Note that this video conference is being recorded and will be made available on the company's investor relations website at investors.vitru.com.br, where you can also find the complete materials for our earnings release. The presentation can also be downloaded by clicking on the chat icon, including the English version. During the company's presentation, all participants will have their microphones muted. We will then begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and type your question to join the line. When your name is called, a request to activate your microphone will appear on your screen. You should then unmute your microphone to ask your questions. We kindly ask that you ask all your questions once. Joining us today are the company's executives, Aroldo Alves and Gabriel Lobo.
To begin, I will now turn the floor over to Mr. Aroldo Alves.
Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here for Vitru Educação's second quarter and first half 2026 earnings call. I would like to start by thanking each and every one of you for being here, and I would like to give you an overview of the main highlights for the period. The first half of 2026 confirms the execution discipline that we have maintained quarter after quarter. We ended the first half with 1,031,000 engaged students, up almost 5% compared with the same period last year. This is already under the unified engaged student criteria for UNIASSELVI and UniCesumar, which we will talk a little more about in a moment. Just as important as the growth in our student base is the improvement in the quality of our intake.
Hybrid programs grew 35% in the period and represented 58% of total intake in the first half, reinforcing the importance of this format within our strategy and the company's positioning in light of the changes taking place in the sector. This operational progress was followed by consistent financial growth. Net revenue reached BRL 1.2 billion, up almost 8%, while adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 513 million, up 12%. Our adjusted EBITDA margin reached 40%, an expansion of 1.7 percentage points, and the highest first half EBITDA margin in the company's history. This result reinforces our ability to grow while maintaining execution discipline and operational efficiency. Adjusted net income on a cash tax basis also showed significant improvement, reaching BRL 252 million, growth of almost 29% with a net margin of 20.3%.
In the first half, we generated a record free cash flow of BRL 410 million, up almost 65% compared with the first half of last year. The solid cash generation, combined with the initiatives carried out during the period, contributed to a BRL 630 million reduction in net debt ex-IFRS 16 year over year, bringing our leverage down to 1.36x compared with 2.34 x last June. Moving on to the next slide, we are going to take a closer look at the evolution of our undergraduate operations.
Now, slide five. Here, we ended the first half with 945,000 engaged students in hybrid and distance learning undergraduate programs, up 5.5% compared with the first half of last year. It is worth remembering that since the beginning of this year, we have adopted a single engaged student criterion for UNIASSELVI and UniCesumar, considering not only enrollment, but the students' actual academic or financial engagement.
More than just a methodological adjustment, this change consolidated the need management mindset within the company. Revenue generated by students who actually engage academically and financially became a key indicator for us, and we built our targets around it. In addition to the growth in the student base, we also saw positive development in the average ticket, which reached BRL 287.4, up 1.5% year-over-year. The main highlight on this slide is the quality of our intake. Under this engaged student methodology, our intake reached almost 88,000 students in the first half of this year, up 21.3% compared with the same period last year. Within this intake, hybrid programs increased their share from 51.6% to 57.6%, reinforcing a trend we had already been seen and one that is very much aligned with the company's strategic positioning.
Just as important as the growth in intake was improvement in our engagement rate, which increased from 72.5% to 82.1%, an improvement of 9.6 percentage points. The improvement in the engagement rate shows that we are bringing more engaged students into our base right from the beginning of their academic journey, reflecting the changes we have implemented both in the intake process and in the student onboarding experience. This focus on quality does not end with intake. It can also be seen in the student experience throughout the journey. When we look at indicators such as NPS in the first half of this year, UNIASSELVI improved by five points. UniCesumar improved by two points, even while we were going through the stabilization process for academic solutions implemented last year. As a result, both brands ended the cycle in the quality zone.
Taken together, these indicators show an operation that is growing with greater engagement, a better student experience, and a higher quality student base. Now to go into more detail on our financial results for the period, I will hand over the floor to our CFO, Gabriel Lobo.
Thank you, Aroldo. Good morning, everyone. Moving on to slide seven, let us take a closer look at our consolidated net revenue and the performance of each of our business segments. The second quarter of 2026, consolidated net revenue reached BRL 661.4 million, up 9.1% compared to the second quarter of 2025. For the first half as a whole, net revenue totaled BRL 1.2 billion, an increase of 7.7% compared to the first half last year.
This growth continues to be driven by revenue from hybrid undergraduate programs, which, as Aroldo mentioned, grew 17.2% in the quarter and 14.9% in the first half, reaching BRL 338.6 million and BRL 323.9 million respectively. I think that today is important to bring this. When we look at the first half as a whole, hybrid undergraduate programs already account for more than 50% of consolidated net revenue. Business learning undergraduate programs grew 6.1% in the quarter, reaching BRL 149.7 million, and in the first half we grew 4%, reaching BRL 277.1 million. On-campus undergraduate programs, excluding Medicina, improved 2.4% this quarter and 4.7% in the half, reaching BRL 108 million for the six-month period. Medicina, which is an extremely important program and a very relevant part of our business, generated BRL 161.2 million in the first half, up 4% comparing the same period last year.
Finally, continuing education declined 17% in the first half, going to BRL 69.6 million. Here it reflects something that we've already been discussing in the previous quarter, the adjustments we've been making, especially to the portfolio of continuing education offerings. Finally, to wrap up this slide, I'd like to highlight the contribution from other revenue. This line includes academic services, things like make-up exams, summer courses, and its scope has been gradually expanded by the company over the past few semesters, and we've already seen some growth of 72.5% this quarter, reaching BRL 9.2 million. Moving on to slide number eight, on the left-hand side, we have the adjusted growth, gross profit, which grew 8.2% this quarter to BRL 461.1 million. We reached a gross margin of 70.3%, down 0.6 percentage points compared to the second quarter of 2025.
For the first half, adjusted gross profit totaled BRL 878 million, up 6.5%, with a structural margin of 70.8%. I think it's worth emphasizing that even with the slight negative variation, we continue to operate at a margin that's well above the company's historical structural margin, which once again confirms the efficiency of our cost management over time. I think it's also important to highlight something we've already mentioned before. Some of the healthcare programs we launched over the past four years are now maturing. As these program mature, they carry certain preceptorship costs. Naturally, those costs are now flowing through our gross. Moving to the right-hand side of the slide, we have some important details regarding our operational efficiency. Particularly when we look at SG&A and bad debt provisions.
Sales and marketing expenses, we directed our investments toward bringing in students with a higher potential for engagement and retention. In the first half, these expenses totaled BRL 196.6 million, basically stable compared to the first half of 2025, but with a 1 percentage point dilution as a percentage of net revenue, which is extremely relevant. We went from 16.8% to 15.8% in the first half. This is a clear reflection of the more efficient allocation of investments by our marketing commercial teams, as well as a significant improvement in our CAC CEC. Adjusted general and administrative expenses, or G&A, totaled 79.6% in the first half, up 20.2% compared to the first half of 2025, an increase from 5.7% to 6.4% of net revenue. At first glance, this may look a little concerning, but I think it's important to explain this.
It reflects a new cost base following the relocation of our corporate headquarters to São Paulo, which took place over the course of last year. During the first year, we had a rent-free period associated with the new headquarters. This period is now over, so we're beginning to recognize some new costs. In addition to that, we also made a strategic change, where we moved to leasing IT equipment instead of purchasing it. So rather than making the investment through CapEx, we now recognize it as a recurring lease expense. Again, obviously, there is a lot of financial analysis behind it. It wasn't a decision made without a solid rationale. It's important to point out that when we look at cash at the end of the day, the effect is neutral.
When we look at P&L and in balance sheet lines, however, there is a shift between lines. It is also worth highlighting another important development in G&A, which helps explains this high double-digit increase. Perhaps the most important thing to mention when we look at SG&A is that we have now become much stricter in terms of what we classify internally as a non-recurring expense. If you remember historically, three or four years ago, Vitru has always had somewhat larger non-recurring line, something the market often questioned.
As a part of our agenda of greater clarity and greater transparency, we have been gradually cleaning that up. Just to give you a sense of the magnitude. Total non-recurring expenses fell 78.9% from BRL 30 million last year to BRL 7 million this year. Starting this year, we have raised the bar significantly. We have become much stricter about what will qualify as non-recurring.
Naturally, this reduces that line and brings greater discipline to our recurring cost base. Obviously, it helps explain the increase in G&A for the period. On a comparable basis, that increase would not be as pronounced. The point I would like to highlight here, to wrap up this slide is bad debt, PCLD. The first half of 2026, net losses totaled BRL 95.9 million, a reduction of 17% compared to the first half of 2025.
As a percentage of net revenue, they fell from 10% to 7.7%, a 2.3 percentage points reduction, which is very significant. This result is the outcome of a structural work stream that we have been implementing since 2024, involving many different areas of the company. This is not just an agenda for the financial team, it is a company-wide agenda. First, we transformed the student journey, obviously with a focus on experience and on making payment easier.
We introduced a new layout for both our learning environment and our payment environment, making the whole experience much more fluid and seamless. Then we also expanded the collection side of the process, particularly at checkout, by increasing the number of payment methods available beyond bank slips. We have an initiative internally that we call in Portuguese, Boleto Zero. Today in Brazil, we increasingly have alternatives available. Technology is there for exactly that. We accelerated Pix, P-I-X, adoption and accelerated the use of credit cards. As a result, just to give you a few numbers, Pix went from 22% three years ago to 62% of our current payment mix. In the opposite direction, bank slips fell from 65% to 21% over the same three years.
When we combine better student experience and greater student engagement, as Aroldo explained really well, with a more fluid and seamless checkout and payment experience, we naturally see a lower PCLD, lower bad debt, and better collections. I am not even getting into some of the other important initiatives here, such as renegotiations. We have done lots on the renegotiation front. Introduced a number of new tools for the team to manage the process. All of that has been feeding through the healthier accounts receivable and better working capital. We can see that in cash generation and also in bad debt. It is important to put it into context because we are now starting to see very clear results, not only in the P&L, but also in cash. Moving on to the next slide number nine, we have the adjusted EBITDA bridge.
The second quarter of 2026, adjusted EBITDA went up 9.3% compared with the second quarter of 2025, with a stable EBITDA margin, despite a very high comparison base in the same period last year. We had a 42% margin in the second quarter of 2025, a margin that we actually thought it would be very difficult to match. We managed to get there based on everything we have discussed here, stronger revenue, higher quality student base, and a great deal of operational efficiency across both costs and expenses. For the first half, adjusted EBITDA totaled BRL 513.1 million, up 12.3% compared with the first half of 2025. The margin for the first half was 41.4%, an expansion of 1.7 percentage points , and the highest first half EBITDA in the company's history. This expansion highlights something we have already discussed on previous slides.
Clear operating leverage, gains from bad debt, and greater efficiency in marketing more than offset the increase in costs, including increase in SG&A. At the end of the day, this translated to even stronger profitability for the company this year. Moving on to slide number 10, we have adjusted net income. I think it is important to clarify that. From now on, we will report adjusted net income on a cash tax basis following the merger and the tax benefit that resulted from that transaction. Adjusted net income on a cash tax basis ended the quarter at BRL 159.9 million, up 31.5% compared with the second quarter of 2025 with an adjusted net margin of 24.2%. For the first half, we totaled almost BRL 252 million, up 29%, with a margin above 20%, 20.3% to be precise, of adjusted net margin for the first half.
This result combines a solid operating performance that we have already discussed with a tax benefit from the merger, as I mentioned a moment ago. The benefit became effective in January 2026, when we actually completed the merger, and it has already resulted in a much more efficient current tax profile. It has become very clear when we look at our cash flow, we generated very significant savings on this line as a result of this merger.
It is worth reinforcing that since the fourth quarter of 2025, we have been reporting net income from a cash tax perspective. That is how we intend to continue reporting it. We believe that this metric gives the clearest and most faithful view of our earnings generation and the value being generated by the company. Now, slide 11. This is where we show one of the most important lines in our results, cash generation.
The company's free cash flow after investments built to BRL 192.9 million in the second quarter of 2026, up 46.3% compared with the second quarter of 2025. I think it is important to emphasize that we had record cash generation in the first half. We generated BRL 410 million during the period, up almost 65% compared with the same period last year. Free cash flow conversion increased to 68.9% in the first half, compared with almost 47% in the first half of 2025, at 22 basis points above. Looking at the quarter alone, conversion increased from 42% to 58%. This improvement reflects some of the elements we have already discussed, including the consistent improvement in our average collection period, which is also connected to the improvement in PCLD bad debt.
On a gross basis, our average collection period declined from 88 days in the second quarter of 2025 to 74 days in the second quarter of 2026. This is a direct result of what we discussed. More engaged students, smoother payment process, and a very important effort on the renegotiation front, looking very closely at each aging bucket, one bucket at a time. All of this has been flowing through our accounts receivable and helping improve the company's working capital. As a result, shareholder cash flow reached BRL 270.3 million in the first half, a significant increase from the BRL 111 million we delivered in the first half of 2025.
This improvement came mainly from the increase in EBITDA, which contributed around BRL 63 million, in addition to the gains we've already discussed, around BRL 44 million from working capital, mainly from accounts receivable, and BRL 40 million from income tax and social contribution as a result of the corporate merger. At the end of the day, this is a slide full of good news and perhaps the final result of everything we've delivered. Now I'll move to slide number 12 and talk a little about debt and leverage, which is obviously a very important topic and directly connected to our cash generation. We ended June 2026 with net debt ex-IFRS 16 of BRL 1.163 billion, a reduction of BRL 630 million compared with June 2025. That's a decline of 35.1%.
During the first half, this reduction was driven mainly by our operating cash generations we've already discussed, with BRL 455.2 million coming directly from the company's operations. As a result, financial leverage measured net debt to EBITDA ex-IFRS, important to emphasize, ended the period 1.36 x, the lowest level since the business combination back in 2022. This is a very significant reduction. It's almost a magic number here. We reduced net debt to EBITDA by almost a full turn compared to the second quarter of 2025. It's also important to mention that this movement was reinforced by two specific initiatives. The first took place in April with the participation of many of you, and once again, we'd like to thank you for your trust. We completed Vitru's first follow-on on B3. Those proceeds obviously went into the cash position, approximately BRL 200 million.
In May, with this strong cash generation, combining the company-owned cash generation with the follow-on proceeds, we were able to prepay and early redeem the debenture that carried our highest cost. There was a prepayment premium involved, and we prepaid BRL 500 million of debt. The average cost of our debt also remains on a downward trend. You can see that at the top of this slide. We ended the first half at a CDI + 1.4%. This is our current spread. As a reminder, if we go back to December 2023, that spread was almost CDI + 3%. Our amortization schedule also remains very well extended. We ended the quarter with BRL 697.9 million in cash and investments against only BRL 28 million in maturities through the end of 2026. So we have plenty of headroom when we think about our short-term liquidity needs.
Our larger maturities are concentrated from 2028 and 2029 onward, which leaves us plenty of room to plan and structure ourselves in the best possible way. Now, slide 13, to wrap up the presentation. I'd like to talk about capital allocation, and I think it's where strategy really becomes tangible and where we actually translate strategy into decisions. It isn't just a technical matter. It's where we make concrete decisions about where to invest the capital raised in the follow-on offering. We need to be very thoughtful about how we allocate that capital. On the growth side, we've been evaluating new avenues for expansion, such as entering the on-campus healthcare education segment. This is something we've been very selective about. Even though we currently have authorization for up to 36 on-campus health colleges, we've been very careful about which opportunities we choose to pursue.
We've always looked at ROIC. Our IRR and ROE are also very important considerations, especially with this new regulatory framework starting in 2027. On shareholder returns, we're also making progress. I know this is something people often ask. We've been making significant progress in finding the right balance between deleveraging the investment and payout within the companies. Our governance bodies have been discussing this very thoroughly with our board. These are decisions we'll be making over the next quarters, but we're very confident that we're heading to a very positive direction. For both of these fronts, I think the criterion is ultimately the same, allocating capital wherever, and generate greatest long-term value for our shareholders. With that, I'll wrap up my presentation and hand it back to Aroldo. Now we can see the final slide.
Thank you very much, Gabriel. To wrap up, I'd like to highlight three elements that really summarize our first half. Operational quality, efficiency, and financial discipline. On the operational side, the highlight was the improvement in engagement within our intake, with engagement rate increasing from 72.5% to 82.1%. This improvement translated into healthier bad debt performance and stronger profitability. On the financial side, that operational quality translated into cash. We generated a record BRL 410 million in free cash flow in the first half, with conversion of almost 69%. It was this cash generation that supported the faster pace of deleveraging. These results were also accompanied by two external recognitions. We renewed our Great Place to Work certification, and for the second year in a row, we've won Prêmio Valor Inovação Brasil Award in our sector. Together, performance and recognition reinforce each other.
Finally, we ended the first half with a stronger operation and a stronger capital structure, which gives us greater flexibility as we evaluate our next capital allocation decisions, always with a focus on long-term value creation. Thank you once again to all of you for joining us. With that, we now open the floor for our Q&A session.
We will now begin the Q&A session. As a reminder, to ask a question, please click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and type your question to join the line. When your name is called, a request to activate your microphone will appear on your screen. You should then unmute your microphone to ask your questions. We kindly ask that you ask all your questions at once. Let's go to our first question. Comes from Samuel Alves, analyst of BTG Pactual. Samuel, please go ahead.
Good morning, Aroldo, Gabriel. Good morning, everyone. Two questions from our side. First, this is about EBITDA margin. It has grown in the first half, even with the mix not that favorable with more weight on hybrid programs. You focused the presentation on operational efficiency. I'd like to ask a little about, just for us to think about this operational efficiency agenda to compensate this unfavorable mix effect onward on next year, thinking about a more sustainable margin for the company. That's my first. The second is if you could give us some color on winter intake by segment. Any color would help. Thank you.
Good morning, Samuel. How are you doing? Thank you for your questions. Let me take the first, and Aroldo will answer the second. All right. In fact, the EBITDA margin was a great surprise.
We've been able to be navigating the first half, as we said. We expected that. We had foreseen that. We expected a harder gross margin. We were thinking about 50 to 100 basis points of decline. It's happening. It's very aligned with what we expected. On the other hand, we have been way more efficient in the three main lines of expenses. First, marketing and commercial team that did a great job. Very sophisticated capital allocation in marketing. We improved our algorithms in the first quarter. We talked about that before. We had a decline of 2.2 percentage points in its revenue. Since we had a more challenging market, we thought it would stabilize. We didn't expect that to go on. In the first half perspective, the sales line is way well-balanced and controlled.
Looking forward, connecting to your future question, this line tends to navigate to a very similar level to last year. The market is challenging, of course, Aroldo will mention that. In this scenario, we can't not invest because competition tends to come closer. In the sales line, we should not project this gain from this point on. Bad debt, on the other hand, we think those are the effects from the accounts receivable agendas. It's something we've talked about, connected to our engagement, focus on engagement, and potential and payment. Bad debt will navigate in a lower basis. We had the reduction last year as well, so it tends to offset the effect. When we look forward, to be honest, we believe it's going to be very hard to navigate in a margin of 41%, 42% structurally.
Maybe it's the second half or the year of 2027 will bring new regulatory framework, so we're going to increment costs. Naturally, our structural EBITDA margin tend to come a little lower, 30% high, 40% low. Of course, there's a seasonality, but 42% quarter to quarter is very hard to maintain. This is our agenda. It doesn't mean that the operational efficiency will not no longer be an agenda. We will cut costs and expenses. It's part of our culture. Obviously, to keep 42% of margin is structurally very hard. Now let me give the floor to Aroldo to tackle this.
Thank you, Gabriel. Thank you, Samuel, for your question. Just wrapping this up. In moments of change, the execution discipline is very important. So we will keep the agenda of efficiency very strong here.
Regarding the cycle of intake in the winter, what we see, as Gabriel remarked, it's a very challenging moment, but [inaudible] . We had the perspective and we reverted the bad provisions. So, of course, we are at the beginning of the second half. So it's a longer cycle. So it's challenging, but we are taking the necessary measures. It's too soon to give you some guidance or tell you how we are going to wrap the cycle. We're taking all the necessary measures, and we are very optimistic.
Thank you, everyone. Good morning.
Our next question comes from Vinicius Figueiredo, Itaú BBA. Vinicius, please move on.
Good morning, guys. Thanks for choosing my question. In relation to dividend payout and your policy of distribution in general, I think you've been very vocal in the last months that it makes part of the priorities of the company. I'd like to understand a little better, how do you consider the alternatives within this context?
Like creating a more higher liquidity or if eventually it's within the possibilities, a repurchase option to bring structural liquidities segmented, divided throughout the base. Because it is part of the possibilities since you have a very good leverage level, very healthy leverage level. Regarding income tax, when we look at the cash tax , it was very close to zero in the first quarter and in the second quarter. I understand that you had all the non-recurring effect of the corporate merger, and it blocked value for you. Just for me to understand, is it sustainable from now on? Up to what moment this tax would contribute to the cash generation that you presented? Thank you.
Thank you, Vinicius, for your question. Let me answer those to you. We are more financially wise. Talking about dividends, I think it's a question that's a very common, a key question. It's part of our thesis. It's how we see the company structurally. The key point here is we showed you a slide. It's a topic that has been exhaustively discussed internally. We've been discussing in all the governance bodies, the financial committee connected to the board. In the board, we've been discussing that. What we've been considering as alternatives as like repurchasing and connecting to liquidity. To be very honest, liquidity is at the end of the day, it derives from many variables. Repurchase goes against liquidity because of withdraw stocks from circulation.
We understand that structurally, when you think about multiples, okay, the sector is all discounted. I don't know how to return capital to the shareholders. I think the first alternative and the priority 0.1 is to implement a real dividend policy, something that the market can understand, can project, something that is structurally stable. We don't believe in extraordinary payouts and distributions like share dividends now and wait for a long time. We want to look at the medium to long-term scenarios. The discussion here is structurally this year we've been very comfortable in our cash generation. You see the results, the numbers. When we look at 2027 and 2028, naturally, there's a new regulatory framework, and we know the guardrails, and we have everything calculated. There are some uncertainties. We don't know how the market will effectively behave in this scenario.
When we look in two years from now, we have to be clear about the boundaries, what is the floor that we are safe and without turning on and off. That is to turn on and put it in place and have a distribution that is relevant when we think about yield. Our natural focus in just thinking about our leverage boundaries, we have our leverage level that we understand that is comfortable compared to what it used to be. As I showed you in the presentation, we went to 1.36x. The trend is that since we grow EBITDA and generate cash, this number will go down. We are way more comfortable to put the dividend policy out. But we have our guardrails to the maximum leverage the company would accept to navigate, including a horizon that we do not know.
We do not have a crystal ball to foresee the future, especially regarding the new regulatory framework. We have some pressure of cost. We are well-organized, well-structured from a perspective of the academic organization, financial organization. But let us wait for things to stabilize. Let us go after the uncertainty. But we are not going to expect to wait for next year, we are trying to set some boundaries to our leverage, to anticipate. Repurchase is another possibility. If we see that the stock is not going well, this is an option. We had a program like that before. It was another context of company, another level of cash generation and liquidity. This buyback is also something that we can assess. Regarding the second question, income tax, and looking at a future perspective, in fact, IR, income tax, we navigate in lower levels.
We had almost BRL 4 million in this first half in payment of income tax, and it will navigate at the same level for the next five years. That is how we see structurally that line. This is how we project the use of those reserves. It is an asset the company has, and that is the reason we simplified the process. It was not the only cause, but one of the elements. So you can consider to foresee the future, income tax very low, low single respective projected from now on related to our EBIT.
Thank you. It was very clear. Excellent answer. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Flavio Yoshida, Bank of America. Flavio, please go ahead.
Good morning, Aroldo. Good morning, Gabriel. Thanks for having me. I have two questions. The first is regarding G&A. You reported a very relevant increase in this quarter.
You had some specific issues regarding the change of the headquarters and leasing IT that were accounted in CapEx, but I would like to understand, is it going to be recurring, this level, or you had something in this quarter that was non-recurring, that should not repeat? My second question is regarding bad debt, PCLD. That was one of the great drivers of improvement in the margin of the company. So I would like to understand, looking forward, how do you see this baseline? Is it sustainable at this level? As you see other companies from other sectors reporting pessimistic speeches for the macroeconomic scenario. So I would like to understand, in the front, what are you expecting regarding bad debt?
Flavio, thank you for your question. Let me reply this one, and Aroldo can complement. Regarding G&A, before answering, let us take a step back. In Vitru, this line, when you see the balance, this line is low compared to the size of the revenue of the company. Percentually, we are talking about low share because we are very light. We have a corporate structure, very lean, and we could make it to scale the business. But naturally, we have, as we comment during the call, some movements that happened. We came to São Paulo.
Naturally, São Paulo is way more expensive than Florianópolis, so we had some corporate evolution elements. We are a little more robust, a little more solid to navigate our strategic position for the future. But to be very pragmatic in my answer, we understand that this will be higher than last year because the baseline is too low, and second, because this is necessary for the near future. I am talking about short-term.
I am not saying that we are going to go 15%, 20% increase next year. No. We have a one-off adjustment, 27%, but it is going to be more stable onward. I think it is important to qualify here that we are very strict regarding things, one-off events. So when you look at G&A and non-recurring combined, the increase would not be 20%, it would be closer to 10%. It is way more aligned with the mission of the company. We would like to grow G&A 2x the inflation. No, but we are adjusting the structure, coming to São Paulo, setting new and more robust teams to navigate this new normal. So this increase is natural. Let us qualify those two elements. There is a structure change with increased CapEx in purchasing IT, and now we have leasing of IT.
We have the offices in São Paulo, some internal structures regarding our corporate team. The second element is when you look at the comparable basis, taking the non-recurring, the growth would be closer to 10%, not 20%. So this is our rationale. What you can expect in this third quarter, fourth quarter, this line will go a little higher, the revenue, and we will lose a little leverage when you look at G&A. But connected to bad debt, we understand that that is the new normal. We do not see any reason, but of course, we have to monitor the scenario and credit and default percentage. When we look at the scenario, the market is good. You can see symptoms. So retail has published and releases this quarter talking about a more strangled pocket. The debt of the families has increased.
We have to pay attention, but we haven't felt that in the company. So the default is very much controlled, and with the effects of everything we have reported in accounts receivable, we understand that the new structural scenario in Vitru is that baseline, that level we reported for the second quarter and for the next quarters as well.
Thank you, Gabriel.
Our next question comes from Renan Prata by Citibank. Renan, please.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for having me. I have two questions from my side. First is, can you talk a little more about the nursing hubs? You have been studying that, as you said in the release, but as a market perspective, you see your competitors. How do you imagine Vitru positioned in these nursing courses? The second is thinking about the hybrid programs after this intake cycle . Gabriel has talked about a more challenging market . How are you analyzing the competitor, the pricing? How are you positioning the company? How is it going to develop for next year? That's it. Thank you, guys.
Hi, Renan. Good morning. Thanks for your questions. Talking about the nursing campus. Last phase, we asked for 30 states. We decided after calculating the market dynamics, we're not going to operate them on the second half. We have two as a trial, as an operational trial. So it's not going to impact on our revenue. As our projections, we believe that it would be cautious to start a new cycle at the beginning of the year, because that's the most important cycle of the year.
Then we can get the intake and have a fixed cost in the operation. We maximize revenue with that operation. We've been very diligent. We considered 81, talking about 50, and now we're talking about 36, and we've been very diligent with our capital allocation. So that's what we do. We calculate and recalculate with any news and with the new projections. So we chose to have the intake at the beginning of the year and in October. We start the whole cycle in 2027, and we have two being tested. So result-wise, it's relevant, but it's a test for us to start with well-oiled operation next year. It's not only focused on nursing courses but on healthcare programs. Talking about the hybrid programs, we cannot know now the impact from the macro scenario. We haven't seen any alteration.
The cost structure, the price is very similar to what we've been practicing. In our intake, it's been growing. So we've been able to capture this hybrid market, like. We're talking about engineering and health and the teaching programs. We cannot foresee the future, but we have been preparing for that as we've been commented in different forums. We cannot adjust previously because many things have been changing. But we've prepared. We are going to do that at the end of the transition period. Then we'll see the procuring costs, and maybe we can change the price strategy. But it's something that maybe the barrier for the intake will be higher, so it will change the competition. But in medium and long term, we're going to see that. Short term, we've been expanding our market share. The price is similar to what it was.
Next year, after the transition period, we'll implement all the necessary measures, and we're ready, but we're not going to do that right now.
It's very clear, Aroldo. Thank you, Aroldo.
Our next question comes from Marcio, sell-side analyst of Bradesco. Marcio, please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you. I have three questions. First is about readjustment of the veteran students. Do you think you can readjust above inflation as you've done historically? But I don't know if you're going to consider that with this new regulatory framework. The second is, what's the CapEx for the year? It's over now from last year. What's the perspective of the CapEx for 2026? Last one, just to clarify the dividends. I know that you've been studying, but it's something that the payment, the payout in 2027, does it make sense to think of half of the free cash? That's what we should expect. Thank you.
Hey, Marcio. Thank you for your questions. Let me start, and then Gabriel hop on it. Talking about the veterans to readjustment. If the scenario doesn't change, yes, we are going to readjust above inflation. We've been implementing many engagement campaigns, so the internal indicators show that it's possible. We haven't projected how much, but yes, the perspective of readjustment above inflation as we've been doing. Gabriel can answer the other two.
Thank you, Marcio. Good morning. Talking about CapEx. We brought this perspective. It's very important to give some feedback. The first half had a CapEx that internally we say we were committed to execute a CapEx bigger than what happened, but especially because of cash flow, but due to some delay in execution, and especially when it comes to laboratories, we delayed to push the button.
We're going to have a concentration of CapEx in the second half. This is a perspective that's important to bring to you. The CapEx of the first half was lower. It was lower than we were expected to execute. It doesn't take out the merit. We would generate lots of cash. If we executed the CapEx that we projected, we would have generated a little less cash per semester. When we look at the future, the second semester, we'll have a higher structured CapEx compared to the first semester because you have the execution of the presential programs connected to nursing programs. We've been finishing the works at this moment. That was the question of Renan.
In addition, we have some investments in technology that we're concentrating in the second half and the building of the laboratories. This is going to be a preparation for the new regulatory framework and all the adjustments that we will need to do over time. We're starting to do that now on the second half, since the new regulatory framework will be in force next year. You can think about BRL 180 million, BRL 200 million as CapEx. That's what we can expect. As a delta, you can calculate how much it's going to be left for the second semester. Wrapping up with the dividends, yes, our answer is yes, we want to start from 2027 on. We've been discussing that a lot in August, and we've been doing that in advance.
Our timeline was a little later, but we were waiting the net debt to be close to 1.5x, so the follow-on helped the deleveraging. We think we have a position to accelerate this discussion, and it's happening right now, as we said before. Yes, the intention is to have a dividend policy well-structured. Regarding payout, I'm not going to commit to a number. We're going to conduct the discussions internally. What I can tell you is that our focus is yield-wise, so we want it to be relevant, linked to the best practices of the good payout, good dividend payment companies. We look at companies from other sectors like utility, shoppings, the malls. There are good parameters for us to aim.
As I said before, the leverage parameter is our guide to size up how we can balance dividends, return of capital to shareholders, and the necessity of capital to execute the strategic plan for the company. We have to reconcile that. We could have a great payout. We can do that today. But we could be into a bad position. We are going to be very conservative and responsible when we do that. It is going to be something that the shareholder understands, and when they do the math, they can plan, but without jeopardizing the company. But there is always a blend. You have to find a balance, right? Thank you. Thank you for your questions.
Okay, thank you, Aroldo, Gabriel.
Our next question comes from Lucas Nagano, Morgan Stanley analyst. Lucas, please go ahead.
Good morning, Aroldo, Gabriel. Thanks for having me. I have two questions here. The first is a follow-up on CapEx. At this level, you commented it is a little higher this year. The question is it going to be temporary because it is a transition in the new regulatory, or do you consider that it is going to be recurring for the future? The second is about the teaching programs' new rules. That is a little ambiguous. The decree is not clear. The CNE, the topic became a little political. Can you give us some color, like how it is going to happen with the teaching programs? I do not know if CNE finished the discussion, but they wanted it to be 50% presential. If it is the case, how would it affect the operation? Thank you.
Thank you, Lucas. Good morning. First, let me take the first, and then Aroldo will say. About CapEx, and connecting to the previous question by Marcio, we are going to navigate.
On the second half, the CapEx will be higher. There is a seasonality of our execution capacity. It concentrated on the second half. There is nothing out of our planning. The CapEx will be around BRL 180 million or BRL 200 million. That was what we planned last year for this year's budget. It was just a time dislocation due to some elements that I commented. We waited a little. The presidential programs had some delay because of the framework that was delayed as well. It is nothing that we cannot control, but answering your question. The question is, the level will go up. The answer is, thinking of our history, the answer is yes, because it is necessary for the company to navigate strategically. We have to do what is necessary. Of course, we are going to go to a CapEx navigating close to BRL 200 million.
Maybe next year, we are going to have a transition due to the new regulatory framework. Maybe the CapEx will be a little more concentrated. But nothing to worry about, everything within normal standards as we have been planning in short and long term planning for our execution. Maybe for the next two years, CapEx tends to be a little higher than it was in 2023 and 2024 because we had a restricted CapEx. Last year was about BRL 135 million- BRL 140 million, and we were below the competitors, and we saw that we had to invest a little more structurally. Now we will start to accelerate with a good cash generation, a good operational efficiency, and we will not have bumps, but we are going to keep investing for growth. Now Aroldo will take the second question about the teaching programs.
Thank you, Gabriel. Thank you, Lucas. First is, we do not know. We do not have a final draft of the framework. The transition period was postponed. CNE will decide. We have been calculating, tackling all the different scenarios that we could see in the discussions, but we cannot say much now because there is an expectation. We are expecting it to be a little more restricted than the first initial version of 35%, but we do not know. There is an initial draft. It is not the final draft. It has not been approved, but it takes about 50% as mandatory presential, but it talks about internships and tests.
That is what we can say now. It has been studied and discussed. We have, in the industry, many different meetings with the Ministry of Education discussing the model, but there is going to be a longer period of transition, and we expect that it will require more presential percentages. But we do not know. It is very new. There is nothing official up to this moment. There were many different versions, many different iterations of the programs. We have one more, and the purpose is to increase quality, and we are participating in the discussion. There is nothing concrete so far.
Thank you, Aroldo. Gabriel, thank you so much.
This concludes our Q&A session. This concludes the earnings video conference for the second quarter, first half of 2026. The investor relations department remains available to answer any additional questions you may have. Thank you very much for joining us, and have a great day.