter. The net margin was, Q1 2021, 5.7 percentage points above the 10.3 obtained in Q1 2020. Concerning Q4 2020 of 1.1% in net profit and a drop in 2 percentage points in net margin. Next slide, please. Adjusted EBITDA generated in Q1 2021 totaled BRL 68.9 million, an increase of 110.5% in relation to the same period of 2020. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased 5.5 percentage points in comparison with comparing Q1 2021 to Q1 2020, reaching 22.1%. Next slide. On March 31, 2021, the gross debt reached BRL 372.7 million, 28.2% higher than the BRL 290.6 million on December 31.
Considering cash equivalent to cash and deposits linked to BRL 280 million, net debt reached BRL 92.7 million at the end of the quarter, 7.2 higher than the BRL 86.5 million on the same date in the previous year. Both the gross debt and availability grew in the period considering cash generation and loans through debentures. The relationship net debt over net assets dropped by 0.38% on December 31 to 0.33% on March 31st, 2021, as a consequence of this accelerated increase in relation to the net debt. The company has the objective to reach 0.20 in this relationship net debt and assets. In Q1 2021, the company had a cash consumption of BRL 6.2 million according to the evolution of the net debt between 2020, 2021, December and March. On March and February, we had a period without new loans from the Federal Savings Bank.
With the good sales, we expect the cash generation as our units sold are then sent to the bank for the financing and payment of the part financed by the client. Our projects are on schedule. Now slide 20. We would like to close this conference call sharing once again the recognition on the part of our employees concerning our company. Recently, we received the certificate Great Place to Work as standard of excellence for a company. The company was able to get this during its first evaluation with 95% of the employees participating. The survey tells us how we can improve, and we are working on this. This award motivates us even more to continue with our objective to be the best company to work in in our company, increasing the attraction and retention of talents.
With it, we decided to have a more active management in ESG actions. For years, we have been working on this, and from now on, we will have a greater focus. We began to map our actions, and this year we will have our first ESG report, which will be the basis for future actions for improvement on three fronts: environment, social, and governance. We are sure that these actions will contribute for value generation for shareholders in the short, medium, and long- term. We would like to conclude here our conference call, and we are available for questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. João Hopp. Now we will have the Q&A session. To ask a question, please dial asterisk one. If you wish to remove the question, please dial asterisk two. Our first question is from Gustavo, BTG Pactual.
Good afternoon. I would like to ask two questions concerning launches. Concerning launches, please talk about your expectations in terms of pipeline for 2021 now that we have less restrictions. Please talk about the launches during the year. My second question on sales. I would like to understand now that São Paulo has the stores already open, less restrictions, what can you say about the demand for your product and your expectation on sales?
Good afternoon. Thank you for your question. As I mentioned here, our plan for launches continues the same. We delayed two launches in March for April due to the restrictions and lockdown. It was not the right time, so we delayed two launches in March for April. They were already launched, and we have now launches in May and during the year. All the guidance for launches has been maintained. We want double-digit growth. This is our growth strategy.
In terms of sales, first, I would like to reinforce that digital platforms are becoming more and more important and with better results. Digital sales are much more efficient than done offline. Consumers are accepting this format, this digital relationship, and obviously we have seen this increase, this evolution. The traditional channels of sales continue being an important tool. In Q1, we had the lockdowns, and in March we had our stands closed. Now they are open, although we still have some restrictions. But we have noticed an increase in the number of visitors in our stands and the increase in demand. In spite of all the difficulties, we are seeing a strong demand as the numbers have shown.
Rodrigo. A follow-on question. In your opinion, talking. Since you are now stronger in digital platforms, how can this represent gains for the company in terms of lower costs, you would say, or the salesperson, the speed of sales? I'd like to understand, how can the digital tools help the company? I'd like to know, can we see gains using digital platforms?
[Tamboa], this is a transformation for society as a whole. We are much more digital today than we were before the pandemic. This begins with our first client. The salesperson is adapting himself, herself, and using these tools. Before the pandemic, we had the traditional salesperson selling as they used to. There is a transformation in progress. Our salespersons have evolved.
We have directed them to this evolution, and this generates a faster and more efficient sale with more control, because everything is registered in the digital world, in computers, and this avoids trips. We are here to sell to the client any way they want. We have clients that like this approach. Other clients want the traditional method to go to the stand and to talk to a salesperson. But the digital sales are more efficient in terms of cost and more complete. In the digital world, you can access a greater number of consumers anywhere they are. You can be at home, you can be on your way. From any place, you can talk to consumers and make sales. We are sure that this will increase. The use of these digital platforms will increase as time goes by. Thank you.
Our next question is from Alex Ferraz, Itaú BBA.
Good afternoon, Rodrigo and João. Thank you for the presentation. I have one question linked to what you mentioned in the release margin concerning the discount policy. You said that apart from pressure on costs, the margin is under pressure due to discounts. Can you give us some color? What is the policy for discounts, and are you thinking of adopting other means? Maybe you said that the portfolio, you have most of the units sold. How could you improve VSO?
Hi, Alex. Rodrigo speaking. The management of liquidity versus price versus profitability is something that we look at every day. As you said, it's case by case according to the need. We're all the time doing fine-tuning. Some products need more discount, other products that are more resilient where we can increase the price.
Yes, there are cases. Some increases passing on higher costs to the clients to mitigate the effects of this perfect storm, an economic crisis with increase in prices. We look at this on a daily basis with our sales director. Concerning the rest, João will talk.
Hi, Alex. Yes, we use Pro Soluto as another tool. We changed our approach in relation to what we were doing until the end of last year. We have some financing directly to the client, and we were very conservative if we compare with other companies in the market. One difference is that a little more than half of this is paid after we deliver the apartments. We check how much the client wants this financing and the risk that we have. Reminding you that we have more than BRL 500 million in receivables with BRL 28 million in financing.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the web, Mr. Luiz [Contato], investor.
Two questions. Good afternoon. Congratulations for the results. Please talk about discounts and materials. What are your expectations for the rest of the year? Second question, what is your current vision for operational expenses during the rest of the year? Lower sales expenses and less administrative expenses?
Thank you for the question. The first, the gross margin. We attribute the drop in gross margin, we attribute half to raw materials and the other half to more aggressive discounts, especially in March when we had a good sale. So half and half raw materials and discounts. The expectation for the rest of the year, we do not see this ending. The pressure is lower on costs of raw materials, but we still have some pressure on the cost of raw materials. So we still see pressure.
We will compensate this with average discounts. So during the quarter, we will be communicating the results. But yes, the pressure continues. Now, concerning operational expenses, we delivered a Q1 in line with nominal values of last year. Maybe by the end of the year, we can see some growth in relation to last year. But our expectation with accelerated growth of our sales and the recognition of these sales in revenue, we may have some operational leverage helping the final results. Yes, we expect SG&A, but we expect some leverage. Thank you.
Our next question is from João Pilati, Morgan Stanley.
Good afternoon. Two questions. First, I would like to understand about cash generation, considering the higher costs in inputs, raw materials. How are you balancing this idea of the cost going up and you are giving discounts and the cash generation may become negative? I would like to understand what are your thoughts on this. And the other, with this growth in the price of raw materials, what will be different in the launches during the year? Are you thinking of launching more or less? Or working with low-income projects.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the questions. Concerning cash generation, our expectation is that with the volume of projects in progress, all of them working 100%, and our sales growing, we expect to pass on the contracts to the Federal Savings Bank for financing after we deliver, and then receive the proceeds with this dynamics that we have. BRL 1 billion, BRL 100 million launched in the second semester of last year, so we are beginning to recognize sales this year. The projects are in progress, and this makes us receive, during this year, the payments.
In spite of the pressure on cost, our projects are within the budget until now. Plano & Plano every single month measures the cost of the projects, and we calculate the costs until the end of the projects, and our engineering department is delivering the projects within the budget. In the new launches, we consider the new prices of raw materials to do the pricing correctly in order to maintain our internal margins during the year. We haven't changed the launches. The launches continue the same. We continue to grow above BRL 1.1 billion that we launched last year. We want to deliver a higher number this year, double-digit growth in VGV. We're monitoring this. For the time being, we haven't changed anything in the launch program. Thank you.
Reminding you to ask questions, please dial asterisk one. To remove your question from the queue, dial asterisk two. Please wait while we collect the questions. Once again, to ask a question, please dial asterisk one. To remove your question, please dial asterisk two. Now, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Rodrigo Luna, Director Vice President, for his final comments.
Once again, thank you. Thank you for participating. We'd like to reinforce our trust in the development of the company in 2021. In spite of all the difficulties due to the pandemic, we had a quarter. You saw record numbers in almost all our points, long-term hard work. We continue in line with our plans for 2021. The market continues very strong, a booming market. There is a demand, there is a deficit in housing in São Paulo.
We believe our strategy is correct to be one of the main players in the largest economy in South America, São Paulo, a very resilient market. At this time of crisis, we see how important it is to bring good results to our operation with this strategy. Once again, thank you very much. We're always available for any clarification. Take care. The pandemic is decreasing, and soon we will have normal times as we wish. Thank you, and we wish you a good afternoon. The conference call of earnings for Plano & Plano is concluded. We thank you very much for