Mitsubishi grows in the fertilizer sector

The Japanese Mitsubishi, which in Brazil controls the agricultural producer Agrex (formerly Ceagro), is expanding its activities in the consumables segment in the country. Second found the value, the company is in the process of completing the acquisition, for $ 15 million, of 10% of the paranaense Fertilizer Peninsula. With the operation, grows the list of multinational companies that increased their stakes in Brazilian companies of inputs.
With net sales last year of $ 446 million, the paranaense peninsula is a family business, which faces difficulties in obtaining credit, because of the large debt, as it was found the report. In 2013, jogged about 420 thousand tons of fertilizers. Wanted, Mitsubishi denied the information. The peninsula Fertilizers did not return the newspaper's requests.
The two companies were already close since 2012 the Peninsula North, joint venture in which each has 50% and with acting in Maranhão, Piauí and Tocantins and Bahia (Mapitoba). The peninsula controls the peninsula still Fertilizer international, which operates in Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná and São Paulo.
Second found the value the due diligence (audit) in fertilizers, initiated in July, was completed this month and the forecast is that the operation is closed in the first days of November. The bank debt of the Fertilizer in April this year was r $ 166 million, being R $ 154 million maturing in the short term. The company still had debts with suppliers (short and long-term) in the House of R $ 200 million. In its liabilities was still $ 80 million of credit-related operations of receivables of agribusiness (CRA).
People involved in the operation believed that Mitsubishi's intention is, in the future, acquiring control of the company, which has headquarters in Curitiba. "Buy small stakes and then enlarge them is part of Japan's strategy," says a source. So it was in 2012, when Mitsubishi entered the capital of then Ceagro, with the acquisition of 20% of the capital of the agricultural company. About a year later, in June 2013, the company expanded its share to 80%.
The operation, once completed, will be one more example of the advancement of multinational companies on the country's raw materials companies. This year alone, two global companies increased or have entered the Brazilian capital-the OCP in Moroccan Heringer and the Norwegian Yara in Galvani.