Agrium to buy Viterra's agri-products business

Date:03-21-2012


Agricultural-products provider Agrium Inc. said Tuesday it has agreed to buy the majority of Viterra Inc.'s agri-products business from Glencore International PLC for $1.15 billion plus working capital. Earlier Tuesday, Switzerland-based Glencore said it was buying Canadian grain-trader Viterra for $16.25 a share, or about $6.2 billion. Under the Agrium deal, Agrium will buy approximately 90% of Viterra's Canadian retail facilities and all of its Australian retail facilities in addition to certain other assets. Agrium estimated the cost of the working capital to be around $500,000 million. The transaction is dependent on the closing of Glencore's acquisition of Viterra. Agrium added that the deal will be immediately accretive and will significantly boost its retail and wholesale operations.