Nu Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NU) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Two things I would highlight, however. As you look at Nu Mexico and Colombia, we continue to invest, and we will continue to invest in both of those countries as we have invested in Brazil. It has taken Brazil almost now nine years, 10 years to get to today’s profitability levels. We think that Mexico and Colombia will still take a few years, but we will be able to shorten that cycle there over the coming decade. However, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, Gustavo, we will not manage the Company trying to optimize for next quarter or next two quarters ROE. We will optimize the results for the long term, yet the business model in Brazil shows very kind of vivid signs of profitability that we expect to continue to showcase to analysts and investors as we evolve.

Gustavo Bradesco: Great. Great, Lago. And just a follow-up here, specifically on the ROE that you mentioned from the investments that you mentioned in Mexico and Colombia, we could see that your capital allocation in Brazil is about 1.7 billion out of 4.9 billion total or consolidated. My question here, what’s your expectations of a capital allocation in other countries, such as Mexico and Colombia, I would say, in one or two years? Or maybe when do you think that Mexico and Colombia will be at the same maturity of Brazil. I’m just trying to understand here the capital allocation because my understanding is important, especially when you analyze the ROE. So I’m just trying to get a sense here, your capital allocation in — and what would be the potential equity overall here or potential ROE on a consolidated basis?

Guilherme Lago: No, absolutely. Let me try to provide some guidance — or not guidance, I’ll provide some color on those questions. I would draw your attention to Page — Slide 35 of our presentation. There, you can see our capital position. First and foremost, we do believe that our business plan in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia is full-funded. We have plenty of capital, plenty of liquidity to support the growth, organic of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia over the coming years. We do appreciate, however, that Mexico and Colombia, can be more friendly intensive than is in Brazil, especially because of the working capital cycle of credit card in those countries and also because of how much interest earning is used in credit cards. So in Mexico and Colombia, the working capital cycle, I pay merchants in D+1, D+2, whereas I pay merchants in Brazil in D+27.

And the percentage of the credit card books that is allocated to interest earning portfolio there is higher than it is in Brazil. For those two reasons, it is more funding intensive for us to operate in those two countries, and we will have to develop very soon our deposit base in Mexico and Colombia. And eventually, those will become countries in which they will also be more capital intensive with higher levels of return on assets there.

Jorg Friedemann: And our next question comes from the line of Marcelo Telles at Credit Suisse. Okay. So it seems that we are having problems with the line of Marcelo Telles. So let’s move on to the next question. And the next question comes from the line Pedro Leduc at Itau.

Pedro Leduc: I wanted to get your thoughts a little bit on loan book growth and vis-à-vis provisions — provision expenses. How you’re seeing NPLs evolve, this quarter ticked up a bit. There’s some seasonality here as well. Stage 3 formations have been high, coverage down. As I model 2023 here, I can definitely see the strength of NII offsetting a slower loan book growth, even though some growth, yes. But I struggle to see provision expenses coming down as a percentage of the loan book this year or near term. Does that make sense?

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