The Palm Beach Post first reported in December that London-based Tate & Lyle, the world's largest sugar company, was seeking to rid itself of its U.S. sugar operations. That would include Domino, which has refineries in New York City, Baltimore and Chalmette, La.

"All we've said about the potential sale of Domino is that we are in advanced negotiations," said Clive Rutherford, president of Tate & Lyle North American Sugars, based in New York. "These deals are very complicated. We have not yet signed a contract. We have not announced the terms."

Rutherford also declined Tuesday to say with whom Tate & Lyle is negotiating, but sources close to the talks have said it is Palm Beach-based Florida Crystals, the umbrella company for the Fanjul family's sugar interests.

Industry rumors place a deal within the next couple of months, but Rutherford said it's impossible to say when negotiations might conclude. Jorge Dominicis, a spokesman for privately held Florida Crystals, declined comment Tuesday.

If the deal occurs, it would mark Tate & Lyle's exit from the U.S. sugar market. The company is scheduled to close July 31 on the sale of its beet processor, Western Sugar, to the Rocky Mountain Sugar Growers Co-operative. Analysts have estimated the value of Western Sugar and Domino at about $450 million.

Tate & Lyle, which is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, said in a report to shareholders this month that it lost $30 million on its U.S. operations for the year ended March 31. It blamed the losses on "a dysfunctional U.S. sugar regime and an oversupply of beet and cane sugar in the market," and said the problems require a political solution.

Nationwide, the sugar industry has been restructured and consolidated in the face of the lowest prices for raw sugar in years.

In January, Imperial Sugar Co. of Sugar Land, Texas, the largest seller of refined sugar in the United States, filed for bankruptcy. In October it shut down its 40-employee Clewiston refinery, leaving only a distribution center with eight employees.

Florida Crystals, a major U.S. sugar grower that produced 800,000 tons in the 2000-2001 season, would be able to expand its refining capacity if it buys Domino. Florida Crystals owns the Okeelanta refinery near South Bay in western Palm Beach County and holds a 50 percent interest in a refinery in Yonkers, N.Y.

Those two refineries are capable of refining 785,000 tons of sugar a year, while Domino's three refineries can handle 1.8 million tons, according to sugar traders.

susan_salisbury@pbpost.com