ICL to pay $120m for Brazil’s Fertiláqua
Aqua Capital, Latin America’s largest agrifood private equity firm, has agreed to sell the Sao Paulo-based plant nutrition company
ICL of Israel, a global speciality minerals and chemicals company, will pay $120 million to acquire Fertiláqua, one of Brazil’s leading plant nutrition companies. Based in Sao Paulo, Fertiláqua is a portfolio company of Aqua Capital, one of Latin America’s largest agrifood private equity firms.
Sebastian Popik, Aqua Capital’s managing partner, said: “We are proud of Fertiláqua’s trajectory. Since we acquired the company in 2013, we have built one of Brazil’s leading sector players. The sale to ICL confirms Aqua’s development and implementation of Fertiláqua’s technological edge, with a top-tier product portfolio, leading R&D capabilities and market presence.”
With over 100 different products, including those marketed under the Aminoagro, Dimicron and Maximus brands, Fertiláqua offers a complete portfolio of plant life cycle solutions for plant nutrition and stimulation. Services include soil revitalisation, seed treatment and plant health across all key Brazilian crops – soybeans, corn, sugarcane, cotton, coffee, fruits and vegetables.
Fertiláqua has a presence in 24 Brazilian states and serves over 500 customers, including ag-input retailers, cooperatives and large farms. The company employs 350 people across two production facilities and two research and development centres.
Since its foundation, Fertiláqua has demonstrated strong growth and achieved a compounded annual growth rate of over 15%.
Raviv Zoller, ICL president and chief executive, said: “The acquisition of Fertiláqua is an important part of the growth strategy of our crop nutrition business. The expected growth of our crop nutrition business, both organically and through M&A, will be supported, in part, by increased demand for high-end speciality fertilisers and our focus on growth markets. Fertiláqua gives ICL a significant foothold in a major market, where demand growth for speciality plant nutrition products is increasing rapidly.”
Following the closing of the acquisition, which is expected to occur by early 2021, ICL expects to leverage Fertiláqua’s strong market presence and distribution capabilities to increase the sales of its organic fertilisers, controlled-released fertilisers and other speciality plant nutrition products to the Brazilian market.