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Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Fri, Nov 13, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to the SABESP's Conference Call to discuss its results for the Third Quarter of 2015. The audio for this conference is being broadcast simultaneously through the Internet in the website, www.sabesp.com.br. In that same address, you can also find the slideshow presentation available for download. We inform that all participants will only be able to listen to the conference during the company's presentation. After the company's remarks are over, there will be a Q&A period. At that time, further instructions will be given. [Operator Instructions] Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the Safe Harbor of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of SABESP's management and on information currently available to the company. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events and, therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of SABESP and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Today with us, we have Mr. Rui Affonso, Chief Financial Officer and Investor Relations Officer; Mr. Mário Arruda Sampaio, Head of Capital Market and Investor Relations; Mr. Marcelo Miyagui, Head of Accounting. Now, I'll turn the conference over to Mr. Sampaio. Sir, you may begin your conference. Mário Arruda Sampaio: Thank you and again good morning, everyone. I would like to thanks again for participating in this one more conference call. I like to move to the presentation, today we have 12 slides to discuss the main events in this…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from Larry Tedeschi from STRS Ohio. Please go ahead.

Larry Tedeschi

Analyst · STRS Ohio. Please go ahead

Hi, good morning. On slide 14 for the total – for 2015 you're adding 6.5, I guess like cubic meters per second. What is that as a percentage of your total -- your total number for the whole system? Mário Arruda Sampaio: Okay. This is Mário, let's do the math here. But the total system prior to the crisis is about 75 cubic meters. So, that is about 8% additional, almost 9% addition to the previous water availability in the metro region of São Paulo.

Larry Tedeschi

Analyst · STRS Ohio. Please go ahead

Okay. And what -- and so that – so the 75 is pre-crisis, what is – what are you seeing right now? Mário Arruda Sampaio: Well again this is water capacity availability.

Larry Tedeschi

Analyst · STRS Ohio. Please go ahead

I see so, does not worked out. Mário Arruda Sampaio: Okay. So prior to the crisis. Okay. I'll answer in the different way. Today we – the availability is equivalent to what we're extracting, hopefully going up as we showed on the other slides. But today, we're exacting about 54 cubic meters, 53 cubic meters per second. But in fact, if you take that figure then we're extracting more than – the addition is more than 10%.

Larry Tedeschi

Analyst · STRS Ohio. Please go ahead

Okay. That's what we're looking for. Thank you. Mário Arruda Sampaio: Okay.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from Kelleen Kiely from Pzena Investment Management. Please go ahead with your question.

Kelleen Kiely

Analyst · Pzena Investment Management. Please go ahead with your question

Hello. My question is just on the relationship between rainfall and water in flow in the Cantareira system. What needs to happen for there to be a basically better inflow because the relationship between rainfall and inflow is not as correlated as I would expect it to be; better rainfall than inflow. So what is preventing better inflow and what needs to happen for that to improve? Mário Arruda Sampaio: Kelleen, in short, without the technical guides around this, it is that the soil is very dry and the ground water is very low, and ultimately what we need is the soil to be soaked up so then the water can run without penetrating to the ground, and thus increase the correlation between rain and inflow. Okay?

Kelleen Kiely

Analyst · Pzena Investment Management. Please go ahead with your question

Okay. And is there – I mean is there any guideline you can give us in terms of how much more – how much more saturation there is to, before we get to the point where we or how much more saturation you need to see before you get to the point, where you most of the incremental inflow actually or a rainfall becomes inflow, any numbers you can put around that? Mário Arruda Sampaio: Kelleen, from what I hear from the technical group and who is next to me also sits everyday with a technical guys and as a Director. And is that – it is -- there's so many variables in fact in place and on a short-term and long-term that this correlation is almost impossible to establish, it is definitely a moving correlation given how the rain pattern was in the previous wet and summer season that determines how much water will be and how much land will be sold throughout the next water rainy season. So I'm just trying to explain to you that this is something that, it could be thousands of models and again thousands of statistics, but unfortunately we can't see that happen. And do not have a way to answer to you. If we did we would be a much more confident of what would be happening in the next months. Okay. I mean, we're confident...

Kelleen Kiely

Analyst · Pzena Investment Management. Please go ahead with your question

Okay. Thank you. Mário Arruda Sampaio: You got it, already. Okay.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from [indiscernible]. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yeah, hi. This is Bill [indiscernible]. Yeah solid a quarter. I just curious, what is – in terms of El Niño, has there any been predictions about Niño impact in southern Brazil – what are malls look like? Is that confer a higher amount of rainfall projected through the wet season? And then secondly, if there is much more rainfall occurring, would that delay any of these initiatives planned for 2017, if you got burdens of rainfall? Thank you. Mário Arruda Sampaio: I'm going backwards. If we do get very good rains and everything is very positive on hydrologic and reservoir levels, we will not change the plan. We will not fall back on [indiscernible] in the future plans that we have listed. The plan is really to – is to execute this and bring water security to a much higher level than we have prior to the crisis. So, no, we're just going to continue with investments. Pertaining the El Niño impact, as a general rule, the El Niño whatever intensity it has, it has a very clear impact in the northern part of Brazil and a very clear impact in the southern – south of Brazil. But unfortunately, where we are and we call the southeast region, it continues to provide a very erratic pattern. So if you go back to all the El Niño impacts in previous years, you potentially will see that you can't conclude in the southeast whether it brings more rain or less rain. In fact, this is a very erratic region in terms of establishing patterns for range and dry period in terms of annual range and annual drop. So Bill unfortunately, it is uncertain.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. Thank you. Mário Arruda Sampaio: Welcome.

Operator

Operator

This will be the final announcement [Operator Instructions] And we have a follow up question from Kelleen Kiely from Pzena Investment Management. Please go ahead.

Kelleen Kiely

Analyst · Pzena Investment Management. Please go ahead

Hi, thanks. I'm just curious on the covenant waiver with IDP, was there any cost to get that? Mário Arruda Sampaio: Just a second. Kelleen, yes there was – as you potentially read on the explanatory notes but it's just business, we did not and will disclose the value.

Kelleen Kiely

Analyst · Pzena Investment Management. Please go ahead

Okay. Okay. And one last one..? Mário Arruda Sampaio: Okay.

Kelleen Kiely

Analyst · Pzena Investment Management. Please go ahead

Okay. And one last one, if you don't mind. Is, When you benefited in the quarter from some provision adjustments. Can you give us any insight into the prospects for continuing to have some of those benefits in the quarters to come? Mário Arruda Sampaio: Kelleen, it is very hard to give any perspective on provisions, okay. What we can say is that we have been very diligently and aggressively working on our accounts receivable, whether from municipalities or from what we call, wholesale customers. We are acting and utilizing legislation to enforce them to negotiate and pay two bills and et cetera. And we can anticipate how much of that we will – what is the return of that in terms of money, cash, and the impact of that in terms of provision. But definitely, we are looking after with very strong activities around it. So unfortunately, we don't have the number, but I am telling you the actions we're taking. Okay.

Kelleen Kiely

Analyst · Pzena Investment Management. Please go ahead

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Matt Christ from Gramercy. Please go ahead.

Matthew Christ

Analyst · Gramercy. Please go ahead

Hi, guys. Just had a quick question on the construction revenue from the quarter; it was a significant contributor to your revenue and EBITDA growth. Could you just put some more color around the construction revenues that you generated? Mário Arruda Sampaio: Okay. Second. Let me answer the first question, I believe was the question in terms of construction revenue and effect on the EBITDA. You have to – to reach EBITDA you have to – you have the revenue – construction revenue and you also have the construction costs. So one minus the other, which is really the – the fact on EBITDA, is that was R$22 million. So, it's almost nil.

Matthew Christ

Analyst · Gramercy. Please go ahead

Got you. Mário Arruda Sampaio: So, that's one. The higher construction revenue, it's basically the higher in the period, investments that were accounted for, okay, okay?

Matthew Christ

Analyst · Gramercy. Please go ahead

Okay. Thanks. Mário Arruda Sampaio: Welcome.

Operator

Operator

At this time it appears to be no further questions. I'll now turn the conference back to SABESP for their final remarks. Mário Arruda Sampaio: Okay, everybody, thanks again, this quarter for your time, and we will be back next year for fourth quarter numbers and see you there. Bye-bye.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.