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