Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Enel Américas fourth quarter 2023 results conference call. My name is Gigi, and I'll be your operator for today. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. This presentation contains statements that could constitute forward-looking statements.
These statements appear in a number of places in this presentation, and include statements regarding the intent, belief, or current expectations of Enel Américas and its management with respect to, among other things, Enel Américas business plans, Enel Américas cost reduction plans, and trends affecting Enel Américas financial condition or results of operations, including market trends in the electricity sector in Chile or elsewhere, supervision and regulation of the electricity sector in Chile or elsewhere, and the future effect of any changes in the laws and regulations applicable to Enel Américas or its subsidiaries. Such forward-looking statements reflect only our current expectations, are not guarantees of future performance, and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.
These factors include a decline in the equity capital markets, an increase in the market rates of interest in the United States or elsewhere, adverse decisions by government regulators in Chile or elsewhere, and other factors described in Enel Américas' integrated annual report. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on those forward-looking statements, which stay only as of their dates. Enel Américas undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. I would now like to turn the presentation over to Mr. Rafael de la Haza, Enel Américas Head of Investor Relations. Please proceed.
Thank you, Gigi. Buenos días. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our fourth quarter 2023 results presentation. I'm Rafael de la Haza, Investor Relations of Enel Américas. In the coming slides, our CEO, Mr. Aurelio Bustilho, will be presenting the main figures of the period. Let me remind you that this presentation will follow the slides that have been already uploaded into the company's website. Following the presentation, we will have the usual Q&A session. And questions, as you probably know, can be made both through the telephone line or through the webcast of Enel Américas of the company. Now let me hand over the call to Aurelio, who will start by outlining the main highlights of the period in slide number three.
Thank you, Rafael. During the fourth quarter of 2023, we have continued with our renewable generation plans execution, adding 600 MW of new capacity, totalizing 1.8 GW during the year. With this, our matrix is now around 90% renewable, in line with our energy transition goals. Adjusted EBITDA in 2023 increased by 9% compared to last year. This considers homogeneous perimeters, meaning that we are including results from Peru in both periods and excluding for 2022 Fortaleza, Goiás, CIEN, Costanera, and Dock Sud, as we do not consolidate those companies anymore. We are also excluding effect which had a negative impact of $108 million this year. We are excluding a one-off effect received last year in Argentina, coming from the agreement between Edesur and CAMMESA in connection with past debts.
This improvement is mainly explained by better results in distribution business in Brazil and renewables business. Group net income reached $0.9 billion in 2023, an important improvement compared to the negative results that we had in 2022. This result is broadly in line with the guidance that we gave in our strategic plan presentation. Regarding our corporate simplification process, recently, the antitrust entity in Peru, INDECOPI, gave its approval to the sale process of Enel Distribución Perú. With this, we continue moving ahead on the disposals plan and as announced. In the coming slide, let me show you a summary of our main indicators in a homogeneous view.
This means excluding both periods, sold assets, Fortaleza, Goiás, CIEN, Costanera, and Dock Sud, and including Peruvian assets, which, as you know, are in sale process, but still part of our operational parameters. In generation business, we significantly increased our installed capacity and net production, thanks to the deployment of new renewable power plants. In line with our decarbonization strategy. In grids business, we increased our customer base in energy sold, while smart meters grew more than 3x , reflecting the importance of electrification and digitalization of our company. Our financial indicators showed a very positive performance, improving EBITDA and net income, with our net- debt- to EBITDA ratio slightly increasing compared to last year. All this reflects that we are performing in a solid manner, and our main indicators are improving across our businesses. Let's now analyze our operational highlights in slide five.
In generation business during this year, we have added close to 1.8 GW of new renewable capacity. Considering the sale of Costanera, Dock Sud, and Termo Pataxó, we reached 14.6 GW of installed capacity, from which 90% is renewable. Net production in the fourth quarter reached 11.3 TWh, a decrease of 12% compared to the same period last year, explained by the deconsolidation of Costanera and Dock Sud. Sorry. With Costanera, with the consolidation of Costanera and Dock Sud. Isolating this effect, production which have increased by 4%, explained by higher generation in Brazil. From our total production this quarter, 88% is emission free, a significant growth compared to 74% of the same period last year.
Energy sales decreased by 12% during this quarter, reaching 18.4 TWh, mainly due to some change in the perimeter. Isolating this effect, sales would have decreased by 3%, mainly explained by lower sales in Brazil. On slide six, we will focus on our development of renewable capacity. During 2023, we added 1.8 GW of new renewable capacity, 897 MW in Brazil, 507 MW in Colombia, 300 MW in Peru, and 47 MW in Panama, with an investment of $1.3 billion. We are currently working on an additional 0.8 GW of capacity under construction, located in Brazil and Colombia. 0.2 GW are wind projects and 0.6 GW are solar projects.
Most of this new capacity will begin operations during 2024, and only 20 MW will enter in 2025. Regarding our pipeline, we are considering 48 GW of new capacity, total pipeline. From this amount, 20 GW are in early stage and 26 GW are in mature stage. In addition to these, we have around 1 GW of battery energy storage, and we are also considering 0.8 GW of projects under construction already mentioned. Let's continue with grid operational highlights on next slide. Electricity distributed reaches 39.2 TWh in the fourth quarter, which represents an increase of 6% compared to the same period last year. In homogeneous perimeter explained by higher sales in Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
Regarding number of customers, we had an increase of around 460,000 in the last 12 months, reaching 33.8 million customers. Smart meters increased around 2.4 x, reaching 709,000 in this period, mainly due to the deployment in São Paulo. Our net RAB has increased by 14% in the last 12 months, reflecting the significant investment that we have done in our grids. The ratio net RAB per customer also reflects an important growth of 12%. In terms of quality indicators, we can see a worsening in Argentina explained by the extremely high temperatures that we saw during the summer in 2023.
In Colombia, the regulator changed the criteria used to calculate these indicators, which implied an increase both in SAIDI and SAIFI. In Colombia, MEB, they established regulatory targets and managed to exceed from 21% in SAIDI and 4% in SAIFI in 2023. Regarding Brazil, despite the difficult climate events that we had in São Paulo and Rio during the fourth quarter, SAIDI remained flat, while SAIFI improved it. Finally, in Peru, as we have seen in previous quarter of this year, we also had worse numbers due to a change in the calculation criteria compared to last year. In terms of energy losses, it improved in Argentina and Brazil, remained flat in Colombia, and increased in Peru. Let's analyze our investments of the period in the coming slides.
During the fourth quarter of this year, our CapEx decreased by 45% compared to the same period of last year, reaching $772 million. Isolating the impact of changes in perimeter due to the disposals in Fortaleza, Goiás, CIEN, Costanera, and Dock Sud, CapEx would have decreased by 39%, mainly as a consequence of lower investments in generation business in Colombia and Peru. From the total amount, 65% was invested in Brazil and 22% in Colombia. While in terms of business, 52% allocated to renewables and 41% in grids. Growth CapEx reached $409 million and was mainly devoted to renewables with 85%. Considering the cumulative period, CapEx in 2023 reached $2,963 million, 17% lower than 2022.
Excluding the perimeter effects, CapEx would have decreased by 5%, also explained by lower investment in generation business in Colombia and Peru. Now, I will comment on the financial results of the period in the next slide. EBITDA for fourth quarter reached $849 million, 31.5% lower than the same period of last year. Mainly explained by the fact that we did not consolidate in Fortaleza and Goiás, Costanera, and Dock Sud in this period. To a significant one-off effect registered last year in Argentina, in connection with the agreement between Edesur and Argentine authorities regarding debts with CAMMESA, which implied a positive impact of $220 million.
If we exclude this effect and also include the results in Peru, isolate the FX effect, we get to an Adjusted EBITDA of $992 million, a decrease of 10%-10.1% compared to the same period of last year. On a cumulative basis, Adjusted EBITDA in 2023 increased by 8.6%, mainly due to better results in grids business in Brazil and to higher tariffs and higher results in renewable business. Net financial results was a net expense of $233 million, which is a higher expense of 37.7% compared to fourth quarter of last year. On a cumulative basis, net financial results was a net expense of $742 million, mainly due to higher interest rates in Brazil and Colombia, coupled with an increase in gross debts in Colombia.
Booked net income in the fourth quarter reached $82 million, which represents an increase of 38% compared to the same period of 2022. This is mainly explained by negative impacts registered last year coming from the sale of Enel Goiás. On a cumulative basis, booked net income was $864 million, which compares positively to last year's results, which was affected by the assets sold in Brazil. Finally, in terms of debt, we see a reduction of 4.0% compared to December of 2022. We will analyze in detail our debt later on. On slide 11, we see an EBITDA evolution and breakdown.
Starting from $1,239 million of EBITDA of the fourth quarter of 2022, we have to exclude $220 million coming from the one-off registered in Edesur in connection with CAMMESA debt agreement, and also $77 million coming from Enel Fortaleza, Enel Goiás, Enel CIEN, Costanera, and Dock Sud in order to make it comparable with the fourth quarter 2023. We see that generation, grid and customer businesses had lower results compared to last year, mainly as a consequence of higher energy purchase costs.
With this, we get to an EBITDA of $851 million for fourth quarter 2022, which is 13% lower than last year considering the same period. FX effects had a positive impact of $28 million, resulting in a reported EBITDA for this quarter of $849 million. As already mentioned, Peruvian assets are considered discontinued operations, meaning that its result is considered below EBITDA level. If we consider EBITDA coming from Peru, we get to an EBITDA of $1,024 million. From our reported EBITDA, 64% came from Brazil, 33% from Colombia, and 4% from Central America. In terms of business line, we represent 59% of our EBITDA and the generation 31%. Customers contribute with 11%.
Let's see EBITDA breakdown on a cumulative basis in the coming slides. Starting from $4.2 billion of EBITDA in 2022, we have to exclude $638 million coming from asset disposal and one-off in Enel Brasil. We see that we have positive operational results in generation and grid businesses, while customers decreased. With this, we get to an EBITDA of $3.9 billion for this period, which is 10% higher than last year considering the same perimeter. Effects had a negative impact of $144 million, resulting in an as-reported EBITDA for this year of $3.75 billion, in line with the guidance given a few months ago in our strategic plan.
EBITDA from Peruvian operations was $691 million, reaching with this an EBITDA of $4.4 billion. From our reported EBITDA, 60% came from Brazil, 37% from Colombia, and 3% from Central America. In terms of business line, grids represent 53% of our EBITDA and generation 39% with customers contributing the remaining 9%. On slide 13, we will have a focus on the cash flow of our company. Starting from an EBITDA of $3,749 million, net working capital amounted to -$650 million, mainly explained by the debt and pension provisions in Brazil. Tax paid during the period amounted to $643 million, while net financial expenses amounted to $859 million.
With this, FFO, funds from operation, amount to $1,632 million, a decrease of $1,052 million compared to the same period of last year. After investments of $2,728 million, including the $1,508 million of growth CapEx, we get to a free cash flow of minus $1,107 million for the period. Let me now analyze the debt of our company in the following slide. Gross debt amounted to $8.1 billion, an increase of 1% compared to December 2022.
Mainly explained by higher debt in Enel Colombia and Enel Américas Holding, partially offset by the deconsolidation of assets available for sale in 2023, and lower debt in Enel Rio and Enel Brasil. Net- debt reaches $6.5 billion, a reduction of 5% compared to the end of 2022. This includes free cash flow for -$1.1 billion, net dividends paid for -$345 million, extraordinary operations for $1.6 billion related to the sale of Goiás, Costanera, and Dock Sud. Net debt deconsolidation for $866 million, and FX effect for -$726 million. In terms of currency in country, we see that Brazil remains as the largest contributor, while the net, while the debt at holding level represents 50% of the total.
Finally, regarding the cost of debt, we can see an increase for this period going from 10.5% to 12.2%, mainly explained by the higher interest rates in Brazil and Colombia. On the next slide, I will conclude this presentation with some closing remarks. During 2023, we completed several renewable projects, moving ahead on our decarbonization strategy. At the same time, we have devoted an important amount of CapEx in grids businesses, boosting quality of supply, digitalization, electrification. We are really focused in aiming to improve quality indicators, quality of service for our customers in our perimeter. We have solid operational results and maintain the sound financial position, which allows us to execute our CapEx plan. Regarding our corporate simplification process, our asset disposals plan is well on track and the trust entity Peru has approved the sale of distribution assets.
We expect to have all the operations concluded in the coming months. Finally, let me remind you that at the end of April, we'll have our shareholders meeting, and we'll deliver more information about it in the coming weeks. Rafael, please.
Thank you, Aurelio. Very clear. Operator, please go ahead for the Q&A session.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Javier Suárez from Mediobanca.
Hi, and good morning, and thank you, Aurelio and Rafael, for the presentation. Two or three questions from my side. The first one is on the level of debt and net- debt- to EBITDA, and that is comparing your numbers with the target that you presented by the end of November. I remember that at that time, I think that the company was indicating a net- debt- to EBITDA at 1.4x, and in the final number has been a little bit higher. I have seen that there has been probably more working capital absorption than initially expected.
The question is can you elaborate for the reasons why the debt seems a bit higher than what was indicated at the latest business plan update? The second question is on the operational side, on slide five, you are showing the data, and during your presentation you made reference to the adjusted numbers. I noticed that there is a decrease in the energy sales also on the adjusted numbers. If you can elaborate on the reason why there is this decrease on energy sales through the year.
The third question is if you can update us on the dividend policy of the company, and if you can update us on the level of comfort that you have versus the target that you presented in the business plan for 2024. Many thanks.
Thank you, Javier. Maybe Rafael could explain a little bit about the level of
Yeah, the level of net- debt-t o EBITDA. Thank you, Javier, for your questions. Regarding the first question, as you know, you are right. We have a level of 1.7 x net- debt- to EBITDA. This is a level of EBITDA in which our rates in which we are comfortable. As you know, the commitment, let me say, that we have with the rating agencies is to keep the company below 2 x net- debt- to EBITDA, so we are in the right position. But let me remind you that this 1.7x is not considering the pension fund, the passive for the pension fund that we still have in Enel São Paulo. So we are comfortable with this level of net- debt- to EBITDA.
Of course, this will be different when we will receive the cash or the proceeds when the sales of Enel Distribución Perú will be completed. As you probably know, as we commented during the presentation of the strategic plan of the company in November last year, we have substantially identified the 80% of the use of proceeds coming from the sales in Peru. Substantial liability management in Brazil and a potential let me say payment of the pension fund or the provision for the pension fund that we have in São Paulo. This is the situation. I repeat, we are comfortable with the current situation and with the current ratio.
Maybe 2024 is gonna be a little bit different because of this particular situation of the completion of the processes in Peru. That's it. I repeat that most substantially 80% of the total proceeds coming from both sales are already identified.
Regarding the level of PPAs and the level of operation, of course, here we are not, we are still considering here the numbers from Peru, no? I mean, we only remove the assets that we do not operate. So this is considered variable. Of course, if you look forward, you will not see the generation in Peru. Regarding the level of PPAs, it doesn't affect what we showed before because we remove with the asset, we remove the contracts, that's related to that are related to the assets in this case. Let me tell you that, we are perfectly in line with from what we mentioned in our strategic plan.
We have almost 100% contracted, right? The thing that is more about, of course, it's normal. It's more decreasing in the last year of the plan, I mean, 2026. For the year, we are reflecting what we told in the plan. Especially in line with what Rafael told me regarding, he told you regarding the level of leverage, we are very conservative in order to wait for the conclusion and the cashing of the operation, the selling assets in Peru. In line with this, we maintain the decision of last year to maintain the payout in 30% of the company, right?
Of course, after the completion and after the efficiency plan and also the efficiency that we are presenting in terms of financial costs, we can readdress the situation for the next year. It's important to mention that this operation in Peru will impact very positively in the dividends. Sorry, results in 2024 to be paid in 2025. This is an interesting dividend. Regardless, we are in the minimum payout ratio allowed in Chile.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Javier. Operator, I don't know if we have more questions from live, or we move to the ones that we have received in the chat.
Yes, we have another question. One moment.
Yeah.
Our next question comes from the line of Jordán Lozano from Kallpa Securities SAB.
Hi, good morning. I have one question. Regarding the sale of Enel Distribución Perú and the approval of the Peruvian antitrust regulator, in how much do you expect the deal to be closed? Is there another approval or process that you need to complete before closing the deal? Thanks.
Yep. Thank you for your question. I mean, you asked our expectation in terms of closing the deal. I mean, closing the deal is the closing, right? Your question is related to when we expect it exactly, right? Sorry to confirm.
When do you expect the deal to be closed, when do you expect to exit the country?
Okay. Remember that we have,
Sorry.
Yeah, please go ahead.
Yeah. We are performing two sales, you know, the distribution assets and generation assets. Distribution assets, we expect that we had the authorization from the Peruvian authorities. Now, the buyer is waiting for, I mean, the process and so on. We expect it by the end of March 2024. If, in the, let's say, it could be maybe two weeks more or in the middle of April. I mean, it's not so far from here. For the generation assets, we expect by the second quarter of the year. Total, by the first semester, we'll have these operations, these deals closed and with the cash-in in the company.
Thanks for the answer.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Now let's move to the questions that we have received in the chat, starting with Banco Santander, Francisco Paz. Two questions. The first question is about the situation that we see or the noise around the DisCo segment in Brazil. The question is the following: What do you see as the main risk for the company? How are the concession discussions advancing? This is the first question from Banco Santander. The second question is about in Colombia, El Niño phenomenon. The question is the following one: Last quarter, you said your reservoir levels hadn't been impacted with these lower rains. Has that changed? What do you expect for the next quarters in Colombia? Those are the two questions from Santander. Thank you, Francisco.
Thank you for the question. Regarding the concession renewal review, the process is moving forward. Everybody knows it's very clear in advancing. We have the technical discussion regarding the renewal of the concession, and it's been very technically addressed. All the analysis done by the government and the company is moving in the right direction. Of course, we saw some movement during this week regarding the proyecto de ley with a radical change that frankly is giving. It's the measure is not technical. They are moving from technical to political side.
It is not good, but our experience in Brazil is that the institutionality, the checks and balances and the proper addressing technical issues prevail. We are very confident that this negative things will lose force. Of course, we need to follow as companies, associations, society, communities, and also policymakers. We need to follow up this process and not allow insanity that would kill everything that we built during all the years in Brazil, all the improvements. Also what we need right now is measures to improve the quality of our regulation, our infrastructure.
This kind of proposal, it's frankly, it's not moving to this way, moving to a crazy way, so we need to correct this in a very strong way and of course republican way, right? That's our vision. I am confident that the technical aspect of renewable will be respected. Regarding Edesur in Argentina, we had announced the selling process in Argentina. We had opened a process to sell this asset in the second semester of last year. It was in the middle of an election that we didn't, of course, have the results.
At the end we saw that probably in considering the process and considering the new government announcement and so on and first measures in order to a more market orientation more I mean responsibility in terms of the role of private companies to support the sustainable growth of the country we decided to put this process on hold until we see the new measures and the new regulatory measures that the first measures being I mean the first signs it's being good signs.
We do not lose anything waiting, and we will see what will happen in terms of these measures, these regulatory measures that the new government is applying in order to decide and to readdress this process again. For now, we put on hold waiting. It's a fair justification. We are waiting for a better conditions to add value to our assets.
Okay. Maybe about the El Niño phenomenon in Colombia. That was the second question from Francisco Paz.
Yeah. El Niño phenomenon affected us and affected every company that was exposed to the effect. In our case, affected less than could be affected in terms of margins, considering the position of our plants, our portfolio generation, which proves that we have a very sound platform of generation in the country. We expect this, I mean, this is a stationary situation, no? We expect this will close by the end of our summer, let's say, no?
I mean, we are ready to capture better conditions in terms of PPAs, also to have good signs of pricing for new projects, you know. We expect there is a projection that El Niño will end and then will come La Niña. I mean, this is the importance of this is to have productivity, to have very good pipeline of projects, those solar projects, and also in contact, and very good workforce in contact with the clients, in order to close good PPAs, in order to adjust being very proactive.
We showed during the long run, during all these years in Colombia that we've been doing very good work in terms of contracting, in terms of hedging position. Last but not least, the way that we built this portfolio of generation in the country, which gives us this strong position in terms of trading, of energy management, you know, in general. I think the best way to deal with this is to strategically train your capacity and to train your capacity need to have a very good pipeline. We inaugurate a few weeks ago a solar project in Colombia, for example. One point of attention here is permitting.
Permitting is something that, of course, we need the generation and we have everything. We have PPAs, but we do not have a permitting, and it delays the entrance in the project. It is something that the country, not only the company, the country and also the society should be concerned and should improve the conditions. This is something that we as an operator and part of the Colombian plan to expansion its capacity, we should be care with. This is the best way to deal with phenomenon years and so on.
We do not see any extraordinary situation considering the current season in Colombia. As Aurelio mentioned before, for the first quarter, probably will be neutral in terms of the impact. No particular variations or changes.
Yeah. Just to add, a point that we answered about Colombia, but of course it affected also our operation in Panama, for example, right? We had a hydro plant in Panama. If you analyze Panama, out of this Colombian perimeter, of course you see, in 2023 a negative impact of $600 million or something like this. $60, sorry. $60 million. But this is, of course we are reviewing our position in order to compensate this effect and not to be so exposed there. The whole system, the whole Colombian system plus Panama, we are as Enel, we compensate this effect and do not have any major issues.
Thank you. Now let's move to Moneda. The question, which is from Rodrigo Mora, is about the fines that we saw in São Paulo due to the recent blackouts, the month of November.
Yeah.
Give me some feedback about this and the potential actions of the company.
Well, first of all, we see that these extreme events, they are more and more, they are a reality affecting cities, affecting countryside of countries, not only Brazil, all the region. This is a reality. In a broader vision here, companies, society, communities, policymakers, also, with the support of academy, we should analyze this situation and improve measures in terms of responsibility, in transactions. It's important to have very clear who does what not only in the extreme events, but before in a daily basis in order to have very clear. Because it is a reality. We'll see it. We saw this in the south of Brazil. We saw this in Argentina.
We explained the hottest weather in Argentina. Here in Santiago, in Chile, the hot weather and the burning events here. In São Paulo, yes, in São Paulo, of course São Paulo is a huge city with very concentrated customers. We have—let me tell you that we have a regulation that does not reflect this reality. We should work together with the regulator, with the policymaker in order to adjust this, I mean, the equipment, remunerated assets that does not reflect to that it delayed it for recognition in terms of remuneration, but it's pretty much lower than the level that we missed from the extreme weathers.
We should adjust this, first of all, you know. Sometimes we analyze a lot of average indications, but at the end of the day, we need to really perform the customer centricity approach. We need to think and to analyze it if this average of failures and so on, we are not addressing the real question, the real issue that affects the customers at the end of the day. They are the most important, I mean, agent in this equation. From our side, as we discussed, the level of investment of our company is high standard, high level because we need to invest on this. We will keep on investing.
You saw our investment plan that we announced it last year, so this is very important. This investment should be a service focus in quality. It needs to be investments that improves the perception and the quality of the clients, of our clients. That's what we are performing. We are improving also our communication strategy, explaining very well what is happening, what is going on in our region, in our cities. That is affecting, I repeat, not only us, affecting every company. Not only the electric sector, other companies, other infrastructure companies, industries, they are being affected, too.
We need to present and to show very well and to ask for and to be part of the solution, implementing action plan and so on. We are reinforcing also our management in the country in Brazil. We are reinforcing our sites. Things like, I mean, to sit around and to put in submerged or sit around the grids in order to improve the situation. Yes, this is part of the solution, but it will represent a higher cost for the customer. We need to be prudent on this, right? This could be a solution.
It can be a solution, but it takes time, it takes cost. What we do right now, you know, I think one important thing that we have with this kind of operations with the Atlantic Forest is to do tree trimming, you know. Tree trimming we can do in a very intelligent and a very smart way. There are analytics for this.
The bureaucracy that should allow us to in the municipality, we need to work together in order to take advantage of of this, especially during the period, because now we enter in the, let's say, the in the beginning of the winter of, you know, and in the autumn, you know? This is the best time to do the correct tree trimming and also provide with this a push for the vegetation. I mean, I just mentioned this because probably we are not addressing and not the it's not depend on us, depends on the municipality.
If we do not have an approval on time in terms of dealing with vegetation, it will be proactive because, as I told you, the extreme events are not a special situation that we had during a period. It will be more and more. These climate issues, we only discussed the relief of those, which is correct, and I think that we should put the effort of this in generation and adaptation that's right, correct, and so on.
There is a thing that we are feeling on a daily basis more frequently that in my opinion, we should address and act together to solve, and to minimize this impact, in the same time we address the origin issues of climate change, right?
Well, thank you. Thank you, Rodrigo. Very interesting questions. Thank you, Rodrigo. Now let's move to Scotiabank, Tomas Gonzalez. He has six questions, but some of them have been already addressed, so let's concentrate in the new ones. The first one is about the level of leverage in, at the Enel Américas consolidated level after the payment of the expensive Brazilian debt that we are considering for 2024, and after receiving the proceeds from the sale of the Peruvian assets. The second question is about Edesur if we are going to consider remaining in the country in the distribution business, and if there is a change in terms of the strategy. The third one is about Coelce, the situation in Coelce. Okay.
If you want, we can address the first one, although it's about the level of leverage in terms of the debt. Tomás, this is a very relevant question. As Israel, you know, and as I anticipate the report to Javier Suárez from maybe Rodrigo, the level of net- debt- to EBITDA at the Enel Américas level after the payment of the most expensive Brazilian debt and after receiving the proceeds from the sale of the Peruvian assets will be below 1x.
We will be in a very comfortable situation once this transaction in Peru, or those transactions in Peru will be completed and after the payment of the most expensive debt in Brazil, that will be close to $1.3 billion, approximately. This is the picture in terms of leverage, in terms of ratio of net- debt- to EBITDA in Enel Américas, I repeat, after receiving the proceeds from the sales in Peru, and after repayment of the most expensive debt in Brazil, that will be around $1.3 billion.
Yeah. Regarding the concession renewal.
Yeah.
I actually. If you give me the opportunity to give you more color. The process, the technical process, the technical response responsible for this is the Minister of Energy, right? This is the concession, the power to give you the discussion. All this technical discussion is moving in the right way that we are seeing. There is no. It would be renewed, the concession for 30 years, with not removing the fiscal benefits and so on, respecting the contracts, it requires some social investment, important social investment that we need to do. It's perfectly in line. We advanced it a lot since the first proposal. We are confident that this will prevail.
What we had this week was in the lower house, we had an approval of urgency of proyectos de ley that changes a lot or change completely the direction, reducing the time from 15 years analyzing the situation of each distribution obligation to expand the grids, consideration about distributed generation without planning. I mean, this is something that we believe that will not prevail. In Brazil, we are very comfortable that the checks and balances, the institutionality, the respect with contracts will prevail. It's been like this for all these years. It will not be different this way. Right?
Thank you for your question.
We actually have many questions from Scotiabank. The first one is about Edesur. If considering the new regulatory changes that we expect, if there is a variation in the strategy of keeping Argentina sustainably. The final one is about the strategy to sell Coelce in the short term, if it is confirmed or not.
Yeah.
Don't know.
Well, I think either, as I told you, we will wait and see, right? Yeah, I think we know all the markets. I think we have good expectation of the improvements in general, the other macro improvements. For now, it's on hold. This process is on hold. Let's see how it moves. Not only what is announced, but what is being implemented, no? This is very important. In terms of Coelce, yes, it's also on hold, waiting for these discussions and this alignment in terms of concessions.
It's very difficult in the short term to put, let's say, this process as a priority right now with all these discussions of concession renewals, because it's touching the heart of the company. We need to wait the conclusion of this. Having said this, our estimation is it's probably by the end of this year, we'll reanalyze the situation and see what actions we'll do. We are not in a hurry. I mean, we want to analyze the correct time to have this decision considering that lots of important things, a lot of regulatory issues are moving forward to determine the correct value for those assets, and again, analyze if it makes sense or not.
Thank you for your question.
Thank you for the question. Thank you, Aurelio. Let's move to Gustavo Faria, who's remaining in Brazil and on the customer about our strategy in the future for the assets in São Paulo and in Rio.
Thank you. Thank you, Gustavo. For now, the strategy is to maintain the assets, to improve the quality of those assets. Improve the quality, I mean, improve the quality of the clients, the quality of supply, invest in the grid. In case of Rio, we are focusing on special issue related to losses that we've been discussing with the regulators. I mean, nothing different. São Paulo, we are confident that we are in the numbers until now showing that we are, we've been doing a very good turnaround with the operations. I mean, there's no expectation to change anything.
Okay. Thank you. Cristóbal Murray. The question is about the Brazilian distribution business. The question is the following: why did distribution energy sales in Brazil increase quarter-over-quarter? Why did the average selling price decrease? Do you expect this trend to continue?
I don't know if I understood correctly. About distribution?
Yes. It's about the second one is about the pricing or the pricing dynamics for the future in Brazil. The first one is about the energy sales that are increased quarter-over-quarter.
Yes. Well, Brazil depends a lot in. When you compare Brazil, I mean, if you see São Paulo and Rio, it depends a lot on temperature, right? If we have a hot weather, we'll have a higher consumption. The tariff is already settled. There's no difference on tariff, because if I consider the, because it's compared to the last quarter of 2023, the last quarter of 2022, right? Sorry. The tariff changed because we performed a tariff reset in July in case of São Paulo and in March in terms of Rio, right?
The part of the quarter, you see that there is a change in the tariff reset, and it's a normal change related to the asset base that was revised. The tariff increases a little bit. I mean, around 5% in one company, around 4% other company. It's a normal increase. In terms of quantity, for São Paulo and Rio, I repeat, it's a variation or an impact of the summer. I mean, if it is hottest in the summer compared to the other, the consumption will be higher, right? This happened during 2023. It's a normal issue.
It's more related to our activity and operations, right? Ceará is a little bit different. Ceará depends on hydrology. If it doesn't rain, the industrial consumption of water, they need to use more energy in order to have water during this dry period. It's exactly what we saw in the fourth quarter of 2023. Despite it is not exactly the months that requires more, I mean, more activity in terms of water needs for the dry season. I think it's difficult to analyze Brazil as a whole company.
We are totally available if you want to, with our investor relations director, to analyze these movements company by company, state by state. I think it's interesting because when we analyze the country, we are mixing lots of situations. Last but not least, remember that 2020, 2023, right, we had tariff resets with our companies in Brazil, right? This is a very important. The main thing is it's a reset. We start with a new level of tariff due to RAS, due to pricing, inflation, but mostly due to assets, remunerated asset base adjustment. We need to analyze it by company by company.
Okay. Thank you. Cristóbal, thank you, Aurelio. We didn't see more questions on the screen. Let's conclude this conference call. We are very satisfied with the Q1 2023 Enel Américas results in line with guidance announced one year and a half ago. Perfectly in line. Growing up, let me say with our business as usual. We conclude the conference call, as I said. Let me remind you before finalizing that the Investor Relations team, as usual, is available for any further detail or any doubt that you may have in the next coming days. We wish you all a very nice weekend. Thank you again, and see you next time.
Thank you.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.