Nutrien


Nutrien is a Canadian fertilizer company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It is the largest producer of potash and the third largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer in the world. It has 1,500 retail stores and more than 20,000 employees. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange, with a market capitalization of $34 billion as of January 2018. It was formed through the merger of PotashCorp and Agrium, in a transaction that closed on January 1, 2018.

Merger

PotashCorp and Agrium first proposed merging in September 2016. The merger was suggested in the context of low fertilizer prices, leading to the hope that a larger company will be better able to increase prices. The new company also hopes to reduce costs through consolidation; it estimates that it will be able to decrease costs by $500 million USD.
The transaction was originally expected to close in mid-2017, but was delayed to January 2018 because of regulatory hurdles; final regulatory approval from the United States Federal Trade Commission was only received in December 2017.
Based on the terms of the merger, former PotashCorp shareholders were given 52% of Nutrien, while Agrium shareholders were given 48%. Agrium CEO Charles Magro became CEO of the new company, while PotashCorp CEO Jochen Tilk became Executive Chair. Nutrien is based in Saskatoon, the former headquarters of PotashCorp, but it will maintain corporate offices in Calgary, the former headquarters of Agrium.

Acquisitions

Nutrien, through its Australian subsidiary Landmark Operations announced the proposed acquisition of Australian rural retail organization RuralCo on February 27, 2019. The acquisition was finalized on October 1, 2019, after which Ruralco was delisted from the ASX. After this acquisition, Nutrien now supplies 650 rural merchandize stores in Australia, or approximately 45% of all rural merchandize stores in Australia.

Competition

Nutrien's main competitors include other potash, phosphate and nitrogen producers, such as The Mosaic Company, Yara International ASA, CF Industries Holdings Inc and K+S AG.