 |
| Margarita Louis-Dreyfus is the widow of Robert Louis-Dreyfus, whose family founded the company in 1851. She borrowed around $1bn in 2018 to take control of the business © Tolga Akmen / FT Commission |
Louis Dreyfus Company has agreed to sell a 45 per cent stake to Abu Dhabi state-owned holding company ADQ, opening the agricultural trader to a non-family shareholder for the first time in its 169-year history.
The deal provides a much needed injection of cash for the Geneva-headquartered group and also for Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, who has been taking big dividends over the past few years to repay around $1bn she borrowed to take control of the business.
The sale price was not disclosed but LDC said a portion of the proceeds, amounting to a minimum of $800m, would be ploughed back into LDC.
“The transaction announced today constitutes a milestone in a decade-long strategy . . . which started with the consolidation of LDC’s parent company’s shareholding,” said Mrs Louis-Dreyfus in a statement on Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment