Cargill/Cosan, Bunge Seek to Buy CSR Sugar

According to reporter Wendy Pugh at Bloomberg, Cosan, Bunge Ltd. and Cargill Inc. may seek to buy Australia-based CSR Ltd.’s sugar unit after China’s Bright Food Group Co.’s A$1.5 billion ($1.4 billion) offer underlined global demand for sugar assets, RBS Equities (Australia) Ltd. said.

Australia, the world’s third-biggest sugar exporter, offers international companies a more stable political and economic environment and greater financial and legal transparency than Brazil, the largest producer, analysts led by Simon Thackray at RBS, wrote in a report dated yesterday.

“High valuations displayed for Brazilian assets reveal the strong demand for sugar assets shown by large multinational sugar and agribusiness firms,” RBS said. “We see this demand as a long-term play on a rising soft commodity cycle and the source of a potential rival bidder to Bright Food.”

CSR, Australia’s second-largest maker of building materials, has been seeking to sell the unit to take advantage of surging sugar prices. Bunge Ltd., the world’s second-largest trader of the sweetener, agreed Jan. 12 to pay about $240 million to acquire additional interests in the Moema Group mills in Brazil, adding to the 7.3 million shares the U.S.-based company agreed to buy last month for a 60 percent stake.

Read the whole Bloomberg story.