China’s CITIC Agri Fund has paid US$1.1 billion to buy a share in the corn seed business of US-based Dow Chemical Co in Brazil, the Reuters news agency reports.

Dow said the deal included seed processing plants and research centres, the Morgan seed brand and a fixed-term license to use Dow’s Sementes brand.

The assets generated revenue of about US$287 million last year, the report says.

The CITIC Agri Fund was founded last year by a subsidiary of CITIC Ltd., seed firm Yuan Longping High-tech Co., Ltd. and two other agricultural companies.