World Grain - August 2013 - 15

A Flour World
Museum story

newsreview

No. 6

Marubeni completes acquisition of Gavilon
OMAHA, NEBRASKA, U.S. — Marubeni
Corp. said on July 5 that it has completed its previously announced purchase of
Gavilon Holdings LLC, with the exception
of its energy business.
Marubeni paid $2.7 billion for the company. Marubeni said it had obtained all
necessary approvals from relevant competition authorities, including the Chinese
competition authority, and fulfilled all other closing conditions as agreed upon in the
Equity Interest Purchase Agreement.
Marubeni’s grain business operates as
part of its Food Materials Division. The
division is the top trader among general
trading companies with annual grain trading volume of about 20 million tonnes,
Marubeni said, and the company is bolstering efforts to develop sales operations
worldwide, along with measures targeting
grain production markets. Additionally,
the company has a framework for grain
procurement composed of diverse production sites worldwide, and it is developing
global sales operations. Leveraging internationally competitive grains, the division
not only provides Japan with a stable grain
supply, but also is building a structure for

flexibly supplying grain to meet growing
global demand.
Privately-held Gavilon, one of the
largest grain, processing and merchandising companies in the U.S., was established in 2008 with the sale by ConAgra
Foods Inc. of its Trading and Merchandising business to Ospraie Management
LLC Special Opportunities Fund in a
$2.1 billion transaction. With the sale,
the business was renamed Gavilon LLC.
Ospraie remains the principal owner of
the business.
Since it became a privately-held company, Gavilon has grown rapidly with a
number of significant actions, including
acquisitions and capital expenditures.
Gavilon operates 300 facilities and regional offices worldwide. The company
estimated its business mix, as measured
as share of earnings, at 62% grain and ingredients (mostly origination, storage and
distribution), 20% energy (storage, transportation and logistics) and 18% fertilizer
(distribution).
According to the 2012 Grain & Milling Annual, Gavilon was the third largest
grain storage company in the U.S.

AGRANA profit down 12.7% in first quarter
VIENNA, AUSTRIA — AGRANA Beteiligungs-AG reported on July 11 that firstquarter operating profit before exceptional
items amounted to €61.9 million, a drop of
12.7% from the €70.9 million reported in
the prior year’s first quarter.
After last year’s strong result, group
revenue expanded by 9.9% to €851.6 million. While operating profit in the Fruit
segment was all but doubled, higher
raw material costs weighed on the margins in the Sugar and Starch segments,
as expected.
Net financial items in the first quarter
came to a net expense of €7.9 million;
the change year-on-year resulted primarily from an improved net interest expense.
With an income tax expense of €14 million based on a tax rate of 26% (prior year:
22.5%), the group’s profit for the period
was €39.9 million (prior year: €47.5 million). After non-controlling interests, earnings per share attributable to AGRANA’s
shareholders were €2.65 (first-quarter
2012-13: €3.32).
AGRANA Chief Executive Officer Johann Marihart said, “In terms of revenue,
www.World-Grain.com / World Grain / August 2013

we achieved a positive start to AGRANA’s
anniversary year. At the same time, as expected, the high raw material prices detracted from our profitability.”
Starch segment revenue in the first
quarter was up from the year-ago level.
Operating profit before exceptional items
decreased from the year-earlier quarter.
The main reason was an increase in raw
material costs. The profit contribution
from AGRANA Bioethanol GmbH was in
line with one year earlier. On balance, this
business performance in the segment led
to a reduction in operating margin from
12.5% to 7.5%.
For the 2013-14 financial year, AGRANA continues to expect a slight increase
in group revenue, driven primarily by
volume growth. AGRANA reiterates its
projection that full year operating profit
before exceptional items will not reach the
group’s very good results of the past two
financial years. In all three segments, the
total investment will be about €143 million in the 2013-14 financial year, thus
providing solid support for the group’s
long-term growth trajectory.

Audio
sample

The Miller’s Love
The best stories are real-life ones. For
example, the song cycle “Die schöne
Müllerin” (The Miller’s Daughter) written
by Wilhelm Müller in 1821 and set to
music by Franz Schubert in 1823. It came
out of a group of songs thought up by
a group of young people including
the writer Clemens Brentano, the
painter Wilhelm Hensel, his sister Luise
and the composer Ludwig Berger.
They sang about the tragic fate of a
young miller’s apprentice who falls in
unrequited love with Rose, a miller’s
daughter. The unhappy story found its
counterpart in reality, as almost all of
the men in the group fell in love with
Hensel’s sister Louise. None of them
were able to win her heart, but it
inspired the classic German song “Das
Wandern ist des Müllers Lust” (The
Wandering Miller).
The Mühlenchemie FlourWorld Museum
in Wittenburg is an expression of our
company culture and the responsibility
we feel towards the miller and his
ﬂour, as one of the most important
staple foods. The museum is a journey
through the millennia, illuminating the
development and importance of ﬂour.
It is the only one of its kind in the world.
www.mehlwelten.de
For more information, see Page 90.

www.muehlenchemie.de

http://www.mehlwelten.de http://www.World-Grain.com http://www.muehlenchemie.de

World Grain - August 2013

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