COFCO International, Ltd. and GROWMARK Inc. agree to simultaneous transactions regarding U.S. grain assets

COFCO International, Ltd. (″COFCO International″) and GROWMARK Inc. (″GROWMARK″) have entered into definitive agreements whereby, COFCO International has agreed to purchase GROWMARK’s minority stake in the transloading facility located in Cahokia, Illinois (also known as the ″Cahokia Facility″), and, at the same time, GROWMARK has agreed to purchase from COFCO International its ownership in the Chicago grain warehouse facility (also known as the ″B-House″). 

The Cahokia Facility is a grain and byproduct transloading terminal, strategically located on the Mississippi River, in the year-round St. Louis Harbor. It has access to all seven of North America’s Class I railroads, supported by over seven miles of private on-site rail track, capable of accepting up to four-unit trains (110 cars) at a time. It is a high-speed rail and truck-to-barge loading facility.

The B-House is located on the Calumet River, near downtown Chicago.  This facility has a capacity of 11.5 million bushels, provides unparalleled flexibility to move grain through rail, truck, barge, and laker vessels, and facilitates imports and exports via the Great Lakes.

″We plan to continue investing in our U.S. business, and we intend to pursue additional opportunities focused on supporting our U.S. Gulf and Pacific Northwest export strategy,″ said Zhijun (Jerry) Shi, Chief Operating Officer G&O for COFCO International in North America.

″GROWMARK is a farmer-owned cooperative. That means the farmers growing the grain that gets traded through B-House will now get to participate in the returns generated from this link of the supply chain. We are excited to add B-House to our portfolio of cooperatively owned grain assets.″ said GROWMARK’s Vice President of Grain and Strategic Relationships, Matt Lurkins.