Wilmar Forms Myanmar Sugar Venture to Expand Push Into Sweetener

Wilmar International Ltd. (WIL), the
largest sugar cane miller in Australia, agreed to form a Myanmar
venture with a local partner as it builds on a four-year push
into sugar production in Asia.

The Singapore-based company will hold 55 percent in the
venture with Great Wall Food Stuff Industry Co. after buying all
of the local company's sugar-manufacturing capacity, Wilmar said
today in a statement. Wilmar will use its own funds for the
investment and the venture will not have a "material impact"
on this year's earnings per share, the company said.

"Everybody's been talking about Myanmar, so getting the
foot in the door is probably worth doing," said Carey Wong, an
analyst at OCBC Investment Research Pte. in Singapore. "If you
look at the spending power, it's actually one of the biggest
economies in Asia that's left untapped."

The investment comes less than two months after Wilmar
announced plans to take joint control of India's largest sugar
refiner Shree Renuka Sugars (SHRS) Ltd. in a deal valued at about $200
million. The Singapore company, which is also the world's top
processor of palm oil, entered the sugar business in 2010 when
it bought Australia's Sucrogen Ltd. and then added assets in New
Zealand, Indonesia and Morocco.

Great Wall and its associates own 2 mills with potential
daily capacity of 4,000 metric tons of sugar cane and an annual
production capacity of 65,000 tons of sugar, Wilmar said.

The joint venture will also take over Great Wall's bio-ethanol plant and an organic compound fertilizer facility as
part of the deal that requires approval from regulators
including the Myanmar Investment Commission, the Singapore
company said.

Wilmar didn't specify the amount of the investment being
made.

Sugar accounted for 7.5 percent of Wilmar's pretax income
last fiscal year ended Dec. 31, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Yuriy Humber in Tokyo at
yhumber@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jason Rogers at
jrogers73@bloomberg.net
Madelene Pearson, Keith Gosman

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