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| Cargill Inc/The Mosaic Company | |
| Size | $7.5 billion customized split-off and debt-for-equity exchange |
| Date | May 2011 |
| Joint bookrunners | Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, UBS |
| Adviser to Cargill | Credit Suisse |
| Adviser to MAC Foundation | UBS |
| return to the Global Deals of the Year index | |
One of the most interesting transactions in the market last year was set in motion a full four-and-a-half years ago. The death on August 1 2006 of Margaret Cargill, the granddaughter of Cargill founder WW Cargill, set in motion a chain of events that would result, in 2011, in one of the more remarkable transactions in recent capital markets history.
Along with a personal fortune estimated by Forbes Magazine at about $1.8 billion, making her the 164th-richest American, Ms Cargill had endowed the trustees of the Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies (MAC) Foundation with her 17% shareholding in the privately owned Cargill. Although the company has never publicly disclosed its valuation, market estimates of around $55 billion valued Ms Cargill’s stake at some $9.4 billion.
If it could be secured, the monetization of this asset would catapult the foundation from the second division of US charitable giving to the elite ranks of global philanthropy surpassed only by the Bill and Melinda Gates and Ford Foundations.