Agro-industries

Nidera is an international agribusiness and trading company with an annual turnover of USD17 billion. The firm, which was established in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) in 1920, focused its early commercial activities on grain and food stuffs. Today, the company manages its operations in 19 key countries from its headquarters in Rotterdam and distributes its products to more than 60 countries worldwide. Nidera is an integrated agribusiness with a presence in every link of the value chain and two decades of experience in the development of seeds. Nidera seeds, which have boosted yields in all of the agricultural production areas of Argentina, are also exported to 15 other countries. The company produces, sells, and distributes leading hybrids and varieties of five of the world`s main staples (wheat, corn, soybeans, sunflower seeds, and sorghum) as well as comprehensive range of nutrients and crop protection products. Nidera also supplies the world market with unrefined vegetable oil (crude soy oil) and vegetable by-products as well as producing high-quality vegetables oils that are packaged and marketed under proprietary brand names. Nidera has built an extensive network of in-country elevators, storage assets, processing facilities and port terminals in South America, Europe and USA. Most assets are wholly-owned, while others are partially owned or through joint ventures or minority stakes. Nidera also has signed a number of long term throughput agreements with strategically located terminals and storage companies in order to further facilitate its trading business. Its operational footprint is mostly concentrated in South America, especially in Argentina and Brazil, as these two countries are among the world`s major producers and exporters of grain and oilseeds, second only to the USA. In fact, more than 50% of Nidera`s industrial, seed, and elevator facilities are located in Argentina. Nidera is seeking to launch the second phase of an expansion plan (started in 2009) to continue to grow its grain/oilseeds origination and infrastructure platform in Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay), Eastern Europe (Russia, Kazakhstan, and Romania) and North America (U.S.), and thus seeking capital increase followed by medium to long-term loans. Under an earlier IFC project Nidera-COFCO (project number #34737), IFC invested 9% shareholding in COFCO International, through which IFC indirectly holds 4.6% of Nidera`s shares (invested in October 2014). The proposed investment is a corporate loan facility to further support Nidera`s growth with additional permanent working capital needs and general corporate purpose, and is part of its debt refinancing and rationalizing exercise ("the Project").

Netherlands