WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Bunge Ltd. has entered an agreement to acquire 100% of the remaining outstanding shares in Usina Moema Participacoes S.A., a holding company that owns a sugarcane mill in Brazil and ownership interests in five others. The six mills have a combined annual crushing capacity of 15.4 million tonnes, of which Bunge now will have a 60% share of. According to Bunge, the value of the Moema Par transaction is approximately $896 million, including approximately $480 million of net debt and excluding $36 million of working capital. Moema Par’s shareholders will receive approximately 7.3 million of Bunge common shares. The transaction is expected to close within 45 days. Bunge said it also has the option to enter agreements to acquire the remaining outstanding interests in any or all of the remaining five mills on similar economic terms to the Moema Par transaction. If Bunge also acquires the remaining interests not wholly owned by Moema Par, the total value, including the Moema Par transaction, would be approximately $1.48 billion. The $1.48 billion value includes the assumption of approximately $710 million of net debt. The Moema Par shareholders plus additional shareholders would receive approximately 13.4 million shares of common stock of Bunge, subject to adjustments. "This transaction fulfills Bunge’s strategic goal of building a large-scale, fully integrated business in sugar and bioenergy," said Alberto Weisser, chairman and chief executive officer of Bunge. "It adds significant scale to our current milling operations and enables us to vary production among multiple sugar and ethanol products, according to market conditions. The Moema Group cluster is also strategically located near large domestic markets in Brazil and has excellent access to export logistics systems."