Bunge Purchases C.F. Sauer's Margarine Assets

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Bunge North America, the North American operating arm of Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG), announced that it purchased the margarine assets of The C.F. Sauer Company (CFS) which includes the margarine plant of its subsidiary, Dean Foods Company, in Sandston, Virginia and the margarine production and packaging assets at the CFS facility in New Century, Kansas. Financial terms of the acquisition have not been released.

"Bunge is a global leader in margarine production and this purchase enables us to expand our position in the U.S. market to support our customers," said Soren Schroder, president and CEO, Bunge North America.  "With this additional capacity, we are strengthening our integrated food and ingredient value chain to provide additional products, improved risk management and better logistics to customers."

The two facilities have an annual capacity of nearly 400 million pounds of margarine.  Products range from five gram portion cups that are used by restaurants to one-ton totes sold to food processors.

"Adding C.F. Sauer's margarine assets to Bunge's business opens up several exciting innovation opportunities for our lower saturated and reduced trans fat products," said Rodney Perry, vice president and general manager, Bunge Oils.  "With the addition of the Sandston facility and its dedicated team, this new shipping location will help us better serve existing customers and reach out to new customers in an important market.  We also look forward to working closely with CFS in the transition at New Century."

Bunge will begin operating the Sandston facility immediately.  Bunge intends to relocate the margarine production and packaging assets from the New Century facility to other Bunge packaging plants.  Until that relocation can occur, CFS will continue to produce margarines for Bunge under a co-packing arrangement in order to meet Bunge's customers' expectations.

The Sandston plant currently operates with about 160 employees.  Subject to normal hiring procedures, Bunge intends to hire most of the employees.

About Bunge North America

Bunge North America (www.bungenorthamerica.com), the North American operating arm of Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG), is a vertically integrated food and feed ingredient company, supplying raw and processed agricultural commodities and specialized food ingredients to a wide range of customers in the livestock, poultry, food processor, foodservice and bakery industries.  With headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, Bunge North America and its subsidiaries operate grain elevators, oilseed processing plants, edible oil refineries and packaging facilities, and corn dry mills in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

About Bunge Limited

Bunge Limited (www.bunge.com, NYSE: BG) is a leading global agribusiness and food company with approximately 32,000 employees in more than 30 countries.  Bunge buys, sells, stores and transports oilseeds and grains to serve customers worldwide; processes oilseeds to make protein meal for animal feed and edible oil products for commercial customers and consumers; produces sugar and ethanol from sugarcane; mills wheat and corn to make ingredients used by food companies; and sells fertilizer in North and South America.  Founded in 1818, the company is headquartered in White Plains, New York.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

 This press release contains both historical and forward-looking statements.  All statements, other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.  These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather reflect our current expectations and projections about our future results, performance, prospects and opportunities.  We have tried to identify these forward-looking statements by using words including "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "continue" and similar expressions.  These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements.  These factors include, among others, industry conditions, including fluctuations in supply, demand and prices for agricultural commodities and other raw materials and products used in our business, fluctuations in energy and freight costs and competitive developments in our industries; the effects of weather conditions and the outbreak of crop and animal disease on our business; global and regional agricultural, economic, financial and commodities market, political, social and health conditions; the outcome of pending regulatory and legal proceedings; our ability to complete, integrate and benefit from acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and strategic alliances; changes in government policies, laws and regulations affecting our business, including agricultural and trade policies, tax regulations and biofuels legislation; and other factors affecting our business generally.  The forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release, and except as otherwise required by federal securities law, we do not have any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Bunge North America