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Bunge is already the world's largest oilseed processor and
analysts said it and Viterra's crushing businesses could face
regulatory scrutiny in Canada and Argentina.
Bunge last year was the largest corn and soybean exporter from
Brazil, the world's top source of the staple crops for making
animal feed and biofuels, according to data from shipping agent
Cargonave. Viterra was the third-largest corn exporter and No. 7
soybean shipper.
Combined, the companies accounted for about 23.7% of Brazil corn
exports in 2022 and 20.9% of Brazil soybean exports, Cargonave
data showed.
In the United States, Viterra's business of buying and selling
grain expanded via its purchase of Gavilon last year. The merger
would enhance Bunge's grain exporting and oilseed processing
businesses in the world's No. 2 corn and soy exporter, where it
has a smaller presence than ADM and Cargill.
The deal also expands Bunge's physical grain storage and
handling capacity in major wheat exporter Australia, where the
company currently operates just two grain elevators and a port
terminal in the western part of the country. Viterra has 55
storage sites in South Australia and western Victoria and six
bulk grain export terminals.
The world's top vegetable oils producer also entered
partnerships with oil major Chevron and seeds and chemicals
giant Bayer to pursue soaring demand for renewable fuels
feedstocks.
In Ukraine, the world's top sunflower producer and largest
supplier of sunflower oil, a combined Bunge-Viterra would have
three oilseed processing plants across the country's south and
east, in Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv.
Acquiring Viterra would bring Bunge's revenue, which was $67.2
billion in 2022, more in line with that of ADM, which registered
sales of nearly $102 billion last year.
In early 2017, Viterra, then known as Glencore Agriculture,
attempted a takeover of Bunge, which was then valued at $11
billion. The attempted takeover was rebuffed.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Caroline
Stauffer and Matthew Lewis)
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