Locals bid almost $600M for U.S. Sugar

Farm owners, bank backers look to trump company's deal with state of Florida

Email | Print By Geert De Lombaerde

A local investor group is offering to pay almost $600 million to shareholders of U.S. Sugar – which is owned by its employees as well as several foundations and others – seeking to undo a similar deal signed last week with Florida officials looking to restore a massive chunk of the Everglades.

The Lawrence Group is the investment vehicle for Gaylon Lawrence Sr. and his son, Gaylon Jr. The duo owns farming companies in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi and Florida and is the financing force behind several community banks, including Tennessee Bank & Trust, which opened in Cool Springs four years ago. Gaylon Jr. and his wife this past August bought a $5 million Belle Meade mansion.

The Lawrences are offering $300 per share for U.S. Sugar, less than the $365 shareholders will get by 2016 as stipulated in the government’s deal. But they say their offer is a surer shot and will yield more by then.

Today’s offer – it’s the Lawrence Group’s third since 2005 – also differs from the state’s deal in that the duo wants to keep running U.S. Sugar rather than winding down its operations. The Lawrences said they’re committed to selling to the state the land it needs to restore a network of marsh treatment areas and reservoirs that connect to Everglades National Park.

For more on this story from the Miami Herald, click here. To read the Lawrences’ press release, click here.