Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Baris Harris Corp Solutions Fiscal Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. My name is Victoria and I will be coordinating your call today. If you'd like to ask a question during the presentation, you may do so by pressing Star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, please press Star 2. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure that your line is unmuted locally. I will now pass over to your host, Rodrigo Kraus, Head of Investor Relations, to begin. Please go ahead.

Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Presenting during today's call will be Federico Trucco, our Chief Executive Officer, and Enrique Lopez-Lecure, our Chief Financial Officer. Both will be available for the Q&A session. Before we proceed, I would like to make the following safe harbor statement. Today's call will contain forward-looking statements, and I refer you to the forward-looking statement section of today's earnings release and presentation, as well as in our recent findings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new or changed events or circumstances. Also, please note that for comparison purposes and a better understanding of our company's underlying performance, and in addition to discussing as reported results during our presentation today, we will discuss comparable results which exclude the impact of hyperinflation accounted 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 at the BFCADIScrop.com investor relations site. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Federico Trucco. Thank you.

Federico Trucco Thanks, Valerio. Good morning and welcome to all that have joined us today for our quarterly report. Please turn to slide three for a brief overview of the business and financial highlights we will be discussing into this call. We are thrilled to report a record quarter in the history of our company with quarterly comparable revenues at $90.3 million and LDM adjusted EBITDA at $61.8 million, excluding HV4 pre-dawn costs. Our very strong second quarter's performance reflects an 89% growth in revenues over the same quarter of last year, with robust growth across all three business segments. We're also very proud to report that our combined growth in Europe and North America at 146% year-over-year places these important geographies at close to 10% of our global revenues, a huge step forward in our international diversification strategy. As we have done in past calls, we will provide a brief update on the HB4 rollout and regulatory processes. On this last front, I would like to mention the recent announcement in November 2021 by the Brazilian National Biosafety Commission , that decided unanimously to approve the import certification for HB4 wheat flour for human and animal consumption in that country. This approval is a major milestone in the Aceris' mission to build agricultural systems that enhance carbon sequestration and climate resiliency, and is a necessary step for a commercial launch in the upcoming planting season. Please now turn to slide four for an overview on our season's results for HB4 wheat as we completed harvesting of 53,000 hectares. HB4 wheat performance was consistent with prior seasons, with HB4 varieties outyielding non-HB4 varieties by 12.8% across all environments and locations, with improved performance in local activity environments, where the yield benefit averaged 49%. Some important takeaways from the current season are the improved sanitary and quality profiles observed in our HP4 materials. For instance, the prevalence of yellow rust in HP4 varieties was 70 times lower than in commercial controls in infected fields. As we expand acreage and achieve exposure to a wider array of growing conditions, we are also able to identify some limitations in our current first-generation portfolio, particularly in terms of lodging in undernourished environments and lower yield groups under high productivity conditions, most notoriously above the five pounds per hectare level. We expect to overcome these limitations with the introduction of second-generation genetics, as we will discuss in slide six. and with grower education activities. In slide five, you will see performance results by region and grower satisfaction levels. It is very important to note that 225 growers participated in the current season. representing an unprecedented level of preload grower scrutiny for the technology and for our identity preserve production program. Year improvements ranged from 5.7% to 39.6% across all environments and regions. Regions where benefits were lower reflected limited adaptation by current materials, and conversely in regions where gains were more relevant. Growers satisfaction levels ranged between 60 and 80 percent in regions where yield benefits were below average and increased to above 80 percent where benefits were close to or above average. We believe that the current level of performance information by region by productivity conditions and by grower profile provide us a very valuable data to fine-tune our value proposition and portfolio mix ahead of our upcoming launch. Turning now to slide six, as noted, we expect to minimize geographical limitations and improve grower experience under high-yielding conditions as we expand our portfolio to include second-gen materials. Our current data show an average improvement of 16% in environments yielding above 5 tons per hectare for new materials when compared to first-generation varieties. We are moving at full biological speed to include these newer materials in our offering, planning to contract 30% of the 23-24 season multiplication cycle with these second-generation varieties. Please turn to slide seven for our current thinking regarding the HP4 weed opportunity in key markets. LACAM represents a total market of roughly 9.5 million hectares, of which Argentina, South America's biggest weed producer, contributes with 6.5 million. We believe we can capture an estimated 2.3 million hectares with our available portfolio and near-term pipeline, and we're currently requesting registration of three commercial varieties. We estimate an incremental EBITDA of between $15 and $20 million by fiscal year 24, with peak sales in this market projected in the $190 to $200 million range. We also expect to grow beyond Argentina as we secure cultivation approval in Brazil, the second largest LATAM market. Production approval in Brazil is now expected for 2023 after completing in-country evaluations. We believe that H3-4 technology may enable significant market expansion in this country, particularly as tropical germplasm currently being tested for reproduction in the Serranos region is incorporated to the pipeline. Brazil may therefore represent an additional opportunity of between 700,000 to 1.1 million hectares in the medium term. Beyond Latin America, we are currently pursuing production approvals in the United States, Australia, and South Africa. These geographies combined represent twice the hectare opportunity currently being pursued in Latin America, although in a longer time horizon. Please turn to slide eight. On this slide, we address the rollout of new age report soil varieties. As we anticipated in our fourth quarter call of fiscal year 2021, we decided to discontinue the ramp-up process for first-generation materials in favor of second- and third-generation varieties. Third-generation varieties were multiplied off-season in the United States and resulting inventories planted in full in the current cycle, totaling approximately 1.5 thousand hectares, which are generally in good condition. In the case of second-generation materials, where the germ class and drag was not fully eliminated, we decided to reposition a significant part of the multiplication process as a follow-up crop to wheat in later season plantings. Data from the 2021 season indicated that the use of these materials as a second crop in later season plantings showed little, if any, performance gap under higher yielding conditions. Unfortunately, the lack of rain during December made some of the locations we selected no longer suitable for the ramp-up process, and consequently, we achieved 60% of the planned area for second-generation plantings. Despite not fully achieving our notification objective in the current cycle, we still believe resulting inventories may reach launch-level readiness for the next season. Finally, turning to the next slide, in our progression to further enhance our business worldwide and develop top-performing genetics for VH3 portraits and new technologies, we have brought on board Alexander Garcilia as Global Head of SEEDS. Alex has led P&G's innovation and R&D initiatives for many years, and has collaborated actively and meaningfully from the P&G side on HB4 technology development in the world. We take this opportunity to welcome Alex to the MSNs family and wishing every success in his new position. This concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Enrique Lopez-Lecue, to discuss our fiscal second quarter financial results. Enrique.