Leading agricultural network firm Viterra has entered an agreement to acquire five sites in Australia from global agribusiness giant Cargill.
As part of the agreement, Viterra said it would acquire the GrainFlow storage and handling facilities in Maitland, Crystal Brook, Mallala, and Pinnaroo in South Australia and Dimboola in Victoria, along with the mobile ship loader in Adelaide, South Australia.
GrainFlow operates a network of 16 grain and oilseed storage centres in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
Cargill Australia acquired the GrainFlow storage and handling business in 2011.
The facilities would be incorporated into Viterra’s existing storage and handling network, the company said on 23 September.
In addition, Viterra said it had plans to make significant initial and ongoing investments to optimise the operations in line with the company’s strategy of linking upcountry sites to deep water ports by fast rail to move maximum tonnes of grain to market during the first half of the year.
“This acquisition will allow us to further deliver efficiencies for the South Australian and Western Victorian supply chains,” Viterra CEO David Mattiske said.
Cargill had a long-term access agreement to source grain from Viterra’s export supply chain, which would allow it to continue to purchase grain from growers at the acquired facilities and across Viterra’s Australian network.
In July, Viterra announced an A$35M (US$24M) investment at its Wolseley storage and handling facility, including an expansion of the site and the introduction of fast rail loading to connect the site with Viterra’s deepwater Outer Harbour terminal.
Viterra said it expected the acquisition to close in the first half of next year, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB). The company did not disclose the terms of the sale.
According to its website, Viterra is active in 130 countries and handles over 125M tonnes/year of agricultural products, including grains, oilseeds, pulses, rice, sugar and vegetable oil, as well as a range of animal feed products. We purchase the products directly from producers and suppliers in over 65 countries and deliver them to customers in 130 countries.
