Mitsubishi Buys Brazilian Grain Stake

Mitsubishi has agreed to purchase a 20% stake in Grupo Los Grobo’s Ceagro do Brasil unit, one of Latin America’s top grain producers, for about JPY3.5bn ($45.61m). Recently appointed Ceagro CFO Antonio Oliva Neto tells LatinFinance that the deal brings important synergies to the business. Ceagro focuses on financing producers, production, storage and supplying the local market, while Mitshubishi is active across the value chain from ports right down to the final consumer through supermarkets and fast food chains. “Ceagro will benefit from new business opportunities and be able to reach new markets,” he says. Mitsubishi is expected to purchase the stake through a capital increase. Ceagro currently operates in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay and seeks to leverage the Mitsubishi deal to become a centralized grain originator in the countryside and also to export grain to new destinations. Ceagro officials declined to offer any additional details of the transactions. Officials at Mitsubishi could not immediately be reached for comment. Mitsubishi has been an active participant in the agricultural business in Latin America. Last year, the Japanese company had a hand in exporting more than 10m tons of grain from the USA, Brazil, Argentina and Australia to its customers in several Asian countries.