Adecoagro S.A. (NYSE:AGRO) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call May 13, 2022 9:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Mariano Bosch – Chief Executive Officer
Carlos A. Boero Hughes – Chief Financial Officer
Renato Junqueira Santos Pereira – Director, Sugar & Ethanol Operations
Conference Call Participants
Guilherme Palhares – Bank of America
Thiago Callegari L. Duarte – BTG Pactual
Lucas Ferreira – JPMorgan
Christian Audi – Santander
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. And thank you for waiting. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to Adecoagro's First Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. Today with us we have Mr. Mariano Bosch, CEO, and Mr. Charlie Boero Hughes, CFO. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After the company's remarks are completed, there will be a question-and-answer section. At this time, further instructions will be given. [Operator Instructions] 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'll turn the call over to Mr. Mariano Bosch, CEO. Mr. Bosch, you may begin your conference.
Mariano Bosch
Good morning and thank you for joining Adecoagro's 2022 first quarter results conference. First and before going into the results of our operations during the quarter, I would like to mention that the last month, our annual shareholder meeting approved a cash dividend distribution of 35 million in two installments. That this approximately $0.32 per share. This is a new milestone that Adecoagro has achieved. In a couple of days and for the first time in our history, we will be making the payment of the dividends first installment in the amount of $17.5 million. At the same time, we continue buying shares and then our buyback program and in line with our distribution policy. Now, getting into the highlights of the quarter, I would like to start with the sugar, ethanol, and energy business.
The first quarter is always the most valuable in terms of how much gain is crashed. Depending on weather conditions. As we had anticipated in our past conferences, we took advantage of less availability of cane, and decided not to crush cane all year round and make a short inter-harvest period that finished in mid-March and perform maintenance tasks. As a result, the [Indiscernible] during the quarter was slow. However, I would say on maybe that generation stood at solid levels. We were well positioned to profit from the attractive prices, especially of ethanol, thanks to our strategy to carry forward our inventories for this time of the year. We ended the first quarter with a tank full of ethanol and captured spectacular prices at the beginning of the second quarter.