Banco do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul S.A. (BRSR6) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Banrisul video conference to discuss results relative to the third quarter of 2023. This video conference is being recorded, and the replay may be accessed in the company's website in our investors relationship area. The presentation will be divided in 2 parts. Our CEO, Fernando Lemos will present the main highlights and figures of this quarter. Then we'll have a Q&A session in which analysts and investors will be able to connect with the bank, Board of Directors. So let me tell you that this transmission that has -- this session has continuous translation into English. Please feel free to choose English in the interpretation button. [Operator Instructions] This presentation here today will be available for download in this platform chat in our Banrisul website. Now Mr. Fernando will start the presentation. Please, Mr. President, you can go on.

Thank you, Nathan. Welcome to our video conference to discuss results. My name is Fernando Guerreiro de Lemos. On August, the first I took office as the CEO of Banrisul. This will be the third mandate in our bank. From 2003 to 2010, during this period, Banrisul has evolved in many aspects like the IPO would happened in 2007. Some years went by and I could follow the transformation of Banrisul in one of the main financial institutions in Rio Grande do Sul. Today, I take the office of this bank as the CEO to accelerate the digital transformation, improving processes and improving our customers' experience in the several channels of service we make available. For the sustainable growth of this bank have a very good connection, a strong connection in our bank with the committed team towards better results with many challenges ahead. We know we will be sailing with safety, identifying and capturing the best opportunities, so our business can prosper. So I'm bringing to this Board of Directors, a group that stands out for high-quality professionals, all with very important careers in our area. Now let's talk about the highlights of the third quarter in the 9 months of 2023. We achieved an adjusted net income of BRL 567 million, growth of 7% if compared to last year, reflecting the growth in financial margin and services provided by the bank. In terms of the same period, we had more provisions to credits and more accruals to credits and more administrative expenses due to, for example, the collective wage. One of the highlights was the rural investment with more than 60% growth in 12 months and 8% in 3 months. We diversified even more our portfolio in the beginning of the drop cycle of selling rate. In this 9 months of 2023, there was a growth of 5.2% with a very good results considering 8% increase in salaries and benefits according to the collective wage. We had the first part of the strategy to increase relationship with our players. Revenues from taxes and services grew above inflation with a highlight with credit and card services. On portfolio balance, there was an increase in the balance and in credit mix. We highlighted the rural portfolio, which accounts for 60%, 0.1%, resulting from several advances in the relationship with the Agribusiness. In the individual clients we still have in our credit balance some growth in payroll loans year-to-year or -- quarter-to-quarter, I'm sorry, 1.1% in consumer loans, plus 8.3%. There was a 78.5% increase in the collateralized individuals portfolio as of September 2023. Now for companies, we've been operating with the building of new credit operations, which has affected our performance in our quarter. Regarding the quality of our portfolio, the total default rate is very low according to expectations in expenses with provisions that showed an increase based if compared to the previous quarter, showed an increase -- with this, credit cost is 2.66%, above our expectation for the end of the year. In the third quarter, we -- there was BRL 127 million of net profit impacted due to more credit accruals and legal provisions, more financial margin and more administrative expenses. There was a drop in the quarter-to-quarter income. But if you consider the 9-month period, there was a 7% growth. We want to increase the profitability of the bank closer to our previous achievements. And this is our commitment. The financial margin is still growing with a positive evolution in all practically or virtually all types of services due to the credit mix in the beginning of a drop in rates, interest rates. There was a lower credit recovery, which is stable if you consider the treasury credit margin, the core activities of this bank. On our fundraising services we captured 5.7%, reflecting the growth in bonds and completed services. There was coverage in fundraises. 90% are in individuals or small, medium-sized companies. That is the trust of our clients who decide to put that money in a solid and robust company such as Banrisul. So our prices are very competitive. The trust that clients have in our bank is one of the highlights of our service. Here, we have, as the main effect last year's collective wage of 8%. In September, there was an increase of 4.5%, which will go on until next year. There was also a voluntary dismissal program. And with the new staff, this made us achieve a balance. Regarding services and fees, there was a difference basically due to a reclassification of credit services, which were allocated to our operating services that will now be considered under this target. If you discount inflation, revenue from fees and services, there was -- showed an increase, both in the 9-month period in the quarter. The Basel ratio is stable. This level of growth in capital change makes us believe we can achieve the results we aim at. Now I give the floor back to Nathan, so we'll start our Q&A session. See you later.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our call to discuss our results for the third quarter of 2023. Before we go into the Q&A session, I would like to present to you the team here with us. They took office yesterday. We communicated the market on the new Board of Directors. So welcome Luiz Gonzaga Veras Mota, Finance Director and RI Officer; President, Lemos; Risk Officer, Dr. Irany, who remains for another office; and also Ivanor, who is Accounting Superintendent. So this will also be our annual public meeting, along with APIMEC, the Brazilian Association of Analysts and Capital Markets professionals. This is our public event. So considering this, before we go into our Q&A session, I would like to acknowledge APIMEC. They have several professionals and help us to develop open capital companies. So for this acknowledgment and interaction, I'd like to call APIMEC's representative, Ms. Morelle. Hello, Morelle. Good morning.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for your partnership. Lemos has just mentioned the IPO in 2007. So this partnership we have is celebrating its 16th year. We are here giving the attendance stamp, this partnership stamp since 2007, in this partnership between investment analysts, capital market professionals in open capital companies. We had this commitment since then. Thank you for this partnership and congratulations on this stamp. This represents how transparent and clear information is, it provides to capital market professionals. Let me just say that it's important to mention that we opened the Ibri APIMEC in Brazil award, that will give awards to the best RI teams and the best analysts of the year. So this is important for investor relations analyst. It's important that you vote for this award that will recognize investors relationships analysts in this market. So once again, thank you for this platinum stamp. And once again, thank you for this partnership. Welcome this new Board of Directors, Lemos, Luiz, Irany, Ivanor and Nathan. Congratulations. I wish you success in this ahead. I hope this journey is full of good partnership with the market and [indiscernible] Thank you so much. So the physical stamp is being given to you right now. Now we can see this stamp electronically. And well, once again Nathan back to you with a Q&A session.

Thank you, Morelle. It's a pleasure to see you once again. We started back then, so I'm happy to see you again. It's my pleasure. Thank you for the partnership, Mr. Lemos. Thank you, Morelle.

Well now will open our Q&A session, and we have some analysts in line. We will open the floor for them to open their mics, and we also have questions in our chat, and we will soon answer them. So the first question comes from Yuri from JPMorgan.

Good morning. Thank you, Nathan. Welcome the new Board of Directors. I wish all the best in luck. Well, considering the strategic standpoint, can you talk about your ambitious bank? I believe, it's a weak, 5 of ROE. So what are your expectations for this year, 9 to 11, 9 to 13 ROE for the next year, and even for this year. And in the future, what do you expect? You've talked about digitalization, but besides that, how can you see the situation, the status of Banrisul in the medium term and long term, maybe try to get to 14%, 15%? Okay. So later, I would like to make more questions about the quarter, but this is my question to understand the new goals of this new Board of Directors, please.

Well, we took office yesterday, and I've been working here for the past 60 days in this new position, but we started working today. So we are checking the budget of the bank for next year. Once we get this consolidated, we'll give you more information. Okay, Yuri?

Thank you. That's perfect. We'll be waiting and all the best to you. I know that all of you know a lot about the bank. So I'm confident. While regarding the quarter, can you talk a bit about the PDD, it's higher, a little bit higher. We know there was -- there were more rain by the end of the quarter. Will that be a factor? Will that have an impact? So can we expect this line of provisions to keep on being -- so I would like to understand more about the cost of risk for the bank.

Good morning, Yuri. So the provision, the PDD, as we call, is a little above because of this default cycle, but the rains and climate events in agribusiness have not affected the PDD or the allowance for doubtful tax. We have some portfolios still above what we expected, but we have a strong task force with all the branches and all the teams in the bank, in our network to bring this allowance for doubtful debts, this PDD to a lower status. So we've been working to stabilize this and even lower this. So in terms of agrobusiness, well, there is commercial companies, debts, and some other debts. But in general, we have this task force, as I said, to bring this rate to a lower level, more to the left of our goals. That's very clear.

Well, this quarter, when you look credit cards, but not related to Banrisul, it was a credit cards of BRL 20 million, but now it's BRL 50 million. What is that? Is this is a recurring event? Sometimes we see some peers benefiting one flag, one credit card flag or the other. So what can explain this increase in your this quarter?

I can answer you this question, Yuri. There was a reclassification of accounts for this quarter. So diverse income from credit cards was within other operating revenue, but now they are in fees revenues. So the increase in this line is due to this accounts reclassification. Moving forward, we will probably see that with this new account, we must have a fees layer higher considering the face value. Any other operating revenues, there will be a reduction. It's around BRL 30 million in this account.

Thank you for the quarter. Thank you, Nathan, and all the best to the new Board of Directors.

Now the second question will Mr. Flavio Yoshida from Bank of America.

Congratulations on this new position, this new office. All the best. Now regarding the growth of the portfolio, it has been decreasing the annual growth quarter-after-quarter. So which are the signs in your opinion, which are the signs you are anxious to see to accelerate growth and maybe -- and have a product mix with a higher spread? Because over 90 default rate is stable. Coverage is more or less high. So how can you accelerate this appetite for growth?

We are -- regarding portfolio operation is not very accelerated. But because we are refinancing our portfolio, especially when it comes to a service in consigned credits, in consigned services, this is a basic idea. So other portfolios, such as the rural portfolio will not have as high a growth as they had. They will be in stagnated a little bit. We will have other portfolios with a moderate growth, and we'll focus on commercial and companies portfolios, especially focused on medium and small-sized companies, especially regarding portfolios are stable with a higher margin. This is what we aim to do.

Just complement what Gonzaga said, you know that we always choose between growth and consolidate. So the bank had a significant period of growth recently, and now we are consolidating all this growth, focusing on results. So as soon as we consolidate this focus on results, we will be once again discussing growth, especially in companies, small companies and medium-sized companies again.

How can you see competitions and rate caps dropping in consigned credit, how do you see this?

Let me insist a bit on what we said. We want -- we have focused on the repricing of our portfolio. We have a balance that is pretty proper. We now need to generate margin and consolidate this operations to grow our margin. And we need to change the pricing of our current portfolio to do that.

[Operator Instructions] Now there is a new question coming from Eduardo Nishio from Genial Investments.

Regarding the guidance, you maintained the guidance, right? And if we infer on that -- even if for the lower tier, the fourth quarter need to be very strong in terms of ROAE. We get there, the fourth quarter would need to be very strong. So my question is, how do you feel about the fourth quarter? How confident you are? And now regarding the third quarter, have you had any non-recurrent event, you'd like to talk about because the profitability of the bank has dropped. The ROAE has dropped. So have you gone through any reclassification that you would like to discuss in relation to the third quarter?

In terms of recurring events, no, we've had no strongly recurring events. But -- regarding the guidance, we've been working, let's say, what is detached from the center of the goal is rasing, fundraising. We've been working very hard to reposition our clients, especially individuals, are wealthy or are bigger clients in this portfolio because they have a fundraising capacity that is very important to Banrisul. And we've been working very hard to maintain this. This is an important strategy for us to keep these clients with us, especially considering the competition. And we've been working with this guidance. We are in 5.3%. We want to reach above 6%, and this is what we aim to do. Another point is that in -- for the fourth quarter, we may enter the proposition of our goal in terms of profitability too. And regarding the other item that is administrative expenses. Now the payroll effect has gone -- has been -- is gone. And this expense was executed in this quarter. So we are aiming to the left side of the goal, below the center of this operation. We want to improve this margin. We are confident that these guidelines will help us deliver results both -- in this both margins.

We have another question. It comes through the chat. Let me read this to you, okay? It's about real estate portfolio, from [indiscernible] He says, good morning. Are there any plans to expand real estate financing operations in more cities, especially in cities in the state of Sao Paulo, I mean, outside the state of our Rio Grande do Sul?

We concentrate our business in Rio Grande do Sul and we will continue to do that, especially in the real estate portfolio. This will be our focus here in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, and in other big cities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. We do not want to have operations outside the state. This is not our intention.

Thank you, Marcos. If you have any other questions, please, you can submit them in our RI team. Our relationships and teams is available to answer your questions, okay? I would like to -- there is another question coming from Eric Ito from Bradesco BBI.

Welcome, the new Board of Directors. Regarding the NPL, so we had this write-off big effect here, and it was a high-end PDL ratio, but do you like to maintain in these 2 or [indiscernible] for the next quarter? What about NPL?

You're talking about the fall, right, Eric? Well, the fall is just like I said, there are cycles, cycles in which it is a strong action on credit. And when there's more credit, we might may face the fall in the future. Now we've been diagnosing the portfolios in the idea. Our goal is to work on the steps on our clients in the fall. We have more massified portfolios, and then we will need to work harder to work on those clients on the fall. And we have other portfolios, which are more standardized and they are easier to deal with. But anyway, we have a strong action focused on reducing the fall in this last quarter to improve this result. Just let me complement. It's very important to highlight that the bank will focus on collecting collection operations. The bank has intelligence and has the team to be applied to this process of collection. And by doing that, we will reduce the fall and improve our results.

Another question from Mateus Teófilo from Itaú BBA.

I would like to explore the NIM recovery strategy. You've had some recovery, but there is a pressure in the funding. There is a pressure from the mix. It's migrating to the agro. What about next year? Does it make sense to work an expansion? Or should we wait for it to stabilize? I mean, this mix change to stabilize. This will help -- may help in the funding too.

Well, regarding -- well, let's talk about real estate funding. First of all, as we know, the savings, fundraising has a very slow growth. So if the real estate portfolio wants to grow, we need to look for other sources. It has a stability in portfolio growth if they are matched with the funding resources. Well, capital, they are more on the accounts of automatic CDBs captured from the mass of clients. So there is no funding space for rural credit deposit. There are other fundings. We've been working on them, but the creditor portfolio will not continue with this accelerated growth. There will be a qualification in a certain stability. Other portfolios such as exchange, if there is a competitive price, then yes, considering the price because it's too high for rural now. We need to consider this for this operation because the client has to understand the risk of -- the risks involved. Regarding commercial area, we have a large funding that is competitive too. It's not cheap. There is no cheap credit, but it's very good for commercial credit portfolio. This goes to the payment deducted loans and for other lines of credits and services to clients. There is a massified portfolio that is very important with small amounts in this segment. In [indiscernible] with small and region-sized companies. This is where we want to grow in credit. For this portfolio, there is a good price of funding that is a good funding and need to qualify the risk of this operation for borrowers and consider this to build these -- keep on building these portfolios. Others will have a moderated growth according to the fund and the category of risk.

I believe, well, there's a final question here in our chat. It comes -- I mean, it's a recurring question from our investors, our individuals investors, [ Sandro ] asks, what is the payout expectation for 2024? Is the idea to maintain current levels of 50 payout for 2023.

In 2022, we maintain this level. And the main point here, Sandro, is that we do not have access to the complete budget yet, both considering capital and the company's budget to be set. But would you like to talk a little more about that. But I would say that we need to evaluate -- wait for the budget and evaluate the possibilities for 2024 in the availability of capital for that. And also regarding the fiscal aspect, as Gonzaga said, there is a discussion regarding the end JCBs availability and how much this can generate. It must be within the analysis to approve the 2024 payout. It normally is around February or March. This is more or less when we announced this payout, then it's also approved in our shareholders meeting.

So that is -- I think, we've had answered all questions. I would like to thank you all for your participation. I would like to thank [indiscernible] and the investors, the Investors Relations team is available to you. Please talk to us in our website. And before we close this meeting, I would like to give the floor to our CEO, so he can wrap up our event here.

I would just like to thank all the shareholders, the market analysts, with us, it's a pleasure to see many of you again and it's pretty opportunity to get back at this great expeditions who work hard so we can achieve very good results. We want to achieve these very good results for line, we will be working very hard, and we hope to achieve fast and robust success. Thank you all very much. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]