Bunge Ltd, one of the world's largest agricultural trading houses, is still in the early stages of reviewing whether to sell its $2 billion Brazilian sugar business, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.Bunge, a major agricultural force in South America, has hired bankers from Morgan Stanley to help with the review and is exploring a number of options, CEO Soren Schroder said in an interview after the company reported it had turned a profit in the fourth quarter. Shares rose 0.6 percent to $76.08.The "book value" for the sugar milling unit is $2 to $2.5 billion, Chief Financial Officer Drew Burke told analysts on a conference call. It would cost more than $3 billion to replace the assets.Schroder, who took the helm at Bunge in June, last year signaled plans to shed the loss-making business, which has suffered from poor crop weather and low global sugar prices.
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services company that, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, provides its products and services to a range of clients and customers, including corporations, governments, financial institutions and individuals. Shares of MS fell by 1.16% or $-0.3499/share to $29.81. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $20.16 and as high as $33.52. On average, 12207900 shares of MS exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 9446133.
Source
