Hidrovias do Brasil S.A. (HBSA3) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Hidrovias do Brasil Conference Call for the Fourth Quarter of 2024. We have with us Mr. Fabio Schettino, CEO; Andre Hachem, Investor Relations Officer and Financial Director; and Gabriela Colus, Treasury Manager and Investor Relations. This event is being recorded and will be available on the company's Investor Relations website. [Operator Instructions] Please note that the simultaneous translation to add device is available on this platform, simply by clicking on the interpretation button on the lower part of the screen and selecting your preferred language. Before we continue, we'd like to reinforce that any prospective statements are based on the company's beliefs and assumptions. This is all based on currently available information for the company. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties because they refer to future events that depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts should take into account that events related to the macroeconomic scenario, to the industry and other factors may make these results differ from those expressed to these forward-looking statements. With that being said, we would like to hand it over to Mr. Fabio Schettino, who will begin his presentation.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in our earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2024. I'd like to ask you to start with Slide #4, presenting this year's main highlights. 2024 was very challenging for us. We faced the most severe droughts in both the northern and southern corridors, the company's largest operations. We focused our efforts on solutions that would bring operational efficiency as well as initiatives that would increase the resilience of waterway transportation in the face of climate challenges. We made progress on the dredging and excavation fronts in both quarters, which will bring more permanent navigation conditions in the medium term making us less susceptible to volatile results due to the effects of hydrological and weather risks. In the northern corridors, as we had already mentioned in recent quarters, worsening of the draft in the Tapajos River severely impacted the volume transported in this quarter, especially in the integrated system, and we had some operational stoppages throughout the fourth quarter. Despite the performance of volumes, due to navigation restrictions, we managed to capture a positive tariff environment throughout 2024 with an increase of approximately 20% in tariffs reflecting the efficiency of negotiations throughout this period. Also in the North corridor at the end of the fourth quarter and with the declaration of a state of emergency, a company was hired to carry out dredging in the region. So we expect this to be carried out throughout 2025, bringing greater climate resilience to this operation. In the southern corridor, the draft conditions in the Parana-Paraguay waterway resulted in some of the worst markings on the historical outlook. The company operated practically all of 2024 under the low water plan with operational stoppages when necessarily, mainly impacting the iron ore route. And this resulted in lost revenue, lower fixed cost dilution and a lower EBITDA with a significantly worse performance than 2021, which until now had been the worst year for this operation. Throughout 2024, we had dredging and excavation efforts on the waterway, including the removal of rocks at Remanso pass, a critical point for navigation in this waterway. However, there is still a significant way to go. We have outstanding work that must extend into 2025 and '26 so that we can achieve more perennial resilience in navigation in the southern corridor. With the Santos operation, our results were in line with what was expected with the start of the salt operation and rail shipment in the second half of the year. So we have become more mature in terms of operations in this corridor. As this is a recent ramp up, there are still some improvements that we can capture. And our focus in 2025 will be achieving operational excellence, aiming for more consistent and sustainable results in the medium term. And finally, in the operational context, the coastal shipping operation continues to show consistent results and within the expected range for the operation following the long-term contracts with our clients. This is a dollar-denominated operation, and 2023 was a docking year where we had to dock 1 of our 2 assets. So 2024 results reflect these 2 variables positively. So the U.S. dollar is stronger and we did not have any docking. 2024 also marked a moment of transformation for Hidrovias do Brasil with the entry of Ultrapar as a key shareholder. This will strengthen the company, it's driving a new strategic cycle and expanding our potential for growth. So the arrival of a strategic partner with extensive operational experience reinforces confidence in our business model. So we hope that the company will grow and be more consolidated in the next years. The company continues to be engaged in searching for long-term structural solutions that will allow full navigation and operating conditions with greater predictability and, of course, less exposure to climate and hydrological risks. We're also looking at the company's new investment cycle for growth and strategic positioning, especially in the northern corridor, which will be our focus from now on. Continuing with Slide 6. Here is a brief summary of the results of some of our social and sustainability initiatives. This year was important for consolidating our sustainable performance in all territories where we operate, bringing effective results through 10 voluntary social investment initiatives and 16 programs that benefited around 23,000 people throughout the year strengthening the company's reputation in the communities where we operate and preventing crisis and regulatory questions. So the company still maintains sustainability as its pillar with structured operations for the short, medium and long term, which comprise our ESG goals. So now I will hand over to Andre Hachem, our CFO, who will talk about the results and then we'll be available for Q&A. Go ahead, Hachem.

Thank you, Fabio. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for listening to the Hidrovias do Brasil results call. Starting with Slide #8. Let's start with our North Corridor results. In the fourth quarter of 2024, we handled 506,000 tonnes, a total of 6.6 million tonnes for the year, a lower volume than in 2023 due to the draft restrictions already mentioned by Fabio. Despite the scenario, the strong increase in the average green tariff boosted our net operating revenue, which reached BRL 81 million in the quarter and BRL 847 million in the year, up 6% and 13%, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA was negative by BRL 5 million this quarter. Year-to-date, adjusted EBITDA was positive by BRL 488 million an increase of 26% versus 2023 with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 58%. Even in the face of a more severe draft scenario, which had an impact on scale due to the lower volume handled, this effect was more than offset by the increase in rail tariffs. Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2025, we have already resumed normal navigation on the Tapajos River starting the year with the historical average draft. However, due to delay in the soybean harvest, volumes should be lower than those recorded in the first quarter of 2024 which will be offset throughout the year. Continuing with Slide 9, we have results for the southern corridor. As we highlighted in the latest earnings announcement, 2024 was a challenging year for the Southern corridor. Navigability conditions were severely impacted by the water crisis and the draft restrictions required operational stoppages to ensure the safety of our employees, assets and cargo. The second half of the year is seasonally a period of lower draft, mainly affecting the iron ore route on the northern section of the Parana-Paraguay waterway. With that, we handled 33% less volume in 2023 versus -- excuse me, 2024 versus 2023, reflecting the drop in iron ore transportation, which went from 57% of the cargo handled in 2023 to 38% in 2024. Net operating revenue in the southern corridor totaled BRL 80 million in the fourth quarter and BRL 519 million for the year, drops of 53% and 37%, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA with JVs was negative by BRL 7 million in the fourth quarter and BRL 72 million for the year, a reduction of 80% compared to 2023, reflecting the worst year of the operation. As a result, the adjusted EBITDA margin with JVs was 14% compared to 44% in 2023. Looking ahead to the first quarter, we started the year with a more favorable scenario compared to the same period in 2024, with more adequate rainfall levels and drafts normalizing to levels closer to the historical average. So we expect higher volumes than in the first quarter of 2024 contributing to a gradual recovery in results. Moving on to Slide 10. We analyze the results of the coastal navigation operation, which went according to plan, in line with the contract dedicated to the client and the company's expectations. In the fourth quarter of 2024, we handled 710,000 tonnes of bauxite, a decrease of 13% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, impacted by 1 less journey in the period due to draft restrictions. For the full year, we handled 3.6 million tonnes, an increase of 5% versus 2023, reflecting an additional voyage during the year. In terms of net operating revenue, we generated BRL 64 million in the fourth quarter and BRL 246 million for the year, an increase of 8% to -- compared to 2023. This was driven by a higher volume handled and the effects of the exchange rate variations. The operations adjusted EBITDA was BRL 28 million in the fourth quarter, an increase of 22% compared to the first quarter of '23, totaling BRL 116 million for the year, an increase of 28% compared to 2023. This reflects, in addition to the higher volume and the exchange rate impact the absence of the scheduled docking of one of the assets, which in the previous years generated additional costs with the leasing of a replacement vessel. Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2025, we expect slightly lower results impacted by the scheduled docking of one of the vessels at the beginning of the year. This process will result in higher expenses associated with chartering a replacement vessel. Finishing the slides, I would like to go to Slide 11. In 2024, we started salt operations and rail shipping in the second half of the year, which resulted in a volume handled of 511,000 tonnes in the fourth quarter and 1.7 million tonnes in the year, a growth of 10% in the quarter and 18% in the year. With the start of the salt operation in the second half, we handled 255,000 tonnes of this cargo in the year. As a reflection of this performance, net operating revenue was BRL 40 million compared to BRL 38 million in the same period in 2023. The operation's adjusted EBITDA was BRL 16 million in the fourth quarter, down 16% and totaled BRL 63 million in 2024, a slightly higher result than in the previous year with an EBITDA margin of 45%. This performance reflects, on one hand, an increase in volume, and on the other hand, a less favorable cargo mix given that the salt tariff is lower than that for fertilizers. Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2025, despite higher salt volumes, we expect results to be in line with those recorded in the same period last year. On Slide 13, we have the company's consolidated results, which was 2.4 million tonnes in the quarter and 16 million tonnes in 2024. Net operating revenue was BRL 265 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 and BRL 1.7 billion for the year, a drop of 9% compared to 2023, impacted mainly by the weaker performance in the southern corridor as already mentioned, and partially offset by revenue growth in the other logistics corridors. Adjusted EBITDA with JVs was negative by BRL 2 million in the fourth quarter and totaled BRL 608 million for the year, down 22% versus 2023 with an EBITDA margin of 35%. Moving on to Slide 14. On indebtedness, the company ended 2024 with a leverage of 6.6x, impacted by the lower EBITDA generation in the period, and our dollar-denominated debt, which remains 79%. This effect was intensified by the lower generation in the southern corridor. It's worth noting that our amortization schedule is long with the duration of 4.3 years without liquidity risk. There was also a bond settled, which reduced our U.S. dollar debt by about 20%. Regarding the capital increase, as reported, shareholders approved an amount of between BRL 1.2 billion and BRL 1.5 billion at the price of BRL 3.40 per share. However, in view of the deterioration in market conditions, the process was canceled in December 2024 to allow for a new funding more in line with the current scenario. The company remains committed to improving this increase in the first quarter of 2025. In order to strengthen liquidity until this decision is made, Ultrapar has made AFAC of BRL 500 million, which will be converted into shares and be carried out until March. Still on the capital management front, in January 2025, we made progress on important initiatives to make payments on the 2025 bond. In addition to the cash received by the AFAC, we issued our third debenture in the amount of BRL 400 million and fully repaid the bond on maturity. We also obtained the necessary waivers from the debenture holders ensuring greater financial flexibility for this new cycle of the company. This concludes my presentation, and we are now at your disposal to any -- to answer any questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question will be asked by Filipe Nielsen from Citibank.

I have 2 questions. First, I'd like to learn a little bit more about this issuance process that you are doing in the first quarters. How have approvals been going? How have been the discussions on this? Have there been any changes in the amount in the compliance and timing. How is that going? If you could give us some more color on that, that would be great. And I also have a second question related to an operational aspect. How have price negotiations been going. We know that we have a record soybean harvest right now. There's a more uncertain scenario for corn, but I would like to understand your contract pipeline. If you can tell us a little bit about your tariffs and how that has been going on your side?

Filipe, this is Andre Hachem. So this is in line with what I mentioned. The original capital increase announced last year was at BRL 3.40 per share. The market has deteriorated significantly. So this was canceled so that we could readjust to the market conditions. Our commitment is that we will announce this year and we'll provide all the necessary details. We don't have many right now, but our intention is to discuss this throughout the quarter. So concerning tariffs in the pipeline. We started 2025 well. We're negotiating contracts. And as a reminder, we start every year with 60% to 70% sold. These are long-term contracts, and we try to advance contracts, which are also take-or-pay on the harvest. So we started with 100% sold in the take-or-pay regime, and I can tell you that the tariffs are showing a real gain in comparison to 2024. This reflects capacity restrictions, which have happened since the last year, and this justifies our decision to gradually increase capacity in the northern corridor. But Meanwhile, we have to change tariffs. So that's basically it. We are starting 100% sold. It's a take-or-pay contract, so we don't hold that risk and we have real gain on our tariffs.

The next question will be asked by Pedro Bruno from XP.

Continuing on the previous question can you give us an update on the company's investment plan. What can you share with us? And how does it match the current leverage context? We understand that leveraging is being penalized on both sides. So on the operational side, with the draft restrictions that we saw last year and also the exchange rate. So I'd just like to understand how much the scenario matches this investment plan. And if you can tell us a bit about the recent discussions on reinvestment -- reinvesting in Vila do Conde. You also had some floating docks that you had made some investments there. So if you can give us some more context on that. And what would be your main project. You mentioned [indiscernible] you could also have an additional capacity in [ Mirititu ]. So if you could tell us a little bit more about that.

Pedro, this is Fabio. I'll start and Hachem will add some information on funding and capital structure. So we're continuing what we announced. We are adding modules to our capacity, and this involves a float that is already behind schedule. We're still getting the regulatory side of it ready, but we're also continuing building 2 assets for a capacity increase, and this goes for Vila do Conde and a shipping -- excuse me, floating transshipment in Mirititu. So it's not such a big investment, and it's mostly concluded. We're also analyzing the capacity expansion program in Vila do Conde. So we're going to get some definitions from engineering, and we're going to refine our executive project, and we'll refer back to the Board so that we can continue. So Hachem is going to tell us about how we will structure ourselves to fund this.

Thank you for that question. So first, let me tell you about the capacity structure -- excuse me, the capital structure. So right now, we cannot have any relevant marginal investments. So the direction of our debt is still 3 to 4 years, takes relatively long. But when we talk about a capital increase it's about rebalancing the company than really making growth investments. So this is an underlying condition, right? So about the project. This is what Fabio mentioned. We started disbursements with our modular assets so they will be carried out throughout the first quarter. We also had some transition assets. We're facing a number of regulatory challenges that we will overcome this year. So this is something that we will have early next year. And when we think about the capacity of an expansion project. This is a project that we are hoping to get approvals for still this year. We're going to be very cautious in how we announce it. Once the project has been approved, we're going to communicate to the market the new expansion plans. So if you would like to add more information, we are available.

The next question will be asked by Rogério Araújo from Bank of America.

I have 2. If you can tell us a little bit about the competitive scenario for you in the Miritituba-Barcarena route versus the southern route, especially Santos. And also, do you expect this to have a higher share in 2025? And if not, why? My second question is a little harder, but if you can give us any direction on this, that will be very healthful. After the dredging and digging can you give us an idea of how much debottlenecking you'll be able to achieve. So in 2024, how much could you have done? Or is that hard to say?

Thank you, Rogerio. So concerning the route. So our capacity is taken. The route in the Northern corridor has been competitive because of the fact that we can sell all of our capacity at growing rates. So this is what shows how competitive it is. We're not making any decisions that are not attractive. We also have long-term contracts and spot contracts where that's even more true. You can only have these contracts if the route is competitive. So it continues to be extremely competitive, and this is the reason why we've been trying to expand capacity, not only in Hidrovias, which is the only integrated logistics provider, but the others are also doing it. BR-163 has always been a bottleneck, but it no longer is. It's well maintained in the concession. So our concern now is maintaining capacity compatible with the area of influence, which is the North and Mato Grosso. Several initiatives have been taken, and we can tell you about where we want to go. The most competitive had an emergency. There was a bid for prices, the dredgers are there prepared to work so that we no longer have the problems that we had last year. In Tapajos we have some restriction points. So we believe that we will be able to unlock it. And even if we have an analogous scenario to last year, we will no longer have the restrictions. When you have a defined channel, you should no longer have an issue. Continue with Parana-Paraguay, this is a bit more complex because we need to remove rocks and dredge. We have advanced significantly. There's still -- but there's still a long way to go. The main restrictions have been resolved, which is the reason why we operated in January and February. If this had not happened, we would have operated in January. So you can see the difference. We're already getting the fruits from this list. We also have an agreement with the government of Paraguay. So throughout the year and throughout next year, our expectation is that with the conditions in that corridor, we will be much less susceptible to these downtimes and stoppages. In practice, these rivers were not waterways. They were simply navigable rivers, and we were all subject to the weather. But now with the channels defined we'll have waterways. And once this is concluded, it will be much more stable, which is what we want. So this is a long agenda, as we mentioned. We have 3 points where we have to dig, one has already been done, but this should continue throughout 2025 and 2026. Concerning the potential. I think we have a good comparison, which is 2023, which is the potential that we had for the corridor. If we didn't have any issues -- so that's the perspective that we had for the southern corridor.

Next question will be asked by Pedro Tineo from Itau BBA.

I'm sorry to insist on navigability on the short term, but I'd like to understand, Hachem, you mentioned in your presentation that you will have more normal conditions, especially in the southern corridor. I just like to understand how that will affect your volumes. I know that most of it has already been available for the year. But what does it mean to be in a normal condition? How do we translate that into volumes and also in that point, you mentioned the harvest will be stronger, and that can be translated into stronger volumes. So what can you tell us about the mix, grains, iron ore, and what can we consider for the rest of the year?

So let me answer your first question on the southern corridor. As Fabio mentioned, if you were to look at our comparison. Last year, it also had the worst year. So when we started for the year, it was a very low comparative basis, but the river is above its historical average. So rainfall is higher. We also have the effects from the dredging that has been carried out in the Paraguay river, so although it is low in comparison to the draft, we've been able to do more than we expected with the same height. So there is more rainfall in the average. It is still low for the year, but we've been able to have a better draft. Looking at this year versus last year, we do expect to see an improvement. But I'm not going to go into details about this year because it will depend on the effect of the efforts made. Again, considering that we are 100% sold a lot of it would be if we had an issue with the harvest, but we don't see any risk of that happening. We expect a good harvest. It has already started well. But in our case, as we said, we are 100% sold, and we would only have a discount on the volumes sold if we had any issues with the harvest that are beyond the possibilities of right now. So when it comes to demand and so on, since we have closed contracts, execution is the biggest -- a bigger challenge. So that's why it's so important to dredge the North so that we don't see the effects in September.

That concludes the question-and-answer session for today. I'd like to invite Mr. Fabio Schettino to give his closing remarks. Go ahead, sir.

Great, thank you. Just one clarification received questions through the chat, and we will answer all of them. But I'd like to reinforce that for the message for 2024 is that it was a completely atypical year in comparison to the potential generation of results in our platform. The prices that we faced in the Northern, Southern corridors, they have no precedent. We focused on trying to resolve it so that we have waterways and not just navigable rivers in favorable conditions and that is absolutely feasible. In 2021, we started studies so that we could support this dredging and digging effort and we have been advancing. This is a moment in which we're starting to collect the results, and we hope that will be very similar to the Amazon basin in terms of navigability. We're very sure about what we're doing from the technical perspective. We also have the involvement of the Brazilian and the Paraguay governments. We have the shipowners association, and we're all trying to resolve this issue. And another essential point is the Ultra Group, Hidrovias new perspective for long-term growth. So that concludes my presentation, and I'd like to thank you all for being here.

This concludes the company's conference call. Thank you for listening, and have a good day. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]