Cosan is a public listed company, a

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** Co ...

producer of

bioethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

and

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

. The company operates in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia. They also operate in the United Kingdom under the brand name Moove, manufacturing and supplying Mobil Lubricants, Greases, Cutting Fluids, Coolants and Aerosols.

History

Cosan began in 1936 in

Piracicaba Piracicaba ( or ) is a city located in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The population is 407,252 (2020) in an area of 1378.07 km². It is at an elevation of 547 m above sea level. Name The place name comes from a word in the Tupi langua ...

city in

São Paulo (state) São Paulo () is one of the Federative units of Brazil, 26 states of the Brazil, Federative Republic of Brazil and is named after Paul of Tarsus, Saint Paul of Tarsus. A major industrial complex, the state has 21.9% of the Brazilian population and ...

, with the founding of its first factory for milling of

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...

. From the second half of the 1980s, it quickly expanded operations through the acquisition of several factories in the State of São Paulo. Cosan cultivates, collects and processes sugar cane, the main raw material used in the production of

and

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...

. Its 23 plantings occupy almost 600,000 hectares of land and employ 45,000 people. In the food sector the company owns 11.5% of shares of Camil Alimentos, that merged with Cosan Alimentos in 2012.

Purchases and mergers

On April 24, 2008, Cosan announced the purchase of the portfolio of

downstream Downstream may refer to: * Downstream (bioprocess) * Downstream (manufacturing) * Downstream (networking) * Downstream (software development) * Downstream (petroleum industry) * Upstream and downstream (DNA), determining relative positions on DNA * ...

fuel distribution plants from

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...

in Brazil. On March 13, 2009, the Group confirmed the incorporation of NovAmérica Agroenergia through a stock exchange operation between the Cosan and holding Rezende Barbosa, controller of NovAmérica. With the acquisition, the group Cosan reinforces its position as the largest producer of sugar and alcohol in the world and will have an annual processing capacity of around 56 million tonnes of sugar cane, 10% of the Brazilian market, managing 23 plants. On 3 May 2012, Cosan signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire the

BG Group BG Group plc was a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom. On 8 April 2015, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire BG Group for $70 billion, subject to regulatory and ...

's 60.1% stake in

Comgás Comgás is a Brazilian gas distributor focused on São Paulo state. It is Brazil's biggest gas distributor, with around 1,6 million residential, commercial and industrial customers, as of 2016, who receive gas through about of pipelines. Comg ...

. The deal was completed in November 2012.

Joint-Venture with Royal Dutch Shell

Panorama Usina Costa Pinto Piracicaba SAO 10 2008

On February 1, 2010, Cosan and

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...

announced the creation of a joint venture

Raízen Raízen (, pronounced ''Ha-ease-ain't'') is the third largest Brazilian energy company by revenue and the fifth largest in Brazil. The company is a joint-venture formed in 2010 from the merger of the assets of sugar, fuel and ethanol derived from ...

that merged their operations of sugar, ethanol and the distribution and marketing of fuels in Brazil. It formed the third largest distribution company in Brazil and the world's largest

bioenergy Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms biom ...

operation. The company is valued at US$12 billion.

References

{{Authority control Conglomerate companies of Brazil Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies listed on B3 (stock exchange) Companies based in São Paulo Energy companies of Brazil Sugar companies of Brazil Ethanol fuel Biofuel producers of Brazil Conglomerate companies established in 1936 Brazilian brands Energy companies established in 1936 Food and drink companies established in 1936 1936 establishments in Brazil