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Adecoagro S.A. (AGRO)

Q3 2012 Earnings Call· Wed, Nov 14, 2012

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and thank you for waiting. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to Adecoagro’s Third Quarter 2012 Results Conference Call. Today with us we have Mr. Mariano Bosch, CEO; Mr. Charlie Boero Hughes, CFO; and Mr. Hernan Walker, Investor Relations Manager. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After the company's remarks are completed, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Adecoagro’s management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events, and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, I will turn the call over to Mr. Mariano Bosch, CEO. Mr. Bosch, you may begin your conference.

Mariano Bosch - Chief Executive Officer

Analyst

Good day everyone and thank you for joining our call. Our sugar, ethanol, and energy business had a good performance during this quarter. As a result of the good weather and very good operating efficiencies, our sugar mills have been able to crush 20% more cane compared to the third quarter of 2011 making full utilization of nominal capacity. This has allowed us to achieve high margins and low cost of production for sugar, ethanol and energy. It is important to remark that as a result of the environmental certifications obtained during the last year, including EPA (indiscernible) over 30% of the ethanol volumes sold during the quarter was exported to the U.S. at significant premium when compared to domestic Brazilian prices. This is another proof of how sustainability and long-term profitability go hand-in-hand. I would also like to highlight that the Ivinhema mill has already started with milling tests in order to have everything ready to start commercial operations in the next harvest year. We have also expanded our sugarcane plantation by more than 17,000 hectares, which is an important factor of our growth strategy. All this confirms that, that our planting matter, so soon will become one of the most efficient and low-cost players in the industry. Now, moving to the farming and land transformation business, Cushman & Wakefield have updated its appraisal of our farmland portfolio, which reflects a $49 million increase in the value of our land compared to the previous year. We believe that a significant part of this appreciation is driven by our land transformation activity and our sustainable business model focused on enhancing long-term productivity. In the third quarter, we continue our planting activity for the 2012-13 harvest year under very good agronomic condition. As of today, we have almost completed the planting of our rice crop and we are in the process of planting the soybean and corn crop. If normal weather conditions continue through the growing season and commodity prices remains at current levels, we expect to achieve very attractive margins per hectare, resulting in a profitable 2012-13 harvest year. Again, aligned with our sustainable production model, in addition to the RTRS certification obtained by our soybean production, we have recently been certified under the 2BS scheme. This sustainability certification has allowed us to access new markets and obtain that through (indiscernible) some premiums on our soybean exports. Now, I would like to ask Charlie to walk you through the main operating or financial highlights of the quarter. Charlie, please go ahead.

Charlie Boero Hughes - Chief Financial Officer

Analyst

Thank you, Mariano and good morning everyone. Starting on page three, I would like to go over the operating performance of the sugar, ethanol and energy business. The upper chart illustrates the monthly rainfalls at our Angelica mill in Mato Grosso do Sul. The green columns represent the rainfalls corresponding to the current year, while the orange columns represent the rainfalls for 2011. As we discussed during our previous earning calls rainfall during the month of May and June of 2012 were significantly higher than 2011 on the historic average. Weather in the third quarter was favorable for sugarcane harvesting and crushing. Average rainfall throughout the months of July and August have allowed our mills to increase its pace of crushing. As reflected in the lower chart sugarcane crushing during the third quarter reached 2.1 million tons of cane, 20% higher than the third quarter of 2011 and 113.5% higher than the second quarter of 2012. Year-to-date sugarcane crushing is still 9.4% below the first nine months of 2011, primarily as a result of the climatic difficulties experienced during the first six months of 2012. However, if normal weather conditions continue during the fourth quarter of 2012, we expect to crush all the sugarcane on ourselves and fully compensate for the delay generated during the second quarter. On slide four, we may observe the production of sugar, ethanol and energy as a result of a 20% increase in cane crushing coupled with a 3.5% increase in the sucrose content of our sugarcane. The production of sugar, ethanol and energy in the third quarter of 2012 increased by 29%, 23% and 6% respectively compared to the first quarter of 2011. On the upper left chart of slide five you may see that despite the sharp increase in sugar production year-over-year, sugarcane…

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. The floor is now open for questions. (Operator Instructions) The first question we have comes from Pedro Richards of Raymond James. Please go ahead. Pedro Richards – Raymond James: Hi, Mariano, Charlie. Thanks for the call. My question is on the construction cost of the Ivinhema mill. I don’t know if you have an updated estimation of the total construction cost of mill and if so how does it compare with your initial budget or estimation for the full CapEx at Ivinhema?

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

I think that – good morning and this is Mariano. To answer your question, the budget that we had for the full construction of the Ivinhema including the crushing capacity the other equipment and the plantation, overall we are slightly below our budget. And I would say that milling and other equipment that are below and farming slightly above. So, overall we are slightly below our budget, that our budget was around $130 per ton overall. Pedro Richards – Raymond James: Okay thanks. And you were planning to do testing by the end of this year is that on track have you already done the testing?

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Yes, we are in the middle of the testing, the testing is on track. We started a couple of days earlier but doesn’t mean anything. So, we have till the beginning of next season to continue testing things and we are very happy on where we are till now. Pedro Richards – Raymond James: Excellent and one final question if I may, on the land transformation business could you remind me how much land bank do you have today to transform. And how many hectares you’re planning to transform over the next two or three quarters?

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Pedro, we still have nearly 18,000 hectares to retransform that are going to be transformed in the next two years it is not per quarter - the transformation the quarter. The transformation is per campaign. Pedro Richards – Raymond James: Excellent. Thank you very much.

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

In crops and rice. Pedro Richards – Raymond James: Excellent thanks.

Operator

Operator

Next we have Enrico Grimaldi of BTG Pactual. Enrico Grimaldi – BTG Pactual: Hello everyone and good afternoon. Actually I have two questions if you don’t mind. My first question is regarding your planted area guidance for the next harvesting. You’re basically keeping your planted area flat I mean with a small decrease year-over-year, favoring high productivity from the first crop is that a higher planted area from the first and second crop combined, in my opinion. Can you please elaborate a bit more on that I mean by how much you intend to maximize returns and margins from the strategy coming from this new planting format? And in the end I’m just trying to understand all the main components behind this strategy, if you don’t mind. I think there won’t be any negative impact your production volumes or better than that to your earnings and at least for now you’re not growing your planted area anymore I mean for the next year that will be my first question.

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Hi, Enrico. This is Mariano. To address your question I think it’s helpful to go to page nine of the presentation that we just did. So, as Charlie was mentioning on page nine, we are increasing our own planted hectares. On the own planted hectares is where you get best profitability, it is where you get the best margin per hectare. The main decrease is on the double crop hectares that change in the double crop hectares is because the margin of the quick soybean production that you do in one campaign is lower than doing full-season soybean or a full-season corn. That’s why we did this suite, always looking for best margins. So, that’s why we think that for next year we are going to obtain better margins with higher production because we are expecting a higher productivity. The drought that we had last year was an important drought that affected total production. So, to answer the other part of the question, we expect production to increase compared to last year and the most important increase we expected on the margin side, because we are prioritizing the margins as we are always prioritizing, there is profitability of what we are doing other than the growth itself. Enrico Grimaldi – BTG Pactual: Yeah, it makes sense. Thank you. And my second question if you don't mind is regarding your sugar and ethanol operations in Brazil. In my opinion and as you mentioned – and as you also mentioned in the presentation, one of the quarter's highlight was a well-executed commercial strategy on the ethanol front in which you directed more than 70% of your sales to exports and maybe probably had way better prices than in Brazilian – in the Brazilian domestic market? And with that in mind, my question is what’s the price you are getting from exports, I mean, how much premium did you have over domestic prices? And do you think this is the trend for the next quarters? Do you expect this to continue? I know this is a very dynamic market on exports, but I am just trying to understand what’s your take on that for the coming quarters and the next year? That's my second question.

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Okay. I think we lost Enrico, but we are going to answer a question that was related to the prices of the ethanol compared to domestic prices and how are we approaching that. I will ask Marcelo Sanchez, our Commercial Director to address that question.

Marcelo Sanchez

Analyst

Enrico, we achieved a price differential between domestic and export market in an average range of R$120 and R$180 per cubic meter. That was the differential that we made over the sales that we earned during the quarter. Enrico Grimaldi – BTG Pactual: Okay. And do you expect to continue to have this advantage, I mean, this is a market that changes really fast, but as far as you can see on this foreseeable future, you will continue to direct most of your exports or of your sales to exports right?

Marcelo Sanchez

Analyst

Yeah. We think that for next year, the situation in the Brazilian – the Brazilian crushing situation will be leading towards more exports in anhydrous and hydrous production of the ethanol. We are expecting next year exports from Brazil around 3 billion liters coming out from this year of 2.8 or 2.7?

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

What I would, this is Mariano, is that the important thing is the flexibility that our operations have including the environmental certifications that we have and the commercial team that is always looking for the best margin through our ethanol. So, the keys that the commercial team is looking always for was the best alternative to get our best price for ethanol. So, we are open for any of those options. Enrico Grimaldi – BTG Pactual: Okay, thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Next, we have Alessandro Baldoni of Deutsche Bank. Alessandro Baldoni – Deutsche Bank: Hi, good afternoon. My questions about your freight cost, recently the Brazilian government announced some changes in regulation for truck drivers, which would imply higher resting periods and then probably higher freight costs. So, my question is on your negotiations with the traders for the next harvest, are they charging you a higher freight discount and it sold by how much?

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Okay, Marcelo will address the question. Marcelo Sanchez, the Commercial Director will address the question.

Marcelo Sanchez

Analyst

Hello Alessandro. You are referring into the sugar production, we have estimating a higher transport cost for our sugar. We are not receiving – we are not getting any deduction from the traders in that side from the sugar. If you are referring into the grain production basis towards why compared with towards the fourth is going to be of course going to be widening, because of this increasing cost. Alessandro Baldoni – Deutsche Bank: Okay. Thanks Marcelo.

Operator

Operator

Next we have Giovana Araujo of Itau BBA.

Giovana Araujo - Itau BBA

Analyst

Hi, good afternoon. My first question is on customer appraisal. Mariano, I’d like to hear your views on that the appreciation came in at 5.6%, right which was below last year 14%. And I would like to understand what – in your view what’s the main explanation behind that decrease, if there is room or if you think that the rally in the crop prices are not fully incorporated in that valuation, or in other words, if you see some room for catch up going forward. That would be my first question.

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Okay, Giovana, thank you for the question. I would – first I would like to clarify that the appreciation is in dollar terms. So, that is important when we compare different appreciation from different appraisals. Taking into account that is in dollar terms as you mentioned last year was higher and there maybe a combination of factors that may lead the independent appraisal to reach such a conclusion. And I’m guessing on that combination of factors that I think maybe that during the last five to seven years the appreciation has been on double-digits and maybe today they’re reducing that – they are correcting that curve that there has been less transactions that they’re – these are global economic uncertainty that foreign land ownership restrictions, South America maybe affecting somebody on their thinking, that the depreciation of the real and the local currencies may also be affecting. So, there are many reasons that may lead the independent appraisal to reach this conclusion. But anyway I would like to remark that we sold our farms always above this independent valuation.

Giovana Araujo - Itau BBA

Analyst

Yes. Okay, thanks. My second question is about your commercialization strategy in sugar and bioenergy segment. We saw in last year – the current year, crop year, clearly that sugar and anhydrous is the vast allocation. And so, I would like to ask how we are running in terms of sugar and ethanol production capacity anhydrous, hydrous, if you are running at full capacity if you do, if you intend to increase that capacity and if you can give us an update about your energy – your strategy on the energy sales. That’s it.

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Okay Giovana I’m going to ask Marcelo Sanchez to address your question.

Giovana Araujo - Itau BBA

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Marcelo Sanchez

Analyst

Hi, Giovana this is Marcelo. As you know I mean we are always prioritizing our margin and on each of the products. And we’re taking advantage on this flexible possibilities into – going into anhydrous when the margins are getting us higher returns in the third quarter as you saw and you’ve observing, the returns were higher for the sugar production. Then we prioritized the sugar production on the third quarter and given the price of the sugar this end of this fourth quarter and some of the – some spikes in the ethanol price that we’ve seen within the last two, three weeks. We are prioritizing production of ethanol in this time. Coming for next season we are going to be managing production as we always did I mean observing what is the best returns on the production we are doing.

Giovana Araujo - Itau BBA

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question we have is from Martin Garzaron of City. Please go ahead. Martin Garzaron – City: Yes good morning, Mariano, Charlie. My question – I have a couple of questions actually the first one is if you could explain a bit what is the hedging strategy that you are applying, how much I guess my question is how much of the total production you usually hedge, if that is going to change or anything about that. And my second question relates to farming sales and purchases, but if you want I can go with the second after the hedge one?

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Okay, Martin I’m going to let Marcelo Sanchez answer that question. But before answering that question, I would like to point out on Giovana’s question before on the energy side that she asked that what’s our strategy, simply to say that on Angelica we have already contracted 100% of the energy sales at R$180 per megawatt. On UMA we have also sold 100%, a long-term contract for R$196. And on the Ivinhema at least we will be starting next year we’ve already sold 50% for next year at R$132 per ton. So, after clarifying on that second point of Giovana’s question I’m going to ask Marcelo to address your question on the hedge.

Marcelo Sanchez

Analyst

Hi Martin this is Marcelo. Regarding the hedging policy we – on the grain side we stated that we are not hedging more than 70% of the harvest, if it is not planted regardless the prices that we’re witnessing in the board. Up to now we are in corn and soybean – in our corn and soybean expected production we are roughly 50% already hedged. And going into sugar we had hedged the overall position of the sugar of this year, we are about 80% hedged and we already started hedging our production for next year we are 30% hedged, 32% hedged for next year at an average price of $0.23. And one thing to remark is that we have already been selling part of our ethanol for next year, we are 13% hedged on that side. Martin Garzaron – City: Thank you, Marcelo. And my second question was going to be about the farm market in Argentina what is that you are seeing I saw that you sold a farm, bought another one. I know about the restrictions for an ownership, so but at the same time I can imagine that maybe we are – you are seeing some opportunities arising in terms of buying the new farms I wanted to know what is that you see there?

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Martin, just have to clarify this year we only sold one farm in Argentina. We didn’t acquire any new farm in Argentina. That was in the end of last year. Within our strategy we already have a lot of land in Argentina and we won’t in the near future we want to increase farmland outside of Argentina including Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and other countries of Latin America. So, our focus is not on acquiring land in Argentina. The growth in Argentina is being financed by Argentina and its growing with the current existing projects. So, we are not planning to grow with new land in Argentina is our strategy today. Martin Garzaron – City: Thank you, Mariano. Very quick final question, how is the dairy business going?

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Dairy business is going in a difficult situation allover the world. The prices of corn and powdered milk and or the combination of prices of corn and powdered milk that relationship is one of the worst in history. So, we are in line with what is happening allover the world. But having said this, we do see our specific dairy operation improving with the population of the new free-stall and that’s why we are still very confident that what we are building on the dairy industry, the dairy business in Argentina is one of the most efficient places of the world that it is going to be the lowest cost – we’ll have the lowest cost of production as we are always seeking in the different commodities we are producing. Martin Garzaron – City: Great thank you very much, Mariano

Operator

Operator

Next, we have Martin Tapia of Raymond James. Martin Tapia – Raymond James: Hi everyone my question is regarding the 2012 and ’13 crop season for the southern hemisphere. If you could share with us your internal projections for corn and soybean production mainly in Argentina and Brazil or if your internal projections are in line or below the figures released by the USDA last week, which seemed a little bit optimistic. And if you can also share with us the outlook for soybean and corn prices over the next month based on the weather market here and the plantations in the U.S. for the next year? Thank you.

Mariano Bosch

Analyst

Thank you very much Martin I’m going to ask Marcelo Sanchez to answer this question.

Marcelo Sanchez

Analyst

Martin, I think that we are – in terms of our let’s talk about soybean first. We are slightly below USDA expected production in Brazil. We are at 80 million tons at this time with USDA is at 81 million in production. And that’s in terms of our tonnage and Brazil we have 27 million hectares to be planted. They’re still achievable, and 27.5 million is the USDA. In Argentina, we are at 55.5 million tons estimated production, slightly below the USDA. In area, we are 200,000 hectares less than the USDA, we are at 19.5 million. We expect Uruguay producing 2.15 – 2,150,000 tons of production 1.9 million is expected from the USDA. And in terms of the area we think that Uruguay could be achieving 1.1 million hectares this time. Paraguay is at 8.1 million tons and we are at 2.95 million hectares also. And I’m thinking that you are probably wanting to know about the corn estimation Brazil is 68,000 tons – 68,000 million tons and we are in 15 million hectares in planting. And for Argentina, we still think that Argentina will be accomplishing this 24 million-25 million tons I mean its slightly below USDA that is 28 million. And that’s what we are thinking as of today with the current weather pattern. In terms of prices, we are bullish corn and neutral soybeans. And regarding the last part of the question, whether the U.S. planting will be – what will be the size of the planting I think that we are all focused on corn. Basically, I think that the U.S. has to produce this 400 million tons of corn for next year I don’t know whether they’re going to be achieving that or not. Martin Tapia – Raymond James: Perfect. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Well, it appears that we have no further questions at this time. We’ll go ahead and conclude the question-and-answer session. At this time I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Bosch for any closing remarks. Sir?

Mariano Bosch - Chief Executive Officer

Analyst

Okay. Thank you everyone. Thank you very much for your time. And we hope to see you doing our upcoming IR activities. Bye-bye.

Operator

Operator

And we thank you sir and to the rest of management for your time. This does conclude today’s presentation. At this time, you may disconnect your line. Thank you and take care everyone.