Just over a year ago, Viveo 's management sat down with the company's creditors to request a waiver . Leverage had reached 4.28x at the close of 2024, and without the agreement, the company would technically have broken the debenture limits. The agreement was not simple: a limit of 5 times (x) in the first quarter of 2025, progressively decreasing to 4.5x by the end of the year.

Twelve months later, the hospital supplies distributor closed 2025 with leverage of 3.97x (below the floor agreed with creditors) and with free cash flow of R$ 519 million, more than double the R$ 206 million of 2024.

"We delivered the same or better than promised. This gives us the goodwill needed for the next conversation," says Frederico Oldani, CFO of Viveo, to NeoFeed .

The next meeting with creditors is scheduled to take place by mid-2026. Viveo needs to renegotiate and extend the maturity profile of its debt. As of this year, the company has just over R$4 billion in debt. And the amortization schedule shows that just over R$1 billion is due in the coming months.

To achieve the turnaround so far, the decision by the team led by CEO Leonardo Byrro was to stop growing and focus on operational quality. This change in strategy resulted in net revenue for 2025 remaining virtually stable compared to 2024 – R$11.57 billion versus R$11.58 billion.

Viveo exited contracts it considered poorly priced, especially in the hospital and clinic segment, which historically is the company's largest.

This portfolio cleanup resulted in some volume contraction in the first half of the year, but by the fourth quarter the segment had already returned to growth. "It wasn't a year focused on revenue growth. It was a year to improve the quality of contracts," says the CFO.

The result of this decision is the improvement in margins. Gross profit grew 6.3% in the year, with an expansion of almost 1 percentage point in margin. Adjusted EBITDA reached R$ 706 million, an increase of 8.3% over the R$ 652 million of 2024, with an expansion of half a point in margin, to 6.1% (when isolating the fourth quarter, EBITDA grew 19.4% compared to the same period of the previous year).

But what underpins this result is the reduction in the company's cash cycle (here, the shorter the better), which demonstrates the financial health and efficiency of the business. Viveo managed to reduce it from a peak of 63 days in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 44 days in the fourth quarter of 2025.

According to Oldani, this was possible by reducing payment terms with customers, streamlining inventory, and renegotiating terms with suppliers. He states that there is still room for improvement in the cash flow cycle this year.

The net profit of R$18.2 million in 2025 – small in absolute terms, but symbolic as a reversal of the 2024 loss – completes the turnaround narrative. The challenge for 2026 is to convert these numbers into better conditions for extending the debt maturity.

Transition in command

The 2025 results also mark a change in leadership at Viveo. Byrro, who led the company for eight years and spearheaded the consolidation process that took the company from R$1 billion to over R$12 billion in revenue, will end his tenure in the coming weeks.

The successor is André Clark , who took over in early 2026 with a mandate to look inward and prepare for the next growth cycle. "André brings the kind of skills the company needs for this next cycle. He's very focused on operations, processes, and simplification," says the CFO.

The transition was planned with the board of directors and has been gradual. Byrro has been accompanying Clark on visits to operations and presentations to key clients and suppliers, and is expected to remain until the end of March to complete the handover process.

The new CEO's agenda is one of austerity and continuous improvement, with the task of consolidating what has been built so far.

On the stock exchange, VVEO3 shares are practically stable, with a 0.74% drop this year. Over the past 12 months, the stock has risen 4.7%. Viveo's market capitalization is R$ 435.2 million on the B3 (Brazilian Stock Exchange).