Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' ratings on Minnetonka, Minn.-based Cargill Inc. and its related entities reflect the firm's position as one of the world's leading agribusiness companies. Cargill has major market positions in agricultural processing and merchandising, industrial production, and financial services. However, we believe that a moderately aggressive financial profile partially offsets these positive factors. The company's product and geographic diversity and vast communication and transportation networks help to optimize commodity movements and give the company a competitive advantage. In addition, Cargill has less exposure to any one U.S. agricultural segment or international region. We believe this has allowed the company to maintain stable but modest adjusted EBITDA margins, which have remained near or greater than 5% through past
