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February 04, 2022
Los Grobo closed 2021 with the highest sales and collection volumes in its history
The firm Los Grobo Agropecuaria has several reasons to celebrate at the beginning of this 2022, not only because the risk rating agency Fix raised its note as a long-term issuer together with its related firm Agrofina, dedicated to agrochemicals, but also because it closed a record balance in 2021.

The company of Gustavo Grobocopatel and his sisters closed fiscal year 2021 with the highest sales and storage volumes in its history, around 2.1 and 2 million tons respectively, thus marking a year-on-year growth of 10% even with a smaller area harvested at the country level.

The key to reaching this record was the high international prices that commodities showed last year. In this framework, the company managed to obtain an EBITDA level (gross profit) of 54 million dollars against 30 million dollars in the previous campaign.

Meanwhile, for Agrofina, 2021 presented challenges and, as explained by the Fix risk rating agency, "it remains among the 10 largest companies in the phytosanitary market despite the fact that it was affected in the last year by supply problems, logistics and increases in prices. the prices of raw materials, managing to avoid a drop in its margin given its operational flexibility that allowed it to transfer said increases to prices while maintaining sales growth.”

In this framework, at the beginning of this week, Fix raised the long-term issuer rating from BBB+(arg) to A-(arg) with a Stable Outlook, both for Los Grobo and its firm dedicated to the sale of inputs .

The refinancing of debts carried out by both companies last December was essential to achieve an improvement in their notes. At that time, Los Grobo re-profiled a total of 34 million dollars and simultaneously managed to obtain a loan in pesos for up to the equivalent of 9 million dollars.

In turn, Agrofina refinanced around 27 million dollars and obtained a loan in pesos equivalent to 7 million dollars. The final agreement in both cases consists of biannual principal payments and the extension of the final maturity to August 2025.

Going forward, the risk rating agency projects for Los Grobo "continuous growth with EBITDA margins lower than those evidenced by a greater weighting of segments with lower margins and an expectation of lower commodity price levels together with lower expected yields."

Finally, for Agrofina it projects: "continuous sales growth derived from greater commercial leverage with Los Grobo Agropecuaria, with sales levels of around 132 million dollars and margins of around 25%, in line with the historical average" → bichosdecampo.com

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