COFCO Group Joins the Ranks of the World's Leading Grain Traders
COFCO Corporation recently announced that two merger and acquisition transactions it participated in leading have passed global merger review and successfully completed settlement. These two merger and acquisition transactions are: the acquisition of a 51% stake in Nidera, a Dutch agricultural products and commodities trading group, and the acquisition of a 51% stake in Noble Agri Limited, a subsidiary of Noble Group, a Hong Kong, China-based global supply chain management company for agricultural products, energy products and metal mineral products.
It is reported that COFCO joined hands with a multinational investment consortium composed of financial investors including Hopu Investment, the International Finance Corporation (a member institution of the World Bank), Temasek, and Standard Chartered Private Equity to carry out joint investment, with the investment ratio between COFCO and the latter being 60:40, with COFCO holding controlling interest.
Ning Gaoning, Chairman of COFCO Group, stated that an important reason for the cooperation is the strong complementarity between Nidera, Noble Agri and COFCO's entire grain, oil and food industry chain. Nidera is a globally renowned agricultural products and commodities trading group, engaged in grain distribution and international trade business in 18 countries and regions around the world, and holds advantages in grain source control capacity in South America and core technology in seed business. Noble Agri is the agricultural business platform of Noble Group, mainly engaged in agricultural product trading and processing business, and possesses logistics asset layout in key regions and industry chain advantages in the sugar business.
Through the mergers and acquisitions, COFCO has also joined the ranks of the world's leading grain traders. After the completion of the mergers and acquisitions, COFCO's assets exceed 57 billion US dollars, with combined revenue of 63.3 billion US dollars, storage capacity of 15 million tons, annual processing capacity of 84 million tons, annual port transshipment capacity of 44 million tons, and annual operating volume of 150 million tons. At the same time, COFCO also possesses a global production and procurement platform and trade network including planting, procurement, warehousing, logistics and ports, and its overseas operating revenue will exceed domestic business, achieving a global layout of the industry chain.