ICL completes acquisition of Compass Minerals' South American Plant Nutrition business

ICL (NYSE: ICL) (TASE: ICL), a leading global specialty minerals and specialty chemicals company, announced on July 1 it has completed the acquisition of Compass Minerals América do Sul S.A., which includes the South American Plant Nutrition business of Compass Minerals, for approximately US$420 million.

The South American Plant Nutrition business is the leading specialty plant nutrition business in Brazil and offers a broad range of solutions for plant nutrition and stimulation, covering all key Brazilian crops. Its product portfolio includes enhanced efficiency fertilizers and controlled-release fertilizers, soil and foliar micronutrients, secondary nutrients, biostimulants, and adjuvants. The business has a presence in 25 out of 26 Brazilian states and serves more than 32,000 farms directly and indirectly, with direct-to-farm sales accounting for approximately 50% of total sales.

“We’re delighted to have this business join our crop nutrition portfolio and to welcome its team and its customers to ICL. This acquisition, together with our recent acquisition of Fertiláqua in Brazil and our existing specialty plant nutrition business there, positions ICL as the leading specialty plant nutrition company in Brazil, one of the world’s fastest growing agriculture markets. This important step delivers on our stated strategy of achieving leadership positions in high-growth specialty plant nutrition markets and accelerates our progress toward long-term global leadership for our Innovative Ag Solutions division. This step will also significantly expand ICL’s product portfolio and profitability, while providing further seasonal balance between the Northern and Southern hemispheres, and allow us to deliver the critical mass we have been seeking in Brazil,” said Raviv Zoller, president and CEO of ICL.

The addition of the South American Plant Nutrition business will allow ICL to offer its customers the broadest and most advanced portfolio of plant nutrition products, covering the entire agricultural value chain. This business, together with ICL’s existing operations in Brazil, will leverage a well-established asset base, with a total of eight production sites and a sizable salesforce providing full commercial coverage for all agricultural regions in Brazil.