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IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anónima (IRS)

Q1 2020 Earnings Call· Tue, Nov 12, 2019

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to IRSA’s First Quarter 2020 Results Conference Call. Today's live webcast, both audio and slide show, may be accessed through Company's Investor Relations website at www.irsa.com.ar by clicking on the banner webcast/link.The following presentation and the earnings release issued yesterday are also available for download on the company website. After management's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session for analysts and investors. At this time, further instructions will be given. [Operator Instructions]Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this call is being recorded and that 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 notes in the Company's earnings section release regarding forward-looking statements.I would now turn the call over to Mr. Alejandro Elsztain, II-Vice President. Please go ahead, sir.

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

Hello. Good morning. We are beginning our presentation of first quarter of fiscal year 2020, and we can begin on Page number 2. We can see the main event for the quarter. We are achieving a gain of ARS 11 billion. That is a 21% comparison increase to the last year numbers. That was mainly explained by the results from the loss of control that we had in -- the deconsolidation of Gav-Yam that we're going to show you a little later. That deconsolidation give us one effect result, and that is the majority of that explanation.In the net gain attributable to IRSA, we are achieving ARS 3.3 billion. When we divide the adjusted EBITDA, we can see that the adjusted EBITDA for the period, it was ARS 5.3 billion. That is a 28% increase comparing to last year numbers. We divided, as always, the Argentinian side to the Israel side. Comparing the Argentinian side, we see that we are achieving ARS 1.4 billion. That is a small drop comparing to last year numbers, always adjusted by inflation, as all our balance sheet in Argentina, so a drop of 8%, and mainly driven by lower results from the shopping malls, a small reduction in the shopping sales adjusted by inflation, but an increase in the -- mainly the office building that we are going to see in the next page.And in Israel side, we see a ARS 3.8 billion gain that is a 51% increase comparing to last year numbers. And in this case, it's because of the due positive effect of IFRS 16 in the sales of Cellcom. So that we are going to see a little later, too. We can see a small comparison in Argentina related to our Argentine Business Center.I will introduce to Daniel Elsztain to do that, please.

Daniel Elsztain

Analyst

Thank you, Alejandro. Good morning, everyone. On Page number 3, we see the Argentinian figures. On the top of the page, we start with the shopping center numbers. Adjusted EBITDA for this quarter is ARS 1.1 billion, a 14.5% decrease compared to last year, adjusted by inflation. Our tenants sales, we can see a drop of 5.1%, but this is really a recovery from previous quarters. We're coming from levels of reductions of 14 -- 15%. This is mainly the consumption recovery, mainly driven by government incentives to consumption in the Ahora 12, Ahora 18 programs that were launched a few months ago, and we see that trend in consumption that is really trying to achieve numbers closer to inflation.In terms of our GLA, we see a small reduction. This is because of the finalizing of the concession of the Buenos Aires Design. It dropped now. The total stock is 332,000 square meters of GLA. We're going to see a small increase by the incorporation of a small growth in existing shopping centers in the near future. In terms of occupancy, we are running at a 94.3%. This is a reduction of 4 points compared to last year, mainly explained by the exit of Walmart in our Dot shopping center. This space is being occupied. We already signed contracts of about 12%, 13% of this space, and we're going to keep doing the leasing on this big space. It's a very good location. It's in the first floor of the shopping center, but it's going to take us time to make the construction and to sign with all the tenants.In the office segment, we see a big gain of 62% compared to the last year on the adjusted EBITDA, achieving ARS 424 million. This is mainly driven by two factors.…

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

Related to some news of the quarter in Israel, there was -- in September, the company Board of Directors approved the appointment of Eran Saar as IDB and DIC CEO. This is a very good news. He's an Israelite, very well prepared, running holding companies in Israel. And the other law of the company, big law was the Concentration Law Resolution. As you remember, we required to reduce one more layer. And we had DIC, the other companies, and the last one, Mehadrin, Gav-Yam and Ispro.For that, we need to reduce one of those layers. And we did, in the case of Ispro, that was 100% owned by us, we bought what was public debt -- we bought the bonds. Now we have 100% of the bonds ourselves. It's private, too. So now Ispro was sold through that. In the case of Gav-Yam, the disposal of 16.7% of the shares, made that that we have 51%, we went to 34.9%. And with that, we're the consolidating and losing the control of the company. And the final one that we need to do its Madryn that we're running with 45.6% of the shares and we're discussing now what to do before the end of December of 2019, we have to solve the last to -- not to have this third layer of companies.And we can see in the next page, about what Gav-Yam -- we did with Gav-Yam, with a much higher price, we can see what was the recovery of the share from the last six years. We see an evolution of 135% going to the highest price of the share, and we sold these two stakes those days. And with that, we increased a lot of the liquidity of the company for more than ILS 680 million. That is almost $200 million. And the gain that gave us to our balance sheet in IRSA was again of ARS 15 billion. And now we have this stake of almost 35%. And this is the resolution for the concentration law.I will introduce now to Matias Gaivironsky, our CFO.

Matias Gaivironsky

Analyst

Thank you, Alejandro. Good morning, everybody. So moving to Page 6. The other important news about the Israeli business segment was related to Clal. As you know, we -- under the scenario in Israel, we are forced to reduce our stake in the company. So you can see the evolution that up to May this year, we avoid to sell the shares in the market doing SWAP transactions. And now we are forced to sell the shares. So we started in June. We commented in the last annual report that we already sold some of the shares.So after this, in September, we closed two other transactions. One was related to the options of the former -- or the two private buyers that vote 10% of the shares. They have the option to buy 3% more. So we -- they did it. And also, the company was able to sell shares against bonds of IDB. So we do this swap or this exchange between shares and bonds. That is like selling shares at 90% -- selling shares of Clal at 90% book value. So it was -- we believe that was a good move instead of selling certain shares in the market.After this, in November 7, last week, the other -- we gave an option to an individual Eyal Lapidot, that was the former CEO of the Main Insurance Company of Israel. He bought 5% of the share. So the company managed to give him a loan to buy the shares. So after this, now we control 30% of the shares, 15% are through swaps. And 15% are through a direct stake that most of the shares are in a trust control via trustee.If we move to next page, we can see the evolution of the adjusted EBITDA by segment. Something…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. [Operator Instructions] Our first question today will come from Gordon Lee with BTG. Please go ahead.

Gordon Lee

Analyst

Hi, good morning. Thank you very much for the call. One quick question, more sort of on the strategic side. Considering the new scenario in Argentina and putting aside or moving beyond the restructuring or reorganization of the Israeli business to comply with the holding company regulations, I was wondering whether if you look at either the Argentine business unit or the Israeli business unit or even the portfolio at the commercial properties level, if there’s anything there that you think might be worth sort of monetizing or simplifying the structure at this point, again, just given the new scenario in Argentina. Thank you.

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

We – every time that we are finding that the asset – an asset is well valuated, you are seeing us realizing mutually Israel was around the direct transaction that the PBC is doing?

Daniel Elsztain

Analyst

No, I think not closed yet.

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

But it’s announced? For example, there is a transaction that we are doing now in PBC in Israel, that it’s a shopping center that we had half of that 50%. And we are in a process of closing to sell that is an asset that is a transaction that is very low cap rate. We don’t have any strategic position on the retail in Israel. So we decided to sell and we’re in the process of closing that. A lot of money to the company in some assets that will be reinvested in what we think is the strategic view.Like that, we are doing in all the parts of the group and every time that we see that said in a low cap rate, a form in Cresud or in BrasilAgro or piece of urban real estate to through PBC, through Gav-Yam, through commercial properties, we are doing to rebuild as we’re doing a lot of buildings at the same time or to reinvest in another asset that we like more strategic – or fly to quality. Sometimes, we sell thing that they’re old and not replay or maybe not elite and we buy or we build new one to be that. So this is, yes, it’s absolutely our strategy and you go into see a lot of examples doing these kind of things.

Gordon Lee

Analyst

Perfect. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] At this time, and there are no further questions in the question queue and this will conclude the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back to Mr. Alejandro Elsztain for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

This is our activity just to keep doing new buildings, developing new sites and very simply we have the chance in a company that today we have not a control, but we are still participating that is the case of Gav-Yam. That company was able to buy a new site in a beautiful area competing with other players to do new buildings very demanded area in Jerusalem. I forgot to mention in the beginning of the presentation about the dividend that was approved few weeks ago in the assembly. In the case of IRSA, we approve to pay a dividend that is representing 1.85% of the shares of IRSA Commercial Properties, giving more liquidity to that company again. So that is going to be done in a few days in the middle of November. So the company keeps doing what we know. It’s to buy things when no one is buying and to sell when the cap rates are very low. So thank you very much, and have a very good day. Bye.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today’s presentation. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a nice day.