Lansing Trade Group, LLC

Last updated
Lansing Trade Group, LLC
Type Private (before ceasing - January 2019)
Industry Commodities
Founded1922 (1922)
Headquarters
Overland Park, Kansas
,
United States
Area served
North America, Asia, South America
Key people
Bill Krueger (CEO)
Mark O'Donnell (CFO)
Products Grains, commodities trading, ethanol
RevenueDecrease2.svg US$ 4.81 billion (FY 2017)
Decrease2.svg US$ 12 million (FY 2017)
Total assets Decrease2.svg US$ 1.01 billion (FY 2015)
Number of employees
+500
Divisions Lansing Trade Group
Lansing Ethanol Services
Lansing Vermont
Lansing Canada
Lansing Louisiana
Feed Factors Limited
Website www.lansingtradegroup.com
Footnotes /references
[1] [2]

Lansing Trade Group, LLC (abbreviated as LTG) was one of the largest independently owned physical trading companies in North America, dealing in grain and energy products, at one point approaching $10 billion in annual revenue. On January 2, 2019, The Andersons announced that it had completed its acquisition of LTG. [3] LTG ceased to exist on that date and its operations now operate entirely as The Andersons. The company had 15 offices in North America and offices in London, Germany, Brazil, China, and Singapore. LTG was originally established as Lansing Grain Company in 1931. The company was largely owned by employees, two public entities, The Andersons (32%) and Macquarie Group, and by New Hope Liuhe Co. Ltd (20%), one of the largest meat processors in China. LTG was one of America’s Largest Private Companies according to Forbes. [4]

Contents

An LTG facility in Bliss, Idaho. One of the company's many facilities across the US. Bliss3.jpg
An LTG facility in Bliss, Idaho. One of the company's many facilities across the US.

Investors

In 2003, The Andersons became a minority investor in LTG [5] and by 2008 The Andersons made additional investments to secure an ownership interest of 49%. [6] During January, 2014, The Andersons announced that it would reduce its investment in LTG to approximately 39% during the first quarter of 2014. [7] The Andersons has since further reduced its investment in LTG to approximately 32%.

Through its subsidiary, Macquarie Bank, Macquarie Group became an investor in LTG through an investment into Lansing Ethanol Services, LLC (abbreviated as LES), an ethanol trading company created by LTG. [8] Macquarie Bank has since sold its investment in LES and now is a direct investor of LTG.

On December 8, 2015, Lansing Trade Group, LLC sold equity to New Hope Liuhe Investment (USA), Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Chinese company, New Hope Liuhe Co. Ltd. New Hope paid $127,500,000 in cash for a 20% equity interest in Lansing. [9]

On January 28, 2014, Moody’s Investors Service assigned a B1 rating to LTG and a B3 rating to its proposed $175 million senior unsecured notes due 2021. [10]

Notable events

In 2010, LTG formed a natural gas liquids trading group under the name of Lansing NGL Services, expanding its energy business beyond ethanol and bio-diesel. [11]

In 2011, LTG announced that it will acquire the remaining interest of Ackerman Beardsley Bennett, the largest privately owned feed ingredient trader in the northeast US. The acquired company will be renamed Lansing Vermont, Inc. [12]

In 2013, LTG along with The Andersons purchased Thompsons Limited, a grain and food-grade bean handler headquartered in Blenheim, Ontario, Canada with approximately 12 locations across Ontario and Minnesota. Each company owns 50% of the acquired company, which was purchased for $152 million in cash, business contributions, and external debt. [13] The transaction closed on July 1, 2013. Thompsons Limited will continue operations under its current name and will continue to operate independently.

LTG began investing, operating and marketing in the frac sand space in 2013. The company purchased several sites in Texas and Minnesota and has since become a significant frac sand distributor in North America. [14] [15]

In 2014, LTG purchased Feed Factors Limited, a trading company based in London, that focuses on domestic and international distribution of agricultural commodities for human and animal consumption. [16]

In March 2016, LTG increased its ownership interest to 38% of Providence Grain Group, a western Canada grain handler. LTG initially became a minority investor in Providence Grain in 2014. As part of the deal, Providence Grain purchased the assets of LTG's Canadian trading business unit, Lansing Canada, ULC. [17]

During 2016, LTG hired the former employees of the agriculture trading unit of Vitol. This was shortly after Vitol decided to make steps to focus on its core business, which involved shedding it agriculture unit. LTG expanded its international presence with the move, including opening offices in Germany, Vancouver, and Singapore, and hiring Vitol's former Global Head of Agriculture. [18]

In June 2017, LTG announced that it would acquire U.S. competitor, Interstate Commodities, Inc. LTG will purchase substantially all of the trading units of Interstate. LTG will not acquire Interstate's railcar business, facilities and certain other business units. [19]

During July 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange each announced separate fines against LTG of over $6.5 million combined for knowingly disseminating false information concerning market conditions and subsequently manipulating exchange futures and options contracts. The charges also included the failure of company executives to prevent the actions taken by the company. The CME reported that this was the largest fine given since the CME's consolidation in 2007. [20] [21]

On October 15, 2018, The Andersons announced that it would acquire 100% of LTG by purchasing the remaining 67.5% interest in the company for $305 million (a valuation of $450 million). That interest was previously owned by New Hope, Macquarie Bank and Employees. The transaction was expected to close by no later than January 2019. Expectations were that LTG's operations would be fully integrated into The Andersons at the time the deal closes and that integrating LTG's operations into The Andersons will reduce overhead and other costs by up to $10 million annually. LTG's headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas was expected to retain its trading operations and risk management function. [22] [23]

Publications

LTG was the 34th largest exporter in the US by container and the 5th largest agricultural exporter according to The Journal of Commerce. [24]

LTG was ranked #68 on Forbes’ 2016 list of America’s Largest Private Companies, with revenue of $5.6 billion for its 2015 fiscal year and over 500 full-time employees. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commodity market</span> Physical or virtual transactions of buying and selling involving raw or primary commodities

A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing in commodities. Commodity markets can include physical trading and derivatives trading using spot prices, forwards, futures, and options on futures. Farmers have used a simple form of derivative trading in the commodity market for centuries for price risk management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago Mercantile Exchange</span> Financial and commodity derivative exchange

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is a global derivatives marketplace based in Chicago and located at 20 S. Wacker Drive. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, an agricultural commodities exchange. For most of its history, the exchange was in the then common form of a non-profit organization, owned by members of the exchange. The Merc demutualized in November 2000, went public in December 2002, and merged with the Chicago Board of Trade in July 2007 to become a designated contract market of the CME Group Inc., which operates both markets. The chairman and chief executive officer of CME Group is Terrence A. Duffy, Bryan Durkin is president. On August 18, 2008, shareholders approved a merger with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX are now markets owned by CME Group. After the merger, the value of the CME quadrupled in a two-year span, with a market cap of over $25 billion.

Seaboard Corporation is a diverse multinational agribusiness and transportation conglomerate with integrated operations in several industries. In the United States, the company mainly engages in pork production and processing and ocean transportation. Internationally, Seaboard is primarily engaged in commodity merchandising, grain processing, sugar production and electrical power generation. The parent company, Seaboard Corporation is based in the Kansas City suburb of Merriam, Kansas. Its subsidiaries include Seaboard Foods, Seaboard Marine, Seaboard Overseas & Trading Group (SOTG), Tabacal Agroindustria, Transcontinental Capital Corporation, Ltd. (TCCB), and Mount Dora Farms. It has 50% non-controlling interest in Butterball, LLC. Its principal operating divisions are pork, commodity trading and milling, marine, sugar, and power. More than 50% of the corporation is owned by members of its founding family, the Breskys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ContiGroup Companies</span> Grain trading company

ContiGroup Companies, Inc (CGC) was founded by Simon Fribourg in Arlon, Belgium, in 1813 as a grain-trading firm. Formerly known as Continental Grain, ContiGroup has expanded into a multinational corporation with offices and facilities in 10 countries while employing more than 13,500 people worldwide. Today, CGC is one of the largest privately held corporations in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intercontinental Exchange</span> American exchange and clearing house company

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) is an American company formed in 2000 that operates global financial exchanges and clearing houses and provides mortgage technology, data and listing services. Listed on the Fortune 500, S&P 500, and Russell 1000, the company owns exchanges for financial and commodity markets, and operates 12 regulated exchanges and marketplaces. This includes ICE futures exchanges in the United States, Canada and Europe, the Liffe futures exchanges in Europe, the New York Stock Exchange, equity options exchanges and OTC energy, credit and equity markets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CME Group</span> American financial derivatives company

CME Group Inc. is a financial services company. Headquartered in Chicago, the company operates financial derivatives exchanges including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, New York Mercantile Exchange, and The Commodity Exchange. The company also owns 27% of S&P Dow Jones Indices. It is the world's largest operator of financial derivatives exchanges. Its exchanges are platforms for trading in agricultural products, currencies, energy, interest rates, metals, futures contracts, options, stock indexes, and cryptocurrencies futures.

Glencore plc is a Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas head office is in London and its registered office is in Saint Helier, Jersey. The current company was created through a merger of Glencore with Xstrata on 2 May 2013. As of 2015, it ranked tenth in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Glencore International was ranked as the 484th-largest public company in the world. As of July 2022, it is the world's largest commodity trader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NEX Group</span> UK financial services firm

NEX Group plc, formerly known as ICAP plc, is a UK-based business focused on electronic financial markets and post trade business for other financial institutions rather than private individuals. They are known as an inter-broker dealer. The company operates BrokerTec and EBS, respectively among the largest treasuries and foreign exchange markets in the world. NEX was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by CME Group in November 2018.

The Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) is a commodity exchange based in Dubai currently listing its flagship futures contract, DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract (OQD). Launched in 2007, the DME aims to become the crude oil pricing benchmark for the Asian market with its Oman Crude Oil contract, like the Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) North Sea Brent is to Europe and the New York Mercantile Exchange’s (NYMEX) West Texas Intermediate is to North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macquarie Group</span> Australian investment bank and financial services company

Macquarie Group Limited is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia, Macquarie employs more than 20,000 staff in 34 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's top ranked mergers and acquisitions adviser, with more than A$871 billion in assets under management.

Vitol is a Swiss-based Dutch multinational energy and commodity trading company that was founded in Rotterdam in 1966 by Henk Viëtor and Jacques Detiger. Though trading, logistics and distribution are at the core of its business, these are complemented by refining, shipping, terminals, exploration and production, power generation, and retail businesses. Vitol has 40 offices worldwide and its largest operations are in Geneva, Houston, London, and Singapore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oando</span> Nigerian multinational energy company

Oando Plc is a Nigerian multinational energy company operating in the upstream, midstream and downstream.

MF Global, formerly known as Man Financial, was a major global financial derivatives broker, or commodities brokerage firm that went bankrupt in 2011. MF Global provided exchange-traded derivatives, such as futures and options as well as over-the-counter products such as contracts for difference (CFDs), foreign exchange and spread betting. MF Global Inc., its broker-dealer subsidiary, was a primary dealer in United States Treasury securities. A series of perceived liquidity problems and large fines and penalties dogged MF Global starting in 2008, and led to its bankruptcy in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Andersons</span>

The Andersons, Inc. is an American agribusiness established in 1947, that began as Andersons Truck Terminal (ATT) in the 1940s for the grain industry, headquartered in Maumee, Ohio. It is a diversified company rooted in agriculture that conducts business in the commodity merchandising, renewables, and plant nutrient sectors.

Gavilon is a commodity management firm based in Omaha, Nebraska. The company is organized into two operating segments:

Vivo Energy is a British downstream petroleum company with its headquarters in London. It maintains subsidiaries and operations in 23 countries across Africa that encompass the supply, storage, distribution, and retail of a range of petroleum products. Vivo Energy is a Shell and Engen Petroleum licensee and sources, distributes, markets and supplies fuels and lubricants. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index and of the JSE All Share Index until it was acquired by Vitol Group in July 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrence A. Duffy</span> American businessman

Terrence A. Duffy is an American businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of CME Group, a derivatives marketplace based in Chicago, Illinois.

Ospraie Management, LLC is a New York City-based investment management firm that invests in commodities and basic industries worldwide across public and private markets. The company, through its venture arm, makes agriculture-focused investments that seek to reduce environmental impact.

VARO Energy (VARO) is an energy company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. It operates in manufacturing, storage and distribution, marketing and trading, with businesses in biofuels, green hydrogen, biomethane & bio-LNG, nature-based carbon removals and e-mobility. The company is focused on the Benelux countries, Germany, France and Switzerland. VARO Energy’s shareholders include the global Investment firm, Carlyle Group and the global energy and commodities company Vitol. The company CEO is Dev Sanyal.

References

  1. ↑ "SEC EDGAR - ANDE" 2017.12.31 10-K. Retrieved 20 July 2018
  2. ↑ "BIZ JOURNALS - KC" The 150 Largest Private Companies in KC. Retrieved 20 July 2018
  3. ↑ "PRNewsWire2" The Andersons Completes Acquisition of Lansing Trade Group. Retrieved 02 January 2019
  4. 1 2 "Forbes Magazine" America's Top Private Companies 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2014
  5. ↑ "SEC EDGAR - ANDE" 2006.12.31 10-K. Retrieved 14 February 2014
  6. ↑ "SEC EDGAR - ANDE" 2008.12.31 10-K. Retrieved 14 February 2014
  7. ↑ "PR News Wire" The Andersons to Reduce Investment in Lansing Trade Group. Retrieved 14 February 2014
  8. ↑ "Lansing & Macquarie Investment" Lansing Ethanol Services, LLC. Retrieved 14 February 2014
  9. ↑ "Lansing Trade Group Announces the Sale of Equity to New Hope Liuhe Investment (USA), Inc. - Lansing". www.lansingtradegroup.com. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
  10. ↑ "Moody’s" Moody’s assigns B1 CFR to Lansing, rates new notes B3. Retrieved 14 February 2014
  11. ↑ "NGL" Trading Company to Add Jobs. Retrieved 9 Aug, 2010
  12. ↑ "ABB" Lansing Trade Group has completed the acquisition of Ackerman Beardsley Bennett. Retrieved 12 September, 2011
  13. ↑ "SEC EDGAR - ANDE" 2013.09.30 10-Q. Retrieved 10 January 2014
  14. ↑ "TITAN" Lansing Titan Form Transloading JV. Retrieved 27 February 2017
  15. ↑ "DRYBULK" Lansing Trade Group Silica Plant Purchase. Retrieved 27 February 2017
  16. ↑ "FEEDFACTORS" Feed Factors subsidiary of Lansing Trade Group. Retrieved 12 December 2015
  17. ↑ "PRODUCER - PROVIDENCE" Lansing increases ownership of Providence Grain. Retrieved 22 June 2017
  18. ↑ "LINKEDIN" Commodities Market: A headhunter's perspective. Retrieved 22 June 2017
  19. ↑ "REUTERS" U.S. Grain Handler Lansing Buys Interstate as Consolidation Continues. Retrieved 22 June 2017
  20. ↑ "CME" NOTICE OF DISCIPLINCARY ACTION. Retrieved 17 July 2018
  21. ↑ "CFTC" CFTC ORDERS COMMODITY TRADING FIRM TO PAY $3.4 MILLION. Retrieved 17 July 2018
  22. ↑ "PRNewswire" THE ANDERSONS TO ACQUIRE LANSING TRADE GROUP. Retrieved 15 October 2018
  23. ↑ "KCBusinessJournal" LANSING TRADE GROUP CEO: MERGER CREATES AG POWERHOUSE. Retrieved 16 October 2018
  24. ↑ "Journal of Commerce" May 27, 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2014
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.