The owner of Las Tres Niñas milk company is negotiating its sale to a cryptocurrency giant

Adecoagro, one of the country's leading agricultural companies, has agreed to negotiate the unsolicited offer launched last week by Tether Investments to control 51% of the company that owns the Las Tres Niñas, Apóstoles and Angelita milk brands and the Molinos Ala rice brand in Argentina.

The company announced that it signed a Letter of Exclusivity to facilitate future negotiations with Tether, which is the company that created the USDT stablecoin and already has 20% of Adeco.

" There can be no assurance that a definitive agreement will be entered into , that any transaction will be consummated or the timing, terms or conditions of any such transaction," Adecoagro clarified, however.

Founded in Argentina in 2002 by a group of businessmen led by Mariano Bosch, the company gradually bought land and expanded its business.

Today, it has 210,400 hectares and plants in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, where it extracts more than 2.8 million tons of agricultural products and more than 1 million MWh of renewable energy. It has interests in sugar, ethanol, grains (corn, wheat, soybeans, sunflowers, peanuts), dairy products and rice, with a turnover of more than US$ 1.5 billion and 10,000 employees.

Tether Investments ' offer is to acquire the company's outstanding common shares at a price of $12.41 per share through a tender offer. Adeco's stock closed Monday at $10.61 and is up 1.8% in premarket trading in the United States, where it is listed.

Tether first became a shareholder in Adecoagro in September last year, buying around 10% of the shares for US$102 million. It then increased its stake to 19.4% and became the largest minority shareholder. If the transaction is completed, it would now control 51%.

"The Board of Directors held a meeting on February 16, 2025 to discuss the terms and conditions of the offer and decided to engage legal and financial advisors to further assist in evaluating the proposal and whether it is in the best interest of all shareholders and the company," Adecoagro said in a statement last week upon receiving the offer.

The Tether giant was founded by Italians Paolo Ardoino and Giancarlo Devasini and Dutchman Ludovicus Jan Van der Velde. Tether is a stablecoin (also a cryptocurrency) but unlike digital assets such as bitcoin or ethereum, its mission is to replicate the price of the dollar. This means that one USDT will always be equivalent to one dollar.