Embraer S.A. (NYSE:ERJ) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jay Singh: Awesome. Thanks so much.

Antonio Carlos Garcia: You are welcome.

Operator: The next question comes from Fernando [indiscernible]. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst: Hello. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. A quick one from my side. Could you please provide us an update on the arbitrage process with Boeing? Thank you.

Francisco Gomes Neto: Well, we expect a resolution in the first half of this year.

Unidentified Analyst: Perfect. And just a follow-up. Looking at your statement, we can reach close to $300 million that you already reported in expenses for carve-in and carve-out. Should the discussion be close to this number? I know you could not give any guidance on this, but at least if we look at your financial statement, we can see close to $300 million.

Antonio Carlos Garcia: Fernando, this is Antonio speaker. It would be great if they paid the sum cost we have, but it’s not in our hands to take the decision. And if you ask me personally, I would be seeing more than that, but it’s not — the decision is not in our hands, and we don’t know if we’re going to win or lose. That’s why it’s difficult to give you any type of forecast.

Francisco Gomes Neto: Exactly. And just to complement, and we are not counting on that money in any of our projections, Fernando.

Unidentified Analyst: Perfect. Thank you very much.

Operator: Our next question is from the chat. Please hold while we get the question. The next question is from Lucas Barbosa.

Lucas Barbosa: Hi, Antonio, Francisco and Guilherme. Thanks for taking my question and congratulations for the results. My question is regarding business jets. How are you seeing the entrance of new orders today? For new orders, is there any niche market that the company is focusing more on such as corporate flight departments and fractionals? And any visibility of how full the backlog of the competition is looking like. Thank you.

Francisco Gomes Neto: Thank you for the question, Lucas. I mean we are very happy with the performance of our sales, performance of our business jet. I mean as we mentioned in the opening, I mean our backlog today is at $4.3 billion. The book-to-bill, we ended the year at 1.3:1, even with high deliveries in the Q4. And I think we have a healthy mix in our sales, I mean, 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, more or less, I mean, 1/3 for corporate flight departments, 1/3 professionals, 1/3 for individuals in this. And we have a great portfolio of products. I mean just launched the Phenom 100 EX and the Praetors that are gaining more and more the preference of the customers. So we are really happy and comfortable with the sales of our businesses jets, and we are confident that we have another — we will have another great year of sales in that business unit.

Operator: The next question comes from Kristine Liwag with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi. This is Gaby on for Kristine. Good morning. So I was just wondering if you could provide some color on how the GTF MRO at OGMA is progressing? And if you can just give an idea of how much revenue and margin will be in 2024? Thank you.

Francisco Gomes Neto: Can you please repeat the questions — the question?

Unidentified Analyst: Yes. So I was wondering if you can provide some color on how the GTF MRO at OGMA is progressing. And if you can also provide color on how much revenue, the GTF MRO at OGMA will provide in 2024 as well as any color on margins would be great.

Francisco Gomes Neto: I will start and then Antonio can help me to complement. Now it’s clear. Well, GTF program is moving very well. I mean, the first delivery is planned for April according to following the program. That program will be very important for the OGMA’s and Embraer ‘s growth. The OGMA will help us to more than double OGMA’s revenue in the next two years. I would say. And this will be a very, very important factor of growth for OGMA and for Embraer. Antonio, would you like to add something about the margin as well?

Antonio Carlos Garcia: Yes. Just in regards to the revenue side, we are more or less forecasting around $40 million additional revenue for this year on the GTF. But assuming that we are in the ramp-up, we are not foreseeing any type of positive margin this year. It’s even like a negative impact because we are starting right now. But I would say in the long-term, we do see a higher single-digit margin for this business.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Myles Walton with Wolfe. Please go ahead.

Myles Walton: Thanks, Antonio. Just another quick one, if I could. From a free cash flow conversion of EBITDA I think 50% has been sort of your target level. And obviously, you’re guiding below that in 2024. I realize you said it was conservative to start but is 50% still the right level to think about over the medium term? Thanks.

Antonio Carlos Garcia: Yeah, Myles, thank you for the question. You are totally right. That is more or less what we are targeting internally, minimum 50% of the EBITDA. What we are facing the backlog is not a surprise maybe for you is the volatility that we are facing throughout the year. That’s why we are guiding doing 220 plus. Because it’s really hard, for example, last year, we got a big amount of money in the last week of the year. That’s why we prefer to be conservative. But internally, we are targeting 50% of EBITDA even in our long-term planning. That’s the minimum basis that we are looking for.