Cosan and Shell hook up

From the department of long overdue business news... Cosan and Shell have decided to merge their fuel retail businesses in Brazil in a deal worth $12 billion, and the market liked it:

Shares of Cosan jumped more than 6 percent in Sao Paulo, while Shell rose nearly 1 percent in London.

Cosan, a leading Brazilian sugar conglomerate, also bought Exxon's fuel retail business in Brazil a few years back, surprising industry watchers who expected an oil and gas player to come out atop the bidding. Brazil's energy story is more nuanced than the simple triumph of biofuels, but nevertheless the ascent of a sugar company to prominent status in the country's fuel retail industry is striking and has no analogy worldwide, as far as I know.