All major players have now concluded fourth-quarter Tampa sulfur contracts at $129/lt, down $7/st from third-quarter.

Central Garden & Pet Co., Walnut Creek, Calif., said Oct. 14 that its board of directors unanimously decided that the company will not accept proposals by Harbinger Group Inc. In June, Harbinger gave Central two options. It would acquire all of Central’s common stock at $10 per share in cash or, alternatively, acquire the company’s Pet segment for $750 million in cash. The board was assisted in its review by Lazard as financial advisor and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP as legal advisor.

"While we appreciate Harbinger’s interest in Central, we believe the proposals do not reflect Central’s future growth opportunities or the value we expect to deliver to our shareholders in the coming years," said Central President and CEO John Ranelli. “Our board and management believe that Central is taking the right steps to improve our business and generate superior revenue and profitability growth. We are confident that these initiatives will secure our position as a leader in our marketplace and build value for our shareholders."

The government-appointed committee on the tax regime on natural resources has presented its final report and recommendations to the Finance Ministry. The final recommendations were softened from the interim recommendations which called for a windfall tax of 42 percent on a return on equity of above 11 percent. The final report called for a graduated windfall tax with the highest level to apply to a return on equity in excess of 14 percent.

The other major recommendation called for 5 percent royalty payment on all natural resources.

The recommendations will apply primarily to Israel Chemicals Ltd. and go into effect in 2017. The preliminary report was expected to add $140 million to ICL’s annual tax bill while the final recommendations would reduce this amount by about $28 million. However, Israeli government sources said that ICL would actually pay less tax and royalty payments than it currently does if its return on equity is below 14 percent.

Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said that for years the public did not get a proper return from natural resources. He said that from 2006-2012 the shareholders of ICL received $500 million while the Israeli public received only $60 million. He said that this will now change. Lapid said the government did not want to cause damage to the industrial plants or employment and at the same time guarantee that Israel remains attractive to investors. The finance minister said the committee found the proper balance.

Fearing higher taxes, ICL has taken action. In August, ICL management ordered a freeze in plans for all investments in Israel as a result of the preliminary recommendations by the committee. ICL said at the time it would continue cost cutting measures and expand investments outside Israel. The board cited the evaluation would include the profitability of production of magnesium, bromine compounds and certain downstream phosphate products in Israel. Israeli industry sources said that the immediate impact is the cancellation of a planned $750 million investment in potash expansion at Dead Sea Works. The plan called for increasing potash production by 600,000 mt/y or 16 percent. In addition the sources said that an additional $1 billion in investments over the next five years would be re-evaluated. The sources said that ICL is now studying plans to increase potash production at its Spanish subsidiary to as much as 2 million mt/year. They said that ICL is also looking into a further expansion of polyhalite production at its Boulby mine in northeastern England. In April the company announced a $65 million investment program by its Cleveland Potash subsidiary to produce 600,000 mt/year from the current level of 130,000 mt/year. The sources said that under consideration is a possible expansion to as much as 4 million mt/year. The company’s board instructed management to prepare for shutting down its Dead Sea Magnesium plant by Jan. 1, 2017.

CF Industries Holdings Inc. said Oct. 16 that it and Yara International ASA have terminated their discussions regarding a potential merger of equals transaction. Discussions were first announced Sept. 23.

“I want to thank the management team and board of directors of Yara International for their cooperation and professionalism throughout our discussions,” said Tony Will, CF president and CEO. “Although we identified very significant operational and structural synergies, we were ultimately unable to agree on terms of a transaction that met the requirements of all our respective shareholders.”

“CF Industries has a strong stand-alone business plan and we are confident in the material increase in our cash flow generation as our capacity expansion projects come on-stream as scheduled,” he said. “We remain fully committed to driving shareholder value creation by investing in high return projects while returning excess cash to stockholders through dividends and a substantial share repurchase program.”

Canpotex Ltd. has announced that it is investing up to $140 million at its wholly-owned subsidiary, Portland Bulk Terminals LLC (PBT) in new equipment and infrastructure to improve the efficiency of its shiploading operations and the management of Canpotex’s specialty white potash products. A new shiploader, improved control system technology and an upgraded conveyance system will enable shorter turnaround times for Canpotex trains and ships at PBT. A new storage building will allow the potash exporter to better manage its specialty grade products at the terminal.

“This investment is great for Canpotex and the Port because it improves the speed and quality of our operations at the terminal. But it’s not just our company that benefits; we are doing our part to try to build efficiency into the transportation system in the Pacific Northwest corridor,” said Canpotex’s Steve Dechka, president and CEO.

After significant collaboration and discussion with key stakeholders, Port staff and Portland Development Commission (PDC) personnel proposed an enterprise zone expansion to include the PBT facility. The expanded enterprise zone was approved unanimously by Portland City Council last December. The company’s plans began to materialize shortly thereafter and were officially approved at the Oct. 8 Port Commission meeting.

In addition to PBT, Canpotex has terminal operations at Neptune Terminal in Vancouver, B.C.