Fertilizer firm Agrium has extended its offer for U.S. ag retailer UAP for a fifth time for an extra two days’ grace after coming to terms with U.S. antitrust regulators.
The Calgary fertilizer company on Friday said it has agreed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on terms of a consent decree that it hopes will allow it to close its friendly takeover of UAP by early next month.
Toward that end, Agrium said it plans to divest “up to seven retail centres” that the FTC noted as “areas of concern.” Reuters reported Friday that most of the seven are UAP outlets; one belongs to Agrium.
Read Also
Interest in biological crop inputs continues to grow
It was only a few years ago that interest in alternative methods such as biologicals to boost a crop’s nutrient uptake seemed to spike in popularity. But according to Spencer Harris, senior vice-president of global ag retail for Nutrien Ag Solutions, biologicals are not all that new for Nutrien — the global ag retailer has been researching biological crop inputs for nearly two decades.
The consent decree, if approved by the FTC, would allow Agrium to go ahead with the UAP acquisition before the company seals any deals to sell the seven outlets in question, Agrium said in a release Friday.
Agrium has also extended its offer to buy up all UAP’s common stock until 12 a.m. ET on May 2. The offer had previously been set to expire April 30.
As of Thursday, Agrium said, about 26.25 million UAP shares — about half the company’s total outstanding stock — have been tendered in and not withdrawn from the offer.
Worth US$39 per share, Agrium’s US$2.65 billion all-cash deal would make Colorado-based UAP an Agrium subsidiary. It would also make Agrium the biggest North American retailer of crop inputs and services, with broader geographic coverage as the two companies combine their “complementary footprints,” as they explained when the deal was announced in December.
UAP shares were trading at US$39.04 on Nasdaq Friday afternoon, having hit a high of $39.10 earlier in the day.
Canada’s commissioner of competition in January announced he won’t intervene in the Agrium/UAP deal, which leaves the two companies waiting on FTC approval. The two companies have until Sept. 2 to complete a deal before they must go back to their boards of directors for approval of a new offer.
UAP runs about 370 distribution and storage facilities and three formulation plants, selling chemicals, fertilizer and seed to farmers, commercial growers and regional-level dealers across North America.
UAP’s Canadian wing, based at Dorchester, Ont., includes warehouses in B.C., Quebec and Ontario and product lines of herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, nutrients, adjuvants, inoculants, growth regulators and other specialty products.
