US Agro Firm Pushes Into Brazil Sugar

US-based Amyris Biotechnologies increased its stake in a Brazilian joint venture called Amyris Cristalsev to 100%, from 70%. It purchased the 30% stake from its former partner Santelisa Vale, the distressed sugar and ethanol producer being sold to France’s Louis Dreyfus, in a deal announced last week. Company officials decline to specify the price paid for the asset. “We want to build a medium-sized operation in Brazil that [crushes] under 5m tons [of sugar cane annually],” says Roel Collier, the company’s Brazil-based IR official. Amyris Brazil, as the company will be called, will seek to acquire targets to help fulfill this goal and has engaged financial advisors to identify opportunities.