Glencore’s agriculture division Viterra has reached an agreement to acquire the grain and ingredients business of US oilseed and ingredients firm Gavilon from Marubeni, Viterra announced on 26 January.
The US$1.125bn acquisition, which was made between a wholly-owned Viterra subsidiary and Marubeni America Corporation, is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be finalised in the second half of this year.
“The addition of Gavilon supports our long-term strategy of significantly increasing our presence in the USA - one of the major producing and exporting regions - which will further strengthen our global network,” Viterra CEO David Mattiske said.
Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Gavilon sources, stores and distributes grains, oilseeds and feed and food ingredients to food manufacturers, livestock producers, poultry processors, soyabean processors and ethanol producers worldwide.
The company has 105 grain storage facilities and a total grain storage capacity of 345.5M bushels, according to Sosland Publishing’s Grain & Milling Annual 2022.
With assets located in key growing areas in the USA, Gavilon’s operations have access to major railways, rivers and ports and the company is active in Asia, Europe, Mexico and South America, with an indirect ownership interest in two port terminals in Kalama, Washington, and Portland, Oregon.
The company’s fertiliser business, Gavilon Fertiliser – which was not included in the transaction and would be transferred to Marubeni America Corp – operates a distribution system in the USA with over 75 bulk terminals located on the Mississippi River and in key agricultural areas.
Marubeni, which acquired Gavilon in 2013, said the transaction would not include eight Gavilon grain elevators in northern USA, with those elevators transferring to Marubeni subsidiary Columbia Grain International, World Grain wrote on 26 January.
In addition, part of the equity interest of Kalama Holdco, a joint venture grain export terminal business on the US West Coast held by Gavilon, would be transferred to Columbia Grain International.
Marubeni said the decision to sell Gavilon’s grain business followed a re-evaluation of its grain business strategies and goals, and reflected the uptrend in the grain supply industry and Gavilon’s recent strong performance, World Grain wrote.
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.
According to the Grain & Milling Annual 2022, Viterra has a total of 85 grain storage facilities with total storage capacity of 120.36M bushels in North America.
Glencore, which was created through a merger between Glencore and Xstrata in 2013, is a leading multinational commodity trading and mining company.
