ZURICH: Commodities giant Glencore launched on Tuesday a takeover bid for Viterra, valuing the Canadian agri-business group at C$6.1 billion ($6.2 billion, 4.7 billion euros).
The price offered by Glencore is a premium of 48 percent over Viterra's closing share price on March 8, 2012, said the Swiss group, which added that it would fund the purchase using its "existing cash resources and available credit facilities."
Viterra's board of directors have unanimously backed Glencore's pitch, and are calling on shareholders to vote in favour of the move.
Glencore has already secured 16.5 percent of shares held by the Canadian firm's directors, senior executives and Alberta Investment Management Corp -- Vittera's biggest shareholder.
Viterra, which has assets in Canada and Australia, posted pre-tax profits of C$368 million for its financial year ended October 31, 2011.
"The acquisition of Viterra reflects our strong belief in the importance and future potential of the Canadian and Australian grain markets," said Chris Mahoney, director of Glencore's agricultural products division.
"This is an exciting opportunity to deliver the real benefits that can be generated through the combination of Glencore's and Viterra's respective assets, people and know-how to both farmers and customers in Canada, Australia and further afield," he added.
Along with the bid, Glencore announced that it has secured deals with two firms -- Agrium and Richardson International -- regarding the sale of some Viterra assets.
Agrium, an agri-products supplier, has agreed to pay C$1.8 billion to buy the majority of Viterra's retail agri-products business.
Meanwhile Richardson, which handles all major Canadian-grown grains and oilseeds, will pay C$800 million for 23 percent of Viterra's Canadian grain related assets, certain agri-centres and some processing assets in North America.
Glencore was successfully launched on the London Stock Exchange and in Hong Kong in May 2011 and in the first half of last year saw its net profit soar 57 percent to $2.45 billion.
In addition to being a giant trading company, Glencore also holds major mining assets in minerals such as zinc, copper, lead and aluminum.
It also has interests in energy (oil and coal) and agricultural (cotton, sunflower, wheat, sugar) and buys from 7,000 suppliers.
Glencore, based in Baar, in the centre of Switzerland, boasts of its own port facilities, warehouses and a fleet of ships to supply customers around the world.
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