speaker
Operator
Moderator

Good afternoon to all.

speaker
Ana Paula
Head of Investor Relations

We have a lot of people connected to hear our results. My name is Ana Paula, Head of Investor Relations at Brasil Agro. We're here to talk about the earnings in Q1, the harvest, our financial statements, follow the harvest year to minimize the impacts of seasonality planting and harvesting so here we will be talking about q2 2023 and first six months of the same period for those who are hearing in english the presentation is available in chat So the presentation is available in the chat for those who are following us in English. Today we have our CEO, Andre Guillaumont, and Gustavo Javier Lopes, our CFO, to explain to you a little of what happened in the last few months and talk about perspectives for the future. Thank you. I'd like to pass the floor to Andre. Andre, you have the floor. Thank you, Ana Paula. I'd like to thank you all for participating. Please uncomment the earnings, bringing the company's numbers, the expectations. Ana used a very wise word, seasonality. Seasonality is a characteristic that is inherent to agribusiness. And we will explain some important numbers And some of these things have to do with seasonality and also the decision to sell. And I hope that at the end of the call, we will have questions. We continue believing a lot in the company's results, in the company's business. We will have a quarter with interesting points about sugarcane. But Surely, you will see the meaning of these numbers. Another challenge, companies like us who have a double strategy, operational results plus sale of farms, real estate happens, the sale of real estate, it happened, we made a small sale, and of course, the objective is to to really take the decision to sell at a time when we have a good liquidity in the market. Let's see the highlights. We need a lot of time for the questions. Financial highlights. We have net revenue, 484 million. Net income, 29 million. Adjusted a bit to 124 million. We had a sale, a small sale, approximately 900 hectares. A sale in Rio do Meio sold for 62.4 million showing once again reminding you this asset came from the purchase we made. We sold part of this land previously. And once again, we have a good result selling another part. Operational highlights in the semester. We finished planting grains. Here we have cotton also. Everything that was planted in the semester until December 30th. We still have some grains, some grain at the end of the planting in Paraguay. which is not included in this number, but these are important highlights. A little later, we will talk about what is happening in this harvest. Next.

speaker
Andre Guillaumont
Chief Executive Officer

When we talk about what we expect for harvest,

speaker
Ana Paula
Head of Investor Relations

this year and the next year's earnings, we have important sustainability commodities. When we talk about soybean, we're talking about a super harvest, more than 150 million tons in Brazil. But when we look at international levels, we have 4.5 million tons in inventory in the world. We have a super harvest. We have also Argentina with an important drop in the harvest. And this is positioning, this is affecting Chicago in an aggressive way. Brazil has a record of a little over 150 million tons. And every day the number surprises you. But the number was around 134, 135 million tons. Someone said I'm speaking a little low.

speaker
Andre Guillaumont
Chief Executive Officer

Okay.

speaker
Ana Paula
Head of Investor Relations

When we look at the other commodities, we have a drop, a small drop in the price of cotton. This is linked to inflation, to restrictions due to the coronavirus. So it's a commodity that is going like we always say. It has a stable price.

speaker
Andre Guillaumont
Chief Executive Officer

Also, we have the China effect and ethanol.

speaker
Ana Paula
Head of Investor Relations

Ethanol is a highlight. We will talk a lot about this here. We have many effects, but especially in taxation and talking about taxes. No one likes to talk about taxes. our tax burden in Brazil is going down, but this brings competitiveness for non-fossil fuels with a carbon footprint, which is low. So in fact, if we are concerned with the climate around the world, so this is one of the points that will bring transformation. Here we show the behavior of the curve. Next, when we, it's important when we talk about seasonality, we're in a harvest where we had a cost of planting. I don't remember such high prices for planting during my life. All the farmers paid a premium to be able to plant the purchase of fertilizer during last year. for this harvest now in progress, and we begin to see signs of fertilizer prices going back to historical levels. So we saw a map going from 400 to 1200. The company really bought at 950, but when we look at chloride, We bought a little before the war. I already mentioned this. And urea seasonality. I would like to highlight a graph that is here, where we see the numbers, the number of tons per bag. When you have stable prices for soybean, we see this relationship between product and fertilizer going back to levels that are close to historical levels. And this will give us a recovery in the margins for farmers, bringing also liquidity. And we will be talking more about this. Well, just a little information here just to Fertilizer was a concern. We have bought everything, and we're now buying some fertilizers that we believe are strategic, and we have seen some changes in the prices, and we'd like to remind you, when we decide to buy fertilizer, we look at contribution margin. So, we always make the decision based on how much we will sell. So this is a new slide that we're including, showing once again the company's concern with its business and also sustainability. As I always said, sustainability is in the company's DNA, a company that develops land in frontier regions and also is concerned about social issues. We are the first company to be part of the Novo Mercado in the SEC, and I will show you highlights for each one of these lines. The highlights for harvest 21, 22, 23 in the environment, we determined to do the first report, the inventory of greenhouse effect gases. This is fundamental for us and to be more efficient as the years go by. In the social, concerning social issues with our institute, we have a summary. In the institute, we're closing the semester here. In the institute, our projects are annual projects, so we have this highlight. The institute, led by Ana Paula and her team, Tania and Carla, we we help more than 18 000 people reminding you that there is a focus on education education building schools preparing teachers in the regions where we are working in governance not only due to new regulations from the sec in brazil the cbm We had the approval of transactions with related parties. This also is very good for the investors. Also, we have an audit committee now and the maintenance of the tax committee. On the same page, what do we have?

speaker
Andre Guillaumont
Chief Executive Officer

We have the matrix

speaker
Ana Paula
Head of Investor Relations

where we hired an outside company that does these reports on materiality. Eight points are analyzed in this matrix, eight points, beginning with health and in the workplace, people development, also greenhouse effect gases, climate changes, compliance management of water resources relationship with communities so what changed from the previous matrix to the current matrix it included the sas methodology so a new balance some factors were included in the matrix one thing that is new innovation and technology productivity we already had Now it is more important, greenhouse effect gases, relationship with communities and biodiversity. So what do we do with this? We bring this inside the company and we work with the company's management and also civil society. We work on an action plan. We work on an action plan and... Then we will have new surveys and make the necessary changes. Well, here it's important to say that we're preparing the company more and more. We will show the growth, but the company this year is investing more than 85 million. And here we separated some groups. I'd like to highlight when we talk about technology, we had projects in connectivity and important projects for monitoring and mapping in a just-in-time way. Also in technology, bio-inputs, in infrastructure, we are building, we are now an important producer of soybean we had a very small production of seeds for our units we were a small producer of seeds we're expanding this we want to be able to supply seeds that are our own seeds certifying this initially we want to have a production unit for seeds for our needs

speaker
Andre Guillaumont
Chief Executive Officer

This has to do with the following.

speaker
Ana Paula
Head of Investor Relations

When we talked about irrigation, this is in a unit where we have an irrigation project that allows us to improve the production of seeds. Some that we have some seeds that we use are difficult to replicate. We're checking all the units where we have irrigation to produce seeds. I'd like to call your attention. The company is beginning to have a more integrated vision, looking at where we can be more efficient within the chain and where we have value. We're analyzing and working on this. The company also, most of these 85 million in investments are being invested in transformation. During the semester, we increased land. We acquired Panambi Farm in a partnership, also Regalitos. We acquired in Mato Grosso, Panamin Querencia, Regalito. in São Félix do Xingu and São Domingos Farm, a new region in the west of Mato Grosso. So these are 15,000 hectares that are now in operation that we transformed and we'd like to remind you all these units will plant the second crop. So 15,000 hectares is a physical area, a little over 15, almost 16, 17,000 hectares are being transformed. Well, I believe that here we have a highlight in spite of being a company that sells assets. When we look at the graph on the left, we went from 134,000 hectares to 170,000 hectares in the last five years. So this is a highlight. The company had the capacity to add a little more than 22,000 useful hectares. When we add the growth of area, even with sale, we saw the company's capacity to always increase its capacity to generate value to investors. And in the pie charts we have here on the right, the breakdown of the company is more and more diversified now due to volatility in prices and commodities. The graph on the right shows areas that are ours, areas that are leased to third parties. So our objective, I already mentioned this many times, leasing must mitigate volatility our own land reduces the need for captain so it's a win-win situation well here everyone's interested to see what happened with sugar cane and the harvest the harvest a hundred percent of the planting is over we finished planting within the windows that we call ideal planting windows. In Brazil and in Paraguay, we began the harvest. We began the harvest for soybeans, especially in Mato Grosso, a little in Xingu. We have been harvesting since January 11th with very good productivity in a certain way. The company is not different from Brazil. In the last few months, in the last five weeks, all the production units are working and we saw this in many regions and soybean has been spectacular. So, we have a problem in the south. We don't have production units in the south where there are problems and As I always say, we still have some work to do, but we can see that the harvest will be very good within the company. Rainfall has been good. We have seen rain that was present in the central part of Brazil and also in the north, and we... we see la nina losing strength the ideal world for farmers for those who don't know is to plant with la nina and harvest during el nino so la nina anticipates rain and el nino does the opposite so we're we have a more neutral situation which will certainly make the rainfall continue and this will affect productivity in the second crop and will also help a lot in sugarcane. Next please. Well, here we begin to see some more color. Fundamentally, let me see if I can use the mouse Beginning with tons produced. We have a drop we have foreseen In our release we have foreseen this drop and we had an impact especially you who follow us some of you follow this Sugarcane crops. We had a drop in the center center and south and also in money now in money now in the north maybe rainfall and also a fire and that we had during the harvest. When you have a fire, you don't lose sugar cane, but you have to anticipate the burned sugar cane. You anticipate maybe a sugar cane that was going to grow during 12 months. You have to anticipate, for example, you have to harvest cane with eight months. This has an important impact in productivity and also an important impact in the sugar content atr the great highlight later on we will say more what i'd like to highlight in this slide in this drop in productivity later on we'll have a vision looking at each year and i say 2021 for every farmer It was a spectacular year. We had a combination of productivity in the case of sugarcane and also high prices, a very positive price for the sugarcane sector. When we look at the harvest, a drop here from 132 to 124. But when we look at six months, we see a drop from 145 to 114. So this is the impact. Later on, we will explain in detail, but I'd like to say once again, and I've said this constantly, we're going back to historical margins. It's very attractive. Last year, we had a margin of 10,000 reais per hectare. Now we're working with four to five, So it's important to have this vision. When you look at every six months, you see the impact. When you have a drop in price that happened last year, you have this effect. And this is the impact that we will analyze in detail. Well, Everyone knows about this. This is the data for cattle. As I always say, we use cattle raising while we transform the land. And it's a transition phase. So we have here the number of heads of cattle. We have been maintaining. Some of this area will be transformed in the next few years to arable land. And we have GMD. Here, as you can see, I'd like to see that the highest GMD is in December, January, February, and March. So when we look at this semester, this semester includes one month of GM day. This is average daily gain in weight during the semester. The other semester it's a little lower. Here too, we had late rainfall in Paraguay. So in Paraguay we had a lower GMD in December and January. Today everything is back to normal. Rainfall has gone back to normal. So this is a picture of the semester. Well, talking about how the company is positioning itself. Let's look at 22, 23. The company has 65, 68% of the soybean sold at a price of 1462. I'd like to remind you, we began to sale products with soybean at 12, 13, 13.20, 13.70. So today we have an exchange rate, as I mentioned, around 5.52. So our exchange rate, 5.52. And the other crops were making progress. Less in corn. Most of this corn is second crop. In Mato Grosso, cotton, the opposite. Cotton is a crop that you sell more rapidly and you have interesting operations in the beginning. We have sold more than 60% of cotton at the price of 87, 88 cents per pound. And here we... We sold at a time of volatility with the exchange rate and the months before the elections in Brazil. We sold at R$ 5.70 per dollar. Unfortunately, Brazil is not a recurring model for sugarcane, but we're hedging part of the production, especially in Maranhão, entering Brazil. the harvest we did hedging of 34 percent and the initial graph today ethanol is being sold for 2600 cube per cubic meters and this is this is the price we used well the next slide now I'd like to pass the floor to Gustavo, our CFO, and he will talk about the numbers. Thank you, Andre. Welcome to our conference call here. Let's begin. First, we have six months already, as we said. two thirds of the harvest was already harvested and we have the sale of the previous harvest. When we look at six months, 2023, we have a profit of 29 million Reais and it's important to tell you about expectation the company had concerning this number. When we compare With the same period last year, we see a large difference. But in terms of inventory, we had soybean, 35,000 tons, 620,000 tons of corn. This inventory was sold. That's the soybean with the same price, very similar prices to the previous year. In the case of corn, a little higher. than we had reported in the previous year. And we saw a contribution margin that was a little lower due to the increase in the prices of fertilizer, especially in the second crop. And we understood this expectation for EBITDA, the sale, we knew would represent 90 million reais. And in fact, we were able to carry out our plan. When we compared this with the previous year, we had 50,000 tons extra more in soybean. We have to remember that the costs that we had, 3,600 per hectare prices, the price of Soybean bags went to 160. We had a result of 90 million reais more in the six months of the previous year. So there's a difference between what we estimated and the operational EBITDA. We had a difference in sugar cane. In sugarcane, Andrei said, we had already foreseen 100,000 tons less in production. This had an impact of 50 million reais when we compare with the same harvest previous year. We knew 25 million reais actually. 15 million was the cost and we had a higher price in diesel oil. from 480 to 6.60 reais, and the impact on each ton that is harvested, two to three liters. So this is a very relevant cost. And we had calculated 50 million. Also, the price and the effect in September, October, November, which had a strong impact on the semester's results, especially the last semester. So when we look at the revenue, 455 million Reais, when we compare this with the previous year, and here we have 80, million reais in volume and the difference comes from sugar cane the less less volume we know we have a combination of the sale of real estate last year in the six months we had recorded parts of the sale of a farm and We have another part that will be recorded in the next year. And we had the sale of part of a farm in Rio do Meio worth 316,000 Reais. So we hope to Continue this. When we look at the adjusted EBITDA, we see everything that we expected due to the impact of price and lower volume, which was estimated, and especially due to the fire. So, in the end, This had an effect of 360 million Reais. So in the adjusted amount, we see a combination of two activities, the sale of farms and operations, 124 million Reais. Last year, 600 million Reais. The difference is 250 million reais due to the sale of farms and the other difference 180 million is due to the price of sugarcane and 50 million the higher costs especially in sugarcane on the next page we prepared These are the three main activities. This is some detail about what I mentioned. We knew that this year we would have 35,000 tons of soybean. Last year, 83,000 tons. Last year, we had an EBITDA to recognize during this semester. This year, We anticipated the sale of soybean. The prices that we sold for were very similar. The cost, when we look at reais per ton, the cost was higher and the margin began to be adjusted at 30%. Last year, we had an extraordinary year. 50% margin for grains and 65% margin for sugar cane. But when we compare with the last year, especially when we look at the cost, chemicals, fertilizers, and diesel oil, as I mentioned, for sugar cane, this affected the contribution margin. When we look at corn in the middle, 114,000 tons, and we sold almost all the inventory, the prices were a little higher, 7% higher, but the cost also went up. So here we have the price of fertilizer, and this is generated a lower contribution margin per ton, 30% margin. Sugarcane, on the right, we're looking at the semester. We see that the price of sugarcane began very high, and then prices began to drop with floor in September, then going up in October, November. But during the 12 months, We saw that the price is still high. Prices are still high. We have a big, large difference in this semester. Last year, 200 reais per ton, and I remember that 60% of our production, we have a contract with a premium of 20%, and this leveraged even more this price. during these six months, we see the price per ton, and also the ATR, which Andres showed. So the margin, when we look at the full harvest, the margin is 35%. but we highlight. Last year, when we had 230 million reais, we had a margin that we had never seen before. And when we look at 118 million reais in the same amount of land, we see that there is a margin of 4,500, 5,000 reais per hectare, still above if we consider that EBITDA, 8,000 extra because of depreciation. But if we consider this, we see that margins are still high. Here, we made all the adjustments, eliminating all biological aspects, and we see sugarcane represents between 35%, 40%, percent grains a little more here as I said in the next six months we will have the total harvest for soybean 150,000 tons of corn and all this will be in the result and will be represented in EBITDA. On the next slide, we will see debt. We said that we have a company, we are not very leveraged when we look at receivables, so we don't have high leverage, 550 million without considering alto taquari farm which we will deliver the farm we will transfer because it was sold and we will be receiving the payment next year so here this is our debt 560 million in the last quarters we took out a loan with an interest rate of 10.5%. This allows us to continue to have a debt that is low. The interest rate is lower than the CDI rate. And we're working with a debt that is a little longer We did this to buy some inputs, especially for the next harvest. And we have the cash, 300 million reais in cash and adjusted a bit. Net debt, net adjusted debt is very low. So in terms of debt, the company is very healthy. And now, the evolution of our shares, share price. Here, as always, we believe we have a great opportunity to have a higher price for our shares.

speaker
Gustavo Javier Lopes
Chief Financial Officer

We know that

speaker
Ana Paula
Head of Investor Relations

This was foreseen, as we mentioned, due to the price of commodities, especially sugar cane. We don't control the prices. We are always doing our best to guarantee the productivity, but still we understand it. The company has a great potential selling farms, having good harvests, and especially the company will also continue to transform cattle raising land into farmland. And we understand that there are excellent opportunities for investments. Thank you. And now we'd like to begin the Q&A session. Thank you, Andre. Thank you, Gustavo. We have a few questions, but first we will hear Tiago Duarte from BTG. Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you very well. Thank you, Gustavo. Good afternoon, Andre, Gustavo. Two questions. The first involving the results from the sugarcane operation. You talked a lot about the price of sugarcane, the TR, ethanol. Yes, you gave us good information on slide 13 slide 12 or 13 about the gross results but when we look at the results in the quarter when we look at the quarter what really hurt more than price was the cost during the quarter with the strong drop in productivity and relevant increase in the price, unit price. So, does this make sense? The cost was much higher than the average cost of the semester, as you show. But more than this, I'd like to understand, first of all, do you believe that the cost per hectare that you projected for this harvest 22-23 of 10,300, does this still make sense? in spite of the result of this semester? And how much do you believe there will be a drop in the price of cost when we believe productivity will increase in your region next year? So I'd like to know about this. And the second question, Andre, in one of his comments to the press yesterday night, Andre was very optimistic in relation to the sale of land. So if you could give us more details where you see opportunities to sell farmland. I believe that there are more opportunities to sell land than to buy land. Thank you, Tiago. Very good questions. Gustavo, would you like to begin with the cost allocation and the impact due to the drop? then I can talk about the cost in the future and sale of land. Thank you, Tiago. In fact, yes. If we look on slide 13, we will see that we have 50 million reais in higher costs. higher costs equivalent to 50 million in reais. This represents 45%. This is what we estimated in price increase, the price of diesel oil, the impact of fertilizer prices. What you said is true. What happened in the last quarter, the area that suffered the fire that was burned, we we prepared strategies to avoid having impact in the next harvest. So, we bought some inputs, we began to use some fertilizers, and when you look at the last quarter, yes, there is a great impact. Now, we have to understand that we have higher cost when you have 200,000 tons less the price per ton also goes up so this increase is that's why that's why it's this high so in fact for next year we want we we want to avoid this impact next year we want to maintain our revenue and we understand that now we have to begin looking at costs there's there's news about a drop in the price of diesel oil this has a great impact there will be a drop in diesel oil So we have to revisit our costs. Thank you, Gustavo. Supplementing this issue of costs, Gustavo explained, well, Tiago, we begin to see prices. Recently, there was news about a lower price of diesel oil. This has a great impact. I was talking to investors and I made a calculation. In soybean harvest, you use 12 liters per hectare of diesel oil. In sugar cane, you spend 170 liters of diesel oil in the harvest. So there is a great difference. So when we look at our forecast, we saw an increase in the price of diesel oil. So when we look at 2021, diesel oil used to cost 3.80 Reais. And today it's twice, 6 Reais and 80 cents per liter. So it's twice the price with this impact. Well, second question, when we talk about land, sale of land, purchase of land. There's an interesting thermometer. In the last few months, there has been a great interest in buying our assets. Brazilian agriculture is not separate from other things, but in a certain way, farmers still have a good liquidity. We had a year We're talking about margins of 28%, 32%. When we look at this, we see, I made a calculation this morning. When we look at the cost of production of a hectare of soybean last year, 31, 32 reais. to produce a hectare. Today, the price has dropped to 28. And with this, I always say that what brings liquidity to the farmer is a good harvest, even more than good prices. I always say the farmer tolerates greater fluctuations in price, but they don't tolerate fluctuations in performance. So we're looking at a very high harvest in the Midwest and in the state of Bahia. In Bahia, we should have a record harvest. So there's a lot of liquidity and you know that we're going to capture this. This is for the sale of farmland. So we will probably have more sales in the next few months. We're looking at purchase too. So you can expect that the company, everyone asks me, how much will you sell? And I say, look at the last five years, this is what we want. So it's important to say that During the last year, we made purchases in 2021. Now we had a small sale, but it becomes important in the last six months. It became important. Thank you. Very clear. Thank you, Tiago. Now, Pedro Fonseca. Good morning, Andrei, Gustavo, Ana. Thank you for the opportunity. First, a follow-up of Tiago's question. I'd like to confirm about sugarcane. In terms of production productivity, it makes sense to think of recovery in the next harvest going back to 2100 which you had estimated for the harvest in 2022 is that correct and the second concerning what Andre mentioned in the beginning of the presentation that the company was seeing new prices So today we have a good situation in performance. What can we expect in terms of hedging in the short term? Hedging, do you see an opportunity in a certain commodity or not? Thank you. Thank you, Pedro. Okay, I'm sure that we're recovering. Yes, there's a detail. It's difficult to see this impact But when we had the coronavirus beginning of the pandemic, no one knew what would happen. And like every company, we also disaffected the planting of sugar cane. And also we discussed this this week. So in 2020, we preserved cash. Now, last year we planted more and this year we are planting an important amount of sugarcane. Yes, we're expecting a recovery for this reason and also a recovery because we're making important investments in irrigation, irrigation for our plantations in Maranhão We're installing more piping, more irrigation equipment, and sugar cane. Sugar cane grows with fertilizer, sun, and water. So, we should have a good result. In the Midwest, sugar cane is doing very well. We expect a good recovery in the Midwest, which is what is happening in the center and south. Brazil going from 540 going back to 740 million tons. Now in terms of performance, in the morning we had a meeting and we discussed this point this morning. Yes, we're making progress. with more hedge, more hedging because we begin, we have, we're very cautious until we get the first estimates. And today we began to receive the estimates, the farms that will begin harvest in the next 15 days where estimates were already made. These estimates are favorable. So there is a trend to sell more, especially soybean, and with this price, a good price in Chicago. So this is the recovery. Pedro, you say, what opportunities are you seeing? We saw, we have two things we're looking at and trying to capture. One we captured part of already, We saw recently, you must also follow cotton. We saw a strengthening of the premiums for cotton. We always worked with more negative basis and now we're closing cotton in the next harvest with 500. Just to remind you, we were selling at 250. Now we see a recovery in basis points for the next harvest, an important increase. And when we see a recovery in basis points, we can be more aggressive in the sale. In the case of soybean, there is a great concern in the market and maybe an opportunity, a super harvest that is arriving. But we have two factors that we're discussing. We have farmers selling points is low farm selling is low second we have the main ports especially in the south that so there is a great opportunity this can happen to strengthen the basis talking about this during harvest but it's difficult to believe i know but there is a lack of soybean. China will buy soybean again from Brazil. So high prices in Chicago and strengthening of the basis. We see this on a regional basis. So in our cases, we're looking at each region, each farm, looking at logistics. So the strengthening of basis will not happen in the same way. For example, it will not go up everywhere. We believe there are some regions, some corridors that will have bottlenecks. While we have bottlenecks, there may be a drop in the premium. So we're monitoring the opportunities. And when you ask me about new things, I would say basis of cotton and a lot of attention in the basis of soybean in the next few months. Thank you. We received, I will join here two questions from Vinicius. What are the perspectives for the next quarters concerning the recovery of historical profits? And if we can go back to historical profits that we had in 2022. And also Claudio's question concerning the margins of the main products. We stress that in the last two years they were They were well above the historical averages. Can you talk about the historical averages and the prices we can have in the medium term? Well, Vinicius and Claudio, let's begin with profit. Yes, last year, As we said, we had a perfect combination. So, we have a commitment. The company will continue to grow, increasing leasing, purchases, operations. Now, the picture of last year in terms of sugarcane, when we talked about margin, we had a margin of 10,000 reais per hectare. So, in the next few years being realistic. We believe that the margin per hectare for sugarcane will be five or 6,000. When we summarize margin and crop, we would have soybean with the cost reductions I mentioned, We're talking about historical margins of soybean around 30, 40. This is what we see. Now, the different thing, what is challenging is the margin for corn. Corn has been a crop that in the second crop has been very profitable. And Brazil is exporting a lot of corn. We have two challenges in corn. the increase in exports and of course there is a bottleneck in logistics we're talking about brazil with 130 million tons in 2030 we will have 180 000 tons so 180 million tons we have two large drivers that have to grow the exports production and consumption of ethanol from corn, ethanol made from corn. I see this with, there was a lot of optimism, the ethanol used in the market and exports. Now corn was always had highs and lows. So depending on the domestic markets, when we look at corn in the long term, until 2030, we will be important exporters and the local industry. Local industry using corn will try to have a more regulated supply. So we have, I wouldn't call it a recovery. In the case of corn, we have different profit levels. In the case of cotton, it is leveraged due to the growth of income around the world. And cotton, even with the pandemic, has less growth. In the case of cotton, the way I see this, there is competition with synthetic fibers. I believe that oil at $80, $90 will make cotton advantages. It cannot compete with corn and soybean. When you look at the capital invested, cotton with a margin of $4,500 5,000 per hectare. So when you look at the investments, it's 30%. When you look at soybean, you're also talking about 4,000 reais with a lower investment. So I would tell you that to help you in your forecast, soybean, 30%, 40%. Now, corn, second crop six years ago, had no margin, and now we have a margin of almost half of the margin of soybean. This year was even better. This year, corn was very similar to soybean and cotton. Now, sugarcane, I'm optimistic in the medium and long term with with the carbon footprint ethanol we know is better so when people buy fuel when people buy fuel they buy ethanol it's a clean fuel and This is being seen all over the world. So the ethanol market is important. Another important point for sugarcane, another thing that is important that I see in sugar, we see important players, sugar producers, using part of the production for ethanol. You have the mixture of 20%. Other countries are also using ethanol. We have an inventory of sugar. We have an inventory of sugar. The world has sugar for one month. So inventories are tight. Corn, also inventory is tight around the world. We have a consumption of 1,170,000,000 and a consumption of 1.60. Soybean, soybean too. I can see in the short term, the same prices. I can see the same prices in the near term. We have to look also at the exchange rate. All this has a great influence, especially the exchange rate. So we're imagining that the exchange rate will be 4.9 to 5 reais per dollar. We have a question from Julia Rizzo. What's your vision in terms of the price for sugar and ethanol? The million dollar question. Julia, that's difficult. Even with a crystal bowl, I can't... Well, we have to look at the basis and then... we see what we can expect if you look at ethanol we see brazil growing production all the time brazil in ethanol 27 billion liters of ethanol brazil with ethanol from corn 4.5 billion ethanol from corn billion liters We saw an important growth when we look every year, the growth of almost a billion liters in one year growth. And we see also exports, exports, ethanol exports that are now higher and higher. This year, we exported 2.5 billion liters of ethanol. So we're beginning to position ourselves as a country that exports ethanol. When I look at this, you can see a more regular price because you have domestic market that is very strong and an export market demanding Brazilian ethanol. In the case of sugar cane, When we look at India, India, the fluctuations we have in the regions, sugar, unfortunately, without Brazil, it's produced in monsoon climate regions. They are very erratic, these other regions outside Brazil. One year, a lot of rainfall. Another year, without rainfall. And sugar cane depends on this. So, it's a product that is always with highs and lows. Now, but you also, sugar is the cheapest energy in the world. When we look on a worldwide level, we see still regions with a lot of poverty. Sugar is very important in some countries for food. So when we look at all of this, we see ethanol becoming growing and becoming interesting. we see sugar linked to climate fluctuations and a new driver, some new countries producing ethanol. If we look at historical prices, I would expect historical prices higher than in the last 10 years for these two commodities, but we have annual fluctuations too. Many people, thanking us and we have some questions that were already answered. What the company is thinking about dividends, whether we will have an intermediate dividend, This is not in the radar. And what we expect, that's the billion dollar question. The billion dollar question. If we expect higher share prices and will we buy back shares? That is another question, whether we will buy back shares.

speaker
Andre Guillaumont
Chief Executive Officer

okay well dividends the company's policy you have heard us when we have good results due to the sale of farms and this has been happening we're very aggressive in

speaker
Ana Paula
Head of Investor Relations

paying dividends. It's very fair to pay back the investors that trusted in us. And if we need money to make investments, we will also request this. So now we have seen that the MOIC is one to five. When we have good projects, we will be less aggressive in paying dividends, When we have less good projects, even with projects, in the last year, the company did the following. The company sold, leased, and buy last year. This is what we did. We sold, we leased, and we bought. So when you have a portfolio becoming mature, and then you sell more, and we know that most of our gains, most of our profit comes from the sale of land. In the next few years, we will see this. Now in buying back shares, we discussed this a lot last year. We will never make a decision that everyone will be happy. Some shareholders, wanted dividends others wanted us to buy back shares so in this scenario the best we we can do is giving the money back to shareholders and if they want to buy they can buy shares the company has a good liquidity in the past you said either i pay dividends oh People want dividends to buy more shares. So it made sense to buy back shares. Today, our company has a much better liquidity after the follow-on, 20 million reais. So this changed a lot. So today, if I use the investor's hat, If there's liquidity and if I want to reinvest, I can buy. So shareholders now have more options than in the past when we didn't have liquidity. So there's nothing in the radar concerning buying back of shares, but this can change. If we believe the prices are discounted, we might decide to buy back shares. If we believe that we don't have good land to buy and that we will, and if we have resources left over after paying dividends, we could in the future buy back shares. But we don't have that in the radar. Oh, the value of the shares. Yes. I always say there's a great challenge. So our team is always looking at this. When we began, we had an AV, 1.6, 1.3. Today, an NAV, which is much higher, when we look at the company, the shares, The price of shares should be 40 reais. Our shares had to be worth 40 reais. So when we look at the NAV in the past, we're always increasing the company's NAV. So I always say that we're looking at this. We increase NAV and we close GAAP. But this is good. The company's always growing, so it's a good investment. It's an investment that has brought an excellent profitability for investors and will continue this way. When we paid 16% dividend yield, 16, plus the appreciation of the land, It was a spectacular profitability. The company pays dividends and is always growing. We're increasing the NAV, we're increasing the operation, we're generating more cash flow. So I have no doubts that things should improve much more. Andrei, just supplementing your words, So in the last five, six years, we paid one billion Reais in dividends. And the company is strong, 280 million Reais in cumulative results. And we mentioned that we sold farms and we will receive the payment. now in terms of the price of shares what we have seen many people look at the company looking at cash flow and although we have been buying and selling farms every year but I believe that we have a challenge to increase the planted area and generate more cash. Recently, we leased farms. There is one that was acquired and has a potential for a crop and a second crop. It's pasture land we're transforming into arable land. And with this, we believe that with this, we would have more cash flow. This is what we want. This is what we're after on a permanent basis. Growth, a growth of 10%, 12% a year in planted area. Fine. Gustavo? Well, we're running a little late, but... We have some questions from Gabriel, which is important. Let's see. First question, in the last quarter, apart from sugar cane, we had a drop due to the sale of soybean. What is the sale strategy this semester in Brazil? Why did we have less revenue and volume? The increase in short-term debt? And will you extend the maturity of this debt? And whether it's time to sell? and also the cost of freight. Is it going down or is the price of freight still very high? I know we could talk about this for another two hours. Okay. Let's talk about the revenue. Freight. We're not seeing lower prices in freight. We see signs of a drop in the price of diesel oil. Harvest is arriving. Prices are not going up, but we don't see the price of freight going down. In terms of debts, the company is we have cultivated areas, 170,000 hectares, and this needs a lot of working capital. And since we have been working with some banks for a long time, yes, you saw growth in debt, but as Gustavo said, it's a short-term debt, but with a price that is lower than the CDI interest index. It's a loan for working capital. The company is growing a lot. Five years ago, we had a working capital of 200 million. Today, we have a working capital of 700 million every year. we have a growth in area and also we had to grow the working capital. Third point, the profitability is we make decisions to sell. When we believe that the price of an asset is going down, not due to operations, not due to commodity prices, but because of higher prices of assets, we know it's time to sell the farmland. This is the logic. Now, concerning the strategy of selling grain, every year you have a different situation. So we explained the fluctuation in quarters. Some years we see a certain curve. What I can tell you is the strategy in the near and medium term has new factors for decision making. So two or three years ago with an interest rate of two, three, four, five percent, you would say, I can wait more or less. The way we see it today, you have to be very efficient because you can wait to sell soybean in April, May, or in September, but you will have a cost of a cost of one point something a month so the sales strategy is always to have this the best profitability so we see the price and the cost of capital in the period if we believe it makes sense to hold the grains we hold in some regions you have to hold the sales due to logistics I'll give you an example in Shingo we have a problem for soybean the whole region has because of the roads in Piauí the opposite it's easy to export from the Itaqui port and so the sales strategy, the strategy to hold back or to sell is cost of capital and these points that I mentioned. Well, Andre, you answered the question, but what we do, we have a capacity for 40, 50, of we can hold back 40 to 50% for the next semester. As Andre said, we have logistics problem and trading companies were paying premiums. So since the premiums were high, we anticipated the sale of this inventory in the last semester of last year. So this decision, Andrei mentioned premium, cost of freight with a cost of 3%, we couldn't hold. So we look at logistics, inventory to sell 40, 50% of the harvest. Every year, we make decisions based on these points. Well, I believe this is it. If we have more questions, please get in touch with us in our Investor Relations Department. I will be available to answer any other questions you may have. We're running a little late, and someone said, oh, we could spend all afternoon, but unfortunately, we have to close the meeting. Thank you very much, Andrei, Gustavo, for your time. We had a very good participation, and I hope we clarified all the points. And now I'd like to pass the floor to Andrei for his final comments.

speaker
Andre Guillaumont
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

speaker
Ana Paula
Head of Investor Relations

Well, once again, thank you for trusting, for your trust. I would say that once again, since we have a good participation, many participants, we've said this in the media and even in the other calls, I'd like to reinforce one point. The company's ability to work with people. We were recognized with the award Great Place to Work, one of the five best companies to work in in agribusiness. And I repeat, this recognition shows the sustainability of the business. It's not only myself, Andre and Ana Paula. We had such a good award because we have a team that is engaged, that is focused. So once again, I'd like to thank the investors for the trust in our team. This work will continue working with people, revisiting our strategy, looking at everything and making the company grow. Thank you. We wish you a good afternoon.

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