ADM and Gavilon each have a 45 percent stake in Kalama, a grain export terminal in Washington state that handled a quarter of all Pacific shipments in 2009. The remaining 10 percent share is owned by Mitsubishi Corp.
The completion of Japanese trader Marubeni Corp’s purchase of U.S. grain merchant Gavilon is being delayed by at least two months as talks on ownership of an important West Coast export terminal [Kalama Export] and regulatory reviews hold up the $5.6 billion deal, people familiar with the matter said.
ADM is believed to have the right of first refusal on the terminal, giving it the option to buy Gavilon’s share of the joint venture if the company changed hands, trade sources said.
With exports to China booming, the terminal — recently expanded by 25 percent — is a prize asset, all the more so because it is one of Gavilon’s few export gateways.
Marubeni is more established overseas. It owns Columbia Grain, a Portland export facility, however, and accounted for 8.5 percent of U.S. exports last year, PIERS data show.