Raízen S.A. (RAIZ4) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to Raízen S.A's First Quarter 2026-'27 Crop Year Earnings Presentation. This presentation is being recorded and will be available at the company's IR website at ri.raizen.com.br-en and Raízen's official YouTube channel. [Operator Instructions] Before proceeding, allow me to reiterate that forward-looking statements are based on Raízen's Executive Board's beliefs and assumptions in light of information currently available to the company. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties as they relate to future events, and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not materialize. Investors and analysts should bear in mind that events related to the macroeconomic scenario, the industry and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the respective forward-looking statements. Joining us today are Mr. Nelson Gomes, CEO; Mr. Lorival Luz, CFO; and Mr. Phillipe Casale, Head of IR. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Casale for the presentation. You may proceed, Mr. Casale.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you once again for joining us on our first quarter earnings conference call, which marks the beginning of the 2026-'27 crop year. Before discussing our results, I'd like to highlight a few changes to the way we report our lines of business beginning this quarter. First, our Fuel Distribution operation in Argentina is now being reported under the discontinued operations line, given that we are moving forward with the sale of the business in the country announced on June 4. In addition to the operating results, this quarter, we have recognized certain accounting effects related to the transaction. These are non-cash effects stemming from the reassessment of the assets included in the transaction. The transaction is still subject to approval and also waiting to meet the conditions precedent. And once the process has been completed, we will communicate it officially to the market. The second change relates to the allocation of corporate expenses and the results of subsidiaries that had not been assigned to business units. Beginning this quarter, these items, which had previously been reported under other segments have been allocated between our 2 core business, Ethanol, Sugar, and Bioenergy or EAB and Fuel Distribution Brazil. This change simplifies our reporting structure and provides a more straightforward view of our results. Finally, I'd like to highlight that on July 30, our out-of-court restructuring plan was approved. As a result, our focus is now fully directed toward implementing the preparatory measures required to meet the conditions precedent as per the established time line. This quarter, I'll begin by presenting the results of each business line, and then we'll conclude with consolidated results. Beginning with EAB, we began the 2026-'27 crop year facing a challenging environment for the industry and for Raízen, particularly with respect to the weather and commodity prices. On the weather front, the stronger effects of El Niño brought above-average rainfall for this time of year, which had a direct impact on this quarter's crushing due to the disruptions to harvesting operations. This impact can be observed even when analyzing the same mills presented in the chart on the right-hand side. As a reminder, last crop year, we began operations with 29 mills. And after the divestments, which have been completed, we are now starting the current crop year with 24 operating units. Agricultural yields were also affected by 2 main factors. First, the sugarcane processed during the quarter was concentrated in areas where the crop had not yet reached full maturity. We expect part of this effect to be offset during the crop year as we move into higher yield areas. And second, lower rainfall during the sugarcane maturation cycle in the previous crop year, particularly in certain regions of the state of Sao Paulo. They also affected yield. Turning to our production mix. Ethanol accounted for a larger share of production compared to the previous crop, reflecting both raw material quality and the profitability dynamics between products. This higher ethanol mix also explains the increase in ethanol sales this quarter as we sought to capture higher prices observed mainly at the beginning of the crop year. Sugar volumes, on the other hand, were lower in line with reduced production and prices reflect the benefits of forward pricing, maintaining realized prices above spot market levels. On the next slide, the decrease in EAB's EBITDA this quarter was primarily driven by 2 factors. First, lower prices across Sugar, Ethanol and Bioenergy. And second, the 5 mills divested during the previous crop year and which are no longer part of our current asset portfolio led to lower results in the crop year. Although this pricing environment continued to put pressure on our results, our cost dynamics were more favorable even when excluding the lower cost of third-party sugarcane, which is indexed to CONSECANA. Looking at costs under our management, we, once again, delivered structural operational efficiency gains resulting from transformation initiatives being implemented across both our agricultural operations, including sugarcane cutting, loading and transportation as well as our industrial processes. These gains, combined with lower third-party sugarcane costs helped offset the impact of inflation and less diluted fixed costs resulting from yields that came in below expectations. Now turning to Fuel Distribution Brazil. This quarter continued to be marked by volatility in oil and fuel prices in an environment still affected by geopolitical tensions. This scenario required swift and disciplined execution of our supply strategy to ensure both the reliable supply and competitiveness of our contracted customer base across the Shell service station network. We delivered another quarter of operational improvement with increased sales in both the otto cycle and diesel segments. This performance reflected a healthier competitive environment driven by continued progress in addressing irregular market practices and the consistent execution of our commercial strategy, including the expansion of our active service station network. We have continued to strengthen our relationship with resellers while further expanding our value proposition with the resumption of growth in Shell V-Power premium products being one of the highlights. At the same time, we continue to capture structural efficiency gains and made progress in expense management, optimizing the utilization of our bases and terminals and continue to benefit from the streamlining of our operating structure. Higher asset turnover supported by increased sales and operational efficiency gains have allowed us to enhance profitability. And as a result, adjusted EBITDA increased both quarter-on-quarter as well as year-on-year. Another highlight was the improved recurring working capital, particularly through more efficient inventory management in line with both our supply and commercial strategies in EAB and Fuel Distribution. As a result, Raízen's consolidated EBITDA has increased year-on-year. Stronger performance in Fuel Distribution more than offset the challenging yield and pricing scenario in Sugar and Ethanol, combined with a leaner mill portfolio following the completed divestments, as I mentioned earlier. Net loss this quarter was primarily driven by higher financial expenses, bearing in mind that interest expenses continue to be accrued in the income statement as well as accounting effects related to discontinued operation, which has no cash effect. It's also worth highlighting that CapEx declined by 11% in the period, reflecting our disciplined capital allocation without compromising the expansion of our fuel business or maintenance investments in EAB. Operating cash flow was BRL 3.6 billion this quarter. And this cash generation reflects the continued improvement in our working capital management, particularly in accounts receivable and inventories as we have demonstrated over the last quarters. The suppliers line remain under pressure due to the more restrictive credit environment associated with the company's current capital structure. Investments cash flow reflects a more disciplined capital allocation and already includes proceeds received from divestment transactions that have been completed. The financing cash flow primarily reflected the unwinding of hedging structures related to foreign currency denominated debt, and we mentioned that in the last quarter as well as the amortization of instruments that were outside the scope of the out-of-court restructuring process. Despite the progress, we continue to operate in a challenging environment that requires even greater discipline and capital management here at the company. And finally, turning to our debt position and leverage. The leverage comparison with the last quarter of the previous crop primarily reflects the reclassification of the debt in Argentina and offset also by some financial expenses, as I mentioned earlier. It's also important to highlight that for leverage calculation purposes, in addition to the debt on the indebtedness, we have excluded Argentina's EBITDA in the company's leverage at the end of the quarter. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Nelson Gomes, for his opening remarks before we move on to the Q&A session. Thank you.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome, once again, to our earnings presentation for Q1 '26/'27 crop year. These will be my opening remarks before we move on to the Q&A session. So we started the '26-'27 crop year in April, maintaining our focus on structural measures that have been supporting the transformation of the company, both on the operations side as well as on the financial side as well as strengthening the foundation of our core business for the long term. The external environment still requires a lot of discipline and a lot of attention from all of us because we're still facing a great deal of volatility in commodities market. There's still a lot of geopolitical uncertainties and also the effects of weather conditions that we faced in the last few crops as well as now with the unexpected weather phenomenons that were unexpected. As I've been saying to you in the last few conference calls, I'm going to split my talk between our operational transformation measures and then our financial transformation journey. On the operational side, I'd like to start by saying that we continue to streamline our portfolio, and that applies both to our Fuel Distribution business, as we have announced this quarter, the signing of the sale of our operation in Argentina. And after the end of the quarter, we also announced the signing of the sale of Caarapó, our mill there. So we are streamlining our business and focusing on our core business, and we will continue to do so. And speaking of core business, starting with our Fuel Distribution business in Brazil. This quarter, our performance has been completely consistent, supported by our value proposition and our close relationship with our resellers. And maybe in a tough supply and logistics scenario, we have been able to meet the needs of our reseller network and all of our consumers efficiently and competitively, always within our value proposition. Still on Fuel, I'd like to touch on 3 factors that have affected our results this quarter. First, volatility caused by the war, and that's a temporary effect. So it's nonrecurring to our business and did benefit the company's margin. The second effect is a gradual improvement in the regulatory environment. And in my opinion, that effect can be considered as structural and recurring. And the third effect, which also made a positive contribution towards our margins this quarter were internal effects, which are under our control, and are leading towards lower operational costs, lower inventory levels and a more precise application of our value proposition, which has to do with our relationship with our clients, selling a better product mix, our convenience store offer, our lubricant offer. So a whole host of our value proposition to our clients and resellers. To speak a bit more about our Sugar, Ethanol and Bioenergy or EAB business, we have been operating in a challenging environment, but we have made operational progress in our transformation. We have continued to pursue more efficiency through a much more discipline of our CapEx and OpEx management. If I can split the effects of this quarter in 3 main areas. The first has to do with the external market, so volatility and commodity prices, both in Sugar and Ethanol, even if Sugar has been rallying slightly lately. But for this quarter's results, prices were highly depreciated both for Sugar and Ethanol. So that's one of the effects. The second positive and recurring effect are all the efficiencies we have been capturing on costs, not only in OpEx, so in our everyday business, but also CapEx. Our focus has been fully directed to maintaining our sugar crops, sugarcane crops and agricultural yields. But we still have a lot of room to grow, but we have also been maintaining our industrial productivity. And in that regard, we're already very close to where we want to be, which is close to the benchmark. And the last one is productivity. As I said, in terms of agricultural yield, we still have a while to go. But in terms of industrial productivity, as measured by unit OpEx and CapEx, we are already close to where we would like to be. It's also worthwhile saying that -- and you can see that based on the dynamics of our quarterly report that we are still moving towards an independent management of the businesses, even if internally, in terms of management here at the company, we are gradually moving towards an independent and increasingly more independent management of our Lubricants and Fuel Distribution business from the Sugar, Ethanol and Bioenergy business. Now speaking specifically of our financial transformation, obviously, this quarter was greatly helped by all the financial effects stemming from the company's operational progress with more cash generation, considerable reduction in OpEx and optimization of our CapEx investments. We are learning how to make better investments and how to invest in what really matters to the company. But the main element, obviously, was the approval of our out-of-court restructuring plan, as Phillipe mentioned. And now that, that stage has been concluded, we will now focus increasingly more on implementing all the established -- the measures established in the out-of-court restructuring plan to strengthen the foundation towards the financial rebalancing here at the company. So those are my opening remarks, and we can now move on to the Q&A session. I'm here with Lorival and Phillipe and ready to answer your questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Gabriel Barra from Citibank.

The first is about Fuel Distribution. One of your competitors has already reported their results this quarter, you've already reported your results. I think this is going to be a record quarter for everyone. And looking at your out-of-court restructuring plan, we see that you've outperformed the average margin expectations. The industry has been recovering its margins. My question is about whether the margin is sustainable. July seemed to be a bit more difficult. There was a recovery in August. So my question is, do you think this margin will be stable, not only this year, but next year? And what kind of an impact that will have on Raízen Fuels. Now on the company's capital structure, we usually look at the potential leverage of each business, and you're much more comfortable in Fuel Distribution than in Sugar and Ethanol. So my question is, given the improvement in the fuel distribution scenario, might there be any leverage changes between the businesses to make Sugar and Ethanol a bit more comfortable? And leave the business -- the Fuel Distribution business a bit more leverage because it generates cash and also the sustainability of both businesses after the split that will probably happen next year.

Barra, this is Nelson. I'll take your first question about this quarter's margins and distribution prospects and Lorival can take the second to talk about leverage. As I said in my opening remarks, Barra, there are 3 main areas that has helped -- that can help us understand this quarter's margins in Fuel Distribution. The first one has to do with the volatility that has been caused by the geopolitical uncertainties we're all going through, unreliable supply, difficulty in meeting the needs of the Brazilian market. That is a one-off thing, and it shouldn't be considered as a recurring effect. In fact, we're already seeing changes as of July. So that's the first thing. The second thing is the regulatory environment. Given the federal government's, state government's, especially in Sao Paulo and Rio, efforts as well as the AMP, the regulatory agencies' efforts. So all of their efforts towards improving the competitive environment in Fuel Distribution in Brazil, fighting fraud and tax evasion. In my opinion, this is a recurring effect because the environment is gradually improving. We can already see that, and it's making life harder for more competitors. And it's harder to recover margins because of fraud and tax evasion. And as I said in my opening remarks, the third point has to do with efficiency gains and our management in our Fuel Distribution business. They have allowed us to become more efficient than we have been in cost management compared to previous quarters. So if we take all of that into account, we can see that the first effect is nonrecurring, but the second one, which is the regulatory environment and the third one, which is expense management and inventory management, which is -- are both internal. These last 2 effects can be considered as recurring. So I don't think that looking forward, we will not be seeing the same margins we saw this quarter. Margins will be better than last year's, but we won't have a recurring effect of the geopolitical scenario, as I mentioned.

Well, with regards to a potential leverage and how that's going to affect both businesses looking forward. And obviously, as a segue to what Nelson said, it's important to point out that we are talking about geopolitical volatility that has benefited this quarter's results. We still have a long way to go. As per our out-of-court restructuring plan, you're very familiar with it, we have until March to conclude the plan and until September next year to split the businesses. A lot will take place before then, which may benefit results as we saw this quarter, but there are also inherent risks to both businesses. What I can tell you is that company management, and as Nelson has mentioned, always pursues results and focusing completely and prioritizing completely decisions that will lead towards cash generation and a healthy company. What we expect and our objective is that by the end of this process, when the time comes to split the businesses, our objective and which we're tirelessly working towards is to deliver both companies with the best capital structure possible. And obviously, there will be a leverage as a consequence and a financial cost to both companies that will be as low as possible. It's too soon to say whether that benefit will be on the A side or the B side. But what I can assure you of is that the company management is working tirelessly so that results looking forward is that both companies can start separately with the best financial health possible and obviously, with as little leverage as possible. Concluding this quarter, you can see that compared to what we did in the blowout when we were renegotiating the reorganization, our EBITDA looks better, our cash is in a better position, and we hope that will continue to be the case looking forward. But it's too soon to say what kind of benefits we'll have in the future. But what you can see and what we can say is that we are committed with the company's financial health and the best cash position possible as we have demonstrated in this first quarter.

The next question is from Matheus Enfeldt from UBS.

The first one is about cash cost. The unit cash cost dropped by 9% this quarter. It's always difficult to look at the quarter. So I'd like to hear from you how you think the unit cash cost will be at the end of the crop? And can you quantify a bigger crop dilution and efficiency gains coming from the business? So that's my first question. The second question is about distribution CapEx. Your CapEx was -- has been 22% below year-on-year. It seems to me to be too low. I may be wrong, but compared to your previous results and compared to your peers. So my question is, how much of that came from additional efficiency or not renewing some service stations? Or are you being conservative in adding service stations to your base? So what's the relationship between that CapEx and future volumes? And if you'll allow me to ask a follow-up question, you had positive utilization of tax credits, right, close to BRL 1 billion, if I'm not mistaken. Could you explain that mechanism, please? Because I think we were conservative in thinking that figure would be hard to monetize? So those are my 3 questions.

I'll answer your second question about fuel and CapEx and contract renewal. There are a few effects here to be considered. First, we continue to increase our volumes as results have shown as well as increasing the number of service stations. After a while without any increase in the number of service stations, we did increase them this quarter. We haven't stopped renewing any contracts. In fact, we have speeded up some of the renewals. Now CapEx reduction is also reflects of a better balance of what we're offering in renewals before the contracts or when contracts are signed and what we're offering reselling partners during the contract. So there is a better balance between pre and post contract signing. But there have been no delays, quite the contrary. We have continued to renew all of our contracts and expanding our network in our consistent pursuit for owners. We are not going to choose any service station. We will only choose the best service stations. About your tax credit question, we have used part of that in the transaction that took place in Argentina. So a part of that came from the M&A in Argentina. As for costs, yes, the first quarter is never the best example. So we need to see what will be unloaded and produced during the crop. We'll see what inventories will be like and the cost/cash dynamics as well. I mean, there was something important related to CONSECANA, which is outside our control. But what is under our control, we can see structural changes to the operational transformation plan, which has benefited the agricultural side, so less utilization or a more efficient use of machinery per sugarcane harvested. And in transportation, transformation is already leading to good results. And on the industrial side, there have been industrial benefits coming from a more effective operation as well. So there is a structural side, which we showed last crop, a progress of BRL 500 million in OpEx in Sugar, Ethanol and Bioenergy. We'll continue to deliver efficiency this quarter, obviously, less dilution and inputs have had lower quality and that leads to less dilution and fixed costs in the industry are considerable. So there will be that offset on the negative side because of the dilution, which came in below in terms of agricultural yields.

The next question is from Bruno Amorim from Goldman Sachs.

I have a follow-up question about Fuel Distribution. You've already touched on it. There has been a circumstantial improvement due to the geopolitical conflicts. Also, there has been some progress in the fight against irregular market practices. Could you talk about the structural side? Let's say that these conflicts come to an end. I know it's hard to separate those effects. But what is happening in concrete terms in the market? I don't know if you can quantify what percentage of the market has left the market because of the fight against irregular market practices or maybe importers who depended almost exclusively on imports and because imports are less competitive when compared to Petrobras, so maybe those players are shrinking. And on the structural side, they're shutting down or streamlining operations. What kind of signs have you had in terms of progress in the fight against irregular market practices, so we can know what's part of the cycle and what's structural.