Wilmar outbids China’s Bright Food with A$1.75 billion offer for CSR’s sugar unit

Wilmar International Limited, the world's largest manufacturer and seller of palm oil, yesterday ented into a deal  to buy Australia's largest sugar producer CSR Ltd's sugar unit Sucrogen for A$1.75 billion ($1.5 billion), beaing a $1.39-billion bid by China's Bright Food Group Co.

Singapore-based Wilmar International's last-minute bid for Sucrogen ended a year-long quest by the Shanghai municipal government-owned food producer Bright Food, which had raised its conditional January 2010 offer of A$1.5 billion to A$1.75 billion in April. (See: China's Bright Food sweetens takeover offer for Australia's CSR sugar unit)

Sydney-based CSR said that it has agreed to sell its Sugar and Renewable Energy business, Sucrogen to Wilmar for an enterprise value of A$1.75 billion. The deal includes Wilmar assuming Sucrogen's net debt of approximately A$400 million.

Wilmar, founded in 1991, is Asia's leading agribusiness group with a market capitalisation of approximately A$31 billion. It is the world's largest processor and merchandiser of palm and lauric oils and ranks amongst the largest listed companies by market capitalisation on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Its business activities include oil palm cultivation, edible oils refining, oilseeds crushing, consumer pack edible oils processing and merchandising, specialty fats, oleochemicals and biodiesel manufacturing, and grains processing and merchandising.

Its operations are located in more than 20 countries across four continents, with a primary focus on Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India and Europe. Backed by a workforce of more than 80,000 people, Wilmar operates over 300 processing plants and an extensive distribution network and sells its products to more than 50 countries.