Saskatoon-Reports continued to focus on China last week, with other international financial players and pension funds cobbling together a deal to put forth a competing offer for PotashCorp versus the $130 per share offered by BHP Billiton. This was heightened last week by a report in The Globe and Mail, which cited a source close to PotashCorp as saying this was a viable option. Even The Mosaic Co. was reportedly a possible component of the consortium according to the paper, which said key PotashCorp management would remain in place. Money would reportedly be raised from participants as well as debt, and speculation was that nitrogen and phosphate assets could be sold if necessary. Nevertheless, there remained several questions as to whether the deal would still be acceptable to Saskatchewan and Canadian authorities, and whether the Chinese would get certain potash price guarantees for their trouble. This could all depend on how weighty China’s stake in the venture would actually be. Mosaic said it does not comment on rumors. Another report out of China last week was scrapped almost as soon as it appeared. The Chinese magazine Caijing quoted Sinochem Vice President Han Gensheng as saying that $10 billion was too much for the company to invest in PotashCorp, and that it was not a good deal. Soon thereafter, the comments were removed from the magazine’s website, and a retraction was made saying that the interview never occurred.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain