CSU Digital S.A. (CSUD3) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to this conference call of CSU to announce the Results of the Fourth Quarter of 2020. Here with us we have Mr. Ricardo José Leite Statutory IR Director; José Leoni, Head of Investor Relations and M&A; and Thiago Scheider, Investor Relations Coordinator. [Operator Instructions] This conference call is also being simultaneously translated on the Internet through the webcast at the address ri.csu.com.br/em/ where you can also find a slide presentation. The selection of the slides can be controlled by you. A replay will be available for 7 days after the end of the conference call. Before proceeding, I would like to mention that forward-looking statements made during this conference call pertaining to CSU's business prospects, operational and financial targets and forecasts are based on information currently available to the company. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors may affect the future performance of CSU and lead to results that are materially different from those in such forward-looking statements. Now I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Ricardo José Leite, Statutory IR Director. Mr. Ricardo, you may proceed.

Thank you. Before anything else, thank you all for attending this presentation. For us, it's very important because we are closing the year that was so challenging as it was for the entire Brazilian society. In the year in which we did have a continuation of results, growing productive in line with the business and completely in line with the good strategy that started in the beginning of 2019 and that has improved very positive in improving results and in creating new markets and products. On Slide #2, we see innovation and profitability. We're focused on profitability and innovation. This is a summary of what the company's development has been in the last 2 years, and in 2020, became even stronger despite all the difficulties that all of us faced in last year and that we also find in searching for a new reality. During this year, there were several fronts of development in the digital area. The payment unit, CardSystem, as well as in the customer service unit, CSU Contact, focused on the growth, new digital solutions, digital wallet, compatible with the main operators, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay. And a growing process of invoice scanning, document scanning, wearable devices, as well as customer service with robotic technology and increasingly automated customer experience. In the CardSystem unit, the main highlights were, in addition to new products as we mentioned, we had a certification of Elo card. In first quarter of 2021, it was something that started in the second half of 2020, but now finished in this quarter, of the first quarter of 21. And in the MarketSystem branch, we had a significant development with the growing importance in terms of loyalty program recognition in the e-commerce. In the of marketplace, OPTe+, we had 15 new commercial partners introduced in 2020. The CSU Contact unit faced a larger challenge, given the significant number of employees working that unit. So as we reported, in the course of the second and third quarter of 2020, we had a strong expansion in migrating the operations to home office. Now 60% of the entire team that work in CSU Contact unit was working from home. So it was very positive for us because we provide quality services. We could service all consumers, clients so '19 -- or 2020, rather, went through without further problems in this area. But commercial performance was a significant achievement for us. We had successful contract renewals, new contracts signed, extension of operations with important clients such iFood; AirFox; banQI; Unica; Losango, a customer that's now part of Bradesco Group, Digital Banks, and important name that for us as well as iFood, AirFox because we focus on digital environment. In 2019, this has been the positioning of the company, and now we're harvesting the results of that strategy because our operations are growing, and we had a significant growth in profitability. On the right side of the slide, we see that we can celebrate record figures, especially in terms of profitability. This is a growing cycle, it started in the beginning of the first quarter of 2019 and has continuously grown. And so we have continuously high results. In the year, the EBITDA amounted to BRL 130.8 million, with a growth of 25.7% compared to 2019. And net income was also all-time high of BRL 46.8 million, that is 74.3% higher than 2019. All of that was important and highly contributed to our positive performance, and we can now pay dividends. We had already approved the conditions, and we are doing the payment of interest and equity on every quarter of the year, BRL 12.5 million. And now we just approved at the Board of Directors meeting, and now it will be submitted for approval at the annual -- next annual meeting, payment of complementary dividend of BRL 6 million. And together, that will be a total payout of 40% on net income for the year, in such an important and difficult year. So this is result to be celebrated. And speaking of 2020, of course, we can not fail to talk about all the efforts that were made to face COVID-19 crisis. First, we had a positive condition in terms of social improvement of all the staff. But some -- we were able to maintain -- to keep all 6,000 employees since the beginning of the year until now. And as part of the social role of the company, we helped areas in which the company is located in the municipality of São Paulo, São Paulo metropolitan area, Barueri and Recife, donating 52,000 items to hospitals of the region. And we also delivered 14,000 liters of hand sanitizers, 10,000 aprons, 14,000 caps and 14,000 gloves, reinforcing the social role of the company. Moving on to the next slide. Speaking about figures, we have some important indicators regarding the year. We had a growth in revenue. We'll talk about the recurring revenue and profitability in gross profit. First, we had a net revenue that grew annually by 7.8%, reaching BRL 456 million of year out in 2020. In the fourth quarter of 2020 when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, we had a growth of 5.6%. It's important to notice here that revenue of CSU within the development and increasing share of digital solutions in its business operations, both in payment means as well as contact center. This indicator is not the most relevant to show the business momentum of the company because more and more new solutions -- new vigilant positions become strong. And this is the expression of revenue. Revenue loses a bit value because we are replacing analog, physical, traditional paper work with the digital efforts that provide benefit to our customers, and we can charge less for services rendered. On the right, we have the gross operating profit. So revenue grew by 7.8%. The gross profit is above 24.3%. When compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, it's 16% growth, so the main metric in terms of showing the company's momentum and its trend is much better reflected in the profitability figures than in revenues. Of course, that we expect to maintain growing revenues, given all the commercial assets and growth of the business. But the reality in terms of business development of CSU and all its operations is better expressed by profitability metrics: gross profit, EBITDA and net income, as we'll see shortly. So in addition, in this slide, something that we started to show and present more recently to our shareholders is the share of recurring revenue in the total net revenue, which is very high. So traditional revenues that are part of services agreement on a recurring basis as they're continuously charged every month, account for almost the total amount of company's revenues. Only in 2020, when we reached 98.6% only 1.4% accounted for one-off revenues that are not recurring. 98% of revenues are recurring revenue, which means to say is that we have a capacity of resilience through difficult times. And also, we can show possible growth in favorable moment. So the digital processes, for example, contributed to that as well as look profitability indicators. On Slide #3, we can see the main profitability indexes, such as EBITDA, net income. In a very difficult year, we are very pleased to present record figures, all-time high figure in both areas. We have been tying the year, reached BRL 130.8 million with an increase of 25.7% when compared to last year. And for net income, the result amounted to 46.8% when compared to 26.8% with a growth of 74.3% when compared to 2019. And outstanding results, not only in terms of value but in terms of net margin as well. Because in 2019, the net margin was 6.3%. And now in 2020, it was 10.2%. I would now ask José Leoni, who is in charge of our Investor Relations operation and an M&A effort to talk about more in detail about the results from the point of view of the 2 units.

Thank you, Ricardo. Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here at this call. Now on Slide #5, we talk about CardSystem, which is the payment means unit. We had a growth of revenue both in the quarter as well as in the year. In the quarter, we went from BRL 56.4 million to BRL 57.7 million. And in the year, it was even strong at 5.9%. As Ricardo mentioned, we replaced revenue from -- of analog services to digital services, the business-wide growth was even higher. We are growing faster in digital services. The consequence to the gross profit in the center of the slide had a 2-digit growth in the quarter, 12.4% to BRL 26.6 million. And in the year, BRL 100.3 million with a growth of 21.5% when compared to 2019. And here also, we have to celebrate on the right side of the slide, the EBITDA, which was a record. We had an EBITDA higher than BRL 100 million, a growth of 18.7% when compared to 2019. And in the quarter, also increased -- it was increased by 7.4% with a total of BRL 26 million. Now moving to Slide #6. CSU Contact is our customer experience unit. Here, growth was even higher in the quarter and in the year. We grew, respectively, 8.9% in revenue and 9.8% in annual revenue. So the revenue in the quarter was almost BRL 60 million and BRL 227 million for the year. This is connected to new contracts as well as new customers as well as the traditional contracts. In addition, we are increasingly using technology, robotics, and automated service -- customer service system. So that leads to the gross profit charge right in the center. So we had an increase of 27.7% or BRL 10.4 million and even stronger in the year with a gross profit of BRL 35.4 million, with very good margin. The margin on the fourth quarter was higher than 17%, and in the year, higher than 15%. The EBITDA was also very strong with the growth of 43.8% in the quarter, reaching an all-time high of BRL 9.2 million and an EBITDA higher than 15%. And for the year, we had an EBITDA growth of 55.4% and an all-time high of BRL 30.7 million in 2020. As Ricardo said, we have many reasons to celebrate the growth in revenues, gross profit and EBITDA in our business units. Now Slide 7, we have the capital structure of the company. The company had a slight increase in gross debt as seen on the left, was 13% year-on-year and 16% when compared to the third quarter of 2020. It is mainly due to a new loan the company made in the second quarter of 2020 of BRL 20 million and higher lease liabilities because we calculate loan, and this was due to the price adjustments of rental and EBIT. In terms of gross cash, we had expansion of almost 200%, worth had to be BRL 28.5 million gross cash in the end of 2019. But in the end of 2020, it reached almost BRL 84 million. So strong growth and most of it is linked to the strong cash generation from business units. On the right side of the slide, we see the net debt over EBITDA development. We had a consistent growth of EBITDA and reached a record of BRL 130.8 million. And the net debt value is very high, lower than BRL 50 million, which gives us a ratio over -- net debt over EBITDA of only 0.4x. So it's a very comfortable level ratio and that shows the rapid contraction in the third Q of '19. So we have cash to make new investments that we may consider necessary. On the next slide, a strong expansion of cash generation, both in the month -- in the quarter as well as in the year. In the fourth quarter, cash increased by 18.3%, and in the year, cash generation amounted of BRL 125.9 million. So the company is on the right path. We are delivering consistent results every quarter. And you can see on the schedule of this presentation for the details. And I would like to say thank you and turn back to the operator now. we can open for Q&A session please.

I would like to read a question that came up from [indiscernible].

Congratulations on your results. I would like to talk a bit more about the expected growth with the platform launch.

Thank you, Joaquin. I'll turn the floor over to Ricardo for the questions.

Thank you, Joaquin, for your question. As we have said in the presentation with our shareholders -- meeting with shareholders. And as we have identified, in 2020, we thought that we would have a very positive year in 2020, and we did verify. So in addition to that, for the prospect of 2021 and 2022, considering the initiatives of new business and new solutions, especially in digital solutions, we have disclosed in the third quarter of 2020. And the idea of having good as a service in the market in a very aggressive way. And in the next month, then for sure, we actually will communicate this process that is developing. So it's an additional point that hasn't yet reached excellent results and still means an additional opportunity for us to reinforce this trend that we have seen so far. So we see the situation of this market trend that is absolutely strong, that is here to stay. The clients in many industries that want to explore and improve their business relationships with their customer base and customers or individual customers or legal entities that will actually provide a full-service solution that is significant for this new avenue of business that is now in the country, and that is a world trend. I think this is the answer.

Okay, Ricardo. Now I will read the next question, then I'll turn over to the operator. [ Daniele Lopes ], how is your prospects for new contracts from CardSystem. Do -- should we expect anything from the first half of this year?

Thank you, Daniele. There are 2 questions. One organic and one inorganic. The organic -- the question is -- the answer is yes. Today, the company's team is strong. And we hope quarter-after-quarter, new situations in terms of new contracts, either with existing customers or new customers that are gained to generate revenue. The moment is highly productive. The target, given the strategy of the company in -- since 2019, either in digital efforts either in means of payment or relationship with customers. This strategy has provided very positive results, as you can see, in the business trend as well. And we continue to look at it in the same way. This focus is maintained. It is very significant and we believe that today, the broader target, especially in the area of means of payment that's different from what we had. Some time ago, today, with the enlargement of new names, especially in card issuers -- credit card issuers as well as in the new condition that will be of banking as a service that provides us a very positive prospect. It's also interesting to see that in the survey of our current clients, all of them intend to grow their business in 2021. That is very specific. So only in terms of organic growth, we have a prospect of growth that is significant. With new clients, that trend will even be bigger. In the time -- in terms of inorganic growth, since the second half of 2020, we have made more efforts, and we continue with a very favorable view in terms of opportunities, either minority investments or majority investments in M&A that will -- could mean the development of the business to acquire technologies and make strategic partnerships that can be important to continue to deliver good results in the future. So yes, this is a condition that is valid, and we have a team that's fully dedicated to that, to M&A. So in the short run, in 2021, we'll have achievements that will reinforce even more the favorable trend of new products and increasing our business even more, making it stronger.

And our next question from Bruce Barbosa.

Congratulations on the result. [Audio Gap]

Well, thank you for the question. I know you keep track of the company's business for a long time. And in the Contact unit, especially. And you see the second option being presented in a significant way in this unit in 2019, 2020. Now this is something we've always seen the capacity for and the greater relevance of this unit in our business. And now, given the growth of cards in the business. And now that we have greater revenues and profitability, which is higher in terms of EBITDA. And in the fourth quarter, 9.2%. So that means again that if it's repeated, only this indicator of 9.2% and this result, we would almost double when compared to the full year 2020. So this is a favorable trend. So again, the condition of technology with robotization and automation is a reality. We're only in the beginning of this process, we can see that there will be a lot of growth and increasing share. So we see this as a favorable trend, both in means of payment, given the potential, either to increase revenues because of better scale. Although in this unit, operating scale is not so important as in means of payment in which that plays a significant role. But for the greater development of the digital processes, we can only hope or expect a favorable trend. Also new technologies that will become even stronger, that will help in all this work so that we can provide better quality solutions with higher satisfaction from end customers. And with the conditions of proposal of cost per unit of service that are more favorable to our customers. And at the end, overall more favorable condition for the development of this business. So we are very optimistic for the next 4 quarters, as we were and we said throughout the year of 2020. And then with the consolidated results of the year reinforce that and it's significant. And now given the growth of its share in the business and also growth in revenue and profitability, this year, it has an EBITDA that's higher than BRL 30 million. And in the fourth quarter, BRL 9.2 million. If we repeated this result of the fourth quarter of BRL 9.2 million, we would go to almost BRL 38 million, which would mean more than 20% when compared to the full year of 2020. And of course, we'll try to reach even further. But of course, technology, such as BOTs and automation are a reality, but we are still in the beginning. So we can think of a condition of adoption, that there's a lot of room for growth. So we have a favorable view for this unit, in particular as well as of means of payment. Because it has a lot of potential to grow, either in increasing revenues or in growing scale, although the operating scale is not as strong as in means of payment. Here, we have significant advantages, but because we are introducing a higher share of digital processes in this business segment, we can only expect a favorable trend. And also there are new technologies that will become even stronger such as AI that will help all this customer experience work so that we can provide better quality solutions with higher satisfaction of end customers, and providing prices of first service to our customers that are much better. So we only see a favorable trend in the continuity of the growth of Contact. We are very optimistic for the next 3 or 4 quarters as we were throughout 2020, whose consolidated results of the year only reinforce what we expected.

Next question comes from Rodrigo Arraes from SulAmérica Investments.

Before anything else, congratulations on your results. And it's been such a hard year 2020. And but you have all-time high results and a great execution. So it's really outstanding. Reading the earnings release, there's a point of attention in terms of profitability for the next quarter, differently from one with the improvement of mix with better invoices and efficiency in costs of contact that during the pandemic, that helped with the remote services. My questions are a bit different. At card, what is the percentage of invoices that are still printed? And is it clear to you that we should see new advances in canning on digitization of that in contact when the COVID is overcome, do you think that your customers that move to more technology and accepted using remote CI could go back to the regular traditional system?

Good questions for us to reflect on. First, and on card, where the impact of the invoices, digitization process. In the payment operations of card, the highest monthly payment in terms of providers, partners and operating service providers you refer to print invoices, all delivery systems and postal -- posting in the mail, et cetera. So it is a significant cost. It is still around 50% of all these invoicing process. It's still a physical analog, traditional process for many reasons. Interest, adequacy of issuers through certain segments. But actually, this is a process in development. 2020 was very significant, and we believe that it could only keep the same trend for next year. And I believe that in some time, almost all the invoices will be digital. From the home-office point of view, you touched a very interesting point, I didn't comment so much on that but there are 2 issues here. One is the home office condition. That was actually very important in 2020 in terms of its capacity. The company was very happy to be able to quickly structure an operation that is very challenging because all of us that are today working from home, the administrative people, officers, it's something. I'm here speaking, and I'm always afraid that there will be some noise in the background, the phone with ring or something. We -- you have to take all necessary care and pay attention to a lot more details than usually did during your work. But nothing compares to the providing quality customer service, involving control, technology, Internet, broadband equipment at the homes of the operators. And in 2020, we had a very quick solution implemented and with a very high-quality delivery, which was very important. Even with some improvement in the results that we noticed when compared to previous years. It's important to record here, to thank all the client -- the employees, staff of the company that really engaged in this process and took it very seriously, their job. And in 2018, we made some tests with a client that would like to check the condition of having a high call -- a broad cell in working from home, and the results were not so good because back then, the society was not ready for that. And companies were not prepared. And the environment in 2020 was really something that pushed us and caused this to adopt a new posture and start this new business model. Working from home during the entire year 2020 was absolutely necessary response given the pandemic. And in 2021, although it's still necessary, of course, to work from home because we see a very challenging beginning of the year with growing problem in terms of COVID, and thank God here and our operation, the team is very healthy, and the operation as a whole is in very satisfactory condition. But we know that the challenges remain, right? So we maintain the incentive to our staff to work -- for our staff to work from home. And in '21, we looked at this as a business trend, a different solution. Many clients assess the adequacy and suitability of having a large amount, if not all their operation, working from home, because it makes it easier for everyone, clients and consumer, end users are pleased with the customer service provided with a mix of technology and people. And for us, the results have been very positive. So we do believe that we will maintain the home office space as a strategy and even using more aggressive home office solutions in broader areas of operations. So working from home is an element that is now part of CSU's strategy effectively. And the other point that you mentioned in terms of use of technology, robotization, which is done regardless of working from home. You can have everything automated, both in operations on-site as well as in the home office operation. So this trend is a reality that is here to stay, no matter if people will continue to work from home or even increase that trend. But as we have more embedded technology in operation, this is a growing trend. So when we talk about robotization, there are certain services we provide in some specific cells in which consumers are served by digital robot, the problem is solved in a satisfactory manner, and customers do not even realize that they are talking to an equipment because the voice is so -- flow is so well, the information process is very well linked. And the robot does 100% of the service. Of course, sometimes, you have to have a hybrid solution with a person and a robot. But the thing is that increasingly, technologies are getting better, tools are getting better. And therefore, we can only be optimistic about the evolution. Let's wait for the results in the next quarter.

Perfect Ricardo. I couldn't agree more with you. I would just like to ask 1 more question. I know we can have a strong trend in the call center to migrate to robots and home office. Would you think about revisiting the CapEx structure? Maybe returning Alphaview or a part of that site to the owners?

Well, this is not an easy or trivial issue, especially right now, because now each one of us, we don't know what the news will be. We don't know where to believe. If we look at the political, economic news or the pandemic news. So today, there is no room to consider this situation because, see, independently of the red phase that the municipality of -- municipalities in the state of São Paulo going back to, we will continue to -- we have to maintain an extraordinary space between people. So the occupation, we have half the people in the physical offices in our sites than we used to, and it will take us some time before we can think of it differently. Today, we could not even consider reducing the premises in terms of square meters because we have fewer people, but they occupy a lot more square meters per employee. So we cannot yet think of reducing the premises area.

Next question comes from [indiscernible].

Congratulations on your good results. Two questions. I would like you to talk more about contact unit. What are the prospects for robotization of services at contact? And how much could that improve the efficiency of the company? And the next, opportunities of inorganic growth, how the company see market positioning?

Well, [ Vinicius ], thank you very much for your questions. But I do believe that most of the questions have already been answered in the last question that we gave, but just reinforcing them. So in context, specifically, the digital -- growing digitization using robots and system automation is a trend in a condition that becomes increasingly accessible. Technology becomes more accessible, cheaper and the quality improves. So this is a condition that you didn't think was possible some month ago. So reality changes. And as we said before, that can only be a positive trend for our operation, especially for the type of operation that we focus on. That we say upscale operations in which our clients do value the relationship with their end customers. So customer experience is an important reason in their business model. And CSU has been chosen by significant companies and with large operations in which we work in this coherent system with those teams, and we create business models, customer service models that are increasingly effective. So as we said before, we expect it to grow in which many -- we believe many companies will little increase customer service, problem solutions using customer service centers, either digital or with humans to provide better services and better solve the issues of their end customers. And the other question, you asked in terms of our M&A effort, I think I have answered. We, at CSU, are endeavoring efforts, like I said, we are creating a specific cell that is dedicated to M&A effort. And Bruno, Leoni and his team and there won't be a significant future if we don't pay attention to opportunities. These opportunities mean room for -- to grow the business, time to market, in terms of acquiring and accelerating new technologies for our operations as well as strategic partnerships that could be important. So definitely, M&A is a reality for the company. As you saw in the second half of 2020, we announced the intention to have an IPO or rather a public offering of shares, but it didn't happen because in September, October, the market conditions were not so favorable. But the purpose of that offer would be to provide financial resources to fund a significant M&A action. But that doesn't mean that we will not continue with that anyhow. So we are now studying a new offer. And when it's possible to happen, it would be very positive for the company for many reasons. In terms of long-term investment in M&A as well as to unlock the value of the company in terms of generating more security. And so the M&A is it an important path for the company and will dedicate a lot of attention to it. Right now, we're paying more attention to means of payment, given the development of this market segment, but we'll also look at opportunities in a timely manner for other units of the company as well.

Next question comes from Gabriel from [ AMAS ].

When is do you expect to have next M&A?

Thank you, Gabriel. Well, we just talked about it. We don't have condition to clearly state that now. But what we can say is that we're strongly dedicated to it. We have a -- it is part of our strategic vision. And the conditions for M&A to happen will depend simply on the consequences of this vision and effort. So 2021 is indeed a year in which we'll have news not only talking about M&A, but I believe we'll actually look to make M&A transaction real.

The next question comes from Bruce Barbosa from Nordic Research.

How are negotiations for new contracts at Card? How do you see the growth of the card base in 2021? What's the -- how dependent growth is on the growth of Brazilian economy?

Thank you for your question. These are important points. The trend in terms of means of payment in general is positive that our new initiatives, that we'll be able to disclose very shortly, in order to use this better business environment with growing prospects. If we went back in time, the potential target, 5 years ago of the company was absolutely limited to banks, financial institutions of average size, regional, important companies. But in total, the phase was not so significant. Today, we are in a situation that's very interesting. We have 2 clients at Card that we mentioned in the third quarter, cannot yet disclose because they are launching their product. And so we cannot talk about them yet. But these are not typical names in their past reality. In this new reality that the situation is rather different, which shows that we are focused on growth, and we see this opportunity for growth. I would say that no matter if we have macroeconomic results that are higher or lower. Many of the processes are coming from business segments that are growing regardless of the overall macro result. So if we have a GDP growth of 1% to 4%, I don't think it will be such a relevant factor in terms of consequences for the favorable view of business trend because the business will evolve anyhow. Of course, if the growth of the economy is very reduced for a very long time. Then of course, this will affect our business. But right now, macroeconomic conditions do not affect our growth so much. Because all the planning we did with our clients for 2021 shows the condition for significant gain only in our current customer base, we have a condition to have positive growth, very favorable for 2021. Not including the projects that are having been signed and are -- will be implemented. And next projects to be closed and implemented later. So for Card, as you said, the condition is very favorable in the 3 aspects.

Question from Bruce Barbosa from Nordic Research.

How are M&A negotiations. Can you comment on anything? Could we expect any news in the first half of the year?

Once again, let's talk about M&A. Yes, maybe some situations are in terms of effort, in negotiations and trying to close a deal. That's what really matters. We are working hard on this effort to develop new businesses. And regardless of talking about the first quarter or not, this is an issue we are tackling in the short run, and I believe we can have good news soon.

Next question from [ Gustavo Sá from Genia Investor ].

Is the possibility of price adjustments of rental costs given the IGP-M rate?

Thank you, Gustavo. Our rental agreement for operating -- we don't own any property, as a policy, to have more flexibility in adapting locations, environment, conditions. So we have our property lease. We don't invest in real estate. But IGP-M does not affect our business because our contracts are not -- they don't use this indicator. So we don't see as a limit that we -- or as an item that will impact the results of the company in 2021, this aspect in particular.

[ Brian Gig from Kaj Capital ].

Could you comment on the size of acquisitions and the impact on the EBITDA?

[indiscernible] do you refer you to the company as a whole? The conditions of growth in terms of results of EBITDA, results and margin? If I understood your question correctly. As we have said, we've had a result both at the corporate level as well as in every important business individually. Means of payments and customer contact. So we have annual results and the EBITDA had a growth of 25.7% year-on-year from 2019 to 2020. And the EBITDA margin from 25% almost -- went to 29% for the whole company. It's a combination of factors. As we have explained, new contracts new, more profitable operations, digital operations and the growing volume of the business are the 3 main factors that provided for this growth. A growth in profitability, and EBITDA margin, gross margin and consequent increase in revenues of BRL 25.7 million in the year of 2020. And we'll try to keep this favorable trend throughout the year of 2021.

[indiscernible] this is Leoni speaking. When we talk about size of acquisition, we can think about BRL 5 million to BRL 100 million. Smaller amounts to acquire startups and higher amounts for mature companies whose profitability do not harm the combined profitability. So the size of the check can vary a lot depending on the acquisition profile, either a minority, small companies that are still in the beginning of their operations or higher check and more grower -- larger companies with more consolidated business.

Thank you for helping me, Leoni. I think I didn't understand the question. So well, you corrected my answer very well. The question was something different than what I answered. So thank you for the adjustment.

Next question comes from [ Marco Vasconcelos ] from WP Financial Services.

What is the vision of the company in terms of difficulties restructuring, that main part acquirers go through -- is there a difference of BRL 87 million that's not shown in operating units. Could you clarify that?

The next question from [ Marcus Vasconcelos ], WP Services.

What is the vision of the company about the difficulties in restructuring that the largest card acquirers go through [indiscernible]? The next question between EBITDA BRL 130 million and net profit, BRL 47 million, there is a difference of BRL 87 million. That's not shown in operating units. Could you clarify that?

Let me see here. From the point of view of adjustments in the acquirers' market, which is an area that we see that there will be some adjustments for some acquirers. But this is an area that doesn't have such a significant impact for us because in means of payment, our center in terms of results is connected to issuers of cards and much less in acquirers. So of course, this is a market that is being adjusted. With the growth of players in the acquiring industry that's been happening lately. And for us, it is actually a favorable indication for the business because we can have new opportunities, new opportunities of contracts. Because there is -- there are more players in this segment. There must be solutions and answers from the economic point of view that meet the challenging conditions of the business as we have been providing. So I think that for us, we see it as a positive fact. And throughout this year, I believe there will be a new condition in the acquirers' world.

The second point I can answer that. Ricardo. Speaking about this difference between EBITDA of BRL 130 million and net income of BRL 47 million. Please look at the table of reconciliation of EBITDA on Slide 10 of the company on the release. Because we have BRL 47 million then we add taxes, BRL 19 million, plus the financial results of BRL 5 million, depreciation and amortization of BRL 60 million, reaching BRL 131 million in EBITDA. You cannot attribute taxes to any of this business unit. So it's -- amortization is a cost, both in card and contact in addition. So just in the taxes and financial results of card and contact and the corporate, we reach the EBITDA of BRL 131 million, and net profit of BRL 47 million.

[Operator Instructions] Thank you. Since there are no further questions, I would like to hand the floor over to Mr. Ricardo for his final comments. You may proceed.

Thank you again very much for attending our conference call. And the results were very good, not only for the value, but for the merit of the various areas of the company. We had all-time high figures in a very challenging year. We had operating challenges, sales challenges, also involving the health of the staff as well as all the context of geography. So we are very pleased and we are celebrating actually the results that we presented and the development of the company in 2020. We remain very confident on the continuity of this trend. And we thank you very much for the interest demonstrated in our company. We remain available as we have always been with a team that's fully dedicated to all our segments of investors. We thank you very much for your interest in the company. Have a good day.

Thank you. This ends the conference call of CSU. Please disconnect, and have a good day.