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Canada/US: Potash-Agrium $36 billion merger handled by Jones Day and Latham

By  |  September 14, 2016

Canada’s Agrium and Potash Corp of Saskatchewan agreed to combine in a deal that would create a fertilizer giant with an enterprise value of about $36 billion but also draw scrutiny from US regulators.

Potash Corp, the world’s biggest crop nutrient company by capacity and Agrium, North America’s largest farm retailer, said the combined entity would be largest crop nutrient company in the world.

Morgan Stanley & Co LLC is serving as joint financial adviser to Agrium and Potash Corp.

Stikeman Elliott LLP and Jones Day are serving as legal advisers to Potash Corp. Agrium’s legal advisers are Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and Latham & Watkins LLP.

Agrium Chief Executive Chuck Magro will lead the combined company. Potash Corp CEO Jochen Tilk will be its executive chairman.

“Other than the trotting out the usual banalities of ‘pre-eminent low-cost producer,’ there is little to substantiate how $500 million in synergies will be achieved,” said independent analyst and investor Chris Damas, noting that Russian rival Uralkali has a lower cost of potash production than even that ofPotash Corp’s largest mine.

Full Content: Fortune

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