The wave of farm sector takeovers which marked the run up to Christmas lapped into 2012 as Archer Daniels Midland entered Slovakia through the purchase of three elevators.

The US agribusiness giant said it was advancing a desire "to grow our reach in central and eastern Europe" by buying the elevators from Palma Group and Polnonakup Hont.

"The facilities will store and supply crops for our European processing facilities and will help us better serve the local farming community by connecting local crops to export markets," said Tido Boehle, ADM general manager, origination and terminals, for Europe.

The acquisition of the elevators, with capacity of 149,000 tonnes, follows the purchase last May of a 40,000-tonne elevator in eastern Germany.

And in the neighbouring Czech Republic, ADM in 2009 bought an oilseeds crushing plant, which the group revealed in October is to upgrade through extra storage capacity and improved production processes.

Deal spree 

Wednesday's acquisition marks the first deal this year for an agribusiness sector which ended 2011 with a spate of takeovers, including US-based Titan Machinery's purchase in November of a farm equipment dealer in the eastern European country of Romania.

CNH, the US-based maker of Case and New Holland tractors, last month joined a bidding war for Norwegian farm machinery maker Kverneland, in which Kubota appears to have gained the upper hand, but which investors still believe may see a higher bid.

Kverneland shares on Wednesday closed unchanged at NOK10.65 in Oslo, above the NOK10.50 a share which Kubota has pledged to offer for shares beyond a 31.8% stake it has already scooped.

Landkom International, the Ukraine farm operator listed in London, remains on track for an agreed takeover by Stockholm-listed peer Alpcot Agro after dismissing a rival approach from private equity group JadenFinch.

"The board continues to believe that the recommended Alpcot Agro AB proposals are superior in terms of price, form of consideration and certainty of execution to the JadenFinch proposal which is also conditional on a positive outcome of legal, financial and commercial due diligence," Landkom said on Friday.

The agribusiness sector merger and acquisition spree stands in contrast to the dearth of activity seen in other sectors.

ADM shares closed up 1.7% at $29.37 in New York.