Earnings Labs

Cosan S.A. (CSAN)

Q3 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 10, 2016

$4.18

+4.76%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. At this time we would like to welcome everyone to Cosan's SA third quarter of 2016 results conference call. Today with us we have Mr. Mario da Silva, CEO; Ms. Paula Kovarsky, IRO; Mr. Joao Arthur Souza, CFO; and Mr. Phillipe Casale, Investor Relations Manager of Cosan SA. We would like to inform you that this event is recorded. [Operator Instructions]. The audio and slideshow of this presentation are available through live webcast, at ir.cosan.com.br. The slides can also be downloaded from the webcast platform. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements will be made under the Safe Harbor of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Cosan's management and on information currently available to the Company. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Cosan and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now I'll turn the conference over to Ms. Paula. Ms. Paula, you may begin the call.

Paula Kovarsky

Analyst

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Cosan SA's third quarter 2016 results conference call. As usual, we will present each business line of Cosan SA first and then the consolidated results. But first let's have a look at Slide 3 which shows our business portfolio. Once we had an important change this quarter. As announced last Friday, November 4th, we concluded the sale of a stake in Radar to Mansilla Participacoes Limited, a vehicle of TIAA upon the payment of BRL1.041 billion to Cosan net of dividends deliberated by Radar. This is an important step towards increasing further our focus on the core businesses, Raizen Combustiveis, Raizen Energia, Comgas and Lubricants, targeting the optimization of our portfolio and in pursuit of higher returns to our shareholders. Cosan caped 3% stake in Radar given its expertise in frontline management in Brazil. Radar net income was therefore reported under discontinued operations this quarter and as of fourth quarter 2016 Radar results in proportion to their remaining stake will be reported as equity pickup. The net result of the sale will also be recognized the next quarter. Let's go now to Slide 4, with the results of Raizen Combustiveis. Following the trend observed in recent quarters we confirm the effectiveness of our growth strategy grounded on the expansion of our distribution network through conversion of independence especially white flagged stations. Otto cycle volumes were stable compared to third quarter of last year versus a 1.4% drop in market volumes, the source is the ANP. The same compares and in terms of gasoline equivalent i.e., adjusting for the energy efficiency, which we believe to be the more accurate way to understand the market dynamics; points to an increase of 2% for Raizen. The outperformance of the market reflects the net addition of 344 stations to…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Isabella Simonato of Merrill Lynch.

Isabella Simonato

Analyst

I have two questions on fuel distribution. First, if you could comment on how you view the new pricing policy from Petrobras and how does that change or increase the visibility that you have on both fuel distribution and sugar and ethanol business? And second on fuel distribution, how do see the competitive dynamics going forward and if it's reasonable to assume that the continuous market share gain that you've been having should continue throughout 2017 as well?

Paula Kovarsky

Analyst

Okay. About the pricing policy, I mean, the first and most important thing that I would like to say here is the higher the transparency the better. This is something that the market has been longing for forever to have a clear policy for prices. And if Petrobras continues to increase and decrease prices following what happened to oil in effect I think this is definitely good news for the market. And then in terms of the impact for Raizen Energia what happened is that so far what we saw, to start with, we are not responsible for prices at the pump and this needs to be very clear. The second thing is ethanol prices went up so the change in gasoline prices at the pump was not so visible. And third, because some of the states are actually increasing taxes and this is why the reflecting the pump again is not so clear. Again, one could think about the very short term and say that gasoline prices went down and this is arguably negative to ethanol, but once again, I think that the space, the sugar and ethanol business has suffered so much from lack of transparency in gasoline prices for the last 10 years that we need to look at this as a positive thing and that will increase predictability as well as volatility to prices and this is not necessarily negative. Okay. Regarding the competitive dynamics, as you said, again when we, when Petrobras reduces 10% diesel prices, like they did last week, you can argue that the room for imports is a little lower and this is true. But again, the idea here is that the prices will vary in line with the oil prices and in line with FX. We think imports are the structural…

Isabella Simonato

Analyst

Perfect. Thank you, Paula, thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Thank you. This concludes the question-and-answer session for investors and analysts.

Paula Kovarsky

Analyst

Well, thank you all for joining the call and see you in the fourth quarter of 2016.