Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Louis Dreyfus Company on acquisition of oilseeds processing facility in Tianjin, China

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance advised LDC (China) Trading Company Limited (LDC China), a subsidiary of Louis Dreyfus Company, on its acquisition of Sinarmas Natural Resources Foodstuff Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., which owns and operates oilseeds crushing and refining facilities in the Lingang Economic Area within Tianjin’s Binhai New Area district.

The transaction was agreed to in November 2017 with the seller Sinarmas Natural Resources (China) Investment Co., Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources Ltd., and closed on 2 April 2018 following receipt of customary approvals. LDC China is a major supplier of soybeans to the domestic crush industry, and already operates three soybean crushing facilities in Hebei, Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces, supplying soybean meal to major and local feed mill groups that produce animal feed, as well as edible oils for food companies.

China Co-Managing Partner Terence Foo led the deal and was supported by counsel Hong Zhang, associates Ethan Ying and Iris Liu, and trainee Lan Jiangzhou in the Beijing office.

Within LDC, Massimiliano Talli, Chief Legal Officer for Asia, Senior Legal Counsel Hong Teong Goh, China Legal Head Joseph Nan and Legal Counsel Karen Cai, led the internal team responsible for rendering legal advice on the transaction.

"We are delighted to support LDC on this important investment in China's agricultural processing sector," said Terence.

This transaction follows the firm's experience on headline deals in the agricultural sector including advising CITIC Agri on its US$1.1 billion acquisition of Dow AgroSciences' corn seed business in Brazil, and COFCO International on its acquisitions of Nidera and Noble Agri.