Morning. Welcome to the Conference Call of Grupo Vamos to discuss the earnings of the 1st quarter 2023. Today with us, we have Gustavo Couto, CEO of Vamos, and Adriano Ortega, CFO and IR Officer. Right now, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later on, we are going to start the Q&A session when further instructions will be provided. Should any of you need assistance during the conference call, please reach the operator by pressing star zero. We would like to inform you that this conference call is being recorded and simultaneously translated into English. Before moving on, we would like to let you know that any statements made during this conference call relative to the company's business outlooks, projections, operating, and financial goals are based on Vamos management's beliefs and assumptions, rely on information currently available to the company.
Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions since they refer to future events. Therefore depend on events 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 materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements. We'll now turn the call to Mr. Gustavo Couto. Mr. Couto, you may go on.
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for attending our conference call on the earnings of the 1st quarter 2023. In this 1st quarter, we had very important landmarks that confirm our trust in yet another year of continued development and profitability of X. We recorded growth in all our business segments, consolidating our unique ecosystem with a broad portfolio of customized so-solutions for different clients of different sizes and sectors.
I'd like to thank our customers for their trust and our people for their commitment for us to reach our results and everything that we have to do and achieve in the coming quarters. I'd like to thank the OEMs, the service providers and vendors that are extremely important to our business, so that we can continue growing and really serving our customers the way we want it. Thanks to our investors, shareholders, financial institutions for the support in our path of growth that we believe is just starting. We are going to start on slide number 4. In there, I'd like to share with you the main highlights of the period in all our business lines. Talking about consolidated results, it's important to mention our net revenue, which grows of 78% in the quarter when compared to the same period last year.
EBITDA was BRL 659 million in the quarter, growth of 82.3% compared to the same period last year. Net profit grew approximately 38.8% in a total of BRL 169 million in the 1st quarter. Our return on invested capital added up to 19.4% if we consider the last 12 months. This is an extension of more than five percentage points. Return on equity reached 22% in the quarter, with also up 0.4%. In the rental pillar, we had very important results. We had growth in all our operating indicators, again repeating an increase in profitability of customer base and the digital sectors in which we operate, with a nationwide coverage in addition to new contracts.
Net revenue reached BRL 805 million, an increase of 128.5% compared to the same period last year, considering the sales assets in the quarter. EBITDA reached BRL 564 million, up 96.7% year-on-year. Our backlog, that is future contracted revenue, reached BRL 15.6 billion at the end of March, up 76.8% compared to the same period 2022. That ensures a strong growth for the coming years with a customer portfolio that is increasingly diversified in different sectors of operation and with nationwide coverage. Until the end of March 2023, we had 1,250 customers, a growth of 66% against the previous year. Adriano will give you a bit more color on that.
We had an important growth in the CapEx deployed this quarter, reaching a bit more than BRL 1.3 billion, 50% above the 1st quarter of 2022, reinforcing our capacity of execution and focus on offering services of excellence to our customers. This is a change in terms of, we raised the bar. Also, to close rental, we reached a record volume in asset sales with gross margin of 31%.
This considering the operation that we had inter-company with JSL in the quarter, as released to the market previously. With regards to dealerships, it's important to highlight the continuous growth of the segment, considering a market dynamics that is very favorable, in addition to expansion to new stores, which reinforces the certainness of our expansion plan and our capillarity with gains of scale and commitment with the highest quality in providing services to our customers. Net revenue grew by 37.5%, reaching BRL 794.8 million in the quarter. EBITDA went up to BRL 86.8 million, an increase of 18.9% year-on-year. In these months, we had two important acquisitions that will further strengthen our strategic position in the segment.
On April 16, we announced to the market acquisition of Tietê Veículos with 3 more stores to Vamos dealership network, a strategic position in the cities of São Paulo, Campinas, and Barueri, regions that together represent an important part of Brazilian GDP. Tietê was chosen by MMA in Latin America for 7 years in a row as the best premium dealership of Volkswagen and trucks. That is proof of the high level of services. That consolidates Vamos with a large network of bus and trucks dealerships in the country. Yesterday, we announced the acquisition of DHL Tratores, which is a network of Valtra and Fendt dealer in Paraná, Ponta Grossa, Arapongas, Maringá, and Cornélio Procópio.
With acquisition, Vamos consolidates as the largest Valtra dealership in South America, with 6 important stores added to its portfolio in Paraná, a state with the 2nd-highest farming activity in the country. Between Vamos and Agro, we are also going to be an exclusive dealer of Fendt in the south of Paraná. Both acquisitions are conditioned to the precedent applications for this type of operation, including the proceedings antitrust agencies consent. I'm now going to turn the call to Adriano Ortega, our CFO, that will give more color on our performance. In the end, I will come to my final remarks and open for your questions. Thanks, Gustavo. Good morning, everyone who has joined us for this conference call. I'm very excited with the 1st conference call of Vamos and the numbers to be presented.
I'd like to share our consolidated quarter performance and a bit more color on our results in the next slides. I'm going to start with slide five, talking about consolidated 1st quarter 2023 results. We continue to deliver sustainable results with consistent indicators in terms of profitability. Consolidated net revenue reached BRL 1.6 billion in the quarter, growth of 78% compared to 1st quarter 2022. If we consider 4th quarter 2022 in the comparison, we had an increase of 21%. EBIT in the quarter also had strong development, reaching BRL 541 million, up 83% year-on-year. Because of the organic growth in rental gain and scale and productivity, EBIT in the 1st quarter 2023 was also 16% higher than the 4th quarter 2022.
EBITDA consolidated had strong growth in the 1st quarter, reaching BRL 659 million, up 82% year-on-year and 16% quarter-on-quarter. The lower right chart, we show our net income. We reached in 1st Q 2023 BRL 169 million, 39% above 1st Q 2022, basically due to the growth of our EBIT in the quarter, given the strong organic growth in the main segments. Now we are going to go to the next slide, and I'm going to share the company's evolution of the return on invested capital along the last years. Also considering the performance of this quarter under the lens of the last 12 months. We've reached 19.4% in the return on invested capital. You can see in the upper left part that this has been increasing along the years.
That's why we think we are at a new level of return on invested capital, especially for the coming months. This profitability supports the company's plan to continue investing along with its strategic plans. As you can see in the bottom part of the slide, we also see the evolution of the net income of Vamos along the years. You can see it is resilient growth along the periods, regardless of the economic cycle in which we were inserted. That supports our business model with disciplined management in capital allocation. Going to slide 8, I show the main results for the rental segment in the quarter, with strong evolution in our indicators. Growth in net revenue of 120% year-on-year, reaching BRL 805 million. Net revenue from services, BRL 584 million, an increase of 91% compared to the previous quarter.
We also had a record revenue in assets sold. I'm going to talk about further on in the presentation. With BRL 220 million in the quarter. Compared to the 4th quarter, we had an increase in net revenue by 26%. In the upper right chart, we have contracts with and without maintenance services. As you can see, we have consistent growth. EBITDA in rental reached for EBIT, I'm sorry, reached BRL 458 million, 102% year-on-year. Relevant in accordance to our CapEx deployment compared to 4Q 2022, growth of 18%. EBITDA reached BRL 564 million, 97% above the results of the 1st quarter last year, and 18% above 4Q 2022.
On the next slide, I'm going to talk about the growth of contracted CapEx in the quarter and why we are confident in the yield contracted this quarter to strengthen our profitability for future periods. We added up to BRL 1.7 billion in contracted CapEx in the quarter, an increase of 10% compared to the 1st Q 2022, or 72% above that of 1st Q, 4Q 2022. In the bottom part of the slide, just for you to compare periods better, we are having a breakdown of our yields. The yields of our contracts is increasing and positively contributing to our profitability. In the 1st quarter 2023, recurring contracts had an average yield of 3%, and farming contracts, an average yield of 2.1%.
Additionally, in the 1st quarter 2022, we had inter-logistic long-term contracts that really affected the yield of the 1st quarter 2022 as compared to the 1st quarter 2023. Except for this effect of the 1st quarter 2022, the average yield of the 1st quarter 2023, as you can see, had growth of 22 base points compared to the 1st quarter 2022. Our backlog reached BRL 5.7 billion at the quarter, an increase of 77% compared to the same period 2022. We are going to go to the next slide, where we show the evolution of our deployed CapEx. In the 1st quarter of the year, deployed CapEx has added up to BRL 1.3 billion approximately, with growth of approximately 56% compared to the 1st quarter last year.
If we consider that in the last twelve months we implemented BRL 5.3 billion, as shown in the chart, the volume tends to be with an upward trend for the future, we are optimistic about the opportunities that we see for the coming periods. As for our fleet, we closed the quarter with 45,055 assets, 52% above the size of the fleet we had in 1st Q 2022, and 2.8% above that of December 2022. The next slide shows our strategic position in the market with inventory of new assets. We closed the quarter with almost BRL 3 billion new assets in inventory, of which BRL 496 million are already rented or under deployment.
If we consider the market value estimated for this inventory, the appreciation is 48% above the acquisition price, reflecting directly in a better profitability of our contracts. Our new inventory is on demand for new contracts, and based on the CapEx contracted for the 1st quarter 2023, it accounts from 4.3 months of sales in new contracts. As we mentioned in previous quarter, this strategic position has brought important operational performance with faster and better services to our customers and really faster recognition of revenues on our base. Going to slide 13, I talk about asset sales for the 1st quarter 2023, reinforcing our review that the market is quite favorable. Net revenue reached BRL 221 million in used trucks and machinery, with consolidated gross margin of 19%.
However, I'd like to give you some highlights for you to better understand the operations. As we released to the market in the 1st quarter, part of revenues had to do with intercompany transactions with specific assets. If we analyze the gross margin and exclude that transaction, the margin of other sales in the detail was 31%. The volume of assets sold, we sold 1,128, 69% higher than asset sales at the same period 2022. Now, going to slide 15, I'm going to talk about our dealerships. In the 1st quarter, the net revenue had growth of 37% in the segment, reaching BRL 795 million, and 17% higher than the 4th quarter 2022. This better indicator shows good conditions in the market and also the good acquisitions we had in last years.
EBIT reached BRL 81 million in the quarter, up 19% year-on-year, and up 25% quarter-on-quarter. EBITDA reached BRL 87 million in the quarter, up 19% year-on-year, and 23% quarter-on-quarter. These results contribute for our optimism with opportunities that we have in the segment in the coming years, in line with what Gustavo mentioned in the beginning of the conference about the acquisitions in the months of April that will generate very important synergy gains for the company. Going to slide 17, I'm going to talk about our capital structure in the end of the 1st Q 23. Net debt amounted to BRL 7 billion, with a leverage of 3.2x net debt EBITDA ratio, reinforcing the discipline of our financial management, the raising of capital, and a strong balance sheet.
We closed the quarter with a solid cash position and investments and above BRL 2.7 billion. BRL 2.3 billion. That can cover our debt until mid-2025. We have a comfortable position analyzing leverage indicators to the right that enables us to continue our strategic plans to grow. Going to the next slide, I'm going to talk about Vamos debt profile. In the 1st quarter, as I mentioned in the previous slide, we closed with a solid cash position in investments. The average term of debt was close to six years. The average cost after tax of about 10.9% a year. We continue management to ensure the profitability of our projects.
In the close of the quarter, we had BRL 323 million in hedge of derivatives with an average cap of 8.99%, in addition to BRL 1.9 million of other operations with prefixed rates. We had the annual adjustment based on inflation triggers in most of our contracts, which contributes to reduce the increased interest rates, which is also mitigated by the appreciation of our assets. I'm going to turn back to Gustavo for his final remarks. Thanks, Adriano, for your presentation about our results.
I'm going to go then to the next slide, and I would like to invite you all to take a look at the 3rd edition of our integrated annual report, to be published in the coming days, where we reinforce the main commitments and actions of the year 2022 and also goals and visions in ESG for the coming years. I would like to close our presentation on the last slide, sharing important takeaway messages with you. We ended another quarter with strong operational growth in all our businesses, which also shows positive prospects for the coming quarters. We have a unique ecosystem with a resilient business model structured for profitable growth, even in adverse macroeconomic scenarios. Our strategic rental inventory is starting to be rented, which confirms another yet growth cycle with investments already made.
We are confident in our plans for 2023, with efficiency in the use of our resources. In the current market context, we have to have discipline and execution, and we are prepared for our growth plan. We have two strategic acquisitions for the company, GTV Veículos and the CL Tratores. With these transactions, Vamos is consolidated as the largest Volkswagen Truck & Bus dealership network, and also the largest Valtra and Fendt dealer in Latin America, reinforcing our position in both segments. We raised funds and had a structured operation in the quarter, reinforcing our cash position in view of market opportunities. With that, we are closing our presentation. We thank you once again for joining us, and I'm going to turn back to the operator so that we can start our Q&A session, and we are going to be here to answer your questions.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now start the Q&A session. To ask a question, please press star one. To remove your question from the list, press star two. The 1st question comes from Pedro Bruno from XP Investimentos.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have some questions I'm going to ask one at a time. The 1st is about the marginal yield that you reported in the consolidated number at 2.5%, which is something that is in line with the year. It would be expected for it to be higher because of higher interest rates and also because you are now using Euro V trucks in an Euro VI scenario.
You show in your release that if you were to remove the mix effect, you would have a 3% yield, I would like if this is comparable to the 2.9% of the 4th quarter, if it's a good sign? Also, if you can, please share this breakdown that you had of the 3% ex sugar ethanol and 2.1% for the segment. What was the number one year ago? Just for us to have a better idea of your development in each sector and understand the mix effect better. That's my 1st question.
Hi, Pedro. This is Gustavo Couto speaking. Thanks for your question. Thanks for asking. Pedro, the evolution you talked about, the comparison to compared to the 4th quarter 2022 and the 1st quarter this year is precisely what you talked about.
We are talking about 3% in the 1st quarter 2022, 2023, against 2.9% in 4Q 2029. It is quite straightforward. You do not have any non-recurring effects or any difference that would justify a distortion in your analysis. It is 3% against 2.9%. Once again, we are expanding the yield in heavy assets. Remember, all seasonal volume is focused on the 1st quarter 2023, as it was in the 1st quarter 2022. If you make the breakdown by sector, you're talking about 10% evolution in yield in the 1st quarter 2022 to the 1st quarter 2023. I'm going to make a joke, Pedro. You know that in 2022, we are kind of obliged to do some things for you to understand, and it is a strategic, confident information.
We are giving you colors of sectors that we should not give you the breakdown. We are giving you the breakdown just for you to understand the seasonality of quarters and to understand that the company indeed is evolving its yields in all segments, showing our power of pricing assets right.
Thank you very much for your transparency, thanks for the additional breakdown because that really helps us understand the mix effect.
A follow-up here, Gustavo, we see a very timid, so to speak, decrease of non-rented assets, which is one of the leverages for yields for the whole of the year. Could we say that this also has a seasonal effect because you have a high concentration on sugar ethanol, the segment is still not really using the non-rented assets or inventory assets?
As of next quarter, we should see an acceleration for this slide, giving a positive effect on the margin of yield and on leverage. Just to confirm if my understanding is correct. Yes. You're right. In the 1st quarter, we are strong in, as you know, in sugar ethanol sector, which has no relation with the strategic inventory that we built along 2022. Your interpretation is right. We expect to have a further acceleration of this deployment of assets as of now. I would like to use your question, Pedro, to explain something that is very important. Because of our inventory, what is happening from now on with this BRL 3 billion that is already in our inventory, part rented and part under deployment.
When this equipment is in operation, that is generating revenue and EBITDA, we are going to start to see transformation of results and very strong growth in the coming quarters based on investments already made. This is very important for us to understand. The growth for 2023 is already a given because the investment has been made. You should expect it an acceleration of an event to reduction in the coming months, and therefore an acceleration of growth that is already a given. This is something that we're very comfortable with, that given the market dynamic. Thank you very much. This is already in a defense of the wrap-up of results for the year and your expectations.
If you have any more comments about that, thinking of the result of the 1st quarter vis-à-vis the whole of the year, that would be great, but that was my question. I have a final question, and then I'll let others ask, which is the margining of used assets. In the 4th quarter, the margining went down from 30%-20%. You had the message that that was a one-off event because of some negotiations, and we should see the beginning of the year, the margin going close to 30%. In the release you even say that if you exclude related parts transaction, you get to 31%, if I'm not mistaken. I would like to understand the dynamics of margins with related parties.
Also, I believe that this is very similar to what we see in asset light sector, which is what we call wholesale sales. I would like to know your mindset there because you still sell relatively little in terms of trucks. Does it make sense to make wholesale sales with related parties or with the market? That's my last point. Pedro, I'm going to add to the ramp-up of growth. I'd like to, you know, do an exercise with you. Please, this is not guidance or indication. It's just, you know, a mathematical exercise that you can do based on the inventory of BRL 3 billion that we are reporting to you.
If you consider the current yields that we have today and you make a projection of this inventory being rented in the coming months only with investments made, CapEx already completed, that would be a projection in 12 months in a very conservative yield, an additional annual EBITDA of approximately BRL 800 million-BRL 900 million. That is already an indication that if we can rent at current levels and at the usual pace of the quarters, if we just carry on with what we are doing, we are going to have not only a very strong EBITDA generation with growth on our database that is huge, just with investments already made so far without having to spend any other penny there.
This is just an exercise for you to be clear to you, for you to see the opportunity of growth given investments already made and purchases already concluded. Going to your 3rd questions about used assets margins. Here I'd like to provide a clarification and perhaps an apology because perhaps it was not very clear. If you go to our financial statements, you're going to see the total operations with related parties. Historically we have always disclosed that and there is strong governance on that. These operations have to be approved by the independent members of the board of directors of companies. We have strong governance, again, approved by independent members of the boards of administration of both related companies.
It's also important to say that these are very immaterial operations which make sense within this entire ecosystem because we've always said that if I need 30 light vehicles for rental, I'm going to buy together with Movida. If JSL needs X trucks, it comes along with our purchase because Vamos consolidates the highest bargaining power with trucks and with that we leverage opportunities to the group but keeping the independence of each business. Related party transactions were BRL 125 million. You're going to see that in our financial statement. Very clear, all well detailed. If you do the math, you see that the related party operation happened at market margin for a large fleet owner, about 10%.
I always joke around and I say, "I would like to have a 10% margin in operation like that with a large fleet owner like the JSL Group, which is the largest road logistics company in the country." We believe it as a natural operation. What we did in terms of material fact is that as to the Brazilian CVM community, we have to disclose all operations above X million. We published the material fact of BRL 82 million because JSL as taxpayer had this volume of sales in the period. There were other smaller operations below BRL 50 million with other carriers, logistics operators under the JSL Group adding up to BRL 125 million that went through the government process.
We have 31% margin retail that is through our used asset stores and 10%, BRL 125 million to related parties that were approved by everyone and had the consent of our board of directors and the independent members of both Vamos and JSL respecting market conditions and just like an operation with any large fleet owners. In the case of JSL, 166 trucks which is again immaterial vis-à-vis the volume of investments that Vamos makes. Just to make the matter very clear and if you have any comment please go ahead. No, I already took lots of time. Thank you very much for all your answers. Really appreciated that. Our next question comes from Guilherme Mendes from J.P. Morgan. Hello, Couto, Adriano. I have two questions on my side, perhaps even a follow-up on Pedro's questions.
The 1st is the outlook of your yield. You talked a bit about evolution. You're talking about also purchases of Euro VI, how much you have accommodated already and are you going to have a higher yield to the 2nd half of the year assuming these high prices? Second, I think that the related parties transaction is very clear but just as a confirmation, you don't see any pressure on the used assets segment. The fact that you are selling wholesale does not mean there is a risk in retail, is it?
Thank you. Hi, Guilherme. This is Gustavo once again. I'm going to start with the 2nd, and then I'll go back to the 1st. No pressure with the volume of used assets. We are having record sales. You should come and visit our stores.
You're going to see that they are refurbished, excellent products, full of customers. We had record sales, and we are really growing in a very strong, sustainable manner in the sale of used assets. No pressure whatsoever. Much so that margins and prices continue to be very positive, confirming the trend that we have showed you a long time ago. No changes. Very positive outlook there. As for the yield outlook, what I'm going to do is the following. I'm going to invite you to do an exercise backwards because people ask questions about, "Well, when you are going to purchase Euro VI, what will happen to the yield?" Well, obviously we showed to you what's going on considering our strategic plans and the movements that we have in the purchase of equipment and we analyze that 100% of the time.
We have a team that is 100% of the time taking a look at the best moment and models to buy in trucks and equipment as a whole. We bought Euro VI-- I'm sorry, Euro V. That naturally bring us opportunities and we are working on that. This is a competitive advantage that only Vamos, quite modestly can do. That positions us in a very competitive position. Now, if you go back to the period where we did not have, you know, this transition to Euro VI that was that close, and you went back to our yield in 1920, you're going to see that our yields were already very healthy with a right parent tier that was quite suitable and even quite positive compared to the cost of debt, for example.
Yields and this is something that we see it as a tensor, a unique opportunity that is going to end. This is part of our history and we are very comfortable with that. Not only with Vamos in the last 3, 4 years, but if you think of JSL when we were a greater part of JSL, we already did that, of course at a lesser scale. Our discounts, commercial terms, competitiveness is independent of this one-off transition from Euro V to Euro VI. It happened in the past, it will happen in the future and it's just another move. In the pandemic there were other moves that ensured very good purchase conditions. In the future other things will come, lot of new opportunities.
We are going to buy Euro VI when we need them in line with OEMs and in favorable conditions to us. Before that, we don't have to. I have an inventory of Euro V. I'm happy. I'm going to rent it in the 1st half of the year and we are going to enjoy very positive yields and margins. For the future we are going to have the right strategic moves at the right time, at the right conditions for a suitable yield and profitability and that you're going to see that is going to continue quite healthy.
Very good. Very clear. Thank you very much, Couto.
Our next question comes from Victor Mizusaki from Bradesco BBI.
Good morning. Congratulations on your results. I have 2 questions, Couto. You talked about, I don't know, the renting of Euro V in the 1st half of the year. Could you talk a bit about your commercial department, amount of leads, if you are seeing an increase, decrease? Just a bit more color on that in on your commercial front. The 2nd question is going back to the related parties operation. The material fact says that you can go up to BRL 300 million a year. My question is there anything in the horizon that you know, have already closed on, intend to close soon? If the margin that you said that is equivalent to the margin of large fleet owners, does it make sense to compare to the dealership margins because you have more or less the same level? Does it make sense?
Hi, Victor. Okay, let's start with the 2nd question 1st again, related parties. I think that, you know, comparing to dealerships perhaps is not the best comparison. Of course, this will be done, but I would like to talk about governance and why? Because imagine you have two companies listed, controlled by another listed companies and we have to have very clear solid governance. That's how we manage the company. We have minority shareholders on each side that have interests in each one of the operations. We also have the independent members that have the fiduciary duty of taking a look at the operations and ensuring that they happen at market prices. We do that on a constant basis. If a JSL company is awarded a contract and I have the inventory and they have to deploy the equipment quickly, why not buy from us? Why should they go shopping in the market if we have the assets?
They are seen as a large customer that buys from us. Again, this operation is submitted to the independent members committee so that they can vouch that these operations followed market conditions for the seller and for the buyer. This is very important. I prefer not to compare to dealership margins because that depends on bargaining power. In our case it was JSL, and that happens. What we generally do, and that's why we have our stores in the country, is to sell retail. If a major customer comes to us and wants to buy wholesale, I'm not going to fail to sell. About the BRL 300 million, this was, you know, just to show that 1st is immaterial in Klabauter size of fleet. There is nothing going on, but it's natural.
It is inherent of the operations of a huge logistic operator. As they win contracts, they, you know, seek for assets in the market. We are one of the largest sellers. We are going to sell to them. That's as simple as that, Victor. This is really business as usual transaction. The visibility is because it was above the cap of the Brazilian CEC, and we have to disclose that to you. Obviously we are going to follow that. We said BRL 300. We don't have anything outside, it's natural that these kind of transactions happen. Nothing specific that will get close to this number. We just brought you more clarity, even saying that if it happens until the end of the year, it's normal. I'm sorry, Victor, I forgot your 1st question.
First question is with regards to demand on the 2nd half of the year and 2nd quarter. You talked about the Euro V inventory. What do you see demand like for the 2nd quarter?
The demand is high, Victor. We clearly see that we have a commercial team that is quite pungent, lots of operations going on in term. We have a unique opportunities for our customers. It's natural when we have uncertainty in the market that some negotiations are adjusted. That's natural because at the end of the day, our customers are paying higher interest rates. They also have their uncertainties. It happens, but it has not changed the scenario. Quite the opposite. If you compare to the same period last year, we had important growth also compared to the 1st quarter 22.
We had growth of 70% compared to 40 22. This is a quarter with sales that was better than the average of any other quarter last year. That shows that indeed the demand is growing strongly and there's still much room to grow. We are quite confident and comfortable with that. We truly believe that the investments made will bring good opportunities for us and our customers and fast.
T hank you very much. Our next question comes from Renata Cabral from Citi. Hello everyone. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I'd like to ask about your capital structure. What you see for the whole of the year. Leverage closed the quarter at 3.2x and you announced the abolition of BRL 250 million and also the sales operation of BRL 690 million. I would like to know with the new CapEx investments and as the year matures, how do you see your leverage level and capital structure? Thank you.
Hi, Renata. I'm going to let Adriano answer this question. Hello, good morning. Thanks for your question. It's good to talk to you. Just to add to the funding list that we had, we had almost BRL 1 billion in a bilateral line with a development bank. From now onwards we have another BRL 1 billion that is committed to be executed in this quarter and even up to BRL 2 billion with the development bank that we are under negotiation.
All that said, considering the use of our inventory and the ramp up of the growth of our revenue for a contract signed last year but that we have been deploying CapEx this year, we see leverage close to what we have today. Even with growth, as we are using the strategic inventory, our leverage should behavior in a very stable manner. Perhaps, 0.1 above or below one quarter another, but very much in line. Renata, this is Gustavo. Just to add, I have two exercises here. One, the 3.23. Going back to my point in which we have an inventory investments made, we can generate BRL 800 million or BRL 900 million in EBITDA.
If you consider that we have 5% of new contracts, you can remove that, but we can generate growth with what we have in EBITDA that is huge, and that will naturally reduce our leverage if, for instance, we decide not to continue growing. We want to continue growing because the market is thriving, and that's what we want. Remember, as we went to the 100,000 assets for 2025, which is our guidance. To get there with additional investments, we are going to keep leverage at the level that Adriano Ortega mentioned. We continue to have contracts with strong cash generation and leverage is not going down because we continue investing and we continue to see opportunities of growing with profitability.
When we see there is a change there, which is not the case, obvious leverage would go down just by the performance of contracts and the cash generation that we have in each contract. That's why we are very comfortable with our capital structure, and we want to reach the 100,000 assets for 2025. If you think at the close of the quarter, if you consider that BRL 1.5 billion of our inventory was a strategic negotiation, and you discount that from our current net debt, you're talking about 1.0% of EBITDA. You're talking about leverage that would be close to 2.5, taking the snapshot of the quarter. I think this is a very nice exercise.
Thank you, Renata. Great, everyone. Very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Gabriel Rezende from Itaú BBA.
Hi, Couto, Adriano. Good morning. Congratulations on your result. I have one question, which is the demand for Euro 6. We received some impacts from heavy OEMs that perhaps the price of Euro 6 was a bit too high, and now OEMs are making adjustments considering again sales and the production of trucks into consideration. We have even downtime that is programmed for the coming weeks. Do you have this perception that Euro 6 prices are going to go down? Can it bring an impact for your short-term yield of Euro 5?
We understand that the economics of rental are extremely appealing, but if you think you can have a short-term impact. On the other hand, the long-term CapEx would also go down because we would have a lesser inflation on Euro 6 when you have to buy. If you could give us a bit more color on the topic, I would appreciate it. Hi, Gabriel.
This is Gustavo Couto. Thanks for your question. Thanks for joining us today. Gabriel, I think it's early to talk about any lower prices for Euro VI. And to tell the truth, I don't think that we have the prices for Euro VI yet. Precisely because of that, let's do the exercise as is. Some inventory that OEMs or dealerships have started to be sold in the 1st quarter, and it wasn't much. We saw 1, 2 months' worth inventory, but inventory is almost coming to nil. Practically, we haven't sold Euro VI yet, or just very, very small volumes.
All license plates that were issued, and this is public data from, you know, all associations, were at the same, if not identical levels that we had last year in the 1st quarter. We were licensing Euro 5 inventory. Euro 5 license plates were being issued in the 1st quarter. We do not yet have a price consolidation. We don't have a sales price for Euro 6. I think OEMs are still adjusting that. It can go up by 3%, 4%, go down by 3%, 4% considering the price list, but that won't change or it won't raise or lower the bar. The thing is Euro 6 is going to be higher because there was a higher cost to build it. It's not a matter of demand because we don't have a strong demand for Euro 6 products.
OEMs at this point reduce production to have downtime, as you said, because they are not going to have those trucks in inventory. On the other side, they cannot reduce prices by 10% because their costs increased by 20%. Again, there can be adjustments, 2% up or down, but the new level of prices for Euro VI is a given because there was an increase of costs. Any changes tend to be marginal, in my opinion. I'm not an OEM, I cannot say that for sure. We understand the market and this is our true opinion. Okay?
Great, Couto. Just a follow-up. How can we think about accelerating purchases of Euro VI? Is it going to be more towards the end of the year?
Gabriel, given that we have an inventory, and I projected that for mid-year, this is what I can tell you now. With regards to new purchases, as I mentioned, we are constantly taking a look at that. We have constant conversation with OEMs to get to terms that are good for them and for us, because at the end of the day, we need them, they need us, and that's how we build a relationship. That's why we have long-term relationship with almost all OEMs in the country. I cannot give you a given now. It will happen when the time comes, and when the time comes, you will know. Today, I have no pressure to buy because as you mentioned, I have a well-sized inventory with high quality products that have an excellent turnover.
We are quite comfortable that we can take this decision to further on without any pressures on time. Thank you very much, Couto. Thanks for your answer.
Our next question comes from Alberto Valerio from UBS.
Good morning, Gustavo Couto, Adriano Ortega. I'm a bit concerned talking to clients about future demands. I understand that there are some non-recurring operations in your yield. If you compare to last year, if you get the 1st quarter last year, if I'm not mistaken, Gustavo Moscatelli also said that the yield was 3.1, excluding sugar ethanol contracts. I'd like to try and understand this better, where you see this non-recurrent of 10%, the 2.78, if you exclude the intercompany operation. I haven't considered the intercompany.
If I had just considering the farming, would have 58% of farming with contracts. How much was there of farming last year? That's the 1st question. The 2nd question is that if you had any other true sale of receivables, what is the recurrent number? How much should we expect in terms of swap or fixed interest and the hedge of interest rates for the future? What kind of impact you're going to have in your financial expenses?
Thank you very much. Hi, Alberto. Thanks for your questions. I'm going to answer the 1st with regards to yield, and then I'm going to ask Ortega to answer your 2nd question with regards to debt. Okay.
First point, Alberto. I think, as I mentioned, that we had approximately 10% gain in the 1st quarter 2022. Vis-à-vis 1st quarter 2023. In heavy segments and farmer segments, you already have a ballpark of the number for the 1st quarter. I'm sorry, the real evolution of the number. When you talk about the 3.1, that includes another sector that was very strong in the 1st quarter last year, which is a huge contract that involves maintenance services, intralogistics, and that has a yield. Because it is 100% services, maintenance, dedicated teams, technical teams, it has a much higher yield. That leads us to theoretical 3.1%. I'm telling you that assets, heavy assets yield had an evolution of 10%. The strong message is that I'm already providing information that is extremely strategic about the environment, especially because we are talking about competition joining the market. Am I already giving you too much information? I'm being very transparent.
I always say that quite honestly, if it were for me, I wouldn't break down the 3%, the 2.1%. I did that, upon respect of all shareholders and investors that believe us. I cannot be held hostage of the information that is important, market information that, you know, has to do with our market performance. I think we already have given you loads of information on this number. The yield of heavy assets is quite comparable. I had 2.9% in 2022, and 3% in the 1st quarter of this year. If I go back one year ago, it was 10% below of the 3% I'm saying today, and the same for every business. The rest is mix, I'm not going to break down my mix for strategic conditions. They involve information that I don't want to disclose to the competition. I'm going to turn to Adriano for the 2nd question.
Hi, Alberto. You asked about the operation, the transaction. We have another trench, we always are assessing the cost of operations, the cost of the market, for us to make the right decisions. As for the balance that we have in terms of options to be used in the next quarter, we have a concentration in July 2023, January 2024, together about BRL 12 billion that will show as revenue if the market continues with the same conditions.
Thank you very much, Couto to Adriano for your clarifications. Our next question comes from Rogério Araújo from Bank of America.
Hello, Couto, Adriano, thanks for taking my questions. I have 2 questions. The 1st I would like to understand the piece of strategies that were recognized just in rental. If positive, we see an increase of 12.1% in gross revenue of rental against an average of 8.3% the last two years. I'd like to understand the level that we should expect for the coming quarters, and if there is anything non-recurring in this recognition. Also, I'd like to hear a bit from you on inventory. After you can rent all Euro V inventory, what should we expect? I honestly thought that the company was not going to work with on-demand products, but perhaps I misunderstood, and you are going to have not only deployment inventory, but also additional inventory in a recurring manner from now on. I'd like to understand your strategy and what should we expect in terms of recurring inventory levels after you end with your Euro V inventory.
Hi, Rogério. Let me try again to start with the 2nd question. We naturally want to work with the availability of assets to our customers because we believe that this is a competitive edge. So much so that we got to a scale that is quite different from any other fleet owner in the country, 8, 10 times bigger. That enables us to make movements to advance things with very low risk of this investment backfire, so to speak, in our inventory. Why is that?
I have a diversity of sectors, of fleets, capillarity throughout Brazil, I can advance renewals, I can sell, I can make several moves with the scaling capillarity that I have, and I might have inventory on demand. What you saw, I said that throughout 2022, is that we would increase our inventory levels because of the transition Euro V, Euro VI. We raised our inventory levels. I said that I was going to do that until mid this year, we would go back to normal. I think what normal is going to be, 2 months inventory, 3 months inventory. That can vary, because if there is a good opportunity in terms of purchasing, if it pays off, the carrying costs of this inventory, given the cost of money and interest rates, I may increase it or not.
Again, let's think of a complete normal situation, which is what we saw, in our history before. Two, three months, I think it is okay. We have, you know, the period of time to pay for the OEMs. We don't need working capital to keep this inventory. I also guarantee delivery conditions that are a differentiation in the market. We quite commonly can win bids because we have assets on demand. It is quite frequent, and we are going to continue doing that, but not with the levels of the end of the year, because that levels are going to go down naturally. Everybody saw the value of this movement, because these were purchases that made sense. The move, really, gave us the conditions of working with a very, very good, number of contracts.
Follow up, the 2, 3 months. Does it include, contracts under deployment or new contracts including deployment? Including deployment. I don't think that we have, you know, to be fixed. If there is an opportunity and that eventually justifies with the carrying costs, we can do that every now and then. Right now, I do not see any reason for that. Quite the opposite. Now it's a natural effort of really putting this inventory to work, and I'm carrying the inventory now in my balance sheet. When it is already in operation, we are going to have a fantastic generation of value and that creation of value, and that will happen in the coming months.
I have to say, because I know I was talking to Adriano right now, that we did not see any variation in the PIS/Cofins model for you to change your model. Let's talk after the call to try and see where you saw the variation, and then we try to work together and answer your questions. If other people have the same questions, we are going to provide the answers from IR. We have not identified any variation with PIS/Cofins credit or tax brackets that will require any specific clarification. Okay? After the call we can talk and we will see where you identified the variation. Okay? Great. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Jose Eduardo from Suno. Hi, everyone. How are you? Congratulations on your results. I have two quick questions.
The 1st is about the receivables operation you had in the quarter. What was the rate it used? Should we see another advance for the coming quarters? The 2nd question is about recent acquisitions and dealers. How long does it take you to integrate the acquired companies to your own dealerships? Thank you. Hi, Jose Eduardo. This is Adriano Ortega. I'm going to start with the receivables. I cannot disclose the cost of the operation, but what I can say is that it was a very competitive price, especially when we compare to the last operation and the market credit dynamics today. As I mentioned before, this is a source of funding that the company will always consider when making a decision whether to access the capital markets or this kind of transaction.
This is on the table for us to assess whenever we believe that we have a need to raise funding. This is Gustavo. With regards to your 2nd question, 1st of all, we're very happy with these acquisitions. Of course, we have to wait for the Brazilian Antitrust Agency to give the approval. These were very important moves that took place in April. As soon as we have the approvals, we believe we won't have problems, we have to wait. We are going to integrate the operations. I'd just like to highlight that they are going to keep part of their independence because these are dealerships that work with brands that we work with.
We have, you know, some kind of comfort of working together with them, but keeping the autonomy at the front end, the independence of these companies, but naturally supporting and helping them to grow and to achieve their full potential. Both GNT and GHL, in our point of view, have huge opportunities to grow and develop in their own regions with their teams that are extremely competent. They are reference within the brands, Volkswagen Trucks. They are reference as dealers of excellence. We are very happy with the acquisitions. The integration is fast. It's important to say that the operations will continue autonomous and independent. This is one of our main pillars to whenever we have an M&A movement, and that we will carry on.
What we are going to offer to these two companies is synergy by selling, exchanging, renting and our ecosystem so that they can further improve efficiency and therefore bring important increases in their results that can be consolidated within months. We are very happy. It is something fast, it is simple, and it's just going to be like what we did with HM, [guess] , Morado, Truckvan, BND, and others. You saw that it was a very seamless process that we've repeate [over and over again in the market. I hope I have answered your question. Is that... Yes. Thank you very much. Either if you have a question, just press star one. To remove your question from the list, please press star two. Please wait while we collect more questions. No further questions. I'd like to turn the call to Gustavo Couto for his final remarks.
Please, Mr. Couto, you may go on. Well, everyone, I think we had yet another quarter that reinforces our capacity of growing with resilience, with synergies in our ecosystem. Once again, we're able to show strong operating and financial indicators and evolution. More than 80% growth in EBIT. EBITDA, net income with growth of 39% because of some interest rate effect that hurts that income a bit, but showing our capacity to grow in a business model that proves to be right in each quarter, regardless of the macroeconomic scenario, quite adapted to different moments of the economy. I would like, in my final considerations, to do two exercises. First, showing the capacity to generate cash in our inventory when we have started deploying investments made in the next quarters. What it means in terms of giving growth to the company.
That naturally decreases our leverage if we are discretionary in terms of growth, also gives us a strong pace of growth with a growth of scale. The 2nd thing I would like to mention, which is very important, I thought that you're going to ask about that, is the appreciation of our assets, deployed assets. The 31%, 32%, 34% of sales in retail show how much our current fixed asset base, that is about BRL 2 billion, is appreciating. The amount of value that this will generate in the coming five years. We're talking about almost BRL 4 billion in the appreciation of our assets. This was not projected in the past. Naturally you are going to see that contributing positively to our results in the coming years.
This is very important for us to understand the resilience and the strength of a five-year cycle to our business. With that, we can add opportunities to really contribute positively to our results. Third and last point, the acquisition of new dealers. We are very excited. Among the used stores and dealers, we have 74 stores. Fantastic capillarity, completely different than when I started in the beginning of 2019. We had a bit more than 20 stores, lot more than 30 stores. That shows our capacity, the synergies in the business that is just starting. We are happy with what we accomplished so far, but much more excited of what is yet to come. Thanks for your trust, for following our journey. We are very happy and all I can do is thank you. Thank you very much and all the best.
The conference call is now closed. We thank you very much for joining us and wish you a good afternoon.