Shanghai company buys trading company in Brazil

Hunan Dakang Pasture Farming, a company of the Shanghai Pengxin group, has paid USD286 million to acquire 57 percent of Brazilian trading company Fiagril Ltd, reported financial news agency Bloomberg.
In a statement, Fiagril Participações, based in the state of Mato Grosso, reported its shareholders had reached an agreement with a Chinese company, whose shares are listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, for the sale of a stake in Fiagril, Lda.
Following this deal, Fiagril Ltd. now has three major shareholders – Hunan Dakang Pasture Farming, the founders of Fiagril Participações and Amerra Capital Management.
Fiagril Lda is one of the major Brazilian trading companies buying and selling grain, especially soybeans and corn, which moves and annually exports about 2.5 million tons of goods, has a storage capacity of 1 million tons and 30 subsidiaries in the states of Mato Grosso, Amapá and Tocantins.
Amerra Capital Management LLC is a US investment company specialising in the agricultural sector, focusing on solutions for agricultural enterprises located in the Americas.
In the statement, Fiagril Participações did not mention the size of the stake sold or the value of the transaction.
Exports of agricultural products from Brazil to China may double or even triple following a visit last fall by a Chinese delegation to the state of Mato Grosso, an agricultural spokesman told news agency Agência Estado.
Amado de Oliveira Filho, a consultant from the Federation of Agriculture and Farming of Mato Grosso (Famato), who took part in a meeting in Cuiabá with representatives of the Chinese government and farmers from the state of Mato Grosso, said that China imported some 7 million tons of cereals from Brazil each year.
“Between January and September [2015] China imported 8.8 percent of total agricultural production in Brazil,” said Oliveira Filho.
According to Famato, the Chinese questioned whether increased demand would damage the environment.
Despite the state of Mato Grosso being Brazil’s largest cereal producer, just 6 percent of its area is taken up by production of soy, which is one of cereals China imports from Brazil.
The Chinese delegation, which visited a farm producing soy, maize in the municipal area of Campo Verde, some 130 kilometers from Cuiabá, announced it was interested in developing investment projects in roads, railroads and warehouses.  MDT/Macauhub