Earnings Labs

AXIA Energia S.A. (AXIA)

Q1 2020 Earnings Call· Mon, Jun 1, 2020

$12.49

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon to everyone, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the earnings call of Eletrobras, and we're going to talk about the results of the first quarter of 2020. [Operator Instructions] We have this presentation available in PowerPoint at the IR, Investor Relations website of Eletrobras. [Operator Instructions] Before we start, we would like to clarify that any -- here is the disclaimer. Anything that might be said in regards to the business perspectives of the company, projections, operational goals and financial goals are beliefs and privileges of the Board of Directors of Eletrobras as well as being based on information that is available currently to the company. These are not guarantees of performance because they involve risks and uncertainties and may depend on things that may or may not happen. General economic conditions and seasonal factors might change our results. Now I would like to give the floor to President Wilson Ferreira Junior; and Ms. Elvira Baracuhy, Financial Director and the Director of Investor Relations; [indiscernible] the Director of Operations. Mr. Wilson, good afternoon. The floor is yours.

Wilson Ferreira

Analyst

Thank you, all. Good afternoon. Thank you, everyone, that is here at this earnings call of the first quarter of 2020. We are slightly affected by the onset of the pandemic, and I request that we go directly to the presentation. You can see the disclaimer. As many companies have said, the disclaimer is about our projections and results in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Page 4. First thing that we want to say is pay an homage to the victims of the coronavirus pandemic. We manifest our solidarity to the victims. And obviously, we would like to pay our tribute to the 12,000 employees that have worked vigilantly 24/7 for the commitment to maintain the services of generation and transmission of energy, and this supports our society and our operations. We would like to highlight our admiration and respect for all the health care professionals and all professionals that are working in the essential services to this country. You've given us so much in this very difficult time. And this is our homage on Page 4. Page 5, we can see how we're facing coronavirus at Eletrobras. The first thing is that the company has a high -- what we have over 12,000 people working with us. And we do not want to stimulate the spread of the pandemic. Very quickly, we established a crisis committee. I really talked to you about this. The operation has already stabilized. 64% of our employees are in remote models of work. We've also placed a few of our employees on vacation leave, and we have 24% of our body of workers directly connected to the support of the operations, IT is very important and some working in the offices. The operation is very stabilized even though it was very highly…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] A few questions here. We can start with Andre Sampaio of Santander, Andre?

Andre Sampaio

Analyst

Good afternoon. Let me ask 2 questions. The first question in regards to the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. One thing that ANEEL said about the discussion on COVID was the delay of investment and the improvement works. Can you comment on that? And the second question would be in regards to the potential reduction of the guarantees now we're going back to the COVID-19 pandemic. I wanted to get a few comments on GSE.

Wilson Ferreira

Analyst

In regards to improvements, yes. There has been interactions with ANEEL, and I wanted to -- even with -- to talk about the conversation that we had. This is one of the alternatives whilst we see an eventual extension of the crisis. But let me just say that our commitment, manufacturer commitment, that there will be no changes in the volumes, the receivable volumes in the tariff cycle. There is a possibility of reduction of some receivables to 6 months to be paid and the revenue of the tariff cycle won't be absolutely the same. And the financial effect with a reduction that has been considered, we -- if there is anything, obviously, this is something not to -- not to compromise the liquidity. But we've had interactions with ANEEL, and we've had -- we said that if that is necessary, if there is any reduction in respect to the rules and also the care of the operations, we are doing our part with the automation processes, mobilization of our installation, then we have the capacity to manage. Of course, we have to do the right negotiation. But we have the commitment that this doesn't have any effect on the receivables on the tariff cycle. And we mentioned that in the financial fact. Your second question in regards to the reduction of the physical guarantees. That discussion always comes up. The physical guarantee that we have in the system declared is not the real physical guarantee. And the physical -- and the collateral factors that we have a higher GSE. We ended up having that shared insufficiency. This is part of the capitalization project of Eletrobrás. Of course, the capitalization process of Eletrobrás, we've had the review of the guarantees. We had 5% in 1 process and up to 10%. But also Eletrobrás, that when you take real energy that it's -- well, from our perspective, we would have 300 megawatts. So this is a discussion that can continue. There is a bad side, and in our case, it makes a lot of sense to do this. But we don't have the same capitalization that we had 3 years ago. This is a discussion that we can have, again, depending on how the crisis will unfold. I think that the effect is not so going to be so big somehow. We were not required to answer -- respond to the question by the Ministry or ANEEL.

Operator

Operator

Now we have Marcelo Sá from Itaú. Marcelo Sá: Two questions. One, in regards to the debt that Amazonas has with Eletrobrás, are you paying that debt -- Amazonas is paying that debt? And I wanted to get more details for the works of Angra III. Do you have the expectation of doing the public bid this year for Angra III?

Wilson Ferreira

Analyst

Thank you for questions. Starting by the last, Angra III. We should have an unfolding of that process. It's evident that if we can work until the end of the year, it would be adequate. One of the pillars of Eletrobrás is, while we don't have that process, we are still investing so that work will be done by 2026. We are waiting for the work of the national investment bank, BNDES, to follow up on the works that are going to progress to continue with the works. But we should keep the perspective of 2026. With Amazonas distribution, it's reported in the slides. Amazonas has had some difficulties that are made worse by the pandemic. And the situation was worse than in the past. And certainly, we had a plan for evolution of the company that was big, but it's always -- there's a problem at this time. We have that default, prospective default, and we recognize that. But with COVID, we will go with this -- a part of this money will be used to be paid with the default that is [Indiscernible] they have with Eletrobrás. This is the only default that we have, but it's well-known these are financial assets and this is one -- the only one that has -- that is a mere difficulty. Marcelo Sá: Last question. There is an expectation of cost of BRL 500 million with one of the measures that you are expecting post 2020. Do you still have that expectation?

Wilson Ferreira

Analyst

Yes. I thought that expectation. I am the leader here, and this is our commitment, BRL 77 million in this quarter. And we've had additionals, closing the contract of [Indiscernible]. We've had a few people that we had to pay PDC. We are negotiating with the unions, but we keep the perspective of BRL 500 million up until this year. We should have better numbers from the second, third and the fourth quarter.

Operator

Operator

Next question from Carolina Carneiro, Crédit Suisse.

Carolina Carneiro

Analyst

Thank you for the question and for the call. Just one question. You have a series of contracts that are very important in the northeastern region. I wanted you to comment if there was any involvement to potentially negotiate either the deadline for payment or negotiating the reduction of contracts momentarily in 2020 with the potential compensation up ahead. Do you see any movement in that sense?

Wilson Ferreira

Analyst

I'm going to give the word to my colleague, and he can talk about that. And certainly, from the second quarter, there won't be -- but we will be reporting. [Technical Difficulty] What -- maybe your telephone is not working. As the President said, in the first quarter, there was no impact of that nature. Obviously, with the advancement of the impacts of the crisis. There will be the notification. We are establishing negotiations, and there is no significant impact. We do not expect that there is any significant impact. We are working to initially do our renegotiation and do a training, and we want to minimize the impact in this process. But I would like to say that we are -- see all the numbers that are projected.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Carolina Carneiro

Analyst

Another question. Well, in regards to the potential here and the update, you've had some news of a setback.

Wilson Ferreira

Analyst

We've had talks, yes, we have an expectation of having more companies that have the possibility. So that effect will start next year, and it's more relating to the need of overcoming the effects of the pandemic. So I do not see any return that is negative, but an adjustment of the short term, and the most probable is that we will start to see this from 2021 with the currency exchange processes.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] [Melina Yang] from [indiscernible]

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Well, good afternoon. I'm sorry, if you already mentioned this, but can you tell us a little bit about the political environment of Brazil and if you see any space for relevant reforms for this year? Or is it going to be more for next year?

Wilson Ferreira

Analyst

Thank you for your question. I believe that we are working -- we're dealing with deeper resilience. This is a process of regrowth -- restarting the growth, and it will offer the agenda for the second quarter. It's an agenda that -- well, it's economic recovery. But we will give the elements and demonstrating what is -- what you know about this. We've talked to you before. Eletrobrás had 21 shareholders, now we have over 60,000. Eletrobrás is not alone here. Several Brazilian companies are sharing the reforms and perspective, and this is what attracted the attention and the consideration of the investments here in Brazil. This agenda is the agenda for reforms and privatizations. We have a new secretary that has been placed here specifically for this. And we've worked systematically here. And the agenda is for the recovery, the regrowth. And I think that the agenda for privatization is a general agenda and it's on everybody's mind. We will have to regain -- restart the agenda of the works, the environmental -- and well, the regulatory bodies, and certainly, the agenda. We'll have a regrowth and we have to take actions for the future. Thank you.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

I am very impressed and I would like to congratulate you for the results.

Operator

Operator

Now we close the Q&A session. With that, we return the word to Wilson, the speaker. Well, Mr. Wilson, the floor is yours.

Wilson Ferreira

Analyst

Thank you very much. Thank you to all for being here in our conference and hear the results of the first semester, and this is the effect that is being expected by the company. Here are the future perspective. It's going to be an effect -- a passing effect, and it will be reverted -- everything that is negative will be reverted positively for the company. This company has been capturing and keeping our perspective throughout time. We are talking about a company with all of our assets in operation. We concluded this quarter the longest transmission line we've done over the partnership. It's operating. This is one of the biggest assets for the interconnection of the regions in Brazil. And from the standpoint of the operation of the company, all plants are maintained. We have a new SAP system. We have a new Executive Director that is very strong. And all the perspective that makes us do things, a sense of urgency, for all employees, all entrepreneurs, all politicians. Now, we have to get the time that we lost, we have to work to get it back. And we're going to be a part of the regrowth of this country. This is very good for us because we are part of the solution. We produce energy with competency and with socio-environmental commitments, and with the perspective of contributing to the public accounts. I want, once again, to pay an homage to all the colleagues that have been working during the pandemic. It's been extraordinary. We had a reduction of 14% in the revenue, but the renewable assets increased. We've worked with 38% of the installed capacity. This is just one more of the evidence that we provide that the company has a commitment to our socio-environmental commitments, and we are working with a strong operational revenue. Thank you very much. And we continue with the earnings call of the second quarter. Thank you very much. And now the teleconference of Eletrobrás is closed.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your attention, your participation, and we will continue.