US-based agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Wilmar International have received all required competition approvals to launch their joint venture Olenex.
Following the approvals, the companies plan to launch the new venture in the coming weeks.
ADM’s European oils business president Duane Holz said: “We are pleased to have received all appropriate regulatory approvals, and we look forward to a smooth and successful launch of the new Olenex in the coming weeks.”
Under the partnership agreement, ADM will transfer two sites to the new joint venture. The sites include a specialty oils and fats facility and a palm refining plant in Hamburg, Germany.
On the other hand, Wilmar will move its tropical oils processing plants in Brake, Germany and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Besides, the joint venture will combine raw materials sourcing, trading, and sales and marketing operations of the two companies.
Olenex will also market refined oils and fats from ADM’s other plants in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK.
In December last year, the companies announced to form a joint venture in order to market oils and fats in Europe.
ADM and Wilmar had started Olenex as a partnership in 2012 to leverage their capacities.
In July, Wilmar announced to set up a joint venture with global food commodities trader Bunge in Vietnam, aiming at leveraging their operations in Asia.
Under the agreement, While Bunge and Wilmar will each own a stake of 45% in the venture, Quang Dung, a major soybean meal distributor in Vietnam, will hold the remaining 10%.
The deal is expected to result in a strategic collaboration between three uniquely positioned companies in the Vietnamese oil and feed markets.
