One of Canada’s largest specialty crop firms has changed hands.
Hong Kong’s Noble Group, an Asian commodity trading powerhouse, has purchased Finora Canada from ADM Agri-Industries Ltd. for an undisclosed amount.
ADM Agri-Industries, a Canadian subsidiary of American grain giant Archer Daniels Midland, purchased the Surrey, B.C., special crops firm in June 1999. The deal to sell Finora to Noble was finalized on Oct. 3.
The new owner calls itself “Asia’s largest diversified commodities trading company” and said it controls more than five percent of the global pulse trade. The company has a strong market presence in southeast Asia, where half of the world’s pulse imports are consumed.
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“In this transaction we have linked a western producer of a commodity that has its primary growing base of demand in countries in the east where Noble is strong,” said Noble’s chief executive officer Richard Elman.
Assets in the deal include Finora’s processing plants in Assiniboia, Sask., Wilkie, Sask., Gibbons, Alta., and the head office in Surrey. The only facility remaining with ADM is the plant in Winkler, Man., which processes edible beans for the U.S. market.
In a normal production year, Finora cleans and exports 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes of pulses and special crops, primarily focusing on peas, lentils, mustard and canaryseed. Annual sales are estimated at $132 million.
Finora president Dan Burneski said the purchase was a logical step for Noble to take.
“For years they’ve been one of our major customers and it just made sense to link up with them and tie up that vertical integration.”
Finora ships most of its product to India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, where Noble already has well established marketing networks.
“We have a much better link now with the actual end users of the product,” said Burneski.
He said the new ownership arrangement should also benefit Canadian pulse and special crops producers.
“Hopefully it improves their life through better movement of their product and potentially better prices as we build up further markets for the types of product they grow.”
No layoffs are planned under the new ownership.
“All the employees that were previously with Finora are still with Finora and are looking forward to growing the business under the new ownership,” said Burneski.
Finora is Noble Group’s first North American grain operation. Burneski said it gives them a base from which to expand their business in this part of the world.
That could mean purchasing more special crops firms, but it could also mean sourcing other crops.
“I think that would be sort of the longer-range game plan is to look at what other products the customer requires.”
