Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Ceres Global Ag Corp.'s earnings call for their second quarter results for financial year 2023. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After management's remarks, this call will include a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. If anyone has any difficulties hearing the conference, you may press star zero for operator assistance at any time. I would like to remind everyone that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements that reflect current views with respect to future events. Any such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the risks and uncertainties related to these forward-looking statements, please refer to the company's management's discussion and analysis, which is available on SEDAR and on the company's website. I would now like to turn the call over to Carlos Paz, CEO of Ceres Global Ag Corp. Please go ahead, Mr. Paz. Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. This quarter, the business operations performed very well by the continued market volatility created by the conflict in Ukraine and an unprecedented drought affecting South American crops, mainly in Argentina. While our key financial indicators were down compared to the second quarter of 2022, a record year for the company, our gross profits were up quarter-over-quarter and our adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income have risen significantly since Q1 2023. In Q1 of this year, U.S. Northern Plains and Canadian Prairies grain stocks were extremely low, resulting in lower volumes handled for the corporation. pipelines replenished this quarter new crop volumes commercial channels. In the grain segment, our success was driven by a combination of solid analysis of markets despite volatility and maximizing the volume put through our asset network. We effectively traded and positioned our respective product lines. The diversity of our products and assets build the business from many of the market headwinds. Despite extreme weather negatively affecting regional railroad performance, which caused volumes handled to be lower than initially expected, year-to-date grain volumes handled were on par with last year and 11% higher than Q1. Ceres effectively utilized its terminal asset footprint to ensure that customers receive their products on time. Our investment in the joint venture at Thief River Falls showcased its value and allowed us to double the volume handled in just seven months of 2023 compared to the full year of 2022 despite these rail delays. Moreover, our Berthold Farmers Elevator venture has continued its solid performance and increased volumes handled by 16% compared to last year. In the supply chain services segment, volumes handled were down compared to the second quarter of last year as regional freight services were unable to keep up with customer demand. Fertilizer volumes were steady as expected. Natural gas liquid volumes through our Gateway Energy Terminal trended upwards as higher petroleum prices and continued investment in gas gathering have enabled Steel Reef, our partner in the Gateway Energy business, to increase origination and marketing efforts. Overall, gross margins for the segment were steady with last year. In the seed processing segment, soybean crush volumes were similar to Q2 of last year but fell slightly short of targeted capacity. While the operational issues we experienced last quarter at the Jordan Mills crush plant improved significantly, we continue to make operational adjustments to ensure we are able to keep up with demand for soybean oil and meal. I will speak about the financial outlook for the rest of the fiscal year and the company's growth in a few minutes. First, I'd like to turn things over to Blake to review our financial results for the quarter. Blake. Thank you, Carlos. Good morning, everyone. Before I begin, please note that all dollar amounts expressed in today's call are in US dollars, unless otherwise stated. For definitions and reconciliations of non-IFRS measures, including the referenced adjusted EBITDA, working capital, and adjusted net income, please refer to section eight of this quarter's MD&A. Gross profit for the quarter was $6.7 million compared to $16.1 million in Q2 of last year, mainly due to lower trading opportunities across core commodities and Q2 of 2022 being one of the most profitable quarters in the history of the company. Revenue was $283 million, down from $304.8 million in Q2 of last year, primarily due to a decrease in prices of specific core commodities. We handled and traded 29.6 million bushels of grain and oil seeds during the quarter, an increase of 14% compared to 25.9 million bushels for the same quarter last year. Income from operations was $976,000, compared to $7 million in the same quarter last year. Our net loss was $1.3 million, or a loss of $0.04 per share, down from a net income of $4 million in Q2 of 2022, or $0.13 per share. We maintained positive adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income this quarter of $2.5 million and $620,000, respectively, compared to $8.5 million and $4.6 million in Q2 of last year. Net trading margin was $8.4 million, down from $16.4 million in Q2 of 2022 due to fewer trading opportunities across multiple commodities. Our supply chain service revenue rose slightly this quarter to $2.2 million from $2.1 million in Q2 of 2022, primarily due to higher third-party storage and elevation for the grain-related segment. Net seed and processing margin was $1.9 million, down from $3.5 million in Q2 of last year due to the sale of the St. Agathe bird food processing plant that occurred in June 2022. General and administrative expenses were $5.8 million, down $3.2 million from $9 million in Q2 of 2022. The decrease was mainly due to higher incentive accruals last year related to the record performance in the second quarter of fiscal year 2022. Interest expense was $2 million, up from $1.3 million in the same period last year, primarily due to higher year-over-year LIBOR and SOFR rates and increased borrowings on the term debt. Income tax expense was $412,000 this quarter, compared to $1.3 million in Q2 of last year. At the end of Q2 2023, we had working capital of $51.4 million. This concludes my review of our financials. For more information, please refer to our MD&A and financial statement. I'll now turn it back to Carlos to provide some comments on our outlook for the back half of the fiscal year. Thank you, Blake. As announced yesterday, Glen Goldman stepped down as Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary at Ceres at the end of the second quarter. I would like to thank Glen for his contribution to the corporation over the last four years. We are also pleased to welcome Jennifer Henderson to our management team, who will be stepping into the role. Jennifer's deep legal expertise, along with her global leadership experience, working across transportational logistics, supply chain solutions, and futures and commodities trading, will add to the strength of our management team and support the continued growth of Ceres. We are now well into the second half of fiscal year 2023. I believe markets will remain erratic and volatile due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. We expect trading opportunities to continue to present themselves. Thanks to our loyal customer base and our team's ability to trade and position as we manage our supply chains, we are confident in our ability to capitalize on the spring and summer volumes merchandise. The ag markets will soon shift their focus to North American spring planting, and our team will be monitoring weather and planting decisions to see how these crops evolve. Through our ability to execute on solid analysis, we expect to identify opportunities early and capitalize on them. In our supply chain services segment, we expect fertilizer volumes to continue its upward trend and NGL volumes to improve as Gateway business continues to capitalize on a pipeline connection to the Steel Reef infrastructure facility. On the oilseed side, we expect soybean supply to remain steady, enabling our Jordan Mills crushing plant to cross a high utilization rate and realize adequate margins during the latter part of the winter season. The continued demand for oil will also allow us to grow and capitalize on the U.S. renewable and biodiesel markets opened last quarter. While the seed business is typically seasonal and generates gross margins during Q4, soybeans marketed by Ceres Global Seeds produced attractive yields this past harvest, which will support increased sales next year. Soybeans acres are expected to increase in Manitoba. Regarding growth and development, our main priority for the remainder of the year, we'll be developing regenerative ag and supply chain solutions for our strategic customers. By connecting growers to end user businesses, we will not only promote greater advocacy for efficient growing practices among our farmer partners, but also create consistency in supply for our end users. This will ultimately increase the value of our core commodity portfolio and create significant opportunities to differentiate ourselves from competitors. We will also continue to focus on maximizing the full value of our assets and acquisitions to meet demand for our core products. We have seen the positive results of this strategy play out across and we will continue to focus on capitalizing on synergies across our network and partnerships. On that note, I would like to open the call for questions. Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touchtone phone. If you would like to withdraw your request, please press star followed by the two. One moment please, for your first question. Again, ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. There are no questions at this time. I would now turn the call back to Mr. Paz. Thank you, operator, and thank you everybody for your participation in today's call. We appreciate your support, and we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your line. Have a lovely day.
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