Jbs N.V. (JBS) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and welcome to JBS Second Quarter of 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Any statements eventually made during this conference call in connection with the company's business outlook projections, operating and financial targets and potential growth should be understood as merely forecast based on the company's management expectations in relation to the future of JBS. Such expectations are highly dependent on the industry and market conditions, and therefore, are subject to change. Our present with us today, Gilberto Tomazoni, Global CEO of JBS; Guilherme Cavalcanti, Global CFO of JBS; Wesley Batista Filho, CEO of JBS USA; and Christiane Assis, Investor Relations Director. Now I'll turn the conference over to Gilberto Tomazoni. Mr. Tomazoni, you may begin your presentation.

[indiscernible] leading the business and ensuring a smooth transition. We have been planning this [indiscernible] carefully from a position of stress and nothing changed in our strategy, our priorities or the way we operate. This decision reflects the strength of the company we have built over the past several years, we have transformed JBS in many ways, building a more diversified, more global and more resilient business. Our dual listing was a defining milestone in that journey, positioning the company for its next phase on the value creation. With strategy, clear and a strong leadership team in place, I believe this is the right moment for JBS to begin in the next chapter of [indiscernible] leadership. Turning to our results. The second quarter once again demonstrated the resilience of our global operating model in an environment that remains complex and volatile. Supply and demand dynamics vary across geographies and proteins while currency movements take disruption in geopolitical events and the far more complexity. Against this backdrop, our priorities are clear: improving efficiency, protecting margin and stressing commercial performancy, allocation production to the markets where we create the most value. Adjusted net income was USD 218 million. Adjusted EBITDA totaled USD 1.43 billion under IFRS with a margin at 6% and USD 1.3 billion under U.S. GAAP with a 5.3% margin. Compared to the first quarter, profitability already showed an improvement in the majority of our business units. Net income was significantly affected by not recurring items, while important to understand, these items do not change how we assess the business. Our focus is on operating performance, cash generation and balance sheet discipline. Performance improved across several business during the quarter, although important part of our portfolio is still operate in a challenging environment. While U.S. beef continues to operate in a challenged environment, we have reorganized our operating disruption and are very confident the results of those changes. I will leave the discussion to the business to Assis. We will provide more details on the quarter and our outlook for beef and pork in North America. In Australia, results improved further, supported by robust global demand for beef and attractive export opportunities. Before moving on, I would like to comment briefly on the strategic partnership we announced last friday with the entire investment management. The transaction includes a USD 2.5 billion equity investment by [indiscernible] in exchange for a 25% stake in our Australia and New Zealand operations. Together, the additional funding capacity expected through the joint venture. This give us access to up USD 5 billion to fund acquisition, giving fuel projects and other growth opportunities across Indonesia and Southeast Asia. This creates a well-capitalized platform to accelerate our expansion in one of the fastest growing protein consumption region in the world, while preserving the threat of JBS' balance sheet and reinforcing Australia as a strategic hub within our global operations. Importantly, does not change how we manage the business. Our Australia and New Zealand operation remained fully consolidated under the same leadership and operating model. With that, let's turn to our operational performance. Global beef fundamentally remain constructive. Although conditions vary considerably across markets. Supply is limited in several regions. Demand remained resilient in our global footprint allow us to direct products to the market where returns are the strongest. JBS Brazil delivered a strong quarter driven by export demand and disciplined commercial execution. Under IFRS, adjusted EBITDA totaled USD 269 million with a margin of 5.9%. Even with elevated car price, JBS reported its highest EBITDA for the second quarter. [ Acero ] availability has improved in Brazil, our focus has been on maximize the value of every animal through our integrated commercial network. China remains an important destination and recent shift in trade reinforce the importancy of maintaining balance sheet exposure across export and domestic market by balancing volumes across China other markets, export markets and the domestic market, we protect margins and maximize value per annual. Our domestic business is another important competitive advantage through the Friboi brand and a long-standing customer relationship, we work alongside retailers and categories partners, helping them to grow value across categories. During the quarter, our Barbecue portfolio performance in particle, we have expanded commercial initiatives with our major retailers across Brazil. In Chicken, both [indiscernible] delivered solid results, although market dynamics involved differently across regions. At PPC, demand remained remained healthy across retail and [indiscernible], although industry supply expanded faster than demand. Even so, result improvement from the first quarter as operating condition normalized. [indiscernible] grades were completed and expanding assets continue to mature. HCR margin remained strong despite a tougher year-over-year comparison, unless a favorable -- sorry, a less favorable currency environment in changing export market dynamics. The business grew volumes, reflecting improvements in operating, quality and commercial execution. We see further opportunities to improve mix, distribution and execution in domestic market, while converting volume growth into a sustainable profitability. Our priority for the second half are clear, execution and cash generation. We expect average increase during the quarter and reducing the remaining priority. We are focused on strong cash generation, disciplined working capital management and prudent capital allocation. The environment remains dynamic but our priority are unchanged. We are focused on execution, cash generation and disciplined capital allocation with a diversified portfolio, a strong market position and experienced teaming around the world. We believe we are well positioned to create value through the cycle. Thank you, and I will turn now the call over to Assis.

[indiscernible] thank you for everything you've done for JBS over the past 15 years. And congratulations on the leadership you have shown. You have lived our values every day, challenged our teams to keep raising the bar and helped us deliver stronger results. We've worked together for more than a decade, and I've learned a lot from working alongside you, and I'm very grateful for the trust and partnership we've built over the past years, which will help insurers smooth transition and continuity in our strategy and priorities. I'm incredibly proud and excited to have the opportunity to lead JBS starting in January 2027. This is a company where I've spent my entire professional life and it means a great deal to me. We are fortunate to have an exceptionally strong leadership team and an extraordinary group of 280,000 team members around the world. I'm very excited about what we can accomplish together. As we look forward, my focus remains the same: operational excellence, disciplined capital allocation, customer service and creating long-term value across our diversified global platform. We'll continue to live our values, strengthen our culture and build on the tremendous work you've done over the past 8 years. We'll keep evolving, growing and making JBS an even stronger company for the future. With that, let me turn to our U.S. operations. The second quarter reflected resilient protein consumption in the United States despite a challenging environment for the beef industry, where tight cattle supplies and historically high cattle costs continue to pressure margins. Even so, U.S. Beef delivered a quarter of solid improvement. Our EBITDA margin improved from a negative 3.9% in the second quarter of last year to a negative 1.3% this year, reflect an important step forward despite the ongoing challenges of the cattle cycle. Over the past several quarters, we have improved plant performance, optimize our operating footprint strengthen our commercial capabilities and increased productivity across our plants. Many of the operational initiatives we've been working on are already translating into better results. and the announced capacity optimization will contribute progressively as they are fully implemented. At the same time, we are beginning to see early signs that industry fundamentals are moving in the right direction. The gradual reopening of the Mexican border and the first indications of herd rebuilding reinforce our confidence that supply and demand are heading towards a healthier balance over time. The reopening of the Mexican border is particularly important. The expected reopening of the 3 ports of entry should restore most of the historical flow of cattle from Exco into the United States. Cattle from Exco have represented about 5% of U.S. ladder. So restoring that flow is very meaningful for the industry. We also expect many of the first cattle crossing the border to be heavier than what they used it to be prior to the border closure. That should allow them to reach slaughter weight much sooner than normal. Assuming the ports reopen as expected, we believe we'll continue to see an increasing cattle available for slaughter during the first quarter of 2027 with slaughter volumes returning to a more normal level by the second quarter. Turning to pork. Market fundamentals proved more challenging during this quarter. Even so, our pork business delivered another quarter of solid performance. EBITDA margin reached 8.9% compared to 6.5% a year ago. Our Pork business once again demonstrated its ability to compete at the highest level. We'll continue focusing on operational excellence, customer service, disciplined capital allocation and continuous improvement. Those are the levers we control, and they position us to create greater value over the long term as cattle supplies recover. I will now turn the call over to Guilherme.

Thank you, Tomazoni and Wesley. Before we move on to the quarter's operating results, I would like to highlight that starting in the second quarter -- we voluntarily began reporting results as a U.S. domestic company and therefore reporting forms, TQ and TK in IFRS for the time being. We believe this initiative represents a significant step in our strategy of alignment with the U.S. capital markets and may spend our eligibility for inclusion in a more ample group of stock indexes. In this regard, I would like to highlight JBS inclusion in the rest of 1000 and Russell 3000 indexes in June. This inclusion as well as the potential for inclusion in additional indices going forward is key to expand our investor base increasing liquidity, enhancing global visibility and unlocking value to shareholders. Let's now move on to the operational and financial highlights of the second quarter 2026. Net sales reached a record of $24 billion for the second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA in IFRS totaled $1.4 billion, which represents a margin of 6% for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA in U.S. GAAP totaled $1.3 billion, which represents a margin of 5.3% for the quarter. Adjusted operating income was $790 million with a margin of 3.3% in IFRS and $866 million in U.S. GAAP with a margin of 3.6%. The quarter's net loss was $102 million with a negative EPS of $0.10. In addition, to the year-over-year decline in operating results, we also reported $319 million increasing in net financial expenses. The main drivers were $172 million in premiums increase in costs related to the tender offer for the bond and the craft Brazilian local debenture, of which $147 million had a cash impact. It's worth remembering that this reflects the liability management we carried out in the first quarter, in which we issued $2.5 billion in bonds at more attractive rates and longer tenors. Market-to-mark derivatives, net of exchange rate variation of $53 million. Monetary restatements and high interest expenses related to increasing debt, which together amounted of approximately $120 million. Additionally, the net loss was also impacted by the final calculation of the bargain price gain of the acquisition of [indiscernible] with no cash impact, totaling $81 million and antitrust settlements totaling $133 million. Excluding the nonrecurring items adjusted net income was $218 million, and the earnings per share was were $0.20 for the quarter. Free cash flow. Free cash flow reached in the second quarter of 2026, improved by $125 million year-over-year reaching a positive of $130 million compared to a cash consumption of $55 million in the second quarter of 2025. This improvement was mainly driven by working capital particularly the accounts receivable line, reflecting higher receivable discounts and larger advanced payments from Chinese customers related to JBS Brazil's exports. The accounts payable also increased, mainly driven by higher cattle prices and increase in Zlatar volumes, particularly in Brazil. This improvement was partially offset by a decline in adjusted EBITDA of $324 million, high net cash interest expenses of $129 million due to a higher concentration in the second quarter of interest related to the bonds issued in 2025. Real appreciation that increased interest expenses in U.S. dollars of the Brazilian local debentures and increasing total debt. Moreover, total capital expenditures increased by $163 million, of which $159 million was expansion CapEx. Finally, we had lower tax payments year-over-year of $135 million. Not considering guidance but simply upgrading the cash flow breakeven EBITDA exercise for this year, we expect $5.1 billion in 2026, driven by capital expenditure of $2 billion in 2026, $400 million reduction versus the initial estimates. Working capital expectation of negative $350 million of working capital in 2026, a $500 million improvement versus last year driven by higher receivable discounts as mentioned previously. Legal settlements of $100 million already realized in 2026. Biological assets of $850 million flat versus 2025. Interest expenses of $1.3 billion, an increase of $150 million versus the initial estimates due to higher net debt. Leasing expenses flat at $500 million in 2026, an effective tax rate estimated at 25%. We continue to strengthen our liquidity position. In August, we announced an increase in our revolving credit line from $3.5 billion to $4.2 billion, while reducing the owning cost of this slide. Our cash liquidity, combined with the revolving credit facility totaled approximately $7.7 billion. Our average debt term reached 15.3 years and an average cost of 5.7%, as we anticipated in our last conference call, due to the $1 billion dividend payment in June and the typical cash consumption of the first half of the year, our net leverage ended up the quarter at 3.1x is slightly above our long-term target of keeping net debt to EBITDA between 2 and 3x. It's important to highlight that we have no significant debt maturities for the next 5 years until 2021. And up to 2032, all the coupons are below the current treasury rates and 35% of our gross debt is beyond 2050. With that in mind, I would like to open up for the question-and-answer session.

I can't start the small order at say as to Thomas on what has been a remarkable job, not just in JBS but also on the animal protein industry, and also wishing you Wesley continued success on your extended responsibilities in a chair that I think is sensitive not only to our investors but also for the country, right? We'll be looking forward to keeping up with the conversation. My question is on how you're seeing Wesley the state of the U.S. demand, right? throughout our press release, I see comments of sticky demand on beef and poultry. But then on the other hand, I also see you mentioned that inflation is weighting down on pork you had negative chicken sales growth on foodservice and retail and some of your peers like Tyson Smithfield and even Gruma are cutting their guidance, right? When I look at the beef cutout it seems it has reached somehow of a ceiling, not necessarily following the seasonality. And this is the reason for my question, right? What gives you comfort that demand remains healthy and why should we think that spreads can't erode more prominently going forward. This is the question.

So we still think that demand is very strong. What we have seen, and we can tell this by everything we look on protein trends in general. There is plenty of data in the market about that, and we can see that when we talk to our customers and what we see in the marketplace. We have found out actually that -- and we didn't think it -- we use it to think that proteins had more of a substitution effect depending on prices. And there was a big surprise of the inelasticity of protein demand when it comes to demand for beef, demand for pork and meat for chicken not being so substituted to each other. And we see that in demand a little bit. We see pork demand a little bit weaker than chicken and beef. Beef demand is very strong and actually think that again, I keep on saying a few years ago, cut out about $300. I would have thought it was going to be a very tough -- we would have a tough time achieving that, and we've reached way above that almost into the $400 million. So look, I think demand is still pretty strong. What we are seeing is where the consumer is consuming that protein changing and going more into retail, more eating at home than away from home and food service, that's something we've seen. But again, we -- for the time being, as we see the marketplace right now, we think the protein demands will continue to be strong.

Congrats to both of you, Tomazoni on the great tenure for sure and Wesley on the CEO appointment, looking forward to continue the interaction. This is great news for everybody. I have another one on the U.S., but specifically on [indiscernible] side, the question that we asked the last time. The spreads indicated much tougher second quarter versus the first quarter, but your numbers obviously showed actually a pretty significant improvement. So I wanted to explore more of that. I remember Wesley, during the JVS day, you spent quite some time talking about the in-house initiatives that you guys were looking at to improve the beef margin. So I'm just wondering if there is -- there are more details that you can provide there, some of the initiatives that may have already kicked in and helped the quarter -- and if you can specifically say what you're doing differently that would be helpful or even if there were a couple of issues in the first quarter that were not present, if we were able to quantify that, that would be helpful just so that we we have a better base now to model the U.S. beef going forward, but it does seem like there has been a significant derisking of a division that some people were really concerned about.

So first, when we look at the comp, obviously, last year, the same quarter, we were comparing last year was a quarter where we had some extraordinaries. It was a tough quarter in had some other impacts like hedging that kind of mix the number a little bit. And that's the second quarter of 2026 does not have anything that's very material. There is only minor things and so nothing related to hedging or anything like that. So the comparison is something to keep in mind. But we want to just compare the second quarter to the first quarter and just the business in general, -- it was relatively solid performing compared to performance given the market conditions. So look, we use it to run our business in 2 different business units. And the reason for that is when we acquired Swift Swift and afterwards the Packer land acquisition. Packer land focused on a completely different type of cattle, different type of size of plants, different kind of cattle procurement. And so we use it to run those 2 business units very separate. And the market has changed and has changed quite a lot. And actually, that separation didn't make sense anymore. So we went ahead and put those 2 business units together and run nowadays, the business unit is one. And look, there is -- on both sides of the business, there is strength that 1 had and the other 1 didn't have. And we think that there is going to be a lot of synergies there, and a lot of them are on the sales side. We've done a lot of work over the past 3, 4 years in terms of yields. There is always a little bit more, but most of the plan that I presented in New York was not related to yields was related to being able to sell more ground beef, so more value-added grown beef, we sell more value-added items. You might have seen that we actually had announced the plant closure of Sodertorn, but now we have reversed and decided to run that as a value-added facility, just shows the size of the demand that we have actually for for value-added items and we can continue to supply. So a lot of that's going to be on -- in terms of of sales that we're going to get most of that difference. I actually have the breakdown there on the presentation that talked about that. But we are seeing that and we are very confident. Actually, after we've done this integration, we're even more confident. The last thing I would say is most of that capture has not been seen yet, and we are just beginning. So we've performed this result that we have here. But this is without the -- we are just getting started on that 3% improvement plan that we think we have.

Congrats for your move and also for you, Wesley. I've been [indiscernible]. And sticking with that point Wesley just to understand it better. So Mexican border is open now. We is expected to defer for a few cattle to arrive by the end of the month, right? And just one part open. I wanted to hear from you both from the volume as expected, the base of this volume growing. You said already that you're expecting we've heavier cattle to come from Mexico. But if we talk about the space of imports and connected information with capacity utilization, would you say these openings already relevant for any changes in strategies? Would you say talking about this historical level of 1.52 million heads per year, would expect that number to happen by the end of this year only or at least the volume will be enough for us to expect a higher capacity utilization. Just to understand how you're seeing the pace of impact from the Mexican border opening that just happened? Or if it's more like is it open? There's a sealing for the cattle prices and that is already helping margins, but then no direct not real impact yet. Just to get your ideas on that.

No. So yes, obviously, we are forecasting the market, and there's a lot of things that we don't know. But what we know is -- the first part is going to open us here on the 24th. That's the Port of Douglas Arizona. That part by itself could probably handle 300,000, 400,000 headsets just an estimate, it's difficult to predict, something around 300, 400. So 1/3 of what the usual amount they used to come from Mexico can come from that port. But then in the announcement that the USD made is they're going to analyze how that port opening in Douglas looks like and open 2 more ports in New Mexico, so Santa Teresa and Columbus. So with those 3 parts open, we are going to have -- they have right around 1 point over median had capacity of flow capacity. So those 3 ports should be able to handle a big part, if not 100% of the normalization of the border. Again, these are all estimates that we have, right? We're looking at historical numbers and looking at numbers provided in the public for the public. So I think it's going to be possible within those 3 ports, if those 3 ports opening to have a big part of what Mexico used to trade flow through the U.S. Only 2 states, Mexican states got approval to export to the U.S. or Chihuahua and Sonora. Those 2 states are the biggest states. Both of them are over 2/3 of the Mexican flow of cattle to the U.S. The other thing that I would mention is, yes, we have information from the market that there obviously, that cattle use it to become very young to the U.S. and get backgrounded in the U.S. post the border shut and especially after 2 years of the border shutdown, that cattle had to be backgrounded somewhere else, and it was backgrounded in Mexico. So there is cattle that's in the process of being backgrounded or cattle that's backgrounded and just waiting to go to a feedlot and to get finished in Mexico. So obviously, there will be a part of key lots in the U.S. actually buying that cattle and actually having that flow happen, but we don't see any reason why that wouldn't happen. We also think that there is -- because the 1.2 million head of cattle that came were just the cap crop that was destined to the U.S. On top of that, there is the cattle that's being felt. So we think that the cattle it's bigger than the traditional 1.2 million. So on one hand, you only have 2 states, so about 2/3 of the cattle being able to come to the U.S. On the other hand, you probably have a little bit of a a bigger number of cattle in further phases of the cattle feeding and cattle raising process. So bottom line is we think that because there is a lot of cattle that's already in further stages of cattle production and are heavier, that we're going to start seeing flows obviously end of this month and into the end of the year and expecting that the exports of new Max will open, we think beginning -- somewhere in the first quarter, we should start seeing cattle ready for slaughter that were born in Mexico. And if all goes according to plan, we should go back to a much more normalized if not all, most of the volume or a big part of the volume that we had for -- coming from Mexico into ready for slaughter in the second quarter.

Tomazoni, congrats on on a successful tenure here and Wesley congrats to you on the new role and really looking forward to continuing to work together here. I really wanted to get your thoughts on U.S. beef. And I know everybody is asking about Mexican border flow. So maybe I'll ask -- just updated thoughts on [indiscernible] retention? And can you maybe give us the -- your thoughts -- any updated thoughts on the time line for fed cattle supplies to be rebuilt was the -- what you saw in the report, was that a surprise just given all the commentary with drought concerns regarding [indiscernible] retention in the U.S.

So yes, we obviously think that [indiscernible] retention and U.S. cattle [indiscernible] build is more timid than we expect then that obviously we wished for to get back to a more balanced stage in this -- of a situation in cattle supply. But at the end of the day, what really matters is, number one, it seems like it has -- or now it has top dropping, and that's a big deal. And I think we're going to start seeing we see signals that we might going to start going up. One thing that I'll just mention and not to keep on going back to Mexico, but it's -- I think it's -- again, I think it's super relevant is that for us to wait for cattle herd rebuild that takes a little bit longer with another 11 million, [indiscernible] whatever that ends up coming from [indiscernible] a much more different situation than without that. So it gives us a lot more a lot more balance and a lot more structure for us to see and wait this cattle rebuild without the margins that we have seen in 2025, 2026. I think it probably brings us more to a little bit -- if all goes according to plan, right, and all the ports open, we should go back to equilibrium more like what we saw in 2024, maybe 2023, depending on the amount of cartons. So I think it brings us a lot more -- and it gives us more patient to see what's going to happen. Weather is a big deal, weather is a big deal for sure. And and we'll have to see what comes out of that. One part of the number that doesn't get shown Pooran I think is relevant and it's -- and we have a actotally heard that it seems pretty promising is the half for retention and just category build that we're seeing in Canada. We don't see obviously in those reports, but it's very relevant because it's an open -- it's a market that U.S. cattle goes Canada, Canadian cattle goes to the U.S. So that's a big deal. And look, I think we should see over the next years, a couple of years, 3 years starting to see much stronger review. But again, it's a very different situation. having the Mexican cattle and waiting for a more longer-term herd rebuild in the U.S. The other thing that I would just mention, not to take this too long here, but -- when you look at -- there's 2 things that you need to look at, right, have for retention, but also the amount of cows that get processed to slaughter, right? And that number has been going down very fast as well. So -- if you look at the number compared to 2026 or 2022, we have -- we're processing half of the beef cows that we were processing in 2022. So it's -- I think that's relevant as well.

Wesley, congratulations on the transition and wishing you both all the best. My question is on Seara. We see another strong quarter, right, but margins weakening relative to Q1. So I just like to hear a little more if you could qualify where the sequential margin drop came from if we're mostly talking about export markets or the domestic market. And what are the main trends you are seeing for both of these going into the second half of the year?

Thank you, Ricardo, for your question, and thank you for your words. Searo, let's say, you still -- if you compare the part a bit below, but still a healthy margin, 14%, 15% is really a healthy margin for this business is what we look for this business. When you compare quarter-to-quarter, there is some difference. The main difference is a park or price in domestic market was below some of the market ticket was below the order would be higher. But look, in reality was many change across the 1 category to the other category. But if you make a summary, it was weaker in the domestic market.

I'll follow suit with those wishes to you Tomazoni and Wesley looking forward to working more with you together. Just coming back to the U.S., and we haven't talked much about the pork business. So if you could maybe explain us a little bit more what you're seeing within the pork. You've highlighted that you expected it to kind of like gain a little bit of these like replacement dynamics, but it hasn't turned out to be the case. So the demand picture for pork. So maybe just talk a little bit what you're seeing -- what are the differences across the different -- across the different cutouts and what's been a little bit of a headwind, if you want to call it this way, not major, just a little bit, obviously, in terms of profitability in for as we look into where it is, where it stands right now, slightly below what usually the target is for you guys closer to the very high end of the high single digit.

So Pork has has had a weaker demand than chicken and be for sure. And look, I think the biggest thing is -- first of all, if you look at just the volume process by the industry is kind of stable and the cutout is lower. So that just tells you that demand seems weaker because it's the same amount of supply and lower price. So -- and we think that part of that comes from a little bit of a weakness in the -- in our prepared not necessarily our prepared foods, but just in general, the market of prepared foods just the demand that we're seeing from customers and internal as well, being a little bit more pressure and consumers deciding to to cut back maybe a little bit on those options. It's a quarter. So I wouldn't say that, that's a long-term trend that we should expect for the coming quarters and years. But that's something just to keep in mind that we've seen a little bit more weakness coming from processors that we sell to and in just in our prepared foods business in general, a little bit weaker demand than [indiscernible]

So first of all, congrats Tomazoni on the tenure and Wesley for the new position. So very well deserved. My question is on the U.S. poultry industry, which clearly is suffering from lower spreads, especially on the commodity part of the business on the big birds. So my question to you guys is where we think -- where you guys think we are in the cycle? So if you already see some sort of a capacity reduction in volume production cuts in the industry. Or when do you guys think we should see that happening, especially on, like I said, on the most commoditized part of the business and especially on the beef burn. So that's my question.

Thank you, Lucas. In Q2, chicken supply grew 4.5% in U.S. was above expectation, above expectation of the industry because the growth was driven by the higher egg sets and chicken placement, but the most significant was the better bird survival rates compared to -- with last year when the respiratory disease and low painters increased mortality means that the industry taken historical rates of the survival rates -- and based on that place the chicken for this year. And how is the rate was better. We had more chicken. What do we expect from -- we expect the industrial adjust in in common bonds? It's B. If you look for the historical industry is very disciplined in terms of to manage the supply/demand in this business.

Congrats on the transition and good luck to you both. Yes. So I will stick to the chicken business, but in a different way, it's interesting to see how Pure Greens has been suffering from this higher supply of chicken and translating into lower chicken prices and hence into lower margins. And while Seara doesn't seem to be suffering from the same phenomenon. And you guys mentioned in the press release, strong export markets and the Middle Eastern market, in particular, sustaining good profitability in the chicken exports out of Brazil. So my question to you is how you see those 2 moving parts unfolding in the coming months and quarters? Whether do you see this chicken price pressure at some point, spilling over into Seara's export business? Or you expect the other way, you expect Fibres margins to eventually improve before any erosion on the Seara business. So how do you expect this global chicken price environment to unfold into the 2 subsidiaries? That would be my question.

And I think it's -- you mentioned there as compared Belgian Seara they are really different, even both of them export, but they export different type of products. They compete in very few markets. maniac with the lag quarters. Otherwise, there is no competition on that. And for Seara export are very important, [indiscernible] is less important, that show this comes from this a little bit the explanation about what the difference. In U.S., [indiscernible] a diversified portfolio. I think you had the opportunity to hear from [indiscernible] But what is soft in the U.S. is the category of big bird -- this is a commodity that the product that we sell for processes, we increase too much the volume and the demand is not enough to met the supply because of [indiscernible] and [indiscernible] As a apart that 25% of the business is around 25% of the business is commodity. And this part of the business offer even before we transformed 2 factories. And from big bird to [indiscernible] ready because [indiscernible] already demand is strong as as I mentioned, when they talk about the U.S. market for beef, consumers eat more at home. And then because of that, the demand in retail for chicken increase. But of course, as we have a balanced portfolio, we suffer with the commodity and we see that this -- I mentioned the question that I answered before. If you look for the historic. Normally, the [indiscernible] they have a very disciplined in terms of supply and demand in the U.S. for this last, I think, is many years. And this we are expecting [indiscernible] because the additional supply we have in the market. It was because -- mainly because of the historic we planted the panic, the survival rates for chicken lower than it was in the effect in the [indiscernible] is oversupply. When you go to Brazil, we see now that the less numbers of the Brazilian association that the production growth 5.6%. I think this -- but export increased 20% means that -- because of that, the availability in domestic market was 3.1%. In export market in the export market, demand remained health even a price below previous level, we believe that when you look ahead, I can -- it's difficult to predict or forecast what we had. I think just the number of the association means that they forecast for 2027, the production will be grown 2.8%. And the export of the growth through the availability will be 2.7%. If that number is the normal numbers that the market could be asset because it's a normal growth of the market. [indiscernible] we see that today, we have -- the level of placement of chicken is higher -- but we see that the demand in sport in Brazil is high. And I believe that it will be possible to compensate who are not all of them, but industries should be normally to look for the, again, historic. You'll see that induce normally rebalance when we have this balance in the market. We see this quarter, the next -- the coming quarter, we will be I think we are confident in terms of what market -- what we'll be able to do it Seara. And and see, it's something that we are not managed, something that we not control. We focus on our quarter control. We control the mix. We control the price. We control the diversification not change and what we are doing.

So [indiscernible] my colleagues, congratulations, Tomazoni. It's been a pleasure interacting with you in the last year. And Wesley, congratulations as well. We wish you all the best in the years ahead? And my question is on Australia, right? I think we saw a very important growth in top line, right, which -- you mentioned about JBS Brazil, how China Pota impacted exports. But I wanted to understand if we can assume this is the same reason why Australia's top line has been so strong this quarter. And on top of that, how can we think performance ahead not only in terms of revenues, but in terms of maybe the impact on the profitability of this division.

Isabella. Australia is -- we see that we are very excited with the business in Australia. We are in middle of the cycle, we see 2, 3 years very positive for our Australia business. And all of the business in sales performed well -- when you look for the Australia results below the comparison of the same period the last year, mainly because of the currency -- but this -- and because of decline, we had very -- we try a lot in Australia, and we are not able to bring the cattle to the plants and because of a little bit in volume, we are able to produce more, and we are -- this is what we are seeing in the next quarter. And as you saw that with the joint entry, we have done -- we did an entire we recreate a platform for growing Australia and Indonesia and South Africa. Australia is really well in Asia -- sorry, Asia, in Australia is very well positioned. It's close to this market, and we have a strong team. And so look, we are bullish in Australia.

And congrats Wesley on your new position at the company and best of luck to you both in Tomazoni in your annual role starting next year. And my question actually relates to free cash flow going forward. And a couple of months ago in the JBS Day presentation, it was mentioned that CapEx for 2026 should be slightly lower than previously stated in other conference calls, reaching something close to $2 billion. But my question is what to expect for 2027 and if you understand that the current cycle conditions at this point, especially with the Mexican border reopening enables a reacceleration of the expansion CapEx agenda for next year? And if the JV in Australia changes your appetite towards accelerating the consolidated investment level going forward since this new variable was added into the equation last week.

Thank you, Gustavo. So beginning with the joint venture. That's a way for us to continue to -- with our agenda of growth and accelerate this agenda in that region of the world without putting more pressure on the balance sheet. So bear in mind that Banana tribute $800 million in first place and then adding up to $2.5 billion in equity. And then after that, we start to to raise that. So basically, there will be no pressure in terms of free cash flow from the investments in that region, given this capital structure that was designed. Now coming back to JBS consolidated free cash flow. Remember that last year, we had a working capital consumption of $850 million mainly due to increasing prices, which continue to happen this year. We see that in this second quarter, we had record revenues of $24 billion. So increasing prices, increasing revenues, drags, working capital However, we had anticipation of Chinese. We have -- and we have receivables discount. So we with that, we are -- that's why we are forecasting that this year, the working capital consumption will be $500 million better. For next year, again, we don't -- we should -- well, because of the USD and if we don't have any inflationary pressure, we should be a good year for in terms of releasing working capital. But of course, that all depends on grain prices, cattle prices and the net prices. With all the other lines already in line, I think -- and this interest expense is also in line with what we've been presenting. So this all depends now on each one estimates of EBITDA to plug into this equation.

My congratulations to Tomazoni and Westley as well. My question is for Westly for U.S. Beef. So in '24, Douglas represented about 15% of imports from Mexico. So I was just wondering if there's been some expansion there that would allow for greater flows to that port. And if Mexico cattle flows return to levels approximately 2/3 of where they were prior to the closing -- is that factor alone enough to return JBS' U.S. beef EBITDA levels to breakeven?

So yes, for sure, it wasn't as much as what I'm predicting. But obviously, there were many options, right? There were options all over taxes. There were -- all of the options were open. So obviously, if you have just Douglas opening, it's going to be more than if you have Douglas M plus 5 more ports or I don't know how many they were back then. So we expect, obviously, especially for a while, it's going to be the only part that's going to be more than usual. And what -- the way that we are looking at the volume pretty simple. We look at the volume, how we estimate. We're basically looking at what were -- what was a high-volume day back then before or was a very high day for Douglas. How much could Douglas handle, and we're just multiplying that and trying to estimate how much that means in a year. So that's how we're getting that number. Look, it's obviously. We're dealing with a lot of assumptions here and things that are -- we're going to know pretty soon if they're going to come up, turn out to be as expected or not. And we're going to know pretty soon actually how this always going to look like. But we think that we've won other -- let's say, just another mid-ahead of cattle in the balance here. If we're right now at around -- between 2% and 1% negative, we should be closer to a breakeven. I don't know if it's going to be enough for us to be at a breakeven or above breakeven. I'm pretty sure that a mid and head makes a big difference. It's the size of a 2-shift plant, right? So it's a big deal. So we think that it's going to be much better. How much -- if it's going to be above or right below the breakeven, I'm not quite sure yet. It's going to be much better than where we are right now. That's what I mean. That's what I think.

Also wish both Tomazoni and Wesley's success in the new positions. On my question, I know you touched a bit on this for Sara. But I wanted to get a sense of the demand landscape in Brazil, retailers are quite negative on the outlook for the second half of 2016 in early 20 -- so my question is how you're seeing that if you're already seeing some impact on demand weakness throughout the operations there, some shift from beef to pork to chicken to ags -- and what's your perception around that and the risk on margins if we do see the consumer sort of downgrading their product in consumption?

Thank you for the question, Mattis I think it's -- we are not seeing so far weak demand for our products. We see strong demand. And for all of the products, the price of pork is a little bit depressed because the supply the demand is higher than -- sorry, the supply is higher than demand, but for a chicken, the chicken and value-added and our value-added business demand as shop. Stones normally. We are not seeing the press -- we don't see that people be downgrade in terms of 1 run to the other. We see that protein now is on top of the priority for all of the population. Many reasons. You know that many reasons of protein become very strong global in Brazil even with and this GLP-1 in Brazil is to spend a lot now with the new new brands come to the marketing of this GLP-1. I believe the accessibility of them will be higher and we are so positive on that. Of course, we see that we have -- today, when you look for the market, as I mentioned, I answered a before, there is a higher production of ticket and -- and I think the Indus give balance that. Even the domestic export of chickens is very high and the demand globally demand is high for chicken. But I think it will be reveal the level of the chicken place in Brazil. And about the margins. So look, -- it's -- we're not given forecast of that, but you can see that we have a strong gain of efficiency inside of the company, innovations and new mix -- and we are confident that Seara will keep continuing to deliver good margins.

Congratulations to Wesley for the appointment, wish you every success in the role and Tomazoni congratulations on the extraordinary run as a global CEO. So my question is I'm going to shift to Brazil bit. The company had a strong quarter with record second quarter EBITDA growth and the exports were clearly an important part of that performance particularly because of the purchase of China. And now we have a July export data for the industry that gives us a first indication of post-quota environment. So my question for you is, if you could help us to understand whether what you have seen so far in terms of export volumes for the company and pricing is broadly in line with your expectations for this environment? and looking through the reminder of the year, the second half, how should we think about China demand and the ability to redirect the volumes to other markets?

Thank you, Renata. I'll give you an overview about the beef in Brazil because it's a very complex environment. Now with the China quota because based on the current expectation, Brazil should presume production for China in October with shipment restarting in November. And given the normal transit times that commercial impact of those shipments will be reflected primarily in 2027. As always, we continue to manage our commercial strategy, dynamic optimization, production allocation across the sports market to all to maximize that. But there isn't market that can accommodate the volume of 150,000 tons that China was reported this period that will be start China and now we have this volume. The harvest of the animal has fallen 20% in the first month, but the price of their life animal did not fall and should default. Because the animal is in the field. And I believe that the farmers have prepared for the end of the quarter. In the cattle, I mentioned before, are there and the price should fall and then you will recalibrate the cutout and the margin in this business because, of course, Brazil will be without quota of China and probably with the European European restriction that we have I believe that we need to reduce the number -- the number of care harvest in Brazil -- for this period, we don't have the quota of China. When the quota of China restarting in October, that will be different. But so far, we -- till October, we see that the price of cattle should be fall. Because the number of cattle will fall, harvest will fall. And I think it's on as a unique conditions because we have brand, we have category management with the retails that provide -- I think is -- when you combine this category manager and the brand that we have provide for us a very competitive advantage in the sector. So look, we are -- we see tough now in the market for this period of the time. But we believe that the market will be back on a healthy situation in coming months

Wesley, Tomazoni, Gilermagain, as everyone mentioned, congrats on the move, Wesley and Tomazoni, you'll be truly beast as one of the key executives on the protein space and not only for GBS, but for the entire sector and a great voice defending the sector globally. Wesley. I know that you have not taken office already, but you have been with JBS in any part of the organization, I think, now, right? So you have been all over the place in any divisions. And you get a company now that it's a company listed in the U.S., a global player which in the last couple of years, changed EBITDA strategy from M&A and integration as it was in the past towards more of an organic growth value-added. So I want to take your thoughts having experience in all divisions so far, seeing every operation -- what do you think lies ahead for the organization? What is the agenda that you will try to pursue. What will be the JBS of Wesley Filho from now on?

The good thing about a transition that's internal like what we're doing is that there is a lot of continuity, right? So when you get a new CEO that comes from a market, from the market or that's not on the day-to-day of the operations and the guys knew and they have to come up with something completely new and something completely different sometimes, right, just to maybe mark kind of what direction that they think is relevant. And that's exactly not the case, right? I mean, Tomazoni and I have been working together for the past 10 years, so a lot of what has been done within JBS for the past decade here in a lot of ways. I've had the privilege to be part of that team that was doing that, and it was alongside Tomazoni the time here doing that. So you should not at all see JBS have a big change in the strategy in the way we do things, again, because we are just one team, and we've been working together for all of that time. So there is a lot of alignment in terms of leadership and in this transition here. The other thing, too, I would not at all consider a JBS of Wesley or JBS. JBS has 280,000 team members and a very, very strong leadership team that's -- I think it's maybe I'm biased, but I think it's the best in the industry. So I think that's something else that I just mentioned. Now in terms of where we're going to go, Galerie, for sure, we -- we have a lot of new avenues of growth that have been opened in the last few years that need to continue to mature and to continue to evolve. And we just announced really just last week about this [indiscernible] deal and all of the potential that we have in Southeast Asia, that's a population -- a market population of 700. If you can consider the Asian block plus Ocana, Australia and New Zealand right or New Zealand as well. You're talking about 750 million people. So it's a huge market that we trade a little bit, but not very, very much that opens a whole new avenue of growth for us. Australia is a huge platform for us to get started in that in compute competitive advantage for us to grow in the area of the world. We have the project in Oman that continues to grow our business in the Middle East. And obviously, I'm talking about new geographies, but even in our traditional geographies like the U.S. and doing -- continue to evolve our agenda on brands like what we're doing with just [indiscernible] in Brazil, a lot of the growth that we've done in Seara has been matured, but there is still some to go, and there's a lot for us to get done there. Our business in the U.K. is a business that gets relatively little about, but it's a great business, about $5 billion business within [indiscernible] that $5 billion that doesn't -- we don't talk quite as often. But anyway, we're going to continue to grow on the revenues that we have been growing, and you'll see a lot of continuity in alignment going forward. But thank you for your question, Guilherme.

I'd like to join the crowd here on the complements. So Tomazoni, congrats on a job well done, thank you for the interactions during the year. It's been a pleasure and hope to keep in touch in Wesley, congrats on the new role, actually, a well-deserved staff and we show all the basin position -- my question is on Australia. I'd like to continue this conversation Wesley about the potential of Australia as a production platform. Obviously, you are relevant there. But in terms of GBS' global platform. It's not that relevant. So in the scope of the partnership with tenant and when you look at the country's potential there in terms of crane production, land availability and so on. How big an opportunity Australia could be, especially for the production of chicken in the future? I mean logistics wise, it's very -- it seems to be very competitive, right, to have Australia as a production platform in chicken. So how do you think about this? And how is this being considered in the scope of the deal with [indiscernible]

Thank you, Ricardo, for the question. I think is important I think is to discuss a bit what is the long-term strategic partnership is to expand our investment capacity in Southeast Asia. And when we preserved our operating model and give us a financial discipline and full operating control. The priority in these first 2 years is to invest in the regions for Indonesia, Indonesia is the focus and the main focus on us with this partnership is these first 2 years, individual then after that, we can invest in Australia or the other [indiscernible] in South Asia. But -- you mentioned that in Australia, we are a very diversified plates we missed chicken. Of course, chicken something that we are -- we have all the times considered the opportunity to enter this sector. But we didn't find the right conditions that we believe that is accretive for us to go in. That but it's still open as an opportunity. We don't have a pipeline of investment or acquisition to announce -- but in reality, we are looking for opportunity that could be M&A or greenfield and with a focus Indonesia now. And why we are so confident because of the size of the market, we're talking about 640 million population in this area. And we cannot go along in this something that is safe. And the way that we have organized this deal we create conditions that we have -- we will not stress our balance sheet. And I think this was we have assessed additional capital is not change our investment is at the same time, you can catch the opportunity this growth market and then grow consumption of of proteins. I think this was perfect movement in a strategic area for the increase in consumption of protein.

This is Theresa on for Priya. And congrats Tomazoni, Wesley on the transition to your new roles. We really -- we're really looking forward to work with you and wish you both the best. So our question is, will we continue to expect that new Leverage will end the year at or below 3x and in support of this, how should we think about the potential for any debt repayment over the rest of the year?

Bear in mind that on a last of month rail, we are replacing a very strong, especially from the chicken U.S. EBITDA of last year. to a more normalized margins for chicken U.S. this year. So this statistical effect tends to pressure the leverage. However, second half of the year is where we generate the bulk of our free cash flow. So one thing probably tends to balance the order. So we're thinking that we'll be finishing the year in the levels more or less the same that actually got in the second quarter, slightly above 3x. And as we generate free cash flow and given they have no debt matured this in the short term. And because all of the coupons up to 2022 are below treasury, the efficient debt to be repurchased. I would say probably the 34, which have a 6.75 on should have still $300 million outstanding there and some 33s or 35s. But let's see how the second half behaves, and then we can make a decision of repaying or not those more expensive debt.

Before we close, I want to just thank all of you for your kind words and congratulations today for me on behalf of Wesley. I also think you for the attention, respect and support you have shown me and over this past 8 years, our interaction has been always been very productive your question, your perspective, even your challenge and help us improve the way we communicate sharpen our focus and become a better company. I ever learned a great deal from all of you. And of course, I want to thank our entire team around the board, everything we have accomplished over these years has been a team effort, and I'm very proud of what we have built together. We still have a few important malls ahead of us, and my focus remains fully only the JBS continue to deliver strong results and working closer with [indiscernible] ensure a smooth transition to a successful transition. Thank you, again, for your trust, for your engagement and your partnership over all these years. Thank you.

This is the end of the conference call held by JBS. Thank you very much for your participation, and have a nice day.