Good morning, and welcome to Grupo Vamos conference call to discuss the earnings regarding the Q3 2023. Today with us, we have Gustavo Couto, the CEO, and Adriano Ortega, Vamos CFO and investor relations officer. Right now, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later on, we are going to start to 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 the beliefs and assumptions of Vamos management and 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 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 materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements. Now, we are going to turn the call to Mr. Gustavo Couto. Please, Mr. Couto, you may go on.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for being with us in the conference call for our Q3 2023 results. During this period, our diversification and complementarity in the business model has demonstrated important resilience, with strong emphasis on the rental and sale of assets, of, used assets. Going to slide four, we show our consolidated results.
Consolidated net revenue grew by 7.5% in the quarter to almost BRL 1.5 billion, driven by a 61% increase in rental revenue compared to the Q3 2022. Consolidated EBITDA grew by 23% in the Q3, reaching BRL 683 million. Net income amounted to a hundred and fifteen point eight billion, up 9% over the Q2 this year. Compared to the Q3 2009, there was a decrease of almost 22% due to two factors we'll detail about: higher financial expenses and a significant but a typical decrease in the performance of dealerships. As you can see, the rental business continues to grow with consistent results.
Our return on asset capital hits 18.7%, an increase of almost three percentage points compared to the Q3 2022, and a new reach of the ROIC spreads to 84 percentage points. This is a result of continued growth in rental, which boosts the company a bit, combined to the trend towards reducing working capital inventory and the fall in interest rates. These improve really our prospects for ROIC spread. At the beginning of September, Vamos shares became part of the Ibovespa index for the current portfolio. The index brings together the most tradable and representative companies on the Brazilian capital market, and is the main indicator of the performance of shares traded on B3. In rental, we had another quarter of gross net revenue grew by 61% to almost BRL 838 million.
There was an even greater growth of 83% year-to-date, totaling BRL 2.4 billion in the first nine months of the year. EBITDA for the quarter amounted to BRL 674 million, also up 61% and a margin of 90%. In the year-to-date, rental EBITDA grew almost by 77% to almost BRL 1.9 billion. Later on, we'll talk in detail about the performance of the used asset sales, but I would like to highlight the evolution in the sale of assets with a growth margin of 32.5% in the quarter, expansion of 2.3 percentage points compared to Q3 2022, more than 70% growth in net revenue. I thank our team that has performed excellent job to improve our commercial reach in the sector.
Our backlog contracted future revenue increased by 33.6% of the quarter compared to the same period last year, to a total of BRL 16.8 billion as of September 2023, mainly reflecting the growth of deployment over the period. Our deployed CapEx amounted to BRL 1.2 billion in the quarter, with altogether BRL 3.6 billion year to date. This is a 6% increase over the same period last year, a year with record growth. To complete my main comments in the rental segment, I'd like to point out that we've reached 40,000 allocated fleet assets. In fact, since the beginning of November, I can say that we've passed that mark. 88% by the end of September, Vamos total fleet had already been rented.
That confirms our rental stream commitment to our customers, operational excellence, determination for sustainable growth, and focus on return on invested capital. As for the results of dealerships, the industry has shown lower sales volumes for trucks in 2023 compared to a good year of 2022. That explains, to a lesser extent, the drop in trading volumes. However, especially in agribusiness, the environment has been more restrictive this year and in the start of the Q3. Despite the upturn in sales of agricultural machinery in September, margins were still squeezed due to high inventories throughout the chain. In this context, we recorded BRL 586 million in net revenue out of, at our dealerships, a bit of margin of 0.1%. Also, in the quarter, we completed the acquisition of DHM, as announced in August.
With the acquisition, Vamos consolidates as the larges t Valtra dealership network in Brazil. On the next slide, we highlight the quarterly evolution of our consolidated results. I've already talked about the highlights of the Q3, and Adriano, who will give more granularity for the business. So I will summarize my comments in the year-to-date comparison. With three quarters of the year passed, we grew 31.5% of the company's net revenue, more than doubled the sale of assets, and net revenue from services grew by 20.6% in the first nine months of the year. In the EBITDA, we grew by almost 47% in the nine-month comparison, surpassing BRL 2 billion. Gross profit, EBIT, an important indicator of the company's operating results, grew by almost 40% in the same comparison.
I think that few companies or industries have had the opportunity to achieve sustainable growth for so many years. In net income, although down 5% over last year, as I said, we have a greater impact from financial expenses and an atypical volatility at dealerships. I am positive that our outlook is positive for 2024. Now, I'm going to turn to Adriano, who will comment on our quarterly performance in detail, and at the end of the conference call, I'll be back for the key messages and your questions.
Thanks, Gustavo. Good morning to all of you who are with us in our earnings conference. I'm going to give you more granularity about our performance in the Q3 of 2023. On slide six, we have ROIC and EBIT since 2019, showing the evolution of profitability in the quarter.
Looking at the last 12 months, our ROIC totaled 18.7%, an expansion of 300 points against the Q3 2022, reinforcing a new level of return in our sector of operation. In the chart, we show a comparison with the cost of debt after tax, and as we can see, we have a spread between ROIC and cost of debt of 840 points in the quarter, also benefiting from the start in the fall of interest rates. The bottom chart also shows an important evolution of EBITDA in recent years. We have a sevenfold increase compared to 2019. That demonstrates the consistency of our results and resilience of our business with positive long-term prospects.
I'd like to stress that with consistent operational growth and optimization of the working capital employed, combined with the falling interest rates, our ROIC tends to reach even higher levels. Turning to slide eight for rental and going into more detail for the segment, we saw a strong growth in all indicators, highlight 77% in the year-to-date EBITDA. Net revenue grew by 61% to BRL 837 billion in the quarter. Net revenue from services reached BRL 695 million in the quarter, almost 60% up compared to the same period last year. When we compare year-to-date 2023 to 2022, we have seen an 83% increase in net revenue. In the top graph on the right, EBITDA in rental reached BRL 675 million in the quarter, 61% higher than the Q3 2022, and a margin of 90.6%.
At the bottom left, we show the evolution of our revenue split between contracts with and without maintenance. As we can see, we have shown very consistent growth. Rental EBIT reached BRL 543 million in the quarter, an increase of almost 60% compared to the same quarter, 2022. Year to date, in the first nine months, the integrator grew by 76%. Next slide, at the top, we show the evolution of CapEx deployed this year, approximately 36 billion, 6% over that deployed last year. Compared to the previous quarter, we had a 15% increase in volumes deployed, demonstrating consistent pace. In the chart below, we show the evolution of the net fixed assets rented. It started from BRL 8 billion fixed asset in December 2022, considered deployment volumes, term of contracts, early returns, accumulated depreciation, and other effects.
Then we reached net assets rented in September this year of BRL 10.6 billion. It's important to note that out of BRL 190 million of early returns this quarter, the largest portion occurred in July, reflecting the dynamics of more restricted credit and commodity prices that cruel to mention. It's important to add that any assets that were returned early were included in the receivables at signing of contract. Both can replace the contracts or prepay future flows with no effect on the financial results. Moving on, we have the evolution of our rented fleet versus total fleet. In September, we reached 40,000 rented assets, reinforcing our commitment to execution. As of December 2022, we had little variation in total fleet due to the early purchase of Euro V assets, but the expansion of our rented fleet is very clear, illustrating the company's continued growth.
In the chart, we show the evolution of the allocated fleet in percentage, reaching 88% or 92% if we consider CapEx to be deployed, an important evolution since December 2022. Moving to the next slide, we show the contracted CapEx year to date, totaling more than BRL 4.3 billion, demonstrating a consistent pace into generation of new contracts and contributing to the company's gaining scale. The average yield of new contracts in the quarter was 2.61% versus 2.67% in the Q3 of 2022, preserving the high returns of our contracts, considering the mixed effect of maintenance contracts, which in the contract comparison period represented 19% compared to 12% of the quarter, and the following future interest curves over the period.
Giving more visibility to the metric we use to approve projects, the spread of our new contracts was 11 points compared to the cost of debt at the end of the Q3 of 2023. This is a reflection of our pricing power through Vamos ecosystem, efficient in fleet purchases, management, and sales. It's important to remember that in pricing projects, we use conservative assumptions regarding asset depreciation. Considering the scenario of a falling yield curve and appreciation of assets currently rented in inventory, we believe that will reflect an additional return over the course of contracts. Our revenue backlog totaled BRL 16.8 billion in the quarter. In September 2023, a growth of almost 34% year-on-year and 4% over the previous quarter. We achieved quarterly revenue of BRL 776 million and added BRL 1.7 billion backlogs through new contracts.
As I mentioned earlier, the amount of return in this quarter was BRL 190 million, 22% down from the BRL 241 million in the Q2. The retired CapEx represents a reduction of BRL 339 million in the backlog. Of the assets that were returned during the year, 24% have already been rented or sold in line with the market dynamics. In the table at the bottom right, we show again a statement of gross assets that generate revenue. Going to slide 13, I'm going to comment a little about the performance of used car sales. Net revenues amounted to BRL 142 million in used trucks and machinery, a growth of 70% with consolidated gross margin of 32.5%.
In addition to the 14 used vehicle stores, there are more than 20 dealerships with digitized and integrated inventories and strong potential for sales, expanding our sales reach in a market with a shortage of good assets. Volume of assets sold in the Q3 this year was 816 versus 494 in the same period 2022, a growth of 62%. We reached BRL 307 million at the end of period. Our trucks and machinery have a book value of BRL 12 billion. Taking into account the 30% margin on the sale of assets, we have an appreciation of BRL 3.7 billion, with a total value of BRL 16 billion, reinforcing the potential for appreciation in the value of our fixed assets. Slide 15, the results of dealerships, especially in agri business.
Their environment was very restrictive at the start of the quarter. You can see in the chart with the monthly evolution, July was typically weak. The red bars refer to 2023, gray bars to 2022. The fall in commodity prices and high interest rates continued to keep buyers away from investments in machinery until the end of August. In September, sales picked up again. Farmers are already aware of the cost for 2024 crop and have started buying machinery once again, as you can see in the September numbers. Inventories across the industry rose, and this temporarily hurt the margin for the quarter. It's possible to imagine that the tighter margins will continue in the Q4. We've continued to pay attention to volatility in commodity prices and weather conditions, such as El Niño, which possible impacts on our business.
We believe that higher sales volumes and squeezed margins will continue in Q4 2023, with a possible recovery along 2024. October sales will contribute to the reduction of our inventory and focus on reducing working capital at dealerships. On slide 17, on our capital structure. At the end of the Q3 of 2023, Vamos net debt total BRL 8.7 billion, leverage of 3.28x net debt EBITDA, showing a downward trend. We continue the sale of dealerships inventory and implementation of assets available for rental, which have been paid up, will contribute to lower working capital, reinforcing discipline of financial management.
We believe we have the opportunity to reduce working capital by more than BRL 1 billion by the Q1 of 2024. On the next slide, we ended the quarter with a solid cash position, enough to cover debt until mid-2025, amounting to BRL 1.7 billion. When we consider the available credit lines of BRL 1.3 billion, we have a total of BRL 3 billion. Average maturity of net debt is more than 5 years, with average cost after tax of 10.3%. The interest rate downtrend gives us a positive outlook for the dynamics of the average cost of debt, opening for opportunities to improve our profitability.
In relation to hedge, at the end of the quarter, we had BRL 99 million hedge of derivatives against interest rates, with an average rate of 11.5%-45%, in addition to BRL 1.8 billion of other fixed operations. Now, I'm going to turn back to Gustavo for his final remarks, and I'll come back in the Q&A session. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Adriano, for your presentation. Going to the final slide, I'd like to reinforce a few takeaway messages. We ended the quarter with a deployment volume 15% higher than the last quarter. Year to date, BRL 3.6 billion reais deployed, indicating consistent transformation in the scale of our rental business. Our rented fleet accounts for 88% of our total fleet, equivalent to 40,000 rented assets.
Growth in rental EBITDA of 75% compared to the year-to-date period, and 70% growth in net revenue for used vehicle sales, a margin of 32%. The performance proves the value transformation of our asset base, a strong demand, and our capacity to sell in our points of sale. Despite the typically weaker result at agriculture dealerships this quarter, we already saw some improvement in sales volume in September. However, margins are still under pressure due to very high inventories in the industry, which may continue in the Q4 this year. That will go back to normal as of 2024. We are reducing our leverage, and this is the trend for the coming months, with greater optimization of capital employed, reduction in inventory, and consistency in renting more trucks and machines.
As Adriano mentioned, we see a favorable broad spread dynamic with the falling interest rates, which transformed the company in recent years, achieved leadership and unique scale in the sector. For successive months, we have been growing by BRL 400 million-BRL 500 million in assets deployed. Every month, we moved up to a level generating value for shareholders and society. The company has the opportunity to continue growing consistently and sustainably through efficient management of capital structure. With that, I close our presentation by thanking our people, families, customers, investors, and suppliers who trust our leadership and leading role in the sustainable development of the truck, machinery, and equipment rental sector in Brazil. We are happy with what we have done so far, but much happier with what we can do in the future. Now, we are going to open for your questions. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now start the Q&A session. To ask a question, please press star one. To remove your question from the list, press star two. Our first question comes from Victor Mizusaki from Bradesco BBI. Please, Mr. Mizusaki.
Good morning. I have two questions. The first, you already mentioned, sales in dealerships in the Q3, and you broke down by month. As we are in on November first, can you give us a bit of color on October? And second is about suppliers. If I can, you could give us a bit more detail in terms of payments coming for the coming quarters and how we should take a look at the slide. Thank you very much.
Hi, Victor. Thanks for your questions. This is Gustavo Couto.
Okay, we closed the month of October yesterday, so we are naturally still closing results, but the volume was in line with what we expected, stronger than the average of the year. We still have some questions about the agricultural sector, particularly with the planting process. It was a bit delayed, but the volumes of October were closer to volumes in September. We're still closing final numbers, but we already saw the months very close to what we recorded in September. Of course, we still have to close numbers, right? Because it is 11:00 A.M. of day one of November, but it is basically as expected. As for suppliers, I'm going to turn to Adriano to answer the question.
Hi, Victor.
With a drop inventory and close to what we believe normal, which is two-three months, that is about BRL 1 billion in inventory. And, with the carrying costs, with the terms we have with OEMs, our supplier lines go back to its importance and reaching in the coming months too close to this BRL 1 billion that we are going to be carrying in inventory.
And just to add to what Adriano mentioned, Gustavo Couto here. When we stop and take a look at rental inventory, most of it has been paid off already. So we eventually have, you know, purchases of the quarter that may have some maturity, but with a much lower representativeness. As for dealerships inventory, we have a very little maturity with suspended purchases.
So that all means that to we will certainly reduce working capital about what we have in inventory today in rental and dealerships, and a reduction of working capital in dealerships because we don't have short-term commitments with suspended purchases. So sales in the Q4 will decrease inventory and reduce working capital. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Lucas Marquiori, from BTG Pactual.
Hello, everyone. Good morning. I have two questions as well. One on CapEx, and the two about returns. About, your capital expenditures. You were more or less flat year-over-year. I'd like to understand if the 4.3 of contracted CapEx, so that includes the CapEx related to the contract with Petrópolis? Or if you can give, some signs about CapEx to be expected for Q4 and 2024.
It would be nice to have more color on that. The second question, returns. I'd like to understand if you were expecting the level of returns to go down in Q3, Q4, and the following quarters, and if you could give us some color about what we could consider a normal level. We understand the deterioration of credit, the scenario as a whole, but how long do you think we should take to go back to normal? So these are the two points. Thank you.
Hi, Lucas. This is Gustavo Couto. Once again, thanks for your two questions, and always thank you for following our company from close. 4.3 of contracted CapEx against the 3.6 deployed, the same pace of last year. The month of October was also strong.
I can already tell you that October was very strong in terms of new contracts and deployment, so this is also a positive outlook for the quarter with regards to closing the year at, in line with last year. Just as a reminder, Lucas, last year, we had BRL 4.8 billion deployed CapEx, which is CapEx that generates revenues. That starts to generate revenues because we already have a signed contract. We are at the same pace to last year. Last year, as a reminder, was one of the best years for the consumer goods business, the best in history, and we did BRL 4.8 billion.
We are replicating the same BRL 4.8 billion that is keeping the pace. If, you know, September's numbers follow, I'm not giving you any expectation, but the idea is to deliver the same volume of the best year of the industry ever, with the sale of trucks through dealerships and OEMs. Dropped almost 20% in almost all lines, and the agricultural area showing similar behavior. So what I mean is that we are growing in rental, which is an alternative for customers to renovate their fleet. So we are replicating the best year ever in the industry of capital goods. So we believe Q4 is going to be along the same lines, but we still have to work a lot in November and December for a lot to happen.
In 2024, and again, I'm not giving you any guidance, but thinking that we are going to keep the pace of 2022, 2023, really transforms the company for the future, and also makes us bring leverage to 3x net debt to EBITDA ratio. Which is the level we are saying it is a recurrent level for the company, for us to manage the company from now on. 4.3 does not include the negotiations for the 2024 crops in agribusiness or the Petrópolis business, because the closing has not yet taken place. We are moving on. You know that this is a public process. We have already developed some stages. In the coming weeks, this is a business to be completed. It is ongoing, but it has not been signed yet, so it is not included in the 4.3 Returns.
Well, if you take a look at our chart number nine, you will see the following: the BRL 470 million from March to July is the period with greater concentration. In March, we indeed had a higher volume of returns. That was true along the Q2 and also affected July. So of the BRL 545 million in the nine months, BRL 430 million are in this period. And then you see August, September, you go down to BRL 40 million. So the number is already going down. So it's not that we expect it to drop. It has dropped already. I think the worst has been through. But naturally, because of the size of the company, we may always expect renegotiations.
I don't think it's going to be anything substantial, but BRL 30 million-BRL 40 million is something that we should always, you know, consider in our exercises. It doesn't mean that we are going to have it, but at the same time, we say there is a prospect of growth, for the company, there is also a prospect of negotiations, and renegotiation with our customers. So it's very good for us to put in future exercises some level of returns, but much lower than what we had in previous months, and much more similar to August, September. I hope I have answered your questions.
Yes, Couto, just the BRL 30 million-BRL 40 million would be by quarter or by month? I don't know if I understood it correctly.
By months.
When I mentioned August and September, we had an average of 40 million. This is on page nine. So about, I don't know, BRL 100 million per quarter.
Okay, Couto. Very clear now. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Guilherme Mendes, from JP Morgan.
Hello, Couto, Adriano, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Two on my side as well. First, about the purchase of Euro VI. It is not a very high volume, but I would like to know a bit about terms, and what is the price point that you think that you finally have as compared to Euro V? And the second question, thinking of new contracts on Euro VI, what is your target to thinking of right spread? You see, right spread is still kept at lower rates.
So what is doable, thinking of the use of Euro VI, the drop interest rates? Well, the set of variables that you have for 2024. Thank you.
Guilherme, this is Gustavo again. Thanks for your questions. Okay, purchases of Euro VI. As you saw, we are already close to normal in terms of inventory and assets available for rental, BRL 1.6 billion, a further decrease with the deployments of October. So inventory is going back to the normal levels we have announced to you. Euro VI negotiations are still ongoing. We do not have any pressure to buy because, you know, OEMs have an inventory, so there is no reason for us to have another early purchase as we did when there was the appreciation of trucks. Quite the opposite.
We believe that now there's no need to be in a hurry, but negotiations are going on. Retail prices are about the level I mentioned to you, at around 10, some OEMs with 15% over Euro V prices the end of last year. But I'm talking about retail prices, not our prices. Our prices, I'd like to remind you that we continue to be the largest buyer in the country with huge advantage. So we continue to have very favorable purchasing conditions. So much so that in the volumes that we bought for Euro VI, that will arrive by November and December, for items that we no longer had in inventory, we got even positive terms compared to historical prices of two-three years ago.
So we had very good discounts compared to retail prices, which ensures a very good outlook for the, let me call, first Euro VI trucks that are already being negotiated and contracted. As for the broad spread dynamics, you know what I always say is the following: We had average ITR of 28%, 21%, I'm sorry. We had 22 before, and that just show a slight decrease based to drop in interest rates. But we kept 11% of the ROIC spread compared to the marginal cost of debt. So I see no reason for us to see a decreasing trend in ROIC spread. In a very conservative scenario, 7%-8% of ROIC spread per contracts with large fleet owners would be reasonable.
But on average, I think we are going to expect longevity as we have today. But of course, this is to be monitored a long time, but I'm very confident that pricing, ITR, and ROY spread dynamics are not going to change with Euro VI compared to what we have seen so far.
Very clear, Couto. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Daniel Gasparete from Itaú BBA.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the call. First, would like to compliment you for, you know, the disclosure and the breakdown of numbers that help us a lot. The second is the trend in dealership margins. You talk about the year of 2024, but I would like you to know what that normal would be. Are we going to go back to historical levels, or are you going to lower levels?
Second, about depreciation, how you see depreciation and acceleration, any changes from Euro V or Euro VI trucks?
That's it. Okay, Gasparete. This is Gustavo Couto. Thanks for your questions. Dealerships. We see the following: this is an atypical year. Again, we see year to date a EBITDA margin of 6%. The Q3 had a very negative effect. We wanted to show you the month of July and how much impacted our sales volume. So that already explains why Q3 margins were atypically so low. When we look at the Q4, that is already slightly better. But not at the level that we would like or that we believe is normal, so to speak. That is going to happen naturally along the Q4.
What we are preparing for dealerships is the following: a huge effort on decreasing working capital because you have OEMs delivering equipment, trucks, farming machinery, within a pipeline of planning and production. Because the demand was frustrated, the demand was received. We made negotiations, suspended new machinery, elongated the payment terms, for us to reduce working capital, to have a business with low allocated capital and low cost. We are going to address dealership costs because margin is not only sales volumes, it's also costs. We already showed the capacity to reduce costs in dealerships during the pandemic, for example, in which we had a complete halt to demand and then a pickup. And then we had a huge effort of halting and reducing costs, which is naturally being done as of now, given the current scenario.
This will improve the margin along the Q4. For 2024, then there are two things, to consider: interest rates that will continue to go down, which will favor the capital goods industry. All those that delayed their purchases, you know, we had a repression. Euro V, the prices were too high for Euro VI, interest rates were up. Now, things are more back to normal, so those that did not buy, will buy. There is no way, you know, even historically speaking, whenever that you have a change in levels, that's what happened. The same applies for agribusiness. Agribusiness may have a seasonal delay, but when you think forward, agribusiness will continue to buy machinery because the sector is expanding.
2024, despite the weather condition, which is still something for us to monitor, show that the margins for the 2024 crop is a given. We already have prices for fertilizers and pesticides, soybean prices, differently from other years where they speculated and the price fluctuated more. Now, they know that soybeans prices are a bit pressured, cost is low, and the margin. So they will continue to expand areas and buy machinery. So for 2024, we expect a EBITDA margin 8%-9% for next year. That is picking up, not the level of 2022, that was the best in history, but better than 2023, to better return levels, better working capital, more suitable to what we saw in previous years. So again, 2023, very atypical, and the trend is going back to normal along the year of 2024. Depreciation.
We do not have an acceleration in depreciation. What we see is that, there is an appreciation of our asset base. Our asset base today is at BRL 16 billion, considering the past appreciation. I'm talking about fixed asset plus market values. So we are talking about BRL 16 billion in market value for our asset base. And based on this base, 16 billion, we are going to continue working with a lower depreciation than we have today, and even possibility of going lower. I do not see it increasing. Now, for new contracts, I always say we are always starting at a conservative, stance, as Adriano mentioned. So trucks, we work with 7-8%. Then as we monitor the evolution of prices along contract, we can change the depreciation base. And in a five-year contract, depreciation can even go down.
I don't think it will go up, but it may go up, down. Anyhow, that's the way we work. So I do not see a change that is substantial for our current depreciation rates, particularly considering those new contracts and the BRL 16 billion of market value of our fixed assets. Okay?
Thank you very much, Couto, for your answer.
Our next question comes from Rogério Araujo, from Bank of America.
Hello, good morning, Couto, Adriano. Thanks for taking my question. Two questions. First, if you can help us think here about this credit situation and that is leading to the asset pickup base go up. We see a similar CapEx level in a worse truck market. Were there significant changes in the company's credit analysis policy? And second, we see a marginal deterioration of late payments in the last two quarters.
So could you please give us a bit of color in terms of how much the credit market deteriorated, your credit analysis, and the pace of growth?
This is the first question. Hi, Rogerio, this is Gustavo Couto. Maybe Adriano will want to complement my answer, talking about credit specifically. Okay, the resumption did not cause an increase. What we had, as I mentioned in slide nine, it was a period by the end of the Q1 to the beginning of the Q3, that is four or five months, that we had a higher follow-up of assets that were not performing under contracts that were either not performing or could generate some kind of default. And we made an agreement with customers for the return of these assets, not to have an active situation.
So that happened between March and July, which was the period with greater returns. August and September, this has gone down, so I would say the worst has passed, and that was a preventive, proactive effort. Now, Rogerio, if you think the contracts that we renegotiated contracts and had the return of assets, if you stop and think, these assets are being readdressed by means of a new rental, an important part of them, with good margins, as you saw, on average, more than 30%, in the sale of used assets. So that is that bring us comfort. It's not a problem per se. Of course, it is a bit of frustration in terms of backlog, but it is resilient.
Because in the cases that I rented, again, just for you to have an idea, we re-rented with a yield of 2.6 again, because, you know, this is a new truck. It was returned with one, two, three years out. So we can rent it again or sell it well, given the appreciation of our assets, which contributes to the company's results. So, Rogerio, this is something that naturally has to be followed. The worst has passed. This is not getting worse. Again, the concentration was more towards the Q2 of the year, but in a preventive, conservative fashion, and including some kind of returns for the coming quarters. As for delays, we had 5% delays in rental. That's probably the number you're referring to.
If you take a look, you know, the number of customers that we had to renegotiate, you know, are basically, you know, fit in the palm of our hand. During the pandemic, we've reached 6.5%, and now this happened. This is a one-off situation. And what we do is that we call customers, we agree on the payment installments, and that has been done, and they are back to normal. So I think we are going back to the 2%-3% of delays. We already said that that could happen in the coming quarters. I remember I said that in the previous call, so this is something you're seeing, but it's not substantial.
It does not affect company's results, but it's true, we are monitoring some customers from close and being very agile and using instruments to mitigate the problem, both the rented assets with, at 2.6, and the ones that are sold with a margin of 30%. I don't know if Adriano wants to complement on that. Now let's go to Rog`erio's next question.
Okay, Colton, this is very clear. So my second question is about the pace of growth. The former guidance of 100,000 vehicles for 2025 was removed, so to speak. But for us, you know, it's important to have some reference of when you're going to get there. Just to understand the pace of growth of rented fleets, until today, you have 40,000, so you would be getting to 100,000 by 2030.
Do you think this is a good proxy for the coming quarters, or do you want to accelerate at some point in time? And if so, what would cause the acceleration?
Rogerio, when I joined the company, we had 10,000 assets 4.5 years ago. Now we are at 40,000 rented assets, so we are growing at a very strong pace. What we did is that we discontinued the guidance of 100,000 because there was an appreciation in the value of assets, and that, you know, the number of assets is not as important as our capacity to invest and how long we are going to invest a long time. So we want to keep, you know, the leverage between 3 and 3.2 net debt to EBITDA ratio.
So next year, if we keep that at three times, we can invest about BRL 5 billion without any receivables or equity operation. The same BRL 5 billion that we did last year, this year, if we keep the pace of the quarter, but I think we will. So naturally, we would be increasing the pace along the coming year. 2030 is too far. I think we are going to reach the 100,000 before that. But I prefer us to focus on the capacity of investment of the company, keeping leverage ratio of 3 times, 3.2. And if you see and you do the math, that will transform the value of this company, as we did in the last four and a half years. We are keeping close to BRL 3 billion EBITDA this year.
A while ago, if you take a look at our EBIT base in 2019, we had BRL 300 million EBIT in the company. The last twelve months, in September, we closed at BRL 2.1 billion. That is a seven-fold increase in the company's EBIT, so you can even have a proxy for EBITDA. So growth is going to be consistent, respecting the company's balance sheet. This is our guideline for your models. I suggest you do that. Consider the company's capacity to invest, growing at the same pace, but keeping leverage between 3-3.2. I think it's going to be much easier for you to have a model, and the number of assets is going to be a consequence of our capacity to invest.
It is going to be transformational when we think of BRL 400 million-BRL 500 million of CapEx deployed every month, which is what we've reached in the last 18 months. I hope it's clear. If not, I'll come back for further clarifications.
Very clear, and thanks for your help.
Our next question comes from Alberto Valerio from UBS.
Good morning. Thanks, Couto, Adriano, for taking my question, too. The first is growth for next year in truck rental and also with the pickup of sale of assets for next year, because this year, as you mentioned, was a bit repressed. Do you see a greater demand still for this year, for the end of the year, or just for next year? My second question would be financial terms.
I would like to know if you have anything that is non-recurring, the BRL 490 million in expenses, is it due to the size of your debt? What can we consider that is more or less recurrent, just for us, to be able to have a better model from today onwards.
Alberto, thanks for your questions. I'm Gustavo Couto. I'm going to answer the first, and Adriano will answer the second. Dealership demand. I particularly see a gradual resumption of demand. It is not going to be brisk, or we tried to show you some granularity to show evolution of net revenue. July was bad, was very atypical, especially in agribusiness, but then there was a pickup along August, getting to a level of September. Again, I'm looking at slide number four, and you have it with you.
The month of September was very close to September last year, which, by the way, was the best month of 2022, which in turn was the best year of the industry. So September was already a strong month. October was close to that. Not exactly the same, as I mentioned to Victor Mizusaki, but very close to it. So we do see a gradual resumption of demand. Sales of buses and trucks are happening, not at the pace of last year. Remember, last year was a year of early purchase for buses and trucks, so the volumes were very high, but volumes are picking up, and we did see that in October. The only question I have, whether we're going to have full demand in the Q4, is related to the agribusiness.
If you follow the agribusiness, you will know that in the past two weeks, there were no rains in the Midwest. It's raining a lot in the South, but not in the Midwest. So farmers of Mato Grosso and Goiás are delaying planting, so it is likely delay. So now they are waiting for rains to go back to planting because they will need combines for the next harvest. They will need, you know, machinery, so the demand will come. I don't think we can question agribusiness. We can have a one-off seasonality. You are exposed to weather conditions, but when you think of the overall, thinking of one, two years' time, the demand will come. No one has doubts about what's going on in the Midwest. You go there and you know it's there.
The demand is repressed, but it's not gone away, and that is true for trucks and for agricultural machines. So demand will come back next year with the natural exposure that we have in the agribusiness because of the price of commodities and weather conditions. That we cannot control, but Brazil will grow in agribusiness, that's not a question, and so we will.
Hi, Alberto. Thanks for your question. This is Adriano. Financial expenses in the quarter, no one-off, non-recurrent event. We continue with an average cost of CDI plus 2.3, and if you apply that to the balance of our debt, you're going to see that we are going to continue more or less at the same pace. So I'm not going to say that nominal is recurring.
As interest rates go down, financial expenses will also go down, but with the metrics that I mentioned.
Thank you very much. Just a follow-up on Couto's answer. Let's move in terms of volume of resumption already shows a higher volume of rental. So do you see rentals going back to a more adjusted demand?
Thank you.
Alberto, I continue to see the demand for rental very strong along the year. Once again, we are 6% above last year. That was an extraordinary year, so we are 6% plus in CapEx deployed on a year-on-year comparison. So I do see a strong demand. The month of October proves that, it was a very good month. The last quarter, we grew 15% by deployed CapEx.
So the rental demand, Alberto, I'm going to go back to a point that I think is very important. Agricultural machinery, down 20%. Trucks, down 16.5%, down in terms of licensed plates. Remember that the Q1 was still very much in line with the last year, because you're talking about Euro V inventories. But in the second and Q3, you have a drop of 22%-23% drop, but still, we have the pace, the same pace of deployment we had with in the whole of last year. So I did not see demand going down. Naturally, we projected even better numbers, but again, the credit environment was very hard in the second and Q3s. We were more cautious in closing and deploying contracts, but demand is not cooling off. Quite the opposite.
It is very strong, regardless of the adverse effects for consumer goods and, dealerships. For next year, the demand will also be very strong. What we are doing is that we are controlling growth to preserve returns and capital structure. And that's why I will say it again, the demand is there, and you continue to be there. There's no question about that. The rental model in Brazil is little explored. We have 1% of the addressable market. This is going to continue growing but we have to grow in a controlled manner. We have to grow ensuring good execution of contracts, ensuring the company's balance sheet at suitable levels, and considering interest rates and others. So we have to consider our capital structure. We do not want to grow at any cost.
The demand is there, but we want to grow healthy with good contracts, controls, and service levels. We are not going to hurt the company to grow faster. This we want.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Call to Adriano. Our next question comes from Pedro Pimenta for EQI Investments.
Good morning. Can you hear me?
Loud and clear.
Couto, Adriana, congratulations on your results. On our side, on the end of the day, the disclosure of ROIC spread and, you know, keeping the company at healthy levels was very good. So congratulations. I have just one question. I'd like to understand the growth of committed lines quarter-over-quarter. In the two quarters, you talked about BRL 165 million in committed lines, and this quarter we see BRL 1.4 billion, which is a much higher volume.
I think it has to do with the BRL 800 million of last quarter, but I would like to understand the growth. And given the significant growth in this line, do you see any need for cash in the short term? Because, according to your schedule, in the short term, you have already a high percentage of commitment with your cash. Also, based on what you answered in the last question, you don't have much amortization, so are you preparing more for the years of 2025 and 2026?
Because we don't have much amortization in 2024. Okay, the committed lines are revolving credit lines for us to draw. It was assigned with BNDES with BRL 1.2 billion.
This is available for the company to take credit in the CapEx of new assets, so that's the variation that you see. When you take a look at our CapEx schedule, we have been also working with other fundings, but in the normal course of the business. I think I've answered your question.
For 2024, do you think the focus for 2024 is to generate cash?
Pedro, first, I'm going to make it clear to you that today we have a clear opportunity to reduce the company's working capital because of higher inventory. So we are going to reduce working capital. If you'll do a quick math here with me, inventory for trucks and paid off equipment is going down and will go down even further.
We closed September at BRL 1.6 billion, and we want to be at BRL 1 billion for the next few quarters. And then, if you stop and think, the process of buying inventory as we rent older inventory is going to be based on OEM's payment terms. So when we go to this BRL 1 billion, we are going to have at least 50% of that in the suppliers line. That is, I'm not going to be paying for inventory as I did along this year, therefore, affecting my financial expenses. So for next year, it will not happen. There is no reason for that. So there's a huge opportunity in terms of working capital. Another opportunity is the inventory of dealerships. A typical inventory went up because I cannot stop a ship.
When you have a plan for agriculture machinery, trucks, already committed and the retail demand is frustrated, you have, you know, to accept that. Now, we already renegotiated payment terms, suspended purchases, and that is going to be shown in the very short term, Q4 and the beginning of Q1 next year. So you're going to see above BRL 1.5 billion of working capital that is hurting our balance sheet today. So we are going to work very hard to be able to enable the company's balance sheet, as always, to be available for the company to continue growing in rental, because we want to have at least the same pace of growth next year as this year. Again, I'm not giving you guidance, but just, you know, in theory, we did BRL 3.6 billion.
Year to date, to September, BRL 1.2 billion per quarter on average. Last year, BRL 4.8 billion. So we are talking basically of seven consecutive quarters of BRL 1.2 billion deployed reais. If you project those numbers for next year, I will continue investing and consuming cash. However, my EBITDA base is going to grow.
I'm sorry, I did not realize my line had dropped. Pedro, what point of the answer was cut? You were talking about the your EBITDA base.
So I did say that our EBITDA grew 61% in the quarter, and we've reached 90.3% EBITDA in the quarter. So showing that we do have the means to continue generating cash, which is the main resource of the company to guarantee organic growth in the coming years.
So we are going to have the company balancing, ready for us to continue growing, as we did in the last 18 months. We are very much comfortable with that. The idea is really to go back to normal so that we can invest in our growth and keep a pace of growth of BRL 5 billion for next year. Not a guidance, just repeating what we did in the two previous years, with a leverage of 3x, improving accrued EBITDA, keeping EBITDA margins, and investing at the same pace with leverage at 3x. This is what we are to do in 2024. I hope I have answered your question.
Yes, very clear, and congratulations.
Our next question comes from Igor Araujo from Genial Investments.
Thanks for taking my question. A quick one. Couto, you're talking about the deceleration of contract.
I would like to understand, since you have less new assets being sold in the quarter, what do you see in terms of gross margin for used vehicle sales? Because you're talking about a 30% margin, what is the trend for 2024 and Q4? And also the time for CapEx deployment. Now, you are more back to normal, so what do you see in those line? Do you think you're going back to the levels of the Q1 2023, end of 2022?
Hi, Igor, this is Gustavo Couto. Thanks for your question. Okay, deployment times, I see 60-90 days. Basically, for some reasons. First, and this is a more specific characteristic of our business. When I have a forklift contract, it's a longer period.
So sometimes if you have more forklifts in a specific quarter, you have more time or customization, I don't know, refrigerated foods in trucks, or if you have, you know, truck tractors, heavier trucks for long haul, then the deployment time is shorter. So in our models, and we have a service level agreed to operate between 60 and 90 days, which is enough. We can deploy for specific customers in one week. But if you think of average time, even for your models, I would like to use the reference of 60 to 90 days, which I believe is going to happen. We are going to be able to work in the 60 days. Year to date, we are at 70, but if we improve our internal processes and we pressure the team, we are going to get to 60.
What was your first question again? Oh, yes, the margin of used asset sales. I'm very positive, Igor, with the work that the team has been performed, and I invite you to visit our stores. We had a trade show last week, 40 units, dealerships, and used vehicle stores with volume sales records, margins above 30%, as we have been recording in the previous months, so no changes. Those assets that were returned to, after two, three years, and that we decided to sell with a margin of 30%, and also those at the natural cycle of end of contracts, also with a margin above 30%. And the margin, Igor, should continue because the asset base appreciated a lot.
If you go to the slide where we talk about that, you have BRL 3.7 billion of net fixed assets. BRL 3.7 billion that are to be delivered to shareholders in results for the company in two different lines. Keeping lower interest rates based on this BRL 12.2 billion base, and also good margins of sales. I say that for next year, margins are going to be close to 30%. Perhaps slightly down, because assets are depreciating a bit less, so it's going to be close to 30, perhaps not quite 30, but depreciation will continue low, so we are going to see this BRL 3.7 billion being delivered in the next five years. Margin close to 30, maybe slightly down for next year, but with depreciation at the level that we have today.
That's what you're going to see for the future of the company.
Thank you very much, and congratulations on your results.
There are no further questions, so we are closing the Q&A session now. We are going to turn the call to Mr. Gustavo Couto for his final remarks. Mr. Couto?
Well, first, I'd like to thank our people, investors, suppliers, for being with us, and I would give you 3 takeaway messages. First, the rental business continues to grow in a sustainable manner. That is, the pace of growth we had, this year is, a pace of discipline, responsibility. For 4.5 years since I joined the company, I said we would grow with discipline and execution. So our strategic inventory see the value we are going to deliver in margins for used, vehicles and depreciation.
When we take a look at the turmoils of the country, we always overcome problems with discipline and execution, and we are growing 70% year-on-year in terms of EBITDA margin, which shows the consistency and predictability of the rental business. This is the first message. We continue confident, and rest assured that if we invest BRL 400 million-BRL 500 million a month along the coming years, which is our history in the past of seven quarters in a row, we are going to transform once again the value of the company for the future. Number two, dealerships. We know there was a market-related situation, and because this is a more retail business, it is more exposed to volatility in the macroeconomic scenario. We are not going to be sorry for what happened.
What we are going to do is to work hard to decrease working capital, to selling inventory in the coming quarters. You're going to see cash generation from there. We know how to work our dealerships, and we are being modest here, but we know the business. So we are going to work to reduce the costs. And that will also let us resume the healthy margins we had before. 2023 is atypical with a repressed demand and a negative scenario. But for the future, no one questions agribusiness, sales of trucks, and the future of the business. So this is a year for us to do our homework, focusing on reducing working capital and costs, and we are doing this. And finally, my final message, we would like to make it clear that we are very confident about our business model, which is unique.
We've reached a scale in the sector that is second to none, with purchase volumes, contracts negotiated with very positive return rates, and for next year, growth will continue to happen, and we're very excited about that. Thanks to our team. Thank you for following us. Thanks for critiques, suggestions, all that help us continue to grow and develop with discipline and commitment towards our customers. Thank you very much. Have a good day, and have a good holiday.
Vamos conference call is now closed. We thank you very much for joining us and wish you a good day. You may disconnect your lines.