Against the Grain: Canada’s G3 Not Interested in Glencore Assets Sale

G3 Canada Ltd., the joint venture grain handler formed between Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Agricultural & Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) and Bunge Ltd, does not have any interest in bidding for Glencore’s agricultural business, according to the company’s chief executive, Karl Gerrand.

Glencore recently announced it will be selling down its agricultural assets as part of a plan to cut its $30 billion debt load by a third and re-strengthen its position, garnering widespread attention from multinational pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, and investment funds.

Glencore’s ag assets include Viterra Inc., one of Canada’s largest grain handlers, but Mr. Gerrand told Reuters that he would not comment on whether G3 has had discussions with Glencore, adding, “Should there be something of interest to us that would make sense, we would certainly look at it, but at this point I'm not really seeing that there is much there that would be of interest to us."

G3 did say, however, that it has started construction of a grain terminal at the Port of Hamilton, Ontario that will have 50,000 tons of storage to be operational for 2017, and is examining the possibility of the addition of a grain terminal at Port Metro Vancouver, British Columbia. At the same time the group is planning to either build or buy between eight and ten grain elevators across Alberta and Saskatchewan.