UPDATE 1-Dreyfus may sell stake in new Brazil grains terminal -source

(Adds context and comment from Amaggi shareholder)

SAO PAULO, May 5 (Reuters) - Agricultural commodity traderLouis Dreyfus may sell a stake in a new northern Brazil grainsterminal to book profits from its early participation in theproject, a company source said on Thursday.

The Tegram terminal, at Itaqui port in Maranhão state, isone of the new terminals under development in north-northeasternBrazil that put cargoes closer to some export markets.

Dreyfus, along with its local grains trading partner Amaggi,has a 25 percent share in the project. Swiss trading houseGlencore PLc and local companies NovaAgri and CGGTrading control the remaining three-fourths of the project.

"This was a project that really worked well, so the companyis willing to sell a part of it to pay back some of theinvestments it made," said the company source. He requestedanonymity because he was not authorized to speak about thepossible sale.

Bloomberg reported earlier on Thursday that Louis Dreyfusand Amaggi have hired HSBC Holdings Plc to sell part orthe entire 25 percent stake they hold in a terminal at Itaqui.

It said the sale process had already started.

An Amaggi shareholder said the company is not selling itsstake in the project, however. The shareholder, who also askednot to be identified, said there were talks with an investorrecently but no deal was reached.

Spokesmen for Louis Dreyfus and Amaggi were not immediatelyavailable for comment.

A third source, an executive at a trading firm that operatesat Itaqui port, said he was unaware of any current negotiationsregarding stake sales.

Itaqui's Tegram is nearly 2,500 miles (4,000 km) closer tothe Panama Canal than Brazil's top soy exporting port of Santos,which gives it an advantage in shipping soy and corn to Asia.

The facility receives grains produced in the agriculturalfrontier area of Matopiba in the northeast and grains comingfrom the northern part of Brazil's No. 1 soy state Mato Grosso.

The terminal moved 3.34 million tonnes of grain in 2015, farbeyond its initial target of 2 million tonnes, and is expectedto increase shipments to 4.5 million tonnes in 2016.

Partners have invested 600 million reais ($170 million) inthe terminal complex and warehouses.

(Reporting by Nikhil Subba, in Bengaluru, Marcelo Teixeira,Roberto Samora and Gustavo Bonato, in Sao Paulo; Editing by MajuSamuel and Tom Brown)