Brazil’s Bom Futuro Group, a major farming company controlled by the billionaires Erai, Elusmar and Fernando Maggi Scheffer, has offered 1.85 billion reais ($360 million) to acquire 41,200 hectares (101.8 acres) of farmland in Mato Grosso from Radar, a joint venture between Cosan and investment firm Nuveen, according to people familiar with the matter.
The transaction, announced Wednesday morning, would value the land at 427 bags of soybeans per hectare (each bag weighs 60 kg). The calculation assumes soybeans are trading near 105 reais per bag in the two municipalities, based on data from Imea, Mato Grosso’s agricultural economics institute.
The bid shows the dealmaking appetite of Erai Maggi, one of Brazil’s most prominent agribusiness entrepreneurs. Last year, Bom Futuro spent more than 1.5 billion reais ($300 million) to buy two farms that had belonged to Proterra, a private-equity firm spun out of Cargill.
Still, Bom Futuro’s purchase is not guaranteed. SLC, the world’s largest farming company and controlled by the Logemann family, operates about 70% of the farms through leasing contracts with Radar. That gives it the right of first refusal over the areas it leases, potentially allowing it to step in and acquire a large part of the portfolio.
The farms are located in one of Mato Grosso’s premium agricultural regions, near the municipalities of Diamantino and Campo Novo do Parecis. SLC leases most of the land, while Bom Futuro itself and other farming groups lease smaller portions of the 41,200 hectares.
To acquire the full portfolio offered by Radar, Bom Futuro must wait for the period in which those rights of first refusal can be exercised.
The market is still unsure whether SLC will move. The company has the financial capacity to fund the purchase, given its healthy capital structure, but its land acquisitions over the past two years suggest the current priority may be to reduce leverage.
People familiar with the Logemann family, however, expect SLC to exercise its rights. “They won’t let an area like this slip away,” one source said.
SLC did not respond to a request for comments by the time this article was published.
