Bunge Global SA announced on 2 July that it had successfully completed its merger with Viterra Limited, creating a food, feed and fuel firm closer in size and scope to global agribusiness giants Cargill and ADM.
“The merger brings together two significant players in the food products industry, with Bunge currently valued at US$10.93bn and generating over US$51bn in annual revenue,” according to a Investing.com report on 2 July.
The deal had taken more than two years to complete, with Chinese regulatory approval on 16 June being the last hurdle to clear following conditional approvals in Canada, the EU and other markets, World Grain wrote on 3 July.
Bunge said that the combined company would offer a broad portfolio of plant-based oils, fats and proteins while continuing to focus on grain origination, storage, distribution and oilseed processing.
It would own and operate more than 300 grain storage facilities, over 40 port terminals and more than 155 processing, refining and packaging facilities, according to a Bunge fact sheet about the merger.
Viterra operates more than 300 grain and oilseed processing facilities in more than 40 countries, while Bunge runs 56 oilseed crushing plants with 57M tonnes of capacity, 26 port terminals, 47 oil refineries and 17 grain processing facilities, according to the World Grain report.
The merger would increase Bunge’s already leading position as a soyabean and corn exporter in South America as Viterra currently ranked among the largest exporters of those crops in Brazil, Bunge said.
Already controlling around 90% of the global grain and oilseed trade before the merger, the so-called ABCD companies of agribusiness (ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus), would now increase their market share even more, World Grain wrote.
The combined company would be led by Greg Heckman, Bunge’s CEO, and John Neppl, Bunge’s chief financial officer. Viterra CEO David Mattiske would act co-chief operating officer alongside Julio Garros, most recently Bunge’s co-president of agribusiness.
