André & Cie sells cocoa business
The troubled Swiss commodity broker, André & Cie, has sold its cocoa operations to Hong Kong based industrial raw materials supplier, the Noble Group. This latest purchase follows Noble's acquisition of André's grain business in April.
Noble said in a statement on Friday that the purchase included André’s cocoa trading, warehousing, packaging and distribution operation. No financial details have been released on the latest deal.
In April, Noble bought the Asian grain operations for $64 million (SFr115 million) from André, a family-owned commodity trader under court protection in Switzerland since March with bank debts totalling $400 million.
The 123-year old Swiss company, once one of the world’s top five grain traders, ran up huge bank debts following losses, chiefly in speculative trading on the Chicago soybean market in 1999.
On Wednesday André won a further six months of court protection from creditors to wind up its business.
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