The deal estimated at EUR50 million gives Nidera access to the Black Sea via a 228,000-ton terminal, one of the largest in the Constanta Harbor, wherefrom 15 million tons of grain or EUR3 billions’ worth are exported a year.
The United Shipping Agency equally held by Catalin Trandafir and Mihai Felescu posted EUR15 million in revenue last year.
The move reveals the scope of the Chinese ambitions and interests in the Black Sea region, which has turned from a net importer of grain into one of the hottest export sources in only two decades.
Romania is on the front page of the agenda of the Chinese-held company because its abundant crops allow the local agricultural sector to be the tenth largest exporter of wheat in the world and a major exporter of corn and sunflower. Constanta is a critical hub for the grain export in the Black Sea region.
The takeover of United Shipping Agency is Nidera’s latest step of a campaign that started in 2013. The trader began building a number of grain silos in the south of the country last summer, its first investments in Romania after having operated only from an office in Bucharest for 11 years. Nidera buys and then exports wheat, corn and sunflower. It posted EUR155 million revenue in Romania last year with only 24 employees.
Nidera’s moves in Romania are but a small part of a global plan and the money spent in this country are but small change compared with the tens of billions of dollars the Chinese set out to spend on the international grain trading market.
This huge amount of cash allowed China’s COFCO to acquire control of Nidera and Noble, two gigantic traders, in the span of only two months this spring.
The deal in Constanta cements Nidera’s position in a harbor where US rivals ADM and Cargill have already had their own infrastructure for a number of years.
Nidera officials did not return ZF’s calls for comment, while Catalin Trandafir, United Shipping Agency co-owner, would not comment on the deal.
The share transfer has not been completed yet and the deal has not reached the Competition Council for approval. Nidera is currently auditing United Shipping Agency and the deal should become official in the fall.
The Nidera-United Shipping Agency agreement is the most important in the Romanian agribusiness sector in the last few years.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)