Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais - CEMIG - Q2 2023

Transcript

Speaker 0

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Cemig's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Video Conference Call. We inform that this video conference is being recorded and will be available at the company's website, where you'll find the company's presentation. Should you need simultaneous interpreting, the feature is available by clicking on the globe icon located on the bottom of the screen, choosing interpretation, and then the language of your choice, Portuguese or English. If you choose to follow the call in English, you can also select Mute Original Audio. Now, I would like to turn the floor over to Carolina Sena, Investor Relations Superintendent. Please, Ms. Sena, you may proceed.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Carolina Sena. I'm Cemig's Investor Relations Superintendent.

We now start Cemig's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call and Webcast with the following executives: Reynaldo Passanezi Filho, CEO; Leonardo George de Magalhães, CFO and IR Officer; Marco da Camino Ancona Lopez Soligo, Chief Participation Officer; Marney Tadeu de Oliveira, Chief Distribution Officer; and Thadeu Carneiro da Silva, Chief Generation and Transmission Officer. For the initial remarks, I turn the floor over to our CEO, Reynaldo Passanezi Filho. Good afternoon, everyone. Once again, it is a pleasure to be here, bringing to you the results of another quarter, and these keep being sound and consistent results, as you can see in this first slide. I can say that this is our main message. The company is effectively in a sound and consistent growth route. This is thanks to a very clear strategy that here we called To Focus in Minas Gerais and To Win.

As you see in the last bullet, we have been very successful in executing the largest investment program in CEMIG's history, and this program is focused on the businesses that we know and the territories and the areas and the clients that we know. Here, you have BRL 42 billion investments for the next five years, focused in distribution, transmission, and generation of energy in Minas Gerais and also in the trading area, all over the country. In addition to investments in distributed generation and natural gas, but these are territories that we know well and, also in situations which we fully control the decisions. That also means the divestment of the assets that are minority shareholding in areas that are outside the state of Minas Gerais.

This strategy has proven to be sound and consistent. That is what allows us to be bringing to you, once again, a robust cash generation and also robust net profit. We are talking about an adjusted EBITDA, already recurring one of BRL 2 billion in the quarter, annualized, almost BRL 8 billion. In that profit, once again, a growth of almost 7% vis-à-vis the prior quarter, already adjusted. This is a net profit of BRL 1.2 billion. These are the consistent results, the re-recurrent results that prove the soundness of this company. Now I go to the first bullet, bringing to you also how sound our internal controls are. We did have the Sarbanes-Oxley certification of a balance sheet with no problems in its internal controls, an unqualified approval after six years.

This-- we are very sound in terms of our internal controls and governance, and that comes in a great moment because we are celebrating 10 years of the Clean Company Act. Also, sound results, consistent cash generation, net profit, consistent as well, $1.2 billion. The cash generation also very robust. Also, we aim to continue generating value to society, to shareholders and stakeholders by the means of the largest investment program in history. In order to complete this strategy, we have another topic, which is capital allocation, just like I mentioned, in the $42 million, the largest investment plan in the company's history.... You will see in the presentation that in 1 semester, we have invested in distribution almost the double of what we invested in 2018.

Just to give you one idea, in the first half, we invested in the double amount that we invested in 2018. This is the topic of that we are talking about in terms of capital allocation. Another dear topic for the company and the company's strategy is our operating efficiency. We move forward, and these consistent results of cash generation are there because we are meeting all the regulatory OPEX, regulatory losses, so we are within the parameters there. This is our strategies for is to have a robust cash generation, because we are efficient in this operation, and we are under the regulatory OPEX.

We are lower than the regulatory losses allowed. We have a strategy to allocate capital, which is record in the businesses that we know, and we are divesting from assets in which we have a minority shareholding. As you know, we have already divested in a large number of these assets. The presentation will also go over another great effort of this company in the digitization area, almost BRL 1 million in digitization, automation, modernization, new systems to operate and control our businesses, record investments and modernization. We also have future perspectives in this capital allocation. In terms of investments and return, not only return on distribution investments, but also the company's investments and generation after a number of years. We are now building almost 180 megawatts of photovoltaic plants.

We have a bold plan in distributed generation, whether solar photovoltaic generation, whether it is flowing, we are talking about 540 megawatts already growing in land plants to ensure the market leadership, in addition to our objective to renewal our generation concessions. This is the broader overview. I also would like to talk about our leadership in energy trading. We have a very comfortable situation for the next three years, as far as the needs that we have are concerned, because we have a, a situation where we can see this opportunity of lower prices in the short term for electric energy. I would say that here, once again, we are in a very consistent and sound position in terms of our results. These are my initial remarks. The slide is up. I can comment also on that.

We have BRL 1.7 billion in investments here. Here, we have a capital allocation, right? That I was talking about, just so it's BRL 1.7 billion in the first half of the year. If you well remember, how it was in 2018, for the whole year, it was BRL 950 million, so almost all that amount in a single semester. In fact, now we have a large part of our investment program already contracted. We have everything that we need to be able to execute our investment plan, especially in the regulated sectors, where we have greater perspective to generate value. We do have a challenge.

The Brazilian electric sector has a challenge in centralized generation because of a large amount of supply, we are still picking up in terms of demand for energy consumption. The country also consistent results in gas and distributed generation. Once again, record in terms of investments, we are building a pipeline here from the metro region of Belo Horizonte up to Divinópolis, and also in the distributed generation area. Our objective is to maintain our leadership and the state of Minas Gerais. These were my initial remarks, and we are available to once again show you, and hear your contributions about another quarter of sound results in this company. Thank you very much, Reynaldo Passanezi Filho. Now, I will turn the floor to our CFO, Leonardo Gheorghe de Magalhaes. Leonardo?

Thank you, Carol.

As Reynaldo mentioned, we did have important investments already this year. We have a bold investment program, a little bit over BRL 5 billion. We are very optimistic about our investments in distribution. We understand that we'll be able to complete these BRL 3.2 billion in the year, and we believe that has a number of positive consequences. We have some precious numbers that will be considered in the next tariff review, and also these figures help the company have more energy available in the market, which is important for society in order to ensure the society's growth, and the society that is catered by this company.

Some investments in distributed generation, and here, the performance, the execution in this first half of the year was shy on considering the total that we have forecasted for the year, because we believe that most of these investments will happen in the second half of the year. In the second half of the year, we expect more investments in the other business of the company, other than distribution as well. We are very optimistic. We believe we are going to get close to this $5.4 billion that we have forecasted for 2023.

As Reynaldo mentioned in the next slide, we have some of the challenges of the trading area, and we understand this is a great opportunity for Cemig, as it was when we had the free market becoming open a few years ago, Cemig saw a new opportunity then, and now it generates a lot of results, great results. Cemig's EBITDA of our trading company in the first half of the year was higher than BRL 600 million, a very relevant result, and that is a material fact, a material proof that the trading area of Cemig is correctly reading the market. This is a relationship that adds value both for the clients as well as for the company in its operations.

Now, with the opening of the retail market, the new market, CEMIG is already prepared to cater to this client by our website, energiaelivre.cemig. This is constantly being developed so that every day we can have a friendlier platform, so that we can reach consumers, not only in the state of Minas Gerais, because we understand that thanks to the company's reputation, the top of mind of our brand here in Minas Gerais, this allows us some competitive advantage, and we have to seize this competitive advantage to have a large share of this market, but also, for to allow us cater to this retail consumer and client out of Minas Gerais. We understand that we can have, and, and we do have that ambition in terms of a stake in this retailers' marketplace.

This is a new market, where the company adds value, considering especially this moment where energy has low prices in the free market. That's an important market for us. We want to cater to this market in a way that we can create value to the company and our shareholders. Moving on, Reynaldo talked about this important investments that we'll be doing in the next few years. It's within our strategic planning, and there are some special topics here. In investment in security and safety, we see cyber attacks happening frequently. Cemig has resilience, and it's a security information.

We are prepared to face threats in this environment, also platform development in terms of quality of service to clients, that reflects in the better productivity in our teams, avoiding frustrated teams being displaced because they do not have the best algorithm or the best optimized intelligence to be used in their daily operations. We understand that this platform organization allows us to have greater security and sustainability in our operations, digital channels, also operating efficiency. These are important investments, we understand that the company cannot let go updating itself in this digital environment. These are important investments we'll be making in the next few years, I think this is going to generate value. Moving on, our ESG actions. This is a very dear topic to us. This is in our DNA.

Cemig has always been within the sustainability indexes, the national ones and international ones. Cemig is part of these indexes. We play a significant role there. In this quarter, we launched our program, a diversity program for our employees, so we have also training in diversity. This is important for us. In the second quarter, we had the largest issuance of sustainable bonds in Brazil, BRL 2 billion in emissions. Our bonds were placed in the market, and that shows how much the market trusts on us, and they are attached to important investments that we are making in the social areas. three phase Minas, Mais Energia and efficiency programs that bring more energy and have energy available to clients.

We change lives of people that are serviced by us, and we also generate value to our shareholders because these investments are also recognized in the remuneration base. Also, we have disclosures in our TCFD report, and these are events related to climate change. Here we were able to remove a large amount of CO2, 10,156 tons of CO2. This is a relevant figure. It is equivalent to 100,000 fuel tanks. Also, we have a certification of renewable energy certificates. This is the energy that we delivered to our clients, and it has the seal of proving that the energy comes from renewable sources. That's another value that we create for our clients, but when we have this special seal. Now, we are going to dive into the results analysis.

I will comment on the overview, and then Carol will continue the presentation. As as Reynaldo mentioned, another result, another quarter of consistent results, and EBITDA close to BRL 1.9 billion, and, and the half of the year, close to BRL 4 billion, and a net profit close to BRL 1.2 billion, and in the half of the year, almost BRL 2.5 billion. We can get very optimistic in terms of our results for the end of the year. Our bylaws defines a payout of 50% of, of our dividends payments, so it is a very attractive payout, and I would say one of the best dividend-paying companies, I would say, that Cemig is.

The results that we bring to you at every quarter allows investors to feel secure in terms and confident regarding their trust that they have on us. As I mentioned, over 40% growth vis-a-vis the prior year in these six months, over BRL 600 million in EBITDA. The dividends, we have had interest on equity already, almost BRL 900 million of interest on equity, showing that the company is really interested to work with investors as well. We did have a positive tariff review. We understand that the results of this review will be better seen in the second half of the year. This was in May 28, this tariff review. Just one month after this tariff review that has affected the company's results for the second quarter of 2023.

For now, you know, by the end of the year, we will have the whole semester with the results of the tariff review, which were positive. It was fair regarding our operations. Also, regulatory losses, PMS, so, within the regulatory limits. Cemig GT, with financial discipline, consistent results, we bid at ANEEL transmission auction in January of 2023. You understand that we were competitive because we are industrialized. We understand that our proposals were competitive. We were not awarded the auction, but we also understand that we have a commitment with our shareholders of, you know, investing on assets that will generate positive present value.

We were not awarded this bid, but we have a number of other investments for the next few years that will generate value for our shareholders, that's fine. It's part of the game. We bid, we were not awarded the concession, That, you know, shows also that we have a financial discipline in our capital allocation. Also here, we have the sale of Baguari and Retiro Baixo HPPs that These are almost concluded. We are just waiting for the final approvals to conclude the operations and then to have the funds coming into our cash. Now I will turn the floor to Carolina, and she's gonna go into the details on the results. Thank you, Leonardo. Now, moving on. On this slide, we have CEMIG's consolidated 2Q 2023 results. Here, we have had no non-recurring effects.

In 2022, we had a number of effects that affected results. I will go over them very briefly. We sold Renova. As we said, that is within our plan of sale of assets, of non-performing assets. We also had the write-off of financial assets. These are assets that we have, but we had other assets that we need to be reimbursed, so those were written off. We also have the, the provision for credits for tax credits, and that was provisioned in 2022. Also, the use of the distribution infrastructure, this was a non-recurring revenue, also in 2022. Reversal of Santo Antônio provision and the FX exposure, and this affects the quarter. Remember that we still have an Eurobond share or parcel that is due in 2024. When we remove all these effects, we report another quarter with sound results.

We grew 3.8% in our EBITDA, 6.6% in our net profit, showing our commitment and the company's commitment in adding value to its shareholders. About operating costs and expenses, there was an increase of 9% in the PMSO, affected by outsourced services. That increase is because of company's management change because of preventive maintenance. Since the 4Q 2022, we mentioned that we were going to change that in our management, because this is going to bring a better services provided to our clients. Also, on our Resolution 1,000, here we have financial compensations for consumers. On the other hand, on a positive note, we did have our a voluntary redundancy program, and that was a cost of 9%.

The highest increase here, the outsourced services, this is an expense that is going to bring us a long term, a reduction in future costs and better services provided to our consumers. On the next slide, we see the company's cash flow, the strong generation of operating cash. In six months, we generated BRL 4 billion. The cash in December was BRL 3.3 billion. We are returning the tax credits and the tariffs. We paid the dividends. We raised BRL 2 million in Cemig D, as we mentioned, with sustainable bonds. We paid debts with a net effect here of BRL 1.388 billion. We paid Santo Antônio.

We are investing in the largest investment program, as Reynaldo said. We ended with a cash of $3.8 billion in six months, and it tends to be used over the 2nd half of the year because of our robust investment program, which we already discussed. About the debt profile and the consolidated debt profile, I already talked about the Eurobond. We already bought back parcels of this Eurobond, and it is due in 2024, and 2023, we'll do another buyback. For December, we do not have a premium anymore for the buyback, so we are going to improve our structure. The cost of debt is down because of the IPCA and the dollar and our leverage. Although we had the funding for Cemig D of $2 billion, it's still low.

Like I said, naturally, because of the robust investment program, this leverage is going to increase, and it should reach 2027 at 2 times in the consolidated results. In despite of being a low leverage, it will naturally increase because of the investment program. Going into Cemig D results, we have the non-recurring here, the provision for the PIS/COFINS credits and also the use of distribution infrastructure. If we remove those, we have an EBITDA of 14.3% and net profit of 10.9%. Again, we have just included the fifth, the tariff review for the company, and we have now an average increase of 13.3%.

Here in this quarter, we had just one month of effect of this adjustment for this tariff review, our regulatory remuneration base here increased from BRL 8.9 billion to BRL 15.2 billion. The electricity market for Cemig D here, if we add consumer and transported energy, we have a 0.7% growth. It might seem small, but if we look at the whole market, the DG market is affecting the whole company. Compared on quarter-to-quarter, we had a 56% increase, and this energy, when it migrates to DG, it, it is growing, and the state of Minas Gerais is bringing in opportunities for growth and development.

We see this in transported energy, because you see that it, it grew 3.3% and the captive, and despite of the drop of 1.7%, we draw your attention to the residential growth here of 6.4%. The number of residential consumers increased, and the average consumption also increased. This is important information showing that the strategy of investing in distribution has a strategy that does bring return to the company, in addition to better services provided to clients in our concession. About regulatory limits, we are committed to meet the regulatory limits. The losses are important. We were able to be under the regulatory limits in 2021, and we ended the quarter at 10.78, and the limit is 11.16. We are very well positioned.

Our limits for the end of the year is going to be 10.8, and we will be within the regulatory limits. Thanks to the initiatives that we have already carried out in the past six months, and we'll continue working on, on them. We have already made 210,000 inspections. We replaced 312,000 obsolete meters. Also, we replaced meters by smart meters, and the Energia Legal program is already working with low-income families to have their legal energy co-connections. Now, in Cemig D, this proves how our digital channels are improving our collection. It's very important to have the new system, the Pix, which is this instant payment system that already represents 14.03% of all collections, and our ARFA, which measures the receivables collection index.

In 2022, we were very close to 100%, and in this half of year, we went over 100%. That is because we were able to collect a debt of a city hall in Minas Gerais, and we brought BRL 12 million to the company in that action. Another important metric here is that we are committed, and we are still delivering, and we'll continue to deliver our regulatory OPEX that we have in our service. The OPEX for six months, we have BRL 2 billion as the regulatory OPEX, and our performance or realized was BRL 1.9. The regulatory EBITDA, we are above that. We are committed to meeting the regulatory limits and with efficiency, and that's what we are doing. We see greater opportunities to improve even more with the post-retirement, as we have shared with you.

Now turning to CEMIG's GT results. This slide's a little bit different. We also had non-recurring effects, and I talked about them, which was the disposal of assets, also the write-off of financial assets, the reversal of Santo Antônio provision, and the effects exposure affecting our profits. When I remove these effects. Also important information here, we are transferring the trading activity from Cemig GT to the holding company. This process has not been concluded. When I go back to the EBITDA that has already been migrated, that is under Cemig GT. If I bring it back, that effect, we had a small drop of 2.2%, affected by in-inflation, which also affects the transfer of rights bonus.

If I bring back the effect of the profit regarding trading activity, I had an increase of 14.3, influenced by the dollar. This is the effect, effect on Cemig GT financial results. Important highlights for Cemig GT that we have already shared, and it's important to stress, our permitted transmission revenue did not affect the results in this quarter, but we did have an increase of 23.5% for the next cycle, affected by the inflation in the period. Strengthening and improvement of the network with the additional permitted transmission revenue, the reprofile of the Cemig GT national grid contribution, and the amount that we'll be receiving is higher than the prior years. I would like also to highlight something else.

We have already shared that, this is just a hint on the development of these projects here. The Oeste and Centro-Oeste projects, we have already invested here, 360 million. The works are ongoing, all the suppliers are contracted, as Dr. Reynaldo mentioned, we have already requested the renewal concessions for Sacramento Valeo and Emborcação and Nova Ponte. For Gasmig, we also consolidated these results. Gasmig is important for our consolidated results, every quarter we bring the Gasmig results. We can see that we had an EBITDA growth of 55.4%, affected by the repositioning of the tariff review, a higher consumption, especially in the consumption from industrial and thermal clients, increasing 36.5%.

Gasmig has showing growth opportunities, because of that, it launched a centralized project that will bring the gas pipeline up to Divinópolis. This is a CapEx of BRL 780 million. Up to June, we have already invested BRL 73 million, by the end of the year, we will have invested BRL 367 million. We are concluding the bidding process and environmental licensing, in the second half of the year, we will be accelerating the works. We are also investing in distributed generation, part of that by Cemig SIM, another part by the floating ones, which will be in Cemig GT. Now we have in operation 19 plants, in construction, 51 plants, and being developed are the 3 floating plants, the solar plants.

Installed capacity is growing, we have 52 megawatts peak in operation, in construction, 168, and being developed, 274. A significant growth in distributed generation, that is going to be going into our EBITDA in the next few years. Recently, we have concluded the bidding process to build 23 solar plants that will gradually be in operation by 2024. Now, to conclude, I will turn the floor to Leonardo, and he is going to discuss and talk about our commitments and challenges and opportunities. Thank you, Carol. We'd like to finish with this slide because this is our commitment with the investors. These commitments come from our strategic planning, and most of these commitments are being met by the company. Some of them have already been achieved, such as the OpEx below regulatory limits.

Our EBITDA is over the regulatory limit. The losses also are within the regulatory limits, also the strengthening of Cemig D investments program, and that's a great advancement from what we had in the past. We used to invest BRL 800 million-BRL 900 million in the past, now we have a bold investment program for this year, BRL 3.2 billion. We understand that we feel confident, the company has already contracted these materials, these services, and we are ready to invest. Now, what is in progress? The divestment of non-strategic assets. We understand that a large part of these assets have already been sold, such as Light, Renova, Acciona, and other assets. Santo Antônio also was divested, we continue with the divestment process.

digital transformation, we invest, or we intend to invest BRL 1 billion up to 2027. Renewables investment that are going on at full power, as Carol mentioned. Also, growth in retail, electricity sales, and the bonds liability management, because little by little, we are reducing our FX exposure. For the future, we'll continue investing in renewable floating generation sources and renewals of concessions, and the company is already preparing itself. To be ready to renew all the important concessions in our portfolio for energy generation. That's it. Thank you very much. I turn the floor back to Carol, and now we can start our Q&A session. Thank you all very much. We'll now start the Q&A session. We'll now start the Q&A session. Please, ask all your questions at once, and wait for the company's reply.

To ask a question, please send them via the Q&A icon on the bottom part of your screen. Your names will be announced so that you can ask your question live. A request to open your microphone will pop up in your screen. If you do not want to ask your question live, just state at the end of the question, no microphone, then Carolina Sena will read your question. The first question is from Andrea Sampaio, sell-side analyst from Santander. Please, Andrea, you may open your microphone. Good afternoon, everyone. I, I have a question about Gasmig. Can you comment on the results? Why was the results so much higher than the regulatory limit? Is there anything there that this is non-cash, or is that a non-recurring effect, and it makes sense to imagine that a huge gap vis-à-vis the regulatory limit?

I will turn the floor to Leonardo. Hello, Andrea. Thank you for your question. Yes, Gasmig is a company in the group that has very relevant and important results. Since last year, it is bringing consistent results in EBITDA and profit. The company has low leverage. It just went through the tariff review, and it, it has some special aspects. Differently from the electric sector, all the regulatory limits in for the electric sectors are posted in the balance sheet. For Gasmig, they are off balance, and when you have a tariff review, that's when they are integrated into tariff review in the tariff, and all these offsets that are off balance.

Gasmig had a very important tariff review this year, 15%, and that's a way of, you know, bringing into this balance the offset of these regulatory balance. That explains it, the results. Last year, already we had good results, but this year it is even more significant, and maybe this is one of the explanations, because it is over the regulatory limits. This is a company that has low delinquency levels, and we understand that these are consistent results. Of course, that, as I mentioned, because the regulatory assets are off balance, when you have adjustments, this ends up affecting the results, and we might have a period when the results are much higher than the regulatory, but in the long term, these are consistent results.

The company is fully within the regulatory limits, and so we are very optimistic about Gasmig's results in the future. It was another good quarter in terms of results. It already was good in first quarter, but in this quarter, the adjustment of 15% and the rates improved the results for Gasmig in this quarter and this semester of 2023. Thank you, Leonardo. Our next question is from Marcelo Sá, sell side analyst from Itaú. Adele, our officer for generation and transmission, will answer that. I will open the microphone, and you can ask the question. Hello, everyone. Thank you very much for the call. I have two questions. The first one is to try to understand what is the company's position as far as Argentina exports are concerned.

The current rule is to be able to export, my question is: Can you also export this extra investment in the future? Maybe you need to convince the government that it makes sense to be done. I would like to understand your position about that. 2nd question, about the plans. You will request to the renewal for the quota system, it's not going to be a renewal with controlled sale that would have to go through the government's or the state government's administration, right? Okay, about the 1st question, yes, the trading makes sense for that, that energy, whether when it, it's being turned or, or transformed or in the future. We know that the reservoirs-...

Have high levels right now. With the, they tend to end the dry period also at a high level. It is possible that we see new transformations in the near future. We believe that this makes sense. We are part of the group that is trying to work on that possibility. About concessions, Cemig is working with all possibilities of renewal. They include the request to renewal for quotas, also the renewal by selling the plants or transferring the control of the mother company. What we are working on today are all opportunities. Obviously, that depends on the granting power and, you know, for us to see which one will happen. We're not leaving anything on the table. We are not choosing one for the other. No.

We are looking at all the alternatives right now. Thank you, Tadeu. Okay, Marcelo, go ahead. How, how is the negotiation going with the government? Do you have already a method on, on how this is going to happen? You need thermal dispatch in order to compensate for it. Is this something that is going to be defined in the next few months, or is this something that is going to take long? I don't have the answers for you right now. We are still discussing the methodology. If that involves the study of hydrology, the study of the factor, the energy surplus, I cannot, you know, give you a straight answer right now.

The discussions are happening via the associations, ABRAGE, for the HPPs, for the hydroelectric power generating plants, whether the big plants or the SHPPs. These are the groups that are ahead of this movement. We do not know how long this will take. We would like it to happen as soon as possible so that we can be successful in the next water season, on next wet period. Thank you, Tadeu and Marcelo. Moving on, I will open the microphone. The next question is for Leonardo Gheorghe. The question is from Danielle Travinski, sell side analyst from Afribank. Danielle? Hello, everyone. Thank you very much for taking my question. I actually have two questions.

The first, that investment of BRL 1 billion in automation and technology, is that going to go into the remuneration base of the distributing company or, or just part of that, and how much? The second question, about the strategy for the eurobond rollover, eurobond debt rollover, how do you intend to deal with it? Are you going to maintain that as a dollar-denominated debt because of the high interest rates that we have now? I would like to better understand that. Thank you. Thank you, Danielle, and thank you for, for your questions. About our eurobond debt, in 2021, we published our strategic planning for the first half of the year. We said that we are going to do the liability management in different stages. We have already reduced that debt.

We reduced it in 50% our FX exposure, we intend to take another step by the end of the year. By December of 2023, Cemig can rebuy the bonds without paying premium, so we intended to buy around $350 million-$370 million of buyback by the end of the year. We understand that this is part of the process, so that little by little, you know, by the end of the year in 2024, we can eliminate our FX exposure via, via eurobond. We're always comparing the cost of an international emission, and now here, including 100% of a hedge with a local emission, we understand that it's more attractive for the company right now. It's cheaper to have a local emission.

Our strategy right now is to switch this Eurobond by a local debt. This is the strategy that we are choosing to follow right now, and that we intend to do, to do this for the next franchise. The Eurobond buyback, we have around $750 million. Remember that we have a protection of up to BRL 5 in the principal, and we will continue buying it back. Right now, local emission is more affordable for us. We are a company that has all the revenues that... And real-denominated revenues, so this local emission is more interesting for us. This is our expectation for our Eurobond. The first question, Daniel, is about our IT investment, right?

We are investing there, and most of that investment is OpEx, but it goes under announced coverage of tariff review. This is the more investment. This is already forecasted and a rate. Remember that even considering robust investments that we'll be making in IT, we are committed. Because even having those investments, all our OpEx will be within the regulatory limits established in the tariff review. We are not going to go over 1 cent in the regulatory limit. We do have an internal challenge of being to cover these costs in a way that we have 100% of the costs, including this investment and technology, being covered by the tariff, by the rates. Excellent. Thank you very much, Leonardo. Next question I will read, it is for Marco Soligo.

Please, it's an update on Gasmig, if you're going to list the company, and about the divestment and Taesa. Great. First, let's talk about Taesa. The studies, internal studies and the, the banks also that help us, that aiming a possible, a divestment, all of those continue to happen, and we are-- we want to be prepared for when the opportunity arises. That can be applied for Taesa, and also for Aliança and, and for the other ones. There are several studies running and, and being developed. About Gasmig, all the preparation work, internal preparation work of the company for a possible IPO, have been concluded. That IPO is not, has not been decided yet, so we might not move forward with it, because that has to do with the process of privatization of CEMIG.

Maybe CEMIG can become a corporation in itself in the future. That is up to be decided. Thank you for your answer. Now, Dr. Reynaldo, our CEO, will conclude our earnings call. Once again, I would like to thank you all for your participation. Thank you very much for your participation. Thank you for the questions. We hope to be here in the next quarter, right, Carol? Bringing to you, once again, sound and consistent results. A company that is happy, helping to develop and to foster development in Minas Gerais, and at the same time, generating values to stakeholders and to investors and shareholders of the company. Thank you very much. CEMIG's Second Quarter 2023 via Conference Call has ended. Our superintendents are available to take further questions. Thank you very much, and have a nice afternoon.