Azul S.A. (NYSE:AZUL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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John Rodgerson: Yeah. So Dan, when we look, we were able to borrow unsecured in 2021 at 7.38 (ph), right. And so, the market was opened to us at that time, I think it’s a blessing that we got through the pandemic without encumbering our assets, right. And so I think that now we’re going to play from a position of strength, we fix the balance sheet with the lessors, which again, as Alex showed is 80% of the problem, and so the fact that we have the security associated with our Cargo business, associated with TudoAzul, I think that provides the opportunity as we move forward, right, and we want to make sure that we use that for the best interest of Azul’s long-term plan, not just a band-aid during COVID. And so now, we have an opportunity to do something with those assets.

Alex Malfitani: Yeah, exactly. That’s how we see it, right. Having those unencumbered assets is a good thing. And look, when the markets were open, there was no need to encumber the assets, we could accept a reasonable cost of debt without encumbering the assets and save those for a rainy day. When the bond is trading at the levels that we were seeing over the last few weeks, that did not really reflect the fundamentals of the business or the strength of the support that we knew we could count on, it didn’t make sense for us to issue any security, even if it was collateralized because it would be anchored on these rates, right. And there is a logic here for the sequencing because once everybody realizes that there is no risk to this company, that the company was going to continue producing above average or industry leading profits and growing we should see a cost of equity and a cost of debt, that is more in line with the company.

And then providing some color additional collateral to reduce that cost of debt even further, that’s the right time to utilize the asset.

Daniel McKenzie: Understood, thanks for the time you guys.

John Rodgerson: Thanks, Dan.

Operator: Okay. Thank you. The next question comes from Victor Mizusaki, sell-side analyst from Bradesco BBI. Victor we will open your audio so that you can ask your question, please proceed.

Victor Mizusaki: Thank you. Congrats for the restructure and the 4Q results. We have a two questions here, the first one according to our numbers, aggressive capacity expansion plan for the second quarter. So how do you expect LatAm to react as Azul and go restructuring the balance sheet, so do expect LatAm to pullbacks some capacity and then we’re talking about, let’s say, we’re talking about the low season, we’re talking about higher yields and higher margins? And the second question is regarding to the Slide number 21, where you mentioned about the OEMs and CapEx. So my question here is we’re talking about a permanent reduction and if it is only for 2023 and this is a permanent reduction then can we say that maybe you were also change maybe the fleet planning out when you think about the deliveries and maybe you could get additional discounts?

Abhi Shah: Yeah. Hi, Victor. Regarding industry capacity, obviously, I cannot speak to LatAm directly, but we’ve looked at the guidance that they’ve put out, has also put out capacity guidance. And overall, we think the industry domestically is going to grow about 8% to 10% this year versus 2019. So I actually don’t think that that’s bad to be honest with you, I think it’s pretty disciplined overall. I think we’re going to be about 6% to 8% domestically, the industry overall about 8% to 10%. And so I think everybody has been pretty disciplined. I think all the airlines want to recover the profitability that we lost over the last couple of years, I think, as I’ve said before, the customer is willing to pay the prices that are out there, we’re not seeing drops in demand and we, in fact, we think demand is stronger than ever, and I think airlines will adjust based on the load factors and the demand that they’re seeing.

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