Afya Limited (AFYA)
NASDAQ: AFYA · Real-Time Price · USD
13.68
-0.02 (-0.15%)
Sep 16, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT - Market closed
← View all transcripts

Earnings Call: Q4 2023

Mar 14, 2024

Renata Costa Couto
Director of Investor Relations, Afya

Good night, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Afya's fourth quarter and full- year 2023 conference call. Today, I am here with Afya's CEO, Virgílio Gibbon, and Luis André Blanco, our CFO. During this presentation, our executives will make forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be related to future events, future financial or operating performance, known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause Afya's actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by those forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements in this presentation include, but are not limited to, the statements related to the business and financial performance, expectations and guidance for future periods, or expectations regarding the company's strategic product initiatives, its related benefits, and our expectations regarding the market. These risks include those more fully described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The forward-looking statements in these presentations are based on the information available to us as of the date hereof. You should not rely on them as predictions of future events, and we disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. In addition, management may reference non-IFRS financial measures on this call. These measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute of the results prepared in accordance with IFRS. This presentation has reconciled those non-IFRS financial measures to the most directly comparable IFRS financial measures. Let me now turn the call over to Virgílio Gibbon, Afya's CEO.

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Thank you, Renata, and welcome to our final conference call of 2023. We are excited to present another year of exceptional operational and financial performance for Afya. Once again, we have demonstrated the resilience of our business, the successful implementation of our strategy, and the reliability of our business model. In this presentation, I will cover key strategic topics, including our performance highlights, the successful business execution across our three segments, guidance for 2023, and the new goals for 2024. Finally, Luis Blanco will provide an in-depth look at our financial and operational performance. Now turning to page three. Let's begin by highlighting our performance achievements. Initially, our adjusted net revenue increased by 24%, reaching BRL 2,874,000,000, accompanied by a growth of an adjusted EBITDA of over 21% year-over-year, which was BRL 1,166,000,000 with a margin of 40.6%.

Furthermore, we are pleased to report a record on cash flow generation from operating activities, concluding the year with BRL 1,089,000,000, reflecting a 24% increase compared to the previous year, with a cash conversion rate of 97%, which is 270 basis points better than the previous year. With consistent momentum throughout the year, our adjusted net income reached BRL 591,000,000 in 2023, marking over 10% growth year-over-year, with an EPS of BRL 6.37, a remarkable 12% increase compared to the previous year. This underscores our disciplined capital allocation on buyback programs, M&A, and an efficient capital structure. Transitioning to our operational updates for the year. We have expanded to 3,113 operating seats, witnessing an year-over-year increase of over 12%, facilitated by the acquisition of UNIMA and Faculdade de Ciências Médicas de Jaboatão in January of 2023.

In addition, our number of undergrad medical students has reached more than 21,000, representing a 19% growth compared to 2022. Additionally, we are delighted to report significant growth in net revenue for our continued education segment. We expanded by more than 35% year-on-year, organically reaching a net revenue of BRL 147 million. Our digital health services revenue marked another great result with a 21% increase compared to 2022 pure organically, reaching a net revenue of BRL 229 million. This outcome underscores the vast opportunity in digital services, driven by the ramp-up in B2B engagements, securing new contracts with pharmaceutical industry companies, and the continuous expansion in B2P contracts. Lastly, our ecosystem has 268,000 active users, exemplifying substantial penetration among physicians and medical students in Brazil. In the next slide, we will discuss our robust business performance across our three business segments.

Beginning with our core business, the undergrad segment, we observed significant growth in the net average seats of medicine, representing a growth of 8.2% over last year. The completeness of UNIMA and Faculdade de Ciências Médicas de Jaboatão integration process in November, less than one year after its acquisition, proving our commitment to extract synergies within the operation. We are pleased to note that the most substantial revenue growth of the year came from our continuing education segment. With a robust intake process, three new campuses, and cross-maturation, we can see once more our students, employees, and partners benefit from our constantly developing ecosystem. On our digital service segment, we take pride in our tool-assisted physician throughout their medical journey. Concurrently, we are expanding our ecosystem to facilitate new interactions and revenue streams beyond physicians, including engagements with pharmaceutical players, hospitals, labs, and drug store chains.

Evidence of this expansion is seen in the growth of our B2B strategy, fortifying our market presence and extending our reach. Consequently, we achieved a 64% year-over-year growth in our B2B revenues. Transition to slide number five, we explore how the company's financial results reaffirm the resilience and predictability of our business model. Afya's 2023 adjusted net revenue was almost 4x higher than in 2019, the year of our IPO, reaching BRL 2,874,000,000, surpassing our mid-guidance for 2023. Furthermore, 2023 adjusted EBITDA was BRL 1,166,000,000, followed by an adjusted EBITDA margin of 40.6%, also surpassed our mid-guidance of BRL 1,150,000,000 for EBITDA. Moreover, our EPS has more than doubled since 2019, underscore our capacity to combine organic and inorganic growth with stringent capital allocation discipline, thereby delivering significant returns to our shareholders.

We are pleased to introduce our new guidance for 2024, which considers the successful acceptance of new medical students, ensuring 100% of occupancy in all of our medical schools. Given these factors, the guidance for 2024 is as follows. Net revenue is expected to range between BRL 3,150,000,000 and BRL 3,250,000,000, while adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to be between BRL 1.3 billion and BRL 1.4 billion, excluding any acquisition that may be concluded after the issuance of this guidance. Once again, we are guiding another strong round ahead, improving Afya's resiliency and ability to keep delivering solid results with a high predictability. Now let's move to slide number six. Furthermore, in addition to the guidance we provided earlier, we're excited to share our first CapEx guidance. Shown in the chart, our CapEx for 2024 expects to be between BRL 220 million and BRL 260 million.

It's important to note that 2024 CapEx guidance does not encompass the earn out payments in the amount of BRL 49.6 million related to the four seats increased at Faculdades Integradas Padrão, FIP Guanambi, and the CapEx presented disregards any additional license and goodwill. On slide number seven, we will check our ESG initiatives. Our company's dedication to sustainability and environmental care is exemplified by our remarkable achievements. Annually, our photovoltaic plants contribute to 6,341 MWh units of power generation capacity, showcasing our significant investment in renewable energy. Additionally, 60 education institutions now have installed photovoltaic plants, reflecting our commitment beyond corporate boundaries. Notably, this integration of sustainable energy source has enabled 100% of our education operations to operate completely free from greenhouse gas emissions associated with electricity consumption. These accomplishments highlight our commitment to creating a greener, more sustainable future that impacts our stakeholders and investors.

With 9,680 employees, our workforce represents diversity and inclusion at its core, highlighting our commitment to promote equality and opportunities for minority communities. Additionally, 58% of our workforce consists female employees, reflecting our dedication to gender, diversity, and empowerment in the workplace. Also, 45% of leadership roles in our company are held by women, reflecting a growth of over 4 percentage points over last year. This is reinforced by our public commitment to have, by 2030, 50% of our leadership team occupied by women. In our governance structure, we prioritize transparency, accountability, and equality in the decision-making process. Afya has 36% of our Board of Directors composed by women. More than 36% of our board members are independent, ensuring diverse viewpoints and fair oversight. Our dedication to health reaches far beyond our organization, extending to the communities we serve.

Since 2019, we have offered two million free clinical consultations, striving to enhance healthcare accessibility for everyone. By 2023, our programs will have graduated over 20,000 physicians, enriching healthcare services within our communities. Furthermore, our platform provide over 32 million medical access points to help in decision-making for medical management. In conclusion, these achievements resonate profoundly with our stakeholders and investors, reflecting our comprehensive approach to responsible business practices. Now I'll turn the call over to Luis Blanco, Afya CFO, to give more color into our financial operational metrics. Thank you.

Luis André Blanco
CFO, Afya

Thank you, Virgílio, and good evening, everyone. Slide number nine will now guide us through the discussions of the financial highlights of the fourth quarter. With great pleasure, I present another strong quarterly results for Afya. Adjusted net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023 reached BRL 730 million, marking a 23% increase compared to the same period of the prior year. Furthermore, in 2023, adjusted net revenue reached BRL 2,874 million, reflecting a 24% surge over 2022. This growth trajectory can be attributed primarily to higher tickets in medicine course, maturations of medical seats, the acquisitions of UNIMA and FCM Jaboatão, the continual educational segment growth, and digital service performance. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2023 saw a 19% increase, reaching BRL 289 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margins of 39.6%.

For the full- year, adjusted EBITDA amounted to BRL 1,166 million, reflecting a 21% increase with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 40.6%, representing a marginal decrease of 90 basis points compared to 2022. These reductions can be attributed to factors such as: mix of net revenue with higher participations of continued educational segment, and launch of four Mais Médicos campuses in the third quarter of 2022 that are still in early stage of maturation. However, in each semester, until full maturation, revenues will increase offsetting the impacts of the fixed cost of the operation. Transitioning to the next slide. Adjusted cash flow generation witnessed a 24% year-over-year increase, totaling BRL 1,089 million for 2023. The operational cash conversion ratio stood at 97% for 2023, 270 basis points above 2022. It is important to highlight that one of our differentiations is our cash flow from operational activities.

Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter of 2023 amounted to BRL 164 million, marking a 28% increase over 2022. For the full year, adjusted net income reached BRL 591 million, reflecting 11% year-over-year increase. Our adjusted EPS witnessed a robust expansion with 28% growth for the quarter, reaching BRL 6.37 for the year, reflecting a 11% increase year-over-year. This performance underscores the growth in our net income and disciplined capital allocation through business combination. Transition to slide number 11 for discussions of key operational metrics by business unit. Beginning with the undergrad programs. Our number of medical students witnessed a 19% year-over-year growth, reaching more than 21,000 students, with approved medical seats increasing by 12%, primarily driven by the acquisitions and maturations of 340 seats in UNIMA in the beginning of 2023.

Therefore, considering the authorizations by the Ministry of Education of 40 additional medical seats of Faculdades Integradas Padrão in the city of Guanambi, located in the state of Bahia, Afya reaches 100 medical seats on these campuses and 3,203 approved seats as of today. With our net average tickets increasing over 8% year-over-year, reaching BRL 8,548 compared to BRL 7,898 in 2022. The last graph illustrates a 24% growth in combined tuition fees, reaching BRL 3,267 million, up from BRL 2,635 million from the prior year, 79% of which are related to medicine. This demonstrates that our medical educational business remains and will continue to be the cornerstone of our business. In the short and the middle terms, delivering high predictable growth, combined with solid profitability and cash generation. On the following page, I will present our continuing educational metrics.

As previously mentioned, we witnessed another year of significant growth in our continuing educational segment, with more than 60% increase in the number of students compared to last year, reaching 4,976 students. Additionally, for the year, net revenues grew by 35% compared to 2022, boosted by the growth in the number of students. Moving to slide number 13 to discuss the digital service operational metrics. The first graph illustrates our active payers, which are the ones that generate revenues in business to physician. With a continuous growth trend reaching 226,000 paying users, marking 11% growth compared to the last year. The second graph showcases our monthly active users reaching 268,000 users, representing around 34% of all medical students and physicians in Brazil. Finally, our digital service net revenue witnessed almost 20% year-over-year increase reaching BRL 229 million.

Since the beginning of 2022, we also started to break down our digital service net revenue within B2P and B2B segments. With over BRL 191 million generated from B2P and more than BRL 39 million from B2B, showing a 64% growth compared to the prior year. Now transition to my final two slides to discuss our cash and net debt positions and providing more insights into our cost of debts. I presented the net debt reconciliation for 2023. The cash flow from operating activities was allocated to income tax and lease payments, CapEx activities for the service of the financial debt, for our share buyback program, alongside the additional acquisitions of 15% of FMIT. Excluding the business combinations of UNIMA, we were able to generate BRL 391 million as free cash and reduces our net debt in the 12-month period.

On my last slide, you can observe a table showing the breakdown of our gross debt and total cost of debt, considering our main debts. The SoftBank transactions, the debentures, other financial obligations, and accounts payables to selling shareholders. We continue to maintain a low cost of debt that remains below the CDI rates. This concluded our prepared remarks. Strong performance, consistent growth, success in all segments, and public recognitions. These are the pillars of our evolutions and our missions to provide an ecosystem that integrates educational and digital solutions for the entire medical journey. We are proud of our achievements thus far, and we are excited about our future plans. I shall now open the conference for the Q&A session. Thank you.

Renata Costa Couto
Director of Investor Relations, Afya

If you want to ask a question, please raise your hand. Our first question will come from Mirela Oliveira from Bank of America. Mirela, you may now talk.

Mirela Oliveira
Analyst, Bank of America

Good evening, guys. Thank you for your time. I have two questions here. First, if you guys could comment a bit on the competitive environment for 2024, if you have seen any significant change on the candidate per seat on any region. Second, what are the expectations on the Mais Médicos auction in terms of timing after the postponements? Also if the recent change that established a cap for proposals for the big players change any expectation you may have on the final results, given that now you will be able to submit less proposals. Thank you.

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Okay, Mirela. Thanks for your question. Regarding your first question about the competition landscape. We just completed our intake process for first half of 2024. Our ratio candidates per seat was around almost six candidates per seat. It was a very strong intake. We have also not only the intake, but our renewal also completed. We are running as expected, with a very good demand for all of our campuses around the country. So no changing when we compare to last year.

Actually, the ratio that we are seeing it's even higher than before the pandemic. That was how we are seeing the competition on the intake process for medical undergrad trusts. Besides that, we are also seeing a very strong intake coming from health programs on our campuses. I think that can be related to the new brand that now all the campuses working under the umbrella of Afya. So a very good campaign and a strong intake coming from all their other health programs, both on campus and online programs.

For the second question about the Mais Médicos III's schedule. We're expecting to deliver the proposal now by the current schedule by July of this year. The answer will be only beginning of 2024. With the new change, 2025, I'm sorry. By the new changing, we have the change was from the previous one, we got 36 opportunities to bid in order to participate on the public bid. Now with the change that each institution can only offer for one state, that's reduced from 36- 23 campuses that will be allowed to bid for the Mais Médicos III. That's all the updates on this front. Okay.

Renata Costa Couto
Director of Investor Relations, Afya

If I may add two points here, Mirela. The first one regarding the Mais Médicos, yes, we can bid for less campus, but all the competitive players also can bid for less campus. So in the end of the day, we'll be less competitive than we thought before. Regarding the first question, I would also like to add that we established the prices to increase around 4.9% when we started our intake process. But now we can see that on average, we should see price increases over than 5.8%, considering the maturation of new tickets and also the ticket increase across all campuses. That's it.

Mirela Oliveira
Analyst, Bank of America

Thank you, guys.

Renata Costa Couto
Director of Investor Relations, Afya

Of course. The next question will come from Jessica Mehler from JPMorgan. Jessica, you may now talk.

Jessica Mehler
Analyst, JPMorgan

Hello, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two as well. First, what is the outlook for digital education margins in 2024? Also, should we continue to see continued education expanding in 2024? What is the outlook for this segment? Thank you.

Luis André Blanco
CFO, Afya

Hi, Jessica. It's Blanco speaking here. As a whole, we see in our three segments margin expansions during 2024. Starting with the continued educational, what we see is that we are going to extend margins because we are operational leverage our operations. We establish new campuses, these campuses being fulfilled with students, so we can get more efficiency on these campuses regarding our graduate courses. Regarding our digital service, what we see is that with the expansions of our service, the expansions in our B2P users and the new B2B contracts, we are going to see an increase in margins year-over-year as well. In undergrads, we have the fact that we finalize the integrations of UNIMA in last November. So it will be the first year that will be 100% of FITS, having UNIMA/FCM Jaboatão being 100% integrated. So we are going to have expansions on these three segments.

On top of that, on holding level, we established last year our zero budgets projects, and we are going to run our zero budget during 2024. With these scenarios, we are comfortable to give this guidance for 2024, where is implied expansions in terms of EBITDA margins for 2024 if you compare to 2023.

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Jessica, just adding here. Based on our guidance here, our top line is moving close to 12%, around 12%, and the bottom line growing 16% year- over-y ear. That is a combination of around 10% growth coming from undergrads year- over- year, pure organic, 50% coming from volume, 50% come from tuition. On continuing medical education, it's around 20% organic growth, and digital service around 30% growth expected to 2024. In all the three segments, we are seeing margin expansion as expected also in our guidance.

Jessica Mehler
Analyst, JPMorgan

Very clear. Thank you very much.

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Thank you.

Renata Costa Couto
Director of Investor Relations, Afya

Of course. Thank you. Just a reminder, if you want to ask a question, just please raise your hand. The next question will come from Lucas Nagano from Morgan Stanley. Nagano, you may now go.

Lucas Nagano
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Good evening. Thanks for taking our questions. We have two questions. The first one is related to digital services growth. B2P seems to be growing at a consistent rate, but there was acceleration in B2B sales growth in Q4 compared to the rest of the year. Can you give us some color on the initiatives on B2B, the challenges, to help us better understand the growth rates from there? The second question is related to M&A. If you could comment about a potential return in M&A, like how active is the pipeline, if discussions are somewhat returning as rates fall, and if you see upside in the current multiples. Thanks.

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Hi, Lucas. Virgílio here. First on B2P, business to physician contracts. I think that the constant growth here is much more related across selling, upselling our solutions as we have a very large penetration under at least our biggest penetration solution that is Whitebook from PEBMED. That is almost 80% of physician between one to five years after graduation that are using this solution. So the opportunity here is more upselling of other solutions and also cross-selling, continuum medical education for these clients, for these physicians. On B2B, we are collecting the hanging fruits from the landing expanding strategy. As we said in the past that we are just experiencing our relationship with big pharma companies. Now we have multiple contracts with very large companies and we also with a higher value from each contract. The B2B contracts this year grew more than 60% pure organic.

It is a huge opportunity, and the sales gather the opportunity that we are seeing on our pipeline for 2024 is even higher here. So it is keeping a very good trend, and the growth will be boosted for sure by B2B contracts along 2024. Yeah. If I may add with some question that we received through the chat here about the B2B growth on the digital segments year-over-year, what is driving the B2B growth on that.

Luis André Blanco
CFO, Afya

If I may add, Virgílio, we saw during 2023 the increases in terms of contracts within the pharmaceutical industry come from products that we call campaign products. So we are hired by the pharmaceutical companies that are being the international ones and the national ones.

They are hiring us to do campaigns, certain campaigns about certain drugs that they have under their portfolio to do these marketing campaigns for them using our apps and our sites as the channel to reach the right physicians at the right time. So these kind of products drive our growth during 2023 and for the next year, for 2024. On top of that, we launched at the end of 2023 some recurring products to the pharmaceutical companies as well to provide insights in their sales on that. These product didn't get tractions during 2023, but we are excited for the perspective of these offers for the pharmaceutical companies. I think we have this additional growth in 2024 with this new product that we launched, that we call our RX Insights.

Renata Costa Couto
Director of Investor Relations, Afya

Just to finish your question, Nagano, about M&A. Do you want to go?

Luis André Blanco
CFO, Afya

Yeah. Sorry, Nagano, I forgot the question about M&A. Talking about M&A does not stop. We always talking with the targets as we have a very specific niche of targets. Just remember that our targets is just the institutions that have on the maturations, more than 60% of their revenues coming from the medicine business. Always we have come and goes with targets and we still comfortable with the target that we put it in the market to grow to 200 seats per year.

About multiples on that, we do not like this EV per seats multiple. We prefer always to see a target within EV per EBITDA and evaluates it through IRR from these acquisitions to have more than 20% on leverage IRR on each transactions. I think the next unique deal would have a multiple that was below the last acquisition that we have, that was UNIMA/FCM Jaboatão. I would say that it is our expectations to have this kind of multiple in the next transaction. We are always talking and always look opportunities to best allocate our capital.

Lucas Nagano
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Very clear. Thank you, Luis, Virgílio, Renata.

Renata Costa Couto
Director of Investor Relations, Afya

Thank you, Nagano. The next question comes from Lucca Marquezini from Itaú. Lucca, you may now ask.

Lucca Marquezini
Analyst, Itaú

Hey, good evening, everyone. Thank you for taking our questions. Just three questions from our side. The first one, if you could just provide an updated view on the potential authorization of new seats via injunctions, and then how this could impact the competitive landscape in the regions where the company operates. The second question, if you consider the midpoint of the guidance for 2024, this implies an adjusted EBITDA margin expansion for the year. Can you please comment on which of the segments should be the most responsible for this expansion, please? Thank you.

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Hi, Lucca. About the new seats authorization from the injunctions here. We still don't have final results from Supreme Federal Court in this matter here. What I expect here, by the end of the day, independently, what is the final response from the Supreme Court will be the Minister of Education that will have to fulfill and to approve all the additional seats. What I believe is that the combination between the public policy that they are aiming to expand more medical seats for countryside through the Mais Médicos III, combined with any alternative way that can be from the legal side, if that will be the final solution, can be combined what the Minister of Education is expecting to have as a total expansion for the sector.

We are seeing that the total estimative, by what they released in the past, was around 9,000- 10,000 additional seats. If they come from injunction, from additional seats from the other alternatives and from Mais Médicos III, I think in the long term, I think could be added something close to 10,000 seats in five to six years. That's the time that, well, you have to get the final answer, you have to build the campus, you have to have received the final visit to get the authorization, the normative authorization, and then you start all the intake process. By the end of the day, I think it will be the largest impact, around 9,000- 10,000 seats, if all of the seats that the Minister of Education is aiming to have additional program or additional seats, as an increase of supply for the entire country. Okay.

Lucca Marquezini
Analyst, Itaú

Okay.

Luis André Blanco
CFO, Afya

Lucca, Blanco speaking. Taking your question about the margin expansions for 2024. As Virgílio mentioned before, in terms of top line, we can expect around 10% in the undergrad segment, around 20% in the continuing educational, and around 30% in terms of digital service expansion in top line. Coming to the expansions in these three segments, giving a little more color on that. On the undergrads, we can expect margin expansion because it will be the first full- year that we are going to have UNIMA/FCM Jaboatão fulfill 100% of the year under our model. We did the migrations of their operations to our shared service. We implement our national curriculum in UNIMA in this first semester of 2024. We are going to pass one year, entire year, with them under our structure so we can expect expansions on margins on the undergrads because of that.

On the continual educational segment, what we are doing, that it is the operational leverage of the segment itself. We ended 2023 with a growth of roughly 35% in these segments. We have new locations of continuing educational, and we are fulfilling these units with students. We have a very good, strong demand for our graduate courses as a path for them to get the specialization title.

Our offer is very strong and it is getting very tractions within the physicians. With this increase and these new units being fulfilled, we are going to gain operational leverage and increase margins. Digital itself, as we are still growing both B2P and B2B, we can get these more efficiency and get more margins as well. All of them being supported by this zero budget project that we implemented for the budget of 2024, that we are very confident that we can gain some efficiencies on the holding levels in each one of the segments that will be support. That is why we established this guidance that is implied in the midpoint of the guidance, as you mentioned, margin expansion.

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Lucca, just an additional point about the dynamic on undergrad here. If you remember, during the three first quarters, we were losing gross margins on the undergrad segment. The reason of that was not only because of the acquisition, but most of them come from the maturation of the six Mais Médicos campuses that was launched in 2022, 2021. They were maturing. As they have only 60 seats, the margin coming from these campuses was very low there.

The gross margin coming from this campus was lower. In the fourth quarter, if you take a look on the spreadsheet that we are releasing also together with our financial statement, is the first quarter that we have higher gross margin on the undergrad segment when you compare to the fourth quarter 2022. That is a very good trend that will keep the same trend on 2024, but also that will be pushed also for the other two segment as Blanco mentioned. Is that okay?

Lucca Marquezini
Analyst, Itaú

That is very clear. Thank you, guys.

Renata Costa Couto
Director of Investor Relations, Afya

Thank you, Lucca. Just a reminder, if you want to ask a question, please raise your hand. Our next question comes from Leandro Bastos from Citibank. Leandro, you may now ask.

Leandro Bastos
Analyst, Citibank

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Renata. Hello, guys. Good evening. Just one question on our side. If you could comment a little bit on the latest intake cycle you have for prep courses, how you saw competition, the new strategy for Medcel, how was acceptancy from the students, as much as you could share, I think it would be helpful to hear. Thank you.

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Okay, Leandro. Thank you for your question here. We are not tracking here only the prep course intake for residency, but also all the prep for title that we are offering with another brand here that is Papers, the CardioPapers, not only for residents, but also for title. But taking a look product by product, on the Medcel, there is a focus on residency prep programs.

The fourth quarter was the first quarter since the last two years that we have a higher intake and higher sales volume when you compare to the last year. On the other hand, for title prep, we are boosting our operation year when you compare to last year, growing more than 30% year-over-year, when you can take a look for the papers and all. All of this is combined on our digital operation. It is one of the reasons why we will also leverage margins along 2024.

Leandro Bastos
Analyst, Citibank

Okay. That is clear. Thank you so much.

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Thank you.

Renata Costa Couto
Director of Investor Relations, Afya

Thank you, Leandro. Our next question comes from Lucas Nagano from Morgan Stanley. Lucas, you may now go.

Lucas Nagano
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Thank you, Renata. I have a follow-up question on the Supreme Court debate. The vote by André Mendonça seemed a little open to different scenarios for us. First, does it count as a vote against the injunctions? Second, he commented some things about reviewing the Mais Médicos policy. Does it imply any change to the current Mais Médicos program taking place now?

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Hi, Lucas. We are seeing the André Mendonça vote as a very strong argument against not the Mais Médicos III, but all the noise that is coming from the injunctions. What we still have to wait is another vote. If we have another vote against the modulation, that is the modulation to the second modulation there where the Minister of Education is allowed to analyze some injunctions process after some stage, that will finish all the questions about that. But one thing is true. All of the changes on Mais Médicos III is creating some noisy. I hope they fulfill their schedule now, and we can release our proposals by July this year and wait for the final answer in beginning of 2025 to start working on the new campus of the new programs released to the market.

Lucas Nagano
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Okay. Virgílio. Thanks.

Renata Costa Couto
Director of Investor Relations, Afya

We do not have any other questions. If you want to have a follow-up question, please just contact our IR team. We will be happy to help you. Have a good night, everyone.

Virgílio Gibbon
CEO, Afya

Thank you.