CHS Inc., St. Paul, Minn., announced on Sept. 23 that it has agreed in principal to join United Prairie LLC, a full-service agronomy retailer with multiple location in central Illinois, as a new partner and owner.

Formed in 1996, United Prairie is headquartered in Tolono, Ill., and is owned jointly by Premier Cooperative and Topflight Grain Inc. United Prairie offers seed, fertilizer, crop protection products, custom application, crop scouting, and GIS services from Illinois retail locations in Tolono, Ivesdale, Pierson, White Heath, Dewey, and Jamaica. The company is managed by a board of directors comprised mainly of local growers.

“CHS as a new partner will allow us to bring additional services and cutting edge technologies to our customers,” said Tim Hughes, United Prairie general manager. “As a locally owned company, we are always focused on bringing better services and offerings to our patrons. Adding CHS to our ownership group accomplishes that mission and more. This is a real win-win for the patrons and employees of United Prairie and CHS.”

Other terms of the potential partnership were not disclosed. Scott Docherty, United Prairie director and general manager of Topflight Grain, said the new ownership group would still be locally controlled while benefiting from CHS’s resources. Roger Miller, United Prairie board president and CEO of Premier Cooperative, said adding CHS to the ownership group “will give our patrons the improved purchasing power that a company with the size that CHS brings.”

CHS called the investment “an important part of our strategic growth plans on behalf of our farmer-owners.” Lynden Johnson, executive vice president, Country Operations division of CHS, said the company is “always looking for opportunities to strengthen local resources that ultimately help our owners and other customers grow their operations.”

CF Industries Holdings Inc. today confirmed that it is in preliminary discussions with Yara International ASA regarding a potential merger of equals transaction. CF said there can be no assurances that these discussions will result in any transaction.

The MMTC tender closed Sept. 17 with the higher prices expected by all. Most prices were in the $309-$312/mt CFR range with a few outliers.
  
The shock for some sources, however, came from Barrychem. The firm offered 68,000 mt at $302.77/mt CFR for delivery to Krishna or Gangavaram. The other offers from Barrychem were in the range of the other offers. The low-ball price may be rejected. The tender documents gives MMTC the authority to reject any offer without giving a reason.

Sources say it would be difficult for other traders to match the Barrychem offer, especially after taking a financial pounding in the IPL tender last month.
  
The rapid rise in Chinese prices forced many traders to take large losses or default on their awards from IPL. Those that could not fulfill their contracts faced possible banning from future urea tenders.

Just before the tender closed, MMTC issued an addendum to the documents that did indeed ban one company and put the future of three others in doubt because of their actions in the IPL tender.
  
Deebaj was banned from any further tenders. The future status of Continental Traders, Emmsons and Dreymoor is still being discussed.
  
See the Sept. 22 issue of Green Markets for more details.