Supply Chain

Roc Partners sells Emerald Grain to Louis Dreyfus Company Asia

Roc Partners’ Longriver Farms has sold grain storage and handling business Emerald Grain less than two years after acquiring it from Sumitomo Corporation.

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Longriver Farms, an entity managed by Australian private equity firm Roc Partners, has sold its interest in Emerald Grain to Louis Dreyfus Company Asia.

Emerald Grain is an Australian grain handling business with a network of seven grain storage and receival sites across New South Wales and Victoria, that have a combined storage capacity of one million tons. The business also owns a grain export terminal at the Port of Melbourne and has offices in Geraldton, Western Australia and Moama, NSW.

Roc Partners’ Longriver Farms acquired Emerald Grain at the end of 2020 from Japanese firm Sumitomo Corporation. Sumitomo first acquired 50 percent of Emerald Grain in 2014 before buying the remainder of the company in 2020.

According to documents published by Sumitomo at the time of the sale to Longriver Farms, Emerald Grain had net assets of A$45 million ($29.0 million; €30.2 million) as at March 31, 2020. In the year to March 31, 2020, the firm made sales revenue of A$439 million, operating income of A$22 million, and net income before tax of A$48 million.

The value of the latest sale to Louis Dreyfus Asia was not disclosed.

Brad Mytton, a director at Longriver Farms and a partner at Roc Partners, said in a statement: “I want to thank Emerald Grain’s management team and staff for their significant contribution to the successful growth partnership to date with Longriver Farms. We are pleased to announce this agreement with LDC, under which Emerald Grain’s grower and customer network will benefit from LDC’s scale and expertise in agri-commodities, for a continued growth journey going forward.”

Michael Gelchie, chief executive officer of Louis Dreyfus Company Asia, said: “This development is aligned with LDC’s commitment to the Australian market, where LDC has been active for over a century, originating, processing and exporting grains, oilseeds and cotton, and with our strategic plans to further reinforce our leading position in core agri-commodities merchandizing activities.”

Roc Partners has continued to increase its activities in the food and agriculture space, recently closing its first commingled fund targeting the sector, the Roc Premium Food Fund, on A$108 million. It also manages a fund focused on agricultural supply chain investments, the Roc Agri+ Infrastructure Fund.