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St. Louis-based Bunge Ltd.—which is spending $550 million to build a soybean processing plant in Shelby County—announced Tuesday that it plans to acquire Viterra in a deal valued at about $18 billion to create a global agricultural giant.
Viterra shareholders will receive about 65.6 million shares of Bunge stock, valued at approximately $6.2 billion and about $2 billion in cash. Bunge will assume $9.8 billion of Viterra debt.
Bunge’s grain and softseed handling capacity will grow while it expands origination capabilities in key regions and crops where Bunge doesn’t have a strong presence.
“The combination of Bunge and Viterra significantly accelerates Bunge’s strategy, building on our fundamental purpose to connect farmers to consumers to deliver essential food, feed and fuel to the world,” Bunge CEO Greg Heckman said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
The deal would create a scale that puts Bunge closer to Archer-Daniels Midland and one of the nation’s largest private companies, Cargill. But the buyout will also likely put it in the crosshairs of antitrust regulators in the U.S.
The combined business will keep the Bunge name, with headquarters in St. Louis. Viterra’s headquarters in Rotterdam in the Netherlands will serve as a commercial location.
Glencore, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and British Columbia Investment Management are also investing in the deal.
The board of the combined company will include eight Bunge directors and four representatives nominated by Viterra shareholders after the deal closes.
The transaction is targeted to close by the middle of next year. It still needs approval from Bunge Inc. shareholders.
Bunge North America Inc. has operated a soybean processing plant in Morristown since 2010. It announced plans in December to spend about $550 million to build a soy protein concentrate and textured soy protein concentrate facility adjacent to the existing facility, creating 70 jobs by mid-2025.
In September, Bunge signed an incentive agreement with the Indiana Economic Development Corp. that would land the company $1.75 million in tax credits if it meets hiring and investment goals. In August, the Morristown Town Council agreed to provide real and personal property tax abatements to support the expansion.
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All this money going around from corporation to corporation and the investors but little to none of that gets into Hoosier pockets.
Other than providing 70 new jobs? Should these companies be paying some other kind of fee to Hoosiers?
They are investing $550 million in Shelby County. Somebody has to build that facility.