Companhia Paranaense de Energia - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

[Foreign language]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Companhia Paranaense de Energia Copel's video conference to discuss the earnings of the first quarter of 2025. This video conference is being recorded and will be available on the company's website at ri.copel.com. The presentation is also available for download. Please be advised that all participants will be only watching the video conference during the presentation, and later we will begin the Q&A session when further instructions will be provided. Before proceeding, I would like to note that the forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Copel's management and on information currently available to the company. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties as they relate to future events and, therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.

Investors, analysts, and journalists should consider that events related to the macroeconomic environment, the industry, and other factors could lead results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. The video conference will be presented by Mr. Daniel Slaviero, CEO of Copel; Mr. Felipe Gutterres, CFO of Copel, as well as Directors of the subsidiaries that will be available for the Q&A session. I would now like to turn the floor to Copel's CEO, who will begin the presentation. Please, Daniel, you may proceed.

Daniel Slaviero (CEO)

Bom dia.

Agradeço a participação de todos. [Foreign language]

Good morning. I thank everyone for participating in our video conference. In-line with what we presented in our Investors' Day, we are focused on executing the second wave of our strategic plan called Operational Excellence. Right now, our priority is creating a culture of ownership with all of our employees, with efficiency gains, extracting more value from our current assets, and maximizing revenues by taking advantage of volatile energy prices. In addition, we are fully focused on executing Copel Distribution's investment plan, the largest in its history, and preparing for the tariff review that will take place in June 2026. The essence of this phase is to prepare the company to make the most of the opportunities for expansion in the next cycle.

Assembleia Geral. [Foreign language]

Following this purpose, the General Shareholders' Meeting held on April 24 approved the composition of the new Board of Directors, now 100% independent, with a multidisciplinary and strategic formation for the company, with highly technical, qualified professionals with complementary skills who will contribute to our sustainable growth. Also, at this meeting, the payout of another BRL 1.3 billion in dividends was approved, related to the year 2024. With that, last year, our payout exceeded 86%, with a dividend yield close to 9%. We have additionally announced the partial closing of the divestment of small generation assets receiving BRL 302 million. The complete closing should take place in coming months while meeting the precedent conditions. At the same time, we're also complying with the precedent conditions for the closing of the Baixo Iguaçu operation, and we expect this closing to take place in the second half of 2025.

As for the results of the first quarter, I also highlight another period of solid growth in EBITDA, reaching BRL 1.5 billion, with excellent performance in all business units. On this slide, I'd like to highlight Copel's competitive advantages. First and foremost, I reinforce the essence of our thesis: it is simple, with low risk, and huge potential to unlock value. We are an integrated company with premium assets and concessions renewed for the long term. We believe in focusing on the core business of electricity and gaining scale. We have a relevant presence in the segments of generation, transmission, distribution, and trading of energy, which allows us to have a diversified composition of our EBITDA, balancing risk and return with strong resilience to market fluctuations. We consider all of these points give us a very important strategic advantage or competitive edge.

This integration allows us to capture synergies, optimize investments, and operate efficiently across different industry cycles. In addition, we have strong cash generation and a robust balance sheet that allows us to take advantage of growth opportunities with responsibility and financial discipline. Copel, ladies and gentlemen, has a clear thesis: solid fundamentals, low risk, a team of excellence, and a very consistent trajectory of deliveries. We are facing a unique case with plenty of room to unlock and create value.

E agora? Eu quero abrir capítulo inédito. [Foreign language]

I want to open an unprecedented chapter in our history as a corporation. As promised at our Investor Day, we announced today our optimal capital structure and new dividend policy. This work is a reflection of an in-depth study led by our CFO and his team. So, Felipe, in addition to greeting you and complimenting you on this excellent work, I would ask you to present the details of this work. The study considered several scenarios and variables, which allowed us to set a transparent, robust, consistent, and predictable policy. The most important thing is that we want to reconcile a high capacity to pay dividends with the preservation of our ability to make good investments. We are raising the company to a new level that will allow us to generate even more value for our shareholders.

This update also demonstrates the management's commitment to discipline and capital allocation, and once again consolidates what has been Copel's hallmarks: consistency in our deliveries. With that said, I will now turn the floor to Felipe so that he can address more details about this work, but also the earnings of the first quarter. Thank you.

Felipe Gutterres (CFO)

Bom dia a todos. Obrigado, Daniel. [Foreign language]

Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Daniel. I'd like to start here by recalling a fundamental point: discipline is the pillar of our management. Considering this, on Copel Day last year, I presented our capital allocation manifesto, which demonstrates in an integrated way how we look at our capital allocation process, reinforcing the company's internal rate of return at the center of this process. Today, we present to you the result of our optimal capital structure study, which directly impacts our dividend policy. You see that the study is connected with all of the perspectives of this year: the strategic cash reserve, investment grade, where some of the central pillars adopted, while the result of the work allows us to have a greater scope to analyze new project optionalities and, of course, a new perspective of dividends, which is what we'll present today.

Now, speaking specifically of the approach developed to define the optimal capital structure, it is important to start with the central concept behind the study. The optimal point of the capital structure is the one at which leverage maximizes the value of the company. That is, the limit zone in which the costs of indebtedness, especially the risk of financial distress, begin to compromise that value. In other words, there is a value curve associated with leverage, and our goal was to identify exactly the inflection point before the increasing leverage started to negatively impact the value of the company instead of generating value. For that, we struck to a robust project in two major stages. The phase first was to construct deterministic models for each cash generating unit.

We defined a minimum strategic cash and added CapEx, debt service, and dividends to reach the shareholders' cash flow with dividends. We built a solid base of long-term projections with assumptions defined by our market area, added to macroeconomic projections, taking the modeling to the end of the concession. We then connected this deterministic model to a probabilistic model, allowing us to have 78,000 possible paths of critical variables for our own business, from which we defined 700 sample scenarios with a high degree of confidence, with different combinations of critical operational, macroeconomic, and financial variables. This approach allows us to capture the complexity and variability of the real business environment, which leads us to the optimal capital structure considering different contexts. Here, it's worth highlighting the main assumptions that guided our stochastic simulations.

We sensitized variables such as the price of energy and market of energy where we operate, costs, GSF, curtailment, interest rates, IPCA, among others. This allowed us to understand how different levels of leverage perform, not only in base scenarios, but also in adverse and stressed contexts. The model has clearly shown us where the limits of healthy leverage are and when value starts to be lost. Graphically demonstrating the logic of the model was kept to capture the tax benefit generated by leverage in different scenarios of critical variables combined to the point that the cost linked to financial distress, such as the additional spread related to the debt rating and the stress of the leveraged better, reached the optimal point in each scenario. These charts here in this slide summarize a consolidated view of the assumptions that supported the simulated scenarios in the probabilistic model.

Our approach was comprehensive, incorporating both historical parameters and market projections. It is important to highlight here that all of these parameters and assumptions and scenarios were built by our market area and deeply discussed internally. With this, we ensured first the technical robustness of the study with assumptions adherent to the reality of our business and credible scenarios, and second, independence and analytical impartiality, avoiding any construction bias in the model. We carefully segmented scenarios from the most conservative to the most optimistic, ensuring that the final result reflected not only an internal point of view but a broad, reasoned, and representative view of the real dynamics we face. This reinforces the reliability of the results that I'll show you on the next slide.

With that, based on all the modeling presented, considering deterministic projections and simulations of probabilistic scenarios, we've reached a solid conclusion with 99% confidence that a leverage of 2.8 times net debt over EBITDA is the capital structure that maximizes the company's value. The study shows that there's an optimal leverage range that preserves our financial flexibility, our ability to absorb shocks, maintain access to financing on competitive terms, and sustain our growth agenda to invest with discipline and generate value on an ongoing basis. This range includes 95% of the optimization scenarios within the range between 2.5 times and 3.1 times net debt over EBITDA.

It is important to say that the structure holds up even in adverse and stressed scenarios, such as those simulated in the stochastic models that I already mentioned, and it intelligently and dynamically balances the benefit of debt with the risk of financial stress, taking into account the profile of our cash generation, our future commitments, and the company's long-term strategy. In the end, what we have here is a clear direction for decision-making based on a strict methodology, consistent data, and a well-founded technical parameter that increasingly guides our capital positioning to maximize the company's value. As a direct consequence of the study of the optimal capital structure, I announced one of the main developments of this work: the definition of Copel's new dividend policy, which will be one of the instruments to achieve the optimal leverage.

The policy takes into account the target leverage of 2.8 times, bands of more or less 30 basis points, and thus we can be between 2.5 times or 3.1 times net debt over EBITDA on leverage, as long as there's the expected convergence to 2.8 times within 24 months, minimum payout of 75%, payment frequency of at least two times a year. We also foresaw totally exceptional situations, such as a pandemic, a catastrophic event, or even a relevant high-return investment strategy in which the board of directors may decide on a payout below the minimum. To conclude the session of the presentation, I reinforce that our policy reflects an integrated view of our business model, our capacity to generate cash, and above all, our commitment to create sustainable value, balancing three fundamental pillars: predictability.

We started to adopt a clear structure with objective parameters that allow investors to understand what to expect in terms of remuneration. It is essential to increase the attractiveness of the stock and reduce perception of risk. Financial discipline. This means that the return to shareholders will always occur within a context of solidity and responsibility without compromising the company's financial health. Flexibility to growth, keeping room to make the necessary moves for good capital allocations, as long as these are clearly generators of value in excess of the cost of capital. Now, talking about the quarter's results, we delivered recurring EBITDA of BRL 1.5 billion in the first Q2025, of which BRL 783 million came from Copel G&T and BRL 693 million from DIS.

This result was 13% higher than the BRL 1.3 billion of the first quarter of last year, mainly due to the largest pay mix of sale at Copel GeT, the increase in the volume of energy sold, the lower generation deviation with a reduction of 30.5% or BRL 15 million compared to the previous period caused by a higher wind volume, partially offset by the curtailment of 6.1% compared to 1.9% in the first quarter of 2024, and the increase of almost 1% in the grid market built in the distribution company, offset by the higher volume of energy from the MMGD at BRL 164 million. I'd like to point out that our network business, our grid business, stood out with an EBITDA efficiency of 46.4%, and in the line of results, we presented growth of 6.4% in recurring net income.

A series of combined factors affected this variation, in addition to better operational performance, registering an increase of BRL 19 million in the equivalence of our shares. These components were partially neutralized by the lower financial result, more negative by BRL 174 million due to the increase in financial charges due to the higher interest rates and the increase in debt volume. Shifting the focus to investments, we executed a CapEx of BRL 678 million in the first quarter, with distribution representing 87% of the total realized, with a focus on the regulatory remuneration base, efficiency, and quality of services. For the year, we expect to make BRL 3 billion in investments, with an allocation and distribution of BRL 2.5 billion. Giving color to our indebtedness, we closed the quarter with a leverage of 2.3 times, 0.3 times lower than what we closed in 2024.

This shows the balance and the consistency of our balance sheet and our ability to generate cash. Speaking of leverage, I conclude my presentation by highlighting the study of the optimal capital structure, which we have just seen, which pointed to leverage of 2.8 times and the new dividend policy, whose minimum payout will be 75%. This work and the consequent dividend policy is a milestone in our journal of financial maturity. We are confident in the solidity of the capital structure and in the balanced policy we have adopted, ensuring consistent returns to investors and preserving the company's ability to continue to invest in growth with discipline.

As we have said, we are a unique case capable of aligning relevant sustainable dividends with growth, and we are very confident that our long-term strategy, focused on efficiency, quality, and results, will continue to advance and deliver more and more value to all our stakeholders. Before opening for the Q&A, I thank each and every one of the Copelians for their hard work, commitment, and continued dedication. Thank you once again for attending. We can now move on to the Q&A session.

Operator (participant)

[Foreign language]

We will now begin the Q&A session. If you wish to ask a question, please click on "Raise Hand." If you want to send your question in writing, please use the Q&A button located at the bottom of your screen. Our first question, Maria Carolina Carneiro at Safran. Please, you may go ahead.

Maria Carolina Carneiro (Analyst)

Bom dia, pessoal. Obrigada pelo call. [Foreign language]

Good morning. Thank you for this presentation.

I have two questions. First, about the period to start applying the new dividend policy. Just to make it clear, you gave us the breakdown of the policy and the horizon. You're thinking for 24 months, but just to be sure, are we speaking already of including the payment of dividends as of 2025 within these parameters, or is it something that's going to start in 2026? Also, within this scope, to try and understand the metrics that you place to reach the optimal leverage of 2.8 times, we would probably be talking about more frequent payouts. I'm doing some analysis here of sensitivity, and you even mention it in your policy, the possibility of payout extraordinary dividends.

Just to know whether I'm understanding this correctly, and a second question about the energy market, you've been able to get interesting results at the trading, and generation transmission was also good results, and we've been seeing a bigger concern of disconnecting the spot price from the market. The price in the South was a little bit separate and going up compared to other markets. Just to know what your view is and how you're preparing for this horizon where the prices are detached, considering what we have today in the South and the portfolio that you have in the Northeast. There are some people who are expecting these disconnections to be closer or longer, and the spot price lower in the Northeast.

Daniel Slaviero (CEO)

[Foreign language]

Hello, Carol. Thank you very much for your question. First, it is valid, effective immediately, starting today.

The second point, Felipe, I think there's something relevant on Carol's question here, is how these ranges are going to work at this convergence period of 24 months. We will go into the market prices, and I would ask you and Mano to add. First, Carol, thank you. Good morning. You asked about the frequency of payout. What the policy says is that it should be at least two payments a year, minimum. That gives us liberty to practice more than that, depending on the company's strategy and the space that we see. As for the ranges, the way they work gives us flexibility to operate 30 basis points up or down, as long as in 24 months we get the convergence to 2.8 times.

It should be understood that if there's room within that period, we can operate at 3.1, for example, as long as we see convergence to 2.8 in this time horizon that we established here in the policy. That opens up room to use dividends as a tool to get to the optimal structure. Just an addendum before I turn the floor to Rodolfo. I think this is very important here. The first 2.8 is a reflection, as I said here, of a very robust organization. 28,000 scenarios, 700 samples. There are a lot of details there, and the stress test for the company as well, which shows the robustness of a company like Copel.

The second point is that this range aims to provide predictability and stability to the dividend policy, either operating at a higher end of the range or the lower, and to avoid hiccups. The second point is considering that we have a contracted deleverage condition for 2026, 2027, with the tariff review and with the improvement in prices that we already perceived this quarter, as well as the work in efficiency and cost reduction. I think that the second main reason here for this range, Felipe, and our work here is to provide us flexibility to navigate economic cycles as we see with perspectives of improvement or worsening in this universe. The third and last point is also to leave some significant flexibility for us to be able to make good investments, as Felipe already said.

We are very happy and confident that this policy is an important step, as Felipe mentioned, in the maturity and financial growth and the appreciation, the value of the company. Rodolfo, please go ahead and the price aspects and the market. If you can, also talk about the sales for the quarter as well, please.

[Foreign language]

Excellent. Okay, good morning, everyone. This first quarter was very interesting in terms of price and volatility, but with that pace of long-term growth maintained, as we saw in the last quarter. Speaking a little bit of strategy and price, the price, when the price goes up, we have been contracting long-term energy. We have contracted energy, especially for 2026 onwards. We made the most of that high price window. This is something we have been doing since last year.

The result of those hedging is what we could see throughout this quarter. We do have a long position in the Northeast, considering the contracts we buy there. This position was hedged during 2024, and the strategy proved to be very interesting during this year. At some points, when the price was detached in more than BRL 2,300, we were on the opposed point. We were selling more energy than buying, and we captured that advantage. Another relevant point in your question about the market price is this difference between the South and Southeast. Considering the low fluence we saw in the third quarter, the South started to be a lot more expensive than the Southeast. There was a lot of positive impact because of that. Today, almost 90% of our energy is sold in the Southeast.

Our hydro generation is mostly in the South. This difference was in the portfolio of the trading company. Starting in February, we start to see this separation that is now close to BRL 40 [billion]. A lot of the results of trading come from the strategy to maximize these swaps. Whenever there is this difference, this disconnection, we take the opportunity to capture that in the medium and short-term contract as well.

Maria Carolina Carneiro (Analyst)

[Foreign language]

Excellent. Thank you.

[Foreign language]

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Nossa próxima pergunta vem de [Foreign language]

Bruno Amorim, Goldman Sachs. Please, Bruno, you may go ahead.

Bruno Amorin (VP of Equity Research)

Oi, bom dia a todos. Obrigado pelo espaço. [Foreign language]

Good morning. Thank you for this opportunity and congratulations on your new policy. Very clear, very objective.

Eu tenho uma pergunta que está relacionada. [Foreign language]

I have a question related to the policy and capital allocation.

Daniel, if you can talk about this today, what are the main fronts you're working on in terms of growth and capital allocation from now on? You're putting together a very senior board, very competent C-level, preparing the company for a journey of efficiency and growth, as you have been saying. If you can update us in terms of priorities and how you see the growth agenda from now on.

E também outro ponto, só follow-up até voltando ao momento. [Foreign language]

A follow-up going back to what you said in the investor day, correct me if I'm wrong, but you said in 2025 you were not foreseeing any huge capital allocation movements or M&A.

The question is, considering the new policy that gives you some flexibility and there is a contracted relevant increase of EBITDA for coming years with the tariff review coming next year, would it make sense to think that the best case should be a leverage slightly above 2.8 times since this deleveraging is already contracted for coming years? These are my questions. Thank you.

Daniel Slaviero (CEO)

Bons pontos aqui, Bruno. [Foreign language]

Thank you, Bruno. Thank you for the question. We will start from the last one going back. Felipe, please feel free to add as well to my answer. This possibility that you mentioned is very reasonable for us to end 2025 with a leverage close to or slightly above what we are saying with the capital structure and working on keeping or maintaining that within the 30 basis points range because we see a deleveraging perspective that is very strong in coming years.

It's a possibility and we'll discuss it.

Para dar essa flexibilidade pode. [Foreign language]

That range is precisely to give us this flexibility to be able to navigate it considering the company's circumstances. As you said, and everyone knows, there's this contracted deleveraging with the tariff review or the beginning of the new investment cycle at the distribution company that will follow a normal curve, a more traditional curve starting in the first cycle, lower and growing during the five years. I think this is a point and this is an actual possibility. In our view, it doesn't make sense to have hiccups in the payment of dividends, high, medium, low, high. Our idea is to have predictability, stability to reach this maybe exceeding double-digit yields, which seems for us a feasible, reasonable scenario considering the characteristics and perspectives of Copel. That's the first point.

In terms of M&A and all that, what I want to tell you is, Bruno, our view is a long-term view. We're talking about and presenting, and we're going to do that at the investor day at the end of this year, a view for 2035, what we expect for the next 10 years, what are the avenues and what can happen in three, five, 10 years. We don't have any anxiety or perspective or anything feasible or concrete in the very short term. You saw our first slide was really to reinforce the second wave of 2025, 2026, which is still a wave where we're cleaning house, operational efficiency, executing the investment plan, as I said, and also to do an important derisking with the tariff review that in our mind will be impeccable.

We are working for that, a process where we need internal review of our processes and our structure to develop, as we said, the ownership culture, have a transition of our internal system, in particular our ERP system. There is a capacity bid as well that is not defined when exactly it is going to happen, but there is strong indication that this may happen by the end of this year. I think there are still a lot of things, a lot of steps before we start thinking about any relevant capital allocation. Finally, I mean, we have, we must be attentive and always aligning and not with, we do not put together such a high-level excellence team just to sit down and wait for things to happen. That is not the idea. It is what we always say. Every day has its own priorities. We will be mindful. There is still a lot of space.

Today is like our baptism of this new phase as a corporation, which is to re-rate the company with the predictability and the capacity to pay dividends, shareholder remuneration. There is still room. Just to conclude my thoughts, time is on our side in the sense of valuing, appreciating the company. We believe that it is still very cheap.

Bruno Amorin (VP of Equity Research)

[Foreign language]

Great. Excellent. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Nossa próxima pergunta. [Foreign language]

Next question. Felipe Andrade with Itaú BBA. Please, Felipe, you may go ahead.

Felipe Andrade (VP of Equity Research)

Bom dia, pessoal. [Foreign language]

Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I would like to ask you for better visibility of the sales strategy now of energy trading in the quarter, especially for the longer fortresses and 2027 onwards. What was the price level of these contracts, considering that we see a lot of volatility and increasing pressure in the quarter?

Also, the company has a portfolio that should benefit from this price volatility in the interday. I'd like to know if you have an estimate that you can share with us on the general profile of generation and how much it contributed to the results of the first quarter of 2025. Thank you.

Daniel Slaviero (CEO)

Se você puder contextualizar aqui para nós, por favor. Bom, vamos lá. Falando pouco de longo prazo, de fato, os preços estão mais altos. [Foreign language]

Talking about that, the prices are actually higher. If we look at 2027 and compare its behavior with all A plus two that we talk about, it's at the historical highest level. We have been capturing prices close to BRL 190 in 2027, above BRL 170 in 2028, and this maintains looking forward.

Now, talking a little bit about the benefit of seasonality in a day, that's one of the points that we talked about in our investor day. We've been seeing that already materializing. It started in January with a discrepancy. Day-to-day was not that big. In February, we see already an improvement of BRL 10 million in the results of Copel as a whole. In March, that was 100% materializing, reaching BRL 20 million. That equals to about BRL 18, 2 MWh more than the energy that we sell. We imagine with the hydric stress in the second half and the entry of the wind harvest that tends to converge more. That could get you as much as BRL 60-70-80 per MWh, depending on the effluencies and the solar and wind powers.

An additional point here, Felipe, we're seeing a higher price volatility that's also a reflection of this new pattern. Hydro generation and so on. We understand this is very positive and healthy, despite some impact in the industry overall, because it approximates or brings the models closer to the real-life operation that we see. It doesn't make sense to have falsely smaller prices in the first half, and then that gets too separated later, and that becomes a cost of charges and service, and that ends up affecting the general cost. Every time we have a model where we bring it closer to the real operation with all the complexities and challenges that ANS has, for us, this is a healthy discussion to evaluate this event, and it would be a step back. It was discussed and debated for a long time, for years, actually.

We're only just beginning this five months of this new operation with the new hybrid way.

Felipe Andrade (VP of Equity Research)

[Foreign language]

Excellent. Thank you. I fully agree with all your points, Daniel.

Daniel Slaviero (CEO)

[Foreign language]

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Nossa próxima pergunta vem do [Foreign language]

next question, João Pimentel from Citi. Please, João, you may go ahead.

João Pimentel (Equity Research Director)

Bom dia, pessoal. [Foreign language]

Good morning. Thank you for your presentation. I'd also like to congratulate you on your dividend policy. I have a question about the reserve auction, and I'd like to take your view on two points. Considering the postponement, what do you see in terms of a perspective of a deadline, or if you expect any change in the products related to the hydro plants, if it's a good point?

The second point is your view on participating in the auction, including for us to think about leverage and so on, considering that this bidding process allows the anticipation of hydric projects. I'd like to see if you have any estimates in terms of CapEx for these projects. E qual que seria a ideia de espaçamento desses? [Foreign language] What would be the spacing idea of this disbursement over the years? If you're thinking about working with the advance or not, it depends on the approval of the CMSA. What are you thinking about this CapEx allocation? Thank you.

Daniel Slaviero (CEO)

Excelente questões aqui. [Foreign language]

Excellent question. What do we see? First,

Que foi uma decisão da nossa visão correta. [Foreign language]

It was a decision, in our view, that was correct of this cancellation because of the level of the judicialization even before the bidding process.

Can you imagine if they went forward? The trend was that it would remain. That was a decision that the ministry had, and our view is correct. Our expectation of this is that this will come back soon, and the bidding will take place by the end of the year, November maybe, or December at the latest. Especially because the system needs the. For. I don't.

A lá, algo que nós vemos. Nós estamos contribuindo lá e vamos contribuir na fase de consulta pública nessa nova etapa no ministério ou na ANEEL. O que a gente tem defendido é que o produto hídrico tenha uma questão, uma quantidade específica para ele e não fique naquela questão das sobras ou no roubo a monte com os produtos 26, 27 e 28, porque você confunde com o produto térmico e o produto hídrico primeiro. [Foreign language]

[It will] be more than 5 GW of interested projects. Third, it is fully renewable. It is majority with national products. There are a lot of benefits for consumers, and they have guarantees, and the safety of the system happens with hydro and thermal plants. As for our participation, we have two projects that are very advanced, the Foz do Areia project with 860 MW, and in this segment also with 1.2 GW to put in. It will greatly depend on the conditions and prices and the conditions to see which will have the best conditions. We will be, in our view, prepared with these two projects. As for CapEx and price, we are being more cautious because this ends up being a strategic piece of information. In Foz do Areia, we do not have a lot of civil construction, and in. Do you have a little bit more?

That could affect our competitiveness and tolerance. As for a potential anticipation of 2030, we'll see how the rules will unfold, but I think this is part of the competitive edge of each of the players, and if they can deliver it ahead, we'll certainly look at that very cautiously. This will bring benefits to the system because this will definitely be part of this value, will definitely be captured at lower prices, benefiting the consumer. That is why we have a strong confidence in the hydric plant.

Ela tem uma estratégia relevante na segurança do sistema. [Foreign language]

It has a relevant role in the safety of the system.

João Pimentel (Equity Research Director)

Obrigado. [Foreign language]

Operator (participant)

Nossa próxima pergunta vem do senhor Reinaldo Veríssimo. [Foreign language]

Mr. Reinaldo Veríssimo, he says.

Qual tem sido [Foreign language] Since the company sold shares, what has been the main difficulty that you found in the current format, and what do you consider to be Copel's greatest triumph? I'm referring to the management operation. In the call of the fourth quarter of 2024, I remember you mentioned the energy generation bidding processes. Is this expectation maintained?

Daniel Slaviero (CEO)

[Foreign language]

No, okay. I believe that Copel doesn't have any huge triumph or anything spectacular. I mean, it has a work and a consistency that is done brick-by-brick. What are we doing? I think that's our main strength, as I mentioned.

At a road show on the following one, we sold shares in August 2023, and we had a series, made a series of promises that we were going to renew our three main plants, that we were going to have works and efficiency gains because Copel was already very efficient. There was an EBITDA at this above 20 of the regulatory, and today it closed with 46, but there were reasons and things that were inherent to the restrictions and ties of a state-owned company. We said we were going to divest in assets that we did not consider to be core assets, and that we saw closing 100% of the matrix. The sale of WEG, Compagas, that we were going to focus on large assets so that we could have domain, I mean, not a plant of 10-12 MW.

We used these to recompose the technical team. We said we were going to have a lot of discipline in capital allocation and that we would conduct a study of a new capital structure and dividend policy, and that we would be mindful of opportunities that could come up. For now, what we saw recently was an opportunity to sell by Baixo Iguaçu within this context that simply reinforces, I mean, the company is focused on discipline and capital allocation, either for divestment or investment. I believe that the next main step to conclude this, and I appreciate your question, that was in our follow-on, and we will begin the debates and initiatives now after the general shareholders' meeting. It will be the discussion of new market O Novo Me, and it was a factor that made it invisible with the discussions.

That we are able to move forward, and if everything goes well, to bring some celerity on that for coming months.

Operator (participant)

Nossa próxima pergunta vem do senhor [Foreign language]

Luis Batista, and he says. Congratulations to all the team and the efficiency of the management. I'd like to know if the studies to migrate to Novo Mercado, if you could expect an effect in transforming the shares from CPLE6 to CPLE3 once it has higher market value.

Daniel Slaviero (CEO)

[Foreign language]

Hi Luis, as I just mentioned, the coincidence between your question and what I was just saying, I think this is a major step to unlock value that was on hold with the discussions that I mentioned. I think that now we can start this debate with all stakeholders, and Felipe will also lead this process. I see this as a very relevant opportunity, and as I said, to unlock value.

I think that the combination of the class of shares is something that brings benefits to everyone, to the preferred and common share owners, and for the attraction of international investors. This is also a very relevant factor. About this premium or rating in this exchange, it's a very preliminary discussion still, very early. There's a difference of 10% between one and the other ordinary shares and preferred shares. If you see the vast majority of operations, almost the totality of operations over the last 30 years, it's always been one-to-one. I believe that for us, in the debate and the balance, we tend to think there are paths for the greater good to exceed the smaller good. There's a more valued company with a single class of shares and more liquidity will certainly bring benefits to everyone.

Our advantage is that this is not, the rating specifically is not a management issue to discuss. It's something that's up to the shareholders. The shareholders should, are the ones to take a position and try to get to an understanding to benefit the greater good for the company. That's exactly it. Yes, perfect.

Operator (participant)

A sessão de perguntas e respostas está encerrada. [Foreign language]

This session is concluded. I will now turn the floor to Mr. Daniel for his closing remarks.

Daniel Slaviero (CEO)

Acho que a quantidade de participantes, o nível das perguntas. [Foreign language]

Such an amount of participants and the level of the questions, and especially the consistency and quality of delivery shows how Copel is a reference company in the electricity sector.

I think all of my partners, all of my colleagues, all Copelians who are with us in this work, in this journey, I'm very happy with the new formation of the board, the quality of its members, the quality and competence of this excellent team that we have here at Copel, both the ones who were already here and the ones who arrived or who are coming in now recently. We are convinced and confident that Copel's case is simple, low risk, and with a lot, a lot of opportunity to unlock and create value. Thank you all very much. Today, we consider this to be a very important day, not to say historical, in the recent life of Copel as a corporation. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

A teleconferência da Copel está encerrada. [Foreign language]

The conference call is now closed. We thank you all for your participation. Have a great day.