Nutrien Ltd., Saskatoon, announced on Dec. 5 that it has closed the sale of its remaining SQM shares to Tianqi Lithium Corp. through an open auction process on the Santiago Stock Exchange for gross proceeds of approximately US$4.1 billion. This is the final divestiture required by the Competition Commission of India and Ministry of Commerce in China in providing their clearance for the merger of Agrium and PotashCorp to form Nutrien. Net proceeds from the sale of all of the equity investments in 2018 are expected to total approximately US$5 billion.
“Closing the sale of our investment in SQM marks the conclusion of a major deliverable for Nutrien,” said Chuck Magro, Nutrien president and CEO. “The receipt of US$4.1 billion in gross proceeds provides an opportunity to deploy the cash to generate significant shareholder value. With the sale of our investments in Arab Potash Co. and SQM in the fourth quarter, along with significant seasonal cash flow generated from our Retail business, we expect our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio to decline below 2 by the end of 2018. As a result, Nutrien has ample flexibility to both return capital to shareholders and grow the business with a disciplined investment approach.”
Major Nutrien priorities for the extra funds include boosting the return to shareholders, Retail expansion in North America, Australia, and Brazil, and the growth of proprietary products (GM Nov. 30, p. 1). The company is also looking at a smaller expenditure for brownfield expansions to nitrogen plants.