SAO PAULO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Brazilian environmental services provider Ambipar will remain focused on reducing financial leverage and staying profitable in 2024, its finance chief told Reuters on Monday, as the company reported growing net debt as of the third quarter.

This year marked a "new cycle" for Ambipar, which grew through nearly 50 acquisitions in recent years but put inorganic expansion on hold in order to deleverage its business.

"That plan continues," Chief Financial Officer Thiago Costa said. "We will keep focusing on organic growth, profitability and naturally, deleveraging."

Ambipar - which offers services such as waste management and recovery, accident prevention and response to environmental emergencies - reported net debt of 4.49 billion reais ($914 million) as of Sept. 30, up 46% year-on-year.

Leverage measured by the net debt/EBITDA ratio stood at 2.99, up from 2.90 a quarter before.

Costa said the increase was expected due to Brazil's high interest rates, with the benchmark rate currently at 12.25% even after the central bank kicked off a monetary easing cycle.

Leverage is set to fall further in the wake of Ambipar's 716.90 million reais ($145.94 million) share offering earlier this month, with the company saying the proceeds would go toward reinforcing its cash position and cutting debt.

Founder Tercio Borlenghi Jr invested 560 million reais in the share offering, and Ambipar said the "pro forma" net debt/EBITDA ratio in the third quarter would have been 2.52 if November's share offering had been taken into account then.

Costa added that having the leverage ratio around 2.5 and 3.0 was already "very comfortable."

Ambipar posted quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 376 million reais, up 38% year-on-year and a new record, while EBITDA margin rose 4 percentage points to 31.8%.

Costa reiterated that fresh acquisitions were not on the horizon.

"We took our foot off the gas and will keep it that way," he said, adding that acquisitions would occur "only if they are very specific and small.

"Nothing transformational is on our radar." ($1 = 4.9123 reais) (Reporting by Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo Editing by Matthew Lewis)