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Cresud Sociedad Anónima, Comercial, Inmobiliaria, Financiera y Agropecuaria (CRESY)

Q4 2020 Earnings Call· Wed, Sep 30, 2020

$11.25

-0.09%

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Transcript

Santiago Donato

Management

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Santiago Donato, Investor Relations Officer of Cresud, and I welcome you to the Fiscal Year 2020 Results Conference Call. First of all, I would like to remind you that both audio and a slideshow may be accessed through company's Investor Relations website at www.cresud.com.ar by clicking on the banner webcast link. The following presentation and the earnings release are also available for download on the Company website. After management remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session for analysts and investors. If you want to make a question, please click the bottom labeled raise hand. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this call is being recorded and the information discussed today may include forward looking statements regarding the Company's financial and operating performance. All projections are subject to risk and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially, please refer to the detail note in the Company's earnings release regarding forward looking statements. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Alejandro Elsztain, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Alejandro Elsztain

CEO

Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to our fiscal year. We are finishing our balance sheet of 2020, June 2020 results. First of all, I hope everyone is safe and well in this rare and special occasion of the COVID-19. We are closing the balance sheet in Page number 2, and we can see that the adjusted EBITDA that we are achieving is ARS33.4 billion, that is a 21% higher than last year numbers. And something to remark, we can see related to the agriculture, the agri business, the adjusted EBITDA for the year is at 31.3% higher to last year numbers adjusted by inflation. We have a very record planted area for the whole story of the group, and this is 264,000 hectares through the four countries. The debris represents 6.5% higher than last year plantation areas. Related to agri business, we can see that the main issues of the balance sheet, we sold 6% of the stake of BrasilAgro. That represented for us $15.6 million. Apart of that, in the middle of the period, BrasilAgro made a merger between Brasilagro and Agrifirma that was a accompanied formed in Brazil to replicate our strategy that finally decided to leave the business and gave us the option of merging through shares, we pay them through shares, and we add to our portfolio 29,000 hectares of farmland in Brazil in the Bahia region. This year we had normal operation in the region because this is an essential activity, so the agribusiness was normal. When we look at the net results of the year, we can compare and we see again in this year of ARS20 billion comparing to a loss of almost ARS41 billion last year. And if we go to the net results attributable to controlling company, we…

Carlos Blousson

Management

Thank you, Alejandro. Good evening, everybody. Let's move to Slide number 7 farming, commodity prices and global stocks. We can see in the graph in the top right of the graph, the prices keep the low trend, but after finished the fiscal year in the last two months, the prices started to increase considerably about 12%, 14% in corn and soybean. The reasons are the following that's considered the supply, the production of the crops in South America performed very well in general. The rate in an increment in the global stocks and the production in real estate is also coming well. Let us now overlook the fact that the stocks in United States started to fall down due to increase on the demand post-pandemonium. This is partially related to the fact that agreement with China and other states began to be full fine. Regarding soybean stocks consumptions ratio, we can see in the graph, a decrease in the world's ratio. This happened due to the demand of accounts they offer particularly in China before the pandemic. Talking about corn, we see that the corn stock conceptual ratio, the world's ratio increase especially United States are waiting it to achieve the second record in competition of about 340 million tons in this campaign. This matched a low in the use of corn for ethanol production, affected by the decrease of oil prices in the world because of the pandemia. We appreciate in the FOB soybean price in Brazil continued to be more competitive compared with United States and Argentina. The reason of the delay, we have two reasons, one is the delayed in agreement to the United States and Argentina was rather the Argentina's demand was focused in Brazil market. Another reason is the evolution of the currency in Brazil…

Matias Gaivironsky

Management

Thank you, Carlos. Good afternoon, everybody. If we move to Page 12, we have a quick summary of the performance of our operation under years and years of commercial properties. If we see in shopping malls, we are suffering the lockdown in Argentina. So our malls are close since March 20 in the city of Buenos Aires. We only have one shopping center open and some malls in the interior of the country that have reopened and there are strict protocols and safety. If we see our stock remaining stable 332,000 square meters, the occupancy was slightly down decreased to 93.2%, and our retail sales decreasing significantly because of the lockdown, with 92.9% during the quarter and 25.9 during the year. If we see the office building, the office remained under normal operations. Red collection was normal. There is a slightly increasing the vacancy of all was, Buenos Aires city premium market 200 and above led our development, is under construction and unfortunately was, the construction was delayed because of the pandemic. Now, it's already under redevelopment and we are estimating to finish the construction more or less, by the year or at the beginning of the following year. The work is almost ready 95%, works progress and 61% is already a sign of the commercialization. So, we'll be occupied at the beginning of the operation. If we see the hotels also affected by the pandemic, there is, all the hotels were closed since March '20. So, we still have the same rooms and occupancy is almost zero because of the virus. So, if we move to Page 13. We have here the description of our investment in Israel. As Alejandro mentioned, there was a negative resolution of the court district in Tel Aviv, although we have been negotiating with…

Operator

Operator

Well, this is the time for the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] [Asus Ganing] wants to do a question. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

What is the total amount of the net investment in IDBD and DIC that's been written down to zero in U.S. dollars, please?

Matias Gaivironsky

Management

Sorry. I'm not sure that I heard your question. The question was about if our investment in IDBD was routed down to zero in dollar terms, that was the question?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

What was the total amount of the investment that was written down to zero?

Matias Gaivironsky

Management

There is, that our investment has started since 2012. So this last quarter, that was the, after the resolution of the court, the investment that was writing down was all around $20 million in our financial statement, that was in the last quarter. Previously, there was different losses and according to the consolidation of our results. We have been writing or posting losses during the year and basically related to the valuation of CLAL and the CLAL shares that we have to give the impact on our books.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay and one follow-up please. Does Cresud have any interest in the [Elsztain] project with Yamana Gold?

Matias Gaivironsky

Management

No, no. That is under the ownership of our chairman is not related at all to CRESUD.

Santiago Donato

Management

Any other question? If there are no more question we conclude the session. At this time, I would like to turn back to Mr. Alejandro Elsztain, CEO for any closing remarks.

Alejandro Elsztain

CEO

We are closing a very real special year, not to agribusiness that it's really essential and it's showing the strength and the rebound that we are seeing the last two months on prices, which has been a more interesting place to the business related to the agribusiness. In the case of Brazil, we see a lot of interest. Farmers in Brazil are finishing a beautiful campaign in yields and in prices, and they have a lot of gains and in their cases, the reinvestment on land it's makes them to save some taxes. So, we expect a very active real estate campaign in Brazil for the next. We expect that some movement on the rest because agribusiness is keeping attention on the rest of the region too. And our companies in the service companies are keep growing and want to keep growing on the region. So we are very bullish on that too. Related to the urban, we are expecting the opening and we are waiting for that soon. We are in our spring and we are expecting the opening of some of our shop is opened. The ones that they are in the interior of Argentina, we are still waiting for the opening of the majority of the shopping in Buenos Aires and greater Buenos Aires and the hotels. So, we are facing a special year. And in the case of Israel, we are seeing what our generosity gives we have. So we hope to have a good 2021. We thank everybody for supporting and coming to the Company, so safe and have a very good day and better year for 2021. Thank you very much and have a good afternoon. Bye.