France: Lesaffre Group sold its shares in International Malting Company to Archer Daniels Midland

Lesaffre Group has sold its shares in IMC - International Malting Company, to their partners ADM - Archer Daniels Midland, analysts reported September 01. The malting group with factories in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand has a total capacity of 800,000 t. The Lesaffre Group, after having closed its French malthouse at Lille, is now withdrawing completely from the malt business and will concentrate on its core business - yeast. The disappearance of Lesaffre from the malt sector is, of course, a consequence of the lack of profitability of the industry since a number of years.

Lesaffre is today one of the world leaders in the production of yeast and yeast extracts. The business activities of the Lesaffre Group have developed essentially around the culture of yeast and the experience gained in fermentation technology.

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is a world leader in agricultural processing and fermentation technology. In addition, ADM produces value-added food and feed ingredients. Headquartered in Decatur, Illinois, ADM has over 26,000 employees, more than 240 processing plants and net sales for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2006 of US$36.6 billion.

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