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

Q4 2022 Earnings Call· Fri, Sep 9, 2022

$11.25

-0.09%

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Transcript

Santiago Donato

Operator

Good morning, everyone. I'm Santiago Donato, Investor Relations Officer of Cresud, and I welcome you to the fiscal year 2022 results conference call. First of all, I would like to remind you that both audio and a slide show 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. [Operator Instructions] 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 risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Please refer to the detailed 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

Analyst

Good morning, everybody. We are beginning the main highlights for the fiscal year. We are closing our balance sheet, the annual balance sheet for the company for 2022. And this is a special year. I've never seen a year like this related to commodities. We are seeing from December of last year, a volatility on prices that we've never seen in my last 30 years of working. This is related to the many factors affecting prices. And last year, really the evolution of prices was related to war, related to COVID, related to lack of production of South America that lost a lot of rain production and not only that region, a lot of climate affecting the world. So really, there was a real change on the commodities of the region and in the world that affected a lot and made us to have a very strong balance sheet on this year. This was combined in some positives, but in some negatives too, there were mixed weather conditions in the region. As an example, Paraguay, our farm in Paraguay suffered a lot and had losses in this year related to climate in agriculture, not in green cattle. And affected in Argentina too, a lot of grain that the country lost and affected our yields. So really was mixed, but still, the balance is very positive for Cresud. Related to planted area, we are keeping 3 years of very high levels of planted area, close to 260,000 hectares in the combination of the 4 countries and really a lot of agriculture and crop-related production that in the past was not so strong, but it is very relevant now, the operational side of Cresud. In the case of farmland sales, the only country that really had sales and a lot of liquidity…

Matias Gaivironsky

Analyst

Thank you, Alejandro. Good morning, everybody. So going to Page 9, we can see the same evolution of the EBITDA in IRSA. You can see, we suffered the last 2 years a lot, the COVID situation. We lost most part of the EBITDA in the malls. And now we can see a good recovery, reaching $89 million of EBITDA compared with pre-pandemic levels of $93 million. We, still at the beginning of the year, gave concessions to our tenants. That was in the first quarters of the fiscal year. The trend when we analyze quarter-by-quarter is very positive, reaching or surpassing levels of '19 levels in the last quarter. So now we can see that we will surpass or we should surpass '19 levels in the current fiscal year '23. As you can see, the rest of the segments were stable. In offices, we sold a lot. We took advantage of opportunities in the market and the liquidity that we have in real estate and the safe haven that is the real estate against the volatility of Argentina protecting people from the inflation and devaluation by real estate, and we took advantage of that, selling a lot. During the year, we sold for $236 million, basically the Republica building and the 200 Della Paolera. Also, we have excellent news at the IRSA level with the approval of Costa Urbana, the main project of IRSA, that will drive the growth of the company for the future. Also, it's important to mention that the leverage process on IRSA that reduced around 60% of the debt during the last 2 years and also the merge between IRSA and IRSA Commercial Properties that simplify the structure and make it more clean and clear for the investors. Going to our financial statement. We are finishing…

Santiago Donato

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Is there any question? [Operator Instructions] Here, we have the question. If we are going to extend, reopen the share repurchase program?

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

Thank you, [ Federico ]. There is still no decision about that. So we prefer to announce if we took the decision directly to the market. So the program is up to ARS 1 billion that I believe that we will finish this week, and then we will decide if we're going to do something else.

Santiago Donato

Operator

Next question. Do you expect to sell any farm in Argentina in the coming months or that region?

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

Yes. Always is in our budget to be selling portions or farms in the region. Yes, we are on those transactions in the region. And we don't speak until it's done but we are optimistic to keep doing Brazil for sure with the liquidity that Brazil has and mainly in Argentina, too. So yes, positively, yes. The company intends to keep doing this, the operational and the real estate as part of the strategy.

Santiago Donato

Operator

There's a new question from [ George Goldman ] with [indiscernible]. How much of BrasilAgro do you own? Are you contemplating growing the position?

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

We are close to 39-and-some-points of the company. The company owns 3.4% (sic) [ 34% ] of own shares in the treasury. And we -- maybe we could be increasing some of the stake, but we feel comfortable with this level. It is probably one of the highest level of control. Remember that we began with 7% of BrasilAgro, the foundation days. But now we are close to this 40% that really we feel enough comfortable. But yes, we could be buying some more shares.

Santiago Donato

Operator

New questions regarding prospects for soybean and inputs for the next campaign.

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

This is a challenge for next year where the input increased a lot. Cost of inputs change dramatically, I would say, in some cases, mainly driven by some herbicides, but in fertilizers, it's affecting more the corn than the soybean. But really, the cost of production for next campaign will be increasing all the crops and the prices are increasing, but not at the same pace. So margins, for sure, are going to be affected for next campaign. We think the operational will be, for sure, affected and mainly more in Brazil than in Argentina, but it's going to be affecting for sure, farmers' margins.

Santiago Donato

Operator

There is here a new question that is, I think part was already answered. What you expect the upcoming harvest season to look like? Will you participate in the upswing in grain prices?

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

In the -- finally -- what is the last part?

Santiago Donato

Operator

Will you participate in the upswing in grain prices?

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

Upswing [Foreign Language]. Yes, our budget is really much higher than last year. It's -- we are planting a year that is comparable. I think we are going to be growing 2%, 3%, 4% year-to-year, something like that in size. The one, the area that is growing more is Brazil. So that growth come mainly from Brazil than in Argentina that is close to stable. So really, the change of the 3%, 4% is coming mainly from there. And yes, our prices are going to be affected by better base prices, but I said, increasing the cost of inputs too.

Santiago Donato

Operator

And last question, any disclosure on the impact of a differentiated soybean FX, if you were able to sell the whole soybean production at ARS 200?

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

That would be a gain -- dramatic gain, but we are not at all expecting that. So we are -- really, we have a small stock to be sold this -- as you know, in September, Cresud majority of the stock was sold. So maybe a 10%, no more than that. That will be really at this level of prices. The rest was done on the normal and what will be happening related to the new measure about the soybeans, who knows if this is going to be to the rest of the crops or to the cattle, who knows. They open something, no one knows how they are going to keep working with the rest. But for sure, farmers who had stock were selling actively these days, and they are going to be selling much more up to the end of September. And probably, yes, they are going to gain a lot of reserves related to the sale of that.

Santiago Donato

Operator

And I have one more here. Where are your biggest export markets?

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

We don't export directly. So all of our products, the soybean goes to the export. The corn goes to the export and some to the locals. Really, I think, from our total crops, the one that is more related to export is soybean.

Santiago Donato

Operator

Okay. With this, we conclude the Q&A session and the presentation. Thank you for joining. I will now turn back to Alejandro Elsztain, CEO, for his closing remarks.

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

So we are facing a new campaign with higher price, higher input costs with a lot of volume, optimist with sales, small partial sales or some sales in the region, helping the combination of the 2, the farming and the real estate of Cresud. In the case of IRSA, really, the rental is increasing a lot. The shoppings are almost full and really, rental is recovering, and that, like, subsidiary for Cresud is really important. In the case of the service components, I mentioned, they're going to keep expanding to the region, the knowledge they did in Argentina. And I think this EBITDA will keep growing. So I'm optimistic. Really, farms of the world are scarce. South America is one blessed area. And we are one of those blessed, doing that job, fitting the world in big size and properly. So thank you very much, and we see you next quarter. Have a very good day.