Irish agri services company Origin Enterprises has acquired a 65% stake in Fortgreen Commercial Agricola, a Brazilian company that specialises in value added crop nutrition and speciality inputs.

According to Origin, Fortgreen is an established leader in the manufacturing and marketing of a complete portfolio of related crop technologies, covering foliar fertilisers, bio stimulants, adjuvants and control release and slow release fertilisers.

As part of the deal, Origin has also agreed to acquire a 20% stake in Ferrari Zagatto, a business that provides agronomy services, crop inputs and crop marketing support to grain farmers.

Fortgreen and Ferrari have common shareholders, said Origin. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Both companies are based in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, which is the second largest corn and soya bean producing region of Brazil, at around 9m hectares.

According to Origin, Paraná is a “strategically important” agricultural region in Brazil with well-established mid-sized farm holdings, with the logistical advantage of being close to good-quality infrastructure and sea ports.

Weather impacts

Separately, Origin also reported third quarter results showing a 4% decline in revenues for the three months to the end of April 2018 to €527m. Underlying sales declined almost 8% for the period, while sales volumes were back almost 9%.

Origin attributed the decline in sales activity to the prolonged winter weather that impacted much of Europe this year, particularly in March and April. The difficult weather delayed the normal pattern of spring planting on farms, resulting in lower demand for crop inputs.

Origin said it expects to achieve full year adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) in the range of 47.5 to 48.5 cent per share, which would be ahead of last year’s EPS of 46.6 cent per share.

In the UK and Ireland, Origin said the extremely cold weather in March and April led to a four week delay in spring planting activity, resulting in a 6% decline in underlying sales for the period to €338m.

Underlying sales in Origin’s businesses across Europe, which includes operations in Belgium, Poland, Ukraine and Romania, declined by almost 9% in the third quarter to €161m. Again this was due to the severe weather which delayed planting activity on the continent.

“Since the period end there has been a return to more normal and settled weather conditions, mainly in Ireland and the United Kingdom, which has underpinned a robust level of catch up activity on farm to date. As a result, we expect increased demand for agronomy services and crop inputs for the fourth quarter,” the company said in a statement.

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