Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to welcome you to the Vamos Earnings Call to discuss the results regarding the Q4 and full year 2025. Today with us, we have Gustavo Couto, CEO of Vamos, and José Cezário, CFO and IR Officer. This conference call is being recorded and the replay can be reached at the company's website, ri.grupovamos.com.br. The presentation is already available for download in Portuguese and English. We would like to inform you that all participants will be in listen-only mode during the presentation. We'll then start the Q&A session when further instructions will be provided. Before we proceed, we would like to let you know that any statements made during this conference call regarding the company's business outlook, projections, and operation and financial goals represent the beliefs and assumptions of Vamos management and are based on information currently available to the company.
Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Generic economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors may affect the company's future results and could cause results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements. Now I'll hand it over to Mr. Gustavo Couto, who will begin the presentation. Mr. Couto, the floor is yours.
Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to welcome you to Vamos Earnings Call for the Q4 and full year 2025. I'd like to begin our presentation by reinforcing that the year of 2025 was another period of growth and development for our business model. In a macroeconomic environment marked by persistently high interest rates, our investment thesis was tested once again and demonstrated strong resilience and potential.
This is the fruit of a combination of strong contracts, diversification of sectors of the economy, liquidity of our assets, as well as our proven ability to originate new contracts and deliver successive records in used vehicle sales. We have shown that Vamos has the agility required to adjust its capital allocation strategy, prioritizing profitability over volume and focusing on value creation. Throughout the year, we remain focused on operational efficiency and contract selectivity. Our message today is of confidence. Vamos is a leaner, more profitable company with significant opportunities ahead. We are pleased with the improvements across all our operational indicators in 2025, but not yet finished. We can and will continue to evolve significantly with a consistent plan, well-prepared team, and strong foundations to deliver great profitability and improved asset efficiency. On the left, we see our consolidated figures.
We reached total revenue of BRL 5.8 billion, a solid 22% increase compared to 2024. Consolidated EBITDA totaled BRL 3.6 billion for the year, up 7% from 2024. In the Q4 2025, we delivered net income growth of 54% compared to the Q3 2025, reaching BRL 78 million net income. For the full year, we totaled BRL 319 million. On the slide, we highlight the strong growth in rental service revenue, which reached BRL 4.1 billion for the year, an increase of 12%. This was high-quality growth driven by the reduction of our inventory levels, with our utilization rate reaching 87%, the highest since 2020. We remain fully committed, focused on reaching 90% of our assets, generating revenue through 2026. This is one of our key targets and a clear commitment to shareholders.
Lease EBITDA margin reached 90% in the Q4 2025, supported by credit recoveries, lower operating costs, and improvement in our implicit yield. Another consistent delivery of our team was used vehicle sales. See that the number of assets sold increased by 116% quarter-over-quarter, with a highlight on trucks, trailers, and semi-trailers. In the same quarterly comparison, revenue increased by 98% in the quarter, and we closed the year with BRL 1.3 billion in used vehicles revenue, 85% growth year-over-year, and a gross margin of 3.8%. On the next slide four, I'd like to say that we delivered all our 2025 guidance. This is a strong result. Particularly because a significant portion of these commitments was established before the deterioration in the macroeconomic environment that occurred throughout last year.
As a result, we are entering a cycle of efficiency gains and have prepared the company to deliver even more consistent results in 2026. Now I'll hand it over to Cezário to go through the details of our 2025 results, and I'll return more towards the end of the presentation. Cezário?
Thanks, Couto. Good morning, everyone. On slide six, we bring contracted CapEx with total BRL 609 million, the Q4 2025, with average IRR of 21.76%, average yield of 2.77%. For the full year 2025, contracted CapEx total BRL 4 billion, average IRR 21.6%, average yield 2.8%. Focusing specifically on internal return rates, the Q4 of 2025 reported the highest IRR of the year.
Together with the full year 2025, the highest level since 2022, supported by our pricing adjustments and great selectivity towards more profitable contracts. Contracted CapEx, as shown in the chart on the upper left side of the slide, we see a seasonality of contract signings in 2025 differed from the company's historical pattern due to a higher concentration of signings in the Q3 of 2025. This explains the 40% reduction in the Q4 compared to the same quarter of the previous year. While for the full year 2025, contracted CapEx declined by 10% compared to 2024.
This performance reflects a slowdown in the pace of new contract signings involving new assets, driven by longer and more complex commercial negotiations as a result of our price adjustment in the current high interest rate environment, as well as a slowdown in economic growth, combined with stricter credit approval within the company. Contract CapEx in 2025 also showed greater sector diversification, with new client wins and an increase in the number of contracts per client across multiple industries. As a result, there is now a more balanced distribution of contracted CapEx across sectors of the economy compared to the breakdown observed in rental revenue or lease revenue, as we'll show later in the presentation. An important point to highlight is the change in the mix by contract caps. The BRL 4.0 billion in contracted CapEx included a significant share of used asset rentals.
Contract essentials reached BRL 778 million. 54% of contracts that reached maturity extended to an average 21 months. Sempre Novo reached its highest share of total contracted CapEx, 11% of the total. In the Q4 2025, the share was even higher, 20%, supported by the record Sempre Novo contract signings in October 2025. I would like to highlight that this product has gained greater understanding and acceptance among customers, and the addressable market may continue to expand as the mix of return assets and assets reaching the end of their contracts become more diversified. As shown in the chart on the right, used asset lease represented 32% of contracted CapEx in the Q4, 31% for the full year 2025.
The performance was important to help the company reduce the need for net CapEx and working capital associated with the purchase of new assets. Slide seven, we bring deployed CapEx. In the Q4 2025, deployed CapEx reached BRL 909 million. For the whole year, BRL 4.2 billion deployed CapEx, achieving our guidance. In 2025, we deployed BRL 2.8 billion in new assets for new contracts, BRL 170 million in renewals of existing contracts with new assets, BRL 775 million in contract extensions, and BRL 422 million in Sempre Novo. There are two highlights here. First, the strong expansion of contract extensions in Sempre Novo. 94% in contract extensions and Sempre Novo increased by 69% compared to 2024. Second, the contract duration profile.
New asset deployments remain concentrated in longer-term contracts, three to six years, while extensions in Sempre Novo have shorter durations. This helps increase utilization without a proportional increase in net CapEx. Also, I'd like to highlight that we are disclosing for the first time deployed CapEx by contract type, along with respective average contract durations. This level of detail contributes to a better protection of gross fixed assets and expected asset disposals, as well as rental revenues and used vehicle sales related to our fleet. Our IR team is ready to support you with information to your models. On slide eight, we present the backlog of contracted and deployed gross lease revenue. Deployed backlog was virtually stable at BRL 13 billion. However, it's important to highlight that the stability reflects recent movements towards short-term contract durations driven by higher exposure to Sempre Novo and contract extensions.
We also draw attention to the annual breakdown of future revenue backlog, as shown at the bottom of the slide. For 2026, we already have BRL 4.4 billion in contracted gross lease revenue, not yet including all CapEx that will be contracted and deployed throughout the year. This provides strong visibility in the short, medium term and reinforce company's ability to stay organic revenue growth even in a more challenging macroeconomic environment. Slide nine, contract management, collections, and credit risk. Q4 2025, CapEx associated with early contract terminations was BRL 148 million. A meaningful reduction compared to previous quarters, with annualized impact reduced to 3.3% of total fixed assets. This movement reflects greater diligence in our credit analysis process, as well as increased sector diversification and improved effectiveness in collection efforts.
There is also a seasonal effect here as part of the returns that were expected to occur in the last months of the year ended up taking place in 2026. However, when we compare 2025 to 2024, we see an improvement in terms of the percentage of the fleet with contracts ending ahead of schedule, which declined from 7.7% in 2024 to 5.5% in 2025. The grain transportation sector remained the main driver of returned assets in 2025 due to the high concentration of returns in the first half of the year. Exposure to lease service revenue in the sector decreased to 1.1% in December 2025, compared to 2.7% in December 2024.
Allowance for Doubtful Accounts as a share in net rental service revenue was 0.8% in the Q4 of 2025, the lowest level shown in the chart. During the quarter, we recovered BRL 70 million of previously overdue and provisioned amounts, while for the full year was BRL 32 million. In 2025, net ADA expenses represented 2.2% compared to 5.2% in 2024, when we recognized an extraordinary ADA of approximately BRL 78 million in June. Even excluding this one-off effect of 2024, our ADA in 2025 was lower, both in absolute terms, comparing BRL 91 million to BRL 106 million of last year, as a percentage of net revenue. On the right hand of the slide, we bring another metric introduced this quarter, the breakdown of CapEx from return assets by original contract maturity.
This metric helps explain what happened and contributes to a better position projection of fleet disposals. By analyzing the historical contract durations of return assets, it becomes possible to estimate variations in the asset disposal schedule. Our IR team is also available to provide any additional clarification regarding this new disclosure. Slide 10. Here we present an increase in utilization and the growth of our fleet reflected in gross fixed assets. We ended the Q4 with an 87% utilization rate, the highest level since 2020. Gross leased assets increased by 9.2% compared to Q4 2024 and 2.5% compared to Q3 2025. Total gross fixed asset grew at a slower pace, up 5.1% compared to 2024, and total fleet ended at 51,953 units, stable compared to prior periods.
According to our 2026 guidance filed yesterday, we expect utilization rates to reach 90% by the end of 2026, which will help contribute to our OpEx dilution, generating positive operating leverage with gains in profitability and earnings. Slide 11, we show the evolution of our inventory available for lease or sale. We ended December 2025 with BRL 2.5 billion in assets available for lease or sale, a 12% reduction compared to December 2024, at the lowest level since the Q1 2024. In Q4 2025, inventory reduction through deployments and sales totaled BRL 327 million, 121% higher than returns during the quarter, which totaled BRL 148 million.
Also, the inventory of new vehicles, the lowest level since the IPO and the shortest inventory turnover cycle in history, just 1.8 months, reflect improved pricing accuracy and reduced purchases of new assets. Slide 12, we reinforce the diversification of our lease revenue and how this has evolved compared to the prior year and previous quarter. In terms of industries, we saw a strong diversification with revenue growth in services, logistics, e-commerce, urban cleaning, manufacturing, electric power, fuel transportation and others. Additionally, the share of our top 100 clients in lease revenue has continued to decline, reducing risk concentration and also demonstrating that we still have significant growth avenues in an under-penetrated market in Brazil. In terms of our contract base, we ended 2025 with 4,029 active contracts, an average of 3.9 contracts per client.
Those records which highlights another growth avenue, commercial relationship with existing clients. Slide 13, our lease financial performance. Q4 of 2025, net rental service revenue reached BRL 1.1 billion, full year BRL 4.1 billion. Those figures represent double-digit growth compared to 2024. New records supported by higher utilization rates, record lease fleet, increased yields, contract price adjustments, particularly with extensions and reversal of previous suspended revenue from clients that have been delinquent and subsequently regularized their payments. Service EBITDA, BRL 965 million in the Q4 2025, BRL 3.6 billion for the full year, both record levels and double-digit growth. Comparing Q4 2025 in the same quarter last year, EBITDA increased by 16.5%, outpacing revenue growth and contributing to the highest margin of the year, 90%, mainly driven by higher utilization and lower delinquency.
Depreciation increased year-over-year, both in the Q4 and full year 2025, in line with expected normalization as the company sells assets with lower depreciation and acquires new assets with higher depreciation rates. Compared to the Q3, Q4 2025 showed a decline in truck depreciation rates due to the concentration of sales of higher depreciation assets during the quarter. In machinery equipment, the increase in depreciation reflects the acceleration of depreciation in a specific batch of assets currently being returned, for which we expect a greater reduction effect. As we do every year, in 2026 we'll revisit depreciation rates so that we make the necessary adjustments and assets reach the end of their useful lives with a residual value as close as possible to the expected sales value, thereby avoiding losses on the sale of fleet over time.
Service EBIT totaled BRL 707 million in Q4 2025, margin of 66%, also the highest of the year. The result reflects the expansion of EBITDA margin, which more than offset the normalization of depreciation rates. For the full year, EBIT reached BRL 2.6 billion, this period setting new records. Slide 14, to conclude the leasing section, we highlight an important innovative project delivered and led by the company. The first truck lease contract involving vehicles customized to run on biomethane. This project, developed by Vamos, combined our scaling truck procurement with BNDES's expertise in asset customization in partnership with leading engine manufacturer. The contract covers a fleet of 100 trucks dedicated to a client operating a solid waste collection with CapEx of approximately BRL 100 million. Gas-powered trucks represent a mature, available, scalable transition technology in Brazil.
While fully zero-emission solutions add to the combustion levels, such as electrics or hydrogen-powered vehicles, we still have cost barriers. Biomethane offers immediate environmental impact, operational competitiveness and alignment with ESG goals. It is one of the most viable ways to accelerate decarbonization without relying on future technologies. If they use natural gas, we already see the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, with biomethane, we see a closed cycle with 100% renewable fuel that makes sense for companies' operations located near landfills, for example. Let's go to used vehicles on slide five. With the expansion of our used vehicles commercial structure, we opened four new stores since the beginning of 2025, increasing our presence in strategic regions, in addition to adding third-party sales points.
We also launched the Vamos até Terceiros initiative, through which we take our sales offering to potential customers, engaging and reaching new audiences. To further strengthen our digital channels, we launched our online store on the NaPista platform, a specialized vehicle sales website where our entire used vehicles inventory is now fully available. At the same time, we continue to hire additional salespeople and team members who will be key to sustainable sales growth. We also highlight that the run-up curve of new salespeople typically ranges from 12 to 24 months, and we believe the current sales force has the potential to increase sales by 20% once fully ramped up. In slide 16, we show record used vehicle sales in units, which more than doubled in 2025.
A direct result of the development of our sales channels and liquidity of our assets, which allowed the company to stand out in the market in a year marked by declining sales on new heavy vehicles and equipment, as shown on the upper right side of the slide. The Brazilian market for used trucks and vans grew by 27.7% across all age groups, indicating a shift from new to used heavy vehicles, driven by pricing, credit constraints, and greater availability of used units. On the lower right corner, we showed that prices for new heavy vehicles stabilized in the second half of 2025, while used vehicles continued to show cumulative price appreciation over a five year period, reinforcing the intrinsic characteristic of greater price and depreciation predictability for the assets operated by the company.
In slide 17, we begin showing our CAGR of 77.2% in used vehicles net revenue between 2021 to 2025, while revenue growth in 2025 was even stronger, 84.7% compared to the full year of 2024 and 98.3% when compared to the same quarter in the previous year. The results not only demonstrates the quality and liquidity of our assets, but also the significant potential of new vehicles market, used vehicles market is still to be captured. Margins. The year-over-year reduction reflects the natural normalization process, combined with targeted price adjustments aimed at reducing inventory levels of used assets. On slide 17, we observe a slight seasonal increase in the average inventory turnover, which is typical due to the seasonality of sales volumes during the period.
We are improving trend as we increase sales and gradually consume these inventories through the expansion of Sempre Novo product. Also, to highlight in the lower right is the gross asset values, that is, their book acquisition value. Considering accumulated depreciation, the BRL 2 billion in used inventory in the Q4 2025 corresponds to BRL 1.6 billion, which is very close to BRL 1.3 billion in used vehicle sales delivered by 2025. Now slide 18. We bring a new piece of information to the market, which is basically trying to show year-over-year the amount of leased fixed assets that we expect to be sold according to the terminations of contracts and considering the contracts in place as of December 31st, 2025.
The balance and its distribution will evolve as new contracts are deployed, whether with new assets or Sempre Novo, and also as a result of contract extensions or early terminations. With this information, it will be possible to better forecast asset disposals year by year, as well as future used vehicle sales revenues. It's important to note that this projection should be based on the net book value after depreciation rather than the gross values presented here. In a simulation at the bottom of the slide, which is not a guidance, we use the current scheduled disposals for 29% of 4.1 billion in gross leased assets and apply the characteristics of a standard five-year lease contract with linear annual depreciation of 7% in a total of 35% accumulated depreciation.
This BRL 4.1 billion would correspond to a market value of BRL 2.7 billion. Considering the midpoint of our 2026 used vehicles revenue guidance of BRL 1.7 billion, we would need to deliver a CAGR of approximately 17% a year through 2029. This is below the 77% CAGR achieved between 2021 and 2025, and also below the 85% growth in used vehicles revenue that we delivered in 2025 compared to 2024. Slide 20. In 2025, we reported consolidated net revenue of BRL 5.7 billion, consolidated EBITDA of BRL 3.6 billion, both records. In the Q4 2025, consolidated net revenue was BRL 1.5 billion, EBITDA BRL 957 million. Consolidated EBIT reached BRL 693 million, sequential growth in the quarter, even with the normalization of depreciation.
Net income for the Q4 2025 was BRL 78 billion, indicating a clear inflection point even in a high interest rate environment. This is an important point. Improvements in utilization, profitability, efficiency, combined with higher used vehicle sales, are beginning to offset the financial carry in a higher CDI environment. Slide 21. ROIC and ROI. ROIC over the last 12 months was 13.9%, while the after-tax cost of debt remains at a level that still pressures our spread, 10.8%. The slide also includes an illustrative simulation with 91% utilization, 70% EBIT margin, and 25% effective tax rate, ROIC would have reached 17.3%. This is not a projection, but rather a way to quantify the potential value capture as we increase utilization and extract greater returns from the capital already invested.
Applying the same exercise to return on equity, our return would increase from the current 12.7% to 27.8%, as shown in the chart at the bottom of the slide. In slide 22, here we detail cash generation and net debt movements. In Q4 2025, we generated BRL 1.26 billion in operating cash flow, 31% above EBITDA. Even with significant cash outflows related to asset purchase and interest payments of BRL 1.19 billion, we reduced net debt organically by BRL 68 million. In the year, operating cash flow totaled BRL 4.8 billion, 32% above EBIT. Total cash consumption, BRL 4.81 billion, despite the high cost of interest, reinforcing the company's sustainable growth profile.
It's worth highlighting the relevance of record used vehicle sales with significant growth versus prior periods, which has contributed and will continue to contribute meaningfully to operating cash generation. On slide 22 still, I would like to highlight share buybacks and dividend payments as factors influencing net debt movements in 2025, in addition to changes in receivables assignments both for the year and the quarter. Slide 23. I'd like to begin by highlighting our strong liquidity position. We ended 2025 with BRL 4.7 billion in cash and financial investments covering debt maturities through March 2028. The position was structured in anticipation of a potentially more challenging credit environment in 2026, given that it is an election year in Brazil, and also reflects opportunities we captured through new financing lines and access to international capital markets, including our inaugural bond issuance.
In the Q4 2025, we raised BRL 2.2 billion and prepaid nearly the same amount of debt as part of our liability management strategy, reinforcing our ongoing focus on optimizing debt profile and reducing short-term maturities. We closed December with leverage for covenant purposes at 3.16 times the lowest level since 2022, in line with our strategy of gradual organic deleveraging combined with sustainable business growth. Worth noting is that the net value of our fleet, which is close to its market value, represents 1.27 x our net debt. We considered that this is a solid coverage level, especially given the high quality of our fleet in a robust and predictable used vehicles market, which we believe will continue this way. Finally, on slide 24, we summarize our main efficiency achievements in 2025.
We increased gross leased assets and lease revenue, improved fleet utilization, delivered productivity gains with EBITDA and EBIT growing faster than both revenue and fleet size, even without fully capturing the potential from higher utilization and cost dilution we will have as our used inventory returns to a more normalized level. This is an important point as it supports the outlook for improved net income and value creation as we continue to execute our plan to increase fleet utilization and reduce net CapEx requirements. With that, I will turn it back to Couto for his closing remarks.
Thanks, Cezário. As we conclude our review for 2025, even in a challenging year for multiple purposes, we delivered a combination of important achievements. Please follow with me the comparison between Q4 2025 and Q4 2024. Our gross leased assets grew faster than our total gross fixed assets.
In other words, we deployed our inventory more efficiently, purchased fewer new assets, leased more used assets, extended contract with our clients. That is, we are generating more value from investments already made. Our utilization rate reached 87% at year-end, the highest level since 2020, bringing us much closer to our goal of operating above 90%. In turn, gross lease revenue grew in line with the asset base, but more importantly, EBITDA grew even faster by 16.5%. Operating income also grew faster than revenue, reflecting margin expansion. Revenue from asset sales increased by 100%, demonstrating our strong execution in used vehicle sales and our readiness to continue scaling volumes through our sales channels. This also reinforced our ability to continue growing the rental business in a sustainable way in a market that is still at an early stage.
Our operating cash generation, driven by lease contracts and higher used vehicle sales, supported our growth, enabled deleveraging, and delivered double-digit growth across virtually all of our key metrics, even in a high interest rate environment. The combination of these achievements has strengthened the company for 2026 and gives us confidence that we can do more with less and even better in the year ahead. We have started 2026 on a strong footing. We have many opportunities for the year as shown on the next slide. Together with our earnings release, we have just published our 2026 guidance. We are operating with lean inventory levels, and we expect to surpass the 90% utilization rate for the year. This will be supported by our inventory rotation, the current pace of Sempre Novo and contract extensions.
Within these two business models, we see the opportunity to generate new contracts with used assets, representing approximately BRL 1.5 billion in the year, thus reducing the need for new asset purchases while offering smart, competitive solutions to our clients. Clients can continue to opt for Vamos used assets at lower costs compared to new assets. This is good for the client, this is good for Vamos, and this is good for our investors. Regarding deployed CapEx, at the midpoint of our guidance, we expect to deliver BRL 4.5 billion in assets to our clients, potentially reaching BRL 5 billion at the top end of our projections. We have also created two new lease commercial divisions, splitting Brazil into two major regions, along with a new strategic accounts division focused on high-potential sectors that require customized solutions, deep client knowledge and more differentiated offerings.
We also expect to expand our gas and biomethane power asset base, a smart, viable, necessary solution for large urban centers. A unique, highly competitive solution developed by Vamos and BNDES in partnership with key industry players. We will continue to expand our commercial reach in used vehicles and in leasing through third-party representatives who can sell or lease our assets, including trucks, machinery, trailers, and semi-trailers. Digital channels will continue to expand and deliver strong results, and they will be a key focus in 2026. In used vehicles, it's important to highlight that in 2025 we opened new stores, developed new sales channels, strengthened our commercial structure. While this new structure has already doubled sales compared to 2024, it is not yet fully matured. We continue to improve the performance of our new sales locations and our team.
Used vehicles gross revenue is expected to exceed BRL 1.7 billion, supported by the foundations we built last year. This will help normalize inventory turnover, generate cash, and enable us to reach 90% utilization target in 2026. We expect to maintain net CapEx at approximately BRL 1.5 billion as we continue to reduce inventory levels, limit new asset purchases, and benefit from the already established base of used vehicle sales. Consolidated net revenue is expected to grow between 9% and 20% for the year. The company is becoming leaner with the necessary structure to continue growing, while also aiming to end the year with leverage at around 3x net debt to EBITDA ratio, potentially even slightly below this level as indicated in our guidance. On the next slide, I would like to briefly reinforce a few points.
In 2025, we continue to evolve consistently in how we structure, measure, and communicate our sustainability agenda, which is already reflected in several relevant external recognitions. Our business model enables our clients to renew their fleets with increasingly modern, efficient technologies, improving fuel consumption, reducing emissions, and generating positive impacts for both society and the broader economy. In addition to our ratings and indices, we reaffirm our voluntary commitments such as the UN Global Compact, integrated reporting, as well as social and inclusion initiatives. These commitments demonstrate that our ESG agenda is everywhere, encompassing governance, people, ethics, and social impact. Over the past year, we also engaged in projects focused on decarbonizing the transportation sector with our clients, contributing to more efficient solutions and emission reduction.
Finally, I'd like to close by thanking our clients, our shareholders for their trust, and the entire Vamos team for their dedication and commitment. We affirm our commitment to full transparency and sustainable value creation, and we are ready for the next challenges ahead of us. At this time, we will open the floor for Q&As. Shall we?
Thank you. We'll now start the Q&A session for Investors and Analysts. If you have a question, please click raise hand. If your question is answered, you can lower your hand. If you want to submit a question in writing, please enter your question in the Q&A field, followed by name and company. Our first question comes from André Ferreira from Bradesco BBI. Mr. Ferreira.
Good morning, Couto, Cezário, Rodrigo. Congratulations on your results. Nice work and the evolution of transparency in the releasing of, or disclosing of, new metrics. I have two questions. I think I'm going to ask them separately. First, if you can talk sales of used vehicles in the beginning of the year are doing well, if the program of the BNDES for the sale of trucks, increasing deals and the threat of a trucker strike have affected sales or not.
Hi, André, this is Gustavo Couto. Thanks for joining us and your question. André, we do see a continuous evolution due to the maturation of our sales channels. We are evolving well in the sales of used vehicles in line with our projections and showing growth, especially on quarter-on-quarter comparisons.
Although we did have some events, as you mentioned, that could hurt the market as a whole, having such liquid assets, our inventory in e-digital tools, the events that we have been holding and the reinforcement of our sales structures with third parties, representatives, new stores, and a new commercial team, has led us to continue developing our sales. We continue to grow despite naturally some events that could reduce the volume sold to the market. For Vamos, we are advancing as expected for 2026. Okay?
Very good, Couto. Thank you. Second question is that in the Q4, you did have a reduction in the inventory of returns, and that shows a piece of reduction or a trend of reduction.
We are trying to do the math at the capacity for inventory reductions for 2026, coming from deployment and used vehicles, and we get to something between BRL 1.3 billion to BRL 2 billion, which is an improvement of BRL 700 million comparing to 2025.
Do you think it makes sense? Because at the high of the guidance, returns would have to deteriorate a lot to get to the BRL 700 million.
Hi, André Ferreira. Thanks for your question. We continue to focus on reducing inventory, especially inventory of used vehicles and Sempre Novo. We are really engaging and committing to evolve the Sempre Novo model, and we are succeeding in that.
Another aspect is that we are working very hard on extending contracts, which is very important for our clients as an opportunity to continue with the liquid asset at a competitive price and creates values on investments already made and does not give us the pressure to sell the assets through our used vehicle stores. Returns, they are going to lower, more normal levels. We have already been able to mitigate an important portfolio that we had and that suffered high volatility. We are all aware of that in 2024 and 2025, and we are being able to normalize the inventory. You saw improvements in utilization rates and reduce the reduction of inventory as a whole. That's the idea, to continue working.
One of the main targets for the year, which will reflect on our return on invested capital, cash creation, reduction of net CapEx, it is a major effort to increase utilization rate. We see opportunities of going past the 90% this year. We would reduce the company's total inventory, even considering a still level, high level of return, eventually, and I say eventually because this is what we cannot control. We are improving also our controls. We are having more restricted credit compared to previous year. All that leads the company to improve its operational efficiency, and therefore we do have the opportunity of reducing it to the BRL 700 million, as you mentioned, perhaps even more.
I think the number you mentioned takes us to that utilization rate that we are talking about between the midpoint and the high point of our guidance. That is 90% to 92%. I think your math is right and we are going to continue working very hard to get to this utilization rate. We are excited and confident, and we have the right tools, contract extensions, Sempre Novo and used vehicle sales in our stores, all is evolving very, very well.
Thank you, Couto.
Our next question comes from Guilherme Mendes from JP Morgan. Mr. Mendes?
Hello, everyone. Couto, Cezário, Rodrigo, thanks for taking my questions. Again, as André mentioned, congratulations on the additional metrics. It helps us a lot. I have two questions. Capital allocation.
Considering the eventual capitalization of the company up to BRL 600 million, how does the guidance scenario change? Are you going to use the money to deleverage, or are you going to have a specific focus on growth? Considering returns going beyond 2026, because we talked about using 5% as a reference of returns. Do you think that this 5% is still fair as a reference, given all the changes that we had in terms of credit and others that you mentioned?
Hi, Guilherme. This is Gustavo. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for your question. Capital allocation. As you can see, this operation still not guaranteed. It's anchored by the BNDES, but it's not guaranteed. That will depend on the evolution of the process along the next weeks, as you know.
It is an interesting strategic movement of the group. It was a decision of Simpar, the controlling shareholder, and we think it's interesting, but it's not crucial for our plans, not right now. We see it in terms of a possible capital increase, but it does not change our guidance or anything. If it happens, it's welcome. It's a relevant shareholder. It's an important seal of governance, but it does not change our management model. I think it's a potential, interesting, welcomed capital and shareholder. It's not fundamental. It does not change our plans. We continue to follow the objectives written in the guidance. If it happens, very well. If it doesn't, we continue to follow the objectives that we have established at the guidance. No change. Okay? Returns.
When we have our projections, Guilherme, of used vehicle sales, our projections of utilization rates, contract renewals with the same assets and Sempre Novo leases, we are projecting something close to the 5% you mentioned in terms of returns. We are at a more interesting level now, but again, we prefer to keep a more conservative approach to returns because we know the Brazilian market still have high delinquency rates. We see a persistent maintenance of high interest rates, some industries going through more difficulties. To be more conservative, I think it's worth keeping this at close to the 5% you mentioned.
However, we are working very hard to decrease the number, and that will be observed along the year, where we can go even further than 92% utilization rate if we are successful in this equation. That is, to balance well the leases of Sempre Novo, contract extensions, which are doing so well. What we cannot control much is returns because it has to do with delinquency, but so far, quite well controlled, as you can see in the indicators of last year. We are very confident, and I hope I have answered your question. Cezário, do you have anything to add?
No, just to reinforce that the guidance is not considering this possible capitalization, just to make it clear. Obviously if it happens, it's going to not deeply change, but as Couto mentioned, improve our capital structure and reduce leverage.
Very well. Thank you very much. Very clear. Have a good day.
Our next question comes from Gabriel Rezende from Itaú BBA. Mr. Rezende.
Hi, Couto, Cezário. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I have two. I would like to understand the dynamics quarter-over-quarter. You did mention in the release about this depreciation rate. I would like to understand how this should connect to the margin of used vehicles that you are delivering. Where do you think you're going to? Does it make sense to keep this rate or eventually have ups and downs during the different quarters? Just try to understand the dynamics. The second point I would like to understand.
The demand of trucks in the different sectors in which you are present. I'm sorry, the audio is very chopped up.
Gabriel, this is Gustavo Couto speaking. I'm going to talk about the depreciation rate first. Your audio was not very clear. I could not hear your second question. If you could repeat it's okay. I did realize that you're asking something about diesel prices. If you can ask it again. There was too much background noise. The depreciation rate, you did see a variation that results from a mix, not because we did change the depreciation rate, but we increased depreciation of some machines that we thought we should accelerate depreciation. It's a normal movement considering a relatively small volume.
Altogether, it went down because we were able to sell an important volume of some assets that we had in higher quantity, returns from the Midwest in grain transportation, and we were able to sell part of this volume with higher depreciation. As we sold these tractors, trucks, that changed the average depreciation rate of trucks and truck tractors. That was just because the sale of remaining inventory of some tractor trucks that were sold by Vamos Seminovos. That changed a bit our depreciation rate, but unit depreciation rate has not changed. What should you expect for 2026? I think we were very clear in our guidance in terms of depreciation guidance. It basically considers that the unit depreciation rate will go up gradually as new assets come to the base. As the company purchases new assets.
You have a range of new assets for lease of BRL 3 billion to BRL 3.5 billion. These assets have a slightly higher depreciation, which would increase the average depreciation rate of the company. Then you have the assets that we are operating and that are already within the company, and we do not see any substantial change in the depreciation rates of these assets. Again, we have predictability and we can be very transparent with you in terms of global depreciation that we expect for 2026 as shown in our guidance. I hope I was able to answer your question. If not, please let me know. Gabriel, if you could please in a more silent, perhaps silently, ask again your question on diesel because we really could not hear that.
Very clear, Couto. I think that now you can hear me better. The question on diesel is you see the current inflation and we have the demand. What's your view about your portfolio, your customer base, how do you see this affecting demand? And have you considered that in your guidance?
Okay, Gabriel. Obviously, high interest rates, inflation, an increase in diesel prices, they all pressure the economy and they're obviously bad not only for us but for the whole of Brazil. We obviously don't like those things to happen, but it's natural. I think that reinforces attention to delinquency, which we have been managing very well. In terms of short-term demand, Gabriel, I'm going to be quite honest. As of February, we see a volume of leads and businesses going on.
That is quite interesting. It's important to remember that we have a very consistent offer to our clients because, you know, if you want to buy a new asset, a rent, a leasing is cheaper because interest rates are too high. Leasing solutions even for customers that are more conservative that never considered before sound more appealing in the time of a crisis. Diesel at high prices, interest rates that are high, people think that leasing may be an excellent alternative at this point in time. We also have other very interesting alternatives. Contract extensions, Sempre Novo leases, even cheaper alternatives when buying is more expensive, diesel is more expensive. Thinking of ways to reduce the cost. Sometimes it's best to extend a contract.
This is one of our strategic moves and you saw it happening in recent quarters. More than half of the contracts are maturing. We are extending on average by 20, 21 months and that generates more value with the same investment and reducing pressures to buy. Very interesting for us and for our clients. We have alternatives to support our customers in times of instability, as you mentioned with the diesel prices that are not affecting the origination of new contracts so far. We see a quarter coming with consistent demand. This is how we see things and this is the information I'm bringing that is very current, really reflecting what's going on right now, okay.
Yes, very clear. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Filipe Nielsen from Citigroup. Mr. Nielsen.
Hello. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Congratulations on your results, on your disclosure. I have two questions. First, I would like to try and understand the lease margin this quarter was one of the positive surprises on our side. If we do the math together with the guidance in terms of the numbers that we have considering a stable used vehicles margin that can be slightly corrected throughout 2026. Is my understanding correct? What are the main impacts that we should use to calculate the lease margin from now on? The second question is ROIC spread for some quarters now, if you think of annualized numbers being stable, but considering the guidance and downward interest rate, we could see this improving in 2026.
I would like to know what level are you considering and to say, "Oh, we are going to grow this a bit more. We are going to foster growth in the company," et cetera.
Hi, Felipe. This is Cezário speaking. Good morning. Thanks for your question. First, about lease margins. It's true. We did talk about that on slide 13, about the 90% margin that we recorded that quarter. In the year lease EBITDA margin of 88%. In the last quarter, as you probably saw, we had some recurring operational themes at some accommodation in between quarters. I wouldn't say that the result of the Q4 in terms of lease EBITDA margin is what we are counting on for the future. It's not what is in the guidance.
We are more into a level of 86% to 89%. We might have variations, of course, because of some recognition of expenses or revenues between quarters, but these are recurring effects. This is how we see margins from now on. Your second question about ROIC spreads, we also did an exercise on the slide where we showed ROIC spread, slide 21, where we showed the potential that we have to increase company's return on invested capital when we get to the targets of fleet utilization that we have. In itself, this will bring an improvement to our EBIT margin.
Considering the effective rate more to a normal level, which is 25% that we have been considering in our projections, the ROIC spread that in December was reported at 13.9%, if we use this exercise, we would go to something above 17%. It's not guidance. It's not something that we expect to happen in 2026. The objective to improve utilization rates is ongoing. It's going to take place throughout the year. Because ROIC spread is something that we look into the last twelve months, we don't think it's going to happen in 2026. But it is a potential, so to speak, considering the utilization rates that we are talking about.
Okay, very clear.
Just a follow-up on your comment, Cezário. As we get closer to this, quote unquote, "normal," Vamos can perhaps start talking more about growth and new avenues. Yes. One thing leads to the other. A higher profitability will enable more accelerated growth.
Let me add to that. This naturally can happen in the future, but it's too early to project that because we are bringing a level of growth that's quite suitable, trying to recover the profitability that the company has historically delivered and that is our objective now. Sustainable growth, recovering the profitability we had before and that our shareholders expect. Opportunities of growth, as Gustavo mentioned, do exist, but we will eventually accelerate growth in a sustainable manner, keeping tighter credit, avoiding volatile sectors, and mainly focusing on a suitable utilization rate with higher profitability. Resuming profitability is a must for us to deliver consistent results.
Growth acceleration will just come if we meet all the assumptions I mentioned before.
Very, very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Rogério Araújo from Bank of America. Mr. Araújo.
Hi, Couto, Cezário. Thanks for the opportunity and thanks for the new disclosures. I have two questions. The first is thinking of the ROIC normalization, you are considering a utilization rate of 91%, 94% if we exclude the used vehicles inventory. If that normalize, could we consider that in our model for the mid-long term? The second question about returns. The company mentioned in the release that the reduction was explained by diligence in credit approvals, recovery of matured receivables, and less exposure to volatile sectors. What is this recovery of matured receivables? Just for me to understand if it's a one-off.
You said that the Q4 was benefited by the delay in the returns of assets. Could you give us a number? What is the level of return that is expected for 2026, perhaps the Q1 and the coming quarters as well? Thank you.
Hi, Rogério Araújo. This is Gustavo Couto speaking. Thanks for attending. Thanks for your questions. Okay. When we show to you our numbers, we are considering all the inventory that generates revenues, including used vehicles that you excluded to get to the 94%, compared to 91%. What I want to make it clear is that we are going to pursue utilization above 90% with all inventory, new, used and seminovos. The whole inventory generating revenue altogether.
When we come to the 91%, you see that at the top part of the guidance, we are going even to try to get to 92%. The number you should consider for the mid-long term is above 90%, as we have been mentioning all the time. As for returns, at the end of last year the numbers of the Q4 was BRL 158 million of early terminations. Perhaps something closer to BRL 200 million if we were successful in the taking of those with assets that went to the Q1 of the year. About BRL 200 million. We closed the year at BRL 982 million, so the number would have been BRL 1.02 billion, BRL 1.03 billion. That's the magnitude of what came from December to January.
It does not change much when we consider the projection I just mentioned in the previous answer. We are still projecting a conservative number of returns given the macroeconomic scenario of the country in terms of delinquency in several sectors of the economy. Because of that, we are considering the 5% conservative percentage, but we want the numbers to reduce because this is work we started way back when. As for receivables, we continue with a rule of provisioning as we start with the customer debt. We already explained that to you, and these amounts are provisions as debt becomes older. We never give up receiving and recovering these amounts. We had a huge effort along the year, more than BRL 30 million recovered. This is indeed normalization of our ADA.
Because, you know, if you have the loss in the first half and you recover in the second half, you have to consider the total effect of the year. I wouldn't consider the ADA of the first half of the year or of the second half of the year. It should be an average ADA because the work never stops. We are going to continue recovering, or pursuing to recover, debts. I think that we were able to recover important amount. We just reverse the cash effect when we receive these amounts. Cezário, I don't know if you want to mention anything about that.
No, I'm okay.
It's very clear to me as well. I thought it could have, the BRL 70 million could be related to the returns.
No, it is ADA. It has nothing to do with BRL 148 million. Part of what was recovered might be related to return assets, but it is indifferent. Any credit that is provisioned in the past and then we are successfully receiving will benefit our ADA line.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Alberto Valerio from UBS. Mr. Valerio.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Cezário, Gustavo Couto, Rodrigo. Could you give us a bit more color on the beginning of the year? We are almost closing the Q1. I thank you for the guidances you are releasing before the earnings release. It's very interesting. We had a program with the government, Mover, in the financing of trucks. I would like to know, what's going on in the beginning of the year in terms of demand, if you had an inflection, if it is, stronger.
Hi, Alberto. Thanks for your questions. Thanks for joining us. It's very good to see you. And thanks for the invite for the IBS. Well, the year started with strong demand for heavy vehicles. We did see that very clearly. We are keeping a very good pace in terms of growth, contract origination for heavy vehicles. We did mention it in our guidance. What we saw is that, the sugar ethanol sector, which traditionally has a higher volume of origination, in the Q1, we see because of a cyclical movement of the sector, had a lower volume.
We directed less efforts to this sector at this point. That means you should have a demand for contract origination in terms of trucks and heavy equipment but our cyclical demand in sugar ethanol that is lower in the origination of contracts. Again, that will bring more linearity actually this year at least for contract origination because we had a higher concentration in the Q1 which did not happen. We are going to see a more linear behavior in contract origination throughout the year of 2026. I think this is what's to be expected. The demand is very good and we are meeting the demand with more used assets which is very important for our strategy to optimize inventory. This is also something that you should expect.
Growth in the volume of used assets to be used in new contracts, in contract extensions in Sempre Novo. As for the government Pra Valer program, and we did see news this week, was quite well successful. It was consumed almost in its full, but not by the used vehicles industry. The subsidized line went more to the sale of new assets, which is not with us. In used assets we did not see so much interest. Traditionally, those clients of used trucks would use the incentives, but they didn't. It did not change much of the context for us. Despite the sales of used vehicles having dropped in Brazil as a whole, we are growing quarter-over-quarter.
This is something that I can tell you. As a trend, we are continuing maturing our sales channel and we should continue to have the projected pace that we have in our guidance. We are very confident in the sale of used assets as well. I hope I have answered your question, Alberto.
Yes, very clear. Thank you very much.
Well, everyone, I think we got a series of other questions. Because we brought lots of new information, we extended our presentation too much. The IR team will get all the questions we got, and we'll answer those that asked the questions so that we can cover all questions. I thank you all for asking the questions. We are not going to leave any question unanswered. I'd like to close and with my takeaway messages.
First, contract extension will continue to be a constant effort of the company. I say that again, it is good for Vamos clients and shareholders. Likewise, Sempre Novo in 2025 we learned a lot about the program. We started to think of the standards, the assets, what is going to be delivered through the Sempre Novo program, so we're able to make all the adjustments. In 2026 we are going to have a completely different mix of this product. Because in 2025, what we had more in Sempre Novo were those that were returned from grain transportation. Now we are going to have a much more diverse mix. That will improve volumes and the offers that we have to our clients. You see an evolution of Sempre Novo. The capacity of sales for used vehicles is still not mature.
In 2026, we expect maturity of those new investments, sales, stores, people. This will mature organically along the next months, and you should expect that. I would like to reinforce an important strategy of the company in the diversification of our mix. We are going to continue growing in forklifts. We'll continue investing because these are clients that value service level. They want availability. We are the largest forklift leaser in Brazil, and we are going to continue to provide services to these customers that have very low credit risk, and they highly depend on this asset. Based on that, we will continue to look into the sector with organic growth that will come from this area. Finally, this is my last comment. This is the year for us to get to over 90% utilization.
With that, the company is going to be stronger to develop itself, it's going to be leaner, and it is going to be able to gain efficiency. As I mentioned on the slide before last of the presentation, as shown that the gross fixed assets grew, but revenue grew more, EBITDA grew more, and with that, we improved almost all our operating and financial indicators. This is the major objective of the company, seek efficiency, productivity by better utilization of our inventory. All that said, I thank you very much for joining us, and I close the presentation. Thank you very much.
Vamos conference call is now closed. We thank you very much and wish you a good afternoon.