By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

GRAMERCY – Louis Dreyfus Commodities LLC announced Wednesday that its tender offer for shares of Imperial Sugar Co. attracted 72 percent of the company’s stock, more than enough to allow it to complete purchase of the company.

The agribusiness company announced the $6.35 per share offer in May as part of its plans to buy the refined sugar processor for about $77.5 million. The offer was set to expire last week but was extended three times. With debt and pension liabilities included, the deal is worth $203 million.

Louis Dreyfus has said it plans to keep running Imperial’s small-bag packaging facility in Gramercy, according to Imperial. The plant, which has roots in the community dating back more than100 years, packages the small bags of sugar sold by grocery stores and other retailers.

Imperial Sugar, which is based in Sugar Land, Texas, is a major U.S. sugar maker with products under the Imperial, Dixie Crystals and Holly brands.

Louis Dreyfus officials said in a release that the company will exercise its option to buy additional shares from Imperial Sugar, which will allow the deal to close without shareholder approval. All of Imperial Sugar’s remaining shares will be canceled and converted into cash.

Imperial Sugar has a history in St. James Parish that dates back to the late 19th century, when it opened its Gramercy refinery, which employed hundreds of people and was a mainstay of the parish’s economy.

The refinery closed on Dec. 31, 2010. At the time, the refinery employed 283 people, most of them union members. Imperial continued running a portion of the facility, which packages small bags of sugar carried by grocers and other retailers, such as convenience stores and drug store chains. The plant employs 95 workers.

The remaining portions of the refinery were replaced and adapted into a new $190 million plant owned by Cargill Inc., Imperial and Louisiana Sugar Growers and Refiners, which is a co-op of nine sugar mills and more than 700 sugar growers from throughout the state. Imperial agreed to the joint venture to get access to the co-op’s raw sugar.

The new non-union refinery, known as Louisiana Sugar Refinery, employs around 115 people. Louisiana Sugar also took over packaging for anything weighing more than 50 pounds.

In December, Cargill and Sugar Growers and Refiners announced they had bought Imperial’s piece of the refinery. Cargill and the growers each own 50 percent of the sugar refinery.