ICL to Sell Assets of $500 Million Plus
Israel Chemicals (ICL) is seeking to sell subsidiaries and assets with low synergies, which could be worth more than $500 million, Reuters news agency has reported.
Speaking at an investor conference on Jun. 22 in Tel Aviv, ICL chairman Johanan Locker noted that the group has been hurt by falling potash prices and is looking to create funds to finance further investments and reduce debt. However, he did not elaborate further on which assets ICL could divest.
According to Locker, ICL’s board is formulating a new strategy to grow its Specialty Solutions division and boost the competitiveness of its commodity assets. ICL, which reported sales of $5.4 billion in 2016, is a major producer of potash and phosphate fertilizers and is one of the world’s largest suppliers of bromine.
Last April, the company announced that it had taken the Specialty Fertilizers business out of its Specialty Solutions division to become part of the Essential Minerals unit, a move it said would create synergies between their respective customer bases and portfolios.
ICL said the organizational restructure was part of management efforts to align its business and operations into two divisions: Essential Minerals with a focus on agrochemical markets; and Specialty Solutions, which serves as ICL’s industrial division.
