Afternoon, everyone. I'm Santiago Donato, Investor Relations Officer of CRESUD. I welcome you to the Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2025 Results conference call. First of all, I would like to remind you that a replay of this webinar, the presentation and the earnings release will be available on our website at www.cresud.com.ar. 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 risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Please refer to the detailed notes 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. Let's begin in page number two, the main events for the third quarter of this year. We are in a good campaign, I would say, comparing to last year, it's a bigger campaign, it's bigger planted area comparing. The main reason was the more leasings on the region in Argentina and in Brazil, and we expect to keep growing in leasing for next year, too. Related to climate, was an average good climate in the region. The only part that didn't receive good rain, was mainly Argentina in the north and Paraguay. Paraguay, as Argentina, suffered some drought on the summer, and that impacted the yields on the summer crops. In the rest, were generally good weather conditions.
Related to the commodity prices and the input costs, we are seeing a stable price time of mainly the soybean. Some rebound in the corn, I will show you later. The costs was stable, too, and we are expecting a reduce in the next campaign on costs. We have seen something that is very important to Argentina, that is the removal of capital controls. Reducing the gap of the two dollars that we had in the past, and we are going to see what important is the impact for the future for the Argentine results. Related to BrasilAgro, we are being in the middle of good productive results, mainly in sugarcane, that has much better yields and prices of last year.
In the rest of the crops, better in corn, but worse mainly in soybeans and cotton. Related to real estate in this third nine months, we are seeing only the first quarter, sales that there were small sales in Los Pozos and Alta Corrientes in Brazil. Recently, the last quarter, we didn't reflect any sale. We are expecting for the next quarter, next, before the end of the year. We can move now to Page 3. Here the evolution of planted area in the countries comparison. Argentina still seeing the biggest of the region. Brazil keep growing, mainly in leasing, as I said. Bolivia and Paraguay. The breakdown of soybean, 50%, 24% of corn, 9% of sugarcane.
Sugarcane, with these 27,000 hectares, is really relevant in the time of the yields and the results, wheat and others. If you can move to next page, we can see in Page 4, the recovery on the commodities and the inputs recovery and cost correction. Here we see the evolution of soybean. Prices of today are comparable to before COVID, and adjusted by inflation, are worse than before COVID. If you adjust prices of inflation, today, what is at 10, in the past was more than 11. We are below that. These days, we are seeing some beginning of the rebound on the price of the soybeans. We can speak about what happened this weekend between China and U.S., and this is impacting the prices for commodities for sure. We are seeing, because of two reasons.
One is the tax reduction of the tariff went to 10% of China, this is going to make again Chicago more relevant. We are seeing today that rebound. The prices are going to be affected, too. Prices of South America that were very high are decreasing these days because of the more important price of Chicago again, more trading for the future related to U.S. Generally speaking, I think the impact of the weekend is going to affect oil. The oil is very, very correlated to the commodities. Oil probably is affected because of there are not more recession expecting for the world. The world was expecting a big reduction on sales, on the oil trading, probably after this weekend, is going normalizing the markets of the world and probably affecting commodity prices.
Probably what I expect is rebound on commodities, but less prices on South America than they were. In corn, there was a rebound through this year, and we are seeing a better yield and better margin to corn in South America because of this corn rebound of 38% of the last year. Generally speaking, a better environment for commodities for the campaign. We can now move to next page, in Page 5. Here we can see the evolution on capital controls and FX convergence. I think this is the more relevant news for Argentina. If I would have to speak about Taxes on exports and caps on the dollars, I think is more important the second. The government announced a few days ago, that for the future, it's close to zero, the gap.
Today it's 2%, 3%. The official dollar is close to zero to the blue- chip swap in Argentina. This for farmers, and always is good the example, when at the price of $500 in U.S., it was the soybean in the times of 17 per bushel. The price of the U.S. was $500. The farmer at that time, in the combination of the 33 taxes on exports and the gap of the dollars, was collecting $170. Today, the farmer of Argentina is collecting $270. For next campaign the prices are $290. We are adjusting to the prices of U.S. Today, the gap is 36%. Taxes on exports are reflecting 36, and the gap is close to zero.
This is very relevant to the prices of the commodities in Argentina and to the prices of the lands of Argentina. If we move to next Page 6, we see the climate conditions. Argentina today is in a very good shape. Today, for the winter, for next winter, we are going to plant everywhere because there was a big recovery in the humidity on the lands in all the corners of Argentina. We suffered some droughts and distance of rains between the summertime, mainly the soybean and corn time. We are seeing in some regions some losses that we have, like more than 50% of the crop, and that affected a lot the yields of Salta and Paraguay. We are now in the middle of the harvest time.
Brazil finished, Argentina is in the 38th, Bolivia 78th, Paraguay just 12th. We see some damage, and we are forecasting damage mainly in these two places, north of Argentina and Paraguay, affecting the two main crops, soybean and corn. When we are forecasting, we are affecting the yields on these two. The agriculture season is not the best as expected because these two affects. The rest is almost normal. We are expecting a more normal agricultural year. Very good in sugarcane, some good in corn, but less good in soybeans and cotton. In wheat, that we finished, was good campaign, but not so good like last year. If we move to next page, we can see what I'm saying.
We are expecting a growth year-to-year, a forecast of increasing 33% in yields in the region, between Argentina and the region. A big impact. Remember, we were growing in size, but not so much. The rest is because recovery of the yields, more normal climate. In sugarcane too, an increase in the region in the yields and price in sugarcane. We see that the evolution, operational evolution, there are some very good news related to sugarcane, and the rest more mixed between what I said. We see the crop yields that we are expecting. Argentina is expecting a 2% increase. Brazil, a 1% decrease in the soybeans. In Bolivia, a big decrease. Paraguay, a decrease too, because last year was bad, but this year is bad again.
Paraguay is close to zero. Last year was very negative. We are expecting a close to zero in agriculture in Paraguay. In corn, some effect too. We are seeing in Argentina, 14% increase in compared to last year, 1% in Brazil. Bolivia is not really in corn this year. 5 tons in Paraguay. Very good results in Paraguay if related to corn. We see mixed results related to agriculture this year, but increasing in size. Related to cattle, very good year, and this is very good news for Argentina, mainly Argentina. The main in cattle, it's only Argentina. We are close to 60,000 heads, and we are seeing margins for the next nine months of $7 million, close to $7 million, 7 million kg of production.
This is a part of the country that is expanding. We can see the evolution of Argentina in the graph in the left, that Argentina was at the lowest prices in the real dollar compared to the rest of the region. Today, we are in a comparable price to Uruguay, in higher price than Brazil and Paraguay. Argentina with higher volume, more efficiency, more feedlots, more productivity, increasing the margin in the cattle business, mainly in Argentina and now following in Paraguay too. Related to FyO, our saving services. Here we see the evolution of FyO, and we are forecasting more than 7 million tons for the year, 6.7% market share of Argentina. Very big in EBITDA.
This company is really in all the services that we are doing in FyO, in capital, in credits, in advisory, in specialties. The company is for sure the largest broker of Argentina. The expansion of Brazil is beginning to see some fruits. The first half of the year, we surpassed last year numbers. We are more than doubling this year as numbers of last year. This service company is not only confirming the size and the evolution in Argentina, but now making its new path in Brazil.
Saying that, I gave you some picture of Argentina. I will now introduce Matías Gaivironsky to talk about IRSA Investment, where CRESUD owns 55% of the stake.
Thank you, Alejandro. Good afternoon, everybody. If we see the results of IRSA during this nine-month period, we achieve a profit of ARS 35 billion compared with a loss last year. If you remember, during the first six months, IRSA posted losses, and in this quarter we revert those losses into profits. Major news out about our mall segment, where we can see for first time in the year, an increase in tenant sales. We increased 13.4% our tenant sales compared with the previous year. Still below when we consider the accumulated nine months, 4.6% below last year, but with a trend that is a recovery. About the office portfolio, we maintained 100% occupancy and similar prices than last year.
We saw a drop in the hotel segment, because of the new macroeconomic situation of Argentina and the prices, we are receiving less inflows of tourism to the country. That has an impact on occupancy in our hotels. About Ramblas del Plata, we are very happy with the progress of the commercialization. We already signed around 11 plot transactions, and two are sales in cash and nine are swaps agreements, where IRSA will receive square meters in the future. Also IRSA has important news about the debt that tapped the international capital market issuing a new note that expire in 2035.
We see the evolution of the rental Adjusted EBITDA, we can see that are similar or an increase to the previous year, but an increase in the shopping mall segment. In fact, we have a record high for the last 10 years in EBITDA in dollar terms for our mall segment. Transition to the financial results of CRESUD. First, to understand the figures, it's tough when you compare figures that are the main driver is dollars, like in CRESUD, when you have to adjust that by inflation. You have the pesos of last year adjusted by inflation, that really inflate the number of the last year. You know? It's like we have a dollar similar of a $1,800 compared with the current $1,000.
Always like when we convert the pesos, we are giving a 70% increase in pesos term to the last year figures. Also the evolution of the dollar and appreciation of the peso, both in the official exchange rate and the Blue Chip Swap, will have an impact when we value the investment properties at fair value. If we move to Page 13, we can see on the line of the operating results of CRESUD what happened. We have a drop, a 83% drop. Part of that is explained on what I just said about the dollar and re-expressing pesos of last year, dollars of last year in pesos adjusted by inflation, but part are related to some drivers that I will mention.
Regarding FyO, that you can see a drop from ARS 29.8 billion to a loss of ARS 19.9 billion during this year. This is attributable to, first of all, some seasonality. Last year, you remember that we have special dollars for farming, so farmers tend to sell in advance production. The brokerage activity of FyO that last year was more relevant, for that will be compensated in the coming quarters. As Alejandro mentioned, the forecast of FyO this year is positive. If we see in the net income line of FyO is also positive because part of the revenues or part of the results are recognized below the operating line.
About the grains, we have a drop also from last year, ARS 21.6 billion to a loss of ARS 5.4 billion this year. Again, when Alejandro explained drivers on productivity will be positive when we compare with last year, part of the results will be reverted. Here we have some effects of valuing stock at the current numbers. Also the projections at the beginning of the quarter were higher than what really was. That generate a negative result during this quarter. About the sugarcane line, we see a positive evolution. We have higher prices, higher productivity, that part are compensated with higher costs, but very positive numbers. The same with cattle.
We have a higher production of cattle during the this year compared with the previous year, 24% increase. Also higher prices, much higher than inflation. If we move to the next page, the fair value of our investment properties, this is mainly related to IRSA. Last year we have a loss of ARS 588 billion. This year we still have a loss lower than last year. This is a non-cash effect, that if we analyze values of the properties in dollar terms, we are maintaining the same dollars in offices and Landbank, and have a higher numbers in the shopping malls. When we adjust by inflation and convert last year numbers into current numbers, that is the reason why we are posting losses.
The net financial line, we see a positive number, ARS 86.5 billion compared with ARS 145 billion last year. Part of that is related to the net effects result, that since we have an appreciation of the peso, all the dollar-denominated debt, when we convert into pesos, that generated gains, and also the fair value of our financial assets that also generate profits. With all these drivers, we finish the nine-month period with a gain of ARS 57.9 billion, compared with a loss of ARS 39.9 billion last year. Well, about the debt, there are no major news here. The net debt remains at 300. There is some mistake there. It's, when it says gross debt, 349. It's net debt, $349.7 million.
The debt amortization schedule that we have some of for the debt that expire in the next years. There was some major news about the credit rating. That was an upgrade to AAA for both CRESUD and IRSA during February. With this, we finish the formal presentation. Now we open the line for your questions.
Now is the time for the Q&A session. If you have a question, please use the chat. We will take the questions in the order we receive them. Well, first question regarding dividends, if you are planning to distribute dividends this exercise.
The decision will be taken on October. Our shareholders' meeting will be in October. We have to submit the proposal around September, so it's not decided yet. I can't comment any more about that.
Good. Here a question regarding the swap transactions at IRSA. If we can give a little bit more color on how it works, and what is the motivation for doing swap instead of developing?
We entered all the details about Ramblas in the webcast of IRSA. If you want to enter in more deep analysis about that, it's recorded and it's public in our website of IRSA. The motivation, just to comment two seconds about the motivation, is to give speed to the project. Also, we are giving land to the developers. The developers will develop and pay us with square meters in the future. It's a way for IRSA to develop the project, give speed and became a relevant neighborhood in the city, without investing our own money. That is the main philosophy behind the strategy. You can enter much more details in the presentation of IRSA or contact Santi for more information.
Sure. Here there is a question regarding investment in IRSA and what is CRESUD long-term intention with this ownership.
It's a controlling shareholder, and we are not imagining any big change these days.
Not a lot more there to say.
No. If you realize, we invested more money in IRSA when IRSA did the capital increase in 2021, also we did some acquisitions in the market. We like the position that we have, and I think we have some complements between the agriculture activity and the activity of IRSA. There are some hedge between the two.
These days it's a much better environment to the urban, where the yield, the EBITDA. The farms are in a tougher because drop of price. The rebound probably is coming and maybe this is changing, we don't know. Really it's the biggest asset of CRESUD, in size for sure. It's relevant for CRESUD for sure, but we are not thinking on big change in these days.
Here a question regarding FyO, the results so negative of FyO. We can explain a little bit more, and if we can expect a dividend policy for the coming years, I imagine CRESUD now in general?
Related to a bit to the beta of FyO is very good, and Matías will explain the operational and the financial part of the balance sheet. The real budget control of the company is generating a very profitable EBITDA. To give you a rough number, it's a $15 million EBITDA for the year that the company is expecting. Really is a very, in a very good shape and surpassing 7 million tons is the largest of the country for sure, like a broker. The brokerage is not only in output, but in input, in fertilizers, in herbicides, in consultancy. The company intends to help farmers after production, not inside the farm, but when the farm, the output is ready, helps the farmer to close the futures in Argentina and abroad.
The company is helping. They're servicing farmers in a much bigger volume than CRESUD now. CRESUD was big at the beginning, but not today. It's not irrelevant, but close to irrelevant, the volume of CRESUD. In Brazil, it's copying the model and not arriving to the 1 million tons still, but we expect to pass that. In the balance sheet, the, and Matthias is going to explain what affected, and it's the main difference of the year, no, in the profit, in the operational profit of the year.
Yes. Well, there is some effects, you know. The first one is when we took the last year results, as I mentioned, if we have to re-express an activity that is dollar-denominated into pesos, those pesos, assessed by inflation, those pesos to the current numbers, that give you like a sense that the number of last year is much higher than it was, what really was. About this year, and also there is some seasonality that last year because of the government gave special dollars for farmers trying to incentivize that they liquidate the grains and receive dollars. People tend to anticipate transactions and then generate more revenues at this moment of the year than in the current year.
When we analyze the balance sheet or the financial statement of FyO, the activity of FyO is sometimes they acquire the products from the farmers and do derivatives transactions, that the result of the derivative transaction is in the financial line. Sometimes you see the loss in the, or the less profit in the revenues or the net on the, or the operating result, but that will be compensated by derivatives that are below the line. At the end of the year, as Alejandro showed in the presentation, we are anticipating or projecting more volume for this year compared with the previous year. Prices are higher prices than the previous year. At the end of the year, in the next quarter, we should see positive numbers. Good. Here we have some questions regarding real estate, farming real estate.
Given the ongoing policy changes in Argentina and financial stabilization, are you seeing any meaningful improvements in farmland prices? Do you intend to increase your pace of net investments in farmland in the country? There is another one that is: Do you plan to buy farmland in Argentina, or do you see better investment opportunities through BrasilAgro in Brazil?
It's relevant what the government is doing related to agriculture. There are some critics that they didn't took, they didn't take the taxes on exports still. They made a small reduction. Today, on the 30 of June, there is maybe a threat of coming back to the price, to the taxes they were before. Coming back from the 26 of soybean to the 33. Still the government insists that it's going to reduce. She still talks about finishing directly taxes on exports, understanding that damage a lot the agribusiness, and it's true. Meantime, did the announcement of the only $1 or close to $1, that I think this is the biggest macro new for Argentina. I think that is going to explain why I'm so optimistic on the price of the land of Argentina.
Argentina is connected to the price of the Corn Belt of U.S., that is the main correlation, in 2012, 2013, and stayed almost at the same, at the $12,000-$15,000, the acre of the Corn Belt. These days, we see some rebound in Argentina. They are speaking about 10%-20% beginning to increase the price of the land. Regard to the price of the U.S. or to Brazil is huge. There is a big chance of that to reduce on the future. I think there is a drop, a small drop in the price of the land of U.S. and Brazil comparing to an increase.
Of the Argentine measures. I'm optimistic, and we think, and we are going to buy some new pieces in Argentina. We have a big portion in Argentina, so the biggest portfolio of land that we have inside is Argentina. We expect that to reevaluate, but we think we are going to be buying some assets in Argentina this phase two because of these macro situations. Related to Brazil, yes, we are looking for opportunities, mainly in debt situations, forced to sell, but the price of the land went very much up, so the opportunities in Brazil needs to appear because of some prices. In general, prices are high, so in these prices, you don't see any rebound as we see in Argentina, that is probably more possible. Two more on the financial front.
If you sell farms, how would you use that? Capital allocation, would you buy back shares, you could reinvest into new farms, paying dividends? If you can give a little bit of color on capital allocation of CRESUD. I know that like- you making your, the question for you or all of the rest. All of the rest. Yeah. Depending on the situation, we are trying to swap farms that they are mature, and to buy new ones that we think they have a very big room to appreciate. The shares, as always, the share that is very cheap compared to net asset value, we buy.
Every time we plan, we launch a new plan, and, or buy back shares or buying other shares. Reducing debt and increasing irrigation. We are thinking on, in the case of cattle, we are trying to rotate more in the feedlot time that is more profitable and reducing the raising cattle time that is more long and less profitable. Selling, maybe raising and doing more fattening at the end on farms or fat feedlots. Yes, rotating the land. To make a profitable business in agriculture, you need to keep rotating. You have to give to the market what it's really looking and to buy what everyone is hating.
To put it in production again and make, as we always look for the more than 10% yield in the combination of the real estate, operational and service as we are. Good. I will go with the last one. How do you expect to deal with the $200 million maturity next year? Do you plan to tap the local capital market, the international capital market? What we have been doing in the last six months is the taking advantage that there is more liquid in dollar terms in Argentina. There are new credit lines from banks, refinancing of export that are for short-term. Probably when you see the why we have the short-term debt so high, we increased that part because it's efficient in terms of cost.
Yeah, typically we finance our operation. When you see the debt structure is a combination between the bank debt and the capital market. The international capital market, probably you need more size to go. What we learned from IRSA , that investors want at least $300 million size. CRESUD, they don't need, we don't need the $300 million. Probably will be more in the local market than in the international capital market. With this, I think I'm sorry. Also something important is the warrant. We have a warrant outstanding that expire in February last May. Next year. May. No, CRESUD is February next year. CRESUD will receive that warrant is keeping the money.
It's very likely that we will receive proceeds from the warrant. Considering the warrant of CRESUD and the warrant of IRSA that CRESUD has, probably CRESUD will receive around $27 million inflow in that moment.
Perfect. With this, we finish the presentation and the Q&A. Thank you for joining. I will now turn back to Alejandro for his final remarks.
We are waiting for the last quarter, there we are going to close the summer grains, soybean and corn, some cotton. We have a very good position on the region in the four countries, we are very optimistic on the sector. After this news of this weekend, the trading normalization is really relevant.
We need economies to keep growing, and every growth goes to better food consumption to the population that's keeping growing. We are optimistic on the business for the next quarter and for the longer term. Thank you very much, and we'll see you on September, October, closing the annual balance sheet. Thanks a lot.