Singapore-based Wilmar International Ltd announced last week its first major foray into Myanmar’s sugar market, forming a joint venture with a local producer.
The company said it has signed a joint venture agreement with Myanmar’s Great Wall Food Stuff Industry to produce and sell sugar and its by-products in the emerging Southeast Asian market.
Wilmar will hold a 55 percent stake in the joint venture company, Great Wall-Wilmar Holdings.
The deal will see the new joint venture company buying all of the existing sugar-related business, mills and plants Great Wall and its associates.
That includes two sugar mills with a total milling capacity of 4,000 metric tonnes of sugarcane per day and a total production capacity of 65,000 metric tonnes of sugar per year, a bio-ethanol plant and one organic compound fertiliser plant.
Wilmar is the world’s top palm oil processor, but it has been steadily growing its sugar business through a series of deals over the past four years. In February it announced it was buying a major stake in India’s Shree Renuka Sugars for up to $145 million.
Financial terms of the deal were not announced and Wilmar says it does not expect the investment to have a material impact on its earnings for the current financial year.
The joint venture is still subject to regulatory approval.
