Lavoro agrees to acquire NS Agro in continued expansion throughout Latin America

Lavoro Group announced an agreement to acquire agricultural supplies company NS Agro in a sustained expansion push throughout Latin America.

NS Agro is a holding company of agricultural inputs retailers in Chile and Peru, specializing in crop protection, fertilizers, seeds and specialty products. NS Agro is a leading independent ag inputs retailer in the region, with a coverage area extending to all of Chile’s farming zones.

Already Brazil’s largest agricultural inputs retailer by revenue and market share, Lavoro has acquired more than 20 small- and medium-sized companies since its founding in 2017. Lavoro has a broad geographical presence in Brazil, Colombia and an early-stage input trading company in Uruguay; NS Agro marks Lavoro’s entry into the Chilean and Peruvian markets and makes Lavoro one of the top retailers in these markets.

Lavoro offers farmers a comprehensive portfolio of agriculture input products including seed, fertilizer, crop protection, emerging biologics and other specialty products. Lavoro’s technical sales representatives meet with more than 53,000 customers on farms and at retail locations to help plan, purchase the right inputs, and manage farming operations to optimize farm outcomes.

Lavoro’s vertically-integrated crop inputs business, ″Crop Care,″ is a major supplier of biologics and specialty fertilizers in Brazil. Operating at the forefront of agriculture technology, the company’s portfolio of proprietary biologics enables farmers to protect their crops from disease, pests, and weeds without the carbon and environmental persistence of traditional synthetic crop chemistry – while helping to improve soil health and productivity with lesser need for synthetic fertilizers.

Demonstrated M&A playbook

According to the terms of the agreement, Lavoro intends to acquire a majority ownership stake of NS Agro, a holding company that includes businesses in Chile (Martinez y Valdivieso, Agroadvance, and Agroscreening) and in Peru (Cytoperu). The group’s revenue in 2021 was more than US$ 190 million in the aggregate.

Martinez y Valdivieso, which represents the majority of NS Agro’s revenues, is one of the largest distributors of agricultural inputs in Chile, with 25 stores and more than seven thousand customers. Agroadvance researches, develops and commercializes innovative products such as biologicals for crop protection, biostimulants, plant nutrition and speciality products.

The transaction also includes Agroscreening, an analysis services laboratory, and Cytoperu, which focuses on table grape and blackberry farmers, and has five retail locations in Peru.

″We expect to continue gaining market share in Chile for years, both in the crop protection and in the plant nutrition market. In Peru, we plan to continue Cytoperu's growth trajectory, expanding its solutions to other crops,″ said Lavoro CEO Ruy Cunha. ″It goes without saying that NS Agro’s current management team will continue to lead the business with the full support of Lavoro, in line with our winning acquisition strategy and in line with our corporate values.″

″Lavoro’s agreement to acquire NS Agro underscores the success and scalability of our M&A playbook and makes us confident that we can achieve our projections,″ said Gustavo Modenesi, Chief Marketing & Transformation Officer of Lavoro.

The transaction is subject to standard closing conditions.

Lavoro announced last month its intent to become the first US-listed pure-play Latin American agricultural inputs retailer through a business combination with The Production Board’s (″TPB″) Special Purpose Acquisition Company, TPB Acquisition Corporation I (″TPB Acquisition Corp.″).

The transaction aims to bring together The Production Board’s agriculture technology expertise and Lavoro’s portfolio of businesses and market penetration to help transform Latin America into a global breadbasket, improving global food security and sustainability.