Manuel Santos Uribelarrea Balcarce

Manuel Santos Uribelarrea Balcarce (born November 10, 1978) is an Argentine businessman, founder and chief executive officer of MSU Group, an Argentine conglomerate with operations in the agricultural, agroindustrial and energy sectors. The group expanded from agricultural production into thermal power generation and, later, renewable energy.

Biography Santos Uribelarrea was born in Buenos Aires on November 10, 1978. He is the son of Manuel Santos de Uribelarrea Duhau and Mercedes Balcarce Fernández Guerrico.

He is the fifth generation of the Uribelarrea family connected with agricultural activity in Argentina, a presence traced in business records to 1860.

During his childhood he spent time in the rural area between Colón, Teodelina and Villa Cañás, where the family estate Santa Juana was located. He attended a rural school there and became involved in farm activities from an early age. The initial operation included about 15,000 hectares of farmland and 6,500 head of cattle on owned fields in southern Santa Fe and the centre-north of Buenos Aires province.

MSU Agro has been identified among the companies participating in the productive link of the Argentine Corn and Sorghum Association, MAIZAR, an organisation created to bring together actors in the maize and sorghum value chain.

In 2007, the group launched an international agricultural land investment vehicle, Santa Juana Ltd., with funding from European pension funds.

In the period examined by a March 2023 report of the Instituto de Estudios y Formación of the CTA Autónoma, MSU Agro harvested 165,000 hectares—owned and leased—in Argentina. The company's annual balance sheet for June 2022 recorded profits of ARS 22.6 billion.

In 2024, Santos Uribelarrea announced the development of a peanut processing plant in southern Santa Fe, with an estimated investment of US$110 million. The initial development plan included three thermal generation plants located in General Rojo, Barker and Villa María, designed to add about 750 MW to the Argentine electricity system and financed through international banks and suppliers.

Public profile Santos Uribelarrea has participated in business, agricultural and energy forums in Argentina. In 2024, he spoke at an energy event organised by La Nación, where he discussed the group's expansion into electricity generation and the limits imposed by transmission infrastructure for new renewable projects.