International Conference Call Grupo Fleury 4 th Quarter 2009 Earnings Results March 31, 2010

Transcription

1 International Conference Call Grupo Fleury 4 th Quarter 2009 Earnings Results March 31, 2010 Operator: Good morning everyone. Welcome to Grupo Fleury results conference call. With us here today we have Mr. Mauro Figueiredo, CEO; and Mr. Fábio Marchiori, CFO and Head of IR of Grupo Fleury. This event is being recorded and all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the Company s presentation. After Grupo Fleury s remarks, there will be a question and answer session. At that time further instructions will be given. Should any participant need assistance during this call, please press star zero (*0) to reach the operator. This event is also being broadcast live via webcast and may be accessed through Investor Relation Website at where the presentation is also available. Those following the presentation via webcast may post their questions in advance on our website. They will be answered during the Q&A session as long as we have enough time. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Grupo Fleury s Management and on information currently available to the Company. They involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts should understand that conditions related to macroeconomic conditions, industry and other factors could also cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward looking statements. Now I will turn the conference over to Mr. Mauro Figueiredo, CEO of Grupo Fleury. Mr. Figueiredo you may begin your presentation, sir. Mr. Mauro Figueiredo: Good morning to everyone. I would like to point you to slide number 3. Of course the major event of our company in the last quarter was the IPO. We went public by the end of the year, the first day of trading was on December 17. The first day we had a price rise of 14% - that was considered the most successful Brazilian IPO of 09. We raised over R$ 6 million in money - and that is including the green shoe that was established at January 4 - and it is important to mention that the price of the IPO was right in the middle of the range that was proposed by the syndicated banks and was, as I mentioned, a very successful endeavor. On slide 4 I would like to show you financial highlights of the quarter and of the year. We reached gross revenues of R$ 820 million, which represents 14% of growth; Ebitda margin of 23.3%, which is a 16% increase over Ebitda of 08; the net income was R$ 83.7 million, which is almost the double of the net income of 08 and that represents a margin of almost 11%. 1

2 In the quarter the revenue grew even more, to 18% compared to the same period of 08. The gross profit increased 20% and the net income of the quarter reached R$ 20 million. As you can see in the graphs there is a very consistent growth, annual growth of 17.5% over the years in gross revenue and even higher for Ebitda, with growth of 23.5% in the last three years. In the quarter Ebitda growth was 14%. The operational highlight shown in the next slide is of course the two acquisitions that we accomplished in 09: one was the imaging company in Rio de Janeiro expanding the services for imaging in that city; and the acquisition of Weinmann in Rio Grande do Sul - and it was the leader of diagnostics services in the South region of Brazil. It was just before the IPO in October. And for the entire year we addressed efforts to the integration of acquired businesses in the last years - so administration, operational integration; the unification of IT platforms (front end and back office); the central processing facilities, IT platforms, all pursued during the year; and in São Paulo we had two plants, big plants for processing of samples and these plans were unified. The unification began last year, was completed by 1Q of this year; and all the incorporation of the companies acquired in the previous years. All this was done in the last two years and most of this work was in the last year. We continue our investment plan towards our network of patient service centers expanding, remodeling, opening new centers, optimizing the offer of services in each of the patient service centers. Our ambulatory surgery center called Fleury Hospital Dia was terminated because of legislation issues as to do with our IPO. We had to terminate that operation and we have done this in the last quarter of the year. And as the business go the Chronic Disease Management service was in the first year of operation in 09. It was very well received and is expanding very rapidly and we continue all the investments in R&D and the qualification of professionals, training and development. As you can see in the graph last year we launched over 100 new products as a result of the very active R&D results. As you can see now if you look in more detail the financials of the Company on next slide, the gross revenue in the quarter was 18% higher than the last quarter of 08. If you consider the annual growth that growth was 14% and looking at the specific business lines we see the diagnostic operations in hospitals (hospitals in which we are responsible for diagnostics) that business line grew almost 51% year over year. And the preventive and therapeutic medicine that includes the executive assessment, includes wellness programs for employers; includes the disease management programs; that grew over 27% year over year. Our patient service centers - which is our main business - presented growth of almost 20% in the quarter and less than that for the entire year and of course 2

3 we reached that growth because of all the investments in our network of patient service centers; because of more and more we are extending the high-added value services such as imaging, other services that bring more revenues per unit and as a whole; and because of the acquisitions I just mentioned, two of these most recent acquisitions. In the table you see the results for the quarter and for the year, presenting not only the consolidated results by each of the business lines as you can see and it is interesting to mention that lab-to-lab business there is a decrease in the revenues. That is because of the selection of clients and adjustment of this business line to more complex tasks. And as you can see if you look at the quarter that decrease was 5% compared to an annual decrease of 13%. That shows you the recovery of the revenues in the last quarter compared to the last year. In the Medical Diagnostics Business Unit we had a growth in the year of almost 14% and in the quarter of 18%. That difference is because of the acquisition of Weinmann, which is a large operation - that was in the last quarter and that is the reason why you see higher increase in revenues in the last quarter as compared to annual increase. There is a substantial organic growth, two-digit organic growth of patient service centers revenues and geographic expansion: as I mentioned, the acquisition of Weinmann that brought 26 patient service centers and two operations in hospitals, two of the best hospitals in Porto Alegre. We are responsible for the tests in those areas and also the Weinmann acquisition brought us lab-to-lab operations as well. And if you compare in diagnostics, imaging and other specialties and clinical analysis (either routine and (inaudible 10:05) you see more and more a gradual, relative increase in the imaging services as compared to clinical analysis and in 09 imaging and other services they grew 15% as compared to 12.9% in clinical analysis growth. In the quarter the clinical analysis grew almost 20% - and that is because of the Weinmann acquisition. If you look at the annual numbers at the graph you see a gradual increase going from 28% of imaging (always in revenues) going up to 33.9% in 09. So there is a consistent, gradual increase in imaging over the years - that is going to continue. If you look at slide 8, the growth in the quarter as I mentioned for diagnostics services was 19.6% and in the quarter and in the year 13.4%. If we compare the regional brand that is a composition of all the brands with the exception of Fleury, all those brands combined they presented a growth of 13% annual and in the last quarter 32% (that is because of Weinmann acquisition). If you compare that with Fleury brand, in the year Fleury brand grew 13.7% and in the quarter 15%. The increase in the volume of patients attending in our premises increased very substantially. As you see in the graph we are reaching 3 million patients in our premises per year and also at the bottom-right side this 3

4 is a KPI that we follow very closely, which is the average revenue per patient service center and you can see an increase in almost 50% of average revenue per unit. That is the result of a best position of services that we provide, high added-value of services, more complex tests and trying to reach the balance, which is the best service combination that we offer in each of our patient service centers. So that is the number. On slide 9 we point out our operation in hospitals. We are now responsible for the medical diagnostics in 8 hospitals in three different states of the country. That line of business grew almost around 50% in 09, in the quarter 23.6%. We follow that trend of outsourcing our diagnostic services - that is an international trend and we see a very important opportunity to expand even further this line of business. As you can see in the graph, the expansion in the revenues has a correlation with the price, average price of tests is more or less stable in the last two years that has to do with volume and the number of hospitals that we are responsible for the tests. Slide 10 we detail the lab-to-lab business. As I mentioned, there was a client selections; there was repositioning of this line of business that caused a reduction in the revenues, 13.2% reduction in 09 compared to 08, but a reduction of 5% showing a recovery in last quarter. But it is important to see, if you look at the graph, that at the same time that we see a reduction in the number of tests we see an increase in the average price per test - that is the adjustment in the area towards more complex tests that we are pursuing. And also I would like to mention the discontinuity of the Clinical Trials business. The Board decided to terminate that line of business, so we are phasing out. It is going to take one to two years to terminate completely this line of business and it will contribute to our revenues and results during that time. On slide 11 I show you some results for the preventive and therapeutic medicine business line. That line of business includes the executive health assessment; health promotion services; wellness programs; and the chronic disease management services. That line of business grew almost 28% in 09 compared to 08 and in the quarter it grew 8%. And the lower growth in the last quarter has to do with Fleury Hospital Dia, which is our ambulatory surgery service. We have to discontinue that service because of the IPO and the current legislation in Brazil. If we exclude the ambulatory surgery service even then we reached a growth of 18.8%. 09 was the first of operation of chronic disease management and although it was the first year it finished the year with over 8,000 lives contracted, so this is growing very rapidly. Executive health assessment was affected by the economic crisis and in the end reached the final results of almost 5,000 assessments in 09, stable regarding compared to 09, but it is concentrated in the last quarter (32%) showing the recovery of the economy, recovery of the expansion of all businesses. And health promotion services within companies reached almost 22,000 patients and as I mentioned the Fleury Hospital Dia, 4

5 which is our ambulatory services center, was discontinued in the last quarter. Even if you consider that the growth was above 40% year over year. I would like now to hand over to Fábio Marchiori, who is our CFO and IR Director. Mr. Fábio Marchiori: Thanks Mauro, good morning everyone. In the next few slides I will explain to you how we are doing the management of our cost of services, our expenses and our investments in the Fleury Group. The first thing I would like to highlight is that as you probably well know the excellence in the way that we treat our customers in customer service and the way we perform the technical side of our business is one of the most relevant points of the Fleury Group. So the cost structure and the expenses structure reflect that. Another thing I would like to highlight to you and you probably realize that, but over the past few quarters we have been changing significantly the structure of the business by doing acquisitions, by increasing the relevance of preventive and therapeutic medicine in the portfolio; by also changing the relevance of diagnostic imaging against clinical analysis in the portfolio, so this reflects in the way that we structure our costs and expenses. Talking specifically about the cost of services, the cost that we have to have to perform the procedures here in Fleury (which of course are composed by personnel and medical services, materials, other general services like rent and utilities) we have improved these costs by 54 bps in 4Q09 when compared to 4Q08; although this also represents an increase of 53 bps in 2009 against This increase between 2009 and 2008 is mostly impacted by some factors that have affected our result in 2009 and we list them here. Most of them are related to rationalization, optimization of our operations, which of course includes in the nonrecurring expenses and I will describe them briefly: the first factos that impacted on the cost of services is the first full year of the chronic disease management services, and of course as this is the first year the costs that we have portionally to the revenue of course are higher than we expect in the longterm by having this business established from this point ahead. The second point that I would like to highlight is the unification of the IT platforms, both in the front end and the sample processing facilities - of course this also has one-off or nonrecurring expenses. The third factor is the unification of the sample processing facilities in São Paulo State, which will have been completed in 1Q10. Also the reorganization or the closure of the patient service center, an optimization of this operation, the relocation of some of them so that we can expand the scope of our business to, of course, offer these services to a higher proportion of the population. 5

6 And a fifth factor that has impacted the cost of services of course is the integration of the acquired companies. During 2009 we made a huge effort to integrate all the businesses so that we can continue to take advantage of the synergies that have been highlighted when we made the deals. So this cost was incurred during Even with all of that we finalized the year, we ended the year with a gross profits of R$ 318 million, which represents a gross margin of 41.3% - which we consider very healthy - and of course we expect to improve this in the future by increasing the level of synergies that we have with all the acquisitions that we have done and that we continue to perform the future. Talking a little bit now about the operational expenses (which are mostly by the general and administrative expenses) we have a level of cash administrative expenses of R$ 151 million in 2009, which represents almost 19.5% margin considering the net revenues and this is a reduction of 35 bps compared to 2008, also benefiting from the synergies that we are starting to realize as a result of the incorporation and purchasing of other companies. Although this was 12% higher than 2008, we see also a very good forecast ahead in terms of the reduction of these expenses as a percentage of the net revenue. In terms of depreciation, which is also part of the operational expenses, we have increased by R$ 8.5 million as a result of the investments that we have done both in 2008 and Although we are going to see this number in some slides ahead, I can already anticipate that in 2009 we have invested almost R$ 40 million in investments in the Fleury Group in order to enable the relocation of the units; in order to buy new equipment or buy new equipment or just substitute the equipments that were old; and other kinds of investments in tangible and intangible assets. Just to give you a reference, these represent 170% of the depreciation that we had in 2008, which shows our trend to really expand the business to take advantage of the opportunities that we see in the market here in Brazil. In terms of other income or other expenses, this number that you see in the table includes 10 million in losses mainly due to bad debt provisions and also this has been partially offset by 7.8 million in tax discounts because we had a program here in Brazil of refinancing tax debt and have been benefited from these program and we had this that revenue, or that offset of our expenses by R$ 7.8 million. Finally during the year we decided that the level of provisions that we had for contingencies was a little bit higher than necessary. We made a full analysis of the risks that we are exposed, both in terms of legal risks or related to work and we decided that we had over-provisioned by almost R$ 15 million. In fact we adjusted this to the current level of risk and this was of course reverted in our result. So in terms of operational expenses this is what I would like to say. One important thing about the operational expenses is that following the international rule, international standards for accounting, we stopped amortizing goodwill here in Brazil as well. The accounting procedures here in Brazil have 6

7 been adapted to reflect this new regulation. This for Fleury Group in 2008 represented R$ 27.5 million of expenses that have just disappeared. What is important to say about that is for us we are very comfortable with this new procedure, because in the way we conduct our negotiations to acquire new businesses we always ensure that any goodwill that we pay during these deals reflects really the strength of the brand that we are acquiring and also the possible synergies. So all of this is just to say that we do not expect, we do not have any indication of impairments coming forward because we really believe that the intangible assets that are reflected in our balance sheet reflect the value of the brands that we have acquired over the past periods. Now we are going to talk about little bit about Ebitda, which is a very common keep-eye in the industry as well. The Ebitda has grown by 16% in 2009 compared to 2008 and we achieved a level of almost R$ 180 million in terms of Ebitda. Most importantly, this number also reflects all costs that were incurred in 2009, being recurring or nonrecurring. We do not make any adjustments in Ebitda. So this number (180) has discounted already all the integrations, unification of systems, closure of units, which amounts to R$ 5.9 million; losses to termination of the Fleury Hospital Dia (now Fleury CPMA), which is 5.2 million; and the first year of operations of chronic diseases management, which represents 5.3 million. All of these expenses - which we expect to be nonrecurring - have been reflected in the Ebitda. So this takes us to a level of 23.3% of the net revenue, which also we consider a very healthy number and also reflects the improvement. If you see the charts just below the text you see the improvement between 2006 and 2009, an increase in Ebitda of 23.5% per year, reflecting also the increase in the revenue that we are having in the top line. So the Ebitda margin is 23.3%, which compared to 2008 reflects a 40 bps improvement, even affected by, for example, other factors as for example also the Weinmann integration, the integration of the imaging business that we acquired in Rio de Janeiro, the imaging company; so all of that has been included in this Ebitda. Finally talking about the net income there is a significant number expressed, this 99.4% compared to Of course this reflects - again, just to reinforce - the stopping in the amortization of goodwill, which represents an upside of 27.5 million against 2008; and also reflects better financial results. Our financial results reduced from about R$ 40 million in 2008 to circa R$ 20 million in 2009 due to some factors, as for example the exchange rate which has been beneficial to the real (the real has appreciated against other currencies) and also and maybe most importantly the change in our capital structure. We had a strong capitalization in the beginning of the year in January of about R$ 130 million and mainly in the end of the year with the very 7

8 successful IPO, which reflects in another almost R$ 600 million of infow in our cash. Well, so going to the next slide, slide number 16, this is just a summary of what we have explained so far about the profits and losses in the income statement. So just to reinforce increase in gross and net revenue by 14%; a gross margin of 41.3%; Ebitda margin of 23.3%; and a net income of almost 84, R$ 83.7 million, which represents almost 11% of our net revenue. Now just to speak little bit about our investments, as you can see the Fleury Group has continued its path of very strong investment in terms of both, acquisitions and also capital expenditures. If you see the chart you see that we have invested last year almost R$ 110 million in 2009, most of that (almost twothirds of that) for the acquisitions of the imaging company in Rio de Janeiro and also the Weinmann Laboratory in Rio Grande do Sul. But also we have invested very heavily in terms of improvement in our patient service centers; in terms of improvement of information technology platforms, equipment and other small investments. Even considering this high level of investments you can see in the next chart that our return on invested capital has remained steady. As you see, we can keep a very high return on invested capital compared to the major healthcare players in this sector and right now we are between 22%, 23% of return on invested capital and of course we have the expectation to continue to invest very strongly in the market by maybe doing other acquisitions, by increasing, by improving our investments in terms of equipments as well or in terms of information technology. But even considering these new investments that have been predicted for the next years we still have the expectation to keep this high level of return on invested capital. If you go to the next and final slide this is just information that is public, this is information about the performance of our shares compared to the Brazilian stock exchange index. So the value of our shares yesterday (March 30) were 19.4 to 1 (per share), which represents 21.3% more than the IPO launch price, which was if you remember R$ 16 per share. So just as a comparison our share price has increased by more than 20% while the Bovespa index (the Brazilian index) has changed just 2%. If you consider only 2010, until yesterday (until March 30) our shares went up by 5.5% compared to only 2% of the Bovespa index and the average level of trading is about R$ 2.8 million per day. Well, this ends up presentation piece of this teleconference. If you go to next slide you have my contact details as well as well as João Ricardo Patah, our Investor Relations Manager and now we are ready to answer your questions. Q&A Session Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen we will now begin the Question and Answer session. If you have a question please press the star one (*1) on 8

9 your touch-tone phone and if at any time you would like to remove yourself from the questioning queue, press star two (*2). Our first question comes from Mr. Estevan Schreck from Morgan Stanley. Mr. Estevan Schreck: Gentlemen good morning and thank you for taking the questions. The first question can you break down the nonrecurring, like can you tell us how much of that nonrecurring (16 million total) was incurred in 4Q? That is the first question. And then the second question can you talk a little bit about how we should think about Capex for 2010? Thank you. Mr. Figueiredo: The total amount of R$ 16.4 million is for the entire year of 09. As I understand you are questioning about how it is divided in all the quarters of 09, is that the Mr. Schreck: Yes. Mr. Figueiredo: There is pretty much a concentration in 3Q and 4Q if you consider all the integrations and the unification of IT platforms they were more or less concentrated in 3Q and 4Q and the ambulatory surgery services, which amounts about R$ 5 million is spread all over the year, but of course because of the termination of the business it is more or less concentrated also in 4Q; but it is distributed among all the quarters, as well as this management line of business which is distributed also. I think if you consider the integration, unification of the processing facilities it is concentrated in 3Q and 4Q; but ambulatory, surgery and the disease management programs is distributed for the entire year. As far as the investment for 2010 we are talking about R$ 200 million of investments and that does not include the acquisitions; that has to do with the expansion of all the network of patient service centers in all areas and covering all brands; all the equipment; IT backbones to provide infrastructure for all the patient service centers. So it is in the amount of R$ 200 million (round numbers). Mr. Schreck: Ok thank you and can you break down the number a bit the more? The 200 how many new patient service centers or any other measure you can give us to get a sense of how that 200 million is going to be split? Mr. Figueiredo: Well, regarding patient service centers it is important to mention that we are moving around about 70 patient service centers. That is not talk that we are opening new units; we are remodeling, expanding, relocating and opening new units and shutting down some of the units. But if we break down the investments so for equipment it is about R$ 100 million; systems, IT is R$ 32 million; remodeling and the retrofit of patient service centers about R$ 60 million; and other expenses or other investments 9

10 (minor investments) R$ 13 million. This is how we divide preliminarily, our best estimates now. Mr. Schreck: Perfect, thank you very much. Mr. Figueiredo: Ok. Operator: Excuse me. Our next question comes from Ms. Vivian Wohl from Federated Kaufmann Fund. Ms. Vivian Wohl: Hi. I am wondering if you could give us a little bit more color on how the Rio and Weinmann acquisition contributed in the quarter and as you look into 2010 how the contract renewals are going with the managed care plans in that area? Mr. Figueiredo: Right. Weinmann was acquired in the last quarter of the year, so as you see the jump in the rise of revenues in the clinical analysis in 4Q is of course pretty much impacted by Weinmann acquisition and it is a large operation: it corresponds in 09 to about 8% of our revenues if you consider the whole year. So the potential for Weinmann operation is to contribute in the region of 8% to 10% for our revenues. That is what you would expect for 2010 contribution. The imaging services in the Rio, which it is a smaller operation, in the range of R$ 10 million a year, so it is a very small operation. It was a very strategic one because it was a way to improve, expand the imaging services in some of our plants in Rio. As far as the renewal of contracts it is going very well. We by the second semester it is typically the phase where we negotiate pricing increases and renewals of contracts with MCOs. So we had no important rupture or modifications in the last phase of negotiations, so we typically wait to the second semester where the negotiations will follow. So as far as today goes everything is as usual. Ms. Wohl: Ok and then the acquisitions from last year that were made in October 2008 were they smaller? I mean, they were not into the full year last year in 4Q, so I am just wondering what the contribution would have been this year from including them for the full year, Biesp laboratory Biesp Laboratorio, Clínica and Instituto Paulista (my Portuguese is not so good). Mr. Figueiredo: If you consider the growth of 09 compared to 08, the total growth was 14% and if you disregard the acquisitions that growth would be in round numbers 10%. So we following in line with what we have been talking to the market, two-thirds of our growth is organic growth and one-third has to do with acquisitions. So if you disregard the acquisitions for 09 numbers we would reach a 10% increase in a year where 14% was the total growth. 10

11 Ms. Wohl: And do you have an estimate of what price contributed during the quarter? Price increases? Mr. Figueiredo: Very little, very little because we just had the negotiations that typically start in August, July, goes to November - so it is not one particular month - but for Fleury brand, as we mentioned it is on average half the inflation (IPCA inflation). For other the brands we have been able to achieve higher price increases above the inflation, sometimes much above the inflation; but the impact for the quarter increase is very little. It has more to do with expansion and enrichment of the mix of services that we provide. So we are more and more enriching that mix towards more complex tests, accurate tests, imaging tests and other tests and also increasing the share of our clients making a better offer of services in each of our patient service centers. Ms. Wohl: Ok thanks, I will come back. Thanks very much. Operator: Excuse me. Our next question comes from Mr. Javier Martinez from Morgan Stanley. Mr. Javier Martinez: Hi. My question has partially been answered with the previous comment, but just to double check: so the expectation is that in 2010 you should be increasing prices in the negotiations that you are going to have in the second half of the year between half inflation and inflation, right? Mr. Figueiredo: Yes. Well, we see a very good opportunity to keep on this track for Fleury brand and even explore further this. There is no reason why we should believe we will not reach at least half the inflation for Fleury brand; but for all other brands we see a very good opportunity to increase more than that, because for our comparables more often we have lower prices than the opposite. So we have been able to increase prices for certain brands in certain areas much above the inflation and we see opportunities to continue to do that. So on average we can talk about half inflation for Fleury brand and above the inflation for all other brands. Mr. Martinez: Ok thank you. Operator: Excuse me. Ladies and gentlemen as a reminder, if you would like to pose a question please press star one (*1). Our next question comes from Mr. Nitin Sateal from Bridger Investments. Mr. Nitin Sateal: Hi guys, a quick question on Ebitda margins. You said you were affording 23% Ebitda margins, but if you add back the one-time restructuring costs more around 25%, 25.5% it looks like you got back the 15 million one-time restructuring costs. 11

12 I was wondering if you could give us - I am sorry if I missed this earlier - give us some thoughts on margin outlook for It sounds like you have got some pricing program and some costs that you are trying to take out of the system; so any color on that would be great. Mr. Figueiredo: Well, we do not intend to give specific guidance, but what we can tell is that for the next two years, 2010, 2011, is very heavy years investments or expansion of our patient service centers and that involves equipment and all of that and as a result you would probably expect a small drop in our margins because of immaturity of that expansion. But on the other hand, because of all the integration efforts (integration platforms, unification and incorporation of companies) at the same time we are going to capture the gains for all the efforts and the integration that we performed before, so more or less one will balance with the others. The other component is the maturation of the new businesses, like the disease management programs, that will contribute to the result in maturity as a very profitable business. So as a result of everything combined we are expecting stable margins in that range of in Ebitda for the next two years and then the margins will increase. It is hard to tell how much and to what point, what is the ceiling for the increase in the margins; but for sure if it is going to there is room for further increase. But the final result depends on the growth rate of the new businesses; the dimension of the hospital operations growing very well; the balance of services in different areas; the new acquisitions that may come. But we believe that we are going to see stable margins for the next two years and then expansion in the margins for the following years. Mr. Sateal: The 23%, 24% if you back up the restructuring that should be onetime that is actually a margin decline going forward, right? On your ongoing operations? Mr. Figueiredo: Well, this is a way of seeing this. We do not we would not like to talk about the adjusted Ebitda, we do not like that because it is so fragile the Ebitda as it is, so to make adjustments but one way of looking at it is that on the other hand we had some reversals of contingencies this year, which is in the amount lower than the one of events that you described we described. But looking operationally we would see stable margins so to say. Mr. Sateal: Can you just give us a little bit then on acquisitions, what the dynamic yes? You have got a lot of cash; what you are seeing how any large acquisitions could be? Mr. Figueiredo: I will transfer the question to Omar Hauache, he is the Executive Director for Preventive and Therapeutic Medicine and he is the responsible for all the acquisitions, negotiations and processes. 12

13 Mr. Omar Hauache: Hello, good morning. We are very selective regarding acquisitions. We do not plan to be everywhere in Brazil. We plan to be only in the major economic centers of Brazil - we are already in many of these major economic centers, with some exceptions - and we also plan to add to our portfolio of exams (imaging exams) in the cities where we are in still with only clinical analysis. So we have some targets. There are some ongoing negotiations already. We are very positive about this, but we still cannot anticipate anything about that. But there are several ongoing negotiations so far and let us see what is going to happen. Mr. Sateal: Ok great, thank you and all the best in Mr. Figueiredo: Thank you very much. Operator: Excuse me. Our next question comes from Mr. Vivian Wohl from Federated Kaufmann Fund. Ms. Vivian Wohl: I was just wondering if you could give us a little bit more color for how much is the capital expenditures going forward will be in the Fleury brand as opposed to the other regional brands. Mr. Figueiredo: Well, for the total amount of R$ 200 million it is about 30% will go to Fleury operations and 70% divided in the other operations and all the infrastructure of course. Ms. Wohl: Ok and then just a question on the hospital business. It sounds like you are optimistic for that business to grow and I am just Mr. Hauache: We are pushing this trend. There is clearly a trend regarding the outsourcing of medical diagnostics services from hospitals to players such as us. This is because hospitals they are mainly focusing on their core business, which is not performing medical diagnostics exams. So we are pushing this trend. We are already in some main hospitals here in São Paulo and even in Rio Grande do Sul and in Recife and we are looking for other opportunities now. We are actively looking for other opportunities not only to perform clinical analysis exams in hospitals but also imaging exams as well. Ms. Wohl: Well, you have here the revenue per test of 14.6 and I am just wondering what you provide for that; does to the hospital own the equipment and you provide technicians for that or do you also provide the physician who reads the image? Mr. Hauache: There are several different models. When we talk about clinical analysis we own the equipment or we rent the equipment, this belongs to us; but when we talk about imaging there are different models. We can own the 13

14 equipment or the hospital can on the equipment; there are different alternatives that as we can explore with the hospitals. Ms. Wohl: Well, the 14.6 is that a combination of both, laboratory tests and imaging services? Mr. Hauache: This is mainly clinical analysis testing, lab tests. Ms. Wohl: Lab tests, ok. Mr. Figueiredo: We are just exploring, not only going into new hospitals, exploring that and analyzing the market size and opportunities and also exploring expansion in the services themselves, I mean expanding to imaging and other services. We are right now discussing that with the hospitals. Ms. Wohl: I would imagine that you have a lower cost of capital to buy the equipment Mr. Figueiredo: Well, it depends on if you are treating with a philanthropic hospital or a private hospital. In the philanthropy line of hospitals then they have more interesting prices as you know. Ms. Wohl: Right and just one other question on the income statement. Do you have the figure for the contingencies that were reversed for 4Q and also for the debt figure? Mr. Figueiredo: It is about one third is in 1Q of reversals of contingencies around R$ 5 million (round numbers) and around R$ 10 million in the three other quarters combined. The other component you asked is bad debt? Ms. Wohl: Yes, the bad debt provisions for 4Q. Mr. Marchiori: Sorry, I have only the consolidated which is 11 million but I do not have the number here sorry, the number for 4Q is about R$ 3 million. Ms. Wohl: Ok and then the so the reversal of the contingencies is that included in the Ebitda number? Mr. Marchiori: Yes it is. The reversal of the contingencies provision (the 14.9 million) are included in the but the number, yes. Ms. Wohl: Ok thanks very much. Mr. Figueiredo: Thank you. Operator: Excuse me. Ladies and gentlemen again, as a reminder if you would like to pose a question please press star one (*1). Excuse me. Our next question comes from Mr. Alexandre Pizzano from Merrill Lynch. 14

15 Mr. J. C. Santos: Good morning everyone, actually this is J. C. Santos, I just jumped on Alex s line here, thanks for taking the question. Just - I am sorry to insist on the provision side - I was just looking at the demonstration of results here for the year. In terms of the provisions for contingencies in the year we have seen the reversal of R$ 32 million, most of that coming from fiscal and fiscal contingencies that you had. I just wanted to check this number because you just said that throughout the year it was like 15 million, like one third in 1Q and 10 million in the remaining quarters. I am just trying to double check this number. Mr. Marchiori: Ok yes, you are right million are the reversals, but the number is 32, 33 because first we paid some contingencies so we had to get rid of the provisions and also there was some reclassification of these provisions to other lines from the liabilities. So the number you are seeing is the variation in the balance sheet and the number we are mentioning, the 14.9, is what we reverted exclusively to results. Mr. Santos: Excellent, that is great. Thank you very much. Mr. Marchiori: You are welcome. Operator: Excuse me. This concludes today s question and answer session. I would like to invite Mr. Mauro Figueiredo to proceed with his closing statements. Please go ahead, sir. Mr. Mauro Figueiredo: I would like to thank everyone for being with us and have a good day. Thank you, bye. Operator: Thank you. That does conclude the Grupo Fleury audio conference call for today. Thank you very much for your participation, have a good day and thank you for using Chorus Call. 15