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But agrochemicals is older than Los Grobo. The history of the firm dates back to 1978, under the name of Ipesa, it was founded by Brazilian capital. At that time, it began operating as a provider of technology for the production of agrochemicals, providing technological development and research services in Guatemala and Brazil.

Then, throughout the 1990s, it began to produce its own phytosanitary products in third-party plants in Argentina and to sell in the local market.

It was not until 1997 that the construction of its industrial plant in the city of Zárate was completed. Later, in 2007 it was acquired by the Matlin Patterson fund, and finally in 2013 it came under the control of Grupo Los Grobo. A short time later in 2017, the Victoria Capital Partners fund -also the controller of Los Grobo- kept its majority shareholding.

According to sources in the sector, the Argentine phytosanitary market moves around 3,600 million dollars a year and is dominated by multinational companies. In this context, Agrofina has an approximate participation of around 3.5%, remaining among the ten largest in its field.

Currently, Agrofina synthesizes and formulates more than 30 products and has registered more than 170. In this way, it presents a highly diversified sales mix in relation to crops (chemical fallow, soybean, sunflower, rice, peanuts, beans, corn , wheat, pasture and barley, among others), as well as depending on the type of product (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, seed cures, phytoregulators and adjuvants).

Marketing is carried out through distributors and directly to producers, with a broad and diversified customer base. Los Grobo's commercial network, which is characterized by geographical diversification and establishment in the most important areas of Argentina, provides Agrofina with operational, commercial and logistical synergies. However, the company's sales are concentrated in the provinces of Córdoba, Santa Fe and Entre Ríos (representing more than 60% of the total). The company offers its customers the possibility of exchanging and paying with grains.

As explained by the company, one of its main assets is its plant in Zárate, province of Buenos Aires. "The productive equipment is of the batch type (batch production), and through a flexible production process it allows the production on a scale of different products with production times in accordance with market demands, the main operations being the synthesis and formulation of more than 35 final products over a year”.

The plant houses its own quality control laboratory. And it has "state-of-the-art equipment for physicochemical tests and a system that ensures the traceability of all the components of the products, thus guaranteeing optimal quality for the customer," they detail from Agrofina.

This plant currently operates at around 75% of its capacity, with no problems supplying the internal demand for phytosanitary products. The main cost that the company must assume is the purchase of inputs. It operates with various local and international suppliers, the latter mainly from China, where the fundamental active principles for the production of agrochemicals come from. These raw materials represent approximately 70% of the total purchases made by the company.

As detailed by the Fix Risk rating agency, in any case, Agrofina requires high levels of investment to maintain its structure, which was around an average of 2.3 million dollars in the last 3 years and corresponded to maintenance and conditioning of the plant.

In this context, the risk rating agency explained: "From the control of Victoria Capital Partners, the group pursues the consolidation of an agricultural business model integrating the commercialization of agrochemicals, storage and other services with production. The synergies of both companies and the reduction of costs have been the focus of the group in the last 18 months, with visible results in its operational performance. Going forward, for Agrofina it is expected to continue with the development of its own products, leveraging sales in the market positioning and geographical diversification of Los Grobo Agropecuaria”.

Agrofina is controlled by Victoria Capital Partners through Agrofina Holding LLC with 65.81%, Los Grobo Agropecuaria SA with 29.57%, Grupo los Grobo LLP and Grupo Los Grobo SA with 3.95% and 0.67 % respectively.

In its financial year closed in September 2022, the company billed just over 14,300 million pesos and obtained an operating result of 1,087 million. Regarding its bank debt, according to BCRA records, it amounts to just over 5,870 million.

Unlike other large agricultural companies, Agrofina has most of its debt with private banks, 23% of the total taken with Banco Santander, 15% with Galicia, 14% with HSBC and another 14% with Superville, among others. → bichosdecampo.com

Automatic translation from spanish.