A consortium of investors is supporting Malteurop in its international development

A consortium of investors made up of Crédit Agricole du Nord Est, IDIA, Unigrains, Société Générale Capital Partenaires and Crédit Agricole’s Brie-Picardie and Champagne-Bourgogne regional divisions, are supporting Malteurop in a growth capital operation worth 55 million euros.

Reims, December 7th, 2009 - A consortium of investors made up of Crédit Agricole du Nord Est, IDIA, Unigrains, Société Générale Capital Partenaires and Crédit Agricole’s Brie-Picardie and Champagne-Bourgogne regional divisions, are supporting Malteurop in a growth capital operation worth 55 million euros.

The shareholding cooperatives of Malteurop, through their holding company Cofimalt, are also providing 60 million euros in equity and quasi-equity for this operation, which aims to refinance Malteurop’s latest international acquisitions.

Following the 2008 acquisition of ADM malting, the subsidiary of American group Archer Daniels Midlands specialising in the conversion of barley into malt, and a Russian malt factory belonging to the brewer Ochakovo, Malteurop has become the leading maltster on the world’s three biggest beer markets (Europe, Asia, and North America) with an industrial presence on four continents (Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia) and special access to all barley-growing regions.

Founded in 1984, the Malteurop group is controlled by five French cooperatives from the Champagne and Lorraine regions, led by Champagne Céréales, federated within the agro-industrial group SICLAE, Cofimalt’s majority shareholder. With an annual production capacity of 2.3 million tonnes of malt, it operates 23 malt factories and has 900 employees. At 30th June 2009, the group had generated a consolidated turnover of 743 million euros.

The group’s Managing Director, Alain Le Floch, is delighted with the renewed confidence of the group’s financial partners and with their adhesion to a strategy which has enabled Malteurop to become a global player, and a key partner for the major international brewers.

This operation demonstrates that the French agricultural industry’s historic financial partners are whole-heartedly committed to helping global leaders like Malteurop face the strategic challenges that await them.

Siclaé and Malteurop Press contact:
Fabrice Bourgeois-Armurier
Group Communication Director
+33 (0)326 78 62 30 - +33 (0)6 80 24 85 62
fbourgeois@champagne-cereales.com