BR Advisory Partners Participações - Earnings Call - Q3 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, everyone. Thank you for waiting. Welcome to BR Partners' video conference call to discuss third quarter 2025 earnings results. We inform you that this video conference call is being recorded and can be accessed on the company's IR website, where you can find the full package of our financial disclosure. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Later, we will have a Q&A session. To ask questions, click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and type in your question. If you prefer to use the microphone to ask questions live, just let us know by message, and we will send you a request to enable your microphone. We emphasize that the information contained in this presentation and the forward-looking statements that might be made during the video conference are relative to BR Partners' business prospects, projections, and operating and financial targets.

They are based on the beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as on information currently available. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, but they refer to future events and, therefore, dependent circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, market conditions, and other operating factors may affect the company's future performance and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Today, we have the following officers present: Ricardo Lacerda, CEO; Josef Flavius Ramos, CFO; Marcelo Costa, Managing Director and Head of Treasury Sales and Structuring; Anilo Katharucci, Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets; and Vinicius Carmona, IRO. I will now turn the floor to Mr. Carmona, who will start the presentation.

Vinicius Carmona (IRO)

Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us in our conference call to discuss the nine months of 2025 earnings results. Starting on slide two with the financial highlights, we recorded solid results in the first nine months of 2025 and in the quarter, with revenue and net income at healthy levels despite the ongoing challenging macroeconomic scenario, with interest rates at very restrictive levels, which impact our activity, as we have commented throughout this period. Total revenue amounted to BRL 133 million, down 4.3% quarter on quarter and down 15.5% year on year. In the first nine months, revenue totaled BRL 400 million, down 8.5%. Revenue from clients was BRL 100 million in Q3, down 1.6% and down 20.5% year on year. In the nine months, revenue was down 10.1%.

Net income was BRL 42 million in Q3, down 6.6% quarter on quarter and down 15.8% year on year. In the nine months, net income totaled BRL 130 million, lower by 13.9% compared to the same period last year. ROAE stood at 20.9% in Q3 and 21.6% year to date. We would also like to highlight new awards we won during the quarter. We were winners in the category Best Investment Bank by M&A Advisory, Best Capital Markets Department by Euromoney, and we won the Leaders League in the M&A category for the year 2024. On slide three, we announced the payment of super dividends, which will take place on November the 26th. We have opted to make the additional dividend payment because we have excess capital and are returning the surplus value to our shareholders, as we always do, actually, without disrupting our capital allocation strategy in our operations.

We are paying 1 Real and 2 cents per unit, totaling BRL 107 million in dividends. With this distribution, the annualized dividend yield reached 13.9%. I would like to highlight how our business is cash-generating and profitable. Please note that since 2021, at our IPO, we have already distributed BRL 661 million in dividends, more than the 400 million we raised with the IPO. This distribution represented an average annual payout of 86%. We have paid, including this payment, 6 Real and 30 cents per unit since the IPO, and our dividend yield in recent years has reached levels equal to or higher than the SELIC rate, despite being a variable income asset. On slide four, I would like to draw special attention to the work we have been doing on a daily basis since our IPO, seeking to improve the liquidity of our shares.

The last four years have been extremely difficult for the stock market in Brazil. As you well know, the stock market has lost much of its competitiveness with nominal interest rates in the country reaching 15% per annum. We have seen a massive migration of equity from the stock market to fixed income in Brazil, not to mention the increased perception of risk due to the Brazilian fiscal issue, as well as other issues in the international market. In short, I guess you all know how difficult it has been to promote the stock market here. However, we have prospered brick by brick in developing our story in the Brazilian stock market. In the first chart, we show the evolution of our average liquidity each quarter since 2023. We went from trading less than BRL 1 million per day to now be trading currently roughly BRL 7 million.

This was not by chance, of course. We managed to unlock part of our liquidity with a follow-on at the end of 2023. We secured our entry into the smal-cap and the dividend indices, and especially since the beginning of 2025, we have been telling our story around the world and have managed to attract large foreign investors, as well as new local investors who are now more comfortable with the current liquidity levels to build a position. Obviously, the Nasdaq listing drove this strategy of expanding and diversifying the shareholder base, and this process is only beginning. In the second chart, we show, indexed to 100 for the same period, our relative liquidity that was much higher than that of thesmall-cap index, as well as the total volume traded on the stock exchange.

Our volume grew 739% in the period analyzed, while the small-cap index grew 65%, and the total volume of the stock exchange fell 11%. This is evidence that our strategy is working. We continue to believe in the Brazilian stock market, and we are convinced that our liquidity can still grow substantially as the interest rates begin to fall starting at the beginning of next year, and perhaps some flow will return to stock. On slide five, just an update on our ADR listing. We have been surprised, at least so far, by the level of liquidity of the security, although it is still a small portion of our free float and too short a period for us to have a more concrete analysis. We are quite excited about the creation of the program.

The average traded volume over the last 30 days was $1.6 million, and over the last 10 days, it was $237,000, trading 21% and 3.9% of the float daily, respectively. The start of a listing usually brings excessive liquidity, and this explains this high liquidity when we analyze the 30-day period. The charts on the right show the evolution of our investor diversification strategy. You can see that in December of 2022, only 1% of the free float was held by foreign funds, and we had 22,000 individual investors. Today, we have 18% foreign investors in our client base and more than 50,000 individual investors. Clearly, we have been managing to diversify and broaden our client base. On slide six, and I'd like to draw your attention to this slide, which is extremely important.

We are bringing a new perspective to analyze how we have managed to diversify our revenue streams and reduce our dependence on more cyclical revenues, mainly from M&A. As we have said throughout this year, we are going through the worst M&A cycle in the last five years. As you all know, M&A is traditionally the flagship of our advisory services. In the chart below, we show revenue growth over the last five years since the pre-IPO indexed to 100. Note that although investment banking grew 4% over the entire period, non-cyclical business revenues, in other words, the sum of capital markets, treasury, wealth management, and capital revenues grew 346% over the period. When we consider total revenue or revenue streams of the company, we grew 145% in that period. The CAGR for non-cyclical businesses was 35% per annum, and for total revenue, it was 20%.

This shows how we have strived to develop new verticals and improve the quality of our revenue with growth and profitability in non-cyclical businesses. However, it is important to remember that IB remains the company's main vertical, and M&A has great potential to resume its level of activity, counting on a more favorable macroeconomic environment. Now, on slide seven, we present revenues from clients, which remained at healthy levels but still feeling the impacts of the restrictive interest rate cycle, particularly on the investment banking side. Revenues from clients amounted to BRL 301 million in the nine months of 2025, down 10% in the period. The take-home message here is that revenues from clients continue to dominate, accounting for 75% of total revenue. Slide eight shows investment banking and capital markets revenues.

Revenues totaled BRL 67 million in the quarter, down 34% year on year and 18% in the first nine months. This was the fourth consecutive quarter of declining revenues, largely due to sluggish M&A activity throughout 2023, as this has been, as I mentioned a moment ago, the worst M&A cycle in the last five years of our recent history. However, we observed an important change in the mix of this revenue, which now includes a significant contribution from capital markets, as well as from capital solutions, which we used to call structuring or restructuring before, and which helped offset part of this slowdown in the M&A market.

Now, still on the subject of M&A, it is important to note that we believe the worst is behind us, and we are seeing greater engagement in our mandates, which points to a transition to a better cycle, as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation. On slide nine, the first chart shows deals over the last 12 months by economic sector and type of advisory service. In terms of sectors, financial services and telecommunications were the most active. In terms of type of advisory services, even in a challenging time for the M&A market, we were able to position ourselves assertively through board services, a strategic pillar that strengthens relationships and also supports the company working with new clients.

Among the recent deals, we highlight our advisory service to RNI in connection to its tender offer, board services to COSA in connection with its capital increase, fairness opinion to Banes in connection with the formalization of its insurance distribution agreement with MAG, board services for BTG Fund in relation to the sale of Linhares to Eneva, sell side M&A advisory services to COVER in connection with the sale of its stake to its executives, as well as the restructuring of MBPAR in the area of capital solutions. Slide 10 shows the evolution of issuance volume in the capital markets, which remain strong and offer good opportunities for debt structuring among different instruments: MBS, infrastructure debentures, ABS, and creditorian notes. The volume issued in the quarter was BRL 1.8 billion in eight transactions.

In the first nine months, even with a higher average SELIC rate compared to 2024, we managed to grow volume by 11% to BRL 6.8 billion. We were actually positively surprised by the performance of the Brazilian capital market throughout 2025, with nominal interest rates of 15% and real rates around 10%. We remain optimistic about the continued development of our DCM in 2026 with the prospect of interest rate cuts. On slide 11, we have the performance of treasury sales and structuring. Our treasury posted a very solid result in Q3, with revenues totaling BRL 29 million, this being our second-best quarter in the history of this division. Year to date, the division posted revenue of BRL 70 million, up 21% compared to 2024. We have been increasingly able to strengthen our flow activities, which is important for the recurrence of this business.

In the quarter with market volatility, we found good opportunities to offer protection to our clients' balance sheets. In addition, the Brazilian capital market remained strong in the third quarter, which enabled us to structure debt swaps for recurring clients, as well as to win new clients. However, it is important to mention that despite the strong results posted, we continue to experience fierce price competition from incumbent banks, particularly in large corporates with low credit risk. On slide 12, we have revenue from wealth management. Revenue from wealth management amounted to BRL 4 million in Q2 and BRL 11.3 million in the first nine months. Wealth under management reached BRL 5.9 billion. In terms of net new money, we added BRL 1.2 billion in one year, up 25%.

We remain confident in our growth strategy, and we are strengthening ties with potential clients, which is always about relationships for the long run, requiring longer periods for conversion. As for capital revenues, we reached BRL 33 million in the quarter. In the first nine months of the year, revenues amounted to BRL 99 million, representing a slight 3% decrease year on year, mainly due to lower spreads in the new cohort of the debt stock. On slide 13, we reaffirm once again the company's ability to adapt to adverse situations and market uncertainties. Even in a challenging scenario, profitability remained above 20% with total operating efficiency. We attribute this result to a combination of resilience in revenues from clients, coupled with discipline in controlling the firm's costs across all major expense line items.

Net income year to date was BRL 130.5 million, with a net margin of 33%. Efficiency ratio was 46%, slightly better compared to 2024. It should be noted here that we have already booked most of the one-off expenses related to the Nasdaq listing in this third quarter. Compensation ratio was 23.8%, reflecting a lower provisioning for bonuses given the slowdown in M&A activities. In yet another period, we saw ROAE above the average SELIC rate, reaching 21.6% year to date. In terms of revenue per MD, we saw a slight decline in the 12 months ending September 25 compared to the same period last year. On slide 14, we present our shareholders' equity and funding. Shareholders' equity was BRL 810 million, with the bank's shareholders' equity also growing. In terms of funding, the balance reached 5.2 billion and duration of liabilities 736 days.

The funding balance remains with sufficient volume for us to continue the evolution of our securities warehouse and treasury products. Lastly, on slide 15, we present our Basel ratio, leverage, and the performance of the securities warehousing. During this quarter, warehousing reached BRL 3.6 billion, pushing leverage to 3.4 times and Basel ratio to 20.4%. Very well, this is what we had to present. I would like to thank you, and we are here for the Q&A session. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask questions, click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and type your question to get in line. When you are announced, a prompt to enable your microphone will appear on the screen, and you must then open your mic to ask questions. We recommend that you ask your questions all at once.

Our first question is from Pedro Leduc with Itaú BBA. Go ahead, Mr. Leduc.

Pedro Leduc (Equity Research of Brazil Financials)

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Congrats on the year results. My question is about DCM. How do you see the appetite of your clients for your several instruments? We had recent events with some corporates. Did this change the market? Did this change the appetite? Perhaps if you can share with us your pipeline for the rest of the year and how do you see 2026, whether it is going to be more heated in the beginning. What is your opinion? Let's start with DCM appetite, and then you can talk about the pipeline.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, Leduc.

Vinicius Carmona (IRO)

Thank you for your kind words and for the questions. To speak about investors' appetite, we have to segment this. In terms of open funds, the appetite remains intense.

Yes, recently there was some news in terms of price changes, but overall, the market is very liquid. Appetite is high, and we are funding, and we are maintaining the liabilities, the most structured securities, where we have less liquid deals. We still have much greater depth now than we had two or three years ago because now there are a number of assets being able to fund. In the world of non-incentivized deals, the market continues to do well. Of course, there is some volatility of pricing here and there, but overall, at least for our products, we have been having good acceptance. Regarding incentivized deals, we have two dynamics: dynamics of the incentivized debentures for reasons that have been talked about at length in the newspapers, and we have MBS and ABS. Overall, securities pegged to the CDI have had good acceptance.

Everyone in the financial market has suffered a lot with this difference between very short-term real interest rates at 15% and the long-term not being close to that. The greater appetite of investors has been for CDI securities, IPCA as well, but not as quickly as the other securities. It is important to mention that our distribution dynamics is different than the regular retail because we end up working with securities which are less liquid and with a little more spread. Overall, we have not felt any contamination given the recent credit events. To be fair, some of them had been priced already. One of the names, I mean, was one that did not have a lot of depth in the capital markets. The other one had been deteriorating for quite a while.

Obviously, one event or the other did hurt, but it was very different than the crisis we had in 2023. I do not think that this impacted the dynamic of the market. Now, obviously, these hiccups, these setbacks, do adjust the pricing and the way we price the operations, but it was not really anything that structurally changed the market. As regards to the pipeline, it continues good and strong. What we found in Q3 was many companies waiting to make their decisions regarding debt and so on and so forth. Now, in Q4, we see the market quite overheated, particularly with these short-term changes in terms of taxation and so on. A lot of people actually looking for funding to be able to turn the year so the market continues to be good. Thank you very much. I wish you a lot of success.

Operator (participant)

Next question from Thiago Paura with BTG. Hello. Good afternoon.

Thiago Paura Mascarenhas (Director of Equity Research)

Thank you for the opportunity to ask questions. I have two, if I may. The first, I'd like to get your perspectives on savings and trading. The quarter and the whole year actually has been very positive for this vertical specifically, which ended up offsetting the slightly weaker performance of M&A and IB. My goal is to get a little bit of more color in terms of what we can expect for the segment in the short term and in 2026. My second question is, I'd like to get a general update on the wealth management franchise. You disclosed good numbers with important growth and you advised portfolio strong funding.

Although the franchise is still very at an initial stage, I just want to understand if this evolution is in line with what you expected, with what you imagined in the beginning, or is there anything that you can do to accelerate the pace if the improvement is falling below your expectations? Thank you.

Vinicius Carmona (IRO)

Thank you, Tiago, for the questions. Talking about the treasury business, indeed, we're having a good year, and I'd like to underscore this in our earnings calls that we have to look at this division as if it were a movie and not a photograph. There are a number of variables that we take into account quarter after quarter. We like to look in the year to date and in the last 12 months. Year to date, we are growing 20% with a strong result.

This is the result of work that we have been doing since the IPO to increase our client base, which is a portfolio that has been growing a lot compared to pre-IPO. Still, we have a lot of growth potential. Like I said, there are a number of variables that we look at. Having more clients equals having more results, but there are also some market points, volatility issues. In Q3, for example, we saw quite a lot of volatility with the tariffs, the trade war, and this compared to Q2, this brought more dynamism and more opportunities in what we call flow operations. We also had the capital market performing well, heated. We are working with an outlook that in these medium-term windows we will continue to grow the business.

I have been seeing this, and Vinicius talked about this in the presentation. This is a very competitive market. We have seen some banks that, in our opinion, are having operations with spreads that do not remunerate the capital. We have been quite selective in that regard. We always are very disciplined in terms of our capital usage. Our expectation is that we will continue to grow at this pace. This is a business that has some credit risk. We look at the business a lot from that angle as well. It is a good outlook, as Anilo said. The capital markets part overall continues to do quite well in these capital markets operations. We have seen some operations with very low spreads for some companies for which we do swap. Sometimes large companies funding at D minus one.

That is one more incentive for companies to swap to CDI rather than being exposed to the inflation risk. Although next year will be more complex because of the upcoming elections, we continue to believe that volatility will continue. We have a commercial pipeline, and we want to bring more clients to our client base. It will be a year with a lot of volatility, and we remain optimistic, always focusing on longer windows. Tiago, as regards to wealth management, I will start answering from back to front. The business is moving ahead, developing as planned. We are always looking at opportunities to accelerate growth because we have been doing this from the start and organically. There are some opportunities for cross-selling and with improvement in the market, particularly with this expectation that we have that the market will improve, particularly in the IB world and M&A.

We have an expectation of bringing a flow of new money, new pools. I mean, when you sell a company, it's new money in the market. When we're going to fight with our competitors, it's the same pool. We have to steal from them, steal a piece from them. We're always looking at an opportunity to accelerate our growth, but always to bring to BR Partners people and teams that fully match our business, like hand and glove, because we are kind of a different beast here. The team we brought in fits really well with our business, with the partnership, and this is very important to us. We want to maintain this tradition. We have our eyes open. We're talking to people. We're happy with what we have produced so far.

As you said it yourself, it's a new business, and very soon we're going to be a relevant player in this market. Excellent. Thank you very much, and I wish you a lot of success.

Operator (participant)

We thank you. As a reminder, if you want to ask questions, click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and type in your question. If you prefer to use the microphone to ask a live question, let us know by message. We'll send a message for you to enable your mic. Next question from Matheus Guimarães with XP.

Matheus Guimarães (Equity Research of Banks and Non-Bank Financials)

Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question and congratulations on the results. I think that in the presentation, Vinicius mentioned a chart in which you show greater growth of non-cyclical business revenues.

This week, we had the coupon meeting, and we started having some concern regarding a possible delay in a cycle or interest rate cuts. If that delay does materialize, and our team is already looking at March, I do not know if this is what you are thinking, but if this delay materializes, what can we expect for 2026, given that with this level of interest rates, it is very restrictive for the capital markets activity?

Vinicius Carmona (IRO)

Matheus, I think that this is an excellent question, and I will start talking generally about IB, and then Anilo and José Flavius will add. I think that your question is very fair. It is concerning to us as well. Over the last few quarters, we saw a substantial improvement in the pipeline, both for M&A and capital markets.

This was kind of anticipating a potential interest rate reduction and also the start of a cycle of lowering interest rates in the United States. For these pipelines to materialize as we expect in 2026, we do need to have an environment of lower interest rates or real interest rates. It is very hard to answer your question, giving you a direction, because things are changing constantly. I think that what is exciting to us is that the pipeline of the deals we have in gestation is improving substantially. On the other hand, we deal with this dilemma of when the interest rates reduction will actually begin. We are just waiting to see. The way we see this is similar to the way you see it.

Of course, I have a perception focusing on the health of companies and interest rates that the government has to find a way to start this cycle of reducing interest rates quickly. Not because of the macroeconomic environment, but considering the business environment and the health of the corporate sector, I think it is extremely necessary that we start an interest rate reduction cycle as fast as possible. To add to what Ricardo has said, Matheus, I think that we are moving to the third year of SELIC rates at these levels from the expectation of climbing interest rates and now with the expectation of falling interest rates. All companies have adjusted their models and CapEx to the new reality. Given that next year it is election year, a number of companies will be bringing forward or perhaps will be planning better to deal with their short-term cash needs.

The expectation is that we are going to have a first half of 2026 still good. Just less likely our fourth quarter will be because of that. Because of the possible declining interest rates, as Ricardo mentioned, the outlook, which is not so optimistic. There are needs to roll over their debt or working capital needs. We see the companies already moving and planning to get away of any tail risk that they might have. Looking from the standpoint of credit and how we see things, of course, we have been monitoring and following up our whole client base, and we're in contact with them, analyzing numbers and so on. We always look for the winners in all moves. We work with the crème de la crème of issuers. All things considered, these are well-structured and well-securitized deals.

We always have to keep our eyes and ears open to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Operator (participant)

Excellent. Thank you very much. Next question from Marcelo Mizrahi for Bradesco BBI.

Marcelo Mizrahi (Equity Research Analyst)

Hello. Thank you for the opportunity and congrats on the results, and especially on the dividends. This was expected. A good part of my questions has been answered. They were about the perspectives of capital markets, and there is a lot of uncertainty regarding volatility of the markets, particularly private credit securities, the impact on the market. Some players have said that some things can stretch to next year. This has been talked about a lot. If we break it down between M&A, IB, and DCM, do you see any of the divisions in a more sluggish situation given volatility or not?

The strong moment we had in the third quarter in September, do you think it will continue in Q4 and in the first quarter of next year?

Vinicius Carmona (IRO)

Marcelo, thank you for the question and for joining us. I would say that this volatility has not reached a level through a fact, the building of the pipeline, the interest of clients and investors in different deals for IB, capital markets, and treasury. I think that treasury at this moment is a little more overheated given the strong number of issuances. Because we are being very successful in our conversion rates. For IB, I feel that right now there was a significant increase in the pipeline and more enthusiasm for resuming deals and for new deals. Of course, as in IB, the cycle of deals is much longer.

IB ends up being more susceptible to volatility in a way in the last 18 months. We learned to coexist with this high level of volatility and uncertainty. The market, in a way, has adapted to that. With my more than 30 years' experience in this market, I was expecting things to do a lot worse when the SELIC rate started increasing above 5%, 6%, 7% real interest rates. The market has been very resilient. As we speak, I think that our expectation for the coming quarters is of continuity in those different divisions with an expectation of improvement with a certain optimism. We are cautiously optimistic, but given the improvement in the pipeline, I think we can envision a small improvement. About dividends, I would like to ask. In the past, there was an excessive amount of dividends, which gave you more momentum to anticipate this.

Looking forward, do you have a more defined dividend policy? Anything more stable based on your expectation of generating returns in the future? Yes. Looking forward, our expectation is to have dividend payout of 60-65% of our results. This is more than enough for us to replenish the capital that we have just distributed this year and last year. Given the taxation issues of our shareholders, any surplus capital in this environment we are living will serve better in the pocket of the shareholders than with the company. In the company, we can adapt. I would say that looking forward with the expectation of a more stable market and maintaining our level of profitability, we will have dividends of about 60% of our results. Excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

As a reminder, if you want to ask questions, you just need to click on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and type in your question. If you prefer to use the microphone to ask a question, let us know by message, and we will send you a message to enable your mic. Next question from Brian Flores with Citibank.

Brian Flores (VP Equity Research)

Hello. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity. I'd like you to share your feeling about Brazil. I know you have the idea of listing and you had a roadshow, so perhaps you could share with us how you are being seen from abroad, because it seems that this was positive, seeing the increase in liquidity. If you could share with us, that would be appreciated. I'd like to ask about your estimates.

Vinicius Carmona (IRO)

One thing that we perceive overall among the mainstream banks in Brazil is the need to keep investing in technology and looking at your business model. I know that your main advantage is your human capital, but of course, you do not want to lag behind in terms of technology. How should we think about this looking forward, considering that you are very efficient? Thank you, Brian, for the question. First, as it relates to our access to investors in the United States, as I explained before, our rationale in being listed at Nasdaq was to try to access a bigger pool of investors who are focused on small caps financials. We find this in the United States. Their work is to invest in companies with our profile and invest in companies with our profile around the world.

We were seeking investors who are less focused on the Brazilian geography, less attentive to macroeconomic issues related to the country, but more focused on our story. I think that we've been having a good result. We start seeing some of these investors added to our client base, and we see that the share of foreign capital increased from 1% close to the IPO to close to 20% today. We're very pleased with that. As for the general perception that we felt about Brazil, I think that there was some improvement, but very much because they're considering that Brazil is cheap right now. We heard this from many investors. Now there's going to be a reduction of interest rates in the United States. The US stock exchange is too expensive, but in Brazil, we can invest in quality companies with multiple of earnings still in single digits.

I think that that raised more interest with these investors. I do not think that they have a much more optimistic view of the Brazilian macroeconomic situation and the fiscal issue. To be very candid with you, we think that investors are somewhat tired of this dynamic. They are less focused on this. In what it relates to us, we do see a lot of interest from foreign investors. When they compare our story, our potential growth, the delivery of an ROE above 20%, growing the top line more than 20% over a very long period. In the last 15 years, we have been delivering this. When they compare the multiple at which we are trading with international players, I think that they became highly interested, and we believe a lot in that thesis.

As regards investments in technology, I think that overall, we have been investing a lot, and I'll let Josef Flavius add more to that. We have been investing in security with all the events we saw happening recently in the market that shocked all of us and worried all of us. We have been investing a lot to internalize many things and to reduce risk. Also, in terms of the different businesses and in our digital platform, how this is a reality. Of course, this is a cost that for a company like ours, where human capital is more important. The figures are not astronomical, but these are figures that are starting to be substantial when we look at them as a percentage of our revenues. Would you like to know? Yeah.

We break it down into regulatory, which is what we have to be doing all the time, adjusting all of our systems to comply with the regulation. Since for Resolution 4966, for example, and we used to have an external provider to connect with the central bank, and we have just internalized that, as Ricardo mentioned, given that we can have PIX and TED above BRL 15,000. Also on the side of the client, our digital platform, we continue to work on that. Of course, it all competes with each other. We cannot have too many people at the company, so we evolve as the needs arise. We are focused mainly on wealth management, which has contact with clients, greater contact with individuals and families, and also treasury and capital markets.

Of course, we have to take into account the regulatory piece because we are always trying to catch up. There are always new people, new requests, you know, information, and we improve everything at the same time. The technology department never stops. A number that was very small in the past was not too big compared to the other banks, given our characteristic, but still, it is an area that is where we are putting a lot of effort. Information security to us is fundamental, as Ricardo mentioned, and we are putting a lot of money and intelligence. It is not to run risks. Risks that we saw in banks, not banks, but institutions that were administrating predatory notes. If I may make a comment, Brian, you said it well.

We are a company that is very much focused on people, but we have seen how technology, particularly AI, is helping us in our day-to-day. We are seeing productivity gain in the different divisions. For example, if you need to translate a document or if you're doing a due diligence of a process, having these tools is good because they give us an accurate level of information. These used to be processes or stages that were done manually, and we would spend too much time doing research. That saves money in all of our business units. For all of them, we have been using AI in a secure way so that we can gain productivity.

Operator (participant)

Excellent. Thank you very much. The question and answer session is now closed. I would now like to turn the floor to the management for their final comments.

Vinicius Carmona (IRO)

We would like to thank you once again for your participation in our earnings call. We continue to be very happy with the unfolding of our business, as mentioned before. Even in a very difficult moment of our main division, our main business, we have been able to post a good sequence of growth of revenue and profitability. With the payment of dividends, which adjusted by taxation, have been way above the SELIC rate. We continue to be in a highly volatile environment, highly uncertain environment. We have been able to post a good performance in this environment, which is a little adverse. We are cautiously optimistic that we can see an improvement in the macroeconomic scenario, which would help our businesses in the coming quarters. Again, thank you very much. We remain available if you need anything else from us.

Operator (participant)

The BR Partners video conference call referring to the third quarter 2025 is now closed. The Investor Relations Department is available to answer any further questions you might have. Thank you very much to all attendees, and have a good rest of the day.