The Danish Agribusiness Fund has invested $12 million into Chilean pork producer Coexca, according to a Monday statement by JB Equity, which arranged the deal.
The investment will help the Chilean company expand production for both domestic and export markets, JB Equity added in the statement.
As part of the deal, JB Equity will become a stakeholder in Coexca; JB Equity’s chief investment officer Hamish Web told Agri Investor his firm would hold a 2 percent stake in exchange for its work on a development plan and introduction to investors.
“Coexca is a good example of what cooperative and progressive farmers and processors can achieve by working together with institutional investors that understand their industry,” Helle Bjerre, DAF vice president for Latin America, said in the statement.
Coexca is the third largest pork producer in Chile, with annual sales of $80 million, exports to more than 30 countries and has offices in Japan and Spain. The company has 500 employees and processes 3,500 pigs per day, according to its website.
Guillermo Garcia Gonzales, chief executive officer of Coexca, said in the statement that the DAF investment marked a new stage of development for the company that would support a doubling of pork production capacity and the construction of a new pig farm in the central Maule region of the country.
Chile is the world’s sixth largest pork producer and the Latin America’s top pork consumer, the statement said. According to the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, Chile exported 180,000 metric tons of pork in April, making it the world’s fourth largest exporter of the meat behind Brazil, Canada and the aggregated European Union.
The Danish Agribusiness Fund is a public-private initiative aiming to increase food production and quality in developing countries while promoting Danish technology and know-how. Launched in 2016, the fund is managed by the Investment Fund for Developing Countries and has DKr 800 million ($120.7 million; €107.4 million) in committed capital from investors including PKA, Pension Denmark and others.
According to a June 2016 presentation, the fund will have a five-year investment period and target investments of between €2 million and €14 million in companies located in 146 countries. Regionally, DAF will devote nearly 60 percent of investments to Africa; 17 percent to Europe; 23 percent to Asia and just 1 percent to Latin America.
Fifty four percent of DAF’s investments are to be made in industries supporting agriculture, according to the presentation, with the remainder split between primary production and food processing.
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