No Threat From Potash Bid Battle

Potash miner K+S is specialised enough to weather any takeover of Canadian rival Potash and survive as a standalone entity, the German firm's finance director told a newspaper.

Potash is facing a hostile $39 billion bid from BHP Billiton. The Canadian firm's shares have traded well above the $130 that the offer represents, suggesting investors believe BHP will boost its offer or a rival bidder will emerge. "We are following the latest developments ... calmly," Jan Peter Nonnenkamp told Boersen Zeitung newspaper in an interview published on Saturday.

Asked if K+S, the world's fourth-largest potash miner, should act to ensure it does not become a takeover target, he said: "A change of ownership at (Potash) would not create new capacity."

"The worldwide potash market would continue to offer sufficient space for K+S. That is true for standard products, but particularly more so for our  specialty products," he said. "In the past few years, K+S was able to assert itself very successfully against export cartels like Canpotex or BPC."

Nonnenkamp said K+S would continue to create value for shareholders, which was "the best protection against takeovers."