Glencore’s agriculture division Viterra has completed its acquisition of the grain and ingredients business of US oilseed and ingredients firm Gavilon from Marubeni, Viterra announced.
The US$1.125bn acquisition was made between a wholly-owned Viterra subsidiary and Marubeni America Corporation, Viterra said on 3 October.
Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Gavilon sources, stores and distributes grains, oilseeds and feed and food ingredients to US and global markets. With assets located in key growing areas in the USA, Gavilon’s operations have access to major railways, rivers and ports.
The company has 105 grain storage facilities and a total grain storage capacity of 345.5M bushels, according to Sosland Publishing’s 2022 Grain & Milling Annual.
“This acquisition further strengthens our global network by providing us with a material presence in every major exporting region,” Viterra CEO David Mattiske said.
Viterra said it would integrate Gavilon into its global network and would implement the Viterra brand across the business early next year.
In January, when the acquisition was first announced, Marubeni said the decision to sell Gavilon’s grain business followed a re-evaluation of its grain business strategies and goals, reflecting the uptrend in the grain supply industry and Gavilon’s recent strong performance, World Grain wrote on 26 January.
At the time of the initial announcement, the company said it was “looking to enhance the ability of its grain business to meet demand for grain in the Asian market, especially Japan, a focus area for the business.”
Formerly known as Glencore Agriculture, which rebranded as Viterra in 2020, Viterra is active in 37 countries and has a network of agricultural storage, processing and transport operations.
Glencore, which was created through a merger between Glencore and Xstrata in 2013, is a leading multinational commodity trading and mining company.
