Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp Stock

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Bioceres Crop Solutions Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2026 Financial Results Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Paula Savanti, Head of Investor Relations. Paula, please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you. Welcome, everybody, to Bioceres Crop Solutions Fourth Fiscal Quarter and Full Year 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Our prepared remarks today will be led by our Chief Executive Officer, Federico Trucco; and our Chief Financial Officer, Ezequiel Simmermacher. Both of them will be available for the Q&A session following the presentation.

During this call, we will be making 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 statements 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.

In today's presentation, we will be making references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures can be found in our earnings press release. The conference call is being webcast, and the link is available at our Investor Relations website. It is now my pleasure to turn over the call to Federico.

Thanks, Paula, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Good morning. Please turn to Slide #3 for today's highlights. Fiscal 2026 was a challenging year for Bioceres, marked by the ongoing litigation with certain of our creditors and the business consequences emanating from this dispute. Revenues from our continuing operations declined by 18% with its consequential decline in gross profits and adjusted EBITDA.

Excluding changes associated to our new seed business strategy, the decline in revenues has been most significant in our international business. But in Argentina, our commercial operations have mostly stabilized, in part because of the successful reprofiling of our local debt obligations towards the beginning of the fourth quarter. Against that backdrop, our priorities have been to focus the business on our core capabilities, reduce our cost structure and strengthen operating discipline.

Fourth quarter results provide encouraging evidence of progress. Revenues from continuing operations were broadly stable year-over-year with improved performance across several of our core product categories.

At the same time, the cost actions implemented throughout the year resulted in a materially lower expense base, allowing us to return to positive adjusted EBITDA in the quarter. Ezequiel will now review our financial performance for the quarter and the full year. I will then return to discuss our outlook towards the end of today's call.

Ezequiel?

Thank you, Federico, and good morning, everyone. Before I begin, I want to remind everyone that unless otherwise indicated, the results I will discuss today reflect our continuing operations for all periods presented. Prior year amounts have been recast to exclude Pro Farm Group and are presented on a comparable basis. With that, let's turn to Slide #4 and our revenue performance.

Revenues for the fourth quarter were $55.9 million, slightly above with the $55.4 million in the prior year. The main source of growth during this quarter came from the Crop Nutrition segment, increasing by 36% year-over-year, mainly as a result of a strong performance in microbeaded fertilizers. This increase was offset by lower revenues in Crop Protection and in Seeds.

For the full year, revenues declined 18% to $238 million. Approximately half of that decline was associated with the beforementioned seeds business reconfiguration. Most of the remaining decline was in Crop Protection, while Crop Nutrition revenues were broadly stable for the year. Within Crop Nutrition, the strong performance of microbeaded fertilizers was offset by lower inoculant revenues.

Moving to gross profit. Let's turn to Slide #5. Reported gross profit for the quarter was 17 -- $12.7 million, down 6%, with a gross margin of 22.8%. There are a few important factors behind those reported numbers. First, the quarter included approximately $4 million of non-recurring inventory adjustment related to obsolescence following a comprehensive review. This had a meaningful impact on reported gross profit and masked improved profitability across several of our core product categories.

Crop Nutrition is probably the clearest example. Gross profit increased 37%, led by microbeaded fertilizers, where we had both higher revenues and improved margins. In Crop Protection, the overall decline was concentrated in third-party and other products. Our adjuvant portfolio actually delivered higher gross profit and improved margins year-over-year. And within Seed and Integrated Products, the remaining seeds continued to weigh on reported results, but seed treatment packs delivered higher sales and approximately 40% growth in gross profit.

Reported consolidated gross margin does not yet tell a full story. Beneath the headline numbers, we are seeing early signs of improvement across several of our core business, providing a strong foundation for future performance. Turning to the slide to look for the full year gross profit results. For the full year, reported gross profit was $82.9 million, down 21%, with a gross margin of 34.8%.

As with the quarterly numbers, understanding the component of that decline is important. There were some significant effects during the year: the higher inventory obsolescence charge we just discussed and the wind-down of the seeds business model. Looking at the underlying product performance, Crop Protection margins were broadly stable for the year despite lower revenues. Microbeaded fertilizers increased gross profit by approximately 20%, and seed treatment packs also delivered higher gross profit and improved margins.

The largest reported decline was in Crop Nutrition, particularly inoculants, where the year-over-year comparison was significantly affected by the inventory obsolescence charge. So while reported consolidated gross margin declined, the underlying composition of the portfolio continues to improve with a greater concentration of products that offer stronger profitability.

Turning to Slide #7 to look at the adjusted EBITDA, there is where the impact of the cost actions we have been implementing throughout the year becomes much more visible. Adjusted EBITDA improved by approximately $10 million year-over-year from negative $9.6 million to positive $0.6 million. The main driver was a reduction in our operation expense base. SG&A was down 19% in the quarter, with reduction in both fixed and variable expenses, and those savings more than offset the decline in reported gross profit.

Other income also contributed positively during the quarter, reflecting gains from joint farming and barter arrangements. So although $0.6 million is still a modest level of EBITDA, the important point for us is that the magnitude of the year-over-year improvement and the fact that the cost action taken during fiscal year 2026 are now clearly flowing through the P&L.

For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was $25.5 million compared to the $28.9 million in fiscal year 2025. The bridge illustrates the scale of the cost reset. Gross profit declined by approximately $22 million year-over-year, but this was substantially offset by the more than $20 million of improvement in operating expense. Despite the 18% reduction in revenues and the 21% reduction in reported gross profit, adjusted EBITDA declined by only 12%.

We think that demonstrates the magnitude of the cost actions implemented during the year and the significant leaner operation structure with which we are entering fiscal year 2027. Finally, turning to the balance sheet. Total financial debt on June 30 was $225.9 million, broadly stable compared with the end of the third quarter. Cash and short-term investments totaled $12.2 million, resulting in a net financial debt of $213.6 million.

As we have previously discussed, following the acceleration note associated with the noteholders dispute, substantially all of the related secured notes, $118.6 million at year-end, remains classified as short-term. The outstanding balance does not reflect any reduction in connection with the Pro Farm foreclosure. The company continues to dispute the acceleration of the notes and the foreclosure process, which remains subject to ongoing legal proceedings.

Outside the secured notes, we also made meaningful progress on liability management during the year that was completed during the fourth quarter. At Rizobacter, we successfully pursued the reprofiling of approximately $28 million of bank debt obligations and completed a voluntary maturity extension process for our local bonds debts in Argentina, covering $46.5 million in aggregate principal amount of outstanding notes.

This initiative further strengthens our liquidity profile and extend our debt maturity schedule. Managing liquidity and the capital structure remains a key priority as we enter fiscal year 2027, alongside the operation and work capital initiatives as Federico mentioned. So let's turn to Federico.

Thanks, Ezequiel. And please now turn to Slide #10 for a brief discussion on what to expect for the year ahead. We have now substantially completed the nearly 2-year reconfiguration of our seed business and concluded an external strategic assessment of our continuing operations.

That work has provided a clear road map for the next phase of the business, including rationalizing our portfolio and go-to-market channels, revisiting some of our commercial policies and strategic relationships, and realigning our R&D&R investment with defined financial objectives, while continuing to explore further efficiencies on the OpEx front and non-core asset monetization opportunities.

These actions are also beginning to translate into improved portfolio profitability, although the benefits are not yet fully reflected in reported gross margins, as we work through the portfolio and commercial transition described before. For instance, if you now turn to the next slide, you will see that if we adjust the non-recurring obsolescence associated to the portfolio transition, gross profit percent has already expanded from fiscal year '25 to fiscal year '26.

For fiscal year '27 and beyond, we are targeting about 40% gross margins. We believe that this can be achieved by focusing growth on higher quality core revenue streams, particularly in Brazil, as well as simplifying the product portfolio to focus on the most valuable and value-accretive SKUs. Just for reference, 99% of the aggregated gross profit from fiscal year '25 resulted from less than 50% of the SKUs in our catalog. So we see a great opportunity in this work.

We have also made great progress on the SG&A front, as we have already discussed during the presentation. And you can see this summarized in the next slide. Yet, we believe that we can continue to improve on this front, targeting a combined 23% total SG&A as a percent of revenues for fiscal year '28. We believe this is achievable as we implement new systems and simplify our organizational arrangement in terms of processes, cost centers, and legal entities.

As we enter fiscal '27, our focus remains on improving the performance and cash generation of our continuing business, maintaining cost and working capital discipline, and actively addressing the company's capital structure and liquidity position. We believe the actions taken during fiscal '26 have established a more focused operating base from which to move forward.

We continue to recognize the significance of the ongoing litigation process in New York, where we'll continue to pursue the appropriate legal course, as well as evaluate constructive alternatives, where possible. With this, we end our prepared remarks. We can now open the call for Q&A. Operator?

[Operator Instructions]

There are no questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Federico Trucco for closing remarks.

Thank you. With this we can end the call for today. Have a great rest of the week.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Bioceres Crop Solutions Fiscal Third Quarter 2026 Financial and Operational Results Call. [Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Paula Savanti, Head of Investor Relations. Paula, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Bioceres Crop Solutions Third Fiscal Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Our prepared remarks today will be led by our Chief Executive Officer, Federico Trucco; our General Counsel, Jose Roque; and our Chief Financial Officer, Ezequiel Simmermacher. All of them will be available for the Q&A session following the presentation.

During this call, we will be making 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 statements 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.

In today's presentation, we will be making references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures can be found in our earnings press release. This conference call is being webcast, and the link is available at our Investor Relations website.

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

Thanks, Paula, and good morning to everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Please turn to Slide 3 for today's key business and financial highlights. This quarter reflects a period of transition and operational refocusing for the company, while it is historically our weakest quarter from a baseline business perspective.

Total revenues and gross profits showed a decline compared to the same quarter last year, which was partially offset by an improvement in operational expenses. Net loss was $10 million, primarily reflecting lower gross profit as well as increased financial expenses, all of which will be described in greater detail later in the presentation. Also, in the last 3 years, we have booked profits from IP rights and other commercial arrangements in this quarter, which helped us offset baseline operating losses. Although we continue to explore strategic arrangements with our partners on a regular basis and see these as a recurrent source of profitability, this year, the timing of profit-generating arrangements did not coincide with the initial months of the calendar year. As I have stated in my message to shareholders of March 16, we recognize the significance of the events surrounding Pro Farm and the uncertainty generated by the ongoing litigation process.

Jose Roque, our General Counsel, will now provide an update of the ongoing litigation. Please turn to Slide 4.

Thank you, Federico, and good morning to everyone on the call. As previously disclosed, in November 2025, 4 holders of secured notes issued under our note purchase agreements dated August 2022, filed a lawsuit in New York against the company and certain guarantor affiliates. The plaintiffs alleged that defaults occurred under those agreements and are seeking payment of amounts they say became immediately due. The company strongly disputes the allegations. As explained in court filings, each of the alleged defaults turns on contested facts. The company has, at all times, acted in good faith and under active Board supervision to manage liquidity and preserve enterprise value.

We have also asserted counterclaims against the plaintiffs and third-party individuals. On January 20, 2026, as part of the litigation process, the noteholders conducted a foreclosure auction involving the Pro Farm Group, Inc. collateral. A noteholder affiliated entity was the only qualified bidder and acquired the assets through a $15 million credit bid. We believe and continue to argue in litigation that the foreclosure was conducted in a commercially unreasonable manner, and we have asserted counterclaims challenging the process.

The case remains in its early stages, and the company intends to continue both our active defense against noteholders' allegations and the pursuit of our affirmative claims. While we remain confident in our legal position, I would remind listeners that my statements regarding the litigation are subject to the usual disclaimers regarding forward-looking statements and that actual results may differ materially. The company intends to continue updating shareholders regarding material developments in the litigation through appropriate disclosures, including, where applicable, reports on Form 6-K.

Thank you, Jose. Please now turn to Slide #5 for an introduction to Ezequiel Simmermacher, who joined us as CFO at the beginning of the year. Ezequiel comes to us after a nearly 20-year career in agriculture with positions of increasing seniority at Monsanto first and then at CHS, where he was Regional Finance Director and then Director of Operational Excellence for South America until joining us. We're delighted to have Ezequiel in the team and very grateful for his commitment to our organization, particularly in light of joining at a time of significant uncertainty.

Ezequiel, welcome. Now turning the call over to you to discuss the accounting impact of the Pro Farm foreclosure as well as the quarter's financial performance for our continuing operations.

Thank you, Federico, for the introduction, and good morning, everyone. It is great to be here in my first earnings call with Bioceres. Let's begin with Slide 6, which, as Federico mentioned, detail the impact of the January 2026 foreclosure auction involving the Pro Farm Group on our financials. As a result of the foreclosure process, the Pro Farm business was classified as discontinued operations and its assets and liabilities were reclassified accordingly in our financial statements. Based on the expected proceeds from the foreclosure auction, the company recognized a noncash impairment and loss associated with the transaction during the second quarter of fiscal year 2026. In total, approximately $194 million of the net assets associated with the Pro Farm Group business was recognized or reclassified. After considering the $15 million credit bid submitted by noteholders, this results in accumulated noncash loss of approximately $179 million.

The largest impact were reductions in intangible assets and goodwill, together with reductions in property, plant and equipment and working capital balance. These were partially offset by the derecognition of liabilities associated with the Pro Farm Group business. These impacts were recognized in the second quarter and are reflected in the current balance sheet presentations.

Now let's walk through the financial results for the quarter. And first, let me remind you that all financial results discussed below reflect the company's continuing operations for all periods presented and previous year's amounts have been recast to exclude the Pro Farm Group business unless otherwise noted.

Let's turn to Slide 7 to begin looking at revenues. Total revenues for the quarter were $39.4 million, representing a 23% decline versus the same period last year. Before discussing the segments, I think it's important to remember that the fiscal third quarter is seasonally the lowest quarter for our continuous operation, particularly following the Pro Farm foreclosure auction and the resulting reduction in North America operations. This quarter typically coincides with lower planting and harvesting activities in the Southern Hemisphere, meaning that fluctuation in demand, pricing and product mix tend to have a more visible impact on quarterly performance.

Looking at segment performance, we saw a mixed dynamic across the portfolio. In Crop Protection, revenue were $24.6 million, down 18% year-over-year. The decline was mainly driven by softened demand and competitive pressure in certain categories, particularly in adjuvants and third-party products in Argentina. We also continue to see inventory adjustments across the nutrition channel, which affected purchasing activity. In third-party products, pricing pressure in both patent categories also weighted on revenues.

In Seeds and Integrated Products revenues declined 71% year-over-year. This continues the trend we've seen over the last several quarters as downstream seeds and grain sales are phased out as part of the strategic shift towards a more asset-light and lower working capital-intense model in seeds. As we've discussed before, this transition reduced reported revenues in the near term while also lowering exposure to lower margin and more working capital-intense activity.

Crop Nutrition was the one segment that posted growth during the quarter, with revenues increased 15% year-over-year to $11.6 million. Growth was mainly driven by micro fertilizer supported by a low comparable base and stronger demand dynamics during the quarter amid global supply and pricing uncertainties associated with geopolitical tensions. Overall, revenue performance during the quarter reflects a combination of softer market conditions in certain categories together with ongoing portfolio transition effects.

Moving now to gross profit on Slide 8. Gross profit for the quarter was $12.7 million compared to $18.1 million in the same period last year, representing a 30% year-over-year decline. The decline was relatively broad-based across the 3 segments. In Crop Protection, gross profit performance largely mirrored the decline in revenues. Margins across the different product categories were generally stable, although overall segment margin came down from 37% to 35%, mainly due to the lower contribution from adjuvants within the mix this quarter.

In Seeds and Integrated Products, gross profit declined in absolute terms, but significantly less than revenues. As a result, gross margin improved from 19% to 30%, reflecting a more favorable mix with a higher relative contribution from seed treatment packs versus downstream grain sales. Finally, Crop Nutrition gross profit declined 38% despite higher revenues. The main driver here was obsolescence adjustment related to inoculants following an update inventory assessment during this quarter.

Excluding this adjustment, underlying profitability in the inoculants business remained broadly stable year-over-year. Overall, gross margin declined from 35% to 32%, reflecting lower revenues, product mix effects and inoculants adjustment disclosed above. Excluding that nonrecurring adjustment, underlying gross margin performance remains broadly in line with the prior year period.

Now let's please turn to Slide 9 for a review of the adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was negative $0.6 million compared to positive $9.1 million in the prior year quarter. When looking at this year-over-year comparison, it is important to separate a couple of nonrecurring items affecting comparability across periods. First, the prior year quarter included approximately $7.7 million of nonrecurring other income associated with changes in contractual obligations and intellectual property arrangements as part of the recognition -- reorganization in Seeds. The absence of that income had a significant impact on comparability versus last year. Second, during the current quarter, Crop Nutrition results were impacted by a nonrecurring inoculant obsolescence adjustment associated with an updated inventory assessment.

Looking beyond these items, underlying operations performance reflects lower gross profit across part of the business, particularly in Crop Protection, although the deterioration was partially offset by continuous progress on cost control, organizational streamlining initiatives. These actions resulted in a meaningful reduction in operation expense during the quarter, while joint ventures results also improved year-over-year and provided an additional positive contribution to EBITDA.

Finally, let's turn to Slide #10 to review our balance sheet, cash position and a brief update on the debt situation. As of March 31, 2026, total financial debt stood at approximately $229 million, broadly stable compared to the previous quarter. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled approximately $14 million, resulting in a net financial debt of approximately $214 million, also stable on a sequential basis. One important point to highlight is that following the acceleration notice received in connection with the noteholder situation discussed earlier in the call, substantially all of the related debt is currently classified as short term in our balance sheet presentation.

As Federico and Jose previously noted, the company continues to dispute both the purported acceleration of the notes and the commercial reasonable of the Pro Farm foreclosure action. These matters remain subject to ongoing legal proceeding, and the company intends to continue vigorously defending its position and pursuing its claim and counterclaims in the litigation. At the same time, we continue to evaluate constructive alternatives and maintaining dialogue with relevant stakeholders where appropriate. As Federico mentioned earlier, we are also advancing a reprofiling process for Rizobacter debt obligation in Argentina, including voluntary maturity extensions, discussions with bondholders and continued coordination with key banking partners. More broadly, management remains highly focused on liquidity preservation, working capital discipline and tighter capital allocation across the organization as we continue to stabilize the platform and improve financial flexibility over time.

With that, I will turn the call back over to Federico. Thank you.

Thanks, Ezequiel. And please turn to Slide 11, our final slide for today. While market conditions in several areas of our business remain challenging and the effects of the transition in Seeds continue to weigh on reported results, we are increasingly focused on strengthening the fundamentals of the organization and prioritizing disciplined execution across the business.

During the quarter, we continued advancing initiatives aimed at simplifying the organization, improving operational efficiency, strengthening working capital management and improving cash generation while advancing liability management initiatives across key operating subsidiaries. In parallel, we are reinforcing governance and internal processes and concluding a strategic review of our continuing -- and conducting a strategic review of our continuing operations including initiatives focused on organizational streamlining and capital allocation optimization to ensure that capital management attention and resources remain aligned with the areas where we believe we can create the greatest long-term value.

We recognize the uncertainty generated by the ongoing litigation. While we continue to pursue the appropriate legal course and evaluate constructive alternatives where possible, our priority remains clear, stabilizing the business, preserving the value of our core operations and positioning the company for a more resilient and sustainable future.

With that, I think we can now turn the call over to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Kemp Dolliver with Brookline Capital Markets.

I did miss the first few minutes of the presentation, but I think you can go to add some information on this. What are you doing with regard to collections? It looks like you've made some progress on reducing receivables, but it's hard to tell given the restatements where you stand currently on that initiative.

I will pass that question over to Ezequiel. And first, I'll say that we're emphasizing, obviously, reducing receivables and advancing collections to prioritize liquidity and keep working capital discipline. But Ezequiel might be able to provide more color into this.

2 angles. First is we have been working on, let's say, giving alternatives to our customers to advance the receivables with some type of incentive. And on the other side, we have been working on new sales being done in lower sell period by giving some attractive to shorter terms that are more common to the industry.

Okay. And what was operating cash flow for the quarter and then year-to-date?

No, we can provide that after.

We don't have the number, the exact number here, but we can provide that information on the analyst session with you.

As there are no further questions at this time, I will turn the call back to Federico Trucco for closing remarks.

Thank you, and thanks again, everyone, for joining. We remain available for any additional information that might be required. And hope everyone has a great rest of the week.

And this concludes today's call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is Federico Trucco speaking, President and CEO of Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. and Chairman of the meeting. I would like to welcome you to the 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. We are webcasting and recording this morning's proceedings so that we can prepare a complete transcript for shareholders and employees unable to attend the meeting.

This meeting is held both at Linklaters' premises in 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, and virtually. We're pleased to have with us Ana Gois as Inspector of Elections, Thomas Lemouche in Linklaters; Jose Roque, General Counsel of the company and Secretary of the Board of Directors. So will the meeting please come to order? Thank you.

I report that notice of the meeting and the relevant meeting materials have been delivered to all members of record of the company by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, the transfer agent and registrar of the company's common stock. The affidavit, proxy materials and other documents are directed to be filed with the records of the company. I also present a list of the members of the company's common stock as at the close of business on January 5, 2026, the record date for this meeting, as prepared and certified by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company to be filed with the records of the company.

Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company has computed the number of shares represented under the proxy card made available to the members. I report that the holders of 11,895,128 shares of the common stock are present or represented at this meeting, which shares represent approximately 18.484% of the shares entitled to vote at this meeting. The meeting will now proceed to the proposals and its voting results.

Proposal #1. Consider and vote the report of the Board of Directors of the company and the report of the independent auditor on the company's consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended June 30, 2025, and approve the company's consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended June 30, 2025. 7,141,549 votes have been cast in favor of proposal #1. 4,718,819 votes against it and 34,760 votes have abstained.

Proposal #2. Consider and vote upon a proposal to appoint the following 4 directors to serve on the Board of Directors of the company until the 2027 Annual General Meeting of the company or until their respective successors are duly appointed and qualified. Federico Trucco, Duraiswami D Narain, Antonio Simon Vumbaca and Yogesh Mago. 6,718,265 votes have been cast in favor. 5,176,863 votes have been withheld.

Proposal #3. Consider and vote upon the ratification of appointment of Price Waterhouse & Co. S.R.L. as the independent registered public accounting firm of the company. 7,212,674 votes have been cast in favor of proposal #3. 4,678,212 votes against it and 4,242 votes have abstained.

We inform people attending virtually that you can submit questions, and the company will give you reply in the shortest time. There being no further matters to discuss, we thank you for attending, and the meeting is adjourned.

Good morning all, and thank you for joining us on today's Bioceres Crop Solutions Fiscal First Quarter 2026 Financial and Operational Results. My name is Drew, and I'll be the operator on the call today. [Operator Instructions]

With that, it's my pleasure to hand over to Paula Savanti, Head of Investor Relations, to begin. Please go ahead when you're ready.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome, everybody, to Bioceres Crop Solutions Fiscal First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Our prepared remarks today will be led by our Chief Executive Officer, Federico Trucco; myself as Head of Investor Relations.

Both of us as well as will be available for the Q&A session afterwards. We're also joined in today's call by our General Counsel, Jose Roque.

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 statements 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. In today's presentation, we will be making references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures can be found in our earnings press release. This conference call is being webcast and the link is available at our Investor Relations website.

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

Thanks, Paula, and good morning to everyone. Thank you for joining us today.

Please turn to Slide #3 for an overview of the highlights of our first fiscal quarter. Despite the drop in revenues in the quarter compared to the year ago numbers, gross profit remained almost equal at $36 million with a gross margin expansion of 650 basis points.

This shows how the seed business model transition as well as a lower emphasis on opportunistic third-party product sales are resulting in a similar aggregated gross profit at a much lower working capital expense. In fact, we have seen a sequential improvement in working capital despite the first quarter's seasonally high needs as we'll discuss in a minute.

On the cost front, we continue to see the results of our cost reduction initiatives as well as business model transition with both variable and fixed SG&A declining significantly, resulting in meaningful improvements in operating profits and adjusted EBITDA.

Please turn to the next slide. This quarter reflects clear progress on the priorities we set for the year, improve the quality of our revenues, protect margins and operate with discipline, while we continue to pursue our core purpose, which is to enable a better, still highly productive agriculture.

This slide shows the 3 main KPIs that we'll track throughout the year. In our last call, we committed to operating above the 40% gross margin level, getting closer to 4 months of working capital in terms of annual sales and targeting profitability above 20% of adjusted EBITDA over sales, for which we needed not only to expand margins as we are doing, but also to reduce costs, targeting a $10 million to $12 million reduction in annual SG&A.

As you can see in the numbers here, we have operated well above the gross margin limit we established for ourselves, doubled our percent adjusted EBITDA compared to that of fiscal year '25 and already got to the same level, 17% that we achieved in fiscal '24.

We have done this while remaining close to our working capital target of 4 months in a seasonally demanding quarter. One important highlight is our SG&A improvement. Both variable and fixed SG&A have improved significantly, achieving 50% of our top of the range expected annualized savings in just 1 quarter.

I will now pass on the call to Paula for a more in-depth analysis of these and other aspects of our financial performance. Paula?

Thank you, Federico. Let's look at the financial results for the quarter. Please turn to Slide 5, starting with revenues.

Total revenues for the quarter were $77.5 million, a 17% decline versus the same period last year. The decline reflects to a large degree, the strategy communicated in previous quarters, transitioning our seed business toward a more scalable and capital-efficient model and deprioritizing lower-margin working capital-intensive sales.

Results were also shaped by sales timing effects in some Latin American countries, particularly Uruguay and an uneven recovery in Argentina. Looking at performance by segment, most of the reduction came from Crop Protection and Seed and Integrated Products.

Crop Protection revenues were $39.9 million, a 16% decline with respect to the same quarter last year. This decline is explained by still sluggish demand in Argentina, where while there are generally signs of normalization compared to an unusually weak prior year, tight credit conditions and uncertainty ahead of the midterm elections that were held in late October implied that normalization was slower to materialize despite favorable weather and planting conditions.

Outside Argentina, lower sales of bioprotection products in the U.S. and adjuvants in Brazil also weighed in on segment results, reflecting timing of sales that is expected to even out over the coming quarters.

In Seed and Integrated Products, revenues were $12.6 million, a 37% decline compared to last year. This performance is an expected outcome from the unwinding of the HB4 downstream program.

We expect this revenue decline in seeds to continue for at least 2 more quarters as we compare against quarters where seeds inventory was being sold off. While this transition is temporarily lowers revenue recognition, it improves working capital and supports a more profitable business model going forward.

Finally, in Crop Nutrition, revenues were $25.1 million, broadly in line with last year. Within this segment, higher biostimulant sales in Argentina and Brazil were offset by weaker fertilizer dynamics.

In contrast to the past year, demand for micro-beaded fertilizers improved in Argentina, particularly in terms of volumes, supported by strong corn planting intentions. But there were delayed purchases in Paraguay and Uruguay that offset these gains and resulted in a modest 2% year-over-year decline for the segment.

Let's move on to the next slide to look at profitability. Gross profit for the quarter was $36.2 million, a decrease of 3% year-over-year, much smaller than the decline in revenues, reflecting improved product mix and margin expansion. As Federico mentioned, gross margin expanded significantly this quarter at 47% versus 40% in the same quarter last year.

Looking at this by segment. In Crop Protection, gross profit was $17.6 million, a 5% decrease with respect to last year, with gross margin improving from 39% to 44%. This reflects a more favorable product mix within the portfolio, where there were stronger contributions from adjuvant and bioprotection products as well as efficiency gains that reduced unit costs in products such as adjuvants.

In Seed and Integrated Products, gross profit was $7.5 million, slightly higher than last year despite the lower revenue. Segment margin expanded substantially from 36% to 60% as very low-margin seed sales were nearly phased out and higher-margin seed treatment packs represented a greater share of total segment sales.

Margins on these packs also expanded during the quarter, further lifting profitability. Finally, gross profit in Crop Nutrition was $11.1 million, a 6% decline with respect to last year, with gross margin decreasing from 46% to 44%.

Margin compression resulted mainly from competitive pricing in fertilizers in Argentina, where sales volumes increased, but market prices declined. In addition, revenues under the Syngenta agreement included a higher proportion from the supply agreement relative to the profit sharing agreement.

Increased products supplied to Syngenta typically precedes revenue recognition under the profit sharing agreement, creating some quarterly lumpiness that evens out on an annual basis.

Please turn to the next slide to look at EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $13.6 million, a 61% increase compared to $8.5 million in the same period last year, reflecting a material improvement in operating performance. The increase was largely driven by the $5.9 million reduction in operating costs described earlier by Federico.

Joint venture results also contributed positively, adding $0.9 million as the fertilizer business began to recover from prior quarter's weakness. Gross margin expansion further supported the results with the contribution from gross profit only $1.1 million lower despite a much larger decline in revenues.

Finally, let's turn to the next slide to review our balance sheet, cash position and a brief update on the debt situation. For that, I will hand the call back to Federico.

Thanks, Paula. As of September 30, 2026 (sic) [ 2025 ], total financial debt stood at $242.5 million, down from $260.2 million at the end of the previous quarter, mainly due to the repayment of working capital loans in Argentina.

As we have disclosed in our 6-K filings of October 2 and yesterday, we are undergoing a dispute with holders of our secured convertible and nonconvertible notes. As a result, we've decided to show the noncurrent portion of that debt as current as well as include the prepayment fees that would be owed under an acceleration event.

Consequently, current debt totaled $188.7 million, of which $103.6 million are classified as accelerated debt, including $7.4 million of additional costs related to the acceleration process. The company disputes the allegation made by our noteholders and intends to vigorously defend its position.

Importantly, all principal and interest payments remain current. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $16.6 million, resulting in net financial debt of $225.9 million, essentially flat versus the prior quarter.

The net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio improved to 6.8x. We continue to actively manage liquidity and debt maturities, maintaining constructive dialogue with lenders and prioritizing financial flexibility and disciplined capital allocation.

To wrap up, we are operating in a complex environment, but we continue to execute with discipline and focus on the fundamentals we control, profitability, liquidity and capital efficiency. We believe these actions are building a stronger and more resilient company over time.

With that, let's open for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Austin Moeller from Canaccord.

So just my first question here. There's been some discussion of higher beef imports to the U.S. from Argentina. And now that the election is over, is there any potential for either raw crops or inputs like fertilizers and pesticides to be imported from Argentina into the U.S., which would either create demand for your farmers or for you?

We've seen sort of the news as well and beef production, milk production in Argentina are booming currently. So profitability is probably at an all-time high.

I think the news about U.S. imports or exports from Argentina to the U.S. are obviously further fortifying that process. In terms of ag inputs, I think also that Argentina being classified on the low tariff end, if you will, on the current trade situation is a benefit to us when we are trying to serve that market from Argentine-manufactured ag input products.

Remember that we also hold manufacturing capacity in the U.S. So we are manufacturing most of our bioprotection solutions in-country in the U.S. So that has also been beneficial for us in addressing that particular market.

Okay. And the previous quarter, we had discussed that the company expected some Corteva sales of biopesticides into Europe would likely fall into Q1. How is that playing out with relative to what you expected?

So we currently don't have bioprotection products registered in Europe. What we do have is the biostimulant package where Corteva is our main customer in Europe.

And we've basically historically had a very significant contribution from Europe in the last quarter of each fiscal year, which we didn't see last quarter and we have only achieved some marginal sales of biostimulants in Europe in the current quarter.

I think most of the biostimulant improvement has been in Argentina and Latin America, as Paula alluded to in the call. And the Corteva Europe sales are due to come later in the year.

[Operator Instructions] It looks like we have no further questions registered at this time. So with that, I'll hand back over to Federico Trucco for some closing comments.

Thank you, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I think this was a quick earnings call. We remain available for follow-ups if required. And I hope you all have a great rest of the week. Thank you.

Thank you all for joining. That does conclude today's call, and you may now disconnect your line.