Tel Aviv — Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL) has completed a 15 percent equity investment in Yunan Yuntianhua Co Ltd. (YTH) as part of its investment in China. YTH is the parent company of its joint venture partner Yunan Phosphate Chemicals Group Corp. Ltd., which is China’s leading phosphate producer. As part of the agreement, YTH issued ICL 199,249,088 new shares through a private placement for RMB8.24 per share. The deal was concluded following the approval of China’s Ministry of Commerce and its Securities Regulatory Commission. Under the terms of the agreement, ICL will have the right to appoint two out of the 11 board members, one of whom will be ICL President and CEO Stefan Borgas. The agreement also grants ICL representation on the company’s phosphate business committee, which is to be established to provide advice and make recommendations related to YTH’s phosphate business. ICL sees the jv as a means to penetrate the Asian specialty phosphate markets. Over the next five years ICL and YTH plan to build specialty plants and triple the jv’s white phosphate acid capacity. The partners have also established a phosphate research and development platform in Kunming that is focused on developing the next generation of phosphate-based products and process technologies for the joint venture. ICL will invest $180 million in the jv out of a total investment of $340 million. The phosphate mine currently produces 2.5 million mt/y, and the plan calls for upstream and downstream operations. The jv includes an increase in phosphoric acid production from 600,000 mt/y.
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