By Brazil Stock Guide – Qualicorp Consultoria e Corretora de Seguros S.A. (B3: QUAL3) ended the first quarter of 2026 with adjusted net income of R$19.2 million, up 86.6% from a year earlier, in a result that shows a leaner and more efficient company still under pressure in the part of the business that matters most: its recurring base of lives in collective health plans.
Net revenue fell 6.6% year over year to R$333 million. Adjusted EBITDA reached R$136.7 million, down 2.7% from 1Q25. Even so, the adjusted EBITDA margin rose to 41.1%, an increase of 1.7 percentage points. The reading is straightforward: Qualicorp has not yet returned to growth at the core of the business, but it is extracting more profitability from a smaller operation.
Smaller Base
The most sensitive point remains the administered portfolio, Qualicorp’s most relevant business line. It ended March with 519,200 lives, down 2.6% from the fourth quarter and 12.3% from 1Q25. The company added 36,000 gross lives in the quarter but lost 50,100, closing the period with a net reduction of 14,000 lives.
There was, however, a less negative signal. Cancellations fell 31.2% from 4Q25 and 37.4% year over year. Churn stood at 9.4%, below 12.8% in the previous quarter and 12.5% a year earlier. For a company that has spent years dealing with portfolio deterioration, delinquency and litigation, churn stabilization is almost as important as growth itself.
Efficiency Buys Time
The margin improvement came from a combination of cost discipline and operational simplification. Fixed expenses fell 13% from 4Q25 to R$89.6 million, equivalent to 26.9% of net revenue. Qualicorp says the divestments completed in 2025, including Gama and Empresarial, left its structure better aligned with the current scope of the business.
The problem is that efficiency alone does not solve a growth thesis. Gross revenue from the administered portfolio fell 4.7% in the quarter to R$349.5 million, reflecting the lower number of lives and operational challenges with certain health plan operators at the end of 2025. Administration fees and brokerage revenue, the recurring parts of the model, also declined.
Cash Defense
The strongest number of the quarter was cash generation. Recurring free cash flow reached R$126.3 million, up 144% from 4Q25, although still 11.3% below 1Q25. Qualicorp ended March with R$985.3 million in cash and financial investments, up 10.8% from the end of 2025.
That cash supports management’s main financial message: deleveraging. Net debt fell to R$777.9 million, down 8.9% from the previous quarter and also from 1Q25. Leverage stood at 1.34 times last-12-month adjusted EBITDA, below 1.45 times at the end of 2025.
The 2027 Test
Deleveraging matters because Qualicorp still has to deal with its debt maturity schedule. The company’s release shows amortizations concentrated in 2026 and 2027, with R$595.8 million due in 2026 and R$775 million in 2027. Qualicorp itself says it continues to work on liability management to address the challenges of 2027.
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