COFCO International sells Nidera's seed business to Syngenta

A Chinese employee is seen at the stand of COFCO at a food exhibition in Shanghai. [Photo/IC]

COFCO Corp, China's biggest foodstuff conglomerate by revenue, announced its overseas investment and management platform COFCO International has agreed to sell seed business of grain trader Nidera BV to agribusiness giant Syngenta AG on Monday.

COFCO International had completed a full takeover of the Netherlands-based grain trader in February this year.

Syngenta, on the other hand, was acquired by China National Chemical Corporation, or ChemChina, in June this year.

The move to sell the seed business of Nidera is an important step that will help COFCO International to enter into new strategy goal.

COFCO International will focus on its core businesses involving cereals, edible oils and sugars, according to news website The Paper quoting Chi Jingtao, CEO of the company. Meanwhile, Syngenta will provide a strong platform to Nidera's seed business, and the deal will be conducive to Nidera's long-term development.

However, losses racked up by Nidera, and accounting troubles exposed last year in its Latin American operations led to COFCO International wanting to divest parts of the business, according to news agency Reuters.

In 2015, President of COFCO Corp Yu Xubo said COFCO International was integrating its own business with Nidera and commodities trader Noble Group, and expected to complete their assets integration in five years to promote COFCO International to list on stock markets in 2019.

Previously, COFCO International had purchased 100 percent share of Noble Group in December of 2015.