DLocal Limited (NASDAQ:DLO) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Jacobo Singer: Thank you. We’ll start on the fundamentals on the cash point detail and will let Diego on the specifics on the number. So, if we expect this situation to be the new normal for the coming quarters, answer is no. This is, I would say, a one-off and there are specific situation that has been under attack during the ending of the last quarter. It’s not a trend. It’s not a strategy. It was a single situation with where we use our cash to bring confidence to our merchant. If anything, we expect that situation to start normalizing within the next quarters in the very short-term.

Diego Cabrera Canay: And I guess you asked about loan, the loans we take countries to finance working capital. We’ve got a $15 million loan that we cancelled in Q4. That is totally business as usual. Obviously, that resulted in a use of our own cash. From time-to-time, we may take a different type of loans in different countries to do that in the future. I also would like to highlight that we started our buyback program and we used $2 million of our own cash by the end of the year, keep in mind that the buybacks started before the year-end. And we have already used $40 million so that is going very well as expected.

Tito Labarta: Okay, great. No, that’s helpful. And so, just so that I am clear, so does it sound like it normalized in 1Q, but in the next couple of quarters, the use of cash should begin to normalize, correct?

Sebastian Kanovich: Certainly. And again, we don’t expect significant differences in Q1, but I think right after this, we expect that going back to normal and recovering that cash or start charging you for it.

Tito Labarta: Okay, great. Thank you very much everyone.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Next question comes from Jorge Echevarria with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Jorge Echevarria: Hi, Sebastian, Jacobo and Diego. Thank you for taking the call. So, I appreciate €“ we appreciate the new disclosure. Looking at the 20-F filing where you’d also disclosed the TPV breakdown by country. We can calculate the implied take rate for Argentina and Brazil. We’re getting a 10.4 revenue yield for Argentina and 3.5% for Brazil in 2021. So, I want to understand what are the costs associated to Argentina to get to a gross profit take rate? And whether you are not using wallets like FTX for repatriation in Argentina as well? Thank you.

Sebastian Kanovich: Jorge, thank you very much for the question. No, we don’t use any wallets in Argentina. The gross take rate, it’s always a reflection of the underlying cost structure. So, the numbers you pointed are accurate. On Argentina, the cost of processing payments, it’s very high. Keep in mind, many of our payments in Argentina are done using installments, which are very high cost. And therefore our net take rate should be pretty much in-line in both countries. Expatriating funds from Argentina, it’s expensive. Argentine pesos is a less liquid currency than many others, and therefore has a higher cost to expatriate. But fundamentally, we’re always reflecting our gross take rate, every underlying cost to process that given payment.

So, when you look at our net take rate basis, countries tend to be more in-line and I understand that’s harder to see from a growth standpoint, because again the underlying cost structures are different. And just to emphasize the , we operated in many of the largest local and regional banks in Argentina. We are approved by them. We comply with Central Bank requirements. And that’s an example in Argentina in a situation where we do have the maturity that we are still to get in Nigeria where we already have all those banking partners. We already of all those redundancies that allow us to be more efficient. That’s the stage we would like to be over time will be in some of the markets where we are operating in Africa and in Europe.