IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:IRS) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

So they will maintain the pesos without any kind of investment. So for that reason, we decided not to transfer the money to Bank of New York, and to invest the money temporary in money market fund managed by Santander Asset Management. The name of the fund is the Super Ahorro pesos. And we tried to mitigate with that the inflation impact and we will keep working with them trying to find a solution in order to pay the dividend to our GDS holders. We can’t anticipate a timing. Unfortunately, it’s not upon our control. So we are asking for exceptions to the CMB and trying to fight other solutions. But today, we can’t give you a certainty about the timing. So for that reason, and considering the impact of inflation, we decided not to transfer the money and to invest the money temporarily in that fund.

About our share repurchase program. Yesterday, we decided to extend the program 180 days more, so that matures — stays, and we decided to extend. So the program, remember that is for ARS5 billion and we already repurchased 42% of that plan. So there is still room for more repurchase that we plan to do in the coming months. So with this, we finish the formal presentation. Now we open the line to receive your questions.

A – Santiago Donato: Okay. Well, now it’s the time for the Q&A session. If you have a question, you can use the chat. We will take them in the order we receive them. Okay, we have some questions related to the dividend. I guess Matias have already answered this. If there are particular questions, please write it in the chat. There is a question here about the development of Costa Urbana. If we’re going to take new leverage for this development, how are we going to finance the project?

Matias Gaivironsky: Well, we mentioned sometimes that there is still — it’s not the word uncertainty. We haven’t defined yet how we’re going to develop. Now there is many different ways that we can develop that land. Remember that it’s a huge project. So typically in Argentina, you have how developers finance the projects, basically, they presell units from the scratch — is something that IRSA can do. There is also — and if you see what we have been doing in the last years, we did some barter agreements of swap transactions, where we put the land, someone else develop and pay us with square meters. In that sense, we don’t need to invest money. So the developer will invest and pay us with square meters, and then we sell it.

Or we can do directly development without preselling and finance the operations directly. So we don’t plan to do all with financing. So we probably use all the alternatives. And also, we don’t have a rush to develop. So we will develop if we see demand for the project. So we will launch each of the buildings if we see a demand. So the capital or the working capital that we will use for each of the buildings, I believe that will be limited.

Santiago Donato: Same question. There’s another on the timing. When do we expect to launch the development of the first towers of the projects?

Jorge Cruces: Well, infrastructure, we’re starting the infrastructure next year, 2024. And as from then we can start building the buildings. The infrastructure is something — it’s going to be in different stages and it’s quite fast in the different stages. The buildings you need approximately two or three years at least. So most likely, maybe at the end of next year, we can start — starting a building or the presales of the building.

Santiago Donato: We have another question. Is the trend of sales growth in the malls, I imagine, seeing during the quarter still continuing during October?

Matias Gaivironsky: Yes. Yes, the trend is positive. We still see good levels of consumption in October and in November. So yes.

Santiago Donato: Another question. If we have a project to expand Alto Rosario, well, we have the capacity in our own malls to expand, including Alto Rosario and the recent project. In general, the Company communicates all the projects when we launched it and not before. And there is another question here related to the — all the [committers] vacant on the [Children’s] Museum. If it’s — we have the project to reopen that.

Matias Gaivironsky: We will replace the museum with new proposals. So yes, we are working on that.

Jorge Cruces: We consider convenient for more entertainment. So it’s going to be replaced with more entertainment. And regarding — if we were to do something in Alto Rosario, just like a shopping mall, as Santiago said, it’s going to be set at the right time, but we still have the possibility of — to a mixed use. So it’s very possible for different kinds of malls to have a little bit of mix use that includes Alto Rosario, not only retail.

Santiago Donato: Well, I give you some minutes more for any additional questions. Use the chat, we will take them in the order we receive them. Again, there’s a question related to the consumer environment post-elections. What are your expectations for the malls business?

Matias Gaivironsky: It’s a tough question to know what will be the new administration, is a little uncertain about what will be the new policies in Argentina. We are confident about the quality of our portfolio. Of course, we will be affected by the macro economy of Argentina. So if there is an important assessment definitely, we will see part of that in consumption. But I think it’s still early to know what’s really going to happen.

Santiago Donato: One more question, are there any plans to trace financing in the local or international markets for your projects?