Miller Magazine Issue: 121 January 2020

32 NEWS MILLER / JANUARY 2020 LDC appoints new CFO in latest management reshuffle Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) announced the appointment of Patrick Treuer as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), with immediate ef- fect, reporting to Chief Operating Officer, Michael Gelchie, a latest management re- shuffle at the agricultural commodity giant. Patrick remains a member of LDC’s Senior Leadership Team and also retains his position as the company’s Chief Strategy Officer. A Swiss national, Patrick Treuer joined LDC’s sister company Biosev in 2014 as Head of Strategy, a role he held until his appoint- ment as Head of Strategy for LDC in 2015. Former CFO, Federico Cerisoli, remains with the compa- ny and will focus on coordinating LDC’s cost efficiency program, launched in November, reporting to Michael Gelchie. LDC confirmed last month an internal memo announcing cost cuts, including on travel and hiring. The group, known as Dreyfus, is the "D" of the ‘ABCD’ quartet of global traders that includes Archer Daniels Midland Co, Bunge Ltd and Cargill Inc. Like its peers, it has faced pressure from global trade tensions and an African swine fever epidemic in Asia, ham- pering its attempts to emerge from a period of falling margins for grain merchants. Mar- garita Louis-Dreyfus, who assumed control of LDC in 2009 when her husband Robert died and has since been forced to buy out most other family shareholders, has raised the possibility of opening the group's capital to outside investors, including by sell- ing a stake to a regional market player. Patrick Treuer Russia to build grain hub at Syria’s Tartus port Russia plans to invest $500 million in the Syrian port of Tartus and build a grain hub there to boost its presence on Middle East markets, Interfax news agency cited Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov as saying. Tartus is the home of Russia’s sole naval base outside the former Soviet Union and gives Moscow a critical beachhead in the Mediterranean. In 2017, Russia struck a deal to lease Tartus for 49 years and ex- pand its use to civilian business purposes, and has said it plans to make it a cen- trepiece of efforts to rebuild the country’s destroyed economy. Russia, the world’s largest wheat ex- porter, has stepped up grain supplies to support Syrian President Bashar Assad in recent years since Moscow’s 2015 mili- tary intervention on his behalf in Syria’s civil war. “The Russian side intends to improve the operations of the old port and build a new commercial port,” Yuri Borisov, Russian deputy prime minister, told re- porters after meeting Mr Assad in Damascus. “The overall amount of investment within the next four years is esti- mated at $500m,” he said. Construction of the necessary infrastructure at the port, which Russia rented out for 49 years from Syrian authorities in 2017, could begin 2020, Borisov was quoted as saying. He also told Assad that Russia will deliver 100,000 metric tons of grain as part of humanitarian assistance to Syria. Borisov said motorways, airports and a railway connecting Tartus to Iraq that would allow goods to be shipped to the Gulf were also discussed. While Syria’s near nine-year war is continuing in some parts of the coun- try, Moscow is pushing efforts to find a post-conflict peace settlement and drum up international finance to rebuild the country’s infrastructure. Russian ports in Blacksea have exported grain to the port of Tartus in recent years to ensure Assad’s Syria has a reliable source of food. Syria’s Mediterranean coastal re- gion has remained under firm government control throughout the war. The Russian Navy also operates a military facility at Tartus, Russia’s only naval foothold in the Mediterranean, and Mos- cow has previously said it plans to expand and modernize the port’s facilities for its fleet. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said that Russia will spend $500 million to mo- dernize Syria’s commercial port of Tartus. The four-year modernization program envisages an overhaul of the old port in Tartus and the construction of a new one.