The US Justice Department has given the go-ahead for oilseed processing business Bunge Ltd to buyout a 55% stake in French group Cereol from Italian energy giant Edison.
The stake, worth about US$830m, will make Bunge the largest soybean processor in the world.
Alberto Weisser, CEO of Bunge, held a teleconference yesterday [Wednesday] in which he announced: “We received the regulatory approval already from the Department of Justice earlier than expected.” As a result, he said that the deal could now be closed during the Q4 of 2002, rather than early next year.
The deal has still to be approved by competition regulators in Europe.

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By GlobalData