Viserion Grain To Buy 11 Zen-Noh Grain Facilities
Zen-Noh Grain Corporation (ZGC) announced April 1 that it has entered into an agreement with Viserion Grain LLC for Viserion to acquire 11 grain facilities. These facilities are expected to be required by the U.S. Department of Justice to be divested in connection with its review of ZGC’s acquisition of multiple grain facilities from Bunge, a transaction announced last spring. Both transactions remain subject to clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice, and the sale to Viserion is conditioned on the closing of the Bunge acquisition. Both transactions are expected to close later this spring.
The initial agreement between ZGC and Bunge included 35 operating assets. To help secure regulatory approval, eight Bunge assets have been selected for divestiture and are pending sale to Viserion. The facilities are located at Shawneetown, Ill.; Huffman, Ark.; Osceola, Ark. (riverside and landside); Helena, Ark.; Lake Providence, La.; McGregor, Iowa; Lettsworth, La.; and three of ZGC’s affiliate, Consolidated Grain & Barge Company assets in Caruthersville, Mo., Cottonwood Point, Mo. and Savanna, Ill.
Zen-Noh Grain Corporation is the U.S. subsidiary of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations of Japan, Zen-Noh. ZGC trades and exports corn, soybeans, sorghum, wheat and byproducts from its state-of-the-art export elevator at Mile 164 on the Mississippi River in Convent, La., to Japan and other global markets. ZGC also has grain origination interests in Canada and Brazil and a forage processing business in Pasco, Wash.
CGB Enterprises Inc. is headquartered in Covington, La., and through its wholly owned subsidiary, Consolidated Grain & Barge Company, operates nearly 100 grain facilities across the Midwest. In addition to grain facilities, CGB Enterprises Inc. has dedicated operations in logistics and transportation, agri-finance, soybean processing, producer risk management and other related businesses
Viserion Grain LLC is a new entity supported by a management team with strong experience in the grain industry. It is owned by Viserion International Holdco LLC, a Colorado-based global agricultural merchant formed with the financial backing of Pinnacle Asset Management L.P. Pinnacle is a $3.2 billion private, New York-based alternative asset management firm that focuses on global commodity markets and trading and specific commodity-related businesses.
Bunge connects farmers to consumers to deliver essential food, feed and fuel to the world. It is headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., and it has more than 23,000 dedicated employees working across more than 350 facilities in more than 40 countries.
