Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Santiago Donato, investor relations officer of Cresud, and I welcome you to the fiscal year 2025 results conference call. I would like to remind you that both audio and slideshow 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 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 ask 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, and 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.
Good afternoon, everybody. We are finishing our fiscal year 2025, and if we begin on page number two, we can see the seven main highlights of the year related to agriculture. 2025 was a very big campaign in size, and the combination of leasing and owning land, but it's not very big in comparison. It's close to the 50/50 or a little bigger than 50/50 in leasing compared to own, but larger than our history. Expecting to have a larger next year because of the leasing conditions of this year. Related to climate, we had good conditions, but some areas of Argentina and Paraguay mainly suffered very tough conditions, the scars of water, and that was impacting a lot in the yields of mainly the Los Pozos Farm and Paraguay farms.
The rest of Argentina had good weather in the center and south. The majority of the country was in good condition, but our position of the north was not very good. The year was stable in commodity prices. We had a big drop last year. This year was more stable, and input costs the prices were still made in some of them a big correction, like crop protection, but in some of them, like fertilizers, the prices were still high. That made us lower margins, and that affected the activity in Argentina mainly. There was a big impact on Argentine macro, and we're going to show you later about the reduction of grain taxes and exports and the gap on the $2.
That is the next, where the removal of capital controls in Argentina made a very, very important move for farmers of Argentina, that in the past we had a 100%-150% gap, but today close to zero gap, made us to be raising directly dollars when we do agriculture. Related to BrasilAgro, was good related to production in sugarcane. Some fields were affected. We got some frozen sugarcane and a lack of water . Was more mixed in the crops. There, some of them, mainly soybeans and cotton, were affected in yields. The price was almost the same we expected. The inputs went down, but the margins were better compared to last year, but much lower than in the past compared to the best years of Brazil. Related to cattle, the cattle is really spending very good time.
We have higher prices, better margins, better production, and more stock. We are intensifying our activity in the two farms in Argentina. We're going to show you a little later. Related to real estate, there was some activity. One was in Argentina, the first quarter of last year. They were affecting. We had the first quarter, you know, Los Pozos Farm, it was the same, but the other quarters we had in other farms in Brazil. The other three are in Brazil. We are going to show you the gains that we have in these four sales.
We are comparing in page number three, we see the evolution of crop planting in the region, in the combination of the 4 countries. We can see that we are achieving close to 300,000 hectares of agriculture. Where the main activity is soybeans, corn is the second, sugarcane the third, and wheat the fourth. We are growing, we are forecasting a big growth for next year. We're surpassing the 300,000 for next year. What I said in the past in a combination of more leases and maybe some more purchasing. For the next campaign, we are forecasting much more volume related to agriculture. In page four, we can see the prices of the commodities.
Here we can see, this is a long- term, 50- year. We see that in soybeans and corn are very similar. We see that they were the years of 20 to 2024, with higher prices. The 2024 to 2025 was almost stable. A bit, a little rebound, 9% in soybeans, 8% in corn. There was some movement on the plantation. They are losing some areas of soybeans in the U.S., and that is affecting more corn in the U.S. Probably more recovery on stocks of corn. Less recovery in North America related to soybeans, but Brazil. Brazil is forecasting again to plant a lot, and Argentina again too. The combination of the countries related to corn and soybeans is expected for next year to have a good enough quantity of commodities for the next campaign.
There is no big news related to prices in the region. If we move to the next page, relating to Argentine government measures, they were really very favorable. The permanent reduction on grain that was announced by the government in July of this year, saying it was not a transitional like it was at the beginning. Now they did a permanent. Before it was 33% on taxes on soybeans, and now at 26%. The corn went from 12% to 9.5%. Wheat and barley are the same. Sunflower from 7% to 5.5%. Beef cattle, depending on the categories: cows are at 0% and steers at 5%. There was a big reduction, but apart of that, the exchange rate flexibilization and convergence. Look at before 2023, the FX gap was 150%. After the latest government, 20%-30%.
Recently, from April of this year, the gap is close to zero, point five. Now farmers of Argentina are receiving the real sales of dollars, still with taxes on exports, but the promise of the government to keep reducing in the time they will have the surplus in the fiscal deficit. No, they don't want to reduce the tax before they have the increase in the tax collection. The government related to that is being serious, it is doing so in steps. We expect the government to keep doing and finally to accomplish their promise to go to zero taxes on exports. All the world, almost all the world, is in taxes zero or subsidizing production as many of the developed countries of the world.
This is really relevant news affecting the margins, operational margins and the real estate margins that we're going to show you next. If you do move to page six, we can see some of the current conditions, and we divide it in Argentina and Brazil. Argentina, late and scattered rains, once again affected yields and mainly the north. That affected north of Argentina and Paraguay, the cattle from Paraguay. The two regions were affected. In case of Argentina, we have the cattle business in the north that was very profitable. In there we have much better results because of the cattle business in that part, but we didn't have that in Paraguay. Related to the southern areas, central and southern, really there were much better conditions and the yields were much better compared to the normal.
Related to Brazil, the adverse weather conditions reduced soybeans and cotton yields this 2022, and sugarcane too were affected too. Related to pre-previous seasons, there were better prices of corn and in corn, better yields. Finally the operational business in Brazil is better than in Argentina in comparison. We can go to next page and to look at the volumes, total volumes. There was a big jump in a comparable size, a little bigger. There was a 17% increase on volume in crop in crop volumes. Still lower comparing to the yields that we're expecting when we planted, but much better if we compare it to last year. Relating to the sugarcane, the same, there was a big effect in the drought and early frozen in Brazil.
That is affecting our leased acres, no. There are some leased acres in Brazil under sugar production. When we compare year to year- on- year, we see a little increase in the corn yield. Last year we had 5.09. This year we're having 5.5 in corn. Corn gave us good results in yield and in prices. There was a good price in the region for corn, and that was a very positive crop. In the soybeans, there was a small drop, from 2.71 to 2.6. Year- to- year, we have a much normal yield. Two regions, the Ciudad del Oeste and Paraguay, were the most affected. Moving to the next page, we can see what happened to cattle, that it's representing again some importance in Cresud.
In some years, cattle were at a $2 million-$3 million EBITDA business, but these last two years were more than $8 million or close to $9 million gross margin number, 2024 and 2025. We're close to 60,000 heads of cattle in Argentina. This is becoming a more relevant business. We are introducing, as we did in the combination of our own lands and leased land in agriculture, we are doing now on the beef industry. We are doing more finalization of the animals. That is, in these cases, where the drop of the prices of like the corn that we are now spending, and the corn went down.
With the combination of 6, 7 kg of corn doing a kilogram of beef at its maximum prices in the U.S. and in Argentina, and in the region, we are doing a very good business. That's why we are intensifying a lot. Argentina is in a much better price than in the past, and all the regions in better price. The lower price of grain with a better price of beef is making a more balanced activity, more important for Cresud, the cattle activity too. We expect a very good year related to beef, and we expect the same. We are expanding our operation in some two fields that we have own farms.
In the old farms, we had a few lot professional people in business itself that was for clients, but now we are doing two smaller fields of close to 10,000 acres, each of them in the farm of El Tigre and the farm of Los Pozos, and the two are very profitable. That's the reason why this margin of cattle is improving so much the last years. To move now to page number nine, we see the four fractions. They are not sales of the total farm. T he size of La Preferida is total farm 18,000 acres. We sold 100% of that activity. The rest are small portions of farms that were sold. We did finance sales of $60 million, having a big gain on real estate in the year.
When we talk about these four transactions, only one in Argentina, Los Pozos, that was just land reserve, that was in a book value of $10, we sold to $500-$600 per acre. Huge gain, majority's gain, close to zero in book value. In the case of BrasilAgro, there's still a difference. We are, again, reflecting a big portion of the gain of Cresud through BrasilAgro and Cresud through the real estate part. That, every year, not selling so much. This is, comparing to all of the hectares of the company, small fractions, but still being, bringing good gains to the balance sheet. We always show only the gain of the pieces that we are selling every year.
Here in the next graph, we see this year are four pieces, fractions or one that is 100%, $66 million total dollars in nominal sales, bringing $56 million of gain. A big majority in nominal gain. Look at what we expected, and we expressed in the past about the land value. Some of the land is decreasing in price in the Corn Belt of the U.S. or the best year areas of Brazil. There is an increasing price in Argentina that is a combination of better climate conditions and better operational yields, and the dollar was low, and the taxes reduction, and Argentina is re-entering to the price valuation of the world. Still very far, but the trend of the year was in the gains of the rest of the countries.
Saying that, we can move to the next page, the commercial services. Here we are seeing the evolution of Tío Tacho as our subsidiary, where Cresud owns 51.2%. This company that is in segments of agro supplies, chemical, credits, advisory, inputs, and digital. Helping farmers to improve their commercial part. This is advising to sell and to buy better and not enter into production. The only production in Malta, where we sell some fertilizers, the majority is helping farmers in inputs and outputs. This company that didn't exist in the past, went to more than 7 million tons.
This is our record year, 7.25 we are expecting to close. That represents 6% of Argentina's total crop. The largest broker of Argentina makes a very big net income. There was a drop in this year because of inflation and devaluation, still a very positive number that is impacting the balance sheet of Cresud. I will now introduce Mr. Santiago Donato, that will share with us some progress related to ESG.
Thank you, Alejandro. Well, here in this page, we can share some of the main achievements on the ESG agenda this year. On the environmental side, we continue advancing in our RTRS certification program, both in soybeans and corn. In this campaign, we certified seven additional farms, reaching a total of nine in our portfolio in Argentina. Almost 36,000 tons in soybeans and in corn. This is approximately 25% of our total production of soy in Argentina and 15% in the case of corn. We are very proud of this. This is a very well-known certification that implies that the farm was has no deforestation since 2008, and the best agricultural practices in the farm, and also the relationship with the communities near the farm.
In parallel, we maintain our international certifications, including 2BS, currently Triple S, and the EPA. On the social front, one of the highlights of this year was the 20th anniversary of our school at Los Pozos farm in Salta. This is a school founded by Cresud in 2005, which today educates both primary and secondary students in the community. This is a farm that is 350 kilometers far away from the city of Salta, so in the middle of anywhere that, where the company provides health service, a school inside the farm.
Apart from that, more broadly, during 2025, we invested over ARS 700 million in different communities in the country, in social programs directly and through Fundación IRSA, building relationships with more than 80 NGOs and carrying out, like, 100 community initiatives. These actions reaffirm Cresud's long-term vision that is produce food responsibly from South America to the world, creating a positive impact both on the environment and on the communities where Cresud operates. I will now give the word to Matías Gaivironsky, CFO, for Cresud investments in IRSA and the financial update.
Thank you, Santi, good afternoon, everybody. If we move to page 13, we can see the results of our stake in IRSA, where we control 54% of the shares. IRSA has a very good year, with a net gain of ARS 196 billion compared with a loss last year of ARS 32 billion. There was a strong annual recovery in shopping malls, with a 10% increase in ARS terms and a higher increase in dollar terms. Tenant sales finished the year with a small drop of 2.8%, but in very good levels when we measure in historical records. About the malls portfolio, there was a lot of movement in the portfolio. We acquired a new shopping center during the year.
We also acquired a plot of land adjacent to Alto Avellaneda to double the size of the shopping mall. Also, we are launching a new mall development. It's a greenfield in La Plata City in the province of Buenos Aires. About the office portfolio remained stable compared with the previous year with almost full occupancy. The hotels suffer a little drop in the margins because of inflation. Basically, the tariff in dollar terms remained stable, and the cost in peso terms increased by inflation. Another significant milestone during the year was the commercialization of the Rambla del Plata project. Remember, this is the most ambitious project of IRSA for the last decade or probably for the whole history of IRSA.
We started the commercialization during the fiscal year. We already signed 13 transactions that IRSA will receive around 111,000, sorry, will receive around 58,000 square meters of sellable square meters in the future. Also, there was a new issuance of a note in the international capital market. IRSA tapped the international capital market after probably 10 years. We issued $300 million notes that will expire in 2035. As we already discussed it during the year, IRSA paid significant dividends to Cresud and to the rest of the shareholders with an 8% dividend yield and 3.6% of its own shares.
On the right side of the slide, we can see the evolution in dollar terms of the EBITDA, the rental EBITDA. We can see a significant improvement against last year, 15.3%, with shopping malls reaching $169 million. That is a record for the last 10 years. In next page, as part of the review of this fiscal year, we detected a mistake in the calculation of the inflation adjustment on the share premium from the warrants exercise in fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024. Basically, the error duplicated the inflation assessment, overstating the share premium and decreased the net income result. For the last year, this decrease was approximately 17.8 billion ARS.
After detecting this error and in line with IAS 8, the company restated the affected items of the prior financial statement retrospectively, and all details is presented in the current fiscal year. We can see already the restated numbers of the previous year. I will explain the main drivers of the increase that we are finishing the fiscal year with a net income of ARS 224.3 billion compared with ARS 163.8 billion. According to the controlling interest, it's ARS 96.1 against ARS 135.7 of the last year. There's many drivers here that affect the result. The main driver is in line 6, the change in fair value of investment properties regarding IRSA, regarding the urban properties.
Every quarter and every year, IRSA revalues its investment properties according to different methodologies. Last year, because of the evolution of the exchange rate and inflation, we had to post a significant impairment of the investment properties. This year, we are recovering because basically the shopping malls with better performance and lower cost of capital, we improved significantly the valuation of the shopping malls, so that this year generates a gain of ARS 6.6 billion. When we see the rest of the results, we can see an improvement in the urban properties.
If the operating income from a loss last year of ARS 256 to a gain of ARS 190.8. Related to agribusiness, we can see a decrease from ARS 96.3 billion to ARS 49.1 billion gain this year, that we will enter in more detail in the coming pages. The other important numbers are on line 13 and line 14, related to net financial results and income tax, which we will show it in the following page. Going to the next one. We can see here entering more details on the operating results on the agribusiness. We can see that the drop this year against last year is basically related to lower results in farmland sales.
Although we sold this year, as Alejandro mentioned, the four farms. Last year, we sold a little more, generating more results and also adjusting that by inflation, this number is bigger. So this is the reason of the 30% drop. When we see the farming activity on the right side of the page, we can see an improvement from ARS 2.5 billion to ARS 15.9 billion this year. We can see an important gain in sugarcane related to better prices, more yields and more area under production. Also in cattle, we see a significant increase related to more production also and much better prices than inflation. Last year, the prices increased much lower than inflation. This year, much higher.
That generates results from the holding and also from the production. About the grains, we see this drop from ARS 3.9 billion to a loss of ARS 5.6 billion. There are different drivers here as well. There is an adjustment in the estimations that we did at the beginning of the campaign that generate a loss because of lower prices and a little lower yields than we expected at the beginning of the campaign. When we measure some numbers and historical levels without adjusting inflation, that is positive. When we adjust by inflation, since prices increase lower than inflation, we are posting a decrease in the numbers.
If we see the breakdown here between the part that came from Argentina and part from Brazil, Argentina is suffering against last year, Brazil is better than the previous year. Going to next page. Finally, we have the evolution of our net financial results that is still positive. We have here basically all the interest burden of our debt and assets. Is still positive. Since there is more inflation than devaluation, all numbers relating to our dollar-denominated debt generate positive results. Also we have the valuation of our all the liquidity and assets, financial assets that are generating positive numbers.
Well, finally, with all of this, we are finishing this fiscal year with this gain of ARS 224, and attributable to our controlling shareholders, ARS 96.1 billion. About our debt. There was two transactions in the recent quarter. We issued two new ones, one for a three-year tenor, $43.7 million at an interest rate of 8%. The other was a couple of weeks ago, that we issued $31.3 million at a rate of 7.25%, for a two-year tenor note. With this, we are financing part of the amortization of this fiscal year 2026. There is still one remaining that we are planning to refinance in the local market during this fiscal year. The net debt remained stable at levels of $354 million. With this, we finish the formal presentation. We open the line to receive your questions.
Well, now is the time for the Q&A session. If you have a question, please use the chat. We're gonna take them in the order we receive them. Here we have the first that is related to the value of Cresud today. Given that it's undervalued in the opinion of this investor. If the management is considering taking an action in order to unlock value at Cresud. Today, it says that the market cap of Cresud is equal to the value of its stake in IRSA. The rest of the assets are given for free. What's the opinion of the management here, and if the management is thinking of taking actions in this direction?
Let me answer the question. If we analyze what we have been doing during the last five years, I would say that both IRSA and Cresud were very concentrated in our own capital structure. We haven't launched significant projects during the last years because of the volatility, basically, in Argentina. There is different environment in Brazil. But we selling much more assets than buying assets, and at the same time canceling debt, paying back to our shareholders through dividends and through buybacks of shares. I think I'm trying to simplify also the structure, our corporate structure. Sometimes I think the question is related more between the arbitrage that you can see between IRSA and Cresud, and which one is cheaper than the other. That part we can't do the arbitrage.
It's more for our investors than for the company itself. What we can do, and I think we have been doing a lot during the years, is, was to pay dividends that our shareholders, if they believe that is cheap, the shares, they can keep buying shares, or also to launch buyback programs through the companies. That is something that we did probably during the three last years, both in Cresud and IRSA. There we have some limitations. It's not that the company can buy back all the shares that we want. There is some restrictions according to the CMB about how much or about the value or the volume that we can buy. We can do it through both ways. To distribute dividends and our shareholders will buy or to buy back shares directly.
Next questions. Is the company thinking in buying farms in Argentina or selling farms in the country? Are you seeing opportunities, and in terms of prices, which trends are you seeing in the local country, in Argentina? Argentina, at the time that it's been reconnected to the world, is giving more liquidity to the real estate. With that, probably, we are going to do the two. We are going to be selling some of the assets that they revaluate a lot, and we don't see a lot of more potential because of the situation of that land, of that region. At the same time, to be buying again, because some farms are very delayed of the price of the world.
Yes, I imagine liquidity is going to help us to do the two, and we are in the process of doing the two, exactly that. In Brazil, liquidity was not a subject. It was not in the past, it's still not in the present. A little lower prices comparing what they were, but there we are a little waiting for more adjustment on price to buy again, because the adjustment is not enough to be buying, I think. If there is any other question, we need some minutes more, use the chat. There's one more related to outlook for next campaign. What you're expecting in terms of prices, climate in Argentina and the region. We are going to record our plantation and our cattle, not cattle.
In the past, we had many years, a long time ago, some more cattle than now. We're going to surpass our records, and I think we are doing a good adjustment on the margin and the intensification of agriculture. What I'm saying with that, we are advancing a lot in searching machinery, following what we plant, understanding images. There is a big change in agriculture for the future. Cresud and BrasilAgro, the two, are adjusting their model for this moment of slower margins, smaller margins. We think we are going to do fast in a big size. No, we surpassing the 300,000 hectares of planted area.
With the understanding of the immaturity of the land, that in some regions, we were beginning land that was not enough mature, but it's beginning to be every year more. We are optimistic that the tools that they are building on the market are starting. Is helping to give Wi-Fi to whole 100% of some farms and following machinery and advancing in the using of less inputs per hectare because of that tracking of the machinery and the use of good herbicides and pesticides. We are expecting a big campaign related to climate. Up to now, the winter in Argentina was very good and rained a lot. The winter crop is coming with a very good condition in our farms. It's gonna be more relevant, is the summer crop for us. We are expecting a big and a good campaign.
Related to cattle too, no. We expecting prices to keep high and with a big number of herds made in Argentina and growing in Paraguay. yes, we expect a good year related to Bioagro , our step in Brazil related to the services of beef. BrasilAgro is, this year is surpassing 300,000 tons of servicing in Brazil. At 500% of our inaudible volume, but we are expecting to double by next year, so it's going to grow a lot in Brazil, our revolution on servicing. we are optimistic that our company is very used to these prices because of our origin in Argentina. we are expecting a good campaign for next year and maybe some small rebound in some of the prices.
Saying that, we are going to have a next quarter, we are going to be discussing about the. We hope to have more real estate too next year, and mainly in Argentina. We are optimistic in the business and the company having these three branches, no. The operation i n the two, in the more irrigation. We are going to keep doing more irrigation on the region, so we are increasing the irrigation of the region. The operational, the real estate, and the services, plus the other things that Cresud owns through IRSA. We are really very optimistic.
Let's see, and the gap that Argentina is going to receive if the government keeps doing what we expect, that is reduction in taxes. They did the FX, we expect the some reduction on the taxes too, is going to benefit us too again. Saying that, we are optimistic on our revolution and keeping decreasing our debt. That was a very good job that we did the last five years. Saying that, there is something.
Another question. One of the last questions, a late question. We close then with this. Which is the cost of capital of the company or how do we estimate that and what are the best investment opportunities? I think Alejandro mentioned some in the agribusiness, but for the next couple of years, as a holding company or Cresud, which are the best investment opportunities that you are seeing?
Cost of capital. Matías, what is the cost of capital for Cresud, would you say?
Today, we are using a weighted average cost of capital, more or less about 12%. That is probably our current rate today.
Related to we are going to keeping really deleting the buying probably in Argentina and the buying of farms in Brazil with the adjustment, but we don't buy up to when we find the opportunity. We are patient enough. We have years of buying and years of selling. In Brazil, it's not still clear that it's now the moment of buying. I'm keeping investing in the technology to have a good margin in the volume that we have. We are expecting the campaign of 300 or close to 10,000. It's really a big campaign. To be very effective related to production and service to the farms.
Good condition for this company , and in a company, some companies in Argentina are suffering from solvency, and this company is really very strong. That is helping. If the contracts are long term, Cresud can get benefit on that too, because this company can lease and Brazil does in six, 10 or 12 years or sometimes 30 years. In case of Argentina, in the past they were one year. Now we're increasing to two to three and we can benefit from that because of the solvency of the company.
Perfect. Well, engineers, if there are no more questions, we can conclude the presentation. I think Alejandro closed the year. We see you next quarter from the beginning of fiscal year 2026 and the initiation of the next campaign. Thank you very much.