IRSA Doubled Its Profit and Halved Its Ambition Deficit — Then Opened the Door to Data Centers
A record rental EBITDA year, a CapEx guide that doubled to $150 million, a possible hotel exit, and the first serious flirtation with AI-adjacent infrastructure
IRS · Earnings Call · 2026-09-08
A record year the tape refuses to notice
IRSA closed fiscal 2026 with a net gain of ARS 421 billion against ARS 261.9 billion a year earlier — a near-doubling driven by a positive swing in the fair value of its malls and a lower discount rate, not by operating heroics. “We posted a net gain of ARS 421 billion during the year. We reached a record high EBITDA in the rental segment, reaching almost $200 million.” — Matías Gaivironsky, CEO · 2026-09-08 That rental figure is the number to anchor on: a record, up about 1.4% year over year and essentially back to the 2013 dollar peak. Cash sits at $390 million, net debt to EBITDA is a conservative 1.4x and loan-to-value is 10% — a balance sheet that can fund a $150 million CapEx year without touching the market. Management is explicit that the cash was raised in anticipation of a volatile Argentine election year. Buenos Aires remains the gravitational center, but the map is widening fast.Resilient rents, weak shoppers — the price effect
The operative tension of the quarter is that IRSA's income is inflation-indexed while its tenants are not. Mall revenue rose 1.5% even as underlying tenant sales fell. “Tenant sales decreased by 8.5% in real terms in the year, mainly because of price effect, because tickets and visitors remained stable.” — Santiago Donato, Investor Relations Officer · 2026-09-08 Foot traffic and transaction counts held up; prices reset lower as Argentina's economic opening let apparel retailers finally import and cut prices. This is the same story the company has told for several quarters — weaker consumption expressed through a price effect, not collapsing demand. On the prior call management was even more direct: “if you compare prices of cloth compared with the CPI, the clothes increased much lower than inflation.” — Matias Gaivironsky, CEO · 2026-02-05 Because roughly 87% of mall revenue is a fixed, CPI-adjusted component, IRSA is structurally insulated. The fourth quarter did carry one-offs that compressed mall margins to 66% from 67.9%; management attributes these to shot effect costs tied to program implementations that will not recur, and flags stable 97% occupancy as proof the operating engine is intact.The pipeline is now the story
Where this quarter genuinely differs from a year ago is the density of simultaneous construction. Distrito Diagonal in La Plata — the city's first large-scale mall, 22,000 sqm of GLA, 365 workers on site, more than 50% complete — targets a May–June 2027 opening. The Los Gallegos shopping center in Mar del Plata was acquired for $13.5 million with a further roughly $5 million repositioning budget. The Oeste Outlet redevelopment is 70% complete and already signed adidas, McDonald's and Levi's. On Polo DOT, the Zetta expansion adds 15,000 sqm at a $35 million cost, deepening the Mercado Libre relationship to roughly 72% of the building. The company expects to reach 432,000 sqm across 19 malls next fiscal year. The shift in ambition is best measured by guidance: “So we, probably for the next year, we have a CapEx of around $75 million that we plan to spend.” — Matias Gaivironsky, Unknown · 2025-11-06 was the message on the November call. Now: “So altogether, we estimate $150 million, more or less, of CapEx for the year. That includes the recurring CapEx and all the expansions, the Ramblas, everything.” — Matías Gaivironsky, CEO · 2026-09-08 Management has decided the Argentine real-estate cycle is worth leaning into.The new thread: data centers and an exit from hotels
Buried in the Q&A is the most forward-looking line of the call. Asked whether IRSA would follow peer real-estate companies into data centers, the CIO did not deflect:This is where IRSA's story brushes against the biggest global theme of the period. The market's 360-day and 90-day tapes are dominated by the AI-infrastructure complex — AI data centers and high bandwidth memory rank among the strongest multi-quarter movers, even as the 30-day tape shows that trade cooling sharply. IRSA has flirted with this before, so it is an emerging rather than brand-new thread; the company's own keyword history around data center business is thin and exploratory. The significance is the framing as a partner-led play rather than a solo developer commitment, plus the explicit acknowledgment of the global obsession with demand for power. An Argentine land bank and mall landlord with 10% LTV testing that water is a genuine optionality line — a feeler, not a pivot. Just as notable is what IRSA may shed. On hotels, the CIO was candid: “Maybe we might dispose both hotels in the city of Buenos Aires, maybe in the near future. I don't imagine us selling our hotel in Llao Llao in Bariloche.” — Jorge Cruces, Head of Construction or Development · 2026-09-08 The segment is small — about $10 million of EBITDA — externally managed, and management concedes it is the one business they do not run themselves. A hotel exit, plus a stated pipeline of disposals, would be classic capital recycling into the development book.Regarding data centers, we are looking into it. It is an intensive capital business. We may be looking for strategic partners, maybe through a fund, but we are looking at that kind of business also.