Tres Tentos Agroindustrial SA

What it is

3tentos is Brazil’s largest vertically integrated agribusiness platform combining agricultural-inputs distribution (seeds, fertilisers, crop-protection products), grain origination and trading, and industrial processing (soybean crushing, biodiesel, and now corn ethanol); it was founded in 1995 in Santa Bárbara do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, by the Dumoncel family, initially as a wheat-seed distributor.

The company focuses on small and medium-sized rural producers farming up to 500 hectares, selling them seeds, fertilisers and pesticides for soybean, corn, wheat and rice — and then buying back the very harvest it helped grow. It now operates 73 retail stores across Rio Grande do Sul and Mato Grosso, plus three industrial parks.

Who owns it

3tentos belongs to the Dumoncel family; minority partners and the executive team together hold less than 30%. Insiders as a group hold about 77% of shares (EODHD), leaving a free float of roughly 14%, with institutional investors holding ~9%.

The family’s story in agriculture began in 1954, when João Osório Dumoncel and Clélia Luiza Kloeckner Dumoncel sowed some of the first wheat fields in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The company went public in July 2021 on B3’s premium Novo Mercado tier, raising R$1.89bn (US$375m at the time) at R$12.75 (US$2)per share.

Who runs it

João Marcelo Dumoncel served as a founding partner of Três Tentos in 1995, working as Commercial and Industrial Director until 2020, then as Chief Operating Officer until 2025, when he was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Investor Relations Officer and Vice Chairman of the board.

Cristiano Machado Costa serves as CFO. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, a master’s from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, and a doctorate in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Luiz Osório Dumoncel, João Marcelo’s brother and a co-founder, stepped back from the presidency to the vice-presidency and chair of the board of directors.

The money, in plain words

Revenue has grown at pace: R$9.0bn (US$1.7 bn) in 2023, R$12.8bn (US$2.5 bn) in 2024, R$16.4bn (US$3.2 bn) in 2025 — a 28% rise in the latest year alone (our calculation). Net profit kept pace, rising from R$575m (US$112 mn) to R$816m (US$158 mn) over the same period (our calculation from structured data).

The net margin — how much of every real in sales reaches the bottom line — is 4.16% (TTM), which is slim but normal for a business that moves large volumes of commodities at small spreads. The more telling number is return on equity of 15.69%: for every real shareholders have put in, the company earns about 16 cents a year, a healthy rate for the sector.

At a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.9×, the stock is priced cheaply relative to many peers. The balance sheet carries net debt of R$2.15bn (US$417m) (our calculation: R$4.71bn (US$914 mn) in borrowings minus R$2.56bn (US$497 mn) in cash), largely reflecting the capital spent on the new corn-ethanol plant.

What it is doing now

First-quarter 2026 revenue rose more than 20% year over year, marking 3tentos’ 29th consecutive quarter of revenue growth. Excluding hedge-accounting effects, adjusted net income reached R$230.9m (US$44.8m), up 110.7% year on year.

The upcoming start of operations at the Porto Alegre do Norte corn-ethanol plant is expected to contribute positively to future results, with operational stability anticipated within 30–60 days of receiving final regulatory certification. When it opens, 3tentos will become the first company to produce corn ethanol in the Araguaia Valley, expanding its grain origination capacity in a priority region for the Dumoncel family.

What to watch

• Ethanol start-up: The completion of the Porto Alegre do Norte plant is a strategic milestone that positions the company to benefit from expanding biofuel mandates in Brazil.
• Margin recovery: Management expects to recover margins in biofuels and has guided for new store openings, while still finalising capital-expenditure guidance.
• Leverage path: The company projects a debt-reduction scenario for 2026 as capital expenditure normalises after the heavy investment cycle.
• Family concentration: With insiders controlling ~77% of shares and a thin free float, the stock can be thinly traded; any shift in family-controlled holding companies would move the price materially.
• Commodity exposure: Soybean and corn prices, Brazilian real volatility, and freight costs all flow directly into margins on both the input and grain sides of the business.

This is news, not investment advice.