Bunge closes $34 billion global acquisition of Viterra

Having received all required regulatory approvals – including the European Union, the U.S., Canada, China, Australia, Mexico and Brazil – global agribusiness Bunge closed its acquisition of Glencore-backed global agribusiness Viterra on 2 July 2025. Compass Lexecon acted as the sole economic advisor to both parties throughout the merger review processes, which involved in-depth economic analyses of complex international supply chains and engagement with competition and regulatory authorities on all continents.

Situation

Agribusinesses Bunge and Viterra (‘the Parties’) announced their plans to merge in June 2023. Both Parties are active globally in the origination, marketing, trading, processing, transportation and storage of grains, oilseeds, oilseed-derived products, biofuels and other agricultural commodity products. With in-depth investigations expected in multiple jurisdictions, the Parties engaged Compass Lexecon to provide economic support throughout the merger review process.

Our Role

A Compass Lexecon team involving professionals based in Europe, the Americas and Asia assisted Bunge, Viterra and their legal advisors (Latham & Watkins for Bunge and Freshfields for Viterra) with economic analyses of the competitive effects of the merger at the pre-notification stage and throughout the merger filing processes worldwide. The transaction was notified in approximately thirty jurisdictions, with major jurisdictions, such as the European Union, the U.S. (where the FTC issued a Second Request), Canada, China and Brazil engaging in detailed reviews and further requests for the Parties. As part of our analysis, we developed a number of methods to calculate meaningful market shares and define relevant catchment areas to assess the competitive effects of the transaction in complex international supply chains.

Outcome

The transaction received unconditional clearance decisions in many jurisdictions, while other jurisdictions, such as the European Union, Canada and China, issued clearance decisions subject to conditions required to address specific competition concerns. A small number of jurisdictions require post-closing merger reviews, and the Parties are continuing to engage with authorities in these jurisdictions.

The Team

The Compass Lexecon team was headed by Jorge Padilla, Paolo Ramezzana, Segye Shin and Agata Lewicka, with support from James Andrews, Neha Georgie, Martina Colloricchio, Manuel Mertel Morillo, Harry Gosling, Rebecca Reichert, Ann-Christine Schwegmann, Rob Leith, Saffi Wu, Alessandro Castellani, Daniel Ball, Paolo Lozza, David Martinez, Vicky Britton, James Sood, Megha Ranjan, Caterina Marchili, Louisa Clemmetsen, Thorunn Helgadottir, Anish Jolly, Shawn Teo, Julie Wei, Kareema Anjum and Lucia Henwood.

Bunge’s global external counsel was Latham & Watkins, with a team led by Michael Egge, Caitlin Fitzpatrick, John Wileur, Carles Esteva Mosso, Tomas Nilsson and Ludmilla LeGrand, which also included Sebastian van Helden, Lorenzo Sacco, María Martínez, Yanyan Yang, James Mathieson and Mario Barka.

Viterra’s global external counsel was Freshfields, with a team led by Frank Montag, Paul van den Berg, Jennifer Mellott and Ninette Dodoo, which also included Valeria Losco, Christoph Wanek, Felix Roscam Abbing, Max Immerzeel, Elizabeth Giordano, Edward Dean, Charles Ramsey, Tracy Lu and Richard Dreßler.