Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ:BIOX) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 9, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Paula Savanti - Head, Investor Relations

Federico Trucco - Chief Executive Officer

Enrique Lopez Lecube - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Ben Klieve - Lake Street Capital Markets

Bobby Burleson - Canaccord

Brian Wright - ROTH Capital Partners

Kemp Dolliver - Brookline Capital Markets

Operator

Hello and welcome Bioceres Crop Solutions Fiscal Second Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. My name is Drew, and I'll be your operator today. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Paula Savanti, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Paula Savanti

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to everybody. Thank you for joining. Presenting today during the call will be Federico Trucco, our Chief Executive Officer; and Enrique Lopez Lecube, our Chief Financial Officer. Both will be available for the Q&A session. Before we proceed, I would like to make the following Safe Harbor statements.

Today's call will contain forward-looking statements and I refer you to the forward-looking statements section of today's 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. This conference call is being webcast and the webcast link is available at the Bioceres Crop Solutions Investor Relations website.

At this time, I will turn the call over to our CEO, Federico Trucco. Thank you.

Federico Trucco

Thank you, Paula and good morning everyone and welcome to our second quarter earnings call.

Please turn to slide three from the deck for a quick overview of these period's business and financial highlights. As we have anticipated during our prior earnings call, our growth momentum has been momentarily interrupted by unusually severe drought conditions in Argentina that extended throughout the entire planting window for summer crops.

Although we are flat when compared to last year's revenue for the quarter, we are down by 7% year-over-year for the period on a pro forma basis after including Pro Farm's operations.

This circumstantial decline interrupts a run of seven consecutive quarters of topline growth and profitability expansion, which we expect to resume in the second half of the fiscal year as weather conditions have turned more favorable in our key commercial regions.

On a less circumstantial and more permanent front, the severe drought conditions in Argentina have allowed us to put HB4 technology to the desk like never before. And the performance of HB4 wheat has been outstanding in all fronts. In environments yielding less than two tonnes per hectare, HB4 wheat was -- has outperformed commercial materials by an average yield improvement of 43%.