Good evening, everyone, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to Vitru Brazil's Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Release Conference. I'd like to highlight that simultaneous interpretation is available on the platform for those who need it. To access it, click on the Interpretation button through the globe icon at the bottom of the screen, and choose your language of choice, Portuguese or English. For those listening to this webcast in English, clicking on Mute Original Audio will mute the original Portuguese audio. Please note that this webcast is being recorded and will be available on the company's investor relations website, investors.vitru.com.br, where the complete earnings release material is also available. During the company's presentation, all participants will have their microphones disabled. Following that, we will begin the Q&A session.
To ask questions, click the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and type your question to join the line. When announced, a prompt to unmute your microphone will appear on your screen, and then you should unmute your microphone to ask your questions. We recommend asking all your questions at once. We would like to emphasize that the information contained in this presentation and any statements made during this webcast regarding the business outlook, projections, and operation and financial goals of Vitru Brasil, are based on the company's management beliefs, assumptions, and currently available information. Forward-looking statements are not guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions related to future events, and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.
Investors should understand that general economic conditions, market conditions, and other operational factors may affect Vitru Brazil's future performance and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such statements. Today, we are joined by the company's executives, Mr. William Matos, CEO of Vitru, Maria Carolina, Head of Investor Relations, and their team. I'll now turn the floor over to Mr. William Matos.
Hello, good evening, everyone. Welcome. I hope everyone is doing well. It's a pleasure to be gathered here today for the presentation of Vitru's second quarter of 2024 , the results, of Vitru Education. This education giant of quality education, as we've been saying, has been building a new era in Brazilian education. We are sure that all the effort that we put here make education reach, many people, leading them to a new level.
As I said, I am William Matos, CEO of Vitru, and currently, I'm serving as an interim CFO. Next to me for this meeting is Maria Carolina, our Head of Investor Relations, and we have also our analysts that are building this story with us, Vitor Augusto, Felipe, and Diana Rodrigues. I'd like to start this call with the highlights of this quarter, which was yet another period of progress and hard work for our company. Before we begin with the quarterly numbers, I'd like to thank everyone for their understanding regarding our need to postpone the disclosure of the results of this quarter. I'd like to clarify that the reason for this postponement was for some technical standards, accounting standards, that we will explain a little further later on.
Because of that, we needed a little more time to guarantee that everything would be ready and we'd like to clarify that because this is our main standard, transparency and confidence. With that being said, let's talk about the highlights that you can see on your screen. On slide four, we'd like to remind you that Vitru is listed on B3 in the segment of new market under the ticker VTRU. This big movement that consolidated the Brazilian market, this movement that reaffirms our responsibility to the Brazilian population, and without any doubt, demonstrates our commitment as a company to best corporate governance practices in being, like, starring this new market, this Novo Mercado.
So we are assured that this was a decisive move that honors our mission as a company to make quality education even more accessible to all Brazilians. I'm sure I know that some of you who are here have been following us on this historic day. You could notice that through the emotions of all those present, how seriously we take the purpose of improving the lives of Brazilian families. As Paulo Freire famously said, the great educator: "Education does not change the world, but it changes people, and people change the world." So moving on to the other highlights.
I'm pleased to announce that in the second quarter of 2024 , as we can see on the screen, we surpassed the milestone of nine 940,000 students with 90.6% of them enrolled in undergraduate courses in the business learning modality. This achievement that we established confirms the strength of our brands, and mainly demonstrates Vitru's commitment to delivering quality as Vitru does through UniCesumar and Uniasselvi. And talking about commitment, on this very slide, we would like to highlight two very important awards that we recently received. The first of those is the MIT Technology Review recognition as one of the innovative workplaces, Brazil, 2024 . This certification is a testament to how much we prioritize innovation and value work environment that fosters the development of new ideas and solution.
Stepping slightly away from the protocol at the beginning of this call, I'd like to share a quote that resonates with us. It's a quote from Yves Doz, who says, "Companies die today, not from doing the wrong things, but from doing the right things for too long." And that's the reason I'd like to emphasize that Vitru is always ahead when it comes to innovation, because we know that we are inserted in a market so influenced by technology. And to us, as a company, there's no room for stagnation and complacency. So those awards, they confirm everything that we've been doing.
The second recognition, the one I'm pleased to highlight, is that we're the only, I'd like to repeat, the only Brazilian institution, the unique one, to get the 2024 MetaRed TIC International Award in the user experience category. This is very important because this international recognition not only validates our efforts to provide a superior educational experience, but also places us in a prominent position on the entire global stage regarding education and innovation. All of that is evidence of our continuous commitment to improving the lives of our students through technology and innovation. Moving on, next slide. We present some financial highlights from the second quarter of 2024 here.
As you can see, in the first half of 2024, the average ticket for distance learning was almost 2% higher than the same period in 2023. This result validates our commitment to maintaining competitive prices while ensuring the differentiation that exists in our product in Vitru. And I bring the consolidated net revenue increased by 10.6% compared to the second quarter of 2023. This growth is significant, as I'd like to remind you, it considers our new student activation criteria, and therefore, it reflects the high effectiveness of all of the strategies that we had in this first half. And regarding the consolidated adjusted EBITDA, Vitru's growth was 22.2% in the second quarter of 2024 versus the second quarter of 2023. The adjusted margin reaching nearly 44% in the quarter.
These results show certainly an increasing profitability, and they highlight our capacity as a company to generate value in an efficient way. For you that is here listening to us, it's important to emphasize that we historically, one more quarter, has been delivering margins above the industry average. Another highlight is the fourth debenture issuance, which was crucial for extending our debt to maturity and reducing our financing costs. This strategic move strengthened our capital structure and prepares us for an even more solid and brilliant future. Now, to help me out, I'd like to call Maria Carolina, our Head, to talk a little more about our B3 movement.
Good evening, everyone. Moving on to the next slide, slide number six. We will show you slowly this very important step.
That was a completion, an unprecedented step in the Brazilian market, that Vitru did, that contributed successfully the migration of our listing to B3. Since 2024 , our shares have been traded directly on the Brazilian Stock Exchange market under the ticker VTRU3. This is a significant step. This is a result of a careful corporate reorganization that enabled the merger of Vitru Limited into Vitru Brasil. This change strengthens our presence in the local market, our role to develop the country, and positions us strategically in relation to our investors and all the financial market. Vitru is now part of the Novo Mercado, the market, a special listing segment of B3, that promotes high standards of corporate governance in the Brazilian market. This inclusion in the Novo Mercado reflects our confidence in the best practices of transparency and quality in everything we do.
We believe in the potential of our business, and we believe that our actions yet do not reflect the value creation that we have been delivering since our IPO, and we are committed to our growth plan. In addition, we approved a buyback program lasting up to 18 months, and it's added to trust that we have as a market-leading service. So it's a step further to demonstrate the commitment of the senior management and our board of directors, and to delivering and generating value for all stakeholders. I'll give the floor back to William to talk about a very important movement in our company.
Thank you, Carol. It's a beautiful picture that reminded me of that day on B3 in B3. As Carol said, we are here to emphasize another strategic movement for our company that talks about innovation.
I'd like, like, quickly, just quickly, we could spend hours here, but we'd like to say that the strategy of innovation of Vitru is based on three important pillars. Our first pillar is culture, the second is the student satisfaction, and the second is efficiency. Through Vitru Lab, we created an environment of collaboration, of experimentation and learning, that in on-campus format or distance learning, we created environments that stimulated creativity and problem-solving opportunities, anticipation to contribute to the innovation ecosystem in Vitru Education. Among the main fronts that we listed on the right, on your slide, and we know that we cannot talk about all of them. I'd like to emphasize two, specifically. The first is the intrapreneurship program that aims at enhance our culture and turn insights into concrete opportunities. You can see the numbers.
Over 400 ideas have been evaluated, and 15 are currently being accelerated by the company. I'd also like to emphasize and highlight the practical experiments designed to turn insights into opportunities. As you can see in the bullet below, we have over 2,218 ideas, 50 of them that are in the experimentation phase with AI and emerging technologies. As I have said, and I'd like to emphasize that today, AI does not harm education. On the contrary, when used effectively, it enhances and provides customized learning. Something that all of us that understand education, we know it's crucial today, mainly because of the reality and the profile of our students. So why we brought this slide?
For you to know our strategies and our initiatives, and where we are driving the transformation, and where we are shaping Vitru's future through bold, sustainable projects and projects that along throughout all the daily construction, will add high value to the initiatives. So this focus on innovation has positively impacted the market. As we said before, besides the recognition that we already said, the MetaRed Award, I'd like to remind you that the last bullet, that we were included in the TIMES Magazine list as one of the top edtech companies in the world in 2024. So we are sure that we are reaping the rewards of our dedicated efforts every day, and we are a benchmark. We're highlighted in the educational sector in the 2024 edition of the Valor Econômico's Innovation Award.
So everything together shows the great work that we've been doing, anticipating what to do. With that being said, changing completely the subject, I'd like to give the floor back to Carolina for her to move on.
Talking about slide number eight. I'd like to show you a topic that we've been talking since the beginning of the year. We had a harmonization of criteria between our two brands. We made some adjustments at Uniasselvi to align the student activation criteria for students or recognition in the student base, with the standards already used at UniCesumar. As a result of this harmonization, we expect lower nominal growth in 2024, in comparison to 2023, both in the student base and in net revenue.
What we'd like to emphasize, since the announcement of this harmonization, it's crucial for enhancing our strategic vision, and through that, we will have an even more precise, sustainable growth plan. It's a testament to the confidence investors can have in our management. We're committed to having indicators that are really reliable and accurate. Every time we see that we have to adjust, of course, for the best results, we are going to do it so confidently. This unique management philosophy in our company has ensured Vitru's exceptional results and promising growth prospects. With this harmonization, our performance in the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2024 demonstrates the resilience of our business model.
Our net revenue on distance learning has accumulated a growth of 9% in the first half of 2024, and we will discuss revenue further as the presentation goes on. The impact of this harmonization is approximately 25,000 fewer students in the student base, with a BRL 5 million effect on net revenue for the second quarter. As we showed, we are confident in this move. We are mitigating any doubts you may have, and it's essential to emphasize that these changes will not impact the company's cash flow. It is very relevant. It's important that we emphasize that. It has low impact on our cash flow, because the invoices generated for unengaged students were not paid, and ultimately, they became bad debt provisions within 12 months after issuance, and this change in criteria brings a positive effect.
And there are other positive effects associated with these changes. Two, we need to highlight. One is the reduction of the provision for doubtful accounts, PDD, throughout 2024 and 2025, and some tax savings associated with the non-issuance of those invoices, contributing to a greater financial stability at Vitru. So moving on to the next slides with the operation numbers for the quarter. William, please.
Thank you again, Carol. So moving on to page nine, you can see on the left side of your screen the evolution in total student intake for distance learning. It grew 12% in the last quarter, following an intake over the past three years that has grown 22%. These numbers reflect our competence and leadership in distance learning. It demonstrates a solid growth, and it highlights all our advantages.
And on the right, you saw that the breakdown of the intake among engaged students was recognized in both the intake and the student base, and the non-engaged students who, as Carol previously explained, with the new criteria of student activation, are not being recognized in the student base since the beginning of 2020. Moving on to the next slide, number 10. It shows the continued growth of Vitru's student base. As you can see, in this quarter, our base grew by almost 3%, noting that we are already the largest distance learning company in the country. So we have a high comparison base, which has accumulated a strong growth in recent years, and this base is now supported by new engaged students. So we are confident in the results that we will achieve moving forward.
It's also worth noting that from this base, 97.6% of our students are from the distance learning, and another 854 students are enrolled in undergraduate programs, and it's a 2% increase compared to the same period in 2023. So this growth is within the company's expectations, and I know that sometimes we repeat ourselves, but we will do that a lot this year, 'cause it's very important to explain that since the first quarter of 2024, the non-engaged students of Uniasselvi, those who signed a contract with Uniasselvi, did not take any exams and did not make any tuition payments, they are no longer included in the student base, and even that, our numbers are growing. Now moving forward to the next slide, number 11.
It shows how we are one of the leading national players presence across the country, across Brazil. And we continue to like strong growth of our student base and in the hub the growth of hubs in the country, in all the regions. So looking at this slide, it's clear that we are making continuous progress in the Southeastern Region of Brazil, as we said in the first quarter. This has a higher population density and many opportunities for the expansion for both brands for the increase in the number of hubs and also an increase in students in this region. And it's going to remain prominent the following quarters. The next slide, we can get a better view of presence, please.
As you can see, on the left side of slide number 12, we have a clear view of our national presence, and more, we can see how our brands have been complementing each other within this geographical distribution. What is important to say here, on the second quarter, it closed with 2,515 hubs, and they are distributed across over 1,400 municipalities, and all of that is in line with our synergy plan. As we said before, the cross-expansion of the brands, Uniasselvi and UniCesumar. As you can see on the right side of your screen, in June 2024, we have seen a 10% increase in the number of Brazilian cities served by both brands, compared to the distribution of cities when we look at the same period in 2023. So moving on to the next slide.
We would like to take our time here to emphasize that it's very important for everybody that knows that we focus on delivering high-quality digital education. Many times, it's evidenced by the ratings that our users give our apps, and this is very important for the market when they choose the institution. Today, we have the best apps compared to the listed players in the country, and it's important to emphasize that all our apps are proprietary. And not only that, but they are a very important part of our students' learning journey. And we are fully committed to delivering an excellent experience to our students. And today, we know how our students are using our apps to have this experience. And besides that, we'd like to highlight on the right side of the screen the ratings from the website, Reclame AQUI.
We always try to solve any reported issues in the best possible way, and you know that the reputation of our brands, they remained well above average when compared to the other players. All those quality indicators, when added to the public recognition that we highlighted at the beginning of the presentation, demonstrate how evident it is to the market and to our students, our unwavering commitment, if I can say, to excellence. We have been seeing all the positive impact that through UniCesumar and Uniasselvi we have created on people's lives. As I'd like to say, we have a company with a very strong organizational culture, a culture driven by purpose, which is what pushes us forward.
And that's the reason you see an institution that care about details when we talk about our students' experience. Continuing our presentation, moving on to slide. Let's talk a little about our numbers of average ticket price. It reflected a 2% growth over the last 12 months, an average growth of 4%, about 4% over the past three years. It already considers Vitru as a whole, meaning since 2024 , we united the brands in the reports that we present to the market, and those numbers are very close to inflation. It confirms the strategy of differentiation we have in our products and our positioning as a quality player in digital education.
However, when you look at the right side, it's important to emphasize to all of you that the average ticket grew, despite a slight fluctuation in the semesters in total student intake, and a decrease in the share of premium courses that have a higher average ticket, counterbalanced by, you can see here, 35%-38% of technological courses, as I was, and we know that they have a cheaper ticket price. It's worth noting that this variation in course participation was predicted, especially when you look at the healthcare and the engineering courses. We saw that they grew significantly during the pandemics. This adjustment of their performance was expected, especially the health courses. Next slide. Now you can see some financial indicators.
As you can see, in the second quarter, we had an approximately 11% expansion in net revenue and a 22% Adjusted EBITDA, and it's worth noting, as we had said in the previous quarter, that the composite margin will now begin to reflect costs related to preceptors, especially related to the health courses, so as the year moves on, this metric show a more neutral performance, so on slide number 16, please. You can see here the main drivers for revenue growth on this quarter. That was the on-campus and the graduate and the continuing education segment. So the continuing education business unit increased its revenue by 34%. So it's a performance significantly relevant, and we've been talking a lot about that since the end of last year.
That demonstrates the great potential of digital lifelong learning in Brazil, and we've been pioneers in this movement. We believe that this segment was a wise decision. We made it opportunities and opportunities of growth that we observed. And adding to that, we're focused on digital education. We look for being pioneers and being ahead of the market. Following the same premise that brought us here, that is everything that we do needs to be well done. We contributed to the consolidated net revenue in our on-campus education segment. As you can see, it had an increase of 26% of revenue, reflecting the temporary recovery of the segment and the rising average and the focus of it.
So the next slide, we can see clearly the proportion of those two businesses within features of our portfolio in the second quarter of 2024 versus the second quarter of 2023. In other words, the business of continuing education increased its share from 5% to 7%. On-campus undergraduate education showed an increase from 8% to 9%. But business learning, on the other hand, is our strongest point in the consolidated revenue mix. So I'd like to give the floor back to Carolina.
So on slide 18, we highlight the growth of in net revenue from business learning. That grew 8%, related to the previous year.
As we have repeatedly said, it's very important to emphasize that Vitru is showing a positive performance in business learning, in the business learning segment, along 2024, including adopting more conservative student activation criteria. Therefore, even with the student base growing at more modest rates, our scale gains and healthy pricing policies are reflected in the segment's net revenue. We can see on the right side of the screen, a historical growth of the business learning market in Brazil, and the continuous expansion of our market share within this growing market, according to INEP figures. We have many solid reasons trusting on the main statistical groups in the world, and we believe strongly that the business learning sector in Brazil still has a long growth ahead in coming years.
When we move to slide number 19, we can see the evolution in the net revenue in the medicine course. It was a 6% comparing the second quarter of 2024 to second quarter of 2023. This increment in net revenue is a combination of the maturity of the vacancies with the maturity of the average ticket. We'd like to remind the market that our medicine school is the biggest in this region of the country. It's located in a city that is connected to the high quality of the institution and the service we provide for our students. We have the fifth best course of medicine in Brazil among the private institutions, what explains the health of our average ticket.
In the latter last months, we increased the occupation of vacancies that contributed to the performance of this segment. Here we see the evolution of the on-campus segment that increased by 26% in this quarter, and this performance is explained by the segment recovery after the end of the pandemic, combined with a better ticket than the same period. On the same slide, on the right side, we highlight the significant increase in net revenue from continuing education. It is 34% increase. That reflects an expansion, which is aligned to the diversification strategy in technical and postgraduate courses that Vitru has adopted.
In slide number 21, we have more data on the growth that Vitru believes in, in this continuing education segment, and it's very clear that there's an interesting opportunity in this segment, which is underexplored by large-scale players in Brazil. So the continuing education segment will include technical courses, vocational training, and postgraduate programs. On the left side, according to the latest census data, Brazil graduates 1.2 million university students every year. It's a potential target audience for postgraduate courses, in addition to all the professionals who are already graduated and are looking for new training. So we also look at the high school education.
We have significant numbers, like 7.7 million young students over 16 years old, and considering the country's socioeconomic characteristics, we have to know that those young people are about to enter the job market, and they look for those vocational courses as an entry point as they seek their first job. It's also worth noting that the new regulation of technical education, and the federal government allowed the new vacancies. Only a few listed players with a national presence have focused on this market. And with that, we obtain nearly 43% of the regulated vacancies in Brazil. So give the floor back to William to present some other numbers of the-
Thank you, Carol, again. So moving to slide number 22.
As you can see on the screen, we have the evolution of Vitru's adjusted EBITDA, with a growth of 22.2% compared to the second quarter of 2023, and a margin of 4.2 percentage points higher. So BRL 253 million reflect not only the strong revenue performance, but as you can see later, a lower cost of provision for doubtful accounts. And as we promised in the other quarter, a lower level of marketing expenses, as you will see in the upcoming slides. So we are going to explain a little more all the columns, so you can move to the next slide, please. So you see a chart on the left.
It shows the reduction in cost of services as a percentage of net revenue in 2024, reflecting, as I said before, both the scale gains and the final impacts of the integration of UniCesumar into Vitru. Also, I'd like to say in advance that throughout this year, we will observe a slight increase in the direct costs. As I said before, it's a natural consequence of the maturation of hybrid courses in health area, that have classes with staffers and it leads to some cost increase. Talking about the chart on the right, you have the general and administrative expenses of Vitru. Again, they confirm our lean structure with G&A representing only 4.9% of net revenue this quarter. As we like to emphasize, one of the lowest in the educational sector.
Going to slide number 24. As you can see on the left, you see the marketing sales expenses, which remained stable in this quarter as a percentage of net revenue. In the accumulated in the year, it still reflects the expansion strategy implemented by the company at the beginning of 2024. This expansion, at that moment, included a significant movement in the first quarter, both in digital and traditional media, aiming at bringing new students in that first big intake. As we said in the latest quarter, we have an entry in the Southeastern Region. It's worth recalling that in the first quarter of 2024, we stated that, while 2024, the marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue, would return along on the year to similar levels to those seen in 2023.
This is something that the company, after a very serious work, would highlight from the second quarter on. On the right-hand part, we bring some good news. It's the provision for doubtful accounts. It was decreased expressively by 27% in the second quarter, presenting only 10% of net revenue for the period, and this reduction will occur. We might see some oscillations this year, but the most important reflection will come in 2025, and those are the non-engaged students that no longer recognize, and therefore you're not billing them anymore. So it reflects a more modest growth in the student space. But on the other hand, we can see that is a positive impact on Vitru's profitability.
On the next slide, we can see on the left side, on the chart on the left, the adjusted cash flow from operations, showing a decrease of about 14% compared to the second quarter of 2023. This lower cash conversion is related to lower accounts receivable, which reflects the change in revenue recognition criteria initiated at the beginning of the year. Another very important point that I'd like to highlight here was some benefits that Vitru offered to students in Rio Grande do Sul, the south part of the country, that were affected by the climate crisis floods at the beginning of the quarter. At first, we postponed to all the students from that state, the payment deadline for May and June.
So we postponed the payment of the tuition fees to the end of 2024. It brings an initial impact, and on the right side of the slide, we show the adjusted net income profit for 2024. That was BRL 104.4 million. This reduction, compared to 2023, reflects higher net financial expenses due to the new debt issuance, lower interest on tuition payments, and also a lower impact, as you can see in the bullet, of a deferred income tax during this period, as we explained on the screen below. Moving to the last two slides of our presentation, we had a lot to share with you. So moving on. On this slide, we can have a view of our debt and our leverage.
As you can see on this quarter, as you are aware, Vitru completed its fourth debenture issuance, totaling BRL 850 million. These debentures are indexed to the CDI Interbank deposit certificate, plus a spread of 2%, and they have a four-year maturity. So the proceeds from those debentures were used for the prepayment in July 2024, of part of the second series of the company's first debenture issuance, and the other part for cash certification. And it's worth noting that by June, at the end of the quarter, we had the amortization and the prepayment, as we have just mentioned, that they happened only on June second. In a way that we finished the second quarter with a cash way above the optimal level.
Next week, we paid second June. Regarding debt management, on the right, it's also worth highlighting that our leverage is decreasing, and we have an adjusted EBITDA debt 2.6 times, well below the company's covenant levels. I'd like to, as I said at the beginning, break down the explanations and leave you all very confident regarding the delay we had in this quarter. In early July, company was questioned by an investor, through the fiduciary agent, about the compliance with the clause in the guarantee agreement of the first debenture issuance of UniCesumar. This clause talked about restrictions on the declaration, distribution, or payment of interest on equity or any other form of dividends of UniCesumar, without approval through a general meeting of debenture holders.
Vitru manages its capital, considering the consolidated position of its operations, and it assumes the distribution of dividends from the entities of the group to its parent company, to honor the commitments made at the holding level. Such commitments encompass Vitru Brasil and encompasses the respective debenture issues. What's important to highlight here, since it's an intercompany movementation that do not harm the debenture holders. We responded to this questioning, informing the fiduciary agent, who contacted directly the debenture holders and received a positive feedback. There are two things: first, the writing of the clause amendment that was in, and the waiver related to this obligation that existed in the past. As a company, we had the general meeting in August 13, 2024. We regularized this situation.
We amended the writing of this clause so that we don't need the general meeting in the future for this kind of distribution events. However, in this compliance with the current accounting standards, our auditors opted to follow the CPC 26 accounting standards, that requires the reclassification of the contract of the first adventure to short-term liabilities regarding our financial results from the past related to this quarter. This caused a delay in some days, and we had the earnings release of the second quarter only today. Vitru, as a company, respects, of course, the technical perspective adopted by the auditors responsible for this general meeting. However, the statement of results in the second quarter does not reflect our real position regarding our liabilities in short- and long-term.
That's the reason we have notes to show you the maturity of our debts, and then you can see the timeline of amortization here on your screen, without any impact of the non-pecuniary restriction that we discussed. So it was a topic that delayed our general meeting, but it's already settled and aligned with all of the stakeholders. And then we move on with great expectations to do what we have. And to conclude, moving on to the final remarks before opening the floor to the Q&A. I'd like to emphasize the amazing work Vitru has been doing in Brazilian education, resulting in leadership in business learning education in Brazil.
And we are sure that all the market's recognition of the quality education we offer is the most tangible proof of how we've been doing that with excellence and effectiveness in this, regarding the experience of our students and our commercial strategies for growth. So we remain focused on expanding our student space, improving the margins, increasing the penetration of business learning in Brazil, and of course, in differentiating ourselves through quality and innovation, basing what we deliver to our students. So once again, I'd like to thank the confidence, the trust you place in us, and we are sure we are on the right path. And now I'd like to give the floor back to our host for us to commence the Q&A session. Thank you very much.
We will now begin the Q&A session.
Please remember that to ask questions, you have to click the Q&A icon at the bottom of the screen and type your question to join the line. When announced, a request to unmute your microphone will appear on your screen, then you should unmute your microphone to ask questions. So let's move on to our first question from Lucas Nagano, Morgan Stanley. Lucas, we will open your audio so that you can ask your question. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. William, Carol, thanks for everything. I have two questions. The first is regarding the intake. Could you recommend the outlook of growth for the second quarter, and also the perspective of opening new hubs with this MEC decree that may impact your operation, the opening of hubs?
How many hubs, besides those 2,515 that you reported, you can start operation? And the second question is regarding the cash conversion. Could you detail a little more the items that impacted the cash generation and the capital in the period? We understand that with this harmonization and with some conservative criteria of revenue, we might approximate the EBITDA and the cash. So I'd like to have some color on this sense, please.
Hello, Lucas. Thanks for your question. It's great to see you here. So let's begin with the first question, regarding intake and growth on the second half of the year. Not having the privilege of having the last months because of the delay, but we have been delivering a great result, a growth in the face of all the challenges that we've been facing.
Looking for a double digit, a little lower regarding the volume of captation we had in 2023. So we are working the intake of the second half. We can keep delivering something closer to the first half of double digit, lower. We have some difficulties, as our colleagues said some challenges ahead, but we're sure that we can deliver growth. Regarding the opening of new hubs, they are not official numbers, so we cannot attest that. But we are very calm that besides the 2,515 hubs, we are in the process of opening something that was a goal of the company, that is in the year of 2024, opening between 100 and 150 hubs in both brands. So we are still doing that.
It's still preserved, and we guarantee the expansion that we predicted by the end of 2024, and then we can have the harvest in 2025. So I believe we're going to open around 150 hubs in every company - in both companies, to have a significant growth in between them. And regarding the cash issue, I'm going to give the floor to Carol.
Good evening, Lucas. Looking at the measure of conversion, that it was different from the EBITDA, the first semester. The main impact are the topics related to the Rio Grande do Sul, the postponement of the tuition payment for the students from Rio Grande do Sul in May and June. And there are some other issues that are natural in the business, in the movement last year and this year.
If we look at the semester, our cash conversion is within the company's set standards, and we're going to work along the year that this postponement of payment of those invoices are followed. It was a humane decision we made. We looked at the safety of our collaborators and students, but we are working on recovering this cash flow for the following months, and that's why the average of conversion was not the same, and the use of the cash, we had some expenses with the migration to D3, the listing. So we had some expenses that are not in the just EBITDA because of that.
Thank you, William and Carol. It's very clear. I don't know if William wants to add something.
Oh, no, I think Carol answered very well. Thank you.
Thank you, Lucas.
Thank you, Lucas, for your question.
Our next question is from Luca Marchesini, sell-side analyst of Itaú BBA. Luca, we'll unmute your audio so that you can ask your question. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity. I'd like to talk about the provision for doubtful accounts. It was responsible for the improving the EBITDA in this semester. Is this a normalized level of doubtful accounts of PDD? Is it sustainable, or you believe that we can extract some gains in this front? Thank you.
Hello, Luca. Thanks for your question. As I said during my speech, the PDD, the provision for doubtful accounts, and we've been saying that since the beginning, the expectation of normalizing it will happen in 2025 , because we have some student curves that are in the new criteria. We have some old students.
We believe that in 2024, we'll have some oscillation in this PDD. We've been working intensively on Uniasselvi to understand this new guideline, this new moment we've been living. There is a little impact, not only a positive one, inside our business model. It happens that it is EAD. We believe as a company that we can't aim at as a platform. We might have some hiccups during the second semester, a few bumps that we're following up close. That is the Porto Alegre crisis. So we had a process of increasing the revenue. We need to understand if this student will be engaged on the second half of the year. We have to look at that further.
Maybe part of those figures are going to be part of the PDD, that is, maybe the student will not engage in the second semester. So we're aiming at a level that is going to be built along 2024. So the final statement results in 2024. We will be able to establish a definite curve, way more aligned with the PDD for 2025.
Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you, Luca, for your question.
Our next question comes from Yann Szyszka, from BTG Pactual. Yan, we're going to unmute your audio so that you can ask your question. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, William, Carol, all the other directors. I'd like to ask two questions. First, a follow-up in this intake issue. I'd like to understand some other aspects of this cycle that you can realize, retention and tickets.
I'd like to understand if you noticed some change or some maintenance of the retention rates of the students in this intake, this intake cycle? And if you can foresee some oscillation, a stronger oscillation in ticket, given the competition in the second cycle of intake? Second question is about CapEx. We can realize a reduction in the CapEx level. It's just a little, but we can realize that. So we can have this lower CapEx level as healthy forward. That's it. Thank you, guys.
Olá, Jan. Thanks for your question. So let's echo your first question. Having a view of the second semester. When we talk about ticket, we're not worried with a decrease in ticket for the second half.
The retention is aligned to what we've been presenting on the first half. In spite of the difficulties in capitation, it's a little more challenging. But Vitru's policy has always been not having big movements in tickets. On the contrary, we have always had a policy that keeps the ticket. We had an increase in ticket, mainly at Universidade Zumbi, when all the combination happened. So we're not worried about tickets and retention. Of course, as I said before, the effort you have to put is big for us to keep the low double digit. But the market has been talking about it, and I'd like to seize the moment to talk about the challenges of capitation when we look at the bets landscape.
So the retail positioned itself, and part of this, the impact they've been suffering, we can't forget that this profile of the bets, sporting bets clients, DC, is very similar to the audience that chooses business learning education. So those people have been investing on average BRL 200 to BRL 250 per month in bets, and this is very close to our tuition, monthly tuition. So we've been looking at that alongside the retail market. We're looking at this impact, and we felt that especially on the second half. And regarding CapEx, we know that the insertion of CapEx in the company is a little seasonal. We have the first quarter and we initiate the operation.
And in the second half, this value goes up a little because we prepare the operation for the next year. So we don't have a balance point in the second quarter. But regarding CapEx, Vitru has always differentiated itself, having a lower cost, and at first, we don't see any risk or anything new that will give us some like scare for next year. So yeah, it was clear.
Thank you, William.
Thank you, Jan, for your question.
Our next question is from Mirela Oliveira from Bank of America. Mirela, we're going to open your audio so that you can ask your question. Please go ahead.
Good evening, William and Carol. Thanks for the opportunity. I have two questions. First is a follow-up regarding the harmonization of student criteria.
Was there any change in the provisions curve used for Uniasselvi? What was the dynamics that brought this, like, quick change in PDD? And regarding M&A, since you had this slight increase on second quarter.
Mirela.
I'm going to start answering the first. The second question, and William will answer your first. Thank you for joining our call. Regarding the PDD curves, we follow. We move having some strict criteria. What changed is that we do not activate a student, we no longer activate the student that are bound to enter this curve. So I don't recognize him at the basis. I do not issue invoices for him, for them, so I have fewer credits to consider in this curve, but the criteria of the curve is unchanged, conservative, as we've been doing in the last years.
Mirela, thanks for your question. Just a small complement of Carol's answer. We have a settlement for those curves. It's something new with the control sector. Understanding the profile of the student, it changed. But this change not always goes to the direction we want. However, on the second quarter, it could have a positive impact. I'd like to remind you that the second quarter comes from the first quarter, and it comes later. So we can't guarantee in 2024 this number and this same quarter, we have some renovation. So we might have some change in behavior. The question about M&A, how can I say, Mirela? It's important that we are aware, like, where the market is going and which direction the tides will follow.
So we have to remember that Vitru has in its DNA very strong growth, very strong expansion, combination. That was a big transformation that happened two years ago, and we are still finishing in 2024 . This integration of everything that was built in those two companies. And M&A, you know, we are always aware. The managers have to be aware, have to be attentive to everything that's happening, small things, medium things, and big things, in all the segments. And obviously, as a company, we've been looking at reducing our leverage levels, and this reduction might in the near future, maybe in 2025 , as a goal, reducing the leverage levels, we can open room to think about M&A for growth and keep expanding our company. So thank you, Mirela and Carol.
Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I'm talking about G&A. So we saw a slight increase on the second quarter. Mirela, I'm sorry, I thought you were, like, pushing me, so I'll give the floor back to Carol for her to talk about our G&A. Well, Mirela, give after our G&A. Have some where there are now combination, a mismatch, the new businesses. But when we look at a timeline, we can. We have a lean structure, and we have a percentage of revenue that is about 5.5-6%, and we keep that going forward. Thank you, Carol. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mirela, for the question. So we'd like to say that the Q&A is closed. We'd like to give back the floor for the final remarks of the company.
We'd like to thank you again for being part of attending here. We'd like to apologize for not being able to do it on the correct date. However, we are here. We solved many problems. We had a quarter with great results, and we keep working or delivering future results for the company. Once again, thank you very much for your participation. The webcast for Vitru Brasil's second quarter twenty twenty-four results is now concluded. The investor relations department is available to address any further questions or concerns. Thank you to all participants, and have a great evening.