Adecoagro - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to Adecoagro's first quarter of 2025 results conference call. Today with us, we have Mr. Juan Sartori, Executive Chairman; Mr. Mariano Bosch, CEO; Mr. Emilio Gnecco, CFO; Mr. Renato Junqueira, Sugar, Ethanol, and Energy VP; and Mrs. Victoria Cabello, Investor Relations Officer. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded, and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After the company's remarks are completed, there will be a question-and-answer section. At that time, further instructions will be given. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Adecoagro's management and on information currently available to the company.

They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions because they relate to future events and, therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Adecoagro and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, I will turn the conference over to Mr. Mariano Bosch, CEO. Mr. Bosch, you may begin your conference.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Good morning, and thank you for joining Adecoagro's 2025 first quarter research conference. Before we start with the highlights of the performance of the company, we would like to comment on the recent transaction. As you may all be aware, Tether has completed its tender offer process and has become our largest shareholder, holding 70% of the company's equity. This is clearly the start of a new era for the company, and we are all very excited and enthusiastic about the future prospects with this new venture. I still remember when we founded Adecoagro back in 2002. We had the idea of producing each of the commodities where we could achieve being the low-cost producer worldwide. Within this concept is that it has taken us more than 20 years to develop our current four business segments.

In each one, we leveraged the best combination of soil, climate, and people to develop our existing sustainable production systems. We are very happy that a significant shareholder such as Tether, a leader in technology and innovation in its field, has acknowledged our work and wants to support us. I am certain that through the implementation of cutting-edge technologies, we will be in a position to continue transforming the traditional agribusiness space while we venture into potential new exciting projects. Having said all this, we have invited today our Executive Chairman, Mr. Juan Sartori. Juan has recently joined the new board representing Tether, together with other four new directors. Juan, welcome to Adecoagro. I will pass the floor to you.

Juan Sartori (Executive Chairman)

Thank you, Mariano. Good morning, everyone. I am Juan Sartori. It is an honor to join the board of Adecoagro as newly appointed Executive Chairman representing Tether, now a significant shareholder in the company. Following the completion of the tender offer, we have appointed a newly formed board, which we believe that in combination with the continuing members and the quality of management is now an ideal composition of experience and new ideas that will support and lead the company into the future. Tether is the creator of the largest, most transparent, and liquid stablecoin in the industry, and its mission is to build sustainable and resilient infrastructure for the benefit of underserved communities. By leveraging cutting-edge blockchain and peer-to-peer technology, it is committed to improving financial inclusion while fostering economic growth in emerging countries where there is a huge opportunity to unlock growth.

The company currently has more than 400 million users around the world and recently surpassed $150 billion in assets and $13 billion in profits in 2024. Tether's investment in Adecoagro is part of its strategy to invest in reserved tangible assets with limited supply, which supports sustainable developments that create real impacts. We are excited to become part of this remarkable company, which owns some of the best agricultural and energy assets in the world, assets of particular importance for Tether, as it sees in Bitcoin, gold, and farmland, the basic assets for stable and uncorrelated long-term reserves. We recognize in Adecoagro a platform of management efficiency in integrating and operating agricultural and energy assets that will only be improved by the incorporation of a successful and committed long-term shareholder. We are committed to supporting Adecoagro's management in executing its current strategy and contributing to its future growth journey.

We currently see organic and inorganic opportunities in Latin American countries with very attractive returns, which we may explore and are ready to provide financial support if needed in order to execute. We are here to help strengthen what the company already does so well, which is operating, integrating, and managing complex businesses with discipline and excellence. We will contribute to maximize long-term value, maintaining a disciplined capital allocation strategy, including a firm commitment to keeping a healthy balance sheet and the company's leverage levels while pursuing aggressive growth opportunities when they present themselves. We will also maintain the current shareholder distribution policies by focusing on dividends and a strong emphasis on maximizing the stock price, sometimes by remaining open to opportunistic buybacks to the extent we conclude it is the best use of the company's resources, as well as aligning management compensation even more to the subside.

In addition, we intend to offer Adecoagro the latest technological innovation and capabilities, areas where Tether has deep expertise and success and is currently transforming around the world. We see opportunities to explore leveraging stablecoins and blockchain technology to increase efficiency in commodity trading, explore real asset tokenization, and potentially integrate AI and peer-to-peer technologies under development to further strengthen operational performance. We are looking forward to working with the board, management team, and investor community on this journey. Thank you, and back to you, Mariano.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Thank you, Juan. Now, going into the results of the quarter, consolidated adjusted EBITDA reached $36 million. Starting with our businesses in Argentina and Uruguay, our rice operations achieved a new record in productivity, proving that all the investment made in seed genetics, land leveling, and machinery paid off. Nevertheless, rice prices, as you've seen, are going down. In dairy, our presence in the retail and export markets grants us commercial flexibility to maximize the production of the product that offers the highest margin, which continues to be the fluid milk. Although the crops business is facing another challenging year in terms of prices and costs, we are seeing an improvement in crop productivity versus last year. Let's move into the sugar, ethanol, and energy business. During the quarter, we sold all the ethanol that was stored in our tanks at prices significantly higher than in the previous period.

Now that the new season has started, we have once again the flexibility to build up inventories in our storage tanks if needed. In the meanwhile, we are strategically crushing old cane that has been impacted by the dry weather in order to maximize productivity during the second half as we accelerate our crushing pace and reach our annual target. The higher the milling, the better we will be diluting our costs, as we always say. To conclude, I would like to reiterate my gratitude to all our people in Adecoagro, but this time, I would like a special thank you for our former directors, Plinio Musetti, Alan Leland Boyce, Guillaume van der Linden, Andres Velasco Brañes, and Ana Cristina Russo, for their support and valuable contributions throughout all these years. Now, I will let Emilio walk you through the numbers of the quarter.

Emilio Gnecco (CFO)

Thank you, Mariano and Juan. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to page five with a summary of our consolidated financial results. New sales totaled $324 million during the first quarter, 28% higher year-over-year on higher volume sold, mainly ethanol, as we emptied our tanks, which in turn fully offset the lower prices for some of the commodities that we produce. Despite an increase in sales, adjusted EBITDA was down to $36 million, marking a 60% year-over-year decrease. The year-over-year decline in EBITDA was mainly explained by losses in our biological assets line in our rice and sugar, ethanol, and energy businesses due to lower prices, as well as to lower production in the case of our Brazilian operations. In addition, results were also negatively impacted by one-off expenses incurred by the company in connection with the tender offer. Now, please turn to slide six.

Regarding our production figures, in the bottom right chart, we can see that crushing volume in our sugar, ethanol, and energy business was down 31% year-over-year due to a slower and selective milling pace adopted during the first quarter, which we will describe in more detail during the presentation. On the other hand, total production in our farming division reported a 25% year-over-year increase explained by higher planted area as well as record productivity in our rice operations. Let's move to slide eight with the operational performance of our sugar, ethanol, and energy business. In our prior release, we anticipated that during the first quarter, our crushing volume would decline compared to the same period of the last year as a result of the dry weather experienced throughout 2024, which got extended into the first month of this year, affecting the yields of our sugarcane plantations.

In this scenario, we made the decision to harvest old cane that were in the fifth or sixth cut and had less potential, allowing the younger cane to continue growing and recover productivity indicators in the event we receive rains. As a result, we can see a decrease in both yields and TRS content during the period. We continued to maximize sugar production given its attractive premium. Our production mix stood at 42% on lower sugar content of the cane for the reasons previously explained, which resulted in less production flexibility. Within our ethanol production, we continued to prefer hydrous ethanol over anhydrous ethanol, giving the better margin. Please turn to slide nine, where we describe sales conducted throughout the period. Net sales amounted to $119 million during the quarter, 15% higher year-over-year.

This was fully explained by our commercial strategy to sell our last year's carry of ethanol to profit from the significant recovery in prices during the first quarter of 2025. In 2024, we held to our ethanol inventories waiting for an improvement in prices. Throughout the period, we sold over 160,000 cubic meters of ethanol, representing 30% of the total volume produced in 2024 at an average price of BRL 2,700 per cubic meter, 31% higher year-over-year. Regarding sugar, the combination of lower prices and the decline in production given the lower crushing were the main drivers towards the decline in sales. In the case of energy, and despite the lower volume milled, we produced energy using our stored biogas and were able to profit from the hike in spot prices throughout the quarter.

Regarding cargo credits, we sold over 110,000 Ceballos at an average price of $12 per Ceballo. Please go to page ten, where we would like to present the financial performance of the sugar, ethanol, and energy business. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to $30 million during the first quarter, 42% lower than the same period of last year. Despite presenting higher sales and year-over-year gains in the mark-to-market of our commodity hedge position, results were mainly offset by year-over-year losses in the mark-to-market of our biological assets on lower crushing and consequent prices on harvested cane. Finally, to conclude with the sugar, ethanol, and energy business, please turn to slide 11, where we would like to briefly talk about the current outlook. Rainfalls received over the last few weeks aid yield recovery.

Assuming weather going normal, we expect to accelerate our crushing pace during the second half of the year and reach an annual crushing figure in line to slightly above the previous year. Also, our unitary costs in cents per pound should decline as crushing increases and productivity recovers. From a commercial point of view, the evolution of sugar prices will mostly depend on Brazil's production, while it is still subject to cane productivity, industrial flexibility, and logistics. Consequently, we still see some upside to current spot prices, reason why we have hedged less than 50% of our 2025 sugar production. In the case of ethanol, consumer preference continues to favor ethanol, but supply may be limited given the industry expectations to continue maximizing sugar production due to the greater premium that commands.

Moreover, new demand is expected to come with the implementation of E30, adding more pressure to the trade balance. Now, we would like to move on to the farming business. Please go to slide 13. We are currently undergoing harvesting activities for most of our grains. As of the end of April, we harvested 52% of the 305,000 hectares of planted area and produced over 790,000 tons of agriculture produce. Despite the precipitations received from February onwards, the productivity of some of our crops, such as wheat and early corn, was impacted by the dry weather and high temperatures registered during December and January. On the other hand, we foresee a recovery in our late corn production due to the improved weather conditions experienced so far, as well as to the absence of cytoplasma, the bacteria that drove the declining yields in the previous campaign.

For the rest of our crops, we are focusing a slight improvement in yields versus the prior year, but in line with historical levels. In rice, we are almost done with the harvesting activities. Our average yield reached 8 tons per hectare, a new record for this business and a significant year-over-year improvement. Lastly, we continue enhancing efficiencies in our dairy freestalls despite the declining crop productivity reported in the quarter, which we expect to reverse throughout the following months. At the industry level, we are working on product development for the domestic and export markets while expanding our presence across different price tiers with our consumer product brands. On the following page 14, we present the financial performance of our farming business. Adjusted EBITDA for the farming business totaled $17 million during the quarter, making a $27 million year-over-year decrease.

Starting with our crop segment, the year-over-year decrease in results was mainly driven by lower international prices, lower than expected productivity, and higher costs in U.S. dollars, which combined continued to pressure margins during the period. Moving on to rice, adjusted EBITDA reached $10 million during the quarter. Despite the record productivity and the increase in sales, the declining EBITDA generation was mainly explained by an uneven year-over-year comparison, as during the first quarter of 2024, we were able to profit from record prices explained by India's policy to prohibit the export of wild long grain and a very poor production of rice in South America. Prices have currently come down to normal levels, giving higher global supply. On an annual basis, we expect a similar performance of this segment compared to 2024, but more evenly distributed during the quarters.

Lastly, adjusted EBITDA in our dairy segment totaled $7 million during the period, driven by higher sales on higher prices as we improved the mix of value-added products and continued to maximize the production of fluid milk for the domestic market. Let's now turn to page 16, where we would like to present our capital allocation strategy. According to our distribution policy, we are committed to a minimum distribution of 40% of the cash generated during the previous year via a combination of cash dividends and share repurchase. Based on 2024's net cash from operations, the minimum amount to be distributed under the policy this year is $64 million, out of which we have already committed $45 million between dividends and share repurchases. In terms of dividends, a distribution of $35 million was approved.

The first installment of $17.5 million will be paid on May 16th, representing $0.175 per share, whereas the second installment will be payable in November in an equal cash amount. In addition, we have already repurchased $10 million in shares under our buyback program, representing approximately 1.1% of the company's equity. Please turn to page 17 for a broader view of our debt position. Net debt amounted to $679 million, 6% higher year-over-year. This was explained by the increase in short-term debt throughout the period, as we were able to secure new financing at attractive rates to finance part of our working capital consisting of the planting and harvesting activities of our crops.

As shown in our financial figures, this was achieved without disattending our distribution policy and growth projects, nor compromising our liquidity ratio, which stood at 1.6x, showing the company's full capacity to repay short-term debt with its cash balances. By the end of the quarter, our net leverage ratio reached 1.7x given the lower results presented. We expect to reduce our short-term debt exposure throughout the second half of the year as we collect the cash from our sales, as well as to reduce our net leverage ratio on greater expected results in the upcoming quarters. In the following slide, we describe our CapEx program. In the first quarter of 2025, we invested $30 million in expansion projects. In Brazil, expansion CapEx was mostly allocated to increasing our sugar cane plantation size and expanding our harvesting equipment with the acquisition of two-row harvesters and gruner trucks.

In our farming business, our main CapEx program consisted of the development of rice production areas, the expansion of our drying and storage capacity in our Paso Dragón rice mill, and the construction of a new warehouse for our dairy products at our Chivilcoy dairy processing facility. Thank you very much for your time. We will now open the call to questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you have a question, please write it down in the Q&A section or click on "Raise Hand" for audio questions. Please remember that your company's name should be visible for a question to be taken. We do ask that when you post your question, that you pick up your handset to provide optimum sound quality. Please hold as we collect the questions. Our first question comes from Thiago Duarte with BTG Pactual. Your microphone is opened.

Thiago Duarte (Head of Equity Research Brazil)

Yeah, thank you. Good morning, guys. Thanks for the opportunity. Yeah, I have a couple of questions. The first one is on the sugar-ethanol energy business, and trying to reconcile your expectations that you, throughout the year, you should be able to meet last year's sugarcane crushing volumes and coming from a pretty weak quarter on a year-over-year basis. I'm just trying to understand whether this is, you expect this to come from better yields. Last year, you delivered, if I'm not mistaken, 70 tons of cane per hectare. If you expect to be able to meet that on the balance of the year, or if we should be looking for higher harvested area. Whether the cane availability improvement should come from higher area or higher yields, that would be the first question.

The second question comes from, is related to the crops business. I was wondering if you could provide a little bit more color in terms of the unit economics for the different crops, because this quarter, what we saw was a bigger representation of corn in terms of your sales volumes, relative to soybean and wheat mainly. I was wondering how those unit economics compare and whether they could explain, or at least partially explain, the low margin that you delivered this quarter in the crop segment. If I may, a third question, and I'm not sure why he is in the call, but in his prepared remarks, he talks about one of the things he talked about was providing financial support if necessary for Adecoagro's growth. He even mentioned both organic and inorganic opportunities across Latin America.

I was wondering what kind of opportunity he sees as compelling in the region, what segment within Adecoagro's different business segments would make some sense, and whatever other, you know, color he could provide on the opportunities that he foresees in terms of growth for Adeco. That would be it. Thank you.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Hi, Tiago. Thank you for your questions. Yes, Juan is with us in the call. I am going to take the opportunity of starting answering your third question. I am going to ask Juan to take that question that is directed for him. Juan, do you want to take that question?

Juan Sartori (Executive Chairman)

Yes, perfect. Hello, Tiago. Very nice meeting you. Thank you for the question.

All those strategic directions that the company are going to take now in the future with the shareholder, I think, are a combination of continuation. We believe the company is well-managed and it owns very high-quality, low-cost production assets that are well-positioned into the future. What we want to do on top of that continuation is simply giving it a little bit more dynamism and acceleration when capital is needed or strategic direction needs to be supported. I think what we are seeing right now, because of the timing, is that in most of those four segments, there are integration opportunities. That is what we mean by organic. There are CapExes to be approved with a much higher return on equity than the average of the company. There are maybe acquisitions to be considered around all of those segments.

There are some areas which start going a little bit beyond. For example, we believe that energy, which so far was mostly a byproduct of agricultural production, could be an area where Adecoagro could have a stronger focus, generating some stable long-term returns there. There are people retreating from Latin America right now. There are areas related to the inputs of agriculture that could provide both a hedge and even long-term exposure because of the correlation to the demand. What we mean in Tether by supporting and even very aggressively is that we believe this management team has the capacity of integrating and operating assets in Latin America in an incredible fashion.

I think if it was needed of any type of capital, whether it's debt, equity, partner it, or joint venturing, we would be ready to anchor any of those transactions, always with an idea of focusing on a disciplined allocation of capital with a strong return on equity. We may analyze stock buybacks or repurchase or issuing debt or making or not acquisitions internally or externally, always compared with the average return that the company is doing in current operations and in order to improve it in the long term.

Thiago Duarte (Head of Equity Research Brazil)

Thank you, Juan, very much for the question. Very clear. Nothing to add there. I am going to ask Renato to go on the first part of your questions regarding our sugar and ethanol expectation for crushing volumes.

Renato Junqueira (VP of the Sugar, Ethanol and Energy Business)

Hi, Thiago. Good morning.

As Emilio mentioned, the weather was very dry, both during the whole 2024 and also the first quarter of this year. That's the reason our yields declined. But despite this dry weather, we had a crushing record last year. We anticipated the sugarcane that otherwise would be crushed in the first quarter. That's why we had a less intensive quarter in terms of crushing. We did the strategy to leave the sugarcane with a better potential to grow to be crushed in the second part of the year. I think this strategy was good because in April, the weather changed. We had a lot of rains in April. Actually, the rains in April were 50% higher than the historical average. The sugarcane outlook, the biological asset, looks much better now.

We expect that the yields of this year are going to be higher than the one that we had last year. I would say something between 5% and 10% higher. I think the challenge now will be to crush the sugar cane that we have. We have the sugar cane, but the challenge will be the time to crush that sugar cane. Use of time is going to be the key point to be following now. Since we have the continuous harvest model, if we do not crush the sugar cane this year, we can crush more in the first quarter of next year and have a much more intensive quarter there. We think that it is possible to crush, but the key point now is the use of time from now on.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Okay, thank you, Renato. Clear.

On your second question regarding the economic unit of the traditional crops, here it is important to understand that the crops have to be analyzed in a campaign. It's difficult to analyze within only a quarter how the economic performance of a crop is. When we think on what are the economic benefit of the different traditional crops, today the first crop is the corn full season, then we have the wheat and soybean double crop, and third, the soybean full season. Within these three allocations of land, when we decide our planting crops, that is what we are deciding now, that's going to be the priorities: corn full season, wheat, soybean double crop, and then full season of soybean.

Within those three that are in a rotation, we can always change 10%-15% in an OT system to maintain our sustainable production system. We cannot do 100% of corn, so we have to always maintain this rotation, but we are going to be a little bit more inclined, so we may have 10%-15% more on corn compared to soybean full season when we think on the economic results on these traditional crops. So those were the three questions you were asking. If you do not have any follow-up question, we can go to the next one.

Thiago Duarte (Head of Equity Research Brazil)

No, that is all, that is all very clear. Thank you, Juan, Mariano, and Renato.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Thank you, Thiago, for your question.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Julia Rizzo with Morgan Stanley. Your microphone is open.

Julia Rizzo (Executive Director)

Hello, good morning. Are you hearing me?

Yeah, thank you very much for having me, Mr. Sartori. Thank you, Mariano, for the remarks. I would like to direct my question to Mr. Sartori, if possible. So, Adecoagro is one of the largest agricultural companies in Latin America. It's known for being a low-cost producer with great assets, strong management, as you already probably know, but also, it has a great reputation for transparency, fairness with shareholders. In that sense, I would like to ask if the new control group in place, will Adecoagro keep its high standards of transparency, good governance for all shareholders? How do you think it is? How important do you think is that? And lastly, a follow-up on the first question for my colleague, Thiago. Adecoagro also generates a lot of cash over time, even at low cycles of times like this year.

How does the new control group plan to use this cash flow in the future? I know I understand you told about some opportunities that may come, if you will be ready to comply. In a running rate, how are you planning to use this cash flow? Can we stay with the 40% dividend policies, and the remaining part, what will be done?

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Thank you, Julia, for your questions. The first part of the question regarding the transparency, I will ask Juan to answer, and then I can complement, and same thing for the second part of your question. Juan, if you want to address.

Juan Sartori (Executive Chairman)

Of course. Thank you, Julia. Nice meeting you for the questions.

First of all, everything you said about high quality of assets, of management, of transparency and credibility is what attracted us to invest in Adecoagro in the first place. It was very important in the acquisition for us to do it in a way that it respects the history, the culture, and the existing achievements, particularly in transparency and in corporate governance. One of the main discussions was that we wanted the company to remain listed, precisely because adhering to all of the standards of being a public listed company in New York was an important message to the market.

That's how we defined leaving a 30% float in order to be sufficient for it to have a controlling shareholder, but also have the possibility of investors to participate in the best way to the growth story that we think is going to happen. In addition, as we became controlling shareholders, we also implemented a lot of minority protections that were not present before. We committed now to protections that are of a much higher standard than what the stock exchange requires until now. Maybe there, Emilio can go through each of them, but all related parties have to be validated by independent directors. We are restricted to a full takeover of the company if we ever go beyond 80%.

I believe the company is going to be continuing with everything that's made it a great company so far, but probably right now has even a higher standard. That's what we commit also as controlling shareholder to the market going into the future. On the second aspect of distribution, first of all, 2025 distribution policy is approved, so it's going to stay exactly like this. Into the future, as you say, the company generates a lot of cash flow. If anything, it was probably consistently misunderstood or undervalued by the market. We're going to be seeing how to invest that cash flow in the most profitable way in the future.

First of all, by continuing a dividend policy and then investing in repurchasing shares or making acquisitions, but always with the idea of improving the return on equity of these investments in the future.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Super clear, Juan.

Julia Rizzo (Executive Director)

Super clear.

Juan Sartori (Executive Chairman)

Okay.

Emilio Gnecco (CFO)

Nothing to add. Let's go to the following question.

Juan Sartori (Executive Chairman)

Yeah.

Operator (participant)

Once again, if you have a question, please write it down in the Q&A section or click on raise hand for audio questions. Our next question comes from Lucas Ferreira with JPMorgan. Your microphone is opened.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Lucas, we cannot hear you.

Emilio Gnecco (CFO)

You're on mute.

Lucas Ferreira (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Sorry, I was on mute. Hi, everybody. Thanks very much for this space to ask questions. I have a couple for Juan. Juan, by the way, I do not know if you remember me, but I remember you from 2010 or 2011 during the UAG IPO attempt.

We interact a couple of times. Nice to speak to you again. The first question is about the land of the company. If Tether has any specific plan to monetize the land, that's one of the key assets for the company. It's very undervalued in the stock price. If you see any opportunity, I don't know if a sale is back or anything that could unlock value for the land of the company. The second point, since you just mentioned that the plan is to keep the company listed, if you also have some plan for the liquidity of the stock, because that has been one of the main pushbacks on Adecoagro's investment case historically. Now I believe that the liquidity could shrink further, right, with a large Tether stake in the company.

For all the minorities here in these, if there is any plan for liquidity to improve in the future. Thank you.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Hi, Lucas. Thank you for the question. Juan, do you want to address?

Juan Sartori (Executive Chairman)

Yes, perfectly. Lucas, good to reconnect after so many years. You know, we've all been working for a long time with all these issues, and I think that's why we may end up having some of the solutions right now. Land as a publicly listed asset has always underperformed, and it's really one of the biggest challenges that as soon as you have large land holdings in a public company, they tend to be undervalued and underappreciated. For us, as Tether, land is an excellent long-term asset, and we want to have more of it.

We think it's something that's going to appreciate over time to generate stability. We think a company like Adecoagro solves one of the big problems, which is operating it in an efficient manner at large scale, which, as you know, is not easy. Now, in order to treat the other side of that challenge, I think definitely one of the big works that we have to do is what are the mechanisms or why whereby we can materialize or crystallize the valuation of those land holdings into the Adecoagro story. We will be working definitely on several mechanisms to present to the market in the coming months in order to see how we can attack that usual challenge.

Lucas Ferreira (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you, very clear.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Regarding liquidity, I think Juan was also clear explaining how minority shareholders will be protected and have even better protections than what they had before. Having 30% on the float, we believe is something that can continue to have liquidity.

Juan Sartori (Executive Chairman)

Yeah, if you allow me, Mariano, one more comment. I mean, the float is definitely smaller from a technical point of view, but you had before relatively large shareholders that would not trade. I do not think the float has dramatically been reduced. Of course, the transaction plays part of it, but we have seen in the latest trading days that post-transaction, the liquidity is not worse than before, and maybe we can expect that to continue in the future.

At the same time, what we had is a big amount of people who would follow the stocks purely as NAV discount traders. They would buy this company at a strong discount to NAV and then sell it when it gets close to NAV. I think what we have done also is remove a lot of that structural overhang. Our perception is that we are interested in a high stock price, in maximizing the stock price, and having a liquid and well-covered stock for the future. We are going to be trying to operate on that basis, the future of the strategy of the company.

Lucas Ferreira (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you very much, guys.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Thank you. Next question.

Our next question comes from Bruno Tomazzetto with Itaú BBA. Your microphone is open.

Bruno Tomazetto (Equity Research Associate)

Good morning, everyone. Mariano, Juan, Renato, two questions on our side, if I may. Mr.

Juan already presented some interesting topics about the new investment plan mentioned by Tether. We appreciate all information provided, but it would be great to also discuss the expected timeline for this in both terms of implementing these new projects or even how quickly could we expect to see results to be reflected on companies' results with higher relevance. Maybe if you could break down the answer between projects to accelerate current operations or new projects to be implemented moving ahead, it would be great. My second question is focused on operations in Argentina. Just third point with your most recent thoughts on the macroeconomic environment in Argentina. We recently had some new developments on export tariffs and, of course, effects dynamics.

We are glad to discuss what you guys can already perceive in the country or expect in terms of impacts for the company and also to hear your general perception about these operations in the medium to long term. That's it. Thank you.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Okay, thank you, Bruno, for your question. I'm going to address the second part of your question regarding Argentinian economic developments. Here, there are two main forces. Number one is now we have the same dollar when we export, and we export all our sales and for export. We are receiving the real dollar for the first time in a long period of time. That is, of course, a very much welcome conceptually. Then the overall costs are increasing.

In dollar terms, that is how we report the costs and the overhead costs and the general costs are increasing, although variable costs, as they have always been in dollar terms, not necessarily increasing at the same pace, are in some cases even reducing. We are now in a much more real system. We are very happy to be in this system. We have always been working to be the low-cost producer in each one of the segments that we have. We are optimistic that we can improve in the long term our results in Argentina. We are in a better situation than before within these whole economic results for Argentina. We are affected by commodity prices, et cetera, that, of course, affects in different ways our EBITDA one way or the other. That is conceptually what is going on in Argentina.

We welcome all these changes in Argentina for our company in the medium and long term and in the short term also. Regarding the timeline of these projects that Juan has been explaining pretty well, I would add one comment and then let Juan comment on top of this. These projects take time. All our projects, the organic projects that Juan was talking about, are all carefully analyzed. Execution for us is the key element, and we do not need to be in a hurry to execute because that is when execution does not go perfect. The projects take time, and we are analyzing each one of the projects with the right timing, and we are not in a hurry to do them.

They will be done in the way we've been always working, that is maximizing or minimizing the execution risks and maximizing our execution fashion. Juan, I don't know if you want to complement something on timing.

Juan Sartori (Executive Chairman)

Oh, I support 100% what Mariano said. The idea is not to announce things for announcing things. They all have to go through a thorough process of due diligence. The new board, which was incorporated last week, already has the different strategic lines in sight. We'll start working on validating several of the areas that we discussed about. I think it would be likely over the next 12 months, I hope that we see results and execution in several ones of those lines.

But we cannot commit to a timing or a short-term timing on any of them because they will probably validate it or not based on the outcome and the results rather than the absolute necessity to do something quick.

Bruno Tomazetto (Equity Research Associate)

That is super clear. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Once again, if you have a question, please write it down in the Q&A section or click on raise hand for audio questions. Our next question comes from Matheus Enfeldt with UBS. Your microphone is opened.

Matheus Enfeldt (Equity Research Associate Director)

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions and congrats on the positive conclusion of the tender offer. I think it was very clear on the direction and what is the strategic rationale behind the stake in Adecoagro from Tether. I was wondering if you could discuss sizing or what size Adecoagro could take in a couple of years from now, right?

Because if we look over the past four or five years, CapEx has been around $200 million-$400 million per year, which has allowed Adecoagro to deliver a strong growth over the past number of years. Looking forward, my question here is, what's the size that Adeco could become in the near future, right? There are M&A potential deals in Brazil, this is public, that could essentially increase Adecoagro's capacity by like 50% or something like that, but that would require very large amounts of capital in the near term. I'm really trying to get a sense of, I know that timing is over the next 12 months to get a bit more visibility, as in the previous question, but my question is more on size.

If we could see Adecoagro taking this large step, seeing CapEx now double for the year or over the next couple of years to really increase the size of the company, or if it is much more a complementary approach for the existing projects and existing capacity moving forward. I think that is my only question. Thank you.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

Thank you, Mattheus, for your question. Juan, do you want to address or do you want me to go for it?

Juan Sartori (Executive Chairman)

No, I am happy to give a quick comment, but I think the size will be or usually is determined by two things. The first one is the capacity to integrate good assets. And this management team has shown that it is capable to do much more. We actually see that Adecoagro, the platform to be able to deploy capital very successfully because they can manage and integrate those assets.

I think now you have a shareholder whose net profits last year were $13 billion. The access to financing, if the deals are good, I would say guaranteed just from the support of the existing shareholder. I think that if we find good deals to deploy and we add those two factors, we could grow quite a lot.

Matheus Enfeldt (Equity Research Associate Director)

Thank you. If I could just follow up on that, then there's obviously a limitation on how much of a stake Tether could reach in Adecoagro up to 80%, which implies there's a limitation to how much capital at the end of the day Tether could be allowed to inject into Adeco.

On that, what's the leverage that Adeco would be comfortable in an expansion cycle, like two and a half, three times, which is sort of what we discussed for this sector, would that be a reasonable leverage to support growth moving forward?

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

I think Juan, let me jump in here. As Juan explained at the beginning, there are several ways on how we can explore opportunities together with Tether. Of course, this 80% minimum in terms of the potential growth is taken into account. Also, the level of debt that we can get into is also going to be taken into account. According to all these things and depending on how interesting are all the projects that we have in the pipeline, that's the decision that we will be taking and will be sharing with you how this evolves.

Matheus Enfeldt (Equity Research Associate Director)

Okay, thank you.

Juan Sartori (Executive Chairman)

You know, one more thing is that we mentioned strategically tokenization in areas of technology whereby capital can be opened by technology on other routes than the traditional ones. I think we can analyze that also. A way of putting more capital into assets can be through joint ventures on capital-intensive assets, partnership with other companies, or other ways of financing that doesn't mean dilution of the equity.

Matheus Enfeldt (Equity Research Associate Director)

Okay, thank you.

Operator (participant)

This concludes the question and answer section. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Bosch for any closing remarks.

Mariano Bosch (CEO)

I simply want to thank everyone for participating in our call, and we hope to see you in our upcoming events. Thank you, everyone, very much.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. This concludes today's presentation. You may disconnect at this time and have a very nice day.