Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Vamos conference call to discuss the results for the first quarter of 2026. Today with us are Mr. Gustavo Couto, CEO of Vamos, and José Cezário, Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer of Vamos. The conference call is being recorded and the replay will be available on 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 where further instructions will be provided. Before moving on, we would like to let you know that any statements made during this conference call regarding the company's business outlook, projections and operational 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 as they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. General economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors may affect the company's future results and lead to results that will be different from those in the forward-looking statement. Now, I will hand over to Mr. Couto, who will begin the presentation. Sir, you may go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us in one more video conference for Vamos. I'm going to start with the highlights of page three that summarize our execution in the quarter and the important indicators of the year.
Consolidated basis, we delivered net revenue of BRL 1.6 billion, up 22% compared to the first quarter 2025, with important contributions from rent, lease revenue, used asset sales revenue, and the positive performance of the industry segment driven by the delivery of biomass and power truck projects. Consolidated EBITDA totaled BRL 951 million, up 7% over the last 12 months. Excluding the seasonal effects of the first quarter off-season, we would have resulted in record consolidated EBITDA. Net income totaled BRL 87 million. If we take a look at the evolution since the third quarter 2025, we posted to growth of 74% in Net income during the period, which was only possible due to the operational improvements we have been delivering. Even before considering any benefit from a likely decline in interest rates over the coming months.
Regarding available inventory, there was a 17% reduction over the last 12 months and 7% over the last three months. This result was achieved through the allocation of both new and used assets as well as asset sales, demonstrating the high liquidity and quality of the assets. Operating cash generation supported by efficiency gains that we'll discuss later on was positive at BRL 58 million. We ended the quarter with leverage of 3.15 times, the lowest level since 2022. Considering the partial balance of the private capital increase in the amount of BRL 529 million, as disclosed in the notice to shareholders on course of May, pro forma leverage would have been three times in March.
In the leasing segment, net revenue from services was BRL 1.1 billion, up 10% compared to the first quarter last year and virtually stable compared to the revenue delivered in 4Q 2025. Even considering the seasonal effect of the sugar and ethanol sector. Leasing EBITDA totaled BRL 926 million, 8% higher than the first quarter of 2025 with a margin of 88%. Contracted CapEx in the quarter reached a solid amount of BRL 1.2 billion, even with the reduction in the level of contract signings in the sugar and energy sector, as already anticipated in the guidance of the year. I would like to highlight the high share of used asset leases through contract extensions and the Sempre Novo product, which together account for nearly half of all contracted CapEx in the quarter.
Our utilization rate increased for the third consecutive quarter, rising by another percentage point to 88% in March 2026, the highest level since 2020, bringing us even closer to our target of 90% by year-end. In used assets, during the first quarter, we highlight the 12% growth in sales compared to last year, while the number of assets sold increased 60% over the same period, particularly the strong sales of road equipment. In addition to the sale of used assets, particularly this quarter, the company entered into four leasing contracts that, due to their nature and pursuant to accounting standard CPC 06, are accounted for as asset sale, although they are leasing contracts in the amount of BRL 132 million.
Lastly, I would highlight that we continue to deliver the best inventory turnover in sales and are benefiting from initiatives and launch of new channels, digital sales platforms and access to third-party bank financing. On the next slide, number five, we also again show the variation in contracted CapEx, which reflects current macro conditions as mentioned before. However, it's very important to note the IRR of 20.56%, which reflects shorter contracts, higher volume of used assets and higher yields reaching 2.91%. Excluding the lower volume of business in the sugar alcohol sector, the current pace of contract signings reflects longer, more complex commercial negotiations with price adjustments and stricter credit approval by the company, as well as the current environment of high interest rates and economic slowdown.
We expect the signing and deployment of new leasing contracts this year to show a more linear trend throughout the coming quarters. Therefore, we reiterate the guidance announced at the beginning of this year. I'd like to place special emphasis on our opportunity to generate efficiency gains through our strategy to promote a second lease cycle for our assets. Note that just two years ago, only 3% of contracts were signed using used assets, which required substantial investments to support our growth pace. In the first quarter of this year, 44% of signed contracts were based on used assets, meaning investments that we had already made. 28% through contract extensions using the same assets and another 16% through Sempre Novo assets that were already available in our factory. This strategy allows us to meet customer demand with lower leasing costs.
On the other hand, it enables us to reduce net CapEx while maintaining a strong pace of growth, efficiency and profitability. I will now turn to Cezário to continue with the presentation.
Thank you, Couto. Good morning, everyone. I will begin by presenting the quarter-over-quarter evolution in the early contract terminations with total BRL 282 million per quarter. As already highlighted in the earnings release of the last quarter, the amount of BRL 148 million in returned assets in that quarter had been substantially lower than normal because it reflected the postponement of approximately BRL 53 million in returns that were only completed in January this year.
When we adjust this information across both quarters to normalize and properly compare this metric between periods, we get to asset returns of BRL 211 million in 4Q 2025 and BRL 219 million in 1Q 2026, as shown in the chart in the upper right corner of the slide, representing 4.6% and 4.8% of our fleet respectively, in line with our reference level of 5% of the fleet subject to the type, to this type of early termination. Also, the asset returns that occurred in 1Q 2026 were diversified in terms of types of assets and did not show any relevant concentration in specific sectors, as we can see in the chart in the lower left corner of the slide.
As for allowance for doubtful accounts of the net revenue, there was substantial reduction compared to 1Q 2025, both due to the improved management of the credit and collection process and continued preventively recognizing default situations. The utilization rate increased from 87% in December 2025 to 88%, the highest level since 2020. As a reminder, our guidance projects utilization above 90% by December 2026. Gross leased assets increased 6% compared to 1Q 2025 and 1% versus 4Q 2025. Total gross assets, which includes the inventory of used assets available for sale, the Sempre Novo increased 2.1% compared to 1Q 2025, supporting the increase observed in our utilization.
In units, the total fleet ended the quarter with 50,980 units, down 3.1% compared to 1Q 2025, reflecting the company's focus on reducing its available non-lease inventory and the significant reduction in the inventory of used road equipment in the period. On the next slide, we show the inventory available for lease or sale over time, including not only inventory of new assets and the fleet available for Sempre Novo, both fleet and asset, but also decommissioned assets available for sale with our current assets. We closed March 2026 with a total balance of BRL 3.3 billion in these assets combined, the lowest since 2023, representing significant reduction of 17% compared to March 2025 and 7% compared to December 31, 2025. Driven by the expansion of Sempre Novo contract and used sale.
The lower level of these assets, which do not generate a lease revenue, benefits from leasing activities, net reduction of BRL 255 million through the implementation of new lease contracts and also the purchase of new assets. BRL 336 million net of assets received from clients at the end of contract. Combined, these two effects result in the net reduction of BRL 531 million, equivalent to 24% of the balance of inventory we had in December 2025 in just three months, which on an annualized base would roughly represent five quarters if it were not the returns that will continue to occur, and we believe in the level of 5% a year as a reference. Looking specifically at the inventory of new assets in the upper right corner of the slide, we remain virtually stable compared to 4Q 2025.
Inventory turnover continues at optimized levels. Considering idle used assets always are available without generating leasing revenue, we had an important reduction during the quarter from BRL 2 billion December 2025 to BRL 1.8 billion in the 1st quarter, the lowest level since the third quarter 2025, contributing to improved inventory turnover. Moving to the next slide. We reinforce the diversification of our rental, lease revenue and its lower concentration, both among our largest clients and in sectors that previously had greater representation, such as sugar and alcohol. I also highlight the lower concentration among our top five clients. In the past, 90.5% of revenue and now 17%. This dilution across revenue and reduction in concentration can be observed across all segments on the right side of the slide.
Top 10, top 20, top 50, top 100, all of them show low representation compared to the same quarter of the previous year, as we add new clients across a wide range of sectors in the economy. On the next slide, I talk about leasing financial results. In 1Q 2026, net revenue from services was BRL 1.1 billion, 9.8% higher than 1Q 2025, supported by higher utilization rates, record lease fees, increased marginal yields and contract price adjustments. Throughout the first quarter, we continued the experience of the seasonal off-season effect, during which we suspend billing for certain clients, representing approximate BRL 30 million this year. Excluding this effect, 1Q 2026 lease revenue would have reached a record amount, reinforcing that the reduction versus 4Q 2025 is purely seasonal.
Leasing service EBITDA totaled BRL 986 million, up 8.2% compared to 1Q 2025, explained by the higher revenue. The reduction compared to the 4Q was also due to the off-season effect. Looking at leasing services EBITDA margins, we reported an 88% margin this quarter, in line with average margin delivered in 2025 and slightly below the 89% reported in 1Q 2025. Fleet depreciation. Shown in the lower left chart, we continue to see a trend of slight increases in average depreciation levels through quarter, both for trucks and machinery. This quarter, we saw a somewhat steeper increase in truck depreciation rates, mainly driven by the accelerated depreciation on a specific group of assets. We do not foresee any substantial change in depreciation levels beyond those already contemplated in our projections and guidance disclosed to the market for 2026.
Rented lease services EBIT totaled BRL 637 million in 1Q 2026, up 3% compared to the same period last year. The 60.5% margin reflects the combination of seasonal EBITDA effects and the impact of higher depreciation, which I mentioned earlier. The next slide. The company's used asset sales increased 12% compared to the same quarter last year, with gross margin close to zero. This quarter, we also recognized BRL 132 million accounted for as sales pursuant to CPC 06, primarily related to a leasing contract with that client who negotiated a purchase option for these vehicles at the end of the contract, which required the transaction to be treated as a sale under the accounting standard and CPC rules.
These transactions accounted for under CPC 06 generated gross profits of approximately BRL 8 million, and therefore did not represent any significant change in our profitability metrics for the quarter that would require further discussion. Another point regarding used asset sales this quarter was the significant increase in sales volume driven by the strong volume of road equipment sales. This equipment carry a low average price compared to other assets of the company, which explains the mismatch between growth in volume sold and growth in sales value. It's important to highlight this performance in asset sales against the backdrop of a 19% decline in new truck and bus sales and a 15% decline in equipment and attachment sales, despite the subsidized financing in the Brazilian Government, which reinforces our confidence in the company's ability to sell its assets.
Another point is that despite the decline in volumes of new assets, especially trucks, we continue to observe price increases being implemented by the major OEMs, often above inflation for the future, which keeps the competitiveness of our used assets and also contributes to relative stability in depreciation rates, since used assets tend to follow and remain strongly correlated with prices of new assets. This is a point that we consistently highlight as positive because it protects the residual value of our used assets from greater volatility that could generate fluctuations in depreciation levels. Now I'll move to slide 13, where I talk about the company's consolidated results.
Consolidated net revenue was up 21.6% compared to 1Q 2025, with important contributions from leasing revenue, used assets sales, positive performance of the industry with delivery of biomass and power trucks, and the sale of assets accounted for pursuant to CPC 06. Excluding the latter effect, net revenue growth would have been 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Consolidated EBITDA for the quarter was BRL 951 million, up 7% compared to the same quarter last year. Adjusting the off-season effect, we would have had a record EBITDA for the company. 1Q 2026 also saw a reduction in net financial expenses resulting from the combination of a stronger operating cash, lower Net CapEx requirement, a reduction in our receivables assignment balance, and lower leverage for covenant purposes, which excludes receivables assignment.
This allowed net income in 1Q 2026 to post sequential growth for the second consecutive quarter, BRL 87 million this quarter. The reduction compared to the same quarter last year reflects the effect of higher interest rates, lower used asset EBITDA compared to 1Q 2025, and higher depreciation between the two periods, which I also talked about during the presentation. Let's move to the slides covering ROIC and ROE. Reported ROIC in the last month of March was 14% after tax cost of debt 10.6%. ROIC spread up to 3.4 percentage points, returning to sequential expansion. As usual, on the right side, we have a normalized ROIC potential, which does not constitute guidance. We assume a scenario with a 91% fleet utilization, 70% EBIT margin, and 25% effective tax rate.
That would lead to a ROIC of 17% and ROIC spread of 6.5 percentage points. As for ROE, which stood at 11.7% when we do the same exercise. Next slide. Here we show cash generation and movement in net debt. As you can see, the company generated BRL 58 million in operating cash as it increased fleet utilization, controlled cost expenses, delivered asset sales volumes, optimized the need of purchasing new assets by increasing the share of used asset leasing contracts, and reduced leverage organically. The company reduced its receivables assignment by BRL 224 million, and the partial dividend payout of BRL 24.8 million is included in the BRL 150 million approved back in December 2025, equivalent to a payout of 47% of last year's net income. Slide 16.
Starting with the first chart, we continue to execute new funding transactions and debt repayments to optimize our capital structure and improve our debt amortization schedule. We pay attention to market opportunities that allow us to improve debt maturity profile, especially maturities due in 2027, 2028. In leverage, we continue to reduce it consistently as net debt remains stable in nominal terms, and the company's EBITDA continues to grow, as demonstrated in the last quarters. Leverage for covenant purposes was 3.15 times in March 2026, the lowest level since 2022, in line with the strategy of gradually and organically deleverage combined with sustainable business growth. The reduction in leverage was achieved in parallel with the reduction in receivables assignment balance, meaning that leverage on a broader basis was also declined.
Lastly, as already known to the market, last Monday we filed notice to shareholders regarding the partial balance of the private capital increase in the amount of BRL 529 million before remaining share, and the funds have already been received in April. The capital increase will have a positive impact on our deleveraging process, as shown in the chart in the lower right corner, bringing covenant leverage on a pro forma basis as of March 31st to three times, which corresponds to the midpoint of our guidance for December 2026. We also performed an additional exercise which does not constitute guidance considering the simulation of sale and cash receipt of excess inventories of used assets available for sale or leasing, considering on their estimated value of BRL 969 million.
Together with the capital increase, if you were to do that and have the effects reflected as of March 31, 2026 reference date, adjusted leverage would be 2.8 times. I conclude my presentation and turn back to Gustavo Couto for his final remarks.
Thanks, José Cezário. Moving on to the final slide, I'd like to reinforce a few important messages. The company remains committed to increasing shareholder returns through continuous efficiency gains delivered sustainably and with value creation. We clearly see opportunities to improve our inventory levels and fleet utilization, expand margins through cost reduction. In addition to develop the heavy used asset market and continue leveraging the initiatives that allow us to grow with lower dependence on the purchase of new assets.
The results here demonstrate that it is possible to increase our net income exclusively based on execution and evolution of our operation indicators, even in a highly challenging macroeconomic scenario. Over the past two quarters, net income increased 74%, even without any contribution from lower interest rates. Used assets revenues grew 12% year-over-year. Our sales channels continue to mature with new stores, digital tools and new sales reps. The lower need for Net CapEx allows us to deleverage the company, grow sustainably and achieve gains in productivity. Leasing revenue increased 9.8% year-over-year, nearly five times higher than the increase in gross fixed assets, which was only 2.1% in the period. We remain highly confident in delivering our 2026 guidance and are very grateful to our people, clients and investors. Now we are going to open for your questions. We may start now.
For investors and analysts. If you have a question, please click on 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 your name and company. Our first question comes from Julia Orsi from JPMorgan. Ms. Orsi.
Hello, Couto, Cezário, Rodrigo. Good morning. I have two questions. The first is about demand. In the release you talk about heated demand in the second quarter. Could you talk a bit about the drivers and also about the demand? I see that the guidance is the same. Given the macro uncertainty, can you have any changes in the scenario for 2026?
As for returns, we did understand the impact in the first quarter that was impacted by the delays of last year. What do you expect in terms of returns for the remainder of the year? Thank you very much.
Hi, Julia. This is Couto speaking. Thanks for your question. Thanks for attending our call. Leasing demand has been quite solid a long time, and we do see that along the year we should have a more linear demand. I did say that during the presentation, and we expect that because there was lower demand in the first quarter for a specific factor, which is sugar energy. The volume was smaller, as we mentioned, but we do see a more linear demand for the remainder of the year.
In the second quarter, we see volume in April for new contracts generated that was quite high. We see that from different sectors, retail, e-commerce, services. We do see a strong demand. Julia, what's important is that the leasing segment is an alternative to fleet renewal that is more economical. An adverse scenario in some sectors, in a way, contributes to this opportunity of lowering costs, improving balance sheet, reducing capital allocation in low CapEx assets. This is something that we work with. We see that as something that keeps our demand healthy and consistent for the year of 2026. We are keeping our projections for the year. As for returns, your second question. We see returns.
You see that our provision for doubtful accounts continues to be quite controlled, and that is translated in a volume of returns at about 5%, perhaps slightly lower than that as José Cezário showed us. This is the scenario that we are considering for the future. In our projections and for us to meet our guidance, we are quite conservative in terms of returns. Basically because we know that default rates are still high at the central bank. Even in a deteriorated scenario, we are already considering that in our projections. Still, with discipline, we are being able to control numbers in terms of allowance for doubtful accounts and returns. We do expect the numbers to be at the most 5% a year. I hope I have answered your question, Julia Orsi. If not, just let me know.
No, very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Andre Ferreira from Bradesco BBI. Mr. Ferreira.
Hello. Good morning, Couto, Cezário, Rodrigo. Congratulations on your results and the operational improvements. My first question, congratulations also on the reduction of inventory in the first quarter, a lot higher than the fourth quarter, even with the returns of last quarter. Thinking of the three levers to reduce inventory levels and going back to the first question. We see used assets extension and Sempre Novo. What are the metrics in the second quarter now? As a whole, do you see a change in the mindset of clients because of higher diesel prices, speculation with elections, interest rates that may affect the numbers that you are expecting for each one of these levers?
That is customers postponing the sale of used assets or perhaps more willing to hire Sempre Novo assets. Second question, I would like to talk about contract extension, if it is, you get about 40%, which is close to 25%. My question is to try and understand what are negotiations like and the expectation in your guidance for extension. Does it include contracts that have not been negotiated, or is it anchored on informal negotiations with clients and giving opportunity to new negotiations? Perhaps it's too much, but that's it I have.
Andre, thank you very much. Thanks for joining us. We do have three levers, as you said, that we are working on. All of them presenting increasingly better results. I'm going to start with the Sempre Novo assets.
We have record leases and deployments in the month of March, which translates to us some changes that were made internally. I always said that Sempre Novo leases, although it is a very net liquid young asset, it has complexity of time. Clients want to see the asset, the process between signing the contract and deploying the asset is a bit longer. Along the recent quarters, we were able to adjust that and we see improvement. Contract extensions with the same characteristics, it's easier because the clients already have the asset. It is the same asset, the clients already know the asset. They are already operating it's much simpler. These negotiations are doing very well. We have been able to keep even some in-advance negotiations, which is something that you asked about.
We are also being able to extend important volumes as we showed. The sum of new contracts signed this quarter was a record 44% including extension and Sempre Novo contracts for used assets, which was very important. The sale of used assets, which is something that we are more used to monitoring internally. Well, we have been able to improve quarter after quarter. See that we improved quarter-on-quarter 12%. This is the fruit of a better commercial team in the number of stores. We did open some stores, as we have announced. We are having a lot more volume in terms of proposals, which means that we have a reach with our digital tools. Even in an environment with lower credit availability, we have been able to grow in used vehicle sales.
We are very confident that we are going to continue developing this area. New sales, new sales reps, they are so much mature. A new store compared to an older store, or younger sales rep compared to more senior ones, make a difference. There is a maturity process to happen, and that will certainly increase the number of sales per store, per sales rep. As for higher diesel price as well, any inflation movement is bad for the country, for our clients and for ourselves. However, it does pose opportunities to us because companies, when they have to reduce costs, as I mentioned before, they seek alternatives, and leasing is more than proving that it is a good economical alternative. At first, it takes a bit longer in the negotiation process. This is normal.
Whenever there is something new or an important inflation event, clients stop to analyze things. I think that also it opens doors to several opportunities. Several effects connected to the increased cost in transportation give us opportunities to sit down and negotiate with our clients to show the benefits of leasing. Again, we don't like high interest rates, we don't like high inflation rates, but that also contributes to what we can provide to our clients. I hope I have answered all your questions.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Filipe Nielsen from Citi. Mr. Nielsen.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I would like to explore- Used assets, considering the margins that you have here without the CPC effects. A margin very close to zero. Again, as you mentioned, with a mix of more road equipment with a lower selling price. I'd like to know how the trend of this margin is evolving, just for us to try and normalize the mix to other assets. How, what is the trend a long time? Should we expect better margins? Now, in terms of return, which is my next question, I would like to understand a bit more of the sugar ethanol sector. It has a seasonal effect, but it's also relevant in return to CapEx. Can you elaborate a bit on the weakness of the sector for the whole of the year? Thank you very much.
Hi, Filipe. Thanks for your questions. Good morning. Well, we used to add that the margins was 0.1 this quarter. Indeed, there is a certain dispersion here. Those assets, especially truck, with high liquidity, they are performing with very healthy margins. However, we have some equipment for trucks, buses with lower liquidity. We forced sale of it to give discounts to reinforce our cash. This is something that I said that we would do without destroying value, but accelerating sales of some assets, even if we have more inventory or those that we see less demand in the secondary market. This is what we did, and this is why you see the margin at 0.1. Had we not accelerated the sale of low turnover assets, we would have seen higher margins.
If you consider the long term, you have to remember that we always project in new contracts. When we are signing a new contract with the client, I project for the future a zero margin when I sell the asset. The results comes from the contract, the cash flow along time, and then we project depreciation, so that in the future we can sell the asset as the residual value I have in my book without a gain necessarily from sales. In the long term, we project it to zero. In the short term, because we are accelerating the sale of low turnover assets, we believe zero is a healthy number, again, because you have this dispersion of trucks that have higher margins and other assets that have lower margins.
In the mix, zero is what we expect in the short term. As for return in the sugar ethanol segment, it was a specific return of one client. Nothing really substantial, but it was a specific return. When we follow the sector, we did see lower demand this year, so this factor is delaying fleet renewals or expansions. In the contracted value in the first quarter, we saw a lower volume in the sector. With regards to return, it was one specific client that was going through difficult, so we got the assets in the beginning of the year. This is not that we see as something recurring in the sector, quite the opposite. Remember, the sugar ethanol sector really supplies to the whole of the country.
It's cyclic as any agribusiness sector, but needs our assets to operate and continue producing. That gives us predictability in terms of maintaining these assets within the operations of our clients. It's different from a truck, for instance, that if the client loses the cargo, they don't have transportation and they return the truck. In the case of the sugar industry, it's not, and we are not seeing the industry stopping. That's why our assets continue to perform quite regularly in the sugar ethanol sector. I hope I have answered your question.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from João Ramiro from XP. Mr. Ramiro?
Good morning, everyone. Good to José Cezário. I would like to have a bit more color in terms of government credit programs. They recent announced the renewal of Mover Brasil program, increasing the program in BRL 21 billion for the subsidized purchase of trucks, buses, and related equipment. Now they possibly will launch one for farming equipment. What is the company's take on the potential impact of these programs for the sale of used assets? Do you see that this can cause an impact in terms of demand for Sempre Novo contracts or new contracts in general. Thank you very much.
Hi, João. This is Gustavo speaking. Well, the Mover Brasil program, we saw in the first quarter when the programs was launched, that it did not have any impact on used assets sales, quite the opposite. The product matched the demand of fleet owners and fleet owners had access to buy assets.
It was not something that was available from banks for used assets. That did not affect our business. The used vehicle market is going through difficulties in terms of credit, but this is for everyone in all the sector. Indeed, we performed well and we grew as we showed to you. An important point, João, is that Brazil needs to renew its fleet. When you have a program that incentivizes fleet renewal, I believe this is healthy for the sector as a whole. I do not see Mover Brasil as a threat to the used vehicles business. Quite the opposite. It's an alternative for clients to modernize, renew their fleet, which is beneficial for the sector as a whole. We do see the benefit of the program that was launched.
As for Sempre Novo contracts, I would say, are unbeatable, I would say, in terms of opportunities to customers. We are talking about used assets, so prices are not compared to new assets. If they fit the client, the product is very appealing for customers that want to reduce costs and the contracts are shorter, two, three years. I mean, when you're going to buy an asset, you're talking about long-term, specific financing term of five years. We do not see it as a competition. So much so that I mentioned to you that in March, the peak of the Mover Brasil program, we had a record in Sempre Novo leases and deployments.
I think the program itself, the Sempre Novo leasing, it's a matter of having the right assets for the right client, and this is what we have been improving months after months. That's why we have better numbers, and I think we are going to get to the results of our guidance along the year.
Very well. Very good. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Alberto Valerio from UBS. Mr. Valerio.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity. If you could give us a bit more color on CPC. Was it a new contract? I thought it was just a sale of assets. As you mentioned in the call, it's a contract that goes into revenues as used assets with a given sale. Another point that I would like to explore is intercompany operations that increased a bit quarter-over-quarter. If you could also give us some color, what to expect for the future. Finally, truck depreciation that increased in the quarter. Do you think we should see depreciation rates increasing along time? Thank you very much.
Hi. Thanks for your questions. This is José Cezário speaking. Thanks for attending the call. I'm going to start addressing CPC 06. Indeed, we had to address some rental contracts as if they were sales. It's important to highlight that they are not actual sales. They are leasing contracts signed by the company as we have in any other relationship with customers. The difference is that given the time and conditions and the possibility that at the end of the contract, the client may buy the asset under some conditions, this has to be addressed as if it were a sale. Again, it is something different that we usually do and will continue to do, and that did bring an impact that instead of having the fixed assets of these assets being depreciated, what we have is accounts receivable that will recognize that present value.
The accounts receivable along the time of the contract will be recognized in terms of financial revenue coming from the advanced amount that was accounted for at time zero as we receive the installments. We are going, in this case, to change leasing revenue to financial revenue along the contract. In a nutshell, this is what it is. It's not really more complex than what CPC 06 determines or IFRS 16. It's almost close to a financial leasing and not an operational leasing.
Yes.
CPC 06, it's, it talks about operational leasing, which is most of our operation and financial leasing, which is thus addressing this product as a sale. Instead of having the depreciation of the asset and recognizing the leasing revenue along the contract, you recognize it as if it were a sale at time zero. For these assets, you're not going to have leasing revenue along the period. You have financial revenue that is going to be incorporated along the contract.
Yes, very clear. Is this one-off or could we see more of that?
I'm going to let Couto answer that. He's going to talk a bit about that. We are considering this as a possible avenue for growth. I don't think it's going to be a major part of the business. That's not it. I think it's going to be more and more common to have situations like this that fit this accounting situation. Again, we continue to be a leasing company.
We have leasing contracts for assets. As we negotiate conditions that make us address the contract as a sale and not leasing for strictly accounting purposes, we are going to do so. If we see the interest from our clients and ourselves of contracting a possible purchase of these assets with a condition that fits the standard, we are going to have other situations like that in the future.
Gustavo Couto to Alberto Valerio, this is a leasing contract very close to basic. There are specific conditions negotiated where the clients have this interest in buying. We saw the opportunity of a new contract model. It has to be accounted for as an asset sale. As Cezário explained that, won't go over that again.
We see it as a possible avenue of negotiation when clients want to buy the asset at the end of the contract. The nature of the operation is a leasing contract, but there are specific conditions that go under CPC 06 to be recognized as that. We don't like to compare that with asset sales. We highlight the 12% without considering those assets, because we are not really selling the assets at the time. I hope it's been clear, Alberto. Otherwise, José Cezário and Rodrigo can talk to you more about that.
Very clear. Thank you.
Your second question about intercompany negotiation that increased a bit, that has to do with the previous subject. Those assets were bought from BMB, which is one of the companies that we control.
For this very reason, the revenue of BMB had to be eliminated in the consolidated numbers. That's why you see this increase in those lines when you read our release consolidated numbers. Here, this is going to CPC. These are assets that we showed to you in the last earnings release. They are biomethane trucks that were prepared by BMB. They bought the assets, prepared that, and we bought them from BMB. That's the operational benefit.
Very clear.
The last point of depreciation. Last question is about depreciation. Indeed, this quarter, if you relatively consider things, we had a higher depreciation, especially in trucks. In the previous quarter, we had a slow reduction. It is gross, but almost going back to what we had in the previous quarter.
We had mentioned that the reduction was not something that was permanent or that we should expect for the coming quarters. We continue to say that the trend in depreciation of trucks, machinery, equipment is growing. We are going to more and more have a growing curve in depreciation, considering the reference rate that we share with you. In the case of trucks, something like 7%, machinery and equipment closer to 12%. This is not going to happen from one quarter to the other. We have a long time to adjust our depreciation rate to get to the end of the contract with a residual value that is very close to market value.
In some situations, we can have some batches of assets in which we accelerate depreciation rates, then sometimes from one quarter to the other, you do see some kind of fluctuation that may mean that things are changing, but they are not. This is what we saw this quarter. It was a batch of assets that we accelerated depreciation, but that will not change the rationale or the guidance that we gave to the market in terms of depreciation. The guidance was that depreciation should be between BRL 150 - BRL 200, and this is what we believe in. Our projections to what we can see just reiterate the guidance with regards to depreciation.
Thank you very much, José Cezário. Gustavo Couto, very, very clear.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Rogério Araújo from Bank of America.
Hi, Couto, Cezário, Rodrigo. Thanks for the opportunity. I have two. The first about costs. Excluding PIS/COFINS credit, the costs in leasing dropped 50% year-over-year. You mentioned in your release there was a return of IPVA provisioning, penalties fines from clients, and provisions of payments of acquisitions. Could you give us a bit more details and quantify the effect, and talk a bit about the recurring costs? I think that helps us. Also, you are reinforcing your sales structure, sales reps, employees and et cetera, that should affect margin. What can we expect in terms of impact for the coming quarters? That's for costs. Second, when we have normalization exercises, you are using an EBIT margin of 70%. Can you talk about the drivers that you use to get there?
Hi, Rog é rio. This is Couto speaking. I'm going to answer part of your questions, and Cezário will help me with the other part. Rogério, we are doing important homework in terms of operating efficiency, reducing inventory levels, increasing utilization rates, and revisiting costs. Naturally, last year, the effects that you mentioned, IPVA, they are all related to last year. This year, our cost base is lower, and the main effect of that is that we are looking very much into maintenance costs. We are reducing the number of maintenance costs at the yard with lower inventory levels, so we are working to reduce the costs. This is the positive side, and this is what you see in terms of cost reductions in the year-over-year comparison. When you see increase in costs, we have new stores for used vehicles, new ref wraps.
Our people is very much compensated based on sales volumes. For used vehicles, they have a variable compensation. You're going to see an increase in the cost of used vehicles because of more commissions. Thank God, because people are selling more. That's what we want to see volumes going up and paying more commissions to a sales rep. In summary, our stores, we opened four stores last year, you're talking about not high lease amounts, few people in stores, usually in areas where the square meter is relatively cheap because we are not locating urban centers. We are on roads, the outskirts of towns where square meter is lower. The increase is based on commissions, but commissions are based on new sales, so we are happy to pay. That's it. Cezário, anything? EBIT as well.
Well, in terms of costs and expenses, it is also important to say, Rog é rio, that we are intensifying a series of measures to optimize the costs and expenses. Every company in Brazil, I think, given the time and the scenario, requires effort in terms of optimizing costs. We are not different. That does not mean that within the year, you are not going to have accommodations from quarter to quarter. Sometimes you have a drop in one quarter, a recovery in the other. Just one example about fines, traffic fines. We just mentioned that in the first quarter of last year, we had more fines than we had this year, tickets. Basically, most of our fleets are leased to third parties. Traffic tickets are the responsibility of our clients. But sometimes there is a mismatch.
You have to recognize the traffic ticket because the car, the vehicle is under your name, and it takes me some time until I can collect that from clients. This mismatch may generate from quarter to quarter, some difference benefiting one quarter over the other. That's the reason when you compare this quarter to last quarter. These are natural movements, and we are working very hard. We did not mention that, but even maintenance costs, we are working very hard to reduce maintenance costs, trying to optimize our expenses. You should expect due diligence on our part with regards to that. Finally, you're talking about the EBIT margin, how we got to this number.
I would say that the main driver for us to get to the 70% is optimization of our area, reducing inventory that is not generating revenue. That will bring us returns in terms of costs and also reduction of costs that are related to the inventory. As the money that today is applied in an asset that is not generating revenue, and then it starts to be applied in something that generates revenue, you are going to see it better. We believe that we can get to an EBIT of 70%, not necessarily this year.
Very clear, José Cezário.
Are we done with the questions? Our next question.
Our next question comes from Daniel Gasparete from Itaú BBA. Mr. Gasparete.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I have two, in fact. One, I think that we didn't talk in the Q&A about the potential incentive, government incentives program in the decrease of the IPI tax for light and heavy vehicles. I would like to hear a bit from you. What direction do you think this is going? Second, I would like to go back to what Couto mentioned. I understand the 5% in terms of expected returns, and you are considering an adverse scenario. I'd like to compare the number to what you mentioned in terms of depreciation and not seeing this depreciation going up. What do you think depreciation is going to be like in terms of behavior, used vehicles margin? Do you think it's 0%? That then wouldn't depreciation increase?
Hi, Gasparete. Good morning. Thanks for your question. The first question is clear. The second one, I could not hear very well. I think there was a bit of a problem. We could not hear your second question. The first is very clear. What we think is that any tax reduction is beneficial for the sector and for everyone. Any reduction in IPI taxes, we are talking about 1%, 0.5%. It's not really high. Would undoubtedly help relieve the burden of the share. I do not see that impacting depreciation, if that's what you said. Quite the opposite. In 2025, OEMs, even with a higher volume sales, had a pass-through of 6% this year. They already had a pass-through, and they are considering price increases for the next half of the year.
They have to pass through costs. As we see along the years, pass through follow and sometimes are even higher than inflation. Any reduction in IPI tax is welcome because again, it makes the whole chain lighter, but it does not bring any impact in our dynamics for used vehicle, for instance. We see prices being appreciated and therefore used assets follow the appreciation of new vehicles. Cezário did mention that during his presentation. That's exactly it. It's welcome, but it does not impact on the price of used vehicles. Your second question, could you please say that again?
No problem, Couto. Thank you for your first answer. The second is about depreciation and margin of the used vehicles. You were expecting a margin for used vehicles close to 0%, and at the same time you reiterate the depreciation of your guidance. 0% is a margin that you are comfortable to work with in the period. You don't see a need to increase. Is that the number you're working with, and this is what you're considering? Just to understand depreciation rates.
Gasparete, the used vehicles margins results from two things. First, obviously, market prices that we cannot control. The second effect is the sales mix. For example, we did something like 0% this year focusing to decrease inventory levels of some assets with lower turnover, and that pulls the margin down. Given that this is a something stable for the year.
If we have margin that for the year, that is going to be higher margin for trucks and lower margin for those assets that had higher depreciation along the year. I'm not talking again about trucks, tractors, trailers. I'm talking about equipment, attachments. I think the volume is going to be zero. Again, we can have fluctuations quarter on quarters considering the mix when I sell more in a period or the other. What I cannot control are market prices. Again, because new asset prices are going up, there is no reason for us to believe that the price of used trucks is going to be different than the margin that we see today. In terms of used vehicle sales, that's it. As for depreciation, being quite straightforward, Gasparete, you can trust the guidance.
You can trust what you see the guidance. This is our number. Right now, we don't see any indication of change. You can consider the guidance. This is a number that is very predictable. We believe we are very accurate, and I do not see anything that can change the number for now.
Very good, Couto. Thanks for your answer. Have a good day.
Our next question comes from Luan Calimero from Banco do Brasil. Mr. Calimero.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I would like you to help me understand the dynamics considering the decommissioning timeline. Coming years, we have a growing curve. It seems relevant compared to this year for next year in terms of decommissioning. I would like to know what are the implications of that. Is that really relevant? Is it part of the natural dynamics of the business? How are you going to address the decommissioning to come in the coming years?
Hi, Luan. Good morning. Thanks for your question. This is José Cezário. Well, we always disclose the decommissioning timeline for the market to understand our leased fleets today, the expectation of a possible reduction of leased assets that will come to resale or that will be extended with contracts that we have been talking about. We have been very successful in this, and we do believe that kind of project is very attractive to our clients. Contract extensions seem to be a good fit. This alternative contract extension, objectively speaking, delay the timeline that you see. The timeline does not happen in its full.
The second thing that you have to consider is that these amounts for you to have a common base. These are gross amounts, not net depreciation amounts. The net depreciation amount should be close to the sales price of the asset, because depreciation is targeted at the price we are going to sell the decommissioned asset. Assuming that that's true, you have two effects that you have to have a number of sales to be done.
T hat is not what you see. First, because we are going to extend contracts that are going to expire. Also part of the amounts that you see here are represented by depreciation that is already included in our accounting. Therefore, sales targets are going to be different from what you see here, considering our capacity of resales that we have built along years and that we believe that is at the right size to meet demand.
This is Couto. Luan, I would like to talk about two things. First, the fact that in recent years we returned more assets, therefore decommission more assets because of the default rates that we had a peak in 2023. We had to anticipate a response. Today we should be selling a lot less assets, but some stores responded very fast. Last year we grew 100% in the sale of used assets. We responded very fast in terms of our capacity to actually make the sales. For two reasons.
First, because the assets are very liquid and very new compared to the average fleet age in Brazil. They are assets that clients want. Again, very new assets compared to the national average. The second aspect is that these assets are funded by banks because it's a new asset and banks provide credit to that. Banks do not provide credit for older assets. Our assets that are very new are highly liquid, they have high quality, and with that we can respond faster. I do not see for the future a challenge. The challenge that we have ahead is much lower than what we had in the past when we grew 100%.
Looking forward, of course, we have to continue growing, but the challenge is lower, and I think that we have already demonstrated our capacity to respond fast and increase sales when needed, even if in the future I see less challenges than what we have been through.
Very good. Thank you very much.
Vamos Q&A session is now closed. We would like to hand over to Mr. Couto for the company's closing remarks.
Well, thank you very much. With questions in writing, the IR team will be able to answer each one of you. To close, I would like first to thank you all for your patience, for being here with us till now, for your questions and also our team, clients and investors. Our focus will continue to be operational efficiency.
We'll pursue and reach the 90% in the midpoint of our guidance in utilization rates. We are going to have more revenue with less need for new capital. We will improve EBIT as Cezário mentioned, we are going to see net income evolving as results depend exclusively on the opportunities that we have in make our inventory profitable. This will continue to happen. Used vehicle sales has proven to be one of our greatest capacities, this will continue to evolve as our sales channels mature quarter after quarter. As we are being able to extend and lease more used assets, with Sempre Novo, you are going to see a lower need for Net CapEx and lower dependence of growth on new assets. This is beneficial for our clients, as I mentioned. It's good for our profitability and to reduce our costs.
We will certainly see that as a tool to promote a natural deleveraging of the company. Although we will continue to grow at double digits. The new contract that we mentioned, I think, it is an opportunity for us to meet the demand of our customers. If that happens, I think it's an avenue for new contracts of this kind with the specific demands that you're going to be able to see that in the coming quarters. To close, I would like to say that we are very confident. We reiterate the guidance for 2026. We started the year, in our opinion, accelerating utilization rates, and this is what we are going to be continuing to work on, and the team is very much engaged to reach this objective. Once again, thank you very much, to your attendance and to our team that has, developed excellent work. Thank you.
Vamos conference call is now closed. We thank you very much for attending and wish you a good day.