Nutrien to Acquire Brazil’s Agrichem
Nutrien, formed by the merger between Canadian fertilizer giants Agrium and Potash Corp of Saskatchewan (PCS), has agreed to acquire Agrichem, one of Brazil’s largest liquid NPK fertilizer companies as well as a producer of plant health products, including bio-stimulants and health inductors.
Chuck Magro, Nutrien’s president and CEO, said the Agrichem business will be an excellent fit with its Loveland portfolio of seed treatment, plant nutrition, fertilizer, adjuvant and crop protection products. “Brazil will be a strategic focus for further expansion due to its large and growing agriculture retail and crop input market,” he said.
The acquisition will be made in two tranches: 80% of the business will be acquired in the comings month; the remaining 20% will be purchased in 2019, based on 2018 EBITDA levels.
Agrichem, which has an historic EBITDA of more than $15 million, has 195 employees and 35 registered products generating annual sales of more than $55 million. Nutrien expects the acquisition to be accretive to earnings in 2018.
Nutrien, which officially started trading on Jan. 2, 2018, has its headquarters in Saskatoon, where PCS had its head office, with another corporate office in Agrium’s home city of Calgary. The combined company has an enterprise value of $34 billion and expects to achieve annual operating synergies of $500 million.
