Americanas S.A. (AMER3) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. Welcome to Americanas S.A. 2022 Earnings Conference. Joining us today are Americanas S.A. CEO, Leonardo Coelho and Camille Faria. This event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

Today's presentation can be accessed at ri.americanas.io. Forward-looking statements made during this conference call regarding Americana's business prospects, financial and operational projections and goals constitute beliefs and premises of the company's management as well as information currently available. Forward-looking statements are no guaranty of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could affect Americanas' future performance and could lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. The company clarifies that company information underlying the comments is presented in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards issued by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, CVM; and in Brazilian reals. Now I would like to turn the call to Americanas CEO, who will start the presentation. You may proceed, Mr. Leonardo.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Leonardo Coelho, I'm CEO of Americanas. And I would like to start thanking everyone, all the professionals that made this disclosure possible. It was a stringent, intense and very determined work, without which not to be possible to present to the market and all Americanas shareholders, the 2021 and 2022 numbers free from the effect of the frauds. It's important to be with all of you here today not only to present those financial statements, but also to tell you about the transformation we have been bringing about in this mainly 100 owned company. This year has been particularly engaged to our company. We live a unique chapter since we saw the inconsistencies at the accounting level that were fulfilled as fraudulent results. Americana was effective of this sophisticated thought or plan -- and that made the financial business we make on the expense and rigorous in other teams of Americanas. At every stage, we strive to adopt the best practice to perform this work as you're going to see in the financials that we are about to present. In spite of the critical numbers than those previously disclosed, the representation of the adjusted financial statements of 2021 and the [indiscernible] of 2022 are a commitment to transparency in a [ bottle ] to the truth, which is my [indiscernible] in this new management. I'm also here with our CFO, Camille Faria, addition to setting into the company operational [indiscernible] is leading the construction of this new capital structure and the negotiations on the judicial recovery plan with creditors. We need to cover the management of Americanas already in judicial recovery with important mission of promoting an operational turnaround and reaching an agreement with creditors that can guarantee a sustainable future for the company as well as this is very clear to all of us, the maintenance of the economic contribution of the tens of thousands of jobs all across this country. This new team, which comes onboard with diverse complementary experiences, joins Americanas professionals' extensive experience in the retail sector, and renowned external consulting firms in the rebuilding of this company. This new management has been operating on 3 fundamental fronts, which together convert to focus on its recovery. The first of these is the transformation of the company, which began with the creation of a working group that in 100-day task force identified 14 business fronts with opportunities for improvement and an evolution for the reconstruction of Americanas from this input, build a strategic plan focused on the strength and resilience of the physical channel, complemented by the operational excellence of our digital area, customized portfolio, financial services of Americanas and by the diversity of the media of our advertising area. And this is available to our customers and partners with all possible models and a variety of retailers, such as ours. Furthermore, recovery and investigation and clarifications, these were segregated from the transformational front in order to generate the necessary focus of our teams on the operation of our multichannel model. And on the implementation of delivering value and adopting the productive measure in an independent way from the judicial discovery and clarification fronts. The judicial recovery front involves the company's effort alongside our creditors in favor of a plan that can best meet the needs of the largest numbers of parties involved. While at the same time, representing a viable solution for Americanas in the long term. The first version of this plan was presented in March and with a wide range of arrangements with possibilities for each type of creditor. This plan is one of the most complete ever seen and retail recovery processes. So in yet a demonstration of partnership with our suppliers and creditor over the last few months, we have continued to review and even improve the proposals. The third front is the clarification. We continue to contribute to the ongoing investigations carried out by competent authorities and also by the independent committee appointed by the Board of Directors of Americanas immediately after becoming aware of the accompanying discrepancies in the company's financial statements. Regarding this topic, I repeat that we have -- what we have been seeing over those months. Americanas is the one who is most interested in clarifying what happened. So we will have 3 blocks of presentations. First, Camille will present the financial statements of 2021 and 2022. Then she brings a brief status of our judicial recovery plan and negotiations and how the structure will stand after that. Finally, I'll come back to talk about the strategic plan, and then we will open the Q&A session. Camille? You have the floor.

Thank you. So first of all, we are in to the financial administration. The last few months as we mentioned, the company has devoted significant effort. So we show the result of this work. On Slide 4 of our presentation. We going to tell you what we did all the effect of the fraud before December 31, 2020, as well as others that the efforts are to the fraud, which is, for example, on this page [ the starting ] balance for the year 2021 presented the financials in January 1, 2021. We audited all the numbers that had been previously impaired and disclosed by the company, and we corrected by auditing the results of 2022. And they were already adjusted for the first time. So the rehabilitation of 2021 and the presentation of 2022 results were the same. It's important to clarify the details to understand the numbers. The certain balance of January 1, first only to B2W, which is the surviving company of the combination of LASA and B2W, which according to Reg1, this also applies to the share of results for the month of January to June 2021. From January to June are in the balance sheet of the incorporation merger, and they are not reflected in the results. With a combination of LASA and B2W in June with a results accumulated in June, as I mentioned, were incorporated into the B2W's balance sheet as of July 2021, the company's results began to reflect operations combined. Therefore, the results of 2021 and 2022 are not entirely comparable as there is a difference in perimeter between the two. So we can see that there is a different perimeter, the 2 results can now be comparable. Regarding the nature of the adjustments that were made, we separated it into 3 types. First, we made all benefits and adjustments to eliminate the difference of the results of the company numbers. In addition to this, we've carried out a general review of the accounting practices of the company. And we adapted some of these parameters that as we need. And of course, with the approval of our governance bodies, we believe it to be more appropriate to our business. Finally, the 2 tranche, the collection of the fraud that is saying and the adjustment of the accounting practices. We needed to make additional adjustments such as the recalculation of taxes and the impairment tax. And we made all those additional adjustments, but I will give more details about those operations during the presentation. There is still work to be done on the accounting front. And it has not finished this review cycle for 2021 and 2022. The team will be on flow-through of the quarter of 2023, which, as we have already disclosed in the -- in fact we intend to disclose by the end of this year. And disclosing those results of each of these quarters, we will also present again the respective 2021, 2022 with the same corrections already mentioned such as accounting prices, adjustments and other effects. Therefore, at the end of the second cycle, we will have presented, again, the first, second and third quarters of 2022. So it has to be up to date with the financial disclosures. Now let's move on to Slide 5. We are going to do what we refer to as a reminder of the fraud detector to help the market understand how everything came about. In a simplified way, of course, this is just an example, just to explain the mechanism. The operating company's result was increased by as a cost reducer and advertising budget, in fact, the company has many VPC transactions in addition to other similar transactions with a fair effect that we were in a generic way and VPC. They are encouragement to promote their products in our platform as well as other retailers. This is a very common practice in the retail companies. But as to the results fraud, in addition to VPC, which are legitimate, other operations of the same nature were manufactured to change artificially the results of the company. So these are the areas. Letter A on the slide, increasing the company's result by BRL 100 in our simplified example. The counterpart to this entry was an entry of eco value, reducing value, equivalent to accounts receivable from suppliers shown with C on our slide. This generated the consequence that the company needed to address since it was a fictitious VPC, accounts receivables were never converted into cash. So this created 2 problems for the investors. One, lack of cash for the company; and two, we have a B2C account that reduced the supply account that only increased over time to hide these effects, we had 4 fake operations or transactions which were incorrectly accounted for in the suppliers' account. So they were entered in the suppliers' account. These 4 fake funds provided the company with a cash supposedly created by the fictitious VPC, transaction as we see in B, and nullified in the supplier's account the cumulative effect of the reducing accounts where we can see as letter D. And this transaction is matched and were hidden on the balance sheet. Letter C was offset by the Forfait transaction that was corrected, entered as letter D on the slides. So this was the main instrument of the fraud, but it was not the only one. So now moving on to Slide 6. We can see the total entries that were made. We show not only the adjustments that were necessary to detect the fraud, but as I said, all those related to the general review and the accounting practices and those needed to have to be as a result of both. In short, on the left, as to the fraud, we have the fraudulent VPCs and the Forfait transactions already commented on the previous slide. Other working capital financial transactions related to working capital that were unduly entered in the supplier cash for the company and improving the leverage levels for the company and creating more space for false VPCs. Financial charges on Forfait and working capital transactions, which should have been reflected in the company's financial results, but instead were properly charged to the supplier account, reducing discount in a manner similar to false VPCs and increased net income of the company because our financial expense was not entered. And expenses that should have been reflected in the company's results like freight and payroll, they were instead undue capitalized, inflating the operating results. On the realization of accounting practices, we reconciled several charged accounts payable. They were pending issues. And we reevaluated our accounts receivable changes, the criteria provisioning or criteria that we believe are more adequate to our business. We made a general review of provisions for contingencies. And this was essentially counted as contingencies of nature to return forecast by our external advisers. And on real estate contingencies due to prospect of the outcome of stores and we see the renovation processes. We revised IFRS 16 calculations related to the rental or lease agreements, now incorporated in our renewal growth period depending on the company's history. This generated an increase in the property and liabilities. The counterpart of an increase in our assets related to the right to use them. So this asset was increased as the right to use those real estate, as I mentioned. So we can see the increase of the liabilities related to lease because of this. And finally, we made adjustments to the revenue recognition for some partnership agreements, which have been previously recognized on a cash basis, where we received the upfront payment for a service to be provided. So this revenue was recognized all at once using the cash basis. And now we needed to make the adjustment to an accrual basis as it should have. On the right, as related -- CapEx related to those previous topics, it was necessary for us to make recalculations of taxes due to the calculations that affected profit, revenues, income. We needed to quantify all the long-term debt to short-term debt. We redid all calculations of impairment because, of course, we reviewed the upgrade, protection, the income projections now without fraud. And this generates the need for provisioning, with acquisitions, excesses and tangible assets. We also made provisions for our deferred income taxes due to these reduction in the prospect of using these credits because we had a change in perspective of the generation of income. These were the main adjustments, but the [indiscernible] of the adjustments are provided in detail in our financial results. For those who are not [indiscernible], we can see all this. So now let's move on to Slide 7. In this slide, we show 4 EBITDA metrics just to make understanding the result a little bit easier. We have a lot of nonrecurring effects because of these adjustments. So we have the EBITDA that was reported in the statement for 2021. I just wanted to explain a little bit what the concepts are before we move on to the figures, all right? So we have the reported EBITDA, and we present EBITDA following all the adjustments we've described for the new statements that were represented that I summarized in the previous slide. Then we have the recurrent EBITDA, which is the one without the nonrecurring effects that were the result of those adjustments and then the recurring ex IFRS 16 EBITDA, which is the same recurring EBITDA following or clear of payment of our rent obligations. So the reported EBITDA for 2021, which was BRL 2.1 billion went through a number of adjustments because of the fraud. Those adjustments amounted to BRL 3.7 billion negative accounting to negative BRL 1.6 billion post fraud, which is the chart we see on the left-hand side of the slide. The most significant adjustment of the fraud was MDF or VPC, after the adjustment, as I mentioned in the prior slide. In addition to the adjustments for fraud, there were other adjustments, most important of which was impairment, negative BRL 1.6 billion, which is now in the middle chart in the dark bar. Following these adjustments, the represented EBITDA, which is the one we presented just now for these statements for 2021 was BRL 3.4 billion negative for 2021. Now going back to the nonrecurring results and going with the impairments result, we have a negative BRL 1.8 billion for 2021. And excluding rent costs, we have the recurring EBITDA ex IFRS 16 negative at BRL 2.4 billion for 2021. In 2022, the reported EBITDA was a negative BRL 6.2 billion. That was much because of a growing gross EBITDA and SG&A that grew even faster. The recurring EBITDA, excluding the nonrecurring efforts, which also included a great impairment for 2022, BRL 2.4 billion led to a recurring EBITDA at a negative BRL 2.9 billion and the recurring EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16 following the payment of rent costs was a negative BRL 4.1 billion for 2022. You'd like also to remember that, as I said at the beginning, these figures for 2022 are not comparable to those of 2021 because of the incorporation of the 2 companies we merged with in 2021. Now moving on to Slide 8. We would like to show you the net profit for the company in 2021 as well as a little bit of 2022. The originally presented net profit was BRL 0.5 billion, BRL 44 million, and this was the profit reported at the company's statement. Historically, the company showed its earnings release with a pro forma version to include 100% of [ LASA's ] results to B2W's results for the year. So depending on what statement you will be looking at, you'll be seeing a slightly different figure, but we are now looking at the official statement results. With regard to those results considering the company's earnings release and considering the elements that we showed in the previous slide, we had positive effects in depreciation and amortization because of the fixed asset with impairments. So the depreciation and amortization of those assets was lower. We had about a negative BRL 800 million fully because of the reclassification of interest on 4 free transactions and working capital and we adjusted them in the correct way according to the results accounts, about BRL 700 million in taxes, which may be counterintuitive because the result is not poor, but if you remember that there was the decrease in the deferred income tax because of reduced profitability and the impairment. With all of that combined we have a loss that was initially a net profit of BRL 500 million, but we come to the adjusted negative figure of BRL 5.2 billion. In 2021, we had a loss of BRL 12.2 billion, considering a worse EBITDA compared to 2021 of BRL 6.2 billion as we just talked. And in addition to that, the company was also severely impacted by the financial result, which was negative by BRL 5.2 billion because of the interest rate as we will see a bit further down the presentation. So let's look at Slide 9, where we will look at the suppliers' account. This is usually not measured that we account for in the release, but because of the fraud with this account, we broke down the numbers and disclosed it so that the market reconsider what was our suppliers account before the fraud and what it looks like now after these [indiscernible]? So in the originally presented 2021 statements, which is the chart you see on the bottom side on the left-hand side, the suppliers' account opened the year with a BRL 4.1 billion balance. This is the account where the fraud took place where BRL 7.7 billion had been -- have been not shown. We're talking about the fraud that was accumulated at this point. And this was virtually fully accounted for as we can see in the chart with the BRL 6.9 billion Forfait transactions. So as we said, we had one transaction obscuring the other accounts with the fraud in the supplier's account. So following the reversal of these accounts, the balance went to BRL 4.9 billion. So we're now looking at the chart at the top where we see the correct broken down with BRL 4.9 billion being represented over 2021. That account also grew by BRL 1.4 billion because of losses incorporation. It was a piece of the suppliers' account that came with that and BRL 4.1 billion because of the variation in operations because of that account, which ended 2021 at BRL 11 billion. By the end of 2022, the same account had a BRL 6.7 billion account already in the chart on the top, reflecting the postponement of supplier payments at the end of 2021. So these accounts were frozen, the head count went up. And at the end of 2022, that trend was normalized, we see the payments going off and the suppliers account going back to those levels that are more in keeping with those that we saw at the beginning of 2021. Just for the sake of explanation, as we -- in the chart, we see some of the fraud in 2022 that was reversed as we prepared the statement. So we have the same trend for interest the MDF accounted for and the working capital as well as Forfait transaction. We're always looking at year-to-date figures in this space. So working capital, Forfait transactions that were covering up interest and those other transactions that are now all presented here. Now moving on to Slide 10, we're going to look at the cash performance of the company, which is the result of everything that we've seen so far. So starting at the bottom side of the slide, the company's debt position went from BRL 7.8 billion, which was originally reported on January 1, 2021, BRL 37.3 billion on December 31, 2022. This was especially because of the reclassification of Forfait transaction and working capital transactions, so BRL 15.9 billion in Q4 in the suppliers' account or financial leverage duly accounted for and the very need for funding by the company because of its operating cash consumption. Cash position went from BRL 6.6 billion in early 2021 to BRL 2.5 billion at the end of 2022 because of cash consumption, especially in the second half of 2022. That's when the company made an effort to try to put the house in order. This was a small fact considering how -- considering the scope that the fraud has already taken by then. On Slide 11, we see the trend of everything that we've seen so far and its effect on the company's wealth. So the [indiscernible] -- the net worth that originally reported was BRL 9.5 billion positive. Because of the adjustments, it moves to minus BRL 26.7 billion at the end of 2022, a change that's explained especially by the following items according to the table we have on the slide. So as positive contributions, we have the incorporation of losses, assets, which contributed BRL 5.7 billion to increase Americanas' net worth. And on the negative side, helping to shrink that net worth, we had recurring effects of the fiscal years BRL 12.4 billion, and this includes the recurring loss of 2022, we had a negative BRL 6.7 billion impairment effects on contingency and inventory that we've already discussed with an impact of about BRL 900 billion and BRL 800 billion, respectively, which is not detailed on the slide, but we had also other items such as tax -- recoverable taxes. And by the way, what I mentioned about stock inventory and contingency is [ written off ] in the report. We also have taxes written off by about BRL 2.5 billion. And finally, in bold, we have the most significant impact that helped to turn the statement around the fraud product results, which by 31 -- December 31, 2021, added a negative BRL 20.2 billion, which is what makes us most of the BRL 25 billion loss that we'll be presenting. So until 2021, you haven't broken down results of BRL 18.2 billion. Interest that was written off in the suppliers' account incorrectly and also losses that should have been accounted for of about BRL 300 million. So now moving on to the following slide, Slide 12. We finally give you a higher magnitude of the fraud, which is in keeping with what the company had mentioned in the material fact on June 13. Following the intense other results, all the work that the company made so far, we concluded that the size of the overall fraud is BRL 25.2 billion. And here, we have a broken down by MDF, BRL 20.4 billion, BRL 1.2 billion of expense capitalization and BRL 3.6 billion of capitalized interest. And here on the slide, we show you the distribution between 2020 and 2021 and 2022. It's also important to remember that the fraud was moving forward with a hole in the company's cash position because as [indiscernible] fabricated and did not convert into cash generation. And to us, what allowed the scheme to last for so many years and come to such a sizable magnitude was the mechanism of hiring without a necessary approval from governance and also the Forfait transactions that were hidden in the suppliers' account that allow for cash generation that was in keeping with the reported operational performance. At the same time, the numerically written off time in fictitious MDF recorded as reducers of the suppliers account. So on that note, we go to the next page of the presentation, where we update you on our New York court order reorganization starting on Page 14. According to the material effect presented in October 30, the company presented many proposal to its main creditors, which is simply based on the increase to the amount on the commitment to capitalize the company to BRL 12 billion. And since we have already [indiscernible] to the market, it allowed us to continue with the creditors [indiscernible] manner, and we worked hard to have this plan approved by the Board until December this year. [indiscernible] we would just like to go back to our general framework of creditors and the payments that we have in this new version of the plan. [indiscernible] to be restructured that would exclude the intercompany credit. So when you see the complete snapshot, as you see that it's close to BRL 50 million, but the difference related to the intercompany credits. In classes 1 and 4, which are labor creditors and micro and small companies, we have a balance of BRL 148.6 million to be paid. And the plan [indiscernible] for the full settlement without discount coupled by the judicial recovery court. As a reminder, we started to pay the creditors to judicial authorization that was suspended later on. So we have already made some payments, but there is a balance that is to be paid. We do not have [ the creditors ] in our judicial recovery as we do not have creditors with real guarantees. And we also have [indiscernible] of secured creditors where we have BRL 5.5 billion in credit from suppliers and BRL 36.8 billion from financial creditors. So in this class, we have available payment options that we are going to start describing to -- start to describe on the next slide. The first [indiscernible] alternative is the general offer, which you can see on the right of the image, and they are automatic [ credit facility ] an option. We'll have a discount of 80%. And the payment of the balance will be made in 12 years as updated by TR indexes and the case of credit in reais. For creditors who choose an option and those who have up to BRL 12,000 to receive. They are going to receive all at once. As you can see, the dotted line to the right, and that's where we can also see information. Credit [indiscernible] whether to [indiscernible] or not in this reverse auction. This auction has a minimum discount of 70%. And the creditors who accept the high discount [indiscernible]. As the company will allocate to bid for this auction. And if there is demand, the company will [indiscernible] billion to repurchase those credits at a discount. So the remaining creditors after the reverse auction as well as those who are not included in the auction will have two options. They can choose option 1 that has a 70% discount and the payments will be made in 15 years and the amounts will be updated by TR and options 2 we believe, will have the greatest adoption in terms of financial terms, involves a combination of credit [indiscernible] shares and we are going to show the schedule, and we also have the repurchase in the short term. Option 2 has [ been presented ] in such a way that it would give [ BRL 2 billion ] of credit converted into shares when the company will carry BRL 1.875 billion of restructured debt. And we'll use to repurchase the remaining balance of this debt. Difference of the discount on this purchase will be a consequence of [indiscernible] that make this auction. Debt and there will be a balance that will be repurchased at BRL 6.7 billion. I think those BRL 12 billion of conversions of option 2 with the BRL 12 billion capital in credits from the reference shareholders will have a very significant cash increase of BRL 24 billion as part of the implementation plan. And this will completely change the structure for the company to a better position. Issue price of the shares with equal capital will be decided by shareholders in the shareholders and auditors meeting observing all the ethical rules and legislation including guaranteeing all Americanas' shareholders the chance of not to be diluted, exercising their preemptive [indiscernible] participating in cash of the capital structure. The plan also offers alternative for creditors or suppliers and will provide details about those alternatives on Slide 16. The company will allocate BRL 3.7 billion to the collaborating suppliers. If it were defined in the judicial recovery plan and that includes conditions for receiving the supply of good merchandise for resale as well as [indiscernible] requirements. Probably the most important one is the granting of payment deadlines on levels spread 2022. [indiscernible] days in the space is suppliers about -- practically 100% of the suppliers commission. If the volume requested by collaborating suppliers exceeds BRL 3.7 billion. And if these suppliers are classified as collaborating suppliers, we are going to be served in the following order. The creditors with up to BRL 1 million to be received by the company or who will pay BRL 1 million. Next, the company's most representative suppliers in the last 12 months up to September 2023 to be [indiscernible]. And those which represented more than 20% of our sales. And finally, we are going to serve the other suppliers. To cover the remainder, the company will allocate another BRL 300 million to be paid in 6 installments. If this were to remain balanced of the collaboration suppliers. This balance will be treated as [indiscernible] suppliers. I will provide more details now. The second category of suppliers with a specific clause that the technology suppliers, as you can see in the middle of the slide. Technology supplier creditor is also a term defined in our traditional recovery plan, and it needs to -- and it needs to give us the [indiscernible]. It is emerging the first one. And it also has a deadline so that we can offer this different treatment. The company will allocate BRL 100 million to be paid to suppliers in a similar statement and the remainder balance not included in the BRL 100 million will be -- as a standard suppliers -- this standard treatment for supplier that does not need [indiscernible] nor any option that were not covered by the [indiscernible] that I have just mentioned on the slide. The standard supplier will have a discount of 50%. And the 50% will be paid in 48 installments updated by the IPCA. On Slide 17, we showed the timeline. I would like to give this [indiscernible] because this is an estimated time line that depends on as well -- such as just completing the plans and finalizing other activities. And then this is just an estimate on the line, as I said, but it can be [indiscernible] that the company is currently expecting for [indiscernible] and we are working hard in order to materialize it. But as a target, as I mentioned, before each to have our General meeting of creditors to take place until this year by December 2023. So we are ending negotiations with the suppliers that we can have this within held. And if so, we believe that plans has to be approved in early 2024 and from then, we estimate that [indiscernible] current shareholders in the way -- now for the first plan implemented. In the following 15 days, we redeployed a collaborated suppliers and the balance is [indiscernible]. And within this period, we are looking to invest the reverse auction -- all the [indiscernible] related to the reverse auction. But these are -- this is a financial segment that will only be this later. At the same time, we're going to summon shareholders meeting, which [indiscernible] have approved [indiscernible] 30 days after this meeting. And if the capital is approved, there will be a [indiscernible] for exercise the right of first refusal. And at end of those 30 day period, [indiscernible] on the reverse when you have been that is related to the capital increase and the entire implementation of option 2. Of course, the plan with the issuance of new debt, and this relates to the [indiscernible] the plan. And with this, I can hand this back to [ Leonardo ] so that we can talk a lot of future.

Thank you, Camille. So Camille address how we will be addressing the funnel or how we'll be recovering the company's capital structure. So starting on Slide 19. I'll begin to get details of how we go back into turning a profit. So since the disclosure of a material fact on January 11, 2023, that was when the company dove into unprecedented crises, which had a significant impact on its ability to honor its financial obligations and keep its operations running steady and most importantly, keep its institutional credibility and that's what led to its reorganization process. So as I said at the beginning, in order to recover the company, we had to outline a strategic plan on 3 different fronts: transformation, reorganization or judicial recovery and investigation. The recovery front has been presented by Camille, and this includes the highlighted robust capital increase of BRL 2 billion in cash coming from the reference shareholders plus BRL 12 billion in capitalization based from capital -- from creditors, which is key for us to readjust our liability and rebalance Americanas' capital structure. On the investigation front, we are still contributing to the ongoing investigation which has been conducted by the competent authorities and also by the independent committee and by Americanas' Board of Directors immediately after the accounting discrepancies were acknowledged in the company's financial statements. In addition to that, we've also taken some steps internally to move along with the more urgent measures, such as the ones that were released in the June 30, 2023 material fact involving the layoff of many of those individuals who were involved in this fraud that were still with the company at that point. Actually, on this point, this was part of a broader impact of act of replacing leadership at the company through what we call the Level M2, meaning those who report directly to myself, Camille and [indiscernible]. And we did that in a way to make these new management practices easier that were more in line with the journey that we want to take with the company and also more adjusted to the improved credibility of Americanas both internally and to the market. It's also important to say that the company is also spreading together with its legal counsel, what steps can be taken for us to try to reimburse people for the damages caused by the fraud and also the correct moment to legally seek those reimbursement. As I said again, Americanas is the most interested party in clarifying everything that happened. So let me now focus on the upgrading transformational, which I'll be breaking down into 5 pillars. Brick-and-Mortar digital on our fintech arm, other operations, HNT and advertising. Generally speaking, the new Americanas will be built based on the existing synergies across all of these building blocks. According to what we discussed in the many areas over many [indiscernible] of the company, we tend to integrate it moving away from the few based designs that we had in the past where you couldn't really see the big picture within Americanas. Actually the lack of a big picture view made it possible for fraud to take place because it wasn't noticed by the overall team. And the side effect of that was the lack of synergy being realized simply because of the lack of alignment across teams and channels, but that now has changed. We have a single company with each department doing the best it can and contributing to the whole. Our brick-and-mortar arm showed impressive resilience throughout the year, precisely because of the historic relationship that was created with our customers and our business partners. And therefore, it bore most of the burden, which made clear how strong our brick-and-mortar operations are as a brand attribute. But the operating adjustments that are ongoing and which we'll get more details about later on, is still a driver of our digital arm, both because of the assortment in our brick-and-mortar stores and because of the infinite or endless health that we will be talking about as well. The digital arm, we covered from a natural confidence prices at the beginning. And it is also able to drive our brick-and-mortar sales [indiscernible] because of the deeper knowledge of our customers' profiles and shopping patterns. I may add to this package an income profile to our knowledge and also a loyalty program that's been reinvigorated and whose outlined is now in its final stages, also combined with an intelligent cash back policy, it can also help our digital and brick-and-mortar arms to deliver even more value to our customers. Our other operations are also benefiting from the effects of this transformation package, particularly as they bring different clients from Americanas' traditional profile, complementing our ability to advance the consumer patterns and tendencies. Lastly, our remodeled advertising department offers our business partners in many different media and format, a unique, easily measurable design that can directly access customers that are selected within the Media store concept. This multichannel system that is continually improving adds to our associates abilities in stores, distribution centers and offices to optimize our processes and go back to a customer-centric retail, which is something we stopped doing during the time of the fraud. Now 2 very solid foundation are supporting the strategic plan. First of all, Americanas has footprint across Brazil with unequal capillarity. And also second, the love and recognition of our customers, which is the result of over 100 years of history. But I'll go back to this point in a little bit. But before that, we had to deal with the immediate impacts of the crisis and take immediate steps. So now moving on to Slide 20. The most significant impact of the crisis on our brick-and-mortar operations cut back in credit by our suppliers and the natural decrease in supply, especially because of the uncertainty environment that we had in Q3. Many negotiation initiatives took place with our suppliers until supply began to be unlocked even though, as Camille said, with payment upfront. In view of the restricted liquidity, the company responded by focusing its assortment in convenience to corporate, which because of the seasonality, especially the seasonal Easter period ultimately gave us a very significant boost in terms of cash. So from the uncertainty in Q3, we started focusing on the department that were sort of [ destinations ] within Americanas and as a result, we ultimately strengthened the convenience side a lot more in terms of sales and results. We also went back to more direct sales strengthening especially the department relating to varieties of moving away from convenience and going to a more broader reach. So we also focused on the continued promotional sales as a strategy to drive our sales and results. On our digital side, on our digital operations, the impact on our credibility was greater affecting the number of visits and sales conversions. And at that initial moment also reduced the number of active sellers within our marketplace platform. Seeing as the partners were obviously crazy about how the online sales were going in, whether Americanas would be able to comply with their obligations. In addition to that, the restricted liquidity at the beginning, forced us to prioritize margin over volume. Therefore, stopping those incentive policies that we had in 2022 with an additional impact on sales and conversion. We focused our efforts on reassuming confidence -- the confidence of our sellers and also reducing purchases of our 1P whose margins are usually narrower or tighter. The initial steps were strengthening the message that the seller is our customer and that our structure to serve them was intact. As a result, we secured those payments every [ 30 ] days and also broaden them with our sellers in addition to reinforcing a relationship with them by creating Americanas [indiscernible], which is a customized service program for selective sellers that offer support and guidance to establish the best sales strategy. These steps ensured 9,000 new partners between January and October of this year, and you're seeing some positive benefits of that over the course of the second half of this year. Of course, all of that combined with the revision in our expenses structure to seek productivity gains in a short period of time. So moving on to Slide 21. It's important to go back a little bit to show you where this transformation program is coming from. It's based on our legacy, which provides the foundation for rebuilding of our business. Even in the face of all of the challenges we're facing, we believe in the strength of Americanas, which over the course of nearly 100 years built a strong brand that is present in Brazilian people's everyday lives. So especially in the first half of that year at the high of the prices, research showed that over 76% of our customers associated the brand, our brand with some positive memory, which is much higher than any of our competitors, also 41% of them had purchased something from us in the 3 months prior. So the second best performance amongst our peers considering that we were at the most critical stage of our crisis. And also, since the beginning of this crisis, we've had consistently over 90% favorability, meaning over 90% of respondents believe that Americanas deserves to overcome the crises, then we have worked really hard to honor that expectation. The survey also showed Americanas as the top of mind brand in many purchase journeys such as treats, fun and leisure, domestic appliances and other products as well. So we now go into the reconstruction plan. Going on to Slide 22, we believe that the strength of the brand is, among other things, because of the massive presence of our brand, both on the digital side and in brick-and-mortar side with over 1,600 stores in every state of the country, which is the most capillarity of any company amongst our peers with a logistics network that's robust and a high traffic for customers. Our stores are not a [ weight ]. They are a formidable asset to build our brand up and build communication as well as logistics capillarity, advertising and sales that's absolutely top-notch as well as media campaigns with our partners that drive the company's other channels, including also social impact, considering that we have a footprint in every region of the country. By the way, as we took those emergency steps to reestablish our operations, we also began to build a strategic plan that sets the new guidelines that the company has adopted during its restructuring stage as we will see starting on Slide 23. Now before diving a bit deeper in the analysis of the transformation plan for each [indiscernible], it's important to stress that the fraud, which was complex and sophisticated, took significant time from the previous management and required the isolation of departments in silos and had an impact on our operations, which were held hostage to excel spreadsheets as Camille showed. Therefore, there is a significant value that can be unlocked simply by managing our operations in a simpler way and by bringing our different areas and to align it. So the strategy on the physical side is focused on growing our sales with greater margins. So because of that, we will continue to increase our assortment, especially in those areas where Americanas is a destination store. And importantly, the -- we need to have the right items and the right stores at the right price. So we need to recover the historic DNA of Americanas. So we want to make it again, the reference for Brazilians when it comes to variety and convenience products. So our strategy is based on 3 major pillars: modulating our assortment, clustering our stores and optimizing the management of mix so that we can reduce the reps and supply of product. So if we combine what we have in brick-and-mortar stores in very structured way as we begin the year, which are now a lot stronger in a few specific items. We begin to look at what's adjacent to them so as to have higher sales even when sales are down. We have a low ticket, so that's not a significant share of our clients' budgets and that has led to an increase in visits, which will be critical for the plan. In addition to that, we don't expect to have exactly the same items in our over 1,600 stores, depending on the city or neighborhood or block, we expect to have a larger stock, for example, of diapers and a lower one of pillows according to the needs of each of those areas. And for us to have the right product within the right store, we need from a logistics standpoint, address the complexity. And Americanas' Logistics plan has been one of the most resilient points during the time of crisis. The second pillar is category, the purpose of which is to expand our offer of products, expanding our mix for assortment, which will be operationalized by the negotiation of new commercial basis and prospecting new suppliers integrated to our planning and logistics chain. Again, we thought on both the supplier level and the item level. If one supplier is more representative of our assortment than the market at large, using Nielsen and other research sources, which should be able to sell at more appealing prices than Americanas. That way, we can also have better margins. It is that combined outlined that we are proposing within the category-based strategy pillars that we have already started to introduce with many suppliers. It is therefore a strategy based on thinking together with each one of these major suppliers, how we can rethink this relationship and make it a lot closer, always based on facts and data throughout the process. We have the system to understand how much we sell from each supplier, how profitable each product is and its [ department ] is as well. That gives us tools to improve our relationships with suppliers and to have for the client the right product and the right price that makes sense, both on the brick-and-mortar side and online. We have done that at for hands with many suppliers, and we're still focusing on this bilateral relationship with a balanced supply to our customers. Actually, within 2023, our suppliers were an integral part of the rebound or the construction -- the rebuilding of Americanas. And finally, we want to renew our stores. And this will be a remodeling based on the time of each customer or within the score and the average number of pieces they acquire without changing the simplicity that's characteristic of their experience within Americanas. We will continue to revise and automize processes to optimize the exposure of items within store, increase productivity and increase the efficiency of the management [indiscernible] within our brick-and-mortar units. The idea is to change the experience within the stores to make it simpler so that it is still as easy as it is today. We have millions of clients today that go into a store to buy a chocolate or cookie and leave with 2 or 3 items more. So we believe that improving the experience we can tap into that any mixed [indiscernible] way. The key initiatives here are supported by a pricing strategy, optimizing occupation costs and reviewing expenses as well as focusing more greatly on retail media, precisely to upsell of those people who are visiting us even during the peak crisis period. We believe that with those initiatives in place and especially with the execution ability that we have within Americanas naturally, we will improve revenue and margin. And again, in order to do that, to have the right items at the right stores at the right price is critical, executing everything with as much efficiency as possible. The design for the digital channel involves migrating a broad mix without defined focus that used to aim only in market share to a model that mirrors the physical mix, which is complemented by an offer of an infinite shelf through sellers with various offers, and which assume the availability of products that previously belong to 1P category. These are items that were previously important in our digital 1P but we're or will become nonexistent in our physical stores, which can be purchased through our digital channel. Even for suppliers of these items, Americanas is and will continue to be an important channel. The issue that we have no longer the appetite or capital to invest in sales, that is not -- does not offer an attractive margin. And in addition to not being remembered by our customers in these categories as a destination. The way to address this is through our marketplace, where we already are a destination for several of these categories. Some large IP suppliers were already present in our 3P. And this strategy has increased with great receptivity with our business partners. Again, this, in the spirit of collective construction. At the end of the day, it's another way of sticking together, how to have a win-win strategy with stakeholders, as I mentioned earlier, in the fiscal strategy. So world tends to be ever more complementary in the new Americanas. We are also going to strengthen the online to offline, which is to establish a concept of hubs and the delivery of those products that were purchased online can happen in a simplified way in our physical stores. With this, we optimize costs using this improved logistics, and we also enhance the 3P. And we make this operation profitable again. The hub store strategy allows us to operate the O2O with the same quality service for the customer or even better with a lower risk of disruption and better efficiency. In fact, efficiency is a key word. Today, the company discusses profitability and is focusing on selling with the margin. Cost optimization is the third pillar of our digital strategy. Moving to Slide 25. Ame continues to be a link, a very important link between the physical and digital world. As well as a way to monetize in a smart way, our customer base. However, we need to do this with a lot of responsibility, especially in the environment where capital is constrained. What did we do with the digital? The Ame Digital is a process of financial and operational restructuring. We are going to expand our loyalty program which is focused on Ame today, and we will identify and increase the engagement of Americanas customer. Furthermore, we will reinforce the stimulus that we have been given to our savings with the cash back, and it continues to be a very efficient payment method to enhance the synergies with physical stores. And at the same time, it explores new opportunities, including those related to credit to customers. But of course, you mean now at this moment, third-party funding and without carrying risk to our balance sheet. On the financial side, the focus will be on disciplining the use of cash by reducing costs and optimizing the asset portfolio. So it has to reach the breakeven point by mix of strategic measures. We no longer work with any assumption that is not going to be part of the world of Americanas. It's still a fundamental part of our digital world. On Slide 26, talking about strategies related to the other assets. And I'm going to go quicker now. We did the partnerships, and there are some pending actions to be carried out. At UNI.CO, we resumed the strategic plans, we have a more operational plan by refinancing the operations, but it's still in the divestmenting strategy. This is included, Uni.Co and HNT, we have their situation still to be analyzed. But this is not going to be divested. If we find the right place at the right moment, we are going to study the possibility. Although other than that, UNI.CO and VEM are going to continue to be operated and they are part of the transformational package that we plan for Americanas. And talking about the schedule, we started our transformation in 2023 with the restructuring of several areas in order to adjust the company for the new size and especially to operate -- to adjust our operational focus. We had an improvement which was relevant in 2023, and we continue making adjustments and improvements in different positions such as marketing, technology, logistic structure, considering the new digital platform as well as the optimization of the store network, which is part of the retail sector. And this plays out for any retail company in the market. With this plan, we believe that in 2025, after the additional stabilization movements and the full capture of the value arising from the transformation already implemented, we believe we'll reach an EBITDA of more than BRL 2.2 billion or more than BRL 1.5 billion, the ex IFRS, which is after the payment of the rents. This first phase of the business plan scheduled to end in 2025 aims to restore the company's profitability and especially integrate existing businesses and possible selective sales of assets at a fair value, as I mentioned. In a later moment, it's expected to have a consolidated company with our organic growth, and we'll be able to explore other avenues for growth and begin a new phase of our new Americanas. And as we mentioned before, all this carried out in the fluid approach in our multichannel initiatives without the -- without the [ feudal ] systems that existed between the fiscal, digital, financial and advertising businesses. On Slide 28 and 29, we see a summary of expected evolution of some of our indicators. In 28, our expectation is to go from a recurring EBITDA negative of BRL 2.9 billion and negative BRL 4.1 billion to payment upfront to a level above BRL 2.2 billion positive recurring EBITDA in 2025 and above BRL 1.5 billion, as I mentioned, after the payment of rents. The main levers, again for this recovery will be the stabilization adjustments already started in 2023 and the store renovation and commercial transformational projects, operational excellence initiatives and others to make digital profitable. After 2025, we expect to continue growing our EBITDA at an average rate of high single digits. On Slide 29, we present the guidance for 2025. With the implementation of our judicial recovery plan and with the evolution of our strategic operational plan, we hope that by the end of 2025, we will take the company to another level. We closed 2022 with a negative net equity of BRL 26.7 billion and with the implementation of the judicial recovery plan, we will take this income statement to a positive -- revenue will be lower than in the past but we will be focused on segments where we are on target and/or where we can position ourselves for additional sales, considering the product we are already a target. So we will have a more robust margins, less dependent on VPC even though VPC continues to be a relevant factor for retail activities. With the successful implementation of our strategic plan and our judicial recovery plan, we tend to take the negative values of 2020-2022 positive levels. And from a debt of BRL 2.2 billion to BRL 1.5 billion of EBITDA after the payment of rents. With gross debt and the equivalent cash received by credit cards and projected by the end of 2025, we will leave from a net debt of BRL 26.3 billion at the end of 2022 to a situation of net cash at the end of 2025. But even at the start of 2024, after the implementation of the investments foreseen in the judicial recovery mentioned by Camille, Americanas will be a company with the lightest capital structure in the Brazilian retail, allowing total focus on the operation. If we do not take into consideration the credit card receivables for the leverage calculations, but only the volumes of cash and cash equivalents, we expect to reach a leverage of less than 0.75x EBITDA ex IFRS at the end of 2025. Therefore, moving on to Slide 30, as you can see. We believe that with all of these actions, Americanas, we were ready to resume its relevant role in the Brazilian retail. It will be easy, it will be simple, but it will be done. The entire transformation process, reconstruction process could not be possible without the team of ethical professionals absolutely committed to this recovery. We continue to work adversely together for the future of the company. This is probably the hallmark of 2023, which is very present internally and may not have been seen by the world external to Americanas. We would not have come this far without the partnership and trust of our suppliers, investors, shareholders and customers. For this reason, we express our deep gratitude and renew our invitation for you to follow us on this journey together for the future. I believe we can begin the Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Danniela from XP Investimentos.

Everything was very didactic, the presentation and the material. I have 2 main questions. I have many questions, but I'm going to focus on 2. First is related to the focus, which is more operational. An improvement for a better income statement and also the stabilization of EBITDA in a recurring positive level. From the viewpoint of the financial statement, could you break down and talk about the increase of capital and how the operational improvement is going to have contributions. So how would the capital increase from the shareholders will play out? And combined to the execution, how you see the competitive environment? Because you mentioned the history of Americanas, which is a strong -- but we also have to consider the competitive environment of several segments, digitalization, convenience products and entry of new players. So how do you see this competitive environment considering this resumption. And my second question is related to the executive goals. One of the points that was described in one of the moments of the crisis, was the miss -- the reverse incentive for the goals and we saw the executives going after incorrect goals or incorrect ways of reaching those metrics. So what is the metrics defined for the C level and also how the changes are going to be investigated.

Thank you, Danniela. For the first part of the question when you asked about the recomposition of the -- for the segment financial statement... I'm still here. I don't know where this noise came from Okay. To answer your first question, Danniela, the financial statements in all really depends nearly exclusively on the implementation of the plan. We are not counting on operation or contribution because we are at a very negative level to turn around this EBITDA. And we're not expecting a lot of profitability in the next 2 years. So this comes from an increase of capital of BRL 24 billion. And the difference is when they did the gaining capital with a repurchase of -- I would like to remind you that we have some suppliers that were purchased on discount. And we also have a debt balance related to auction 2 that repurchased at [ 2.7 ], there's a discount in that sense, and there's a reverse auction with a minimum discount of 70% at the amount of BRL 2 billion. So we have nearly BRL 5 billion in discount in the reverse auction. So we have some billions in terms of capital gain for the repurchases of items in the plan. So we believe that increasing capital will be enough so that our financial statements can do all fine. In relation to competitive environment, in fact, the competitive environment in the retail market in Brazil as of '24, it's much tougher than we saw in the past [indiscernible] it was during the past. But at Americanas, we have several levers and these are important levers at this time route. The first point that I mentioned is that our average ticket is -- an average ticket that even if the consumer has restrictions in their income, that would not affect the customer's budget. And why is that? The difference from the physical competitors, the recurrence of our consumer is very large, the daily visit to buy goodies, sweets and chocolate product. It's impressive that how it happens, and this is what we saw in 2023. So I already had the track. I already have this now. So even in an environment -- in the competitive environment, we already have a flow of traffic that are drawn into the store. And we tried to look after them as best as we can. But this plays out in a very different way from the competitors. In relation to digital, we have Asian competitors coming in but we are undergoing at the moment on stabilization. So our digital effort has been shown to be quite resilient. Of course, it offered all the impacts related to the restrictions we enclosed, especially related to the publicity and advertising that we saw in 2023. But in this settlement moment or stabilization moment, we gave the right answer so that we can grow again in the digital. The digital dimension will not compete with [indiscernible] this time, not in the short term. But it will be an important [indiscernible] with complement towards physical effort and also will serve the complement where in the physical stores are not so important. This is why I'd say that the competitive environment is going to be more intense, but we have the right tools to provide the right answer at the right time. In relation to the executive goals, I'm going to start answering your question by saying that [indiscernible], the crisis was caused by the metrics. I think it was fraudulent manipulation of the controls -- internal controls of the company, I don't think this has to do with the metrics. It has to do with integrity, with the character. It has to do with the failure of those who should expand the [indiscernible] so they should have the best interest of [indiscernible] as their guiding principles and that did not happen. That does not mean that the C level targets are not being revised and [indiscernible] talk about it. But it's important initiative from the start [indiscernible] the government structure that was certified. Firstly, by all many certifying bodies of governance available. It was not in the [indiscernible] they had a governance structure that allowed the company to be there. But [indiscernible] problems and manipulation of the internal controls by the high management that knew all the details of the management, and this is what happened. With respect [indiscernible], I'm going to tell you what we have done internally. Along the second half, we designed a new plan for positions, functions that is going to be implemented by the end of the year. It's the plan which is much more consistent to what happens in the retail market. What we had before because of the feudal system construction, we had segregated ways part for financial services, 1 for technology. But now we are doing something much more integrated so that we can have clear future pathways. And we redesigned the variable compensation. But we haven't completed yet. We have the first, preliminary design that has already gone through many officers and their office made some adjustments and we are going to make this plan official in the next few weeks. And with this package, we also addressed the compensation of executives that is aligned with what we see in the retail market in Brazil.

The company has also [indiscernible] many questions via webcast, which Mr. Leonardo and Ms. Camille will address next. Please proceed.

Well, I'll be reading the questions. I think most of them are to me, but I will address to you those who are referring to you. But the first one, forecast for the end of 2025, would you consider the success of the initial recovery plan? And what's the main driver for reducing leverage. I'd also like to add another question that relates to this, which is what's the number of options by executives when it comes to debt and also others that are considered for the guidance of 2025. Well, the 2025 forecast disclosed today, do you consider the approval for a successful introduction of our judicial recovery plan and basically in the form that we presented them back today to the market. The main driver for reducing the leverage will be the result of the decreases in payments. We have Class I through Class IV are paid in full. We have a suppliers group that will also be paid in full, part of it at a discount, and we have other suppliers that will be raising capital by [indiscernible]. We have a reverse auction, which will be rebuying debt at a discount. We also have the advanced debt repurchase by BRL 7.2 billion and the remaining debt after the entire restructure work, and I'll be talking about the assumption before that is the new debenture of [ 1885 ] which is still being settled via M&A. So the leftover debt will be a [ 1875 ] gross debt. Now the fact that I mentioned here, [ 1875 ] is based on the assumption that the financial creditors will adopt choice to which to the company is what makes most sense from the financial and economic standpoint. If they adopt the general offer or option 1, the left over debt for the company will be slightly larger. But when brought to present value, that is still not substantial. So even if they adopt the general option as opposed to choice 2, that doesn't change the guidance on leverage or it doesn't change materially in -- we gave this most focused to 0.75. So that would be the answer to that question. Moving on to the next. One investor asked us to share our COGS for 2022. We did not include our COGS in the presentation on purpose. This is one indicator that we plan to disclose again only when we start disclosing the figures for 2023. So we're not ready to disclose that indicator to the market at this point yet. So next, negotiation with the creditors assume the same conditions for banks and debenture organizations. Those negotiating new credits can expect what type of easier options. Please give us more details? Well, the details of the judicial plan will be disclosed to the market once it is approved, if a company really does manage to make the plan happen. And that should take place in December, so very soon. And the details, we were prepared to or that we can share with the market at present is what you see on the presentation. But what I can assure you is that the plan is being designed very carefully so that it provides equitable treatment of all our creditors. Next question, what will ensure that there's no further problem with Ame? Was the same thing done with fintech? Yes. Ame is still undergoing auditing, the figures are already final, but the audit is still ongoing. Unfortunately, the process couldn't be finalized at time. It will be finalized, but we didn't want to delay the financial disclosure anymore, which -- then this is seeing more complex audit because it is regulated by the Brazilian Central Bank. But there's no specific issue with Ame that explains the way other than the very complexity of the process at large. Next question. Congratulations on the presentation and straightforward items. Thank you for saying that. We could understand the fraud. Now I only have questions about the financial statements. So I'll be asking your questions and then answer them. For the financial statements of 2021, we see on the results a loss of BRL [ 22.3 billion ] and on the statement, [ BRL 21.5 billion ] with the loss throughout the year. Now what I take from your question is that the difference between the last '21 did not agree with the BRL 6.2 billion and the exercise that we presented. Now this is because all of the adjustments before December 31 were [indiscernible] on the statement. So we have the net worth between the beginning and the end of 2021, that's greater than the loss. First, because of the adjustment that we had directly on the statement and also, there was a difference midway through that because B2W acquired Lasa. So the figure at the beginning and at the end were not the same -- is providing me with additional information. Well, question number two, will you not be breaking down previous years, did you adjust everything on the statement until '21? Yes, that's correct. We adjusted everything on the 2021 statement. A further back we go, the harder it is for us to correct, so to speak, these fraudulent write-offs and inclusions and entries in the balance sheet and even more difficult to audit those figures because it's a lot more difficult to obtain the evidence for audit purposes. So what the company decided to do was to go back only for the beginning of 2021. And we adjusted everything on the income statement for 2021, as I just said. Will you be showing all 9 months for 2021? Not really. Opening or breaking down for every quarter and audit that in full will be a very complex work because of the time that's passed and how complex it is to provide adequate evidence of everything that happened. All those movements every quarter by quarter and break it down and also provide the evidence for purposes of -- for auditing purposes would be complex. Are these accounts are not audited? When can we expect the reports from auditors? Well, the statements are already available. They have been duly audited both for 2021 and '22. The auditor's report is already included in our income statement, both with CVM and on our website. You will see here that there was no opinion, but just to add a little bit of context, it's important to say that the lack of an opinion is closely related to the fact that the company is undergoing judicial recovery or reorganization. So because the plan hasn't been approved yet, and as I said, we expect it to be approved by the end of '23 and introduced at the start of '24, the company is still addressing how we will move forward. So auditors have no choice other than to abstain from an opinion until the company or the organization plan is approved. So moving to your next question. When do we expect to present to the 2023 quarterly results. As we said, our formal commitment is to present those results by the end of the year. What the team is focusing on was precisely on auditing the figures through '21 and presenting the audit for 2022. So now the team will be diving deeper into the results for 2023 and we'll be able to confirm that deadline by the end of the year or say whether we'll need additional timeframe. As soon as the company has more clarity on that and if we need more time, we will immediately communicate that to the market in the suitable way. We have another question that's just coming in. Was the fraud taking place both in -- on the brick-and-mortar side and on the digital side? Yes, it was taking place on both sides and after the incorporation, on both operations. All right. So I think this is what we had coming in from the online side.

Perfect. So our next question via audio comes from Joao Soares with Citibank.

Congratulations on the work that you guys have been doing. I have 2 points that I'd like to address. First of all, with regard to the team, you have a time line to introduce new leaders by business unit. We used to have a very similar outlay. So now with the new divisions, it's important to understand how this will look like. And my second question is about funding. Looking forward, would you like to maintain a digital operation and still work with a high ticket on your brick-and-mortar stores? It's important to understand what learning options do you see, maybe, at one point, be able to provide credit to your customers. I'd like to understand how you see that moving forward.

All right. So I'll start this one, and then Camille may jump in if she wants. With regard to the team, the team is ready and working for some time now. Everyone who's been a part of this transformation process are people we rely on to move forward with the work. So as brick-and-mortar Operations VP, we have [ Osmario Luminate ], who used to be part of Americanas in the past and came back. On digital operations, [ Marcus Gupe ], on [indiscernible] remains in place. So after that first shift where we adjusted the entire n minus 1 tier and n minus 2 tiers, this is the team we've been working with. As for funding, I'll start by answering it. And then if I forget anything, Camille may jump in. I talked about this when talking about Ame as well. Our assumption here is that funding for Ame will remain expensive for as long as we are undergoing in the judicial recovery plan. So wanting to offer credit with funding from Ame doesn't make sense. We won't be able to offer credit at a reasonable price to our customers. But Ame is still a very important tool when it comes to the credit. So what we've been doing is to look within the ecosystems of other fintechs and larger banks, funding choices that are specifically selected for specific campaigns that we're running. This is still a very embryonic work because, again, on the financial side, we are still working on re-building those statements. There was the reorganization on the operations side, we want to keep our operations running well throughout 2023. So the next step is to start working on the adjacent operations and along those lines, funding comes back into the pipeline. Any additional comment?

Yes, I just wanted to say that within the negotiations for the judicial recovery plan, we also included funding assurance or funding guarantees for the assumptions of the plan, and this is funding essentially as performed -- advanced performed receivables. So we just added this stop within the plan to ensure that the company is financed throughout the plan and the plan could be fully executed.

That was great. I just wanted to add, if you wanted to -- especially looking at online environment, which is still very competitive, I think it's also important for us to understand whether you have guarantees or other lines of credit maybe. Have you been thinking about maybe joining some sort of insurance or other elements that you've used in the past? Do you think about other lines that you could secure for that?

No, we don't really have. In addition to receivables advances or other lines provided in the plan would have to be thought about. But on the other hand, thinking about the EBITDA guidance that we had and what the company would have after the plan, if the company performs as expected, I don't see why the company would not have access to other lines available in the market, even without that being part of the plan. Maybe not at first, but once the company delivers on its commitments and its performance, I think it would be possible for the company to have access to those lines.

[Audio Gap] When we looked at the -- many categories I just wanted to understand how it will be migrated to 3P.

Okay, Nicolas. As a general line, anything that we can move to 3P, [indiscernible]. Now the 1P on the digital side, would be essentially bilateral which [indiscernible] industries that would be interested, but it's no longer as [indiscernible] the anchor of our digital offering and I'll give you a few examples to make this a bit more [indiscernible]. Within the [indiscernible] categories, you know that we do not have sales plan within our brick-and-mortar stores. So to sell [ sets ] larger than 32 inches or to sell what we call white line appliances or laptops, these are not categories where on the physical or the brick-and-mortar operation, we can become a destination store. However, Americanas has always remembered as a seller of products within these categories. So for these categories, we would be delivering what we call super 3P internally, meaning the categories that we used to operate with would now be operating with these new companies that we're bringing to our 3P operations.

Ladies and gentlemen, the question-and-answer session is now closed. I would like to turn over to Mr. Leonardo for his final remarks. Please, you may proceed, sir.

Thank you, Clio. Well, my first final remark is I'd like to thank each and every one of you who joined us for this conference. And I'd like to say that this is the hallmark of an important turning point as we republished the results for '21 and published those for '22. And it's also -- when we are opening the book for new pages, precisely on what Camille referred to as the presentation of our judicial recovery plan that will be -- that should be approved by the end of this year and preparing for the presentation of the following quarters in 2023. Once again, I'd like to thank our team at Americanas who worked hard for us to have the results that we're showing you today. And what I'd like to say on my behalf and on behalf of Camille is that the statements that we have today fully reflect what we found after categoring -- after calculating for the frauds and also the findings during the investigation.

Americanas' earnings conference is now closed. We'd like to thank everyone for joining, and have a great day. You may now disconnect your line. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]