Terra again rejects CF takeover offer
NEW YORK - Fertilizer maker Terra Industries Inc again rejected a takeover bid from larger competitor CF Industries Holdings Inc, saying CF's stock price was inflated because of a takeover bid for that company.
CF launched an unsolicited offer for Terra earlier this year and said on Monday it had acquired 7 percent of the company through purchases in the open market.
But CF is itself trying to fend off an unsolicited bid from Canadian rival Agrium Inc, which Terra said had artificially boosted CF's share price, and therefore skewed the proposed exchange of 0.465 of a CF share for every Terra share.
We believe that the pending offer from Agrium creates enormous uncertainty both as to how to value CF's acquisition currency, which we believe is inflated as a result of Agriums premium bid to acquire CF, and because we believe that CF shareholders are likely to prefer an Agrium transaction if they are given a choice, Terra Chief Executive Officer Michael Bennett said in a statement. (Reporting by Matt Daily, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. All rights reserved.