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BrasilAgro - Companhia Brasileira de Propriedades Agrícolas (LND)

Q4 2021 Earnings Call· Wed, Sep 1, 2021

$3.85

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Transcript

Ana Ribeiro

Management

Good afternoon. We're here today to talk about our earnings for Q4 2021 and Full Year 2021, a full year with beautiful numbers that you will see. I'm here with Andre Guillaumon, our CEO, and Gustavo Lopez, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. We will have a presentation, telling you everything that happened this year, and then we will open for questions. Okay, Andre, you can begin. You have the floor.

Andre Guillaumon

Management

Good afternoon. It's a great pleasure once again to be with you during this call, with very good news that we will give to you. We will tell you about the year, a very challenging year for everyone. It personally for companies with a pandemic, with many problems, we have to celebrate. After a year with so many difficulties, the pandemic, logistics, bottlenecks, everything we went through, celebrate these excellent results that we bring to you. Once again, thank you very much. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for trusting in us and our team that is working to deliver good results year-after-year. Okay, Page 1 with the highlights. The highlights are important. I always say that we have a new company now. We had a result in the past and operationally a bit around BRL100 million. Now, we're on a different level due to many decisions made by the company, diversifying crops portfolio, and also agricultural prices that are better. So the highlights are; we closed the year with the net revenue of BRL721.9 million, almost BRL722 million, net profit BRL317.6 million, and adjusted EBITDA of BRL365.7 million. So, a spectacular year, a year when we see a very robust result for you new shareholders and older shareholders. The highlights on the same page, total production of 282 million tons of grains, 5,000 tons of cotton, 2.2 million tons of sugarcane, 1,900 tons of beef produced. These are numbers that show the resilience in the results in here an important point a diversified company, a company that is active in production and real estates with different pillars that bring sustainable results in the medium and long-term. And the news I'd like to share with you for shareholders that are with us for a long time a year…

Gustavo Lopez

Management

Thank you, Andre. Well, continuing here on Page 12, we would like to highlight things that we have been telling analysts and investors. The company is now on a new level of operational results. And this is due to the higher prices of commodities. We have 170,000 tons of soybeans, 140,000, 150,000 tons of corn, and also 2 million tons of sugarcane. And the impact of the price really has made the company to have a totally different result than we had a year ago. This we can see here IN adjusted EBITDA. For 2020, BRL177 million With BRL62 million from the sale of real estate. For 2021, we have BRL365 million, with BRL53 million from real estate. As we see the sale of real estate is – their operational results have a new impact. And here I'd like to highlight adjusted EBITDA, here we exclude the land in transformation and we include derivatives. As Andre mentioned during the presentation, we had sold soybean at BRL112 per bag. And now it's BRL140, BRL150 per bag. This is why we have a result of BRL78 million that we're excluding. Now, we will show on the next page on Page 13, the breakdown of operational activities generation of EBITDA. Here we see BRL112 million operational results, last year in the same period BRL116 million and sugarcane continues to be a strong activity for the company. Today we have an EBITDA BRL130 million from sugarcane, BRL110 million from soybean, BRL40 million, BRL50 million from corn, and the rest in other activities that we have to diversify our risk in each region. Last year, we saw that the value of sugarcane continued to be important and the margins that we had in soybean and corn were lower than the ones we have right now.…

A - Ana Ribeiro

Operator

The first question comes from Damian.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Congratulations, for the excellent management. If we have plans to increase the speed of sale of productive areas?

Andre Guillaumon

Management

Thank you. Good question. Yes, I believe that it's important to highlight this. The importance of being an anti-cyclic when everyone wants to buy farms, we sell. And when everyone wants to sell, we buy. So this is the mechanism to generate value for the shareholders. Yes, certainly, soon, you will receive good news to capture the good moments, to capture the liquidity that producers have. Produced farmers have money, they're expanding their business, they're buying land, and we are having important gains. Well, very directly you can expect in the next few months excellent news about the sale of farms. So it's a process that takes some time, but there are many things ready. Okay, thank you for the question. And yes, we will have, I believe next year once again, I said, the operational side, very strong due to good prices, most of them guaranteed. And we expect to have a better year in real estate next year. Yes, this year we still have a little of the pandemic uncertainty. If God wills this is in the past and we have good liquidity. Thank you for the questions.

Ana Ribeiro

Management

We had a technical problem, sorry. Well, after Damien's question we have a question from Bruno.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Congratulations for the results. What is the company's situation in relation to the cost of inputs for next year? Will there be an effect from logistics problems and higher input prices?

Andre Guillaumon

Management

Bruno, excellent question. I'd like to share with you, the answer is yes, higher costs. All companies are having higher costs. I would say that the higher costs when we look at sugarcane, corn, soybean, cattle raising a little less, cotton, we're talking about 40% higher prices. But I repeat, if you look at the calculation, we had an average price of soybean at BRL109. So when we look at the new prices at BRL140, BRL145 a bag of soybean even with the higher prices, we expect very positive margins for next year. This is in the case of corn, soybean, and even more in sugarcane. Sugarcane, I believe in the last months the price went up in ATR total recoverable sugar. And this will give us an important profitability. So yes, price of inputs went up. And we're always monitoring margin. I would like to say that the contribution margin crop by crop, hectare per hectare next harvest with the budget, they are better than the profits in 2020, ‘21.

Ana Ribeiro

Management

Thank you, Andre. Two questions from Edward Castro.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Concerning prices and volumes for next year 2021, 2022. And in relation to what we expect to recover from the loss of production in Paraguay? How much insurance will pay us for the loss? And the strong cash position and a healthy year-end report and healthy leverage, what are the alternatives we have for the company to grow?

Andre Guillaumon

Management

Edgar, thank you. We could stay all afternoon answering these three questions. But okay, I will talk about our expectations. When we look at each sector, we're going into a harvest soybean with a market that is well adjusted in terms of inventory and demand. Any problems that we may have, will have an effect. We should have this year, a learning year is makes us concerned in the south of Brazil and in Argentina. So, the relationship between inventory and demand is so tight that any problem will have a quick effect on prices. When you look at corn, the sector I believe will recover the inventories only in the second semester of next year. In Brazil, we decided to have 75% of the production of corn is in the winter corn. The first represents 25%. We will increase the area that is planted and we may get to 28 million 30 million tons. But the great volume comes in the second harvest in the winter crop. So you have also new facts, I always talk about structural changes. We didn't have an importer of corn, like China three years ago. They used to import soybean not corn. So a great change in the production model in China. Sugarcane, a result of everything we saw the frost in the south and the loss of productivity in sugarcane. So, I believe that we will spend next year with the oil in good prices, this will guarantee a good price for ethanol, which is mixed to gasoline and also good prices in New York. Now, in terms of the company, we have been -- in the case of sugarcane, we don't have guaranteed prices. So we are working to mitigate. This year we're going -- we were careful last year. And we have to continue making our efforts. If we have to reduce the planted area, we will do it. So in terms of insurance, we have insurance in the south, but on the border it's very difficult to have insurance. In Paraguay, we have revenue from insurance. Gustavo can correct me $1,640,000 which we should receive in the next few months between September, October insurance money. We already made all the documents. And the third question, healthy cash. It's important for a company like ours healthy cash. We're always after good opportunities. I always reinforce we have an enormous pressure to allocate cash, but we have a responsibility also to make good allocations, good purchases. As I said you can expect that the next few months sale of land and certainly we will make acquisitions too. Acquisitions will be slower than sales where anti-cyclical. But we will have sale and purchase opportunities. The company will be very active on the in real estate and in operations working in a disciplined way. We see another year of positive margins. Discipline will be necessary. This will be very important.

Ana Ribeiro

Management

Well, I believe with this answer, Andre already answered Victor's question. Victor Polly, who asked about the pipeline for acquisitions and sales.

Ana Ribeiro

Management

So in this line Andre, people are asking in terms of diversifications whether we're looking at South America, and if we have plans to diversify geographically. This is a question from Marcello and some more people asking about expansion. Most of this was answered. So where are we looking at for expansion?

Andre Guillaumon

Management

Okay. Marcello, I heard his name. Yes, the company is very are active in looking for opportunities. We have good data, later on we can send to you, the concentration and distribution of the investments. In the last 12-months, we mapped and analyzed 1.140 million hectares in Brazil in the last three, four years 8,350,000 hectares, so there is a robust pipeline. We're analyzing many proposals and we are focusing on regions with two crops, like north of Mato Grosso, the south of Para, Maranhão and PRV. We can also work with this and very focused on acquisitions of pasture land to be converted to arable land. The agricultural Brazil, we plant 66 million hectares in the country total. And cattle raising 190 million, of these 42 million to 50 million cattle raising land have good potential for arable land. So Brazil can double its total production. And many of you want to know about competitiveness, new funds joining, we're talking about AGRO and AGRO is the most pulverized atomized industry in the world. This is the same all over the world. So we have competitors, we have new people coming into the market, but it's very pulverized, very atomized. In other chains to grow, to expand, you have to distribute contribution margin, but not in AGRO. So yes, we're very active in acquisitions, and also in the sale of farms. Ana doesn’t like me when I give guidance. She will be kicking me under the table. But it's a year where we should be more aggressive in real estate. This next year we will have robust operations with the numbers we showed, but it's a year where we intend to be much more aggressive in real estate, purchase and sale. So you can count on us. Our team is working actively in purchases and sales. After this call, I have a meeting to talk about this with the team. So you can count on this kind of growth of the company in the next few months in line with expansion and growth.

Ana Ribeiro

Management

Enrique’s question from BTG and Bruno Bendita.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Concerning the development of the current portfolio, what are the company's plans to develop new areas in 2021, 2022? Will we focus on our own land? You talked a lot about acquisitions already.

Andre Guillaumon

Management

Thank you, Enrique. Thank you, Bruno. Let me go back. When we talked about the CRA, this was done with this objective. We understand we have a good cycle of prices. Prices are still very good. So, yes, we will accelerate transformation. The BRL240 million we obtained in this CRE we want to use to transform the land bank 40,000 hectares. We have accelerated this. We accelerated a lot in the state of PRV in the state of Bahia we will continue accelerating the land transformation in Bahia and Paraguay. So in terms of expansion, we as a team and the company would like to finalize the transformation of the land bank in the next three, four years, with these areas going into production. We're working for this where our budgets has this aim to accelerate transformation of land in the next three, four years. To do it well, you need to have a certain number of hectares per operation. You need to respect some characteristics. But the message is yes, we're working hard. Yes, we're accelerating the transformation of land into arable land. So we have a good breakeven, even with low productivity in the first year, so it's worthwhile transforming the land. Thank you, Bruno. Thank you, Enrique.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Two more questions from Enrique. The costs with the current increases in the price of inputs, what do you expect in terms of pressure from costs in the next harvest? Have you anticipated purchases of inputs and inventory? I believe that you still have soybean in inventory. Can we expect to sell this in the next year that began on July 1?

Andre Guillaumon

Management

Thank you, Enrique. Okay. I will ask. Yes, we have inventory. Gustavo will talk about the inventory. In terms of cost, 2021 2022, we have an increase in the price of inputs of 40%. Why 40? Answering your second question, these costs we have already bought all the fertilizer for the next harvest. So phosphate, potassium, we have already bought the seeds we need in the market. For corn, for soybean, we already bought most of the inputs, agro chemicals. So I would tell you that when we have an increase in price of 40%, this is what we will have at the end of the year. We shouldn't have surprises. Since then prices have gone up even more. We bought potassium, we bought chloride in November last year with interesting prices. We have to buy just a little more of the price of last year versus this year almost 70% higher in terms of chloride. And you've seen the restrictions in international trade, summarizing 40% higher prices. The next harvest has the cost of production I wouldn't say 100% but more than 90% of the cost has already been bought. Gustavo, talk about the inventory we have in soybean.

Gustavo Lopez

Management

Yes, we still have 70,000 tons of soybean that will be sold in the second semester or first semester of the next year. We will have 70,000, 80,000 tons of corn to sell. The winter corn hasn't been recorded. And we have sugarcane and a relevant impact in the next two quarters due to the price we're estimating. Giving you numbers, the impact that Andre mentioned last year, we have a direct cost in soybean and corn around BRL2,600 per hectare. And now we're talking about BRL3,400 per hectare in terms of cost per hectare. First, fertilizer went up. The greatest impact came from fertilizer, but the margins will be very similar to this year's margins. Last year, we had sold soybean with close to BRL90, BRL100 and now we're working for next year with prices at BRL140, BRL150 per bag.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Well, one more question for Gustavo, from Eduardo. Bonus, subscription is there a balance? Will this cause dilution current investors? What is the amount and the percentage of dilution if these options are accepted?

Gustavo Lopez

Management

Enrique, the company doesn't have the bonus for a subscription. What we have is 600,000 shares 625,000 shares that we left as a guarantee for the transaction of Agrifirma. And one day we will issue these shares. Now bonus to dilute the shareholders we don't have.

Ana Ribeiro

Management

Next question from Flavio.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

He wants us to talk about the cost of capital per year. The interest rates he believes that this is very high in relation to the SELIC interest rates. Can you talk about the composition of the interest rates cost of capital?

Gustavo Lopez

Management

Well, Flavio's question. Flavio, here it's worthwhile clarifying the methodology. What do we have here when we do this and with total transparency, we look at this curve of cost? We look at our debt, we see the duration of each debt, the duration, the maturity, and we have a curve. The great impact is that we issued a CRA, and most of the company’s debt comes from the CRA. And when we look at the whole amount, we have a projection for the future. So if you look at this, today, we're talking about CDI that can get to seven at the end of year. But since we have long-term debts, we're looking at the curve of the CDI in the future. So in the future, it should be 10. So this makes this cost come to eight. So this is due to the duration. It's not the cost of debt today. But it takes into consideration the duration of the debt. To supplement, we have approximately a third of this debt with prefixed rates of 6%. These are the ones we have with long-term development of areas. There's another part BRL240 million that Andre mentioned, that cost us inflation plus 5.35%. And the other part, part in CRA, CDI plus 106% and 110%. So in reality, as Andre mentioned, there's a methodology and these are debts that we can do swaps, and the second fortress both in Brazil and Paraguay. Bolivia not yet. We don't have financing. They are all in local currency. So through commodities, we have these amounts financed in local currencies. As we mentioned in the presentation, we have BRL400 million which are not included here that we will receive for the sale of farms. So we understand that in terms of debt we’re very well equalized. We can even increase this leverage to increase the operations of the company. Thank you.

Ana Ribeiro

Management

Here Helmut

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Why don't you buy back shares instead of paying dividends? Concerning the drought, what are your expectations in terms of the impact of the climate on the next harvest? Question from Gustavo and Edward wants to know, what can we expect in terms of developed lands, non-developed land during the next year, especially considering the challenges of learning the next harvest?

Andre Guillaumon

Management

This call is very interesting, many intelligent questions. I love this. Okay, Gustavo buying back shares, we even discussed this during the decision-making for dividends. I believe that one of the important drivers an important push back in the price of the shares to work on liquidity. So right now, we did a follow on. Some people criticized the amount of the increase in capital, but this was going to help liquidity and it did. So today, we still have 3% of the shares of the company in the Treasury, we could increase this buying back shares another 3%, not more than that. But right now, I believe it's premature to talk about this. We have to consolidate the good liquidity. And we have shown -- today I was looking, we had almost BRL50 million in liquidity during the day. So it's a new company. The company is beginning to understand better our business. The second question the drought, we work with many consultants focused on climate in the units. So we have historical data, atmospheric pressure. We have long-term and short-term, also forecasts for the climate. In a nutshell, I told you it's a year of Maranhão. This makes it difficult. This makes things difficult in the south of Brazil, we are expecting rain in the Midwest and Northeast, where we have our agricultural production within historical averages. Apart in this historical average, we believe that rain can begin earlier. Last year we had problems in all regions, Mato Grosso there was no rain. Some farmers had to plant two or three times the same year. This year should be a little more normal. So this even reached the winter crops. So we have droughts, but we were more aggressive for the main crop, which was soybean in October. We have a rule of not -- we have a policy of we're not planting more than 5,000 outside the window. But many producers many farmers did this, so these years of good prices. We learn a lesson policy rules are also to be followed during the years of difficulty. You saw the numbers for corn. But in terms of profitability per hectare due to the price, everything was good. So our expectations for Midwest Northeast this year, is for a very good year in terms of climate.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

A very good year in terms of climate. Thank you.

Ana Ribeiro

Management

Well, we'd like to close our conference call. We're very happy with the results that we’ve reached. I'd like to thank Andre and Gustavo for the call. We had excellent questions. And now I will pass the floor to Andre for his final comments.

Andre Guillaumon

Management

Thank you, Ana. Thank you, Gustavo. And we'd like to thank all the participants who were with us during this hour. Once again, I'd like to reinforce our commitment. The team's commitment more than growing people are growing. And this will guarantee the sustainability of the business. Count on our commitment. During the next year, I mentioned this in the council's meeting, we're always having raising the bar. So with these results, imagine our responsibility for next year, both in the business units, the managers, the company's managers, all the leaders. But I believe that everything we have done training people will really give us sustainable results. So count on our commitment. In the next few quarters, we will have more good news for you. And we will have a good -- we believe we will have a good year in terms of climates. So we should have good results in the last quarter of next year. Thank you very much for your attention. And also, many people congratulated us for the dividends the results and I reinforce, this is the result of the work of all the team that is committed 24 hours a day to deliver results and help the company to grow and in line with your expectations, as analysts and investors. Thank you very much.