Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Santiago Donato, Investor Relations Officer of Cresud. I welcome you to the first quarter of 2026 results conference call. First of all, I would like to remind you that both audio and slideshow 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. If you want to make a question, please use the chat. 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 risk and uncertainties. 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.
Thank you very much, Santi. We are beginning today our first quarter of 2026. If we begin in page number 2, we can see the main events for the quarter. We are beginning a big campaign. This is our biggest campaign in our history. Overall, the weather conditions are good. The winter plantation in Argentina is under very good condition, and the rest, the beginning of summer co-plantation, that is now beginning, is with enough humidity on the land in majority of the areas in South America. Related to the prices, there was a slight increase in commodity prices, and we are going to share with you some events that happened in the first quarter related to export taxes. The government, in a moment of the quarter, affected this market. That affected a lot, the grain market of Argentina.
In some days, there was temporary zero rate for taxes on exports for mainly for soybeans, that is the 36%, that boost prices in Argentina. Related to wheat, as I said before, 100% was planted, now we are very close to harvest. November and December are going to be harvest time of wheat and barley and the rest, we are beginning the planting in Brazil and the rest of the region. Argentina is just beginning the soybean plantation. Related to cattle, the cattle of the world is spending good time. High prices on the cattle business in the world, driven mainly by U.S., but the rest of the world, too.
Margins and productions are very good, so we are intensifying our activity of cattle in the region on Salta and La Pampa, in our farms, in Los Pozos and in El Tigre. Related to real estate, and when we compare the balance sheet, and later Matias will show, there are no farmland sales during the first quarter of this year. Last year, yes, we had. That's a big difference in the activity. That doesn't reflect what we expect for the year, but it's true that in the first quarter, we didn't show this year, and last year, yes, there was in Brazil. Related to dividends, this, in November of this year, we received from our subsidiaries $66 million from IRSA and close to $5 million.
66 in total.
$66 in total. $5 in Brazil and $61 related to IRSA. A lot of dividends coming from our subsidiaries and Cresud too, that is paying dividends sooner. For other side, Cresud was paying dividends, and we paid $64 million, 70% in cash and 30% in kind between IRSA shares and our part of that, some shares of Cresud itself. Yielding 8%. Very important quarter related to dividends. I would move to next page, to page number 3, we can see the expected planted area. When I spoke about beginning of very important campaign, we see this evolution. We are growing at 7.4% year-to-year.
This is a growth mainly driven by Argentina and Brazil, the two countries, and mainly leaving a little more land, and that made us to grow 7.4%. 321,000 hectares total plantation on the region. We move to next page, and we see the evolution of the prices during the year and the small rebound. I will speak about the rebound on the prices, and this is a lot affected by the tariff discussion. Today, the tariff discussion between China and U.S. is really affecting from where the Chinese are bringing and importing the beans, mainly the beans. In the past, 35 million tons came from U.S., but the last discussion from Trump administration made that volume go down.
Today, there is no certainty what % portion will come from this, the North, from U.S., and what portion will come from Brazil and Argentina. That is the affection, main affection on the prices on the soybean. The combination of prices on Chicago and basis on South America is making a not very different balance to South America to... What I'm meaning is this changing on prices is the discussion about which portion is coming from U.S. and which portion is coming from South America. The reality in reais and in dollar terms is not changing dramatically the price for South America, but it's changing the basis of Chicago because of that discussions on the tariffs. Our margins for farmers are much smaller. Some, in cases in U.S., margins are directly negative.
In South America, with these prices, we make gains. In Argentina, with the reduction on taxes, we are going to make much better gains. If we move to next page, we are going to show what happened in few days that Argentina affected that market, going to zero taxes on exports. They were for three days, really. This last not a lot. The government announced up to $7 billion or up to the 30 of October. Finally, they achieved the $7 billion in three days of market. Those three days, taxes on exports disappeared. They counted to zero. What was in 26% the soybean, in 9.5% the sorghum and corn, 9.5% of wheat on the rest.
On these three days, the exporters mainly sell majority of the future market and achieve $7 billion. The government canceled that program in three days. That made a big rebound. If you see in the graph, in the part of the right up, you see from the price of soybean in Argentina, that was at $300, the soybean, in those days, we went to $360 because of that measure. We had some stock Cresud, sold those days of stock. There was a gain because of the stock part that Cresud had in the past. Later that price went to the $335. For the future campaign, that was before below $300 a ton, today we are in a level of $311. What does it mean?
The government showed the ability of taking taxes. They promised they are going to take taxes from exports forever, but they are not doing from now. What they did, there was a cancellation for few days, but the signal is clear. They began the government with 33. They went to 26, few days of 0. Now they to the current, that is the 26, the 99, what is in this graph. Farmers are waiting for the signal for reduction. We think the government is going to accomplish what it promised at the beginning. Slowly, they know that they need the surplus, and I think they are not going to do as fast as we expected, but we are expecting for keep reducing taxes on exports as they promised.
This is the portion of this graph. If we see the part in the below, we see the gap between the 2 dollars, the official and the unofficial dollar. Look at what was before 2023. The gap was huge. The gap between the 2 dollars was up to 164%. That gap almost disappeared. Recently, in 2025, the gap is close to 0. What does it mean? Now, farmers are receiving close to the dollars when they're selling. Remember Argentina, when the prices on U.S. were $500 a ton, Argentinians were receiving $170 because of the gaps of the dollars and taxes of 33%. Today, that gap is below the 26% of taxes. This is a very important signal. Why do I spend so much time in here? Improving the margins for Argentine farmers.
That cost of Argentina for production is the cheapest of the world. If we survive with these taxes and with these gaps, imagine what will be the picture for margins, for operation, and for the real estate. When the combination of the two affecting the farmers, the liquidity for real estate was close to zero, because you were expecting for a price of a farm that the origination or the operational business was not giving. The operational is coming back because of these two measures. If we move to next page number 6, we can see the evolution on the good regional weather conditions. We see that it's in green, meaning we have humidity. The winter crop is in a very good shape, passing the forecast, passing the budget.
For sure in Argentina, there is not that in Brazil because they have no winter yet. They don't do winter plantation there. For winter is very good condition and for summer it's good condition for planting. We are beginning the planting. Here we see that the sowing progress is 21% in soybeans, just 9% in corn, 100% on wheat, barley, and the winter, no? That is very close to harvesting. Meaning we are entering to a normal campaign related to the two, winter and summer crops. We are optimistic in the 320,000 hectares in normal conditions. We can move now to next page about livestock. Related to livestock activity, look at what happened in the prices of the cattle, no?
This is the international strip right in the region, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Paraguay. The big rebound on the prices. The best is U.S. What happened on U.S. price is at records. U.S. is spending very good time because that is probably the liquidation time of the stock. U.S. liquidated a lot and today consumption is very thin, and there are not enough cows in U.S., and not in Argentina and in the region enough for population that is really liking to eat beef. That's the reason we are seeing so good prices, and that is making us to more or less same stock. We see on the right, our stock is at the 60,000 heads, but we are increasing productivity. Look at our production coming from 7 million kilograms to 8 million kilograms.
Nine, now we are achieving and surpassing for next year 10, more than $10 million. That million, 10,000 tons, meaning we are improving productivity in the cow and calf and feedlots. We are today intensifying our production, and we are doing two professional feedlots, one in La Pampa, in our Tigre farm, and in the other one in El Tigre farm. Now we are going to have two feedlots close to 10,000 heads each instantly, and you rotate two or three times a year. We are going to improve a lot the activity and the rotation of the cattle the company owns. Here we see the margin of the past. In the past, cattle was not relevant, but now is achieving EBITDA close to $10 million, the activity for cattle.
The combination of cattle, grain, and sugarcane are the three main operational business. Here, we didn't bring nothing related to the real estate because in the quarter, we didn't sell any asset. We can now move to page number 8 and the third step of our strategy, the service, commercial services related to farmers. Let's see what happened when we closed last year, evolution of FyO, where Cresud own 51% of the stake. Here, this company from 0 existing on the market, today is the largest broker of the country. We achieved. This number is not exactly. We finally finished with 7.56, is the last number in September. This company closes in September, the balance. The last number related to campaign is 7.56. That represents more than 6% of market share of Argentina crop.
Largest broker of the country, advising five farmers, helping with money, giving credits, advising digitally, advising with specialties. This company is relevant. The EBITDA of this company is close to $24 million. It's 400 employees now in Argentina and Brazil, expanding the service in Brazil too. This, the service step, is beginning to be relevant in our strategy. These are the three main operationals, and without any real estate, we didn't put any page today. Now I will introduce Mr. Matías Gaivironsky .
Thank you very much, Alejandro. Good afternoon, everybody. If we move to page nine, we can see the evolution of our investment in IRSA, where currently we own 53.3% stake. IRSA had a good quarter with net gains of $163 million on the net results, mainly driven by the fair value of the investment properties that we will see later. About the shopping malls, there was a good quarter with an EBITDA increasing by 4%. Revenues and occupancy went up. There was also a busy quarter regarding acquisition. There was a new acquisition of a new mall, Al Oeste Shopping Mall, for $9 million that IRSA thinks plan to reconvert in an outlet in that area.
There was no major news about offices and good progress in all the developments in Distrito Diagonal and the infrastructure works in Ramblas del Plata project that are on time. As Alejandro mentioned also, IRSA paid dividends during the quarter, so Cresud received part of that. The dividend yield for IRSA was 10%. About the rest of the segments, there was an increase in EBITDA. On the right part of the slide, you can see an evolution of positive in shopping malls and in offices and a reduction in hotels. Basically, the rental segments increased by 3.5% compared with the previous year. Now, if we move to page 11, we have been talking about the effects on the drivers of what generates inflation and devaluation on our results.
During the last year, we had an appreciation of the peso with an inflation higher than devaluation. This quarter was the opposite, we will see some effects that are generated because of this. If we move to page 12 to understand the results of Cresud, first, on the operational side, the agricultural business on the left part, you can see there is a reduction. This is basically related to the real estate activity, where last year we have some disposals during the first quarter. This year we haven't any. Also here we include the results from all the receivables that BrasilAgro had because the disposals of farms in the past that they have a portfolio to collect in the future.
In that segment, we include the valuation of the bags of soybean that they have to receive. We mark to market every quarter the fluctuation of prices on that. If we see on the right part of the slide, what is the agriculture production, we see positive numbers compared with the previous year, 10% up. In the case of grains, although this is not the most relevant, it's not the main important quarter, you know that we are starting the campaign. Here, basically, during the quarter, we have the results, the fluctuation of our estimations at the end of the year that we have to give impact during this quarter. Last year, that generated negative numbers. This year, generated positive numbers.
When we see performance of these grains between Argentina and Brazil, in Argentina we have very positive numbers, and there is offset with some lower numbers in Brazil. About the sugarcane, during this quarter was affected by climate condition, basically, and lower prices. That generate this drop from last year to this year. Regarding the cattle raising, we have... Sorry. We have the results that are basically last year, the holding results on our stock, and this year, there was made a higher cost of productions and higher cost because of the incentive in of the production, and the alimentation, the feed of the feedlot, sorry. Moving to next page.
The other important driver or the most important driver during the quarter is the change in the fair value of our investment properties that is most related to IRSA and shopping malls, offices, and land bank of IRSA. If we see these numbers in dollar terms remain very stable compared with June, but when we had to give impact on the devaluation and inflation that generate this positive number, and last year was completely the opposite. Finally, about the results, the net financial results. This quarter, we see a loss. This is related to all our dollar-denominated debt on a consolidated basis, that with a higher devaluation than inflation, we are generating negative numbers. Compared with last year, that was the opposite. The rest remain stable. Net interest here it appear like an increase in interest payment.
This is related also with the devaluation that in ARS term, we are paying more interest. With all these drivers, we finish the quarter with a gain of ARS 110 billion attributable to our controlling interest, ARS 36.8 billion compared with a loss last year. About our debt structure, as you can see, there was a decrease against last year from $350 million or $349 million to $329 million. This is related to the dividends that we collected and that generate positive cash. The debt amortization scale that we have part of the cash that we already raised it during the last quarter with two new issuances, that we have part of the cash to cancel the upcoming amortizations.
Then we are planning to go to the market to refinance the rest. Finally, about the dividend payments, as Alejandro mentioned during November, our shareholders meeting approved in October, the payment of part dividends in cash and part in kind with shares of IRSA. 70% in cash, 30% in shares of IRSA. That was a dividend yield of 8.4% that we already paid in Argentina. Related to our ADR holders, probably Bank of New York will establish the record date, probably next week, and the payment will be probably 10 days after the record date. With this, we finish the presentation. Now we open the line to receive your questions.
Well, we start with the Q&A session. If you have a question, please use the chat. We will take the questions in the order we receive them. There is one here related to the payment. I think Marty mentioned something related to the payment abroad, to the ADRs, both in Cresud and IRSA. Here we are in Cresud, but we can answer of both. Which is if we have already fixed the date of payment and record date.
No, that is not upon us. No, we already paid to Bank of New York, and they are in charge to converting those pesos into dollars and setting up the record date. They are in the process. We expect that they fix the record dates during the next week.
The payment then, because of the process, is 10 days after the record date. Here a new question regarding farmland sales. There were no farmland sales in the first quarter. If there is any plans to sell any asset in the region for the coming quarters? How do we see farmland prices going forward?
Yes, for sure, it's part of our strategy for every country, every year. The first quarter without any sale doesn't reflect. We have three quarters more, and there are some sales under discussions. I think the situation of Argentina is not comparable to the rest. The reconnection of Argentina, because of what I explained before, the gap on the dollars and the taxes and exports, is bringing liquidity. That bringing liquidity probably will be much easier, the selling of farms of Argentina. I think Argentina is rebounding the price of the lands. We are seeing mainly in agriculture areas, but slowly in cattle areas too. In Argentina, appreciation of price of the land and more liquidity because of the new situation of the farmers of Argentina.
For the rest, it's different because the drop of prices in Brazil and the increasing on the cost of capital for Brazil is probably affecting prices of the land. And so there, the liquidity is decreasing for farmers, but still enough, and we are expecting sales on Brazil. The prices on the land on Brazil are adjusting for lower, not for higher, like in Argentina is happening. In Paraguay, I would say is in the same condition of Brazil. Yes, for sure we are expecting activity in real estate for the next 3 quarters. Another question regarding buybacks. If we plan to make share repurchases given the optimistic outlook for both Argentina and the farming sector. Well, we did it in the past.
You know that we have been doing some buyback programs involved in Cresud and IRSA. For this quarter, we gave privilege to the cash payment, so we decided to distribute the cash. If you believe that is cheap, then you have the cash to take the opportunity. It's something that we, in the last 3 years, we have been doing that, so it's something that we always consider, that is more related to results and liquidity. If we find, we feel comfortable with cash situation, and we have the results to do that, it's something that we could consider. Good. Another question. Argentinian agribusiness is seeing a huge gain in its margins. Do you plan further leasings in Argentina or purchases going forward? The two.
If there is a chance of one, two, and third, the two of them. I think we are trying to buy in the agricultural areas of Argentina. We are in that search. I think we are going to grow more in leasing in size than in because the capital, no. Capital for purchasing, it's much bigger. We are trying at the same time to grow in the leasing and in the purchasing, mainly for agriculture. Meantime, we are intensifying in the cattle business through improving the pregnancy, having the same cows, and making faster the rotation on the cattle. I think but related to the agriculture, it's more leasing and more purchasing in the agriculture purpose. More irrigation. We like very much the irrigation.
The irrigation is growing now mainly in Brazil because we have a lot of land bank that has the ability to irrigate. We would like to grow not only the agriculture, but the agriculture under irrigation. We began in one farm with 100 acres with a new system. We expand the irrigation. Today, the combination of Brazil-Argentina irrigation is 10 and some thousand. We'd like to have more thousand acres under irrigation too. That is more margin, more productivity too. I will give some minutes more. If there is any additional question, use the chat, please. Not having more questions, I would finally remark the farmers of the world are suffering the drop of prices and higher costs. Many or a big portion of the farmers of the world are under negative margins.
Argentina, that was a lesson of scarcity in inputs, in tariff, in taxes, in FX, made us to be very effective. The conditions for Argentina are changing a lot, and with these prices, Argentina has positive numbers. In our case in Brazil, because of our portfolio, is having positive numbers too. We are optimistic on our position on the business and probably taking the opportunities when some are not being able because we're ready for these kind of situations. We are facing a big campaign. We are well hedged, and we are having big volumes, and we are giving service to farmers that is giving another return too under real estate. I think the combination of the three is the key element for Cresud. We hope using these three tools to keep growing on the return.
Just to thank you, this is the first quarter. Let's see the next 3 quarters. Have a very good afternoon. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.