Viterra

Viterra

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Type	Privately Held
Industry	Agriculture
Founded	2007
Headquarters	Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Key people	Kyle Jeworski
Website	www.viterra.com

Viterra Inc. was a Canadian grain handling business, the nation's largest grain handler, with its historic formative roots in prairie grain-handling co-ops, among them the iconic Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Viterra Inc grew into a global agri-business with operations in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and China. Viterra operated three distinct, inter-related businesses: Grain Handling & Marketing, Agri-Products and Processing, enabling it to generate earnings at various points on the food production chain from field to the table. Following its $6.1-billion acquisition by Glencore International, on 1 January 2013 Viterra Inc was merged with Glencore purchaser, 8115222 Canada Inc.

Viterra's grain handling and marketing operations were located primarily in two of the world's most fertile regions: Western Canada and South Australia. The company owns and operates grain terminals in Western Canada, along with 95% of the grain handling and storage facilities is South Australia. The company ships grain to markets worldwide.

Viterra was also one of the largest agri-product retailiers in Canada, with a network of more than 250 retail locations throughout the Prairies. As part of this business, Viterra owns a 34% interest in Canadian Fertilizer Limited CFI, a large urea and ammonia plant.

The company also operates several value-added processing businesses, including wholly owned subsidiaries like Dakota Growers Pasta Company, 21st Century Grain, making it the largest producer of industrial oats in North America, the third largest producer of pasta on the continent, the largest malt producer in Australia, a large producer of canola and a leading producer of feed in New Zealand.

At the time of the Glencore's March 2012 back-to-back purchase-and-agreement of Viterra's assets to Agrium, which paved the way for Glencore's purchase of Viterra, in December 2012, Viterra was generating "$2.4-billion in revenue and $244-million in EBITDA" and operated a "network of 258 agri-products retail locations throughout Western Canada and 17 retail locations in Australia. Retail locations offer fertilizer, crop protection products, seed and equipment to growers. Viterra also has a minority interest in a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing plant in Medicine Hat, Alberta."

History

Viterra Inc. was formed in 2007 as a publicly traded corporation when the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool acquired Agricore United, which was at that time the largest grain handler in Western Canada. Viterra's predecessors were the grain-trading co-operatives set up in Canada during the 1920s known as the wheat pools. It has since acquired the former Australian government-sponsored monopsony marketing board, the Australian Barley Board, created in 1939.

Mergers

File:Viterra Plant Edmonton Alberta Canada 01.jpg

Viterra building near Fort Road in Edmonton, Alberta.

Following Glencore's takeover of Viterra in December 2012, Viterra underwent some major changes. Viterra Inc. (Viterra) was acquired by a Glencore purchaser, 8115222 Canada Inc. and merged under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA). the new board of directors includes Mr. Chris Mahoney (Director of Agricultural Products of Glencore), Mr. Ernest Mostert (Financial Manager of Glencore Grain), Mr. Robert Wardell and Mr. Larry Ruud (President & CEO One Earth Farms Corp).

On 19 May 2009, Viterra announced it would buy Australian ABB Grain for C$1.4 billion. On 9 September, 84 percent of ABB shareholders voted in favour of the merger, with 75 percent required to pass the resolution.

On March 15, 2012, Viterra announced that it had received takeover offers from multiple parties. Glencore was revealed to have offered a takeover bid of roughly $6 billion. It intends to immediately sell off its Canadian assets to Agrium and Richardson International while retaining Viterra's overseas assets. The takeover deal was completed in December 2012.

Glencore's Side-Car Agreements in Acquisition of Viterra

In preparation for Glencore's acquisition of Viterra in December 2012, in March 2012 Agrium Inc. (TSX and NYSE: AGU) entered into a back-to-back $CDN1.15billion purchase and sale agreement with Glencore to acquire "90 percent of Viterra’s Canadian retail facilities, all of its Australian retail facilities, as well as their minority position in a nitrogen facility located in Medicine Hat, Alberta."acquire the majority of Viterra’s Agri-products business upon completion of Glencore’s recently announced supported acquisition of Viterra.

Further reading

• This Financial Post article (13 January 2013) described the rapid-fire process circuitous route of the takeover.

See also

• ABB Grain
• Alberta Wheat Pool
• Cargill
• Glencore
• Richardson International
• United Grain Growers