Earnings Call Transcript - VIV Q4 2025

Operator, Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Vivo's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Call. This conference is being recorded, and the replay will be available at the company's website. The presentation will also be available for download. This call is also available in Portuguese. I would like to inform you that all attendees will only be listening to the conference during the presentation, and then we will start the Q&A session when further instructions will be provided. Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that any statements that may be made during this conference call regarding the company's business prospects, operational and financial projections, and goals are the beliefs and assumptions of Vivo's Executive Board and the current information available to the company. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties as they relate to future events, and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should be aware of events related to the macroeconomic scenario, the industry, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the respective forward-looking statements. Present at this conference, we have Mr. Christian Gebara, CEO of the company; Mr. David Melcon, CFO and Investor Relations Officer; and Mr. João Pedro Soares Carneiro, IR Director. Now I'll turn the conference over to Mr. João Pedro Soares Carneiro, Investor Relations Director of Vivo. Mr. Carneiro, you may begin your conference.

João Carneiro, Investor Relations Director

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Vivo's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Call. Today, our CEO, Christian Gebara, will start by commenting on Vivo's performance and connectivity and digital services as well as present our main ESG accomplishments for the year. Then David Melcon, our CFO, will walk us through Vivo's controlled cost and CapEx evolution, free cash flow generation, profitability, and shareholder distribution during 2025. With that, let me turn the call over to Christian.

Christian Gebara, CEO

Thank you, João. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to share that Vivo's 2025 performance was remarkable. We grew above inflation in all key lines, driven by solid commercial momentum and our continuous focus on offering the best customer experience in Brazil. Starting with mobile, the postpaid segment was a major highlight. Accesses expanded 6.5% year-over-year, reaching 70.8 million customers, now representing 69% of our mobile base. In fiber, we closed 2025 with 7.8 million homes connected and a footprint that extended to 31 million homes. This advance coupled with our commitment to quality and customer satisfaction reinforced our leadership in the fiber market and allowed us to accelerate fiber mobile convergence. Turning to our financial performance. Total revenues in the fourth quarter rose 7.1%, supported by balanced growth in both mobile and fixed services. Mobile service revenue progressed 7%, while fixed services improved 5.4%, reflecting the sustained contribution of fiber and corporate solutions. EBITDA grew 8.1% versus the fourth quarter of 2024. Excluding the effects of the concession migration from both years, EBITDA advanced 17.7% year-over-year, reflecting the success of our day-to-day execution. Operating cash flow also showed solid expansion, up 13.4% compared to 2024, representing 26.1% of our revenues. Net income grew at a double-digit rate in 2025, totaling BRL 7.2 billion for the year, while free cash flow increased by 11.4% to BRL 9.2 billion. These strong results enabled us to fulfill our promise of paying shareholders at least 100% of our annual net income. In 2025, we paid out BRL 6.4 billion, reaching a payout ratio of 103.4%. Next, on Slide 4, we illustrate how the transformation of our top line continues to advance, driven by diversified revenue mix and the rising contribution of our new businesses. Total revenues in the quarter reached BRL 15.6 billion, supported mostly by postpaid and FTTH that grew 9% and 9.8%, respectively. Notably, this quarter delivered the strongest growth in our handsets and electronics line in three years, up nearly 14% year-over-year, fueled by a broader portfolio, seasonal offers, and robust demand for electronics. Our new businesses also presented another standout year. Revenues increased 27% over the last 12 months and now account for 12.1% of total revenues, an expansion of 1.9 percentage points compared to the previous year. Both B2C and B2B solutions contributed meaningfully to this evolution, reflecting the success of our strategy to diversify our portfolio and scale digital services. Moving to the next slide. We continue to see the solid momentum of our mobile businesses boosted by Vivo's differentiated network quality and customer experience. By the end of 2025, our mobile base reached 103 million accesses, a year-over-year increase of 0.7%. Postpaid, including M2M and Dongles, remained the main growth engine, expanding 6.9% and surpassing 50 million customers for the first time. Adoption of 5G is accelerating rapidly. Our 5G customer base rose to 23.1 million users across 716 cities in Brazil. This pushed our 5G take-up ratio to 27.8%, an improvement of 8.6 percentage points in one year. This reflects not only the strength of our network, but also the value customers perceive in transitioning to newer technologies. Postpaid churn continued stable at 1%, while ARPU grew 5.8% year-over-year. Together, these indicators highlight the effectiveness of our retention initiatives as customers adopt higher value plans and demand more data. Overall, these results reinforced the strength of our mobile platform, a combination of superior network quality, disciplined commercial execution, and a customer-centric approach that drives continued sustainable growth. On Slide 6, we dive deeper into the strength of our convergent proposition and how it's setting a new benchmark for quality and retention. As our fiber footprint expands, so does our capacity to attract new customers. Over the last year, we passed an additional 1.9 million homes, bringing the total to 31 million, while our take-up ratio improved to 25.2%. FTTH accesses maintained double-digit growth, increasing 12% year-over-year and reaching 7.8 million connections. This performance is once again propelled by Vivo Total, our flagship offer that combines the best mobile and fiber, which expanded 41% compared to last year in terms of subscribers. Today, 62.7% of our entire FTTH base is already converted to postpaid, out of which 43% through Vivo Total, reinforcing customers' clear preference for integrated solutions while also demonstrating the significant upside that we still have to further scale our convergent offer and improve customer loyalty across both postpaid and fiber services. In fact, fiber churn remains on a downward trend, reaching 1.4%, the lowest level in our history. This sustained improvement reflects both the quality of our network and the stickiness of Vivo Total's value proposition. Heading to Slide 7, we show how the evolution of our B2C segment is supported by the growing relevance of services that go beyond connectivity and positively impact our customers' lifetime value. In 2025, total B2C revenues reached BRL 44.8 billion, up 5% year-over-year. This performance reflects not only the solid resilience of our connectivity services, but also the strong momentum of our new businesses that grew 20.7% and now accounts for 3.3% of total revenues. We also saw consistent improvement in revenue per RGU that hit BRL 65.8. This increase is supported by our ongoing efforts to expand customer engagement, drive cross-selling, and extract higher value from our existing base. Looking specifically at new businesses, we continue to see solid performance across all lines. Video and music OTTs remain the largest contributor, advancing 18.1% year-over-year. Consumer electronics delivered another standout result, growing 36%, while the health and wellness category posted remarkable momentum with revenues rising close to 70% in the year. We are also strengthening the foundation for future expansion. Through Vivo Ventures, we approved an additional BRL 150 million for new investments with a particular focus on AI-driven initiatives, bringing the total investment capacity to BRL 470 million. And through our partnership with Perplexity, we are offering customers complementary one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro, reinforcing our commitment to delivering differentiated digital experiences. All these developments underscore how Vivo is evolving into a broader digital platform where connectivity remains at the core but is increasingly complemented by a diversified ecosystem of services designed to enhance our value proposition and improve monetization.

David Sanchez-Friera, CFO

Thank you, Christian, and good morning, everyone. On Slide 10, we provide an update on the evolution of our cost structure and highlight the strong EBITDA performance in the quarter. On the left side, you will see that total costs reached BRL 8.9 billion in the quarter. When excluding the effect from the concession migration, OpEx was flat with a year-over-year evolution of 0.4%. This reflects a balanced combination of commercial momentum and disciplined operational management. Cost of services and goods sold rose 9.7%, mainly driven by the higher contribution of B2B digital solutions, continued demand for music and video over the top as well as the share of handsets and electronics. Operating costs grew 4.4% year-over-year, led by a 6.4% evolution in personnel expenses, reflecting annual salary increase and a higher headcount in strategic areas such as digital tech. Meanwhile, our largest cost line, commercial and infrastructure, declined by 2.6% due mainly to some one-time infrastructure expenses registered in the same quarter last year. The results in both years were positively impacted by the effects related to the migration of our fixed voice concession to the authorization model. In the fourth quarter last year, we recognized a reversal of provision for contingencies totaling BRL 386 million. In addition to asset sales amounting to BRL 206 million. In the fourth quarter this year, we recorded BRL 96 million in copper sales and BRL 6 million in real estate sales, adding up to BRL 102 million. Excluding all these effects in both periods, our EBITDA grew 17.7% year-over-year with a margin expansion of 380 basis points, reaching 42.3%, while reported EBITDA was up 8.1% with a margin of 42.9%. Moving to Slide 11, we present the evolution of our operating cash flow for the year. CapEx amounted to BRL 9.3 billion, a modest 1.1% raise year-over-year, while our CapEx to revenues ratio reduced to 15.6%. This reflects lower capital intensity and the continued prioritization of investment with the highest return. As a result, operating cash flow before leases reached BRL 15.6 billion, an increase of 13.4% compared to last year. After leases, operating cash flow rose 17.3%, totaling BRL 10.1 billion with margins expanding to 17%. This strong performance demonstrates our enhanced ability to convert EBITDA into cash, supported by disciplined CapEx allocation and softer lease cost evolution. Going forward, we remain focused on further optimizing our tower-related expenses and improving contract efficiency. The trajectory of our operating cash flow margins underscores the strength of our return profile. Lastly, on Slide 13, we highlight our continued commitment to shareholders' remuneration. In 2025, we distributed BRL 6.4 billion to shareholders, an increase of 9.1% compared to the previous year, driven by higher share buybacks and capital reduction. Notably, we once again delivered on our guidance for the period this time with a payout of 103.4% of our net income. Looking ahead to 2026, we have already announced the distribution of BRL 7 billion, including the BRL 4 billion from capital reduction to be paid in July, and the interest on capital of BRL 3 billion declared in 2025 to be paid in April this year. We also declared an additional interest on capital in February this year that will be paid before April 2027. Moreover, our Board of Directors approved a new share buyback program of up to BRL 1 billion to be executed until February 2027. To conclude, we reaffirm our commitment to distributing at least 100% of net income in 2026, maintaining a clear and disciplined capital allocation strategy focused on value creation for shareholders.

Operator, Operator

Our first question comes from Leonardo Olmos from UBS.

Leonardo Olmos, Analyst

Congratulations on the results. My question will focus on distributions and will be a bit lengthy but will revolve around that topic. First, could you discuss the factors influencing the mix in 2026 between buybacks, interest on capital, and capital reduction? What leads you to prefer one option over the others? For instance, we observed a slight reduction in potential buybacks, alongside a significant increase in capital reduction. Does this indicate you are considering a strategy of potentially increasing leverage and altering the capital structure? Additionally, if you could touch on the net income drivers for 2026. We've noticed an increase in copper sales, suggesting there may be room for upward adjustments to consensus estimates. Since dividends are guided by net income, we would like clarification on that.

David Sanchez-Friera, CFO

Leonardo, thank you for your question. Over the last two years, we have committed to distributing at least 100% of our net income, which we've achieved in 2024 and 2025. We aim to balance capital reductions, interest on capital, dividends, and share buybacks. Our capital structure currently exceeds BRL 60 billion. Three years ago, we received authorization from ANATEL to distribute up to BRL 5 billion, of which we have distributed BRL 3.5 billion so far. Now that we don't need further preapproval from ANATEL, we have approved an additional BRL 4 billion payout this year. Looking ahead to 2026, we plan to continue this strategy. We have also approved a BRL 1 billion share buyback program to maintain flexibility and maximize shareholder value through interest on capital, which is a unique opportunity in Brazil, in addition to capital reductions. For next year, we expect to deliver over 100% of our net income. We continuously explore opportunities related to our capital structure, which is currently impacted by Brazil's high interest rates. We anticipate a reduction in the Selic rate, currently at 15%, in the future. This could help us generate value and further capitalize on opportunities. We are optimistic about cash flow generation and net income for next year. We have experienced stable growth, achieving double-digit increases almost every quarter, and we expect to keep growing in EBITDA. Additionally, we will see a reduction in depreciation and amortization beginning in the second quarter. By mid-2026, we will have fully depreciated some legacy assets, which will improve profit before taxes by BRL 300 million, along with the benefits of lower interest rates. We are positive about the growth of net income and will be introducing additional shareholder remuneration next year.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Marcelo Santos from JPMorgan.

Marcelo Santos, Analyst

I want to ask questions about two key topics. The first one is CapEx. So maybe, David, could you please discuss what are the puts and takes for the CapEx outlook in 2026? And the second question will be about the competitive environment, how you're seeing it, especially on mobile? And what is the outlook for passing price increases this year?

Christian Gebara, CEO

Marcelo, I will take the questions. Christian here. So CapEx, we're not giving guidance. But as we said, now been stating in every call, we are working on CapEx optimization, when you consider CapEx over revenues. So as you could see, we came from 16.4% to 15.6% this year. That's a combination of all the work we are doing to be more effective in the deployment of our infrastructure. Added to that, our ability to sell more services with no CapEx. So we already reached more than 12% of revenues coming off services that now require CapEx. So that's why we have this strong evolution in operating cash flow. As we stated here now, we are increasing 13.4% year-over-year. And even when you consider operating cash flow after leases, this growth is even higher, 17.3%. So we will continue to deploy 5G. As I said, we are following our customers and the penetration of 5G is going up. So we are deploying 5G where our customers are. We've been deploying fiber and penetrating more our network. So we also saw the take-up ratio going up in the fiber business. So that's a good sign. Of course, it involves CapEx, but we are also saving in other lines. So the idea is this one, to continue to improve infrastructure keeping our leadership, but being better in the ratio CapEx over revenues. Going to competition. Can I go to the second one, Marcelo?

Marcelo Santos, Analyst

That's very clear. Thank you, Christian.

Christian Gebara, CEO

So competition. Here, we have different strategies for the different segments. We've been very strong in prepaid. Now it's still slightly negative, but when you compare what we had in last quarter, revenues this quarter is higher than the previous one. And also when you compare the year-over-year evolution, we also have a better performance this quarter than we had in previous ones. We are increasing price according to the type of segments. So we are planning March for postpaid and hybrid. For front book, we are expecting customer base price increase in April for both hybrid and postpaid. FTTH, we had a price increase in January. We have planned a new one for June. And Vivo Total, we are planning 100% customer base price increase in April, following the inflation ratio, giving more data and more services and also playing convergence. So that's our strategy, and that's why we are positive about the evolution of our revenues going forward.

Marcelo Santos, Analyst

Okay. So the back book is on April, right, for postpaid and hybrid? Is that correct? Just to be sure.

Christian Gebara, CEO

Yes. Part of it is in April, the majority, and the rest is in August.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Rogério Araújo from Bank of America.

Rogério Araújo, Analyst

Congrats on the results. I have a couple here. The first one, there was a reduction in the lease expenses. If you could please provide some details on why and also expected trend. This is the first one.

Christian Gebara, CEO

Please ask the two questions, Rogério. And then we'll answer both of them. What's the second one, please?

Rogério Araújo, Analyst

He shows on the line. Rogério, can you please repeat the second question?

Christian Gebara, CEO

Okay. So we're going to answer only the first question, okay?

David Sanchez-Friera, CFO

Okay. So Rogério, thank you for the question. The evolution of the lease depreciation and interest accrual remained consistent with previous periods. Even in both quarter and even the full year, EBITDA after leases has grown even more than EBITDA before leases. And regarding the payments, some volatility persists due to the ongoing renegotiation with the towers company that we do every quarter. And that's why you mentioned the principal and interest payments that we have this quarter amounted to BRL 1.2 billion, which is lower than the previous year, but also lower than the previous quarter that shows we are very optimistic about the potential trend of this line. To give you more light here, the current tenancy ratio that we have in Brazil is 1.4 that we discussed last quarter, which is significantly lower than other comparable countries. So we see a big opportunity to reduce the unitary costs of every tower to share more the towers and to fund the new deployment that we need to do here in Brazil to accelerate our revenues in 5G and also our coverage. So optimistic about the trend that we have started seeing this quarter. But even though we will need to continue renegotiating those contracts and this will be driving the potential acceleration of the reductions.

Christian Gebara, CEO

I would add, the operating cash flow after leases, no, margin. We went from 14.6% in 2023 to 15.5% in 2024 to 17% in 2025, aligned with what David just said. Also, we are going to capture the growth of our infrastructure. We're going to renegotiate our contracts, and we're going to still generate operating cash flow after leases that has a strong margin, as you could see the evolution over the last 3 or 4 years. I don't know if Rogério has the second question?

Rogério Araújo, Analyst

Yes, sorry. My line actually was dropped here on, actually. You couldn't hear me on my second one. It's about the prepaid ARPU. It has reverted a negative trend versus the first nine months of the year, also in line with our main peer in Brazil. So if you could please clarify what do you think were the main drivers for that and what you expect in the upcoming quarters?

Christian Gebara, CEO

Prepaid has shown improvement each quarter. This progress is linked to our ability to encourage customers to top up and use their available balance. It's part of our strategic approach to motivate customers towards larger purchases and to effectively monetize those top-ups. Additionally, we're successfully transitioning prepaid customers to hybrid plans, which also saw positive growth this quarter. We're very happy with the evolution of mobile service revenue, which increased by 7% compared to the last quarter, with postpaid growing by 9%. This growth is due to acquiring new customers and converting prepaid users to hybrid or postpaid plans. The total prepaid revenue rose from 1.364 million in the third quarter to 1.394 million in the latest quarter. Furthermore, postpaid churn rates have reached their lowest levels, thanks to our carefully targeted strategy for different market segments.

Rogério Araújo, Analyst

Okay. I may have a follow-up. If you could expect the prepaid ARPU to keep increasing year-over-year in the upcoming quarters, if you have any color on that?

Christian Gebara, CEO

Rogério, we expect revenue to continue growing at its current rate. However, we are not providing guidance on ARPU by segment.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Phani Kanumuri from HSBC.

Phani Kumar Kanumuri, Analyst

The first question is about the total net adds and mobile market share. If we disregard Dongles and M2M, the number of subscribers appears to be decreasing. Can you explain why that is? Additionally, your market share has decreased by about 1 percentage point from last year. What is causing this trend? The second question pertains to your B2B strategy, which has been performing well. What steps will you take to sustain this growth in Brazil, and how is penetration progressing in the SME segment?

Christian Gebara, CEO

I believe the mobile market share will remain stable and not change significantly. There might be some adjustments, especially in the prepaid sector, as some companies take longer to disconnect customers than we do. We are very confident in our market share performance and revenue growth. Additionally, we assess our success through our ability to increase net additions, and in the fourth quarter of 2025, we achieved a record of 930,000 new customers. This success results from attracting more customers and reducing postpaid churn from 1.3% in the fourth quarter of 2021 to the 1% level we've maintained for the last four years, which is crucial for us. Furthermore, our mobile average revenue per user is also increasing; comparing the fourth quarters of 2024 and 2025, we saw an improvement of 5.8%. It's important for us to focus on attracting and retaining customers while growing revenues, rather than just small fluctuations in market share. As for our B2B sector, we had a strong quarter, and for the year, B2B revenues reached BRL 5.3 billion, which is a 29.5% increase year over year. Digital services contribute 8.8% of Vivo's total revenues and account for 39.1% of our B2B revenues, making it a critical aspect of our growth strategy moving forward. We're experiencing growth in all segments, although we face more challenges penetrating digital services within SMEs. At the same time, we're seeing significant growth in connectivity in this segment, with a range of products such as notebook rentals and cyber solutions being offered. We are excited about the strong results we are achieving in SMEs, where we combine connectivity with digital services as part of our overall strategy.

Phani Kumar Kanumuri, Analyst

Okay, yes. So maybe on the connectivity part, right? So you've grown like 5% year-on-year. So what is driving the growth in the connectivity part? The digital solutions were more understandable, but what is driving this growth in the connectivity part?

Christian Gebara, CEO

SMEs, but also in advanced data solutions for top to corporate customers, now, to going up in the pyramid. We also have other connectivity solutions up to very dedicated links. So we've been growing in all lines. Now I think we gave some color. Fiber, of course, it's B2C, B2B. But when we said that we are growing 9.8%, that also includes our great performance in SMEs. And when we grow 10.2% of Data, ICT, digital services, it's also including corporate data solutions. So it's in both.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Maria Clara Infantozzi from Ita BBA.

Maria Infantozzi, Analyst

I have two questions here. The first one, can you please provide us an update on how you perceive the competitive environment in the fiber industry and also refresh us how you see any potential M&A in these industries? And the second one, could you please share your thoughts on how you see profitability expansion going forward? Are there any specific areas of the business in which you see some potential for further efficiencies? And how should we balance future efficiencies with the expansion of B2B?

Christian Gebara, CEO

Sorry, the second question is related to cost in B2B or cost in general?

Maria Infantozzi, Analyst

Costs in general and how you balance this with the B2B expansion as it has a lower margin?

Christian Gebara, CEO

B2B does not have a lower margin, and we can address this. Let's start with the first point. The market remains quite fragmented. In Vivo's fiber business, our market share increased from 18.8% at the end of 2024 to 19.3% at the end of 2025, reflecting a 0.5% rise. We added 834,000 customers over the year, while some leading competitors faced significant declines. The competitive landscape is challenging, with too many players, in our view. For comparison, we lead the fiber market in Brazil with 19.3%, while the top player in Spain holds 34%, in France it's 39%, and in Japan it's 57%. This indicates potential for consolidation, as it's hard to justify having so many competitors in the same regions. We currently pass 31 million homes, aiming for more. We see an addressable market of 60 million, but realistically, we might reach closer to 45 million through our own efforts or through consolidations. Consolidation remains uncertain; we need to identify the right target at appropriate pricing and with a network that doesn't overlap significantly with ours, while also ensuring quality. Clearly, consolidation is necessary, as many players who experienced negative net adds last year may not sustain themselves. On costs, we've demonstrated a solid performance, with a 4.4% evolution in operational costs. This includes personnel growth, as we're enhancing our digital presence and increasing penetration in commercial areas. Despite a 6.4% increase in personnel costs, we managed to limit operational costs to a 4.4% rise due to improved efficiency, especially in customer care initiatives, including the use of AI, which has also helped reduce costs. The combination resulted in a 4.4% increase, which is significantly lower than our revenue growth. Our costs related to services and goods sold are closely tied to our service sales, like video OTTs, which performed well, alongside our strong growth in handsets and consumer electronics. Looking ahead, we will continue to prioritize digitalization and utilize AI for enhanced cost efficiency. Regarding B2B, we have very positive margins depending on the product. Connectivity B2B grew by 5.4%, amounting to BRL 8.2 billion with healthy margins. Digital B2B services vary; for cloud offerings, margins can be lower. However, managed services over cloud have much better margins, as do cybersecurity and IoT services. We are optimistic about our growth potential in these areas. While some services may have lower margins, they contribute positively to operating cash flow since they require minimal capital expenditures. Hence, we should focus on our bottom-line results, as we have seen a robust upward trend in operating cash flow and free cash flow, even after leases.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Daniel Federle from Bradesco BBI.

Daniel Federle, Analyst

Congrats on the strong results. I just want to hear your thoughts on how important it is for a telco to have a convergence operation at the moment in Brazil. We see, Vivo focusing on the Vivo Total. It seems to be a big success. So how important is this for the whole strategy? And second, if you could just provide a little bit more information about your expectation for AI as a source of savings for costs in the upcoming years.

Christian Gebara, CEO

Thank you for your initial comments. I can't speak for other operators as we have different strategies, but I can discuss convergence for Vivo. Convergence has always been our priority. Currently, we have 7.8 million FTTH customers, with 62.7% being convergent. Out of the 7.8% in Vivo Total, 43.2% are convergent. There is still a significant number between the 43% and 62% that are convergent but not part of Vivo Total, and we are actively working to bring them into Vivo Total. The reason for this is that being part of Vivo Total increases the switching costs for customers, allowing us to build a closer relationship and better monetize through additional digital services. Our new ventures in B2C demonstrate our ability to cross-sell mobile and fixed services, as well as video OTTs, health services, smartphones, and consumer electronics, among others. Our churn ratio supports this strategy; FTTH churn stands at 1.4%, down from 1.6% and 1.8% in previous years. Fiber customers within Vivo Total experience a churn rate that is one percentage point lower than independent fiber customers. Our strategy is to provide customers with the most services possible, which is why we also monitor the number of services per RGU. We gather revenues from B2C divided by the number of RGU customers, and we see a positive trend there. That's our approach to convergence, along with new business opportunities. I can't speak for others, but for us, this is the right path, and we will continue to focus our efforts there. Additionally, 84% of fiber sales in our stores come from Vivo Total, which reinforces our strategy. The gross ARPU for Vivo Total in the fourth quarter was BRL 230, which is an important metric. On average, customers in Vivo Total have one fiber connection and 1.7 postpaid connections, indicating that customers are loyal to Vivo across all services. Regarding AI, we had robust AI deployments before the introduction of Gen AI. WhatsApp, powered by AI, was a vital communication channel with 4 million monthly interactions. With Gen AI, we see even greater possibilities, such as optimizing internal processes. For example, AI has simplified our responses to complex B2B public tenders, enabling us to participate in more bidding opportunities than ever before. We are also utilizing AI as a support tool for our call center and store agents, and we are piloting AI agents for direct customer interactions, with initial results expected in May. Furthermore, we are implementing AI in network optimization and various other areas to integrate it as a core element of our business. In response to the earlier efficiency question, we believe that AI will also enhance our overall efficiency.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Gustavo Farias from UBS.

Gustavo Farias, Analyst

The first one, maybe a double-click on the previous question about M&A. So we've been exploring M&A in fiber, in most of our recent notes. And Vita obviously stands out particularly now without Oi as a shareholder. So my question is, would you consider a large M&A to strengthen your fiber footprint? And the second question, we've seen stronger portability figures for Claro in the fourth quarter, mostly impacting TIM and likely related to new sales. So my question is, how are you perceiving this competition driver in mobile? And if this, by any chance, changes your commercial strategy?

Christian Gebara, CEO

Gustavo, thanks for the question. No, it doesn't change our strategy. We have competition, and it's a very competitive market, sorry. And I cannot point out a specific player and the evolution of portability due to this player. Now I think that's the market that we face. I think there is a lot of variation of portability month-over-month. What is important that we keep growing net adds, and we keep ARPU going up because also getting more customers with ARPU decreasing is not the strategy that we are following. So if you look, we had a 4.4% increase in postpaid net adds if I compare the year-over-year quarter. And also, we have a 5.8% ARPU evolution if I compare again the year-over-year ARPU, keeping churn levels at 1%. So we're not going to get into this war if someone is trying to put the service at a lower value or try to use our service to acquire other services in different sectors. No, we shouldn't get to that because we are here, preserving the quality and the experience that we offer to our customers. So a positive evolution of net adds, positive evolution of ARPU, and extremely positive evolution of our churn. And again, we're going to face competition of different types. And that's normal. It's a very competitive market, and telecommunications has always been very competitive in Brazil. Regarding mergers and acquisitions, Oi still has a stake in Vita and is in the process of managing that. The market remains fragmented, which I believe opens up opportunities for consolidation. However, the current size of any players involved is not significant enough for us to integrate easily. Oi holds 19.3% and the next competitor has only 8.2%. Even if we add the second and third players, we would still fall short of what we consider market leaders in Spain, France, Korea, or Japan. The key factor for us is the quality of the network, the customer base, the overlap with our network, and pricing. We are equipped to deploy the network effectively, and most of our capital expenditures are tied to connecting customers rather than just expanding fiber infrastructure. We prefer not to extend our fiber in a highly saturated market. That said, we are open to evaluating potential acquisition targets, but as of now, we haven't reached any agreements or found genuine interest in the targets available. However, the trends for consolidation appear to be positive.

Operator, Operator

The question-and-answer session is over. I would like to hand the floor back to Mr. Christian Gebara for the company final remarks. Please, Mr. Christian, the floor is yours.

Christian Gebara, CEO

Okay. Thank you, everyone, for participating and for so many questions. As I stated in the beginning, we're extremely pleased to share such a strong set of results in all dimensions of our company. And again, we are always here at disposal to answer any additional questions that you may have. Thank you so much for your participation.

Operator, Operator

Vivo's conference is now closed. We thank you for your participation and wish you a very good day.