ST. LOUIS — The proposed merger between Bunge Global SA and Viterra Ltd. has received regulatory approval from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, Bunge confirmed, setting the stage for completion of the deal first announced in 2023.

Bunge, based in St. Louis, said it now expects the transaction to close “on or around July 2.” China was the last regulatory approval Bunge needed to finalize the deal after gaining conditional approvals from regulators in Canada, the European Union and other markets.

“Achieving this regulatory milestone is a significant step forward and clears the way for closing of the transaction,” said Greg Heckman, chief executive officer of Bunge. “This approval underscores the strategic rationale behind bringing Bunge and Viterra together to create a premier global agribusiness company. As one team, we will accelerate our shared vision for growth and fulfill our purpose to connect farmers to consumers to deliver essential food, feed, and fuel to the world.”

Switzerland-based commodity trading giant Glencore PLC, which has owned Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Viterra since 2012, also confirmed “that all regulatory closing conditions have been satisfied for the merger of Viterra with Bunge and the transaction will close in early July.”

Under the deal, first announced in June 2023 and since approved by both companies’ boards, Viterra shareholders were slated to receive about 65.6 million shares of Bunge stock, valued at about $6.2 billion, and roughly $2 billion in cash, with Bunge also assuming $9.8 billion of Viterra’s debt.

At the time, Bunge and Viterra said they expected the transaction to close in mid-2024, pending customary closing conditions and approvals by Bunge shareholders and regulators. But delays in securing regulatory clearance from around the globe had since pushed back that timeline. 

The merger would create a global crop trading and processing company closer in scale to ADM and Cargill while strengthening Bunge’s grain handling and oilseeds processing businesses.

In Bunge’s fourth-quarter earnings call in February, Heckman said the company was taking steps in anticipation of approval as it continued to “engage in constructive conversations with the regulatory authorities in China while we work through the final stages of the asset divestment process in Europe.”

“Our team is prepared for the close of our business combination with Viterra,” Heckman said during the call. “Teams of both companies have put in countless hours of planning to ensure smooth integration so that our customers at both ends of the value chain — farmers and consumers — see good continuity of service.”

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