JBS - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Transcript

Speaker 1

Good morning and welcome to JBS S.A. and JBS USA fourth quarter and the year of 2024 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Any statements eventually made during this conference call in connection with the company business outlook, projections, operating and financial targets, and potential growth should be understood as merely forecasts based on the company's management expectation in relation to the future of JBS. Such expectations are highly dependent on market conditions, on Brazil's overall economic performance, and on industry and international market behavior, and therefore are subject to change.

Our present with us today: Gilberto Tomazoni, Global CEO of JBS; Guilherme Cavalcanti, Global CFO of JBS; Wesley Batista Filho, CEO of JBS USA; and Christiane Assis, Investor Relations Director. Now, I will turn the conference over to Gilberto Tomazoni, Global CEO of JBS. Mr. Tomazoni, you may begin your presentation.

Speaker 2

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our earnings call. Our 2024 financial results reaffirm the positive outlook we set for the year. We closed the period with a record net revenue of $77 billion, reflecting a 6% growth compared to 2023, and the net income of $1.8 billion. EBITDA totaled $7 billion, with a consolidated margin of 9.3%. These figures highlight the strength of our global multi-protein platform and the precision of our operational management, which enables us to capture opportunities across a wide range of market cycles and geographies. With a sharp focus on operational excellence, we realigned on the performance business. Despite headwinds in the U.S. market, JBS Beef North America delivered a result that outperformed 2023. In Brazil, Seara posted a strong recovery, reaching a 19.8% margin in the fourth quarter.

This performance reflects gains from the commercial and operational improvements made throughout the year, though we still see room for improvement, particularly in service level, pricing, and product mix. Seara has already issued $416 million in agribusiness receivables certified across, including a 30-year note in February 2025, the longest-term debt ever issued in Brazil's capital market. It's important to highlight that the 2024 market is the second-highest level of cash generation of JBS history, driven largely by our chicken and pork operations. JBS USA Pork delivered consistent performance throughout the year, closing the fourth quarter with a 13.5% margin, an increase of nearly 7 percentage points compared to the same period in 2023. Pilgrim's Pride recorded the best performer in its history, margin grew from 9.8 to 14.7 in Q4, while chicken consumption in the North American hemisphere typically is low during the period.

Demand in the US remained strong across both retail and food chains. Pilgrim's Pride's success was driven by the disciplined execution of its key customer strategy and well-diversified portfolio, allowing the business to navigate a favorable market environment with agility and strength. Our geography and protein diversification also allowed us to benefit from favorable cattle cycles in Australia and Brazil, even as margin in the US remained under pressure due to the region's current cattle cycle. In Australia, where the cycle is expected to remain positive in the coming quarters, we posted a 10% margin for the year, supported by growing exports, especially to the US. In Brazil, JBS posted a 7.7% margin for the year, driven by the record beef volume growth in both domestic and international markets, productivity gains, and new export certifications. Our financial positions remained solid.

As we shared last year, the company leverage ratio fell to a more comfortable level, dropping from 4.42 times to 1.89 times EBITDA in US dollars between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024. In January 2025, the company issued $1.75 billion in bonds, achieving the lowest spread over US Treasury ever recorded for a Brazilian corporate issuance. Last Friday, we also announced the repayment of $815 million in bonds due in 2030. I want to emphasize that JBS continues to deliver sustainable growth and value for our shareholders. In October 2024, we distributed $850 million in dividends. In January 2025, we fallen additional $0.17 per share, totaling $380 million. Given the company's strong cash position and low leverage management, as proposed for approval in the next general shareholder meetings, the distribution of $773 million equivalent at $0.35 per share to be paid following shareholders' approval.

We remain focused on unlocking long-term value through the dual listing of our share in Brazil and the United States. The initiative will strengthen our corporate governance and expand our investor base, attracting institutional investors with significant allocation capabilities. We firmly believe that this move will drive lasting value for our shareholders, team members, and the areas around the world where we operate. Our global diversification strategy remains intact, supported by continuous investment in innovation and brand development, which allows us to build more resilience and a higher value portfolio. We also advance in research and biotechnology to develop innovative products and solutions that enhance the productivity for our portfolio and support the development of alternative proteins. In Brazil, we are building the JBS Biotech Innovation Center, our new hub for biotechnology research and development.

In 2025, we entered in the HEX category, acquiring a 50% stake in Montecreator, South America's largest HEX producer, a move aligning with our strategy of diversification, building brands, and adding value. We also announced a $200 million investment in two of our largest beef processing facilities in the United States, aimed at increasing operational efficiency and adding value to our production. In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, we are preparing to launch our third allowed value-added processing plant in the Middle East. In Brazil, we are finalizing the construction of a new pork processing facility and a prepared food plant facility. We are also moving forward with our investment plan in Nigeria. In partnership with the government and the local investors, we are developing a sustainable local supply chain to expand food production.

Nigeria is one of the fastest-growing populations in the world, today at 250 million and expected to reach 400 million by 2050, up from more than 200 million today. According to the U.S. projection, our goal is to support the country in its efforts to combat food insecurity. Each day, we are building a more resilient company and one of the consistent deliverers of strong financial results across market cycles. What I truly see as a part is not just our scale; it is our team and the ability to operate with agility as a small company. To innovate, adapt, and relentlessly pursue excellence in everything we do, always with a focus on execution. As we move forward, we will continue investing in our unique platform to ensure lasting efficiency, performance, and less volatility.

Finally, we are particularly proud that even in a scenario where one-third of our business, JBS Beef North America, was operating at break-even, we are able still to deliver the following for our investors: short-term growth, 6% increase in net revenue, investment to drive future growth. We invested in the CapEx of $1.4 billion in 2024. Value creation of shareholders. We paid $1.9 billion in dividends. We are investing in innovation to differentiate and expand margins and with reduction of leverage and debts. Thank you again for joining us today. Now I turn the call over to Guilherme, who will walk you through the financial results and more details. Guilherme, please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Tomazoni. Let's now move on to the operational and financial highlights of the fourth quarter of 2024 and full year 2024, starting on July 11, please. Net revenue for the fourth quarter was a record, totaling $20 billion. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $1.8 billion and represents a margin of 9.2% in the quarter. Net profit was $430 million in the quarter. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted net income would be $970 million. It's also worth mentioning that the financial result was impacted by derivatives in the amount of $162 million, of which $142 million refers to the hedge operation to the inflation-to-CDI swap of the local debentures. It is important to highlight that the cash impact of the fourth quarter of 2024 was only $7 million.

Assuming that the current forward curves are maintained, a similar cash impact is expected in the coming quarters, although this amount may vary depending on the evolution of the market curves. On slide 12, we have the highlights of the year. Net revenue of 2024 was also a record, totaling $77 billion. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $7.2 billion and represented a margin of 9.3% for the year. Net profit for 2024 was $1.8 billion. Excluding non-recurring items, the adjusted net income would be $2.6 billion for the year. Moving on to the next slide, operating cash flow in the quarter was $1.8 billion. Free cash flow in the quarter was $906 million. On the next slide, we have the cash flow for 2024. Free cash flow was $2.3 billion and increased approximately 400% year over year.

It is important to highlight that we unwind approximately $650 million in receivables discount in the fourth quarter of 2024 and approximately $450 million in the year. If we exclude this effect from the quarter and for the year, free cash flow would have been $1.6 billion in the quarter and $2.8 billion in 2024. This amount was very close to the company's historical record for free cash flow, ending in line with the 2024 break-even EBITDA exercise of $3.5 billion and effective cash tax rate of 25%. The strong free cash flow in the period reflects the strength of the diversified platform, the operational performance of the business units, and our financial discipline.

For 2025, without considering guidance but doing the EBITDA break-even exercise of free cash flow in dollars, we can consider $1 billion of net financial expenses, $500 million in leasing expenses, $650 million in biological assets, disregarding possible variations linked to grain prices, a total capital expenditure of $2 billion, half of which will be for expansion, mainly in prepared foods, better use of byproducts in the US, and increased efficiencies, and the other half for maintenance. Ramp-up of working capital of $250 million and effective cash tax rate of 25%. Therefore, the free cash flow break-even is approximately $4.5 billion. Just as an exercise, if you repeat the 2024 EBITDA in dollars, the free cash flow for the year would be approximately $2 billion after investing $1 billion in organic growth.

Moving on to slide 15, the net debt for the year ended at $13.6 billion, a reduction of $1.7 billion compared to the previous years, reflecting the strong free cash flow generation in the period. I also would like to highlight some advances we have made in liability management, which allowed us to reach an average term of approximately 13 years and an average cost of 5.4%, and significantly reduced the short-term debt. We issued three local debentures of agri-business receivables, both at JBS and Seara, which together with the Seara's receivables issued in March 2025, totaled $780 million. It's worth noting that we made the first issuance of the agricultural receivables of a 30-year term, the series being the longest operation in the Brazilian capital market. In December, the company also created its first commercial paper program to issue up to $1 billion, generating a new source of funding.

Finally, in January 2025, we also issued bonds, totaling $1.75 billion, with the demand reaching approximately $10 billion. Leverage in dollars in one year came down from 4.42 times in 2023 to 1.89 times in 2024. The decline is due to the expansion of the EBITDA and the reduction of the net debt due to the free cash flow generation. Furthermore, if we exclude the effects of the receivable discount mentioned above, leverage would end up the year at approximately 1.8 times. Low leverage combined with strong cash generation allowed us to provide an even higher compensation to shareholders. Thus, considering the payment of dividends in January, we distributed $1.1 billion, equivalent to 8% dividend yield. Additionally, the company's management proposed for approval at the shareholders' meeting the distribution of $773 million, equivalent to $0.30 per share, to be paid after its approval.

It's worth noting that we still have $0.17 to be distributed if the dual listing is approved. In continuation of our liability management strategy, last week, we also announced the repurchase of $850 million in bonds. Finally, we also reopened our share purchase program, which may reach up to 130 million shares. Even with the proposal for the payment of additional dividends that will be deliberated at the shareholders' meeting and the dividends promised after the implementation of the dual listing of $0.16 per share, we should remain within our comfort zone of our debt indebtedness policy with net debt EBITDA ratio between two and three times. Over the last six years and in 2024, we have demonstrated a balanced approach to growth and return to shareholders, being $4.6 billion in organic growth, $3.3 billion in acquisitions, $4.1 billion in dividends, and $2.8 billion in share buybacks.

It's important to mention that all of this amount was financed with the company's cash generation. I will now briefly go through the business units. Starting with Seara on slide 17, net revenue growth for the year was 15%, while profitability grew by a significant 13 percentage points, reaching 17.7% EBITDA margin, a record for the year. This result is a consequence of a better commercial and operational execution, strong global demand for poultry and pork, and expansion of the value-added portfolio. Net revenue growth in the comparison between the fourth quarter of 2024 and fourth quarter of 2023 was 27%, while profitability grew a significant 13.4 percentage points, reaching 19.8% EBITDA margin. This EBITDA margin result is a record for the fourth quarter. Moving on to slide 18, in 2024, JBS recorded net revenue 23% higher than 2023, driven by higher volumes sold, mainly in the international market.

This result is due to a strong global demand in addition to the favorable beef cycle in the period, resulting in greater availability of animals for slaughter. Thus, the EBITDA margin reached 7.7% and increased 3.5 percentage points year over year. In the fourth quarter of 2024, JBS Brazil recorded net revenue 36% higher than the fourth quarter of 2023, driven by higher volumes sold in the international market and prices in the domestic market. Thus, EBITDA margin reached 6.6% and increased 0.8 percentage points year over year. Moving on to slide 19, and now speaking in dollars and US GAAP, JBS Beef North America's net revenue in 2024 grew 4% compared to the previous year. The improvement in profitability in 2024, despite a more challenging cycle than in 2023, is the result of the successful execution of the company's strategy.

Compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, net revenue grew 2% year on year, with an EBITDA margin for the period of 1.3%. Profitability continues to be pressured by the challenging beef cycle, which has kept the price of live cattle at high levels. On slide 20, we have JBS Australia. In the annual comparison, the 7% revenue growth is the result of higher volumes sold in the beef exports, in addition to the increase in average prices. EBITDA margin reached 8.8% and increased in 2 percentage points in the annual comparison. In the fourth quarter of 2024, revenue growth was just 2%, which reflects the impact of operational disruptions in the salmon unit due to the weather consequences, but which were offset by the performance of the beef.

Turning on to the JBS USA Pork, net revenues for the year grew 5% year over year, reflecting high prices and volumes, driven by strong demand. Pork consumption is also being supported by the average price of beef, which remains at high levels. Net revenue for the quarter fell 5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, reflecting lower volumes sold in the period, given that the quarter had one less fiscal week. Pilgrim's Pride, as highlighted on slide 22, recorded a 3% increase in net revenue for the year. Throughout 2024, the company's results reflected strong demand for chicken in various regions in which it operates and successful execution of its strategy. The EBITDA margin for PPC for the year was 12.4%. With that in mind, I would like to open for our Q&A session. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session.

If you have a question, click the raise hand button at this time. If at any point your question is answered, you can remove yourself from the queue by clicking lower hand. Our first question comes from Ben Theurer with Barclays. Please go ahead. Yeah, good morning, Tomazoni, Gui, thank you very much for taking the space for some questions. Two ones to follow up. One, just really more like the market conditions right now in Brazil. Obviously, it was a very strong year, especially at Seara, with strong exports, et cetera. Now, we've seen recently a little bit of more cost pressure with Brazilian corn and maybe also the meal prices going a little bit higher. Any commentary that you have as to the ability to maybe pass on some of that incremental cost pressure that you're seeing on a year-over-year basis?

Then my second question is for Gui, as it relates to just the different milestones listing in the U.S., fair to assume that you've filed with the SEC, once approved, it's that 45 days, and then you need to get the vote. When do you think that approval comes in? How should we think about it? Is this a three-queue, four-queue event? Anything that you can share as per timeline, that would be appreciated. Okay, Ben, I'll start with the second question. We did the filing yesterday. We have a time for SEC to answer. If SEC doesn't have any more questions, we can ask for the registration. They have some time to grant the registration. With the registration in hands, we can call the general assembly, as you mentioned, for 45 days.

Once approved in the general assembly, we have the implementation period, which there are also things that are not in our control, as custodian of shares, so on and so forth. We estimate around 30 days, but there are some things that are not in our control. Given this, I think in the best case scenario, Q3 would be the estimate for being already listed in the US. Perfect. Thank you. Ben, you mentioned about the pressure of costs in grain. Nowadays, Brazil is paying a premium. The higher price in the world for corn is in Brazil. I think this is a one-time circumstance because the Brazilian producer, with this discussion of tariff, and they are stopped to sell in order to wait for what happened in the short term.

I believe this taxation in the corn will be already embedded in the price of the corn in Brazil. This is one thing. The other side, if you look for the crops in Brazil and the planting, the conditions so far, so far, because we are now at a critical moment in terms of weather forecasts. If the weather forecast confirms that it's okay in Brazil, in the U.S., we see a good perspective of a strong crop. We see that the cost of the corn remains stable and does not go up and down. Maybe there is opportunity for downside in Brazil. I believe that when they will be clear about this tariff, the price of the corn, I think the tendency will drop, not grow up.

With this cost, I think we are able to manage with efficiency in our process and management mix, and so it's a mix of channels and mix of portfolio. If you are able to manage that, Seara is doing so well in the last quarter because they started the cost to be higher in that quarter. We see that we are faced, of course, impacting the cost in the beginning. I strongly believe that with the strong demand we have in chicken and pork domestically and export, we are able to manage this cost. Yeah, perfect. I'll go back in the queue. Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Strelzik with BMO. Please, Andrew, you may go ahead. There we go. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I had two.

The first one is more specifically on tariffs and how you think the business is positioned with respect to potential changes in trade flows. Do you see tariffs as a net positive or negative for your more global business? Have you seen any impacted trade flows so far? Andrew, good morning. It's Wesley here. It's difficult to predict exactly what all is going to happen with tariffs because when you talk about tariffs, there's tariffs, then you have to, there are many variables at the same time. There's counter tariffs. There is what's going to happen with exchange rates. I mean, there are many things. Predicting many variables moving at the same time, predicting before it happens is very difficult.

Given our portfolio of business, right, within North America globally, we think that we're best positioned in this industry to be able to take any benefits if there are any and mitigate risks if there are any too and be able to solve our operations. We have operations in Canada, operations in Mexico. We have operations in Australia and Brazil that can have some benefits as well depending on what happens. Also, when it comes to the U.S. market, Andrew, obviously, the export part of our business is very relevant, but it's not the primary business we have, right? Our main business is the domestic market, and we're confident about the U.S. domestic market. All in all, I think it's difficult to predict, and we're going to need a few weeks with whatever tariffs come our way and to see exactly the impact.

Then from there, see what's the impact. Again, having operations across many different countries really creates a unique situation that we can mitigate those risks. Okay. That's helpful. My other question is about the beef dynamics outside of the U.S. The Australia margins in the quarter were a little softer than we had anticipated. It sounds like that was not in the beef business. That was more in the aquaculture business. Your outlook commentary sounds like you'd expect margin expansion in Australia in 2025. I just want to make sure I understand what exactly is going on there. You do not have the same type of outlook commentary for the Brazil beef business. If you could just compare the outlook for Brazil beef in 2025 versus 2024. Thank you. Ben, in Australia, the availability of cattle is there.

In reality, with what's a climate challenge in Australia, significant rainfall in Queensland in the north drove cattle price up more than expected. In contrast, drought in the south means shorter process. We also buy cattle in Queensland, adding more demand for cattle and pressure on price. This was the reason. The cattle is there. Now, we see with this situation, we are extending the positive cycle for cattle in Australia. The demand for beef and lamb is very strong in Australia and outside of Australia to export. We are very positive with the cycle of beef in Australia. In Brazil, I believe we found a moment position in the market that there is a balance between the availability of cattle and demand from the market. I think it was positive because Brazil increased around 80%, so 18% more harvest in cattle in Brazil last year.

18 is a lot. Why? It was good because the sector, the processors were able to increase capacity and absorb the additional offer from the market. The price was down and up. Now, I think we reached a balance between the price of cattle and the market in the situation in the market because the demand in the market is very strong. Brazil demands a lot. We increased the volume in Brazil. We increased the volume in export. We see that the margin for the next year will be more in line with our fourth quarter. Great. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Priya Ohri-Gupta with Barclays. Please, you may go ahead. Hi, good morning. Thank you so much for taking the questions. Guilherme, one just clarification if you could help us out.

If we think about slide 15, where you walk through some of the debt issuance and debt reduction activity that's happened in calendar 2025, it looks like you guys issued about $1.9 billion in debt and then have repaid about $2 billion. That includes the $850 million that was announced last week. Is that the right way to think about it? Or is it $850 million on top of the $2 billion that you have highlighted in slide 15? Basically, we issued $1.75 billion. Then we issued BRL 800 million. Converted, it's more or less the figure that you mentioned. We already paid $1.1 billion in trade finance and now announced $850 million of the bond call exercise. More or less $2 billion of new issuance and $2 billion of redemption, in fact.

We also have a remaining part of the call of the bond that we exercised of around $480 million that in case of cash generation in the next quarter, we may be exercising this call still in this year. Okay. Thank you. In the filing, you mentioned that the $850 million was contingent on the receipt of the PPC dividend, but that would seem incremental in terms of $1.2 billion. At Cagany, you had also talked about potentially using $1 billion of free cash flow if there were no M&A activities to think about debt paydown. I guess, could you help us think through over the course of the year?

Is it just the remaining 450 that's on the 2030s that could be repaid, or is there a higher amount that we should think about in aggregate, just given some of the moving pieces that you have with the share buyback and the growing dividend? I think it's true. Earlier, you just said, let's see throughout the year, what are the opportunities in the cash generation. Of course, the call exercise is the most easy ones to do because I don't need to do a tender, and I have the assurance that I will draw the notes. Let's see. It depends throughout the year how we see the developments. If we're having more cash generation, then we'll be looking at capital allocation. I think it's too early to say given that first quarter is always the quarter that we seasonality, we consume cash. Okay. That's very helpful.

Just one for you, Wesley. Could you share with us what you guys are seeing around food service in terms of some of the different proteins and demand that you're seeing from consumers? We're just getting some sort of mixed to more cautionary commentary from some of the branded CPG guys. Would love to get your perspective on that. Yeah, Priya, we are seeing the difference, not as pronounced as maybe you're hearing maybe from other companies between food service and retail, retail being stronger. Actually, our food service business is growing a lot. It's probably we're gaining share. We're being more participative in this market. We've heard similar in the market to what you're saying. Overall, we're actually advancing in this market and producing more and selling more to food service.

We're probably just gaining share in this market given the information we're gathering in the market. Great. Thank you so much. We see a strong demand for protein globally in all of the markets: chicken, pork, beef. I think this is a tendency. The people eat more protein. Thank you. Our next question comes from George Bailey with Lord Abbett. Please go ahead. Sorry, my question's been answered. Thank you. Our next question comes from Isabella Sun with Mizuho Group. Please go ahead. Hi. In the US beef business, the $200 million of CapEx upgrades to the two beef processing facilities. We're wondering how's that going to improve efficiencies and value-add, and what will it enable JBS to do differently? And if there's any opportunities for similar investments and improvements in the US pork. Thank you. Hi, Isabella. Good morning.

On the beef side, these two investments are we've invested a lot in the last year in our Grand Island, Nebraska plant, which is out of our beef plants, the largest in the US. Now we're investing the next two largest plants we have. Here in Greeley, with cattle getting heavier and heavier every since last year is here, cattle becoming heavier and heavier, our distribution center has become a bottleneck in this plant, affecting customer service and at sometimes the volume we're able to attain in the Colorado plant here. Our part, $50 million of that $200 million would be the investment in building a new distribution center here, which would remove that big bottleneck for us and improve our customer service for customers.

In Texas, the $150 million would be a new fabrication room, which would bring it to probably be the most modern fabrication room in the US. It would open also space for us to increase our ground beef production and be able to do more cuts and be ready for more value-added in the future with smaller primals, with more value-add in our product that we process there. That is a very those two investments, our beef plants in the US, especially our larger beef plants in the US, are going to be among the most modern plants in the country and ready for the future. We do not do these investments thinking about the next two years, the next three years. We are looking really at this business for the next decades to come. We want to make sure our plants are really ready for that.

Our pork business is a business that we've grown a lot in the past. We've just invested a lot in the prepared food side of it. We have two plants that were greenfield plants that we've built. Now they're very, very one is mature 100%. The other one is really close to being 100% mature and with a ramped-up volume. We've had good success there. We're going to continue to evaluate ways for us to continue to add value on prepared foods in this part of the business and to continue to increase our business in pork as well. It's a business that we really enjoy. It has a lot of it's one of our most consistent businesses in performance. It's for sure a business that, given the opportunity, we're going to look at continuing to grow. Great. Thank you so much.

Ladies and gentlemen, there being no further questions, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Gilberto Tomazoni. Mr. Tomazoni, you may go ahead. Thank you all for joining our earning call. We are very pleased with the result we are delivering. As I mentioned at the top of the call, we are creating value, driving growth, and investing in differentiation, keys to sustainable spending, our margin. We deliver what we said we would, reducing leverage and cutting debt in a time of significant global shift. Our diversified platform is a powerful asset to enable us to navigate in the complexity across the market. I will take the opportunity also to thank our team. Whenever I ask him about our strategy, my answer is always the same. Our strategy is to have the best team.

Thank you to our more than 275 team members, 1,000 team members around the world, and our making this result possible. Thank you so much. This is the end of the conference call held by JBS. Thank you very much for participation and have a nice day.