Afya (NASDAQ:AFYA) executives emphasized record profitability, strong cash generation, and continued expansion initiatives during the company’s “final conference call of 2025,” while also outlining investment plans intended to deepen integration across its education and medical practice ecosystem.
Full-year 2025 results and guidance track record
CEO Virgilio Gibbon said the quarter “reflects more than financial performance,” pointing to the company’s strategy to “transform medical education across Brazil.” He also said Afya has achieved its “seventh consecutive year of meeting or exceeding guidance since second half of 2018.”
CFO Luis André Blanco also reviewed fourth-quarter results, reporting revenue of BRL 913 million, up 8% year-over-year. Fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA rose 6% to BRL 389 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 42.6%, down 50 basis points from the prior-year quarter.
Management presented 2026 guidance of:
- Revenue: BRL 3.95 billion to BRL 4.1 billion
- Adjusted EBITDA: BRL 1.7 billion to BRL 1.8 billion (excluding acquisitions concluded after the guidance)
Operational highlights: undergrad seats, ecosystem growth, and segment metrics
Afya said it maintained a leadership position in medical education, supported by 3,755 approved medical seats. The company reported more than 25,000 undergraduate medical students, up 5% year-over-year, and said its medical schools net average ticket (excluding acquisitions) rose 3% over the 12-month period to BRL 9,060.
In the undergraduate segment, Gibbon said Afya delivered a record gross margin of 63.9%. At the corporate level, the company cited a “gross margin record of 64.5%” and reiterated its EPS record of BRL 8.32.
Within continuing education, Afya reported 12-month revenue of BRL 284 million, up 11% year-over-year, and said the segment’s gross margin expanded by 363 basis points. Blanco said continuing education is organized into three “journeys,” highlighting that residency journey enrollment remained below 2024 levels but had improved sequentially, while graduate journey enrollment continued to grow quarter after quarter. He attributed segment revenue growth to higher participation of graduate journey products, and he cited a 9% increase in B2P revenue and a 48% increase in B2B revenue.
In medical practice solutions, management reported 12-month revenue of BRL 171 million, up 6% year-over-year. The company said it ended the year with 196,000 paying users, while monthly active users were 220,000, down from 238,000 in the prior-year period. Afya also said physicians made more than 16.9 million prescriptions using its solutions.
Afya’s broader ecosystem reached 301,000 active users, which management described as reflecting adoption among physicians and medical students across Brazil.
Expansion actions: acquisitions and seat authorizations
Afya detailed both inorganic and organic expansion activity during the period. Gibbon said the company concluded the acquisition of 60 medical seats in Afya Contagem, which he described as strengthening Afya’s footprint near Belo Horizonte.
On the organic front, the company said it secured authorization for 102 additional medical seats, including 100 additional seats at Bragança (authorized Nov. 7, 2025) and two additional seats at Afya Pato Branco (authorized Dec. 18, 2025).
Blanco also said undergraduate revenue reached BRL 2,789 million, up 13% year-over-year, citing higher tickets in medicine courses, maturation of medical school seats, the beginning of FUNIC operations, and full-year consolidation of UNIMA, which was acquired in July 2024.
Cash generation, leverage, and shareholder returns
Afya reported cash flow from operating activities of BRL 1,548 million for the year, up 6%, with an operating cash flow conversion ratio of 93.7%.
The company highlighted a conservative leverage profile. Gibbon said leverage was 0.8x, calculated as net debt (excluding IFRS 16 effects) divided by adjusted EBITDA. Blanco said net debt ended the fourth quarter at BRL 1,369 million, down BRL 445 million from the end of 2024, even after considering acquisitions and returns to shareholders.
Management announced a cash dividend of BRL 307.4 million, equal to BRL 3.45 per share, representing 40% of 2025 net income. The dividend is payable April 6, 2026 to shareholders of record as of March 25, 2026.
Blanco said the company continued to execute its share repurchase program, with about 60% of the currently authorized buyback remaining available through December 2026. He added that, combined with dividends, the company expects to distribute 50% of consolidated net income for the year ended 2025.
In discussing liability management, Blanco said Afya issued BRL 1,500 million in debentures in October 2025, repurchased and canceled a perpetual convertible held by SoftBank, and repaid earlier debentures and other loans. He said these actions extended average debt maturity to 3.6 years and resulted in “the lowest cost of the debt in the educational sector.”
Enamed, investment plans, and margin outlook
On Enamed, management said it did not expect a material impact on 2026 guidance. Gibbon said the company’s intakes occur in the first half of the year and occupancy was “almost 100%,” with remaining timing linked to FIES or ProUni schedules. He said any impact on campuses facing penalties under Enamed rules would be “close to zero” for 2026. He added Afya is preparing for another exam expected in September by running 12 simulations (mock tests) for students, with the goal of improving results and potentially reversing penalties for 2027.
Asked about PROFIMED, Gibbon said it remains under discussion in Brazil’s Senate and “there is nothing approved yet.”
On spending and margin dynamics, Blanco said a fourth-quarter increase in CapEx allocated to intangible assets reflected the start of investment programs in continuing education and medical practice solutions during the fourth quarter of 2025. He also said the implied EBITDA margin decline in 2026 guidance (based on midpoints) reflects the impact of these investment programs as well as mix effects, with continuing education and medical practice solutions expected to grow faster than undergraduate programs.
In response to a question on the strategy behind those investments, management described plans to integrate products and services across the “same persona” throughout a physician’s journey, including platform and technology enhancements, a more unified experience, and the potential for a membership concept. Blanco also said these initiatives are intended to improve B2B monetization through a unified platform and additional channels inside the ecosystem.
Blanco added that Afya continues to view M&A as a path for expansion, targeting the addition of around 200 medical seats per year via acquisitions of institutions with more than 60% of revenue coming from medicine programs, and aiming for unleveraged IRR of at least 20% nominal.
About Afya (NASDAQ:AFYA)
Afya Ltd. operates as a leading provider of medical education and training services in Brazil. The company offers a comprehensive suite of educational programs that span undergraduate medical degrees, residency exam preparation, continuing medical education (CME) and digital learning platforms. Through a network of partner institutions and its own campus operations, Afya supports students at every stage of the medical training continuum, from enrollment in medical schools to ongoing professional development for practicing physicians.
At the core of Afya’s offerings is its undergraduate medical program, delivered through a combination of in-person courses at affiliated campuses and fully digital curricula.
