Rafael Russowsky: Thank you for your questions. So about the timing to rebalance our debt, I think that was what your question drove at. From this quarter, we started implementing some measures concerning that. For example, we have a lot of liquidity still. And there are some structural debts that, obviously, because of our high CD, carry a large burden. So it doesn’t make sense to keep that much debt in our balance if we have that liquidity. So what we’ve done this quarter is to replace some structural long-term debts to some shorter-term debts related to working capital. So this is just a recent example of how we’re approaching this issue. So as we continue to deleverage the company, which is basically based on selling assets, we expect that for the next quarters, and this assumes that this spinout from Éxito will conclude by the end of the year, as we said, and also taking into account some of the other assets that we can demonetize in the next weeks or months.
We will probably be able to pay off some of the structural debt that we have. We don’t want to sit on a truckload of liquidity. Our intention is really to start reducing the company’s structural debt level to something that is more comfortable in capital infrastructure. And also, we want to reduce the structural debt with the costs underlying it. So that’s the idea behind it. In other words, we’re selling assets, and that will little by little pay off the structural debt that we have, especially the most expensive ones.
Operator: The next question will be asked by Vitor from Santander.
Vitor Fuziharo: Vitor here from Santander. So I’d like to explore this issue of leveraging that was asked during the last question. But I’d still like to know what kind of leverage you expect to have in 2023 and 2024. I understand that you are renegotiating your debt, and there will be some operational expansions in the next quarters. So what is your expectation for leverage? I’d also like to ask about sales and how they will behave in the fourth quarter.
Marcelo Pimentel: Good morning, Vitor. So here, obviously, we can’t give you a guidance on leverage. What we can say is — and this refers to what Rafael has just mentioned, is that we’re committed to deleveraging the company. Our focus — and I gave some interviews yesterday underscoring this, our focus for use of proceeds for our asset sales and other capital raising as itself has been redirected to the company’s leverage. We’re seeing operational improvements every quarter, and we’re convinced that we also need to work on reducing leverage so that the company becomes more and more self-sufficient and prepared for its operational recovery. So I don’t mean to give you a guidance, but I’m just reinforcing our commitment to deleveraging the company as a part of our strategy.
We don’t have any doubts about this. We’re not going to make any outlier investments. All of our projections for 2024, even considering the expansion that we will continue to make, will not put in risk or compromise the use of proceeds for the new resources that will come in. They will be used directly for the company’s deleveraging process. I want to make this very clear so that you have no doubt in your mind. Considering operational improvements, I think we will continue to see them despite the challenges that we’re facing. I’m referring here especially to deflation and commodities. I believe that Pão de Açúcar will be more resilient than average, especially our premium brands, Pão de Açúcar and Minuto. They both benefit of have — from having a wealthier audience, which has higher or above average disposable income with a more variable basket.
So these commodities are not so relevant for Pão de Açúcar and Minuto in comparison to mainstream retail. This will allow us to maintain robust growth, and it will also protect the quality of our results as we saw during this quarter with some gross margin improvements that we posted. We will continue to see these in the next quarters. It’s still early for the fourth quarter. But looking at October, it seems to be going well. Things, of course, will happen in November and December because that’s when we see the biggest seasonal trends. In November, we have 3 extended holidays, which is very important for retail and also Black Friday, which is a very relevant date. We’re very prepared for these 2 seasonal dates. And in December, of course, we have the holidays.
