clarkkent

Not sure what QCH have that these guys want but the stakes have been raised. Rationalisation is about to begin in earnest in the agriculture sector and it won't take too many mergers to leave punters with little if any chance to have superfund exposure. Louis Dreyfous is a private company owned by the Jews.

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Louis Dreyfus makes Queensland Cotton bid
By Madelene Pearson Bloomberg News
Published: May 22, 2007

MELBOURNE: Louis Dreyfus, the world's largest cotton trader, agreed to buy Queensland Cotton Holdings, trumping Olam International's offer for the Australian company by 12 percent.

Louis Dreyfus bid 5.31 Australian dollars, or $4.37, a share in cash for the 80 percent it does not already own, valuing the company that sells about one-third of Australia's cotton crop at 149.8 million dollars, or $123 million, Brisbane-based Queensland Cotton said Tuesday in a statement. Singapore-based Olam had bid 4.75 dollars a share.

Buying Queensland Cotton will give Louis Dreyfus access to supply from the world's fifth-largest exporter of the fiber. Shares in the company rose above the Dreyfus offer on speculation of a higher bid.

"These guys can pay a lot more and they do take a longer-term view," said Belinda Moore, Brisbane-based analyst with ABN AMRO said. "It's not just about buying a cotton company, it's about grabbing a foothold on the Australian agricultural market."

Queensland Cotton operates eight cotton processing plants in Queensland and New South Wales states and 17 gins in Arizona and California, according to its Web site. It also sells fertilizers and chemicals used by cotton growers.

"The offer gives us the opportunity to focus on the prospects that would open up through a close collaboration with Louis Dreyfus," Queensland Cotton's chief executive officer, Richard Haire, said in the statement. The company recommends the Dreyfus bid in the absence of a higher offer, it said.

Louis Dreyfus intends to expand into other Australian agricultural sectors, said Tommy Malone, chief operating officer of Allenberg Cotton, the U.S. cotton unit of Louis Dreyfus.

"It would be our current intention to try to take this platform and expand it out into things beside cotton," Malone said.

"Dreyfus has an interest in the long-term wheat trade around the world and if the opportunity presented itself here in Australia, we would definitely like to look at it."