Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Vibra's video conference to discuss the results for the first quarter of 2025. This video conference is being recorded. You may watch a recording on the company's website, ri.vibraenergia.com.br. The presentation is also available for download. Please be advised that all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation, and then we will begin the question-and-answer session when further instructions will be provided. Before proceeding, I would like to emphasize that the forward-looking statements during this call are based on the company's beliefs and assumptions and information currently available to them. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties since they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.
Investors, analysts, and journalists should take into account that events related to the macroeconomic environment, the industry, and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. With us for this call are Mr. Ernesto Pousada, CEO, and Mr. Augusto Ribeiro, CFO, and some of the company's executives. I would now like to give the floor to Mr. Ernesto Pousada, who will begin the presentation. Please, Mr. Pousada, go ahead.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to be here with you for this call. We finished the first quarter of 2025 with a record high EBITDA, over $2 billion. In this quarter, it was a historical record for the company. This has been achieved through solid management, strengthening our profitability path in the last 24 months that the company has been under this management.
We also had an operating cash flow of $900 million in the first quarter of 2025, and we also announced to our shareholder $350 million in interest on equity, or JCP. Our payout policy is 40% in dividends. In the last two years, we have definitely been one of the companies in the world that have paid out the most dividends. These are very expressive figures. We also advanced in capturing synergies with Comerc. We are positive that we're going to overcome these values that we announced before. We mentioned $1.4 billion in synergies, net PV, and we have surpassed that. We have been able to advance some reductions in operational costs, which will help us reach this $1.4 billion. We are also strengthening our guidance, so we hope to reach $1.3 billion in EBITDA with Comerc. Another relevant fact is that we're working on the company's cash management.
At the end of 2025, we should break even in our free cash flow with Comerc. In 2026, according to our first projections, our free cash flow should be positive. We are very positive about this operational excellence effort that we have been making with Comerc, and we are going to deliver these results as we had announced before. We are also becoming tighter in expense controls in 2025. We are going to shed more light on this. We are reducing costs in CPV and SG&A. In both cases, we are focusing on making reductions so that we can increase our margins and also our relative competitiveness. This effort has been led by the company's management so that we can have even more competitive costs. We are one of the most competitive companies in Brazil, but we want to become more competitive relative to others. Now, let's talk about volume.
This quarter, we had a relevant fact, which was that for the first time, we had a 1% year-on-year growth in diesel, gasoline, and ethanol volumes in this combination. During this quarter, we still had a negative effect of fuel oil and ethanol. We saw a reduction in volume for these two products, but we're very optimistic about Vibra growing again. In March, we had already posted a growth of 0.2 percentage points in our market share. This is a significant factor. We had not grown for many months, and we're growing again. We're optimistic about our growth in April. We believe we will continue regaining market share. Just as we lost it, our market share gains will be gradual, and we will see some consistency there. We have indicators. March is a first indicator.
Also, combating illegality has had very good results, and the RenovaBio program, where we have enforcement for distribution companies, they are much more restrictive in buying CBIO s, and especially single-phase ethanol. In the first days of May, we are already seeing a significant difference. We will be able to grow in ethanol again, and this was a product that suffered a lot in the last few years. It might have been the most affected product in the last few years, and we will continue to grow. We're starting to see some effects already. Third, but not least, for the first time in many months, we also saw 49% net growth in flagging, or in banners. Our value proposal for resale is growing, and we have been very engaged with our resellers. Our optimism about this growth with the same levels of margins is very strong.
The adjusted EBITDA margin was BRL 215 per cubic meter, and this is also one of the company's focuses, which is transforming our EBITDA into cash generation. We have a high capacity of transforming our EBITDA into cash. Augusto will mention that we had some one-off effects this quarter, but for the second quarter, we will definitely go back to normal in terms of cash generation. This is one of our focuses so that we can reduce indebtedness, especially gross debt. We're going to work very hard on this. We want to have a year with strong cash generation so that we can reduce our indebtedness. ROIC was 15.4%, and it's important to mention that the company's management is focused on variables connected to our shareholders or aligned with our shareholders' interest. I'm referring to ROIC and TSR.
This is a strong component on the management's remuneration, and this is also connected to shareholder payouts. Also, I'd like to talk about lubricants. We grew 13% quarter on or year on year, right? The first quarter of 2025 versus the first quarter of 2024, and this was significant. Lubricants have a much higher margin than our fuel business, obviously. It was a very robust first quarter to start 2025 off strong, and we are sure that this year we're going to deliver the best EBITDA in the company's historical series and also the best cash generation in the company's history. We're going to grow in share without letting go of our margins, and this will all be done with solid management, with a transforming culture to ensure that these results will be perennial.
We're very positive about the first quarter of 2025, and this shows the resilience of our business and all the opportunities that we have ahead of us. I'll pass it over to Augusto now.
Good morning. On the second slide, we have some news, and this complements some of the points that Ernesto has already brought up. For the first time, we're posting Comerc numbers along with ours. Just to show you how this slide works, in the first column, we have the figures for Vibra, the controlling company, and then we have figures for Comerc Energia with their specific figures, and the third column shows a consolidation of both Vibra and Comerc. Adjusted EBITDA, Vibra reached $1.8 billion, relevant growth versus the first quarter of 2024.
Comerc, on its accounting result, posted $213 million, and this adds up to $2 billion, that Ernesto mentioned, which is a record for a first quarter for Vibra. Our operating cash flow was $0.7 billion for Vibra, up nearly $900 million versus the first quarter of 2024. Comerc posted $200 million and a total of $900 million, which is $1.1 billion higher than the first quarter of 2024. Here, we're also introducing a new concept in our earnings calls. Our adjusted net income was basically maintained as Comerc had been reporting its results. It already reported adjusted net income, which is basically a reduction of the variation of future and derivative contracts. So basically, trading operation. These are accounting effects, not cash effects. So this was deducted from these results to show our net income for this consolidated operation with Comerc and Vibra.
With that, we posted $1.1 billion for Vibra in the first quarter, a negative effect at Comerc for the first quarter still, negative $115 million, and a total of $1 billion for both. Next slide, please. This is one of the few slides where we have a long-term historical series, and our aim is to highlight the quality of the Vibra team. We have a history of results, a history with Vibra, and this is only possible due to the team's quality throughout several managements, but it was the Vibra team that posted these results consistently. Ernesto has mentioned this before. We had a reduction in volume in the first quarter of 2025 versus the first quarter of 2024. In adjusted expenses, we had a different result.
It was a significant growth in comparison to the first quarter of 2024, 26%, although there was a reduction of 1% versus the fourth quarter. This has followed the company's profitability growth, but it reflects all the reforms and structural changes that were made throughout 2024. As Ernesto said, this does not mean that we are pleased about to have that BRL 90 per cubic meter. In order to grow, we need more volume so that our costs are diluted. Growth is a part of this effort, and parallel to that, we also have made a strong effort in cutting costs. The last effort of this sort was a while ago. We are reviewing our cost centers, our expenses, and trying to find opportunities to make Vibra even more efficient in expenses. This refers to expenses and CPV.
Finally, our adjusted EBITDA margin was BRL 215 per cubic meter, up 31% in comparison to the first quarter of 2024. When we exclude tax effects from both periods and when we exclude asset sales, our recurring margin was BRL 164 in the first quarter of 2024, a growth of 4.5%. If we deduct inventory effects, which were positive in the first quarter, our delivered margin was about BRL 150 per cubic meter, 151, 152. This effect is without inventory hedging. It is net of both. The next slide shows our capital allocation. As I mentioned, you know, this is the first quarter in which we are posting Comerc numbers as well, and we got prepared for that. Our leverage moved up to 1.8 times. If we reduce the effect of LCs, it would be at 2.7 times, and our net debt was at BRL 26.5 billion.
The company's focus, besides growth, is reducing leverage. So we're working on this, of course, with the financial team to reduce leverage. We've done it in the past in different ways, in different situations, and now we're working to accelerate the company's deleveraging in 2025. And we have several ongoing initiatives. We invested $573 million in CapEx, of which $151 million were for Comerc. And Comerc has some remaining CapEx for its distributed generation cycle. As we mentioned before, this cycle is being used now in 2025, and we'll talk about Comerc specifically very soon. And Vibra is spending $290 million in CapEx, and cash bonuses for clients were $132 million. Dividends, as Ernesto mentioned, are at $350 million, a 35% net income adjusted for 2025. The next slide shows a snapshot of the company after incorporating Comerc.
We had several results in our liability management operations, and we continue to reduce the cost of debt. Just an example, it was $1.7 billion renegotiated with a reduction of 1.7 percentage points in the cost of debt and an extension of the average maturity or term of 4.3 years. Our average term is now at 4.5 years, and our spread is at 0.85. Here are the three main messages underscoring what I mentioned in the previous slide. Our focus is on reducing the cost of debt, not only by improving financial indicators, but also in order to help us to grow and be more competitive in such a difficult market. This is the company's focus. We're working on our future liability management. There are other operations, and this is good news for a company of our size, and of course, we want to reduce our gross debt.
The third and last bullet point is that this will all be done while we're still committed to pay out for shareholders, 40% of adjusted net income, as I mentioned before. This will be done through interest on equity, dividends, and share buybacks. These are our three main levers right now. The next slide shows our service stations. Our adjusted EBITDA went up 9% to $993 million, so nearly $1 billion for the first quarter. Our total volume, as was mentioned before, went down by 2%, but in diesel auto or auto plus diesel grew. The main offender here was ethanol. We know how single-phase ethanol has an entire story here, and Ernesto will talk about this, but this explains our volume dynamics for the first quarter. The branded network market share was at 30.7% at the end of the first quarter, and non-branded market share was 4.9% or above 5% in market share.
The next slide shows our number of service stations, 7,946. After a long time, and these results, of course, took place in the first quarter, this net growth of 49 stations, but the effort behind this actually started last year. We had to review our processes, improve our schedules, and of course, it was an effort from the field team to help us grow. With BR Mania, we opened 89 new stores quarter on quarter versus the fourth quarter of 2024, and this is also a record for BR Mania. In advertised fuels, we reached 43.2% market share, up 0.4 percentage points quarter on quarter, and this is very helpful for the company's profitability.
It has 21.1% of the volume mix, but 28.2% of our gross margin. The next slide shows our B2B customers. We had significant growth in the first quarter, 57% in adjusted EBITDA. Here we see some one-off effects that affected B2B specifically, but in comparable terms, we still grew by over 13%, excuse me, 103% in adjusted EBITDA. Total volume, we saw a reduction, and this is affected by fuel oil. When we look at the bottom line in diesel, B2B grew 7% year on year, reaching 1.7 million cubic meters. Aviation is stable from 1.08 to 1.06, and market share in March was 30.1%. In the TRR segment, it was at 17.6% at the end of the first quarter.
The next slide shows a small animation relaunching the Lubrax brand. We now have a new logo. As Ernesto mentioned, our volume growth was very strong quarter on quarter. We had 147 new franchises, so the number was much higher than the performance we had in the last few years. We're growing in premium segments such as synthetics, and our retail penetration is also growing. This is one of the main strategies for this growth in lubricants. The next slide, or the next few slides, will be specifically about Comerc. As we mentioned before, we reached an at stay of 213, up 15%, and there's a significant seasonal effect here when we compare to the fourth quarter of 2024. 268 is in line with our internal expectations, so this was an excellent first quarter for Comerc. Operational cash flow was positive by BRL 195 million. Of course, it is negative considering that we had payments on remaining interests and so on.
Our expectations are in line with the effort being led by Clarice and the Comerc team, and we hope to recover free cash generation after interest and after CapEx investments, and we hope to break even in the next 12 months, still in 2025, and start generating free cash next year. I won't repeat this. Synergies are going very well on all three pillars. All efficiencies have been anticipated, financial and synergies from personnel and infrastructure, so we've advanced well. Of course, there are tax efficiencies, which is more for the long term. Our guidance of $1.3 billion in EBITDA is maintained for 2025. The next slide shows that we reached 2.1 megawatts at peak generation in the first quarter of 2025. Our capacity goal is 2,200.
In centralized generation, we reached our goal, and in distributed generation, we're basically still short, as I mentioned before, due to cycle 3GD, but we reached 137 gigawatt hour in the first quarter. At the trader, we concluded with BRL 510 million in the first quarter, and with that, as mentioned before, we're very happy about our results in the first quarter for Comerc, even though we're facing a tougher situation when you consider other issues. This is being offset by higher efficiency initiatives with Comerc and the company's continuous effort. This is one of the reasons why we were able to be at this guidance for 2025. That's why we sustained our guidance.
I'm back now to talk about our ESG agenda. First, when it comes to energy transition, we were the first company to offer SAF or SAF to Brazil.
We are importing small amounts, but we are always basing our energy transition on two vectors: our client's interest and return on capital. This is a small pilot project, but we are supporting our aviation clients' needs. They're starting to request testing, and Vibra was the first to provide them with SAF. We were also recognized by LinkedIn as one of the top companies in Brazil, offering the most growth opportunities, professional growth opportunities, so we're very happy about that. We are in the B3 ISE portfolio for the sixth consecutive year. Finally, Vibra is also getting engaged with this movement against sexual violence against children and teens. We are aligned with the childhood group in Brazil and the Mulheres do Brasil group led by Luiza Trajano. In March, we had an event with over 150 companies joining us in this movement.
Why is Vibra getting engaged with this? A part of sexual violence and exploitation happens in roads. We have over 200 companies engaged in this, and we'd like to invite everyone to be agents for change here. We also have a call number because sometimes these things are closer than we may imagine. In March, for four or five days in front of Shopping Paulista on Paulista Avenue, we had an inconvenience store where we were showing in an interactive way what sexual violence means for children and teenagers. We're very engaged with this, and this is above all something that we will leave for Brazil, and this is a cause for all Brazilians.
That concludes our opening session. We will now begin the Q&A. We will now begin the question and answer session for investors and analysts. The first question will be asked by Mr. Luis Carvalho from BTG. Go ahead, sir.
Hi, Ernesto and Augusto. Thank you for taking my question. I have two questions, and first, I'd like to hear from you. I know that this is a broader question, but we've been talking about a concern on this loss of share for the three main players. Of course, Vibra is in the list. My question is, how do you see the company's current market share? Do you intend to recover that, and what does that mean when it comes to your margins? You're at relatively healthy levels. ROIC is close to 15%, and we see that the regulatory environment has improved with biodiesel, CBO, and ethanol, as you mentioned. See if you can tell us a bit about this dynamic with shares versus margins.
My second question is, I'd like to understand a bit more about monophase or single-phase ethanol. We know how different it is to capture this. Vibra might be the player that will benefit the most from single-phase ethanol. For the rest of the year, how fast do you believe you capture these 10 cents per liter? If you can give us some visibility on how you're seeing the second quarter with these adjustments and the changes with the import dynamics.
Hi, Luis. Thank you for your questions, and I'll let Augusto also add if he has anything to add. Our share in the last few years has been worked on very strongly. We are aiming to improve margins, and we're trying to provide operational efficiency internally. This happened through cost improvements by improving our own models, pricing.
We are growing with our EBITDA margin year on year, and we're at a different cash generation level for the company. This is partly due to a loss of share in some specific segments, and this happened gradually. We're very optimistic about the fact that we're going to recover our share gradually. In March, we grew by 2.2% versus February, and we will continue growing. There were moments in which we grew in the past, but why am I positive? I think the regulatory environment is changing. We have a significant improvement in RenovaBio, and this gives us an advantage of 40-50 Brazilian Real per cubic meter, and we're engaged with this. We also have single-phase ethanol, which will be a win for the entire industry. We're already seeing this in our results for May. We're starting to see this happen in ethanol.
The resales went up significantly since 2024, and those 49 service stations that were added were not just done overnight. This was a process that began in 2024 that accelerated in the second half of 2024, and we will see this continue in the next quarters. We have indicators showing that we are going in the right direction. It is a very competitive market. It is a market in which there is big competition for space and volumes and to sustain margins, but we are positive that with these three pillars, we will be able to grow and sustain our margins. I would like to highlight one more thing. This year and for the next years, we are making a big effort to reduce our costs. We are one of the most competitive companies in Brazil, and we will be even more competitive.
This is going to give us even more strength so that we can grow with more. The management and the entire team are confident that this will happen gradually. We're not going to see market share leaps, maybe for ethanol, but we're not going to see big volume leaps. Just as we lost this gradually, we're going to recover it gradually. We're going to have a unique value proposition with our resellers. We're going to expand with new stations, and this goes hand in hand with our cost reduction. This combination will allow us to deliver growth with the same margin levels that we're seeing today. Single-phase ethanol, we're seeing a positive effect. We believe that with ethanol, we'll be able to simply recover what I would call our fair share in many states where ethanol was leading.
We were not leading, or we were not even second place. We see a lot of potential for this. This should happen faster. We hope to see some market share gains in May in ethanol. We have been feeling this since we started with single-phase ethanol. Of course, we still have very few days, we will have to wait, but at least initially, we are starting to see this happen. Your third question was about this comparison quarter on quarter. Of course, there are significant accounting impacts since there was a reduction in diesel prices, but what we are seeing and what we believe we can do is exclude these one-off effects in line with what we saw in the first quarter of 2025.
Gre at. That was very clear. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question will be asked by Matheus Enfeldt from UBS. Go ahead, sir.
Good morning, Ernesto and Augusto.
First, I'd like to congratulate you for changing the earnings release. I think that was very clear, and it helps us to understand the company's moment. I'd like to ask about how we can consider CapEx for the year. Even if we deduct that CapEx from the third cycle of GD, the distribution CapEx was very high. Last quarter, our expectation was that this year we would be more in line with 2023, but it was actually two times the CapEx that was posted in the first quarter of 2024. I don't know if you had a high CapEx concentration there. I'd like to understand this level of investment and what we should consider for the rest of the year, especially on the distribution side, so that we can understand what is the fair run rate for the year and if we will be closer to 2023 than 2024.
My next question is how you've been looking at supply. There's been a lot of price volatility in this month. When we looked at NP data, and I don't know what the quality is for this data currently, but you showed a high volume in January, a bit less in February, and a little in March. What have you thought about for your supply? Do you have enough product to overcome this? Do you have any arbitration and trading? How will you navigate this high volatility moment? That's all. Thank you.
Hi, Matheus. Distribution CapEx 2025 with Comerc, this is the remaining CapEx, as I mentioned before, to conclude these GD projects and maybe any other solutions that will provide a return. For Vibra specifically, and I didn't mention this, this is on the footnotes, but this is a cash perspective.
That is for bonuses and for CapEx. We have all of the comparison numbers since 2021 on the same base. For our CapEx number, first, we had a carryover from last year. Bonuses, growth, and this is aligned with our strategy growth, and it influences our numbers for the first quarter. Before I conclude, I have to make it clear that if our strategy for market share and costs and returns are in line with our expectations, we will continue growing in service stations. Considering the market situation, the cost of capital, we are going to have to work on the investment pace for 2024. We are seeking what we saw in 2024, 2025. If we spend more on bonuses, this will need to be offset by other points. This is not a guidance. This is more of a CapEx estimate.
We're in line with the expected results for these investments. If our strategy, again, is growth, and this is in line with everything we're doing, and if indicators start establishing a trend, that's one point, two points. In the third quarter, our investments will support this strategy. That would be the right way forward. In summary, looking at the spreadsheets, cash expenses, and so on, BRL 1.7 billion is appropriate for this part of the year.
I can answer your question about supply. Matheus, our supply has been sustained. Our strategy has been to give preference to our Petrobras quotas, but our trading is increasingly active. We designed our trading company for that, and we're seeking some additional opportunities that might give us results. Our goal is distribution. Our trading is not separate from distribution. It's under the same operation with Marcelo Bragança, our Operations VP.
The trading company is here to maximize our results so that we can see opportunities trading and sourcing, but we're always going to see small changes. This is something that I mentioned in the past, and this is something we've been doing before. We're avoiding making big changes to our trading. We're always optimizing sourcing or seeking additional volume in the trading when it is possible.
If you allow me to add to that, this goes a bit beyond your question, but it's important to say the market has been reducing total inventory days since January, over 40 days down to 36-37. What we're seeing with all this volatility, and we have a good vision of vessels at port in June, of course, we'll have more variability, but this demand is still higher, or the demand is still much higher than the supply.
Inventory days will reduce. Of course, this depends on strategy, price, Petrobras. What we have been seeing is that at the beginning of this quarter, we saw three price reductions with Petrobras, and we believe that this will continue so that we can sustain competitiveness at a relevant level. When it comes to supply and demand, the second quarter will not see so many imports coming in, although this is very high in comparison to the first price operation.
Yes, volatility inhibits imports because this generates uncertainties for the values. The effective margins that you are going to get, especially when volatility is high. This just concludes what Augusto mentioned.
Perfect. Thank you.
The next question will be asked by Mr. Vicente Falanga from Bradesco BBI. Go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Ernesto and Augusto. This is a follow-up question about CapEx.
I'd like to understand this BRL 1.4 billion. If that includes the bonus, it was at BRL 1.8 billion, and this BRL 1.4 billion has performed about, well, about half of that has been performed. Will there be a spillover for next year? The market wants to know what your CapEx cash will be this year. That has generated some volatility in your share prices. My second question is, if you plan to hedge PPA with Hélio Valgas.
Thank you, Falanga. CapEx is what I mentioned for the cash effect, BRL 1.4 billion this year. There was some change at the end, and this is the figure that we're working on for the year. BRL 1.8 billion was the accounting effect, which we mentioned at the end of last year. You said it well. There is a carryover cash for the year.
That's the vision that we have right now. PPA, volatility, and Comerc results. We usually have blocks and hedges for the next year. For 2025, this is set, and from 2026 onwards, we have a long position for the dollar. This lock has two challenges on the long term. First, the cost, and it's about $15 million in yearly positions. The second point is the uncertainties about the rates you're going to have. That's why the operation is locked. In the current year, you have to hold in the open position for a long time, which will generate some volatility. We always look at these possibilities if it's worth accelerating and advancing this, but this is our current strategy with Comerc.
Thank you. The next question will be asked by Mr. Bruno Amorim from Goldman Sachs. Go ahead, sir.
Hi, good morning.
Thank you for taking my question. I have a follow-up question about market share gains. Stepping away from that month-by-month discussion, if you can give us a long-term perspective. The smaller players have for about two years gaining share in diesel. Some volatility, of course, but there is a trend towards that, even with single-phase diesel being implemented. I just like to hear from you. Why do you think this is happening? This is not only Vibra. There is a trend that smaller players are gaining share. Why do you think this trend will be reversed? This is something that has been taking place for some time. Also, with your visibility being closer to the industry, how are your competitors doing? Are these smaller players gaining share consistently? Maybe they have better return levels.
Of course, there's a discussion on combating informality, but I'd just like to hear a bit more from you, hear your take on that, on what has been happening in the last years, specifically with diesel and what we should expect from now on if you think that this trend will be reversed. I also have a quick follow-up. If you can help us to quantify the impact of partial single-phase ethanol in margins or volumes, especially margins, if you can tell us a bit about how the ethanol margins are doing, and if you believe that, where you believe that this margin should be in a world without any informality. That will help us to quantify the upside.
Thank you. Hi, Bruno. Good morning. Thank you for that question. Going back to market share, you mentioned diesel specifically.
Talking about margins, the first point is combating illegality. Many of them are happy with their margin levels because not all of them, let's make this clear, but not all of them are playing within the rules. They're evading CBIO purchases. They're not adding biodiesel. If you look at that, there are only about 8 or 12 months since ICL has really accelerated its initiatives. This is structural. This is a complex effort, but this is something that you can't return from. This is not only an agenda for the industry, but for the entire country. We see this in the media. We see several government agencies discussing it. This is something that we cannot reverse. This will change. We will have the competitiveness we need so that we can grow at this level. This has been happening gradually.
This is the main point that explains that. Not only that, but you'll see in our next results, we have the power of the brand. We have our value proposition with the BR Mania, Lubrax, training service attendants. There are many things that we make available to our resellers, and we see a high engagement in our resellers who want to be with Vibra and who want to have the right conditions so that they can be engaged with us. We see that this is very close to a reversal, and it will be gradual, as you said it yourself. This loss in market share might be higher in the next few years, but we always see a recovery at the same level. We will gradually recover, and the first insights are given in the first quarter.
We saw a net increase in the number of stations, and this was very relevant. We saw a significant number of new stations with monophase. We see strong effects. I would just like to reinforce for the third time something that I have been mentioning. How are we going to stand out when it comes to diesel? We are trying to reduce our costs in a relevant fashion in the next years. This will give us a competitive edge so that we can continue growing with margins, with fighting irregularities, planning our resellers. This has been proven by the NPS lead that we had with our resellers and reducing our cost base, becoming more efficient in logistics so that we can be more relevant and grow with the same margin levels. When it comes to ethanol, we are going to prioritize our share.
This is a strategy that we designed in advance to single-phase coming in, but this has been adjusted every day in the company. At least at first, we're going to prioritize gaining market share.
Adding to that, what Ernesto is mentioning is all quantifiable. We cannot share these numbers, and there's a soft internal part that is very relevant. We have someone working with intelligence and technology, and there's a lot that we need to invest in to ensure our degree. Do you remember we talked about our intensity? We changed internal flows. We have strategic projects. Some of them are starting to show effects in numbers, but there are many things that still need to impact that we'll still see the impact in our operation. We're expanding stations. This was one of the projects that started in our war room.
The fact is that the smaller you are, the more agile you can be in making decisions. That, of course, assuming that everyone is working to maximize our results, working within the rules. We open space for operators, and we need to be faster. War rooms, people in several functions working on projects, different ways of working. It is soft in the sense that you cannot quantify it, but our work, since Ernesto started in his position a number of years ago, there are many things that have been implemented, and we believe that the results will start showing now in 2026. This is what we are doing to deliver results.
Great. Thank you.
The next question will be asked by Monique Greco from Itaú BBA. Go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Thank you, Ernesto, Augusto. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two.
First, I have a question on lubricants. Ernesto mentioned that there was a significant growth in volumes, quarter on quarter, and that this is a strong business when it comes to margins. Can you give us some color on this ramp-up speed for the plant? At what level utilization are you, and when do you expect to reach 100%? How will that translate into EBITDA gains? When will we reach that 1 billion that the company mentioned they wanted for this segment in EBITDA? The next question is a point that other analysts have asked about. When we think about margin levels for the rest of the year, Augusto mentioned an expectation for the second quarter of margins being in line with the first quarter. Considering this margin level for the entire year, would this be consistent with your expectations?
Ernesto mentioned posting the best results in history. Are these margin levels consistent with your expectations, or do you expect to expand on margins by the end of the year? Thank you.
I can answer your question about lubricants. With lubricants, volume has been growing. We have had a higher occupation in the plants. Of course, we have a plant that, after the expansion, is significantly bigger than our sales. This will be a gradual process. We are at around 60-65% occupation at the plant. We still have a long way to grow. There are opportunities for this year specifically. We also have to mention that these volumes are locked in two- to three-year contracts. This is not a spot price.
We're also ensuring that the volumes we are getting are long-term volumes so that we can ensure these plant volumes since we have this availability. The D2B team has been working to ensure that these volumes will be based on long-term initiatives. This will accelerate our growth ambition in lubricants, which is one of our main avenues. In 2025, we might be able to achieve what we had planned for 2026. That is acceleration in EBITDA. Our highest goal, as we mentioned in our investor day, is to be a stronger company across Latin America and to surpass $1 billion. We might be able to do this in 2025. To answer your question on margins for the rest of the year, we expect to see incremental growth as volumes come in due to cost dilution, but it will be incremental.
If you take a proxy from the last two years, that is around what we expect. This is our main goal, and our margins should improve incrementally since our costs will be diluted. Our focus is on growing at this margin level. This is what we see for the rest of the year.
As a reminder, we have seasonal effects. In the second half, we have higher volumes than the first, and this is gradual throughout the year. That is it. Thank you, Monique.
Thank you.
The next question will be asked by Mr. Regis Cardoso from XP. Go ahead, sir.
Good morning, Ernesto and Augusto. Thank you for taking my question. I'll ask a single question, but this is something I want to know from you about your capital allocation, specifically banners. 2024 had a far lower number of banners than amortization.
I understand that you want to migrate to cost, but it does not seem to explain a delta of 60%. With this quarter, we got closer. If I am not mistaken, it was at BRL 130 million with an amortization of BRL 170 million. Typically, the first quarter is a bit slower, so it seems like you have accelerated. What I would like to know is this: have you made shorter contracts? Is this a goal? Are there any benefits to it? What explains this? Do you believe that it will accelerate now? We see that the number of stations has gone up. This is a broader discussion, but I would like to hear from you about capital allocation into banners.
I can talk about this strategy. We started an effort in the last few years focusing on gaining operational efficiency and consolidating our management model.
Throughout 2024, we structured our growth strategy in stations. We redesigned processes, our team, personnel, systems, automation so that we could accelerate at the end of the last year, especially in the first quarter. If you look at 2024, we did have a low level of flagging or banners. In 2024, it was lower, and now we are accelerating to a level that we believe will position the company in higher growth. We will see this growing. The first quarter, as I said, shows this with 49 new net stations, and this is a part of our strategy. As you mentioned, there is a shift in our strategy. We were much more conservative. We were building the bases so that we could grow in flagging efficiently and post good returns. That is very important. We are not investing on every flagged station.
We want to have returns to make sure that we will sustain or increase our ROIC at the end of the day. That is the main indicator that we are always looking at. There is no reduction in contract duration.
Yes, these are some small examples. Contracts and negotiations to be concluded five, six, seven, or eight months. You cannot conclude a negotiation. Your capital commitment will be locked because, from the financial perspective, this is considered cash use, and it does not happen throughout a long period. We had to look at the returns per harvest, why some harvests are better than others, and what happened throughout some time without changing the average term. These were so many small movements. We have been looking at this from the end of last year, and we are starting to see the benefits now. That is a simple explanation.
In 2026, we expect to grow when expanding the number of stations, and this can be done through bonuses. This has to do with returns, obviously. This is our appetite, CapEx versus EBITDA, and so on.
Thank you. If I can ask a follow-up question about this, I understand that the current moment is favorable for flagging, considering that interest rates are expensive, but it is not favorable because imports are open and we are not short of products in the market. Quite the contrary. This context is even more competitive. I would like to hear your perspective on that. If you can tell us about capital allocation with PP&E. You have been above amortization in the last quarters. I know that you were expanding in the Midwest, and I would like to understand your tendencies or trends there.
This might be something I did not mention, but just to, I mentioned engagement in the interest and increase in interest in flagging with us. We are having revenue management, so we are selecting the best opportunities. We have many opportunities on the table, and our pipeline in the last two years for flagging has never been this robust. We are doing revenue management, selecting the best options, the best operators. What we have seen is that the import window, what is changing is our presence in the field, our intimacy with how close we are to our suppliers. We have partners that value this relationship, who want to grow. After this much time looking at the last two years, this has been echoing.
We see that our resellers are engaging at a different level that we did not have before, along with our own internal adjustments, as Augusto mentioned, processes, systems, the team. We are very optimistic that we are going to see the company's flagging level advance in the next quarters.
When it comes to investments in other assets, you mentioned two events last year, and there was a higher carryover for 2024 to 2025, and that justifies an expense above our historical levels. Again, referring back to what I mentioned, that BRL 1.4 billion in cash between bonuses, investments in technology, and in fixed assets, and so on. This all needs to match, needs to fit into this calculation, and this is our projection for 2025.
Great. Thank you, Ernesto and Augusto.
The next question will be asked by Gabriel Barra from Citibank. Go ahead, sir.
Hi, Ernesto and Augusto.
Thank you for taking my question. I have two. We talked about dividends. Augusto mentioned that companies focus on deleveraging, and you have a high base for payments on interest on capital, BRL 1.6 billion or BRL 1.7 billion. In that context, what are your priorities, and what can we imagine given this scenario of interest on capital? How will that be split? This year, would you pay interest on equity? I'd like to understand that better. Another thing was ethanol. One of the points you mentioned was when you had your JV with Copersucar, you had this possibility of gaining competitiveness with ethanol. It's always been difficult to compete with ethanol. I'd like to hear from you with JV. How does that affect you considering this JV with Copersucar? What is your strategy there? Thank you.
Okay. About ethanol, and although we are publishing these results, a part of it is in ethanol. Of course, a part of it is not in the results. This partnership with Copersucar is something that we're assessing constantly. What we've perceived is that right now, it is not delivering everything that we had planned for. It has positive results, but it's not being as productive as we had imagined. We are in full operation as of last year. This is the second year of full operation. It's a bit more premature, but we have not been delivering what had been in our premises before. We're going to continue analyzing this so that we can provide more competitiveness.
Just as we did in the first quarter, we announced BRL 350 million in JCP, and we're going to try to maximize our returns for the company.
Whether it is by dividends or share buybacks, we're going to work with these tools throughout the year, and our aim is 40% adjusted net income. Of course, there are accounting effects that are being deducted so that we can provide a better estimate on what a run rate would be. It is important to mention that in capital allocation, Vibra is still on the target of providing returns for our shareholders. Through these three strategies that I mentioned, which include share buybacks when they are strategically relevant.
Thank you.
The next question will be asked by Leonardo Marcondes from Bank of America. Go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Ernesto and Augusto. Thank you for taking my question. When it comes to Comerc, you reaffirmed this guidance, and I'm wondering what you're expecting for trading within this guidance.
I'd also like to ask for more color on the synergies that you mentioned before, especially in OpEx, considering that with liability management, this is a bit clearer for us. I also have a question on capital allocation. Earlier in the call, Ernesto reiterated your dividend payout policy of 40%. So I'd like to hear from you about what we can expect about capital allocation. Since the investor day last year, some things have changed. I'd like to hear some color on that. Thank you.
Thank you for your questions. About your questions specifically on Comerc, of course, we're working across all businesses, trying to maximize each of the company's business verticals. We cannot give specific information about one business unit. We continue in line.
Of course, there's an impact in curtailment and centralized generation, and all other businesses are making an additional effort and reducing costs so that we can sustain this guidance of $1.3 billion. When it comes to specific synergies on costs, what we have found since last year and have been seeing since January is a significant opportunity to reduce costs for Comerc. We call this synergy, but we're actually reducing costs given that the company had a significant growth. Focusing on the focus of the organization has always been about growth. What we have been seeing is that there is a higher opportunity than we had imagined initially to reduce costs, not only SG&A, but also operational costs related to our CPV and some operational improvements as well, generating more with our GDs. There are several opportunities there.
We're finding more opportunities than we expected in the cost of opportunities to reduce costs in Comerc. I said that our agenda is focused on 2025 in providing operational excellence, ensuring that we are delivering synergies, that we are going to cash generation. We want to have breakeven until the end of the year. We're generating positive free cash flow. We have a lot of confidence that we are on the right direction.
To answer your next question, Leonardo, within the strategies that we announced in our investor day, as Ernesto said, we are still focusing on lubricants. It has had strong results. It's a pro-growth market with everything we have been seeing recently, market share versus organic growth. Lubricants have been doing well in our strategy. Logistics have been a discussion, having higher operational efficiency.
We have started to make investments for this year, and this is also being reviewed with our folks rate. I mentioned CPV, logistics. Our attempt is not only to cut costs, but also becoming more efficient. You had asked about competitiveness and players in the market. Logistics have advanced in this direction. Expenses and B2B, we do not have any news. We do not have anything to share. Returns on renewables, as Ernesto mentioned, we have Comerc reference. Our capital allocation is continued with the remainder of distributed generation and stations. Everything we mentioned, bonuses, capital allocation to provide the expected growth in this segment for the company. As a reminder, this is a very volatile year. We had a positive impact in accounting due to price increases from Petrobras in the first quarter, and the second quarter will have a negative impact for sure.
You know this. You understand the market. The accounting impact is a bit different from our impact in commercial margins. When we look at our estimates for the second quarter and how we can pass on prices to the market, we are still very confident. As a reminder, price reductions have a significant impact to cash, working capital. We often talk about the impact of EBITDA, but we do not talk about this. This has another consequence, which is for the use of cash in the company. This is something that we have been doing very well, and that is what makes us confident that 2025 will be a good year for Vibra Energia.
Great. Thank you.
This concludes the questions and answers session. We will now hand it over to Mr. Ernesto Pousada for his closing remarks.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone.
I'd just like to underscore a couple of points. First, the company is focused on 2025 to have expressive cash generation and reduce our indebtedness. That is the first point. As Augusto mentioned, we will have lower prices, which will free up cash for us to reduce our indebtedness. The company is focused on generating more cash to reduce indebtedness. This is what we will do in 2025. The second point is ensuring that 2025 will be Vibra's return to growth. We will continue to grow in the diesel, gasoline, and ethanol market and will be at the margin levels that you are seeing. These are the company's two main focuses in order to deliver this in 2025. Thank you and have a good day.
This concludes the company's conference call. Thank you and have a good day.