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

Q1 2019 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 15, 2018

$11.29

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Cresud’s First Quarter 2019 Results Conference Call. Today’s live webcast, both audio and slide show, may be accessed through the company’s Investor Relations website at www.cresud.com.ar by clicking on the banner Webcast/Link. The following presentation and earnings release issued yesterday are also available for download on the company website. [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 detailed note in the company’s earnings release regarding forward-looking statements. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Alejandro Elsztain, Chief Executive Officer. Please, sir, go ahead.

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

Good morning, everybody. We are beginning our conference call of the first quarter 2019, and we can move directly to Page number 2, and see the main event for this quarter. The adjusted EBITDA for the quarter reached ARS 4.5 billion comparing to last year’s, the adjusted EBITDA was ARS 3.5 billion. The main difference comes from the Agribusiness segment, where we can see that this year, we are achieving ARS 1.7 billion comparing to last year of ARS 0.2 billion. This was mainly explained by operating results from the crop and sugar and the farm sales that we are going to explain later, that this year we were adding through the trends mainly in Brazil. From the side of Urban and investments through IRSA, this year we are bringing to the results ARS 2.6 billion, and this is mainly explained by higher operating results in Argentina and in Israel, mainly in the Real Estate businesses. And about the net income from this quarter, we are achieving ARS 7.4 billion comparing to last year ARS 28 million, there is minimum time to contract. And attributable to Cresud shareholders was ARS 2.1 billion compared to last year ARS 221 million. The main explanation for that in the case of the EBITDA is the fair value of investment properties in Argentina Business Center and higher returns in the Clal shares that we put at market price and there was a big rebound on this quarter. If we see about the Agribusiness side in the left, we can see that in the first quarter, BrasilAgro sold a portion of Jatobá. I would say that it’s 1/3 of the farm for BRL 177 million. And we are developing the land in the regions, it is the combination of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. So farm…

Carlos Blousson

Analyst

Okay. Thank you, Alejandro. Good morning, everyone. Let’s begin with the Page number 6, about commodity prices and global stocks. As you can see on the graph, year-to-year, the prices remain low. The soybean price decreased by 13%, and the corn increased by 1%. The decline in soybean price in mainly due to the conflict between United States and Canada that had made corn stop growing, you can see in the graph in the slide. The price of corn remained stable, but at the low level, which mean we carried more of the stocks. Let’s move to the next page, Page number 7, the campaign about the Argentina today. There are good prospects for the 2019 compared with the previous year. Why? Because in Argentina, however, currencies have recovered from the same drivers we remember in last campaign. And the focus is the grower and in itself, the planting area improved by 3%, achieving a record in planting. Regarding crop which has increased by 34%, reaching 126 million hectares. The production of wheat is expected to grow by 11% to 20 million tonnes, the corn by 36% to 43 million tonnes and soybean by 51% to 53 million tonnes. The period is easily achievable under the right weather conditions. Let’s move to the next Page number 8, about despite recent increase in tax exports. The government will deliver on the issue for the sector. Three months ago, the government increased the crop export taxes. The previous scheme at either a minimum of 12% or ARS 4 per dollar until December 2020. In the case of the soybean, the export tax increased to 28%, shown in the previous screen of the positive reactions. And the maximum expected is of 30% with exchange values decreased to ARS 33 per dollar. Within corn, we’re down to 20%, with a maximum of 12%, with the exchange rate decreased to ARS 43 per U.S. And now Matias Gaivironsky, please.

Matias Gaivironsky

Analyst

Thank you, Carlos. Good morning, everybody. So going to Page 9, here, we include the results from our stake in IRSA. Remember that we control 64% of IRSA shares. So we can see good results in the net income line, but it’s much bigger than the year ago. With ARS 11.1 billion attributable to IRSA shareholders, it’s ARS 9.4 billion against ARS 0.15 billion of last year. The adjusted EBITDA grew by 31%, and I will explain later the main event of IRSA on operational side. The operational levels remain at good levels, 98.7% occupancy in malls, 93.4% in offices, 64.5% in the hotels. The Israeli business segment, on the operational side, we have mixed results. Good results on the Real Estate, really decreasing the telecommunication company, and very good results from our stake in CLAL, that remember we value at market value, so we see that increase in the quarter of 34% generated very good results for it. So moving to Page 11. Here, we have our financial statements divided by the three segments, the Agribusiness, the Urban Argentina and the Israeli Business segment. You can see that we finished the quarter with a gain of ARS 7.5 billion against a loss in the last year of ARS 323 million. The part attributable to CRESUD shareholders is ARS 2.0 billion against ARS 221 million of last year. And we can see here different lines. I will try to explain the main effects. So we can see in the Agribusiness that the operational income is much higher than last year ARS 839 million in Line 9, you can see the operating income ARS 839 million against ARS 203 million. On the Urban segment, much higher results, mainly explained by the change in the fair value of the investment properties. In…

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Analyst

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] There are no questions at the present time, so I would like to return the call to Mr. Alejandro Elsztain for any closing comments.

Alejandro Elsztain

Analyst

Thank you. Just for summarizing, we are financing a very big campaign, an important campaign in the region. With these conditions, up to now all the windows of opportunities for planting before rain in all the regions that we are in. So we did this campaign, having the first quarter result and the Real Estate development. I think the combination of the three factors that make Cresud important company of the region, and the other business and the other segments and business structure in the whole world. So we expect a very good purchase in the next conference. And there was more stability on the exchange rates from the end of Q4. So it sounds like this is changing some of the environment of the economy of Argentina. So we are going to see for next quarter. Thank you very much, and have a very good day.

Operator

Operator

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