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Companhia Paranaense de Energia-COPELÂ (ELP 2.00%)
Q3Â 2020 Earnings Call
Nov 13, 2020, 8:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to Companhia Paranaense de Energia-COPEL Earnings Call to discuss the results of the Third Quarter of 2020. [Operator Instructions]
Before proceeding, we inform that forward-looking statements that might be made during this conference call related to Copel's business outlooks, projections, operating and financial projections and goals are based on beliefs and assumptions of the company's management as well as on information currently available. Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to the future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. General economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors may also affect the future results of Copel and cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.
With us today, Mr. Daniel Pimentel Slaviero, CEO of the company; and Mr. Adriano Rudek de Moura, CFO and IR Officer. Copel's presentation is available at the company's website at ri.copel.com.
We now turn the floor over to Mr. Daniel Slaviero, CEO of the company.
Daniel Pimentel Slaviero -- Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, everyone. I would like to thank you very much for your participation in this conference call. I hope that all of you are doing well and healthy. Considering that most of you or probably all of you have read in the release that we published yesterday, me and Moura would like to bring to you a shorter presentation so that we have more time for questions-and-answers about the results and future perspectives of Copel.
It is with great satisfaction that I start this call mentioning the most relevant fact of the recent history of the company, which is the sale of Copel Telecom. This is a process that we were building since the beginning of our management. And this week's result was an important landmark, BRL1 billion of goodwill over the minimum price, around 15 times the adjusted EBITDA. These are figures very significant. And that amount, as we understand it, is thanks to a well structured process both internally as well as externally.
I especially thank Wendell de Oliveira, Telecom's CEO; Eloir Joakinson, CFO of Telecom and also Cassio Santana, New Business Officer, and the three of them have been at the head of this process, and on behalf of them, all the employees that worked on the project. Also I would like to praise the work of Rothschild Bank and Cescon Barrieu officers for their important support throughout this period of time.
It's important to say that this movement is in line with our strategic planning, which is to focus in our energy or business. And the main question is, what do we intend to do with these proceeds? First, we wanted to increase our investments in Copel Distribution. Second, we aim to look for opportunities in generation and transmission. And we should focus on brownfield projects, but also we are going to look at opportunities and options for the next months and years, always being very strict in terms of capital allocation. And third, to implement a dividend policy that is more adjusted to the new reality of the company.
We earned another quarter with sound results and very consistent one. Moura is going to go into the details, the improvement of our EBITDA performance, our net income and also the robust cash generation for Copel, both in the quarter as well as in the year-to-date. But I would like to highlight other topics that I consider to be very relevant over these three -- third quarter and special the approval that just happened yesterday by our board of directors of a model for the units program.
You may have read it in the material fact that was published yesterday, and it brings the general guidelines for the program. We will have five shares issued by the company, one common share and four preferred shares, Class B and a stock split that will be still defined aiming to maximize the liquidity of its securities. And what I consider even more relevant, the improvement of corporate governance with the migration to the Level 2 of B3 governance.
It's crucial to say that all of this model and the implementation of it depend on the approval of the shareholders' meeting that is still -- should be happening. But other additional operating topics should be highlighted, and you can see it on the screen. But I would like to say a few things here to stress a few of them. We are concluding today another voluntary redundancy program. In the first stage, we had 218 and we estimate that it will be around 300 people and we will have annual savings of BRL63 million. If these figures are confirmed, by the end of the process, we will be having 6,700 employees, much less than the 800 employees more than if we compared to September of last year.
Also, we have by Copel GeT a dispatch of the UEGA and this is allowing it to recover all its fixed costs for this year and partially already the fixed costs for 2021. There is also significant improvement on the operating performance of Copel Generation and Transmission. This is going to be mentioned by Moura in the process, but it already shows a very efficient work and competent work also of our teams.
And now we are focusing on the regulation of the GSF. By the preliminary calculations of CCEE, Copel's compensation will be of around BRL800 million, but it's still can be reviewed specifically because it has to be -- the capital cost has to be analyzed in ANEEL's regulation that should be concluded in the beginning of December. In Copel Distribution, in this quarter, we felt the impacts of COVID here in Parana with a drop in the grid market of 2.8%.
Nevertheless, the discipline and cost control have brought positive results, also a regulatory efficiency of 8.7% if we consider the last 12 months. I always repeat myself, three years ago, our inefficiency in Copel Distribution was close to 50%. And so this process, this reversal and the path that we are moving through with this increase in base for next year improvement specifically in cost control allow us to have this adjusted EBITDA of over BRL1.2 billion in the next -- in the past months.
And finally, I would like to highlight the significant growth in the commercialized or sold energy and great financial results in Copel Mercado Livre. Finally, I would like to say that both in terms of operating performance as well as in terms of the major strategic objectives, we are executing what has been defined in our plans. I consider that this shows an alignment between what we said we were going to do and what we are doing, and that values even more our Copel.
Now I turn the floor to Moura so that he can talk about the results in the quarter.
Adriano Rudek de Moura -- Finance and Investor Relations Director
Thank you very much, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. I also would like to thank you all the participation in our call, and I hope you all are doing well.
Before we talk about the results of the third quarter, obviously, I would like to say that I'm very happy about the auctions result in the last day, on the last 9th where we have reached another relevant target in our strategic agenda. With a lot of responsibility and discipline on the capital allocation, we will more than ever analyze all improvement opportunities of our capital structure, aiming the continuation of sustainable projects as well as a dividend policy that can provide a long-term view to our shareholders with clear and more objective rules always based on the best practices in the market.
This now is probably the most important subject in our strategic agenda in addition to what has already mentioned by Daniel and approved by the board of directors. Yesterday, the implementation of the units program was an important improvement in governance. So this is a great positive agenda that will be fruitful to our shareholders.
Turning to the next slide. I think it's self explanatory, but I highlight that the results here continue to be sound and consistent. And they do reflect a full alignment of all the businesses under the Copel Group with a clear strategy of efficiency improvement in all areas. This continuous surge for profitability and efficiency improvement in each one of our businesses continue being part of our agenda and only increases our responsibility because we know that great results in the past are not guarantee of great results in the future.
So in summary, BRL1.2 billion of EBITDA in the quarter, BRL608 million of net income, growth of 28% and 11% respectively. These figures do include the results of our Telecom operation. And according to accounting criteria, specifically CPC 31, there was a reclassification for discontinued operations in the published results, as we will further explain.
I highlight that the main driver of this quarter's result was the relevant improvement of the adjusted EBITDA of GeT, basically because of the higher energy -- higher volume of energy sold, facing the strategic seasonalization of Copel's GeT. That also aligned to a lower exposure of prices and the spot price in addition to the positive impact in the review and readjustment of the transmission company contracts. Also in this, we had a tariff adjustment and an increase in the revenue of portion B in addition to the recovery of the grid market growth in September. Although the year-to-date is still negative, it has a positive trend from now on. And the year-to-date up to September, as shown, the adjusted EBITDA was 16% higher. That's a very relevant increase considering the crisis we went through this year and we ended the period with over BRL3.5 billion of EBITDA and a record net income in the nine first months was BRL2.8 billion.
Before we turn to the adjusted results, I also would like to go to some highlights in the quarter in the next slide. The main message here is that Copel is still -- or does -- still has a sound financial position right now, even with the relevant adverse events, as we said. COVID, and I think this quarter had -- didn't have much impact from COVID. And even with all these adverse effects, the operating cash generation in the quarter was 70% higher, reaching BRL1.6 billion in the year. It's already BRL4 billion in the year-to-date, a record figure also.
Therefore, we maintained a comfortable cash position, reaching those BRL4 billion even paying all the debts that were due this year, and this was Copel's strategy to have no funding specifically because of the high cost, and fortunately, we did not need what [Technical Issue] what we had in 2019, 2.2. And remember that this was one of the main reasons for our rating upgrade, which now is AA+ with a positive perspective. By the way, we should say that very few companies in Brazil during the pandemic had the rating raised, and even more than that with a positive perspective. Now looking ahead, we have a low debt maturities, around BRL2 billion in the next 12 months specifically after the second quarter of 2021.
Another indicator, which is a consequence of that strong cash position is our sound liquidity. Our current liquidity is at 1.4 times. And finally, I highlight the investments of BRL430 million in the third quarter, while in the year-to-date of September, capex was BRL1.2 billion and the capex for the year of 2020 is BRL1.8 billion. And as Daniel said, we are not touching our investment plan. Very much -- on the contrary, we were very careful so that the plan was fully carried out, and we have been able to fulfill it.
As we said, we also had accounting changes in the quarter with the restatement of Telecom business as discontinued operation. Considering the perspective of the sale of this asset, at CPC 31 and also reinforced by the auction of the last day, 9 of November. This change has an objective to show how the comparable basis of work and this also has resulted on the restatement of our financial statements of 2019.
Turning to -- just for comparison basis, in the next slide we have non-recurring items. As you can see, we're just considering here continued operations, EBITDA was of BRL1.135 billion, including discontinued operations. The result of that is EBITDA of Copel Telecom, we reached an EBITDA of the recurring base of BRL1.2 billion in line to the results of 3Q '19. I highlight the main non-recurring items for the prior year, which have been positive reversal of over BRL180 million of impairment of wind generation assets and the posting of over BRL100 million in tax credits, PIS and COFINS and Compagas as well as write-offs at Telecom, which have been excluded.
While the result of this year was negatively impacted by non-recurring events of provisions for litigations of BRL94 million and the reversal of the fair value and purchase and sale of energy of the commercialization company and BRL103 million, and then we have the adjusted result of BRL1.2 billion with a growth of 28%. And year-to-date, the first nine months adjusted EBITDA, you can see here it's self-explanatory, BRL3.5 billion. These are the same non-recurring items I have already mentioned.
Turning to the next page, we here have the adjusted EBITDA per subsidiary. As I mentioned, I highlight the result of GeT, growing 42%. Vis-a-vis, last year we already explained why this is analyzation strategy, lower costs stemming from energy in the spot price and also the tariff review of the contract to 060. Under this, despite of the drop of 2.8% in the grid market, which was negative in the market and September is positive, the EBITDA growth was 4% vis-a-vis the same period of last year, impacted by the large increase of 1.6% revenue with energy supply, a consequence of the growth of 5.7% in the residential segment and the reduction in 9.8% of expenses with energy, electric energy but for resale by the volume reduction and also prices of energy and spot price. The results show that we are on the right track and cost control and that the work that we are doing is right. We are focusing on financial discipline, and the fact is right.
It's important to say that we are maintaining the efficiency levels of 8.7% above the regulatory EBITDA. The Telecom also -- the adjusted EBITDA of BRL48 million in 2020 in line with 3Q '19. And Copel Mercado Livre is starting now to bring positive results, an EBITDA of BRL3.7 million, vis-a-vis a negative EBITDA of BRL600 million in 2019. And that can be explained by the relevant increase of 64% in the energy supply revenue because of higher energy volume for free clients and bilateral contracts, partially offset by the growth of energy purchased for resale. Here we should say that this quarter, the company had a gain of over BRL100 million with the mark-to-market of its energy contracts in the period, and that amount is considered non-recurring, as we already mentioned.
On the next page, we have the performance of manageable costs. PMSO in the third quarter of this year when compared to the third quarter of '19 on P line, you can see that we had a reduction of BRL11 million in employees payments and BRL3 million and benefits. And that is a consequence of the reduction of 507 employees in the last 12 months, also Daniel mentioned it. Obviously, here we do not have the impact of this PDI impact. On the other hand, costs have been negatively affected by the increase of BRL37 million in the provision for profit-sharing program and our performance incentive program because of the improvement of the recurring results. And excluding these effects, the line P would have had a 4% increase facing inflation.
In material lines, we had a reduction of BRL5 million in expenses with materials. On the other hand, we had an increase of BRL24 million in third-party services, basically here in the distributing company and that reflected higher expenses with the electrical system maintenance. And remember that the cyclone that caused damages and the state started in the beginning of July. On the other provision lines, the main impact is BRL156 million. Out of those, BRL143 million referred to litigation, especially tax litigation, BRL46 million tax and several, 67 almost and a reversal of BRL124 million, vis-a-vis 3Q '19. In that period, we had the impairment reversal of assets for wind generation and the amount of BRL183 million in that quarter. Therefore, there is a total variation of BRL280 million.
This way, we have a total in our PMSO of BRL802 million. But excluding non-recurring items in the provision lines, the manageable cost totaled BRL708 million in 3Q '20, a growth of only 7% vis-a-vis the adjusted cost of BRL661 million in the 3Q '19. So if we exclude the increase of BRL37 million in the profit-sharing program, PMSO have increased just 1.5% vis-a-vis the same period in the last year considering the inflation of over 3%.
Turning to the next slide. We can here see the history of our investments. It is clear that GeT and major investments are related to the conclusion of some works and a lot of transmission. And we have already invested BRL341 million in the nine first months of the year, and we still have disbursements of almost BRL300 million by the end of the year.
The Telecom, we just have the needed investments to activate customers totaling BRL21 million, 53 in the year-to-date and this is our focus now. We are having now a large concentration of our investments. In the third quarter, we invested BRL320 million, a growth of over 40% vis-a-vis 3Q '19. And year-to-date, we already reached BRL827 million, maybe one of the largest investments of the past few years or maybe the all-time high for our distributing company. And we only have BRL248 million to go and we should reach BRL1.1 billion, and that is our commitment.
Finally, in the last slide, but it's also self-explanatory, we already mentioned that this is the performance of our leverage. We reached 1.3 in the year-to-date or in the last 12 months, a progress, the consistent progress when we compare it to last year when we had a leverage of 2.2.
That's what I had to bring to you. Thank you very much for being with us. And now I turn the floor to the Q&A session.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Carolina Carneiro, Credit Suisse. Please, the floor is yours.
Carolina Carneiro -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Good morning. Thank you very much for the call. My question is about the new dividends policy. You mentioned in the beginning of the call that you could announce it soon, and you already mentioned in a few meetings that you would be considering that. Can you give us more color on it? When can we expect that? What you were thinking about it? And if you allow me a second question. With this migration process, the unitization process actually going to the Level 2 of Ibovespa, you are -- are you also considering to review your by-laws? Any type of changes there? Thank you very much.
Daniel Pimentel Slaviero -- Chief Executive Officer
Hello, Carol. Good morning. Thank you very much for your question. Yes, that's exactly -- these are our next steps, what you said in your second question. Yesterday, the model was approved, as we said. And now, we are working and concluding the review works and the modernization of our by-laws as well. And here we will include governance improvements, the committee, the statutory committee, sustainable development, ESG. So that reorganization and improvement, considering the best practice is the best cases in the market, and that's what we are going to be doing in the next few weeks or months. And that is -- the dividends policy will be included in this package. We are already discussing those. I think the figures and the low leverage, 1.3, brings us to that. But we want to offer that. And when it is approved, everything is going to be under the same package to be submitted to the board of directors.
So I would say that this is going to happen in 60 days probably at the most or 60 or 80 days, I would say. Very soon this package will be available with all the information. But we are working on it so that it meets the company's expectations as well as obviously of all shareholders and stakeholders.
Carolina Carneiro -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Perfect. Thank you very much.
Operator
Next question from Mr. Marcelo Sa, Itau.
Marcelo Sa -- Itau BBA -- Analyst
Good morning, everyone. Congratulations on the results. Well, picking up on Carol's question on dividends policy, I think your leverage is very low and you were successful with the sale of Copel Telecom. Can you comment how -- what is going to be the use of proceeds? If this is going to be used to pay more dividends? If you are going to use that to grow? We talked before and it probably -- there is a possibility that the focus and growth can be M&A. Can you comment on that?
And also, about the concession because of the GSF agreement, I know that you probably will try to concentrate this extension in something specific, and this is going to be a decision of the company and it's not something that you have to divide by all the plants as they now had proposed. Do you have room to work on that? Can you -- did you have any -- did you move forward in that discussion?
Daniel Pimentel Slaviero -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Marcelo. Great questions. And I'm going to separate the first part and I will start backwards about the GSF and the concession extension. And then we'll talk about the Telecom, the investments and then, Wendell, I would like you to give him an overview for the next steps because these funds will take some time to come to us. We expect it to happen by May or June of next year.
So Marcelo, the second question, and I'm starting by the second question, this is what we have. This BRL834 million that we have in the previous calculations of CCEE, we believe that we have the cost of capital included there. This is something that Copel was working on and other companies in the sector, Bertol is the head of that. And there is an expectation on our side because this is the understanding on the law that this cost of capital needs to be contemplated. And that would also improve the figures.
Second, we've also said it, it is part of our strategy and of our understanding that the regulatory asset is of the concessionaire not of the plants, but you could allocate them on the plants. But our strategy, if there's understanding, is the one that rules. And because there is this history in the past of Copel, in the past, and the reserve auction, the energy reserve auction, we had provisions for two different purposes and it allocated only in one plant. So this is not rectified yet. We are talking to other board members and to assistants. And we believe this is going to be the final decision, but we are not sure that this is going to come out in the final regulation.
We are working with this possibility. We will advocate for this, because then we can have this available for the plants, maybe in the future, and so that we can execute our GVM plan in which we already have the company in March, we already hired financial and legal assistants to help us in that operation. So this would be happening in the second half of next year. That's how we are working.
Now about the first question, before turning the floor to Wendell, I would like to say that the funds, when they come in by the end of the first half of next year, they will already be reinforcing our cash structure and they will be following that sequence that I mentioned in the beginning of the call. Our priority is to invest on Copel Distribution to improve the network, and that's how we worked to improve the regulatory base of this year. And we understand that these investments because Copel has a history of its 100% investments being considered prudent for ANEEL and this is very positive for the company. And that reduces costs, improves service to consumers and increases our base. And anyway, we are already looking at opportunities in brownfield.
Some of the projects that were available in the beginning of the year that have been removed because of COVID, when we have information coming from our financial assistants, that they tend to come back to the market, either by the end of the year or the beginning of next year. And we look at that and we'll prospect that actively, but always with full responsibility in terms of our capital allocation because we see a lot of competitive opportunities. We have seen discounts in transmission lines or the market knows about it, and these are very aggressive. And so we do not intend to do anything that is not going to generate value for the company and ANEEL.
And Wendell, if you can now give us an overview of the next steps from now up to the closing and transition process.
Wendell Alexandre Paes de Andrade de Oliveira -- Chief Executive Officer, Copel Telecomunicacoes S.A.
Yes. Good morning, Marcelo. Good morning, everyone. So on the 9th of November, we were successful in the auction. And right now, we are analyzing documents so that we can have the approval of the bidder of this auction. There is a period of time that should be respected, and this is the normal statutory process. And we expect to have the contract signed by the mid of January, and this is an important moment. That's when we call -- that's the period that we got signing. And after that, we can submit the process to Anatel and our antitrust agency so that they can evaluate the whole transaction and give us the approval for the final signing of the contract, the transfer shares and payment. Let's wait.
If that happens in January, there is a period of time for these two agencies that it takes more or less three months. So we believe that by June, July at the most, the whole process will be concluded and then the shares will be transferred to the new buyer and Copel will receive the money and then we can still offer a service of operation and maintenance, this new service or the system to the new buyer. That's it.
Marcelo Sa -- Itau BBA -- Analyst
That's great. If you allow me a final question, I think it's relevant to be discussed. Last week, ANEEL has published a proposal discussing the new methodology for operating costs. Actually, I would like to understand your impressions about this document. What drew my attention was the average efficiency rate. ANEEL was checking the data reported by the companies and their calculations and now they are determining an arrival number as the -- efficiency maximum was 20. So your average efficiency has to be 83 so that you can get to that amount. And it seems to me a little bit dangerous because before it was based on data and now there's a discretionary definition by ANEEL. And there are other discretions on new measurements. How do you -- how you'll measure loss, quality and even labor lawsuits in the model. I would like to hear from you because probably this was a positive change for you, Copel [Indecipherable] gained more efficiency when you compare them to 2018. Copel gained 15 percentage points. And according to ANEEL's ranking, at 89.3 and the average efficiency is at 83. So can you comment on that? I would appreciate.
Daniel Pimentel Slaviero -- Chief Executive Officer
Marcelo, yes, really. This resolution was published. We have seen some reports and also reactions coming from the market and the companies themselves. We have a critical understanding, but we have not analyzed it deeply to come to a consolidated and public position. What we've seen is that we have to award those that are doing their homework based on real data. This is the principle of regulations from ANEEL. And that cannot be lost by -- cannot be lost in estimates, but we do not have a position yet. Our teams are, under Max's supervision, working to have a detailed analysis on it.
Max, I don't know if you want to comment on it.
Maximiliano Andres Orfali -- Chief Executive Officer, Copel Distribuicao S.A.
The analysis is still in the very beginning. We need to go deeper on that. Yes, that's what we need to do. And also, highlight possible improvement points so that we did not hinder. And also, this consider a company such as ours who are knowing their homework and we are doing our homework and all investments. And next week, we will hold a huge event here in the states. The minister will be here and other ANEEL's authorities will be here as well, which is the smart grid. And also, we will have micro networks. These are consistent investments in technology that improve service and reduce cost. This is only in the smart grid program we will have BRL720 million in the first stage with equipment that is the top -- state-of-the-art, entirely interconnected. This is a pioneer project. Not only a pioneer project, but it is the largest in the sector. So these initiatives always aim to improve efficiency and operating costs.
Marcelo Sa -- Itau BBA -- Analyst
That's great. Thank you very much for your answers.
Daniel Pimentel Slaviero -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Next question from Mr. Gabriel Francisco, XP Investments.
Gabriel Francisco -- XP Investimentos -- Analyst
Good morning, everyone. Congratulations on the excellent results. You are doing a great job. I have a question about Compagas. We have seen after the auction, the governor mentioned other possibilities, and he did mention Compagas. I know some things go through Copel. And also, there are other items that are under the legislative area. So if you can give us an update on that, if you see any progress that turns this operation feasible? And also, I would like to understand that it's happening at the same time, the divestment of Gaspetro in Petrobras? That's my question.
Daniel Pimentel Slaviero -- Chief Executive Officer
Hello, Gabriel. Thank you. Excellent question. I think the governor was very clear and precise on B3 because he talked about his state understanding and he listed some projects that he understands as important for the state, which are highway auctions over 4,000 kilometers with the Ministry of Infrastructure, airports and so on. This is an agenda he announced.
Regarding ourselves, he also talked about Compagas. And he set challenging goals so that we can move forward with the process. In the current stage, really, we are renewing the concession. So the executive power already submitted a bill of law to solve the legal problem of this concession if it would end in 2024 or 2029 or 2019. The government understood it was '19. And we went to court and we were -- we got the concession up to 2024.
The second then is the renewal of this concession. So the government is concluding studies for that process. And we understand that over the first half of the year, and this was his main topic here, the conditions will be there to renew the concession. So it is based on that that we intend to work to be able to conclude the process and to sell that asset over the second half of 2021. We don't know the month yet, but it's going to be over the second half of 2021.
And then it goes with your other question, how Gaspetro is going to be sold. It's good that it works more or less like that because Gaspetro process should end in the first quarter of 2021. And then there will be a 30-day period for Copel to be able to have that preferred rights. And I can tell everyone that is hearing us that we do not know which will be the terms, but we intend to see that option of the 24.5 that we'll see -- that we'll have there. If that doesn't happen, we know that -- we have information that they also have someone to sell the process. I think that if we have a higher percentage there in the company -- of shares of our company there, it probably will appreciate in the second half of the year. So we'll be watching it and working on it so that everything is concluded by the end of next year.
Gabriel Francisco -- XP Investimentos -- Analyst
Very clear. Great information. Thank you.
Daniel Pimentel Slaviero -- Chief Executive Officer
We thank you very much.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] If there are no further questions from participants, we now turn the floor back to the management for their final remarks.
Daniel Pimentel Slaviero -- Chief Executive Officer
Once again, I would like to thank you very much for your participation. And if there are no further questions, I believe the main topics and the main subjects have already been tackled. And once again, I would like to say that we have had great process with Telecom. We had a goodwill with legal security. And as the governor said on Monday, this was the first privatization in the State of Parana after 20 years. So this is symbolic. It is very representative. But what matters is that, in this case, for us, is that we are executing our strategic plan, which is to focus in energy generation, transmission, selling and distribution of energy. And we will continue working on our strategy, which we consider a coherence between what we say and what we do. And this is what all of us are doing. My colleagues here are fully committed to the continuous process of value generation for the company. We are very happy.
Thank you very much. We did have a great reaction in the market. And above it all, we are very happy or very excited about this new strategy, about the path we are moving through and the opportunities of new businesses, expansion in the renewable and wind sectors, solar, also gas market, opening to the free market. And also, we know we'll have challenges for next year, but we have a full agenda. But we are very happy about Copel's perspectives for the next years. Thank you all very much, and have a nice weekend.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]
Duration: 46 minutes
Call participants:
Daniel Pimentel Slaviero -- Chief Executive Officer
Adriano Rudek de Moura -- Finance and Investor Relations Director
Wendell Alexandre Paes de Andrade de Oliveira -- Chief Executive Officer, Copel Telecomunicacoes S.A.
Maximiliano Andres Orfali -- Chief Executive Officer, Copel Distribuicao S.A.
Carolina Carneiro -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Marcelo Sa -- Itau BBA -- Analyst
Gabriel Francisco -- XP Investimentos -- Analyst
