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
** C ...
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 with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a h ...
,
sugar 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 hea ...
. 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 langu ...
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 stal ...
. 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
sugar and
ethanol
Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a h ...
. 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 Camil is an Arabic (meaning perfect, accomplished or complete in Arabic), Romanian and French male given name. In French it is much more often spelled Camille. The source of the name is the Latin ''Camillus''. In Arabic Camil can be spelled Camil, ...
, that merged with Cosan Alimentos in 2012.
Purchases and mergers
On April 24, 2008, Cosan announced the purchase of the portfolio of
downstream fuel distribution plants from
Esso
Esso () is a trade name, trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Exxon, Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Ess ...
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 an ...
'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

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 ...
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