Itaú acquires stake in Orbia

Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. announced this Monday (18/4) the signing of a contract for the acquisition of 12,82% of Orbia's share capital. The operation must take place through financial contributions to the company, under terms possibly similar to what occurred with other shareholders (the contract clauses had not been disclosed in full until the final writing of this article).

They also hold shares in Orbia: Bayer S.A. (one of the founders), Bravium Comércio Ltda. and Yara Brasil Fertilizandos S.A. Completion of the operation is subject to approval by the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) and the Central Bank of Brazil (BACEN).

According to Renato Lulia-Jacob, director of investor relations and market intelligence at the bank, the operation will allow Itaú to offer credit to Orbia's customer base with greater efficiency.

Flavio Souza, president of Itaú BBA, explains that “the arrival of Itaú BBA will allow Orbia to expand its capacity to digitally offer new credit solutions with greater efficiency to the more than 165 thousand customers already participating in the program. And it will allow us to have access to this relevant producer base. This movement is fully aligned with Itaú BBA's strategic agenda of being the leading private bank in the Agro segment”.

Official demonstrations

In material distributed to the press, the spokesperson for each of the legal entities involved expressed themselves as follows:

Ivan Moreno, CEO of Orbia: "One of the most fundamental aspects in farmer decision-making is access to credit. With the arrival of Itaú BBA, we will have the possibility of expanding our capacity to meet our client's demands".

Pedro Fernandes, Director of Agribusiness at Itaú BBA: "Farmer purchasing behavior in Brazil must evolve digitally. The digitalization of input purchases is already a reality and access to credit is an important part of this journey. Through this association with Orbia, which already stands out as a marketplace for inputs and other agricultural services, we will be able to offer solutions so that its customer base has access to credit in a more efficient and agile way.".

Luis Offa, president of the Board of Directors of Orbia and vice-president of Marketing Latam of Bayer's agricultural division: "The platform was designed to offer rural producers a complete journey within the digital universe, connecting them to a wide range of partners that provide a qualified experience".

Ricardo Garcias, co-founder of Bravium: "With the entry of Itaú BBA, we will be able to align the knowledge in technology, currently already applied at Orbia, with all the expertise in the bank's credit assessment. The sum of these two strengths will certainly contribute greatly to the growing evolution of Orbia's user experience and, consequently, to the exponential increase in the digital transformation of this sector in the coming years.".

Cleiton Vargas, vice president of Farming Solutions for Yara Américas: "We have revolutionized the farmer's purchasing experience, and the arrival of Itaú BBA confirms our commitment to continue innovating and accelerating the digital transformation of agribusiness. By connecting different products and services on the same, easily accessible platform, we consolidate an extremely promising business environment, whether for customers or partners.".

orbit

Orbia has shown remarkable growth since its inception.

It was created on March 19, 2019 by the legal entities Bayer SA and Schering do Brasil Química e Farmacêutica Ltda. Its share capital amounted to R$ 1.000,00 (one thousand reais). At that time, Bayer held 99,99% of the shares and Schering 0,01%. It was a "limited company".

On May 10, 2019, it was transformed into a joint stock company (S/A). On that date, Bravium Comércio Ltda. subscribed shares. In total, the share capital of the new company increased to R$ 11.415,00 (eleven million, four hundred and fifteen thousand reais).

On March 18, 2022, Yara Brasil subscribed shares in the amount of R$80.000,00 (eighty million reais).

Currently, as described on their website "is the platform for everything Agribusiness and has been consolidating itself as the main agricultural marketplace in the country, with more than 240 distributors and national coverage in inputs such as pesticides, seeds and fertilizers".

In addition to “Orbia”, the legal entity has other registered trademarks, such as “produtoragro”, “made in farm” and “nucle”.

If the operation is carried out as announced, the corporate composition will be: Bayer 59,98%; Bravium 14,99%; Yara Brasil 12,21%; and Itaú 12,82%.

Orbia's latest balance sheet could be seen here or at the link below: