LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) — The global agricultural trading community could soon see a new dominant player.
COFCO, China’s state-run grain trading company, is planning to list within three to five years.
In just over a year, COFCO has invested US$2.8 billion to transform itself from a procurement operation into a global agricultural trader, via joint ventures with Noble Group Ltd’s agribusiness and Dutch grain trader Nidera, after taking substantial stakes in the companies.
“This should be not a Chinese, but a global company…the IPO will help us to achieve this standard,” COFCO chair Ning Gaoning said at the FT Commodities Global Summit.
Ning told Reuters COFCO’s plan would be to list all of COFCO’s, Noble’s, and Nidera’s agricultural assets together.
Its overall objective would likely be to rival the “ABCD” quartet of companies — Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus — that dominate agricultural commodity trading.
“People ask me: are you going to be a buyer or a competitor in the future?… I think we will co-operate, sometimes we will compete,” Ning said.
