03.01.03
DuPont, Wilmington, DE, and Bunge Limited, White Plains, NY, have formed an alliance to significantly grow their agriculture and nutrition businesses with the launch of Solae L.L.C. The alliance will include a joint venture for the global production and distribution of specialty food ingredients, beginning with soy proteins and lecithins; a biotechnology agreement to jointly develop and commercialize soybeans with improved quality traits and an alliance to develop a broader offering of services and products to farmers. This alliance will provide a broad offering of soy ingredient products to better fit customer needs, including textured vegetable proteins, soy concentrates and isolates and specialty lecithins. DuPont will contribute its Protein Technologies food ingredients business for a majority interest in the joint venture. In exchange for its specialty food ingredients businesses, Bunge will receive a 28% interest in the joint venture plus an estimated $260 million in cash, to be funded by joint venture debt, and will have the right to increase its ownership to 40% based upon a pre-agreed formula. The joint venture’s board will be made up of four members, two each from DuPont and Bunge.
