Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to Positivo Tecnologia's fourth quarter 2018 earnings conference call. Today we have with us Lincon Ferraz, Financial and Investor Relations Officer. We would like to inform you that this conference is being recorded and that you will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. If any participant needs assistance during this call, please press star then zero to reach the operator.
We have simultaneously webcast that may be accessed through the company's website, ir.positivotecnologia.com.br and MZiQ platform. The slide presentation may be downloaded from this website. Please feel free to flip through the slides during the conference call. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the safe harbor of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Positivo Tecnologia's management and on information currently available to the company.
They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Positivo Tecnologia and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Lincon Ferraz, Positivo Tecnologia's Financial and Investor Relations Officer. Mr. Lincon, you may begin your conference.
Good morning, everyone. We are here to present the results for the fourth quarter 2018, when the company registered income before tax of BRL 10 million. You can proceed to page two. Here we have some color on the PC market. Sales in Brazil increased by 7%, totaling 5.6 million PCs sold according to IDC. The segments in which this segment increased more were retail. In retail, the growth was 5%, boosted by higher consumer confidence. The ICC index reached 94 points in December 2018, 6% up year-on-year. In the corporate segment, sales increased by 10%.
This is a show of the recovery of investments in Brazil for the companies in infrastructure and also renovation of hardware investments. Total PC market in Brazil was very low in 2016 due to recession. So 2018 is the second year of growth in the country. Positivo sales grew by 18% in 2018 with an excellent performance both in the retail and corporate sales. In retail, our growth was 20%, boosted by our product portfolio success and also the higher exposure of our brand provided by the sponsorship to Corinthians soccer team.
In the corporate segment, our growth was 32%. This was led by the extension of the sales through resellers and also the increase of sales through medium and large companies provided by our new commercial team. You can see in the chart on the right side that our market share reached 16.9%. It was 15.1% last year and 15.3% in 2016. So it's a growth path. Moving to page three, mobile phone market. This year, 2018, the concentration in the three major manufacturers was the same when compared to 2017.
The three together hold 80% of the total volume of the market, leaving only 20% for the other brands. Our market share closed the year at 3.2%. It is flat year-on-year. Our prospects for the first half 2019 is good. We detected a very good sales turnover in the channel. The reposition in the first half of this year is very strong. This could lead to bigger revenues. Moving to page four. Here we can see the margin of our sales. It closed the quarter at 11%. It is a normalized level.
The only quarter in 2018 that was very low was the second quarter, in which the FX rate in Brazil was suddenly depreciated. We didn't have time to pass this to price, so the margin suffered a little bit. As of July, margin recovered as soon as we passed on to prices all this depreciation. The fixed cost also reduced by 20% when compared to Q4 2016. In September 2018, we promoted a big restructuring of the administrative areas in this company, we had around 130 people laid off, and also we cost a lot of expenses.
BRL 10 million was the level of the G&A expenses, considering only personal and administrative expenses. Moving to page five. Here we have some news. According to the material facts that we disclosed early this year, we acquired the control of Accept. We hold now 80% of its capital. Accept revenue in 2018 was BRL 160 million. 80% of this volume was represented by service and also storage, and 20% of the revenue was mini PCs, thin clients, and desktops.
The acquisition price was structured in form of earn-out, so the impact in cash flow is minimized. We expect improvement in the results of this company provided by the gain of scale with the combination of Positivo and Accept, and also some synergies in after sales, factory, and also fixed costs. We hope to have a more comprehensive portfolio to address the corporate segment and also the government. We are very confident for 2019 with this acquisition. Page six. Here we have another news, is the establishment of a fund for investment in IT companies.
This vehicle we created according to the Brazilian IT Law , which was renewed in October 2018, allowing companies like Positivo and other manufacturers to invest a portion of its obligation of investment in R&D in these kind of activities. We invested BRL 14 million in the fund in December 2018. In February 2019, the first two investments were performed, two startup companies in the agribusiness sector. The first one is called Agrosmart, and the second one is @Tech. Agrosmart, they have sensors to monitor crops.
They combine this analysis of genetic information, satellite images, and harvest data. We hold 12% stake in this company. The other one is engaged on monitoring livestock. We hold 20% stake in this second company. We expect to see more acquisitions through 2019 because we expect to have around BRL 10 million- BRL 20 million every year of investment in this vehicle. Moving to the financial results on page eight. Here we have the sales figures. Analyzing PCs by channel is interesting to say that in all the segments, retail, government, and corporate, we grew. In retail it was 20%, government 7%, and corporate, the biggest growth, 32%.
Mobile phones, on the other hand, we saw a reduction in smartphones of 29% because of the very fierce competition. But in feature phones, we grew by 23%. The combined volume was almost flat year-on-year. Moving to page nine. Net revenue totaling BRL 2 billion is 2% more when compared to 2017. The interesting thing is to see the average prices moving up. You can see very clear in the notebooks line. This is accompanying the FX ratio in Brazil, passing on prices, except on the second quarter 2018, as I mentioned, that the margin was lower.
Moving to page 10. Here we have three COGS: sales expenses and G&A. COGS represented 74% of the net revenue in the fourth quarter. This is a better level when compared to the second quarter and also when compared to the fourth quarter 2017. This represents an improvement in the ratio between the pricing and the exchange rate. Sales expenses declined to 14%, reflecting the reduction on provisions for after sales and also the less representative sales to the retail, in which they carry a lot of marketing provisions.
G&A expenses reduced by 16% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, mainly in the personal expenses, which was only BRL 9 million. This was impacted by the reorganization that we made in September 2018. We expect these lines to keep stable all 2019 due to the very fierce control that we are providing in the fixed costs. On page 11 we can see the operational results. EBITDA reached BRL 47 million in the fourth quarter with 8.6% EBITDA margin, very healthy. This is much different when compared to one year ago, when EBITDA reached only BRL 23 million. It is almost double.
Looking to the net income, it was a net loss of BRL 0.5 million in 2018. A big improvement when compared to the year before, because in 2017, we had a net loss of BRL 47 million. It was impacted by accounting provisions that we made for inventory levels and also the tax installment program that we entered into agreement in the end of 2017. Financial result was BRL -43 million, mainly because of exchange rate variation, which was BRL -23 million.
Net debt closed the year at BRL 217 million with a net debt multiple over EBITDA of 1.9x . We are very confident about the capital structure because of the new credit line that we are contracting with FINEP. This is BRL 50 million, nine years terms, and a very competitive cost. We expect this to happen in the second quarter 2019, and we will boost significantly our capital structure. That is it. That is the results for the 2018. Hope to see you soon on the disclosure of the results of the first quarter 2019. The interesting thing for the 2019 figures will be the consolidation of the server segments with the acquisition of Accept. Thank you very much. Hope to see you soon.
This conference has concluded. Thank you for attending today's Positivo earnings conference call. You may disconnect your line.