Argentine agricultural company Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (CRESY) reported Wednesday a year-over-year surge in profit for the first quarter, reflecting gains from the consolidation of Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anonima or IRSA's segments. Cresud currently holds a 57.1% interest in IRSA, a real estate company.
The Buenos Aires, Argentina-based company reported net income of 61.83 million pesos, sharply higher than 37.40 million in the prior-year quarter.
Total production revenues for the quarter edged down to 13.21 million pesos from 14.52 million pesos in the same quarter last year. Total sales revenue was 62.62 million pesos, down from 74.67 million pesos last year. Total real estate sales for the latest quarter were 267.05 million pesos.
Operating income for the first quarter was 90.28 million pesos, compared to a operating loss of 8.03 million pesos in the year-ago quarter. The latest quarter include 19.7 million pesos loss from Cresud's agriculture businesses.
Gross profit for the quarter soared to 151.67 million pesos from 10.43 million pesos in the same quarter last year.
During the first quarter, the company saw the IRSA's Consumer Finance segment posting 5.8 million pesos of operating income, compared to an operating loss in the year-ago quarter. IRSA's rental segments, that include shopping centers and offices as well as other, showed a solid performance despite the more adverse market conditions experienced in the past year.
The company noted that it has allocated 111,459 hectares to agriculture, a figure similar to that of the previous year, and also increased its own areas and those under long-term concessions devoted to agriculture by more than 70%, while reducing hectares under short-term leases by 35%.
During the first quarter, the company increased its number of hectares under beef cattle production in Los Pozos farm to 50,000, and the number of hectares allocated to agriculture in the same farm increased to almost 7,000.
Following the closing of the first quarter, the company increased its interest in BrasilAgro to 22.89%. BrasilAgro plans to increase its production area by 44% this fiscal year to more than 48,000 hectares, and over 31,000 hectares have already been planted with summer crops.
Looking ahead, the company expects better rainfall levels for the 2009/10 season, which should lead to improved soil humidity conditions and higher crop yields.
CRESY closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $13.47, down $0.30 or 2.18% on a volume of 70,734 shares, lower than the three-month average volume of 0.11 million shares.
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