Inver Grove Heights-based CHS Acquires European Grain Producer

A Fortune 100 company based in Inver Grove Heights announced Tuesday that it acquired a major European grain producer for an undisclosed amount.

CHS Inc., which has its corporate offices on Cenex Drive in Inver Grove and employs roughly 9,000 people internationally, purchased Agri Point Limited from Cyprus-based East Point Holdings Limited. The deal will allow CHS to expand its presence in the Eastern European grain markets in countries like Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, according to a company press release issued Tuesday.

The acquisition isn’t likely to affect the roughly 900 employees at the company’s headquarters, CHS spokesperson Lani Jordan said. Nor will CHS add jobs at its corporate offices as a result of the deal, she added.

Owned by farmers, ranchers and agricultural cooperatives, CHS supplies energy, crop nutrients, livestock feed, grain, food and food ingredients and insurance, financial and risk management services. The company also operates petroleum refineries/pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex-brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products, the press release said.

CHS' net income for the 2009 fiscal year was $381.4 million, according to data posted on the company’s website. CHS is the third largest exporter of grain from the United States, shipping more than 1 billion bushels of grain annually to more than 60 countries, the website states. The company is also the third-largest propane retailer in the U.S.

Since 2002, Jordan said, the company has been expanding into international grain markets, opening offices in Argentina and Brazil. The acquisition of East Point Holdings adds a deep-water port in Romania a grain terminal and a Danube River barge-loading facility to the company’s infrastructure, the press release said.

Grain production in the U.S. is centered around the growing season, Jordan noted. By expanding internationally, CHS is able to remain in the grain market year-round.

“This marks the most significant total purchase of grain facilities that we’ve done on an international basis,” Jordan said.  “This is part of a venture supplementing our own U.S. wheat with wheat raised in the Black Sea region.”