Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the conference call announcement for Q4 2023 from Valid. I am Olavo Vaz, RI and treasury head. Before we start, I'll make some announcements. This event is being recorded, but if you've been connected and to listen to the presentation. The slide deck is also being presented in English. The slides and materials can be found at our IR website. After the event, a replay facility will be made available in our website. When we finish, as usual, we'll have a Q&A session. Questions can be sent now and or at any moment during the presentation. To do that, click on the chat icon on the platform. Forward-looking statements made during this conference concerning the company's business outlook, financial and operating forecasts and targets, are based on beliefs and assumptions on the part of our company's management, and also on information currently available.
Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as they refer to future events and depend on circumstances that may or may not materialize. Investors should have in mind that overall economic conditions, in addition to other operating factors, might also affect the company's future, and does lead to results that will differ considerably from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. As you know, on February the 19th, we announced that as of April 1st, Valid will have a new CEO. As part of this transition process, today we have with me, Ivan, our current CEO, Bressan, the Head of ID and Digital Gov, and future CEO, and our CFO, Rafael Ziggiatti. For his opening remarks, I'd like to call to stage Ivan. Ivan, good morning.
Good morning, Olavo, and good morning to all of you be here with us for our Q4 results announcement. On my behalf and of the board, I'd like to announce the final results for 2023. I'd like to leave a special word of thank you to our employees, who continue to tirelessly seek a new and stronger Valid. We'll start the presentation with the highlights of Q4 and the year 2023. We closed the quarter with revenues of BRL 633 million, a growth of 32% when compared to the same period of last year, 2022. In the year 2023, the company posted revenue of BRL 2.25 billion, a growth of 20% when compared to the previous year.
It's important to emphasize that all the verticals where we operate saw a growth in double digit of more than 10% year-on-year. In EBITDA terms, we had BRL 147 million in the quarter, a growth of 9% when compared to 2022, and we closed 2023 with BRL 567 million in EBITDA, which marks the third consecutive year of record-breaking results. Annual EBITDA grew by 19% when compared to 2022, and in terms of margins, Valid kept the indicator of 25%, which had already shown last year. Moving on now to net income. In the quarter, we had 36 million of income, leading the year-to-date number to BRL 213 million, which represented an annual margin of 9%.
The BRL 213 million, again, represents an earnings per share of almost BRL 2.7, an increase of over 700% when compared to 2022. It's worth mentioning that throughout 2023, Valid restarted periodically paying out dividends, having paid out 36% of its results through the JCP, which accounts a dividend yield of almost 5% on the value of the share at the end of 2023. In the next slides, we'll give more details of the main contributors for that strong result. We start by cash conversion. Since the call we had about Q2 results in 2022, we have reinforced that all the company's efforts are geared towards maintaining a high level of profitability, as we would improve our working capital management.
In the fourth quarter, that was no different, and it was special, actually. We reached an indicator of cash flow conversion of 109% of the EBITDA in the quarter, which led to a year-to-date number of 95% in the year. Down the road, we're going to talk about gains across the different lines that make up our working capital. A high conversion of EBITDA into cash led Valid to close the year with a net debt of only BRL 72 million, therefore a leverage of 0.1x. That level is the lowest ever or since its IPO in 2006. We'll now go into more detail for the numbers. I'll get to call R afael Ziggiatti, our CFO.
Thank you, Ivan, and good morning, everyone.
As we showed previously, 2023 was a special year, where Valid's revenue grew by more than 20% in the year and 32% in the quarter. All segments contributed for this growth. Payments units, is worth mentioning throughout the year, it presented a strong result led by the Argentinian operation. We'll be talking about that in a moment as we move forward with the presentation. As for EBITDA, Valid presented BRL 147 million in the quarter, and in a year we have reached the mark of five hundred and sixty-seven million, an increase of 19%, year-on-year. As for margins, there was a drop of five percentage points when compared to Q4, 2022, moving from 28.2% down to 23.2%.
That drop can be explained by two reasons: an increase in the share of payments in the consolidated results, and mainly driven by a global drop in prices in mobile. As we resumed pre-pandemic price levels, as expected, and had already mentioned that in previous communications. This high share of the payments units and an environment where we have more pressured margins for mobile, is expected to remain in 2024. Still, Valid closed the year with a margin of 25.1%, in line with the 25.4 filed in 2022. On the next two slides, let me talk about the path from EBITDA to net income, both in the fourth quarter 2023, and in the year to date.
In the quarter, we moved from BRL 147 million in EBITDA to a net income of BRL 36 million, an increase of 44% when compared to the same period of 2022. If we follow the bridge on the slide, we had BRL 43 million of financial numbers in negative numbers. That number was especially impacted by the inflation and foreign exchange scenario in Argentina. Only in the fourth quarter of 2023, Argentina impacted negatively with BRL 21 million, therefore, half of the results achieved in the quarter. As for depreciation, we have kept the levels we've seen in previous periods. For others, that came out at BRL 42 million in the quarter, can be explained by about BRL 20 million relative to different assets write-offs and BRL 10 million in the adjustments in the fixed assets.
Q4 usually has higher amounts because most of the recovery happens at the end of the year. And lastly, we had ICMS tax credits because of a compensation of tax losses that affect the deferred tax rate and the payment of the JCP, which impacts the current tax level. Moving on to the annual view, we moved from BRL 567 million on the left, to a net income of BRL 213 million. As Ivan mentioned, represent a gain per share of almost 2.7 BRL. The financial results in the year had an impact of BRL 18 million coming from Argentina. In the previous slide, I had mentioned that in the Q4, Argentina's effect had been negative by BRL 21 million, an amount slightly higher than what was observed throughout the year.
For depreciation amortization, the amount of BRL 104 million in the year is about the same as we had in 2022 at BRL 100 million. Under others, which came out at BRL 69 million in the year, we had, in addition to events mentioned on the previous slide, about BRL 8 million, which were allocated income diverse contingencies and the amortization of a surplus of about BRL 13 million. Finally, income tax, the amount was BRL 62 million, which represents an effective rate of about 23% in the year. Valid had the benefit of tax reversal in Q4, as I mentioned in the previous slide, and also now counts on lower rates because we operate across different geographies.
In addition to the bridge from EBITDA and net income, it's important to understand where those contributions are coming from that led us to move from BRL 24 million to BRL 213 million in EBITDA last year. We had contributors coming from three main groups: EBITDA itself, the results from discontinued operations, and as we improved our financial results. For other expenses and depreciation and amortization, the amounts for 2023 were in line with those in 2022. Under taxes, we had a larger collection base. If we go into detail for the three main positive contributions, we see a progress of BRL 89 million in EBITDA, which is made up of an increase of BRL 33 million in ID, BRL 73 million under payments, and the total result can be attributed to Argentina and a drop of BRL 17 million mobile.
The fact that Argentina is going through a hyperinflation period requires, because of accounting standards, IAS 29 and CPC 42, that we make adjustments. That I have to add to the EBITDA number, about BRL 20 million in December alone. As for discontinued operations, the progress of BRL 82 million can be explained by the fact that we no longer have a unit in the U.S. in 2023. As for the financial results, we had a drop in financial expenses, and we were less impacted by foreign exchange variations. In summary, with lower debt and more cash, Valid was less subject to financial expenses. And as in 2023, the company had many intercompany loans and foreign exchange remained flat. The foreign exchange result saw an improvement when compared to 2022.
Excluding the effects from Argentina, the financial results would have seen an increase of BRL 88 million when compared to 2022. However, when we add Argentina's effect, the increase remains at BRL 68 million. The three main reasons to explain Argentina are: with the restriction of international payments imposed by the local government, the cash remains longer at Valid, which leads to a higher profitability. As for accounting, we need to update books because of a hyperinflationary environment, as explained. The depreciation of the peso, vis-à-vis stronger currencies, especially after the max devaluation in December, also has an important impact. We continue to analyze potential scenarios involving our local operation because of frequent changes that have been announced by the government.
The possibility already announced that an improvement in the international payment and flow, especially to suppliers, should increase competitiveness in the country, and we believe that this will happen as of the second half of this year. I now will cover the main journey for the Valid indicators throughout the last years. We had evolutions in the EBITDA and income since 2020. In terms of performance, Valid saw, in 2023, an increase of return on invested capital of 22.5% and a return on equity of 15.8%. In the last announcements, we talked about a more profitable company, but another indicator that we are now monitoring and have included in our executives target is operating cash generation. In 2023, we closed the year with a cash generation that amounts to 95% of the EBITDA reached in the year.
On top of that operating generation, we had a year with a CapEx at BRL 70 million. The financial result was negative at BRL 109 million, which shows a drop of about BRL 70 million when compared to 2022, as I showed in the previous slide. We also had a reduction of BRL 143 million in our gross debt, and we realized almost BRL 100 million in payments throughout the year, reaching a final cash of BRL 619 million. Now, briefly talking about our working capital, especially in the second half, the teams have sought to improve indicators under receivables, inventory and payables. We have reached important progresses across all accounts, with an improvement in working capital of about BRL 150 million since Q2 2023, reaching levels that we consider to be balanced and in fitting with our operation.
As I mentioned, 2022, we closed the year with BRL 619 million cash and a net debt of only BRL 72 million. In other words, 0.1x in terms of net debt over EBITDA ratio. Valid's debt is well distributed across bilateral operations to market and international, and today I have about a fourth of our debt in the short term and the remaining in the long run. The cash position is enough to settle all obligations for this year and 2025. In addition to that, I've recently had an increase by Moody's of our corporate ratings, and because of our ninth debentures emission, which are now at AA- for the company and AA for our debenture. Double A.
For our performance in capital markets, 2023 was a year where we were recognized by three years of work, appreciating by more than 140% and remaining above main indicators such as Ibovespa and the Small Caps index. In addition to our share increase, we paid about 36% of our payout with a dividend yield of 4.7%, considering the prices for 2023. Also important, the liquidity of our shares has increased, having closed the last quarter with almost BRL 9 million in traded volume a day, twice as much as we had in 2022. We'd like to call Olavo back to talk about the results of our main verticals. Thank you, and over to you, Olavo.
Thank you, Ziggi. I'll briefly talk about each one of our verticals, starting by ID.
We had the issuance of 7.1 million documents, 3% above what we had in Q4 2022. With that, we closed the year issuing 29 million documents, the highest level for the company. I remember that throughout the year, we had the benefit of the extended calendar for the majority of driver's license, which closed in August 2023. The ID vertical showed in the period a growth of 23% in revenue and a drop of 9% in EBITDA, with a operating margin of 31.9%. As I mentioned in the previous call for the third quarter, this year, we have in our exam activity, 20 million, with a lower margin there of documents. That led to a worsening of our margins when compared to the same quarter of 2022.
In the year-to-date, revenue for ID reached BRL 747 million, a growth of 17%. For EBITDA, growth was 15%, reaching two hundred and fifty-two million. Even though margins in Q4 have been lower than the same period in the previous year, Valid closes the year with a margin level at 34%, quite close to what we had achieved in the previous year. Now, moving to payments. This was where we saw highest growth in sales and EBITDA, having acquired a higher share in consolidated numbers, even though the number of cards have remained stable year-on-year. Today, 30% of the volume of cards of Valid is produced in Argentina. Sales in Q4 reached BRL 258 million, a growth of 44%. EBITDA reached BRL 56 million in the quarter, an increase of 58%.
As we mentioned before, that growth has happened mainly because of our results in Argentina, which only in December had a positive contribution of about BRL 20 million in EBITDA. The positive effects in our operational side should be analyzed in conjunction with higher financial expenses because of foreign exchange losses and accounting adjustments due to the hyperinflation scenario. In the year, that vertical saw sales of BRL 892 million, up 30% when compared to 2022, and EBITDA of BRL 191 million, up 62%. We closed the year with an operating margin of 21.5%, an increase of 4% when compared to 2022.
Speaking about outlook, we believe that the process of interest rates cuts starting in 2023 might lead to an increase in our credit base, which would drive a higher emission of cards in Brazil or issuance, but that increment is gradual and will happen in the mid-run. In Argentina, the change in government happened in December, brought about regulatory changes that tend to make a better local business environment. For example, a drop in the deadline for import, imports payments. But the scenario in the country still requires caution with a very devalued local currency, high inflation, and high interest rates, so structural changes tend to take longer to materialize. I now turn to the mobile unit.
In the quarter, we saw a growth of 29% in terms of sales, and a reduction of 10% in terms of EBITDA, with a margin of 15.4%. We closed the year with a revenue of BRL 617 million, 11% above what we had last year, and a hundred and twenty-four million in EBITDA, a drop of 12%, with a consolidated margin of 20%. As we mentioned in previous calls, this is a segment that had global volumes impacted during the pandemic, which led to an increase in prices. Valid maintained that higher price situation in the first half. As of Q2 2023, we started to see a more intense recovery in the offering of chips, and a start of a slowdown in pricing and margins, which became clear in Q3 and Q4.
We still see price pressures, especially in geographies where we had less value-added chips, and we do not see any change in that dynamic anytime soon. We'll maintain our focus on the optimized allocation of chips in where we operate. As the year unfolds, we'll have more clarity in terms of volume, price, and unit cost. Before finishing my participation, I'll briefly talk about three events that happened recently. One of the focus of, the focuses of our team, has been a constant assessment of our portfolio, so that we can have in the company, activities, services, and geographies that present high competitiveness and potential to grow in the market. Along those lines, late last year, we announced that the company, the IoT company, Cubic Telecom, in which we held 6% share, received an offer to buy the control by SoftBank.
Our share, as minority, was bought by EUR 10 million in 2016, and was assessed now at EUR 54 million. In the sale - in the selling process, which was concluded in Q1, Valid will receive approximately EUR 32 million, and we will maintain a 2.4% stake at the company. Part of the result coming from that sale will impact, in a non-recurrent way, the results for the coming quarter. We also had the conclusion of the sale of a real estate property we had in São Bernardo, and the sale of our stake in the Urbano, digital parking company. Those three events happened in January. Now, I turn the floor over to Ivan, to Bressan, who will continue, and I'll be back for the Q&A. Those questions can be sent using our Zoom platform. Bressan, over to you.
Thank you, Ivan, Rafa, and Olavo, and to all of you with us this morning, it is a pleasure to be here at this call with you. I'd like to offer a snapshot of each of our main business lines, which represent our footprint in ID, digital government, payments, and safe connectivity, showing the view of what we have ahead of us across those three verticals. Before, however, I'd like to highlight an important point in addition to the figures just presented. I'm talking about the ENPS indicators, just measured in our most recent internal poll, where over 2,000 employees gave us a score of 73 in the item, "For this company to work," 20% above what we had in 2021. An organizational culture work that makes us ready to face internal challenges as we grow or try to grow our revenues.
As Peter Drucker said, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." Looking back, some external factors, especially the pandemic and the chip shortage in pay and mobile, plus the Argentina effect, combined to an internal capacity of this team, and made it possible for us to deliver the financial numbers we have just presented. Now, we move on to a new phase where new challenges are present, and results generation levers are different. When you look at mobile, I'd like to highlight the following points. Our results in the short and mid-term, 2021, in 2023, saw a slower drop in SIM cards volumes. The volume dynamic in the short run might increase, but in markets with lower added value, and as a consequence, lower margins. We saw a similar behavior as we transition to digital, slower than expected, even though we already see signs of a slight acceleration in 2024.
Our consolidated position across the main five players in the globe, with an approximate 10% market share, allows us to look at this vertical with a strategic view that remains the same. For SIM cards, our focus is to maintain high levels of services and focus on markets with better margins, trying to bring in more Tier One clients. Under platforms, we continue to develop portfolios. We already have about 100 platforms implemented, which allows us to migrate to digital with a strong footprint in the market, very close to the similar that the market share we have in SIM cards. In OEM, have created commercial team in China. We are developing relationships with the main Chinese manufacturers. We are one of the main partners of the two largest chipset providers in China, which positions us very well in the local market.
In IoT, we have a partnership with S&T and Infineon, our chip providers, to deliver eSIMs for companies such as Volkswagen and Uber. This way, we are maintaining our strategic view of continuing to invest in this transition to digital through OEM and IoT platforms, as well as in the state short-term dynamics for SIM cards, to maintain our good service levels and to grow Tier One clients. When we look at the banking ecosystem and the payments ecosystem, we have basically three main elements to observe. Number one, the market dynamics in Brazil, where we have a higher than 20% market share. As you saw, a drop in volume and pressure in all players about fixed costs because of the fraction idleness. Our caution is to maintain market share and the position with higher card issuing banks.
The dynamics in Argentina, where we are absolute leaders in cards, can always present surprises. We had a positive surprise with the numbers presented in 2023, and we see the same situation for the very short run in the first half of 2024. It is likely to see an improvement in the competitive pricing scenario in the second half, but our market share in that market allows us to continue capturing value in a significant manner. A third aspect in payments, has to do with the fronts of innovation in Brazil. In addition to digital revenues through billing and communication platform, which we already have, two new fronts are being implemented now. The front, the digital onboarding platform, as we acquired Flexdoc last year, where we developed a program to be more aggressive to cover commercial opportunities.
And number two, the benefit management platform, made possible through our citizenship card for our digital government journeys, along with cities and states. Both initiatives should gain traction in 2024, and our focus to find opportunities within these segments. On the ID and digital government front, it continued leading issuing documents and has started to deliver part of the government, of the document issuing. We are optimistic of issuing the new national ID card, which is gaining traction, and which will increase as we move on, throughout the next years. As we look in the short run and comparing that the issues of RG+ in January, February, compared to 2023, we already see an increase of 10% on that front.
As for CNH, the driver's license, we see a horizon of a slight drop in 2024, but a strong reduction as of 2025, which is known by all because of the pandemic and the change in renewable deadlines from 5-10 years. What we've seen in terms of new potential revenues under digital government, have proven to be enough to cover that CNH gap. Speaking specifically about the digital government, here we have a very promising front. We already have the Gov.br platform ongoing, and we have the identity product for the state, and have already started to deliver the Ceará State Digital Government. The amount for the next 30 months is of about BRL 98 million. Our focus there is to convert more opportunities from the sales pipeline with different states and signing new contracts throughout the year.
We now intensify the search for strategic alliances, such as the one signed with Cybernetica, so that our portfolio can be expanded and be more complete to meet the growing demand from different states as they seek to digitalize services for citizens, be it through digital journeys or cybersecurity initiatives. Lastly, as a measure that applies to all businesses, having now a cash position and debt position much more favorable than in previous years, we continue to look cautiously to up growth opportunities, both organic and inorganic, so that new revenues coming through innovation will be more meaningful moving forward, both in core and its parallel sources. With these new market challenges, and as you have achieved a solid cash position, all of this allows us to look for new results in expansion with a focus on innovation and on the clients.
Thank you all, and back to you, Olavo, and I remain available for Q&A or comments. Thank you.
We are back, everyone, for the Q&A session. I'm here with Bressan and Ivan and Ziggi. Questions can be sent via the Zoom chat, and the first question comes from Felipe, the following: Good morning. Congratulations on the results. With the material fact announced today, you have reached a net cash position. At the same time, you have a BRL 700 million gross debt position. Can you talk about your liability management approaches? I'll start, Ziggi, and you can come in if you want. Felipe, you are correct. Yesterday, we had this material fact being announced. As we concluded the transaction we announced last year, we have received those EUR 32 million euros in Europe, as you know, so we have now reached a net cash position.
As for debt, as you mentioned, we have about BRL 700 million in debt total, BRL 500 million here in Brazil, BRL 200 million abroad. Half of the Brazilian debt has to do with our debenture issuance, which is CDI plus 3, which we understand is way above the level that the company should be, especially when you look at the amount those papers are being traded at the secondary market. So we have been working with some banks to improve those conditions. We have recently made a prepayment of a bilateral debt that we had with a financial institution here in Brazil, and that's a bit of the strategy we have. The company does not need new resources, new funding, so the idea is to extend, terms and improve guarantees. And the same goes for our debt abroad.
We've been talking to banks in Spain, Italy, and Santander, to try and improve conditions around that debt. I believe, just to add observation, in Brazil, our average cost debt is about CDI plus 2.3-2.4, and we could improve that by about 50 basis points, I am sure. Anything else? No, that's it. Right on it. Second question, for Fábio Jubé. I'll ask it to Bressan. After the restructure for three years, without any guidance, what would be your growth strategy for the next years? Will it be a more aggressive or more conservative, as it has occurred in 2022 and 2023? Has the company been analyzing M&A operations for this year or next year?
Good morning, Fábio. Good morning, everyone. Thank you. Fábio.
If we could choose a word between aggressive and conservative, that's where we would be, halfway, as we look at the company's growth strategy. We can only reach net cash or to reach business conditions that we have now because of all the turnaround we have implemented throughout the past year. We now have reached a better position to improve, using the same criteria. Criteria is the buzzword, the right criteria to choose potential M&As. We have been focused on growing digital government or digital onboarding or AI. We'll be following along those lines, which are close to our core, close to our expertise, and that allows us to grow our portfolio with our clients.
What happened, without a doubt, is the innovation line, inside, because we have a good client base, and once those clients have needs that we're able to meet, so these internal MGTs, internal innovations, this will be encouraged so that we can fly our way to expand portfolio based on our core capabilities and grow from there. So those are the pathways. For the next calls, we're gonna be giving you more visibility around those, but you can be sure of something: We will maintain very strict analysis criteria to ensure that whatever steps we take to use this available cash that we have now, will be very cautious, as we choose new investments.
Thank you, Bressan. Fábio has another question. I'll read you, Ziggiatti. For 2024, what can you expect in terms of dividend payout? Close to 2022 or close to 2023?
And then a follow-up, BRL 173 million, which were announced yesterday, are they part of this year's cash? I can say yes, but Ziggiatti, over to you. Talk about the payout.
Thank you, Fábio, for your question. Yes, it's already part of the cash, as Olavo mentioned. And as you also mentioned, we are already net cash as of today. Yes. And to your question about payouts, yes, we expect 2024 to be very similar to what we had last year. In 2023, we paid out about BRL 100 million, paying in JCP basis, BRL 77 million, and this year, we intend to continue on the same path.
We are still deciding during our general shareholders meeting, BRL 24.6 billion, as we said yesterday, and we intend to complement that through the payout of JCP to the legal limits.
Thank you, Ziggiatti. Once again, if you have a questions, you can use the chat facility of the Zoom platform. We have another question from two questions, which are similar. We are consolidating those questions. Rafael and Yuri asked similar questions: Congratulations on the results. I'd like to know, what's your mindset about now the high cash level you have today? And you're gonna be receiving more resources from the Spain sales. You have already announced dividend payouts. Do you expect to have more payouts? Do you intend to look at MNAs or to have more investments?
We have already touched upon those issues as we answered previous questions, right? Late last year, there was a slight adjustment in legislation about JCP. That does not have a significant impact on 2024. So based on our accounts, we would be able to pay out through JCP of about BRL 75 million. As Ziggi mentioned, next week, the board will decide extraordinary dividend payout of BRL 25 million, or interim dividend payout. As for that, we are working with the banks, as I said, to try to extend our debt profiles, improve guarantees, to provide longer grace periods next year, and so on. As for M&A, we are paying close attention to opportunities that may come up in the market. As Bressan mentioned, we're being very cautious, very selective. There's no material possibility now.
The M&As we have announced are things that complement our portfolio, and for now, that's what we have. Anything else to add from you guys? Okay, let's move on. Let's move on to the next. It's similar, once again, but also Argentina. I'll split the question between Bressan and Ziggi. The question from Rafael Tavares: If you can talk about Argentina, what's the volume and the cash there, and what's the outlook you have? It's important here to say the following. Bressan, if you could talk a bit about the dynamics in Argentina and also the operational side, and then Ziggi would complement with what we have been doing in terms of cash, and as this—and how this affects the controlling shareholder.
We pay close attention to that because of the risk associated to the country. There can always be a surprise, positive or negative.
We expect that the environment there becomes better in the second half, more competitive, and this will lead to a drop in prices, because in the last half of the year, as we showed, all local players, we're talking about four local players, and we are the leaders, without a doubt, with a market share above 50%, close to 60, actually. So because of the instability of the last half of the year, prices went up, of course. The number of issuances of cards, not only through banks, but to provide handouts to the population, the volumes last year were very high volumes. About 16 million cards were issued. We look at our first half now, where the first quarter up to April, we are totally booked in our factory.
May and June will be along the same lines, close to what we had last year. But as of the second half of this year, as we have a clearance on imports, international payments, that dynamic will change, and we should resume previous levels because of average prices. As for cash, I'll turn it over to Ziggiatti.
Okay, Bressan, thank you. As for cash, we closed the year with $10 million in Argentina, without the expectation of moving the cash from there. Until we have more news about bonus, and that was an alternative the government could still be able to pay international suppliers and validate Brazilian suppliers that they have in view. We all expect to be paid for those outstanding payment.
And we are now going to the third round of negotiations with those bonuses, has been working, worked well, and we have been able to settle those invoices. So we see a positive evolution of that one.
Thank you, Bressan. Thank you, Ziggiatti. Now, next question from Gabriel. Congratulations. Results and turnaround, great year. I'd like to understand the results coming from the different business divisions. In ID, strong drop in volume from CNH, ID was benefited by Argentina. What is going to be the impact of increased competitiveness in the second half? And as we see chips prices going down, how can that affect? And if you could comment the impact on revenue and margins for each one of those verticals. Bressan. Thank you, Olavo .
Gabriel, we have three different dynamics, and I touched upon them as I presented my snapshot of those three verticals that closer to the end of my presentation. But anyway, we have a very specific dynamics, which is in terms of Brazil. As we try to expand revenues across digital government, that's a place where we have a lot of confidence. It seems to be enough for us to cover the gap created by CNH. It's a law of 20, which enacted in 2021, and will be valid in 2060, doubles the deadline, the maturity for driver licensing. This will affect the issuance of CNH of driver's license, but we are getting revenues from the government that will be enough to offset that drop in CNH issuance.
As for the same dynamics, a growing volume dynamics, until now, Brazil has issued 4.8 million new SIM documents. Valid issued 0.8 of those or 0.5 million, but they have not been captured for high issues states, São Paulo with them. So we are in the first place, we remain same as we have in the previous years. So that's very clear with stability from the point of view of issuance and use. When we talk about, of course, we need to wait and see dynamics unfold in the second half, especially around prices. This will margins, as I said before, our position as leaders in the market also allows us to capture more value, given the circumstances. I mean, there's no real uptrending or downtrending, right? We can manage that, no problem.
As for mobile, very vertical, we have to see with some concern this evolution that is being shown, especially in Asia. We will try to get higher volume, but we are not competing in their price markets, so we're going for volumes, but we know what that will do to margins. We're also expanding our ability to be able to gain global plays. As for Europe and Latin America, we had already seen a curve where SIM cards like drops, and it's lower than we thought. We thought that 2023, we would have a sharp drop. That never happened. It only started out in 2024. At the same time, the transition, though, with platforms and OEM, this is also a lever for us to be efficient, likely higher speed, still falling behind the Asian curve, but little by little, the transition will be spinning up a bit.
We think a more challenging area to maintain margin, but we have been working to innovate in more because of the transition of OEMs, plus what's happening in V2, we have talk, FX cards. The efforts of our teams will be trying to that. Can I complement? Brielle, more digitalizing of the mobile sector. That does not entail a drop, but an increase in margin, because we're talking about first, first component that has a margin, those margin than cards or a SIM card. We adopt SIM around the world, actually, what we expect to join as of 2025 is that we are well positioned to meet those demands, and this will offset potential margin impact from SIM. Thank you. Once again, questions, use the chat function. I have acquired more boost for Brielle. Good morning. Congratulations.
Give us some more details on the in the past few years, with the boom in FinTech and cards being by retail, there was an increase in the base in the future, in the to the long run. Thank you for the question, Augusto. We had some Ivan with a quote about cards. "The future takes a long time to be here." We have a significant and, and the cards drop significant. Another business with a couple of years when we move check books to card, business volumes dropped since 2019, because a long time to exhaust that vertical. So some logic dynamics, not think about terms, we're concerned about drastic drop in volume. Some factors might even improve. For example, credit expansion would attract more time, for example, and have new credit confidence, and then they will issue new cards.
There is this give and take from one to another, and FinTech are actually bringing higher volumes, which are now lower than during the pandemic because of market conditions. But we see those volumes, as it decreases very slowly, we have room to try to expand and occupy other zones. We have not paid close attention to, for example, benefits cards for each citizen, where when you have ID plus HP for benefits, there is a very large potential fragment to be able to be serviced. The project, which is already ongoing with an MP being run, and we hope to see traction there soon. Another example would be transportation cards. That's something we can still extract value from for a long time, from Valid Pay.
Just to comment, Augusto, it would be worth looking at our last investor base, Chris Bay, had. She was very vocal in saying that the market moved from 400 stock cards to 800 million cards. That dynamics, as I mentioned, of renewing those cards throughout time still ensures important sustainability levels for that business. Incumbent banks, vis-à-vis FinTech, my bank closes an agency or just a number agency or the branch, need a new card to be issued. Chris also mentioned the cost of the card vis-à-vis the lifetime value of a client. A card makes a relationship possible with a financial institution. It is a very low cost compared to a lifetime value, so that is expected to win.
On the market side, both the company, ourselves, as our manufacturing side, which if we do not have any new entrants, and there are no new entrants, and as long as we do not have, irrational CapEx spends, just maintenance and efficiency, and as long as prices do not deteriorate, significantly, those three factors combined, if they remain constant, the business remains very interesting, generating important cash levels in the coming years. Well, everyone, I think with this, last question, I have reached the end of our earnings call. I'd like to remind you that all our team, our IR team, remains available for any additional comments or questions you may have. I'll just turn it over to Ivan for his final remarks. Ivan, over to you.
Thank you, Olavo. So this is my thirteenth earnings call. Thirteenth!
It's been a pleasure for the past three and a half years. On behalf of the whole team, on behalf of the company, it's been a pleasure to report the results, the evolution that the company has seen for the past three and a half years. Record-breaking numbers in terms of results, top line, margins, EBITDA, net income, cash generation, earnings per share. So actually, the company is at a very different level compared to where we were three and a half years ago, and that's the result of the work of all of you, all of us. Thank you so much. Also, a thank you to the board of directors, the executive management here with me, and also the ones who are not here, our colleagues, the whole group, that we have called GX, the senior leadership of the company, GX.
Everyone was fundamental in transforming the company as a whole, our assets as a whole. Valid existed 63 years before I got here, right? So for the past 3.5 years, if I was able to lend my energy, my soul, my life to the leadership of this incredible team, was an incredible pleasure, a very special moment in my professional history. I leave the company physically, but I'll continue to monitor, to follow up on you, on your achievements and the glories that you will sure to achieve. Thank you also to investors, market analysts, who always had very thought-provoking remarks and questions. Thank you so much. Thank you, my colleagues here, and see you next time.