Miller Magazine Issue: 113 May 2019

26 NEWS MAY 2019 AGI acquires Indian processing equipment company Milltec University of Saskatchewan researchers play role in mapping durum wheat genome Ag Growth International Inc. (AGI) announced that the previ- ously disclosed transaction to acquire 100% of the shares of Mil- ltec Machinery Limited (“Milltec”) was completed. The purchase price for Milltec was $109.5 million, plus the potential for up to an additional $38.4 million based on the achievement of EBITDA tar- gets. The transaction was funded by AGI’s revolving credit facility. For the twelve months ended January 31, 2019, Milltec’s sales1 and EBITDA were $56.2 million and $10.1 million, respectively. Milltec is headquartered in Bangalore, India, and is a market leading manufacturer of rice milling and processing equipment in India. “The acquisition of Milltec marks an important step for AGI as we expand into rice equipment and enter the large, and rapidly growing, markets in India. Milltec now forms the foundation of our platform in India as we build a footprint to deliver our complete 5-6-7 strategy. India is one of the world’s largest producers and consumers of all agriculture products and will invest heavily in the infrastructure required to facilitate the daily lives of over a billion people. Milltec joins AGI at an inf- lection point in its journey from a small regional company to a Pan-India business. We will invest and collaborate to accelerate this journey. The founders of Milltec, and a very talented team, are joining AGI in the pursuit of our goal to supply the world’s food infrastructure,” said Tim Close, President and CEO of AGI. The acquisition of Milltec moves AGI into the rice proces- sing systems space with a complete product line and estab- lishes AGI’s platform in India. AGI gains seasonal and cyclical diversification through this acquisition.Milltec adds a comple- te rice processing product line to AGI’s product catalogue and provides a platform for further consolidation in India, which is very fragmented across the seed, fertilizer, grain, feed and food industries.The acquisition also provides AGI with greater access to the broader Asian markets. University of Saskatchewan (U of S) researchers say they have discovered how to significantly reduce cad- mium levels in durum wheat, ensuring the safety and nutritional value of the grain through selective breeding. According to a recent Nature Genetics article, the U of S scientists helped an international consortium assemble the complete durum genome of the Svevo variety for the first time. The durum wheat genome is four times as large as the one for humans. U of S plant breeder Curtis Pozniak, along with University of Alberta scientists, identified the gene in durum wheat responsible for the accumulation of cadmium, a toxic heavy metal found in many soils. “We can now examine the ge- nes, their order and structure to assemble a blueprint that will provide an opportunity to understand how the genes work and communicate with one another,” Pozniak said in a press release. “With this blueprint, we can now work quickly to identify genes that are responsible for the traits we select for in our breeding programs such as yield, dise- ase resistance, and nutritional properties.” Durum wheat, grown for pasta production, is mainly cultivated in Canada, Europe, United States, and South Asia. The research involved over 60 scientists from seven countries, including Italy.The researchers revealed genes humans have been selecting over the centuries by com- paring the new durum wheat sequence to its wild relative. They have also recovered beneficial genes lost during bre- eding.Durum wheat was established as a prominent crop roughly 1,500 to 2,000 years ago in the Mediterranean area. In 2018, U of S researchers also played a role in de- coding the genome for the bread wheat variety, Chinese Spring, a discovery made by an international consortium. AGI, a leading provider of equipment solutions for agriculture bulk commodi- ties, acquires 100% of the shares of Milltec Machinery Limited, a market lea- ding manufacturer of rice milling and processing equipment in India.