World Grain - October 2010 - 14

newsreview
Viterra reaffirms plans for malt house
CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA - Viterra Inc. on Sept. 23 reaffirmed its commitment to construct a state-of the-art malt house and
container packing facility 52 kilometers southeast of central Sydney
in New South Wales, Australia. The project was initiated by ABB
Grain prior to Viterra's acquisition of the Australian agribusiness.
The new, highly efficient malt house will have the capacity to produce approximately 110,000 tonnes of malt annually. It will also include an adjacent container packing facility that will handle a further
147,000 tonnes of grain each year.
Viterra said the project aligns with its strategy to grow its valueadded segment and further position the company as a global food
ingredient manufacturer and supplier. The new facilities ensure capacity to service projected long-term growth in Asian malt markets.
"Key target markets in Southeast and Northern Asia are expected to
continue to grow significantly over the next 10 years, driven by increasing populations and rising per capita income levels. Our new malting

and packing facilities will give us significant advantages as we work to
serve new and existing customers and strive to be the supplier of choice
in both the domestic and international markets. Sydney is well located
with access to premium malting barley crops and superior port shipping
into major markets," said Fran Malecha, Viterra's chief operating officer.
Rob Gordon, senior vice-president for Viterra, said: "Viterra is the
largest maltster in Australia, currently producing 500,000 tonnes of malt
annually. Construction of the packing facility is slated for completion
within nine months. The malt house will be completed in approximately
18 to 24 months. While large malt barley supplies in Europe created increased competition for Australian malt over the past year, it is the company's belief that the long-term fundamentals of this business remain
strong and that the timing of the plant coming on-stream will ideally
coincide with the expected recovery in the global malt industry."
The total cost of the project is estimated to be approximately
A$110 million, with about A$75 million still to be incurred.

Viterra sees revenue increase in third quarter and first nine months of 2010
CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA - A solid shipping program
through Viterra's South Australia grain operations, contributions
from its North America pipeline and the addition of pasta manufacturing to its portfolio of assets led to increases in both revenue and
gross profit for the third quarter and first nine months of fiscal 2010,
Viterra announced on Sept. 8.
Viterra's third-quarter net earnings were C$63.5 million, which
compares to net earnings of C$120.7 million in the same three-month
period of 2009. For the first nine months of this fiscal year, earnings
were C$92.6 million, compared to C$114 million in the same period
a year earlier.
Results included one-time after-tax re-financing costs of C$17.7
million and approximately C$9.1 million of additional after-tax
amortization costs that were recorded in the third quarter, the latter
of which was associated with the purchase price allocation review of

the Australian assets during the quarter.
Despite a considerable loss of seeded acreage in western Canada,
Viterra's consolidated sales and other operating revenues were up
C$273 million to C$2.5 billion in the third quarter, bringing year-todate revenues to C$6.3 billion, up C$1.1 billion relative to the first
nine months of fiscal 2009.
President and CEO Mayo Schmidt said: "Our results this quarter are in line with our July 8 seeded acreage update. While spring
conditions in Western Canada were far from ideal, yields on existing crops are encouraging. It is our view that given current yield
projections from field staff, western Canadian production could
be in the 44- to 45-million-tonne range compared to the 10-year
average of approximately 49 to 50 million tonnes."
See World Grain's interview with Viterra President and CEO
Mayo Schmidt on page 30.

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World Grain - October 2010

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