Multiplan Empreendimentos Imobiliários S.A. ($MULT3)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the earnings call regarding the first quarter of '26 of Multiplan. We have here today the Executive Directors of the company. We'd like to inform you that the presentation of the results is available for download at the IR website. Multiplan, you can find them on the Multiplan site. Now before starting, we would like to say that any forward-looking statements that are done during the earnings call regarding the business perspectives of the company, projections and operational goals are based on beliefs of Multiplan as well as information that is made available now to the company. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties based on premises. These are regarding the forward-looking statements. That's why they depend on circumstances that may or may not take place. Investors should understand that macroeconomic conditions, industry conditions and other operational factors might affect the results of the company and lead to results that are materially different from those of the forward-looking statements. I'd like to give the floor to Mr. Eduardo Peres, the CEO. He's going to start the presentation. Please continue.

Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you and discuss the results of the first quarter of '26 of Multiplan. I'm going to start by reinforcing the consistency of our strategy throughout the years. This disciplined execution is translated into cash generation and value creation for our shareholders. We are doing an investment cycle focused on the improvement of our malls through expansions, revamps and changing of the mix, always focusing on the demands of the consumers. We also intensified the promotion of events and experiences that connect the people and bring new things. The results of this first quarter show clearly the effect of this strategy. Record of sales, EBITDA, the highest records of FFO and all of that was achieved through a long period of high interest rates. And it shows the resilience of our business model. We just launched the expansion with a lot of success in growing 23% over last month inside mall. Now our focus is on 3 new launches still this year, expansion of BarraShopping, they are the expansion of ParkShopping Brasilia. They increase the potential for the generation of revenue and value creation. The results of the first quarter are bearing the fruits of our digital ecosystem. Multi is an important tool for the decision-making process of the company. With over 10 million downloads, we are guided by the big amount of data that allow us to know our clients very well. With that, we offer relevant services, personalized services and help our tenants to improve the results. This investment cycle doesn't finish in 2026, a robust new projects of expansions and entrepreneurial real estate projects, BarraShopping, ParkShopping Brasilia and Jundiai and the third phase of the Golden Lake and Lake Baikal and residential projects besides VillageMall and BarraShoppingSul. To accelerate the growth of other enterprises, we launched contracts for the residential and commercial projects in 3 malls, ParkShopping in Paraguay, ParkShopping in Rio Grande and ParkShopping in Canoas. We are motivated in improving and have a commitment in improving the clients and making the company -- well, we would like to thank you for your investment in the company and your trust in the company that is fundamental for our journey. Thank you very much.

[Operator Instructions] First question, Ygor Altero, XP.

Two points, bid of the NOI, but we fell on the 89%. I understand what pressure is more, was the delinquency nonrecurrent? What can we expect in this NOI and the dynamic of the -- you could control very well this movement in terms of occupation. What can we expect throughout the year? There is a trend there is more positive in the occupancy throughout the year.

The NOI margin is normal. We've had a few delinquency that was not expected, and we have 3 actions that were not paid and you had an increase of the cost, but this is from the day-to-day. If you imagine the amount of GLB that we produced in the last 24 months, and we're still going to produce this year, this happens with those of us that work with it. So I think that this is a bitcoin situation. We are focusing in keeping the level of allocation and vacancy the lowest possible, still with a higher number of stores. We are growing 50,000 meters, 50,000 meters over the last 3 years. So it's a progressive challenge. And I think that just in this space, the first quarter of last year to this one, 80 stores and 18,000 square meters. So if you look at this graph in 5 years, you clearly see this evolution. And it's just what we commented. It's important to measure what we are doing. We are always trying to deliver the best experience to not do anything is not an option. If you don't do anything, you're not going to innovate. You're not going to improve the condition of the store. So in that sense, you end up running more risks. But I'm very satisfied, as I told you, with the results of the company.

Our next question is Pedro Lobato, Bradesco BBI.

Two questions. Eduardo commented on the CapEx. But I wanted to understand what do you understand since this is a threshold that is imagined it was going to fall, but I want to understand if it makes sense. Second, related to that, I wanted to understand how is your mindset? You comment that the focus on the year is deleverage. We're having a good deleveraging. So I wanted to understand what is the target of net debt over EBITDA? And how do you relate to that? And how you can generate the interest of our capital payment?

Well, can you repeat the first question? You talked about CapEx and the second part, we didn't get it.

Didn't hear me well? The first question was to understand the threshold of CapEx for the year. We imagine the drop of this BRL 116 million can be a number that we are going to have over the next quarters. And the second one is to relate how do you work this CapEx with the threshold of the leveraging for the year? And is there any target? Should the focus be any target for net debt over EBITDA for the size of the debt, so you can feel more comfortable to distribute the interest of our capital and dividends?

Well, thank you, Pedro. Both. Let me start by the last. We don't have a target for this deleveraging. Of course, we want to be as light as possible, either to seize an opportunity or do what we just discussed or interest of our capital. Obviously, the environment of interest rates are going to fall. It's going to help the economy in a good perspective. But we are always looking at the opportunities in-house or outside. It's a constant, and we don't want to stop growing. And as I told you, the best way of you perfecting is growing is not just managing what you have. So CapEx, we are investing a lot -- we've just delivered a new mall. It's a project that is BRL 500 million in expansion. We have another 3 expansions for this year and the Golden Lake. We are still using a lot of resources as you see. And Eduardo, you were commenting. And this is concrete. The CapEx related to the revamp had a drop, enormous drop in regards to last year, 14% of the NOI below than the record margins. So you have a CapEx that is using -- that is being used as Eduardo commented. And our plan of delivering these expansions and looking to the future, new opportunities.

Next question.

So I wanted to approach two points, on delinquency. Well, first of all, delinquency. I think that Eduardo already discussed this. There were a few compensations in the first quarter. So if you can give us more opening, was there anything regarding the clients or something more generalized? And if it's somehow, could you open the size of the delinquency? And what was the impact of that value that was discussed? And how much would be that nonrecurring? On the sales, can you give us some color on the dynamic of April? Do you have any indices that you can share? Is it accelerating vis-a-vis the first quarter? Any sector services that has outperformed? So a bit of color in the April sales, that would be great.

Thank you for the questions. Let me start by delinquency. We already commented. There is a great part of this delinquency. We're not going to give more details that is related to a few discussions that are legal, legal frameworks. I see this -- it's a specific pinpoint. We see health very well. Thank you very much. But when you compare it to the previous year, and you have to look at the picture and comparing to the before, now this one is not so pretty. Well, last year, we could have a lot of recoveries of expenses and delinquency that was really good for the first quarter, less expenses in the shopping mall last year. Of course, the base of comparison seems worse. Well, in regards to sales, we don't see anything a lot different from what we've seen this year. But to close this month, we've seen Eduardo commented the number, MorumbiShopping very well. The sales are growing 24% in this month of April. But this is a good trend. We are very confident in the change of mix, revamping expansion. And there is a slide that we show in this call on the Page 5, where we compare the portfolio over the last 5 years. And I give you the example. We compare the shopping malls that were expanded. So the portfolio grew 50% and the New York doubled the sales.

So what was the area in New York?

It was the first shopping mall rework that we had a change of mix and the revamping that was stronger. At the beginning of the cycle that Eduardo commented in the beginning. And well, there are 15 days that we just had the closing of the quarter. So imagine this looking to the future. You have that expansion that was so transformational, how it will impact so positively. And complementing we've done and we are still doing. There is a whole year for development. There is an expansion in Brasilia that will be very impactful for Brasilia as Morumbi was for Sao Paulo. Morumbi, the impact that we had in Sao Paulo helps us a lot in Brazil. So that helps the company advance. I really like to look at the experience of the company -- of the people that go to the mall and they consume or not. Everybody is welcome. So that experience improved over the last years with everything that we've done. So I'm always optimistic because I believe in the capacity of the company to generate this positive expectation for those that go to the mall. This is what we've done over the last 50 years, and this is what we're doing well. So in the public meeting, you can see Eduardo went over the connection as someone that goes over the mall. We are always with this communication and alignment. And this explains the strategy and the health care.

Next question, Jonathan Koutras, JPMorgan.

Congratulations on the quarter. I have a few questions. First of all, this investment in the last quarter, 10% of Belo Horizonte, 10% of ParkShoppingSaoCaetano. Is there any appetite for selling of the partnerships or the focus goes back to the organic growth at the opening and the Golden Lake. And the second question from now on, in real terms in the quarter, I wanted to we're going to keep this 3-point level. Is it real? And the sequential improvement do you attribute it to the revamping and expansion? Was it something more specific on the contracts?

Jonathan, these investments -- it was very clear our strategy of communicating this frequently on the generation of value for the investor, the shareholder. This is our focus, generating the best opportunities, selling or buying. What we start to have is an activity that is higher in the value creation. So we repurchased the sale -- the shares with a lower cap, generating value for the shareholder, trying to have a more quicker deleveraging, seizing opportunities. We're very consistent to what we announced last year. And within the strategy, the terrains that we are developing, we are going to try and find partners that can create this in the shopping mall quicker and creating opportunities for future expansions. We've done several improvements in Ribeirao Preto. Eduardo announced 3 new, and it's going to be a positive impact. This is very important because it's a different dynamic for the company. Since I took over, we had an expectation of developing everything. I did -- well, we are only going to develop what we have in-house, but we don't have -- we're going to unlock value as it was done in Ribeirao Preto, Campo Grande and Maceio and here Jacarepagua now. The idea is not to become a bank of terrain. We are going to continue to do business and generate more traffic of returns for the shopping mall. Let me give an example. We are discussing 1,500 people going over the shopping malls that we've just done a business with. So just on the projects, it's 300 rooms. You're bringing traffic to the shopping mall, and you're unlocking value for the terrain and what we develop in the sales of Golden Lake and a project on the side of the VillageMall. So we have to have hands to do it. We have to have a margin to build and what we cannot do, we let someone else do it. I don't want to do everything. In regards to the same-store rent, it's very clear your question. I'm going to break it down. And you asked about the quarter, 3%. When you look at this long series since listing, 13.5%, more than 3%. So we've had the records that were consistent of real growth regardless of the index of inflation that is before. So we -- it became positive, and I'm talking about 12 months. And it's pushing the revenue of rent. I hope I answered your question.

Next question from Santander. Matheus the floor is yours.

I wanted to talk about the cost of construction. Well, first of all, it would be on the Golden Lake. You are recovering the margin of the project. So do you feel any impact of this increase of the INCC and how that would impact the trajectory of improving the margin? And would it impact the plans for the next phases of the project? And the second one for the cost of construction, thinking about the expansion, the projects, understanding if this increase would impact relevant in a relevant way. And would that make or not make sense, maybe delaying more. So I wanted to understand your mindset given the expansions and the increase of cost of the INCC.

Okay, Matheus. Starting by Golden Lake. Good news, we will launch Baikal, which is 29 floors in a very high-level threshold. The other limit was 18 floors, and we're going to have more efficiency. The increase in the INCC is marginal for us, even though we're building, the margin is ours. I didn't feel a significant. There is nothing for the next phases of the Golden Lake or for the expansions. So we are finishing to build some expansions, most of them in Brasilia. I don't believe that there's going to be a big impact in here. And it's not going to change the mindset, which is Sao Caetano, Jundiai, BarraShopping. These are big expansions, and they're not mature. We're still in the phase of projects developing. So building is not going to be very big. Eduardo?

The beauty of our business is that we are not mandated to do anything. I mean, we are not here riding a bike and we cannot stop. On the contrary, we take stops and we can do expansions if the return is good. If the cost of construction doesn't have a good return, we don't have to do it. A great example that you're doing, we went through this when we produced the expansion of Golden Lake, didn't have viability, and now it's viable 12 years later. So the cost of expansion is the least of our problems. But really, I don't see it impacting neither the expansion -- and the last point, we have a natural hedge. When we talk about expansion, okay.

Next question, Andre Mazini, Citibank.

My question is about the portfolio that is more satellite, 58% of satellite, even though your cost of occupancy is dropping. So I wanted to understand your confirm the understanding that the strategy they pay, they support a cost of occupancy than the big stores, they pay more per square meter. So you can make it satellite and still reduce the cost of the occupancy. Does that mean that it's opening more space for the increase of rent? This is the first one. And the second one about the recurring of the expenses. Well, one-off below. We imagine that. So that threshold, 50 below would be the recurrence that we can imagine up ahead or maybe below that, given your discussion of provisions.

Andre, talking about the cost of property, we always try to get the best efficiency of the company, having the best indices. Of course, it's better. We specifically a few actions that have impacted this quarter, but I don't think that this is going to repeat. I don't believe and neither I'm going to let the team accommodate in that sense. So we are going to try and find better margins. Do we always manage to do it? Not ever. There are factors that we cannot control as we had in this quarter that led to this. Well, I think that you called our attention, Mazini, to a very important point, which is true. Historically, we get 10 years that stabilization of the portfolio even stronger, allowing you to get space in smaller stores, bigger stores and having more satellite. But the cost of occupancy in the quarter is much more of a result with the low inflation that we think that is great. We don't pass on the inflation. No, it's good to see this gives a more long-term overview as we said, and selling that do well. We are working strongly in the events and the management of the shopping mall and the improvement of the mix, Multi to create an environment of sales, making the shopping mall more attractive, creating a virtuous cycle. Well, you can only have an increase if the sales increase. You can have the best contract in the world. But if the shopping mall doesn't give you form, you cannot grow rent, you don't improve the frequency of the shopping mall. So everything that we've done over the last years, and this is not little, we expanded -- we're talking about 4 expansions. It's to deliver an experience that is much better for those that come here. This is our biggest legacy to make the entirety of the company think that we need to have this mantra to be close to those that consume the brand. All the company does goes well when you think about that. When you start getting distracted and it's not easy to get distracted, there are so many things to think, you lose focus of what is the heart of the company. My consumer is satisfied. Okay. Let's fight with the other lines of efficiency. This is the best guidance. And you said a word that is very relevant, which is efficiency. One of the reasons that lead us not only from a quarter, but in a longer period to an experience of lower occupancy, lower expenses with investments in efficiency, technology and Multi is a clear example of that. You've seen you can pay for the app, the cost, parking, manual, all the reduction that we've had. We are always thinking, as Eduardo said, to be more productive, to be more efficient and indirectly, that is -- well, Multi was created to be a toolbox. To extract data and then this is a subproduct. But the intention as everything that we do is to improve the experience of those that work with it. Since I've been to the shopping malls of my life, and I live close to BarraShopping and VillageMall, you want to access the shopping mall, if you don't have electric energy, well, then we're going to have issues. Well, then let's develop some independent system, and this is the way that we've done it. So we were pioneers in that technology. It works very well, and it brought us things that we never imagined. And where are they going and the amount of tenants that are accessing the data. So it's all the ecosystem. It's a virtuous cycle that gets feedback. The tenant seeing that there is value, all of that conspiring with the correct direction. But we always want to improve the experience of those that go there. The pain of the consumer getting to the shopping mall, okay?

Our next question is Elvis Credendio from Itau BBA.

First of all, about the same-store sales. Could you comment on the performance of the quarter and we've seen the big stores. So if you can comment on how you're feeling the rhythm of sales at the beginning of the second quarter? And the second topic would be the taxes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that there is a one-off effect once you pay the taxes at the conclusion of the BarraShopping. And there is another project that is very efficient. So I wanted to understand from your side, do you face this as recurrent?

Elvis, could you repeat the end. Well, you're talking about the recurrent?

Yes. If you can exclude this and the sale of Barra and is it something recurrent or not?

Well, let me start by the second part. We had the sales of Belo Horizonte that you mentioned and it contributes to have a smaller adequate. But even excluding that, I think that one of the factors is the best distribution that we have with the best structure of the company and the real income, and we increased and we have the nominal. We distributed BRL 150 million of interest over capital. So that helped with the efficiency. But historically, we had a good performance and with this efficiency. In regards to with the same-store sales. Well, the performance, you cannot attribute -- I have difficulty attributing one segment that didn't do well because many times, there is a change of mix, but they did very well because there is a new store and another one that closed and even the article. Well, traditionally, you sell more electronic products during the World Cup. So it's dynamic. If you pay attention, it's difficult to translate what is going on, but we can explain. There are segments that are not being sold as they sold traditionally, electronics. Just in Brazil, it was sold in the way that we had with the big stores that changed. It's not this way. And it's important, Elvis, that the company is always adapting, bringing other activities. Our mix of what is being sold and what we provide as services to the shopping mall is always a movement. It's always modifying. With the public meeting that we had, what did we think? And the important thing is to be ready for the change to receive what you did -- what didn't sell and now there's something else that is selling better.

Now the next question is Jorel Guilloty, Goldman Sachs.

Two questions. First, about the inflation, the impact of the acceleration of the inflation over the condominium costs. I wanted you to understand that -- well, the impact and how can you mitigate the impact? And do you think that there is if that part is growing within the occupancy cost? Because as you said, the occupancy cost is at a lower threshold than the records. Second, the turnover of logistics and you mentioned that clothing was the leader of turnover in this quarter. So I wanted to understand about the type of tenants that got in. And this is national companies, mom-and-pop. So just to understand what type of tenants got in and was the leader here.

So you were talking about the increase of the condominium cost because of inflation. If you pay attention to the condominium cost, for our properties, you will realize that it's not automatic. It didn't increase and we passed on because there is a contract with the provider. Well, we try to do the best management of everything that is within the shopping mall to try and increase as little as possible. We see that the tenant has a total cost. So the management, and I remember here for many years, MorumbiShopping was static that we just launched the expansion. For many years, even with the variation of inflation, being very generous and it changed the rent. So we always try to do the best management possible. So that doesn't have any impact or even decrease. And what we are delivering, if you look at the listing and sometimes we do exercises -- well, the cost of occupancy, it decreases also throughout time. If you look at the base 100, it decreases because of what you mentioned, the efficiency and it's more difficult because we always want to deliver a better shopping malls experience. So it's not just stopping with the security or stop the information. No. We are -- well, if somebody doesn't feel well in the shopping mall, they're going to receive good care. But I try also to be as efficient as possible in the -- all the lines. So about the turnover of clothing. Here, in terms of GLA, the net that got in and got out was in the clothing. And Jorel, this changes. I -- every quarter, I get -- well, it's a very thin point. Sometimes you go with a larger store, it changes the game. Let's look at these numbers in 12 months. Jorel, a big point that we can talk about in terms of mix is that you have international brands with a lot of appetite. But it's a country that has 200 million inhabitants that talk about the same language or use the same currency. So it's a market that is important for all the brands. With taxation or contracts, but today, you have good international players here. And they're all looking at Brazil with a lot of appetite. This is very positive for everyone. But looking ahead, we expect to continue to see these movements and these improvements intensify.

We're going to close the Q&A session. Now I'd like to give the floor to Mr. Eduardo Peres to close the session.

Thank you very much to everyone that is following us in this call. As I told you at the meeting yesterday because this is a listed company. We thank you for your participation, analysts, partners because you always contribute for the company to be better. The challenge of our company is to understand all of these questions and translate to improvements in the business. We are very engaged to do this approximation between what the consumer desires and what we deliver. This is the main vision of the company and the mantra of Multiplan. Thank you for this call, and everyone, we'll see you in 3 months.

The conference call of the first quarter of '26 of Multiplan is closed. Have a nice afternoon. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]