CHS Inc. and Land O’Lakes Inc. have ended their exclusive negotiations for the sale of the remaining assets of Agriliance LLC’s southern retail locations to a group of current and former Agriliance management team members. This, according to a CHS spokesperson last week.
CHS said the two partners continue to evaluate other options for repositioning the assets. CHS and LOL divided up Agriliance in September 2007, with CHS taking the crop nutrition business and LOL the crop protection, leaving the retail operations still to be repositioned or sold, as was the initial plan.
In the meantime, the 50-50 Agriliance joint venture continues to exist and is overseen by Mark Palmquist, CHS executive vice president and chief operating officer, ag business, and Jim Fife, LOL senior vice president. Tim Witcher, region director, Winfield Solutions, LOL’s crop protection business, has been named managing director of the southern retail agronomy business, overseeing day-to-day operations.
As reported last week (GM Jan. 21, p. 12), during the quarter ending Nov. 30, 2007, CHS and LOL each contributed $230 million to Agriliance to support its working capital requirements, primarily for crop nutrient and protection product trade payables that were not assumed by CHS or LOL upon the distribution of those assets to parents. Also reported last week, Agriliance reported a net loss of $23.5 million on sales of $210.6 million for the first quarter ending Nov. 30, 2007. This compares to a year-ago loss of $31.4 million on sales of $670 million.