Call will be available on ri.randoncorp.com. I'd like to remind you that the information provided in the video conference is not a guarantee of performance. It involves risks and certainties. It refers to future events, therefore, it depends on circumstances that may or may not occur.
Nossa agenda do dia.
Our agenda for the day will include a message from our CEO, Sérgio Carvalho, the main highlights of the business environment and economic results presented by CFO and DRI, Paulo Piñonato, and the details of financial results discussed by the Director of Finance and Investor Relations, Esteban Angeletti. At the end, we will have a Q&A session led by IR Finance Manager, Davi Bassichetti. We will also feature the participation of IR Director, Emerson Soza. You can indicate your participation in the Q&A at any time during the event through the platform. I will hand over.
Eu passo agora a palavra ao Sérgio para dar início à apresentação.
Sérgio, please start the presentations.
Thank you. Hello, everyone. I would like to begin highlighting how important the 2024 year is for the history of Randon. We delivered positive results despite the various challenges that arose through the year. Our business model was put to the test once again, and I can say with great satisfaction that the decision of expanding exposure to different segments and resilient segments was mandatory to face the disfavorable that we had foreseen initially. In all the quarters of the year that went by, adversity was present in our business. We were impacted by the update of the ERP system, the loss of tax incentives, expenses with contingency provisions, the closure of our factory in Uruguay, the floods in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and the slowdown in demand from agribusiness.
In the foreign market, the reduction in sales in trailers in the U.S. and the global logistic crisis, with increased costs and low availability of sea freight, also negatively impacted our operations. However, we went through all of this with great serenity, and our company continued to grow in a sustainable manner. The fact that we were well-defined strategy and are executing our plans assertively has even allowed us to intensify some movements and projects in the last months of the year. We've made important acquisitions, restructured some businesses, seeking greater efficiency, and presented several innovative and disruptive solutions. The details of our strategy were shared with you in our Randoncorp Day, an event where we had the opportunity to highlight the transformation of our company with data and information. We also presented some of the great market potentials that we have in our different areas of activity.
I can say with conviction that there are many good things to come, and we are very excited with what we are seeing in our companies. The best part of all of this is we are achieving these achievements and movements without giving up our principles, delivering quality products, always paying attention to the safety of our employees, their development, carrying out appropriate environmental management, and supporting society. The latter, with greater emphasis in 2024, given the significant impacts caused by the floods I mentioned earlier. We have not stopped doing anything we believe to be essential for our business and for our people since it is through them that we are able to deliver the results we expected for the year, according to our guidance released in the Q1 2024, including record revenue and record EBITDA.
For 2025, our goal is to continue this work, accelerating the integration of the acquired companies, the collection of mapped synergies, improving our results, and allowing us to reduce our leverage. We know that some of our markets may face a slowdown in volumes, especially trailers and heavy trucks, due to the recent increases in interest rates. However, I would like to emphasize once again how the resilience of our results will mitigate this impact, especially now that replacement in foreign markets will account for an even greater proportion of our revenues. Challenges always are present in the business environment. This is inevitable, but we are always doing our part to face them increasingly stronger, being one of the largest global players in the automotive market with strong brands, committed partners to deliver increasingly sustainable mobility. There are a lot of good things to happen this year, guys.
We have the start of operations at Mogi Guazu. We have the addition of revenues of new businesses driven by the group's synergy. We have the delivery of more than 2,000 trailers by Hercules in the United States after a complex period in this market. We have a very buoyant replacement market with a smaller impact in short term, but relevant for the long term. We also have the acquisition of new customers and approval of new products for the agricultural machinery segment by Castortech, the growth of our brands, and the continuous development of innovative products. Thus, we say goodbye to 2024, satisfied with the deliveries made and eager to grow even more. We welcome 2025, excited with everything that we will do and achieve. Now I pass the floor to Paulo for his presentation.
Thank you, Sérgio. Good morning, everyone.
As Sérgio already mentioned, the business environment is quite challenging. We have a high level of uncertainty, especially in the domestic market, due to the exchange rate fluctuations and the rising interest rate. We know that this also ends up having an impact on inflation. Although we expect a record harvest for the next cycle, the market is quite cautious about making new investments. On the global stage, we are seeing a tendency for interest rate and inflation to settle, however, with possible impacts related to tariff barriers between different countries. As you can see on the screen, in the Q4 of 2024, the truck market showed growth compared to the same period of the previous year, both in production and sales, as well as in exports.
This occurred because the segment maintained the pace of recent months, consolidating the market recovery, overcoming the effects of the change in engine to Euro 6 technology. Another sector that is quite buoyant is the replacement sector, spare parts, which maintains demand at a high level, especially due to the increase in circulating fleets of commercial vehicles, light vehicles, and motorcycles in 2024. On the other hand, the trailer market saw declines in the quarterly comparison. This reduction is mainly a reflection of the slowdown in demand from agribusiness. The production lines accumulated a 40% drop in the following Q4 of 2024 compared to the same period in the previous year, partially offset by the industrialized cargo segment, which remains heated. It is worth noting that although with a decline compared to 2023, exports showed growth compared to the demand in the Q3.
This is due to the resumption of sales mainly to Chile, Angola, and Argentina. Even in this complex context, we achieved a new record for quarterly net revenue, in which the sales of auto parts represented 60% of the consolidated total. The highlights of this indicator I bring: the recovery of sales to the foreign market, the addition of revenue of new businesses, and the expansion of the industrial sector, both for parts and trailers. Our adjusted EBITDA margin recovered compared to the Q4 of 2023.
The main highlights were the better conversion of margins through the sales of products with a higher level of profitability, the increase of gross margin due to the stability of prices, the main inputs for the company, and the reduction in the inflation and exchange rate impacts in operations located in Argentina, which were quite high in the Q4 of 2023. The net income also increased in the quarterly comparison. This is mainly due to the improvement in operating results and the resumption of deferred income tax on tax losses after completing a recoverability study. As a result, Randon S.A. Implementos e Participações maintained the pace of recovery since the end of the Q3 of 2024.
Moving on to our debt, I would like to highlight the growth in bank debt, mainly due to the raising of funds for the acquisition of EBS, the increase of net debt compared to the Q3 of 2024 due to the level of investment in the semester, and the higher average cost of debt in the domestic market due to the increase of Selic rate. As we have shared with you in conferences and calls that we have held, our expansion movements should reflect an increase in leverage in the Q1 of 2025. However, throughout the year, the indicator should reduce gradually with the capture of synergies and integration of newly acquired units.
Beyond other actions that we are carrying with this focus, going to the figures of shareholder base, we closed the quarter with approximately 3,000 shareholders, a significant reduction compared to the closing of the Q3 of 2024. This was due to the migration of the position of individual shareholders to foreign investors. Our average daily liquidity increased by 10% compared to the same period last year. Regarding the remuneration of our shareholders, I recall that in December we released material fact announcing the payment of interest on equity, which was made on 2024, January, in the amount of $6 million, which corresponds to $0.18 per share, common and preferred net of tax. Here, I conclude my presentation and hand over to Esteban.
Good morning, everyone. It's great to have you with us in another earnings video conference.
To detail more of what Paulo told us about the Q4 results, we bring to you the breakdown of our revenues. In the graph at the bottom of the screen, you can see that with the exception of urban mobility, all other segments grew in the quarterly comparison. The main sectors responsible for revenue growth were the foreign market, industry, and spare parts. In the graph at the top of the screen on the right, you can also see that the largest share of revenue comes from spare parts, followed by foreign market and the industry, both represented between 21% and 23% of the total. Remembering that this number does not yet include the Comsys revenue since the transaction was only concluded in January 2025. With it, revenue from the foreign market will become even more representative.
Although revenues for agribusiness is always one of the most relevant, the slowdown in the segment in the quarter is the fourth most representative. When we analyze the distribution of revenues by vertical, we have almost 60% coming from spare parts, OEM, and spare parts, around 30% trailer, and the remainder from services and technology. In the foreign market, the major highlights were the beginning of deliveries of batch of Hercules container-based, greater demand for friction material and brake systems in the United States, the improvement on the economic environment in Argentina, driving the expansion of sales in the country, the addition of EBS revenues, and the increase in exports of trailers to Angola and EMEA.
Moving on to EBITDA, an indicator that showed growth in the quarterly comparison, we'd like to highlight a higher level of profitability due to the international expansion and the increased sales in the replacement or spare parts market, contribution of gross margin due to the stability of prices in the company's main inputs, reduction of the inflationary and exchange rate impacts related to operations located in Argentina, and pressure of the margins of the auto part vertical due to the mix of products sold in the domestic market and due to expenses with restructuring of this unit. To finish my part, I bring on the screen information related to organic investments. In the Q4 2024, we continued with several projects of which I highlight the construction and installation of Caspar Tech and Suspensys Mogi Guazu.
Caspar Tech already opened 2024 in a ramp-up phase and Suspensys in an earlier stage, but with the opening scheduled for the first half of 2025. The construction of the Fras-le Mobility electrical substation at the Fremack site, which, in addition to allowing the production expansion, made it possible to turn off the diesel generators, reducing CO2 emissions from this unit during the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2025, and investment in productivity at Randon Araraquara already announced through notice to the market in November 2024. In addition to these, we started the project to automate the distribution center of Fras-le Mobility Extrema site, which is very important for the operation due to the benefits it has with its implementation.
Before I hand over to , I would like to invite you to participate in the Excel survey, also known as the Institutional Investor Ranking, through the QR code on the screen. For us, this is an important feedback tool for the capital market. In your opinion, it's very relevant. Now, Carol, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Esteban. We will start now the Q&A session. The format to participate guidance is in the screen. I would like to thank the participation of Danielle Randon and Anderson Bontauchi that are present in the video conference and the other members of the executive committee that are online with us.
The first question of the day is from Victor Mizizaki, analyst of Bradesco BBI. Good morning, Victor. You can ask your question.
Hi, good morning. First, congratulations, Danielle Bontauchi, with success.
Sérgio, your role last year at Randon is extremely important for the company's transformation. I have one or two questions regarding implements. If you can comment first, the export to Africa and South America, how have you seen this market looking specifically at the result? We saw a positive surprise regarding price and volume. If you can mention a bit about margin and how do you see the competitive scenario in Brazil if we see an improvement? Thank you.
Thank you, Victor, for your question regarding trailers. I'm going to ask Esteban and Anderson Bontauchi since they're with us to answer. Esteban, so you can approach the question about Brazil not only 2024, but we can anticipate a question about the beginning of 2025, Brazil and Latin America.
Bontauchi, if you can explore not only Africa, there is a lot of strategy to grow there, but also the other geographies that you are conducting, especially the US with Hercules. I start with Esteban, then Bontauchi will add.
Thank you. Confirm to me that you can hear me. Yes, thank you. Victor, thank you for your question and for being on our call as usual. The competitive scenario, the whole market in Brazil continues very much disputed. The main dynamics that we saw for the first semester, last semester continues with this. The mix of product geared towards industrial products where we have a smaller margin, competitiveness, price is a bit more difficult. We are waiting, of course, the start of Agro. The expectation is a record crop.
I read a news about the increase in freight price, especially for grain transportation, that should bring a higher demand in agribusiness where we have our strength regarding the products with the margins. On the short term, the current snapshot is a competitive scenario. We'll keep hold up in the Q1. Now, I pass the floor to talk about exports, be it the African market, South America, and US also.
Thank you, Esteban.
Thank you for the question. More specifically about the exports, the part of Brazil, we had a good beginning of the year. The exports above all to Africa. Remind you that Africa, the regular, how regular the demand is, is according to what the buying countries have. We also have protected business. We have cash in advance or some type of guarantee that will guarantee the receivement of funds.
We continue to have a good quotation, good beginning of year, January good volumes above what we planned. We want to continue to have good volumes in that region. Relevant market to us, the exports from Brazil are intensifying. The market is more open, allowing us to fulfill the market from Brazil. It's good geography. It's almost a cross-talking operation. What we are producing in Brazil is received well in the current geography. We're gaining position. These are the more relevant markets. When we look at North America, Hercules starts in a positive manner. We know that 2024 was a year in recession with the container chassis, which is the niche of that operation. This year, last year and the end of October, we had a big order and we were revenue adequate for the moment of the economy.
Big players for the segment who has the best portfolio, the most significant accounts in this moment, we observe in the market a greater entrance of quotation orders. This is due to the new government between tariffs, dynamics, and economic incentives. It's not all 100% clear, but what we notice is an increase for quotations. We have to see how it will be, but they're already looking for deadlines, prices. This should be converted into sales in the near future. First month of operation, we obviously in this new company transfer qualification. This is what we're going through currently. We're requalifying the company to be in the sale compass for a year. It's not a best from stock. We're trying to qualify this stock, be it producing or importing from Brazil or friends abroad. Those sales happen in a more meaningful way.
Market still is not back to historic levels. It's still retracted. We have a strong team. We're restructuring sales, reinforcing the sales for Hercules and AXN to have a better market share because we will deliver more competitiveness with these two units. I hope that I answered your question.
All right, thank you.
Thank you, Victor, for your question. Let's go to the next question from the analyst of BTG, Fernanda Hacquia. Good morning, Fernanda. You may ask your question.
Hi, everyone. Good morning. Two points from our side. First, about net effective, one of the main surprises, I believe you explained, is the restart of the Ford R. You can give more details of what we can expect of the alíquota in terms of modeling, if this has a premise that after next year, the OEM should show the results.
I want to explore a picture of mind, an M&A scenario of 2025. If you can mention how you are seeing this and eventually the opportunity for payment to the shareholders, be it dividends or others. How do you analyze this equation in organic growth and payment to the shareholders? Thank you.
Thank you for your question. These are two relevant topics to mention. Paulo, please answer both questions, the M&As and what's in radar in our minds for this year, for the next quarters, please.
Thank you, David. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for the questions first. Regarding effective income tax aliquota in December, as we had anticipated, we went back to constituting the deferido. Basically, what's happened was the following. We did a re-evaluation of our partnership structure, the companies that are 100% under Randoncorp, and basically we're talking about two auto parts companies.
The objective was to reduce the holding's debt. This was done through an anticipation of dividends of the subsidiary. With this, we bring the resources to the holding, lowering the cost of the debt. Due to this plan, we recognize the deferred, and this should be maintained during this exercise. It's important to highlight when we compare the effective aliquota with the year of 2023, we had a change, an important change. Basically, it has to do with a new tax law of subvenções that was approved in 2023 and is valid in 2024. This is the impact, the definitive impact. Summarizing, we are recognizing the deferred, and this will continue in 2025, but we need to make the adjustment that is valid in 2024 due to this adjustment, an acata due to the new legislation.
Regarding the M&A schedule, what we can tell you is that we are going to focus in 2025, capture and absorb all the new companies that we acquired in such a way that we can anticipate synergies reducing the size of our debt. Of course, Randoncorp, we always look at good opportunities, but we do not have under our radar meaningful additional M&A movements currently.
Great. Paulo, maybe just a small follow-up. How do you think about the eventual buyback?
Stock buyback?
Yes.
Oh, okay. That is a movement that we always look into. Last few years, we have done buyback programs, but currently, it is not in our radar. Last year, when we talked about capital allocation with the board, we prioritized the M&A operations. Due to this, with the increase of our leveraging in this moment, it is not under our radar, a new buyback program.
Great. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you, Fernanda. Next question. Lucas Lagi, an XP analyst. You can ask your question.
Thank you, Carol. Good morning once again. I have two questions from our side. First, regarding the auto parts business, to understand the profitability dynamics. It's a segment that has less margin oscillation. The OEM feels more due to the contracts you have with the car manufacturers, but the reduction in profitability in the Q4, what has impacted the profitability dynamics? SG&A has its impact, the freight cost also. To understand what is a recurrent level of this division during 2025, given we have volatility and what impacted the Q4.
Paulo, the previous question about tax, to understand better ITR, we see that the big effect that reduced the tax in the Q4 is JCP, BRL 72 million highs, Q4 in terms of reduction of tax compared to the fiscal alliquota of 34%. The 72 is almost 34% of the taxable profit. In this JCP line is included the deferred tax that you mentioned with the partnership structure, not just JCP, or it's another line. To understand this issue of deferred tax versus the line JCP TR for tax.
Thank you. These two topics.
Thank you, Lagi. I start with you, Esteban, to answer about the auto parts. And then Paulo to add to answer Lucas' question.
Perfect, Lucas. Thank you for being with us and for your question also.
While the Q4 auto parts, it concentrated some additional expenses that committed partially the EBITDA margin of this vertical. We can summarize in basically three main factors: internal freight that raised the pressure from freight and the compressors or margin. We had also the M&A expenses. We do not treat them as non-recurrent because the last years, the non-organic growth becomes important and present in our strategy. That is why we do not exclude these expenses, the adjusted EBITDA. In the Q4, we must remember we had expenses of EBS acquisition that entered this line. Finally, the administrative expenses, EBS that we had started to consider in November, it was not the EBS was not foreseen. In the first moment, we are understanding the efficiency of the company seeking synergy. We always have four sources of synergy to our low-hanging fruits, the cross-selling part.
We're starting to do this now, bringing products from EBS to Brazil. In a second moment, we're bringing products to Europe also. The second front of synergies is the sourcing parts for raw material purchasing components where we do the price of the synergy we have currently due to the scale of EBITDA both operations. The third wave, which is later, once we have a better understanding of the unit, is the back office where we can have a higher efficiency impacting administrative expenses. With this, I pass the floor to Paulo. He's going to talk about income tax.
Lucas, thank you for your question. In fact, the two themes are directly connected because up to the period, November last year, where we weren't recognizing the deferred, the gain regarding the impact of JCP, we also didn't have the benefit of it.
Once we started to recognize the deferred, this allowed us with the recoverability plan, we could record this gain of the alliquota on our own capital. Oh, okay. Now it's clear.
Thank you, Paulo. Thank you, Esteban. Have a great day.
Thank you. Have a good day.
Let's go to our next question from Gabriel Achini, analyst of Santander. Good morning, Gabriel. You may ask your question.
Good morning. Thank you for the space. Two questions on my side. First, focused on trailers. You can give us details how it has evolved the restructuring. You started at the end of last year, especially at Araraquara Factory and the mix. The second question about auto parts, I want to understand better how has been the integration with the new acquisitions, AXN, EBS, and what is the mindset going forward? Next, last question, leveraging, what we can expect '25, '26. Thank you.
Thank you for the questions. First, I will answer about the OEM, and Anderson is going to talk about the integration synergies. Third question, Paulo can talk about leveraging. Second question about integration, Emerson is here. You can share with Montalto. You can tell us about the first experience that we have with them. Talking about OEM, we're going through a restructuring of business process or factories are going through the restructuring. And the Araraquara factory, it needs from the business as a whole. Can you hear? Oh, you're back. Oh, sorry. It's a factory that, okay, thank you. It's a factory we know has huge potential because it's in the Southeast. It's a region that we had last few years with the changes. When General São Paulo left, we have less presence in this region with the return of Araraquara and the importance of the Southeast.
We understand it's a strategic side. That's why we're working on it to be, once again, a strong hub in trailer production. For this to happen, we really need to restructure the company because it should be more independent from the other companies from Randon. That factory is receiving especially automation items, automated cells, so we can produce not only the products that we already have, like the dump and the inside of it. We produce chassis also so we can give volume and speed to that unit. This movement that's being done will be during the entire year of 2025. We expect that after this, that factory can enter the line of what we've seen in the other OEM operations, efficient factory, independent that can service faster the market around it. Now I'm going to pass to Bonta. That's going to I'm going to talk a bit about AXN.
AXN is our first month. Our main objective is to qualify the stock to increase revenue. We understand that we acquired a company where the market was very low. We're reinforcing the sales team so that the moment when sales start, it has more economic safety for that geography so we can serve the growth wave. Obviously, we're checking component. Every component produced there, looking at the productive cost at Suspensys and Caster Tech, where we have efficiency comparison to decide what are the best models to verticalize apart in the United States, bring something to Caxias, consolidating. One month of work. There's still a lot to be done. Very optimistic with the future of this company that has a market penetration that's relevant. It's competitive compared with local players. We understand we can gain more competitiveness in the middle short term. Very promising.
In the Q1, we're going to improve.
Anderson can tell us more about this.
Thank you, Davi and Anderson. First, good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be able to talk a bit of how we're connected to the synergies that we met at Comsys and how we've done this in the first three months. We had an awareness of the quality of the business in the company Comsys in Mexico. One, we purchased Cogepasiones, had a strong market position with high reputation brands, relevant market participation for motor parts as well as brake parts. Melissa, Tefi, Victor, and Fritech. We know and mapped in the video conference that we had for this acquisition. We mapped BRL 300 million in synergies to be explored, added to the next five years.
We had a regular break that 60% of the synergy could come from the addition of revenue, launching new products from Fras-le Mobility that are not available in the Mexico market, expanding to the North American market, especially United States, and also with the start of Consys Cuerpacciones lines to other countries, especially Central America, 40% reduction in cost and expenses. We do not have such a strong granularity yet, but we are very confident that we are being more conservative in the synergy in terms of cost and expenses. It is very likely that we have more space in these lines, which is great. This anticipates the materialization of the synergies that we have and will be captured faster. I understand that today we are more than 60% in terms of cost and expenses, 40% in revenue.
Not that the revenues have lowered, but the opportunity pack that we found there is higher. Their unit optimization, first, the Comsys team that comes to Brazil will get to know the Fras-le structure, are connected to the friction materials. They will be here next week. We're very happy because the findings that we can notice in these lines are very material and will accelerate very quickly the use and gain of synergies that we have mapped out. It was a good company that performs with very strong margins and indicators like we saw in the video conference. We keep that same level even higher those last few months, closure in 2024. The future design of the company is very promising. It will be directly benefited with the synergies that we mentioned here. It's a singular moment, special moment for Fras-le Mobility with this acquisition.
Obviously, the reflex it brings as a company, Randoncorp controls Fras-le Mobility and benefits from these results. When we talk about synergy, we do not think about the companies that compose Fras-le Mobility, but also the Randoncorp companies. It is a moment to think about the whole when we connect the synergies that without a doubt will be linked to other companies from the Randoncorp also.
Thank you, Anderson Bontauchi, Davi, for your answer. Now we go to one last leverage to Paulo. Oh, sorry. Paulo, if you can comment about our leverage expectation this year, I thank you.
Thank you for your question. We cannot clearly forecast a number, but what we can tell you is the following. In the Q1, we are going to report a leverage, a bit higher leverage, especially due to the investments we did that were forecasted.
In the end of the year, we have the expectation to finish the year in a limit of leverage that we always are used to work with, which is one to two times the EBITDA. By the end of the year, we will capture all the synergies as foreseen in the Q1. We have 12 months of EBITDA of the acquired companies. We are probably going to be in this range as foreseen. Linked to this question, we also did not publish our guidance for 2025. We probably will do it in the next weeks. Not only the guidance seen, especially the projections of the new companies we acquired, and also this context of high interest rate expectation of what to expect from the market. We are finishing the projections.
During the next weeks, we will publish, and this will allow you to look at all the forecasts, including leverage.
Great. Thank you, guys.
Now let's go to the next question from Andrea Mazini, CT analyst. Andrea, you may ask a question.
Hi, team. Great to talk to you once again. Two questions. First is a follow-up of the acquisitions. You have done many acquisitions, which is notable. Congratulations. We know that the majority of the time you maintain the brands, and it seems you also do integration. Can you tell us more about the integration process? Since you're doing it repeatedly, what have you learned and how fast? Is it speed up or you cannot speed up because there are details that you cannot speed? I'm thinking about RP that's super sensitive for the entire company.
If you bring the RPs from the acquired company to one RP, software like Oracle, and how long does it take the integration if they are faster or not? Second, it's more about the OEM and the right sizing process, if it's correct, the term. If you are reducing the headcount and cost linked to headcount reduction in the OEM, and if it's the case, if it has an impact in the Q4 margin, what is recurrent and not regarding from OEM margin Q4 and what we can expect for 2025.
Perfect, Mazini. Thank you for your question. I'm going to check if Sérgio is connected. He's online. I'm going to see if he can comment these two points. Let me check, or else I have a plan B. Oh, Sérgio is here. Let me see if the video is working.
I'm going to let you comment these two fronts, the integration during all the companies that we did with and the OEM issue going to restructuring last months and the impacts this has caused in the business. Thank you.
Thank you, Andrea, for your question. Talking about the integrations, I believe that yes, our company did a lot of movements last few years, and it's safe to say that acquisitions have become a competence for the company. Acquisition involves many aspects: the negotiation, the identification of the company we want to acquire, the fit of this company in our strategic plan, which is the starting point. We do the plan, then we identify the companies that would solve or address the expectations that would fit in the strategic plan. We search, initiate the contacts, and then we do the acquisition.
During this process, the preliminary identification of possible synergy is extremely important. Afterwards, the integration process approximating. Myself to your question, our process of integration is never a process of saying, "We acquired this. Who's the boss now is me. It's going to be my way." No, none of that. When we acquire a company, we prefer to buy a good company that has values, competencies in several areas. We want to stimulate the continuity of the performance and the characteristics of the processes they have that should be very good, learn with them. If they're really good, we bring it to our other companies so we can incorporate the good things they do, having better processes that we will incorporate from the companies. There isn't a ready recipe or cookbook.
There are companies that we acquired where we needed to keep the board, the management body as it was, and deliver little by little our financial standards or ethics standards, policies for employees, ERP, incorporated in the correct time. There are companies where we did this faster. If there's a bad system and we need to fix it faster, and other companies like Cuji, Cogepaciones, we are keeping their system during one or two years. We could introduce our SAP. They have SAP HANA4, which is similar to ours. We could do this transition faster. We chose not to do it to buy the services of the old owner for two years. We saw there were benefits, low-hanging fruits, more synergies to be captured in other areas.
If we would introduce SAP, our SAP at the beginning, we would put in a lower priority initiatives in other areas, and we considered that the best for us would be the contrary. Each case is a different case, and the stories develop in a different way. All these acquisitions or vision is of partnership with the acquired company so we can motivate all employees of this new company, the management of the new company, extracting the most of this integration. The integration process is becoming one of our core competencies. It's not just a matter of acceleration. We don't have a pattern or a standard because each case has its own perspectives and business dynamics that are different. These are my comments regarding integration of acquired companies. Our OEM continues in its restructuring market. Paulo and Esteban mentioned we continue with this high Salechi rate.
The market feels it very much. You probably saw with the truck manufacturers' reduction last vacation days, last production day for heavy trucks. We feel the same in our semi-trailers or trailers, sorry. The aggregate did not take off yet. Sales of new trailers this year is 15% in the Q1, 15% lower than the equivalent period in 2024. The volumes are lower due to the reasons presented by Paulo. The mix continues, a disfavorable mix where agribusiness, which is our strength, continues low, and the industrial load. This actually presented an increase, so it is less favorable the first two months of this year compared to 2024. We continue with our process, expanding our productive capacity close to the Southeast market, the big market in Brazil. We continue with our investments in this sense. We continue with the restructuring to close auxiliary sites.
For example, Araraquara, we had three operations in Araraquara. We closed one. We are in the process of consolidating the second one also. The original plan for Araraquara, also right-sizing of people. We continue our activities in the sense of making adequate to the specification of the products where we offer premium characteristics or features, but in some segments, the market does not pay extra for the premiums. In these situations, we are in a process of putting products, all with quality, but products more aligned with what the market is paying. This type of initiative continues from our side. We continue with our investment plan and automation and productivity gain, greater efficiency for manufacturing. Everything that I said in the previous meetings, we continue to be executed fully. I hope I answered your question.
Perfect, Sérgio.
Thank you.
We have more questions in the queue, but due to the time, we have to finish the Q&A session. We're going to the last question of the day from the analyst, Luisa Mucida of Safra. Luisa, you may ask a question.
Hi, good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Thank you for this opportunity. I want to talk about the Agenchi operations. Can you talk about this result looking to the future? What is the vision of the company? How relevant do you believe it will be in your results? Thank you.
Thank you, Luisa. I'm going to pass the floor to Paulo. He's going to talk about Agenchi. Go ahead, Paulo.
Your mic is on mute.
Sorry.
Thank you for the question. In the last quarter last year, we had a relevant impact at Agenchi, especially due to the contract we had with Umbi Par.
This was over 1,600 assets. This formalization ended up bringing higher volume. This impacted in a positive manner or line impact your money. We're very satisfied with this JV. It's an intensive capital business. We're higher in interest rate. This generates more opportunities for rental implements and trucks. We have bold plans for the future. In a certain moment, thinking about listing in the higher equity market, our drive at Agenchi is the growth drive. It's what we will continue to see for the next years. We're very happy with this operation.
Thank you. We want to thank everyone that participated in our video conference. Everybody that had asked questions or our II team will get in contact with those that didn't have the opportunity to have their questions answered. We will pass the floor to Danielle for the closing remarks.
Good morning.
I want to thank everyone, analysts, investors present. Reinforcing this is not everyone could participate. We had the comments of the relevant changes in management will be effective September 1. I was CEO until 2021. I would say that this is an important moment that Randoncorp is going through as executive committee. I return in a phase of more maturity in governance. I want to thank Sérgio Carvalho for the work in the last years that put Randoncorp in a new level. We're happy to be able to count on Sérgio from September on as Senior Executive Advisor. He will continue to help us as Randoncorp in the most strategic sensitive points of the company, internationalization, and support to our colleagues in the executive committee, especially due to the moment that we see a change of management as a transition moment that reinforces the.
Montalto is coming as CEO of Fras-le, a new moment of Fras-le Mobility. That's important. We said that Randoncorp continues to work looking at 2025 as a challenging year, but with important projects continuing to grow with sustainability, generating value to the shareholders and stakeholders. I want to thank once again the presence of everyone on this call, and we are available for any questions to clarify anything or changes in the management. We are available. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone. See you next time. Bye-bye.