Yara International ASA on June 26 said it will delay a potential initial public offering (IPO) of a minority stake of its clean ammonia business, Yara Clean Ammonia (YCA), amid current market conditions that “fail to reflect its full value.”
The Oslo-based company at its Capital Markets Day confirmed the viability of the potential minority divestment of the YCA unit, but it said it will postpone the timing “by one or two years” as “the value of the unit’s project portfolio surpasses the current estimated IPO valuation.”
“The establishment of Yara Clean Ammonia has been a game changer,” said Yara International President and CEO Svein Tore Holsether. “The value potential has been further strengthened by strong project economics in the US, coupled with geopolitical uncertainty.”
Holsether added that alternative YCA ownership and funding routes remain under evaluation, but the company remains committed to YCA’s strong project pipeline, with major capital outlays planned mainly from 2025 onwards. “Clean Ammonia in the US also enables profitable decarbonization in Europe,” he said.
The news comes more than a year after Yara announced it was considering a potential IPO of the Clean Ammonia division on the Oslo Stock Exchange (GM May 6, 2022). Last October, Yara pushed back the IPO to 2023 amid unfavorable market conditions (GM Oct. 21, 2022).
In February (GM Feb. 10, p. 1), the company said despite those market conditions, it had made considerable progress in setting up the Clean Ammonia unit as a separate structure while carving out and preparing for the potential IPO.