Good morning, everyone. I'm Santiago Donato, Investor Relations Officer of Cresud, I welcome you to the fiscal year 2024 results conference call. First of all, I would like to remind you that every play 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 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.
Good morning, everyone. We are beginning our closing results of the whole year. Main highlights for fiscal year 2024. This was a challenged campaign in the region, mainly driven by the lower commodity prices that really dropped a lot. We are going to see later, but the 30%, 40% from the last 30th of June to this 30th of June or to August to now. Lack of rains and lower production too in some regions. Last year, northern region was good, but southern region of Argentina was not good. This year, we had the opposite, and the combination for this year damaged some part of our results. Comparing to last year, the south is much better because this year was normal for south.
In Brazil, the lack of rain and lower prices and the basis affecting the sales made the operational result much lower comparing to last year numbers. Talking about the farm sales this year, we had two at the end of last year in Argentina, a portion of Los Pozos and a small portion of El Tigre that we were sharing the last quarters. There is only one new in Brazil, as fraction of Chaparral Farm that was sold on the fourth quarter, main activity of the year and bringing a lot of gain that we are going to show you later. Related to the farm sales was an active, mainly in Brazil.
Related to IRSA, Cresud owning 55% of the stake of IRSA, had a very good adjusted EBITDA related to rental, very good yield, and it's 8%, 9% higher than last year number. Related to the total results, the net result for this year was a gain of ARS 104 billion, from those, ARS 84 billion was to the controlling shareholder. We paid a lot of dividends last year. We had ARS 8.3 in cash and ARS 4.5 in shares of IRSA, plus 1% of the capital stock that we own, we distribute the shares of Cresud. It was a very active year related to dividends. If we move to next page, now page three, we can see the evolution of our total number of hectares.
We have this year a drop comparing to last year. Was not forecast at the beginning. We had this drop related to some areas that were not planted because of the drought affecting them. Was a little decrease to close to 280,000 hectares. We are now expecting to surpass for next year, 300,000 hectares for next campaign. Argentina and Brazil balance in size and the rest Bolivia and Paraguay and some hectares leased to third parties. Related to the breakdown, soybeans close to 50%, corn 22, sugar 13. We are expecting a growth, a combination of growth for next year for some leasing areas for the region. If we move to next page, I will give the word to Diego Chillado Biaus .
Thanks, Alejandro. Morning, everyone. In this page, we will talk about the commodity prices. As Alejandro said, we can see the evolution of commodities prices, and this campaign was marked by the down pressure in the international prices. After the peak reached after pandemic and boosted by Russian-Ukrainian war, soybean and corn international prices have experienced a huge correction, mainly due to the growth in the supply from South America, the increase in production in Argentina and Brazil too. The market is waiting for the demand to be reactivated. Soybeans decreased in range of 38% since June 2023, and corn is down 34%. Regarding input cost, they are still high levels compared to the prices affecting the agricultural margins.
We are starting to see a correction in some inputs as chemical or fertilizers, but they are still far from the pandemic level. In the next page, we can see the farming challenges that we face in the region, mainly due to the climate effect in Argentina, as Alejandro said, Brazil and Paraguay. In Argentina, although yields and national production improved compared to severe drought in 2023, remember last year, the lack of rainfall in the north affect our production, Cresud's production, while the south region had a good harvest. Talking about this, we can share that in Paraguay, the reduction was dramatic. We can see 90% or close to a 100% drop on yield. This is a comparable region to Los Pozos area. The northern part really damaged a lot of Argentina and Paraguay.
The corn production suffered too the impact in this disease, Spiroplasma, chicharrita, that affect our production. The mainly problem was a lack of rain. In Brazil, the main product areas in Brazil have experienced lower yields due to the lack of rain and both soybean corn yield decreased compared the previous campaign. The next page, we can see the regional agricultural production and yields. We show crop production during 2024 campaign. We produced 710,000 tons of rain. This was 7.4% below previous campaign, and as I mentioned, due to the climate in the. Yeah.
Yeah.
Average regional yields decreased by 10% in corn and increased 4% in soybean compared the last year. Regarding the sugarcane, mainly in Brazil, we maintained the production levels similar to 2023, about two million tons. In the next page, we can see the cattle activity. Our branch focus in own farms in northwest in Argentina and Brazil. In the fiscal year with the high meat production levels and very good results due to the significant price improvement in Argentina. The cattle stock in Argentina increased from 53,000 to 58,000 heads and represents 60, no 76% of Cresud's total head in the region, around 75,000 heads. The gross margin, in this segment, was a record in Argentina this year, reaching $8.3 million. That was 159% above last campaign. Alejandro.
Just before changing, we can see the big jump that Argentina did in cattle. We see the yield, the blue line, that is Argentina. We can compare Argentina to the rest of the peers. We see that Argentina surpassed Paraguay and Brazil during this year. It's little below Uruguay prices. This recovery in prices made us a so important profit to Argentina that made more than double last year numbers. Talking about the exchange rate, we can see the evolution that we did in the new government change that was at the end of December last year. We can see in the green, the official to the blue chip was big, the difference. The gap was 100 or 164 at the peak or more.
After the government devaluation that went from 350 to 800, we have been seeing the gap going from 30, 40, 50. Today, it's at a 35% gap between the official and the formal dollar. Farmers are receiving a mixed the, of the two, the farmers are in a gap of 20% to the Blue Chip. Really, farmers are recovering a lot their situation related to FX, and that is really helping farmers a lot. Later, there was an appreciation of the peso because the devaluation was, of the formal, was 2%. Some appreciation of the peso we had during the year, but really the main effect for farmers is it was very, very, very good to the industry. Saying that, we can move to next page, number nine.
Here we see the three sales. The two 1st are in Argentina, were done in the 1st quarter, the last one is in this 4th quarter. They are the two small sales, partial but very profitable in Argentina. Internal rates of return of 14%, 16%, almost all gain. We cannot see the green because it's so small, the book value of those two farms that's appears close to all yellow. Meaning that really our book value doesn't reflect because they're very old farms in our book. El Tigre is not so old, but still we paid much less than we sold. We were paying $1,000 per hectare, we're selling at seven and a half thousand dollars per hectare.
Really, the small fraction in the dollars at the time of the book makes two only yellow bars. Only talking about the new one, Chaparral, here, a big gain too, a sale of almost $47.3 million, $43 of gain, $26 of book. This is a really good sale. Fraction of the Chaparral sale is a third of the farm. With this third, we sold many times what we bought comparing the price and the CapEx we did. Here, the dollar internal rate of return is close to 8% because of the time we bought it was at two, now it's at five, and the time to sell, really a very good transaction, bringing a very good gain to this fourth quarter. If we move to the next page, we can see the evolution of the last 10 years.
Here, the profit is the yellow. Last year, we made a 48 to 27 of book, selling $75 million. That is not very far from the media of the last 10 years, the 75 of this year. We can see that the last five, at the peak of the prices, were the COVID time, the company were selling close to $300 million of farms. Now we think the adjustment is coming. Here we see the evolution, no? Prices of the last 22, 2020. In the graph on the right, we see the prices of U.S., in Iowa, in Brazil, in Mato Grosso region, and Argentina. Argentina is connected to the rest in 2012, close to that year. From that time, Argentina really went very far to convert that we were very close in years before.
Now Argentina is beginning the recovery, and we see some points showing a small increase on the price. In the opposite, we see in the U.S. and in Brazil a beginning of a drop on the prices of the land. This is because of the revenues and margins to farmers are decreasing, and the denominator, that is the interest of the debt, it's increasing. The combination of two is making some adjustment, still small, but beginning of an adjustment on the price on the other areas. In Argentina, a reconnection to the price that in the past we were very close.
After what we spoke about the gap decrease between the two dollars and maybe some news coming to the taxes on exports, that could continue the reduction of the gap between the two countries and Argentina. Saying that, I will talk about some figures about FyO, our investment in the commercial services in page 11. Here we see that there was a recovery on the harvest of the country, and the FyO went from the 5.5 million tons of last year to close to seven million tons, 6.8, more than 6% of Argentine total harvest campaign. This is really a big generator of EBITDA. This service company is really improving its capacity year after year.
The EBITDA of this company, after not having a so important operation in the rest of the region, is beginning to be more relevant year after year. Saying that, I will now give the word to Mr. Santi Donato.
Thank you, Alejandro. Here we can see the ESG progress during 2024 campaign. We obtained new RTRS certifications for soybean and corn production at two farms in Argentina. El Tigre, that last year we certified soybean, and this year we added corn. La Gramilla, that is part of our farm, Agroriego, we certified soybean this year. In total, we have, like, 5,100 soy hectares certified in Argentina. This is around 17,000 tons of soy. We certified 2,200 corn hectares for a total 18,000 tons production in El Tigre farm. We are very happy with these achievements.
This certification is very important in the market, in the sector, and it's very valued by investors and by international market because it recognize the company's commitment to good business practices, the provision of good working conditions, respect and relationship with local communities, care for the environment and production, and their adequate agricultural practices. We did some others like 2BS, EPA, and Triple S Soy from Cargill. We obtained one year more the Responsible Wool Standard certification from our wool production in the south of Argentina in our farm, 8 de Julio. On the social front, we increased this year our investment. We did more than 100 social actions. We work with more than 100 NGOs. We did an important investment with a focus on education.
We have a school there in the north of Argentina, María Julia Oliván . Next year we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of this school. We are very happy on our contribution to education and health infrastructure in the rural communities and in near our farms in the country. Now I will give the word to Matías for, to show the results of IRSA as an investment of Cresud.
Thank you very much, Santi. Good morning, everybody. On page 13, we have our investment in IRSA. Remember that we control 55% of IRSA. This year was an special year for IRSA. We started this first half of the year with very good numbers on consumption. Due to the acceleration of inflation, people tend t o use the ARS fast, and consumption was booming. The second half of the year was different, and with the new implementation of the new macroeconomic policies, there was a reduction in consumption. Although this volatility, we closed the year with very good numbers, good results in the three rental segments.
Our rental segment including offices, hotels, and malls, finished the year with adjusted EBITDA, surpassing 8.8% the year ago. We were very strong in real estate activity with acquisitions, sales, and swaps. We did many transactions during the year. We announced some new projects, and the main project of IRSA, that is Ramblas del Plata, formerly known as Costa Urbana. We are giving the steps to launch the project in this fiscal year.
IRSA during the year was very active in the financial front and distributed dividends in two tranches, October and November last year and May during this year. There was a dividend yield of 13% and 7%, and also distributed own shares for a total amount of 1.7% of the total stock. Also did buybacks for 4% of the total outstanding shares, investing around $23 million at the Blue Chip swap. The rental adjusted EBITDA, if you see in dollar terms, there was 2.3% below last year. This is because of the devaluation during the year, but we are happy with the numbers. If we move to page 15, we can see what happened with the main drivers on the economy.
The devaluation during the year was 255%, the inflation was 272%. We have a real appreciation of 4% that will trigger some profits when we reexpress our dollar-denominated debt into pesos. Regarding the Blue Chip swap, the dollar MEP, also there was an appreciation, in this case, by 25%. That is very significant, and that has an effect when we value some investment properties of IRSA in pesos that generated losses during the year. If we move to the next page, we can see on the operating results better numbers compared with the previous year. We can see a jump of 188% compared with the previous year. We can see better results in all the segments.
Grain, we have better results. When we analyzed the reasons, there was two different components. In Brazil, we have lower results, in Argentina, we have better. Brazil is related to lower margins, lower prices, and higher costs. In Argentina, we have better yields in soy and wheat, lower in corn, lower prices in general in all the segments. Also remember that during the last year, we had the severe drought that affected significantly our wheat production. This year was much better compared with the previous one. In general terms, good results. This is compared with the previous year, no? Regarding the sugarcane this year, this is mainly related to our production in Brazil. We have higher hectares sown, higher production, lower cost, compensated somehow with lower prices.
The cattle activity, as Diego shown before, there was very good results with better production in terms of kilograms produced, better prices, better volume sold, and lower cost. When we reexpress the numbers in real adjusted by inflation in the case of Argentina, that triggered some losses, but it's related to this adjustment. This is a non-cash effect, no. If we move to next page. Sorry. Before there was also an important effect regarding farmland sales. You can see an improvement of by 54%. During the year, basically, we sold the two farms in Argentina and Chaparral in Brazil that generated very good profits, better than the previous year.
We can see that together with years and all the consolidated basis on the operational income, we have an improvement by 126%. Is leaving aside the effect on the fair value of the investment properties that is mainly related to IRSA. We include that effect, the change in the fair value, there was an important loss of ARS 348 billion. We analyze that number in dollar terms, is basically the same than the previous year. We have similar numbers in offices and in the land bank, a little higher in shopping malls. When we convert those numbers into real ARS, that generate that loss. It's a non-cash effect, we will have this kind of volatility every quarter.
About the financial impact during the year, we have a profit on the financial side of ARS 138 billion . Here we have different effects. First, the liquidity of the company is basically at IRSA level and in FyO and in BrasilAgro trigger important gains in pesos term. We have the inflation adjustment that generate the ARS 40 billion of loss during the year. The other net financial results, when we include all the impact of the hedge transaction that is basically at FyO, BrasilAgro, and Cresud level, that trigger the loss of ARS 63 billion negative. Regarding the net interest, here is weird, we have a gain of ARS 4.4 billion .
This is related also with the composition of the debt, when we have some ARS debt that are at interest rate lower than inflation, that trigger gains. When we analyze that in dollar terms, since the reduction of the debt, basically at IRSA level and also at Cresud level, we have lower interest that we are paying and also some reduction in the average interest rate. Finally, the net effects result. This is the impact of converting the dollar-denominated debt into ARS that generated gains during the year of ARS 59 billion. With all of this, we finished the year with a net income positive by ARS 104 billion. Attributable to our main shareholders is ARS 84 billion.
Compared with the previous year, that was a gain of ARS 279 billion and ARS 156 billion attributable to our main shareholders. If we go to page 19, we can see what we did during the year. We decided to distribute dividends in two tranches. The first one was in October, and the second one was in May. In October, we paid in cash on a total amount of ARS 22 billion and in kind with IRSA shares, 22 million shares. That was together a dividend yield of 8.3%. In May, we decided to pay a dividend in cash of ARS 30 billion. That was a dividend yield of 4.5%.
Also during the year, we distributed some treasury shares that we own, that represented around 1% of our total outstanding shares. When we analyze the debt on page 20, although we paid that significant amount of dividends during the year, we reduced our debt, amounting to $298 million, compared with some years ago that we used to have more than $400 million. The debt amortization schedule going forward is in control. We can manage. We have plenty of credit lines and access to the market, so we believe that we can manage very well the next amortizations during the year. The last issuance that we did was in July. That issued $20.6 million in a dollar-linked note with a maturity in July 2027, at an interest rate of 1.5% per year. With this, we finish the formal presentation. Now we open the line to receive your questions.
Well, we've started the Q&A session. If you have a question, please use the chat. We will take them in the order we receive them. Thank you very much. Here we have some questions related more on the financial front. The first one, if Cresud expects to pay dividends this year, this 2024?
Yes, we are thinking. Sorry. One second. Sorry. Yes, we are thinking to pay dividends again. This week, we will submit the proposal from our board of directors to the shareholders meeting. We will announce this week the proposal.
Another one, here, the market seems to be valuing IRSA much more than Cresud. Are you considering any actions to close this valuation gap, such as buying more Cresud shares or issuing IRSA shares to Cresud shareholders?
Well, so far what we were privileging, the liquidity at Cresud level and keep paying dividends. We decided to use all the liquidity to pay dividends, and not to buy back shares at Cresud levels, at least in the past months. The last year we did some buybacks, not this year. It's something that we will consider if we see such a gap. We believe that if the IRSA shares are trading well, then sooner or later, that effect should be impacted in our own valuation as well.
Well, there's just another question here on a similar direction. During the evaluation of Cresud, with investment in IRSA, BrasilAgro, like the farmland in Argentina is attractive, at attractive discount on prices. How do you suggest to get a fair value of your company in the market? I don't know, Mati, if you have something to add or you have already answered with the previous question.
I think it's part of our strategy. You know, if we believe that there are good prices on the land, we will try to execute and sell properties. It's part of what we have been doing for the last 20 years. Not always the liquidity on the farms is high, you know. In Argentina, the last years were, because of the macro situation, was a little tougher to sell properties. You saw what we did during the year, that we sold two plot of land of two farms. It's something that we will continue if we see opportunities to do that.
Good. One else regarding, Do you plan to purchase farmland in Argentina?
No, don't see it.
Sorry, again, Santi.
Do we plan to buy farmland in Argentina?
Yes. We didn't put on the presentation, but at the same time we sold in Argentina, we bought more than what we sold. We bought a piece of land close to El Tigre. When we sold the 500, we bought 1,250 at the 60 km, at half of the price we were selling. The net on that was positive. Argentina is attractive in prices, and we saw the comparison to Brazil and United States. Yes, we are searching to make some acquisition in the year, if we can, to Argentina. We expect if the adjustment comes to Brazil, and we are seeing some opportunities coming, companies that enter to the business with a lot of in-debt, and after many years of not very good results and pressed by the debt going up, they are forced to sell. Maybe yes, some acquisitions on the region.
Perfect. One else related to the farming activity. What do you expect the impact of the reduction of the Impuesto PAIS for imports in margins?
This impact is coming a little late for the year, so majority of the farmers are.
Bought.
Bought. They bought majority of the inputs. When you do that in September, Argentina plants in October, November, December, comes very close. That impact will affect some, but not the main at the beginning. Yes, there was a drop on 10% on the cost for importing, and this is good, relevant. As the gap going smaller to the farmers related to the Blue Chip, the two measures are very good for farmers. But for this campaign, I think it's going to affect, but not so much because it's a little late. In our case, we have bought more than.
60% at least of fertilizer, maybe 60% of the chemicals. Yeah.
Yes. 60% of the campaign was bought before. The next 40% is going to be reflecting if the prices are decreasing after this measure of last week. Yes, we are going to see. With the farmers need that measure because margins are decreasing a lot after the drop of the prices. Everything that will help inputs to be adjusting to the new margins, to the new prices, really will be very beneficial to farmers in Argentina. Next step will be going to zero. That is announced for the end of the year, that the PAIS, the tax, the Impuesto PAIS is going to disappear at the end of the year. They said the day they will be able, they are going to be decreasing the taxes on exports.
It's a promise that every time that Milei has, repeats, he's going to do, but he's not forcing. As the last time with Macri came to government, did that adjustment the first two weeks. Milei is not doing. He wants to show the surplus and the unification of the U.S. dollars before taking some of taxes on exports.
Here is another question related to the number of shares and treasury that Cresud has, and I have here the figure, a little bit more than 1.9 million shares in treasury. I see some questions related to IRSA. Probably those questions we are more on the IRSA front, so you have our contact, the IR contact or other questions on IRSA side. There is one related to the public hearing that took place last year regarding Ramblas del Plata , that process. Sorry, Alejandro?
You said last year, it's last week.
No, sorry. Last week. That took place. It was part of the process in order to be able to launch the project in the coming month. If you have some follow-up questions related to IRSA, we can have a follow-up call with the IR team for sure. I hear there is another one. How do you see Argentine economy developing under this new administration? Are you generally positive on the future economic development? Are the reduction in inflation, export restrictions, et cetera? How do you see the evolution of the economy moving forward?
I think Argentina made a really a big change, a very big change, after years and years of spending and not counting on the spending and not caring on that. A lot of distortions in prices, in the things, in the tariffs, in the products. I think what the government is bringing is really new air for an economy that really was suffering all kind of problems, from default of the debt, from macroeconomic problems and devaluation, an inflation of more than 200%. Really, the government decided a big change on the direction. This is not free, and we are seeing part of that. The part of that, it's. There was a big decrease of the GDP of the country, a big impact on sales.
We are beginning to see some new air again and selling of sales. If we can talk about our own sales on the shoppings, we are seeing some new good sales after July, I would say August. There are some rebounds, not as big as probably they liked, but they were expecting a year of adjustments, and we are passing a year of a lot of adjustments and a lot of bureaucratic change in the country. The direction that the economy is going, I think is very good. Still very early. After many years, the change will take time. I think the government today is showing to have good measures related to economy.
Lot of criticism from many parts, from opposition, from journalists, from many other, but I think the country direction is going well. It's going to a real economy with real prices, with real things, and I think will take time, but it's. I'm optimistic that the economy is going to rebound next year. This is a tough year for sure, but it sounds like next, with a normal activity in the minery and in the oil industry and the agriculture that it's not good prices, but it's good in hills again after the drought of last year in the Pampas affecting so much. I think as a lot of plus some new rules that they are building, there is a.
Fiscal amnesty.
A fiscal amnesty that will help part of our accounts. A lot of taxes that are being paid these days. I think the government is running properly to pay the cost and pay the interest of the debt, so it's going to be a serious government reflecting a connection. Like the price of the land is intending to reconnect the country to the rest of the economies. Mati, do you want to add something else related to economy? I think.
No, I think you're covered very well.
Thank you, Alejandro. With this, we can conclude the presentation. I don't know if you want to add something as closing remarks. I think you ended with the last question, but if you want to add something regarding the prospect for the next campaign, and we close the presentation.
I think these situations where margins are decreasing because how Diego explained about the cost of inputs not being so cheap, like the prices before pandemic prices. That decrease took time and still takes time. Plus the prices of our outputs are very decreased comparing to the last five years. Situation for farmers is tougher in the world. What this makes is you have to be a better farmer. This is our mission for the year. We are going to plant more than 300,000 hectares, and you have to be a very good production manager to run in this new environment. What I think that our strategy is not to be a pure farmer, it is to be a good farmer in the times, but to take the opportunities when we find them.
This environment probably is more opportunistic for Cresud and BrasilAgro, where our activity of buying and selling helps us a lot in our mission. We think this environment probably will help us to acquire more that we would like. We were speaking about the $300 million we sold the last five years. Maybe it's time, if they appear, to begin some of the acquisitions for Cresud related to farming and the continuation of the expansion of FyO to the rest of the region. We think time of opportunities for our company. With that, we are closing another year very well, paying dividends again and having a company that decreased a lot its debt. IRSA and BrasilAgro and everything. We are very happy with the situation of the companies today.
Thank you for everyone, for all the investors helping and supporting Cresud mission. We see you next quarter, the 30 of September, that we're going to be, probably in November, giving the results. Thank you very much.