Calgary — Agrium Inc. President and CEO Michael Wilson last week said views expressed by Jana Partners LLC (GM Jan. 28, p. 1), Agrium’s largest shareholder, are flawed. “Their prime objective is to split our company. That is the wrong thing, that’s a huge value destruction, their views on working capital, operating cost, operational rationalization, on governance, they’re all wrong.” Wilson said he would put his management team up against anyone in the world, and that Agrium generates 40 percent more EBITDA to revenue than any of its peers. Wilson and his team spoke at an analyst meeting Jan. 28 and highlighted the success of the Retail unit. Jana has sought to spin off the unit and has lambasted Agrium for not having more retail expertise on its board of directors. Agrium executives detailed a long history of merger and acquisitions and EBITDA growth that have made Agrium the largest ag retailer in the world. Agrium said its top 76 managers average 20 years of retail experience, while its Retail senior executive team has over 181 years of such experience. Jana has argued that Agrium should do more Retail rationalization. To that, Agrium says that over the last seven years it has closed 255 retail facilities worldwide, with over 200 of those in the U.S. As to Jana’s assertion that Agrium has too many units close to each other, Agrium notes that it is only natural for it to have more outlets in high crop areas such as the Cornbelts, just as Starbucks would have a location on every street corner in New York City.
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