Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to Plano & Plano's Q4 2020 results conference call. We inform that this event is being recorded, and all the participants will be in the listen-only mode during the company's presentation. Next, we will begin the Q&A session when further instructions will be given. Should any participant need assistance during this call, please dial asterisk zero to reach the operator. Today's event is available through a live webcast and may be accessed at the Plano & Plano investor relations website at ri.planoeplano.com.br/en by clicking on the banner webcast. The slides are available for download on the webcast platform. The information is available in BRL, Brazilian reais, and BR GAAP and IFRS applicable to real estate developers in Brazil, except where stated otherwise.
Before proceeding, let me mention that any forward-looking statements made in today's conference call regarding the business outlook for forecasts and financial and operating targets is based on beliefs and assumptions of Plano & Plano's management and on information currently available. Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. They relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors can also affect the future results of Plano & Plano and may also cause results to differ materially from those expressed here. Today, we have Mr. Rodrigo von Uhlendorff, Mr. Rodrigo Luna, and Mr. João Hopp, respectively, Chairman, Vice P resident, CFO, and also Investor Relations of Plano & Plano.
Now, I would like to turn the floor to Mr. Rodrigo Luna, vice president, who will begin the presentation. Sir, you have the floor.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the interest in Plano & Plano and for participating in our conference call. Let's go on to slide number 4. 2020 will be a landmark in the history of Plano & Plano because of the pandemic and also the IPO, and all of this in a context of growth, sustainable growth, and profitable growth of the company, generating jobs and integrating value and delivering value to its clients and shareholders. The IPO, which happened in September 2020, placed the company in a select group of companies in Novo Mercado in B3 and now paves the way for the improvement of its operations, which will contribute for its resilience and constant growth. 2020 was a year of historical records.
Our launches reached a VGV of BRL 1 .433 billion after a Q4 of more than BRL 500 million of VGV launched. When we compare Q4 2020 with Q4 2019, we had a robust growth of 24% in units sold, an increase of 24.1% in net revenue, apart from a significant increase of 40.5% in net profit. In 2020, the gross margin reached 36.8%, 1.3 percentage points above 2019. Net profit was the greatest in its history, reaching BRL 132.2 million. From the beginning of the pandemic, the operations of the company were adapted to guarantee the safety of all the employees. There was no interruption in our projects, and they continue at full speed. Our sales team adapted itself to really be able to help our clients in the best possible way using digital means.
With this, we are presenting robust results and even with COVID-19. Now looking at the reality of a high deficit in housing and with the structure we have, we are very optimistic with the perspectives for 2021. We are very optimistic. In this way, we continue with our strength and capacity to grow. Also, we want continuous growth as we can see in our numbers. We are well-prepared and well-positioned to capture value for our shareholders, making Plano & Plano a company that is more and more admired. Now, I would like to pass the floor to our CFO, João Hopp. He will talk about operational results and also financial results in the period. João, you have the floor.
Thank you, Luna. Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure to be with you to discuss the earnings of 2020. Slide number 6. Plano & Plano is focused on low-income housing in São Paulo. In the last few years, we had strong growth. The VGV launched in 2020 is more than 2.5 times the VGV launched in 2016, resulting in an annual growth rate of 37.6%. We have plans for expansion in the next few years. We have a land bank that is ready for São Paulo in order to achieve this growth. Next slide, please. In spite of the delays in the Q2 due to COVID-19, the company maintained its objectives in terms of launches and began to accelerate after Q3. In the full ye ar, BRL 1.433 billion of VGV launched, 14.9% above the previous year.
The highest amount launched in a year by the company. Considering the VGV as percentage without swaps, we had BRL 506 million in Q4, as can be seen on the graph on the right. Next slide. Net sales grew 25.3% in Q4 2020 in comparison with Q4 2019. Full year, 28.3%. Even with the reduction in the first months of the pandemic, accumulated sales in 2020 of BRL 874 million was also a record for the company. Accelerated growth is a consequence of more launches in previous years and a good acceptance of the products offered by the company. When we look at total net sales percentage Plano & Plano on the right, we see that we had the participation of 2% of partners in sales in Q4 2020. Slide number nine, please.
In this graph, we can see the performance every month net sales. We see the dark one in 2020, and the sales in 2019. After a beginning of the year with accelerated growth reaching 45% growth in Q1, right after the pandemic, there was a drop in the growth of sales due to distancing and other aspects of COVID. There was a drop in April, May, and then strong growth as of June when w e began a partial opening of our stands for sales. Sales adapted themselves to restrictions and began to use, in a more intense way, the digital tools that we have. The team was trained in order to get in touch with the clients in a digital way. The growth in Q2 was 3.4%, and the company grew strongly in Q3, reaching 42.7% growth in net sales.
In the last quarter, the growth was 25.3%, closing the year of 2020 with a total growth of 28.7%. Next slide. One of the objectives of Plano & Plano is to have a minimum inventory of ready units through sales before the delivery. On December 31, 2020, of 9,500 units in inventory, we had only 176 units, 2% inventory. This result is due to projects that are adequate for the region and also good sales effort. Now, slide 11. Plano & Plano has focus on the metropolitan region of São Paulo. We have a land bank with a VGV here of BRL 9.7 billion, and 87% are in São Paulo. See all of these with contracts already signed. You can see that 96.7% of the acquisition value will be paid with the so-called swap.
The owner of the land will receive the payment in installments as we have cash and as we sell the units. Next slide. Of the BRL 8.4 billion of the land bank, most in São Paulo, most of them are in the east and south zones in São Paulo. This distribution is in line with our studies for the city of São Paulo. Total land bank, BRL 9.7 billion, is sufficient for some years of launches, but Plano & Plano continues to evaluate and buying new plots of land since in the short term, we have the land we need. Now, let's go on to slide 13. We had a year with strong growth and delivery of projects. In 2020, we delivered BRL 1,114 million VGV. The performance was very high in Q4.
We can see here the growth in relation to Q4 2019. In 2020, we had 29 projects in progress under construction. Now let's go directly to slide 15, where we will discuss the financial results of the company. In Q4 2020, Plano & Plano recognized BRL 275 million in net revenue. The best quarter in the year, 9.6% higher than in 2019, and 25% higher than in relation to 2019. We see here this BRL 901 million of net revenue was another historical record, and this is due to more and more launches, record number of launches. On this slide, you can see in 2020, you can see the gross margin. In Q4 this year, gross margin was 36.6%, four points below last year. Gross margin, here we can see a gain of 1.3 percentage points in relation to 2019.
The company is making efforts to take care and manage the pressure on cost, and also trying to maximize the sale price to minimize the impact of the cost increases. The engineering and supplies department has reached its objectives through an intense management on each input, minimizing the impact of higher costs in raw materials. We have guaranteed the supply of the materials and although with impacts in the production, these impacts were not relevant in our operation. Now slide 17. Plano & Plano closed 2020 with a growth of 29.4% in net profit vis-a-vis 2019. The net margin was 14.7%, above 14.2% in the previous year. The results are even more relevant when we consider that in 2020, the market suffered the effects of COVID-19, affecting the performance of sales in April and May.
A lot of work was done to guarantee the safety of the employees and clients, and even in adverse conditions, we were able to deliver the highly positive result. The profit per share grew 30%, reaching BRL 0.65 per share. Concerning adjusted EBITDA, I would like to highlight the improvement in margin when we analyze 2020 with 2019. You can see here in the last line, we reached 20.2%. Another highlight, the growth of adjusted EBITDA in 2020 in comparison with the previous year, reaching BRL 182 million. Slide 19, please. At the end of 2020, the gross debt, BRL 290.6 million, BRL 290 million, 20.9% higher. This is financing to support production from the Caixa Econômica Federal. Cash increased. Increase here to BRL 193.7 million in 2020.
With this, the net debt increased from BRL 81 million to BRL 86 million when we look at 2019, 2020. We see the relationship here, net debt, and as here, 0.85. We paid off a debt we had on March 12, 2021. The company paid off its first offer of debentures and captured BRL 60 million to use as working capital. This loan is for 30 months. Cash consumption in Q4 2020 was BRL 7.6 million, and during the year, cash consumption BRL 38 million. At the beg inning of the year, we had a delay in sending contracts for financing to the Caixa Econômica Federal. We had some delays. Bearing in mind that civil construction was defined as an essential activity, our projects did not suffer interruption during 2020.
In 2020, we had an increase of BRL 120 million in the account units to be sold. Our projects continue, and with sales growing, the extra cash we will receive will come as time goes by. We have been able to deliver these units. Next slide. We would like to close our conference call sharing the recognition that our clients have in relation to our products and services. Plano & Plano decided five years ago to become a company focused on the client instead of being focused on the product. This change in focus required a change in processes, and this permeated all the company. We are in this journey of transformation. Now we have the recognition from clients.
We have here one of the best recognitions, and this attitude, being customer-centric, will contribute to perpetuate our business in a sustainable way. Together with this client, to be centered on the client this year, we decided to focus on ESG. We have been working on this for many years, but now we have more focus on ESG. We began to map our actions, and this year we will have our first ESG report that will be used to work on three fronts: environment, social, and governance. We would like to conclude our presentation. We are available for any clarifications.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the Q&A session. To ask a question, please press asterisk zero. If your question is answered, you may leave the queue by dialing asterisk two. Our first question comes from Jorel Guilloty , Morgan Stanley.
Good morning. I have two questions. I would like to know if you can give us more color about your strategy for sales in 2021. Will you give more discounts? Will you increase marketing? What are your plans, your strategies for 2021? The second question, how the year is going, 2021, in terms of sale? How do you see the market in São Paulo, Minha Casa, Minha Vida project? Please comment on this year's activities.
Hola. Here, Rodrigo Luna. I will answer your questions. A pleasure to have you. Concerning sales, it is something that we focus on every single day. There are many actions that are being carried out, implemented to really increase the liquidity of our products. This includes adjustments in relation to our policies and even margins. We have seen good results of these adjustments that we have made here at the company, and I am sending to you 2021. This is a year with a lot of interest on the part of consumers to buy our products. We are feeling the evolution in the numbers, and this shows that the adjustments that we are making are having an effect and will bring us good results.
Supplementing, this is João. Yes, there has been some flexibility. Last year, Plano & Plano, we had a credit of BRL 2 million to clients. It is pretty low, and with focus on credit until we deliver the units. We understand that there is space to try new things like credit, which has been BRL 800,000. We are using more flexibility here.
Could you talk about the market in São Paulo, its dynamics, whether it is healthy?
Rodrigo Luna. Let us talk about competition in São Paulo. Like we had in the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, we saw this happening during the year, and it is not different this year. An increase in market share of the large companies in relation to small and medium-sized companies. This situation of the pandemic makes it difficult for companies that have low investment in technology and few channels for distribution. With this, the larger companies like ours had a gain. They gained share, they gained market share, and are being able to deliver what is in their plans. As I said, we had excellent number of visitors in our stands for sales. We see consumers very interested in purchasing real estate. This has enabled us, even with the pandemic, to be able to grow according to our plans.
Thank you. The next question comes from Alex Ferraz, Itaú BBA. Good afternoon, João, Rodrigo, Luna.
Thank you for the presentation. I have two questions. The first has to do with cash generation. We saw a cash burn during the year, and this has to do with the financing by the Caixa Econômica Federal, and the company is growing. In 2021, even with this growth cycle, can we expect to see more stability or a positive cash generation as you mentioned? I would like to know what you can tell us about the leverage and gross margin. It is better in spite of the cost. How do you believe gross margin will behave this year, especially with raw materials that can put pressure? Do you see any space to increase prices and pass on these price increases to the clients?
Good afternoon, Alex. Thank you for the questions. Concerning cash generation, our expectation is that this year, what we have told the sales team is we want to grow in a strong way this year, in an accelerated way. With this, we will be able to pass all the units to the bank for financing. Yes, we believe in stabilization in terms of cash generation this year. We see good prospects for cash generation and debt in 2021. Concerning gross margin, we do not have any expectations in terms of improvement in gross margin. We had price increases. We have been managing this, and we are alert to more price increases. But the launches, we have increased prices during the last year, so part of the projects of last year, they had already been sold.
We are able to pass some of the price increases to our prices, but there will be some loss in gross margin, yes.
The next question is from Gustavo Cambauva, BTG Pactual.
Good afternoon. I have two questions. The first in relation to the land bank. You mentioned you have 97% of the plots of land you will pay via swap or during the construction. The new negotiations for the purchase of land continue in this way. There are other companies, as Luna mentioned, trying to grow in São Paulo, trying to gain share. This dynamics of buying plots of land with very little cash disbursement, will this continue in the future? My second question in relation to sales. You said you were making adjustments and dedicating part of the team for launches and another part of the sales team for inventory to increase sales. I know that things are difficult because of the pandemic. Can you see any improvement in the speed of sales in the beginning of this year?
Thank you, Cambauva. Let me clarify the money we pay for the land. The cost of the land, BRL 1.040 billion . For this VGV of 9.7, BRL 36 million is paid in advance, much lower than what the market pays for. This is the dynamic since the beginning of the year, we're using the same strategy to buy land. Most of our plots of land are bought via swap. Luna will mention also some points.
Good afternoon, Cambauva. Supplement the issue of plots of land, I would say that we did not feel any change in the behavior of the owners of land. We are analyzing many opportunities for new projects with our model, which is payment during the construction. Obviously, as you know, this helps us to have a return on investment that is very high, maybe one of the highest in the sector. Now concerning the adjustments and our actions in relation to the sales structure, they are 80% operating. We have some changes happening until the end of this month in sales. They are giving us a practical effect. The numbers of Q1 are numbers that are very good when compared to 2019. We had a problem. We had a technical problem.
Cambauva , were you able to hear my answer for your question? I also have a problem in my line.
Please repeat the end of the explanation. You said that sales have improved with the new model?
As I said, we're seeing the effects with the structure we planned. We see an evolution in relation to the past.
Thank you. Thank you, Rodrigo. Thank you, João.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, reminding you to ask questions, please dial asterisk one. The next question comes from the webcast. Luis Cotana. Costs. Please detail how the cost of materials has had an impact on the company. What are your expectations in terms of loss of margin? Please comment on delinquency and cancellations due to higher inflation.
Good afternoon. In relation to costs, right now, our costs, 43% of the cost of projects is labor. 43% is labor. The other rest, other services and raw materials. The main items are concrete, almost 5%, steel, 4.5%. If we look at the items and we estimate cement represents 5.5% of our cost. As we have increases, this affects our margin. An interesting piece of information, historically, Plano & Plano has delivered a cost 3% below our plans. Now, we have been achieving 1.5% lately below our forecasts. We are saving less, but we are within budget. In January 2020, with current costs of February, we see that our internal inflation is 4% above the INCC of this period. This puts pressure on our margins.
Part of this we pass on to clients, but we believe that this year we will not have gains in margin. We hope a drop in gross margin this year. The second question, delinquency. Until the end of the year, delinquency dropped and cancellations also dropped. It is 9%, and delinquency also dropped. I do not have the numbers, but delinquency dropped during this year. Reminding you that we have very little credit given directly to clients.
The next question from webcast, from Luis Cotana. Dividends. What are your expectations in terms of the distribution of these dividends?
Dividends in the year-end report, minimum dividends, 25% mandatory. Our proposal will go to the General Assembly on April 27th. Our policy is to distribute a payout ratio a little below last year due to the current uncertainties and volatility in the market, and also in order to have higher equity.
Since there are no more questions, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Rodrigo Luna, Vice President, for his final comments.
I thank you all once again for participating, your interest in our operations. We continue focused on the constant evolution of the company. We are seeing that in spite of all the difficulties due to the pandemic, our business continues to be very resilient and people more and more conscious of the need to buy their own homes and to protect their family, and Plano & Plano has a lot of experience in producing social housing, and we are working in this market in an intense way. With all of this, we foresee a 2021 that will be very strong growth within the plans, according to the plans, in a solid, constant, and also aggressive way. Thank you very much. We wish you a good day, and we are always available.