Monsanto Company Completes Brazil Acquisitions

Avatar for Matt Hopkins By Andrea Klosterman Harris|8 December 2008

Dec. 2: St. Louis, Missouri, US-based Monsanto Company announced that it has completed its proposed acquisition of sugarcane breeding and technology companies of Aly Participacoes Ltda.: CanaVialis S.A., and Alellyx S.A., both of which are based in Brazil. CanaVialis – the world’s largest private sugarcane breeding company – is developing and commercializing proprietary germplasm, or a plant’s genetic raw material, anticipated to bring significant yields to sugarcane over publicly available varieties. Alellyx is an applied genomics company focused on developing biotech traits primarily for sugarcane; its location and expertise in Brazil are especially important, as Brazil is the world’s largest producer of sugarcane, the largest exporter of finished sugar, and the world’s second-largest producer of ethanol after the United States. The US $290 million acquisition of Aly Participacoes Ltda. from Votorantim Novos Negocios Ltda. and its sister company, Votorantim Industrial S.A., was consummated with existing excess cash, reports a company press release.