Baker McKenzie announced today that it has advised Zen-Noh Grain Corporation (ZGC), a subsidiary of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations of Japan (Zen-Noh), on the successful closing of its acquisition of approved assets from Bunge North America, Inc., a subsidiary of Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG). Originally announced in spring of 2020, the initial agreement between ZGC and Bunge included 35 grain origination elevators along the Mississippi River. To help secure regulatory approval, certain Bunge assets and Consolidated Grain and Barge Co., ZGC’s affiliate, assets were selected for divestiture and sold to Viserion Grain, LLC.
The facilities ultimately required by the Department of Justice to be divested were adjusted slightly from the list published this past spring. The Bunge assets divested include Shawneetown, IL; Huffman, AR; Osceola, AR (Riverside and Landside); Helena, AR; Lake Providence, LA; Caruthersville, MO; McGregor, IA; and Lettsworth, LA. The divested Consolidated Grain and Barge Co. asset is its Savanna, IL facility.
The Baker McKenzie deal team was led by Dieter Schmitz with support from Piotr Korzynski, Colin McGee and Ashley Newsome. Other partners providing advice were John Fedele and Brian Burke (antitrust), Sarah Winston (real estate), John Watson and Jessica Wicha (environmental), Rod Hunter (trade and investment) and Kai Kramer (tax). The Japan team was led by Hiroshi Kondo.
For more information about this transaction, please see ZGC's press release.