Monsanto Acquires Brazilian Sugarcane Breeding and Genomics Companies for $290M
03 November 2008
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Sugarcane, a monocot, can benefit from Monsanto’s existing work on its corn platform. Click to enlarge. |
Monsanto is acquiring Aly Participações Ltda., which operates the sugarcane breeding and biotechnology companies, CanaVialis S.A. and Alellyx S.A., both of which are based in Brazil. The $290-million (R$616 million) cash purchase marks a major move by Monsanto into the large-acre row crop. Monsanto said that the acquisition was driven by long-term changes driving greater global demand for food and biofuel sources.
CanaVialis is the world’s largest private sugarcane breeding company. Through its breeding activities, CanaVialis is developing and commercializing proprietary germplasm that is anticipated to bring significant yields to sugarcane over publicly available varieties. Alellyx is an applied genomics company that is focused on developing biotech traits primarily for sugarcane.
Aly Participações Ltda. is owned by Votorantim Novos Negócios Ltda. and its sister company, Votorantim Industrial S.A., both of which are part of the Brazilian industrial conglomerate, Votorantim Participações S.A. (commonly referred to as the Votorantim Group). The transaction will be completed as soon as practical.
Global demands for raw sugar and biofuels are beginning to rise at a faster pace than the current production levels in sugarcane, a crop that is essential to meeting these demands. Similar to our work with technology collaborators, we expect the additions of CanaVialis and Alellyx will allow us to combine our breeding expertise with key large-acre crops with their breeding expertise in sugarcane. Our goal with this approach is to increase yields in sugarcane while reducing the amount of resources needed for this crop's cultivation, just as we're doing now for corn, soybeans and cotton. We view this as a significant opportunity over the longer term to supplement our ongoing commitment to corn as an ethanol feedstock, diversify our crop technology portfolio and provide innovations to such a vital crop as sugarcane.
While we see this move as a long-term investment and a commitment to populating our research and development pipeline, we expect to receive the near-term benefit of access to leading sugarcane germplasm technologies, which can help us accelerate the timeframe for bringing trait technologies to market, possibly around 2016, and bring this germplasm to other sugarcane-growing areas of the world.
—Carl Casale, executive vice president of global strategy and operations for Monsanto
Fernando Reinach, executive director of Votorantim Novos Negócios, said that the acquisitions of CanaVialis and Alellyx by Monsanto will allow the companies to reinforce their technology portfolio, which will help Brazil meet the demand for sugar and ethanol in the intermediate and long terms.
Monsanto’s expertise in advanced breeding and trait development combined with CanaVialis’ and Alellyx’s knowledge of the genetics of sugarcane will help growers to substantially increase productivity in a shorter period of time.
—Fernando Reinach
Because the acquisition represents a long-term investment in research and development and breeding, Monsanto does not expect the acquisition to be accretive to earnings until the middle of the next decade. The company additionally expects a purchase-accounting adjustment for in-process R&D.
Sugarcane is a giant perennial plant that typically grows best in tropical climates. As the major source of sugar around the world, sugarcane is planted on more than 50 million acres worldwide, with more than 17 million of those acres residing in Brazil.
The global demand for sugar has intensified in recent years. The International Sugar Organization estimated earlier this year that the world will consume 3.9 million tons more sugar than it will produce in 2008-2009. Both the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) see sugar consumption increasing faster than production over the next decade. As for the world’s growing ethanol demands, the FAO and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development project that global ethanol production will increase rapidly and reach roughly 125 billion liters (33 billion gallons US) in 2017, twice the quantity produced in 2007.
Monsanto previously established a licensing and trait-collaboration agreement with CanaVialis and Alellyx in 2007 to develop and commercialize Roundup Ready and Bt insect-protected technologies for sugarcane growers in Brazil. Monsanto intends to retain the leadership and the approximately 250 employees at the two companies and focus on development of the businesses.
The pending acquisitions of CanaVialis and Alellyx represent the third major investment Monsanto has made in Brazil over the past year. In 2007, Monsanto acquired Agroeste, a Brazilian corn seed company, and announced $60 million in investments to expand its seeds research and production.
CanaVialis was created in March 2003 from a partnership between Votorantim Novos Negocios and a group of scientists with more than 30 years of experience in the development of sugarcane varieties. CanaVialis has contracts with 46 sugarcane mills whose production area covers 1,100,000 hectares, or approximately 15% of the planted sugarcane market share.
Alellyx was created in 2002 by researchers involved in the sequencing of sugarcane and Xylella fastidiosa genomes. Xylella is the bacterium that causes Citrus Variegated Chlorosis, a disease that during the 1990s affected two-thirds of orange plantations in São Paulo.
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oh great,... the name monsanto has an ominous sound.
Posted by: danm | 04 November 2008 at 06:52 AM
Much sugar is made from corn, so the figures of sugar use are not clear. There is even some sugar beet sugar production still. But it is obvious that there is no excess production to replace much more gasoline. Bio-fuels is an ominious word by itself. Does anybody remember SOYLENT GREEN. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 10 November 2008 at 03:31 PM