U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill Inc is one of the parties interested in acquiring Viterra Inc , Canada's biggest grain handler, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Sunday citing people familiar with the matter. Viterra shares surged more than 20 percent on Friday after the company said it had received expressions of interest from unnamed third parties on a possible takeover.Commodities and mining giant Glencore International Plc . is also interested in Viterra and has made a 3.5 billion pound (US$5.5 billion) approach, Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper earlier reported.The Journal reported that Viterra was expected to run a sale process, exploring the interest of a handful of possible buyers. A Viterra spokeswoman declined to comment. A Cargill spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment.Viterra is one of three big grain handlers in Canada - along with privately held Richardson International Limited and Cargill - and the only one that is publicly traded. It has a market capitalization of just over C$5 billion (US$5.05 billion).
Viterra Inc. is a vertically integrated global agri-business company. Shares of VT traded higher by 23.68% or $2.6/share to $13.58. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $9.30 and as high as $14.10. On average, 1032390 shares of VT.TO exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 15516086.
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