Sendas Distribuidora SA (ASAI) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone, and thank you so much for waiting. Welcome to the earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2022 at AsayaTakajista. I would like to highlight that if you need simultaneous translation, we have this tool available on the platform. For this, just quick on the interpretation button through the icon on the globe, the bottom part of your screen and choose the language of preference, Portuguese or English. This earnings call is being recorded and will be provided on the company's IR website, ir.asai.com.br, where you can also find the earnings release. During the presentation, all of the participants will have their mics all. Soon after, we'll begin the session with Q&A. To submit a question, please select Q&A I corner on the bottom part of your screen, write your name, company and language to enter the queue. As you announced, a request to activate your mic or per on the screen. Soon after you should activate your mic to submit questions. We'd like to ask you to please submit all your questions at once. The information in this earnings call and possible statements that could be made during the call regarding business perspectives, forecasts and operational targets and financial targets at a represent assumptions and beliefs of the company's management as well as information that's currently available. Future statements are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks and uncertainties and assumptions because they refer to future events and thus rely on circumstances that could or not occur. Investors should understand that market conditions and other operational factors could affect the future performance of ISA and the results that differ materially as those list in future statements. Now I'll pass on the floor to Gabrielle Helu, she's the Investor of Relations Director of ASAI.

大家早上好，非常感謝您的等待。歡迎來到 AsayaTakajista 舉行的 2022 年第四季度財報電話會議。我想強調的是，如果您需要同聲傳譯，我們平台上有這個工具。為此，只需通過屏幕底部地球上的圖標快速點擊解釋按鈕，然後選擇首選語言，葡萄牙語或英語。本次財報電話會議正在錄製中，並將在公司的 IR 網站 ir.asai.com.br 上提供，您還可以在該網站上找到財報發布。在演示過程中，所有參與者都將擁有他們的麥克風。不久之後，我們將以問答環節開始會議。要提交問題，請選擇屏幕底部的問答 I 角，輸入您的姓名、公司和語言以進入隊列。正如您宣布的那樣，請求激活您的麥克風或在屏幕上顯示。不久之後，您應該激活麥克風以提交問題。我們想請您一次提交所有問題。本次財報電話會議中的信息以及電話會議期間可能做出的有關業務前景、預測和運營目標以及財務目標的陳述代表了公司管理層的假設和信念以及當前可用的信息。未來的陳述不是業績的保證。它們涉及風險、不確定性和假設，因為它們指的是未來事件，因此取決於可能發生或不發生的情況。投資者應了解，市場狀況和其他運營因素可能會影響 ISA 的未來業績以及與未來報表中所列結果存在重大差異的結果。現在我將發言權交給 Gabrielle Helu，她是 ASAI 的投資者關係總監。

Hello. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your participation in our earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2022. We'd like to invite the management team to present themselves. So, we have Belmiro de Gomes, Daniel Sebag, the CFO of Lam, the VP for Logistics and Commercial VP; and heroes is the operational BP. Before we begin the presentation, I'll pass the floor on to Belmiro for his initial remarks.

你好。早上好，女士們，先生們。感謝您參與我們 2022 年第四季度的財報電話會議。我們想邀請管理團隊自我介紹。因此，我們有 Belmiro de Gomes、Daniel Sebag、Lam 的首席財務官、物流副總裁和商業副總裁；而heroes是運營BP。在我們開始演示之前，我將請 Belmiro 發表初步評論。

Thank you, Gabi. Thank you, everyone, for your participation. I want to thank you all for your presence and especially thank all of the ASAI team and our partners and suppliers. I want to thank the members of the Board due to the major efforts and work from our team and other people and other companies, suppliers, supporters that led to the results that we have in the presentation and also the expectations we have across. 2022 was an extraordinary year, one of the best and most important in our growth track. So we had 60 openings of new big stores. And we invested over BRL 4 billion. With this, the company generated over 16,000 new job positions. We became the biggest private employer in Brazil. And it was the year where even with all of the challenges economically, inflation, and stability, pressure on consumption. The company kept its growth track record and predictability, whether we look at numbers generally, but also when we look at the different forecasts provided to the market in this project, especially with the purchases of the hypermarkets for ACRA. With this, we reached 108 openings in the last three years, the company doubled in size in the past three years. And just as we're going to see in Anderson, Danny and Rami's presentation, many other indicators are also doubling. So the strategy, we've been working to manage a store network plus a huge expansion process that we could spend hours here talking about with all the details and the levels of efforts. We believe that the numbers really demonstrate the characteristics and stability. We also had this year some evolution, and this is important in the model. We've been searching for this. As we mentioned, and other opportunities to improve the purchase experience that customers have. Regardless of their social levels, we've been working on major efforts to keep our main low cost, but also improved purchase experiences for customers, consumers, regardless of their social levels, but also with B2B customers. We had important progress in governance with the operation of a new related party and conflict of interest policies as well, which is in line with the Board as well to keep an important evolution from a governance perspective.

謝謝你，加比。謝謝大家的參與。我要感謝大家的光臨，尤其要感謝所有 ASAI 團隊以及我們的合作夥伴和供應商。我要感謝董事會成員，感謝我們的團隊和其他人以及其他公司、供應商和支持者的重大努力和工作，這導致了我們在演示文稿中取得的成果以及我們的期望。 2022 年是不平凡的一年，是我們成長軌跡中最好、最重要的一年。所以我們開了 60 家新的大型商店。我們投資了超過 40 億雷亞爾。藉此，該公司創造了超過 16,000 個新職位。我們成為巴西最大的私人雇主。在這一年，即使在經濟、通貨膨脹和穩定方面面臨所有挑戰，消費仍面臨壓力。該公司保持了其增長記錄和可預測性，無論我們是從總體上看數字，還是從這個項目中向市場提供的不同預測來看，尤其是在為 ACRA 購買大賣場時。有了這個，我們在過去三年里達到了 108 個職位空缺，公司規模在過去三年裡翻了一番。正如我們將在安德森、丹尼和拉米的演講中看到的那樣，許多其他指標也在翻倍。所以這個策略，我們一直在努力管理一個商店網絡加上一個巨大的擴張過程，我們可以在這里花幾個小時討論所有的細節和努力的水平。我們相信，這些數字真正體現了特性和穩定性。今年我們也有一些改進，這在模型中很重要。我們一直在尋找這個。正如我們提到的，以及其他改善客戶購買體驗的機會。無論他們的社會水平如何，我們一直在努力保持我們的主要低成本，同時也改善客戶、消費者的購買體驗，無論他們的社會水平如何，也包括 B2B 客戶。我們在治理方面取得了重要進展，包括新關聯方的運作和利益衝突政策，這與董事會一致，從治理角度來看也保持了重要的發展。

I'll pass the floor on to Blome. He's our commercial and logistics VP. You'll give us a little more details on the performance on sales margins. And then we'll get back to the expectations for 2023. Thank you very much.

我將把發言權交給 Blome。他是我們的商業和物流副總裁。您將為我們提供更多有關銷售利潤率表現的詳細信息。然後我們將回到 2023 年的預期。非常感謝。

Thanks, Belmiro. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank you all for your presence. Also I want to thank the  ASAI team and for some reason, I can't do the presentation on the screen, but I think it's there. Yes, it is it's shared on the screen. Okay, great.

謝謝，貝爾米羅。早上好，女士們，先生們。我要感謝大家的光臨。我還要感謝 ASAI 團隊，出於某種原因，我無法在屏幕上進行演示，但我認為它就在那裡。是的，它是在屏幕上共享的。好的，太好了。

So, let's talk about the sales in the fourth quarter and what happened in the year. As you can see, we ended the year with -- with the fourth quarter, sorry, was $16 billion in revenue and net sales. So we doubled the amount of sales in three years when compared to 2019. This is then repeated when we take a look at the closed year we ended with growth of 31%, JPY 54.5 billion in revenue. The numbers are very strong, very solid. And this demonstrates the resilience of ASAI and stability in our business.

那麼，讓我們談談第四季度的銷售額以及這一年發生的事情。如您所見，我們在今年結束時 - 抱歉，第四季度的收入和淨銷售額為 160 億美元。因此，與 2019 年相比，我們在三年內的銷售額翻了一番。然後，當我們看一下結束的一年，我們以 31% 的增長率結束時重複了這一點，收入為 545 億日元。這些數字非常強大，非常可靠。這證明了 ASAI 的彈性和我們業務的穩定性。

When we look at the numbers, I think a good part of this contribution came from the stores we opened last year, whether they're organic or also from the converted store network, which are within this ramp of what we planned for these stores. And it's really in this growing curve with what the company expected. So, we should also mention that in this part, the increase of flow and -- this has really made us very satisfied and excited for 2023. When we take a look at this, we still have an important inflation and drag-down impact. But overall, I think we were able to reverse this with the inclusion of new categories, new services, we're going to provide in detail ahead and also the fact that we were able to increase the customer flow.

當我們查看這些數字時，我認為這一貢獻的很大一部分來自我們去年開設的商店，無論它們是有機商店還是來自轉換後的商店網絡，這些都在我們為這些商店計劃的增長范圍內。而且它確實處於公司預期的增長曲線中。所以，我們還應該提到，在這部分，流量的增加——這真的讓我們對 2023 年感到非常滿意和興奮。當我們看這個時，我們仍然有一個重要的通貨膨脹和拖累影響。但總的來說，我認為我們能夠通過包含新類別、新服務來扭轉這種局面，我們將提前提供詳細信息，而且我們能夠增加客戶流量。

When we look at sales, we see the Nielsen measurements. We can understand that our commercial strategy is very good and well very precise, we had in the fourth quarter over to present market share gains nationally and get into more details here. When we look at the city of Sao Paulo, it was an operation where we invested a lot. We had 27 stores in the state of Sao Paulo. We had an increase of 4% in the day. And just to give you an idea, just in Sao Paulo, we increased our share by five percentage points. So, even with the stores being in a parameter that is really big, especially when you look at the average sales area of the other stores, we were able to keep growth we were from BRL 4,500 sales per square meter to 4,700, demonstrating that all -- with all the innovation and the evolution of our model. We continue to be very precise in our proposal. So, we can move on to the next slide, please. Well, my connection is not that great right now. But anyways, just for some reason, I'm having some technical issues. But when we look at the gross profit, it's also doubling, and we had about $2.7 billion of gross profit in this quarter and EUR 9 billion in the year. But I think regardless of the gross profit generated, I want to highlight the stability.

當我們查看銷售額時，我們會看到 Nielsen 的測量值。我們可以理解我們的商業戰略非常好而且非常精確，我們在第四季度結束時展示了全國市場份額的增長，並在此處詳細介紹。當我們審視聖保羅市時，我們投入了大量資金。我們在聖保羅州有 27 家商店。我們當天增加了 4%。只是給你一個想法，就在聖保羅，我們的份額增加了五個百分點。因此，即使商店的參數非常大，尤其是當您查看其他商店的平均銷售面積時，我們仍能夠保持增長，從每平方米 4,500 巴西雷亞爾的銷售額增長到 4,700 巴西雷亞爾，這表明所有- 隨著我們模型的所有創新和演變。我們的提案仍然非常精確。那麼，我們可以轉到下一張幻燈片了。好吧，我現在的聯繫不是那麼好。但無論如何，出於某種原因，我遇到了一些技術問題。但是當我們看毛利潤時，它也在翻番，本季度我們的毛利潤約為 27 億美元，全年毛利潤為 90 億歐元。但我覺得不管產生的毛利如何，我要強調穩定性。

So, if you take a look at this, we brought the gross margins in the last four years, and you'll see that in this quarter and the year, the variation is very small, regardless of the size of the efforts to open up the 60 stores with pre-post and -- and I think the strategy, everything that was done also allowed us to deliver a value proposition that is better for the customers, adjusting the assortment in each store and region for the surrounding public. So, I think we're very precise. And I think we're really focused on really being able to provide a good purchase experience for each region.

所以，如果你看看這個，我們帶來了過去四年的毛利率，你會發現在這個季度和今年，無論開放的努力有多大，變化都非常小這 60 家商店有售前和 - 我認為戰略，所做的一切也使我們能夠提供一個對客戶更好的價值主張，為周圍的公眾調整每個商店和地區的分類。所以，我認為我們非常精確。而且我認為我們真正專注於真正能夠為每個地區提供良好的購買體驗。

I wanted to take advantage of this moment to mention the investments in our logistics to support the expansion of the 60 stores in this year. We had an increment. We opened three new DCs. One was a substitution to smaller DCs and we increased our capacity for storage by about 40%. And then we have this new unit in billing. It's a small DC. And besides looking at all of this, we also have the back office structuring this to support not only this investment in 2022 with logistics, but also thinking about the ongoing expansion for the next three years will be supported by a logistical structure. So, I think that was pretty much it. But there's another point I can mention, which is a question that's going to come around, which is you'll see that in the working capital, especially for supply, we had a significant increase. These were negotiations, an increase in deadlines  with a huge expansion. And so we did negotiate some additional timing and terms. And so this would also provide some relief on the CapEx invested. I think that's pretty much it on my side but I'll pass the floor on to Anderson, so you can give us more details on the operation. Thank you all so much.

我想藉此機會提一下我們在物流方面的投資，以支持今年 60 家門店的擴張。我們有一個增量。我們開設了三個新的配送中心。一個是替換較小的數據中心，我們將存儲容量增加了大約 40%。然後我們有這個新的計費單位。這是一個小型DC。除了考慮所有這些，我們還有後台辦公室來構建它，不僅支持 2022 年的物流投資，而且考慮未來三年的持續擴張將得到物流結構的支持。所以，我認為差不多就是這樣。但我可以提到另一點，這是一個即將出現的問題，你會看到在營運資金方面，特別是在供應方面，我們有顯著增加。這些是談判，最後期限的增加伴隨著巨大的擴張。所以我們確實協商了一些額外的時間和條款。因此，這也會減輕投資的資本支出。我認為這對我來說差不多了，但我會把發言權交給 Anderson，這樣你就可以向我們提供有關操作的更多詳細信息。非常感謝大家。

Well, thanks, Blome. Good morning, everyone. Thanks to all of our team and partners for super thankful and happy with the work, reinforcing this that Vamed mentioned, it's really an all-time high. We're talking about 60 stores with the project we began with an initial guidance for 52. So, we challenged ourselves to make those 58 and we reached the end of the year delivering 60. So I think it's an all-time high for ASAI, but also for the sector as a whole when it comes to cash and carry, and this demonstrates the strength and capacity of our team. We had 13 organic stores and 46 hypermarkets transformed within this in 17 different states, which reinforces the complexity and the strength of our regional offices, commercially with marketing as well and operations to execute this project, which involved the entire company. It was a major challenge, especially in the last quarter. We opened over 37 stores and we reinforced that we have a project with 47 hypers that we're transforming from hypermarkets to cash and carry stores, and we have an even bigger challenge that demanded a lot from our team for engineering and studies, especially when it comes to providing some structural reimbursements, we're talking about a hypermarket with about 1,000 kilos per square meter and assistance for firefighting, cooling. And so it's really a restructuring process to be able to service our business model. And I think we have some examples that we've mentioned due to the size of the project. We're talking about 12,000 kilometers of electric cables. It's a lot and 450 stature -- crystal statures if we were to consider the amount of country. So, at the end of the day, what we always worked on is to always offer a nice store with good lighting, modern equipment structure and furniture and equipment with low-cost perspective and thinking about the future maintenance of these assets. So we have -- customers have a real different experience compared to what they had before and what they're receiving now.

好吧，謝謝，布洛姆。大家，早安。感謝我們所有的團隊和合作夥伴對工作的超級感謝和滿意，加強了 Vamed 提到的這一點，這確實是歷史最高水平。我們談論的是 60 家商店，我們開始時的項目最初指導是 52 家。因此，我們挑戰自己創造了 58 家，我們在年底交付了 60 家。所以我認為這是 ASAI 的歷史新高，而且在現金和攜帶方面也適用於整個行業，這證明了我們團隊的實力和能力。我們在 17 個不同的州內改造了 13 家有機商店和 46 家大賣場，這加強了我們區域辦事處的複雜性和實力，商業營銷以及執行這個項目的運營，涉及整個公司。這是一個重大挑戰，尤其是在最後一個季度。我們開設了超過 37 家商店，並強調我們有一個擁有 47 家超級市場的項目，我們正在從大賣場轉變為現購自運商店，我們面臨更大的挑戰，需要我們的團隊進行大量工程和研究，尤其是當談到提供一些結構性報銷，我們談論的是一個每平方米約 1,000 公斤的大賣場，並提供消防、冷卻方面的援助。因此，能夠為我們的業務模型提供服務實際上是一個重組過程。我認為由於項目的規模，我們已經提到了一些例子。我們談論的是 12,000 公里的電纜。這是一個很大的 450 個身材——如果我們考慮國家的數量，那就是水晶身材。所以，歸根結底，我們一直在努力的是始終以低成本的視角提供一家擁有良好照明、現代化設備結構以及家具和設備的好商店，並考慮這些資產的未來維護。所以我們 - 與以前和現在收到的相比，客戶擁有真正不同的體驗。

When we talk about low cost, I be pleased if you could go over the next slide. Here, we talk about the time line. And we can show clearly that the discipline from our team, when we talk about expenses, we have a major focus on developing the project, menu innovation, but always being careful to make sure we don't harm the essence of the business model, which is low expenses. So, we offer this new experience, customers that were hypermarket customers really feel that there's a big difference in the model and the quality of the store we delivered. And we always have this perspective for the B2B and B2C customers, and we adapt the Sarma, improve the services and customers always search for lower prices and a bit of all of that. So, when we take a look at the time line, we have this project we've consolidated already. And so we expanded this even more. We added this to our stores. And we have the importer, which is basically -- we kind of just changed a bit of the service provision we already provide to customers in all of the SA stores, especially when we look at the transformational market, the restaurant owners, pizza shops, the Pastel and other snack shops. And so we standardize this considering the size of the hypermarkets we to concentrate this and bring this to the customer with better services, searching for better sales, of course. So, the numbers reinforce the discipline of our team with expenses, time line. And of course, without changing the ASAI work, right, without losing our characteristic of price and low cost, right?

當我們談論低成本時，如果您能翻閱下一張幻燈片，我將感到很高興。在這裡，我們談談時間線。我們可以清楚地表明我們團隊的紀律，當我們談論費用時，我們主要關注項目開發、菜單創新，但始終小心確保我們不會損害商業模式的本質，這是低費用。所以，我們提供這種新的體驗，曾經是大賣場客戶的客戶真的覺得我們交付的商店的模式和質量有很大的不同。我們始終對 B2B 和 B2C 客戶有這種看法，我們調整 Sarma，改進服務，客戶總是尋求更低的價格等等。因此，當我們查看時間線時，我們已經整合了這個項目。因此，我們進一步擴展了這一點。我們將此添加到我們的商店。我們有進口商，基本上 - 我們只是改變了我們已經在所有 SA 商店為客戶提供的服務，特別是當我們關注轉型市場、餐館老闆、披薩店時， Pastel 和其他小吃店。因此，考慮到大賣場的規模，我們將其標準化，我們將其集中起來，並通過更好的服務將其帶給客戶，當然是尋求更好的銷售。因此，這些數字通過費用和時間線加強了我們團隊的紀律。當然，在不改變 ASAI 工作的情況下，不會失去我們的價格和低成本的特點，對吧？

So, we deliver, as Lamar mentioned, the stores have a really prospective a positive perspective. We have a customer flow that's super interesting also. We already have this as a reference in the stores we transformed in the previous years. This remains and this really makes us continue to work, continue to expand, and we imagine we're really on the right path. So I also want to take advantage of this moment to thank all of the operations team and the areas involved. I think we had some fantastic work done, and that's basically what I had to share. Thank you so much. Now I'll pass the floor to Daniela, our Financial Director.

因此，正如拉馬爾所說，我們提供的商店具有真正前瞻性的積極觀點。我們的客戶流量也非常有趣。我們在前幾年轉型的店裡已經有了這個作為參考。這仍然存在，這確實讓我們繼續工作，繼續擴張，我們認為我們真的走在正確的道路上。因此，我也想藉此機會感謝所有運營團隊和相關領域。我認為我們完成了一些出色的工作，這基本上就是我必須分享的內容。太感謝了。現在我將發言權交給我們的財務總監 Daniela。

Thanks, Anderson. Good morning, everyone. As a consequence of everything that was already presented by Vamed and Anderson, I want to talk about our EBITDA and basically, this EBITDA doubled in three years at a period where we opened 107 stores. We ended the fourth quarter with adjusted EBITDA of BRL 1.3 billion. And what's important to highlight is that if we were to offset the effects of the preoperational expenses regarding the expansion this year, we would have an EBITDA margin in the quarter of 7.7%.

謝謝，安德森。大家，早安。由於 Vamed 和 Anderson 已經提出的所有內容，我想談談我們的 EBITDA，基本上，在我們開設 107 家商店的時期，這個 EBITDA 在三年內翻了一番。我們在第四季度結束時調整後的 EBITDA 為 13 億雷亞爾。需要強調的是，如果我們要抵消今年擴張的運營前費用的影響，我們本季度的 EBITDA 利潤率為 7.7%。

In the year, the EBITDA reached 3.9% and a margin of about 7.2%. So, if we were to adjust the preoperational expenses as well, we would see that we have an EBITDA margin of about 7.4%, which is pretty similar, if you were to consider what we delivered in last year than if we were to remove that and have the recurring stores. So eliminating the effects of this expansion, right? And when we take a look at this EBITDA, it's really relevant. If we were to consider all of the expansion historically, we've already discussed with 60 store openings and it's a profitability. It's been very consistent. It's a very resilient portfolio. And I just wanted to summarize a little bit of what we've already been discussing with you guys.

年內，EBITDA 達到 3.9%，利潤率約為 7.2%。因此，如果我們也調整運營前費用，我們會看到我們的 EBITDA 利潤率約為 7.4%，這非常相似，如果你考慮我們去年交付的內容，而不是我們要刪除的內容並擁有經常性商店。所以消除了這種擴張的影響，對吧？當我們看一下這個 EBITDA 時，它真的很重要。如果我們從歷史上考慮所有的擴張，我們已經討論了 60 家新開店，這是一種盈利能力。它一直非常一致。這是一個非常有彈性的投資組合。我只是想總結一下我們已經與你們討論過的內容。

Now, the conversions have been presenting a quick maturity as well as rigorous control of some of the expenses that Anders on mentioned. So I think that reinforcing that there was an expectation from the market when we were talking about the store conversion project that our EBITDA margin would be around 7%. And so, at the end of the day, we delivered a number that was surprising, which is 7.2%, and we're super satisfied with that and these results. But from this slide, that's pretty much what I wanted to mention, right?

現在，轉換已經呈現出快速成熟以及對 Anders 提到的一些費用的嚴格控制。所以我認為，當我們談論商店轉換項目時，市場對我們的 EBITDA 利潤率將在 7% 左右的預期得到加強。因此，在一天結束時，我們提供了一個令人驚訝的數字，即 7.2%，我們對此和這些結果非常滿意。但是從這張幻燈片來看，這正是我想提及的，對吧？

We could move on to the other side with the financial results and cash generation maybe. We had a financial result that in the fourth quarter reached BRL 445 million or 2.8% of the sales. And we always bring in this analysis by excluding the effects of the interest lease interest. And from this perspective, the financial expenses were about 1.7% of the sales. And this result, of course, in the year, is about JPY 1.5 billion, excluding the $1 billion liability effect and 1.8% of our sales. So, of course, we have an important effect here with the increase of interest. And this year, we had 12.4%, and last year and 4.4%. So that was a significant impact. And also the fundraising we had to be able to handle all of the investment plans and store conversions. So we had some fundraising we announced quarter-over-quarter. These were very important and sometimes even sometimes helping to lower this. And these were -- our debt was about from 8% to 12.4%, which also explains this effect to them.

我們可能會在財務業績和現金產生方面轉向另一邊。我們的財務業績在第四季度達到 4.45 億雷亞爾或銷售額的 2.8%。我們總是通過排除利息租賃利息的影響來引入這種分析。而從這個角度來看，財務費用約佔銷售額的1.7%。當然，這一年的結果約為 15 億日元，不包括 10 億美元的負債影響和我們銷售額的 1.8%。所以，當然，隨著興趣的增加，我們在這裡有重要的影響。而今年，我們有 12.4%，去年和 4.4%。所以這是一個重大的影響。還有籌款，我們必須能夠處理所有的投資計劃和商店轉換。因此，我們按季度宣布了一些籌款活動。這些非常重要，有時甚至有時有助於降低這一點。這些是——我們的債務大約從 8% 到 12.4%，這也向他們解釋了這種影響。

So, we are moving on to cash generation, just a second, about the debt. I think it's important to mention that our cost of debt is still CDI plus 1.5%, and the average term of 3.5 years. So, we ended the year with about a EBITDA -- net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of about 2.2%, 2.19 to be precise, but in our expectations and even a little bit lower than what I was mentioning to you guys. We were talking about 2.5%, but there was like some displacements of other payments that kind of explains part of this.

因此，我們將繼續討論有關債務的現金生成問題。我認為值得一提的是，我們的債務成本仍然是 CDI 加 1.5%，平均期限為 3.5 年。因此，我們在今年結束時的 EBITDA——淨債務與 EBITDA 的比率約為 2.2%，準確地說是 2.19，但在我們的預期中，甚至比我向你們提到的還要低一點。我們談論的是 2.5%，但其他付款的一些替代可以部分解釋這一點。

When we move on to cash generation, the cash generation in the past 12 months, we generated BRL 4.2 billion. This is super important for our performance, and it's an increment of almost JPY 2 billion in a really important part, which was coming from the operational improvements and also the strengthening of the company in central regions with high density, so that optimizes working capital. As Blome mentioned, this was an important contribution for this kind of cash generation. Then here, we also have an understanding of the investments of EUR 3.6 billion with the extra payments and financial expenses. As I mentioned, of course, this net debt for the first quarter due to the seasonality increases a bit because we have all of the CapEx with the second wave of conversions, which takes place now in the next quarters. And naturally, this is a variation, but I think it's important to mention that it's really within what we planned for this project. And very coherent as well and what we've been mentioning to the market as a whole.

當我們轉向現金生成時，過去 12 個月的現金生成，我們產生了 42 億雷亞爾。這對我們的業績非常重要，它在一個非常重要的部分增加了近 20 億日元，這來自於運營改進以及公司在高密度中部地區的加強，從而優化了營運資金。正如 Blome 提到的，這是對這種現金產生的重要貢獻。然後在這裡，我們也了解了36億歐元的投資以及額外的付款和財務費用。正如我提到的，當然，由於季節性因素，第一季度的淨債務有所增加，因為我們擁有第二波轉換的所有資本支出，現在將在接下來的幾個季度發生。當然，這是一個變體，但我認為重要的是要提到它確實在我們為這個項目計劃的範圍內。並且非常連貫以及我們一直在向整個市場提到的內容。

So, on the next slide, for final remarks, when it comes to our results, and then after I'll pass the floor on to Belmiro. Here, we have an overview of the profits in the quarter was $406 million and a margin of 2.5% and in a year of 1.2 and margins of 2.2%. So, it's a profit that we consider to be really strong, and it becomes even more relevant in this context with high interest that we've noticed throughout the year and all of the investments. So -- and that, of course, reflects the maturity of the stores and the success of the commercial strategy and discipline towards our expenses. So, I think these are the main points when it comes to the results and earnings, and I'll pass the floor to Belmiro to talk about ESG, okay?

因此，在下一張幻燈片上，關於我們的結果的最後評論，然後我將把發言權交給 Belmiro。在這裡，我們概述了本季度的利潤為 4.06 億美元，利潤率為 2.5%，一年為 1.2，利潤率為 2.2%。因此，我們認為這是一個非常強勁的利潤，並且在這種背景下變得更加相關，我們在全年和所有投資中都注意到了很高的興趣。所以 - 當然，這反映了商店的成熟度以及商業戰略的成功和對我們支出的紀律。所以，我認為這些是關於結果和收益的要點，我會把發言權交給貝爾米羅來談談 ESG，好嗎？

Thanks, Danny. Of course, when you look at all the numbers and the advances with customers, but also the amount of stores were important advances, especially regarding ESG, the company super aware of its social responsibility and due to the size of the company, the amount of customer service. So we had many advances, some highlights even with the inclusion of a in ES, the index for B3 in companies when it comes to sustainability and the fact that we came in with a high level of suppliers and within this GPTW Index as one of the 10 best companies to work in and also the creation in 2023 of the ASAI Institute, which is going to be super important to support our work in social projects. So, the company has many different initiatives in this sense. And this really is in line with our values and culture, and there's major work also to be this reference when it comes to social advances and inclusion of people with disabilities and strong search for gender equality and other ratio issues.

謝謝，丹尼。當然，當您查看所有數字和與客戶的預付款時，商店的數量也是重要的進步，尤其是在 ESG 方面，公司非常了解其社會責任，並且由於公司的規模，客戶服務。因此，我們取得了很多進步，甚至在 ES 中包含了一些亮點，在可持續性方面，公司中的 B3 指數以及我們與高水平供應商一起進入的事實，並且在這個 GPTW 指數中是其中之一10 家最適合工作的公司以及 2023 年 ASAI 研究所的創建，這對於支持我們在社會項目中的工作將非常重要。因此，公司在這個意義上有許多不同的舉措。這確實符合我們的價值觀和文化，在社會進步和包容殘疾人以及大力尋求性別平等和其他比例問題時，也有重要的工作可以作為參考。

So, the company is moving along with many advances when it came to this topic. So, we can advance now expectations for 2023 when you consider the amount of store openings that were made from 187 openings, 60 different store openings. We are keeping the investments and the company remains having the strong expansion plan for 2023, where the objective, of course, is to complete the conclusion of the stores, the extra conversions, right? We had 19 conversions. We have to deliver this year still and the opening with 40 and the objective of having 40 openings. So, then until the end of 2023 there is an expectation of a better curve in the interest rate -- this doesn't change investments in new stores. The projects we had are the same when it comes to the perspectives and expectations when we delivered this project as well as with the organic stores. And so even if there's still some pressure in this net debt-to-EBITDA indicator due to this wave of payments. And so we're going to follow this deleveraging curve, it's going to be really quick. So we should end 2023 with a net debt to EBITDA of almost 2x. And in 2025, this will drop to 1.5 even with a scenario that is a little more aggressive for the interest scenario. And so but we have seen -- once again, food mentioned some more inflationary indexes as some relief when it comes to pressure. And we've seen some analysis, maybe the drop in the inflation could harm sales. But we have to remember that a big part of the population had important trade down in the past years. So if you look at the historical curves in the food sector, but especially for the wholesale operations, normally, same-store sales in a period with high inflation growth less than the inflation, but it goes even more when you have lower inflation because the population is very anxious to resume or recover their normal purchase behavior. So one of the means that the population adopted in this high food inflation was to adjust the purchase mix. So when you take a look at like a consumer, that's a typical wholesale consumer, he has a certain amount of money he can spend regardless of the inflation. So even if the inflation is going to provide some relief, which would be very beneficial to the population, this should favor us because of the trade down effect we noticed that was so strong in the last 3 years. So what we've seen so far is the conversions we performed in the calendar of the fourth quarter was maybe not as we expected. So we started opening a lot more in the end of 2022 January, we already have the first a full month of these conversions and the market share gains that Lamar mentioned were really accentuated in January and February.

因此，在涉及到這個主題時，該公司正在取得許多進展。因此，當您考慮 187 家開店、60 家不同的開店所產生的開店數量時，我們現在可以提前對 2023 年的預期。我們保留投資，公司仍然有 2023 年的強大擴張計劃，目標當然是完成商店的關閉，額外的轉換，對吧？我們有 19 次轉化。我們今年仍然必須交付 40 個開口，目標是有 40 個開口。因此，到 2023 年底，人們預計利率曲線會更好——這不會改變對新店的投資。當我們交付這個項目以及有機商店時，我們所擁有的項目在觀點和期望方面是相同的。因此，即使由於這一波支付浪潮，淨債務與 EBITDA 指標仍然存在一些壓力。因此，我們將遵循這條去槓桿化曲線，它會非常快。因此，到 2023 年年底，我們的 EBITDA 淨債務應該接近 2 倍。到 2025 年，即使在利率情景下稍微激進一點的情況下，這個比率也會下降到 1.5。因此，但我們已經看到 - 食品再次提到一些更多的通脹指數，以緩解壓力。我們已經看到了一些分析，也許通貨膨脹率的下降會損害銷售。但我們必須記住，很大一部分人在過去幾年中進行了重要的交易。因此，如果你看一下食品行業的歷史曲線，尤其是批發業務，通常情況下，高通脹時期的同店銷售額增長低於通脹，但當通脹較低時，它會增長得更多，因為人們非常渴望恢復或恢復他們的正常購買行為。因此，人們在這種高食品通脹中採用的手段之一是調整購買組合。所以當你看一個消費者，這是一個典型的批發消費者，不管通貨膨脹如何，他都有一定的錢可以花。因此，即使通貨膨脹將提供一些緩解措施，這對民眾非常有利，這也應該對我們有利，因為我們注意到過去 3 年的交易降價效應非常強烈。因此，到目前為止，我們所看到的是我們在第四季度日曆中執行的轉換可能並不像我們預期的那樣。所以我們在 2022 年 1 月底開始開更多的店，我們已經有了這些轉換的第一個完整月，Lamar 提到的市場份額增長在 1 月和 2 月確實得到了加強。

So as I through a major gain of over three points in market share. And we're already at 5 percentage points. So to give you an idea, especially the stores that were recently converted and this pressure you have on income and the search for prices with a combination of what we did to improve the purchase experience, expanding the assortment and being careful with the low operational costs really generated an important combination. We're noticing this in the flow. We're reaching many records and all-time highs.

因此，當我在市場份額中獲得超過三個百分點的主要收益時。我們已經達到了 5 個百分點。因此，給你一個想法，尤其是最近改建的商店，以及你對收入和價格的壓力，結合我們為改善購買體驗所做的工作，擴大種類並註意低運營成本真正產生了一個重要的組合。我們在流程中註意到了這一點。我們正在達到許多記錄和歷史新高。

In January, we had more than 6 million tickets due to the strong contribution of the recently opened stores. So of course, we've seen that these stores didn't have such a big impact in the margins. The company continues to follow a strategy to keep up with the ramp-up of the converted stores, balancing sales and margins with our eyes open on competitive advantages, if we need to invest in these margins that will take place, but it's not what we're looking at, at this moment. So we keep this expectation for 2023 with the EBITDA levels pretty much at the same level as 2023. And that's when the company is really going to search for growth. So the growth so far were the half of the first quarter, and it's going to be higher than the growth that we had in the same-store sales base in the total base, which gives us more conviction that the plan as it was executed and what we presented to the market, we've been able to achieve even a little above what we had mentioned to the market as a whole.

由於新開門店的強大貢獻，1 月份我們有超過 600 萬張門票。所以當然，我們已經看到這些商店對利潤率沒有這麼大的影響。公司繼續遵循一項戰略，以跟上改造後商店的增長速度，平衡銷售額和利潤率，同時我們著眼於競爭優勢，如果我們需要投資於這些將會發生的利潤率，但這不是我們想要的看著，就在這一刻。因此，我們將 2023 年的 EBITDA 水平保持在與 2023 年幾乎相同的水平。屆時公司將真正尋求增長。因此，到目前為止的增長是第一季度的一半，這將高於我們在總基數中的同店銷售基數的增長，這讓我們更加相信計劃的執行和我們向市場展示的東西，我們已經能夠實現甚至比我們向整個市場提到的還要多一點。

So within 2023, we should have some evolution ongoing evolution from a governance perspective. We really have our eyes open, and we've been talking to our shareholder -- our controlling shareholder to perform the modifications from a governance perspective to guarantee the security of minority shareholders, reflecting the new Board to keep the same shareholding stake and share. And also when we look at some procedures to really set the track to become a true corporation. So this is what I had to say for 2023, and I'll pass the floor back to Gabi for the Q&A session. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen.

因此，在 2023 年內，我們應該從治理的角度進行一些持續的演變。我們真的睜大了眼睛，我們一直在和我們的股東——我們的控股股東談，從治理的角度進行修改，以保證小股東的安全，反映新董事會保持相同的股權和份額。而且當我們查看一些程序以真正設定軌道成為一家真正的公司時。所以這就是我在 2023 年要說的話，我會把發言權交給 Gabi 進行問答環節。女士們先生們，非常感謝你們。

Thank you, Belmiro. We can start with the Q&A session. We're going to follow the queue of the questions that arrived -- now we'll start the Q&A session. {Operator Instructions) So a request to activate your mic will appear on the screen, then you should activate it to submit questions. We'd ask you to please guarantee that all of your questions are submitted at once. We will start with our first question coming from Daniela Eger, the sell-side analyst from XP. We will enable your audio, so you may proceed, please.

謝謝你，貝爾米羅。我們可以從問答環節開始。我們將跟踪收到的問題隊列——現在我們將開始問答環節。 {Operator Instructions) 因此激活麥克風的請求將出現在屏幕上，然後您應該激活它以提交問題。我們要求您保證一次性提交所有問題。我們將從 XP 的賣方分析師 Daniela Eger 提出的第一個問題開始。我們將啟用您的音頻，因此您可以繼續。

Thank you. Good morning and thanks for taking my question. I congratulate you on the results and earnings. I have two questions. I have more, but I'll focus on 2. So the first one is when it comes to the growth dynamics that you mentioned that it's accelerating compared to what we saw in the fourth quarter. But we've seen a lot of investors being very concerned with an impact of possible slowdown in the food inflation and how this can be reflected in the same-store sales. They want to understand how you're looking at this overall equation between price and volume over the year. And maybe a recovery in volumes could contribute to bring in a little more color on this acceleration if this comes from this point. So I think that's the first aspect.

謝謝。早上好，謝謝你提出我的問題。我祝賀你的結果和收入。我有兩個問題。我還有更多，但我會專注於 2。所以第一個是關於你提到的增長動力，與我們在第四季度看到的相比，它正在加速。但我們已經看到很多投資者非常關注食品通脹可能放緩的影響，以及這如何反映在同店銷售額中。他們想了解您如何看待一年中價格和數量之間的整體方程式。如果從這一點出發，成交量的恢復可能有助於為這種加速帶來更多色彩。所以我認為這是第一個方面。

And the second point, you've already covered a bit, which is about governance. So, we also think it would be good to have a little more visibility. You've already mentioned that a bit in the past. But what's the mindset with ASAI more to the midterm when it comes to governance? Is it like moving towards a corporation or really having this year renewal of the Board as an important sign that this is the path you're going to be following in line with the main shareholder. It would be good to understand a bit more of these discussions, right? And what the path is for the company in the midterm when it comes to governance.

第二點，你已經介紹了一點，這是關於治理的。因此，我們也認為提高知名度會很好。您過去已經提到過這一點。但是，在治理方面，ASAI 對中期的心態是什麼？這就像轉向一家公司，還是真的將今年的董事會更新作為一個重要標誌，表明這是您將遵循的與主要股東一致的道路。多了解一些這些討論會很好，對嗎？以及公司在治理方面的中期路徑是什麼。

Okay. Perfect, Danny. Thanks for your questions. Let's start with the first question -- the second question. So governance, yes, this is the path. We've been providing some science to this. Of course, we have many different alignments. We're really in line with our controlling shareholder, and renewal of the Board will provide one more sign of this, just as in the fourth quarter, the modification of the policy for related parties provided some comfort since we have 70%. -- we will do so to be able to make the investments quicker, and we won't work on such an aggressive approach to accelerate the ramp-up curve, destroying margins very quickly -- we had -- we reached almost 6,000 to 7,000 employees. And you can see this. But the biggest highlight and the level of costs, we were able to engage more than 3,000 people for support with training new hires and really being able to keep the stability. So there was a concern, of course, the market always has concerns, but first, we were able to open what was the impact in the margins and expenses and the continuity of this. So, the first, we're super optimistic now, especially with the numbers we've been looking at so far in the relative perspective compared to the market. I hope I answered your question.

好的。完美，丹尼。感謝您的提問。讓我們從第一個問題——第二個問題開始。所以治理，是的，這就是道路。我們一直在為此提供一些科學依據。當然，我們有許多不同的路線。我們確實與我們的控股股東保持一致，董事會的更新將提供更多跡象，就像在第四季度一樣，關聯方政策的修改提供了一些安慰，因為我們有 70%。 ——我們這樣做是為了能夠更快地進行投資，我們不會採用這種激進的方法來加速增長曲線，很快就會破壞利潤率——我們已經——我們達到了近 6,000 到 7,000僱員。你可以看到這一點。但最大的亮點和成本水平，我們能夠吸引 3,000 多人來支持培訓新員工並真正能夠保持穩定性。所以有一個擔憂，當然，市場總是有擔憂，但首先，我們能夠打開對利潤率和費用的影響以及它的連續性。因此，首先，我們現在非常樂觀，尤其是與市場相比，我們到目前為止一直在關注的相對數字。我希望我回答了你的問題。

So just at this point on the organic run rate, the maintenance of these 20 openings would make sense around?

那麼就有機運行率而言，維持這 20 個空缺是否有意義？

Well, we can't mention that it's a clear sign because, of course, there is an indicator that's really important on the return on invested capital. So one of the points is that ASAI is really acknowledged for its growth track record, but also because of the delivery of major returns. So these 20 projects were already underway even before the acquisition of the extras where we really focused on the conversions of the hypermarkets. So these are projects that we valued more with the best projects from an organic perspective, balancing out the licenses, maturity in the stores and margins, but there was a significant increase in the cost of construction, especially when it comes to cement, concrete and steel, which is something that in the organic stores where you build all the infrastructure and the foundation, there could be a bigger impact, and this could lead to a revision in the product portfolio. So at least 15 openings in the next years could be expected. So there's a focus also on deleveraging.

好吧，我們不能說這是一個明顯的跡象，因為當然，有一個指標對投資資本回報率非常重要。因此，要點之一是 ASAI 因其增長記錄而真正得到認可，而且還因為提供了重大回報。因此，這 20 個項目甚至在收購我們真正專注於大賣場轉型的額外設施之前就已經在進行中。因此，從有機的角度來看，我們更看重這些項目的最佳項目，平衡許可證、商店的成熟度和利潤率，但建設成本顯著增加，尤其是在水泥、混凝土和鋼鐵，這是在你建立所有基礎設施和基礎的有機商店中的東西，可能會有更大的影響，這可能會導致產品組合的修訂。因此，預計未來幾年至少會有 15 個職位空缺。因此，去槓桿化也是一個重點。

In 2022 and '23, we're pretty strong. We're expecting the curve to take place in the fourth quarter this year. And in 2024, especially, we plan to deleverage the company along because then we've already gone over the big investment period. So this is not only with the cost of conversion in the stores, but also the payments made to GPA, which end in 2024 for the smallest installments in 2024. So that's when we already have a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio that's smaller than 1.5x.

在 2022 年和 23 年，我們非常強大。我們預計曲線將在今年第四季度出現。特別是在 2024 年，我們計劃對公司進行去槓桿化，因為那時我們已經度過了大投資期。因此，這不僅包括商店的轉換成本，還包括支付給 GPA 的款項，GPA 的付款將在 2024 年結束，這是 2024 年的最小分期付款。所以那時我們的淨債務與 EBITDA 比率已經小於1.5 倍。

Perfect. Thank you.

完美的。謝謝。

So, now our next question is from Maria Cara Salerno. Maria will open up your audio, so you may proceed.

那麼，現在我們的下一個問題來自 Maria Cara Salerno。瑪麗亞將打開您的音頻，因此您可以繼續。

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking our question. Here on our side, we would like you to explain a bit more of the issue with the improvement in the dynamics with your relationship with suppliers. So as we think about more of a gross margin perspective, is it reasonable to consider that these more favorable terms could positively impact the profitability dynamics when you look ahead? And this is from a working capital perspective. Does it make sense to think that we have a new working capital level in the operation?

嗨，大家好。感謝您提出我們的問題。在我們這邊，我們希望您多解釋一下您與供應商關係動態改善的問題。因此，當我們更多地從毛利率角度考慮時，當您展望未來時，是否有理由認為這些更優惠的條款會對盈利能力動態產生積極影響？這是從營運資金的角度來看。認為我們在運營中有一個新的營運資金水平是否有意義？

Thanks. Blome, do you want to answer this one?

謝謝。布洛姆，你想回答這個問題嗎？

Yes, sure. I'll answer. But thanks for this question. Maria Clara, of course, we -- when we consider the negotiation with suppliers, this system in constant. And what we are estimating is that with this trend towards expansion, we sat down with the suppliers, and we had this movement to increase the terms, of course, as I mentioned, this is something that we're going to be working on extending now in 2023, 2024. And we were able to achieve not only this in the negotiation of terms but also pricing. So when we look at the stability and balance between the gross margins but also in the levels of stock, this demonstrates the precision of our commercial policy and what we can deploy. So yes, we continue to negotiate terming to not have -- to be able to continue to expand and also negotiate our prices to be able to be competitive. So when you add up the gross margin, working capital, expense control makes us have this share gain. And if you look at the other weeks, we had some share gains, almost 28 and so this shows that this relationship with suppliers has contributed to the maintenance of these indicators and the expectations that we'll keep these gains that we kept in 2022.

是的，當然。我會回答。但是感謝這個問題。 Maria Clara，當然，我們——當我們考慮與供應商的談判時，這個系統是不變的。我們估計隨著這種擴張趨勢，我們與供應商坐下來，我們採取了增加條款的行動，當然，正如我提到的，這是我們將要努力擴展的東西現在是 2023 年、2024 年。我們不僅能夠在條款談判中實現這一目標，而且能夠在定價方面實現這一目標。因此，當我們查看毛利率和庫存水平之間的穩定性和平衡時，這表明我們商業政策的準確性以及我們可以部署的內容。所以，是的，我們繼續談判條款，以便能夠繼續擴大並談判我們的價格，以便能夠具有競爭力。所以當你把毛利率、營運資金、費用控制加起來時，我們就有了這個份額收益。如果你看看其他幾週，我們的份額有所增加，接近 28 個，這表明與供應商的這種關係有助於維持這些指標，以及我們將保持 2022 年保持的這些收益的預期。

So thank you. Perfect.

所以謝謝。完美的。

So the next question is from Marcella Recchia, the sell-side analyst from Credit Suisse. Marcella will open up your audio so that you may proceed. Now you may proceed, Marcella.

所以下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的賣方分析師 Marcella Recchia。 Marcella 將打開您的音頻，以便您可以繼續。現在你可以繼續了，瑪塞拉。

Well, thanks, guys for taking my question but we have two questions here. The first one is about capitalized interest. We know this has been a major factor for discussions about changing to looking at the amount of stores that were added to the base. We also know that this represented most of the profits in the company. So we can see that the total was almost a little more than 60% of the profit in 2022. So as the company is completing the conversion process and opening up these last extra stores, what should we expect throughout the first semester until the opening of the last conversions when it comes to capitalized interest that's still impacting the profit line -- that's my first question. And the second question is about the conversions. So, in our conference now in the beginning of the month, we had feedback that the conversions already have sales very close to the uplift of 2, 2.5x. And the profitability is above expected. So this is especially due to the bigger mix of individuals still within sales. And Belmiro, I want to know from you if this is something you're looking at something occasional just due to the macroeconomic scenario or if this certainly represents an opportunity for the gross margins to be better in the long run when you consider a mix that could also be better.

好吧，謝謝大家提出我的問題，但我們這裡有兩個問題。第一個是關於資本化的利息。我們知道這一直是討論改變為查看添加到基地的商店數量的主要因素。我們也知道，這代表了公司的大部分利潤。所以我們可以看到，2022 年總額幾乎是利潤的 60% 多一點。因此，隨著公司正在完成轉換過程並開設最後這些額外的商店，我們應該在整個第一學期期待什麼，直到開業關於仍然影響利潤線的資本化利息的最後轉換——這是我的第一個問題。第二個問題是關於轉換。因此，在本月初的會議上，我們收到的反饋是，轉化率的銷售額已經非常接近 2、2.5 倍的提升。而且盈利能力高於預期。因此，這尤其是由於仍在銷售中的個人組合更大。 Belmiro，我想知道你是否只是因為宏觀經濟情況而偶爾看到這種情況，或者當你考慮混合時，這是否確實代表了長期毛利率提高的機會還可以更好。

Thanks, guys. Thanks. I'll answer about the conversions and then Danny will talk about the capitalized interest has been significant. And that's really what we are working on. So Danny will highlight this more. But when we look at the conversions, the pace is still kept. We're looking at two curves, the sales curve and the margin curve. So at this moment, we mentioned that there's going to be some stability because we always want to be prepared for an increasing competitive advantages. But of course, these stores due to the level they have in the region they're a part of, we do have expectations that will reach a better level of margin, working capital, not only due to the current scenario, but also due to the fact that we already had the expertise in the other organic stores that were open in downtown regions for other conversions and that we really have been searching for another stance expanding the improvement in the purchase expense for customers and the assortment to reach other social levels. So we've been searching to do what has been already going on in other countries where you see all of the population buying in operations at are very similar to ours. So, we do expect this. And of course, it depends on the company's discipline to manage this. And so we have a huge country with a lot of diversity and a lot of in quality, which places a bunch of different challenges when we look at different regions. And there is an expectation for -- to capture more margins. That's why we're very confident about this project. But of course, we're very careful when we have other factors such as an increase in competition and more pressure from the market. And so and that's why we're being more careful. Since the stores have a performance now when we look at January and February, that's pretty much in line with what we planned. We still have some sales ramp up space that we want to search for, and it could be a little premature still. One, we get into some regions where they're part of, I think there's some room for this. So we were even criticized due to changes in our business model -- but people are drawing sticks and stones, but we know that any model needs to evolve and there's evolution modifications and these models that were kind of left and they operated in our sector, and they kind of kept the same model and the needs the customers have also changed. Customers want to have the best purchase experience. And if it's possible to do so, keeping low cost, we must do so. Sometimes, we can expand this. Some of people that we never imagined would buy in a wholesale operation, there are going to be surprised level of experience in the product and the service level that they find. So of course, a retail company that works with thousands of employees and millions of customers besides this positioning commercially, there's also when you look at this -- so -- this has been a big concern in the company, and the numbers have been proving this consistently. So now, I'll pass the floor on to Danny to talk about capitalized interest.

多謝你們。謝謝。我會回答關於轉換的問題，然後丹尼會談論資本化的利息很重要。而這正是我們正在努力的。所以 Danny 會更加強調這一點。但是當我們查看轉換時，速度仍然保持不變。我們正在看兩條曲線，銷售曲線和利潤率曲線。所以此時此刻，我們提到會有一些穩定性，因為我們總是希望為不斷增加的競爭優勢做好準備。但是，當然，由於這些商店在他們所在地區的水平，我們確實期望達到更好的利潤率和營運資金水平，這不僅是由於當前的情況，而且還由於事實上，我們已經擁有在市中心地區開設的其他有機商店的專業知識以進行其他轉換，並且我們確實一直在尋找另一種立場，以擴大客戶購買成本的改善和產品種類以達到其他社會層面。因此，我們一直在尋求做在其他國家/地區已經發生的事情，在這些國家/地區，您會看到所有購買業務的人口與我們的國家非常相似。所以，我們確實期待這一點。當然，這取決於公司的紀律來管理它。因此，我們有一個幅員遼闊的國家，擁有豐富的多樣性和高品質，當我們審視不同的地區時，這會帶來一系列不同的挑戰。並且期望 - 獲得更多利潤。這就是為什麼我們對這個項目非常有信心。但當然，當我們有其他因素時，例如競爭加劇和來自市場的更大壓力，我們會非常小心。所以這就是為什麼我們要更加小心。由於當我們查看 1 月和 2 月時，商店現在有業績，這與我們的計劃非常一致。我們仍然有一些我們想要尋找的銷售增長空間，但現在可能還為時過早。第一，我們進入了他們所屬的一些地區，我認為這有一些空間。所以我們甚至因為我們的商業模式的變化而受到批評——但人們在畫棍子和石頭，但我們知道任何模型都需要進化，並且存在進化修改，這些模型有點遺留下來，它們在我們的部門運作，他們保持了相同的模型，客戶的需求也發生了變化。客戶希望擁有最佳的購買體驗。如果有可能這樣做，保持低成本，我們必須這樣做。有時，我們可以擴展它。我們從未想過的一些人會在批發業務中購買，他們會發現產品的體驗水平和服務水平令人驚訝。所以當然，一家與數千名員工和數百萬客戶合作的零售公司，除了這種商業定位之外，還有當你看到這個 - 所以 - 這一直是公司的一個大問題，而且數字已經證明這始終如一。所以現在，我將把發言權交給丹尼，讓他談談資本化利息。

Okay. Marcella, to answer your question here, a bit of what we've been discussing on this topic. And so the first highlight is that the capitalization, as Belmiro mentioned, follows the accounting guidelines, and this is not a new practice in the company. We always have been disclosing our CapEx, and we always take a look at the capitalized interest where when the companies -- when the store is under construction, you have a capitalization, but this is of course, something that's more significant due to the volumes of stores this year. And we had a reduction in this line. That was about ZAR 100 million. That's in the explanatory notes that you can see. So of course, this follows the schedule for store openings, we concentrated a little more in the end of the period. So we have a reasonable amount reduced a lot -- as this takes place, it's not something a new practice for us. It's an accounting guideline follow. So it's within our best practices.

好的。 Marcella，在這裡回答你的問題，關於我們一直在討論的這個話題。因此，第一個亮點是，正如 Belmiro 提到的那樣，資本化遵循會計準則，這並不是公司的新做法。我們一直在披露我們的資本支出，我們總是看看公司的資本化利息——當商店在建時，你有資本化，但這當然是由於數量而更重要的事情今年的商店。我們減少了這條線。那大約是 1 億南非蘭特。那是在您可以看到的解釋性說明中。所以當然，這遵循了開店時間表，我們在期末集中了一點。所以我們有一個合理的數量減少了很多——隨著這種情況的發生，這對我們來說並不是什麼新的做法。這是遵循的會計準則。所以這是我們的最佳實踐。

So if I can have a quick follow-up just about this the tax line. So we've seen some volatility that's very significant in this line. And we received a bit of the -- we lost a bit of the reference of what this effective tax line would be after some of the ICMS exemptions you started to consider as a benefit. Is there some visibility on what we can take on or expect something recurring from this year onwards at a more adjusted basis?

因此，如果我可以快速跟進稅線。因此，我們看到了這條線中非常顯著的波動。我們收到了一些——我們失去了一些參考，即在您開始考慮將一些 ICMS 豁免視為一種福利之後，這條有效的稅線將是什麼。從今年開始，我們可以採取哪些措施或期望在更調整的基礎上重複出現一些事情？

So just to round it up a bit, we had about BRL 70 million with an effective tax rate of about 8.6 million -- and in the previous quarter, we published about 60 million. So, we can give you some more details to be able to help balance this out. But there's always going to be some kind of a variation with regards to this. And this is connected to the ICMS. So it's really going to depend on the sales mix for the different states and exempt categories. And so we're always going to have to hold on to that depending on the way in the region it's in and the mix you sell, but we can balance this out and think of a way to communicate this to give you some better guidance -- and this variation -- this is always going to have some kind of a variation. It's not a fixed number. So unfortunately, in Brazil, you have some tax changes, and that's what most happened. So anyways, when it comes to this effect, you're not at the effective income tax rate. But when you look at this, although there are some variations, there could be some other monetization, some of the credit, which is not necessarily taxable. But for projection Max effects, you could use the average in the last three or four quarters, and it's going to be a pretty good average. So if we don't think it's a good Well, this is the average we've been working on internally. But of course, you've seen that there have been some changes in decisions. One big decision that was disclosed does not really affect us because we had no lawsuits in this regard. But when it comes from a tax perspective, this is going to be a year with major changes. There are many different changes from a tax reform perspective, increase of the tax load. And so taxes and fiscal issues are always a challenge in Brazil.

因此，為了稍微四捨五入，我們有大約 7000 萬雷亞爾，有效稅率約為 860 萬雷亞爾——而在上一季度，我們公佈了大約 6000 萬雷亞爾。因此，我們可以為您提供更多詳細信息，以幫助平衡這一點。但是在這方面總會有某種變化。這與 ICMS 相關聯。所以這真的取決於不同州和豁免類別的銷售組合。因此，我們將始終堅持這一點，具體取決於它所在地區的方式和您的銷售組合，但我們可以平衡這一點，並想出一種方式來傳達這一點，以便為您提供更好的指導 - - 這種變化 - 這總是會有某種變化。這不是一個固定的數字。所以不幸的是，在巴西，你有一些稅收變化，這是最常見的情況。所以無論如何，當談到這種影響時，你並沒有達到有效所得稅率。但是當你看這個的時候，雖然有一些變化，但可能會有一些其他的貨幣化，一些信貸，這不一定是徵稅的。但對於 Projection Max Effects，你可以使用過去三四個季度的平均值，這將是一個相當不錯的平均值。因此，如果我們認為這不是一個好消息，那麼這就是我們一直在內部研究的平均值。但是，當然，您已經看到決策發生了一些變化。披露的一項重大決定並沒有真正影響我們，因為我們在這方面沒有訴訟。但從稅收角度來看，今年將是發生重大變化的一年。從稅收改革的角度來看，有許多不同的變化，稅收負擔的增加。因此，稅收和財政問題在巴西始終是一個挑戰。

Okay. Excellent. Thank so much for the answers.

好的。出色的。非常感謝您的回答。

Moving on, the next question is from Vinicius Strano, the sell-side analyst from UBS. Vinicius, we will open up your mic, so you may proceed. You may proceed please, Vinicius.

繼續，下一個問題來自瑞銀的賣方分析師 Vinicius Strano。 Vinicius，我們會打開你的麥克風，所以你可以繼續。請繼續，Vinicius。

Hi. Good morning everyone and thank you for taking my question. Could you talk about how your performance was in the B2B channel and B2C channels when you think about volumes and what you're looking at and expecting when it comes to the mix for these two segments in 2023? And would you also be able to talk about the converted stores. So are you looking at some change in the B2B mix or B2C mix? And do you imagine that maybe -- well, could you give us an idea on the profile of the public you've noticed in the converted stores? Are these consumers with higher income. And here is a little bit more of a specific question. Could you talk about what you've seen when it comes to the evolution and occupation costs here and even a bit more in line with the inflation -- when it comes to the cost for construction, if you could have a quick discussion on the CapEx for openings and conversions and how this has evolved. Thanks.

你好。大家早上好，謝謝你提出我的問題。當您考慮交易量時，您能否談談您在 B2B 渠道和 B2C 渠道中的表現，以及您在 2023 年對這兩個細分市場的組合有何看法和期望？你也能談談改造後的商店嗎？那麼，您是否正在尋找 B2B 組合或 B2C 組合的一些變化？你是否認為也許——好吧，你能告訴我們你在改造後的商店中註意到的公眾概況嗎？是這些收入較高的消費者。這是一個更具體的問題。你能談談你在這裡看到的演變和占用成本，甚至更符合通貨膨脹的情況——談到建設成本，如果你能快速討論一下資本支出開放和轉換以及這是如何演變的。謝謝。

Thank you, Vinicius for that question. There is a shift in the customer mix, and that's already expected. And so that's not that related because it's a lot more was related to the regions that they're in. This already happens when you have the organic store openings. And initially, even when it's a curve where you have the necessary timing for new store openings, which is -- which varies. But generally, what we should see in this channel is a little more share from the final consumers. If you look at how these are moving along, you can see that this rate has been increasing. And within the B2B customers, it's pretty stable. Well, we see is some changes -- and even the distribution with the actual industry. And so we will notice with the increases in the logistical costs are the categories that these B2B customers are buying with and they've tried to supply in a cash & carry store. But even when we look at the level of density in these stores, we do expect that there will be a bigger presence of end customers or B2C customers. So now it's difficult to measure this number because you have, in some cases, some B2Bs that also have a high level of nonformality or nonidentification -- but in these stores, you normally have about 70% -- 75% of consumers and about 25% of the B2B customer public.

謝謝維尼修斯提出這個問題。客戶組合發生了變化，這已經在意料之中。所以這並沒有那麼相關，因為它更多地與他們所在的地區相關。當你有有機商店開業時，這已經發生了。最初，即使它是一個曲線，你有新店開業的必要時間，這是 - 這是變化的。但總的來說，我們應該在這個渠道看到的是來自最終消費者的份額多一點。如果你看看這些是如何移動的，你會發現這個速度一直在增加。在 B2B 客戶中，它非常穩定。好吧，我們看到的是一些變化——甚至是與實際行業的分佈。因此，隨著物流成本的增加，我們會注意到這些 B2B 客戶正在購買的類別，他們試圖在現購自運商店中提供。但即使我們查看這些商店的密度水平，我們也確實預計會有更多的終端客戶或 B2C 客戶。所以現在很難衡量這個數字，因為在某些情況下，一些 B2B 也具有高度的非正規性或非識別性——但在這些商店中，通常有大約 70%——75% 的消費者和大約 25 B2B 客戶公眾的百分比。

But you could have an air margin of about 5 percentage points, considering that it's also very common for some small companies, which we seems call utilizers. And sometimes they sell close, but they also come and buy like cleaning supplies or other items that they use in their close store and they also buy for their own house. So normally, is a big focus also on small companies, entrepreneurs, regardless of -- if their commerce is super-specific per sector. So when we increase the cost of construction, the inflation was quite perverse not only in the food sector, but this has increased costs, especially for the newer stores. So now an organic store, you have a big variation depending on the region you're building in. the area of the store and the level of the foundation, but an organic store could cost BRL 80 million or even more than this, depending on the level of the foundation you're going to use for the store.

但是你可能會有大約 5 個百分點的空中利潤，考慮到這對於一些我們似乎稱為利用者的小公司來說也很常見。有時他們會在附近出售，但他們也會來購買他們在附近商店使用的清潔用品或其他物品，他們也會為自己的房子購買。因此，通常情況下，小公司、企業家也會受到很大關注，無論他們的商業是否在每個部門都是超級特定的。因此，當我們增加建設成本時，通貨膨脹不僅在食品行業非常不正常，而且還增加了成本，尤其是對於較新的商店。所以現在有機商店，你有很大的差異，這取決於你建立的地區。商店的面積和基礎的水平，但有機商店可能花費 8000 萬雷亞爾甚至更多，這取決於您要為商店使用的基礎級別。

So of course, there have been more investments and some evolution in these stores, which also impacted our costs with conversions. And we had estimated an initial cost at a comparable base from an organic store about BRL 45 million. And this number has gone over. And of course, depends on the construction work and even considering the size of these units that were converted. So we have stores that have over 10,000 square meters. And there was also a concern on our behalf, which making these stores really reach new conditions, right, to avoid cost of maintenance. It's so high and avoid renewals or renovations in a short period of time. Sometimes you save initially, but that's going to cause your CapEx and maintenance costs in a short period of time. So if you had the opportunity to get to visit these stores, you'll see that they really have new conditions.

因此，當然，這些商店有更多的投資和一些發展，這也影響了我們的轉換成本。我們估計一家有機商店的可比基地的初始成本約為 4500 萬雷亞爾。而這個數字已經過去了。當然，這取決於建設工作，甚至考慮到這些被轉換的單位的規模。所以我們有超過 10,000 平方米的商店。還有一個代表我們的擔憂，這使得這些商店真正達到新的條件，對，以避免維護成本。它是如此之高，避免在短時間內更新或翻新。有時您最初進行了儲蓄，但這會在短時間內導致您的資本支出和維護成本。所以如果你有機會去參觀這些商店，你會發現他們真的有新的條件。

Thank you, Belmiro. Perfect.

謝謝你，貝爾米羅。完美的。

So our next question is from [Vinicius Bispetoalir] at Bank of America. Vinicius, we will enable your mic so that you may proceed.

所以我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 [Vinicius Bispetoalir]。 Vinicius，我們將啟用您的麥克風，以便您可以繼續。

Good morning everyone. Thanks for taking my question and congrats on the results. We wanted to know if you guys had seen any lessons learned with the different initiatives with services and assortment. And if it's adopted, it led to any kind of changes to the new store conversions.

大家，早安。感謝您提出我的問題並祝賀結果。我們想知道你們是否看到了從服務和分類的不同舉措中吸取的任何教訓。如果它被採用，它會導致新商店轉換的任何類型的變化。

Yes, there are some lessons learned. Of course, these are acquired not only in the stores, but also in the organic expansion plan we had. So some of these services had some pilot projects that we worked on that did not continue. And many of them were continued expanding to the existing store park. So in the last year, we opened over 100 batteries -- and there's, of course, depending on the region, you have a different level of need. But this is part of this evolution in the model to be able to penetrate other social levels, of course. And obviously, this store network with different locations gives us a base of knowledge and lessons it's very significant. So when we look at improvements and other points that we also think we have room for when you look at a consumer with a higher income level, more availability as well to have a bit more expense in the sector as long as we can offer an adequate proposal, of course, keeping the confidentiality of each business model. But yes, there are lots of less than learned.

是的，有一些經驗教訓。當然，這些不僅是在門店中獲得的，我們的有機擴張計劃中也有。因此，其中一些服務有一些我們從事的試點項目沒有繼續進行。其中許多繼續擴展到現有的商店公園。所以在去年，我們打開了 100 多個電池——當然，根據地區的不同，你有不同程度的需求。但這是模型進化的一部分，當然可以滲透到其他社會層面。顯然，這個具有不同位置的商店網絡為我們提供了非常重要的知識和課程基礎。因此，當我們著眼於改進和其他方面時，我們也認為當您看到收入水平更高、可用性更高以及在該行業有更多支出的消費者時，我們也認為我們有空間，只要我們能夠提供足夠的建議，當然要對每個商業模式保密。但是，是的，還有很多學不到的東西。

All right.

好的。

So, the next question is from Ruben Cout to the sell-side Analyst from Santander. Ruben will enable your audio, so you may proceed.

因此，下一個問題是 Ruben Cout 向來自桑坦德銀行的賣方分析師提出的。 Ruben 將啟用您的音頻，因此您可以繼續。

Good morning, everyone,  how is the going? let me talk about the increment and productivity about 400, 500 to 700 and now in the end of the year with the conversions. And I wanted to understand about this number is it exclusively in the state of Sao Paulo, the Methbot region of Sao Paulo at Oticas really interesting considering the level of maturity, have the recently opened stores and converted stores and also there's a concern that some people have about cannibalization. When we look at this cannibalization topic, how has the level been in the converted stores that are close to those that already existed where there was already some kind of installed store. Has there been any adjustment? Or is this in line with what was expected?

大家早上好，最近怎麼樣？讓我談談關於 400、500 到 700 的增量和生產率，現在在年底進行轉換。我想了解這個數字是否僅在聖保羅州，考慮到成熟度，聖保羅奧蒂卡斯的 Methbot 地區真的很有趣，有最近開設的商店和改建的商店，還有一些人擔心有關於自相殘殺。當我們查看這個同類化主題時，轉換後的商店中的水平如何接近那些已經存在的已經存在某種已安裝商店的商店。有沒有調整？或者這是否符合預期？

Well, getting back to cannibalization, yes, that exists. There's no way out. We're in the regions where we were already present and other players were already present. But we believe that around December and from the total base. So it's natural that eventually, what happens in the big cities like in Sao Paulo, we have some stores with a lot of operational pressure. And so some we didn't have the conditions to service customers. There is a big queue on the outside. So the level of services as well that was provided no you need a store in that region. And it's in line with what we expected. And so the market may be expect a little more impact. So maybe it would be about 12.5%, if we didn't have stores inside regions that were that close. So what happens is that BTB is sometimes quicker than BTC because businesses have to go far. There's one you have a different category of products. And so if you open up a straits 100 kilometers away, obviously, they're going to start buying from there.

好吧，回到同類相食的話題，是的，那是存在的。沒有出路。我們在我們已經存在並且其他參與者已經存在的地區。但我們認為，12 月左右和從總基數來看。因此，很自然地，最終，在聖保羅等大城市發生的事情，我們的一些商店承受著很大的運營壓力。所以有些我們沒有條件為客戶服務。外面排著大隊。因此，所提供的服務水平也不需要您在該地區開設商店。而且符合我們的預期。因此，市場可能會期待更多的影響。因此，如果我們在距離如此之近的區域內沒有商店，則可能約為 12.5%。所以發生的事情是 BTB 有時比 BTC 更快，因為企業必須走得更遠。有一個你有不同類別的產品。因此，如果你在 100 公里外開闢一條海峽，很明顯，他們會從那裡開始購買。

But it's natural that when you have an expansion, especially when you have to move on to a similar model with less overlaps and to avoid the level of cannibalization and some stores that were relatively close. So the sales per square meter that are highlighted considers all of us. And then you have a variation that's very significant when it comes to the national territory. So then when you look at the purchase power, sometimes it's not only because you have a smaller volume in the quantity or amount of products sold, but sometimes it's just the average price. So it's normal that the population has more purchased power and sometimes it even engages a similar amount. But sometimes, it's a product with lower added value, but this is an average for Brazil. And I hope that answers your question.

但很自然，當您進行擴張時，尤其是當您必須轉向重疊較少的類似模型並避免同類相食的程度和一些相對接近的商店時。因此，突出顯示的每平方米銷售額考慮了我們所有人。然後當涉及到國家領土時，你就會有一個非常重要的變化。因此，當您查看購買力時，有時不僅是因為您的產品數量或銷售量較小，而且有時只是平均價格。因此，人們擁有更多的購買力是正常的，有時甚至會有類似的購買力。但有時，它是一種附加值較低的產品，但這是巴西的平均水平。我希望這能回答你的問題。

Yes. No, that's clear.

是的。不，這很清楚。

So the next question is from Nicolas Larrain, the sell-side analyst. Nicolas, we will enable your audio, so you may proceed. You may proceed, please.

所以下一個問題來自賣方分析師 Nicolas Larrain。 Nicolas，我們將啟用您的音頻，因此您可以繼續。請繼續。

Okay. Good morning everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Belmiro, I just wanted to get back to the organic expansion you mentioned. And how many stores for the store openings have you already hired for 2023 and 24? And also, how are you looking at the scenario from an industry perspective? Do you think you have room to accelerate the M&A once the balance sheet is already deleveraged? Thanks.

好的。大家早上好。感謝您提出我的問題。 Belmiro，我只想回到你提到的有機擴張。您已經為 2023 年和 24 年的新店招聘了多少家門店？而且，您如何從行業角度看待這種情況？一旦資產負債表已經去槓桿化，您認為您是否還有加速併購的空間？謝謝。

Well, thanks, Nicolas. M&A is not what's on our strategy today. Our strategy is to really look at the organic stores that were already in the land bank for the company. So these are projects that are practically prior -- all prior to the acquisition of the Extra stores. And what happened was a bigger selectivity of these projects to adjust the cost of contraction in this new reality without leading to impact in the in the and the M&A is not our target. Our target is to finish the project and deleverage in the company. Of course, this does not mean that it's a completely closed door. It will always be, as mentioned, kind of on track. And as soon as we have the deleveraging or we can do this, it could be that it could happen, but it's not our main strategy at this moment. But I do believe that maybe for 2024 or '25, it could be possible for us to be a little more active in the sense, but this is really connected to the company's leverage as well.

好吧，謝謝，尼古拉斯。併購不是我們今天的戰略。我們的策略是真正關注公司土地儲備中已有的有機商店。所以這些項目實際上是在之前的——所有這些都是在收購 Extra 商店之前。發生的事情是這些項目具有更大的選擇性，可以在這種新現實中調整收縮成本，而不會對內部產生影響，而併購不是我們的目標。我們的目標是完成項目和公司的去槓桿化。當然，這並不意味著它是一扇完全關閉的門。如前所述，它總是會走上正軌。一旦我們進行去槓桿化或者我們可以做到這一點，它可能會發生，但這不是我們目前的主要策略。但我確實相信，也許在 2024 年或 25 年，我們有可能在某種意義上更加積極一些，但這也確實與公司的影響力有關。

Very clear. Thanks, Belmiro.

非常清楚。謝謝，貝爾米羅。

Moving on to the next question is from Irma, the sell-side analyst at Goldman Sachs. Irma will enable your audio, you can proceed, thanks.

下一個問題來自高盛的賣方分析師 Irma。 Irma 將啟用您的音頻，您可以繼續，謝謝。

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I have two questions are very fast. The first is if you could give us an overview on the level of CapEx for 2023. And in line with this, could you also remind us about the agenda for payments that you still have for the extra stores throughout '23, especially in the beginning of '24. I think it ends almost in the end of trait. And then the last question related to this is if you could help us understand a little more on the expectations for cash flow for '23 because we saw you've already reached a leverage of 2.2 versus the end of the year. And so now you also highlighted the objective of reaching close to the 2x to at most 2x until the end of the year. So it seems maybe a little timid initially. Obviously, I understand you maybe have some CapEx aspects for 2023 and payments that need to be done, you have higher interest. But I just wanted to understand a bit of your mindset when it comes to cash generation for this year. Thank you.

早上好。感謝您提出我的問題。我有兩個問題很快。首先是您是否可以向我們概述 2023 年的資本支出水平。與此相符，您能否也提醒我們您在整個 23 年期間仍然有額外商店的付款議程，尤其是在開始時24 年的。我認為它幾乎以特質結束。然後與此相關的最後一個問題是，你是否可以幫助我們更多地了解 23 年的現金流預期，因為我們看到你已經達到了 2.2 的槓桿率與年底相比。因此，現在您還強調了在年底前達到接近 2 倍至最多 2 倍的目標。所以一開始看起來可能有點膽小。顯然，我知道你可能有一些 2023 年的資本支出方面和需要完成的付款，你有更高的興趣。但我只是想了解一下您在今年的現金生成方面的想法。謝謝。

All right. Danny will talk about the payments now from GPA, a bit of the investment CapEx. We're finishing the numbers, and we should be highlighting this in our annual report. We have an elevation in the CapEx as well as due to the organic stores are about 20 organic stores. And they have a higher level of CapEx her also some revitalization of the existing store network and the services in stores that were not implemented yet. And part of this since the openings in '22 happened really close to the end of the year, 12 on November 9 in October 12 in December. So it's quite natural that you have a significant carryover in the CapEx from 2012 that's going to be paid out in '23. So that's why you see the leverage curve will follow a peak now compared to what we saw in the fourth quarter because the fourth quarter is also benefited by the seasonality of the products in the end of the year. And naturally, by -- with a term that's a little higher.

好的。丹尼將談論現在來自 GPA 的付款，這是投資資本支出的一部分。我們正在完成這些數字，我們應該在年度報告中強調這一點。我們的資本支出有所提高，而且由於有機商店大約有 20 家有機商店。他們有更高水平的資本支出，她還對現有商店網絡和尚未實施的商店服務進行了一些振興。自 22 年開幕以來，其中一部分發生在接近年底的時候，12 月 11 月 9 日，10 月 12 日，12 月。因此，很自然地，您將在 2023 年支付 2012 年的資本支出中的大量結轉。所以這就是為什麼你會看到與我們在第四季度看到的相比，槓桿曲線現在將達到峰值，因為第四季度也受益於年底產品的季節性。自然地，通過 - 用一個稍微高一點的術語。

So you'll see in the first and second quarter that it goes up a bit and then in the third and fourth quarters it drops. So basically, we still have room to be in a lower debt level, but we're still having some carryover costs and uncertainties, maybe possibilities and opportunities to even have an additional expansion in the amount of stores -- so that's why we're being a little more conservative to have this level of debt that we expect to land by the end of trading and of course, having a cost of debt, there's a relevant part of the GPA that's going to be paid now in '23.

所以你會看到在第一季度和第二季度它略有上升，然後在第三和第四季度下降。所以基本上，我們仍然有降低債務水平的空間，但我們仍然有一些結轉成本和不確定性，也許還有進一步擴大商店數量的可能性和機會——這就是為什麼我們對於我們預計在交易結束時達到的這種債務水平要保守一些，當然，有債務成本，GPA 的相關部分將在 23 年支付。

Yes. So, Irma, so the thing is about the payments. We have basically in the first semester, 1.2 billion, which was a significant part in March and another in June, which adds up to BRL 1.2 billion. And then in the second semester, as Belmiro mentioned, we have the carryover from last year with the payments of some delays in certain stores, and then we're going to be paying this in the second semester. So you can consider about 1.2 million in the first semester and 1.2% in the second semester. So this is pretty much the payments flow that we have up ahead. And this explains the leverage that Belmiro mentioned as well.

是的。所以，Irma，所以事情是關於付款的。我們基本上在第一學期有 12 億雷亞爾，這是 3 月份的一個重要部分，6 月份的另一個部分，加起來有 12 億雷亞爾。然後在第二個學期，正如 Belmiro 提到的那樣，我們有去年的結轉款項以及某些商店的一些延誤付款，然後我們將在第二個學期支付這筆款項。所以可以考慮第一學期120萬左右，第二學期1.2%。所以這幾乎就是我們前面的支付流程。這也解釋了 Belmiro 提到的槓桿作用。

So it would be the payments just to GPA, the 1.2 million. Well, the 1.2 in the first semester, 1.2 in the second mass have a final payment in 2024?

因此，這將是僅支付給 GPA 的 120 萬美元。那麼，第一學期的1.2，第二批的1.2，2024年有尾款嗎？

Exactly. So we have BRL 700 million in 2024.

確切地。所以我們在 2024 年有 7 億雷亞爾。

And besides this, you still have the CapEx for organic stores, right?

除此之外，您還有有機商店的資本支出，對嗎？

Yes, exactly.

對，就是這樣。

So now, our next question is in English, it came from Andrew Ruben with sell-side analyst from Morgan Stanley. Andrew, you will enable your audio so that you can submit your question. You can proceed, Andrew.

所以現在，我們的下一個問題是英文的，來自摩根士丹利的賣方分析師 Andrew Ruben。安德魯，你將啟用你的音頻，以便你可以提交你的問題。你可以繼續了，安德魯。

All right, thank you. I just have a quick follow-up. Thinking about the nonfood categories within the converted stores, how have the sales been trending versus your expectations? And do you have any updated thoughts about perhaps adding the non-fluid assortment within some of the core stores? Thank you.

好吧。謝謝。我只是有一個快速跟進。考慮轉換後的商店中的非食品類別，銷售趨勢與您的預期相比如何？您是否有任何關於在某些核心商店中添加非流動分類的最新想法？謝謝。

Yes. The stores not necessarily since the fact that they're converters, but where you have the location of stores with higher income, then you have a bigger share of nonfood items. It's still very timid in our sector. It's different than what happens in other countries, where Cash & Carry already like in the U.S., for example, with Costco, right, where you have a real high share on these kind of categories of products, but it's also connected to our -- to the level of American income. But the opportunities here really are performing the ramp-up in some categories that we predominantly work with, although we had the inclusion of some items that are nonfood. Some of the biggest inclusions in the assortment were more we're considering the broadness of the brands and categories. But we believe there's an opportunity. And throughout the year within this maturity strategy, it is possible that we'll have some tests and some trials with how to offer low prices with some nonfood items as well, especially for higher income consumers, which is where we really believe there's opportunities in these stores. But it's a secondary focus of what we're going to be following now in this path.

是的。商店不一定是因為它們是轉化者，但如果商店所在位置的收入較高，那麼非食品商品的份額就會更大。它在我們的部門仍然非常膽小。這與其他國家/地區發生的情況不同，在其他國家/地區，現購自運已經像美國一樣，例如 Costco，您在這類產品中佔有很高的份額，但它也與我們的 -達到美國人的收入水平。但是，這裡的機會確實是在我們主要合作的某些類別中實現增長，儘管我們包括了一些非食品項目。我們正在考慮品牌和類別的廣泛性，這些產品中包含的一些最大的產品。但我們相信有機會。在這一成熟策略的全年範圍內，我們可能會進行一些測試和試驗，以了解如何為一些非食品產品提供低價，特別是對於高收入消費者，這是我們真正相信存在機會的地方這些商店。但這是我們現在要在這條道路上關注的次要重點。

Thank you.

謝謝。

The Q&A session is officially ended. And now we will pass the floor to the company to their final remarks.

問答環節正式結束。現在我們將把發言權交給公司，讓他們發表最後的評論。

Well, thank you all so much once again for participating, as I mentioned, I say, has been following this path for growth. And in 2022, we have an important step towards the amount of stores, the amount of people we're servicing in 2023, and we are still in this investment phase, right, growing and generating more jobs and our expectation for '23, of course, has challenges, obviously, just like every year, but I think our team, our political scenario, the strength of our brand and all of these factors give us a lot of reliance and confidence that the company will move towards delivering results consistently regardless of adversities that we cement have when it comes to the market. So we're pretty used to handling this and whoever has been keeping up with the track record of the company, you'll see the level of stability in our numbers that we can adjust in our business model. And there's a pretty good expectations for 2023. Once again, I just want to thank all of the members Danny, Belmiro for their participation in this earnings call. Once again, I want to thank our team for their work, and I want to highlight that for 2023. We hope you will be with us in this process for growth and guaranteeing these results.

好吧，再次非常感謝大家的參與，正如我提到的，我說，一直遵循這條成長之路。到 2022 年，我們朝著商店數量、我們在 2023 年服務的人數邁出了重要一步，我們仍處於這個投資階段，正確的，增長和創造更多的就業機會以及我們對 23 年的期望當然，顯然，就像每年一樣，都有挑戰，但我認為我們的團隊、我們的政治場景、我們品牌的實力以及所有這些因素給了我們很大的依賴和信心，公司將朝著始終如一的結果邁進我們水泥在市場上遇到的逆境。所以我們已經習慣了處理這個問題，無論誰一直在關注公司的業績記錄，你都會看到我們可以在我們的商業模式中調整的數字的穩定性水平。對 2023 年的預期非常好。再次，我只想感謝所有成員 Danny、Belmiro 參與本次財報電話會議。再次，我要感謝我們團隊所做的工作，我想強調 2023 年的工作。我們希望您能在這個過程中與我們一起成長並確保這些結果。

The earnings call for the first quarter of 2022, at is officially ended the Investor Relations department is available to answer any future questions you may have. Thank you so much to all participants, and have an excellent day.

2022 年第一季度的收益電話會議正式結束，投資者關係部門可以回答您未來可能遇到的任何問題。非常感謝所有參與者，祝您度過愉快的一天。