Goldman to invest $210 mln in Brazil Santelisa Vale

SAO PAULO, July 27 (Reuters) - The commodities branch of U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will invest 400 million reais ($210 million) in Santelisa Vale, Brazil's No. 2 sugar and ethanol producer, Santelisa said on Friday.

The company, the result of a merger this month between Vale do Rosario and Usina Santa Elisa, expects to crush 18 million tonnes of sugar cane this year and has ambitious growth plans. It also has a 72 percent stake in sugar and ethanol trading and logistics company Crystalsev.

"Goldman Sachs ... brings the needed (financial) capacity so we can take forward our expansion projects in the years to come," Santelisa Chief Executive Anselmo Lopes Rodrigues said in a statement.

"The company has aggressive plans, which include six new sugar mills, each with a capacity to crush 2.5 million tonnes of cane, or a total of 15 million tonnes," Santelisa said.

The company, which plans to sell shares in a public offering, has five mills in Brazil and their joint output makes Santelisa the country's second-biggest sugar producer after Cosan (CSAN3.SA: Quote, Profile, Research) and the biggest ethanol exporter.

In early 2007, the Rosario mill fended off an aggressive takeover bid from Cosan.

($1=1.9 reais)