Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp (BIOX) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. And thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp fiscal first quarter, 2025 financial and operational results, Corp, all lines have been placed on mute during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for question and answer. At the end. (Operator instructions). I would now like to turn the conference call over to Paula Svante, Head of Investor Relations to begin.

早安，女士們先生們。感謝您的支持。歡迎來到 Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp 2025 年第一季財務和營運業績，在電話會議的演示部分，所有線路均已靜音，並有機會進行問答。在最後。（操作員說明）。我現在想將電話會議交給投資者關係主管 Paula Svante 開始。

Thank you and good morning to everyone on the call. Welcome to Bioceres Crop Solutions fiscal quarter 2025 1st quarter earnings conference call. Our prepared remarks today will be led by our Chief Executive Officer Federico Trucco and our Chief Financial Officer Enrique Lecube.

謝謝大家，祝大家早安。歡迎參加 Bioceres Crop Solutions 2025 財季第一季財報電話會議。我們今天準備好的演講將由我們的執行長 Federico Trucco 和我們的財務長 Enrique Lecube 主持。

Both of them will be available for the Q&A session following the presentation during this call. We will make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. I refer you to the forward-looking statement section of the earnings release and presentation as well as the recent filings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new or changed circumstances. Please note in today's presentation, we'll be making references to certain Non-Gaap Financial measures, reconciliations of the non-Gaap financial measures can be found in our earnings press release and presentation. This conference call is being webcast, and the webcast link is available at our investor relations website.

他們兩人都將參加本次電話會議演示後的問答環節。我們將做出前瞻性陳述。這些陳述是基於目前的預期和假設，受到各種風險和不確定性的影響。我建議您參閱收益發布和簡報的前瞻性聲明部分以及最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件。我們不承擔更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述以反映新的或變更的情況的義務。請注意，在今天的演示中，我們將參考某些非公認會計原則財務指標，非公認會計原則財務指標的調節表可以在我們的收益新聞稿和演示中找到。本次電話會議正在網路直播，網路直播連結可在我們的投資者關係網站上找到。

It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Federico.

現在我很高興將電話轉給費德里科。

Thanks Paula and good morning to everyone. Thank you for participating in today's call.

謝謝保拉，大家早安。感謝您參加今天的電話會議。

Please turn to slide 3.

請翻到幻燈片 3。

As farmers know better than anyone else. Agriculture is a weather dependent industry. And while as a company, we are dedicated to helping farmers better deal with this reality, we are not fully immune to these effects ourselves.

農民比任何人都清楚。農業是依賴天氣的產業。雖然作為一家公司，我們致力於幫助農民更好地應對這一現實，但我們自己也不能完全免受這些影響。

Total revenues in the quarter were $93.3 million. 20% below the year ago quarter impacted almost exclusively by the lack of rain in Argentina which still accounts for a significant part of our business.

該季度總收入為 9,330 萬美元。比去年同期下降 20%，幾乎完全受到阿根廷降雨不足的影響，而阿根廷降雨仍占我們業務的重要組成部分。

This drop in sales affected our profitability metrics for the period as Enrique will discuss in a minute in our case, portfolio diversification in terms of product type and time of use across multiple crops helps us partially mitigate weather effects within the crop season.

銷售額的下降影響了我們這段時期的獲利指標，恩里克將在稍後討論我們的案例，產品類型和多種作物的使用時間方面的投資組合多樣化有助於我們部分減輕作物季節內天氣的影響。

Yet, like with farmers, there is no better alternative to geographic diversification when it comes to hedging against weather events.

然而，與農民一樣，在對沖天氣事件方面，除了地理多樣化之外，沒有更好的選擇。

Here is where we can see the half full glass this quarter with contributions from North America and Brazil, including the Syngenta collaboration in that country growing nominally and expanding 2.5 times as a percent of total gross profit outside of the financial performance discussion. Our technologies continue to be recognized by global agencies during Climate Week in New York. This past September, our bio insecticidal platform for seed treatments received the prestigious EPA screen chemistry award.

在這裡，我們可以看到本季北美和巴西的貢獻，其中包括先正達在該國的合作名義上增長，並且在財務業績討論之外擴大了總毛利潤的 2.5 倍。在紐約氣候週期間，我們的技術繼續受到全球機構的認可。去年九月，我們的種子處理生物殺蟲平台獲得了著名的 EPA 篩選化學獎。

More recently, we were granted long awaited regulatory green lights for HP four soy cultivation in Uruguay and Bolivia making HP four technology the second most broadly approved soybean GMO event after the former Monsanto's runup ready one trade during today's call, we will address these topics as well as provide our view on where we stand at the present and on how we continue to learn and refine our strategies to impact global agriculture Enrique over to you.

最近，我們在烏拉圭和玻利維亞獲得了期待已久的HP 4 大豆種植監管綠燈，使HP 4 技術成為繼前孟山都公司在今天的電話會議上準備好一項交易之後第二個獲得最廣泛批准的大豆基因改造項目，我們將討論這些主題：並向您介紹我們目前的立場以及我們如何繼續學習和完善我們的策略以影響全球農業 Enrique。

Thank you Federico and good morning to everyone on the call. Thanks for joining us.

謝謝費德里科，也祝所有參加電話會議的人早安。感謝您加入我們。

Let's please turn to slide 4 performance. This quarter was marked by a slower than usual start to the high season for summer crops planting in Argentina driven by a substantial shift of corn acreage into soybeans as well as persistent dry period during the months of August and September.

讓我們來看看投影片 4 的表演。本季度，由於玉米種植面積大幅轉向大豆種植以及 8 月和 9 月的持續乾旱，阿根廷夏季作物播種旺季的開始速度比平常慢。

Although rainfall has normalized towards the end of the quarter and has been abundant in October which resumed commercial activity, slow pace in August and September. And just in time, purchase behaviour took a toll on force on the first quarter results.

儘管降雨量在本季結束時已趨於正常，且 10 月份降雨量充沛，商業活動得以恢復，但 8 月和 9 月降雨量放緩。恰逢其時，購買行為對第一季的業績產生了影響。

Despite other geographies, having gained relative importance in the past few years, Argentina remains a decisive and market in terms of shaping our performance in the first two quarters of our fiscal year.

儘管其他地區在過去幾年中變得相對重要，但阿根廷在塑造我們本財年前兩個季度的業績方面仍然具有決定性的市場。

On that note. And as Federico just mentioned, we saw good top line traction in the United States and Brazil to markets in which we have been laying the groundwork for growth.

關於這一點。正如費德里科剛才提到的，我們在美國和巴西看到了良好的營收牽引力，我們一直在這些市場上為成長奠定基礎。

Although these are just early signs of our strategy paying out it is encouraging to get some momentum in the two biggest markets in the world also. And although at an incipient stage, we started to see some good results coming in from new markets such as Mexico or from relatively recent product launches in markets where we have a historic presence like Uruguay.

儘管這些只是我們的策略取得成效的早期跡象，但在世界上兩個最大的市場中也獲得一些動力還是令人鼓舞的。儘管處於起步階段，我們已經開始看到墨西哥等新市場或烏拉圭等我們歷史悠久的市場中相對較新的產品發布取得了一些良好的成果。

Despite taking time and effort, diversifying revenues on the geographic portfolio and distribution channel dimensions continues to be an important aspect of our strategy. And this order proves the value of this approach.

儘管需要時間和努力，但地理組合和分銷管道層面的收入多元化仍然是我們策略的一個重要方面。而這個訂單證明了這種方法的價值。

Let's look to the segment by segment breakdown.

讓我們逐一細分來看。

The most significant year over year decline came from crop nutrition which explains more than half of the top line decrease and almost all of the change in gross profit as we will see in a minute performance for the segment was primarily driven by lower sales of microwave fertilizers in Argentina where last year's pest damage on corn from the leaf copper or Chicharito drove farmers decision to shift corn acres into soybeans season which resulted in an unprecedented 20% drop in corn acreage in the country.

最顯著的同比下降來自作物營養，這解釋了一半以上的營收下降以及幾乎所有毛利潤的變化，我們稍後將看到該部門的業績主要是由微波肥料銷量下降推動的在阿根廷，去年玉米葉銅或Chicharito 造成的蟲害促使農民決定將玉米種植面積轉入大豆種植季節，導致該國玉米種植面積史無前例地下降20%。

Although our microwave fertilizers are technically suitable for both crops, corn demands as much as three times more phosphate than soybeans, which combined with late planting had quite an impact on this particular product in the quarter in Argentina.

儘管我們的微波肥料在技術上適用於這兩種作物，但玉米對磷酸鹽的需求量是大豆的三倍，再加上播種較晚，對阿根廷本季度的這種特殊產品產生了相當大的影響。

Although at a smaller scale than an Argentine business, micro fertilizers saw some momentum in Uruguay which is good to see considering the country proximity to our manufacturing hub.

儘管規模比阿根廷業務小，但微肥在烏拉圭看到了一些發展勢頭，考慮到該國靠近我們的製造中心，這是一件好事。

October rains have undoubtedly resumed demand for fertilizers. So late corn planting will be decisive factor on how we wrap up the Argentine season for fertilizers in due to let's discuss crop protection. Now where sales were predominantly affected by the slow pace of the Argentine market as dry conditions resulted in less pest pressure and just in time purchase behaviour from farmers however, different than crop nutrition in crop protection. A substantial portion of the sales decrease corresponds to a conscious decision to forego sales with unattractive margins and cash conversion cycles particularly in the case of non-core third party products, we tried to stay away from a market which showed a very slow paced demand matched by a well-supplied distribution which very quickly turned into a highly competitive and price driven dynamic. Staying away from that kind of market in noncore products is well aligned with our increased focus on working capital management and cash generation for the year and although we still have a long way to go. It is important to highlight that cash conversion has become an increasingly important aspect in decision making.

十月的降雨無疑地恢復了對化肥的需求。因此，晚玉米播種將是我們如何結束阿根廷化肥季節的決定性因素，因為讓我們討論作物保護。現在，銷售主要受到阿根廷市場緩慢增長的影響，因為乾旱條件導致害蟲壓力減少，農民及時購買行為，但與作物保護中的作物營養不同。銷售額下降的很大一部分是由於有意識地決定放棄利潤不具吸引力的銷售和現金轉換週期，特別是在非核心第三方產品的情況下，我們試圖遠離需求匹配速度非常慢的市場通過供應良好的分銷，很快就變成了高度競爭和價格驅動的動力。遠離非核心產品的此類市場與我們今年更加關注營運資金管理和現金產生非常一致，儘管我們還有很長的路要走。需要強調的是，現金轉換已成為決策中越來越重要的一個面向。

Looking ahead, I think that we are still early on in the season to come to a conclusion for Argentina in crop protection and recent rainfall and weather normalization lead us to believe that it could still be a normal or even good crop season.

展望未來，我認為我們仍處於本季初期，就阿根廷的作物保護問題得出結論，最近的降雨和天氣正常化使我們相信，這仍然可能是一個正常甚至良好的作物季節。

Like Federico mentioned, the United States and Brazil and Mexico to a lesser extent, had a very good quarter in terms of sales which was achieved with proprietary high margin biocontrol products.

正如費德里科所提到的，美國、巴西和墨西哥在較小程度上的銷售表現非常好，這是透過專有的高利潤生物防治產品實現的。

As much as I would have liked to see growth in crop protection, trading off high margin buyer protection sales in key growth markets for non-core low margin and capital demand in sales in Argentina. It seems to me like a step in the right direction from a fundamental standpoint.

儘管我很希望看到作物保護業務的成長，但用關鍵成長市場的高利潤買家保護銷售來換取阿根廷非核心低利潤和資本需求的銷售。在我看來，從基本角度來看，這似乎是朝著正確方向邁出的一步。

Finally, for the integrated products, the decrease in the top line primarily reflects lower hp four grain downstream sales than the prior year. Last year. As you may recall, we began a downstream grain sales strategy that had a double purpose of building an industrial channel for [HB] four grain on which farmers could rely and also seeking to convert inventories into cash to decrease our working capital position.

最後，對於綜合產品而言，收入下降主要反映了HP四糧下游銷售低於上年。去年。您可能還記得，我們​​開始實施下游糧食銷售策略，該策略有雙重目的：建立農民可以依賴的[HB]四糧產業管道，同時尋求將庫存轉化為現金以減少我們的營運資金狀況。

As Federico will mention further in the presentation, we are progressively shifting away from the identity preserved model that build these grain inventories and transitioning into a more conventional approach to H4 commercialization. This means that going forward, low margin grain sales will continue to decrease in the year on year. Comparison as we recover cash and succeed in transitioning to a more profitable and less capital-intensive top line for the seed business.

正如 Federico 將在演示中進一步提到的那樣，我們正在逐步放棄建立這些穀物庫存的身份保留模型，並過渡到更傳統的 H4 商業化方法。這意味著，未來低毛利糧食銷售量年將持續減少。比較我們收回現金並成功轉型為利潤更高、資本密集程度更低的種子業務。

Having discussed sales. Let's now turn to slide 5 and look at gross profit.

討論完銷售。現在讓我們轉向投影片 5，看看毛利。

As I previously mentioned, the drop in crop nutrition sales translated almost entirely to gross profit with micro fertilizers in Argentina, driving more than 70% of the overall year on year, changing gross profit within the crop nutrition segment itself and good performance in inoculant driven by the agreement with Syngenta, particularly in Brazil, compensated a drop in fertilizer margins and drove a modest margin expansion for the segment in crop protection. The dynamics I just explained for sales translated into a gross margin expansion for the segment from roughly 35% to almost 40% this year. Like I mentioned in this segment, we made a conscious choice to preserve not only margins but also working capital and finally, in seed and integrated products, gross profit declined by 14% primarily driven by grain sales performance and a slight decline in seed treatment packs margin. Overall gross margin this quarter expanded from 38% last year to almost 40%.

正如我之前提到的，作物營養銷售額的下降幾乎完全轉化為阿根廷微肥的毛利潤，同比增長超過 70%，改變了作物營養領域本身的毛利潤以及孕育劑驅動的良好表現通過與先正達達成的協議，特別是在巴西，彌補了化肥利潤的下降，並推動了作物保護領域利潤率的小幅擴張。我剛才解釋的銷售動態轉化為今年該細分市場的毛利率從大約 35% 擴大到近 40%。正如我在本節中提到的，我們做出了有意識的選擇，不僅要保留利潤，還要保留營運資金，最後，在種子和綜合產品中，毛利下降了14%，這主要是由於穀物銷售業績和種子處理包略有下降利潤。本季整體毛利率從去年的 38% 擴大至近 40%。

Let's now turn to slide 6 and look at the adjusted for the quarter adjusted a bid for the quarter totalled $8.5 million.

現在讓我們轉到投影片 6，看看該季度的調整後出價總計 850 萬美元。

The combination of the drop in gross profit from crop nutrition and the change in JB results were the most meaningful item. This quarter is represented by synertech. Our fertilizer manufacturing JB shows how important the impact from microwave fertilizers was for the quarterly results. One could even argue that microwave fertilizers explained almost in full the drop of $8 million in adjusted beta. On the other hand, as you can see tight cost controls which kept OpEx almost flat, and changes introduced to the seed business which primarily explain the improvement in other expenses net out the slight drop in gross profit from crop protection and see the integrated products.

作物營養毛利潤的下降和 JB 績效的變化相結合是最有意義的項目。本季以 Synertech 為代表。我們的肥料製造 JB 顯示了微波肥料對季度業績的影響有多重要。有人甚至可能會說，微波肥料幾乎完全解釋了調整後貝塔值下降 800 萬美元的原因。另一方面，正如您所看到的，嚴格的成本控制使營運支出幾乎持平，而種子業務的變化主要解釋了其他費用的改善抵消了作物保護毛利的小幅下降，並看到綜合產品。

Finally, let's turn to slide 7 to look at financial depth. Total financial debt stood at $250 million by quarter end and our cash position remained healthy at almost $40 million as expected due to the drop in the LTM EBITDA, our leverage ratio increased to 2.9 turns but still below the three turns of maximum leverage that we always keep as a target moving forward. Let me just say that in the coming quarters, capital allocation will continue to prioritize products and technologies with lower risk and near term payback periods, which coupled with a more disciplined approach to working capital management aims to enhance cash generation for the fiscal year while preserving the long term intrinsic value of the unique portfolio that we hold with that. I will turn the call back to Federico.

最後，讓我們轉向投影片 7 來看看財務深度。到季度末，總金融債務為2.5 億美元，由於LTM EBITDA 下降，我們的現金狀況保持健康，如預期的近4000 萬美元，我們的槓桿率增加至2.9 倍，但仍低於我們一直以來的最大槓桿率的三倍繼續作為目標前進。我只想說，在未來幾個季度，資本配置將繼續優先考慮風險較低、投資回收期較短的產品和技術，再加上更嚴格的營運資本管理方法，旨在增強本財年的現金生成，同時保留我們持有的獨特投資組合的長期內在價值。我會把電話轉回費德里科。

Thanks Enrique and, and please turn now to slide. Number eight, we have last discussed our [BCO] area derived Rhino Tech platform two calls ago when we reported approval for the first generation by insecticidal products in Brazil, which has since granted a label extension to include the more concentrated version historically presented as MBI 306.

謝謝恩里克，現在請轉到幻燈片。第八，我們上次討論過我們的[BCO] 領域衍生的Rhino Tech 平台，是在兩次通話前，當時我們報告了巴西第一代殺蟲產品的批准，此後巴西批准了標籤擴展，以包括歷史上以MBI 形式出現的更濃縮的版本306.

The CPA award recognizes Rhino Tech as a seed treatment, nematicide and insecticide that utilizes a concentrated version of the active metabolite from [BCO] area. Thus significantly reducing the application loads.

CPA 獎表彰 Rhino Tech 作為種子處理劑、殺線蟲劑和殺蟲劑，利用來自 [BCO] 地區的活性代謝物的濃縮版本。從而顯著減少應用程式負載。

A key feature for seed applied technologies.

種子應用技術的關鍵特徵。

Rhino Tech is considered to be readily biodegradable and safer for humans and the environment than many traditional synthetics.

Rhino Tech 被認為易於生物降解，並且比許多傳統合成材料對人類和環境更安全。

Rhino Tech is also priced competitively to leading chemical alternatives with comparable efficacy.

與功效相當的領先化學替代品相比，Rhino Tech 的價格也具有競爭力。

A life cycle assessment for the current commercial product scored at 9.9 out of 10 with minimal soil, aquatic and human toxicity as well as minimal ecosystem impacts.

目前商業產品的生命週期評估得分為 9.9 分（滿分 10 分），對土壤、水生和人類的毒性以及對生態系統的影響最小。

Continuing with regulatory recognitions, please turn to the next slide in the last 30 days, we have received clearance for cultivation of HP four soybeans both in Uruguay and Bolivia completing all pending approvals in the relevant markets of the Americas and adding 2 million hectares to the production approval footprint for this event.

繼續監管部門的認可，請翻到下一張幻燈片。種植面積增加了200 萬公頃。

We are very proud of the work our regulatory team has done putting us just one geography away from matching the most broadly approved technology in this crop. Despite being the latest to be launched from the list that you see here, looking ahead to our HP four seed business and please shift now to the next slide. We are in the process of finalizing a strategy review with two key focal points accelerating the transition from identity preserve to conventional sales and exploring alternative monetization approaches. Both of which we intend to based on partnering more strongly with leading city industry participants.

我們對我們的監管團隊所做的工作感到非常自豪，使我們與該作物中最廣泛認可的技術相匹配僅差一個地理位置。儘管這是您在此處看到的清單中最新推出的產品，但展望我們的惠普四種子業務，請現在轉到下一張幻燈片。我們正在完成一項策略審查，其中有兩個關鍵焦點，加速從身分保留向傳統銷售的過渡，並探索替代的貨幣化方法。我們打算在這兩者的基礎上與領先的城市產業參與者建立更緊密的合作關係。

We believe that by refining our strategy in this way, we'll be able to accomplish more predictable and attractive growth while limiting the capital exposure to this effort as we're making cash generation a top priority this year in which we are already seeing good progress where we're also seeing progress in North America and Brazil where we have had management transitions over the last 12 months and we're gaining momentum despite lingering market headwinds this encouraging international performance coupled with ranges now fully normalized in Argentina, allow us to remain optimistic about the remainder of the fiscal year.

我們相信，透過以這種方式完善我們的策略，我們將能夠實現更可預測和更具吸引力的成長，同時限制這項努力的資本敞口，因為我們將現金生成作為今年的首要任務，我們已經看到了良好的業績我們在北美和巴西也看到了進展，在過去12 個月裡我們進行了管理層換屆，儘管市場逆風揮之不去，但我們正在獲得動力，這一令人鼓舞的國際業績加上阿根廷現已完全正常化的範圍，使我們能夠對本財年剩餘時間保持樂觀。

With that, I think we can now open the call to Q&A operator.

這樣，我想我們現在可以致電問答接線員了。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Operator instructions)

（操作員說明）

Ben Klieve, Lake Street Capital Markets.

Ben Klieve，湖街資本市場。

All right. Thanks for taking my questions. First one here, you guys have long stressed the kind of importance of setting the business on a half basis instead of quarterly basis. And given the quarter that you just posted, I'm curious if you can kind of talk about kind of the state of the market in Argentina and the degree to which you expect that these late season rains that you know, outline could really be just kind of pushing revenue and earnings from Q1 into Q2.

好的。感謝您回答我的問題。第一個，你們很早就強調了按半年而不是按季度進行業務的重要性。鑑於您剛剛發布的季度，我很好奇您是否可以談談阿根廷的市場狀況以及您對這些季末降雨的預期程度，您知道，概述可能真的只是某種程度上將收入和利潤從第一季度推至第二季。

You know, on a high level, if you have any kind of expectations that you can outline here for the second quarter and the first half in general, that'd be great.

您知道，在較高的層面上，如果您可以在此處概述對第二季度和上半年的總體期望，那就太好了。

Hi Ben, this is Enrique.

嗨，本，我是恩里克。

Thanks for joining us and thanks for the question. Look, I think that there's kind of like two different dimensions on the Argentine market. One has to do with delayed purchasing and sort of like commercial activity, particularly in crop protection resuming after the rainfalls towards the end of the quarter and most significant in October where they were abandoned, I would say. So we are seeing increased activity and like I said, I think that we are still sort of like in good shape to have a good crop season particularly in crop protection. And then also in the seed integrated products where we report the seed treatment packs. So I think that that plays out, as you said in the Q1, Q2, sort of like a dynamic on the fertilizer front, that's different because it has to do with the corn planting. So what we are seeing now is that with this recent brain activity, farmers are already being tempted to, to get into sort of like late season corn planting, which usually happens in November and December. So that will be decisive for us knowing whether for fertilizers, this was a push of sales from Q1 to Q2 or actually for gun sales because of actual lower acreage in corn. So those are two different dynamics, and I don't know if there's anything else that you would like to add?

感謝您加入我們並感謝您提出問題。聽著，我認為阿根廷市場有兩種不同的維度。我想說，其中一個與延遲購買和類似的商業活動有關，特別是在本季末降雨後恢復的作物保護方面，最重要的是在十月份，作物保護被放棄了。因此，我們看到活動增加，就像我說的那樣，我認為我們仍然處於良好狀態，可以度過一個良好的作物季節，特別是在作物保護方面。然後在種子綜合產品中，我們報告了種子處理包。所以我認為，正如您在第一季、第二季所說，這有點像化肥方面的動態，這是不同的，因為它與玉米種植有關。所以我們現在看到的是，隨著最近的大腦活動，農民已經被誘惑進入晚季玉米種植，這通常發生在 11 月和 12 月。因此，這對於我們了解是否是化肥銷售從第一季到第二季的推動，或者實際上是由於玉米種植面積實際減少而導致的槍支銷售而言，具有決定性意義。這是兩種不同的動力，我不知道您還有什麼要補充的嗎？

No, I think that's right on and that's where we are probably paying more, more attention on the fertilizer front. And again, this is not we're actually gaining markets here on these particular technologies. It's just the sort of the dynamics of summer crops and sort of the shifting away from some acreage that occurred last year from corn to soybeans.

不，我認為這是正確的，這就是我們可能在肥料方面給予更多、更多關注的地方。再說一遍，我們實際上並不是在這些特定技術上贏得市場。這就是夏季作物的動態變化，以及去年部分種植面積從玉米轉向大豆的變化。

Okay. Very good. I appreciate the, the comments for both of you. A couple other for me, one Enrique, you noted some you know, tail from the Syngenta Agreement. Can you just kind of elaborate a bit on your expectations for the seasonality for that agreement? Now that that has shifted you know, to a purely, you know, product-based agreement, can we expect some kind of, you know, real concentration within any particular quarter? It can be pretty flat throughout the year.

好的。非常好。我很欣賞你們兩個的評論。對我來說還有另外兩個人，一個是恩里克，你注意到了一些你認識的人，來自先正達協議。您能否詳細說明您對該協議季節性的預期？既然這已經轉變為純粹基於產品的協議，我們是否可以期望在任何特定季度內實現某種真正的集中？全年情況可能相當平坦。

Yeah, that's a good question. And so like Federico mentioned, Brazil was an important market for Syngenta in Q1 and we will continue to be in Q2. So there's a high season happening there. I think that as we are well aware, Q3 is a slow quarter and Q4 is when we probably get some revenues booked in in the northern hemisphere and where we saw Syngenta in the past with very good performance in Eastern Europe in particular. And so a seasonality with regards to seasonality, I would say that that's the case always bear in mind that we have sort of like a different dynamic between profit sharing. That is actually when the product is sold in the end market versus the supply of a product. So when we supply the product to Syngenta, we are booking sort of like a revenue under supply that is very, very low margin.

是的，這是一個好問題。正如費德里科所提到的，巴西是先正達第一季的重要市場，我們在第二季也將繼續如此。所以那裡正在發生旺季。我認為，正如我們所知，第三季度是一個緩慢的季度，而第四季度我們可能會在北半球獲得一些收入，我們過去看到先正達在東歐尤其是表現非常出色。因此，就季節性而言，我想說的是，這種情況始終要記住，我們在利潤分享之間有一種不同的動態。這其實是產品在終端市場銷售與產品供應的情況。因此，當我們向先正達供應產品時，我們的預訂有點像是供應不足的收入，利潤率非常非常低。

And that's just the moment that we ship the product to them. Then when they actually make the sale, that's when we get the final profit sharing from them. I don't know if.

這正是我們將產品運送給他們的那一刻。然後當他們真正進行銷售時，我們就可以從他們那裡獲得最終的利潤分成。我不知道是不是。

What I would add to that is that in the first two years, there was a transitioning process that in our case meant that the third quarter was in a way overrepresented in terms of the final economics that we got from the Syng agreement. So that people are reminded of that agreement, that is a 10-year agreement on, on mostly our inoculants globally except for Argentina and the bio fungicide that we have for Europe once it becomes available. And it's an agreement that has a commitment of $280 million in profits, 50 of which came in the form of upfront in the first two years where we're transitioning to Syngenta and the rest will come in the form of minimum profit sharing on an annual basis. So, what we're seeing now is that there's a more even distribution of the profit sharing from quarter to quarter and this is no longer heavily located in the third quarter as it was in the prior two years. And I think in the, in the current quarter, we more than doubled what we had last year coming from Syngenta on a profit-sharing basis. And then the Brazilian business, which was historically very significant in the fourth quarter because of the change in farmer behaviour. Now it's becoming more relevant in the 1st and 2nd quarter. When we're talking about our fiscal year. So we still have some of that profit to be collected in the coming quarter. And then the rest of the world I think will fall in the 3rd and 4th quarter in a more evenly distributed manner. We're very pleased with sort of the state of the relationship. We know we've launched this collaboration at a time that was challenging in some of these geographies. The U.S. and Brazil have been very difficult over the last two years, but we are now seeing dynamics becoming more positive and we are getting that in the P&L as well. So that's what I would add.

我要補充的是，在前兩年中，有一個過渡過程，就我們而言，這意味著第三季在我們從 Syng 協議中獲得的最終經濟效益方面所佔比例過高。因此，人們要記住該協議，這是一項為期 10 年的協議，內容涉及除阿根廷外的全球大部分接種劑以及我們為歐洲提供的生物殺菌劑（一旦可用）。該協議承諾提供 2.8 億美元的利潤，其中 50 美元以我們過渡到先正達的頭兩年的預付款形式提供，其餘的將以每年最低利潤分享的形式提供。因此，我們現在看到的是，每季的利潤分配分佈更加均勻，並且不再像前兩年那樣主要集中在第三季。我認為，在本季度，我們在利潤分享的基礎上從先正達獲得的收入是去年的兩倍多。然後是巴西業務，由於農民行為的變化，第四季度這項業務在歷史上非常重要。現在，它在第一季和第二季變得更加重要。當我們談論我們的財政年度時。因此，我們仍將在下個季度收取部分利潤。然後我認為世界其他地區將在第三和第四季以更均勻的方式下降。我們對這種關係的現狀感到非常滿意。我們知道，我們是在某些地區面臨挑戰的時候發起這項合作的。美國和巴西在過去兩年裡一直非常困難，但我們現在看到動態變得更加積極，我們也在損益表中得到了這一點。這就是我要補充的內容。

Okay, very good. That, helpful again, from both of you and you just addressed my last question. So thanks for taking my questions. I'll get back in queue.

好的，非常好。這再次對你們有幫助，而且你們剛剛回答了我的最後一個問題。謝謝你回答我的問題。我會回到隊列中。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Kristen Owen, Oppenheimer.

克里斯汀歐文，奧本海默。

Good morning. Thank you for taking the question.

早安.感謝您提出問題。

I wanted to dovetail on some of Ben's questions mostly on the cadence, first half versus second half or how we're thinking about the second quarter. Appreciate that we've now seen some rain and that's improved. At least a little bit of spending in some categories. But can you help us understand like from our willingness to spend like what are spending cycles looking like right now? Can you give us a sense of maybe just the sentiment on the ground as we go into the second quarter.

我想回答本的一些問題，主要是關於節奏、上半場與下半場或我們如何看待第二季的問題。感謝我們現在看到了一些降雨並且情況有所改善。至少在某些類別上有一點支出。但是您能否幫助我們了解我們的消費意願，例如現在的消費週期是什麼樣的呢？當我們進入第二季度時，您能否讓我們了解當地的情緒？

Hi, Kirsten, this is Enrique. Thanks for joining us and thanks for the question. And I think that that is an important question particularly for us in Argentina where we are probably more dependent on the [IAM] like Federico mentioned on the international front, we have probably a couple more degrees of distance with the farmer in Argentina. We're very linked to how they behave. I think that farmer sentiment is gaining momentum was kind of like a low morale with the lack of rains. It's the sort of again question mentality and then that was taken out when rains resumed and did so in good shape in October. So people are getting excited, obviously are cautious. I don't think that we will be seeing big swings, but I would say that the sentiment is shifting from cautious to optimistic. Also, remember one thing, I mean, Argentina is probably the one market in the world where farmers still have a cushion that can be made available to them by third party, essentially the government. So if export tax duties are lifted at least partially, that has a big impact on profitability and there's somewhat of an expectation on that. So I would say that it's building up, wouldn't expect big swings, but things are looking good.

嗨，克爾斯滕，我是恩里克。感謝您加入我們並感謝您提出問題。我認為這是一個重要的問題，特別是對我們阿根廷來說，我們可能更依賴像費德里科在國際方面提到的[IAM]，我們與阿根廷農民的距離可能更大。我們與他們的行為方式密切相關。我認為農民的情緒正在增強，就像缺乏降雨而士氣低落一樣。這是一種再次質疑的心態，然後當降雨恢復時，這種心態就被消除了，並在十月份表現良好。所以人們變得興奮，顯然很謹慎。我認為我們不會看到大幅波動，但我想說，人們的情緒正在從謹慎轉向樂觀。另外，請記住一件事，我的意思是，阿根廷可能是世界上農民仍然擁有第三方（主要是政府）可以提供緩衝的市場。因此，如果出口關稅至少部分取消，這將對獲利能力產生重大影響，並且對此有一定的預期。所以我想說它正在建立，預計不會有大的波動，但情況看起來不錯。

And we didn't hear you talk. Oh, sorry. Excuse me.

我們沒有聽到你說話。哦，抱歉。打擾一下。

Go ahead. I wasn't going to add much more.

前進。我不打算添加更多內容。

Yes.

是的。

Oh, I am. I was just going to, the, I was just going to follow up on we popper, we didn't really talk about that. So that has pressure as a follow up to that question. But then I have a separate question.

哦，我是。我只是想，我只是想跟進我們的波普爾，我們並沒有真正談論這個。因此，作為該問題的後續行動，這會帶來壓力。但我還有一個單獨的問題。

Yeah. I mean, of course, the lead copper was kind of like a big driver for the corn acreage drop. That is unprecedented. I don't think that we can remember in the last 20 years, a shift of this magnitude from corn to soybeans. And now I think that as those concerns have been removed and that has to do mostly with frosts. So if there was enough frost for the plague to have been killed by cold, essentially, which is the one reason why this is not a permanent issue in Argentina, and it is in Brazil. And I think that there is sort of like a there's some reasonable expectation that there can be a come back in late corn planting. And that is essentially what you see in farmers discussions in the forums that they have, whether it would be prudent or not to get into late corn planting. The good thing is that from an economic standpoint, I think that the economics are there for them to make the decision. So that's important to us, particularly for the micro fertilizer piece. I don't know if you have any other remarks on the leaf hopper.

是的。我的意思是，當然，鉛銅是玉米種植面積下降的一個重要推動因素。這是前所未有的。我認為我們不記得在過去 20 年裡有過從玉米到大豆的如此大規模的轉變。現在我認為這些擔憂已經消除，這主要與霜凍有關。因此，如果霜凍足夠多，瘟疫就會被寒冷殺死，這就是為什麼這在阿根廷不是一個永久性問題的原因之一，而在巴西卻是這樣。我認為，人們有一些合理的預期，即玉米播種後期可能會恢復。這基本上就是你在農民論壇上的討論中看到的，無論是否謹慎地進行晚玉米種植。好處是，從經濟角度來看，我認為他們可以根據經濟狀況做出決定。所以這對我們來說很重要，特別是對於微肥來說。不知道大家對於葉蟬還有什麼其他的看法嗎？

No, I think it's that obviously the companies are working on sort of scaling up the hybrids that have more inherit tolerance to the best. And we won't see that in the current cycle, but we will probably see them become more available in the next campaign so that they provide an incremental option to manage years where the best might have some pressure. And then there are management practices that farmers can implement also to mitigate that risk. I think we probably will see a more normalized corn acre engineers to come after these tools become more broadly available.

不，我認為顯然這些公司正在努力擴大對最好的具有更多遺傳耐受性的混合動力。在當前週期中我們不會看到這種情況，但我們可能會看到它們在下一個競選活動中變得更加可用，以便它們提供增量選項來管理最好的人可能面臨一些壓力的年份。農民也可以採取一些管理措施來減輕這種風險。我認為，在這些工具變得更廣泛可用之後，我們可能會看到更標準化的玉米英畝工程師。

That’s incredibly helpful. Thank you. My last question here is just related to HP4. You, we talked about this last quarter, the transition in the business model moving quicker, especially in in HP for soy to that as the light more trait like model understanding it's only been and you know, call it 10 weeks, 12 weeks since we've had that discussion. I'm just wondering if you can give us an update on whether it's internally what the feedback is from that transition or externally, you know, what interest in the marketplace looks like for different monetization opportunities. Thank you.

這非常有幫助。謝謝。我的最後一個問題與 HP4 有關。你，我們在上個季度談到了這一點，商業模式的轉變進展得更快，特別是在惠普的大豆業務中，隨著模型理解等更多特徵的出現，你知道，自我們推出以來，這已經是10 週、12 週了。我只是想知道您是否可以向我們提供最新信息，說明過渡的反饋是內部的還是外部的，您知道，市場對不同的貨幣化機會的興趣是什麼樣的。謝謝。

So, I mean, that's work in progress, and we would like to sort of provide very specific information on how we think that can be done. So I'll ask you to be a little bit more patient on us being able to give you more specific guidance in terms of how we think we're going to accomplish that shift. Now, I would say that since we had our last earnings call, obviously, there are things we're doing internally to make that happen. But also, we have engaged more, the industry has engaged more proactively with us to look for opportunities to also make the existing channels available for this more conventional approach. And I think we should be able to provide more specific information in the near time.

所以，我的意思是，這項工作正在進行中，我們希望提供非常具體的信息，說明我們認為如何做到這一點。因此，我請您多一點耐心，讓我們能夠就我們如何實現這一轉變向您提供更具體的指導。現在，我想說，自從我們上次召開財報電話會議以來，顯然我們正在內部採取一些措施來實現這一目標。而且，我們參與得更多，業界也更主動地與我們合作，尋找機會，讓現有管道可用於這種更傳統的方法。我認為我們應該能夠在不久的將來提供更具體的資訊。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Kemp Dolliver, Brookline Capital Markets.

Kemp Dolliver，布魯克林資本市場。

Great. Thank you. First question relates to the increased focus on cash flow, and you know, for instance, it looks like your day’s receivable, stabilized this quarter versus the well, the June quarter. And so, you know, how should, what are your expectations for the impact from this, you know, is measured by operating cash flow? Because that's the essentially the bottom line here for you.

偉大的。謝謝。第一個問題涉及對現金流的日益關注，例如，您知道，本季的應收帳款看起來比六月季度穩定。因此，您知道，您對此影響的預期應該如何透過經營現金流來衡量？因為這對您來說本質上是底線。

Hi Kemp, this is Enrique. Thanks for joining us and thanks for the question. That's a good question. Yeah, of course. I mean, I think that in particular, if we want to turn from having sort of like consumed cash flow last year to being a net cash generating entity. This year, working capital probably plays the most significant role. Then there are other aspects like we mentioned and Frico touched upon it and myself did as well on capital allocation, but working capital in particular is a big item. So accounts receivables and inventories are first in line. Of course, if you look at our numbers, you will see that even as we got into the high season and of course, that we have less sales than anticipated. But even with us getting into the high season inventories went down. So there's work that goes behind that is particularly related to us trying to be as just in time as possible when it comes to inventory availability for sales. That's why. And the second one is, of course, an account which have also gone down from June to September 1 could expect that's the case if we are collecting. But remember that in particular in Argentina and Brazil, those are two markets where days of sales outstanding are probably the, the two markets that drive the average up. So sales in the US in Europe, even in Uruguay are shorter in terms of days of sales outstanding. So the fact that the overall accounts receivables number went down sequentially from June to September means that there's also a big focus on us collecting as much as on selling.

嗨，坎普，我是恩里克。感謝您加入我們並感謝您提出問題。這是個好問題。是的，當然。我的意思是，我認為特別是如果我們想從去年消耗的現金流轉變為淨現金產生實體。今年，營運資金可能扮演最重要的角色。還有其他方面，就像我們提到的那樣，Frico 談到了這一點，我自己在資本配置方面也做了同樣的事情，但特別是營運資金是一個大項目。因此，應收帳款和存貨排在第一位。當然，如果您查看我們的數據，您會發現即使我們進入了旺季，我們的銷售額也低於預期。但即使我們進入旺季，庫存仍然下降。因此，這背後的工作與我們在銷售庫存可用性方面盡可能及時地努力特別相關。這就是原因。當然，第二個帳戶從 6 月到 9 月 1 日也有所下降，如果我們收集的話，可以預料到會發生這種情況。但請記住，特別是在阿根廷和巴西，這兩個市場的銷售天數可能是推動平均水準上升的兩個市場。因此，從銷售天數來看，美國、歐洲甚至烏拉圭的銷售量都較短。因此，從 6 月到 9 月，應收帳款總數連續下降，這意味著我們對收款和銷售的重視程度不相上下。

So that's something that we have implemented internally. And then I would say that cash conversion cycles as a framework have become increasingly important in the decision-making process. So we're thinking about either entertaining a particular business with a distributor or when we're thinking about growing a product or investing in a registration, we're also thinking about how long that investment or even spending will get converted into positive cash flows. But the expectation for the year came to be concrete is that we turn from negative into positive cash generation and that's something that will require us being focused on this throughout the year.

這就是我們在內部實施的事情。然後我想說，現金轉換週期作為一個框架在決策過程中變得越來越重要。因此，我們正在考慮與經銷商一起開展特定業務，或者當我們考慮開發產品或投資註冊時，我們也在考慮投資甚至支出需要多長時間才能轉化為正現金流。但今年的具體預期是，我們將現金產生從負數變成正數，這需要我們全年都專注於此。

And just to follow up on that with regard to receivables and that's, you know, the most delicate item. Do you intend to reduce the so by the end of the fiscal year or just stabilize it because you can achieve improvement in cash flow by just stabilizing yah so. But you still have the issue of when you, that's essentially a one-year benefit and you start growing again. It still drags on your performance.

只是跟進應收帳款方面的情況，你知道，這是最微妙的項目。您打算在本財年結束前減少 so 嗎？但你仍然面臨一個問題，那就是，這本質上是一年的好處，而你又開始成長。它仍然會拖累你的表現。

Yeah, that's a good point. No, we're aiming to have sort of like a structural change and for this to be permanent. Now, DSOs for this business in particular are tricky because it depends on how sales are sort of like a progressing and even more. So if you are in a growing business, so what I would say to be concrete is that we are aiming for the shift in the approach to be something structural and more permanent. So that positive cash flow generation is something that we enter into, and we don't get out of it in the following season. How that translates into DSO's I think that will kind of depend on, on the last 12 trading months and how we think of the following season just because of what I told you, Argentina and Brazil are tricky because they have usually depending on the product, DSO's that might go from 120 to 180 or even 100 days. And that's what we're trying to keep away from those long cash conversion cycles in low margin products which at the end of the day, in a context of rising rates don't make sense.

是的，這是一個好點。不，我們的目標是進行某種結構性的改變，而且是永久性的。現在，針對該業務的 DSO 特別棘手，因為它取決於銷售的進度，甚至更多。因此，如果您從事的是一家不斷發展的業務，那麼我要具體說的是，我們的目標是使方法的轉變成為結構性的、更持久的。因此，正現金流的產生是我們進入的事情，我們不會在下一個季節擺脫它。我認為這將如何轉化為 DSO，這將取決於過去 12 個交易月以及我們對下一個季節的看法，正如我告訴你的那樣，阿根廷和巴西很棘手，因為他們通常取決於產品， DSO 的時間可能從120 天到180 天甚至100 天不等。這就是我們試圖避免低利潤產品中漫長的現金轉換週期的原因，歸根結底，在利率上升的背景下，這種週期是沒有意義的。

That’s great. Thank you. And to shift gears quickly on HP4.

那太好了。謝謝。並在 HP4 上快速換檔。

How did that do year over year? Is it still growing or because of the decrease in downstream sales? It actually declined this quarter such that we'll see growth in subsequent quarters.

年復一年，情況如何？是還在成長還是因為下游銷量減少了？實際上本季度有所下降，因此我們將在接下來的幾個季度看到成長。

So, Hi Kemp I think the key here is probably that what Enrique alluded to the downstream sales will come down as we're shifting the business model, but those are usually associated to very small margins and we expect to continue to grow on the upstream front, which is sort of the more profitable side of the business. So at the end of the day, it's not so much the revenues but more the gross profit contribution that we expect from this business, which obviously we intend for that to be higher year after year.

所以，嗨，坎普，我認為這裡的關鍵可能是恩里克提到的下游銷售將隨著我們轉變業務模式而下降，但這些通常與非常小的利潤相關，我們預計上游將繼續增長前面，這是業務中更有利可圖的一面。因此，歸根結底，我們期望這項業務的貢獻不是收入，而是毛利貢獻，顯然我們希望毛利能年復一年地更高。

Okay, great. Thank you.

好的，太好了。謝謝。

Thank you. As a reminder. (Operator instructions).

謝謝。作為提醒。（操作員說明）。

Andrew Steinhardt, Canaccord Genuity.

安德魯·斯坦哈特，Canaccord Genuity。

Hi, everyone. You have Andrew on for Austin today. Thank you for taking my questions. Just first here, when do you expect you might have an update for investors on the planned distribution partner for HP four.

大家好。今天安德魯將代表奧斯汀出賽。感謝您回答我的問題。首先，您預計什麼時候可以為投資者提供有關 HP 4 計劃分銷合作夥伴的最新資訊。

Hi, Andrew. I think we; we won't provide a specific date. I we are working on that and hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later. We are getting very good traction on different alternatives, but at this moment, I think we will stay away from providing a specific date.

嗨，安德魯。我想我們；我們不會提供具體日期。我們正在努力解決這個問題，希望它能早日實現。我們在不同的替代方案上獲得了很好的支持，但目前，我認為我們不會提供具體的日期。

Got it. And, and just one more question if I may. Do you expect to recover in commodity prices or a further reduction in interest rates in Argentina and Brazil to be a more significant factor for recovery in your core markets?

知道了。如果可以的話，還有一個問題。您預期大宗商品價格的回升或阿根廷和巴西利率的進一步降低是否會成為核心市場復甦的更重要因素？

I mean, the recovery in commodity prices always helps because at the end of the day, directly equates to the profitability on farm and that the more money our customers have, the more they're inclined to sort of get the high technology portfolio of products that we owned in terms of interest rates. I think different regions have different dynamics. Argentina probably is uncoupled to what you are seeing in the rest of the world because of the past expectations of devaluation and how sort of on the dollarized side that affected interest rates. But then I think the key point here is what Herique alluded to in his part of the presentation.

我的意思是，大宗商品價格的復甦總是有幫助的，因為歸根結底，它直接等於農場的盈利能力，而且我們的客戶擁有的錢越多，他們就越傾向於獲得高科技產品組合我們以利率的形式擁有的。我認為不同地區有不同的動態。由於過去對貨幣貶值的預期以及美元化對利率的影響，阿根廷可能與你在世界其他地區看到的情況脫節。但我認為這裡的關鍵點是埃里克在他的演講部分中提到的內容。

Third of the final value of soybeans is taken away by a specific tax in Argentina. And that's very specific to Argentina. You don't see that anywhere else in the world. So at the end of the day, there's a sort of a third-party decision that can all of a sudden create an incremental value to farmers that exists in this geography and doesn't exist elsewhere. Actually, agriculture is mostly subsidized in the rest of the world. So I think we're going to go into an election year next year. Farmers are a core constituency of the government. So there is a realistic expectation that there might be some incrementality to the price situation that might come from sort of an action of this sort.

阿根廷大豆最終價值的三分之一被徵收特定稅。這是阿根廷特有的。您在世界其他任何地方都看不到這一點。因此，歸根結底，有一種第三方決策可以突然為農民創造增量價值，這種價值存在於該地區，而其他地方則不存在。事實上，世界其他地區的農業大多受到補貼。所以我認為明年我們將進入選舉年。農民是政府的核心選民。因此，人們有一個現實的預期，即此類行動可能會導致價格狀況出現一些增量。

Got it. I appreciate the details there. Thank you again for taking my questions. I'll pass it on.

知道了。我很欣賞那裡的細節。再次感謝您回答我的問題。我會把它傳遞下去。

Thank you as there are no additional questions waiting at this time. I'd like to hand the conference back over to Federico Trucco for closing remarks.

謝謝您，目前沒有其他問題。我想將會議交還給費德里科·特魯科 (Federico Trucco) 致閉幕詞。

Well, I want to thank everyone again for participating in today's call. Please feel free to reach out to our IR team for further information. If you want to double click on anything, we have not discussed fully during today's presentation. And thank you very much.

嗯，我想再次感謝大家參加今天的電話會議。請隨時聯繫我們的投資者關係團隊以獲取更多資訊。如果你想雙擊任何東西，我們在今天的演示中還沒有充分討論。非常感謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Have a great rest of your day. You may now disconnect your line.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。祝您有個愉快的一天。現在您可以斷開線路。