Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the BioSeries Crop Solutions Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised, today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I'd now like to hand the conference over to Maximo Goya. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Presenting today's call is Mr. Erico Trucco, our Chief Executive Officer, and Enrique López-Lecue, our Chief Financial Officer. Both will be available for the Q&A session. Before I proceed, I would like to make the following state-powered statement. Today's calling contains forward-looking statements, and I refer you to the forward-looking statements section of today's earnings-releasing presentation, as well in our recent filings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new or change events or circumstances. Also, please note that for comparison purposes and a better understanding of our company's underlying performance, In addition to discussing our reported results, during our presentation today, we will discuss comparative results, which exclude the impact of hyperinflation accounting in Argentina. Additional information in connection with the application of the rule IAS 29 can be found in our earnings report. Finally, this conference call is being webcast. The webcast link is available in the investor relations sections of pscrubs.com. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Federico Trucco.

Thanks, Max, and thank you all for joining us today. Please turn to slide three for a brief overview of the business and financial highlights we will discuss in today's call. From a baseline business perspective, compatible revenues were up 39% to $72.4 million in the quarter, and 13% to $197.4 million for fiscal year 21, with LTM adjusted EBITDA at $48.3 million. Momentum consolidated in the fourth quarter, confirming a very strong second half to fiscal year 21, driven predominantly by sustained microbial fertilizer sales and the reorganization of the crop protection business. These revenues do not account for approximately $7.2 million of the total of $8.3 million of HB4 program contributed goods, with an average gross margin of 43%. However, Associated operating expenses were fully discounted from the adjusted EBITDA indicated above. H3-4 program revenues will be recognized once realized inventories are no longer contributed, but rather sold as seed or grain. Top-line growth for the quarter allowed us to remain on track with our historical LTM double-digit growth trajectory. while at the same time supporting the HB4 program rollout. Enrique will provide greater details around our financial performance for the quarter and full fiscal year later on this presentation. On the HB4 front, we have scaled up eight times compared to the previous year, with a total of close to 80,000 hectares planted with over 10 different wheat and soy 834 varieties. As we have done in previous calls, I will provide a more detailed update on agronomic performance, farmer acceptance, inventory scaling up process, or breeding efforts and collaborations across the Americas, and the current regulatory status for each crop. Two relevant highlights worth noting ahead of our more in-depth discussion are the regulatory clearance obtained in Canada for HB4 soy, and the expansion of our collaboration agreement with Grupo Don Mario to North America, especially targeting the Southern Canada, Minnesota, and the Dakotas region. We will also discuss these two highlights in greater depth in the next slides. Please turn to slide four for an update on the ongoing HB4 wheat season. HB4 wheat was planted in 55,000 hectares with contributed goods totaling $6.4 million. As previously explained, the value of these contributed goods will be recognized as revenues once the realized inventories are sold as seed or grains but not longer contributed. The current multiplication area represents a 7.8 times increase over last year's efforts. including varieties adapted to 75% of Argentina's addressable market. The number of participating growers increased eightfold, with a 100% grower repeat rate, and very importantly, with 95% of participants onboarding digitally. The crop is evolving favorably, with recent rains normalizing the drought situation suffered in some of the subregions. In slide five, you will see the results of our HB4 soil ramp-up process as we finish harvesting all 23,000 hectares planted last season. From a trade performance perspective, results were aligned with technology expectations, with HB4 materials showing significant yield benefits in highly restricted environments. particularly in those with average yields below 1.5 tons per hectare. However, the accumulated yield benefit was diluted as moderate to highly productive environments were aggregated, as current germplasm is still behind some of the most competitive commercial materials. This germplasm drag can be better observed as we zoom into the discrete yield intervals in the next slide, with as much as 9.1% yield reduction on average in environments between 2.5 and 3.5 tons per hectare. This phenomenon was more pronounced in our eldest varieties, which yielded on average 11% less than a selected group of top commercial performers. The germplasm drag became less concerning as we evaluated newer materials, with second-generation materials on only 3% below the same group of commercial controls and some third-generation varieties matching and even beating top commercial performers. One interesting observation illustrated in slide seven is that when cropped after wheat in double cropping systems, the germplasm drag is minimized and performance greatly improved, at least in some of the second-generation materials where these could be tested. And this is shown here in the current slide. In summary, turning to the next slide, HB4 wheat inventory ramp-up is progressing as expected, considering that we still have not received Brazil's regulatory clearance. which we will discuss in a moment. HV4 soil inventory ramp-up is being redesigned to address termplasm drag in earlier materials with ramp-up of first-generation materials discontinued and second-generation materials repositioned to double cropping systems as we accelerate multiplication of third-generation materials targeting the broadest HV4 acreage opportunity. Turn to slide nine. Concomitantly with our internal efforts, we're expanding our existing collaboration with top-tier soybean germplasm developer, Grupo Don Mario, with which we signed a new agreement during the quarter to jointly develop and commercialize HB4 soy in North America, more specifically in the subregion including southern Canada, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. where we believe there are approximately 10 million hectares highly prone to water deficit. As you may recall, Grupo do Mário is an early licensee of the HP4 trait for its Latin America soybean programs. And also, during the last year, we have expanded our green collaboration with PMG, one of Brazil's top providers of soybean genetics, with 173 pre-commercial HB4 soy varieties currently being tested, and approximately 100 hectares of demo plots being organized with selected farmers during the upcoming season in that country. So GDM and TMG are expected to provide materials as soon as 2023 for the HB4 program in LATAM, as well as commercialized directly in the future using their existing go-to-market models. Finally, turning to the next slide, I will discuss the main regulatory highlights for the quarter. Received regulatory approval for each report soil from the Canadian Health Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. As you know, with approximately 2.5 million hectares farmed every year and yields often below the three pounds per hectare, Canada's soybean production regions are well suited for HB4 value generation. So HB4 soybean is approved today for production in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Canada, representing 85% of the world's soybean hectarage. During the quarter, our regulatory teams admitted HB4 wheat consumption approval requests in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Indonesia. Near the end of the quarter, Yoselis received a formal requirement from Setenebio, the Brazilian regulatory body, to provide additional gene expression information for native, non-targeted genes of relevance to regulators. This information was produced and filed with Setenevio by August 18th, continuing the HB4 wheat regulatory process in that country. No additional information has been requested during the quarter by Chinese regulatory authorities regarding HB4 soy, and we believe both regulators, Brazil and China, should be able to resolve approval requests in their upcoming proceedings and look forward to communicating their findings as they are informed to us. This concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Enrique Lopez-Lecue, to discuss our fiscal fourth quarter financial results. Enrique.