NEW YORK, September 1, 2011-- Privately-held and family-owned Cargill, Incorporated is a multinational corporation headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota and is America's largest private company by revenue, as measured by private company financial data site PrivCo.com (with annual revenue of $119.5 billion for its 2011 fiscal year ended May 31). Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial, and industrial products and services. Founded in 1865 by William Wallace Cargill, Cargill employs 131,000 people in 66 countries as of 2011 (for recent figures, please consult PrivCo's charts, financials, and statistics on Cargill below). In 2011 Cargill, Inc. spun off its Mosaic fertilizer business (see PrivCo's Cargill Mergers & Acquisitions Table for deal details). Flush with cash from the Mosaic spinoff, Cargill is undertaking an active acquisitions strategy, most prominently its August 2011 acquisition of Dutch animal-nutrition business Provimi Group for over $2 billion (see PrivCo's Cargill Mergers & Acquisitions Table for deal details). http://www.privco.com/private-company/cargill-incorporated

"Cargill's acquisition of the Provimi Group is part of a recent stunning acquisition spree that aims to diversify Cargill away from its core agribusiness sector", says Joseph Ranzenbach, VP of Operations at PrivCo. PrivCo.com estimates that Cargill has now spent just over $6.5 billion in cash in just the past 12 months on acquisitions, an unusual level for the century-old family owned company.

"Most of Cargill's recent acquisitions are in companies not part of Cargill's traditional core agribusiness focus, most surprisingly major branded consumer food products purchased directly by consumers such as Rath, KVB Chocolate, Sweekar cooking oil, Pomodoro Tomato Sauce, and Elefante Tomato Paste," says PrivCo.com CEO Sam Hamadeh, a financial expert on major private companies such as Cargill.

Recent cash acquisitions made by Cargill in the past 12 months, without much publicity, include (source: http://www.privco.com/private-company/cargill-incorporated):

  • Cargill's November 2010 acquisition of Agro Tech Foods Ltd. to acquire its vanaspati brand Rath. (Vanaspati is a popular Indian cooking vegetable oil.) Rath is the most well known vanaspati brand in North India. Although Cargill already locally produces and markets vanaspati under its NatureFresh Purita and Gemini brands, Cargill has not previously actively acquired branded consumer products businesses sold directly to consumers.
  • Cargill's March 2011 acquisition of India-based Marico Ltd. to acquire its refined sunflower oil brand Sweekar. Sweekar is a major India brand to our broad range of healthy cooking oils. The company owns and operates three edible oil refineries located at Paradip (Orissa), Kandla (Gujarat) and Kurkumbh (Maharastra). Cargill has again not traditionally been an active acquirer of branded consumer food products such as Sweekar.
  • Cargill's April 2011 acquisition of Royal Nedalco's alcohol business. Nedalco's alcohol is used in numerous industrial applications in the spirit, food, pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetics industries, an unusual new line of business for Cargill. For the liquor industry, Royal Nedalco's alcohol is used as an ingredient in hard liquor and spirits. But the vast majority of the alcohol business Cargill acquired involves use of alcohol in perfumes, mouthwash, household disinfectants and even computer printer ink cartridges.
  • Cargill's June 2011 acquisition of Schwartauer Werke Kakao Verarbeitung Berlin (KVB). Schwartauer Werke Kakao Verarbeitung Berlin is one of the largest German cocoa and chocolate manufacturers. Schwartauer Werke Kakao Verarbeitung Berlin's customers include European confectionary producers in the chocolate, baking and ice-cream industries, providing finished chocolate (in addition to cocoa) to these customers. Cargill traditionally has not provided finished goods such as finished chocolate products.
  • Cargill's June 2011 acquisition of Central American poultry and meat processor Corporacion Pipasa (an acquisition in Cargill's traditional food processing business). Pipasa, a producer of beef, pork, chicken and turkey products in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and owned five processing plants, four animal feed facilities and 12 distribution centers serving smaller and larger regional grocers, became part of Cargill's Central American meat unit.
  • Cargill's June 2011 acquisition of Italian animal feed company Sunshine SpA. Sunshine SpA has a well known Italian animal feed brand, four production plants, and over 120 employees.
  • Cargill's July 2011 acquisition of Unilever Brazilian tomato products business, once again adding well known Brazilian consumer brands such as Pomarola and Tarantella brand tomato sauce, Elefante and Extratomato brand tomato paste, and Pomodoro brand tomato pulp, another consumer branded food acquisition. The deal added 800 employees.

Including the Provimi Group acquisition in August 2011, PrivCo.com estimates that Cargill has spent $6.5 billion dollars in just the 12 months through August 2011 on acquisitions, and has added over 8,000 employees, making it one of the largest privately-held employers in the world, with over 165,000 employees as of August 2011.

Cargill is America's largest private companies by revenues, as measured by PrivCo.com (with annual revenue of $119.5 billion for its 2011 fiscal year ended May 31) is one of the largest corporations in the United States. For more information on Cargill, please visit PrivCo.com's private company financial report: http://www.privco.com/private-company/cargill-incorporated

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