GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) — Privately owned trading giant Louis Dreyfus plans to invest in assets ranging from orange groves to sugar refiners, allowing it to better compete with top rivals such as Glencore and Cargill.
A glimpse of its expansion plans was in a prospectus seen by Reuters as the firm seeks to raise $546 million via a five-year bond issue.
Analysts were eager to see the company’s plans following the departure in June of its long-serving chief executive officer, Serge Schoen.
The bond is the firm’s second in less than a year as it seeks to expand its global holdings, which it said amounted to $3.7 billion at the end of last year, up nearly 60 percent from 2010.
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“The group intends to exploit opportunities for building and/or acquiring assets all along the value chain, both upstream and downstream, ranging from production assets such as orange groves through processing assets,” the company said, mentioning oilseed crushing plants, sugar refineries and port facilities.
The company’s Canadian holdings include an elevator network in Western Canada and a canola crushing plant in Yorkton, Sask.
Dreyfus is the “D” of the so-called ABCD majors that dominate trade in agricultural products, a quartet that also comprises Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Cargill.
Last year Louis Dreyfus said it aimed to increase investments in the five years from 2012 by 40 percent over 2006-2011.
The prospectus said that expansion would focus on regions where demand is high such as China, India and Africa as well as key sourcing areas such as Indonesia and the Black Sea.
Louis Dreyfus, a 160-year-old company with French roots and trading operations in Switzerland, agreed to buy Dutch-based dairy trading group Ecoval as well as Imperial Sugar Co. last year.
It said in the prospectus it would also consider expanding into new commodities, including further development in the dairy industry. It was also continuing to invest to meet growing demand for sustainable and traceable coffee.
It also plans to develop a network of feed mills, having begun operating three mills in China in recent joint ventures.
Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, the widow of former head Robert Louis-Dreyfus, has increased her stake since late last year via Akira Trust to 65.1 percent from about 50 percent a few years ago.
