SLC Agrícola S.A

What it is

Established in June 1977, SLC Agrícola now operates 26 production units across eight Brazilian states, headquartered in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. For the 2025/26 season, it projects a planted area surpassing 830,000 hectares, and its shares trade on B3 under the ticker SLCE3, included in the Ibovespa and ISE indexes.

The business runs two segments: agricultural production — growing cotton, soybean, corn, and wheat — and a land portfolio division that acquires and develops farmland. In 2025, it became Brazil’s largest cotton exporter, shipping a record 369,000 tonnes.

Who owns it

Grupo SLC is the controlling shareholder of SLC Agrícola S.A., with a 53% stake in the company’s share capital. The Logemann family — Brazilian descendants of northern German immigrants — holds the full stake in Grupo SLC, making SLC Agrícola one of the largest private landholders in the world.

Grupo SLC was founded in 1945 in Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul, by three families of German immigrants, among them the Schneider and Logemann families. After Jorge Antonio Logemann died in 1987, his sons Eduardo and Jorge Luiz took leadership; in 1999 they sold the John Deere joint venture back to Deere and reinvested the proceeds into farmland.

Eduardo Logemann serves today as Board Chairman.

Who runs it

Aurélio Pavinato has been CEO of SLC Agrícola since December 10, 2012, and also serves as a member of the Board of Executive Officers. Ivo Brum has held the position of Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer since 2010.

Before becoming CEO, Pavinato served as Chief Production Officer from 2008 and had been with the group for over fifteen years, previously managing agricultural planning and research. Both executives have been in place through multiple commodity cycles — rare institutional continuity in a volatile sector.

The money, in plain words

Revenue rose 20.4% in fiscal 2025 to R$8.32bn (US$1.6 bn) (~$1.61bn) from R$6.92bn (US$1.3 bn) (~$1.34bn) the year before — a strong rebound after a 2024 dip (our calculation). The company keeps about 6.7 cents of profit from every real of sales — a net profit margin of 6.7%, modest by industrial standards but typical for large-scale commodity farming with high input and land costs (our calculation).

For every real owners have invested, it earns about 5.3 cents a year — a return on equity of 5.3%, below its own recent peaks, reflecting a heavy investment cycle (our calculation). Cash generation was negative in 2025, and adjusted net debt stood at R$5.2bn (US$1.0 bn) (~$1.01bn), at a leverage ratio of 1.97 times operating earnings — elevated but not alarming for a land-expanding agribusiness.

Net debt on the balance sheet (total debt minus cash) stands at R$8.5bn (US$1.6 bn) (~$1.65bn), because the company counts leased-land obligations within gross borrowings (our calculation).

What it is doing now

Planted area for the 2025/26 crop cycle is projected at 835,700 hectares, a 13.6% expansion driven by the acquisition of Sierentz Agro Brasil, which added approximately 96,000–100,000 hectares of leased farmland. Soybeans remain the backbone at 429,700 hectares; cotton expands 11.7% to 199,700 hectares; and second-crop corn makes the biggest move, up 28.9% to 158,200 hectares.

To manage price swings, the company has hedged 75% of expected soybean output, 81% of cotton, and 44% of corn production. It is also planning to expand its irrigated farmland from 19,000 to as much as 53,000 hectares — a long-term bet on productivity that reduces dependence on rainfall.

What to watch

• Leverage trajectory. Management says it aims to reduce leverage while continuing to expand planted area — a balance that requires commodity prices to cooperate.
• Commodity prices. Soybean prices are exposed to trade-policy volatility, cotton demand faces global textile-sector softening, and corn margins could shift with Brazilian biofuel policy.
• Cerrado controversy. The firm has attracted international attention for its role in deforestation of the Cerrado region and conflicts with traditional communities over land rights — a risk that can move institutional shareholders.
• Sierentz integration. The aggressive land-acquisition strategy introduces execution risk; integrating newly acquired farmland in new geographies requires time to optimize soil, logistics, and staffing before reaching full productivity.

This is news, not investment advice.