Unipar Carbocloro S.A. (UNIP6) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, and welcome to the fourth quarter of '24 for results conference call of Unipar. Today, we have our CFO of Investor Relations and IR team, in addition to our CEO. This event is being recorded [Operator Instructions] The presentation may be accessed at MZiQ and also through the company's IR website. You're going to control the presentation, and the audio will be available after the end of the meeting. [Operator Instructions] And before proceeding, let me mention that forward statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Unipar management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events, and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or not occur. Investors and analysts should understand that conditions related to macroeconomic conditions, industry and other factors could also cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now I will turn the conference over to Mr. Alexandre Jerussalmy, who will start his presentation. Please, Jerussalmy, proceed.

Hello, everyone. I'm happy to be here once again to talk about the quarter results and the annual results of Unipar. A copy of the presentation is already available in our IR website. And the figures are adjusted because they exclude the accounting effects related to currency rates differences in comparison to the Argentine peso. In the fourth quarter of '24 and in the year, we had results that once again demonstrated the resilience of our business model. In the external market, we had complex challenges. As for example, the effect of the persistent low petrochemical cycle with a very low international results and also an impact of the contraction of the Argentine economy. Internally, our challenge was to conduct the longest CapEx cycle of Unipar. And even so, we reached very robust results in the quarter and in the year. We had record sales in Brazil and in all business segments. I would like to remind you that our chlorine segment works as a safe harbor for us, and we have reached an adjusted EBITDA of BRL 472 million in the quarter, which, excluding nonrecurring items, reached BRL 342 million, which is 47% superior to the EBITDA of the third quarter of '24. We had net margins of BRL 293 million, and in the year, BRL 557 million. Our operating cash generation reached BRL 453 million in the quarter, which is 54% higher than in the previous quarter, reaching BRL 831 million in the year. In terms of our debt, we had a cash position which covers 40 months of our debt. We reached an average term of 64 months with 53% of our debt due after '29. Our debt leverage was aligned to the previous quarter, reaching 0.76x. In the next screen, we had a capacity utilization level and a self-generated energy level, which contribute to the financial resilience of the company. Our consolidated rate reached 86% for the electrolysis utilization rates. I would like to remind you that in Argentina, we calibrate the use of the capacity as a function of the economic -- I'm sorry, economic capacity. In Brazil, we had a very solid performance, which is consistent throughout the quarters, indicating operational excellence. In terms of self-produced energy in Brazil, we reached 66% in the fourth quarter, which is a record quarter-over-quarter. Our goal is reaching 80% of self-produced energy in Brazil by the end of the year. In the next screen, we can see the evolution of our net results with adjusted results with an increase of chlorine products, and we had a reduction of the demand of PVC in Argentina because of the economic reforms in the country. These effects were partially offset year-over-year with record sales in Brazil of PVC and soda and with the start of the production of chlorine in Argentina. This is not exposed to the petrochemical cycle, and ends up strengthening our resilience. Our main strategic products in the present are aimed at chlorine products, and I will talk about them later on in this presentation. And moving on to Slide 7 on the cost of products sold. We have adjusted the adverse effects of the currency rate in Brazil. But even so, we closed the year in line with the results for the previous year, which adjusts or indicates our self-produced energy, and is also the result of an efficient sales strategy, both in Brazil and Argentina. Regarding the evolution of EBITDA on Slide 8. We reached a recurring EBITDA of 24% compared to 17% in the previous quarter, and this is -- results for higher sales volume in Brazil in almost all products, sale volumes in Argentina recovery and also the positive effect of the exchange rate depreciation in the quarter. When we combine the extraordinary effects in the half of -- I'm sorry, in the quarter, and this is a result of a relative provision for energy development and an offset -- an operational offset related to our wind energy productions and expenses. And so when we combine these 3 extraordinary effects, our EBITDA margin reached 33% in the quarter. And in the year, the adjusted EBITDA was BRL 1.1 million. In terms of net results in Slide 9, we have reached BRL 448 million, which -- and I would also like to remind you that BRL 81 million is related to extraordinary effects that I have mentioned before. So we have had 19 quarter consecutively of positive net income, demonstrating our resilience. Throughout the year, we were able to provide differentiated payments to our shareholders with dividend distributed reaching BRL 448 million, bonuses were BRL 242 million, and an active program of repurchase of shares reaching BRL 62 million in the year, and 1.2 million shares were repurchased -- I'm sorry, 1.2 million were repurchased and 1.1 million of shares cancelled. Also, we had the approval of dividend payment of BRL 250 million to be made on April 2, '25. In terms of our provisions, we have been able to cover 40 months of debt. Our operational cash of [ BRL 241 million ] has made us comfortable to pay dividends throughout the year. And now in the next screen, we show you our debt profile with BRL 721 million and then in the concentration after '29. We basically do not have any debt with commercial banks. Our profile includes mainly debentures in Brazil, in addition to a 9% part related to investment banks. We have active credit lines available, with a large area of commercial banks. In the fourth quarter of '24, we have hired funding for our CapEx projects, including BRL 400 million with BNDES Climate Fund for 16 years, BNDES FINEM Environment of BRL 273 million for 20 years and then BRL 203 million with BNB for 12 years. They are -- will be dedicated to cover the Cubatão investments and the BNB one is to fund our new Camaçari plant, which started operating last December. We've already made a full payment of BNB, and for BNDES, we will pay throughout '25. Throughout '24, we've been able to extend our mean debt with a very active reprofiling of our debt. We went from 47 months in December '23. We reached 64 months in December '24. And when we calculated this deadline considering future disbursements, we will reach a mean or an average term of 64, which enables us to enjoy opportunities in the future. I now turn over to Cannaval, our CEO, who will comment about our strategic projects, concluding our presentation. Cannaval, the floor is yours.

Good afternoon. I would like to thank Jerussalmy for presenting our results. I will move on, looking at our structuring projects that are ongoing. In December '24, we started out our Camaçari plant successfully and with safety. We focused on competitive basis and the proximity with our clients in the Northeast. We started providing more than 92,000 tons of chlorine to support the cleaning companies in the region. Another important project is the technological modernization of our Cubatão plant anticipated for the fourth part of this year. We will expand our abilities and reduce emissions. The construction is following the plan. And in Santo André, we have expanded the plants -- the PVC plants capacity focusing on a higher added value product. This was included in the REIQ program. I would also like to thank [indiscernible] throughout this process to obtain this benefit. We also have other projects, always focusing on the expansion of capacity, efficiency gains and competitiveness. Our objective is to keep a strategic growth, which is not cyclic and is resilient. And when we close our analysis for '24, we are extremely happy. We had record sales in 3 segments in Brazil. We had a high level of use of our capacity and renewable energy production. We also had very high operational cash and robust EBITDA margin of 19%, demonstrating how solid the company is in lower cycles, enabling differentiated payments to our shareholders. We also had a reorganization of our debt with low leverage, improving our average time and also the debt profile. This is essential for our future growth. I would like to remind you that in '24, we have concluded 64 years of history of Unipar, and this is very representative and translate to the company's resilience even in a challenging and complex scenario such as the one we have now. For 2025, we understand that the global scenario will remain diverse. We will continue facing exchange rate volatility and inflation pressure. Another important aspect is the potential impact generated by protective measures in the United States. Our long-term vision remains consistent. We will move on with structuring investments, focusing on operational efficiency and productivity gains. We will work with resource management and capital allocation, all these aiming at opportunities for sustainable growth. I thank you all for your participation. And I turn over to Raquel.

Thank you, Cannaval. Before starting our Q&A, I would like to turn over to Rodrigo Cannaval. He will talk about the Bahia Blanca plant.

Once again, good afternoon, everyone. I would like to give you some updates on our Bahia Blanca site in Argentina. Last week, on Thursday, the city had a storm, almost like a diluted -- 250 millimeters of rain 12 hours when the average -- the yearly average is 260 millimeters. In other words, we had, in a few hours, enough rain for several months. We had 16 deaths. Some people have disappeared and remained so in Bahia Blanca. We started operating in standby mode, safe mode. The plant has been preserved, and we are waiting for our main providers to start operating. This process may be resumed in the next hours or days, and we will inform you of the next steps.

Thank you, Cannaval. I would now like to open our Q&A session. We have a question from Rodrigo Almeida, Eduardo Muniz from Santander. The first part of their question is, could you show us some details of CapEx for the fourth quarter of '24 in face of what happened in the 9 months of '24? What was maintenance and what was expansion?

Rodrigo and Eduardo, thank you for your question. This is Alexandre Jerussalmy. What we have here quarter-over-quarter is oftentimes a difference in the amount, which is only natural. What happens is that the payment of CapEx is usually based on measurement bulletins. We depend on imported equipment in the ports. We have transportation of equipment. So what happened in the fourth quarter was that we had a concentration of measurement bulletins and fortunately, some pieces of equipment that were imported were released. And regarding your question on maintenance versus expansion, this CapEx for the fourth quarter was CapEx related not only to expansion in the case of Camaçari, but also on modernization in Cubatão.

The question continues. Could you update the projects, the modernization plans of Cubatão and Camaçari?

In Camaçari, we started operating in early December. Since then, we had a ramp-up on the level of operation. This ramp-up was very easy and very well coordinated. We are very aware of the technology that is being used in our Camaçari plant. It's been licensed, and what we have now is that the plant is following a very successful plan and is operating as we anticipated. In Cubatão, we're moving fast according to plan, as Cannaval mentioned in his slides. We are very confident that we're going to remain so for the next months, and the company is working hard to do that.

Well, regarding the self-generation of energy, how much does the company expect to reach in average for '25?

Well, in average for '25, this is hard to say because we have different factors, some of them are not even controlled by the clean energy [ pols ]. For example, the curtailment issues of [ ANS ], but we are very confident that we will continue growing with the participation of self-produced energy in our matrix in Brazil. Our objective is to reach the end of the year with 80% of energy produced in Brazil from self production. And so we are confident that we will reach our goal.

Last question from Santander and also including a question from Pedro Macedo. What are the perspectives for PVC and soda for the first quarter of '25 and for the year? And what explains the increases in the price of soda last year -- last quarter?

Thank you, Pedro, for complementing the question. We've been discussing this for a while now. We have a persistent low cycle, which clearly affects spreads in the PVC chain and also affects soda spreads. But what we have is oftentimes, a restricted offer in some regions, and this was the case in '24 when we had increased offer because of storms in force majeure events. This was observed in the fourth quarter. Compared to the previous quarter, Unipar was able to capture very well this increase. For '25, what we expect is to have a very challenging year in terms of the petrochemical cycle, including soda in addition to PVC. And so we continue with this context of very tight margins throughout the next quarters.

We have 2 questions from Regis Cardoso, XP. The first one is on the sustainability of margins. The sequential evolution of Unipar results has been very strong and above our expectations despite the pressures in the PVC prices. The positive surprise was explained by the expansion of gross margins. Could you comment about the effects, which led to this margin? Was there any transient effect on stocks? Or could we assume that this is going to be repeated in the next quarters?

Thank you, Regis, for your question. Good afternoon. Just as I quickly mentioned in my presentation, this very positive increase in the gross margin of the fourth quarter was due to a combination of factors. We had a very well-planned execution in our strategy, both in Brazil and Argentina. We also had an increase in self-produced energy, which is very competitive and has the benefit of reducing our payments. We also had an increase in the capacity of our plants. And this leads to a diluted and optimized operational cost. We have different factors which have contributed for this increase in the gross margin. And naturally, as you well know, we had a devaluation of the real, which has a positive effect for us. So I would say that it was a combination of factors. Also, and naturally, as I mentioned in our presentation, we had an increase in the price of soda in the international market. Part of the operational results we had for the quarter did not have a cash effect. And so when we talk about the reversion of the provisions for energy development that we had in the quarter, which were reverted, this does not include a cash effect. It affects EBITDA and the net results, but it does not have a cash effect.

Second part of Regis' question is on the conversion of the cash flow. Even though the P&L was strong, the cash generation for the quarter did not expand the same way. Was there any effect that generates P&L, but does not have a cash effect?

Well, Regis, I think I perhaps answered this question in my previous answer. And so in fact, what we had were some positive effects in the quarter, which do not have a cash effect. So we do not have a P&L growth, which is totally aligned to cash generation, and that explains the difference.

Moving now on to [ Vidal Morato's ] question. Could you say how many actions were repurchased since January since the stock market prices were very attractive in this period?

As you well know, and this is public, we have an active repurchase program. We maintain it whenever the company can do so. In the first months of the year, we bought 380,000 shares. This program, as I mentioned, remains active. And we believe that this is an optimal allocation of resources.

We have another question from [ Vidal Morato ]. The increase in production in lithium processing in Argentina and Chile because of a higher demand worldwide could affect the company?

Well, it's very difficult to quantify it, Vidal. On the other hand, it's an actual advancement we've had in the region in terms of lithium production. We have an upside here, which favors the soda market and soda demand in the region. And so I would say that the company is ready to meet this additional demand in a very competitive manner -- competitive and efficient manner.

We have another question from Almeida, Santander. Could you say a little bit -- talk a little bit about the impact of the shutdown in the plant?

Rodrigo, thank you for your question. The impact will be measured, but the shut down tends to be short. Since the rain has stopped, the water levels are going down, and the providers of the petrochemical [ pulp ] are ready to start immediately. So in the short term, we will have news on the impact of the shutdown. It's also important to mention that the clients needs have been met by our strategic stocks in Argentina. And therefore, there was not an impact on the availability of products at this point in time.

Another complementation of Rodrigo Almeida's question from Santander. In addition to that, I understand that a relevant part of the Cubatão project is leveraged with debt at very competitive prices, which have already been hired. Do you have any additional thing planned for the near future?

Thank you for the question, Rodrigo. In fact, as you commented, we have been able to obtain competitive funding for the long term, both for Cubatão and Camaçari. And this was very positive for the company, and it was an evidence that number one, the [indiscernible] banks are willing to support competitive projects, especially when they involve an agenda to capture CO2. So there is a sustainability agenda. Another important aspect for the company was an evidence that whenever the company has a strategic CapEx, we will have access supposedly to these lines with longer deadlines and more competitive prices. For us, this was a very important sign. I would say that for the time being, our focus is on the conclusion of the Cubatão CapEx. And so initially, we would focus on paying for these lines, which have already been contracted.

Another question from Rodrigo, Santander. Could you comment about potential M&As?

Thank you, Rodrigo, for your question. As you've seen, Unipar has structured to extend the payment of its debt, and the M&A agenda remains as it has always been. It's very selective, and we will look for sustainable options in the market. I would like to thank the whole of Unipar's team for the excellent year of 2024, and we are looking for an even better 2025. I wish you all a good weekend. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]