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Investments | 12 Months Ended
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Aug. 31, 2012
Investments [Abstract] |
Investments | Investments Investments as of August 31, 2012 and 2011 are as follows:
| 2012 |  | 2011
| (Dollars in thousands)
Joint ventures: |  |  |  |  |
Ventura Foods, LLC | $ | 292,393 |  |  | $ | 278,865 |
Horizon Milling, LLC | 78,372 |  |  | 79,770 |
TEMCO, LLC | 60,734 |  |  | 47,337 |
Horizon Milling G.P. | 16,727 |  |  | 20,445 |
Cooperatives: |  |  |  |  |
Land O’Lakes, Inc. | 58,382 |  |  | 53,147 |
Ag Processing Inc. | 19,577 |  |  | 17,876 |
Other | 147,203 |  |  | 98,539 |
| $ | 673,388 |  |  | $ | 595,979 |
The Company has a 50% interest in Ventura Foods, LLC (Ventura Foods), a joint venture which produces and distributes primarily vegetable oil-based products, and is included in Corporate and Other. The Company accounts for Ventura Foods as an equity method investment, and as of August 31, 2012, its carrying value of Ventura Foods exceeded its share of their equity by $12.9 million, which represents equity method goodwill. The following provides summarized unaudited financial information for Ventura Foods balance sheets as of August 31, 2012 and 2011, and statements of operations for the twelve months ended August 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010:
| 2012 |  | 2011
| (Dollars in thousands)
Current assets | $ | 574,925 |  |  | $ | 585,760 |
Non-current assets | 459,070 |  |  | 464,621 |
Current liabilities | 197,251 |  |  | 227,199 |
Non-current liabilities | 277,760 |  |  | 292,368 |
| 2012 |  | 2011 |  | 2010
| (Dollars in thousands)
Net sales | $ | 2,550,018 |  |  | $ | 2,350,895 |  |  | $ | 1,954,289 |
Gross profit | 244,969 |  |  | 255,748 |  |  | 259,388 |
Net earnings | 94,586 |  |  | 105,754 |  |  | 95,480 |
Earnings attributable to CHS Inc. | 47,293 |  |  | 52,877 |  |  | 47,740 |
During fiscal 2010 the Company made capital contributions of $24.0 million to its Multigrain, AG (Multigrain) joint venture due to expansion of their operations. This venture, included in the Company’s Ag segment, includes grain storage, export facilities and grain production and is headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During the year ended August 31, 2011, the Company sold all of its 45% ownership interest in Multigrain to one of its joint venture partners, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., for $225.0 million and recognized a pre-tax gain of $119.7 million. Agriliance LLC (Agriliance) is owned and governed by CHS (50%) and Land O’Lakes, Inc. (50%). The Company accounts for its Agriliance investment using the equity method of accounting within Corporate and Other. Agriliance has essentially ceased its business activities and primarily holds long-term liabilities. During the years ended August 31, 2011 and 2010, the Company received $28.0 million, and $105.0 million, respectively, of cash distributions from Agriliance as returns of capital for proceeds from the sale of many of the Agriliance retail facilities, and the collection of receivables. The Company recorded pre-tax gains of $9.0 million and $28.4 million during fiscal 2011 and 2010, respectively, related to these cash distributions. During the year ended August 31, 2012, the Company made cash contributions of $45.4 million to Agriliance, which were primarily used to fully fund the Agriliance Employee Retirement Plan (Agriliance Plan). The Agriliance Plan transferred its assets and liabilities to CHS and Land O' Lakes, Inc. during fiscal 2012. CHS received pension plan assets and liabilities of $97.2 million and $84.5 million, respectively. The Company recorded the net $12.7 million pension plan asset as a non-cash dividend and recorded a $0.8 million pre-tax loss related to the distribution. During the year ended August 31, 2011, the Company dissolved its United Harvest, LLC (United Harvest) joint venture which operated two grain export facilities in Washington that were leased from the joint venture participants. As a result of the dissolution, the Company is now operating its Kalama, Washington export facility as part of TEMCO, LLC (TEMCO), and its joint venture partner is operating their own Vancouver, Washington facility. There was no gain or loss resulting from this transaction. TEMCO is owned and governed by Cargill, Incorporated (Cargill) (50%) and the Company (50%). During the year ended August 31, 2012, the Company entered into an amended and restated agreement to expand the scope of the original agreement with Cargill. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the Company and Cargill each agreed to commit to sell all of their feedgrains, wheat, oilseeds and by-product origination that are tributary to the Pacific Northwest, United States (Pacific Northwest) to TEMCO and to use TEMCO as their exclusive export-marketing vehicle for such grains exported through the Pacific Northwest for a term of 25 years. Cargill's Tacoma, Washington facility will continue to be subleased to TEMCO. The Company agreed to sublease its Kalama, Washington facility to TEMCO, and Cargill agreed to lease their Irving facility in Portland, Oregon to TEMCO to provide TEMCO with more capacity to conduct this business. The following provides combined financial information for the Company’s major equity investments, excluding Ventura Foods, for balance sheets as of August 31, 2012 and 2011, and statements of operations for the twelve months ended August 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010:
| 2012 |  | 2011
| (Dollars in thousands)
Current assets | $ | 631,335 |  |  | $ | 595,862 |
Non-current assets | 158,675 |  |  | 130,464 |
Current liabilities | 352,016 |  |  | 316,066 |
Non-current liabilities | 5,642 |  |  | 4,922 |
| 2012 |  | 2011 |  | 2010
| (Dollars in thousands)
Net sales | $ | 5,402,241 |  |  | $ | 8,399,779 |  |  | $ | 7,212,848 |
Gross profit | 225,680 |  |  | 406,338 |  |  | 356,708 |
Net earnings | 121,107 |  |  | 232,473 |  |  | 150,798 |
Earnings attributable to CHS Inc. | 36,032 |  |  | 89,575 |  |  | 50,731 |

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