World Grain - January 2016 - 10

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COFCO to fully acquire Noble Agri
CHAO YANG DISTRICT, BEIJING, CHINA
- COFCO Corporation announced on
Dec. 22 that it had reached an agreement
with Noble Group under which COFCO
Corporation's subsidiary, COFCO International Limited (CIL), will acquire Noble
Agri's 49% stake held by Noble Group for
$750 million. Upon the completion of the
transaction, CIL will hold a 100% stake in
Noble Agri, which will be renamed COFCO Agri.
Noble has been under pressure to raise
cash to avoid losing its investment grade rating and being dropped to junk bond status.
Noble Group's Corporate & Others segment,
which includes Noble Agri Limited, reported
on Nov. 13 a loss of $60.7 million compared
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of last year. Noble Agri has continued to
operate at a loss in the nine months ended
Sept. 30, as it has continued to be impacted
by lower sugar prices. The latest quarter also
saw rain impacting the ramp up of the seasonal harvest and lowering sugar yields.
In 2014, a consortium led by COFCO
Corporation acquired a 51% stake in Noble
Agri. By the end of the year, Noble Agri
had sales of $14.9 billion, and delivered 46
million tonnes of products globally, with 45
asset locations and 9,500 employees in 29
countries, COFCO said.
"The acquisition will greatly accelerate
COFCO's internationalization and global

positioning," said Frank Gaoning Ning,
chairman of COFCO Corporation. "COFCO
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team and still bullish on the long-term performance upon the integration of Noble Agri
into COFCO Corporation despite the depressed global agricultural commodity market for the time being."
COFCO Corporation has been actively
engaged in resource consolidation to optiPL]HDVVHWDOORFDWLRQDQGERRVWLWVSUR¿WDELOity, COFCO said. Noble Agri will become
COFCO Corporation's 100% fully owned
overseas purchase platform and contribute
to further optimization of COFCO CorporaWLRQ¶V JOREDO YDOXH FKDLQ FRQ¿JXUDWLRQ E\
linking its upstream origination and trading
operations with the downstream processing
and distribution capabilities of COFCO CorSRUDWLRQDQGLWVDI¿OLDWHV
"I am pleased to see that COFCO Corporation and Noble Group have reached another agreement," said Yusuf Alireza, chief
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"We believe that these assets will be better
developed after being seamlessly integrated
into COFCO's global positioning."
In May 2015, Matt Jansen, who had abundant experience in the agriculture industry,
was appointed as CEO of Noble Agri. Noble
Agri engages in agricultural trading and processing businesses, which it originates from
surplus producing regions such as South

America, North America, South Africa, East
Europe and Australia,
to supply regions with
high demand such as
China, Asia and the
Middle East.
"The consolidation
of our ownership is a
Jansen
strong step toward our
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global agribusiness," Jansen said, "The base
we build on - our global reach, our operations in 29 countries - positions us to reach
that goal."
In February 2014, a consortium led by
COFCO Corporation acquired a 51% stake
of Nidera. Nidera is a major international
agribusiness and trading company with an
annual turnover in excess of $17 billion.
Currently, Nidera has domestic and international operations in 18 major export and import countries and distributes its products to
more than 60 countries in the world.
"COFCO Corporation is our majority
shareholder," Ton van der Laan, CEO of Nidera, said. "There is intensive and good cooperation between COFCO and Nidera on
many important topics. For the foreseeable
future, Nidera will be working as a separate
entity within COFCO Corporation and have
full focus on serving its customers in the best
possible way."

Tiger Brands sells stake in Tiger Branded Consumer Goods
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -
Tiger Brands Ltd will sell its 65.7% stake in
Tiger Branded Consumer Goods Plc (TBCG),
formerly Dangote Flour Mills, to Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) for $1.
DIL will invest $46.1 million into TBCG "to
stabilize the business and place it on a sustainable path," a statement from Tiger Brands said.
Tiger Brands will write off R$700 million in
shareholders loans and settle other outstanding
TBCG debt of R$400 million.
In 2012, Tiger Brands bought a majority
stake of 63.4% in Dangote Flour Mills, a Nige10

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$200 million. The purchase has cost investors
millions in write-downs.
The Tiger Brands statement said the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals,
would "ensure that TBCG is maintained as a
viable going concern, able to retain its employees and meet its obligations to its stakeholders."
In November, Tiger reported for the TBCG
segment a loss of R$438 million ($31 million)
compared to a R$281 million ($19.9 million)
loss in the same period of last year. As a result,

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Tiger Brands has experienced its share of
upheaval recently, including the overstatement
of sales by Haco Industries, a Kenyan subsidiary of Dangote Flour Mills. The preinvoicing
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managing director of the Kenyan unit.
In October, Tiger Brands Chief Executive
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down, effective Dec. 31.
January 2016 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - January 2016

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