Bunge announced the successful closing of its previously announced merger with Viterra, marking the creation of a premier global agribusiness solutions company for food, feed and fuel.
Greg Heckman, Bunge’s CEO, said in a press release that “today is a defining moment for our company and our global team as we complete this transformative business combination. I’m grateful to our colleagues whose energy, collaboration and commitment brought us to this milestone. Together, we’ve formed a stronger organization with enhanced capabilities and expertise to meet the evolving needs of our customers, maximize value for our stakeholders and fulfill our shared purpose to connect farmers to consumers to deliver food, feed and fuel to the world. Now, we begin the exciting work of bringing our teams and operations together, uniting our strengths to realize the full potential of this combination.”
The company highlighted the strategic and financial benefits of the combination. With Bunge’s and Viterra’s highly complementary asset footprints, the combined company will be positioned to connect farmers in the world’s largest production regions to areas with the fastest-growing consumption.
Better balance of value chains across geographies, access to more key origination markets and a diversified agriculture network covering all major crops will enhance the combined company’s ability to provide solutions for end customers in any environment, the company said. Moreover, the combined organization brings together two world-class management teams and is well-positioned to create meaningful value for all shareholders with its highly compelling financial profile.
The combination is expected to benefit from significant incremental network synergies across joint commercial opportunities, vertical integration efficiencies, and improved logistics optimization and trading optionality from a larger and broader network. The combined company expects to see relatively more stable cash flows from the larger, more diversified footprint. The improvement in the business risk and credit profile of the combined company is expected to drive capital structure efficiencies and cost of capital benefits.
As previously announced, the combined company is led by Greg Heckman, Bunge’s CEO, and John Neppl, Bunge’s chief financial officer. Viterra CEO David Mattiske joins the Bunge Executive Leadership Team in the role of co-chief operating officer alongside Julio Garros, most recently Bunge’s co-president of Agribusiness. As co-COOs, they will jointly oversee commercial activities including the global commodity value chains, country/regional management teams, renewable fuels initiatives, regenerative agriculture solutions and industrial operations and safety.
