Cosan verticalizes business with Esso acquisition
Valor Econômico - 04/25/2008
« Yes, I am Esso's new owner », said Cosan group's president Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello to Valor Econômico. The agreement was signed Wednesday night, in London. By the agreement signed on Wednesday with ExxonMobil International, one of the World's biggest oil companies, Cosan should purchase 100% of the capital stock of the Brazilian Esso and its affiliated, which hold the assets of fuel distribution and commercialization and lubricant production and commercialization in the country. The value of the deal was evaluated at US$ 826 million - the group assumes US$ 163 million in financial indebtedness and US$ 35 million in existing net credits until the end of 2007. With the acquisition, which amounts to almost US$ 1 billion, Cosan will license the use of the Esso brand and the ExxonMobil formulas for a long time. In the segment of lubricants, of which ExxonMobil is the biggest international producer with 12% of global participation, Cosan also inherits this asset, with the Mobil 1 brand. In Brazil, it will keep the company's infrastructure, which includes a manufacturing plant and a terminal in Rio de Janeiro and storage centers in Recife and Manaus. According to Diniz, to pay for the operation Cosan intends to use US$ 310 million in funds from the operation of the minority stockholders in the company's capital increase by private subscription, which was concluded in January, 2008. The remaining cost can be raised from strategical partners interested in the business. « The group has nearly US$ 1 billion in cash », he said. Diniz has not informed which these future strategical partners will be. He just affirmed that they would have minority interest in the business. With 18 plants all over the country, the group should also expand its work in logistics and should also make investments is alcohol pipelines. And depending on the businessman, it will continue participating in the concentration process of the alcohol market and will expand its businesses in distribution. « We are very attentive », guarantees Rubens Ometo.