Tate & Lyle to be Acquired by Ingredion (£2.7bn Price Tag)

Legendary sugar producer Tate & Lyle is to be acquired by Ingredion.

Tate & Lyle's revenue in 2026 was £2bn; with adjusted EBITDA at £415m; giving an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20% (better than Ingredion's at 17.5%). Part of their strategy is targeting Asia for growth.

The name Ingredion was given in 2012 as the new identity of the then "Corn Products International" focused on corn-refining.

Suedzucker performance improves despite weak sugar prices

Suedzucker, Europe's largest sugar producer (it produces beet sugar which is table sugar or sucrose, extracted from the sugar beet plant), reported 3Q earnings improvement, driven by its non-sugar businesses such as biofuels, starch and fresh fruit (protecting itself against a weak EU sugar market).

Suedzucker warned that the EU sugar market is likely to remain depressed and hence forecasts a fall in operating profit from the previous year.

80% of world sugar production comes from sugarcane (grown in tropical and subtropical regions) and 20% comes from sugar beet (grown in temperate climates like EU, Russia, UK, US). 

Sugar beet is very important for Europe's sugar supply.

Worldwide sugar production is roughly 181 million tons (2024/25).

Sugar (Number 11) Futures Down 35%

Sugar futures are down 35% this year, at lowest levels since 2020. 

Sugar No. 11, futures contract (SB) for raw centrifugal cane sugar, traded on the ICE, is the world benchmark for sugar trading.

The centrifugal reference alludes to the production process,  where crystallised sugar-and-molasses mixture is spun in a high-speed centrifuge. This separates sugar from molasses, yielding raw or semi-refined sugar. 

1 futures = 112,000 pounds of sugar, physically settled, FOB receiver's vessel (the port must be in the sugar's country of origin). This is around 50,000 kilograms of sugar.  (1 pound = 0.45xx kg of sugar).

Contract months are March, May, July, October.

Sugar is one of the most traded futures contracts on ICE, with 31.5 million contracts traded so far in 2025 (35 million contracts traded in 2024).

Copersucar SA (Brazil) is the world's largest trader of sugar and ethanol.

Sugar and ethanol are related - in that ethanol and carbon dioxide are produced when sugar is fermented.