Sodrugestvo Group has acquired 100% of Brazil’s Lider Armazens Gerais S.A. Lider, the largest Brazilian private company engaged in the storage and transshipment of grains, owns 15 warehouses located in Brazil's fastest growing agricultural regions.

All warehouses are leased to leading agricultural companies, including Sodrugestvo, through exclusive long-term agreements.

Lider also owns and operates two transshipment terminals in Minas Gerais and Tocantins for Vale S.A., a Brazilian diversified mining multinational corporation and one of the largest logistics operators in Brazil.

The acquisition of Lider allows Sodrugestvo to increase its static storage capacity from the existing 600,000 tons to almost 900,000 tons in the States of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Goias.

This capacity increase will allow the company to provide an even better service to Brazilian agricultural operators in these key regions. Sodrugestvo will also continue to invest heavily, in coordination with Vale, to ensure its new transshipment facilities offer the best possible value to all market participants, while the ever increasing crops create more and more challenges to bring grains to ports, said a company release.

Sodrugestvo was advised by Machado Meyer for the transaction. The acquisition was entirely financed by Sodrugestvo's own fund, without recourse to debt.

The Lider operation will be integrated into Carol-Sodru S.A., the joint-venture between Sodrugestvo and CAROL, which already operates 14 silos in the States of Sao Paulo, Goias and Minas Gerais.

Sodrugestvo Group, founded in 1994, is a rapidly growing agro-industrial company serving global markets.

The company is vertically integrated with three business units - specialized infrastructure (including deep-water sea ports), logistics (including railcars and storage facilities) and processing facilities (for the production of proteins and oils from vegetal and animal commodities).
 
In the past year, Sodrugestvo crushed more than 1.3 million tons of soybeans and rapeseed, making it a leading player in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, and traded over 2.3 million tons of agricultural commodities. The company is also expanding into commodities trading and direct origination capabilities.

Headquartered in Luxembourg, the company has facilities in a dozen countries including Russia, Ukraine, Denmark, Brazil, the United States, Switzerland and several Eastern European nations.  With consolidated sales of $1,312 million in its fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, Sodrugestvo has enjoyed average annual growth of 15 percent or more for the last 10 years. Sodrugestvo employs 1,350 and is privately held.

10th August 2011