Good afternoon, and welcome to the Localiza earnings release call referring to the results for the Q4 and the year of 2022. Today we have with us Mr. Bruno Lasansky, CEO, Rodrigo Tavares, CFO, and Nora Lanari, Investor Relations Officer. Please be advised that this webinar is being recorded and will be made available on ri.localiza.com/en, where the complete material of our earnings release is available. You can also download the presentation from the chat icon. For the Q&A session for analysts and investors, we advise you to signal your interest in participating through the Q&A icon on the bottom button of your screen, informing your name, company, and language. When called, a request to activate your microphone will appear on the screen. To submit your questions in writing, use the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and please inform your name and company.
We inform you that the numbers in this presentation are in millions of BRL and IFRS. We emphasize that the information contained in this presentation and any statements that may be made during the video conference call regarding Localiza's business prospects, operating and financial projections and goals constitute beliefs and assumptions of company management, as well as information currently available. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance as they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, as they refer to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Now, I will turn the floor over to Bruno Lasansky, the company's CEO, to begin his presentation.
Good afternoon, everyone. In 2022, we took wide steps towards our purpose of building the future of sustainable mobility.
The results achieved in the year, aftermath of our long-term vision and efficient capital allocation, reinforce our DNA of growth with value generation and enchanting our customers. To continue our transformation journey, we have become even more prepared to soar higher with the conclusion of the business combination with Locamerica. We carried out a divestment or the carve-out in just three months, which constituted the creation of a company with trained professionals, functional systems, 49,000 cars and 200 branches. We completed the sale of this company with the creation of value for our shareholders. Following robust planning led by our integration office, we concluded with agility and excellence the integration of the teams, car rental agencies, Seminovos stores, sales and admin teams, and we continue to advance in the integration of systems, capturing synergies and the initiatives of organizational culture and engagement.
In addition, we have balanced out the accounting practice and made the necessary reclassifications. We are still moving forward with the integration, but we understand that the business combination places Localiza&Co an admirable competitive position with greater scale and even better position to capture profitable growth opportunities. Still, in the context of the combination, it was essential to reassess our business portfolio in order to rationalize and optimize the allocation of capital and the use of resources, focusing only on initiatives aligned with our strategy of growth with value creation. In this sense, we've launched Localiza Mais with solutions aimed at those who own cars such as overhaul and maintenance, which already has more than 50,000 customers. We also prioritize the heavy vehicles rental, a new avenue with high growth potential, leveraging the company's competencies, know-how, and customers.
On the other hand, we've decided to discontinue the initiatives for buying and selling used cars, Acelero and Willz, taking advantage of the technology and learning, but reducing the investments and increasing our focus. We have a world-class leadership team that's ready for the challenges of our business, as well as the operational framework, technology, and portfolio of solutions built so that we can continue to surprise our customers with a lot of innovation and leadership. The high engagement of our team was recognized by the 4th best place to work in the country by the Great Place to Work ranking. The company's organizational climate is in the 90th percentile, placing Localiza&Co among the 10% best companies evaluated by Korn Ferry.
We were also recognized by our passion for our customers with the NPS Awards and Reclame Aqui awards in the categories of car rental, Seminovos, and subscription car categories for several consecutive years. We are building our future supported by very clear strategic directions. First of all, accelerated growth with value creation in the main business, in the core business. Two, transforming our customer experience. Three, selective investments in adjacent businesses. We will achieve these goals with a high-performance team and a solid culture, investing even more in innovation and technology, expanding our competitive edge. We also have our brand as a driver underwent a recent rebranding process to communicate in a clearer and more modern way, all the entire portfolio of solutions that we offer to our customers.
We also launched our corporate brand, Localiza&Co, to improve our communication with our stakeholders, such as employees, investors, and partners. In 2023, we have several value creation levers to offset the effects of the normalization of the Seminovos margins, higher depreciation, and the high interest rate environment with lower economic growth. The first refers to investment in the fleet. For 2023, managed to close the purchase volumes of cars in better commercial and mixed conditions, which will allow the renewal of the fleet and consequent reduction in maintenance costs. we'll start to capture synergies resulting from the combination of the businesses in costs and expenses, as well as several efficiency and productivity initiatives, including advances in processes associated to telemetry.
We have the opportunity to generate additional revenues from mix and segment management in addition to the new solutions developed by the company, such as subscription car, rental for application drivers such as Zarp, Localiza, and Localiza Mais, among others. These levers, added to our diligence and discipline in capital allocation, will contribute to keep the ROIC spread in line with the objectives of value creation outlined by management. We believe that 2022 was a historical year for Localiza&Co. We completed a business combination, which is still in the integration phase, that positions us as one of the largest and most complete mobility platforms in the world. We continue to grow with value generation at high levels of return for our shareholders, even in a challenging market context.
We've moved forward with our ESG agenda with a deep recognition by the market and customers, leaving a legacy for future generations. In the coming years, we will reap the rewards of last year's investments and continue on our journey of transformation, supported by our vision of the future with great diligence and discipline in allocation of capital and passion for our customers. Now I'd like to hand over to Rodrigo, our CFO, to talk about the results.
Thank you, Bruno. Good afternoon, everyone. Before going through the numbers, I would like to point out that the format of the results presentation follows the one that we've used the last quarter. The annual comparisons will be made over historical pro forma numbers of both companies.
Considering the various effects that have impacted this quarter, in addition to the 4Q22 actual results, we will show the numbers adjusted by the business combination discontinuation of our car purchase and sale initiatives, which we believe better reflect our performance. We have four main messages. We grew substantially with an adequate mix and purchasing conditions. Even with the impacts of balancing out the practices not adjusted in the result, we presented robust margins in car rental and fleet management. Even though we have still not fully captured the benefits of having a younger fleet, variable expenses and synergies. The used car results or Seminovos was heavily impacted by specific issues related to the mismatch between the preparation and sale of cars through the auction channel, which have already been overcome in the Q1 .
Lastly, leverage, as expected, ends the year at a higher level due to the strong investment in fleet growth. We believe that over the course of the year, the net debt over EBITDA ratio will reverse the trend as these investments mature. On Slide four , we present the quarter highlights. Sustaining a purchase pace similar to last quarter and now substantially capturing better purchasing conditions, we were able to add over or more than 55,000 cars, with a significant reduction of the purchase sale to 74.9 thousand in the car rental division. Even with the carve-out sale, we were able to grow nearly 5,000 cars in the quarter, replenishing 60% of the car rental revenue from the carve out within just one quarter. With that, we ended the year with 591,000 cars, a 21% growth.
In fleet rental, with another strong fleet addition, in addition to capturing the prices, we deliver a net revenue growth of 59% year-over-year, highlighting the segment's excellent momentum. We'd like to highlight that our competitive position enables us to negotiate cars with the more favorable makes and commercial conditions for the last quarter and for 2023. Which combined to the important comparative advantage, considering synergy gains and lower maintenance cost based on a younger fleet, which have not been fully reflected in the rental margins, places that at the level of return for these new vehicles within the company's profitability objectives. To detail the results, I'll hand over to our Head of Investor Relations, Nora Lanari.
Thank you, Rodrigo. Good afternoon, everyone.
Going into the details of the results and reiterating that, as we did last quarter, the annual comparison will be made considering Q4 2021 pro forma in order to add both companies together. We'll start the presentation with the car rental division on Page five. In the annual comparison, the net revenue grows 28.2%, with the quarter growing 6.7% year-over-year, despite the carve-out divestment, which reduced.
The the-fleet division by 15%, the volume impacted by the carve-out group 4% in 2022 and dropped 7.3% in 4Q 2022 year-over-year. On Page six, we have the evolution of the average daily rental rate, which rose 23.6% in the year and 16.3% in the quarter, and reflects the customer mix and prices transferred, needed in order to replenish the company's profitability levels despite greater invested capital and higher cost of debt. Even with a higher average rental rate and higher number of cars being prepared and decommissioned, we kept a healthy level of utilization at 77.9%, demonstrating our efficient price management and fleet allocation in addition to highlighting the demand resiliency.
We'd like to stress that this level of price obtained added to the commercial conditions, car purchases, the efficiency initiatives for cost reduction, including maintenance costs reflecting fleet renewal, the dilution of fixed expenses, and the synergies from the business combination, which will be captured during 2023, makes us comfortable to reach the ROIC level expected for the newly purchased cars above the company's lock. Moving on to Page seven. In Fleet Rental division, we sustained a strong sequential and year-over-year growth pace, with a net revenue increasing 58.9% and the number of rental days growing 30.1% year-over-year.
In this comparison, as shown on Page eight, the rental rates increased to 20.6%, reaching BRL 74.7 per daily rental, reflecting the new contract prices in the context of rising new car prices and higher interest rates, in addition to a mix of segments effect. We keep on seeing a positive perspective into demand with the fleet rental results in multiple segments. Our trust is underscored by the perception of our product quality measured by the NPS levels, but also by the operating perspectives, analyzing the credit risk level and the quality of our portfolio and asset management. Even in a scenario of rising default levels observed in the market, we didn't identify material effect in our portfolio. Moving to Page nine, we show the balance of buying and selling cars.
As mentioned, we have a favorable scenario for purchasing car in which we see great volume availability and diversity of models with a gradual increase in production, with greater relevance of direct sales now underscored by two consecutive quarters of strong purchases. We bought 97,358 cars and sold 41,593 in the quarter, resulting in an addition of 55,865 cars in the period and a net investment of BRL 5.4 billion also considering fleet renewal. Continuing on Page 10. Our average car rental price purchase was BRL 74.9 thousand, reducing sequentially BRL 7.9 thousand per car, highlighting the gradual return of the mix composed by a greater share of entry-level cars in a more favorable commercial condition compared will be better than those being applied.
The sales price decreased sequentially BRL 3.7 thousand, reaching BRL 62.6 thousand in car rental, a reflex of selling entry-level cars with a higher mileage to renew the fleet. The lower price decreases the selling price compared to the purchase price allows a sequential decrease in the car replenishing CapEx. In fleet rental, we also note a decrease in purchase prices coming from BRL 98.3 thousand to BRL 96.5 thousand. In this division, the smaller price decrease reflects the effect of growing truck and special vehicles mix. Excluding trucks, the purchase price was BRL 92.7 thousand. The division sales price, on the other hand, were stable compared to 3Q22 at BRL 62.9 thousand since the mix effect has no effects in this division.
On Page 11, we highlight the evolution of total fleet throughout the year, reaching 591,041 cars in the period, with a net of carve-out, with a 21% growth. On Page 12, we see that year-over-year in the Q4 , the rental net revenue presented a 23.7% growth, 67% accounting for car rental and 58.9% in fleet rental, while Seminovos net revenue increased 61.8%. As a result, consolidated net revenue in the quarter increased 40.3% year-over-year, adding up to BRL 6.9 billion. On Pages 13 and 14, we show the reconciliation of accounting EBITDA with the adjusted one-offs related to integrating and effects of discontinuation of purchase and sales initiatives.
In Q4 2022, adjustments totaled BRL 109.1 million, of which BRL 77.1 million relates to integration and BRL 32 million related to discontinuation of car purchase and sales operations. In the year, adjustments totaled BRL 261.2 million. On Page 15, we show the Q4 2022 adjusted EBITDA evolution compared year-over-year. We highlight the company's operational results quality, reflecting strong growth in volumes and practice prices, with a positive impact on car and fleet rental margins. The capacity to consolidate a new level of prices and cost structure will allow a higher margin level in both car and fleet rental, tailoring the return levels to the context of higher capital costs, depreciation levels, and interest rates.
In Q4 2022, excluding the one-off effects related to business combination, car rental division presented a EBITDA margin of 61% and compared year-over-year 10.3 percentage increase on margin is due to rising prices at the beginning of fleet renewal process, even with higher costs of mobilization due to the strong purchase of cars and carve-out effects. In addition, not included in the adjustment, this quarter we balanced out the company's accountability practice with a negative impact of BRL 25.3 million in car rental division equal to 1.4 percentage points on EBITDA. The fleet rental division presented an adjusted margin for business combination expenses of 66.5%, 4.4 percentage points higher year-over-year.
In this division, the margin was positively impacted by the evolution of volumes and average daily rental fees, offsetting the increase of costs for fleet mobilization. The evolution of new initiatives expenses negatively impacted the EBITDA margin, in this division by 1 percentage point. The effects of greater mobilization and new initiatives weren't adjusted in the EBITDA. In Seminovos year-over-year, the adjusted by one-off EBITDA margin decreased 9.2 percentage points to 5.2%. In this quarter, we had the effect of mismatching the purchase and decommissioning of cars. With the great availability of new cars in favorable conditions, we increased decommissioning with higher mileage, advancing the preparation costs.
We decommissioned 61,000 cars and sold 41,000 with the impact of BRL 42 million or 1.6 percentage point in the EBITDA margin, being BRL 39 million in car rental and 2.5 in fleet rental. With the scope of the business combination, we had a one-off increase of sales of Seminovos through the auction channel with a total effect of BRL 52.8 million, accounting for 2.1 percentage point in the margin, of which BRL 27 million were in car rental and BRL 25.8 million in fleet rental. These two items are not adjusted in the disclosed margin. In 2023, we efficiently expanded sales volume in the Seminovos division, ending the Q1 with around 35,000 cars sold in margins between 7% and 8%.
The consolidated EBITDA margin for Q4 2022, adjusted for the business combination one-offs, hit a record level of 67.6%. On Page 16, in car rental, the annualized average depreciation per car continues to progress sequentially at BRL 4,669. The purchase and fleet renewal acceleration causes an average depreciation to rise, once the new cars possess a higher depreciation level than the older ones, which weren't being depreciated. In the fleet rental, the average annualized depreciation also accelerates for the same reason. We highlight that in fleet rental, the new cars have a mix of with higher depreciation levels due to the asset price, which started to include heavy vehicles and with greater wear in special vehicles. On Page 17, we display the consolidated adjusted for business combination one-offs and discontinued operations.
In EBIT, in addition to the adjustments regarding integration costs, there are also the effect of amortization of intangibles recognized in the business combination, bringing a non-cash effect of BRL 148.2 million. On Page 18, we show the same adjusted EBIT of 1.5, an increase of 22% year-over-year. In the year, EBIT increased 22%, achieving BRL 6.3 billion. The car rental EBIT margin 45.1% and fleet rental 48% are both lower than year-over-year due to higher depreciation and smaller Seminovos margin as previously mentioned. We underscore that EBIT is the utmost metric to measure operating result and ROIC, our main performance index.
We have an acquired fleet between Q2 2021 and Q3 2022, bringing higher depreciation caused by the purchase conditions of the period and shortage and supply. For the vehicles bought in Q4 2022 and onwards, we see smaller depreciation and return in line with the company goals. The adjusted net income for the quarter achieved BRL 637.7 million, with the effects mentioned on EBIT and tax loss write-off related to discontinued operations of BRL 23.8 million. On Page 21, we show the annual adjusted net income, which reached BRL 2.75 billion.
On Page 22, we see the adjusted net income for Q22 of BRL 637.7 million impacted by financial expenses, which increased BRL 422.9 million due to increase of interest rates and average debt balance, partially offset by small tax over revenue. I'd like to pass the floor back to Rodrigo to present cash generation.
On Page 23, we show the cash generation by operations before growth of BRL 3.5 billion in 2022, consumed by net investment in renewal and fleet growth of BRL 10.8 billion, resulting in cash consumption of BRL 7.7 billion. We understand that as we mature these investments in new cars, operating leverage and synergy gains, combined with replenishing CapEx reduction, will contribute to smaller cash consumption.
As seen on Page 24, in the second half, net debt increased BRL 7.7 billion in order to fund the fleet growth acceleration in the second half of the year, ending the period at BRL 26.1 billion. On Page 25, we ended the quarter with a strong debt profile and cash position, including issuances announced by March 14, 2023, the company would have BRL 10.6 billion in cash. On Slide 26, our debt ratios show acceleration of car purchase towards growth ending the year at 3.2 times of net debt over BRL 1 billion. On Page 27, we show the ROIC spread evolution, excluding the write-off, goodwill and one-off effects. Compared to cost of debt after taxes, we see a spread of 6.7 percentage points considering the last 12 months.
We have the confidence that despite the challenges we are facing ahead, gradually the company is restoring the level of result and return, making investment decisions, accounting for the car cycle, and evaluating the long-term effects in a way to reinforce and consolidate even further its competitive differentials. We are now open to answer your questions. We would like to remind you that for Q&A, we advise you to show interest in participating through the Q&A icon on the bottom part of your screen, informing your name, company, and language. When called, a request to activate your microphone will appear on screen. To send questions in writing, use the Q&A button on the bottom of your screen, writing your name and company before your question. The first question is from Daniel Gasparete from Itaú BBA. Daniel, please, you can open your microphone. Daniel? Well...
Let's continue to our next question from Lucas Marquiori from BTG. Lucas, are you there to turn on your microphone?
Good morning. Can you hear me?
We can.
Great, Nora. Good morning, everyone. I have two questions. I want to understand better. I think it's clear that the company after the merger... I want to talk about two specific points. You already said that the margin on Seminovos for January and February, I think that the effects of the accelerated mobilization, also using the auction channel, are not available for the beginning of the year, is that worsening of the Seminovos margin in Q4 changes the strategy for Seminovos for 2023? If you could comment a bit, if the curve is sharper than you imagined, it would be important to know.
The second topic, Rodrigo mentioned at the end is capturing operating synergies. We know that most of the synergies will show more in 2024, especially in goodwill. Is there anything that we can expect for 2023? If you could mention what is more evident for 2023 so we can bridge. It would be great to have some help there.
Thank you, Lucas. T hank you for your questions. Well, about Seminovos results, we already mentioned there were two one-off. One is about the divestment. Think about the context of integration and integrating the stores and systems, commissioning. We bought almost 100,000 cars in the quarter, so we had to prepare the divestment and reinforce the inventory in a temporary moment that would make sense, but that's not going to happen.
We already always work with close to 30-day inventory, so we pretty much sell what's in inventory and that didn't happen. Same as something very specific that happened in the auction sale. The Seminovos market is a challenging market now, and the Q1 was much better, probably because of the integration of Seminovos that has advanced and the distance of.
Used car price to a new car price is pretty much back to historic levels pre-pandemic, and in some cases even higher than the historical level difference. Yes, there is a market effect. There's a faster lending than what I expected. In the Q1 , we already see a situation that's much different than the last one. Now we're also seeing margin replenishment in rental, and that's moving fast. You mentioned synergy. Even without adjusting the accounting practices, we already see a sequential increase to the rental margins, and we expect that to continue. About the synergies, obviously, when you talk about a premium and others in 2024, but we expect the operating synergies to start their cycle into Q23. A part will be through renewing the fleet, be it because of mix or mileage.
We have a strong mix in the variable cost of that renewal, also synergy, which is diluting the fixed cost the market that's still growing and demanding that will happen and be visible, as well as the synergies of best practices among the companies in bad debt, maintenance, cost of debt, accidents and all of that contributes to increase the margin sequentially during the year. Thank you.
Thank you, Rodrigo. Good morning, everyone.
Next question is from Daniel. Daniel, you can unmute.
Can you hear me now?
Yes, we can.
All right, great. Thank you. I also have two questions. The first one is I'd like to know the trend on depreciation. You mentioned that a bit in the release and in the call. I'd like to know what you think it's gonna be during the year.
An increase in depreciation, is that gonna be in the second half? We can understand that better. Second is understand the occupancy rate. Most of the indicators that we've seen here internally, owners or not, they have pointed to weaker activity. We'd like to see your opinion in the demand with a slower economy. Those two things. Thank you, and thank you for taking my question. Thank you.
Thank you, Daniel. About depreciation in the Q1 , especially in the beginning of this year, you'll see a stronger evolution in depreciation, especially with the change in the period. When we have a younger fleet, we depreciate in 18 months instead of 24. In the beginning, that has an effect, and I'd say that it's a temporary effect.
Instead of depreciation in six or seven months, it's gonna depreciate in one or two months because it's closer to sale. In the Q1 , we'll speed up the depreciation, but then it'll go back to normal. As we start selling the vintage two and replace it with three, then we'll have the see a decrease in the depreciation, and that will only happen closer to the end of the year. We should go up in the Q1 together with the second stabilization of depreciation. At the end of the year, depending on the conditions, we may be see that state settling or even it lower again, especially in rental, car rental.
Fleet has its own dynamics with a trend of going up, because as we renew the fleet with more expensive cars, fleet renewal is slower, and that's positive for a longer period of time. Daniel, to your second question about the occupancy rate, we can see that Q4 is in fact affected by the company's decision to buy earlier because of the commercial conditions. We have a strong addition in the fleet in the Q4 , so we have replenishment of that car vault. The impact is a lot of cars and commissioning and decommissioning, and that affects our utilization rate. For the Q1 , we already have an operational fleet or slash rental that are more balanced out. That's a trend, and we see them being used in rental.
We still don't see an impact of demand at the end. Obviously, after the high season, we see that settling in individuals, but we have room for that to grow during the year.
Thank you very much, Nora. Thank you, Rodrigo. Good morning, everyone.
Next question is from Guilherme Mendes from JP Morgan. Guilherme, you can unmute.
Hi, everyone. Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Perfect. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I have two points. First of all, following up in car purchases. Buying in better conditions and the ROIC spread, your message is clear on that side. If you can explain the dynamic of the car purchases.
Comparing to pre-pandemic levels in terms of the conditions and discounts, is it back to pre-pandemic levels or is it just an improvement vis-a-vis what we've seen in the worst moments for car purchases in 2021 and 2022? The second question is in heavy vehicles. Will you provide more information in terms of growth levels and fleet and profitability of that segment? That would be great. Thank you.
Thank you, Guilherme. First point. Profitability and discount levels. When we talk about that, we also have to talk about the mix. For discounts, especially in mix, aren't the same levels that we had pre-pandemic. What does that mean? We had an increase in car mix. The cars became more expensive, more premium.
Automatic 1.0 or 1,000 cylinder cars that are sold in that segment and the subscription car segment, the small SUVs that didn't even exist before the pandemic. We also had, we had basic cars that were very basic pre-pandemic, and all of that pointed to lower depreciation but also lower rates. You see consumers appreciating those elements. That's why the conditions aren't the same pre-pandemic to pre-pandemic. The difference between new cars and used cars are similar now, and some even higher than the pre-pandemic levels. About the heavy vehicle business, it is growing. We still have inventory of that, and it's sold at a very appealing profitability. The point is we should see the new vintage of those trucks, especially Euro 6, within the context of price increase and higher rates that's going to be transferred to customers.
The business is evolving well. We have some significant synergies in what we call the aquarium that are our own customers that rent lightweight vehicles. The thing is, our supply has to fit with an adequate profitability for that business. Marco Tulio mentioned this segment during the investor day and mentioned something close to 5,000 units. Just for reference, we don't give guidance on that. It's in fleet management, but just so the market can understand that better.
Okay, perfect. Rodrigo and Nora, thank you. Good day to you.
Next question is from Victor Mizusaki from Bradesco BBI. Victor, you can unmute.
Hi. Good morning. I have two questions. The first one is about the income tax rate. You mentioned that the rate was lower and apparently that's somehow connected to the financial results.
Can you comment on those gains in the Q4 and mark-to-market if that's related to the financing operation for the transaction? The second question is about the PIS and COFINS tax. If in the Q4 there were any credits or benefits that you could capture? Thank you.
Thank you, Victor. Starting off with PIS and COFINS. No, we didn't. Just the traditional. We're always very transparent concerning getting credit and with the new expectations of the ICMS base will no longer be considered in taking PIS and COFINS credit. We truly believe that the credit will be used in a monetized manner, which is actually our strategy. In addition, after that change, rent-a-car is slightly better and fleet close to the break even in relation to getting PIS and COFINS credit.
About the actual rates in interest over own capital, we consider a normalized rate of 20% and that's what should be considered especially for the benefits relating to deferred taxes and interest on own capital. In this quarter, if I understood your question correctly, we're talking about an effect associated to loans from shareholders because of the acquisition. Just to make it very clear, as part of the acquisition price, there was a loan to all shareholders here from the former Locamerica, and that loan is marked as if all shareholders had a loan of a full duration of 5 years. That's why there's a different rate compared to the market, and there's a present value to that. In practice, some of those loans will be settled.
Especially in this quarter, over BRL 200 million was settled with an actual cash effect that takes place in the order of BRL 90 million that we had in this period, exclusively related to settling the loans earlier. That could happen in the future or not, depending on the market conditions and the shareholder decision of remaining or not with that loan.
Okay. Thank you.
Next question is from Regis Cardoso from Credit Suisse.
Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me?
Yes, Regis, go ahead.
Thank you, Nora. Thank you for taking my question. There are some topics that I'd like to ask about and maybe some quick questions. One of them is could you mention how relevant Localiza Mais has been in your results, if it affects margins?
Is that something that we should take into account? Another quick one is we saw a decrease of BRL 2 billion in the supplier account, we expected an increase because of the seasonality at the end of the year. Could you mention if there were any specific strategies in negotiation that you may have used on that? Another topic and a longer question actually, or actually a more objective and longer answer about the new initiatives. Could you comment on that for 2023, if you have any measures or higher focus on the growth measures, be it internationalization, heavy vehicles or Localiza Mais? I think that's enough, I don't take up too much of your time.
Hi, Regis. Thank you. First of all, about Localiza Mais. The effect is still small and it has a negative effect to the EBITDA, but positive on financial expenses because it's a part of the result comes from advance payments to suppliers. We provide that to line under EBITDA, there's some costs that are above the EBITDA line, but relatively small within the overall context. What was the other question? Suppliers. Here there were some events. In fact, you can see that we bought a similar volume. In the Q3 specifically, we had longer terms, longer than usual, and that was active management that we did. That would match with the financial flow, the incoming flow from the carve-out.
It was one-off, but it was 10 or 15 days that part of that supply was paid in the beginning of October instead of the end of September. That's why the number of suppliers payable in the Q3 was higher than usual. Once again, to match that with the incoming flow from the sale and the carve-out. Typically payment terms is 60 days and in some cases we've been able to extend that directly with the automaker through the negotiation of commercial contracts. In general, we pay in 60 days. About the new initiatives, I'll let Bruno talk about that.
Thank you. Just to talk about our initiatives. As we mentioned in Investor Day, we are investing in a selective manner in these adjacent businesses, but we reassessed our portfolio and decided to close the initiatives of buying and selling cars, especially Acelero.
That frees up capital and time of senior management to focus on the three initiatives that we established as priority, which are the heavy vehicles we see good traction for with high growth, generating value in the contracts that we are closing on this season. With this combination of business before the inventory that we had a ROIC spread strategy aligned with Localiza. With this new cycle, we start pricing this business in the ROIC spread target of Localiza&Co. With a very high NPS. That initiatives of heavy vehicles also is looking for working with customers in our portfolio with several assets and that are loyal to our brands. Localiza Mais, as mentioned, in addition to the financial issues, there's a relevant aspect regarding customer relations.
We're talking about 40 million cars that are owned cars with pain points, but potentially are Seminovos clients or subscription client customers. We can increase our cross-selling with these customers with new products we have in our platform. Also the benefit with the relations with the car repair garages that makes that relationship even closer. Also internationalizing, especially as we've been mentioning with the market, our focus on countries is not Localiza&Co going global. It's choosing specific markets to replicate the Brazilian success story. The reason is that we don't have synergy of relevant revenues or relevant costs when we go into another country, and we chose Mexico as our main target market. We're still at the early stages. We've been looking at it closely.
We have a CEO who is an executive with 20 years of experience in the sector that adheres to our culture. This growth we will communicate to the market in detail throughout the year. We will do this little by little. We're not going to do anything different from what we consider validating our investment strategy, both with customers and getting ROIC and financial gains within our goals. Those are the avenues we're working on in our strategic planning.
Great. Thank you for your answer. It was very complete, both of you. Thank you very much.
Our next question is from Rogério Araújo from Bank of America. Rogério, you can turn on your mic.
Good afternoon. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Great. Hi, Bruno, Rodrigo, and Nora. I have two questions. I want to explore... the purchase and selling.
I think it's a problem of the mix of the spread. You sold cars that were bought a while ago. Regardless of that, there was a relevant worsening of 17, 18 points of a worsening in the purchase and selling. Can you give us more details of what exactly was this mix in the quarter and how one-off it was and maybe any relevance of a similar mix that the fleet still has? You mentioned 20,000 vehicles ready for selling but weren't sold yet. It's a mix similar to what was sold in the Q4 2022. Are we still going to see a worse spread of purchasing and selling in this quarter? On that topic still, is the demand smaller? How is that compared to previous months?
I want to understand if it's a problem of the fleet that is being sold that is, has higher mileage, it's a bit older, or if the demand is worse today than it was before. I'll ask the second question after. Okay.
Thank you, Rogério. The first thing about the mix. Yes, there is a relevant change in the mix. We're starting deactivating faster the cars that were in Zarp. We extended their useful life, and they were on Zarp. This mix is made up by 1.0 cars with high mileage that were for the wholesale market. That's the main characteristic of this fleet. Something very sporadic and momentous. The auction is momentous. The mix is worse because it's 1.0 with high mileage, sold in a wholesale channel, and that should persist for the first next quarters.
Although we're already seeing some growth in the sales volume, the first two months, we're experiencing 25% higher sales than the previous one. With the integration of new processes, we're seeing a strong increase in sales volume associated to that mix. About the sales of the fleet, it's a positive piece of information. When I compare car by car, we're seeing more than two months of reduction of the distance of the net sales with a FIPE. FIPE has a certain delay of information, for more than two months, the net sales price with the FIPE reference, the numbers are getting closer, especially in retail, but also in wholesale.
Thank you, Rodrigo, for your answer. I have a follow-up. You mentioned the auctions, just to understand what that was specifically, it shouldn't happen again in the next quarters.
It was something very specific. We had cars sold in that channel, and they're not gonna happen any longer in the next quarters. Okay, great. My second question is about the fleet management demand. You talking about subscription cars with competitiveness compared to renting the asset. You have a potential for growth in that division. If you could give us more information about how strong the demand is for a Localiza Meoo, maybe some information on backlog, if growth is increasing or if it's stable. If you could also give us some information about outsourcing corporate fleets compared to Localiza Meoo. Are they both strong? Is there a main driver for growth? If there are bids happening and the companies didn't outsource that before, they outsourced only part of their fleet, and they're increasing that there now.
Two factors up for outsourcing, so I can understand better what is happening in the following quarters.
Thank you, Rogério. We are start to see the results of building a competitive edge. We have consistent increase in subscription car sales becoming relevant in our mix of new contracts. That is because of several aspects. First, consolidating the brand as leader of the category, but also with good pricing, be it a risk of default, operating risks and the levers of excellence of the company with technology in which we have very sound information that our default amount is significantly lower compared to our competition. The operating challenges is where we see our competitors having more trouble in operating. It's a very positive perspective. We have a very good brand.
The NPS and level of digitalization evolving in the customer journey and operating excellence, which allows us to have a lower price compared to our competitors. In fleet outsourcing, we see the first cycle of the year after vacation and Carnival. That's usually when sales grow slowly and we see some increase in speed in the last month of the quarter. Our pipeline is very robust and healthy in the return rates that we expect for ROIC spread. At the moment, with high interest rates and high capital costs, the clients are also trying to outsource fleets to balance their expenses as well.
Perfect. Thank you. It's very clear. Thank you, Bruno, Rodrigo. Have a great afternoon.
Our next question is from Pedro Bruno from XP. Pedro, you can open your microphone.
Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me?
Yes. Yes, we can. Thank you, Pedro.
Thank you, Nora. Thank you for allowing me to ask a question. It was already answered in a certain way, but I want some update on the levers to recompose the ROIC. Individually it's well explained, but I wanted to see the full picture. You mentioned the bargaining power with the automakers, with discounts in the mix, and that's very important, and you already mentioned this a lot, the synergies with scale. Third and last, you also put this as the last lever is price. That was less explored in the call. If you could give us some idea of how you see this because of your fleet movement. In addition, you've been speeding up growth, understanding that the ROIC spread is built up again.
Even if it's not at the levels before the pandemic, as you mentioned, but maybe this third lever of price. How could you explain that better of repassing the price and the market?
Pedro, we thank you for your question. When we talk about better conditions and synergies and variable and fixed costs, those are the ideal variables for us to explain that, returning to those levels are almost what they were before the pandemic. Price is the last lever to be used because it harms the customer at the end of the day and even harms the demand. It has been happening, and one of the things that we could show in this quarter is that for two consecutive quarters, we grew almost 100,000 cars. We had the carve-out, but those cars are still in the market.
With that price pass, making it robust. The ROIC price ratio is every three points of price, we have one of ROIC. Needing to repass this price is not huge, and it's been happening selectively, especially in some segments in which that need was higher, especially, the rideshare corporate. That's where we see a more relevant price increase. We will use this lever, the minimum possible, so we can have the return that we always communicated. Of course, with the increase of cost of capital, we're always calculating the need compared to our benchmark, which is CDI plus our spread.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
Next question is from Bruno Amorim from Goldman Sachs. Bruno, you may unmute.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. I have two questions. One is more strategic, the other one's more objective. First of all, about heavy vehicles. I'd like to know about your decision to invest in a relevant matter in that segment, because historically, you test new initiatives, starting small, and then you grow that very fast when you feel that there's competitive edge and profitability was proven. I'd like to know, at what point are you at? In that decision of growing that in a more relevant manner, faster way in heavy vehicles based on that logic. The second one, also more strategic, and following up on Bruno's comment about the Mexico strategy, starting small, testing the initiative. You know better than anyone where in your industry, scale is relevant.
I'd like to understand your game plan, if you can talk about that, competitive dynamics there and how you test that initiative in your small and an industry where scale is important to buy and sell vehicles. The store chain, those are the two questions on the strategy side.
Thank you, Bruno. I'll talk about heavy vehicles, and then Bruno Lasansky can talk about Mexico. For heavy vehicles, we already have 5,000 units and revenue's about BRL 500 million per year. It's far from saying that it's something small that's still testing. It's a mature decision that we are investing in heavy vehicles. Obviously, as in all capital allocation processes, all initiatives are competing for the same capital. To have access to capital, we have to be sure that the return is according to the return required by the organization.
Here we have a big business already. In 2022, the company was the second-largest buyer of heavy vehicles in the country, even though that wasn't our biggest focus. The growth rate, the capital allocation rate, as in any other segment, depends on the capacity of return in that segment. To add to that, we have to remember that this is still a year of transition for Localiza, where the car renewal CapEx, not only for rental but also fleet, is settling. We're in a phase where we're capturing synergies and where you have operational leverage and volume. That business still demands a lot of capital. Our capital to focus on growth was lower during the pandemic, and that should get back to normal shortly. On the other hand, we're in a very robust competitive advantage. We have a strong balance sheet.
We have the leveraging advantages to come. That's strong for rental and fleet because of the commercial advantages that Bruno mentioned. Bruno, specifically about Mexico, we'll give more details later on, but the country has over 100 million inhabitants and 5 million tourists, so it's very relevant in terms of size. At the same time, we see a very disseminated supply with very low enchantment and satisfaction level for customers and little access to capital with the current players that they have in that market. What are we thinking? Scale is obviously relevant, but we do have relevant scale that enables us to start off well, not only because of the knowledge that we have of the business and availability of technology and talent, but also even leveraging our relationship with automakers in Brazil.
That enables us to go into the purchase expectation with some interesting advantages in that sense. Our mindset is to validate the thesis, as we mentioned in quarterly cycles that are assessed by management and the board of directors, where we decide to increase capital allocation according to the attraction or appealingness. Obviously, first of all, we have to demonstrate that we've enchanted the customer, that we have a value proposition that's better than the competition, and that we've achieved all the parts of the equation, ROIC and the unit economics of the business in that country, be it buying for rental and purchase and sales, and finally having an efficient operation as we have here in Brazil. We're also taking advantage of all the learnings that we have with the international players.
Recently, I was talking to our partner, Enterprise, to see what worked and didn't work in their expansion in Germany and the United Kingdom. We add on that international knowledge that Localiza Inc. has together with local management that really knows the local market to have the best of both worlds. We will advance and share that with the market. It's a very big market, very interesting market, and we believe we can build the competitive edge that we have in Brazil. I'd like to add that because with all those initiatives, there's probably gonna be a question about leverage and capital allocation. In terms of scale, Bruno, the Mexico leader has a scale that is equal to 15 days Of Localiza. We believe that the model is adequate in achieving an important relative scale.
It's not that big of a challenge when we compare that to our benchmark. About leverage, all of these capital initiatives, many of these investments were in the past half year, so the cars didn't mature their investment yet. What does that mean? Most of these cars have one, two or three months of operating results. We have the burden of an increase of indebtedness in the short term because the investment is now and the benefit is only reaped during the year. We expect that the leverage should be a little bit more moderate in the upcoming months and as of the second half and probably the end of the Q3 , we should see operating generation growing at a faster rate compared to indebtedness.
Those rates start to converge and be lower and most likely achieving levels even smaller at this, the end of this year compared to the end of last year.
Perfect. That's very clear. Just a quick and objective follow-up on that about the potential to lower maintenance costs. Could you talk about that? How much has already been realized and how much is still yet to be realized? Any metrics that you can share with us would be great.
If you consider the last year we had an impact of eight points. That's in rent-a-car. When you look at rent-a-car alone and compare year-over-year, that's 8 points. We're still in the process. The previous question was about the sales mix. The sales mix of 70,000 km, 80,000 km, 90,000 km, depending on the car.
As you eliminate those cars, you'll have four factors in maintenance gains. First of all is fleet renewal. Lower, less kilometers. A lower premium. That's a positive impact on that. The third one is taking the Locamerica maintenance processes to the same level that we have at Localiza, which is what we call the synergies and matching the best practices. Given the new scale, and this is the biggest one, we increase the level of the entire corporation. There are some examples that with the scale alone, we can control the logistics of some parts and do that on our own. We also have a 35% reduction, for instance, in tires because we import them directly. There's still of an avenue that's at the beginning of the process to improve the maintenance costs.
Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon.
Next question is from Lucas Barbosa from Santander. Lucas, you can unmute.
Hi. Good afternoon, Bruno, Rodrigo and Nora. Thank you for taking my question. I have two on my side. First of all, to end that conversation about seminovos. I'd like to know about the dynamics of depreciation and seminovo margins. The EBITDA margin of seminovo dropped 300 basis points, a little under that quarter-over-quarter, and RAC depreciation increased to 7%. You had reasonable increment of fleet. In my understanding, you're comfortable with the seminovos dynamic and the margin drop was according to expected. I'd like to know if I understood that correctly, and then I'll ask the second question.
Like I mentioned, seminovos had one-off effects that will not happen again. The convergence has been faster.
From the depreciation period that goes from 24 to 18 speeds up depreciation. We're comfortable with the dynamics of the depreciation relation with the Seminovos margin without any major concerns in that sense.
Okay. Thank you, Rodrigo. If you allow me a second question, thinking of growth moving forward, a follow-up to the last question, Bruno's question. Now that car supply, brand new car supply is no longer an issue, what do you think will determine the rate of growth in the nex t eight months? Is it the balance? Is it demand between ROIC and spread, Seminovos? At the end of the day, it's the demand and the ROIC spread that should be the limiting factor. I believe that if we have a robust demand with a adequate ROIC spread, the capital restriction shouldn't be an issue.
Seminovos is one of the biggest targets of the organization because in the Q1 it's 25% growth and it's ramping up according to expected.
We grew in absolute terms before the car, cars out with 100,000 cars, grew in fleet, grew in rent-a-car, and that shows the robustness of that market. We have a favorable competitive environment and even with a decrease of fleet in the market, but we continue to increase. Given that there's a demand and adequate profitability, I believe that that's what will determine our appetite to allocate our capital.
Perfect, Rodrigo. Very clear. Thank you very much and good afternoon.
Next question is from Tiago Almeida, from Milestones. Tiago, you may unmute.
Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I have a follow-up to Lucas's question.
A while back, we talked a lot about ROIC spread and that it was approximately 2%, 3%, and you even had a strategy to postpone sales of vehicles to be able to map out the depreciation curves even better, and so on. Thinking that we have an interest rate curve that's high for a longer period of time or higher for a longer period of time, and the competitive scenario with a bigger competitor going into fleet. When we think about three to five years from now, how do you see the biggest growth levers and what do you imagine in terms of maintenance vis-a-vis invested capital for company growth? A very open question, really, to understand your vision and Bruno's vision of capital allocation with a satisfactory ROIC for the board of directors.
Tiago, let me start answering your question. Thank you for your question.
The company has a history of ROIC spread on top of the cost of debt and after taxes from 5 to 8 percentage points, and we consistently deliver that. The figure that we're looking for reflect our competitive advantages. At that ROIC spread level, the company is EBITDA positive, and it's more difficult for the competition because of purchase conditions and cost of debt and scale. Our driver for growth is a ROIC spread at that level. We believe that there's a lot of room to grow volume, not only in RAC, but also in fleet management. Fleet management, it's more obvious for the market given that new avenue for the subscription cars, but even in traditional fleet with a ROIC spread at that level.
The price lever, once again, the company uses that carefully because we know that at a given time the market is not inelastic to price. We prefer to have a cushion here by improving operating efficiency and internal processes and leverage. A bit of the business combination justifies itself within that context. The company sees a lot of opportunities in improving operating margins in fleet management and car rental that can offset the normalization of Seminovos and depreciation with higher interest rates, we'll direct our growth. Based on the competitive advantage, we see ourselves in a robust position. We believe that there's room to grow, and we have already contracted the purchase and sale volume for the year.
Our next question is from Guilherme Costa, from AZ Quest. You can open your microphone, Guilherme, please. Guilherme actually sent his question in writing.
Good afternoon. Localiza&C o. is following the tax reform and the change in the bracket of a rate for services.
Guilherme, thank you for your question. I think it's early to give you an answer. We have two bills being discussed, and we think it has an important profile to collect taxes, which will impact the company, but it's too early to say. We're gonna need laws to regulate generating factors, calculation basis. We don't have all those details of the final bill. We have a long transition phase, so the company will have time to adjust and pull the levers that it considers relevant to maintain a right spread level within the company's objectives.
Our last question is from Isabella Lambert, from UBS. You can open your microphone, Isabella, please.
Can you hear me?
Yes. Yes, we can, Isabella. It's a bit low.
Is it better?
Yes.
Thank you for taking my question. There are some topics that I would like to know. First is the integration cost. I would like to understand how this would unfold in the following months. Is there anything that is still going to happen? Will it be reduced in the next months? Also about the price of the cars purchased. You've mentioned that the conditions are better, but I want to know that dynamic for the next quarters and differentiate in RAC than fleet. You highlighted that in fleet, you will continue to invest in heavy vehicles with a unique price. Should we see a higher impact? Will it stay at these levels? Is the mix still capable of improving? I want to see your outlook for the year. One last point. The CapEx.
You said that you have a robust plan to expand Seminovos stores. Can you give us a little bit more information, the number of stores? How will that be distributed logistically? Thank you.
Thank you for your question, Isabel. First, let me talk about integration. Most of those costs that we had in the last quarter are still associated to structuring the loan because of the merger with Locamerica. Looking forward, these expenses should drop in a very relevant manner. We expect that if we do have any expense, it's more residual in nature compared to what we had before. Of course, throughout the year it's a relevant figure, but when you compare it to BRL 20 million, the amount we invested in integration is very adequate. From now forward, we will have a steep reduction because those costs are associated to integration.
Purchase price also has a positive trend. When you look in the short and midterm, most of it is the mix. We also had not only commercial conditions, but the tenure is also part of that. It's a positive trend for rent-a-car and fleet. It's bought after the order. The price for fleet is less relevant. What is relevant is the guarantee that I'm pricing it the right way in the correct ROIC spread. The higher the better, actually, because we're putting more capital in the right profitability. The same is for heavy vehicles. We want to give more visibility as heavy vehicles grow to separate that price from fleet, the market can have a better idea. About the CapEx for Seminovos. We're not highlighting it, but it's going to be a relevant number.
We're excited to open tens of stores. About the CapEx for Seminovos. The relevant CapEx for the company is cars. Even if it is robust plan, we're not gonna spend a lot in that expansion plan. We're preparing it for what we're gonna need in 2024. As Rodrigo said in the call, we've been growing at the end. We have an expectation to grow in 2023. We're gonna have to divest robustly in 2024 because we're renewing the fleet for a rental car and we have the delta to add. We already have the cities map. We have a lot of capillarity and a lot of room for growth in Seminovos. Without clashing with price limit, there's a lot of market for that.
The second point about the price of the cars purchased and sold, just to link with Costa question, how do we see price of new cars that are sold 2023? We're still see inflation on new cars, and that's an important part. The Seminovos are not following that inflation. The spread between the new cars and the Seminovos, we've mentioned in the call, is already at the pre-pandemic levels, and we're seeing stability in the spread, which is positive news since we're ramping up sales volumes now.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
To conclude, I pass the floor to Bruno Lasansky.
Once again, thank you very much for your questions. Just to reiterate that after a transformation year, the beginning of 2023, we have a very unique competitive position, and we're ready to carry out our strategic plan to bring growth with value generation.
Thank you very much. Our team, as always, will be at your disposal for further explanations. I wish you all a great day.