Melnick Desenvolvimento Imobiliário S.A. ($MELK3)

Good morning, and thank you for holding. Welcome to Melnick's earnings call concerning the results of the fourth quarter of 2025. [Operator Instructions] We'd like to inform you that this event is being recorded, will be made available on the company's website, ri.melnick.com.br, where the complete material concerning this earnings call will be available. It is also possible to download this presentation by way of the chat in both Portuguese and English. [Operator Instructions] We would like to clarify that any statements that might be made during this teleconference regarding Melnick's business prospects as well as its operating and financial projections and goals are based on the beliefs and assumptions held by the company's management and on information currently available. Forward-looking considerations are not a guarantee of performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions since they refer to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not happen. Investors should understand the general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors that may affect Melnick's future outcomes and may lead to results that materially differ from those expressed in these future considerations. Here with us today are the Chief Executives of the company; Mr. Leandro Melnick, CEO; Mr. Juliano Melnick, CFO and Investor Relations Director; and Mr. Jolsonboira, Administrative and Investor Relations Director. I will now give the floor to Mr. Juliano Melnick.

Good morning. I'd like to welcome you all to Melnick's earnings call concerning the fourth quarter of 2025. Before moving on to highlights of this presentation, I would like to point out that we ended 2025 with the best performance for most of our indicators, such as launches, sales, inventory and profit. Additionally, we began our operations in Sao Paulo through partnerships made by Melnick partners with [ EV ] and Uni, 2 traditional companies in the market. Also the increase in volume of operations of Open, our subsidiary focused on the affordable segment. These 2 paths will diversify and foster the company's growth in coming years, while reducing the company's dependency of the Porto Alegre's high and middle income segments. Let us now move on to the highlights of this presentation in Slide 3. The box on the left-hand side of this slide shows the BRL 455 million in net sales of the quarter and BRL 1.2 billion accumulated in the year by Melnick and Melnick Partner, a 7% increase when compared with the previous year. Below, we highlight the BRL 196 million in net sales by Open in the Minha Casa Minha Vida segment, which is 175% increase when compared with 2024 and BRL 243 million in net launches in the year by Melnick Partners, kicking off the beginning of its operations in the state of Sao Paulo. The next box shows the BRL 325 million in net sales in the quarter and BRL 927 million in net sales in the year, excluding Melnick Partners, an increase of 11% when compared with the previous year. We also highlight the 24% reduction in finished inventory in the year, 57% increase in the sales of inventory when compared with the previous year. The box on the right-hand side of this slide shows gross margin, excluding financing of 28.7% in the year, a 22% growth when compared with the previous year and BRL 112 million in net profit in the year, 57% higher than in 2024. Finally, we paid out BRL 65 million in dividend in the quarter and a total of BRL 265 million in dividends in the year of 2025. Let's move on to Slide 4, where we break down the launches in the year. Here, we can see the BRL 535 million of gross PSV launched in the year, BRL 455 million of which corresponds to net PSV consisting of 2 launches in Porto Alegre, first phase of Square Garden and the first phase of Open [ Bosi ] and the launch in Canoas, the second phase of Open Major. In the next Slide, #5, we can see the bar graph, the BRL 930 million in net launches for Melnick, which when added to the BRL 243 million launched by Melnick Partners in partnership with [indiscernible] in Sao Paulo City, highlighted in yellow in the graph, amount to BRL 1.17 billion of net sales in the year. That's 7% greater than the volume launched in 2024. Further right, we can see the growth in net PSV launched by the company in the last 2 years compared with the previous cycle, where we increased the average PSV launched by 58%, going from an average of net launches of BRL 717 million between '21 and '23 to BRL 1.13 billion of net sales between '24 and '25. This increase in launched PSV is based on the growth of Melnick's core operations as well as in the growth of Open Minha Casa Minha Vida and Melnick partners with its partnerships mostly outside of Rio Grande [indiscernible]. In Slide 6, we introduced Square Garden, a project that consists of 3 towers in 10,000 square meter lots with 2 towers for family apartments and 1 tower for compact units at the intersection of two of the most important avenues in Porto Alegre. In the first phase, we launched 2 towers, which are currently 45% sold. We also launched the first phase of Open [indiscernible] a huge real estate development within the Minha Casa Minha Vida program in 2 blocks in Porto Alegre with 30,000 square meters each surrounded by a linear park, which is being revitalized by the company. Altogether, it will consist of 4 real estate development projects with 13 towers in a net PSV over BRL 750 million. Finally, the second phase of open Major, a project under Minha Casa Minha Vida program located in the city of Cano. Moving on to Slide 7. We discuss the company's net sales. The graph on the left shows that the quarter's SOS of launches was 45%, whereas the inventory SOS was 8% for an average SOS of 18% in the quarter. It amounted to BRL 325 million in net sales, BRL 107 million corresponded to inventory sales and BRL 218 million were sales of launches. Net sales accumulated in the year reached BRL 927 million against BRL 837 million in the same period of previous year. It's an 11% increase. Let me point out the 57% increase in sales of inventory when compared with previous year. In the pie chart on the top right corner, we break down sales by business unit, where 84% of sales were concentrated in our Incorporadora unit. And lastly, in the bar graph on the bottom right corner, when we look at the projects to be delivered this year, 83% of the units are already sold, which gives us the rest of the year to sell the remaining 17%. In the next slide, #8, in the graph on the left side shows the company's deliveries that amounted to BRL 476 million of PSV delivered in 2025. We can also see the increase in volume to be delivered in 2026 and '27. On the right-hand side of this slide, we can see some details concerning our operating capacity. Currently, we have 20 active construction sites, 13 of them are in the Incorporadora, 5 are in the Urbanizadora unit and 2 in Open Minha Casa Minha Vida, adding to over 4,500 units. In Slide 9, we show you the only delivery in the quarter, Phases 1 and 2 of the Garden in Canoas, which are on average, 98% sold. This year, we will have the delivery of the third phase as well as the launch of the next phase of this project. In Slide 10, we break down the company's inventory by year of conclusion. To facilitate the understanding of the company's finished inventory in the box on the left-hand side in the donut chart, we highlight the inventory launched before 2020, the pre-IPO. It consists mostly of commercial units amounting to 86% of the inventory in this group and added to BRL 132 million. The bar chart in the same box shows that we currently have BRL 1.33 billion in inventory, excluding the inventory launched prior to 2020. Out of this amount, only 6% or BRL 94 million consists of finished inventory. From the remaining inventory, only BRL 140 million will be finished by the end of 2026. In the graph on the top right corner, we break down the composition of our finished inventory worth BRL 226 million, only BRL 16 million of which is in the Urbanizadora, BRL 92 million are residential units and BRL 7 million of which are leased. And the oldest and least liquid inventory, the commercial units consisting of office space, stores and hotels amounted to BRL 118 million and BRL 44 million of which are leased or our hotel units. Here, we highlight the 5% reduction in finished inventory in the [indiscernible]. The bottom of this slide shows the reduction of the company's finished inventory in the past few years when by the end of 2022, it represented 31% of total inventory and presently represents less than half of that, 15%, a nominal reduction of BRL 116 million, originating mostly from our reversible lease program. In Slide 11, we discuss our land bank. The box on the left-hand side shows that we have BRL 4.4 billion in total PSV and BRL 3.1 billion of it is Melnick share. It consists of 28 lots or phases and around BRL 700 million of PSV is already approved. In the quarter, we purchased BRL 455 million of net PSV. And the box on the right-hand side shows the composition of our land bank by business unit. Approximately 60% of it is in the Incorporadora unit. In Slide 12, where we present the company's financial indicators. We can see on the top left corner that the quarter's net revenue was BRL 311 million. And in the year, net revenue reached BRL 1.117 billion, which is a 9% increase when compared with previous year. The graph on the right-hand side shows the quarter's gross profit of BRL 71 million and a gross margin, excluding production financing of 27.2%. The annualized gross profit was BRL 272 million with a gross margin of 28.7%, representing a 22% increase when compared with 2024. At the bottom of this slide, we see our net income of BRL 34 million in the quarter and net margin, excluding minority interest of 13.8%. In the year, net income was BRL 112 million, 57% higher when compared with previous year and a net margin of 13.4%. In Slide 13, we demonstrate our capital structure. The table on the left-hand side shows that we ended the quarter with a net debt of BRL 408 million with a gross debt of BRL 604 million mostly dedicated to financing projects under construction and a total cash position of BRL 196 million. Presently, our shareholders' equity is approximately BRL 1.64 billion, and our net debt-to-equity ratio is 38.3%. In the box below, we show our consolidated cash position of BRL 196 million and our net cash position, excluding federal home loans of BRL 34 million. The company's operating cash burn in the quarter was BRL 193 million and BRL 247 million accumulated in the year. We highlight that BRL 84 million in the quarter and roughly BRL 150 million in the year used to purchase participations in SPEs, but mostly in land. We also paid out dividends amounting to BRL 65 million in the quarter and BRL 265 million in the year. Thank you all for your attention. I would like now to give the floor to our CEO, Leandro Melnick, for his remarks. Then we will open for the questions.

Good morning. The numbers we have just presented demonstrate a very positive performance for Melnick in 2025. We had a significant evolution in our margin when compared with the previous year. That was an important increase in our profit, a good sales performance and the relevant reduction in our finished inventory. We also raised the number of launches by approximately 7%. Adding to these figures, Melnick also introduced 2 very important strategic issues, the beginning of Opens activities, a company in the group that operates exclusively in the affordable segment in Rio Grande do Sul, which launched projects amounted to BRL 196 million of PSV with very good sales performance. This movement expands the segments in which the company operates in the region it knows best and dominates. And we foresee the continued increase of PSV of our operations in the affordable segment. And we understand we have room to continue launching projects that will have great performance. We also began our activities in Sao Paulo through Melnick Partners, which is the arm of the company responsible for partnerships. Through it, we launched 2 projects with a PSV of BRL 243 million and we partnered with companies that we admire and they are very traditional in Sao Paulo's market, one project with [indiscernible] and one project with Uni. In this area of partnerships, we also see in the future, the continuity and growth of this activity in a safe and responsible way in a region where we have a good deal of knowledge and information using this format of partnerships. With the confluence of these factors, we see our operation in Porto Alegre improving our results qualitatively and giving Melnick more options to allocate capital. This allows us to choose good projects for real estate development. And following this format, we see coming years in a positive light in terms of solid growth with responsible cash and financial discipline for which Melnick is known as well as keeping improving the company's operating capacity. Let us now move on to the Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from João Pedro Rodrigues from XP.

Congratulations on the results. I have 2 questions. I would like to explore your G&A dynamic in the quarter. I'd like to understand what were the drivers that led a more positive G&A in this quarter, if you see this new level as something that is a recurring thing for the next quarters of 2026? That's the first question. My second question is if you could comment on how you see the launch dynamics and sales dynamics in Porto Alegre, how you see the SOS and the launch of these products? Tell me a little bit about the beginning of this 2026.

Thank you for your question. Concerning G&A, what we had in the quarter, we always make provisions our program of results participation. We had a full -- we provisioned the full result to the bonds and then we tally the results. So this was the 100%. So we recalculated it. It happens during the quarter, but this provision concerns the whole year. So this realigned our G&A a little bit. The second question, sales are very solid here. We see a lower competitiveness here in our region. And we see this in the SOS. The last 2 quarters, our launches were very good, around 48% of SOS. So sales have been moving along quite well. And I'll let Leandro complement.

So complementing with a more -- with a broader view of the market, we see this issue of your question with a very important relevance that has to do how we operate in our strategy. We have been launching paying a lot of attention to absorption, especially the volume -- the total volume of our projects. We understand it has a very positive absorption. And we see in this moment of SOS as Juliano said, but also in the deliveries. In the past years, we have been delivering projects always more than 90% sold. So we are decreasing finished inventory. And when you see the breakdown of our inventory in the beginning of this year compared with last year, all the projects that will be delivered this year in the accumulated of the year, we have 17% of finished inventory. So we'll end the year with less than 10% of inventory in our analysis. And we see this in a very deep way to predict next launches. That's why Porto Alegre launches have a limit. We cannot expand even having land bank for it because we can only grow the volume of launches if the absorption of this inventory continues at this high level of quality, as we have just mentioned.

Our next question is from Elvis Credendio, Itaú Corretora.

I have 2 questions. First, I'd like to explore your low-income affordable segment initiative, how you see this segment nowadays, considering the boom that Minha Casa Minha Vida program has had and how you are planning to expand the operations in your region? And the second question would be to understand on your side, the cash generation dynamic along 2026. What do you expect in terms of cash generation, especially when it comes to leverage, what you're aiming at, what kind of leverage level you are aiming at?

Thank you for your question. First, concerning Open, which is our company focusing on the affordable segment. We have studied this segment very deeply. We have had some projects in this segment in the past 4 years. We went through this learning curve, and we understood we had a great opportunity here when we created Open as a company that focused exclusively in this affordable segment, not just because it's a very important segment for Brazil, but it's an opportunity that added to the realities of Porto Alegre, where the geography does not -- has not permitted in the past decades, projects in this affordable segment within the confines of the city limits. But the cities around Porto Alegre expanded. So we saw this opportunity in the surrounding cities because of the kind of land because of the increase in the ceiling for Minha Casa Minha Vida. So we built a very qualified land bank with land that has characteristics for this segment within Porto Alegre, which enabled projects in Level 3. So we are operating Level 3 now and sales performance for these projects has been very good. We analyzed the mitigation of risk in this segment because this operation is focused on -- in the city of Porto Alegre in Level 3. We are not expanding this to another other cities. So our strategy is a very deep one that put together the moment of the market with the characteristics of our reach that led to the possibility of nowadays having a land bank that allows us to operate on this Level 3. And besides launches have started at a very important level, over BRL 200 million. The sales performance has been very healthy at the prices we were expecting with good margins. So we understand that this is the plan. The land bank is already built for a gradual increment in these operations within the characteristics I've mentioned that will balance an increase in the company, but also always keeping a keen eye on the operating risks, considering the history of the past decade in the region. Regarding your second question of cash generation, there are 2 points I'd like to mention. The operating cash generation in the year. We created the possibility of a positive cash generation to a neutral level. So in a year that will not have cash burn. And the balance we do between leverage structure and growth is also a point where we pay a lot of attention to the company's policy, which characterized the company's policy. We are very conservative in cash use to be a company that's very safe, very conservative, and we have been following this in the past 5 years. This balance gives us a band of leverage going from zero debt to something around 35%. So the band has to look within this range, always with an eye to the quality of this leverage. And from our leverage now days, approximately 70% comes from Federal Home loans financing the production, which gives us a robustness to this kind of leverage and we analyze how we float, how we change within this range that I mentioned, looking at cash -- operating cash generation, dividend payout and opportunities that come along. So this is the policy we follow. We'll keep on being a company that's absolutely conservative in terms of cash and leverage. We'll take advantage of opportunities that come along, always with a focus on being a company that's very safe in terms of cash and also paying out dividends in a significant amount.

Our next question comes from [indiscernible] he brings us 2 questions. The first one concerns Open, more specifically the purchase of land bank. What's the competition like for the purchase of this land? What is the bottleneck to expand this segment? And the second question is construction costs. Do we understand that labor cost is the main concern? What would be the impact in labor costs for Mel if the decrease in the work hours be confirmed?

Thank you for your questions. I'm going to add this to what I just answered to the previous question. Regarding the purchase of land has to do with what I said before. So let me explain with a little more detail, but it's very important to our operation. Within Open, we have land lots in this affordable segment, Minha Casa and Minha Vida, which -- in which the characteristic that provides us good launches is location, flat terrain and a price level that's appropriate to the program and Porto Alegre didn't use to have these characteristics. But because of the real estate crisis that Porto Alegre is going through as well as in the whole country because of the high interest rates in the middle and high-income segment, we have been able to convert big lots that were set aside for middle income. We could reverse this to lower income. So we generated a land bank that's very relevant and support the growth for a few years with great locations. And it was a capacity to see this -- the expansion of this segment because of the raising of the ceiling to be part of this program. And adding this to the structure of purchasing this land, it allowed us to build a land bank. And now we are taking advantage of this land bank in this first launch. Competition in Porto Alegre for this kind of land is not that high as it is in Sao Paulo and other places because there are a few lots that have these characteristics within the city limits. It's more in the greater Porto Alegre. So we are looking at this with a bias -- with an enthusiastic bias for the beginning of Open operations, and we'll continue growing our PSV using this land bank we have already acquired and it has great quality. Concerning costs, labor costs, our operation in the beginning, we understand that this is a very important driver for results. So we have been operating on Level 3, which concentrates great projects in Porto Alegre. That means we are not going into Open operations, which is very diversified with many construction sites in different cities. So this gives us the possibility of focusing more and control costs more. Concerning labor costs, which is our long-term threat. We have been paying a lot of attention to this. Labor costs nowadays is our main concern for the future, but we have been doing good work towards this issue. And Melnick has been focusing on its vertical operation in Porto Alegre. We have some competitive advantages that we can work compared with the other players in the city. And we have a very important relationship with subcontractors and local suppliers.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from , [indiscernible] he congratulates you on your results. I'd like to understand the cash generation better, what to expect for future months and how you will reverse the consumption of operating cash and what to expect for 2026?

Thank you for your question. We'd like to open the Q&A for investors. This is in line with what we have already answered. Melnick will continue our policy of having great discipline in terms of cash burn within the range I mentioned. So it's a company without debt up to a certain level that we put at 35% of debt and always paying attention to the quality of this debt. And a big part of this debt is dedicated to financing production. And what I have already answered, just to reinforce it, our view for the current year is to have some stability in cash and generation cash burn, and we try to have a balance between operating cash generation, opportunities that come along and dividend payout. So the idea is to keep this policy that we have always had. And in this quarter, we saw some opportunities that came up, especially buying land in Sao Paulo with partners. And the good thing of having a deleveraged company, a company with Melnick characteristics besides the operating safety and the capacity to pay out dividends is also the ability to -- when opportunities come along, we have the opportunity to take advantage of these opportunities. That's what we did in the first 2 quarters. We took advantage of good opportunities that will give the company great results in the future. And so we have been balancing this policy of being a company of low leverage.

So moving on, our next question comes from [indiscernible] investor. He congratulates you on your results and asks to explain more deeply what your strategy concerning the oldest land bank, the oldest inventory, especially the hotels and commercial, if you have some strategy to have recurring revenue.

Kevin, thank you for your question. We have finished inventory using your question to talk about this. We have some, these are older projects, as you commented. It's on some participation in hotels and commercial space, office space. We do not have as an operating vision to invest in recurring income. But we have the intelligence to have the best management of our assets and the projects that we have that are finished inventory are very well occupied. These are very positive projects from the point of view of their use of their lease. These are projects that sold very well. When you look at the projects, they do not represent more than 10%, 12% of the project, sometimes even 5%. These are projects that sell very well. So we have this analysis that we are using that in this moment of high interest rate, where selling is more difficult and the company has a cash position that allows us to keep these assets and make them profitable by leasing them or in the hotel, keep part of the revenue of these hotels to this level that I mentioned, 10% to 15% and sell it at the best moment for us. So we understand that for this inventory, the residual inventory that the company has because they are good assets, the best strategy is this one that we are doing right now. It's been working. The projects we have finished inventory for. Again, very good projects that are very well occupied. And then at a more suitable moment, we are going to sell them. To answer your second question, it's not a strategy for the company to invest in income-generating assets, but to make profit from the projects we already have.

Our next question comes from [indiscernible] investor. We have noticed a decrease in the gross margin against the tendency of previous quarters, which was an increase. Do you believe this is an isolated event? Or is this going to compromise margins in the next quarters?

Thank you for your question. We had an isolated event this quarter. We have a very high-end project here in Porto Alegre, and we had the opportunity -- it's already under construction, has been sold very well. And we had the opportunity to buy the lot next to it. And this improves this project very much. So we took advantage of this, and we bought this lot next to the project, and this cost will be shared along the units of the project. So because we needed to be agile in the purchase of this lot, so we purchased it. So this harmed our margin a little bit, but this is going to be reimbursed -- the owners of the project that we have will reimburse this extra cost, and this will be transferred to cost and then this will affect only the units. So the most important factor in the decrease of margins in this quarter was this, but our margins remain very healthy, and we can expect the maintenance of these margins for the other quarters. But remember that in this first quarter of 2026, we have a Melnick Day, which is a very important event. And it depends on the year, we have more or less project sales, but we're going to have some oscillation, some change in the margins because of this event. But along the year, we're going to see margins stabilize.

The Q&A session is now closed. Melnick's earnings call concerning the results of the fourth quarter of 2025 is now concluded. The Investor Relations department is at your disposal to answer any further questions you may have. Thank you all for attending this earnings call, and we wish you a good day.