Bunge Limited Reaches Additional Agreements with Owners of Moema Group Sugarcane Mills
Bunge will have an effective share of approximately 89% of the 15.4 million metric tons of annual crushing capacity of the Moema Group cluster and will become the sole owner of five of the six mills.
13 Jan 2010 --- Bunge Limited announced that it has reached agreements to become the owner of additional interests in the Moema Group cluster of sugarcane mills located in Brazil.
As previously announced, in December 2009, Bunge entered into an agreement to become the 100% owner of Usina Moema Participacoes S.A.. With the agreements announced, Bunge will have an effective share of approximately 89% of the 15.4 million metric tons of annual crushing capacity of the Moema Group cluster and will become the sole owner of five of the six mills (Moema, Frutal, Itapagipe, Ouroeste and Guariroba) comprising the cluster.
The economic terms of the transactions announced are consistent with those of the previously announced Moema Par transaction, except that two shareholders in one of the mills will receive cash (on a discounted basis), rather than common shares of Bunge Limited, for their interests. Bunge has agreed to issue approximately 3.5 million common shares in exchange for the additional interests announced, bringing the total number of shares to be issued by Bunge Limited in the transactions to approximately 10.8 million and total net debt assumed to approximately $675 million. The final number of shares to be issued will be based on the amount of net indebtedness and working capital of the mills at closing.
In the coming weeks, Bunge may reach an agreement in respect of the sixth mill constituting the Moema Group cluster.
Bunge Limited has agreed to file a registration statement for the common shares to be issued to the new shareholders, which will allow the shareholders to resell their common shares from time to time. In addition, the shareholders receiving common shares of Bunge Limited have agreed, during the 18 month period after the closing, to certain volume and other restrictions with respect to sales of their common shares.
The closings of the transactions announced are expected to occur within the next 90 days, subject to certain conditions.
