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Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP (SBS)

Q1 2023 Earnings Call· Fri, May 12, 2023

$33.48

-1.79%

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Transcript

Luiz Tiberio

Management

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to SABESP's conference to discuss our results for the first quarter of 2023. I am Luiz Tiberio. I am fund raising and Investor Relations Director. Today we have Andre Salcedo, SABESP's President, Catia Pereira, Economics Director and Marcelo Miyagui, who is Accounting Director. Before I pass the floor on to Andrea, who will begin the conference, I'd like to give some disclaimers. This video conference has simultaneous interpreting into English is being recorded. The video will be available for download at the SABESP's portal, where you can already find the results press release. Remember that questions will be accepted for the Q&A session. Please use the chat here on Zoom. Our conference is scheduled to last for approximately 60 minutes to 90 minutes and we have set aside 30 minutes for questions from investors and 50 minutes for questions from journalists. Just to complete our opening remarks, I'd like to mention that any potential comments that may be made during this conference with regard to forward-looking statements, projections and forecasts, both operational and financial are subject to risks and uncertainties as they depend on the information that is currently available to SABESP. They do not constitute any kind of promise or guarantee. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they pertain to forward-looking statements and as such, may or may not come to pass. Investors do understand that journal, economic conditions and other operating factors may have an impact on the company's future results and may lead to results that are materially different financially from those that we forecast here. And before I pass the floor on to Andre, I'd like to run a short video that we prepared for you.

Andre Salcedo

Management

Hello everyone and good morning to everyone. Thanks to . I apologize for the technical hick up in the beginning of the video, but it is available and in the material that we posted to the CVM . This video quite describes the new chapter that we're beginning as we build a company that is more agile, more innovative, that is closer to its clients that pays attention to compliance to leveraging and value and that is more significant to all stakeholders that obviously includes all of our investors and long term partners. After all, we've been at this for over 50 years and we hope we will continue to be even more successful as we move into the future, especially, given this extremely robust platform that we've built over so many years here at SABESP. I'd like to thank all of you for your time. We are finishing our the first cycle of adjustments here in our Q1 '23. Just as a reminder, if you don’t know me, I am Andre Salcedo, I am CEO of SABESP. I formally joined the company in mid-January and gave me all the leeway I needed to assemble the company and its board as I understood. This is focused on vibrancy and vision and that's exactly what we're doing here at the company. We had some very intense days at the company and the company is spectacular. The staff here at the company are amazing. They are truly committed to quality of service and this is what has allowed us to be so successful during these first 100 days as a creative platform that we believe will be the winning platform for the company and for the sector as a whole. As you can see here in this diagram, our focus is on…

Catia Pereira

Management

Good morning, everyone. All right. Well, good morning, everyone. I'm Catia Pereira and thank you, Andre, for the introduction and thanks for the retro. Looking back over these past 100 days has been very, very interesting. I love seeing what this board has been accomplishing over the past few months. I'll now share some results. The main operation that we have that gives us revenue is volume. In the first quarter, we had a 1.1% increase in the volume of revenue from the provision of water. Essentially, we saw an increase in industrial and public water. What we are witnessing here is truly, it can be confirmed as a return to normal after the pandemic. As people -- more and more people leave their homes and go back to industry. And this is great for us because the distinctive fees that we charge industries is very good for our revenue. So basically, for commercial, residential, these results are very in line with what we had to forecast. We have connections with new economies, new residential homes. This is already linked to the Novo Pinheiros project. Just as in the volume of water, we also see for the residential, we also see for commercial, industrial and public. So we can see an overall increase in 1.4% and this has a very positive result in our revenue, especially due to the mix between the different categories in addition to residential. Next slide, please. Alright, so that was volume. Well, now let's talk about revenue. During Q1 '22, our revenue was R$3.9 billion and now in Q1 '23, our revenue was R$4.5 billion. So this is a 13.5% increase. This increase is basically composed of 12.8% due to a fee increase in May 2022 and also the 1.4% increase in volume. So as…

Luiz Tiberio

Management

Thank you, Catia. Thank you, Andre. All right, now let's move to the Q&A session. Just as a reminder, I'd like to mention that we will first answer questions from investors and analysts. And secondly, we will have a space dedicated to questions from journalists. As you know, we have the Q&A feature here on Zoom. So please use that mode and we will answer all your questions. We have three questions. The first two are very similar from Henrique Peretti and Rafael Nagano. I'll read them out and then Andre and Catia can answer.

Operator

Operator

Andre Salcedo

Management

Yes, thank you, Rafael and Henrique for your question. Of course, we did have internal forecast for the total cost of PDI, but we will limit ourselves to only posting the adoption rate, because there could be some fluctuations due to adoption rate. But specifically, for SABESP, the transparency portal shows salaries for every single employee. So I think it's much easier for people who want to study and analyze the company to see our specific values there. The payback can vary, but we do expect it to be somewhere between 12 months to 15 months. This is a very typical payback time for a program like this one. And for our projections, we will announce these to our internal public, our employees and the unions as well. We'll publish that later today. Our union relations are very strong now. As soon as we finish the cycle of talks with our internal public and unions, then we will discuss with the market, but we'll talk to them first.

Catia Pereira

Management

All right. Thank you, Andre. We have a question from Aaron . He says, considering that the new governor of the Japanese Central Bank is reviewing his monetary policy, this administration will not consider any possibility of acquiring derivatives. Will this administration not consider acquiring derivatives to keep foreign exchange rates and interest rates as they currently are?

Luiz Tiberio

Management

Yes, we are looking at derivatives. Our goal is to never miss any potentially interesting or attractive strategies to keep these rates at good levels for us. So yes, we are studying these possibilities.

Catia Pereira

Management

The next question also comes from Aaron. The summary of accounts receivable from clients that are over 360 days old is near record levels posted in Q4 '22. Could you please give some information about how this number will be reduced over time? And should we expect that a great percentage of these accounts receivable that have already expired, that have already been defaulted on, will drop during some point in '23 and if so, when will this happen?

Andre Salcedo

Management

Well, this is exactly the purpose of that open day, as I mentioned. This is exactly what we hope to accomplish. We hope to have good adoption rates from these defaulted clients. I can't say exactly how much we will recover over this year, but the company is focused on reduction. hat means reducing this type of inventory that has been defaulted on for over 360 days, as well as new accounts receivable. And for those, we do have a strategy to keep them sale or as short a time as possible. So these are the targets we've been working on and across many different departments here at the company. We are aiming to secure an improvement there. Looking at our forecast now, we hope to continue improving even the accounts that have been provisioned for. So these numbers, they are accounted for in our reports. So they will not have any impact in addition to their accounts.

Luiz Tiberio

Management

Thank you, Catia. The next question comes from Giuliano Ajeje. He asks, have you ever had any interactions with the IFC about modeling studies and when do you expect the studies to be completed? And do you believe that there will be an impact to the fee structure?

Andre Salcedo

Management

Thanks, Giuliano Ajeje. We have been speaking with the state government and have been participating in meetings with the IFC, especially to give our opinion about the company's contracts and to give information about these contracts, as well as to give our opinion about a number of different value levers that the privatization process could potentially give the company, projects and cities. Within the scope of this analysis, this is going to be a very broad analysis, going to look at the company profile as well as investments that will need to be made and other topics. This will give us a strong regulatory forecast and also a forecast about the scenario, namely what regulatory models could be adopted and so on, as well as the benefits and challenges for each one. I don't have a detailed calendar yet. This hasn't been mapped out or scheduled in that degree of minutiae, but it has begun. And what I can answer about your question is that we are working in that direction.

Catia Pereira

Management

Thanks, Andrei. The next question also comes from Giuliano Ajeje, who asked, with regard to the gap between realized and regulatory revenue, could you please comment about where you see this difference and what you're thinking about in terms of strategies to reduce the gap? And do you believe that in 2023 you are likely to reach the required revenue? Where are the inefficiencies you aim to improve during this year?

Andre Salcedo

Management

I'll start answering and then Marcelo and Catia, you can add your thoughts. Now, the main goals of our regulatory agenda is to tackle these gaps. A significant part of this has been addressed when we published in December the real update and we have another update now in May. This is aimed at ensuring that the design that the ARCESD made will be met. We do not want to have any kind of issues owing to formatting or information completeness. There are some other initiatives too. For instance, the ARCESD does not consider bills that need to be reissued because every utility issues 10 million bills per month and some percentage of those 10 million will incur some kind of printing or reading error. This has an impact on revenue as well as other factors like the mix between billing and consumption, the mid-pandemic and post-pandemic changes as well, the return, the gradual return to normal as we mentioned, and also the fee tables for the vulnerable clients and standard clients. We are working with many fee professionals here at the company to create this. We will discuss with agencies as well and if there are a few points that have not been explained that are more complex, we will work on them with a specific deadline. Now, we also, as far as operations, we have a number of concerns that the ARCESD has not truly understood. Our goal is to open up a technical discussion with that agency and show them that our cost strategy is very appropriate, is very fit for purpose, and we will aim to help them see things from our perspective. This is a very complex agenda. Many of our players are very anxious and they want to have their needs met, but we believe that this review phase will start seeing results next year.

Catia Pereira

Management

Thank you, Andre. I don't have anything to add. You taught me very well. No, that was 10 out of 10. All right, the next question comes from João Pimentel. It's also about the same topic of revenue. He's asked, good morning, as you approved the RTE, you mentioned that you see the gap closing for regulatory revenue. Therefore, what is the size of the gap that you estimate that will still remain, the gap being between revenue and regulatory revenue, and how do you hope to finish closing that gap?

Andre Salcedo

Management

I hope we answered that question in the last question, and if not, João, please add to your question and we will answer in just a few moments. Is that okay? André Sampaio: All right, next question now. André Sampaio asks, good morning, what is the status of discussions with regulatory agencies about applying the new fee structure?

Catia Pereira

Management

Well, André, this is included in the regulatory schedule that we've begun. We are -- discussions about the fee structure are included there, and we hope that by simplifying the concept of our provision of service, we will see more improvements to our revenue. There is some work that we need to do there, but the different levers, specifically for the standard and vulnerable fees, we understand, it makes sense. So, if we can guarantee that the company's financial balance is protected, we will be happy to work with the regulatory agencies there. André Sampaio: The regulatory agency says it's going to happen during the first semester of 2024, right?

Catia Pereira

Management

Yes, this is on the ARCEFB website.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

A question from Gamma now. Good morning everyone, I have two questions. First, could you explain a bit more about SABESP's investment plan in this new administration? And if possible, could you tell us where we stand in renegotiating contracts with city government? Thank you.

Andre Salcedo

Management

I have a hard time unmuting myself, sorry. Good morning, Caio. Okay, they are two different questions, but I can answer them both with different degrees of depth. Well, our CapEx was published last year and we did not see a significant need to change that now in the first quarter. What we did do is review our CapEx prioritization. So we are focusing particularly on making investments that bring the company more money, more value. That means investments in modernization, which can either reduce costs or increase revenue. We are investing in increasing our network and reducing our losses. They also have a positive impact. And the other investments, which are desirable investments, but which can wait and which do move toward universal unification. They are being perfected before we can actually start investing on them because we are going to invest a lot of time and effort to make sure that mayors and city governments understand us and if possible, even can anticipate some targets, some contract targets. This is our number one priority. We must ensure that the company complies with utility programs and also with any type of commitment linked to the environment or labor security. After that point, you know, other than those two aspects, we are prioritizing all projects based on the perceived value that they stand to bring us. And based on that analysis, we are prioritizing them all based around CapEx. Secondly, where do we stand in renegotiating contracts with municipal governments? We believe that the state government already has standing agreements with city governments. Let me take a step back. Talking about privatization, we can potentially generate value in a number of different ways as we renegotiate contracts as well. Therefore, the best way for us to share those gains with the public sector, there are many. They include anticipating or reducing fees, anticipating or increasing investments, and paying concessions in a number of different manners, in a variable or fixed manner. Some of these conversations have begun and we are not taking part in these conversations yet, but we understand during our discussions with the state government that this is a political agenda. And at some point, they will complete their technical analysis, the AFC. And so when that occurs, then we will have numbers, concrete numbers. As long as we have those, we will share the best as the executor of the contract, the city government and the state government as well. The state creates the infrastructure and the municipal governments bring value to their residents.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Miguel Rodrigues.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

Good morning. Could you talk about the process to normalize UCLD initiatives and timing? Although it is better than in the last quarter, it is still higher than the normalized levels.

Catia Pereira

Management

Thanks for your question. I think I have answered a great deal of them. Our initiatives have -- we have begun many initiatives to reduce our indebtedness level. Remember that during the pandemic we were not allowed to cut any water supply or reduce it in any way or even to strike their credit. So after the return to normal, we did receive authorization to start cutting the supply of water to outstanding defaulted clients. So we have begun suppressing and cutting provision. We also have the open day as I mentioned in the middle of the year and improving the repayment schedule for clients ultimately to ensure that a greater percentage of the defaulted clients will start paying their payables. I think we will see a recovery, strong recovery. This is not going to happen this year, but it will happen. Before the pandemic, our default rate was very low and we are working on every opportunity with our peers as well to make sure that we get there. We'll have more details about how strong our recovery is based on each of those initiatives. And as Andre mentioned, we are looking at our data, we are using data analytics. We're also studying the efficiency and effectiveness of each of these initiatives. So we are implementing many actions, many interventions, and we're going to have a detailed analysis of all of them.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

Thank you, Catia. The next question comes from João Pimentel.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

Yeah, actually, he thanked us for answering his previous question. And now he has another one. Given the importance of the city of Sao Paulo for the success of potential privatization, is this conversation between SABESP and the city government already going on?

Andre Salcedo

Management

I'm very glad, João, that we answered your previous question. Yes, we do have these discussions, but at the very, very highest level. So we have the mayor and governor who are discussing and they are talking about the potential of privatizing SABESP. So we are scheduling and attempting some contact with them. We have a number of different procedures to onboard the city government, and the first of those is joining the RRI. So I and a number of my colleagues are working on that. The RRI has a specific structure, and we understand that it is not the most appropriate structure for giving a proportional representation to all the different cities. So we're working on that. And from there, we do have a roadmap, a sequence of steps that involves other city governments as well. And that's designed to ensure that everyone is on the same page as the discussions about privatization go on.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

Thank you, Andre. We now have a question from Gustavo Fabricio. He says, good morning. He suggests allowing questions to be made verbally. He says, recently, some meetings, we received announcements that the company hopes to cut R$1.8 billion in OpEx. Could you give more details about how you arrived at this number?

Catia Pereira

Management

Good morning, Gustavo. Just to give you some context, this announcement occurred during a governor's speech here in New York during a CEO conference that was promoted by a bank. This is certainly something we desire. We want to improve the company's performance as much as possible. Now, as a state-owned company, we do have some limits. There is room for improvement, but it would be premature to give a number right now, and it would probably be the wrong number. We can't give a precise number yet. Now, for a non-state company, those numbers can be given more confidently, because our margins and the benchmarks that I've seen in my experience in privately owned companies has a particularly strong key lever. So these numbers are more relevant the bit margins tend to rise compared to revenue. They would go from a high level to an even higher level and the company's profitability really takes off, as we can see in other private companies. But today, SABESP cannot reach them because we are tied down due to a number of different factors; hiring and workforce, services, service structures, the outsourcing of services. So basically, we work at the highest possible level. Now, if you want to know whether we will reach the R$1.8 billion level, I certainly hope so. But as we become privatized, that is certainly going to occur.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

Next, I have, thank you for your previous questions. I have a number of questions. I understand that solid waste is a very relevant field. What could you tell us about SABESP's plan in that business line?

Andre Salcedo

Management

Absolutely. Not just solid waste, but sanitation as a whole has long been looked at from the stance of how much value it could provide. For instance, the creation of biogas or bioethane, which we can use as fuel even. We have been using it in the city of Franca, biomethane in all our vehicles. We have reclaimed water, reused water. This is a sector that is very sensitive to capital because the water network needs to be improved over time, over the long term. We believe that the metropolis here in Sao Paulo has a huge potential. The sewage treatment system in the ABC region has a lot of potential, not just there, but in many different regions. There are many different strategies that we can employ. For instance, fertilizers. I was recently at a talk in Germany where we were looking at sludge as a source of revenue and no longer something that is sent to waste and dumped effectively. But for each aspect, for each segment, we have specific analysis. And for solid waste, we do have studies that we are starting in Barueri . This is a waste-to-energy project that is beginning. Sanitation is a segment that is poorly addressed right now. And if we are given leeway to do so, we will certainly start working as we have been, for instance, by charging cash collection fees. So why could we not add this new service to the company structure? So I certainly agree with you, but I can't give a definitive answer now because our analyses and studies are still ongoing. When they are complete, I will be very happy to share with you.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

We still have more questions. They keep coming in. Daniel Travitzky asks, hello, do you see any impact on the company coming from the changes to the legal landmark for the sanitation that have been proposed by the federal government?

Andre Salcedo

Management

Excellent question. The impact is positive if we look at the margin, the adjustments that were made to the legal landmark. Now, some of these discussions are setbacks. They include a new deadline for proving our financial capacity. But other than those, overall, they are very positive. Our targets for the year '23, we currently have 24 cities in that category. So as a company that is committed to our society, we plan to propose to those 24 cities that we review the contract such that we can deliver a contract that is strongly beneficial to all parties involved. And rest assured that SEBESP will give as much attention as we always do to all of our services.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

Good morning, I have a question about the PDI. Is there any outlook about replacing employees who left through the PDI? Do you believe that this is ideal headcount level for the company? Also, could you give a little bit more texture about the average wages for the employees that are expected to join the PDI?

Andre Salcedo

Management

Hello. Well, we will not, we do have an estimate, but we will not publish those. I think we, you will likely be more creative than we can in terms of possible scenarios. I want to make something very clear. First, we reviewed our strategy, and as we did so, we redesigned the company's corporate structure. When we did that, we found a strong opportunity to improve our processes, and this developed into a need to reduce the company's fixed payroll. So those 2,000 employees came from our first assessment, the first wave, where we looked for a CSC, and transferred some of them, and made our payroll more efficient. These numbers are not final, so we could certainly potentially increase the number of staff over the next 12 months.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

Thanks, Andrei. We have approximately 20 minutes left here in the call, and there are a few different questions still to answer. The first comes from Gabriel Caruso. Do you see a change in efficiency for the services being provided as a state government? Or, alternatively, if the PDV is held, should we expect this line to increase?

Andre Salcedo

Management

Certainly. Our vision is very clear with regard to our staff, as well as with regard to energy. We are not only migrating to the open market, but we also hope to have an RFP during the second semester to generate our own energy. This should be completed by 2026, and this will have a significant positive impact in reducing our expenses. We believe that centralizing contracts and establishing better relationships with our suppliers, namely, to understand what their pain points are, and improve our ability to meet fluctuations in demand, as well as, that includes both water and sewage, and also continuous use. Now, those products, they varied significantly because of global supply, the war in Ukraine, the energy issue, oil derivatives, oil products. All of this had a huge impact, and we're going to keep working to be more efficient, but as a supplies taker, there are certain limits to our efficiency. With regard to our employees, yes, we're going to have more outsourcing, but as we look at unit prices, there is room for growth as well. So, we might increase our outsourcing while we see a drop in our supply. This is certainly possible. In some cases, we can reduce without having any kind of drop in the quality of our service. This is something we are starting to look at now.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

Thank you, André. Romulo Bret, first, thank you and congratulations for your results and the presentation. With regard to the covenant renewal in a privatization scenario, do you have any interest in changing the fee model to become closer to regulatory TAR?

Andre Salcedo

Management

Well, I think as the company looks at the privatization structure, if we focus on value and the fees and pricing, it's clearer than if we look at the other extreme, which is regulation. If we look at regulation, there are specific parameters. So, this is going to be included in the analysis that the IFC will undertake with support from regulatory. This will be submitted to the state government and to ourselves so that we can all debate what is the best solution and what are possible solutions. So, be very, very practical. I think that's the easiest way. Yes, if we were to migrate to a parametric regis, the table, we certainly would have an easier time of generating value. I don't know if we'll get there, but we're working with the public sector to reduce the subjectivity that is present every time we look at these structures. So, something along those lines will occur, but to what degree, that's something that I cannot give you a definitive answer about today.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

Thank you. Antonio Junqueira has two questions. The first is, in addition to the fee issue, which this earnings call helps to address, does the company believe there is an important gap in revenue due to measurement flaws, old meters, and as a result, underbilling? What's the best way to work on that? And a second question, from an administrative standpoint, what management positions can the company use to draw more people in, to be more attractive on the market? And is there a specific number of seats that need to be filled?

Andre Salcedo

Management

Thanks for your question. We do have a cycle. We change the water meters regularly. The simpler ones have a five-year shelf life or useful life, product life, so to speak. After five years, we change those meters. And there are many different types of meters, including the ultrasound-based meters. They are more expensive, but also much more precise, and they last 10 years. Now, this is a significant more expensive meter. The cheaper ones are R$50 to R$100 each, and the ultrasound meters can cost as much as R$1,000. So, for the greatest number of our clients, we use the simpler water meters, because we believe that it is not economically viable for the vast majority of our clients to keep investing in more advanced meters. So, we use mathematical formulas to compensate for the expected inefficiency. We measure the amount that is provided to the network and the amount that is measured and keep track of that. The current fee structure, currently, the usage that is measured is usually less than the service or the volume that is provided. So, as we change and update the fee structure, it will become more important to have more modern water meters. To your earlier question, I think the first answer has been addressed. For your second question, SABESP has the Best has six hires and freely provided hires, and that includes at the superintendent level, advisors and assistants to the board and directors. In total, this is something like 150 for different positions. Thank you.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

I'd like to ask if the Nova Rio Pinheiros program has been completed, and if the BDO metrics have been reached, as well as the sewage connection completed and the CapEx. Thanks.

Andre Salcedo

Management

As far as I know, it is very far advanced, very far into completion, but has not yet been fully completed. We can potentially follow up on this question with the operations team because I don't want to run the risk of giving you an answer that is not precise. I don't have those numbers available right now, I apologize, but please send an email to our IR team and they will be happy to answer. Lastly, I think we've completed all the questions from analysts.

UnidentifiedAnalyst

Management

And now let's move on to questions from journalists. Tayhú Hirata has three questions. First, about the investment plan, what investments are being postponed? Second, in the scope of Integrity at A, what is the value that Cebeste will invest? And third, about the discussion around the sanitation landmark, how can this discussion impact SABESP?

Andre Salcedo

Operator

Well, please, if we haven't fully answered the questions, please do feel free to answer them. I do believe that I did answer your first question previously. We are prioritizing investment with regular environmental commitments and therefore an agenda that focuses on creating value. This is spread out around the state. We don't have anything specific that will be postponed. We are just rearranging the normal flow of investment here at the company. And emergency investments, I should mention, this is important, this is all within the concept of planned CapEx. CapEx is earmarked for meeting emergencies. And this could be at zero, we would operate normally. So this is not included in the reprioritization pipeline. Now, to answer your next question, it's a complex situation. What we've agreed to and what we've committed to with the environmental secretaries, I believe this is 980 million reals, but I'm not positive. They do include all the different deliveries. Pardon, the volume is R$4 billion. We will, at some point, need to speed up some deliveries that haven't been matched to our schedule and that's where we'll invest the most of those funds. To answer your third question, I think I've answered it, if not, please add to it. It's essentially positive, ultimately, thanks to the possibility of postponing certain contracts. That's what we're interested in as a service provider.

Luiz Tiberio

Management

Andre, that was the last question. No other journalists asked other questions after her. This call has now been running for 80 minutes, so if you'd like to give some final thoughts?

Andre Salcedo

Operator

Of course. Firstly, of course…

Luiz Tiberio

Management

Sorry, sorry to interrupt, a new question has just arrived from Alberto Hello, I understand that SEBASP is intensifying billing action. I understand that SABESP is intensifying billing and supply cuts for defaulted clients. Could you give some more details about what sectors are the main focuses there?

Andre Salcedo

Operator

Well, to answer your question, we are not prioritizing any specific sector. We are looking at our volume overall and we are following our goal. So we are allowed to cut service after 90 days. That starts counting after our notice and we are going to do that for all defaulted clients where we can.

Luiz Tiberio

Management

All right. Thank you, Andre. Now, your final thoughts?

Andre Salcedo

Operator

Well, thanks. I think this first quarter has been able to show a little bit of what we can do here at the company. Our goal is efficient management. We want to work toward the company's goals and results and to make sure the company provides its service with an extremely efficient manner. We want to improve our company profile and positioning to be closer to clients and employees. We have a very intensive internal communication channel. It's a simple administration. It is not a very, it doesn't have a huge hierarchy. It's more flattened than before. We have fewer people between the lowest employees on the hierarchy and the C-level. We have a commitment with the state government that is fully aligned with the privatization program. This creates a lot of value for our society, for our employees. Cebes has the potential to improve its efficiency level, its service provision, as every company does, and we're working on that. Now, if SABESP can be freed from its chains that it has because of being a state-owned company, there are a number of resources that today are limited, and we hope to become a company that is a player, not just in Brazil, but even more powerful. This is a journey that I certainly hope we can complete within deadline, and our deadline is next year. This transformation will be strongly positive for society, for everyone who is involved in this process, and especially for our employees. The amount of opportunities we will gain with this expansion is unparalleled in the company's history. So that's where we're working towards. We are striving to simplify and modernize the company, to integrate it, to improve our processes, and this will happen. And we will empower any impact of potential privatization, assuming the public sector decides to move ahead with that. And we believe that that will be strongly beneficial for everyone who has any dealings or interactions with SABESP.

Andre Salcedo

Operator

So that's it. I'd like to congratulate the team. We will deliver more and more. Congratulations to all company employees and outsourced employees, third parties as well. This is a very enriching journey. We have the potential to transform the Brazilian sanitation sector. Thank you.