Cargill, Copersucar Plan Sugar-Trading Venture

Cargill Inc. and Copersucar SA agreed to combine their global sugar-trading activities, creating a new joint venture that will originate and trade raw and white sugar.

The independent venture, which will be 50% owned by each company, will bring together the global supply chains of Cargill, an agricultural and industrial company, and Copersucar, a Brazilian sugar and ethanol trader. The new venture will benefit from the large-scale supply of Copersucar's partner mills in Brazil and the companies' experience in logistics management and access to the elevation terminals in Brazil.

The trading activities will be based out of Geneva, Switzerland, and the joint venture will have offices in Hong Kong, São Paulo, Miami, Delhi, Moscow, Jakarta, Shanghai, Bangkok and Dubai. Additional representation offices will be around the world.

Ivo Sarjanovic, who currently leads Cargill's sugar business, will be appointed chief executive once the new company is formed. Soren Hoed Jensen, current sugar and ethanol sales executive director of Copersucar, will become the joint venture's chief operating officer, and Stefano Tonti, currently financial controller of Cargill's global trading and sugar businesses, will become the new joint venture's finance chief.

Luis Roberto Pogetti, chairman of Copersucar, will become the first rotating chairman of the venture.

The formation of the new venture is expected in the second half of 2014.

Both companies' ethanol businesses and fixed assets, such as terminals and mills, are excluded from the transaction.

Cargill, founded in 1865, ranks among the world's largest privately owned companies and is one of the most diverse, trading grain, energy and other commodities, processing meat, and transporting goods across a sprawling global logistics network. The company also has a financial-services wing, sells steel and makes pharmaceutical ingredients.

Last year, the company unveiled plans to combine its flour-milling operations with ConAgra Foods Inc. and CHS Inc. into a multibillion-dollar joint venture, marking the milling industry's biggest merger in years. The combination was recently delayed due in part to regulatory review.

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