CF shares up on OCI report – Alert
Shares of CF Industries Holdings Inc., Deerfield, Ill., shot up 7.5 percent, according to Bloomberg after a midday report by the Dow Jones that CF may be in merger talks with OCI NV, Amsterdam.
OCI has been flexing its muscle in the U.S. with a major new nitrogen plant expected to come up in Wever, Iowa, later this year.
CF and OCI had not responded to inquiries at the time of this GM Alert.
Ironically, Yara International ASA in recent weeks has been mentioned as a possible suitor for OCI. CF and Yara were in merger talks last year but they fizzled.
After recent expansions OCI Nitrogen will have total Capacity of Ammonia 5.4 mln mt, Urea 3.2 mln mt, UAN 1.78 mln mt while CF will have Ammonia 8.27 mln mt, Urea 5.1 mln mt, UAN 7.5 mln mt. The combined companies would control ~10% of global urea capacity outside China and ~30% of UAN capacity and have a global footprint.