Agrium expects to complete its purchase of the bulk of Viterra’s Canadian and Australian farm supply stores by the end of 2012 or early 2013, Agrium CEO Mike Wilson said Tuesday.
Calgary fertilizer firm Agrium, which is also the biggest farm retail supplier in the U.S., is paying $575 million for the stores, which sell seed, chemicals and fertilizer to farmers.
Agrium will buy the stores from Swiss-based Glencore International, which is expected to complete its takeover of Viterra this month.
Privately held Canadian grain handler Richardson International is buying some of Viterra’s grain-handling elevators and crop-processing sites once Glencore’s takeover is complete.
The Glencore-Viterra deal has received all approvals from regulatory authorities except China’s Ministry of Commerce, which is reviewing the transaction.
Glencore’s selloff of some Viterra parts to Agrium and Richardson still requires approval of Canada’s Competition Bureau. – Reuters
This could be very interesting to watch: Pioneer replacing Viterra as Canada’s largest grain handler, and Agrium replacing Viterra as one of the largest farm supply stores on the prairies.
Will private owned RP be more customer friendly?
Will RP management have a less confrontational relationship?
Will RP staff be unionized?
Are all or most elevator and farm supply workers unionized?
Will Pioneer and Agrium compete in farm supply?
In our region, Viterra is losing gobs of business to others, especially this year, partly because of the bad taste of impending foreign ownership, but also simply because of their non-motivated people.
I think farmers will need to consider ‘going the extra mile’ to support Canadian companies!